Welcome to Gaia! ::

Joe dusted off his hands as he turned back to the room. "There we go. We're free to - " He noticed that Merasha was coughing and seemed to realize the smell, though it didn't bother him. "Apologies."

He waved his hand and a powerful gust tore through the room, completely clearing the entire chamber of the smell. Papers flew and the flames were all extinguished as Joe smiled. "I love the smell of a good fire in the morning."

He ran a quick eye over the group. Rena, the little one, seemed fatigued after using only a little magic. She was best suited for defending the inept summoner. The cat-woman had wisely stayed back, though Joe had a feeling she would be excellent for stealth and quick strikes. As for the other mage...

Joe groaned. "Did I do that? I'm sorry, let me handle it." He grabbed Talmaya's hands and healing energy flowed between them. Within a few seconds, the burns were gone. Joe smiled at her. "Is that better?"

((That's fine, Neptune. Life takes presidence. ))

(( Also, let's all be careful about assuming any successful contact with another player character - even friendly contact. Different roleplays have different views on this, but I prefer every attempt to touch another character be left open ended for now.))

A loud groaning noise and the feeling of the stony ground shifting beneath everyone's feet became apparent. Out in the hallway the stony ground had cracked from the polarization of extreme temperatures. The mortar dissolved, different sediments in the stone interfacing expanded at different rates, resulting in a very warped hallway. The organic material left in the metal shells of the armour exploded out of their thick casing, causing a greater mess than before due to the sudden freezing.

At least the smell had been aired out.

Talmaya stepped back when Joe approached her, and was in a bug-eyed stupir whan he was so presumptuous as to take her hands. Regardless of the healing effect his hands had, she whipped her hands again and hissed at him, her eyes narrowing with a fierce scowl. "Touch me not, you madman! Do not presume you can take such bold, thoughtless actions, and then think you can placate everyone with apologies and spells." Talmaya quickly tried to put at least five feet between her and Joe, furiously scrubbing at her hands as if she perceived his very touch to be filth. She seems completely unaware of her blatant display of ingratitude.

Merasha tilted her head at the interaction between Talmaya and Joe with a hint of curiousity, but had nothing to say. Then she turned to look at Rena again, offering up another wide smile across her fat gray cheeks, and gave a nod. She then also nodded to Krisa. "Ah yes, let us be gone from this place. You... uh... Krisafina..." she said uncertaintly, hoping she got the name correct, "go on out first. You look nimble and intuitive, so you scout on ahead for trouble. Then you, Joe, will second as the muscle. You, uh... Talmia... stay by me, and Rena take the rear." While it might have been better to have someone stronger in the rear, Rena was the only one she felt she could trust putting her back to. "Right then... once you are all in position, head left down the hall until you reach the stairwell."

((Oop, my bad. Won't happen again.))

Joe stepped back as his face contorted in confusion and the beginnings of anger. "What is your problem, girl? I apologized already; I didn't realize I hurt you. If you want to stay injured, then fine - and don't expect me to have your back out there if you're going to act like...like...argh!" The air around Joe became hotter and hotter as he spoke, and he wound up stalking off with smoke pouring off of his armor.

He stepped into position behind Krisa and prepared to move out into the hall.

Talmaya had nothing further to say to Joe, her eyes glaring intently at him even as he began to smoke. She slowed the scrubbing of her hands and then inspected them, then shook her sleeves so that they covered her hands again. She pulled her hood more closely over her face as if trying to hide herself from everyone in the room, muttering things under her breath. In hearing Merasha's instructions, she walked stiffly over to Merasha, assuming her positing in the walking order.

Merasha took her place behind the muscle of the group. So far, the least useful member appeared to be the hooded woman, but Merasha still waited to be proven wrong. Once they were on the move, Merasha walked very carefully over the warped and uneven hallway, jumping a little when she heard crumbling up front. "This... this can't be very safe..." Merasha said. Of course, she didn't know that there was any other way to go, save for out the window in the room she'd been locked in. However, that would result ina freefall down to the rocks and water. Gulping, she was very slow and cautious in her movements. A tail that had not been noticeabvle nudged out from beneatht he back of her robes. At the end was a blugeon-like bony protrusion, and she used it to keep her balance. "Hopefully the stairwell is at least stable."

The floors creaked under everyone's feet, but seemed to hold out for the most part. At the end of the hall, the door to the stairs seemed to be in tact, and the worst of the damage seemed lessen in gradients.

Joe walked without caring where he stepped: he could use his talents at controlling stone to rebuild the ground, or simply float across with his wind ability, but he didn't need to anyway.

At the stairs he said, "We should wait here and let Krisa scout ahead."

Slamming hard against the hallway wall across from the room, Daras falls to the floor, landing on his head. Anyone listening carefully would hear a small groan of pain and a deep voice say, "Ow, that hurt." Standing up, the small, dark brown creature makes the floor around it groan with strain. "Where in the world am I?" Hearing the floor creak beneath him, he says, "Whomever built these floors obviously was not expecting someone with decent weight."

Looking about and seeing no one around, the thing bends over and looks at the warped and ruined floor, "What a waste of a perfectly good stone floor. I wonder, what could cause such extreme temperature changes like this?" From behind the creature a very long, muscular tail lifts off the floor ands waves slowly back and forth in midair. "Well, whatever kinds of things did this are probably still around. I don't want to meet them particularly." Walking on all fours, Daras starts walking leaving behind the doorway he was so rudely flung through.

Merasha had reached out to the wall to steady herself, sucking in air frantically only to heave it out in irregular bursts. Obviously winded, she didn't have her breath enough to talk, so she just nodded in confirmation to Rena, for her to go investigate.