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 Posted: Fri Oct 02, 2020 11:16 am
Mostly unfazed, Kurt followed dumbly holding his Cria close. The owl and its raining destruction hardly seemed to register. Everything seemed a dark haze, by the Guardians' mercy or a part of his soul still untainted, he hadn't walked right into the Owl's sight.
Self perseveration or a sense of obligation/paternal call managed to keep him alive.
His steps were slow, no great hurry, hardly a direction in sight just following to who knew where. At this point, this place felt as much like home as the far away memories of a different place and time.
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Posted: Sat Oct 03, 2020 3:02 pm
Alethea squeezed through the hole in the door, scraping her arm on the centuries-old jagged wood. The screams coming from behind her made her heart break all over again. How many times would they go through this? Until they were all dead?
She side-eyed the dead weight they were carrying after witnessing two more of her companions die in this infernal place. During the prayer, all she could think about was how that ungrateful git better be worth it. Those two lives in exchange for half of the City's future Knights? Hardly. Maybe it was Andrei that was the precious cargo, they were just there to rescue these two on the way. Didn't make it any easier to swallow or to accept the death of close friends.
Hardly keeping up with Katya as she jogged up ahead, Alethea dragged a bit herself. Exhaustion was setting in. She moved to walk, no drag, beside the one called Kurt. "So uh ... I was wondering," She paused to think about how to say what she felt needed to be said, "When are you going to help? Do you have any special powers or abilities or talents? Maybe something that will help us find a way out?" She had hoped maybe he would have information or something to give them a lead on where they were going or if there is a way out. He had to have brought in somehow.
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Posted: Sun Oct 04, 2020 9:16 pm
Genesis turned pensive after the prayer over their fallen comrades. Genesis had been especially close with Harveer, at least as close as she might get with another. It really wasn't much, but it was something to her. Then there was the aspect of her own personal failure that she hadn't made sure that they had gotten through, she had been too busy guarding Kurt and Cria. There was also the inner turmoil wondering how much she had actually failed them, they had all received the same training, it wasn't her job to protect them... and yet, part of working together was making sure everyone was protected.
Were these two pae truly worth the lives they had lost? Was whatever potentially undecipherable knowledge that Genesis had gathered into her pack worth it? The information they were gathering about this place? Andrei...? If they actually found him...
She was exceptionally unguarded herself as she trudged along, while her mind solemnly warred with itself. While Genesis might normally take notice of how large the door was, and wonder about it, she hadn't even really seen that it was a door at all and had assumed that the keyhole was the opening they were to go through. Genesis halted, watching Katya inspect the opening, wondering what they were waiting on, and then realizing the whole picture.
Oh.
Her mind was still far busy to imagine the possibilities, instead she felt the need to trudge on, to complete their mission without losing any more. She flew up to Katya. The door seemed too large, and likely heavy, for them to pull open. "Can some of us fit in here, look through to the other side, and push the door open if it is safe?"
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Posted: Thu Oct 08, 2020 8:52 am
Dante squeaked through the opening in the door--that he'd helped create, he noted with some pride. Dante hadn't felt terribly helpful so far in this mission up until this moment, so he allowed himself a moment of self-righteousness as he helped others through behind him.
That joy turned to ash in his mouth when he realized that the owl's blasts had ceased and Harveer and Clarux hadn't come through. So many emotions coursed through him--grief, anger, regret, sorrow, exhaustion, doubt--that he was only partially comforted when Katya put her hand on his shoulder. With a deep sigh, he put a hand on her hand and gave it a little squeeze, and added "thankful" to his turmoil of feelings. Despite the deep loss, he couldn't help but be a little glad that at least she'd made it safely.
And now he could add "guilt".
Dante followed Katya down, down, down to the huge door. What kind of creature would even need a door this large? And with such a huge keyhole? It looked nearly big enough for them to get through. He shuddered to think what they might be encountering next. He flew up next to Katya for a better look. His observational skills had been useful recently; maybe they'd come in handy here. "What do you see?" he signed to Katya. He also peered through to the other side.
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Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2020 6:24 pm
Behind the squires in the dark hallway, a thick, purple mist creeps closer.
Uh oh! The squires only have one week (our time) to get through the door or take a heavy hit of Taint! Additionally, anyone that has not posted during this transition phase (from the end of the Menagerie, to the door itself) will suffer Taint damage.
The deadline to get through the door is Sunday, October 18th.
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Posted: Sat Oct 17, 2020 7:53 pm
The demon flicked some of her messy brown hair from her face as she slowed her flight and landed, one foot in the bottom of the keyhole and her left hand gripping the side. "Pin tumbler lock. Not what I expected to find down here." She said out loud, being not quite familiar with the sign for 'tumbler'. Katya found herself taken aback by the lock's design. It was complex, modern, just like what could be found in some of the nicer abodes back in the city. Far too modern considering the age of this place. Then again this keep was full of unpleasant surprises. Katya's usual lock picking implements would be no use with a mechanism this size, but in this case bigger wasn't necessarily better. Even in the dim light she could see the first few pins and could simply reach out and grab them. Why such a huge keyhole? She wondered. The demon wondered if it was to keep something proportionally large outside? Or to keep something large within..?
Katya turned to Dante, but spoke loud enough for the whole group to hear. "I can pick this lock, but I'm going to need some muscle to help, just out of the sheer size of it." As it happened, turning back toward the group allowed her to see something approaching from out of the gloom. A miasma, of some sort, whose mere presence suggested a menace concealed within it.
"Oh no. Heads up comrades!" She pointed at the mist. "Bad news coming our way. I'll get to work, someone slow that down!" She then, without hesitation (and forgetting her earlier thought of something potentially dangerous being on the other side of the door) crouched, tightened her grip, leaned into the lock and thrust the length of her other arm into the keyhole.
The first few pins were easily within reach, but they were quite heavy and Katya knew the further they went in the harder they would become to lift. She hesitated, but the thought of being suffocated by the encroaching mist motivated her to just grab it, hefting it with all her strength. The heavy pin got heavier as its spring compressed, and she growled with frustration as it fell back to its original position.
She turned around briefly. "I need a little more pressure!" With that she tried the pin again, while also pushing hard sideways against the bottom of the keyhole with her foot, trying to add force to the tumbler as she worked the pins, this time holding some pressure herself so it wouldn't just free-fall back down. Her free leg braced against the only thing it could reach- the barest of ledges where the tumbler fit into the lock. With a sigh of relief and exertion the pin hung up at the ledge which marked the lock's shear line. One down, four to go, and there wouldn't be time for a second attempt at any of them. Reaching deeper into the lock, she pushed the second pin up and noted that there was a barely noticeable clunk sound and a slight thump could be felt when the pin sheared. In fact, with the weight and size of the lock, these tells should have been far more obvious and Katya could only presume some advanced craftsmanship was the reason they were so subtle. Still, she used those cues to line up the third and fourth pins much quicker than the first two.
Then Katya reached for the fifth pin and her fingertips brushed against it, but nothing more. Even when she squeezed half her torso into the keyhole with her right wing splayed against the face of the lock, she couldn't get a good grip on it. She could try and reach her tail down there, but that would mean turning her back on the lock and her foot and hand holds were precarious enough already.
Unless...
The demon switched both her footing and her stance, now sending her left arm into the keyhole.
"Kalimel!"
A radiant glow spilled from the keyhole and Katya felt her light lance contact what she hoped would be the last pin. With her arm at near full stretch it meant her shoulder was doing almost all the work and she cried out in pain and exertion as the final pin lifted and set in place, followed by her lance and the glow it emitted flickering out. She was exhausted, but there was still one more thing to do. "It's- hahh- set! Turn the tumbler!" She yelled through her gasping breaths, as she too hauled against the keyhole with her foot, not daring to let off the pressure with all the pins where she needed them to be.
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Posted: Sun Oct 18, 2020 12:38 am
One of the last ones to escape the room, due to coming from the opposite side, Lailah scrambled for the door between blasts from the owl. On the way, she spied a dropped knapsack and scooped it up without a second thought. No one needed to be doubling back to grab fallen belongings; they needed to go. It wasn't until she had tucked her wings and squeezed through the door did she realize that she wasn't the last one left in the room.
She would be the last to leave it, however.
The angel hunched over the knapsack she let drop to the floor, covering for her shakes by 'catching her breath' from the sprint. Her limbs trembled, not from exertion, not from fear. She could feel the fury stirring within her. It had been a tiny flame, rising from growing embers...each new struggle, each new loss fanned the flames and they grew, She was furious. She wanted to scream. She wanted to rage. She wanted to hit something; destroy something.
Instead, she took quiet, heaving breaths while struggling to suppress these urges. This wasn't the time, her mind said. They needed to get out of here. Of course, that's what they were trying to do, yet more and more comrades fall, left behind...
Two more.
Two more comrades lost.
And what did they have to show for their losses? Two Pae and still no Knight Lord. Was this what they had exchanged for half of the Guardians' chosen? Eligor felt himself inclined to agree with Alethea's line of questioning. Thus far, the rescued Pae'il had proven little more than additional burdens. Was there something that only the Guardians knew that made them special enough to warrant this exchange? Surely they would not toss away their chosen so lightly...
---
...and yet, as they progressed, there was no sign that freedom was what they were heading towards. Only more puzzles, more traps, more death...they could hope not, but given how things had gone thus far, Eligor was feeling a bit lacking in the Hope department.
As if on cue, Katya's voice rang out from above and the demon turned to witness the arrival of the slowly encroaching haze. Cursing, Eligor turned to face the miasma, shouting, "Someone help Katya with the lock! Anyone else with magic or energy to spare, form up and try to hold back this mist. We need barriers, shields, anything we can use to push it back or slow it down!" He wasn't looking forward to finding out just what that hazy substance would do to them. One could feel the pure malevolence in the air.
The mage braced his feet with a wide stance, staff held out horizontal in front of him in both hands as he began to gather his magic to push the dark force back.
Katya's call for help was answered as Lailah seemed to appear just over her shoulder after the plea. It took just a moment to figure out what the little flier needed and how best to help given this awkward position. "...alright. Don't move, I'll turn." she said shortly. The positioning was indeed awkward, if they were both going to perch on the keyhole's edge, Katya's arm basically trapped in place while she did her best impression of a key. That meant Lailah needed to be the one to turn it.
Ironic that a door built for creatures clearly much larger than they would require the cooperation of two of the smaller Squires in the group to be conquered.
Reaching deep down for the anger within, Lailah braced herself with the best leverage she could manage and focused on outpouring that fury in a productive way: getting this damned tumbler to turn and getting all their asses the hell out of here. Gritting her teeth and using the adrenaline and anger, Lailah strained against the tumbler until she heard the metal grind and shift as it began to turn.
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Posted: Sun Oct 18, 2020 1:20 pm
Success! Dirt and debris fell from the cracks around the door. The ground rumbled and shook. A loud groan echoed behind the giant door and it began to move! Slow to start, but once it was free from the doorjamb, with the force of a rockslide, it swung open and smashed against the wall on the other side.
Rotten, salty sea air wafted through the doorway, nearly hitting the olfactory senses like a brick. Had something died in there? It was too dark to see. In front of the squires was a platform. It leads to nowhere. Only an expanse of darkness lay beyond. No walls, no sign of anything beyond the small landing.
Squires, what do you do? How do you find out if something lay within the darkness? Where do you go from here? Opening the door didn't stop the Tainted mist.
((Deadline to post is Saturday, October 24th))
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Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2020 1:16 pm
At first, Kurt didn't even seem to hear Alethea. He stared ahead for a while before slowly blinking and muttering, "Water, dragged under, through. Water. Vicious fish-pae. Vicious not fish-pae." He didn't have an answer for powers.
Once upon a dream he could shift into animals. Only that hadn't happened in so long it probably was just a dream. Now, now he could only awkwardly shift his tattered, neglected wings.
Still not actively doing anything, he kept moving holding cria close to his body.
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Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2020 10:19 pm
Upon seeing the advancing mists, Genesis dropped to the ground to let Katya's technical mind work on opening the door. Genesis needed to be on the front line of whatever was coming towards them. She held off on drawing up her shields to the last moment, not wanting to waste what little energy she had. Instead she carefully watched it, until at last she heard the crack of the door and felt the shifting of the air. The smell caught her off guard, but they had little choice, this place continued to push them onward. Genesis turned her head to look at her comrades and the open door. "We cannot remain, the mist is upon us.
Make haste and perhaps we may seal the passage." She urged them. If they could get through the door quickly enough maybe they could shut the door and block it out. Genesis couldn't imagine they would be so fortunate as to be able to catch a breath though. This time, Genesis would stand guard until everyone made it through the door to keep the mist at bay if needed and be the last one through the opening.
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Posted: Tue Oct 20, 2020 5:34 pm
Dante couldn't help but make the sign for something that smelled bad as they crowded onto the platform. Smells like Naiads, he thought uncharitably.
The mist didn't concern him as much as did the way forward. It felt like a test, like the room with the artefacts and the owl. They'd failed that one. Dante wanted to make sure they didn't fail this one. He peered over the edge of the platform, squinting his eyes to see if there was anything below them. He kicked some dust over the edge with his foot to see how far it fell before he couldn't see it anymore.
((Sorry for the short post! It's deadline week! X___X))
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Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2020 7:44 pm
Katya circled down to the ground where she forced herself forward away from the mist on foot, still panting some and working her shoulder to loosen it up after all the heaving she just had to do. Because she was still breathing heavily, the stench from the next room hit her hard and she once more had to take pause for a moment to stop from retching.
Ahead, there was only a short landing before an indiscernibly deep darkness. The reek was coming from that direction and it begged the question whether the foul darkness was worse than the foul mist. Katya stepped forward hesitantly, golden eyes bright and reflective of what little light there was, flashing left and right to try and make out any detail they could.
If only she had another signal arrow left! And if only she hadn’t just expended light energy to unlock the door. She still somehow hadn’t dropped or (completely) destroyed her somewhat oversized pack, and within that pack was a rudimentary torch, although she wondered how much light it would be able to cast in this dark room. She reached behind and unbuckled it, rummaging around for and pulling out a stick with an oily rag at the end. “Anyone got a light?”
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Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2020 7:56 pm
As soon as the door began to swing open, Lailah pushed off the lock ledge and flapped down to the floor. She landed, wincing as the door slammed into the opposite wall with what seemed like more force than logical. She turned to Katya with an approving look touched by disbelief. "Good job, but uh...how the heck did you know how to do that?" she asked, raising an eyebrow suspiciously.
Ugh, the stench hit her like a brick, and Lailah flapped her wings a couple times as if to displace some of the retched air. Fine, discussion may have to wait, but she shot Katya a look that told her she wouldn't be satisfied until she got an answer to her question. Later though. With a wary look back towards the mist, Lailah moved forward cautiously, peering into the area beyond the door. There was a platform stretching out before her, but beyond that...darkness. As Katya rummaged through her pack, Lailah took a deep breath and focused on her hands held out in front of her as if cupping something. Slowly, the ambient light on this side of the door began to fade as an orb of light formed instead within Lailah's hands. Not typically how she used her ability, but perhaps she could steal the light from this room to use in the next beyond the door. With the orb in hand glowing softly, Lailah cautiously moved towards the platform and across the door's threshold. Ever on the alert for signs of danger, her eyes scanned the darkness ahead as she moved forward with the orb delicately cupped in her hands.
Eligor hung back with Genesis, keeping his will focused on slowing the mist's progress towards his companions. Sparing only a side-glance at Genesis' words, he nodded sagely. "It will do us no good to remain here. Keep moving forward, perhaps we can place this door between ourselves and this accursed mist. Everyone else, go! Genesis and I will follow behind!" To be quite honest, her shield was likely doing more good than anything he was able to offer, but he felt someone may need to remind Genesis when it was time to run.
For now, Eligor turned his focus inward, pouring energy and willpower into the summoning. "Amaros, come forth, I have need of thee," he whispered as the combination of his magic and his will resulted in a brief flash and the appearance of his familiar, Amaros. He had once again taken feline form in this summoning and nodded his head in a very Pae'il-like manner to his master in greeting. "How may I serve?" The 'voice' flowed solely through Eligor's mind and he nodded before glancing back at the others retreating through the now opened door. "Go forward with the others. Provide light and scope out the area for any dangers. We will be close behind you." The glowing feline nodded again before turning and bounding after the other Squires. Through the door he went to the platform, offering a soft aura of glowing Holy Light with his form and moving to check the edges of the outcropping for dangers or anything beneficial they could use.
Eligor meanwhile turned back to Genesis and placed a hand on her shoulder with a reassuring squeeze and a half-grin. "Alright, I think we can start drawing back now. The others have moved forward. Good work; always great to know someone's got our backs."
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Posted: Tue Oct 27, 2020 4:25 pm
Genesis waited as the others moved through the doorway. When everyone was through she turned to Eligor, the tiniest smile ever hid in the corners of her mouth at his encouragement, but she was too weary and discouraged overall for much more than that. She gave a firm nod of her head before going with him through the doorway, into the darkness. There was light created by her companions now, yes, but they seemed to reveal little. As Genesis entered the smell that she had noticed before became almost overwhelming, but as her eyes squinted onward, there was no hint as to what might cause it, there was no choice though. She looked at the door, smashed into the wall. It didn't seem like it was going to be something they could easily close, like she had planned for. "Do you think we can get this closed? Or do we need to move on?" she asked the others. If they weren't able to get the door shut, the mist would advance on them and there wouldn't be time.
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Posted: Tue Oct 27, 2020 5:30 pm
Alethea held back just a second, letting everyone move ahead before her. The darkness of the expanse ahead of the small group was overwhelming. A jolt of fear hit her in the gut as the thought of this being their last stand. But how could they fight this foe? Surely the darkness wasn't safe? Amidst her panicked reverie, something caught her eye. Eligor and Genesis. Why was he always standing with her? What about her was so special? This had been the final act. The one-winged angel had forgotten she was a Squire of the Light. Her loyalty and duties faded behind the hatred.
Yes, now or never.
Behind the group, she moved in slowly and palmed the dagger she'd pilfered from the previous room. Her golden eyes flashed purple for only a fraction of a second. Alethea moved softly and used her power to close the distance behind her and Genesis. When Eligor turned his gaze to follow Amaros, from within the shadow of the door, in one fluid motion, she slid the dagger into Genesis' side and palmed the dagger again. She side-stepped up to approach Eligor from the other side.
"Something died down there." She spoke ominously.
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