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Post by NightshadeVII on Dec 4, 2023 1:44:15 GMT -6
(OOC: Sam pockets some batteries, and ,interpreting the blinking as morse code, adjusts the radio to 1111)
When he didn’t find anything other than the batteries - which he promptly pocketed - Samael turned his attention back to the radio. After studying it for a moment, he couldn’t help but wonder if the light on it was blinking in some kind of morse code. It would be as strange and illogical as everything else in the place, but it was no use questioning it.
Please adjust to 1111. Please adjust to 1111. That message repeated over and over again, with no variarions and no further details, just those simple instructions. He had no reason to trust them, but also no reason to ignore them. For all he knew this could be one of the items he was looking for. So with that decision made, Samael picked up the radio and adjusted it carefully to the indicated channel.
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Post by Salandis on Dec 4, 2023 2:59:52 GMT -6
[Moana follows Kail down the passage. Sorry short post is short, stress]
Moana smiled at Kail’s questions. “I’ll stick to the torch. It’s got one shot left, then I’ll have to move to the wrench.” She thought a moment. “Depends on what’s at the end. I might want that axe, but I’ll keep the wrench for now.”
She let him go first, taking up position to watch their backs. Kail was obviously trying to impress her, and honestly doing a good job at it. If the mall were less deadly she might even be having fun.
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Post by luscen on Dec 4, 2023 3:57:37 GMT -6
[CASMIR decides to check the women’s restroom to see if anything useful might be there, while telling STEN to check Got Beef to make sure it’s safe.]
Casmir followed along behind Jones, silently weighing his options: returning back upstairs was not going to work, in all likelihood. Furthermore, the doors through here had all been staunchly locked. Lastly, the outside was still shrouded in that oppressive mist. If they couldn’t make it through the beef shop, what was their alternative?
As the pair left the access hallway - this time with the WDSA Agent in the lead, making a diagonal bee-line for the shop - the Hunter’s flashlight shined briefly down the north hallway, eliciting a memory of his first pass through here.
“Wait,” he said quietly, placing his hand on the other man’s shoulder. “The women’s toilet in the northern hallway was ajar. Given how this place has worked, so far, there may be something there that could help us. I’ll duck north and give it a look. You see if the shop’s clear.”
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Post by kilnarak on Dec 4, 2023 5:18:53 GMT -6
As Kail and Moana pick their way down the hallway, they find it harder and harder to avoid the webs. While none stretch across their path that they need to break them to continue, the webs creep down along the walls, and then across the floor, until there is no unwebbed ground to walk on. Worse, they begin to see spiders clinging here and there along the walls - they range in size from perhaps the size of a coin to as large as a human hand. They don't seem aggressive, at least, and they don't seem likely to move to the floor where they might be stepped on.
As the pair continue, each step tacky but not so much so as to get stuck, they feel an abrupt shift downward, perhaps an inch or so, as their feet leave solid ground and instead they find themselves suspended on a bridge of thick veils of cobweb, crossing an unseen abyss in the dark below. There are even more spiders now, hundreds of them, and now they can be seen on the floor - crawling along the underside of the bridge, some moving through it into hollow crevices they have created. The bridge continues for a distressingly long time, but at the end they can see a web-covered platform held up between eight thick pillars. Thinner webs stretch between the pillars, with a variety of winged insects caught in them. Some are wrapped in cocoons, the more lively ones being subdued by spiders. In the center of the platform is a fancy-looking cone shaped box, from which the flying bugs occasionally emerge, only to become caught in the webbed walls when they try to escape.
-
Stenson leads Casmir back through the staff hallways into the main hall. It seems darker now than it should be - the lights are, of course, off, but even the skylight seems to have dimmed. The sky outside in the fog hadn't necessarily been bright, but it had been brighter than what they can see through the skylights now. There are cracks in the floor, although at least none here has fallen away.
As they begin to head toward Got Beef, Casmir sends Stenson ahead to scope out the establishment, while he decides to continue down the side hall to check out the bathroom Moana had mentioned earlier.
Stenson continues down the hall toward Got Beef, and as he nears it he notices a mound of red and wriggling flesh piled up against the lower edge of the shutter. The 'Under Renovation' sign that had been plastered onto the shutter is gone - tattered bits lend to the idea that it was ripped down - and instead he sees that sections of the shutter are dented as if something heavy had struck it from the inside. Smears of black and red trace up over the flat metal of the wall, almost like veins growing out of the bloody mass at the base.
While he had seen mall-people inside of Got Beef earlier - as well as inside of Dairy King - he doesn't see them now. Instead there are more piles of red flesh on the floors, black ichor leaking from the bug-holes in the walls and gradually coating the room with a wet black sheen. Glancing inside Dairy King, he sees marks in on the seats where some of the mall-people had been, scorched as if there had been a fire there, and that there is a massive dent in the counter where the man at the register had been polishing his broken glass, as if it had been struck hard with a blunt object. While much of the meat on the floor appears inert, some areas wriggle as if there are worms digging through it, and other sections quiver and heave as if they are breathing. It does not look especially safe.
To the north, in the side hall, Casmir makes his way cautiously toward the bathroom - alert for red glaring lights or whispering shadows. He finds that the door is no longer propped open by a red shoe - the door is instead lying on the floor, ripped off it's hinges. Despite the destruction, the interior of the bathroom is clean, if dark. He makes his way to the mirror where Moana had seen the writing and finds that all the writing has been scrubbed into an illegible red-lipstick blur. There is only one red circle drawn above the illegible writing now - the mirror seems to have been cleanly cut, the edges almost look melted, removing the inner circle. Removing the wall too - there is a large hole there now, leading further and further back into the dark, much further than the wall should be thick. Even shining a light into it, he cannot see the end of it, just roughly bored stone along the sides and darkness beyond. It is large enough that he and Stenson could crawl into it.
-
Samael finds space for the batteries in his pack, but it doesn't look like more than one more item will fit in it. Perhaps the radio is that item? He moves back to it, taking a moment to focus on the flashes and parse them out into morse code. Once he understands, he picks up the radio and adjusts the dial to 1111. All of the channels he turned to seemed to be static, but when he reaches 1111 a soft, slightly mournful tone begins to play. The music is relaxing, and as he turns to that station knowledge washes over him: This is the Soothing Echo, a radio that can be used to knit wounds and mend minds. It can only do this a few times before the magic is spent. While turning it to 1111 does not seem to have used the spell this time, he knows that it will in the future.
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Post by qhostqrowls on Dec 4, 2023 7:51:26 GMT -6
[Kail approaches and inspects the area, particularly the cone-shaped box. Wants to take it but doesn’t want to get eaten by spiders, so confers with Moana]
Kail was unbothered by the spiders. He didn’t spare the crawling insects so much as a sideways glance as he headed down the corridor, but he did balk at the sudden weightless feeling of the floor, his new boots scuffing against the tacky surface.
He cautiously leant his weight on the web-bridge, and it held. With careful, measured steps he made his way across, too worried about falling to his death to care about the hundreds of spiders swarming at his feet.
He looked across the cone-shaped box, at the pillars, at the endless stretching webs, at the platform at the middle of it all. Was this another puzzle? The box seemed like the most obvious answer, but he hesitated to snatch it from where it lay. He had the distinct feeling it might trigger the arachnids into swarming them, and there was enough for both of them to be eaten alive.
“You reckon we just - take it?” He turned to Moana, clearly at a loss. She was evidently a lot smarter, and more careful, than he was, and he looked to her for her opinion. “I got the feeling we’ll have to run for it if we do.”
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Post by Pearl Dragon on Dec 4, 2023 11:43:09 GMT -6
[Stenson has a wild plan. He throws the nearest chair at a pile of gore, to test if it is like the first flesh blob monster. Or if it might be dead after all. He looks to the kitchen as his next goal, but waits to see what his commotion might start.]
Stenson watched for a moment as the hunter went his own way, though he hoped only briefly. Still, at this point, perhaps he could still make some progress himself and on his own, without putting the others in any immediate danger. Stenson turned and continued towards Got Beef, which was not far from their current location. By the time he'd reached the restaurant, the hunter was well on his own way and Stenson surveyed the area. It too seemed different, and much more decrepit. The signage on the barrier for one was ripped down and away, and the people that had been inside of the nearby establishments were....not people anymore. Whatever had happened to them, Stenson could only take a wild guess, but they now brought memories of the blob creatures vividly.
He stood for a moment thinking. He was alone, and "she" was still waiting. This way had two entrances, one to where he stood and the other letting out near the fountain.
Making up his mind, Stenson took a deep breath and walked into the restaurant. He didn't waste any time. Reaching for the nearest dining chair, Stenson lifted and hurled it at the nearest pile of gore. If any of these things in here were still alive, perhaps those flesh abominations, he wanted their attention. Once the chair left his hands, he had no choice but to see what would happen. His eyes locked onto the back of the establishment where there would surely be a kitchen area. He had a rough plan in mind, which at the very least would perhaps open a way for himself, or for the others if he could pull it off.
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Post by Salandis on Dec 5, 2023 3:02:33 GMT -6
[Moana's opinion is take it and run, maybe with an offering of value in place]
Moana looked dubiously at the web bridge as Kail tested his weight on it. “I feel like I fell into an old B-grade movie,” she said, looking out over the expanse of web - and being devoutly glad she wasn’t arachnophobic. “What was it, the Krull? Christ.”
She followed the wendigo over the web bridge gingerly, aware that her normal weight would never be supported by this fragile structure. Or maybe it would be? Spiderweb is supposed to be super strong, but normally she weighed as much as a small car. She stepped off onto the solid platform and looked at the cone shaped box.
“I think it’s what we came for,” she said, thinking back to the rhyme. What did it say about sinners? That they couldn’t stand on her web? “And I think you’re right. Something tells me this whole place will come apart when we do.” She looked unhappy, but shoved the torch back in her pack, rummaging for the puzzle box and then passing it over. “Here. Maybe you can pull an Indiana Jones with this thing, switch it for something with similar weight.” She grinned at him, “We might need to leave just as fast as he did in that movie, though, so be ready to bolt.”
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Post by NightshadeVII on Dec 5, 2023 16:33:41 GMT -6
(OOC: Sam checks the door to the staff hallway.)
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Post by luscen on Dec 5, 2023 20:24:21 GMT -6
[CASMIR decides to make an exploratory venture into The Hole.]
Casmir frowned at the hole yawning into the void, before him. The light from his flashlight couldn't so much as scratch the emptiness past the portal's threshold. He plucked a marble from his pocket, tossing it inside and listening for the "plink" not that he expected to hear much; there was no way this could possibly be safe, and yet around here what even was "safe?" the bugs were boring more and more holes into the walls, and it was their termite-like tenacity that was likely causing the mall to slowly collapse. Before long the whole thing would likely fall apart, with them inside of it.
'Something like this suggests there's definitely a colony,' the Hunter thought, musing over the bugs for the first time properly since setting foot, here. 'But where's the Queen?'
Casmir frowned at the hole. Everything about it offended his sensibilities, and yet how likely was it that it was a trap? Some abyss just waiting for a random passerby? That didn't make any sense, even in this scenario. Still, it wouldn't do to go back and simply tell Jones "Hey, I found a hole." He'd need to examine it, first, and see where it led.
Who knew, maybe it would take them where they needed to go?
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Post by kilnarak on Dec 6, 2023 17:59:37 GMT -6
As Kail and Moana approach the box, the platform shifts noticeably, and they realize suddenly so have the pillars the support it - or rather, the legs that support it. Following the pillars up they can see where they bend, and where they join to the body of what is an utterly massive spider. They also become aware that one of the inky black eyes of the creature seem to be on them. The massive spider readjusts itself slightly, freeing a leg to delicately reach out toward the path they had followed to get here and snip the web. Her many tiny children swarm toward her limb as she moves the web bridge and reattaches it somewhere on the unseen ceiling. This done, she lowers the leg again and settles, one eye still turned down to watch the two of them. Neither she nor the small spiders seem aggressive, but they are watching, waiting to see what they do.
Beyond the box, the two of them can see that there is a second bridge, stretching off to some distant point in the dark. It is the only way they can go from here, with the path they had initially followed no longer an option.
-
Stenson picks up a metal chair and tosses it at one of the squirming piles of gore. The chair sinks into the mass, and he can see white worms testing whether the metal surface is edible, then upon deciding it isn't, returning into the flesh. One of the larger piles of meat, off to the side, however, does not care for this commotion. It begins to rise, pulsing and wheezing, and begins to slither across the floor, heedless of the worms, to examine the chair.
When it becomes aware of Stenson it stills for a moment, wheezing breath shuddering to a stop. Then with a rough gurgling shriek it lunges toward the man. It's movements are frighteningly fast despite it's bulky, awkward form, and if he does not move swiftly it will be on him within moments.
-
Taking the radio (what's with that radio?), Samael moves to the staff door. For a moment the handle sticks, as if it is locked, but then abruptly it turns and the door opens. A straight, pitch black hall stretches before him. It seems darker than the staff hallways had been before, and he cannot see far in the darkness. Still, the path ahead seems to beckon him onward.
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Casmir carefully climbs up onto the bathroom sink, then makes his way into the hole. It's a claustrophobic space, but there is enough room for him to crawl forward on hands and knees. The walls are rough, and there do not seem to be any smaller bug holes intersecting them. He can see with his flashlight that the hole stretches forward about 5 meters, then begins to angle to the right in a gradual curve. There are no breaks in the wall, no branching paths. The path is... off-putting, but it must lead somewhere, and the fact that it doesn't seem to conform to the space of the mall's walls and floors might indicate that it leads out of this hellscape.
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Post by qhostqrowls on Dec 8, 2023 8:02:20 GMT -6
[Kail switches the cone with the puzzle box, and books it down the remaining thread bridge]
Kail hissed out a curse as he stared upwards into the eight eyes of the giant spider, feeling very much like their luck had well and truly run out. It was waiting to see what they would do, and they were planning to steal the item it guarded.
“Yeah, look…get ready to sprint.” He said to Moana, turning the puzzle box over in the hand not holding the sword. As impressive as the blade was, the spiders legs were thicker than a tree trunk, and he doubted it would make much of a dent at all.
He stepped forward, and went to replace the cone shaped box with Moana’s puzzle box. If the spiders didn’t react, they could calmly walk their way down the remaining spider-web bridge. If they didn’t…he didn’t think he’d be able to outrun it, but he’d sure try.
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Post by Pearl Dragon on Dec 8, 2023 17:56:53 GMT -6
Halloween 2023 [Stenson takes the opportunity during the creature's pause to make a mad sprint to the kitchen. Once through the doors, he will do a quick assessment of the room and pull the largest/heaviest thing within reach that he can to barricade the threshold. He looks around after to see if he can locate any gas stoves or a potential gas line.]
Knowing that the likelihood of his action resulting in some sort of consequence was high, Stenson was poised and ready to move almost as soon as the chair left his hands. He watched it sail across the restaurant and strike the pile of gore he'd aimed at. He barely had time to register the worms moving out to investigate when he heard another larger pile react to the commotion. As it turned and took pause to register Sten's presence, the officer was already on the move. Stenson sprinted, weaving through the tables and chairs to keep as many between himself and the now-moving larger pile as possible, straight for the familiar swinging doors of the kitchen.
By the time the monster lunged to give chase, Stenson was making his own speedy progress, throwing a shoulder into the door to burst through and into the kitchen where he would immediately begin to assess the layout. His first goal was to barricade the threshold with the largest object he could handle, which given the speed that the creature was already chasing, he had maybe seconds to accomplish. After that was done, he scanned for their stoves, in a beef joint they were bound to have gas powered grills for charring and other fancy high-heat cooking.... or perhaps some sort of gas line with the usually loud, red "WARNING DANGER" signage to keep employees aware of their presence.
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Post by NightshadeVII on Dec 8, 2023 19:33:39 GMT -6
(OOC: Sam tries to see if his phone flashlight can illuminate the strange darkness. If it does nothing, he will put it away. Before heading into the hallway, he will use the gutting knife to attempt to jam the door so it can’t slam shut behind him. If he can jam the door, he will begin heading down the staff hallway.)
When faced with the featureless darkness, Samael’s first instinct was to try and illuminate it, to overpower whatever tried to make his senses useless. Fishing his phone out of his pocket, he turned on the flashlight, trying to see if it would do anything at all. It was no plasma torch, but he didn’t have much else to work with.
Regardless of the result, he set to work, pulling out the gutting knife he had found - that had been rendered quite useless now that he knew how to get his whip back - and turned his attention to the door. The way it had suddenly swung open, almost as if changing its mind, was in no way comforting and the last thing he wanted was to head into that darkness without a way out. So he set to work, jamming the knife into the doorframe at an angle, slightly below one of the hinges. That way, if the door was about to fall shut behind him, the knife would keep it open.
When Samael was finally satisfied with what little prep work he could do, his gaze returned to the dark. Was this the best option? Probably not. But any choice in this place was like choosing between plague or cholera. He only had his “life” to loose regardless.
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Post by luscen on Dec 8, 2023 20:19:31 GMT -6
[CASMIR continues his way through the hole.]
Casmir had climbed ahead a few meters, feeling very much like a sardine packed into a tin- his broad shoulders brushed against the sides of the hole, and there was no means to turn around. He'd done cave diving before- it was very dangerous, and he'd taken the time too learn the best survival and navigational tips from seasoned spelunkers, the first of which was: don't panic. As long as he could maintain his leverage, he could advance or withdraw as necessary. And since there was no apparent danger, there was no reason to grow concerned.
Not yet, anyway.
The scarred man kept a close grip on his light- the batteries for these usually lasted a long time, but in this place there was no telling if that still held true, so he attempted to conserve the light, only flashing it every now and again. The hole had begun to curve, ahead, and now he had a decision to make: back out and find Jones, or continue moving forward? Surely, as long as he kept his head down and stayed reasonable, he wouldn't attract any attention, and if this hole did lead out of this gods-forsaken mall, then he could double-back and guide the Agent out.
Still, something sat wrong with him. He shouldn't be wasting time, here, but what other recourse did he have? The only thing to do, both literally and figuratively, was to move forward. So, hoping Jones had the good sense to not stir up any trouble, he continued forward the route the hole had made.
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Post by Salandis on Dec 9, 2023 16:07:48 GMT -6
[Moana braces to run, and hopes to walk free of the web behind Kail]
Moana looked at the giant spider, obviously shaken. What the hell kind of mall was this? At least it explained why her weight could be carried on these webs, if that monster was the one weaving them.
“Uh, yeah,” she said shakily as Kail went to make the switch. At least it had settled down now? Although the swarm of smaller (relatively) spiders was getting uncomfortable. “At least there’s only one way to run.”
She braced herself to sprint, watching for any kind of horrible reaction from the denizens of the web. Sure, they might not care… or they might have a scene like Krull after all, just without some magic sand to make the big guy stop.
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