Character Dig Site

[In Transit-Pit to Exit]

The problem with indoor flight was that it was entirely out of a mage's hands, as their reflexes were almost uniformly too slow, and so any attempt to take active control of it would probably result in running into a wall. Hence why it was mainly useful only to "rewind" out of a bad position.

Up, out of the pit, as far as the branch tunnel before he came to an abrupt halt as the voice of...something, battered at him. He grimaced and settled onto the floor on his feet. "Ow."

[Lair]

Grimacing briefly under his helmet, K-12Z-2 stepped in following Marion, and his underling following her. Then he beheld the occupant. "Weapons tight," was his soft order over the suit radios.

"Elisif. Weapon down. Safety on. We're dealing with a dignitary." Softspoken. "Detachment. Shoulder arms." Louder, not a parade-ground tone nor a parade-ground snap. The other two suits and his managed a reasonably quick and taut version of going to shoulder arms at the right. An obvious gesture, and considering the nature, with the weapons pointed up and away, hopefully obviously intended to show respect. He let them hold it for five seconds. "Detachment. As you were." The weapons came down again, though his own remained at cross-arms across his chest, the other two kept them pointed generally towards the ground but easy to quickly bring into action.

edited 24th Jan '13 7:16:12 PM by Night

Elisif shot a glance at the armored suit before returning her eyes to the Lich towering near the back end of the room. After a moment's hesitation, she reluctantly acquiesced and lowered the weapon from her shoulder. As much as her trigger finger itched, as much as every instinct in her body was demanding she send as large a volume of lead in it's direction as humanly possible, her better sense won out.

Meanwhile, the Lich had begun to fold itself up again, returning to a vaguely humanoid posture from it's extravagant greeting. It's innumerable tentacles folded and bunched to form knees, elbows and flexible four-fingered hands, each knuckle a point where the fibers contracted.

It now stood, once again, at a mere eight feet tall, down from the fourteen feet at which it had towered only moments ago.

To the surprise of everyone in the party, the Lich cocked it's fearsome head to the side and "shrugged" it's newly-formed shoulders, nothing more than the tendrils of it's arms folding double near where they met the torso. Then, it extended a whiplike finger and pointed to Elisif. "Your lieutenant seemed to mind a good deal more than you did."

It un-cocked it's head, seeming to only just now realize it wasn't shrugging it's arms anymore. "I am the Prince of Decay." It dipped it's head, crown of spines and all. "And just who might you be? I have lived a very long time, and never have I seen something quite like your body." It gazed directly at Marion with unsettling fascination.

edited 24th Jan '13 6:00:47 PM by Gault

[Exit]

After getting to the top, John and Adam continued on ahead until they spotted al-Faddil and Rune, to their surprise.

"You stopped." John said, "How come?"

"Are you hurt, Mr. al-Faddil?" Adam asked, "Do you need me to heal you?"

[Pit interior]

Nick shrugged. "I have no idea. With Rune and al-Faddil gone, and Adam and Uncle John joining them, I dunno what else to do." He looked at the skull and shuddered, "And that is really bugging the shit out of me."

"What did I tell you about language?" Thomas said, glaring at his son. Nick only sighed and glanced away.

"We can still go on if that's what you're worried about." Jackson said, "All that we have to do is be careful and take al-Faddil's advice in mind. Now, does anyone wish to keep going?"

[Lair]

Oh, hoo-bloody-ray. Can't go wrong with a title like that. Why would he pick a name that would inevitably attract ill will? Reverse psychology or something? And he didn't look particularly decayed. In fact, based on how he moved, he was remarkably supple for imprisonment of an indefinite term. Hmm.

Marion glanced back to Elisif for a moment. She seemed more than a bit frightened, but then that was a totally natural response, here. And she wasn't bolting. Good. Marion turned back to the Prince of- back to Pod and briefly flared her wings. "And I can understand that," she said. "It's not like she's supposed to contain those emotions and maintain a smiling façade while quaking underneath it; that's my job."

She made a slight bow to Pod. "I'm Marion Rakivata, sponsor of this dig. I didn't expect to find anything like you down here, though." She glanced around the room. "You said you were incarcerated. So was this your cell or whatever before some of my-" -less intelligent- "-workers bumbled down here and freed you?" She fired a glare at Raptor.

Muted laughter emanated from somewhere about the Lich's person. "If it's any consolation, the name was something that was given to me. A label. And we all know how ill-fitting those tend to be, yes?" It paused for a moment, giving Marion what seemed to be a searching look, before continuing. "It's not even accurate- the exact opposite, in fact. Decay is precisely the thing I don't do. But then, such is the intransigence of mortals. Ah- but watch me as I titter on, yes, yes, this was the room in which I was imprisoned. Specifically, that sarcophagus." A finger wound about to indicate the stone coffin hanging upright from a recess in the back wall. A dextrous foot then reached out and brushed aside the armored corpses of the Aegis Knights that Raptor and his compatriots had defeated. "And these were the guards." Several small pools of the acrid substance that had leaked out of their wounds remained on the floor, slowly wearing away the marble tiles. "Try not to step in that."

[Lair]

Intransigence? Well, crap. Even if he wasn't evil, Pod was one of those people who liked to use Big Words. What was the term? Sesquipedalian? Probably. Marion didn't like those people. Most of them used words like that to hide the fact that they didn't know what they were talking about, and the rest liked to show how Oh-So-Smart-And-Better-Than-You they were. And it looked like Pod was the latter kind. Double crap.

"So why keep it?" asked Marion. She began examining the murals on the wall. "If it was given to you by your enemies and is improper, then you don't really have a reason for keeping it. All it'll do is misinform people. And how do you avoid decay? Immortality?"

On a whim, Marion decided to test the waters. "But leaving that aside," she continued, "you've already given us evidence of decay. You forgot that people don't like incredibly loud voices booming in their head. And, you know, that's pretty basic. Even if your body doesn't age, if we hadn't come along, your mind would've eventually withered and turned you into a vegetable."

edited 24th Jan '13 9:47:09 PM by TeraChimera

[Tomb: Outside of Lair —> Braiching Hallway]

"Let's just get out of here before that thing talks again." Knives massaged the top of his head, but that somehow only made it hurt more. "Where do you think Rune went?"

He frowned. "Uh, do you have any ideas why they don't seem worried about walking in there and talking to that thing? Like, a legit reason other than the learning experience. Or did I just not catch it? I get lost in thought sometimes...."

[The Lair]

After recovering from her initial surprise from the Lich's psychic greeting, Haruka looked around the dim room, She noticed piles of ruined armor, leaking out some kind of acid that was slowly burning armor and giving an acrid odor. Wrinkling her nose, she scanned the room. She felt Cain's presence but did not see him. He must be there watching, hiding in the shadows.

Listening to Marion's last with the Lich made her wince. She had guts, but Haruka was now seriously afraid that Marion's moxie might end up dooming the others.

Of course, it could be her intention, which seriously worried Haruka.

She squinted into the darkness, facing away from the lights of the group's flashlights, trying to adjust her eyes. After a lot of searching, she could see a partially transparent Cain-looking figure shrouded in the shadows. They both held eye contact for a moment before Cain raised his finger to his lips.

Haruka nodded in understanding.

Vince stepped out to stand at the Lich's side as introductions commenced. Casting his eyes over the assembled crowd, the reactions were fairly standard ones of horror or vague interest. 

He was still interested in knowing how this necromancy worked, but kinship wasn't his point. Whatever, it was irrelevant now. 

He watched the young Asian woman from earlier commune quickly with her companion, who shrouded himself in shadows that might as well have made him seem even more noticeable. 

Might as well. 

Focusing on the man's personal bundle of energy, he zeroed straight in, attempting this multi-core processing-thing Precursors were so proficient with by focusing on the surrounding dialogues as he cast out his message to Cain only. 

{ An eavesdropper. Pray tell, what for? }

[Tomb: Outside of Lair] —> [Branching Hallway]

"Confidence?" Tucker suggested, massaging his forehead. "Marion seems to believe that can talk to the thing, maybe rightfully so. I hope so, or..." He gave one last glance towards the other side of the antechamber, now empty. Only the quiet echo of voices could be heard, too indistinct to make out whose voices they were, or what they were saying.

Tucker shook his head and waved the thoughts away with his hand. "Naaah..." he brushed a lock of hair out of his eyes and smiled, "They've got guns and magic, and whatever else. They can handle it."

He and Knives walked back to the room with four doorways, finally leaving behind thoughts of the tomb's dark inhabitant. Tucker placed a hand on his mouth and considered the room. "Well, as for Rune... he could be anywhere. Damn! I can't believe I forgot ask anyone if they had seen him. And... it's a little late for that now."

He sighed, looking around the room hopelessly. They could take a gamble, exploring one of the other passages- but that would risk getting lost, and missing Rune if he passed back through the central room. On the other hand, if they simply waited around for him to pass through, they could be there for ages— there was no telling where Rune was, and where he was planning to go. Tucker had no clue what to do.

He was trying fruitlessly to come to a decision, when an unusual figure suddenly zoomed right into the hallway, coming from straight across the room. Tucker instinctively jumped back into the shadows cast by the doorway he and Knives had emerged from, pulling the boy back with him and trying to hold onto his own surprised silence. The silence did not last long though, as the figure stopped and became clear. It was two people, it had looked unusual because one was supporting the other, the other being Rune.

"Rune! There you are!" Tucker stepped out of the shadows and walked over to the two men. "I've been looking everywhere for you. What happened to him?" His question was directed at the man who was with him— someone Tucker hadn't met, but vaguely recalled seeing earlier.





[Tomb: Pit Ascension] —> [Branching Hallway]

Rune spent several moments catching his breath when al-Faddil finally halted. When he'd finally gathered enough air to speak, he groaned, "Was it completely necessary... that we reached the top so quickly? Hm? I don't think... I would have died if we moved at a more leisurely pace. Now..." He laughed weakly, "I am not so sure... heh-heh huhuhuh. Oooohhh..."

He lowered his dizzy head. "How about some more of that chocolate?"

It was then that Tucker stepped into sight and approached them. Rune raised his head slightly, along with his eyebrows, at the sight of his partner. "Ah... you're here. This... this is good."

edited 25th Jan '13 6:48:19 PM by Ryuhza

[The Lair]

Cain's semi-transparent figure faded even more so he was just barely visible, feeling slightly exposed, and turned to Vince and shrugged.

I have nothing to say to them. he said very softly through Vince's connection. [The Pit]

"Don't touch that! It's cursed, you don't even know what it does!" Kaidza cried, swatting Amu's hand away.

"I guess we should continue..." Yet that skull...something about it...made her nervous.

I do have an idea of what the ankh's curse is.

edited 26th Jan '13 10:52:35 PM by Tehpillowstar

[Branching Hallway]

"Somebody wasn't paying attention to his blood sugar levels and they crashed. Not Rune's fault, actually." al-Faddil said, handing Rune another chocolate bar and waiting to see if he could hold it. "And in answer to your question, Rune: maybe. I have a very strong dislike of maybes."

[Pit]

Thomas' eyes widened at Kadiza's words. "Wait...did you say cursed?"

[Branching Hallway]

"Ah." John said, before noticing Tucker. It seemed that he already knew Rune. Maybe he could give a help him with his current condition. He himself wasn't sure what was wrong with the man.

"Are you Mr. Rune's friend?" Adam asked.

[The Pit]

Kaidza held up her crystal to Thomas. "This tells me when hazards such as extreme levels of radiation, lack of oxygen, or in this case, curses are near by. Dark gray means curse, obviously."

She turned back to the skull and its hand which held the ankh. "D'you think we should show this to Marion? It's definitely under what she's looking for. Maybe one of the mages around here can study it and tell us what it does."

edited 26th Jan '13 6:07:01 PM by Tehpillowstar

[The Lair]

Marina was still very wary about the whole situation, and the people she had decided to go along with were not behaving in a way that was especially comforting. Between the clunky suits of armour saluting like they were at some formal event and Marion making some kind of implied insult, she was starting to think that some of these people had a death wish. Regardless, aside from having a very strange appearance, this thing didn't seem very threatening. Or, at the very least, it was not outwardly hostile.

Whatever the case, Marina hadn't decided to stick around so she could make odd friends. She briefly glanced around the room; aside from the suits of armour, which looked mostly destroyed, she saw very little in the way of intriguing artifacts... But then again, she was still at the back of the group, and this temple was impeding her ability to sense anything that might be interesting. She subtly peered around the side of the group, trying to get a slightly better view of the room, when she happened to spot Haruka looking off to the side. Curious, she followed her gaze, and initially, she saw nothing. Taking her attention off the Lich for a moment, - an action she hoped she would not come to regret - she focused her senses in the general direction Haruka looked in and, cutting through the tomb's interference, soon detected a presence hiding in the shadows.

Well, well, well... She thought. I wonder who your friend is. Now seemed like an inappropriate time to ask either Haruka or whoever was hiding in the shadows about what was going on, so she stayed quiet for now. She didn't like being between two unknowns, however, so she quietly took about a half a step back. If things got bad, and she still suspected that they might, she could be the first one out of this blasted lair. After all, it's not like she had much motivation to help these people. Aside from a common goal of 'find something worthwhile', they scarcely even knew each other's names.

edited 26th Jan '13 8:32:00 PM by Blackfire667

[Branching Hallway]

"Heeeeeeey." Knives waved his hand in the general direction of the new folks. That would suffice, wouldn't it?

And he didn't know what to say beyond that, really. He was getting too tired and hungry to socialize and he missed his friends. But he didn't really want to say so, either. It felt kind of dumb, though.

[Tomb: Branching Hallway]

Rune gave forth another laugh, bitter, but with a pained fervor behind it. "Of course, of course... ' better safe than sorry. ' Always. Aha ha..." He reached up and gladly took the chocolate bar. Though he was weaker than he had ever been in his life, Rune was not in complete shambles.

Tucker shook his head slightly, confusion quite evident in his expression. "His blood sugar? But what caused— Rune, you've been eating, right?" Rune responded by taking a bite out of the chocolate bar and giving him a look. This did very little to alleviate Tucker's confusion.

Someone Tucker hadn't yet noticed approached and spoke to him. Upon first glance, Tucker recognized him as one of the teens he'd been surprised to find on the site. With him was another person, a man who Tucker had not seen before and who looked old enough to be the boy's father. He nodded in response to the teen's question, saying "Yeah, yeah, we've got a... partnership— A friendly partnership. It's a little more complicated than that, but it doesn't hardly matter."

Rune snorted a quiet laugh, with a wheezy, "Åh bror."

[Pit interior]

"Curses..." Jackson said, "Must be one of those magical traps al-Faddil mentioned." He turned to Nick and Thomas. "The adventure will wait. We need to get out and head back to the others now."

This time, Nick didn't complain or argue. Instead, he nodded in understanding. He was scared about what that curse was, especially since none of Jackson's inventions could handle magic (as far as he knew).

"Right." he said, "Let's get out of here fast."

[Branching Hallway]

"Oh." Adam said, before realizing something, "Oh! That means Ms. Marion and others are here too, right?"

John noticed Knives, and quirked an eyebrow. My...I wonder how many more young folks came here. I honestly thought it would only be Nick, Adam, and Jackson. Nevertheless, he waved back at Knives.

[Tomb: Branching Hallway]

Knives was obviously not aware that anyone was waving back at him, and he wasn't sure if he should stop or not. He did not, and he figured that his dark glasses might give them a hint at his condition and they'd say something to let him know that they had seen him. Then he remembered that he should probably find a cane-like something soon. But after eating. And sitting down for a while.

Wow am I a useless sack of shit or what.

edited 27th Jan '13 7:58:19 PM by LeungBaiFang

[Pit Interior]

"No, you misunderstood me. It's not the place that's cursed," Kaidza explained. She gestured towards the ankh, careful not to touch it. "It's that ankh pendant over there."

The Lich's rubbery limbs stiffened. It crossed the room in two massive strides in less time than it took to draw a breath and hunched suddenly down to bring it's warped skull of a head down mere inches from Marion's. A rush of air ruffled the chimera's wings. It was the only noise to hear, as the Lich's movement itself had been completely silent.

"If you must know, I intended to reclaim the phrase! You have no idea how long and sordid the history of the persecution my kind is! Or are you one of those philistines that thinks necromancy ought to be a banned art?" Its head curled up and tilted to the side in a haughty, questioning expression.

After a few moments of silence, it continued. "And you are incorrect. But, an understandable mistake considering your hopelessly biased mortal perception."

[Lair]

Marion didn't flinch when Pod invaded her personal space, but it was a near thing. She stood her ground, letting him scream into her face. Nerve: hit. Response: poor. Maybe she could use that against him sometime. She knew people like that, but it was a fine line whether egging them on would make them cave or drive them over the edge.

"Alrighty then," she said dryly, "tell me, how exactly were you to reclaim a phrase that is the exact opposite of you? Decay is, simply put, things falling apart. If you don't fall apart, the title 'Prince of Decay' doesn't suit you. 'Prince of Preservation' or 'Prince of Eternity' would be more apt." Marion probably wouldn't have said that had she not had considerable backup, but she did, so she said it.

"And how is your memory falling apart not decay?" she continued. "If I am hopelessly biased, enlighten me. And don't you think about trying to wiggle out of it by saying 'you wouldn't understand'. If you can't explain something simply, you don't understand it well enough." Claiming that Pod himself could just as easily be biased was definitely pushing it, so Marion let that part slide.

Wait a moment. Flies off the hinge at the slightest unforeseen offense... Attempting to get words to mean their antithesis... Avoiding direct answers... I wonder if he's insane.

[Lair]

A name chosen to intimidate. And then Marion had the bad grace to not be intimidated, vocally. He restrained a wince and shifted his weapon slightly, emphasizing that the two-meter collection of armor and weapons was still present, and perhaps everyone should be polite. "The assumption that everyone here meets the conventional definition of mortality is not well-founded."

[Branching Hallway]

"Don't ask me. People and their magic-infused consumables." al-Faddil said, amused. "Never make it past Consistency and Safety Department. Ought to at least have had a warning label."

edited 29th Jan '13 1:37:40 PM by Night

[Tomb: Branching Hallway]

Tucker paused, unsure of how best to answer. "Well, yes... but, at the moment, she and a bunch of others are dealing with a little something that's come up. I imagine it's quite a precarious situation, and I really don't know how well it's going." He bit his lip, not keen on the idea of pointing the two in the direction of the horror, even if there was a small company of multitalented individuals in there with it. They could all be dead, or possessed, or have had some other awful fate— he didn't know.

"Look..." Tucker said, "Some of the others found a... an occupant of the tomb. Down that way." He thumbed towards the hallway that he and Knives had come out of. "I didn't get a good look at it, but it was a big ol' creepy-crawly. What's more, it can talk to you with it's mind, and has already." He turned his head to look back towards the hall as he spoke, "I don't think anyone knows it's intentions yet, but... the thing gives me a bad vibe and I know I'm not the only one. It's just..." Tucker shuddered slightly. "Right now a whole bunch of them are in there trying to talk to it, so, y'know, enter at your own risk."

He glanced at Knives, noticing him waving and tapped his shoulder. "That's good, Knives."

Rune had stopped eating the minute Tucker mentioned "a little something", and was now giving him a strange, almost deadened stare. His mouth moved slightly, forming silent words as an idea began to build in his mind.

[Lair]

The thing moved startlingly fast, and Marina had nearly drawn her weapon, stopping herself at the last moment. It seemed rather offended about Marion's verbal poking, but that didn't seem to stop Marion from going at it again, regardless of the fact that it had rushed right up to her face. At the very least, the dragon-woman didn't seem the least bit apologetic. Was she counting on the aid of near-total strangers, should combat arise? That struck Marina as an incredibly risky - if not downright stupid - plan, especially since she hadn't discussed anything with them. Or at least, not since she'd had the misfortune of arriving on this Earth-imitation. And she was fairly sure it was an imitation now, because she could not recall any Terrans every mentioning dragon-people or Egyptian necromancers... But, in all fairness, she didn't pay much attention to Earth's history and whatnot...

Watching the Lich very carefully, she mentally weighed her options. Between the unknown figure hiding in the shadows off to their side and Marion giving this thing attitude, this was starting to look like a situation she didn't want to be in. And given that she hadn't spotted anything of value as of yet, this was starting to look like a 'high risk, no reward' scenario. She wondered in the Lich would try to seal them in if it got mad enough...