Latest revision as of 09:15, 1 October 2012

Participants

Date

1/10/475

Log

A group has been called to meet outside the city, in the eastbank forest bordering the mountains for the purpose of scaling towards a nearby peak and entering a out of the way set of ruins rumored to be dedicated to the mighty kitsune. A tall hawk stands in the middle of the designated clearing, his heavy clan portrayed upon his necklace proudly. He appears to be rather impatient, awaiting arrivals with a tapping of his boot.

Sally arrives in proper order, tail twitching lightly, jingle jingle, "Kitsune stories you say," she asks as she approaches, "A fascinating topic," so speaks the fox.

Moroko arrives and for once has his book closed. He glances around the area curiously as he wanders forward and then smiles as he looksaround the area andthenbegins picking his way towards the hawk as he looks to see who else is about.

Mazurek is one of those who has arrived, his body gleaming with a recent visit to the beach for a swim. He's still in his swimming trunks, too, which is something of an oddity for him. He's in his shorter, non-dragon form at this time, not really expecting the need to use his larger frame anytime soon.

Zero steps through the mist, looking up the mountain. Looking down, he sees the man slightly. Allowing a small twitch to play on the corner of his mouth, he begins to moves towards the figure.

Walden shows up geared up for adventure. A brown cloak covers him, and he has a pack full of useful supplies. "Hello! Who's up for a good hike?" the armadillo asks cheerfully with a big smile. He is, that's for sure.

Kilsa smiles as she walked up to the hawk, she smiled and gave him a friendly nod. "I'm very interested in this topic myself." She speaks aftering hearing sally. She looked to Walden, "I'm always up for a hike." She joked looking at her own armor and chuckling. "Though not as ready as you it seem."

Ryusho would be walking up with Kilsa, his standard equipment, with a bag with his basic smithing and repair equipment within it, as well as some other nececcities for his work, "Indeed, ready for a hike, or repairs, or whatever I may be needed to do." he says with a soft chuckle and a bit of a smile, glancing to Lady Ironsoul, even though he had been visiting with her for a while this night, to talk with her about various things, being one reason he arrived with her rather then seperate.

The hawk looks over the arrivals and nods once. "It appears we have quite the turnout for this request, I trust none of you shall fall behind? I also trust each and every one of you is able bodied and ready for this, if you are not go home now. You see, there is no developed path on this side of the mountain that leads to the ruins, we're going to have to climb up for ourselves. I am Bolum, and I will be your guide." he says before nodding to Sally. "Yes it's quite the marvel up there." he says before casting a wing behind them. "If you please, follow me so we may begin this trek." the hawk says before strolling off with a whistle.

Zero burst into a full on grin as he sees Kilsa

Kilsa smiled at Walden, "I knew there was a reason I liked you." She nodded and began to heft her bulk up the chain. "What news Lady Solacious?" Kilsa asked while still climbing the chain with no difficulty. "I've been out of the grapvine while catching up on my forge work." She chuckled.

The avian begins to tap his boot again, shifting a few rocks idly as he waits, a rather bored look on his face.

Ryusho would similarly wait, as he would be able to use his wings to get up to the ledge as ewlleven though he wanted to wait and help others who might need it first, though he then chuckles, "Just work on your research Moroko, You will get it figured out with time.." he says after a moment or two, but like mazurek he would want to wait a bit..

Mazurek shakes his head, "I haven't been awake for very long, Sally. The only thing I know of any recent events was that the priests were supposedly going to use this Mass to explain something or another. I'm quite vague on what it was supposed to be."

Walden seems to be having no difficulty climbing, either. It seems it may partly be due to his strength; otherwise it seems he's reasonably experienced at this. "Pshaw, and here I thought it was because of my carapace," he says teasingly to Kilsa with a grin. He'll make it up before long having started climbing with such enthusiasm from the start.

Sally tilts her head at Maz a moment as she keeps up with the crowd, "Really? You must listen to the news a bit more closely. The message from the Creators has been revealed, and it's quite a doozy, thrown many people right on their ears with worry."

Bolum begins to add a warble to his whistles, helping people near the top up onto the relative safety of the flat ground, which is a big step up from a straight drop down.

Zero continues climbing the chain, slipping slightly every now and then.

Moroko smiles at Ryusho and nods, "I suppose it's too much to think it'll happen quickly. If it was easy someone else would have done it." He then starts heading up the chain as well following along to the group.

Kilsa chuckles, "While its certainly adorable and I wouldn't mind decorating it. I perfer your friendly demenor and wonderful mind." She smiled and begain to increase her climbing speed, trying to keep up with the speedy dillo. "Forging armor for your kind is always fun work." She joked thinking of pass orders. "Armor on armor."

Mazurek hikes an eyeridge slightly while never taking his gaze off of those who are climbing. As folks are beginning to make the top of the climb he settles into a crouch and spreads his wings to prepare to launch, "I'll be sure to listen much more closely and ask others in the know when we return from this trip. It seems others in this group would be perfect to speak about it, though, if my ears aren't deceiving me."

Walden is right there with Bolum once he's up, offering a helping hand as well to help people up. Should be even easier now. "I never have been able to figure out how I might wear something heavy," he says to Kilsa when she's up. "S'why I stick wtih the lighter chains and scales and such. It's more flexible to work around the carapace. I could probably use a few pointers!" He grins at the sight of the couple of dragon folks, shaking his head. "Heh. Wish I had wings like that."

Ryusho grunts as he shifts, though since he was not visiting with others he woudl leap into the air with his large wings flapping hard as he begins to shift and make his way up though soft -grunts- every couple of flaps, as to just go straight up is a bit of effort, but it would not take long for him to get up there and land a short distance away so he wouldn't cause air turbulance near those who were climbing up or ontop already...if he could.

As Zero climbs, his resolves weakens, causing him to slip slightly. Growling, he redoubles his effort to reach the top alive. Reaching the top, he latches his paws onto the edge, foot trying to find purchase to scramble up to the safefty of the ledge.

Bolum shakes his head as he works. "Wings aren't all they're cracked up to be, it's an alright alternative to being good with wind though I guess." He pulls Zero to safety and waits for the finals members of the party to finish the climb.

Kilsa smiles as she is being helped up to the top by Walden, "You should come see me at my orphange some time. I could forge you some armor that is as fine as silk and as tough as dragon scales." She smirked pointing to her retainer. "My retainer could also forge very wonderful armor for you." She looked at the hawk and chuckled, "I would haven't never though I would hear one blessed with flight speaking ill on having wings." She smiled, "I can't say I wouldn't want to try flying but I lack the magic aptitude or the wings to do such a feat...for now." She winked at Bolum.

Sally nods, "I will fill you in when we're back in the city," she assures, "But it's not something that can be safely ignored." She puts more attention to the act of climbing, scaling along the sheer face up onto the flat surface, then stretching as she moves to join the rest, "What is the main obstacle between us and the objective?"

Zero readily accepts Bolum's hand. Scrambling to a safe spot, he breath a sigh of thanks and relief. "Wow.... This... could be bad for the gro...group."

Moroko takes his time, hand over hand slowly working his way up. He listens to Bolum as he pulls himself up to the top and rolls onto his back panting for breath, "MMm so wings have troubles? Do you have a statement ont he drawbacks of wings? I'm certain any spell I design should be targetted at addressing such things."

Walden peers over the edge curiously to see who's still climbing, and then he nods back to Kilsa. "I've learned how to make some pretty basic things," he says. "But... but what I really want to study is alchemy! I'd love to see the wonderful sorts of things that could be made! And- and Lady Kilsa, I would love to spend time at the orphanage. If there's anything I can do for you and for the kids, you let me know! I'm a pretty handy guy, I think." He smiles, and he looks over as Zero makes it up. "Oh, y-yeah," he says to him. "Are you alright? You look shaken."

Mazurek launches into the air after Sally begins her climb. He is much slower in his ascent than Ryusho was due to still learning the subtle nuances of flight. His steering is barely over the hatchling level and he has to climb the chain after about halfway up. When he finally reaches the lip of the ledge he is panting hard enough to sound like bellows. He didn't have this much trouble in his last flight...but that would be understandable since there are no suitable updrafts here and it is straight up.

Bolum pulls the length of the chain upward before freeing it from a rather sturdy rock and coiling it up to stow away. "Distance or trouble, that's up to you further along. For now we should move. Of course the ruins aren't all that safe either." he says before whistling again, leading the way up some rocks. "They can fail you when you're tired, lets put it that way." he offers as he does so.

Zero nods to Walden, slowly recovering his breath. "Yeah... just... got spooked...." Sighing, He stands back up, ready to move further on.

Ryusho shifts slightly as he would be ready to walk, "Well, thats one reason why flying actually is composed a lot more of -gliding- and a lot less effort being used, The only time you should be -using- your wings is to gain initial altitude, or when there is no heat or updrafts to gain altitude with.....otherwise its just gliding.." he says from his own experience

Kilsa nods at Walden, "Sure. I would love to have you join me over a glass of ale." She chuckled at Bolum's reply, "I don't think I would enjoy falling to my death after getting worn out flying." She envisions a badger shaped crater in the middle of the firmament and shivers. "I think this badger will stay on Promise with her claws dug into the dirt." She thought for a moment before speaking up again. "What we expect from the ruins themselves?"

Sally hmms, "You remind me of some rather uncouth gossip I heard at the air magic demonstration. Something about fearing for ones life if a certain badger were to take up the art of flight mathematics," she says in a soft sing song, ribbing the fellow noble.

Mazurek speaks while he follows on all fours, apparently able to do so quite easily with his leg structure, "Yeah... I..still need...to learn how to do it. One day, Ryusho...just might take me for...a long flight so I can really get used to it." Despite his exhaustion he does not slack at all, letting the steady flow of the trek give him his breath back.

Walden slips over to pat Zero on the back with a nod. "You'll be alright. Besides, if anything happens, it seems we have the dragon folks ready to lend a hand or a wing. And if you get hurt, I've always got my trauma kit handy." He smiles proudly; this is what he is best at, it seems. He chuckles happily at what Kilsa says to him and responds, "Ale? Oh, that's just the right sort of thing. Now that we have plans for ale, you definitely can't fall!"

Ryusho would nod slightly, "Might...if You can get so you can handle a flight up like that just a bit better...Get so your not completely exausted from that, and we might be good." he says softly, as he shifts slightly, though ahh yes...we need to keep going..so he woul dbegin walking along though he might make sure Kilsa was good to go as well, and anyone else just making sure everyone was doing well as they started on their way again

"That doesn't really help you at the bottom of a pit." he addresses to the flying advice before laughing. "You know what the Kitsune are all about? Tricks and pranks, and these ruins are loaded with them. Most of them are harmless but you might find yourself in a terrible situation once or twice if you all aren't careful."He leads the group higher and higher, looking back occasionally to see that no one has fallen behind. Now that the climb has started he couldn't just leave someone stranded here.

Ryusho can't help but hope there are no pranks that involve the destruction of clothes....because that would be horribly emberising for anyone...

Zero nods his head in reply to Walden. Looking over to Kilsa, his ears perk up "Ale?" he ask. Looking back to Walden, Zero smirks a little bit, saying "Well, if I need to climb any more clif faces, I think I'll be more prepared.

Kilsa chuckles at Sally, "The day this badger flies will be the same day that the whole firament starts putting up spells to keep my from falling on them. I would rather not land on some poor folk and end their life and mine pre-maturely. I would rather not have that on my mind or imprinted in the floor." She looked over to her retainer, "I'll leave the flying to you Ryusho." She winked.

Mazurek rises to his feet when his breath has returned to normal, which takes less than five minutes during the walk. He listens to the conversations as best as he can, but with everyone talking almost simultaneously he can't really keep track of much. He falls back to the rear of the group, taking on the task of assisting anyone who happens to become a straggler.

Moroko considers the haw's complaint and hmms, "Stamina is a weakness of wings. Interesting." He smiles as he follows the group, "MMmm riddles are always entertaining." He says and begins padding along at the tail end of the group again.

Sally looks Mazurek over at that point, "You're built wrong for flying far. We all are. The creators built us for working on solid ground. Even those who call the sea home return to the shore to do their work in the end. I am told the Creators were masters of the elements, however, and could fly for days with their sorceries, so unimpeded that they could do other work while they were up there." A shake of her head, "I wonder at times how much of it is fable."

Walden climbs over various rocks to keep up; he's doing a pretty decent job. "Well, Zero, I'm starting to think the other guys have the right idea. Just turn into a dragon, solves everything," he jokes. "Hah. Not that I can do that. And I actually don't think I'd really like flying all that much. I'm with Kilsa here. I like the ground! ...Though look at all the rocks up here. I might have to get some good samples on the return trip!"

Ryusho looks to Sally, "Actually, What your thinking is constant flight" he says simply, "Your thinking using your energy constantly, flapping wings without end, that -is- one form of flight, but true distance flight is based around using as little energy as possible."

Zero chuckles lightly. "Like you friend Walden, I perfer to keep my feet on the ground." Noticing his cheery attitude, Zero remarkes, saying "You seem to truly enjoy being on the ground, don't you?"

As they ascend the mountain Bolum turns back, stopping the progression. "So time to decide." he says as he claps his hands. "To the left, we have a scaleable cliff, it will take a while but it's safe unless you lose your footing. To the right..." he says as he points a wing back to a cave "We have a cave that serves as home to two varietys of beast, which can be a little troublesome. There are some ankle biters and some big beasts who should be asleep but we might wake them. It comes out up there." he says as he points to an opening a great distance up the mountain. "What do you decide?"

Kilsa shakes her head at the thought of flying one last time. "Walden, IF you find any ore, I would be happy to forge it for you." She looked at Bolum, "My common sense tells me to go left but my badger sense says 'OOH a cave!' I'm going with my badgers sense so I'm fine with going to the right. Also might find a spot to get some ore for later." She smiled to her self and confident that her allies can handle ANY beast.

Mazurek chuckles, shaking his head, "Who are we to choose between the easy path and the hard path? I am sure that the Creators would have wanted us to go any way we desired. I personally vote for the path that is supposedly yielding the most danger." He winks to Zero, "And to avoid the possibility of one of our own from falling to his death." He cracks his knuckles, "Besides, delving into caves has turned out to be quite fun in the past."

Sally shakes her head, "I'm not afraid of any beast. If I'm done in by Promise's creatures, however fierce they may be, what use am I against the Shadow? We have some unsure feet, the cave seems the better option of the two."

Walden laughs a little, hearing a couple responses to the question already. "They're both dangerous. The trouble is trying to determine which his the least dangerous for the most number of people. I can certainly deal with a good climb, but not everyone likes that, I'm sure. If you guys like the cave, I have no complaints. I've got the medical supplies if we've got any nasty biters. So, call me neutral."

Zero "Hmmms" as he looks to the cliff face then to the cave entrance. Holding up his hand for a moment in a gesture to hold on, he unsheaths a crimson red blade, walking over to the cliff face. Without a word, he moves to plunge the blade into the side, seeing if it'll pierce the earth.

Ryusho shrugs slightly, "I will head whatever way seems best, so If Lady Ironsoul wishes to head through the cave, well then, why don't we head through the cave?"

Moroko considers the question for a time. He shrugs, "I'm tired of cliffs. I too suggest the caves." He checks his gear and considers, "I suppose I should ready my spells."

Kilsa chuckles at her retainers answer, "Today you may have prevented the death of your Lady from being a crater in the ground." She gives him a hearty pat on the back. "For that I am greatful." She watches Zero's stabbing the earth, "Going to climb yourself?" She asked hoping that he wouldn't try to go at things alone, Wolves can't fly either last time she checked.

The cliffside does not yeild to Zero's blade, rather it emits a sharp clang and does it's best to scuff the metal. Clearly there is something very hard and solid behind where he struck. "I suppose we're going inside then, I will ask you to not slaughter needlessly, they do live here and we are intruding upon their home." he says as he pulls out a rather small firearm, loading the one handed weapon swiftly before drawing a rather thin blade and giving a thrust forward with it. "Shall we proceed?" he asks as he moves inside.

Zero sighs as the blade does nothing, forcing him to sheath the blade. As he does, his ears perk up as if listining for something. Before moving, he ask, "Did anyone else hear that?"

Mazurek looks over and comments to the wolf, "All I heard was your blade striking rock. Did you happen to hear something other than that?" He will continue his post as rear guard should the group proceed

Walden grins at Kilsa and shakes his head. "Amazing," he says with a chuckle. He glances at Zero, thinking about this. "I did," he says. "I wonder if there's some sort of artificial framework built in beneath the rock. Or... could be a lot of quartz," he muses, contemplating the possibilities. "Ooh, now I can't wait to see what's inside." He snaps his fingers to conjure up a flame to light the way... or not. Nope, it goes out. He tries again, and grumbles in frustration. He's just no good at this, so he gets a torch from his pack and lights it instead. "Someday... someday."

Sally lifts her shoulders, "The best swung blade is the blade that is not swung at all with victory in hand." she speaks as if proverb, likely quoting from someone or something else.

Ryusho hums softly as he shifts, pulling out a torch of his own, and then with a puff of flame from his muzzle, he sets it alight, there we go, then he shifts, "Anyone else need help getting a torch lit?" ....show off...

Zero looks confused from a mulitude of things. "I...I don't know.... This may just be coincidence, but I heard a wolf howling as I was sheathing my blade. And what did you mean by that?" he anwsers, his look dashed with worry.

As the party proceeds into the darkness they can see holes scattered about the ground. At first they are easily avoidable, the hawk stepping to keep a large distance between his form and the area around them, but as the stone walls close in and narrow he steps more lightly, pointing his gun at the holes.

Moroko searches his pack and pops one of his other souls back into place. He checks his staff and then robe and inclines his head, "Let's." He says to to the hawk. He glances towards Kilsa, "Yet, m'lady! We're actively working on it!" He watches the holes as well murmuring under his breath.

Walden blinks at Zero, and he glances toward Moroko for a moment. "Um, I didn't hear anything like that, Zero," he says. "Sorry." He starts paying careful attention to the ground, shining his torch low to make sure he doesn't miss anything. "Eyes open, don't wanna fall, folks."

Kilsa thinks of what Zero said, "Howling..... hmmmm." She begins to think on a sword, "Ooooh Black as night hilt, add a pale silver blade. Divine math to make it howl like a wolf during unsheathing." She smiles wider, "Then a bit of wolf fur in the hilt to give it a warm and fuzzy feeling." She smiled and begin forging the sword in her thoughts while traveling. "I can't wait to start forging again." She mutters to herself.

Mazurek smirks, "A wolf howling, you say? It sounds like the Kitsune just might be starting their jokes on you already if our hawk guide is right about our proximity." Taking up the rear once the group finally gets going, the dragon eventually finds it difficult to maneuver as easily as he would like. He doesn't even notice the way their guide is concerned about the holes at all, instead trying his best simply to keep his footing and all.

Sally cants her head, "Ah, a thought occurs to me. Is anyone here of awakened kitsune nature?" she asks, glancing about, "Or are we all just curious on the matter?"

Zero raises an eyebrow to Kilsa's remark. "Oh? That sounds like a decent blade." Not trusting his Fang, he takes out his plain sword, battered and slightly worn from combat.

Kilsa looked at Sally, "I'm not beautiful or mischevious enough to even joke that I am of their nature." She sighed wistfully in thought of what it would be to have such a nature to claim as her own.

Walden snickers quietly and shakes his head at Kilsa. "Yeah, you aren't mischievous," he agrees. And before he can say anything else, he lowers his torch at the holes again and stops. "Whoa, whoa. Okay, there's something alive there."

Sally makes sudden soft gestures, military commands, directing where to proceed and going silent at the same time. Fortunately, presuming the others are all Sweetwater natives, militia duty is a requirement of all citizens, and the signal should be clear enough as she urges to stay in the center and to shut the ever loving heck up.

Zero doesn't understand what Sally's trying to convey. Not wanting to look like an idiot, Zero follows the group silently, warry of the holes around him.

Mazurek finally becomes aware of something at the same time others apparently do as well. His gaze snaps to the ground to the hole that he has only just started to cross over. He manages to catch the motions from Sally in his peripheral vision and he does what he can to guide the others toward her.

Ryusho unknowingly got -really close- to stepping into a small hole he had not seen, but he would move to get with the group as he follows and stays close like everyone was doing in the middle of the path..

Walden blinks at Sally, and then there's a spark of recognition. He knows what that means! He gets into formation with a nervous sort of grin.

Kilsa notices the gesture and nods to Sally, Her muzzles shut tighter than a vice as she moves with startling grace in her armor to keep each and every joint from making even the lightest of sounds. She follows Sally's directions to the letter and avoids the holes she indicated. Remembering her military experience as if she was just released from duty, She will NOT show carelessness in front of her quasi-mentor noble.

Bolum is carefully treding ahead of the group, the cave is no more than wide enough for two people where he is and it is becoming difficult to avoid proximity to every hole. As Ryusho attempts to leave the hole something lunges out and grabs hold of his leg, twisting to free a chunk of it. It's tan long form vibrates wildly as it works.

Ryusho grunts a bit in supprise and -pain as he shifts, promtly working to draw his sword with one hand as he tries to pry his leg away all the while, working to get himself where he could shift and try to swing at it, without probably cutting his own leg at the same time, though its not the easiest thing to do to swing at something that is tugging and thrashing your leg, therefore thrashing your -balance- while your trying to keep your balance so you can cut the damn thing...

Zero watches the scene unfold, attempting to move around to get a clear slice at the writhing thing.

Mazurek hears the sudden commotion ahead in the line, but can't really see much of anything due to the mass of bodies. Then again, he thinks he does catch a glimpse of something attacking the other dragon. He goes so far as to call out, "What's holding you up? Just set the blasted thing alight with your flame!" He takes a deep breath and lashes out with his own breath attack, this one a bright bolt of lightning that is aimed for the creature in question.

Walden hears a rather unsettling sound from Ryusho. He lets out a quiet gasp as he sees what's got him thanks to the torch light. Though with the lightning bolt, he seems afraid to get close!

Mazurek's attack is too distant to be effective upon the creature, but it does deter a second creature from lashing out at ryusho during his attempts to free himself.

Kilsa is shocked at the development of lighting cracking in the entire cave. She begins to switch her soulgems to aid Ryusho and prepare for the violence she is sure will be rapidly approaching the group. She feels the knowledge coming to her as if she was remembering an old friend telling her a story. Her eyes harden and her muscle tense as she prepares to save her retainer and friend from both Mazurek and whatever is attacking him now.

Ryusho had...forgotten to switch his soul gems apparently as he semi swung, and almost dropped the blade as he realises this, trying to sheath it again and kicks his leg, as he can't switch his soul gem quickly while he is struggling with the 'attack of the tenticle beasts' or..whatever this is...

Zero taps on the person infront of him, motioning to pass up front to move to the side by point forward then to the side a littlebit.

Sally makes the Go sign, and makes to advance forward sharply, ducking and bobbing around others on her way forward, still silent and dancing on light paws.

Kilsa Notices that Sally is already pass her and decides to aid her friends. She begins to chant slightly, allowing the words of the creator to infuse Ryusho with great speed and skill. Her spirited charged is low but is focused on Ryusho and though around them to better aid the group without using her bulk to block the smaller fighters from helping her Retainer.

Moroko turns at the kerfuffle. He blinks and raises a hand as people are shouting. He leans to the side and licks his lips hissing a slight chant under his breath and making a throwing motion trying to convince the wind to separate Ryusho from the thing attached to his leg. He does growl under his breath, "Someone get any remaining bits so I can study later." He says assuming that there's still tentacles to strike as he searches for more dangers.

Zero inhales before moving in a downward slice onto the tentacle, attempting to sever it before it can cause any more harm.

Mazurek is really unaware of his success, but as with all lightning strikes, the bright flash would have scared off most things. As folks are rushing forward as well as going to aid the other dragon he stumbles and is forced to reach out to the walls to keep from falling. He has no weapon other than what comes natural, so he goes to assist his friend and worm his tail in for a harsh strike to the creature...should it still be there by the time he arrives.

Creatures lash out left and right from the holes in attempts to grab hold of the group. Moroko successfully throws Ryusho forward towards the others, pushing a few creatures back against the stone with a mighty thwack. This seems to aggitate them, they become more ferocious, prompting a faster retreat if they want to get out of the cave alive. Zero's sword is stopped short halfway through the creature, something hard and flexible knocks the blade back, although the creature retreats into its whole only to be replaced by another. Bolum is now skipping down a one man passage, leaping over holes that nearly take up the entire floor.

Walden looks a little overwhelmed by the chaos. He hangs back with a dagger in his good hand, trying to stay wary of any other threatening tentacle things. "I- I think it's time to go!" he declares. "M-Mister Bolum, don't get too far ahead!"

Ryusho shutupandrun! he says simply as he scrambles forward, though he might actually need to -drop- his draconic form to get through the cave with how it's looking, but also that requires him to grab and..ahem -prevent clothing malfunction issues since he normally stays in his draconic form rather then swapping back and forth, so he didn't -feel- the need to try to make his clothes semi elastic, like the ones mazurek requested...

Sally has successfully darted on through, proving true to her heritage, she avoids the danger deftly and without great fuss, waiting with their guide for the group to gather past the initial trouble.

Zero obliges, attempting to sheath his sword in favor of drawing his dagger for close range while moving into a more giving area.

Moroko looks moderately pleased by the effect his air magic has. He considers, "I suppose for small amounts of flight simply air magic really is successful. I don't suppose anyone here is familiar with Earth Magic enough to close the area up behind us? I try to avoid throwing fireballs in confined areas." He asks as he starts moving with the group keeping his air magic at the ready in case he can't quite make some of those jumps.

Walden sheathes his dagger and follows along quickly once he's sure the rest of the group is able to make it. He looks pretty relieved. "Not nearly familiar enough to do something like that," he says regarding earth magic. "I've only gotten it as good as acting as personal shielding!"

Kilsa grumbles and starts running herself the moment she notices that Ryusho is free. Her ninja soul allowing her to skips twists and jump over the holes and creature with almost unnatural grace. She is still as slient as death as she get closer to the exit she turns and tosses an improvised smoke bomb made of mostly ash and a few irritants deeper in the cave hoping to confuse the creatures. She gasps as she lands a little tired from trying to move like that. "Oh Creators that was close."

Mazurek has been taking up the rear since the beginning, and with how narrow the passage already is, that's probably going to stay that way. He tucks his wings tightly against his back as he moves as fast as he can to stay with the group. The mention of fire from Moroko has him actually considering sending a brief puff of flame down into a hole he is passing over. It just won't do to have a continuous flame going when so many outlets are around..... He decides against it in the end, though. He was the actual cause of the main agitation and he is inwardly surprised that they haven't targeted him instead.

Zero, seeing an opening, moves to safer grounds towards the part of the group thats further ahead.

Bolum curses wildly as roars come from deeper in the cave, Kilsa's work alerting them to possible dangers and prompting their awakening. Scratching and shambling forms can be heard knocking rocks around as they stir from their slumber. He reloads his gun and sighs. "Run through the smoke, hope you have more of those theres a lot of them." he says as he takes off.

Kilsa nods, "I have twenty nine more lining my armor. I would rather have been quiet but the element of surprise is gone. Now I'm going for confusion." She looked a little annoyed before droping more into the holes that she passed over. "Never a smooth day..." She grumbled following the hawk, "Still happy not to be on a cliff." She huffed.

Walden seems to be nimble enough to maneuver through the chaos at the very least, but he's no ninja. He'd probably play a good game of Lowball, though. "How many of these things are there?" he laments, though he braces himself as he's about to run through smoke. "I think I liked the cliff better, Kilsa!"

Ryusho grumbles as he slips through smaller spaces with a bit of effort but luckly not slowing as he grumbes, "Big dragons are not designed to fit into such small spaces!" ...If this was not such a dangerous situation Mazurek, Kilsa, maybe some otehrs might of thought that was funny, but he was not even -thinking- about that, though at least he shows he has momentum, and enough mobility to adjust and fit through places without loosing speed from his momentum with his size...

Zero laughs despite the current situation. "HaHa!! Boy!! What a Day!!!!" Seeing a tentacle attempting to grab at him, Zero skids to a halt, brining down the knife blade onto the form, knowing it won't do any good in destroying it.

Mazurek huffs a bit, "I'm not the one that riled them. Why they chose to bite into the Tegu first is beyond me." He groans a little as the louder noises sound out, "Great. Now what will we have? Giant leeches? ... GiantER?" He's still going as fast as the others are allowing him to be. Heck, with the milling bodies, it probably wouldn't be surprising that he trips over a lip of one of the holes.

Sally repeats her gesture before for silence, and advances with sealed snout, having avoided making any noise since she first went quiet. It is with great effort that even her bangle ridden tail manages to give off only the fainst of 'tink' instead of its usual jingle jangle spree.

Moroko continues with the group looking vaguely concerned. He blinks at the roars, "Those aren't little critters." He says shaking his head ruefully. "Did anyone get a good look? i'll certainly have to get this in my journal." He says as he prepares. He moves towards the middle of the group. He is a mage after all. Protection, yes.

As the smoke clears large forms can be seen standing, slightly disoriented. They are coated in a large fluffy coat and they stamp what appear to be clawed hooves violently. A couple can be seen yawning wide, their gape almost the length of a persons arm and filled with dagger like teeth. They seem to aimlessly move about as they wipe away their grog, a couple eye the remaining smoke with annoyance. Bolum charges through them all, proceeding down the now widening cave to a moderate incline.

Ryusho was working as he reaches and fumbles, though he would with some effort swap his soul to his more combat biased soul as he moves, though he does charge along through as well, though if something got in his way, well..he would be rather.....he would be a bit hard to stop, though he doesn't -want- to get stopped, or stop anyway right now, he wants -out- of this cave..in this direction...

Walden winces. Quiet? Yes. He tries to return to Quiet Mode as per Sally's orders. He keeps up his fast pace, certainly not wanting to fall behind, and certainly wanting to make good use of a potentially good situation.

Mazurek does his best to ignore the creatures that the group has to pass by, especially when they end up showing how wide they can open their mouths. The hawk wouldn't have much to worry about when it comes to his wings getting in the way. With the dragons, though, it just might prove to be problematic since their wings are attached to their backs and not part of the arms. He is likely to barrel right into one.

Quietly groaning, Zero shifts his knife to his left hand, drawing his sword in his right. Not wanting to be stuck here any longer, he darts to moves towards where the group's heading.

Kilsa runs and notices the creatures herself and decide to throw caution to the wind and places a smoke bomb behind her as she passes the creatures incase they decide to follow her. A second smoke bomb is in her hand incase that doesn't work out the way she planned.

Sally focuses on the retreat, not sharing her motivations or plans, other than the signals she's already given. She stalks along through darkness and smoke, straight through with barely a glance given towards anything else.

As the group progresses through the herd of creatures Ryusho barrels face first into one. The impact mostly absorbed by it's thick coat of fluff it turns to him slowly, licking his form before roaring at him, forcing him back with a stamp of it's clawed hoof. As it does so more smoke sweeps the cave, making moving about through the crowd of beasts a terrible burden. Bolum reaches the moderate incline and scales it quickly, dissapearing from view into sunlight, which is obscured by the fleeting smoke.

Ryusho...does what he thinks is -stupid- but as he stumbles backwards, well, he just -ROARS_ right back at it, before..he starts to go on his way -again- he is going to get past these bastards even if he has to shove one out of the damn way...

It's too smoky for Walden. The armadillo does NOT like this. He hears roaring; as far as he can tell, it's just the beasts. He does his best to make it through to follow Sally and Bolum, though. It's all he can do.

Kilsa stops and looks back into the smoke not seeing Ryusho or anyone else catching up to her yet the badger decides on a little drastic action. "Creator bless my allies." She begins to bleeds heavily out of her nose, allowing her own body to be used a meduim to heal her allies, "Protect those that follow your will." She grunts as her ears begin to bleed and a ring. "Allow no one to die today." She grunts and fall to one knee completely vulnerable to attack as she focuses her ability on all of the allies around her strengthing them greatly. Her vision starts to blur as her eyes start to throb and bloody tears run down her face.

Mazurek would still be one of the last to get out of the cave, but when he hears the roar followed by another roar he becomes quite confused as to what is happening. He can't see a thing in here! The smoke is making things too obscure and all he can do is hope he isn't going to barrel into something. To try and help he goes so far as to send puffs of flame ahead of him to try and clear his field of view a bit. The only one close to his size is the other dragon anyway, so it should be safe to do.

Ryusho would of course be in quite the perdicament, considering he had run -into- something and it kicked him back, so he might not have his bearings anymore as he tries to re orient himself to work at getting out the same direction he had been going..if he can...taking a bit of a guess..

Mazurek is buffeted over and over again, the creatures see the flame and seem to think he is the source of the smoke. Wishing to put the flames out the stamp and push his form about, completely ignoring everyone else.

Mazurek finds himself knocked from one side to the other after his repeated bursts of flame to try and be able to see. It was more than likely a bad idea as he gets knocked around by the creatures. His balance isn't very good as it is and it just doesn't take long for one of the creatures to get it just right and knock him right to the floor, where the impact forces another gush of flame to erupt if he doesn't end up falling into one of the holes instead. Would it catch any of them ablaze in the process? Would he be able to see any better down there?

Walden halts in his rush for the exit. "Oh no. No no." He knows that chant, and he tries to maneuver his way over toward Kilsa. "Not okay. Don't you pass out on me," he scolds Kilsa as he grabs a vial out of his healing kit. He WILL make her drink this!

The entire party feels invigorated by Kilsa's chanting, while she in turn pays the price.

Zero continues to move forward with the group, completely missing the action.

Sally hath fled, off to better places, or possibly just a short distance ahead. We may never know(for at least twenty minutes).

Bolum awaits outside for the party, helping anyone near the top of the slope up. Mazurek is stomped even harder as he expels flames, searing a poor creatures fluffy coat in the process.

Kilsa looks at Walden with a smile, "Yes..." She says as a little bit of blood drips from her muzzles, "I didn't go all the way." She takes the vial and drinks the pain of the spell continuing to bother her as its effects cause her to bleed more but the pain feel a bit less crippling. "I need to help Ryusho and Mazurek." She climbs to her feet and hefts up her hammer walking back to the smoke with her hammer raise high waiting for it to clear a bit before trying to save her Tegu.

Walden lets out a gasp of displeasure as Kilsa goes the 'wrong' way. "Wait! But- Oh! Saving people!" He slips on his battle glove (with blades!) and rushes after Kilsa. "Okay, but you're not getting away from me in that condition!"

Ryusho is either going to run into the group trying to 'stomp out' the fire, that is maz who hopefully -stops- sputtering fire so they stop stumping on him, or he is going to go past them..and end up potentually plowing into kilsa because of comming -from- the smoke and therefore can't see as well as those trying to look in.

Zero mutters under his breath "Oh Creators, let it be over!!"

The Iguana-dragon gets stomped on again as he hits the ground. Those claws are doing a number on him each time they strike since he doesn't have any armor to speak of and his hide is soft leather. He is heartened that he manages to catch one of them aflame, but he has exchausted his energy for another flame breath and the stench of the critter is strong enough to make him gag thanks to the close proximity. He is finding it difficult to get his bearings with all the smoke and he rises to all fours slowly and risks shouting, "Which way?!"

Bolum shouts "Come on! You've got them all sturred up, get out of there!" as he treds down to help Zero exit the cave. The herd seems wound up but stops stomping at the lack of flames. They shift uneasily and roar almost in unison.

Ryusho grunts, "Whatever direction is not this way!" he says since h had not caught up quite to mazurek since he ketp almost catching small holes, that luckly the tentacles were not grabbing from at this time from all the smoke!" though he says this, "Just..Whatever direction I'm heading I suppose!" he says after a moment, indeed, either he is getting closer, passing or..whatever, though he only heard it from being in there -with- this racket

Kilsa Walked to where Ryusho was with her hammer up and growling, "RYUSHO! Where are you!" She yelled into the smoke, "mazurek! Are you still alive!" She called out waiting for an answer or attack.

Mazurek was about to start crawling, but the sudden cocophony of sound from the multitude of creatures roaring in unison makes his rather sensitive ears ring just as loudly. He swoons and ducks his head quickly, only to begin quivering in instinctual fear. One thing about iguanas is that their ear drums are protected only by a thin layer of skin and it's easy to get dazed from that. Still, he proceeds to stumble forward, hoping to not bump into anything that is not friendly. Being surrounded by the enemy is not a fun thing, especially ones who probably have a superior smell.

Zero takes of his cape to use it as a fan of sorts, slowly walking back into the smoke screen

( Mazurek and Ryusho break free, Kilsa greeted by the stumbling dragon. It would be wise to leave before they prove their hunger. )

Walden looks around side to side worriedly. "Kilsa, it's that roaring! That has to be them!" And... it seems he's right about that. He lets out a startleed gasp as he suddenly sees dragon. "Aaah! Good, let's go, NOW!" He points back the way they were heading before they went back. At least, he thinks he points that way.

Kilsa smiles happy wiping a little blood of her face, "Lets go." She looked at the three and began running to the exit though much slower than she normally would

with her injuries from her previous spell casting.

Ryusho blinks slightly as he shifts, and..after a second he would think, "...Kilsa..? Do you have those elixirs I gave you the other day? They really..would help you recover from that.....what happened?" he says though he shifts, to take ahold of her if she would let him to help her along b bracing against his side...

Zero doesn't see Walden & Kilsa running towards him till there right up on him knocking him over.

Mazurek's body is covered with bloody scratches thanks to the repeated stomps by the creatures. He was not going to have lasted much longer by the looks of things had they kept up the assault. When he encounters the others in the cave he is actually quivering but he manages to get to his feel with help. Everyone would definitely be able to see that he's dazed and suffering from temporary hearing loss, having the classic signs of such. He will be better after a brief rest period.

The group makes it to the exit, battered and bleeding but alive. Bolum helps them up and offers a couple of bandages to the group, guiding them a little further up the mountian to a wide paved clearing out front of the ruins. "THis is our destination, we should rest outside, and you should inspect the story told along the walls, it's a story all on its own." he says as he overlooks the group, and then begins to set up a suitable shelter. "This should be safe for us as long as we don't venture inside, they will be getting back to sleep soon." With awave of his wing he presents the walls and their carved inscriptions for the group to take in.

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 =Log=
-<div></div><br> <br>A group has been called to meet outside the city, in the eastbank forest bordering the mountains for the purpose of scaling towards a nearby peak and entering a out of the way set of ruins rumored to be dedicated to the mighty kitsune. A tall hawk stands in the middle of the designated clearing, his heavy clan portrayed upon his necklace proudly. He appears to be rather impatient, awaiting arrivals with a tapping of his boot.<br> <br>Sally arrives in proper order, tail twitching lightly, jingle jingle, "Kitsune stories you say," she asks as she approaches, "A fascinating topic," so speaks the fox.<br> <br>Moroko arrives and for once has his book closed. He glances around the area curiously as he wanders forward and then smiles as he looksaround the area andthenbegins picking his way towards the hawk as he looks to see who else is about.<br> <br>Mazurek is one of those who has arrived, his body gleaming with a recent visit to the beach for a swim.  He's still in his swimming trunks, too, which is something of an oddity for him.  He's in his shorter, non-dragon form at this time, not really expecting the need to use his larger frame anytime soon.<br> <br>Zero steps through the mist, looking up the mountain. Looking down, he sees the man slightly. Allowing a small twitch to play on the corner of his mouth, he begins to moves towards the figure.<br> <br>Walden shows up geared up for adventure. A brown cloak covers him, and he has a pack full of useful supplies. "Hello! Who's up for a good hike?" the armadillo asks cheerfully with a big smile. He is, that's for sure.<br> <br>Kilsa smiles as she walked up to the hawk, she smiled and gave him a friendly nod. "I'm very interested in this topic myself." She speaks aftering hearing sally. She looked to Walden, "I'm always up for a hike." She joked looking at her own armor and chuckling. "Though not as ready as you it seem." <br> <br>Ryusho would be walking up with Kilsa, his standard equipment, with a bag with his basic smithing and repair equipment within it, as well as some other nececcities for his work, "Indeed, ready for a hike, or repairs, or whatever I may be needed to do." he says with a soft chuckle and a bit of a smile, glancing to Lady Ironsoul, even though he had been visiting with her for a while this night, to talk with her about various things, being one reason he arrived with her rather then seperate.<br> <br>The hawk looks over the arrivals and nods once. "It appears we have quite the turnout for this request, I trust none of you shall fall behind? I also trust each and every one of you is able bodied and ready for this, if you are not go home now. You see, there is no developed path on this side of the mountain that leads to the ruins, we're going to have to climb up for ourselves. I am Bolum, and I will be your guide." he says before nodding to Sally. "Yes it's quite the marvel up there." he says before casting a wing behind them. "If you please, follow me so we may begin this trek." the hawk says before strolling off with a whistle.<br> <br>Zero burst into a full on grin as he sees Kilsa<br> <br>Kilsa smiled at Walden, "I knew there was a reason I liked you." She nodded and began to heft her bulk up the chain. "What news Lady Solacious?" Kilsa asked while still climbing the chain with no difficulty. "I've been out of the grapvine while catching up on my forge work." She chuckled.<br> <br>The avian begins to tap his boot again, shifting a few rocks idly as he waits, a rather bored look on his face.<br> <br>Ryusho would similarly wait, as he would be able to use his wings to get up to the ledge as ewlleven though he wanted to wait and help others who might need it first, though he then chuckles, "Just work on your research Moroko, You will get it figured out with time.." he says after a moment or two, but like mazurek he would want to wait a bit..<br> <br>Mazurek shakes his head, "I haven't been awake for very long, Sally.  The only thing I know of any recent events was that the priests were supposedly going to use this Mass to explain something or another.  I'm quite vague on what it was supposed to be."<br> <br>Walden seems to be having no difficulty climbing, either. It seems it may partly be due to his strength; otherwise it seems he's reasonably experienced at this. "Pshaw, and here I thought it was because of my carapace," he says teasingly to Kilsa with a grin. He'll make it up before long having started climbing with such enthusiasm from the start.<br> <br>Sally tilts her head at Maz a moment as she keeps up with the crowd, "Really? You must listen to the news a bit more closely. The message from the Creators has been revealed, and it's quite a doozy, thrown many people right on their ears with worry."<br> <br>Bolum begins to add a warble to his whistles, helping people near the top up onto the relative safety of the flat ground, which is a big step up from a straight drop down.<br> <br>Zero continues climbing the chain, slipping slightly every now and then.<br> <br>Moroko smiles at Ryusho and nods, "I suppose it's too much to think it'll happen quickly. If it was easy someone else would have done it." He then starts heading up the chain as well following along to the group.<br> <br>Kilsa chuckles, "While its certainly adorable and I wouldn't mind decorating it. I perfer your friendly demenor and wonderful mind." She  smiled and begain to increase her climbing speed, trying to keep up with the speedy dillo. "Forging armor for your kind is always fun work." She joked thinking of pass orders. "Armor on armor."<br> <br>Mazurek hikes an eyeridge slightly while never taking his gaze off of those who are climbing.  As folks are beginning to make the top of the climb he settles into a crouch and spreads his wings to prepare to launch, "I'll be sure to listen much more closely and ask others in the know when we return from this trip.  It seems others in this group would be perfect to speak about it, though, if my ears aren't deceiving me."<br> <br>Walden is right there with Bolum once he's up, offering a helping hand as well to help people up. Should be even easier now. "I never have been able to figure out how I might wear something heavy," he says to Kilsa when she's up. "S'why I stick wtih the lighter chains and scales and such. It's more flexible to work around the carapace. I could probably use a few pointers!" He grins at the sight of the couple of dragon folks, shaking his head. "Heh. Wish I had wings like that."<br> <br>Ryusho grunts as he shifts, though since he was not visiting with others he woudl leap into the air with his large wings flapping hard as he begins to shift and make his way up though soft -grunts- every couple of flaps, as to just go straight up is a bit of effort, but it would not take long for him to get up there and land a short distance away so he wouldn't cause air turbulance near those who were climbing up or ontop already...if he could.<br> <br>As Zero climbs, his resolves weakens, causing him to slip slightly. Growling, he redoubles his effort to reach the top alive. Reaching the top, he latches his paws onto the edge, foot trying to find purchase to scramble up to the safefty of the ledge.<br> <br>Bolum shakes his head as he works. "Wings aren't all they're cracked up to be, it's an alright alternative to being good with wind though I guess." He pulls Zero to safety and waits for the finals members of the party to finish the climb.<br> <br>Kilsa smiles as she is being helped up to the top by Walden, "You should come see me at my orphange some time. I could forge you some armor that is as fine as silk and as tough as dragon scales." She smirked pointing to her retainer. "My retainer could also forge very wonderful armor for you." She looked at the hawk and chuckled, "I would haven't never though I would hear one blessed with flight speaking ill on having wings." She smiled, "I can't say I wouldn't want to try flying but I lack the magic aptitude or the wings to do such a feat...for now." She winked at Bolum.<br> <br>Sally nods, "I will fill you in when we're back in the city," she assures, "But it's not something that can be safely ignored." She puts more attention to the act of climbing, scaling along the sheer face up onto the flat surface, then stretching as she moves to join the rest, "What is the main obstacle between us and the objective?"<br> <br>Zero readily accepts Bolum's hand. Scrambling to a safe spot, he breath a sigh of thanks and relief. "Wow.... This... could be bad for the gro...group."<br> <br>Moroko takes his time, hand over hand slowly working his way up. He listens to Bolum as he pulls himself up to the top and rolls onto his back panting for breath, "MMm so wings have troubles? Do you have a statement ont he drawbacks of wings? I'm certain any spell I design should be targetted at addressing such things."<br> <br>Walden peers over the edge curiously to see who's still climbing, and then he nods back to Kilsa. "I've learned how to make some pretty basic things," he says. "But... but what I really want to study is alchemy! I'd love to see the wonderful sorts of things that could be made! And- and Lady Kilsa, I would love to spend time at the orphanage. If there's anything I can do for you and for the kids, you let me know! I'm a pretty handy guy, I think." He smiles, and he looks over as Zero makes it up. "Oh, y-yeah," he says to him. "Are you alright? You look shaken."<br> <br>Mazurek launches into the air after Sally begins her climb.  He is much slower in his ascent than Ryusho was due to still learning the subtle nuances of flight.  His steering is barely over the hatchling level and he has to climb the chain after about halfway up.  When he finally reaches the lip of the ledge he is panting hard enough to sound like bellows.  He didn't have this much trouble in his last flight...but that would be understandable since there are no suitable updrafts here and it is straight up.<br> <br>Bolum pulls the length of the chain upward before freeing it from a rather sturdy rock and coiling it up to stow away. "Distance or trouble, that's up to you further along. For now we should move. Of course the ruins aren't all that safe either." he says before whistling again, leading the way up some rocks. "They can fail you when you're tired, lets put it that way." he offers as he does so.<br> <br>Zero nods to Walden, slowly recovering his breath. "Yeah... just... got spooked...." Sighing, He stands back up, ready to move further on.<br> <br>Ryusho shifts slightly as he would be ready to walk, "Well, thats one reason why flying actually is composed a lot more of -gliding- and a lot less effort being used, The only time you should be -using- your wings is to gain initial altitude, or when there is no heat or updrafts to gain altitude with.....otherwise its just gliding.." he says from his own experience<br> <br>Kilsa nods at Walden, "Sure. I would love to have you join me over a glass of ale." She chuckled at Bolum's reply, "I don't think I would enjoy falling to my death after getting worn out flying."  She envisions a badger shaped crater in the middle of the firmament and shivers. "I think this badger will stay on Promise with her claws dug into the dirt." She thought for a moment before speaking up again. "What we expect from the ruins themselves?"<br> <br>Sally hmms, "You remind me of some rather uncouth gossip I heard at the air magic demonstration. Something about fearing for ones life if a certain badger were to take up the art of flight mathematics," she says in a soft sing song, ribbing the fellow noble.<br> <br>Mazurek speaks while he follows on all fours, apparently able to do so quite easily with his leg structure, "Yeah...  I..still need...to learn how to do it.  One day, Ryusho...just might take me for...a long flight so I can really get used to it."  Despite his exhaustion he does not slack at all, letting the steady flow of the trek give him his breath back.<br> <br>Walden slips over to pat Zero on the back with a nod. "You'll be alright. Besides, if anything happens, it seems we have the dragon folks ready to lend a hand or a wing. And if you get hurt, I've always got my trauma kit handy." He smiles proudly; this is what he is best at, it seems. He chuckles happily at what Kilsa says to him and responds, "Ale? Oh, that's just the right sort of thing. Now that we have plans for ale, you definitely can't fall!"<br> <br>Ryusho would nod slightly, "Might...if You can get so you can handle a flight up like that just a bit better...Get so your not completely exausted from that, and we might be good." he says softly, as he shifts slightly, though ahh yes...we need to keep going..so he woul dbegin walking along though he might make sure Kilsa was good to go as well, and anyone else just making sure everyone was doing well as they started on their way again<br> <br>"That doesn't really help you at the bottom of a pit." he addresses to the flying advice before laughing. "You know what the Kitsune are all about? Tricks and pranks, and these ruins are loaded with them. Most of them are harmless but you might find yourself in a terrible situation once or twice if you all aren't careful."He leads the group higher and higher, looking back occasionally to see that no one has fallen behind. Now that the climb has started he couldn't just leave someone stranded here.<br> <br>Ryusho can't help but hope there are no pranks that involve the destruction of clothes....because that would be horribly emberising for anyone...<br> <br>Zero nods his head in reply to Walden. Looking over to Kilsa, his ears perk up "Ale?" he ask. Looking back to Walden, Zero smirks a little bit, saying "Well, if I need to climb any more clif faces, I think I'll be more prepared.<br> <br>Kilsa chuckles at Sally, "The day this badger flies will be the same day that the whole firament starts putting up spells to keep my from falling on them. I would rather not land on some poor folk and end their life and mine pre-maturely.  I would rather not have that on my mind or imprinted in the floor." She looked over to her retainer, "I'll leave the flying to you Ryusho." She winked.<br> <br>Mazurek rises to his feet when his breath has returned to normal, which takes less than five minutes during the walk.  He listens to the conversations as best as he can, but with everyone talking almost simultaneously he can't really keep track of much.  He falls back to the rear of the group, taking on the task of assisting anyone who happens to become a straggler.<br> <br>Moroko considers the haw's complaint and hmms, "Stamina is a weakness of wings. Interesting." He smiles as he follows the group, "MMmm riddles are always entertaining." He says and begins padding along at the tail end of the group again.<br> <br>Sally looks Mazurek over at that point, "You're built wrong for flying far. We all are. The creators built us for working on solid ground. Even those who call the sea home return to the shore to do their work in the end. I am told the Creators were masters of the elements, however, and could fly for days with their sorceries, so unimpeded that they could do other work while they were up there." A shake of her head, "I wonder at times how much of it is fable."<br> <br>Walden climbs over various rocks to keep up; he's doing a pretty decent job. "Well, Zero, I'm starting to think the other guys have the right idea. Just turn into a dragon, solves everything," he jokes. "Hah. Not that I can do that. And I actually don't think I'd really like flying all that much. I'm with Kilsa here. I like the ground! ...Though look at all the rocks up here. I might have to get some good samples on the return trip!"<br> <br>Ryusho looks to Sally, "Actually, What your thinking is constant flight" he says simply, "Your thinking using your energy constantly, flapping wings without end, that -is- one form of flight, but true distance flight is based around using as little energy as possible."<br> <br>Zero chuckles lightly. "Like you friend Walden, I perfer to keep my feet on the ground." Noticing his cheery attitude, Zero remarkes, saying "You seem to truly enjoy being on the ground, don't you?"<br> <br>As they ascend the mountain Bolum turns back, stopping the progression. "So time to decide." he says as he claps his hands. "To the left, we have a scaleable cliff, it will take a while but it's safe unless you lose your footing. To the right..." he says as he points a wing back to a cave "We have a cave that serves as home to two varietys of beast, which can be a little troublesome. There are some ankle biters and some big beasts who should be asleep but we might wake them. It comes out up there." he says as he points to an opening a great distance up the mountain. "What do you decide?"<br> <br>Kilsa shakes her head at the thought of flying one last time. "Walden, IF you find any ore, I would be happy to forge it for you." She looked at Bolum, "My common sense tells me to go left but my badger sense says 'OOH a cave!' I'm going with my badgers sense so I'm fine with going to the right. Also might find a spot to get some ore for later." She smiled to her self and confident that her allies can handle ANY beast.<br> <br>Mazurek chuckles, shaking his head, "Who are we to choose between the easy path and the hard path?  I am sure that the Creators would have wanted us to go any way we desired.  I personally vote for the path that is supposedly yielding the most danger."  He winks to Zero, "And to avoid the possibility of one of our own from falling to his death."  He cracks his knuckles, "Besides, delving into caves has turned out to be quite fun in the past."<br> <br>Sally shakes her head, "I'm not afraid of any beast. If I'm done in by Promise's creatures, however fierce they may be, what use am I against the Shadow? We have some unsure feet, the cave seems the better option of the two."<br> <br>Walden laughs a little, hearing a couple responses to the question already. "They're both dangerous. The trouble is trying to determine which his the least dangerous for the most number of people. I can certainly deal with a good climb, but not everyone likes that, I'm sure. If you guys like the cave, I have no complaints. I've got the medical supplies if we've got any nasty biters. So, call me neutral."<br> <br>Zero "Hmmms" as he looks to the cliff face then to the cave entrance. Holding up his hand for a moment in a gesture to hold on, he unsheaths a crimson red blade, walking over to the cliff face. Without a word, he moves to plunge the blade into the side, seeing if it'll pierce the earth.<br> <br>Ryusho shrugs slightly, "I will head whatever way seems best, so If Lady Ironsoul wishes to head through the cave, well then, why don't we head through the cave?"
+<div></div><br> <br>A group has been called to meet outside the city, in the eastbank forest bordering the mountains for the purpose of scaling towards a nearby peak and entering a out of the way set of ruins rumored to be dedicated to the mighty kitsune. A tall hawk stands in the middle of the designated clearing, his heavy clan portrayed upon his necklace proudly. He appears to be rather impatient, awaiting arrivals with a tapping of his boot.<br> <br>Sally arrives in proper order, tail twitching lightly, jingle jingle, "Kitsune stories you say," she asks as she approaches, "A fascinating topic," so speaks the fox.<br> <br>Moroko arrives and for once has his book closed. He glances around the area curiously as he wanders forward and then smiles as he looksaround the area andthenbegins picking his way towards the hawk as he looks to see who else is about.<br> <br>Mazurek is one of those who has arrived, his body gleaming with a recent visit to the beach for a swim.  He's still in his swimming trunks, too, which is something of an oddity for him.  He's in his shorter, non-dragon form at this time, not really expecting the need to use his larger frame anytime soon.<br> <br>Zero steps through the mist, looking up the mountain. Looking down, he sees the man slightly. Allowing a small twitch to play on the corner of his mouth, he begins to moves towards the figure.<br> <br>Walden shows up geared up for adventure. A brown cloak covers him, and he has a pack full of useful supplies. "Hello! Who's up for a good hike?" the armadillo asks cheerfully with a big smile. He is, that's for sure.<br> <br>Kilsa smiles as she walked up to the hawk, she smiled and gave him a friendly nod. "I'm very interested in this topic myself." She speaks aftering hearing sally. She looked to Walden, "I'm always up for a hike." She joked looking at her own armor and chuckling. "Though not as ready as you it seem." <br> <br>Ryusho would be walking up with Kilsa, his standard equipment, with a bag with his basic smithing and repair equipment within it, as well as some other nececcities for his work, "Indeed, ready for a hike, or repairs, or whatever I may be needed to do." he says with a soft chuckle and a bit of a smile, glancing to Lady Ironsoul, even though he had been visiting with her for a while this night, to talk with her about various things, being one reason he arrived with her rather then seperate.<br> <br>The hawk looks over the arrivals and nods once. "It appears we have quite the turnout for this request, I trust none of you shall fall behind? I also trust each and every one of you is able bodied and ready for this, if you are not go home now. You see, there is no developed path on this side of the mountain that leads to the ruins, we're going to have to climb up for ourselves. I am Bolum, and I will be your guide." he says before nodding to Sally. "Yes it's quite the marvel up there." he says before casting a wing behind them. "If you please, follow me so we may begin this trek." the hawk says before strolling off with a whistle.<br> <br>Zero burst into a full on grin as he sees Kilsa<br> <br>Kilsa smiled at Walden, "I knew there was a reason I liked you." She nodded and began to heft her bulk up the chain. "What news Lady Solacious?" Kilsa asked while still climbing the chain with no difficulty. "I've been out of the grapvine while catching up on my forge work." She chuckled.<br> <br>The avian begins to tap his boot again, shifting a few rocks idly as he waits, a rather bored look on his face.<br> <br>Ryusho would similarly wait, as he would be able to use his wings to get up to the ledge as ewlleven though he wanted to wait and help others who might need it first, though he then chuckles, "Just work on your research Moroko, You will get it figured out with time.." he says after a moment or two, but like mazurek he would want to wait a bit..<br> <br>Mazurek shakes his head, "I haven't been awake for very long, Sally.  The only thing I know of any recent events was that the priests were supposedly going to use this Mass to explain something or another.  I'm quite vague on what it was supposed to be."<br> <br>Walden seems to be having no difficulty climbing, either. It seems it may partly be due to his strength; otherwise it seems he's reasonably experienced at this. "Pshaw, and here I thought it was because of my carapace," he says teasingly to Kilsa with a grin. He'll make it up before long having started climbing with such enthusiasm from the start.<br> <br>Sally tilts her head at Maz a moment as she keeps up with the crowd, "Really? You must listen to the news a bit more closely. The message from the Creators has been revealed, and it's quite a doozy, thrown many people right on their ears with worry."<br> <br>Bolum begins to add a warble to his whistles, helping people near the top up onto the relative safety of the flat ground, which is a big step up from a straight drop down.<br> <br>Zero continues climbing the chain, slipping slightly every now and then.<br> <br>Moroko smiles at Ryusho and nods, "I suppose it's too much to think it'll happen quickly. If it was easy someone else would have done it." He then starts heading up the chain as well following along to the group.<br> <br>Kilsa chuckles, "While its certainly adorable and I wouldn't mind decorating it. I perfer your friendly demenor and wonderful mind." She  smiled and begain to increase her climbing speed, trying to keep up with the speedy dillo. "Forging armor for your kind is always fun work." She joked thinking of pass orders. "Armor on armor."<br> <br>Mazurek hikes an eyeridge slightly while never taking his gaze off of those who are climbing.  As folks are beginning to make the top of the climb he settles into a crouch and spreads his wings to prepare to launch, "I'll be sure to listen much more closely and ask others in the know when we return from this trip.  It seems others in this group would be perfect to speak about it, though, if my ears aren't deceiving me."<br> <br>Walden is right there with Bolum once he's up, offering a helping hand as well to help people up. Should be even easier now. "I never have been able to figure out how I might wear something heavy," he says to Kilsa when she's up. "S'why I stick wtih the lighter chains and scales and such. It's more flexible to work around the carapace. I could probably use a few pointers!" He grins at the sight of the couple of dragon folks, shaking his head. "Heh. Wish I had wings like that."<br> <br>Ryusho grunts as he shifts, though since he was not visiting with others he woudl leap into the air with his large wings flapping hard as he begins to shift and make his way up though soft -grunts- every couple of flaps, as to just go straight up is a bit of effort, but it would not take long for him to get up there and land a short distance away so he wouldn't cause air turbulance near those who were climbing up or ontop already...if he could.<br> <br>As Zero climbs, his resolves weakens, causing him to slip slightly. Growling, he redoubles his effort to reach the top alive. Reaching the top, he latches his paws onto the edge, foot trying to find purchase to scramble up to the safefty of the ledge.<br> <br>Bolum shakes his head as he works. "Wings aren't all they're cracked up to be, it's an alright alternative to being good with wind though I guess." He pulls Zero to safety and waits for the finals members of the party to finish the climb.<br> <br>Kilsa smiles as she is being helped up to the top by Walden, "You should come see me at my orphange some time. I could forge you some armor that is as fine as silk and as tough as dragon scales." She smirked pointing to her retainer. "My retainer could also forge very wonderful armor for you." She looked at the hawk and chuckled, "I would haven't never though I would hear one blessed with flight speaking ill on having wings." She smiled, "I can't say I wouldn't want to try flying but I lack the magic aptitude or the wings to do such a feat...for now." She winked at Bolum.<br> <br>Sally nods, "I will fill you in when we're back in the city," she assures, "But it's not something that can be safely ignored." She puts more attention to the act of climbing, scaling along the sheer face up onto the flat surface, then stretching as she moves to join the rest, "What is the main obstacle between us and the objective?"<br> <br>Zero readily accepts Bolum's hand. Scrambling to a safe spot, he breath a sigh of thanks and relief. "Wow.... This... could be bad for the gro...group."<br> <br>Moroko takes his time, hand over hand slowly working his way up. He listens to Bolum as he pulls himself up to the top and rolls onto his back panting for breath, "MMm so wings have troubles? Do you have a statement ont he drawbacks of wings? I'm certain any spell I design should be targetted at addressing such things."<br> <br>Walden peers over the edge curiously to see who's still climbing, and then he nods back to Kilsa. "I've learned how to make some pretty basic things," he says. "But... but what I really want to study is alchemy! I'd love to see the wonderful sorts of things that could be made! And- and Lady Kilsa, I would love to spend time at the orphanage. If there's anything I can do for you and for the kids, you let me know! I'm a pretty handy guy, I think." He smiles, and he looks over as Zero makes it up. "Oh, y-yeah," he says to him. "Are you alright? You look shaken."<br> <br>Mazurek launches into the air after Sally begins her climb.  He is much slower in his ascent than Ryusho was due to still learning the subtle nuances of flight.  His steering is barely over the hatchling level and he has to climb the chain after about halfway up.  When he finally reaches the lip of the ledge he is panting hard enough to sound like bellows.  He didn't have this much trouble in his last flight...but that would be understandable since there are no suitable updrafts here and it is straight up.<br> <br>Bolum pulls the length of the chain upward before freeing it from a rather sturdy rock and coiling it up to stow away. "Distance or trouble, that's up to you further along. For now we should move. Of course the ruins aren't all that safe either." he says before whistling again, leading the way up some rocks. "They can fail you when you're tired, lets put it that way." he offers as he does so.<br> <br>Zero nods to Walden, slowly recovering his breath. "Yeah... just... got spooked...." Sighing, He stands back up, ready to move further on.<br> <br>Ryusho shifts slightly as he would be ready to walk, "Well, thats one reason why flying actually is composed a lot more of -gliding- and a lot less effort being used, The only time you should be -using- your wings is to gain initial altitude, or when there is no heat or updrafts to gain altitude with.....otherwise its just gliding.." he says from his own experience<br> <br>Kilsa nods at Walden, "Sure. I would love to have you join me over a glass of ale." She chuckled at Bolum's reply, "I don't think I would enjoy falling to my death after getting worn out flying."  She envisions a badger shaped crater in the middle of the firmament and shivers. "I think this badger will stay on Promise with her claws dug into the dirt." She thought for a moment before speaking up again. "What we expect from the ruins themselves?"<br> <br>Sally hmms, "You remind me of some rather uncouth gossip I heard at the air magic demonstration. Something about fearing for ones life if a certain badger were to take up the art of flight mathematics," she says in a soft sing song, ribbing the fellow noble.<br> <br>Mazurek speaks while he follows on all fours, apparently able to do so quite easily with his leg structure, "Yeah...  I..still need...to learn how to do it.  One day, Ryusho...just might take me for...a long flight so I can really get used to it."  Despite his exhaustion he does not slack at all, letting the steady flow of the trek give him his breath back.<br> <br>Walden slips over to pat Zero on the back with a nod. "You'll be alright. Besides, if anything happens, it seems we have the dragon folks ready to lend a hand or a wing. And if you get hurt, I've always got my trauma kit handy." He smiles proudly; this is what he is best at, it seems. He chuckles happily at what Kilsa says to him and responds, "Ale? Oh, that's just the right sort of thing. Now that we have plans for ale, you definitely can't fall!"<br> <br>Ryusho would nod slightly, "Might...if You can get so you can handle a flight up like that just a bit better...Get so your not completely exausted from that, and we might be good." he says softly, as he shifts slightly, though ahh yes...we need to keep going..so he woul dbegin walking along though he might make sure Kilsa was good to go as well, and anyone else just making sure everyone was doing well as they started on their way again<br> <br>"That doesn't really help you at the bottom of a pit." he addresses to the flying advice before laughing. "You know what the Kitsune are all about? Tricks and pranks, and these ruins are loaded with them. Most of them are harmless but you might find yourself in a terrible situation once or twice if you all aren't careful."He leads the group higher and higher, looking back occasionally to see that no one has fallen behind. Now that the climb has started he couldn't just leave someone stranded here.<br> <br>Ryusho can't help but hope there are no pranks that involve the destruction of clothes....because that would be horribly emberising for anyone...<br> <br>Zero nods his head in reply to Walden. Looking over to Kilsa, his ears perk up "Ale?" he ask. Looking back to Walden, Zero smirks a little bit, saying "Well, if I need to climb any more clif faces, I think I'll be more prepared.<br> <br>Kilsa chuckles at Sally, "The day this badger flies will be the same day that the whole firament starts putting up spells to keep my from falling on them. I would rather not land on some poor folk and end their life and mine pre-maturely.  I would rather not have that on my mind or imprinted in the floor." She looked over to her retainer, "I'll leave the flying to you Ryusho." She winked.<br> <br>Mazurek rises to his feet when his breath has returned to normal, which takes less than five minutes during the walk.  He listens to the conversations as best as he can, but with everyone talking almost simultaneously he can't really keep track of much.  He falls back to the rear of the group, taking on the task of assisting anyone who happens to become a straggler.<br> <br>Moroko considers the haw's complaint and hmms, "Stamina is a weakness of wings. Interesting." He smiles as he follows the group, "MMmm riddles are always entertaining." He says and begins padding along at the tail end of the group again.<br> <br>Sally looks Mazurek over at that point, "You're built wrong for flying far. We all are. The creators built us for working on solid ground. Even those who call the sea home return to the shore to do their work in the end. I am told the Creators were masters of the elements, however, and could fly for days with their sorceries, so unimpeded that they could do other work while they were up there." A shake of her head, "I wonder at times how much of it is fable."<br> <br>Walden climbs over various rocks to keep up; he's doing a pretty decent job. "Well, Zero, I'm starting to think the other guys have the right idea. Just turn into a dragon, solves everything," he jokes. "Hah. Not that I can do that. And I actually don't think I'd really like flying all that much. I'm with Kilsa here. I like the ground! ...Though look at all the rocks up here. I might have to get some good samples on the return trip!"<br> <br>Ryusho looks to Sally, "Actually, What your thinking is constant flight" he says simply, "Your thinking using your energy constantly, flapping wings without end, that -is- one form of flight, but true distance flight is based around using as little energy as possible."<br> <br>Zero chuckles lightly. "Like you friend Walden, I perfer to keep my feet on the ground." Noticing his cheery attitude, Zero remarkes, saying "You seem to truly enjoy being on the ground, don't you?"<br> <br>As they ascend the mountain Bolum turns back, stopping the progression. "So time to decide." he says as he claps his hands. "To the left, we have a scaleable cliff, it will take a while but it's safe unless you lose your footing. To the right..." he says as he points a wing back to a cave "We have a cave that serves as home to two varietys of beast, which can be a little troublesome. There are some ankle biters and some big beasts who should be asleep but we might wake them. It comes out up there." he says as he points to an opening a great distance up the mountain. "What do you decide?"<br> <br>Kilsa shakes her head at the thought of flying one last time. "Walden, IF you find any ore, I would be happy to forge it for you." She looked at Bolum, "My common sense tells me to go left but my badger sense says 'OOH a cave!' I'm going with my badgers sense so I'm fine with going to the right. Also might find a spot to get some ore for later." She smiled to her self and confident that her allies can handle ANY beast.<br> <br>Mazurek chuckles, shaking his head, "Who are we to choose between the easy path and the hard path?  I am sure that the Creators would have wanted us to go any way we desired.  I personally vote for the path that is supposedly yielding the most danger."  He winks to Zero, "And to avoid the possibility of one of our own from falling to his death."  He cracks his knuckles, "Besides, delving into caves has turned out to be quite fun in the past."<br> <br>Sally shakes her head, "I'm not afraid of any beast. If I'm done in by Promise's creatures, however fierce they may be, what use am I against the Shadow? We have some unsure feet, the cave seems the better option of the two."<br> <br>Walden laughs a little, hearing a couple responses to the question already. "They're both dangerous. The trouble is trying to determine which his the least dangerous for the most number of people. I can certainly deal with a good climb, but not everyone likes that, I'm sure. If you guys like the cave, I have no complaints. I've got the medical supplies if we've got any nasty biters. So, call me neutral."<br> <br>Zero "Hmmms" as he looks to the cliff face then to the cave entrance. Holding up his hand for a moment in a gesture to hold on, he unsheaths a crimson red blade, walking over to the cliff face. Without a word, he moves to plunge the blade into the side, seeing if it'll pierce the earth.<br> <br>Ryusho shrugs slightly, "I will head whatever way seems best, so If Lady Ironsoul wishes to head through the cave, well then, why don't we head through the cave?"<br> <br>Moroko considers the question for a time. He shrugs, "I'm tired of cliffs. I too suggest the caves." He checks his gear and considers, "I suppose I should ready my spells."<br> <br>Kilsa chuckles at her retainers answer, "Today you may have prevented the death of your Lady from being a crater in the ground." She gives him a hearty pat on the back. "For that I am greatful." She watches Zero's stabbing the earth, "Going to climb yourself?" She asked hoping that he wouldn't try to go at things alone, Wolves can't fly either last time she checked.<br> <br>The cliffside does not yeild to Zero's blade, rather it emits a sharp clang and does it's best to scuff the metal. Clearly there is something very hard and solid behind where he struck. "I suppose we're going inside then, I will ask you to not slaughter needlessly, they do live here and we are intruding upon their home." he says as he pulls out a rather small firearm, loading the one handed weapon swiftly before drawing a rather thin blade and giving a thrust forward with it. "Shall we proceed?" he asks as he moves inside.<br> <br>Zero sighs as the blade does nothing, forcing him to sheath the blade. As he does, his ears perk up as if listining for something. Before moving, he ask, "Did anyone else hear that?"<br> <br>Mazurek looks over and comments to the wolf, "All I heard was your blade striking rock.  Did you happen to hear something other than that?"  He will continue his post as rear guard should the group proceed<br> <br>Walden grins at Kilsa and shakes his head. "Amazing," he says with a chuckle. He glances at Zero, thinking about this. "I did," he says. "I wonder if there's some sort of artificial framework built in beneath the rock. Or... could be a lot of quartz," he muses, contemplating the possibilities. "Ooh, now I can't wait to see what's inside." He snaps his fingers to conjure up a flame to light the way... or not. Nope, it goes out. He tries again, and grumbles in frustration. He's just no good at this, so he gets a torch from his pack and lights it instead. "Someday... someday."<br> <br>Sally lifts her shoulders, "The best swung blade is the blade that is not swung at all with victory in hand." she speaks as if proverb, likely quoting from someone or something else.<br> <br>Ryusho hums softly as he shifts, pulling out a torch of his own, and then with a puff of flame from his muzzle, he sets it alight, there we go, then he shifts, "Anyone else need help getting a torch lit?" ....show off...<br> <br>Zero looks confused from a mulitude of things. "I...I don't know.... This may just be coincidence, but I heard a wolf howling as I was sheathing my blade. And what did you mean by that?" he anwsers, his look dashed with worry.<br> <br>As the party proceeds into the darkness they can see holes scattered about the ground. At first they are easily avoidable, the hawk stepping to keep a large distance between his form and the area around them, but as the stone walls close in and narrow he steps more lightly, pointing his gun at the holes.<br> <br>Moroko searches his pack and pops one of his other souls back into place. He checks his staff and then robe and inclines his head, "Let's." He says to to the hawk. He glances towards Kilsa, "Yet, m'lady! We're actively working on it!" He watches the holes as well murmuring under his breath.<br> <br>Walden blinks at Zero, and he glances toward Moroko for a moment. "Um, I didn't hear anything like that, Zero," he says. "Sorry." He starts paying careful attention to the ground, shining his torch low to make sure he doesn't miss anything. "Eyes open, don't wanna fall, folks."<br> <br>Kilsa thinks of what Zero said, "Howling..... hmmmm." She begins to think on a sword, "Ooooh Black as night hilt, add a pale silver blade. Divine math to make it howl like a wolf during unsheathing." She smiles wider, "Then a bit of wolf fur in the hilt to give it a warm and fuzzy feeling." She smiled and begin forging the sword in her thoughts while traveling. "I can't wait to start forging again." She mutters to herself.<br> <br>Mazurek smirks, "A wolf howling, you say?  It sounds like the Kitsune just might be starting their jokes on you already if our hawk guide is right about our proximity."  Taking up the rear once the group finally gets going, the dragon eventually finds it difficult to maneuver as easily as he would like.  He doesn't even notice the way their guide is concerned about the holes at all, instead trying his best simply to keep his footing and all.<br> <br>Sally cants her head, "Ah, a thought occurs to me. Is anyone here of awakened kitsune nature?" she asks, glancing about, "Or are we all just curious on the matter?"<br> <br>Zero raises an eyebrow to Kilsa's remark. "Oh? That sounds like a decent blade." Not trusting his Fang, he takes out his plain sword, battered and slightly worn from combat.<br> <br>Kilsa looked at Sally, "I'm not beautiful or mischevious enough to even joke that I am of their nature." She sighed wistfully in thought of what it would be to have such a nature to claim as her own.<br> <br>Walden snickers quietly and shakes his head at Kilsa. "Yeah, you aren't mischievous," he agrees. And before he can say anything else, he lowers his torch at the holes again and stops. "Whoa, whoa. Okay, there's something alive there."<br> <br>Sally makes sudden soft gestures, military commands, directing where to proceed and going silent at the same time. Fortunately, presuming the others are all Sweetwater natives, militia duty is a requirement of all citizens, and the signal should be clear enough as she urges to stay in the center and to shut the ever loving heck up.<br> <br>Zero doesn't understand what Sally's trying to convey. Not wanting to look like an idiot, Zero follows the group silently, warry of the holes around him.<br> <br>Mazurek finally becomes aware of something at the same time others apparently do as well.  His gaze snaps to the ground to the hole that he has only just started to cross over.  He manages to catch the motions from Sally in his peripheral vision and he does what he can to guide the others toward her.<br> <br>Ryusho unknowingly got -really close- to stepping into a small hole he had not seen, but he would move to get with the group as he follows and stays close like everyone was doing in the middle of the path..<br> <br>Walden blinks at Sally, and then there's a spark of recognition. He knows what that means! He gets into formation with a nervous sort of grin.<br> <br>Kilsa notices the gesture and nods to Sally, Her muzzles shut tighter than a vice as she moves with startling grace in her armor to keep each and every joint from making even the lightest of sounds. She follows Sally's directions to the letter and avoids the holes she indicated. Remembering her military experience as if she was just released from duty, She will NOT show carelessness in front of her quasi-mentor noble. <br> <br>Bolum is carefully treding ahead of the group, the cave is no more than wide enough for two people where he is and it is becoming difficult to avoid proximity to every hole. As Ryusho attempts to leave the hole something lunges out and grabs hold of his leg, twisting to free a chunk of it. It's tan long form vibrates wildly as it works.<br> <br>Ryusho grunts a bit in supprise and -pain as he shifts, promtly working to draw his sword with one hand as he tries to pry his leg away all the while, working to get himself where he could shift and try to swing at it, without probably cutting his own leg at the same time, though its not the easiest thing to do to swing at something that is tugging and thrashing your leg, therefore thrashing your -balance- while your trying to keep your balance so you can cut the damn thing...<br> <br>Zero watches the scene unfold, attempting to move around to get a clear slice at the writhing thing.<br> <br>Mazurek hears the sudden commotion ahead in the line, but can't really see much of anything due to the mass of bodies.  Then again, he thinks he does catch a glimpse of something attacking the other dragon.  He goes so far as to call out, "What's holding you up?  Just set the blasted thing alight with your flame!"  He takes a deep breath and lashes out with his own breath attack, this one a bright bolt of lightning that is aimed for the creature in question.<br> <br>Walden hears a rather unsettling sound from Ryusho. He lets out a quiet gasp as he sees what's got him thanks to the torch light. Though with the lightning bolt, he seems afraid to get close!<br> <br>Mazurek's attack is too distant to be effective upon the creature, but it does deter a second creature from lashing out at ryusho during his attempts to free himself.<br> <br>Kilsa is shocked at the development of lighting cracking in the entire cave.  She begins to switch her soulgems to aid Ryusho and prepare for the violence she is sure will be rapidly approaching the group. She feels the knowledge coming to her as if she was remembering an old friend telling her a story. Her eyes harden and her muscle tense as she prepares to save her retainer and friend from both Mazurek and whatever is attacking him now. <br> <br>Ryusho had...forgotten to switch his soul gems apparently as he semi swung, and almost dropped the blade as he realises this, trying to sheath it again and kicks his leg, as he can't switch his soul gem quickly while he is struggling with the 'attack of the tenticle beasts' or..whatever this is...<br> <br>Zero taps on the person infront of him, motioning to pass up front to move to the side by point forward then to the side a littlebit.<br> <br>Sally makes the Go sign, and makes to advance forward sharply, ducking and bobbing around others on her way forward, still silent and dancing on light paws.<br> <br>Kilsa Notices that Sally is already pass her and decides to aid her friends. She begins to chant slightly, allowing the words of the creator to infuse Ryusho with great speed and skill. Her spirited charged is low but is focused on Ryusho and though around them to better aid the group without using her bulk to block the smaller fighters from helping her Retainer.<br> <br>Moroko turns at the kerfuffle. He blinks and raises a hand as people are shouting. He leans to the side and licks his lips hissing a slight chant under his breath and making a throwing motion trying to convince the wind to separate Ryusho from the thing attached to his leg. He does growl under his breath, "Someone get any remaining bits so I can study later." He says assuming that there's still tentacles to strike as he searches for more dangers.<br> <br>Zero inhales before moving in a downward slice onto the tentacle, attempting to sever it before it can cause any more harm.<br> <br>Mazurek is really unaware of his success, but as with all lightning strikes, the bright flash would have scared off most things.  As folks are rushing forward as well as going to aid the other dragon he stumbles and is forced to reach out to the walls to keep from falling.  He has no weapon other than what comes natural, so he goes to assist his friend and worm his tail in for a harsh strike to the creature...should it still be there by the time he arrives.<br> <br>Creatures lash out left and right from the holes in attempts to grab hold of the group. Moroko successfully throws Ryusho forward towards the others, pushing a few creatures back against the stone with a mighty thwack. This seems to aggitate them, they become more ferocious, prompting a faster retreat if they want to get out of the cave alive. Zero's sword is stopped short halfway through the creature, something hard and flexible knocks the blade back, although the creature retreats into its whole only to be replaced by another. Bolum is now skipping down a one man passage, leaping over holes that nearly take up the entire floor.<br> <br>Walden looks a little overwhelmed by the chaos. He hangs back with a dagger in his good hand, trying to stay wary of any other threatening tentacle things. "I- I think it's time to go!" he declares. "M-Mister Bolum, don't get too far ahead!"<br> <br>Ryusho shutupandrun! he says simply as he scrambles forward, though he might actually need to -drop- his draconic form to get through the cave with how it's looking, but also that requires him to grab and..ahem -prevent clothing malfunction issues since he normally stays in his draconic form rather then swapping back and forth, so he didn't -feel- the need to try to make his clothes semi elastic, like the ones mazurek requested...<br> <br>Sally has successfully darted on through, proving true to her heritage, she avoids the danger deftly and without great fuss, waiting with their guide for the group to gather past the initial trouble.<br> <br>Zero obliges, attempting to sheath his sword in favor of drawing his dagger for close range while moving into a more giving area.<br> <br>Moroko looks moderately pleased by the effect his air magic has. He considers, "I suppose for small amounts of flight simply air magic really is successful. I don't suppose anyone here is familiar with Earth Magic enough to close the area up behind us? I try to avoid throwing fireballs in confined areas." He asks as he starts moving with the group keeping his air magic at the ready in case he can't quite make some of those jumps.<br> <br>Walden sheathes his dagger and follows along quickly once he's sure the rest of the group is able to make it. He looks pretty relieved. "Not nearly familiar enough to do something like that," he says regarding earth magic. "I've only gotten it as good as acting as personal shielding!" <br> <br>Kilsa grumbles and starts running herself the moment she notices that Ryusho is free. Her ninja soul allowing her to skips twists and jump over the holes and creature with almost unnatural grace. She is still as slient as death as she get closer to the exit she turns and tosses an improvised smoke bomb made of mostly ash and a few irritants deeper in the cave hoping to confuse the creatures. She gasps as she lands a little tired from trying to move like that. "Oh Creators that was close."<br> <br>Mazurek has been taking up the rear since the beginning, and with how narrow the passage already is, that's probably going to stay that way.  He tucks his wings tightly against his back as he moves as fast as he can to stay with the group.  The mention of fire from Moroko has him actually considering sending a brief puff of flame down into a hole he is passing over.  It just won't do to have a continuous flame going when so many outlets are around.....  He decides against it in the end, though.  He was the actual cause of the main agitation and he is inwardly surprised that they haven't targeted him instead.<br> <br>Zero, seeing an opening, moves to safer grounds towards the part of the group thats further ahead.<br> <br>Bolum curses wildly as roars come from deeper in the cave, Kilsa's work alerting them to possible dangers and prompting their awakening. Scratching and shambling forms can be heard knocking rocks around as they stir from their slumber. He reloads his gun and sighs. "Run through the smoke, hope you have more of those theres a lot of them." he says as he takes off.<br> <br>Kilsa nods, "I have twenty nine more lining my armor. I would rather have been quiet but the element of surprise is gone. Now I'm going for confusion." She looked a little annoyed before droping more into the holes that she passed over. "Never a smooth day..." She grumbled following the hawk, "Still happy not to be on a cliff." She huffed.<br> <br>Walden seems to be nimble enough to maneuver through the chaos at the very least, but he's no ninja. He'd probably play a good game of Lowball, though. "How many of these things are there?" he laments, though he braces himself as he's about to run through smoke. "I think I liked the cliff better, Kilsa!"<br> <br>Ryusho grumbles as he slips through smaller spaces with a bit of effort but luckly not slowing as he grumbes, "Big dragons are not designed to fit into such small spaces!" ...If this was not such a dangerous situation Mazurek, Kilsa, maybe some otehrs might of thought that was funny, but he was not even -thinking- about that, though at least he shows he has momentum, and enough mobility to adjust and fit through places without loosing speed from his momentum with his size...<br> <br>Zero laughs despite the current situation. "HaHa!! Boy!! What a Day!!!!" Seeing a tentacle attempting to grab at him, Zero skids to a halt, brining down the knife blade onto the form, knowing it won't do any good in destroying it.<br> <br>Mazurek huffs a bit, "I'm not the one that riled them.  Why they chose to bite into the Tegu first is beyond me."  He groans a little as the louder noises sound out, "Great.  Now what will we have?  Giant leeches?  ... GiantER?"  He's still going as fast as the others are allowing him to be.  Heck, with the milling bodies, it probably wouldn't be surprising that he trips over a lip of one of the holes.<br> <br>Sally repeats her gesture before for silence, and advances with sealed snout, having avoided making any noise since she first went quiet. It is with great effort that even her bangle ridden tail manages to give off only the fainst of 'tink' instead of its usual jingle jangle spree.<br> <br>Moroko continues with the group looking vaguely concerned. He blinks at the roars, "Those aren't little critters." He says shaking his head ruefully. "Did anyone get a good look? i'll certainly have to get this in my journal." He says as he prepares. He moves towards the middle of the group. He is a mage after all. Protection, yes.<br> <br>As the smoke clears large forms can be seen standing, slightly disoriented. They are coated in a large fluffy coat and they stamp what appear to be clawed hooves violently. A couple can be seen yawning wide, their gape almost the length of a persons arm and filled with dagger like teeth. They seem to aimlessly move about as they wipe away their grog, a couple eye the remaining smoke with annoyance. Bolum charges through them all, proceeding down the now widening cave to a moderate incline.<br> <br>Ryusho was working as he reaches and fumbles, though he would with some effort swap his soul to his more combat biased soul as he moves, though he does charge along through as well, though if something got in his way, well..he would be rather.....he would be a bit hard to stop, though he doesn't -want- to get stopped, or stop anyway right now, he wants -out- of this cave..in this direction...<br> <br>Walden winces. Quiet? Yes. He tries to return to Quiet Mode as per Sally's orders. He keeps up his fast pace, certainly not wanting to fall behind, and certainly wanting to make good use of a potentially good situation.<br> <br>Mazurek does his best to ignore the creatures that the group has to pass by, especially when they end up showing how wide they can open their mouths.  The hawk wouldn't have much to worry about when it comes to his wings getting in the way.  With the dragons, though, it just might prove to be problematic since their wings are attached to their backs and not part of the arms.  He is likely to barrel right into one.<br> <br>Quietly groaning, Zero shifts his knife to his left hand, drawing his sword in his right. Not wanting to be stuck here any longer, he darts to moves towards where the group's heading.<br> <br>Kilsa runs and notices the creatures herself and decide to throw caution to the wind and places a smoke bomb  behind her as she passes the creatures incase they decide to follow her. A second smoke bomb is in her hand incase that doesn't work out the way she planned.<br> <br>Sally focuses on the retreat, not sharing her motivations or plans, other than the signals she's already given. She stalks along through darkness and smoke, straight through with barely a glance given towards anything else.<br> <br>As the group progresses through the herd of creatures Ryusho barrels face first into one. The impact mostly absorbed by it's thick coat of fluff it turns to him slowly, licking his form before roaring at him, forcing him back with a stamp of it's clawed hoof. As it does so more smoke sweeps the cave, making moving about through the crowd of beasts a terrible burden. Bolum reaches the moderate incline and scales it quickly, dissapearing from view into sunlight, which is obscured by the fleeting smoke.<br> <br>Ryusho...does what he thinks is -stupid- but as he stumbles backwards, well, he just -ROARS_ right back at it, before..he starts to go on his way -again- he is going to get past these bastards even if he has to shove one out of the damn way...<br> <br>It's too smoky for Walden. The armadillo does NOT like this. He hears roaring; as far as he can tell, it's just the beasts. He does his best to make it through to follow Sally and Bolum, though. It's all he can do.<br> <br>Kilsa stops and looks back into the smoke not seeing Ryusho or anyone else catching up to her yet the badger decides on a little drastic action. "Creator bless my allies." She begins to bleeds heavily out of her nose, allowing her own body to be used a meduim to heal  her allies, "Protect those that follow your will." She grunts as her ears begin to bleed and a ring. "Allow no one to die today." She grunts and fall to one knee completely vulnerable to attack as she focuses her ability on all of the allies around her strengthing them greatly. Her vision starts to blur as her eyes start to throb and bloody tears run down her face.<br> <br>Mazurek would still be one of the last to get out of the cave, but when he hears the roar followed by another roar he becomes quite confused as to what is happening.  He can't see a thing in here!  The smoke is making things too obscure and all he can do is hope he isn't going to barrel into something.  To try and help he goes so far as to send puffs of flame ahead of him to try and clear his field of view a bit.  The only one close to his size is the other dragon anyway, so it should be safe to do.<br> <br>Ryusho would of course be in quite the perdicament, considering he had run -into- something and it kicked him back, so he might not have his bearings anymore as he tries to re orient himself to work at getting out the same direction he had been going..if he can...taking a bit of a guess..<br> <br>Mazurek is buffeted over and over again, the creatures see the flame and seem to think he is the source of the smoke. Wishing to put the flames out the stamp and push his form about, completely ignoring everyone else.<br> <br>Mazurek finds himself knocked from one side to the other after his repeated bursts of flame to try and be able to see.  It was more than likely a bad idea as he gets knocked around by the creatures.  His balance isn't very good as it is and it just doesn't take long for one of the creatures to get it just right and knock him right to the floor, where the impact forces another gush of flame to erupt if he doesn't end up falling into one of the holes instead.  Would it catch any of them ablaze in the process?  Would he be able to see any better down there?<br> <br>Walden halts in his rush for the exit. "Oh no. No no." He knows that chant, and he tries to maneuver his way over toward Kilsa. "Not okay. Don't you pass out on me," he scolds Kilsa as he grabs a vial out of his healing kit. He WILL make her drink this!<br> <br>The entire party feels invigorated by Kilsa's chanting, while she in turn pays the price.<br> <br>Zero continues to move forward with the group, completely missing the action.<br> <br>Sally hath fled, off to better places, or possibly just a short distance ahead. We may never know(for at least twenty minutes).<br> <br>Bolum awaits outside for the party, helping anyone near the top of the slope up. Mazurek is stomped even harder as he expels flames, searing a poor creatures fluffy coat in the process.<br> <br>Kilsa looks at Walden with a smile, "Yes..." She says as a little bit of blood drips from her muzzles, "I didn't go all the way." She takes the vial and drinks the pain of the spell continuing to bother her as its effects cause her to bleed more but the pain feel a bit less crippling. "I need to help Ryusho and Mazurek." She climbs to her feet and hefts up her hammer walking back to the smoke with her hammer raise high waiting for it to clear a bit before trying to save her Tegu.<br> <br>Walden lets out a gasp of displeasure as Kilsa goes the 'wrong' way. "Wait! But- Oh! Saving people!" He slips on his battle glove (with blades!) and rushes after Kilsa. "Okay, but you're not getting away from me in that condition!"<br> <br>Ryusho is either going to run into the group trying to 'stomp out' the fire, that is maz who hopefully -stops- sputtering fire so they stop stumping on him, or he is going to go past them..and end up potentually plowing into kilsa because of comming -from- the smoke and therefore can't see as well as those trying to look in.<br> <br>Zero mutters under his breath "Oh Creators, let it be over!!"<br> <br>The Iguana-dragon gets stomped on again as he hits the ground.  Those claws are doing a number on him each time they strike since he doesn't have any armor to speak of and his hide is soft leather.  He is heartened that he manages to catch one of them aflame, but he has exchausted his energy for another flame breath and the stench of the critter is strong enough to make him gag thanks to the close proximity.  He is finding it difficult to get his bearings with all the smoke and he rises to all fours slowly and risks shouting, "Which way?!"<br> <br>Bolum shouts "Come on! You've got them all sturred up, get out of there!" as he treds down to help Zero exit the cave. The herd seems wound up but stops stomping at the lack of flames. They shift uneasily and roar almost in unison.<br> <br>Ryusho grunts, "Whatever direction is not this way!" he says since h had not caught up quite to mazurek since he ketp almost catching small holes, that luckly the tentacles were not grabbing from at this time from all the smoke!" though he says this, "Just..Whatever direction I'm heading I suppose!" he says after a moment, indeed, either he is getting closer, passing or..whatever, though he only heard it from being in there -with- this racket<br> <br>Kilsa Walked to where Ryusho was with her hammer up and growling, "RYUSHO! Where are you!" She yelled into the smoke, "mazurek! Are you still alive!" She called out waiting for an answer or attack.<br> <br>Mazurek was about to start crawling, but the sudden cocophony of sound from the multitude of creatures roaring in unison makes his rather sensitive ears ring just as loudly.  He swoons and ducks his head quickly, only to begin quivering in instinctual fear.  One thing about iguanas is that their ear drums are protected only by a thin layer of skin and it's easy to get dazed from that.  Still, he proceeds to stumble forward, hoping to not bump into anything that is not friendly.  Being surrounded by the enemy is not a fun thing, especially ones who probably have a superior smell.<br> <br>Zero takes of his cape to use it as a fan of sorts, slowly walking back into the smoke screen<br> <br>( Mazurek and Ryusho break free, Kilsa greeted by the stumbling dragon. It would be wise to leave before they prove their hunger. )<br> <br>Walden looks around side to side worriedly. "Kilsa, it's that roaring! That has to be them!" And... it seems he's right about that. He lets out a startleed gasp as he suddenly sees dragon. "Aaah! Good, let's go, NOW!" He points back the way they were heading before they went back. At least, he thinks he points that way.<br> <br>Kilsa smiles happy wiping a little blood of her face, "Lets go." She looked at the three and began running to the exit though much slower than she normally would
+with her injuries from her previous spell casting.<br> <br>Ryusho blinks slightly as he shifts, and..after a second he would think, "...Kilsa..? Do you have those elixirs I gave you the other day? They really..would help you recover from that.....what happened?" he says though he shifts, to take ahold of her if she would let him to help her along b bracing against his side...<br> <br>Zero doesn't see Walden & Kilsa running towards him till there right up on him knocking him over.<br> <br>Mazurek's body is covered with bloody scratches thanks to the repeated stomps by the creatures.  He was not going to have lasted much longer by the looks of things had they kept up the assault.  When he encounters the others in the cave he is actually quivering but he manages to get to his feel with help.  Everyone would definitely be able to see that he's dazed and suffering from temporary hearing loss, having the classic signs of such.  He will be better after a brief rest period.<br> <br>The group makes it to the exit, battered and bleeding but alive. Bolum helps them up and offers a couple of bandages to the group, guiding them a little further up the mountian to a wide paved clearing out front of the ruins. "THis is our destination, we should rest outside, and  you should inspect the story told along the walls, it's a story all on its own." he says as he overlooks the group, and then begins to set up a suitable shelter. "This should be safe for us as long as we don't venture inside, they will be getting back to sleep soon." With awave of his wing he presents the walls and their carved inscriptions for the group to take in. [[Category:RPLogs]]

Difference between revisions of "Beasts and flames - RPLOG"

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