Tomb of the Lost

[NightshadeVII]

[OOC: Catching his breath, Edge begins to dig away the rubble. He will enter this new tunnel carefully, alert to any hint of danger, uses his space sense to get an idea of the tunnel behind the rubble.]

He barely noticed the moment the stones stopped pushing against his left side, digging into his skin, but when he did, he breathed a sigh of relief, enjoying the different air. He fell quiet quickly though, listening for any sounds of pursuit. Hoping that the old man wasn’t coming after him, which luckily, it didn’t seem like, Edge took a little while to catch his breath. His lungs still burned from his near drowning, and a speedy crawl through a cramped tunnel wasn’t helping that in any way. He still felt like he was on the brink of passing out, but it wasn’t only because of how he had been starved of oxygen.

In the silence, he realized he was alone with his thoughts, for the time being. And it was only now he realized just how loud they were, incomprehensible garble. Blame and fear, shame and confusion, panic and frustration, all trying to overpower one another, and tangling together in the process. It was like tv static more than anything else, impossible to make sense of and unnerving to experience. He had to focus on something else, something physical.

As much as he wanted to, he knew he couldn’t stay here forever. With a deep breath, Edge got his bearings, noticing the rubble to his left. It looked loose, but not now important to the structural integrity of the tunnel. Or at least he hoped so. Still he considered continuing forward, in case the old man really was casing him, he didn’t want to waste the time. On the other hand, if the old man didn’t know of these passages, then having him come across a crossroads might confuse him.

Carefully, the Darai began to remove the rubble, alert for any sound of danger, no matter what it was. As always, he’s consciousness reached out, tracing the walls, the floors and ceilings, trying to figure out how they connected, if there was any place where the roof or floor had caved in, and the like. Then he began making his way down the tunnel, hoping he wasn’t making a massive mistake.

[Pearl Dragon]

[Kira chooses straight path away from the noisy thing following her. She fights to go as fast as she can the entire time.]



When Kira reached the branching path she'd traversed not too long ago, she paused and gave the air a hastened sniff. The air smelled about the same as it had before in each direction. However, as her head turned to follow the scents of the left passage, her ears perked at a shuffling, scraping sound of movement echoing towards her. Her heart gave a startled jump in her chest and she stumbled back into a hurried scramble forward. Her ears remained twisted back, listening behind her for any sounds of being followed, although she struggled to keep her own heavy breathing at a minimum. Her wing screamed in painful protest the entire way, but adrenaline would not let her slow down. She couldn't!

Without hesitation, Kira pushed onward, clutching the key and fragment with a death grip to her chest, leaning forward into her clumsy run through the tunnel. Where the walls narrowed, she would still push herself forward, choosing to ignore the agonizing pain of stone against skin and broken bone, squinting through the dusty with a terrified grimace the entire way.

[Vaitris]

[OOC: Hau grabs one of the jars just so he has something and hurries after Sara, letting her know there is yet another gray following them. ]

Despite Sara’s reassurances Hau still felt a wash of relief as the many-handed monster retreated from the room. Though it hadn’t moved to attack him, and the man Sarkany seemed familiar with it before, its appearance still sent a spike of distrust through him.

Then the door behind him was opening, because of course it would. The gray was pushing itself through in dogged pursuit and Hau felt… nothing. He felt numb to the whole situation. Not like he had become inured to the horror of this place, but like he had reached the end of his ability to process it. He watched the creature slithering in, the surface of it bubbling and boiling in a mesmerizing fashion, long enough to recognize that it wasn’t one of the ones he had just left behind in there. Then he was pelting for the far door in pursuit of Sara and the hand monster, grabbing one of the black jars on his way. It was something at least.

“There’s another one, behind me.” He gasped urgently as soon as he could see them, his words were followed very quickly by a softer, more despondent “oh no” when he spotted the body and the gray creature consuming it. More death, it still came as a shock even though the man had been a stranger to Hau. But it must be a thousand times worse for Sara since she had been friends with him.

It was then he spotted the blade she was carrying, the sight of it eliciting both alarm and surprise though there was no shadow wielding it this time. He recalled Sarkany’s words about the door and the sword slot and felt propped up by a little hope. Perhaps they would actually make it home after all.

[Sharei]

OOC: Draggo is reluctant to leave Sarkany and only Sara's encouragement and touch prevents him from running in to try and attack the grey creature. Barely. But he does slip Sara's grasp and dives for the seeing stone and the knife in an effort to recover them.]


The dragon stopped as they came into the room, frozen by the scene playing out in front of him. The sound of the creature's feeding and the look of Sarkany's rotted, pitted form etched itself into his memory. It frightened him. Made him sad. Then it made him angry. 

He took a step forward with every intention of running the creature through, but Sara's touch on his shoulder, his arm, drew him out of the red haze starting to form. The black thoughts of how he'd failed again, how Kanagi was gone, swirled away for only a moment, but it was enough.

*You're still alive and so are the others. Gotta think.*

They needed to escape, and they needed everything they could use to do that. His gaze landed on the seeing stone and the knife. He dived for it without thinking, and once he had them in hand he beat a hasty retreat to follow Sara. In his mind he was chanting, ignoring the voice, and telling himself that there was nothing he could do for Sarkany anymore.

Not that he had done anything but make it all worse.

[MP]

Ari:
The mass pushes farther through the door, engulfing the tunnel as it comes. Residue gums the ceiling, the walls, until the tunnel itself is like a vast mouth creeping toward the shifter. Pustules boil up in its wake, reaching after him in grotesque, unnatural shapes. Marchelute's voice, and his own startled turn of speed, most likely save Ari's life. He can hear the weighty slither behind him. His senses are choked by the rotting, claylike scent. But he outruns the pursuing mass and makes it safely out the northmost door.

He finds himself back in the massive gallery room where he first found Sara -  man-shaped columns, rising tiers, a trio of doors at either end of the room. He's standing at the southmost door. There are two identical doors in the walls to his left and right. At the upper end of the room, the round sun door dominates the floor, with smaller doors in the walls to its left and right. However, the residue is now inches thick on the ground, broken only by the bare, luminous trail, which leads toward the sealed sun door. And this end of the room is different from the last time he saw it.

The door to the right of the sun door, once sealed, has been opened. Ari can just make out a metal key set in its ornate lock. Someone seems to have been working on the sun door as well. One of the notched slots on either side this door is occupied by a massive sword, the flat of the blade notched in a matching pattern. The sword was a key, it seems, and one more is needed for the empty slot before the sun door can be opened. This isn't the the only change. 

The clay chariots are missing from their posts in front of the sun door. There's no rubble, no sign to indicate where they've gone. Only an inexplicable length of wall stretching across the middle of the room and movement by the right wall. 

There's a figure moving behind the columns. A man, tall and grizzled, his face crosshatched by old scars when he glances over his shoulder. He's pale and limping, his throat and arms blackened by what looks like rot. But he's moving at an urgent pace, towards the open door at the right end of the room. The reason for his retreat is obvious: a monstrous grey is crouching near the righthand door, just between the columns and the wall.

Three massive arms clutch at the floor, humanoid, but uncomfortably Icarim in configuration, and tipped with claws. The entity is headless, missing its fourth arm. But it seems to have no trouble sensing him. Ari can feel the prickle of eyes on him - from the entity, and from behind, where the vast slithering thing is slowly but surely pursuing.



Sara, Draggo, and Hau:
Sara's items: human effigy (2), general's sword
Draggo's items: broken flint necklace, damaged spear, sturdy rope, scholar's note 1, scholar's note 2, hideous cake (4), runed heart, simple knife, seeing stone
Hau's items: maned pelt

As Sara and Draggo retreat from the grey figure without bloodshed, Hau feels a deep satisfaction. A sense of triumph. This was the time he needed to take from this corpse. To grow this puppet further. He feels his strength swelling. Feels the rest of him closing in. And then the foreign thoughts fade.

The group's decision to linger by the door proves to be a disastrous one. There are no columns in front of the doors, and the group has no hiding place. No shelter. When the stone eyes fix on them, the charioteers snap their reins, and the horses surge forward. Clay joints crack with the movement, shedding entire sections of shell. Beneath the clay, there are withered bodies and yellowed grins. The mummified horses thunder down the ramps, coming at the group from either side, and it's only the wall Sara raises in their path that averts the collision. The horses swerve with a scream, one of the wheels screeching against the barrier. The chariots are forced to circle around, and the group seems to have a moment's breathing room.

That is, until a spear comes whistling over the wall, taking Hau through the chest. The mummy lowers its arm as the chariot turns. Both chariots are now unarmed, but the damage is done. The kitsune is down, clinging to life, but quickly bleeding out. And the chariots are already coming around for a second pass.

The space between the nearby columns and the wall offers shelter from the chariots, now that the last spear has been cast. But this was the path Sarkany took, and the grey mass now occupies the space. Its body has warped beyond all human proportions. It's still missing its head and one of its arms. But it's gained a pair of secondary limbs, humanoid in build, but tipped with deadly claws. The body elongates, ropy strands beginning to push from its back. It looks sickeningly familiar. A twisted mix of Sasquatch and Icarim. 

The rest of the room looks equally grim. A deep slithering has begun to echo from the hunter's trove door behind the group. To their left, the door to the hallway has opened, and a rolling shadow is pushing into the room. The gallery was already dark, already stifling. Now, as this new darkness enters the room, the air begins to black out entirely. The breath chokes off in their throats. In a few moments, the group will be unable to see or draw in a breath. They have one chance to choose a direction, and none of their options look good.

"The columns."

A voice sounds in Sara's head, grey with an exhaustion Sarkany never had in life. There's a small flame above the group, so thin and faltering that the tongues of it are almost colorless save for a flicker of gold at its heart. The voice tries again, speaking as if through an impossible weight.

"The columns are brittle. It'll take strength."

Strength that the flame apparently no longer has. It wavers. All but goes out. Sara doesn't hear Sarkany's voice again. Her companions, critically injured as they are, seem not to have heard it at all.



Cassius:
Items: wolf pelt 

Cassius moves quickly down the straight passage. But he's a large man, and the wolf's pelt fills the little remaining space, catching on the rough stone. The thing behind him is faster. Catching up. He can hear the soft rasp of its skin over the ground. Can feel its breath behind him. He's reached another intersection - a T this time, branching left and right - and the pursuer is just behind him.

The branch to his left smells faintly ashen, mixed with a cool, clay-like scent he recognizes from the greys. The smaller presence ahead of him has hurried down this path. He can hear the quiet rasp of its claws - whatever it is - as it hurries away from him. The branch to his right smells of stale air and dead stone. Neutral, but uninformative. He'll have to make his decision quickly. In the time it takes him to turn and force his body down one of the cramped passages, his pursuer reaches him.

Claws sink deep into the balls of Cassius' feet. Then his heels. Then his calves. Something dry and leathery is dragging itself up his legs. Trying to drag him towards it. He can break free from its grip with effort. But if he hesitates, he could be shredded to pieces before he finds the exit. His attacker is faster, and with no way to turn in the passage and face it, his only hope lies in finding a quick escape.



Edge:
Items: broken knife (2), silver chain, [?]

The rubble shifts easily under Edge's fingers, mingling with the residue beneath him. Rough gravel. Sticky dust. And suddenly, when the passage is almost clear, the clink of glass.

Edge's fingers close around a narrow shape, no more than a few inches long. A rounded bottom. A corked top. He can hear faint sloshing as it's jostled, though it's too dark to make out anything of the contents. Edge is free to continue, the mystery item in hand.

Now that the rubble has been cleared, Edge can feel that the tunnel branches in two directions. One branch continues straight ahead, ending in a distant point of light. It's too far away to make out detail, but Edge can smell a sickly, clay-like scent. More residue ahead. The second branch, which leads to the right, doesn't smell especially reassuring either. There's a strong iron scent. Fresh blood. He can hear a scuffling in the distance, drawing further away.

The residue crackles beneath him. The tunnel is getting tighter with the accumulating growth. Every time Edge repositions, he has to push free of the grit. If he stays for too much longer, he may be unable to move at all.



Kira:
Items: carved fragment, ornate key

Kira emerges back into the ruined hallway. The massive knight lies motionless on its back, its runed armor cracked and gaping. Globs of grey residue and blackened bones litter the floor around it. The walls are scarred with scorched gashes. Exactly as she left it.

The door at the end of the hall is still open. Kira can see the ornate geometric lock that opened it - can see the key still in the lock. The color of the metal, the shape of the keyhole, is identical to the key she currently holds. And through the open door, on the other side of the round sun-carved door, she can see a sealed door set with a matching lock.

The gallery beyond this hallway is massive. It'll be a sprint for the little burbat to reach any point in the room. And there are troubling signs. The room beyond is darker than she remembers it, the air at the threshold harder to breathe. The clay chariots, once standing guard at the top of the stairs, are absent. There's a harsh clatter somewhere to the left and out of sight: the crash of stone, the echo of hooves, and a horse's wild scream.

The hole behind Kira is equally concerning. Distant sounds echo out from its mouth, plain to her sensitive ears: skin over stone; the sound of flesh tearing. It's followed by the iron stench of blood.

[okami1reeka333]

[OOC: he hears people again and finally decided to talk at one of them. He listens for ques to see what had occurred. Warns Sara about the chariots.]

It took a while for him to finally focus himself enough to try and form words, his orange flame flickering in the darkness as it slowly followed the group. he recognized the voices; one of them was Hau? he did not sound like he's in good shape, chest wound. If only he had hands he could do something about it. another of them, Dr. Summers, she sounds pissed. . what happened?

So he moved to try and speak with Sara. "Dr. Summers, careful of those things, they took me out with alot of brute force." he warned. "They broke my prosthetics when they initially attacked me, they had enough force to bend carbonized Titanium alloy and Platinum."

[NightshadeVII]

[OOC: Holding onto the mystery item, Edge continues straight ahead towards the light.]

Glass wasn’t something Edge had expected to run into here, but honestly he was just glad it wasn’t broken. Squinting in the dark, he tried to make out the liquid sloshing inside what he assumed to be a bottle, but it was too dark. All details melted together, like washes out paint, making it almost impossible to tell things apart.

Still, he held onto the bottle and continued ahead. It didn’t take long before he noticed the light in the distance and found himself at a crossroads again. Straight ahead was the light. The other option was a tunnel that smelled like blood. Frankly, he didn’t trust either of them. The light straight ahead could just as well be the burning flames that would kill him as it could be soothing light, and the blood could easily come from some other horrible creature.
Picking your poison.
And he had to pick quickly. The residue was accumulating, narrowing the tunnel. A part of him noted that it was like that cliche in Sci fi movies, the trap were the walls and ceiling would slowly move in to crush some unfortunate character. Great thought right there.

In the end, he continued straight ahead, towards the light, hoping he was making the right choice.

[Pearl Dragon]

[Kira makes a run for the locked door and will try to unlock it if she makes it.]

As the passageway opens up in front of Kira to reveal the familiar ruined hallway and dead knight, she immediately goes towards the wall to hurry around the prone figure. Her eyes never leave its form at least until she is past. Everything seemed untouched, exactly as she and the man Sarkany had left it when they first passed through. She headed towards the door on the other side and took a moment to look at the ornate lock and key that had opened it. She held up her own key in comparison and felt a small flicker of hope. She just needed to find another like this!

As she entered the gallery, she gazed out and around at the enormous space, unsure of where to start. However, as her eyes passed across the room, she noticed another door with the same lock. A small sound of excitement escaped her, although it ended with a spike of fear as she noticed a thick darkness that hung in the air while sounds of hooves, a clashing struggle and horses somewhere within. Behind her, more disturbing sounds echoed from the dusty hallways, urging her to hurry up if she had any hope of going on. Kira rushed forward towards the door, practically throwing herself into a sprint with the key outstretched in front of her. The door was a good distance away, and she could only hope her dash to the lock would go unseen by whatever was happening nearby. Her first move when reaching the door would be to cram the key into the slot and begin a mad, twisting struggle to figure out how to unlock it and get inside.

[kilnarak]

[ Ari bolts for the right room, hoping to get there before the gray does. ]

Ari bolted out into the open hall, not looking back. He could hear well enough the crash of the gray serpent behind him, could practically feel it breathing down his neck - if it had needed to breathe anyway. The scent of it clung to his nostrils, making it difficult to pick out anything other than rot and wet clay. He didn't stop running until he neared the closed bulk of the sun door - it was where the cleared trail he had followed ended.

But whatever or whoever had cleared the path, the light he had been following... he didn't see it here. Had it somehow passed through the closed door? His eyes swept over his surroundings, taking in the scabby crust covering the walls and the floor. Movement drew his gaze first and foremost - something human-shaped moving behind the pillars, and close behind it another gray monster. This one was less slug-like, almost human-shaped although with a few too many paddle-like limbs.

He didn't want to be anywhere near it. But he didn't want to be anywhere near the thing behind him, either. It wouldn't be far behind, but he still didn't risk looking back. The door to the right was open, the man and the new monster were both heading toward it, which was unfortunate because it was where Ari also wanted to go. He couldn't stop to think about it. He turned from the closed sun door and bolted for the open door to the right. Maybe if he was quick, he would reach it before the gray did. And then... He wasn't sure. Hopefully it would lead somewhere he could escape. A bubble of safety.

Even as the thought entered his head, he knew it would never happen. Not here. The best he could hope for would that it would lead to a quick, painless death.

[Vaitris]

[OOC: Hau gets a spear through the chest.]

Horses whinnied, hooves cracked, wheels churned along stone. Hau had just enough time to register that, yes, there were actually chariots in the room before their headlong charge was interrupted by a wall suddenly springing up in their way. He flinched back a step, scanning the newly partitioned area for options, not liking the idea of being trapped with this gray thing even if it meant protection from the stampeding chariots. The gray was growing, gaining power, and it was but a part of a more powerful whole. A whole that was converging on the room this very moment.

As it turned out, that wasn't what Hau should have been worried about. He saw only a motion in the periphery of his vision before he was struck in the chest with enough force to throw him to the ground. His impact with the stone didn't even register as his chest exploded in agony. His vision blackened, he couldn't breathe, he couldn't feel his limbs or anything outside the molten, screaming hole in the middle of him.

When his sight returned, faint and blurred with tears, he could see the spear shaft reaching out of his chest. His hands were already on it, pulling weakly. The creases of his fingers, dark with dried blood from before, were smearing fresh streaks of bright red along the wood. Even the tiniest movement shot lightning through him so he finally stopped his feeble attempts to remove it in favor of bracing it with whatever strength remained in his limbs. But still the agony tore through him, scorching every nerve, shredding any coherent thoughts. He wanted home. He wanted his room, his family. Some place safe and familiar. Not this death trap.

Even the fox in him knew this was a mortal wound. He felt an overwhelming desire to go to ground, to seek safety, or maybe just a solitary place to die. But getting near the wall seemed a priority somehow, to place something at his back. It made sense in a way he couldn’t reason anymore. But his feet only scraped across the stone, strengthless, and he couldn’t seem to do any more than that and make low animal noises of pain.

[jarahamee]

[Cassius decides to crawl faster, in the hopes that he can turn around when he reaches the end of this tunnel to attack his attacker. He also lets the wolfskin come loose and allows it to bunch up in front of his attacker]

The Beast felt something grasp it. More, it felt claws grasping it, from what, it was not sure.

Its first impulse was to turn and twist itself around, but in this body, it would be impossible. No, the only way was forward, and it was unable to judge the size or strength of its enemy hesitating in this tunnel, where the other creature could catch up with it.

It would move faster, and it would have to let go of what was familiar.

It released the wolfskin, allowing it to fall back on its attacker, and moved forward faster, kicking away in hopes of tearing its leg out of the attacker's grasp, moving towards the air that was so very close to it.

[Marshmallow]

[Summary: Mad ghost does mad ghost things, and forces a chariot off-course into a pillar]

A sulfur-hearted emerald flame flickered into existence in the back right corner of the vast chamber, hovering near one of the many columns. Fragmented thoughts had driven the spirit here, following on the heels of his fleeing mate and the darkness his passing wrought. But now the focus had shifted away from tormenting his killer, so while Ari ran for the sun door, the flame lingered behind.

It hovered silently for only a moment. The flame winked out almost as quickly as it had manifested, a familiar growl rumbling like distant thunder in its wake. Strangely, it was only audible to the youngling dragon...

The pounding of hooves echoed through the room. The chariots swung around for another charge.

An emerald glow lit the hollow eyes of one of the charioteers. Reins snapped, pulled, and the horses altered course. Rather than angling to trample and crush the survivors, this chariot lurched full-tilt toward one of the stone columns on the right side of the room instead. It was still near enough to threaten mortal and monster alike, but there could be no mistaking that it was a collision course. Under the spirit's control, the charioteer made no attempt to correct his path. With a cacophonous crash, the chariot slammed into the weathered stone pillar.

[tsukikoko]

[OOC: Sara briefly considers something drastic. Instead, she breaks the wood of the spear in Hau's chest but leaves the tip embedded (could be the only thing stopping him immediately bleeding out), drags him to his feet and near carries him if she has to. Gets the effigy pressed against him and uses her own effigy's powers to manipulate the spear still in him to pack his wound internally as best she can. Given the chariot's mad self-annihilation against the pillar, she skirts the edge of the room, yells for Draggo in the hope he'll follow and makes for the doors at the other end, catches a glimpse of Kira in the encroaching darkness and hurries for the ornately locked door.]

Though her wall stopped the chariot, in the seconds following Sara found her world moving in slow motion. She saw the statue draw back an arm, the arching spear as it was released on a deadly trajectory.

Watched as the head embedded itself in Hau’s chest.

A tether within the shifter snapped as she watched. Her mental grip on the wall evaporated. She fell to her knees, exhausted by the use of the effigy’s powers and in trying to maintain stubbornly resilient to the hopelessness, the death occurring all around her. She didn’t want things to go the same way as previous years and yet, even when she tried, it hadn’t mattered…

Sara’s eyes fell down to the sword, that beautifully balanced blade. For just a moment, she considered it; taking away the satisfaction of the tomb killing her by doing it her damn self. It would be so much easier than the struggle.

But in the next second she was beside Hau. The shifter had not succumbed to such thoughts when she was a younger woman and it seemed she wasn’t about to start now. Hands pressed onto the kitsune’s when he tried to extricate the spear. It might be the only thing stopping him bleeding out in an instant and tearing it out would likely only cause further damage. Not that his odds were good, but anything she could do that might save him, the shifter was willing to try. She was vaguely aware of words, in a disconnected kind of a way, falling from her lips; pleas for him to stay awake, assertions that she was here, not to pull at the spear, that she was going to help him. His name, repeated. Gentle instruction to grip the scarred effigy, if he could, as she pressed it against his skin. The wood of the shaft, decayed as it was, crumbled and snapped easily beneath the force of her hands, powered by adrenaline as they were. Yet a portion of it, a good few inches, she left sticking out of Hau’s chest - a necessary evil.

Her new-found powers reached out, curled around the materials of the spear. She began to shape them, using instinct as much as anything. It was harder, inside a living thing, but still she tried, knowing at least what she wanted to accomplish. The lethal spear head she softened, rounded to less of a point, but still maintained it as a staunch to the blood flow. The wood she manufactured into a mesh, packing his wound as best as she possibly could with such a material. She hoped, with that and the effigy, she could at least get the kitsune to another room where she might be able to find something to help him. After all, she couldn’t maintain her hold on the spear indefinitely, she was already so mentally drained.

There wasn’t time to idle. With enemies all around and Hau dying in her hands, Sara moved even before she had fully manipulated the materials - though she continued to focus on doing so. She didn’t want to leave the sword, knowing she may have to defend them again, but her arm looped around Hau’s back, she leant forward a touch, hefting him up and laying him across her shoulder and upper back, though his legs still dragged along the floor. His added weight, coupled with everything else, it was only through the counterbalance of her tail and sheer, dogged determination that the shifter remained on her feet. She began to drag him through the room, headed in the vague direction of the large, circular door, though she skirted the edges of the room.

Sarkany and Jedidiah’s voices were in her head, mere echoes of their former selves - the doctor, he must have died too.
“I’m tryin’- I’m tryin’!” She gasped, responding to them even though she didn’t know if they were only in her head, her voice thin and tight with exhausted stress. “I ‘ave me ‘ands full, alreet? I cannae- what can I even-?”
As though to answer the desperate questions and ideas Sara had been tossing around in her skull, there was an almighty screech of chariot wheels, the braying of horses. Her gaze snapped up, grip tightening around Hau as she feared the worst. But instead, the chariot veered, crashed headlong into a column with no apparent provocation. Hairs across her skin (or what was left of them, considering the burns) stood on end, she realised the danger such a collision would have, considering the ensuing rubble that was likely about to fall.

She didn’t even stop to question. Whatever had happened, whomever had intervened, Sara turned her attention from the enemy and focused near wholly on maintaining her power’s concentration. When the youngling came to help, though she couldn’t see his true form or understand what he was saying, she shifter still turned her head to weakly smile at.
“Thank ya luv.”

They were moving, a strange shuffle more than a run, dragging Hau as much as carrying him as Sara tried to hurry them through the room. While the trove room was closest, there wasn’t anything of use in there, she knew that from last time. She remembered the ornately locked door, thought on the key Kira had found and then, from within the gloom, the shifter could have sworn she saw the winged creature’s silhouette; smaller and so different from everyone else they had met. Could it possibly be?!
“There… that way.” Sara said, her voice laced with fatigued breaths. Though she still wasn’t sure the young dragon could understand her, she still voiced her thoughts and turned the group to hurry in the direction she remembered the ornate door to be. The same direction she thought she had seen Kira. It was a better chance than a room already covered and useless, if they could just make it.

[Sharei]

[OOC: Draggo rejoins Sara and Hau, offers Hau a piece of hideous cake, and then helps carry Hau toward the door.]


The dragon was next to Sara when she called for him, his expression white and drawn. First Sarkany, now the stranger? Again he is reminded of his powerlessness - Hau had been speared practically right beside him!

"I'll help," he offered after Sara had broken and altered the spear with whatever new power she'd obtained. He rummaged around in his bag for something to assist, but all he found that might be useful were the hideous pieces of cake carefully placed in the bottom. Would those be useful? He offered one to Hau, but then decided that the best course of action was probably to move. Kanagi... He firmed himself mentally. Kanagi had always said the best thing to do was to keep moving.

The juvenile took Hau's other arm and together with Sara hurried along behind the columns. He gave the self-destructive chariot a long side-eye as they passed it. Had he heard a growl just then? And why was it so familiar?

[MP]

Edge:
Items: broken knife (2), silver chain, grey vial

The blood and scuffling fade down the righthand passage, leaving only the crunch and scrape of residue as Edge continues straight. Attempts to spatially manipulate the tunnel have no effect, and by the time he crawls from the mouth of the tunnel, his chest, stomach, and the tops of his legs are scraped raw by the residue.

He’s at one end of a long rectangular room, staring across at three crusted doors set in the far left, right, and center wall. The wreckage of a table lies between the doors, and furniture on either side of his tunnel looks almost as though it’s been digested. The entire room is choked with residue, slick and tarry up to the knees, seething with a sense of presence. Of hunger.

The moment he steps from the tunnel, Edge feels its gaze on him. From the walls around him. From the floor beneath him. Though he can feel stone under his feet, it has a sickening feeling of vertigo, as if standing over an unfashionable drop. The pain in his head is unbearable. Something escaped here. Something is coming back.

The center and righthand door seem to have been used recently. The crust around them is broken in slick, fresh trails. The lefthand door is stained top to bottom with grey ooze. Almost damp with it. None of them offer an obvious path forward. And with the tomb-wide ache in Edge’s skull, it’s impossible to get a mental sense which direction the threat is coming from.



Sara, Draggo, Hau, and Kira:
Sara's items: human effigy (2), general's sword
Draggo's items: broken flint necklace, sturdy rope, scholar's notes (1,2), hideous cake (3), runed heart, simple knife, seeing stone
Kira’s items: carved fragment


Dropped items: maned pelt, band-aid spear, hideous cake

Under Sara's powers, the spear loses its edge. Seals the wound. As the scarred effigy is pressed against him, Hau feels the slow bleed inside him, stretching moments into an eternity. And yet, he doesn't die. However much the kitsune might wish for it, no matter how the blood seeps into his lungs and over his lips, he doesn't die. It seems the combination of abilities just barely holds him together, keeping him in an endlessly dying state.

The next moment, the full weight of the chariot slams into the column beside them. Mummified horses snap and fold with the impact, legs skewing at unnatural angles. The column's base doesn’t crack so much as explode in a cloud of dust and flying shards. The upper column Groans. Tips over them. Begins to fall. Just before the room fades to suffocating black, they can see its silhouette above them - can see the mutated grey rushing from behind it, snatching at their heels. They can make out the second charioteer, eyes alight with a faint golden fire, driving the horses toward it.
Then the light fails.

Stone chunks crash to the ground around them, so close that dust powders their legs. Each sends a reverberating impact through their bones. One lands with a sickening, meaty thud. And these sounds are overlaid by more confusion: a cold, tarry splatter against their legs; the screams of horses; a wet, sucking squelch. 

Footsteps in the dark. The weight of a limp body. The stairs beneath their feet. Then, by gradual degrees, the air returns. The darkness fades again. The three companions find themselves at the sealed door and its ornate locked, along with a small batlike creature. Sara and the dragon are covered in dust, scratched by rubble, but whole. Hau, on the other hand, has not been so lucky. 

Part of his head has caved in where a falling chunk of column struck him. The matted blood, shards of skull, and brain matter leave the survivors with no illusions. He was killed instantly - perhaps a mercy in light of his injuries. Looking back at the mess of rubble, it's a miracle he was the only casualty.

The mutated grey is pinned beneath a large chunk of column, chariots strewn around it. It's still alive, and clawing to free itself. But the impact combined with its many gashes seems to be taking a toll. The tar hangs loosely off its frame, losing shape at times and reforming only slowly. It can't be far from its limit. However, it's no longer the only grey in the room. 

A shapeless mass is pushing out from both the hunter's trove and the hallway door, vast and sickening beyond any grey they've seen before. Their surfaces constantly splitand reseal as they moves - a trypophobic pattern that resembles countless working mouths. The residue boils up around them as they move, reaching and dragging masses forward. There seems to be no end to them. The residue spills and spills from the doors, massing larger and larger, piling into a single hungry presence. Slowly but surely, they're working their way up the gallery and toward the sun door. 

There's a boy sitting against the rising sun carving. His knees are huddled to his chest, his arms wrapped around them. His face is as pale and expressionless as a corpse, and he watches the advancing wall of grey without any emotion at all. 

On the other side of the sun door and the boy, the once-sealed door has somehow been opened. It's standing ajar, and three figures are visible inside: one is a familiar spotted shifter; one is a tall man, his mouth slashed in a permanent grin; the last is a burned and grizzled figure, his face crosshatched by scars that match the etchings of Sara's figurine. All three can see them - see the door as Kira unlocks it. 
 
There's a clunk from deep within the walls. The labored grind of stone over stone. The door swivels, revealing a small hallway barely two body lengths wide. The floors and walls are pristine, without any trace of reside. The sole feature of the place is the towering figure standing at the back wall. 

The creature - it's far too large to be human - is armored head to foot in heavy plate. The armor is a dark, foreign material, etched with runes and completely flawless. Its gauntleted hands rest over the hilt of a great notched sword, the flat helm bowed over it as if in prayer. As the door opens fully, the blade ignites with a sickly blue flame. The light casts ghastly shadows beneath the helm, which has turned to track the onlookers.



Ari:
As Ari moves for the far right door, the nearest column all but explodes. There’s no warning; no visible cause. The legs of the statue crater inward, spraying chips of stone followed by a massive cloud of dust. Ari hears the brazier’s contents scatter through the waist-deep residue - feels the sting of stone across his face. Something crashes to the ground beside him, reverberating through his legs. But aside from several painful cuts across his chest and shoulders, he escapes the shrapnel unharmed. When he makes it through the far right door, he finds himself inside a small hallway, roughly two body lengths wide. He isn’t alone.

Two men turn to stare at him. Both are taller, grizzled, scars down their faces and wounds on their skin. The nearer man has patches of unnatural rot across his throat and arms. The man behind him is standing in front of a hole in the back wall, bruises and gashes across his jaw and slashes down his calves and ankles.

The hallway around them is in a state of ruin. Long slashes mar the walls, blackened around the edges as if from fire. Globs of grey are scattered around the room in ugly, inert heaps. A massive armored figure, runed-etched and plated with a foreign stone-like material, lies on its back between the two men, unmoving. Its chest has been cracked open, revealing an inhuman interior of miscellaneous nodes and a cracked, runed lump in place of its heart.

Strangely, neither of the men in the hallway appear to be armed. Nor do they look strong enough to crack the shell of the fallen giant. The rot-scarred man isn’t even looking at it. Instead, he’s staring back through the open door, his eyes fixed on something across the gallery.

Across from their own hallway door, in front of the sealed door opposite, there is a group of figures. Ari can recognize Sara’s distinctive features, as well as the limp and bloodied body of Hau. There are two others with them: Marchelute’s adopted dragon and a small bat-like creature, currently fitting a key to the ornate geometric lock.

There’s also a fifth figure in the gallery - a boy - his features mask-like and corpse white, huddled with his back to the massive sun door. He wasn’t there a moment before. Nor does he react to the people around him. He only sits there, arms around his knees, staring over the gallery stairs with the empty gaze of the dead.



Cassius:
Items: wolf pelt

The tangle of wolf hide spares Cassius’ legs no small amount of damage. His attacker’s claws catch in hide instead of flesh, dragging it in, clogging the tunnel with it. Though shredded down the calves and ankles, Cassius is able to pull free from his attacker and make it down the lefthand tunnel, which first brightens, then ends in a small opening.

Cassius emerges into a small hallway, no more than two body lengths wide. The walls are scarred with long black slashes, as if with a blade. As if burned. Old residue and older bones lie scattered around the room, smelling dully of clay and calcium. A massive armored figure lies sprawled on its back at the center of it all. The visor is dark and flat, giving it an uncomfortably featureless appearance. Its plate is a deep oily blue, etched with rune work and incredibly thick. However, the chestplate has been cracked open, exposing an utterly inhuman interior: runed mechanisms and a cracked central node that looks uncomfortably like a heart. The giant is utterly motionless. But there is movement in the room.

There’s a single door in the opposite wall, an ornate key still in the lock, hanging ajar. Standing in the doorway, a man. He stands a little taller than Cassius, his face a crosshatch of scars, his throat and arms blackened with faint traces of rot. He appears to be unarmed and looks nothing short of exhausted. Defeated. At the sight of the officer, he pulls up short with obvious confusion, staring from Cassius to something behind him.

A smaller man appears in the doorway a moment later, far smaller, with faint feline spots sapling his skin. Like the scarred man before him, he appears to have been running from something.

The room beyond the door is familiar to Cassius as the earlier gallery room. He can see the same humanoid columns. The same sun door in the righthand wall. With these sights to orient him, this hallway is now recognizable as the ruined hallway he examined in the gallery.

It seems that other survivors have found the gallery since he last passed this way. Across the gallery from Cassius, the other locked door is now crowded with figures. One of them holds a glinting key - a twin to the key left in this hallway’s door - and is frantically turning the lock.

[tsukikoko]

[OOC: Sara backs up a little from the giant sword man, aware they need the sword but unsure she can help get it in her current state. Notices Ari, Cass and scarred man. Gets closer to them, very quickly apologises for taking the sword and asks if any of them know how they're going to get the notched sword because they're running out of time.]

Hau was dead.

After everything they'd tried, all she and the young dragon had done in an attempt to save him, he had died anyway.

Your fault.

Again the needling thoughts, worming through Sara's psyche, cutting through her. She was useless, always had been, what would her stubbornness change now?

Though Kira had opened the door and a once invisible group were abruptly clear as day in the opposite doorway, even though an unknown child crouched before the sun door, for a while the shifter did not see. She stared down at Hau's body, shaking from exhaustion and raw emotion as she laid him down. Just like the others, there was nothing she could do for him now, but still she didn't move. Tears pricked at her eyes, a choking sob built in her chest.

Yet still, something pushed in the back of her skull; an instinctive need to survive, a drive to help the young dragon and Kira, now they'd found her again. Though a not insignificant part of herself considered how much easier it would be to lay down and let the grey creatures have their way, another (luckily larger) part, forced the shifter back to her feet.

When Sara did finally look around herself, the sight of that massive, sword-wielding humanoid made her take a step back. She didn't think she'd have been able to fight it at the best of times, nevermind in her current state. But the sword... the notches and the size of it. She glanced at the sun door, saw a mirror image of such a blade already lodged in one side. But not only that, she saw the child...

And people she recognised.

Ari. Cassius. The scarred man she had previously only been able to perceive through the seeing stone. Her gaze cast down to the sword still held in her hand, the one she had taken when trying to help him. He was still alive. Would he know more of this place?

Something flickered to life inside her. Not quite hope, but as close as she might get.

Warning Kira and the young dragon back from the sword-wielding creature with a frantic wave of her hand, Sara made her way towards the other group. They were running out of time, the room was filling with grey creatures. But perhaps, there would be just a few seconds for this. She glanced at the child, wanting to reach for and comfort them but unsure whether they were another facet of this place. There just wasn't enough time.

A whine formed, but the shifter tore her eyes away from him. Instead, when she thought herself close enough to be well heard and understood, Sara called out.
"Ari. Cassius!" Then, to the scarred man, "Eee, man, I'm sorry I took ya sword, like, was nowt else I could think tah do tah 'elp ya." A frantic look at the encroaching enemies, before she barrelled on. "We 'aven't much time. 'Ave any of ya a clue what tah do with that?" She pointed at the giant in the other hallway, then at the sun door. "We need the sword."

[Pearl Dragon]

[Kira begs the armored thing to help, but not sure what good that'll do! XD]

Kira felt the key settle in place within the lock and uttered a small gasp of joy as it clunked into place and released the door. Kira pawed at the space where the door began to open, prying it apart with practically her entire body until she stumbled into the space beyond.

The moment she was able to, Kira did a quick scan of the room. Her eyes immediately settled on a familiar form, the same giant armored creature as what was in the other room but this once was not wounded or dead. In fact, it's blue gaze settle on her and the others, sending a cold shock through her system. This thing, she realized, was eerily similar to her old Masters. Kira felt her legs lock, her shoulders hunch almost immediately into a submissive posture. She raised both hands, almost unable to control herself and reached towards the thing.

"P-Please!" Was all she could manage, although every number of plea, apology, and cry for mercy crowded her throat. Her legs finally gave way, dropping her to her knees as she looked up at the thing. "Help! Be help get out!" She begged finally, at a loss as to what could even be done at this point.

[okami1reeka333]

[OOC: Tries to figure out a way to help the group, suddenly feels painless, decides best option would be to shove Draggo back into the room: rolled 13]

He racked his brain as he heard the sounds and the responses going on within the room occurred, he needs to help them, come on, think! they are in trouble and need help, one of them was already dead from the sound of bone cracking and breaking and the sound of flesh ripping. like a hollow back cracking against stone. As he focused on a solution he failed to realize he started to feel no pain. nothing. An unwanted level of clarity and lack of morality washed over him as he thought.

He turned his attention on the one who stated 'I'll help' . The one from earlier, who ran out with the other one. The unsettling thought of pushing him away from the others seemed like the best option at the moment. He sounded in pain, shuffled as if something was wrong, he was slowing them down. . .

In an attempt to hasten the group up, he opted to use the pressure of his spiritual force to shove the young man back into the room. the unnatural orange fire of his seeming to sporadically pop as he willed himself to move against the young lad. Anything to get him away from the others, towards the approaching knight that seems to loom a few strides behind them.

To the dragon, it would feel like a firm shove towards the towering nightmare fuel inducing figure from the direction of the ornate door.

[NightshadeVII]

OOC: Edge goes through the door on the right.]

[kilnarak]

[ Ari is unhelpful. He tries to go to Sara, it doesn't work, so he goes back into the room and goes into the corner to have a panic attack. ]

Something was happening in his peripheral vision and behind him. Ari didn't stop moving to look - surely it was because of the massive serpentine thing behind him. A column buckled, then cracked, splintering and falling. Chunks of stone from the ceiling rained down. Ari's focus became the doorway - door frames were stable, weren't they? That's what made them safe to shelter under during earthquakes, to keep the ceiling from falling down on top of you. At least that's what he had been told as a child.

Sharp bits of stone flew past, cut into him, narrow scrapes on his cheek and arms when he raised them to protect his eyes, across his chest and hips. Somehow he made it through the tumult of falling stone to the doorway, and he braced himself against it, waiting for the world to stop quaking.

It was only after the dust began to clear that he became aware of the world around him again. There were two men standing in front of him - the scar-faced stranger who had beaten him into the room, and another scarred man who stood in front of a hole in the back wall. Ari blinked at the both of them blankly, still trying to process what had just happened. The men were looking past him, at something in the room beyond. The serpentine monster? Ari abruptly flinched further into the room, turning and stumbling back a few steps toward the scarred men, worried about what monstrosity lay behind him.

Chunks of stone littered the hall, blood near the door - his - and chunks of... stuff from the gray-thing that had been chasing the scarred stranger. But beyond that there were people - people he hadn't seen there earlier. Sara was immediately recognized, and then the dragon Marche had adopted - as he looked at him, something clenched in his chest, hard to breathe, and he fought down a hitching sob. Sara held a bloody body; Hau, his head half-caved in by fallen stone and a long spear piercing his chest - there was no hint of where the blue-haired man's friend had gone, the... Sasquatch? or whatever she had been. And beyond them a small furred creature, almost like a giant bat - that one was unfamiliar, as was the boy crouching by the door.

"S-Sa-" Ari began, the name choking off in his throat. His heart was hammering in his chest, he needed to remember to breath. "S-Sara! Y-You're... y-you're okay..." He took a step forward, then another, past the door frame and into the hall... but as he crossed that threshold the others abruptly faded from his vision, all of them save the boy. Ari froze a moment, then back-pedaled quickly into the narrow room again, blinking as the group reappeared once he was inside. That was... unhelpful.

"S-Sara there's a big- a big thing c-c-coming, l-like a- like a snake, it-it chased me." She probably already knew, if it was as close behind him as it had felt. It was probably already in the room. Unhelpful. "I-I don't- I don't know what to-to do. I-I... I'm s-sorry," he felt tears springing up in his eyes. He backed away from the doorway, bumped into the first scarred man, flinched away, then skirted around toward the very back of the room, near the fallen giant.