Tunnel of Sand - RPLOG
Participants
Date
7/11/479
Log
It is dark, here in the deep quarry. Well, dim, at least. The glow of crystals and strange mushrooms keeps the place in a kind of multi-hued twilight. "No one is coming, Marcus," a small figure says to another, "I don't know why you never want to just do these things yourself."
"David!" comes another voice, "You always say that! And there are always Freeswords willing to risk life and limb on an adventure like this! You are such a stick in the mud!"
Elizabeth heard the last bits of the conservation as she closed in on the meeting point, fully geared, but without her canine companion. The shark coughs audibly as to announce her presence, before raising a hand in greeting. "I like my life and limbs, but I am willing to give a hand. Er, not literally. But yes. Here I am and I am sure others will come to. What exactly is the issue you are having? The posting was rather vague."
Ssen shows up not long after the Shark arrives, the flutter of wings and the soft breeze of rudimentary air magic heralding the moth's presence to the group as her mostly black appearance wasn't terribly visible in the darkness and she'd neglected to bring a torch. It seems very much like this was a large oversight as in the dim light her sign language wasn't the most effective form of communicating her status as a friend, not a foe. The small being has her arms raised above her head in a easy to understand signal of good intentions
Zuri strolls up to the two beings, a small salamander clad in traveling leathers and sporting rather obvious armament: Two ornate swords at the belt, and a bow slung 'round the back. "Yea, have no fear, we are here!" He says chirpily, before looking at each of the other beings here, nodding at Elizabeth and Peter in particular. "Hi again!"
Peter stomps around the darkness of the deep quarry, the smack of boot against stone and clang of armor marking the approach of the young warrior. "This place makes me think of mushrooms," he notes, arriving shortly after the others to the meeting point. "Hey! I remember you!" he says, reaching out to pat the small salamander. Noting the lack of light, he draws his sword, the blade lighting up with fire mathemagic while it moves. Though, it stops when it goes out, so he begins to vigorously shake his sword in the air, illuminating the meeting.
"Ah HA!" says one of the two figures, stepping into the light of a little fire and revealing him to be one of two sparrows, "See? I told you, David. Plenty of brave souls out there! Welcome! Welcome to you all!" Both sparrows draw back as Peter draws his sword, though they both relax when it becomes apparent what he is doing.
"No need for that," the second sparrow, probably David, says, "If you need some more light. . ." he hurries off and soon returns with a little jar covered in thin, white paper that illuminates the area a little better.
The first Sparrow, Marcus, most likely, seems overjoyed to have so many people answer his call. "I am sorry for being so vague in our posting," he says, "But it is a bad idea to advertise lost treasures too openly!" He takes the lamp from his friend and leads the group a short distance to a dark, apparently abandoned mineshaft. "Behold!" he says dramatically, "The lost mine of Darr Ironsoul!" He looks at the group expectantly.
Elizabeth smiles at Zuri and Peter. "Oh yeah, we met the other day, did not know you are adventurous folks!" After the sparrows spoke, the shark squints into the darkness of the mine they announced, then shifts her eyes. "Okaaaaaaay. What about it? A treasure is in there? Whats keeping you from going there and grabbing it?"
Ssen looks around at the assembled group only briefly until the sword is produced, her eyes trail it's journey back and forth listlessly for a good 20 seconds before she draws up enough willpower to draw her eyes away. By this time the sparrows have launched into their little routine and her eyes follow the gesturing to the supposedly amazing mine. She blinks at it vacantly, head slowly tilting with a clear misunderstanding of how amazingly tremendously great this hole in the ground was. She perks up to the shark and signs a simple -I would like to second that question- out to the middle of the group.
Zuri giggles as Peter pats his head. "Yea! We fought the weird flesh monster with the knack for bones. It was fun! Kinda.." He smiles at Elizabeth and nods at her, before turning his attention to Marcus. He listens through the explanation. ".. who?" He ask as Darr Ironsoul is mentioned. He glances at his companions, trying to check if they react any differently than he does.
"Like from the orphanage?" Peter asks, raising an eyebrow. "They been around long enough to make /and/ lose a mine /this/ deep? Huh!" he says, with an accepting shrug. He eventually tires of shaking his sword and lowers it to his side, taking his shield on his other arm and practicing his fighting postures. "I want some treasure." He seems to have lost sight of the 'Darr' issue, looking to Zuri in shrugging.
The two sparrows stand there in silence for a second, then the second, David, snorts. "I told you Marcus, no one has ever heard of this guy!" he says, "Let's just call this a bust and pay the nice beings for coming out here."
Marcus whirls on his companion. "No way!" he says, "Not after I went through the trouble of reading through that old journal and finding this place." He turns back to the freeswords. "Some kind of great uncle or something to lady Kilsa Ironsoul," he explains, "He's. . . uh. . . legendary? In certain circles, I mean." The sparrow points dramatically at the cave again. "Darr Ironsoul supposedly found a great treasure here," he explains, "But he went mad and holed up with all of his treasure down in the deepest parts of the mine he dug. The old badger set up all sorts of traps and things to protect himself from all those as might try to steal his treasure." He points at himself and his companion. "Now, me and David, here, aren't exactly the adventuring types. More like, treasure discoverers than treasure hunters. But that is where all of you come in!"
rubs her chin for a moment. "Traps, eh?" She eyes the party of beings that assembled. "I am sure we can handle it." She puts on a confident smile. "Anything else you expect down there? Animals and such? And is it just one path, or are there forks, if yes, do you have directions from that journal of yours?"
Ssen takes a couple of steps back to check her gear, slightly worried that her boomerangs may be rather less useful in cramped environs. Still, once all her straps are done up and her buckles fastened, securing her brown leather to her safely she steps back up and signs once more, hoping she's understood. -are any of us particularly good at seeing in the dark?-
Zuri giggles. "Traps? Treasure? Adventure? You should have just said that! We're real treasure hunters! Boney-fidey!" He wiggles his snout. "Ah, I'm sure anything this place tries to throw at us we'll be able to handle, right?" He looks up at Ssen, wiggling his snout. "Well, I can make a little bit of light, with my spots, but it's not very much. A bit of fire math should fix that in a jiffy tho." He looks around expectantly, waiting for someone with such talent to step up.
Peter dismisses the thought of trickery with a swing of his flaming sword. "You can't see in the dark without some fire!" he declares, still shaking his blade. "I might be able to!" With a snap, he manages to create a little fire, just for show. Not greatly useful.
"No directions at all!" Marcus says, sounding quite pleased, "Darr was incredibly paranoid at the end. Had to piece this location together from some of his earlier journals. But that is what makes this so exciting, right?" He grins happily and steps aside to let the foolhardy- er, brave adventurers pass.
David, rather more down to earth than his partner shakes his head and passes out a pair of glowing jars. "They are crystals from around here," he explains, "We shouldn't need them, we've got the fire going out here. Good luck."
Elizabeth takes one of the jars and secures it with one of the many, many straps of her coat, making it hang at hip hight. A light tug confirms that it won't fall off from walking. The shark draws a pair of unassuming knives from her belt, leaving the large weapons on her back there for now and takes the lead, motioning at the others to follow her.
Ssen reaches up to take one of the lantern jars, figuring she would have the most open hands from looking at the various weapons of the group. That done she nods politely at the Sparrows and trots off after Elizabeth, freeing one of her boomerangs from the straps on her arms. She attempts to overtake the larger being to get to the entrance, sure that her small size and ability to fly in a pinch would make her less susceptible to the supposed traps.
Zuri gives the two sparrows a mock salute before he slinks into the passage with the others. He draws his bow, but keeps it only held in hand in a relaxed stance as he takes in his surroundings. "Okiday, watch out for traps and things! Expect... holes and snares and pitfalls and tripwires and.. and.. stuff."
Peter keeps swishing his sword about his ankles as he walks, shield up to prevent errant traps from striking him as he walks. "This is why yuh wear helmets," he informs the other, the fwoosh of flames dangerously close by from his light source.
The scant light from outside quickly fades as the group descends. The mineshaft is on a steep incline downward and the sides and floor are rough. The tunnel is wide though, big enough for a heavy clanner to walk through without having to crouch, at least.
Elizabeth suddenly raises her hand. "Careful. There is a tripwire right there." She points at the position. "Make sure to step over it, Creators know what it would trigger." The shark does as she preaches and is the first to step over the wire, turning around once she has, to illuminate the area better with the lantern, while the others step over.
Ssen blinks down at the ground quietly, having not noticed the light glinting off the wire for the distracting nature of the light itself. She makes the decision to walk behind Elizabeth for her future wellbeing as she seemed to have sharper eyes and more of an idea of what to look for.
Ssen also steps over the trip wire, that's an important part of the adventure
Zuri notices the tripwire, but the shark calls it out before he can. The small salamander hops over the tripwire and steps forward to search about for more traps, staying to the flanks of the group in the murky shadows.
Peter hops over the tripwire rather dangerously after seeing Zuri do so, obviously not as cautious of the legitimate danger behind it as he should be. "Neat," he says, regarding it with his sword held closely by for light. And then, moving on.
The lamps don't do much to hold the darkness at bay, but they are much, much better than nothing. The rough tunnel gradually levels out and the floor becomes smoother. Not smooth, but smoother, and the ceiling is just a bit higher. Somehere up ahead in the darkness is the sound of rushing water.
Elizabeth takes the lead again, her eyes pinned to the floor before her as she takes small steps forwards. Its a bit slower than she usually likes, but when you are in the domain of a paranoid trap maker, being safe is much better than being sorry.
Ssen twitches as the watery sounds echo towards them, rather hoping the water was not an obstacle in their journey. She maintains a safe position just behind Elizabeth, looking upwards past her to keep an eye on the ceiling for wires or traps while the aquatic predator searches the floor
Zuri steps alongside the group, keeping his eyes low to the ground now that the first tripwire has been revealed. He pauses, his brow quirking and his snout wiggling as he analyzes something he just spotted. "Wait. Stop. Stop!" He crouches down to the ground, getting his eye down to ground level as he looks down the line in front of them. "Huh.. the ground is kind of.. unevenly smooth here. Like... " He considers this for a moment. "Oh, I think I get it. Guys, check out how parts of the floor are smoother than the rest, in sort of a.. snakey fashion. It's kind of like a path.." He looks up at Peter. "Do you see it too?"
Peter doesn't seem to be paying attention to much other than staring forward into the darkness of the tunnels, wondering when the path will become an adventure. It's far too stuffy to be a real adventure right now, right? He lets out a little sigh and looks down to his scaled companion. "Try slithering on it!" he suggests.
The shark being fortunately stopped just before the winding path begins. It seems that this particular patch of tunnel has been very carefully and very cleverly altered to hide some kind of mechanism or trap. No the trick just comes down to whether to walk ON the worn path, or to avoid it.
Elizabeth raises her eyebrows and rubs her chin. "Hrm." She shrugs, with her whole arms, making a helpless gesture. "Confession time. Riddles are not my strength. Even such seemingly simple ones. Anyone wanna go first?"
Ssen scampers over to the start of the smoothed out area, placing a tiny hand on top of it as gently as possible to see if it felt like it had any give at all. the tiny two and a half foot being very careful to evenly apply weight to it but stopping before she applies any more than she needs to tell if the path shifts to touch. All of this without consulting the others of course, as that'd mean dropping the lantern and her boomerang
Zuri sticks his tongue out at Peter for his comment. "Meanie!" He stands up again, considering this. "Well, if the path is well worn, maybe it's because it's been used way more than the rest of the floor tiles, right? Maybe it's the safe passage because it's been used so much. I think that makes sense!" He looks between his three companions. "Mmm.... well, only one way to find out!" And with that the small salamander skips forward, hopping over to the start of the winding path and following it closely, step by step.
Peter wrinkles his nose as his legitimate suggestion is met with jeering from the little mander. "But why would it be used if it were never been on before?" he says, gesturing to the dark gloom of the unopened treasure shaft as he haphazardly walks just behind Zuri - apparently he had not even planned to stop and consider, because that is one confident stride.
The worn path does not give under the prodding of Ssen, nor under the combined weight of Zuri and Peter. Some trap maker this guy turned out to be!
Elizabeth lets out a slightly surprised noise as the others seem to have figured this one out already. She makes sure to follow their steps, and the path exactly, to see where all this is leading to.
Ssen chitters with worry, following several steps behind the others as she's not entirely convinced that what they are doing is correct or, indeed safe, getting ready to jump out of the way of some horrid death trap
Zuri skips along merrily, trailing the path for the others until the point where he feels the trap has run it's course. "Okay, we're good to go!" He steps to the side, letting the others pass if they wish, before resuming his slinking from the shadows.
Peter walks in a straight path behind where Zuri trails, his sword and shield held at his sides as they continue to traipse along their cavern adventure. If there is treasure, he better get his share!
The thundering of water ahead gets louder and louder until finally the group comes face to face with its source. The tunnel comes to an end and the group finds themselves high up in the wall of a deep cavern, without more light, there is little to see but a narrow bridge leading out into darkness and a huge waterfall crashing down onto it. It is a wonder that this slender bridge could even hold up under the crashing water, and there is certainly no way for a being to pass. Maybe this is why the treasure is lost.
Elizabeth has taken the lead once more and is thus the first to see the waterfall and the bridge. The shark starts walking up and down the area as if looking for something, after pondering the situation for a moment. "I am nearly sure that there is a way to redirect the water. How else would he have gotten further down the way. Rivers carving their own way take much too long for this to just have happened in the past decades."
Ssen cocks her head and frowns behind her chitinous mask, determined not to get her wings wet. She takes a step to the edge of the ledge and attempts to toss one of her boomerangs around the waterfall, trying to gauge how far it was to the other side by how long it took for her weapon to hit the wall, if at all
Zuri steps up to where the bridge commences, looking down into the crashing water beneath. "Huh.." He looks up, to the sides, and down again, before returning his gaze to his companions. "I think sharky may be on to something, but changing the flow of the water doesn't explain how this bridge can stay in place with all that water coming down onto it." He tries shaking the bridge side-to-side, to see if it's hanging freely.
Peter wrinkles his nose at Elizabeth as she manages to get ahead of them again, folding his arms. This chick must be in on this! No way is she getting more than her share of the treasure. He watches the boomerang fly out with a snorted laugh. "Okay, so we know we ain't gotta use boomerangs!" he says. "I say she goes first since sharks are good at water."
The boomerang whirls off into the darkness, clacking off the far wall of the chasm and tumbling away with the roaring water. The bridge seems quite sturdy. Rather than wood and rope, it seems to be made of stone that juts out across the cavern. Not in any natural way, but rather in sharp spars that indicate some untrained earth magic happened here.
Elizabeth continues her search along the walls of the cavern. Letting her hands glide over the surface in search for buttons or hidden levers. "Yeah. No. Any of you good with earth magic? We could make our own bridge. Or the moth flies over with some of my rope and ties it to something, still a safer way to cross this than using that bridge there."
Ssen raises her hand in a worry, quickly signing to anyone who looked like they understood. -I'm not very confident in my ability to fly when there is no ground under me- She signs seriously, swift, definite motions from her hands before she drops to her knees trying to look at the wall they were against and the underside of the bridge
Zuri continues to analyze the bridge. His first instinct is that the bridge was somehow flexible, but no, it's solid rock. He blinks. "Oh... oh! That's pretty clever!" He sits onto his knees to look at the others, and smiles as Ssen does like him and checks the unseen spot beneath the magic-formed rocky passage. "Hey, I think I know how to get across! Um.. big guy, hold my tail here just in case this doesn't work, yea?" He giggles and looks under the bridge again, reaching out to grab something, and then he slowly eases himself under the bridge so that he's gripping the handholds underneath it.
Peter raises an eyebrow at Elizabeth as she fondles the wall. "Yeah. No," he repeats, with an extra lisp. "I'm highly inclined to say you may be trying to snag some treasure for yourself with how brisk you take your pace and how quick you are to send our little friends here off the cliff!" he says, adjusting his grip on his sword and shield. The munk gives his most intimidating glare to Elizabeth (which isn't much) before looking around himself. "Could uh.. tie the rope around, and shimmy under. Maybe. Don't think that would work for all four of us.. and I'm pretty heavy." His attention is then drawn to Zuri, assuming he is the so-called 'big buy', and he takes the mander's tail, holding on in case of disaster. "Neat trick! Kinda like my idea, 'cept.. way easier, with a tail like yours." He wiggles his own tail to demonstrate it's unsturdiness.
As Zuri and Ssen have both seen, cleverly hidden hand holds lead down under the bridge, where hidden rungs provide passage UNDER the bridge and safe from the cascading waterfall, though the hand holds are still wet and slippery, and it is almost certainly a long, long drop should one slip and fall.
Elizabeth nods at Ssen. "Nobody forcing you." As Peter confronts her she blinks. "Part of the treasure? We are hired to retrieve the treasure for those nice sparrows. Its not ours." Her attention is taken another way as Zuri makes his way across the bridge and she knees down to look at the underside as well. "Clever." Looking around for a moment, she ties some rope from her backpack around the bridge, and the other side around her waist, eyeballing the distance and being fairly confident that she has enough rope, before swinging herself under the bridge and forward with the handholds.
Ssen pulls herself up and waits for the traffic under the bridge to clear, rather unwilling to put too much weight on the hooks, if the others pass over half way safely she'd then follow but right now she's happy to stay at the back for a few minutes
Zuri looks up at Peter from the side of the bridge, smiling at him. "You can let go now, I'm fine I think. A rope is a good idea actually, if you do a few loops of rope around the bridge it will help you keep hold and balanced." He looks down the bridge, upside-down. "Okay.. here goes!" And he starts shimmying along the bridge, his long tail swaying behind him to help him keep his balance.
Peter rolls his eyes at Elizabeth's clearly feigned innocence. "Pfft, yeah! Like when you shove us all down this chasm, right? It'll be yours then!" he warns the others, wagging his finger. "Don't trust that a bit!" He holds Zuri's tail up until reaching the waterfall before making his way down to cross himself, whistling a work tune as his prehensile tails shimmies and wags to help him balance. Lucky there's nobody behind him or they would be tickled.
The brave trio manages to make it across the chasm. The rungs are slippery and there are a few close calls as Peter hauls himself and his heavy armor along, but they make it to the cavern beyond the waterfall. Now only Ssen remains behind.
The bridge terminates at an opening on the underside of the bridge, so crossing on top, foolhardy as it would be, would also bring a traveler to what might be only a blank wall. Here, however, is another cavern. It is not much bigger than the inside of an average home or an entertaining parlor fo Firmament's elite. And it is empty. There is nothing here but sandy floor and rough walls.
Elizabeth yells to Ssen. "Tie the rope from the bridge around your waist and I will hold onto it from this side, you look fairly light, you will be fine." The shark goes to her knees, for better hold on the ground, placing one hand on a nearby rock and the other on the rope that is still tied around her waist.
Ssen was rather hoping for some alternative solution on the other side of the crevasse but resigned herself to doing what she was told, securing the rope to herself and clambering down to the hooks, hoping that her short arms could reach from hook to hook without the need to swing any.
Zuri finishes the traverse and hoists himself up to the other side, rolling off on the floor and huffing in tiredness. "Whew! That was fun!" He hops up onto his feet and slinks off ahead a bit, peering around to see what lies beyond while he waits.
Peter grunts and lands on the floor below the bridge with a clunk, stumbling as he catches himself and looks around the new area - his sword and shield immediately in hand yet again. "Aw, dead end?" he asks, looking at the floor and walls. He kicks around at the sand idly, dragging his sword through it.. no doubt dulling the tip. Dammit, Peter.
It is a little touch and go, but Ssen manages to make her way across the slippery, wet rungs, which brings the whole party back together again.
Elizabeth smiles at the little moth and helps her untie the rope, then unties her end and rolls the rope up, before stuffing it back into her backpack. "Not that bad, right?" She turns around, now for the first time really seeing the new room. "Well then. I don't think I have enough gunpowder to blow the wall up. Ideas?"
Ssen smiles up at Elizabeth and offers a shaky thumbs up. The moth doubles over to check all of her bits and bobs and in doing so catches sight of a small, foreign stone in the otherwise natural opening. Since it seemed like the only course of action available she steps up and gives it a small prod with her foot
Zuri smiles back at Peter, walking back to the chipmunk to nod at him. "Looks like a dead end but.. looks can be deceiving. Let's fan out and look for clues!" He giggles, and skips off to investigate the back wall. He notices Ssen prodding at the wall. "Mm.. did you find something there?" He pauses, looking in the same direction where Ssen is right now, and heads over next to her. "Hey, you did find something! Awesome! That crack there.. that's way too even and straight to be natural... hidden door maybe?"
Peter stomps his big goofy feet over to Ssen's side, glancing suspiciously back at Elizabeth from time to time. He doesn't have much to add to the search, instead just standing guard.. in case of.. stuff.
The moth's prodding elicits a loud grinding of stone on stone. A chunk of wall slowly grinds open, revealing a new chamber. A slight, bluish glow is visible in the darkness.
Elizabeth is quick to take the lead again, her hands resting on some of the knives on her belt. They are way too many to be anything but disposable throwing weapons, and the big sword on her back seems to underline this. She looks left and right in the new chamber, before actually stepping in.
Blue crystals line the secret chamber, illuminating the place with a dim, azure glow. And there, before the party is. . .
Nothing.
There are no mountains of treasure. Only a wide, circular chamber with a high ceiling, roughly ten meters in diameter. At the far end of the chamber, there seems to be a large figure seated on a carved, stone chair or throne, but the room is otherwise only crystal lined walls and bare, sandy floor.
Peter takes his sword and shield tight in his hands as he hurtles through the passage in Elizabeth's way, taking a quick glance around with the glow of his sword as he stomps his way to the centre of the chamber, spinning on his heel to take in the whole thing.
"Ouch. Watch where you step!" The shark enters as well, crossing her arms and smirking. "Oh yeah, good that you went in first, would not want anyone to steal all this treasure from you, would you now?"
Ssen steals her large eyes away from the glowing crystals that attempt to steal her attention, only to have her vision fix straight ahead on the seated figure. She steps forwards towards it, trying to determine whether it was a living being, a dead one or a statue of some kind. She severely doubted it was something truly living but the possibility of a construct of somesort kept her grip on her newly drawn boomerang tight
Zuri looks around the ominous room with some disconcert. This brings him back memories of a different place, one where things did not end well for the little salamander. He works his jaw and slinks further away from the group, keeping his distance and sticking to the shadows as much as possible as he lets the others take the lead. His hands gravitate to his two blades almost by themselves, and he finds himself eyeing the figure on the throne as if it were ready to jump out at them.
The seated figure is large, intimidating, and almost certainly dead. What must have been an imposing badger in life is now a withered, mummified husk.
While the floor is bare and smooth, the walls seem to be inscribed with a complex series of shapes and lines, rather like a huge Kevinscope.
"Shaddup," Peter offers to Elizabeth, stopping his spin with the toe of his boot to face the husk of the badger, nose wrinkling in disgust and fur standing on end. "It's not right for us to he diggin' up graves!" he declares, looking to the others. "We oughta get out."
Ssen blinks up at the ex-being with her wide eyes, placing the glowing jar she'd been holding at his feet and resheathing her boomerang. -We're not digging, this isn't a grave, it's a monument to a fool who died in a hole, but feel free to wander back out- She signs up testily looking down at the ground the entire time, sure there was so.e sort of trick here-
Zuri nods slowly at Peter's words, but his eyes travel down to the 'kevinscope' like drawing on the ground. "Try not to step on anything odd. There's more to this room than meets the eye."
Elizabeth raises her eyebrows. "You did not have a problem with digging up graves when you thought there was treasures to be had." She scratches the side if her head for a moment. "In fact, we should probably take him with us and give him a proper burial, if anything. Crazy or not, this is no place for a being's last rest."
As Ssen draws near the dry corpse to examine it, there is a dry, whispery sound, like sand blowing in the desert. Only there is no breeze down here.
The sandy floor of the chamber suddenly begins to stir, dust and dirts swirling strangely, with no apparent motivator and a rasping voice fills the domed chamber. "NO!" it hisses, "MINE!"
From the dust, a huge, snake-like head erupts by the throne, striking toward Ssen!
Peter shakes his head at Elizabeth, oblivious to Ssen's meaningless hand-waving. "That's the first agreeable thing you even said. And it's not like I knew he would be buried in here!" He strokes his chin and considers the room. "Not bad for it though. I'd be happy with a nice chair and a waterfall if I were dead," he notes. His hair suddenly stands on end and he is shocked stiff, raising sword and shield to defend the party. With a valiant screech, he charges and dives for Ssen to defend her from that terrible beast!
"Hey, the sparrows said he died down here." Liz does not get to say much more before the action erupts. By the time Peter has shielded Ssen from the hit, she has her greatsword drawn and sprints towards the corpse and the fellow adventurers. The shark raises her weapon high above her head and brings it down before even stopping her sprint, to use the momentum to help her sever the arm.
"Hey, the sparrows said he died down here." Liz does not get to say much more before the action erupts. By the time Peter has shielded Ssen from the hit, she has her greatsword drawn and sprints towards the corpse and the fellow adventurers. The shark raises her weapon high above her head and brings it down before even stopping her sprint, to use the momentum to help her cut the serpent in half.
Ssen isn't entirely the quickest when it comes to all the kerfuffle. By the time she's sure what she's doing Peter's being dove into by a snake monster thing she can't even make out and the Shark Lady's swatting it with a ruddy great sword. She decides it's probably best to dive out of the way and draw her boomerang but leave out on tossing things until she's sure she won't hit anyone
Zuri gasps as the sandy construct erupts from within the mummified being. The small salamander wasn't expecting that one, and he finds himself watching his companions for a few seconds before his brain catches up to the action. He takes a few quick strides towards the center of the room, his fingers tracing a few symbols of Divine Math over the hilt of his dagger as he visualizes what he is about to try. He suddenly stops, one foot planting down as he thrusts his dagger pommel-first in the snake's direction, attempting to magically amplify that weak displacement of air into a powerful shockwave aimed at the center of the sandy fiend.
The serpent smashes into Peter's shield, sending him tumbling in a storm of sand. The monstrosity rears up, opening a huge, fanged mouth to hiss its rage, ready to strike when Elizabeth slams down into it with enough force to slice through its tree trunk thick body! Sand washes in a small wave from the thing as it starts to return to the sand from whence it came, but that does not stop the still active head!
The front part of the serpent continues to move, speeding toward Peter, then exploding into a stinging cloud of sand as Zuri's air magic strikes home! That was close!
Peter spits and coughs up dirt as his armor clangs off the ground, looking up to see the head of the serpent burst into flying dust before it strikes him. He takes a moment to wipe the dust from his fur before gathering himself up to his feet and brushing himself off. "Whew."
Elizabeth lets her sword sink to the ground, taking it in just her left hand, now that is rests on the floor, rubbing at her eyes and blowing air from her nostrils. "Are you two okay? Never seen something like that before, I am more one for animals made of flesh and blood."
Ssen shields her eyes from the rush of air and sand, needing to fold her wings back to stop the gust overbalancing her. Oddly this has only renewed the moth's vigor to find out what's going on. She offers the group a thumbs up and signs simply -What is his?- to try and keep the group on track as she moves to root through the sand, searching for anything that may have helped the snake constitute itself
Zuri keeps his dagger held out in front of him, pommel-first, as if expecting to be jumped by something else right away. "Yea." He says, answering Elizabeth. "I've seen something like this before, though it was moving statues rather than just sand." He wiggles his snout, looking around. "The voice said 'Mine' when you got close to it." He adds, referring to Ssen. "Whatever treasure there it it might be under the mummified body.. or inside it?"
The respite is short lived, as another serpent, or possibly the same creature blasts upward from the center of the room, directly under Zuri! Fortunately, the little salamander, out of some sixth sense, perhaps, manages to dive aside at the last moment, avoiding the snake's wide open jaws!
"MINE!" hisses the creature, serpentine coils rising from the sand to encircle the room, though the end of the creature or construct or whatever it is, is not visible.
There is nothing in the sand for Ssen to see until she is shoved aside by the formation of scaled coils that rise up from seemingly nothing and lash out at her!
Meanwhile, the head rears back to strike again, fangs flashing toward Zuri!
Peter groans as another creature bursts up from under his mander companion, the excitement of slaying the beast wearing off as the process repeats. This time, he intends to rescue his little scaly friend with another brave dice right into the way - after all, what good hero escapes without scars? And a battering he receives, the munk clattering in a pile of metal across the floor, sand scraping the shine off of his mathemagical armor. "Piece of sh- sand.." he grunts, gathering his sword and shield and pushing up to his knees as he races to swing again.
Elizabeth jumps back, dragging her sword with her, before taking it in both hands once more and assuming her pose, with the sword above her head. Her eyes follow the coils of the snake, as the aquatic predator changes her tactic for her next strike. She jabs the curved tip of her weapon deep into the tubular body of the sand creature, aiming to completely pierce it and begins to slice the unnatural creation up by its length, rather than cutting it in half as she previously did.
Ssen tenses her legs, and flaps her wings, pushing herself back with contemptuous ease for the snake. As soon as she's settled on her feet she starts running towards the doorway the entered through, her little feet clacking on the ground as she tosses her boomerang at the mass of sand as a distraction more than an attack. As she nears her goal she tries to recall how far away the tumbling mass of water over the bridge was and if she could maybe use air magic to guide it into the chamber, since she new her wooden weapons weren't going to cut it.
Zuri gets blasted with a spray of exploding sand as the coil crashes all around him, the blast made all the more impressive by the friendly chipmunk interposing his shield in front of the creature. The small salamander emerges from the swirling cloud unscathed. He pats down his shoulder to fling away some collected sand as he takes measure of the room. He wiggles his snout, and still holding his dagger in a reverse grip begins drawing a series of mathematical symbols in the air. If this thing is being powered or animated by Divine Math, maybe a quick burst of un-math will settle its hash. He finishes his spell with a stomp of his foot, a shockwave-like distortion of Dark Math propagating outwards from it.
Swords meet almost no resistance, the sandy elemental crumbling back to dust beneath Elizabeth and Peter's powerful attacks, making way for Ssen to leap over collapsing coils to escape into the previous room through the hidden door.
Here, outside, the cavern is black as pitch, with only faint illumination from the still open door. Ssen has forgotten her light, still sitting by the seated corpse in the hidden room. Only the roar of the waterfall tells her where the cavern opening and the bottomless drop off is.
Zuri's wave of dark magic ripples through the coils of the sand snake. Between the warriors' attacks and the mander's magic, the sandy serpent crumbles completely, giving the group a momentary reprieve.
Peter swings up through the beast, sending sand flying, dulling the poor chipmunk's sword with his strike. He looks around to get his bearings, shouting out. "Where's the moth?! Whatta we do?" he asks, sprinting in circles, stomping on the floor in hopes of unearthing some hidden secrets.
Elizabeth frowns. "I bet y'all a crown that it will come back if we just stand around here." She looks at Peter for a moment. "I think she left through the entrance, the attacks might have been too much for her." The shark inspects the walls and the symbols on them. "I don't suppose either of you know earth magic?" She does not wait for an answer, before swinging her sword at the walls, trying to scratch out the symbols with her large weapon.
Ssen comes to a calm stop, wary of falling. She positions herself between the sound of water and the glow of the door. She removes her mask, tuning out the talk echoing out behind her and breathing in the damp air heavily. It was time to be useful! She raises both hands up and starts hoping as her fingers twitch out some last minute calculations, wind moved water, right? That last thought she tries to use her rudimentary air math to pull as strong a gust towards her as possible, hoping to carry some water with it.
Zuri surveys the area, unsure what to do. "Whatever it is, we have to stop it coming back." He notices what his companions are doing, and it's not entirely misguided to try to stop the spell like that. "If it is a kevinscope, then.." He wiggles his snout, looking at all the sand in the area. "Mmm..." He watches for now, trying to puzzle out the workings of the room from his very limited knowledge of kevinscopes.. and perhaps how to disrupt it with other than brute force. Dark magic seemed to work, a bit..
There is a hissing of sand rolling across sand. It is not much of a warning, but it is enough to alert Elizabeth that she is the sand snake's next target and gives her enough time to throw herself out of the way as it erupts once more from the ground. The monstrosity does not slow as it careens, past her, more and more sandy length passing her with a hiss, but charges directly for Peter, its mouth opened wide and fangs bared.
Ssen manages some success, as wind suddenly howls into the cavern, bringing something similar to a hard rain with it. Unfortunately, it does not seem to reach past this first cavern.
Zuri's study of the carvings does not reveal much immediately, only that it is complicated earth magic.
Peter blinks as another snake charges to him out of nowhere, his shield immediately braced to take the impact of the earthen beast. "Why are we all IDIOTS?!" he cries as the sand smashes into the flat metal of his shield, the sweetwater flag deflecting most of the impact before his sword sneaks beneath the block to stab up at the enemy.
Elizabeth blinks as she jumps backwards once more, this time to evade the snake. Seeing the coils run past her and towards Peter, she sinks the tip of her sword into the sandy ground, but not before putting it through the snake, making it slice itself with its own movements, or immobilizing it.
Ssen bristles as a spattering of rain splashes over her and dampens the ground, not exactly what she was hoping for. She hated water but was determined, despite it, to be useful, all she'd really done this far was kick a rock so this was a do or die moment. She starts breathing calm, eyes shut tight, she tries to well up more strength, attempting one strong gust, should this fail she'd resort to her other plan but she was determined to make this work, even if it meant wet wings
The serpent continues to pour forth from the sand, heedless of Elizabeth's blade, its serpentine form falling apart as fast as it comes, forming a little pile of sand at her feet. That does not stop the part of the snake already formed from smashing into Peter and his shield. The thing shrieks its rage as the chipmunk's sword sinks into its neck, sand gushing from the wound. "GET OUT!" it gasps, "MINE!"
Out in the antechamber, the wind howls even louder, sending torrents of water flooding into the cavern and creating puddles on the sandy floor.
Peter shivers in fear at the howling wind and rushing water, letting out a cry of despair as he twists his blade free and rears back his blade for another swing. "We're gonna die in here too!" he yells, bringing the blade down onto the snake and looking around for his companions. "So we oughta get out!"
Elizabeth pulls her weapon from the ground and, once more, takes several swings at the mathemagical symbols at the wall. "We gotta stop it, is what we gotta do. Lest someone comes down here who can not keep it at bay as easily as us."
Ssen whimpers audibly as water flushes over her and into the room, forcing her to sure up her stance. She daren't risk another gust lest she wash herself into some danger so she reaffixes her mask and steps back into the room, soaked but firm. She signs again, hoping deeply someone was keeping an eye out -Wet the sand-
Zuri is woken from his reverie by the sound of splashing water. He blinks and looks - away from the fight - at the corridor. He briefly wonders where that water is coming from, then... "Water! Of course!" He runs towards the corridor, spotting Ssen there trying to channel it into the room using air magic. "That's genius!" He plants both feet down and starts making with the magic himself, drawing upon control of both air and water to empower Ssen's attempt at channeling more of the liquid into the room.
The sand snake shrieks incoherently once more and disintegrates into dust again, granting a momentary reprieve.
With Zuri and Ssen working together, water starts to puddle into the room.
Elizabeth's attempts at breaking the sigils in the stone don't seem to be making much progress. Her sword leaves scratches and nicks, but the mathemagic is scored deeply into the walls. It will take a little more to do any damage to the formula.
Peter doesn't have much to do besides watch the water rise, the uncomfortably cold water soaking through his boots as it's blown across the floor, no doubt going to rust away the poor boy's inscribed mathemagics. Ah well. Heroes don't get by without scars, and his armor is his hero in the sense that he'd be long dead without it. "Why are we doing this?" he asks, taking a breather and stretching his bruised muscles.
Elizabeth grumbles at the wall not giving in to her attacks, but the shark has one more idea. Her hand wanders to her belt and grabs her pouch of gunpowder, normally she would reload her musket with it, but today she pours it all in front of the wall, where the puddles have not yet reached it, and makes a small trail of gunpowder that leads to the big pile. She sets it on fire, after making sure nobody is near and, giving the warning to "Stay away from the wall", using flint and steel.
Ssen dredges over to her abandoned boomerang, trying to shake the water from her wings to avoid any damage to the thin membranes. That done she walks over to the throne to check it for anything the others had missed, giving the body some evil eyes as she goes about trying to look about it without disturbing it too much. Totally ignorant of Elizabeth's attempt to disrupt the spell
Zuri grits his teeth, trying to maintain the flow of water. He looks at Ssen as she walks past, unsure of what her idea is with this. "I'll keep this up as long as I can!"
Water trickles into the sand, soaking in quickly. There is another shriek as the serpent erupts from the ground once more at the far side of the room and sways. "GET OUT!" it hisses, "MINE!" And it's whole body come crashing down toward Ssen!
The gunpowder that Elizabeth has laid out explodes with a crack and a plume of smoke. When the smoke clears, there is a blackened patch of stone and one, long crack that bisects a once uninterrupted circle. . .
Peter sloshes through the water toward Ssen, defense on his mind, though he's a bit too far to make it in time. "Look out little lady!" he cries to her, bracing his sword and shield as he rushes to fight some more.
Elizabeth does not have long to look pleased with her work, as the snake attacks again and she picks up her sword and throws herself at the sandy serpent as well, slicing at it once more. "Screw off already, blasted thing."
Ssen looks back at the snake with a look of annoyance, she clambers up onto the throne, standing atop it in front of the corpse, seeing if the snake would deign to attack her still, that is if the fluffy brute would stop masochistically diving infront of it every other second. If it didn't she would know the body held the secret.
Zuri maintains the spell for as long as he can, but eventually the small salamander collapses, stopping the flow of water into the chamber. "Pfuh... I'm out of ideas!" He reaches for his two blades and draws them again, walking back into the room.
Something goes wrong.
The attacking serpent suddenly becomes sluggish, its once sandstorm fast motions becoming a crawl as the floor soaks up the water from outside. The sand serpent stops its attack as it starts to become thicker, its snake features melting into formlessness surrounding a gaping, howling maw. Rather worse and perhaps more immediate, the sandy floor feels less. . . solid than it did, the beings' boots and shoes starting to sink.
Peter continues to stomp his way toward Ssen, looking down curiously as his heavy footfalls become little patters against the soft sand. He screams in terror, keeping himself moving towards the corpse to climb up on it's seat, looking horrified to be so close. He does nothing productive.
Elizabeth groans and pulls her boot out of the muddy floor. "Perhaps we should step outside, to see if the floor gives in completely or something like that." She does just that, dragging herself through the mud and back out of the entrance, into the waterfall cave, where she spots Zuri. "I think thats enough, for now."
Ssen blinks down, raising her hands in triumph as the eater has it's desired effect. She didn't care about the sinking effect, she could fly. Not only that but her clambering and clever plans have led her to discover a secret! She drops to her knees in the dead Badger's lap and reaches for it's hand, trying to wrench something from it's long dead fingers
Zuri acks as he feels his feet sink, suddenly not happy about this at all. He starts backpedalling. "Is it dead? Did we do it?"
The melting mouth roars and rears up, sprouting heavy arms with odd numbers of fingers on each, reaching toward Ssen who is in a rather unpleasant, crunchy position in the lap of a long dead badger. Then she wrenches away an egg sized, green gemstone, along with a few finger bones.
The monstrous quicksand blob does not slow, however, crashing down toward Ssen and Peter on their perch!
Peter steels himself for a fight with the beastly blob, putting himself in harms way yet again! It's an unexpectedly slow block, the munk groaning as he holds is large circular shield over Ssen. "Whatta we do?!"
Elizabeth shakes her head. "Not sure. Same as before, I guess? We could try to lure it out." The shark waves her sword in the air and yells at the blob. "Hey, sandface, I am over here. Come and fight me!"
Ssen thinks as fast as she can, colating facts as she starts to push herself off the body, barely looking at the gem she now held in her hands. Fact 1. Sand monster is slow. Fact 2. Ssen has the shiny thing. Fact 3. Ssen is fast. She hopes for Peter's sake that the sand monster takes the bait and tries to catch her. Using wind magic, her natural wings, and speed to try and rush around the drier edges of the room. Her boomerang held ready to toss at a moments notice should any sandy limbs draw close
Zuri continues backpedalling out of the room, his feet sticking to the quicksand in the room. "Maybe water wasn't the -best- idea! But it's slowed it down a bit! I think.." He tries that trick again, his hands tracing mathemagical symbols in the air as he tries sending out a wave of dark magic across the room to slow the damned thing down.
The misshapen quicksand behemoth hammers once, twice, three times at Peter's shield, but the second that Ssen tries to escape, it hones directly in on her, a gloppy irregular fist crashing toward the moth. It pays no attention to Elizabeth's taunts, completely uninterested in anything but Ssen and her prize. "MINE!" it gurgles angrily before Zuri's wave of un-magic hits it and it starts to melt in on itself, sinking down into the slow, sucking pit it has become.
Peter grunts and whimpers as he's left behind by the little moth, though he jabs his sword upward into the mud after seeing it try and take grandeur away from his sacrifice by attacking Ssen! He looks out across the pit of sand, shaking as he tries to spot a more suitable escape route than right into the quicksand.
Elizabeth had already raised her sword into a defensive stance as Zuri takes care of the creature. "Shall we wait and see if it comes back again?" Her eyes fall upon the gem in Ssen's hand. "Was that all there was? Hardly seems enough to go crazy about, if you ask me."
Ssen draws up to the entrance, only briefly looking at the gem and offering a shrug to Elizabeth before it is secured in a pouch, making sure the action was obvious so it wasn't clear she pocketed it for herself. That done she looks over to the stationary mammalian masochist on the general's throne. Waving him over while it was still semi-safe
Zuri pants tiredly. This little 'mander is all magicked out. "We should leave double-quick, we have the thing!" He starts by backpedalling, but soon he's hurrying out of the room as quick as he can.
Another roar of outrage comes from the strange, glowing room and its new quicksand floor. "MINE!" comes the sound as the misshapen, mouth dominated form of the sand creature heaves once more from the pit, grasping after Ssen! It's huge, goopy hand wraps around her ankle and drags her backward!
Peter blinks as he sees the hand grabbing Ssen'a ankle, fear fading to be usurped by outrage! I saved her like twice, you can't ruin it now! With a surprisingly deep roar, he charges across the sand, his boots squishing it as he rushes over to attempt to plant his blade into the beast's wrist and drag through, steam rising as the sword's magic activates.
Elizabeth reaches towards her belt and pulls a pair of throwing knives from her belt, seeing how Peter seems to have the arm situation under control, the shark aims for the head with her projectiles. Given that cuts dissolved the creature before it turned into a blob, this just might work.
Ssen somewhat loses her cool, flapping her hands up and down as she reaches out to try and grasp anything stable within reach. Chittering and clicking frantically as she tries to ignore all the pointy metal things flailing around her
Zuri groans as the creature animates itself yet again, seemingly unwilling to just let them leave. He pulls from his last reserves and starts tracing mathemagical symbols in the air, focusing hard on a spell to coalesce the water and cold air remaining in the room into a freezing blizzard to drag this creature into a standstill.
The blob does not crumble and dissolve as the snake did under the onslaught of blades, and the frigid blast of Zuri's magic, but the attacks are enough to free Ssen from the thing's grasp, letting her stagger from the quicksand pit and into the anteroom, lit only by the single lantern hanging from Elizabeth's gear.
The moment the moth clears the threshold, the blob gives a pained, piteous moan and starts to fall to pieces. Not in the way it has before, as if something that was in it has simply vanished, but slowly, painfully, as if it finally feels the wounds that have been inflicted on it. "MIIIIIINE!" it groans as its massive mouth finally melts away and all that is left in the glow of the crystals is flat, undisturbed sand.
Peter pants heavily as he watches the blob fall away, shuffling his boots to escape from the terrible feeling of sand below his feet. "Yeeesh.." he groans, rolling his shoulders and wiping the sand off of his sword with his handkerchief as he looks over his companions. "Yer all okay?"
Elizabeth sheaths her sword back in place on her back, her eyebrows raised. "Well then." She brushes the sand off her coat and the sweat off her brow. "That was an awful lot of protection for a single gem."
Ssen pangs under her mask, wiping some of her fluffy orange hair back away from her eyes as she steps out towards the bridge silently. She spins around and starts signing more calmly -It must be magical- She then offers a shrug.
Zuri staggers, looking really woozy following that spell. "That.. maybe.. maybe the gem is.. really valuable?" He tries to take a step, but a bout of momentary dizziness has him plopping down onto the floor. "Whoo.. that was a lot of magic."
A short (and only slightly harrowing) trek brings the party back to the surface. Or the undersurface, as the case may be. The two sparrows are waiting anxiously and are overjoyed to see the four adventurers returning with a prize in hand. "Creators above and gods below," Davis breathes, staring at the gem that Ssen is carrying, "You got it! And intact too! I can't believe it." Marcus is all smiles and has the promised payment ready in separate bags for each freesword. "Very nice!" he says, "Thanks buckets for your help."
