Growl From The Depths Of The Earth

Growl From The Depths Of The Earth
Date of Scene:	22 July 2014
Location:	Great Painting of Ariamis
Synopsis:	Priscilla asks for help exploring the deeper levels of the Burg, seeking one of the Bells.
Cast of Characters:	69, Priscilla, 75, 134, 152, 168, 283, 385, 395, Blurr, 513
Tinyplot:	That Dark Souls TP I Don't Know The Name Of

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Priscilla has posed:
    Far from Firelink Shrine this time, Priscilla's beacon draws followers right into the heart of the Burg, so far into its winding streets that the creeping moss and damp has smothered the walls in green. Taking the high passage of the outer walls, originally picked clean by the Hellkite that patrolled the skies up until recently, leads a rather safe road there, but it's a long, steep climb down rotten old steps and ancient, rusted ladders to the undercity below. Down here, the sunlight only just barely filters in, lighting narrow, ramshackle alleys and close packed buildings that couldn't have been inhabited by anyone of significant social class. It seems all of the rainfall channels down here, because the cobblestones are wet and slick, and nobody seems to have been able to light torches outside.

    Those arriving conventionally find Priscilla at the end of her ritual, surrounded by signs scrawled across the stones in glowing script, set at precise angles to form a circle around herself. Pocketing her stone, she faces each one of them in sequence; a more convincing circle of finely sketched runes flaring to life beneath her feet in turn as forms begin to take shape from names. One by one, the ancient script describing each Elite in sequences releases some kind of pale, colourless vapour, swirling together in the translucent ghost of a silhouette, and then steadily growing thicker. Solidifying, filling in, gaining hue and depth. Before long, she is surrounded by several familiar faces, looking not at all different from when they had originally sat down to wait for their calling. The sole difference seems to be that, where the light catches their edges; where it /should/ be darkest; the shadowy line instead takes on a bright, luminous colour.

Chris Rothschild (283) has posed:
    One of the first figures to appear is rather familiar at a glance, save for the fact that he glows with an otherworldly white light where shadows fall on his form. When Chris Rothschild takes shape in his summoning circle, he first looks down at himself, turning his hands over this way and that in surprise and intrest. "...pretty cool," he decides simply.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
As one of the few people who didn't want to come as a phantom this trip, Yuna had to head to the rendezvous point the old-fashioned way ... well, whatever 'old-fashioned' means when you have powered battlearmor that lets you fly, for instance. And it's in Flight Form that Yuna arrives, staying safely outside the circle while Priscilla finishes actually summoning them. Jiina and Marina descend behind Yuna, also keeping their distance; Elner is staying higher in the air for the moment, observing the area generally - checking for any signs of monsters that might try to jump the group while they're getting their bearings. (One might presume that Priscilla cleaned the area out before she started summoning phantoms; neither Yuna nor Elner are prepared to stake their lives on that presumption.)

Yuna's observations are a little more personal in nature: she wanted to get a look at how the others are able to fight as phantoms before she starts coming to Lordran via the same method that they're using. She has a suspicion about which type of Phantom she would be - and it didn't sound like it'd be a 'cheap' or necessarily-easy summoning, so ... yeah.

Ezio Auditore (75) has posed:
    Ezio is quick to arrive, having been brought up to speed on the whole thing. As the assassin nods to those who arrive in general, he looks up at Priscilla with a bow of his head. "Safety and peace." He says once her ritual is finished, before eyeing the stones until he finds his. He barely reacts to the fact he is glowing blue beyond a mere fascinated murmur, until he clears his throat and makes sure everything is still secured to his person.

    "An interesting means of summoning us, Lady Priscilla. This ought to make this easier, if I remember the details correctly." He says, folding his arms and awaiting a gameplan.

Faruja (152) has posed:
Faruja Senra, ever one to cling to pride and beliefs, refused the use of a phantom...even /if/ he's had the good grace to not mention his distaste for the ritual openly. The rat's face is a small, thin line. Luckily, having teleportation powers makes many, many things easier.

Sigh. "...I admit, 'tis at least useful." He mutters, shaking his head a bit.

"Any dangers we aught be aware of, Lady Priscilla?" After that? He's digging out holy water, annointing himself and anyone who desires it. This place smells evil, and he can't help but cough every now and then, looking quite green.

Sakura Haruno (134) has posed:
Flowers had momentarily forgotten that this was coming, and so had been making a trip from her bedroom to the kitchen when she'd been summoned. Not wanting to miss it or delay too long, she's presently deeply passed out on a couch there, something likely mildly awkward given her being the house doctor and all. Still, spirit being elsewhere wasn't exactly an unknown condition there. They'd figure it out.

There was a time when she would have definitely appeared as a blue phantom; vengence had totally been her thing, and nothing about that had required not being crazy. She'd been hoping, after reading the section prepared for the Union, to make it as a white or gold one. But no; there's still enough regret left to her, even now, that it's a black shade that appears from her name, dusting herself off as though that would help at all.

Blurr has posed:
    Blurr has also chosen the 'old-fashioned' way, as Yuna had, though again how 'old-fashioned' could you be if you flew into orbit on a spaceship and beamed down to the designated location on the surface all Star Trek- style? Probably not very.

    At any rate, the orbital jump looks like a bright blue beam that appears in the sky above and travels in an instant downward towards the rendezvous point, carrying the Cybertronian speedster to the assigned location. When the light is gone, Blurr is standing there, doing one of the thing he hates most in life: waiting, as Priscilla finishes her summoning procedure...thing.

Amalthea (395) has posed:
    And once again the ritual proves successful. Another phantom emerges from one of the markings, apparating into existence comes the figure of an armored knight. Twould be normal for the colors of the Astora surcoat and mail to be of a navy blue coloration, in physical person. But the phantom Amalthea appears, wreathed in a brilliant aura of gold and yellow, casting light about her as she steps into being; the one-eyed unicorn pauses, to glance at her palms, then to feel at her torso as if to verify everything is there, and seems somewhat satisfied. T'would have once been a time when her phantom, much like Sakura's would have been summoned black. But it would seem that time is over as she looks up and casts a glance around.
    "... Well aren't we a veritable fucking rainbow squad."
    ... Seems that way.

Chris Rothschild (283) has posed:
    Chris quietly turns his head to Amalthea.

    He stares at her for a few seconds.

    The corner of his mouth quirks just a little. "Do you feel pretty?"

Faruja (152) has posed:
Faruja hmph's, then gives a little smirk. "OH, come now Dame Amalthea. Thine colors suit ye!" Tries the rat, just for a touch of mood lightening in between prayers.

Finna (513) has posed:
    It's deep, dank, dark, and dreary, but even down here there is life... or at least... activity. From clear across the way from all of the summonings the shuffling of footsteps echo... and from one of the alleyways, out trots a... what in the world is that?

    A small creature, on four legs, with a delicate canine-like snout, a bushy tail... it looks like, yes, a fox. But it's all white save for the nose, somewhat orangeish slitted eyes, and thick black rims around the eyes. Arctic adaptations, no doubt!

    The critter's tense and alert, and for good reason. It freezes for only a moment before a harsh bark follows in its wake, and the fox breaks into a dash out of sight with one of those DAMNED HOUNDS on its tail. Off it goes... down another alley.

    Weird.

Nathan Hall (168) has posed:
    Nathan Hall is not here.

    But he IS taking a nap in Union Medical's newly revived SAO Elite ward while this all is dealt with, so he's come here as a phantom! There's a flickering faltering to it, as his chaotic spiritual space has so much crap crammed into it that it's a little long to get a link. It works fine eventually, though!

    Nathan's at least got slightly more control than he'd have to have to wind up a blue. So white it is, today, the guy shining a bit. He takes a moment to look around, of course, observing the undercity and making a lot of worried noises about it.

    "We are not even in the thick of our travels and I already dislike the environs," He says, plainly. "This speaks of disparity even without the blight of the Darksign." He shakes his head. "Well, this seems to be functional, in any case. Priscilla, do you have any briefings to offer before we move on?" Nathan seems ready to head to the other bell already!

    An aside to Amalthea, "I thought you are rainbow-themed regardless of chromatic shenanigans such as these?"

Priscilla has posed:
    Patrolling around the area, even from above, is a little difficult. The buildings here are all sat at the base of yet more above, rising up like stone towers before they even reach the upper streets which they support. Off in the distance, sputtering lights which can only be recently lit torches can be seen moving, or if one focuses more closely, darting shadows that move far too quickly to be hollows. The only undead in sight appear to have been mowed down well in advance, still left out on the street where their bodies will eventually disappear. In the interim, stray dogs; mangy, bloody and emaciated, can be seen tearing into whatever leathery flesh is left on the bones.

    Priscilla steps aside as the last summoning is complete, sighing quietly in relief that it had gone off without a hitch. As soon as she moves out of the way, looking past her reveals a yawning pit in the ground, cleary constructed deliberately by the curved bricks making up its circular entryway. A pair of ladders descend far past the point where the feeble light fails to penetrate, swallowed up by the blackness. Neither of them look particularly safe. She doesn't blame these few people for being understandably reticent about going straight down that hole. "As of this instant, few. Our assumptions of the presence of theives and cutthroats were not unfounded. They frequent this place like flies. Fortunately, they art not so mindless as to pursue a foe well beyond their means, and shall likely not follow us at any distance closer than wouldst be required to snatch valuables should the group hypothetically perish." As she moves to the edge of the pit, she casually tosses a little round stone down the hole, waiting several, long seconds before it hits the ground below, whereupon it shatters with an echoing little screech and releases a tiny cloud of rainbow light, at least illuminating the bottom. "As for what lies down there, I cannot say I hath been entirely eager to experience. An armed group wouldst likely be best."

    Her attention is momentarily distracted by the fox, instantly able to recognize something that doesn't belong to this undead ravaged hellhole. The vaguely welcoming expression she had managed earlier quickly fades to her more usual lack of one. "Those of thee who wish to act as the spear's tip, descend now. There art no manner of map to follow here, and no particular direction in which I may lead thee."

Faruja (152) has posed:
Blink. Was that a...fox? Faruja rubs his temples. Sure not, not in /this/ dank place. "Getting bloody hallucinatins. Knew this place was most accursed." Oh, where's good Ser Bedivere when you need a fellow religious knight to gripe to?

Peeeeek. A single eye peers over to the maw that Pris sees ladders set down upon. Cue a whistle.

"Brigands art one thing. Methinks we lot aught easily be rid of them. With Faith in our hearts and fire in our souls, let us see our valiant mission seen through! For these poor, accursed souls, and that their unholy curse be undone! In the name of the Holy Father and Saint Ajora, AMEN!" With that, and a Float spell, Faruja draws his Blaze Gun and floats down to the bottom with his weapon already raised. Perhaps not the smartest thing, but Priscilla's wards plight has him not exactly doing things the 'smart' way.

Chris Rothschild (283) has posed:
    Chris is most assuredly not the sort to take point. Because if he does, he will likely take a point. A spearpoint. To the torso. And that would be bad.

    So he opts to hang back just a little, letting the tougher sorts go ahead. He's already loading up spells on his PDA, though.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Yuna *was* just about to disengage from Flight Form, with Elner flitting down to join her given the lack of aerial visibility ... and then Pris indicates the shaft that the group needs to descend.

There are ladders. Which is good ... or would be, but Yuna is giving them a rather wary look. "Elner, stick close; Jiina, Marina, use your discretion - I don't know if I'll need either of you to swap in for Erina," she instructs the Matrix of Light. Then she flies over to the well that Faruja's already descending, and - after a quick mutter of, "Shugoseiheki," to summon her kite shield - Yuna descends as well, moving to take point if Faruja lets her. She can probably tank better than he can ... as far as she knows, anyway.

Ezio Auditore (75) has posed:
    Ezio can't help but snort in amusement at the go-between with Amalthea and Kaydon, "A long as this is going to keep us alive, I see no reason to complain. Besides, it is not as if we have any ground to talk from anyway given our usual chromatic preferences." He says, before eyeing the fox suspiciously, then he pops his neck as the shaft is revealed.

    "Tip of the spear, hm? Why not? I need the exercise anyways." He grins under his hood, before he without a hint of hesitation grabs onto the ladder and begins to descend to the lower levels. Thieves and other scumbags he is not unaccustomed to, considering his job. This isn't much of a threat to him on an emotional level, even if he descends carefully.

    He stops only to drop a flare down the rest of the way, letting it determine distance and also whether or not there is anything to keep an eye on down the shaft, such as platforms or traps.

    Or worse.

Blurr has posed:
    Blurr watches as Priscilla drops the stone a long way down, and the light radiates from the bottom. He's just eager to get going. He glances at her. "I'll go down first. I can scout ahead with minimal risk to myself, so." Yeah that wasn't even a question.

    He jumps into the hole, using his rear boosters to help lessen the impact of the fall--not that it would have really hurt him that much. Open reaching the bottom, he immediately begins scanning the area to determine which direction seems to be best one to take first. And once that's been discerned, he plans to zoom on ahead to take stock of any situation that the group may be encountering.

Sakura Haruno (134) has posed:
Sakura's shade seems fine with climbing down first, but she's far less eager to do it than some of the others in the group, and so she'll start to climb down carefully after those more eager sorts. She's only partly going to use the ladder, keeping a chakra grip as well as a backup, but also just to make certain everything works right in this body.

"This is one of the three strangest things involving souls I've ever done." She mutters, as she spots her own shadowy arm in front of herself. "I hope the bell isn't too far away."

Nathan Hall (168) has posed:
    Nathan stares down the hole, and gulps as the stone cracks at the bottom, but doesn't shift his stoic and emotionless expression. "I see. I am sure we can remain intimidating enough to scare them off. I think it would be prudent if I descend last." He says, with a frank sort of monotone. I mean, obviously he just doesn't want to jump into the hole and he's putting it off as long as he can, but at least it's tactically correct this time.

    As the others go, he stands patiently, still. He'll wait until the last of them is done before he nervously drops himself down the hole. How his fall gets softened is gonna depend on what's down here, of course, though he's ready to handle it himself if necessary.

Finna (513) has posed:
    Oddly enough, when Nathan Hall DOES jump down? he'll find something fuzzy brushing against his cheek after a light impact on his shoulder. The white-furred fox from earlier is on his shoulder! ... for all of three seconds. It sniffs curiously at his cheek much as any critter would - and promptly lurches back, sneezing.

    The creature hops off soon enough, and bolts further along the way, hunting for a hiding place!

Priscilla has posed:
    The ladders drop straight onto both sides of an underground waterway, surprisingly spacious for what was once a glorified sewer. Narrow stone pathways flank the sluices themselves, taking sharp turns around blind corners, and more than a little slippery to walk on. The water itself is at least, pretty clean looking. It's washed over a lot of rock and dirt and moss to get down here, and possibly a few corpses, but it's a drop in the bucket considering the volume of precipitation being channeled from the medieval metropolis outside. Everything seems to be covered in a thick layer of that invisible slime that forms over rocks in the beds of slow moving rivers, save for braziers spaced evenly along the way, all of which remain unlit.

    Luckily enough for blurr, the ceilings are just high enough to make way for him if he crouches a little, or else transforms into his vehicular configuration, though he'll also find astonishingly little traction on so much slippery rock. A penetrating scan of the area shows that the tunnels ahead are vaguely grid shaped, but the ground slopes here and there as the channels reach the next set of gates, slowly sending the water downhill one stage at a time. Nathan and Chris are both immediately privy to the only source of light aside from Ezio's flares, glimmering against the walls. Writing in the same language Priscilla had summoned them in; glowing orange in the dark; far apart, but very easy to see. Though Nathan is already well versed in the script, even Chris is able to decipher their meaning. They're little more than a series of fancy hobo markings that some other parties must have used to navigate by, marking dead ends or danger ahead, while unexplored passages that don't immediately lead to either are marked proceed. Sakura is instead treated to something less pleasant. Down the ends of the furthest tunnels, she can catch glimpses of ghostly shapes moving in the dark; pale blue against the pitch black, flitting in and out of sight around those awful sharp turns.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Yuna's happy to let Blurr scout ahead - and more happy that she was doing a controlled descent, although the ladders probably would've worked fine (in hindsight). She stays hovering for now, though, materializing her pistol and moving ahead, staying alert for what her phantom-mode allies are spotting and identifying. Navigating this labyrinth is probably going to be something very much like a group effort, *she* can't make heads or tails of those markings.

So it's mostly going to be Nathan or Chris who pick directions; Yuna will keep trying to act as a front-line meatshield/tank for the party, while attempting not to impede anyone whose abilities are going to be useful.

Sakura Haruno (134) has posed:
    This is one of the nicer sewers Sakura has been in, at least, as she reaches the bottom. Also, she's not wearing her actual body or clothes, which does help; a temporary existance is the best style for the sewers. She'll glance around, and squint a bit as she spots those blue figures off in the distance. "Aah, I think I see something." She'll call over, before starting to wonder down one of those tunnels to get a closer look at the figures if she can...

Faruja (152) has posed:
Frown. Slimey tunnels, unlit brazieres, and general darkness. Fumbling around in his belongings, the rodent motions to the others. "Stand back, kindly." Taking out a torch, the rat lets Yuna and Sakura get ahead before continuing on as Support Mage. With a torch. Which he quickly lights with his weapon.

"Much better."

Then, the rat's right behind the pair.

Ezio Auditore (75) has posed:
    Ezio leaps down when he's close to the ground, and he takes the lead alongside either Nathan or CHris. The markings get his attention, and judging by the translations Chris gives, he immediately tenses up and draws Cold Embrace. "Stay ready. Be on your guard." He warns calmly, before he advances at a steady and ready pace, producing another flare to light the way as he paces.

Chris Rothschild (283) has posed:
    Upon reaching the bottom and discovering that he can in fact read the scrawl on various pieces of scenery throughout the tunnels, Chris immediately starts stepping up a little more towards the middle of the group, rather than hanging back. This way he's in a good position to get looks at the marks as they go, and advise on which directions are marked as good... or at least, which directions are not marked as bad.

Nathan Hall (168) has posed:
    Ignore the previous pose, Nathan Hall just takes the ladder because I'm a goddamn moron.

    But there's a fox on his shoulder! The guy seems to fail to react, besides asking briefly if it's killing him or anything like that before it leaves. He honestly knows better than to assume against the existence of giant fuzzy spirit-leeches or things like that in Lordran. He makes various worried noises as the fox escapes.

    Nathan knows the script, so he's immediately setting about looking at all this. There's not much he can do besides offer his own navigational assistance, then, reading off the signs with Chris as the group moves along! Hall is more at work on sketching out a sort of map of what the past travelers say, though, to help guide the group if they don't have a white phantom next time.

    "I would assume these past travelers are pilgrims," He says. "And sought the same objective. But there is little else to guide us to the bell here. Be on the look out for any indications." Will his orange soapstone let him write alongside these? He does his best to endorse the correct signage when it's confirmed accurate. It keeps his mind off the slime and corpses, which have him nauseated.

Priscilla has posed:
    Amazingly, the torch actually manages to catch light as Faruja hits it. Oil and water don't mix after all, so the end at least has managed to stay nice and flammable in these humid underground conditions. More seriously though, someone has replaced these more recently than a century ago. Were these waterways used to hide survivors from the undead? Did pilgrims replace these as they went, with the idea of using them themselves on a later journey they never made? Are the thieves and bandits doing it themselves to navigate from point to point without using the upper city? Like a lot of things in this country, it seems that question will have to go unanswered for now. Lighting them as the group goes seems to work, at least for illuminating the way back and that's all that matters for the time being. It also provides a handy beacon for Sakura to get back to the group as she runs off in pursuit of what at first appears to be another phantom. As she gets closer however, she can tell they aren't the same. Whatever she's chasing is far less "there" than another phantom, to the point that she can see right through it. She rounds the corner to see the translucent, humanoid shape leap down a small ramp, and then seemingly be tackled from behind by some invisible assailant, before fading to nothing. On the same spot, she can spot a handful of human bones, all of which have been gnawed heavily. The rest of the skeleton is nowhere to be found.

    Priscilla descends once everyone has gotten away from the ladders, sticking to her smaller size while underground. She moves just past the rear of the group rather than letting Nathan sit at the back where he would be easily picked off. Both he and Chris will find their abilities immediately useful in territory with no visible end objective. Here and there, Priscilla diverges from the path a little to check the signs they point out, proceeding invisibly so as not to alert anything around the corner. After half a dozen correct notations, she simply lets the two of them mark as they go, trusting in which directions they indicate to narrow down their choices, allowing them to lead wherever they feel is best.

    Unfortunately, not everything has remained exactly the same since the last time anyone had ventured down here. After the first set of gates deeper into the sewer, Yuna and Ezio at the lead are lead to walk practically straight into a nest of rats easily each the size of a great dane, having grown swollen on the corpses that wash down every day, and yet clearly unhealthy from consuming the flesh of the undead. Even for rats, they're disgusting; fur falling out, dried blood caking their jaws, slimy little eyes, and even peeling skin here and there. They immediately swarm the first thing to step foot into their domain; piling out of the smaller rain gutters in waves of fur like stinking pirahnas before being driven back through the smallest of holes. Though the same creatures roam the hallways beyond, the group is fortunate enough not to run into another warren of them all at once, providing little challenge other than speedbumps to Blurr's driving.

    Going lower, the surroundings begin to change. Though the rats seem to have all but disappeared, one might actually want them back. Something that definitely isn't moss, mould, slime or sewage, starts to creep into the surroundings the deeper the group proceeds. Some putrid, oily matter that resembles flesh too closely for comfort, but with the consistency of jelly. At first it only appears here and there, speckling the walls or pooling on the floor. Sooner than later however, it begins to appear in great, smothering blankets, dripping from the ceiling and piling up on the ground where it petrifies and forms oozing stalagtites of the stuff. Worse still, either some of it is alive, or the sewers are home to some sort of predator that camoflauges itself in such environments, because more than once, what had appeared to be blobs of sewer goo detach from the ceiling and fall right into the middle of the group, mindlessly aiming t

Priscilla has posed:
    mindlessly aiming to land on people's heads and strangle them with some horrific, boneless strength. Even when they miss, they only sprout some horrible spines of some kind, turning into living roadblocks that are unbelievably difficult to kill.

    All throughout it however, anyone taking phantom form is able to look on each encounter with a set of new eyes. Every time a rat or a leech creature or even the odd wandering hollow is cut down, from the center of gravity where the corpse slumps over, little white motes of flame escape the body; hovering in an odd moment of serenity, burning in utter silence. Those so adventurous as to try and touch one find that they break instantly, dissolving into a kind of ashen mist that flows into one's phantom, which in turn causes the phantom's colours to brighten just the slightest shade. Any that are left behind, shortly make their way to Priscilla of their own accord; attracted to some inexorable personal gravity.

Faruja (152) has posed:
Faruja dutifully lights the torches they come across, making sure to keep one for himself as they head into the dark. Overall, he remains silent, casting a haste spell on should she make her way back to the group, as well as upon Yuna and Ezio. Best to make sure those on the front lines can move quickly!

Rats make easy targets for Faruja, should the others miss any; his blaze gun would soon have plenty of stinking, sizzling rodent. If there were those undead thieves, they'd all but have a buffet.

Instead, theres sewers, and cooked, mutated rats smell terrible.

"...Lady Yuna, what exact sort of life si...OHDEARFARAM'TISSTICKY!"

Suddenly, ooze. Poor Faruja very nearly gets one right atop him, teleporting a half foot away, only for the creature to drag him towards the beast! He claws, scratches, bites, and then eventually gets the bright idea to cast a spell.

The Esper Shiva fades into existance, and wracks at the appendage currently trying to devour the rat. It shatters, leaving him free. Namely, to start trying to not faint from the pure agony upon the senses after the /taste/. Shiva shakes her head, and continues to Ice the goo helpfully.

Nathan Hall (168) has posed:
    RATS THE SIZE OF GREAT DANES, HOLY CRAP!

    Nathan keeps his face completely stoic and his mannersism completely calm as he internally panics at the oversized rodents. Well, present company excluded. Faruja is okay. He likes books and is a pal. These things are awful and terrify Nathan.

    This has him, predictably, looking down at the ground rather than up when one of those slimes slams down on his head in one of the earlier encounters, starting to choke the life out of the helpless guy as he rather calmly struggles to disentangle himself. Someone should probably do something about that so Nathan doesn't suffocate.

Sakura Haruno (134) has posed:
    Flowers is less thrilled with getting to see those vision when she actually spots the horrible death of some poor slob. Of course, she'd spent more than a little time being haunted by her own ghosts noone else could see, so she's used to trying to pretend those weren't happening. She might catch on that they're an awful type of warning eventually, but for now she'll make her way back to the group.

    She'd be pale of not for being composed of black shadows.

    Sakura will follow along after the group, striking out at the rats if any draw near, and she'll pick up the bright light that appears from one that she gets a solid blow in on; there's a gasp from her as the light flows into her shade, making it at least a bit more substancial.

    That's interrupted by Nathan getting choked, which will get the medic to go and help, sort of, by punching at it. Hopefully she won't hit Hall in the face. Much.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
With Elner's advance warning, Yuna is ready - and while the sight of the giant rats makes her cringe, they're at least solid enough for her to shoot.

Then they reach the cavern with the vaguely biological-seeming jelly-goop stuff (things?) all over ... and as it starts congealing into larger forms - well, Yuna's composure doesn't stay that much better than anyone else's; her pistol is dismissed and she just starts going danmaku style with the pulse blasters that were concealed under her right vambrace.

(If she didn't have a big-ass shield on her left arm, she'd be using THOSE pulse blasters too, rest assured.)

Faruja's Haste spell is MUCH appreciated, to be sure. The appearance of Shiva and its freezing of the slime-goop-mold stuff, whatever you call it, is even more helpful.

Finna (513) has posed:
    "*RRRRRRAAOOOK!*"

    Such is the harsh and shrill cry of the fox that's been sneaking in and out of view, visibly thus far only in peripheral vision. It has been sneaking in little tunnels and picked up a bit of grime marring its otherwise shining and out-of-place white coat. The critter has been unmistakably tailing the group, dependent on the torchlight to see (even if foxes have nightvision most excellent, they need SOME light to see...) and apparently no simple creature of instinct.

    But it is startled out of its wits when it rounds a bend and comes across GIANT FREAKING RATS!

    The Illusion that made it so damned easy to miss promptly fails. There is an Arctic Fox in its prime winter coat down in the sewer muck, faced with a horde of GIANT SICKLY RATS, and its answer is to bark a tiny warcry and bare teeth!

    The fox promptly engages in EPIC BATTLE with one of the rats, with all the ferocity of a small dog harassing a larger one. It nips and bites and then GOES FOR THE JUGULAR.

    It might be way stronger than it looks, that's for sure.

Ezio Auditore (75) has posed:
    WELP. MOnsters. Time to get to killin'!

    Ezio freezes the rats Faruja does not cook, his sword stabbing and slashing at the massive rodents, muttering very impolite things as he does so, one rat taking a shot to the face from his bracer's hidden gun. While he does take the ones he can kill down, Ezio probably snaps up the souls that emerge through motions practically on accident.

    "...huh." He mutters something when he DOES realize the souls he's accumulating, before he moves on further down the path. The ooze monsters do not make this easy, and he lets out a shout before he tries to fell a leech creature before it tries to choke him out. "Foul beasts! I should've brought whatever Faruja has, at this rate!" He swears, before chopping away at anything slimy and hostile.

Chris Rothschild (283) has posed:
    They are in some seriously creepy surroundings, that's for sure. Even Chris can't help but show a bit of unease on his face. But he keeps his PDA out nonetheless, and when they come upon a nest of rats, he is quick to hand out beneficial spells to the frontliners. That quicksilver 'reactive armor' in particular.

    When Nathan is assaulted by a slime, on the other hand, his expression grows slightly more urgent, and he finds himself looking between general and gizmo several times. He has a way he could help remove the thing. But it would also suck for Nathan. But dying would suck more. Uh... shit.

    "I, uh. I apologize for this in advance."

    Chris loads and fires a spell. It is very simple. A lightning spell of the lowest order. It is, in essence, a magical taser blast, aimed right at the slime in between Sakura's punches.

    It's gonna kind of suck for Nathan, too.

Priscilla has posed:
    Cold and heat are both far more effective on the living puddle of filth and decay than blades and bullets are, that's for sure. When exposed to the extremes of the elements, they wilt and die rather quickly, and even when Chris more or less tazes the one wrapped around Nathan's head, its liquid body seems to seize up as a muscle would and fall from his face; but when stabbed or shot, horrifically they actually begin to bleed; spurting bright red blood all over the unfortunate attacker. In fact, as the odd scuffle carries out of line and into the surrounding channels, so does the /rest/ of the horrible, fleshy goo. Stray shots that hit the piles of oily matter congealed on the walls or piled up in the corners kick up rotten belches of thick, red blood, like popping a grotesquely oversized blister. It's not worth finding out just how or why any of this stuff would or could have developed a circulatory system. The idea that it might be pumping blood to somewhere is just too horrible to contemplate.

    It's a significant relief when the group finally stumbles out of the lowest levels, where the water channels grow deep and wide to carry the tide from the tributaries up above, and thus choked with organic matter. The last stretch can only lead to the outlet, where the water goes to the ocean, most likely from the cliff edge itself since it doesn't seem /that/ far underground. The room the signs lead them to appears to be a gatehouse of some kind, like a sort of office for the unlucky engineers who once spent shifts down here when times were simpler, working the gate pulleys to regulate the flow of water; including a stairway to the main gate itself, and a supply room to keep what they would have had to eat, dry. Indeed, cranks and chains can be seen mounted all over the walls here, all in various states of rust and disuse after having been pulled up all at once for some reason. What else is in the room, is far worse.

    There is only one figure here in the dark, labouring over a set of dim candles only barely illuminating one corner of the room. A tall, hefty human silhouette, with sickly, greenish bare arms, wearing a blood spattered smock and some kind of crude, burlap mask. The steady sound of a knife on a chopping board permeates the room; the repetetive, dull thunk echoing up the pass. The figure is practically up to its waist in butchered meat; huge cuts that could only have come from cows or pigs, smaller ones obviously from choice rats, some inbetween from who knows what (perhaps the dogs?), and absolutely massive sides that would be more easily imagined as the innards of an elephant. THe floor is just drowning in blood, mostly dried, making a surface even stickier than the floor of a seedy movie theatre. There's no way even twenty people could eat this much meat, and it's all raw as well, without a campfire in sight.

    Again, Sakura is the one cursed with the truth. There are phantoms in this room. Perhaps hundreds. Some of them wander, some of them appear locked in mock combat, and some can be seen sliding or crawling across the floor. Most are all overlapped in one space, congealing together into one, white, foggy mess. Right on top of the table the butcher works over; every last one of them, writhing in pantomimed agony.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Yuna looks distinctly and decidedly unhappy even after we've gotten past the last of the slime monster(s)... but the sight of a big room FULL of meat and one large figure acting as a butcher, on top of what we've already gone through, makes her press back against the corridor wall just outside that room. "Jiina, get up here ..."

It takes just a moment, after the green-and-white android gets to the front of the group, for Yuna to disengage from Flight Form and shift into Powered Form. She really REALLY wants armor and firepower before continuing onwards, and Powered Form is the best option she has for both of those.

Once she's re-conjured her shield, and has summoned the Matrix Divider for her primary weapon, she's ready ... and she heads inside, on point once again no matter *how* much she'd rather be bringing up the rear .... or even, y'know, holding the door so everyone else can beat a hasty retreat if push comes to shove.

Faruja (152) has posed:
Somewhere amidst not getting too awful goo'd, Faruja can't help but wince. Poor Nathan. He seems like such a nice, if distant, guy. Mental note, buy him a drink after this.

Hoark, ptah! With his mouth sufficiently free of goo-gunk, the rat manages to gasp out to Ezio, the man seeming to do well enough between the lot of them at not getting devoured. "Her name is Shiva. Introduce ye when we art not getting killed."

With the creatures felled, Faruja is scowling deeply. "...The Lord ever seeks to humble his Servants." Mutters the rat, trying to not smell, or taste too deeply.

Faruja is glad for his float spell, leaving him a good inch off the ground. With a glance to his fellows, he summons up the emerald form of Carbuncle, covering the group in a shining shield of green that would blunt much of the physical powers of an opponent. He doesn't yet attack, not sure what to make of the man in the sack just yet.

Sakura Haruno (134) has posed:
    Sakura is rapidly coming to the conclusion that this place rather sucks. Even more than when she'd just known about the undead curse and the spending of souls and all of those other more minor things.

    Nothing is going to accelerate that more than when they reach the room with what everyone else sees as a single figure and what Flowers sees as a complete slaughter. Lots and lots of parallel little murders. She's just going to stand there and let out a small noise, her fist clenching for a moment as her eyes go wide. That may or may not be enough to give away their position, but other will likely take care of that regardless. Give her a moment first to recover from the sight.

Finna (513) has posed:
    Now covered in GIANT RAT BLOOD - or at least, several splashes of the foul-smelling stuff - the Arctic fox is still shamelessly tailing the group, apparently unmolested or unquestioned on its... whatever mission it is that has it down here.

    But it's one of the first into the Butcher's 'workshop,' and it immediately enters sneak mode to stay out of the one whackin' up all the meat's sight.

    The fox, however, is inspecting the giant meat slabs, hopping about and sniffing at them. Never once does it touch any of them. The little black nose wrinkles in distaste. Eventually, the vixen outright sneezes with a rapid shake of the head, recoiling away from the cuts in utter revulsion.

    Human noses might not be sensitive enough to detect the shape the meat's in at range, but apparently foxes don't like them.

Nathan Hall (168) has posed:
    Nathan is somewhat electrocuted, and then punched in or around the face area repeatedly. Jesus this is awful. He keeps an entirely calm demeanor as Sakura Haruno hopefully can punch this thing off of him after it gets stunned by Chris Rothschild.

    The process is painful, but thankfully, Nathan has some resstance to electrical damage and pain due an assortment of past shenanigans. So at least he survives the process, and gives thanks - reluctant or otherwise, it's hard to tell with that monotone - to Chris and Sakura before he moves on.

    "Oh," Nathan says. "There is someone else down here." He seems unfazed by the meat. I mean, it's a bit troubling, but it's better than corpses, right? Butchers are fine people who have jobs necessary for meat handling business and Nathan holds no prejudice at all regarding the butcher. "Salutations." He asides politely. If this guy's still sane enough to be preparing meat, surely he won't mind some travelers passing through.

    He doesn't like the blood though. Jesus christ there's a lot of it. He does his best to not look down on it and ignore the sticky noises from his feet as he checks the exits. Well, there's the outlet. Cliff-edge most likely, and no sigs pointing to it, so probably not the way to go. There's also the stairway up, right? There doesn't seem to be much else. With the others in front of him, he's gonna head towards that. "Apologies for the bother, we are just passing through." He says as he seems to be heading up.

    Nathan IS wary for this guy having Hollowed. But he's not doing the Wandering Killer thing almost all Hollows seem to do in Nathan's experience, so Nathan approaches this with caution but not hostility this time.

Ezio Auditore (75) has posed:
    Ezio is certainly one to occasionally flirt on the fairer sex, but at the same time, he also knows this is hardly the time. "Really now, Faruja?" He admonishes the priest briefly when he attempts to 'hook Ezio up' so to speak, but he does spare a glance Shivaward before he shrugs and carries on.

    As the group is lead into a butchery room, he narrows his eyes and steels himself for the stench of meat being rendered by the namesake butcher himself.

    Ezio is quick to avoid being spotted, his gaze turning to what must've been the same fox from before, and he keeps a hand on his sword just to be safe.

Chris Rothschild (283) has posed:
    The fox will find Chris staring at her for several seconds. It is pretty obvious he is seeing something about her most people wouldn't.

    But most of his attention is reserved for the meat-cutting... entity, and those between him and it. Just in case he has to toss an augmentation on them quickly.

Finna (513) has posed:
    Regardless of being stared at, with Nathan Hall approaching the Butcher and breaking the tense silence, the fox WHIRLS AROUND and immediately lets loose with another shrill BARK noise.

    No words are conveyed in it. One cannot even hear the usual 'translation effect.' But still, there is no mistaking that there IS intent behind that bark and the intense stare the creature's sending Nathan's way.

    'You're walking towards death!'

Priscilla has posed:
    As Nathan does the single most ridiculous thing anyone of sound mind could possibly think of, in walking straight up to the butcher and introducing himself like a colleague, it looks up from the table to him with glowing embers in the twin holes cut from the sack over its head, staring into him not with the long-gone gaze of a hollow, but not very far from it either. "Meat." is all it manages to croak from under its burlap hood, picking up a much larger cleaver from a wooden block; pushing the table side with one beefy arm. "It's . . . still hungry. Need more meat." Obviously it doesn't realize Nathan's phantom body wont provide any. Is this how the final stages of hollowing look? Where the clearest, and only, memory remaining is that of what they just happened to be doing before they started to slip. Endlessly repeating the same task as it becomes the only thing they know how to do.

    Any thoughts Nathan may have on the subject are cut brutally short. The cleaver wielding creature suddenly reaches for its chest as its ribs part with a sickening crack; a veritable fountain of blood spraying over Nathan as its chest simply opens up. As though pulled up off the ground by a meat hook, it winches towards the ceiling, burbling gorey foam through its sack cloth mask. As it swiftly goes limp, rather than being reeled into the jaws of some hidden monster, it is tossed unceremoniously to the floor, and Priscilla is left standing behind it; scythe already dripping. "Precisely how suicidal art thou feeling today, Sir Hall? Hast the relative safety of using a phantom body emboldened thee so, or hast thou simply lost thine mind from being underground too long?" With as much scorn as she can manage to direct towards poor, undeserving Nathan, she points sharply towards the supply room now visible from where he stands. Every last barrel is piled high with wet, glistening organs; hacked from the bodies processed into sides of rancid steak and thrown together in oozing jumbles. Most of them look human.

    With the immediate threat gone, the rest of the party is free to filter into the room. There is little to see that they couldn't from the entryway. Since there had been no signs indicating danger at this point, this room must be where all the surviving adventurers had been ambushed and killed, possibly by multiple assailants, before reaching the end of their journey. The most obvious reason is that this point must be required to pass to the next bell. Why else would so many people over such a vast stone labyrinth all come to the same spot? It's difficult to imagine that a single person could have cut so much meat before it would all go rotten, but either the others are out finding more, or had all gone hollow long ago and departed, leaving only the last of them retaining an inkling of purpose.

    In any case, the only way forward is down the narrow stairs and out into the side of the far wider passage beyond, barred by a massive, iron grate, just barely keeping up with torrential flow now coursing down from outside. Perhaps there might still be something of use lying around, but that depends on one's willingness to sift through fresh human remains.

Faruja (152) has posed:
Luckily, before Faruja can retort, Shiva bonks him on the back of the head. He'l be picking ice out of his fur for a while. Mutter mutter mutter.

Priscilla makes his preperations moot, and he can't help but feel a bit sorry for the poor hollowed guy. At the same time, he makes a mental note. Could be useful, that trick.

The rat pats poor Nathan on the back. The phantom back. "...How cruel." Priscilla, or the guy's death? Who knows.

The priest does his job, and says a small prayer for the now meathook hung man. Then, he turns to the rather vulpine member of the party. Kneel!

"...My, my, my, how hath a little fox come here? Coming along?" With that, the rat offers an arm. If Finna wants, eh could hop onto his shoulders and arm!

With that, he's off towards the staircase, letting the usual trio take point.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
"Thanks for the warning," Yuna says (a little wryly) to the white fox. No, she didn't hear what the fox barked at Nathan, but she *did* hear the barking and saw Nathan stop ... and then the butcher got butchered by Priscilla.

Which is honestly a pretty massive relief to Yuna. That's one fight she was *NOT* looking forward to ... even (especially?) if the Butcher was actually human rather than demon.

Still, the path forward seems to be clear for now, and if the path is big enough for Yuna to stay in Powered Form, she does so. Otherwise she switches back to the basic Light Suit, with Jiina sticking close so they're ready to combine again.

Sakura Haruno (134) has posed:
    Sakura will go into the room, having shouted a warning at Hall after coming out of her reverie, and get a good solid look at the supply room. Between her inside information and the barrels of what she completely recognizes courtesy of being a master medic as human (partial)s, she's about ready to find this bell and get on out of here.

    "The people who wrote those warnings are probably in there." She says, morosely, gesturing towards the room. "We should hurry to get through with this place or we'll end up joining them."

Nathan Hall (168) has posed:
    Nathan suffers a huge spray of blood. He maintains a stoic composure throughout.

    "He was going to see us either way." Nathan says, honestly. "I was simply unaware that Hollows still had any cullinary interests. Apologies, Priscilla." From the tensing in his body, at least, it's fairly easy to see that he was just about to dive-roll away because of Finna and Sakura Haruno's warning - ideally not a crappy midroll like that time with the drake - but thankfully didn't need to. He then makes a worried noise as he examines the supply room, but keeps that blank expression in spite of deep and intense disgust and horror.

    Then he wipes the blood that got all over his face off of him with one sleeve - also wet - and with an approximation of cleanliness seems to agree that heading down those stairs would be a good idea. He stares at the fox for a moment, tilting his head, but doesn't seem to have directly cognized the fox's connection to his warning. There's an agreeing nod to Faruja too, though he's not sure what's cruel here. Everything is cruel in Lordran.

    Let's get down those stairs. He sets about examining the grate, as well as the rest of the passage, for signs of how to proceed. Or, you know, weaknesses in the grate, if "how to proceed" is brute-force break-through. Is the "water" shallow enough and slow enough to stand in? Is there a door in the grate? Maybe he should check the Butcher's body for a key? Who knows. Let's go see what's up in the next part.

Finna (513) has posed:
    There's some surprise in the fox's eyes as it's strangely approached - jsut as she was about to trot off and follow the sounds of running water. But having a rattemplar bending down nearby and addressing it gives the creature pause.

    There's a strangely tense moment of silence and meeting eyes.. then, in a hurried, somewhat cat-like move, the fox rubs its body along Faruja's legs! Specifically, clothy parts that aren't yet all mucky.... ... to clean itself off of some of the worst.

    THEN the vixen hops up the arm and perches on Faruja's shoulder, chirping in a trill-like fashion in his ear, as if to say 'this place sucks.'

Ezio Auditore (75) has posed:
    Ezio tilts his head as the butcher suddenly falls apart, before he shrugs a shoulder and glances at the fox. Sheathing his sword, Ezio lets Faruja handle the fox while he himself wanders up the stairwell, taking point once more.

    He's hardly sheepish, as he is quick to search through remains to find something useful among the butcher's body as well, rifling through pockets and possibly the insides. He's thorough like that.

    Whether or not he finds anything, Ezio will probably be holding his nose to keep the smell from overpowering him, teeth grit.

    After he searches the body, Ezio makes his way up the stairwell, with whatever he might have found provided it is of use.

Priscilla has posed:
    Ezio won't find much of use. It seems the butcher's interests were solely limited to cutting up massive amounts of totally inedible meat, and then possibly throwing it out when it went way past its expiration date; or else taken by some other part of this operation. Unless he wants a large supply of rusty cleavers, or else the personal belongings of those people in the barrels, all heaped up into the corner, there's only one thing that really catches any interests. Stuffed in the front pocket of the butcher's smock, is nothing but a little ring; too small for his swollen fingers by far. It's a modest, pewter affair, set with a little piece of onyx in front, flawed in such a way that a stark white divide runs down its center. It looks totally unremarkable, but staring at it gives him an inexplicably disturbing feeling. The light catching in the black gem doesn't seem to match the angle at which he turns it at all. It seems to shift within the gem; writhing, almost.

    The floodgates themselves are a sturdy affair, built of what might have been bronze before the surface turned black, most likely to prevent rust. It's thick and heavy, and likely isn't meant to be pulled up all the way unless the city was to experience a storm, however a pair of hand cranks on either side of it attached to the two bundles of chain required to pull it up. Peeking through the grating, one can see an utterly gargantuan chamber beyond, half using cut stone, and the other half left completely untouched; carved only by centuries of water into a cavernous waterfall.

Blurr has posed:
    By the time everyone else arrives in the wider passage blocked by the grate, Blurr has already been here for several minutes. Slag, there's sure a lot of dead humans in here. Yech.

    The speedster can be seen pacing back and forth in front of the grate, though he stops and looks up when everyone else arrives. "Finally Primus took you all long enough!" he grumbles impatiently. "So what's the plan here are we going to just blast this thing down or what?" he asks, glancing at Priscilla since she seems to be the one who knows the most about this weird place. "Or I could take a look at what's on the other side."

Chris Rothschild (283) has posed:
    Oh shit Nathan, be care-

    ...ful.

    Chris is stopped with his arm halfway extended, as early warnings pull Nathan back and then Priscilla neatly cuts right through to the heart of the problem. And thankfully, that seems to be it. So he lets out a little breath, then relaxes. Priscilla's logic seems sound; no one survived to mark this place as a danger, but everyone came here, meaning it's somewhere people have to be - somewhere more people might come in the future. And the butcher may not be the only one of his kind.

    So it makes sense to leave a mark for others as marks were left for them. Once Priscilla has actually explained the process and either she or someone else has given him the necessary items, he'll head back a little ways to do just that. He plans to mark it as both 'dangerous' and 'the right way'.

Priscilla has posed:
    Priscilla looks to Blurr with a hint of impatience, which is strange for someone who arrived there first. It's more than a little jarring for him to be trying to converse with them so casually after they'd just had to wade through such godawful scenes on the way down here, instead of rolling all over it like a series of speedbumps. "Whichever thou enacts matters little to me. If by some miracle, this gate is needed again in the next century, I am happy to leave it to such future residents to build it anew if need be. The chamber beyond is all thine. I imagine the falling water descends to some manner of oceanside shrine. Such wouldst be a fitting place."

Faruja (152) has posed:
One brow twitches as the little fox wipes off /more/ muck onto his robes. "...Definitely burning these bloody things." Mutters the rat. Still, the little fox finds a comfy seat on his shoulder. An ear perks. Maybe it's due to his animal-like features, but his ears just fall back. "Bloody right." A smile, and a glance to Finna.

Silver. The little creature has silver about the ears and tail. His steps fall short for just a moment. It's strange, and something about it seems vaguely familiar. His eye narrows just a moment before he's heading on. There's floodgates and handcranks before them.

"Rather large..."

Shrug. "M'Lady Priscilla, I personally find this place a horrid den of the lost, damned, and unfortunate. Expediency, methinks, wouldst do us all a touch of good."

With that, he raises a hand, and starts to press with the force of a gravity 2 spell upon the floodgates, intending to simply blow them out of their hinges. From the way he grits his teeth, the Burmecian is putting more than a little magicl oomph into this one.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Yuna moves to assist with the gate, if need be. Powered Form does have the physical oomph to help move those gates, whether by turning the cranks or just by pushing ... although Faruja's spell seems to be focused more on removing the gates entirely.

Which is okay by Yuna, even as much as she dislikes gratuitous property damage as a rule.

Sakura Haruno (134) has posed:
    Sakura will start towards the gates to help out when others go and possibly blow the gates down, getting the medic to stop short. "That wasn't really necessary. What if we need those later?" She chides, mostly because she does actually have both strength and the ability to deal with rust to some degree.

    It's not actually likely they'll need them, of course, and Sakura will forget about it relatively quickly to hurry into the next area. "Do you think it's much further? Clearly, no others have made it this far anytime recently..."

Blurr has posed:
    Blurr shrugs and there's a low hum as his weapon components emerge from his body. If she doesn't mind, then he prefers the quicker method. Being as large as he is and down here in this enclosed area, the blast is probably quite loud and bright to everyone else in the area. Presumably that should take care of the floodgate.

Ezio Auditore (75) has posed:
    Ezio takes the ring after inspecting it, then he glances up to Blurr with a curious look. "I hope you have something that can get this gate open, yes?" He asks the Cybertronian. Somehow he seems to only react to the GIANT ROBOT CAR DUDE, only for Faruja and Yuna to get that in hand.

    Until then, he folds his arms and waits for whatever lies ahead.

Nathan Hall (168) has posed:
    The others seem to have this stuff under control. Nathan's got his girly little noogle arms, so he's not gonna be cranking anything anytime soon. And there's really not much to do until they're past this.

    So, for now, Nathan occupies himself with a few things. First and foremost: Working on the map. Secondly, he's back in the chamber with the orange soapstone. He's... He's writing out food orders on the butcher's table. All of them explicitly say "hold the human cuts". Should last a while, right? Maybe it'll take to the Hollow mentality. This is a convenient bit of stupidity to indulge far away from the loud noises of explosions.

Priscilla has posed:
    With three Elites going at it, the floodgates, designed to hold back water rather than heavy fire, crumple inwards and explode through to the other side, sailing through the air before clanking off the ground, skidding over the wet stone, plunging into the artificial river in the center of the room, and then falling well over the edge of the gigantic cliff that terminates the chamber halfway through. The sound of rushing water is distant enough that the closer noises of it dripping from broken pillars is easily audible over it, lending the whole place a kind of oceanic air. Rather large chunks of the wall on the opposite end are missing, letting weak sunlight beam in through the cracks to illuminate the surroundings as though the earliest hour of morning.

    Then of all the goddamn things, there's a voice. Not the voice of Oscar or Griggs or someone who might actually be welcome, but those low, rumbling tones heard in the parish; both times in fact. The echo of footsteps can be heard overhead, before another blue-robed figure comes into sight at the edge of a balcony that sits several floors up from the chamber floor. It is extremely unlike it's the same figure, but it's impossible to tell them apart by voice alone. This one seems far less interested in the party as well. "Nine. That's a rather large number. There's no use describing it, too many non humans. Just look. Yes precisely. The maneaters must be out. No matter, this is a perfect opportunity for a test. The last feeding was three days ago, as a metric. Yes? Of course. Commencing."

    Having rumbled out all those strange words; the strange, one-sided conversation parseable only though the understanding effect; the sorceror slaps the butt of his staff down on the balcony stones, and the chamber suddenly rattles with a wave of invisible pressure; blue mist rising from the ground for several short moments. Then, the chamber rumbles again. This time, the tremor runs deep through the earth. Loose gravel and bits of masonry rattles where it sits; the water rippling and sloshing along its steady path to the precipice. And, because it cannot possibly be described any better, this is the sight the Unionites behold.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIqgfTBXe_o

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
What *IS* it about this place that makes Yuna not want to take vanguard duty? Dog-sized rats, semi-animate ooze, a 'butcher' that Yuna could only tell after the fact was still human, and now a kaiju-sized monster whose actual mouth seems to *BE* its entire underbelly.

Yuna doesn't scream, exactly. More like a breathless gasp at a far higher pitch than even her voice usually goes - and as much as she would REALLY like to turn around and run like hell, she finds herself digging in her heels, the gold 'lenses' in Powered Form's outer shoulders opening ...

And she cuts loose with the beam cannons, trying to 'feed' as much firepower to the Gaping Dragon up-front as she can in a single double-barreled blast. Maybe she was actually too scared to run away, but she'll try and figure it out later - the important thing is not to get swallowed. Right?

Faruja (152) has posed:
Faruja hardly has time to consider the voice fo the blue robed figure. No, once the floodgates are gone, there's the rising figure of an absolutely horrifying dragon. One that, not only is missing much of what it should have, has nothing more than a gaping maw for a 'chest. The Templar freezes for a moment in absolute horror, before every single fur on his body rises.

"DAEEEEEEMMOOOONNNN!!!" Yells out the rat in a zealous fury, the abomination of a dragon striking every holy chord in his soul. Without a moment's hesitation, he begins casting, trusting his friends to try to keep him safe from the monstrosity that is the gaping dragon

"OH FURY OF THE HEAVENS, CRASH DOWN UPON THE UNWORTHY! METEOR!"

If there was a hole in the chamber before hand, the crashing meteor that descends from the morning's light to try to crush the Gaping Dragon into ground and water alike may well add even /more/ sunlight into the room...or at least keep it from etting close enough to swallow them.

Ezio Auditore (75) has posed:
    Ezio glares up at the robed beings, his hand immediately going for his sword's hilt. "WHoever you are, you'll find we are not so easily purged!" He roars at them, leveling his gunsword at them to fire upon them just as the monster makes itself known. "what in the-"

    And it's clear he has more important things to deal with than the robed people, and the assassin beholds the monster with dawning shock. "...Hell."

    As Faruja screams, Ezio waits for the spell to take its effect, and Yuna's blasting to die down, before he advances with gunsword leveled and firing upon the monster with ice-shard bullets. Pewpewpewpewpewpew-!

    When he gets in range, Ezio grabs his crossbow before launching an explosive bolt, making sure to keep moving to avoid getting pinned by the monster's attacks.

Nathan Hall (168) has posed:
    Nathan Hall finishes up his memo and returns just in time to see the roar.

    Once again, he keeps his mental state straight under an onslaught of pure terror. Though he does make a weird sort of meek fearful noise.

    Well, nothing for it but to get going then. Nathan immediately sets off, dashing to one side, trying to use the large space to his advantage by keeping away from it.

    Meanwhile, he does what he came here to do: Specifically, he attempts to SCAN the beast for vulnerabilities using his magical senses. How like dragon in the painting is this one? Can they use the same tactics? Nathan intends to find out, and then yell the results to the others so they can use them.

    And while he finds out, Nathan intends to RUN AWAY and keep out of people's way.

Chris Rothschild (283) has posed:
    The rise of the Gaping Dragon is enough to register horror on even the perpetual grump that is Chris Rothschild's face. "Oooooh, /fuck/," he mutters under his breath.

    And then, rather than freeze, he acts. Sakura is the one to receive his magic this time; as before, it's a spell of quicksilver, one that will flow around her and ablate as it softens blows to her body, but unlike the version Amalthea receives, the one he gives to her has an additional effect. A subtle, low-key electrical current, one that gently boosts her physical parameters very slightly. She is, quite literally, being energized.

Sakura Haruno (134) has posed:
    Sakura was, on some level, looking forward to getting to enter melee with more reckless abandon than a medic typically is able to. Priscilla's hesitancy to her question, and Rothschild's request that she hold still, both conspire to keep her standing over the balcony. She does not have a great many ranged attacks and so would need to go assault the thing face to giant gaping open ribcage horror if she really wanted to lay into it.

    She'll simply wait for someone to get hurt or an obvious opening or indication to move.

    But the buff that she recieves certainly appeals, and she'll launch herself towards the dragon, having nothing to fear from a fall of this distance other than the horrible monster coming her way; between the buff and her own boosted strength, though, she intends to hit it as hard as she possibly can at least once.

Finna (513) has posed:
    The fox shrieks in alarm from Faruja's shoulders upon the dragon-like THING's appearance, its jaw just gaping, ears and tail both stiffening. It's instantly alert, with all eyes on the creature. Sure, the efforts to OPEn the door had gained its attention, but it seemed to have been rather enjoying the chance for a breather and a free ride OUT of the muck and grime.

    But no longer. The Snow Fox bunches her legs and VAULTS from Faruja's shoulders no less than a DOZEN feet into the air... and then...

    It Changes.

    The tiny quadrupedal body straightens even as it curls up into a midair somersault, and it expands. All the fur seems to travel in a wave up its body, leaving it naked - no, not quite naked. A simple, but form-fitting silvery-blue bodysuit that shows plenty of skin on the upper arms. As the woman lands with cat-like grace on her feet and stands to her full height, she grins ferally and tosses her head back once to get the explosion of white hair from her eyes and over her shoulders. Somewhere in all the confusion, she's pulled out a shortbow and quiver - HOW?! - though it is a simple affair of laminated wood, with only a little recurve.

    With a necklace of strung fangs dangles and rattles around her neck, she brandishes the bow eagerly, and sees fit to cry out, "Well then! I know nothing of this bell you seek, travelers, but you are like a light in this hellish gloom."

    Oh yes, about now it becomes quite apparent - this girl's not QUITE human - or is she? A pure-white fuzzy tail sprouts from her rump through a slit in her clothing, and it's idly waving about. Similarly, fox ears spring from her head, through her hair. They swivel about, catching stray sounds and staying alert.

    The filthy waters shimmer and shine from a new light source - a faint silvery-blue fire drifts up from Finna's skin, a show of raw, unadulterated power. It wafts about chaotically, sometimes pulling at the shadows and scattering the light oddly. In its light, the ears and tail shimmer a distinct and eye-catching silver... but that's not quite all.

    Last but not least, a symbol blazes into existence upon the young woman's forehead. A crescent moon!? Nathan Hall might know what that means...

    "This creature would be an EXCELLENT trophy."

Blurr has posed:
    Blurr watches the gate get blown off of its hinges with satisfaction, then splashes through the water and into the large chamber. There are some people babbling nonsense about testing something. What, was this some kind of experiment or something? He sighs. "So uh..." he begins, rubbing the back of his neck. "Remind me again what we're looking for we're trying to find some kind of bell right and remind me again how it is this bell or series of bells are going to help us solve the 'can't die' problem and what exactly does this bell look like is it just a simple primitive bell or is it some kind of alarm system or beacon or does have any kind of energy sign---HOLY PRIMUS!!!"

    he Autobot's rambling is abruptly cut off by the appearance of some kind of gigantic winged reptilian with a hideous-looking ribcage. He seriously could have hit the ceiling, he jumped so high. Okay not really. But he isn't shocked silly for too long, and immediately takes off running in high-speed circles around the creature, simultaneously attempting to confuse it and scan it for weaknesses at the same time. Also, the water is quickly starting to form a vortex where he's begun the rapid circular pattern.

Priscilla has posed:
    The channeler's "summons" must have made quite the impression for a team of hardened Elites to react by going all out right from the onsent. The gargantuan mass of teeth and fans has only just cleared the lip of the cliff before beam cannons and ice bullets are already pounding into it from afar. The upright part of the creature's body bucks back slightly with each hit of those cannons, smoke and fire blossoming from between its jaws and slowly sifting out through the maze of spikes that line it, the occasional chunk of broken tooth flying out from the impact. Such could barely be called "reeling" however. Its lower four legs make the climb with ease, pulling it into the chamber proper, completely oblivious to incoming fire. Ezio's gunshots strike pricks of blood here and there against its "mouth", but hitting its oily, iridescent scales causes the ice to shatter instead, completely ineffective. The crossbow bolt glances completely off one of its knees, snapping the shaft and causing the explosive to go off after the fact; knocking its leg out of place, but hardly coming close to toppling it.

    Nathan's SCAN reveals all sorts of bizarre details. The creature doesn't come up as any category of beast; only just barely registering as alive, if anything at all, and with no estimate as to its age or origin. The scan detects extremely high levels of power, but no actual power/s/ with which to exercise it. The physical parameters are about what one would expect, all of them being off the charts, especially its durability. The only realy "weak point" Blurr can find appears to be what would pass for where a mouth would lead to a stomach, but the creature doesn't even seem to possess any internal organs, and there are a hell of a lot of teeth in the way of such a lame achilles heel. The meteor screeching through the outer wall seems to get its attention; slamming it so hard in the back its "upper" body is smashed down into the ground, leaving the creature in some kind of centipede-like shape. As the ash and cinders clear from the crater however, it appears barely any worse off. In fact, it might just be mad.

    The beast's wings unfurl fully from its back; four, monolithic, leathery dragon wings that kick the water into a frenzy with the first gust that sweeps over the room. Within the space of a few wingbeats, the creature has somehow lifted its titanic weight from the ground, lurching skyward, coming dangerously close to the ceiling, and then landing with an almighty smash on where the group filters through the door. Ezio, Blurr and Nathan are spared the impact for being far enough away, but the sheer size of the monster is enough to crush anyone and everyone else that stays bunched around the door. Specifically, it seems to have landed with its jaws right over Finna; perhaps attracted to the sudden release of spiritual energy. If she isn't gone in a tenth of a second, rows of seemingly /prehensile/ jaws are going to be pulling her into the bed of nails.

    If things weren't already chaotic enough, another voice suddenly joins the racket. From the balcony above the gate, a bold sort of battlecry rings over the water weathered stones, and then someone in full plate armour comes slamming down on the dragon's back, driving a sword inbetween its scales. "Well met Sir Hall! Lady Haruno! Sir Auditore!"

    For fuck's sake it's that Solaire guy again.

Faruja (152) has posed:
Faruja's zealous fury pauses for but a moment as his fox-friend leaps a dozen feet into the air, turns into a demi-human, and lands with a dramatic bow, as well as an appropriately rogueish bow. Followed by the shimmering silvery-blue ligh about the woman. Strange. That symbol seems different, and yet, he swears he's seen something similar.

Faruja, despite his fury, and despite his terror, laughs. "My, my, my, I aught bring stray foxes more oft! Catch, M'Lady!" Cue a tossed linkshell. The rodent's never without a spare.

Then, his eye narrows at the great dragon. "Trophy, driven off...anything is better than leaving this disgusting abomination alive!" Back to business.

Despite their powers, the creature stands. And then it rises, and slams down its great bulk.

"Oh, that is just bloody cheat...SQUEAK!"

Only a swift teleport saves Faruja's life, and he's standing half-way up a wall. It doesn't matter. He's still blown away, impacting off of a pillar, and the nesuing fall only blunted by a swift float spell.

And then a man falls down, in plate armor, and slams into the creature. The man is either horrifically brave, or incredibly stupid. He prays for the former. And then he gets an idea.

Faruja incants, trying to not curse from a few broken ribs, and then water starts to further fill the chamber. Strangely, his allies wouldn't be effected by it, but it's real enough for the Gaping Dragon. At first, a serpentine head peaks through, and then rises high, the massive bulk of the Esper Leviathan forming from the rat's magic and a part of its spirit crossing through his very soul. With a scream of rage, the great water esper stares at the Gaping Dragon.

"OH SER OF GREAT BRAVERY! LEAP UPON LEVIATHAN'S HEAD! HE SHALL SERVE AS AMPLE CAVALRY AGAINST THIS ABOMINATION!"

Leviathan turns, and one might swear he's squinting at Faruja.

Faruja frowns. "Oh just blood do it! I shall cook ye salmon if I must! With those little seaweed wraps!"

The Legendary Serpent grins, and flicks it tail. Even as a massive tidal wave would threaten the Dragon it lowers its head to allow Solaire to mount him if necessary.

Leviathan Mount get!

Ezio Auditore (75) has posed:
    Ezio manages to avoid being smooshed alright, and he stares in confusion as a wild Astoran appears!

    "Have we met?" He asks Solaire mildly, before he eyes the monster and shrugs. One supposes that's still a pressing concern.

     With that, he makes his way towards the monster, using rubble to bound off of as he jumps onto the monster and cuts his way through the beast's hide until he shoves a set of explosives on it, then leaps off to detonate them. Might as well try that, right?

Sakura Haruno (134) has posed:
    Sakura is quick to get out of the way; air isn't her friend, but both water and walls are, as is a ceiling. She'll skip off the water post-dodging, running along the surface of it, and over to a wall. From there, as she runs up it, one hand is trailing along the wall, then the ceiling as she runs along it, a spike of earth forming in her hand. It is surely sheer coincidence that that hand is leaving a groove in the wall and ground.

    "Sir Solaire." She'll reply, cheerfully enough, before dropping down at the beast with a lance of earth in hand, covered in Chris' lightning boost, attempting to drive it home near the thing's 'neck' with force of gravity.

Blurr has posed:
    Blurr is thankfully spared the impact of the ugly-as-a-pile-of-rusted bolts thing slamming down onto the ground, though it seems some of the others who had hung back near the door weren't quite as fortunate. The scans don't return anything too useful, only that its mouth is the only potential weak point, and of course that just -had- to be where all the teeth were. Hmm...but what if he approached it from the less toothy end, that is the back? So Blurr streaks around to the rear of the creature and attempts to grab its tail and climb pull himself up onto its back...

    And that's when some guy who appears to know a few of the people in here just drops down from above and onto the monster's back, as well. "HeyIwasherefirst! Wait you guys know him?"

Finna (513) has posed:
    Oh crap. Finna was half-counting on her display of power and confidence - she's all but BRIMMING with an aura of beastly ferocity right now! - would buy her a few seconds.

    It doesn't.

    The creature comes down on her, and her confidence melts away into a moment of terror. Oh LUNA that ribcage is GROSS!

    With a short shriek she makes her choice - and aims a palm at one of the two huge pillars. A silvery string shoots out like a missile and, with a SPLAT, sticks to it. Then it retracts at lightning speed. Finna goes flying sideways and up at once. Some of the teeth graze her, tearing DEEPLY into her other arm. Still, she's picked up tremendous momentum... so much, one might miss the way her tail curls about at the last moment to snatch the Linkshell up into the thick fur. She swings about in a wide arc with her eye on the Gaping Dragon's eyes... and soon, her bow.

    Even while in this wide and speedy swing, she somehow manages to twist about in the air, bracing the bow with her FEET, drawing an arrow with her tail, and nocking and drawing it with her TEETH.

    As she releases the Essence silk webbing and comes falling again, she also lets fly that arrow - right for the Gaping Dragon's tiny head!

    "Blood for blood! Payback is mine!"

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
The dragon is even bigger than Yuna thought it would be - and it basically shrugged off a full-power blast from her beam cannons? Not a good sign ...

The worse sign, though, is that the Lunar kitsune girl looks like she's about to get chowed down on. Yuna leans forward, hoverthrusters powering up, lifting her armored form out of the water - and Finna somehow manages to get out of harm's way before Yuna can go charging in. She even caught the linkshell, which is presumably a good sign ...

And with Solaire dropping in to assist, Yuna has an alternate use for her hoverthrusters: she accelerates towards the teethmonster, revving the vertical boosters for what amounts to a high-speed, high-powered *LEAP* that hopefully will plant her on the monster's back. Or whatever passes for its back, given how fundamentally SCREWY its anatomical arrangement is. What she'll do with *being* on its back, she isn't entirely sure yet - but for a start, she hefts the Matrix Divider, funneling a flare of power through it, and starts 'slashing' around where she lands. She's keeping half an eye on Solaire, though - he's local, he might have a better idea of how to kill this horrifying abomination than Yuna does.

Nathan Hall (168) has posed:
    Nathan Hall, even without being crushed, is still knocked off his feet by the shockwave at this proximity, stumbling and falling for a moment. Regardless, he tries to scramble to his feet and get moving again, even as, in a perfectly droning monotone, he rattles off tactical advice.

    Then, SOLAIRE! "Well met." Nathan calls out in his calm tones. "We are in need of some assistance. I am certainly grateful if you intend to join us here in dealing with this threat." And then, of course, Nathan does what little he can; he tries to give tactical forewarning of probable attacks from the dragon based on its movements directly to the assorted combatants, hopefully giving them DODGE/COUNTER PROMPTS and other suchlike to enhance their likelihood of getting out of this without a horrible evisceration. There's really not much else Nathan can do right now.

Priscilla has posed:
    Ezio running up to have his try at the gaping monstrosity with his sword reveals something distinctly off. His own blade hitting its scales feels like trying to chop into solid rock, forcing him to use practically all the muscle he has just to gouge something shallow enough to lay an explosive on. How exactly did solaire jam his sword so far in then? Is there a trick to it, or is it just a magic sword? In any case, a shaped charge is better at blowing a hole in the monster than an explosive bolt is; rocking the chamber again with another concussive boom as shards of purple scale go flying every which way in finger sized chunks, along with a tiny quantity of blood. Sakura finds that mirroring the leap attack has little more effect, but much more importantly, the lightning enchantment laid on her by Chris has more than enough. The tip of her stone spike snaps straight off from the impact, but the bolt of lightning that arcs with it cuts through those scales like a torch, splitting them apart with the stink of burnt flesh. Finna's high powered, magically enhanced bow is all that really seems to penerate that hide with brute force; the loosed arrow slashing straight through the air with a razor sharp hum and coming to rest firmly embedded halfway through the nubby little "head" at the tip of the monster's maw. She can clearly see what looks like some kind of skull formation. The only way the arrow would have gone through like that would have been if she'd just shot through both eye sockets, and it wouldn't have lodged like that if there wasn't something between them. That atrophied little stub must be entirely vestigial, because it does little else other than to make the thing shriek with eardrum-bursting anger.

    With two sizeable mechanoids leaping onto its back, the dragon has to rearrange the placement of its feet not to bow under their weight, propping itself up with four of them like a carjack. Yuna gets the impression of trying to use a steel knife to hack away at an iron i-beam, but repeated, heavy slashing with the Matrix Divider starts to stress the handful of breaches on the creature's back from the last attacks, splitting the stony shell here and there from blunt impact and raw energy. The gaping horror responds by bending back the front third of its body, twisting at its second set of legs with the kind of unnatural movement attributed to a snake's jaws or an owl's head. Reaching out with both of its front legs, now filling the role of backwards hands, it clutches at Blurr and Yuna both, attempting to heave them from its back, and rather than throw or crush them; stuff them voraciously into its maw, metal or not. They can outright see those prehensile rows of teeth wiggling and chittering in anticipation; drool puddling on the floor below; and /sizzling/.

    Faruja's summoned Leviathan doesn't even manage to get its attention while it has two targets in arm's reach, clearly motivated by something much more driving than mere bestial hostility or self preservation. The water smashes it against one of the pillars, caving it in completely from the impact, but the monster only uses its myriad legs to stumble upright, anchoring itself by wrapping its tail around the fractured pillar base. Solaire however, is more than attentive, withdrawing his sword with a spurt of blood and leaping onto the ancient creature's head as if a horse. As the serpent rears back, the knight is lifted directly into the path of the sunbeam from outside; his armour gleaming white as he cocks back his arm. With a resounding boom, a flash of lightning erupts from his hand, freezing in mid strike to form a sort of jagged, crackling spear in his clenched fist. Riding the sea monster's swaying head, he casts the bolt down like a javelin; which proceeds to rip through the damaged portion of the creature's back and run it completely through, gushing blood into the running water. It is basically the most manly thing anyone has ever seen.

Faruja (152) has posed:
Like a smart Summoner with his Esper out, Faruja teleports to a wall, a light flare of gravity magic keeping him attached as he surveys the battlefield. HIs hands remain outwards, the male panting and sweating as he puts all of his energy into maintaining the great serpent's form in this world.

It's worth the exertion. He casts a salute in Solaire's direction. "...Dear Lord in Heaven, methinks I hath met the epitome of a true knight. Godspeed!"

Ezio Auditore (75) has posed:
    Ezio dives onto the ground, covering himself before the C4 goes off. He remains huddled up before he hears Solaire making another attempt at slaying the monster.

    And he sees a hell of a sight. Were Solaire one of his, Ezio would promote the man on the spot. But the next best thing will have to do, that would be buying him a drink when this is over.

    Really, Faruja took the words out of his mouth on this one.

Faruja (152) has posed:
Leviathan, also, raises its tail. It fully intends upon tail-slapping the dragon. Because Leviathan is a jerk

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Solaire's feats might impress Yuna more if she had the leisure to WATCH them, instead of being grabbed by a monster out of a dentist's late-night-spicy-pizza nightmares. And her beam cannons aren't ready to fire again QUITE yet ...

So she re-ignites her hoverthrusters at full blast, trying to either break out of the beast's grip or - if it's got too good of a hold on her - bringing her legs up and giving it a faceful of thruster backwash. If she can't get the leverage she needs to break free, she's at least going to be the spiciest tamale possible before the teeth start jabbing into her ...

Obviously, breaking free would be MUCH preferable, even if she has to rocket out of the thing's mouth the instant it lets go to bite down.

Blurr has posed:
    Blurr watches as the electricity-based attacks seem to have the strongest effect on the creature. Well, good! He has such a weapon in his own arsenal. It's meant to cause temporary paralysis in other mechanoids, but since this thing appears to be more vulnerable to electricity than to stabbing or other blunt-force attacks, it seems that's going to be the best option, here, since they've thus far been unable to identify any kind of brain or nervous system. He was drawing said weapon from subspace, when the creature starts to grab at him. But instead of attempting to dodge it, he allows it to grab him attempt to shove him in its mouth. As soon as he's in front of its maw, he directs -his- version of lightning point-blank down its throat. If he gets swallowed...well...he'll have to worry about that when it happens.

Sakura Haruno (134) has posed:
    Sakura manages to control her fall, rolling to her feet while standing on top of the water, the earth lance crumbling into dust now that she's not maintaining it. Solaire, fortunately, lands what appears to be a pretty telling blow, and just to be certain she'll kick it in the leg with that lightning buff on once or twice more.

    "Thank you for the assistance!" She'll call over and up to the sun worshipper, trying to not get SO distracted that death flails or any such thing manage to actually catch her.

Blurr has posed:
    Blurr just keeps shoving electricity down the thing's throat for as long as he possibly can, as fast as he possibly can, which is pretty slagging fast, given that being fast is Blurr's thing.

Priscilla has posed:
    Alarmingly, despite being punctured all the way through at where the approximation of a heart should be, somehow the monster doesn't seem ready to stop. Though blood drizzles thick and fast from its catastrophic wound, it anchors its claws into the ground with a shriek of splitting stone and sets about shoving Yuna and Blurr into its mouth as if starving. Not only are the teeth extremely powerful, but its saliva pops and fizzles where it hits metal, so intensely acidic that one can see it corroding anything it touches with the naked eye. The fact that neither foe contains significant organic content doesn't even seem to phase it. It doesn't even have a stomach. It just wants something between its teeth, at any cost.

    Fortunately, before either of them are turned to mulch by the valley of scything fangs, Blurrs probing jolt seems to work; finding both of them abruptly dropped to the ground far below as the beast lets loose another hideous scream; blood running a convoluted path down its maw. The tail flick from Leviathan is precisely the wrong idea, because it attracts the eyeless, faceless monstrosity with precisely the wrong kind of attention. Like a rabid wolf, it throws itself on the giant snake, wrapping its cavernous mouth around as much as the serpent's girth as it can and sinking all of its teeth in as deep as they will go; tearing at it like a crocodile executing a kill roll. Solaire leaps from the sea beast's head, sliding down the creature's upright "back" and towards the wound opened up by the Unione's combined attacks, whereupon he begins laying about with his sword. "Unhand the good serpent! You have much more pressing dangers to worry about, horror!"

    The gaping dragon detaches alright, but what it does next is even worse. Rather than turning to another Unionite to resume its frenzied assault, it pauses; crouching back down as its body heaves and spasms in serpentine convulsions. Finally; it opens its jaws wide and . . . vomits. A waterfall of sickly greenish fluid erupts from somewhere inside its body, spilling from its teeth as a torrential shower of pure acid. The pool spreads so wide in such a short time that it overflows the channel and begins spreading over the stones, threatening take anyone on the ground floor and wash them away into an incredibly grisly, painful demise.

Finna (513) has posed:
    As Finna's feet strike the OTHER pillar, she... stays there. Standing. Completely perpendicular to the ground. And she soon rushes up to the ceiling. And from there... her form changes ONCE more. Clothes, fur, and features melt away. Her arms shrivel and legs grow thick. The tail remains fuzzy, but turns lizardlike. And... are those scales sprouting from her rippling flesh? Her head expands... but most spectacularly, she's growing. She's growing QUITE A LOT. Doubling her size, tripling, quadrupling... again and again, until she cannot stand on the ceiling anymore.

    The king of the jungle and plains she has become rights itself in the air and aims its massive talon-like feet down at the base of the Gaping Dragon's tail and lower back, letting loose with a roar that shakes loose dirt and water free from the ceiling.

    The impact, hit or miss, is TREMENDOUS, and sends a spray of water from the ground in every direction not just from the two great feet, but the thick tail that slaps the cavern floor next.

    And then, the TYRANT LIZARD opens its jaws, revealing rows of sword-like teeth, and DIGS that maw into the Gaping Dragon's back!

Faruja (152) has posed:
That's /HIS/ esper jerk! Faruja takes a deep breath, and slowly where the ravenous dragon devours, there's nothing but fading magic as the corporeal form of the esper gives way. The esper fades from this realm, and Faruja smirks. Hell if he's giving the creature the satisfaction of hurting a divine esper too badly.

Then the bloody thing /vomits/. Faruja is a helpful rat, and teleports as close as he dare. A hand crushes his timepiece, and a grey film seems to cover the area. "TIME HAS STOPPED!" The Burmecian simply seeks to freeze time, before teleporting on high. Praying he can buy his companions some time away from the hellish vomit, they'll find themselves enhanced with a litany of Haste spells.

Ezio Auditore (75) has posed:
    As Awesome as Finna's display was, right now more important things have arisen. Ezio takes advantage of Faruja's time stop and hasting by booking it as fast as he can, making his way out before he is awashed in the vomit stream, along with everybody else. THis is going to be a close one, magic helping them or no.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Somewhere in the course of all of that, Yuna manages to break free - her armor pitted and smoldering by the acidic spittle, but free to rocket away, mostly thanks to Blurr's electricity. She needs to thank the Autobot properly later.

... sometime when all of us aren't trying to avoid getting engulfed by *vomit*. Which is probably also corrosive as hell. Fortunately, Powered Form is pretty fast when the hoverthrusters are engaged.

"Tenka ... !!"

Skimming above the water's surface, Yuna banks around, the Matrix Divider glowing brightly in her hands, arcs of light crackling across its length as she lines up on the Gaping Dragon - and for good measure, the beam cannons open up again, the emitter arrays similarly crackling with their readied charge. For extra good measure, Yuna kicks in the vertical boosters one more time, trying to leap as high as she can get, and at the top of that leap ...

".... *ZAIMETSU!!!*"

She fires, triple torrents of concussive holy radiance tearing down towards the Gaping Dragon as Yuna tries to rip through it, sweeping the beam cannons' blast along the gash that Solaire opened earlier. Faruja's time magic comes at the perfect moment for it, too.

Sakura Haruno (134) has posed:
    Sakura had, unfortuntely for her, been standing below the monster when it started vomiting. Luckily, the acid burns will be only temporary; unluckily, it turns out that they still freaking hurt. She'll make her way back up the wall, starting to rain stones from it down on the beast, finally just clinging to it and watching to see if she sees an opening.

    She'll heal herself while she's there, but everyone else seems to have the finishing blows. She just doesn't want to get near it just now.

Nathan Hall (168) has posed:
    OH SHIT ACID!!

    Nathan skids to a stop as the corrosive deluge rushes towards him! He was about to get his ankles burned off, but then time stops. "Oh." He says, and makes a worried noise. He holds both hands out a moment, and with practiced, simple motions, draws a circle around him, his fingers trailing a strange yellow light.

    And then he plants both hands on the ground, suddenly summoning a translucent yellow cylinder of magical energy constructs out of Great Old One power. It's about ten feet wide, and goes up a fair ways - you could probably jump onto it if someone helped you up, but ideally there's not enough acid to cause issues for it...

    It was sort of hastily summoned, though. So when the timestop concludes, it may be structurally weak. Who knows if the acid might just eat through it anyway? In which case Nathan will probably fall into the acid and literally die from excessive chemical burns.

Blurr has posed:
    Blurr just keeps on shooting, and shooting, and shooting as fast as he possibly can as that horrid valley of teeth and sizzling saliva come closer and closer. But, at the very last moment, the electric onslaught seems to have the desired effect, and the thing drops both he and Yuna.

    ...Only to let loose with a corrosive river of acid from its vile innards. The speedster -almost- gets his paint ruined, but thanks to Faruja's time stop, he's able to get out of the way in time AND grab anyone who might not have the means to escape before the acid covers them. He makes a mental note to hang out with whoever did that more often. Because someone who has the ability to make the fast Autobot EVEN FASTER is like the best thing ever. Wait, he has to find -out- who did it, first.

Priscilla has posed:
    A timely timestop is about all that saves several Unionites from death, but temporary and actual. Going under in a riptide of pseudo stomach acid would most likely leave one's body looking like one of the formless heaps of flesh lining the corridors outside. Instead, every boiling bubble and pop of steam is frozen in a single moment as the Unionites scramble for cover. The seemingly invincible behemoth is left unable to react for a mere instant in its own perception, but just long enough for those left to mount one last all out attack against it. Finna's therapod teeth might crack and splinter from the savaging she gives the titanic monster's back, stoney scales catching between them, but featureless red biological matter is torn out with every shake of the tyrannosaur's head; spurts of blood left hanging in the air in savage arcs. Solaire seems canny enough to join in the assault, unquestioning as to why time seems to have stopped, and hurling another bolt of summoning lightning straight through the dead center of the creature's splayed maw; an easy target without it moving, and another impressively gory explosion left half-completed before stopping. The sheer amount of damage dealt to the monstrosity makes Yuna's final attack more or less a finishing blow, pounding the scales into rows of hovering fragments all down its back, then slashing through the featureless flesh beneath, before finally burning down to a layer of solid black bone. Without all the stomping, smashing, flying and explosives, it seems even the elusive crossbreed has found the time to slip in beneath the gaping dragon; finally sitting still for the second it takes her to ram her scythe into its underside, and then split it from gut to tail with a single sweep; the terrible artifact simply necrotizing its way through the scales rather than carving them apart.

    When time finally resumes, it is as if the monster has suddenly suffered some kind of critical existential failure; exploding every which way into fountains of teeth, scales and gore. The noise of all those attacks resolving simultaneously is absolutely deafening, but, as the beast finally crashes to earth, it is only the sound of the rushing water that remains; slowly washing away the taint of the creature's acid. Before everyone's eyes, the dragonoid seems to waver and flicker; its form dissolving as though only a mirage, ruined by a sudden gust of cold air. Its flesh and blood disintegrate into the pale, white light that claims it, fading from its bones like burning paper, until only the jet black skeleton is left, lifeless and inert. Rather than disgorging a singular, most likely huge soul, the bones come alive with hundreds of smaller orbs, rising from its ribcage like steam.

Chris Rothschild (283) has posed:
    Panting, bruised, more than a little keyed up, Chris Rothschild stands up straight once again, waiting several seconds before he's willing to accept the dragon is well and truly done for. "...jesus," he mutters quietly, trying to straighten his now-tattered clothes as best he can... only to remember it's kind of pointless, given that he's in phantom form. Instead he sort of meanders his way over to Nathan, turning to look up at the rather striking figure that is Solaire. "So, uh... who's that?"

Faruja (152) has posed:
As the Dragon fades, after the explosion of gore due to their combined efforts, Faruja falls to his hands and knees gasping. He pulls himself next to a convenient piece of rock. Reaching into his robes, he manages to find an untainted hip flask. Sip. Ahhh. He crosses his chest.

"And 'lo, the abomination is put to rest, through the skill and strength of companions joined in singular purpose, and by the grace of Almighty Faram. Praise be to Him!" Excuse him, he's going to add some liquid courage to his zealotry. He needs it.

Nathan Hall (168) has posed:
    Nathan makes a soft, relieved "phew" noise as his cylinder descends. He leans back and sighs heavily, sitting down on it. "There we are." He says, somewhat exhausted from all the running and stress and suchlike. Then Chris asks a question! "Now..." A gesture to Solaire. "Solaire," A gesture to the others. "My assorted allies. Assorted allies," Back to the knight. "Solaire."

    "Thank you again for the assistance, sir." Nathan gives a respectful nod to him. "Every time we cross paths is a boon of good luck for us. You certainly have some extremely powerful abilities. I assume you are once again heading along your own path, though; I will leave you to that, if you wish, but do let us know if we can repay you for your help."

Finna (513) has posed:
    With much of the creature simply DISSOLVING beneath her, Finna suddenly growlffffffffs discontently. She was hoping for some kind of trophy, after all. The great Tyrant Lizard steps back off the crumbling remains, and gets a facefull of drifing soul-energy before getting fully away. It is, oddly enough, still glowing, and the crescent moon shines on its head. these things don't change as its form shrinks again the moment it's far away from the acid spill. The great body mass ripples like liquid and compresses. Bones squish and reshape in what looks like a somewhat UNCOMFORTABLE process and in mere moments the foxwoman of before has returned.

    "Whew... that was a workout!" A workout, she calls it, while her bloodied left arm hangs limply. "What a fight. That was an amazing show! And everyone mostly unhurt... a miracle, against a beast like that!"

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
"Amen," Yuna adds somewhat wryly to Faruja's prayer of thanks. If any deities were pitching in with that battle, she really IS grateful for whatever help they might have provided - and then she's descending from her leap. Powered Form managed to handle contact with the water before, but that was also before the armor got damaged by corrosive spittle ...

Fortunately, Marina anticipates this issue and meets Yuna on the way down, with Powered Form disengaging and Marina combining to switch Yuna's battlesuit into the mermaid-like Marine Form. That leaves a rather damaged-looking Jiina hovering safely above the pool's surface as Yuna 'balances' on the mermaid tail. "Everyone okay now that the monster's down ... ?" she asks her allies.

Blurr has posed:
    Blurr watches with satisfaction as the monstrosity disintegrates. Blech, that thing sure is disgusting looking, though organic innards aren't quite as gross to him as mechanical ones are, because well, he's mechanical himself. Humans feel the same way about the stuff -they're- made out of, don't they?

    "Well that was fun so now what." he asks, glancing over at Priscilla, as welel as the others. "We still looking for bells or something?"

Priscilla has posed:
    Priscilla is, for the moment, busy explaining the deal behind the channeler and the former-dragon it had called up from the depths. Solaire seems free enough to wipe off his sword, pull up his belt, and wave Nathan on. "Think nothing of it! I am glad to see that you and your companions have fared well in these dreadful times! What a fearless and capable leader you must be!" Whether his laugh is genuine or meant to illustrate a joke is difficult to tell with the helmet on. "I have always been well disposed to engaging in some jolly cooperation with the odd hero here and there! I believe fortune favours us both for this encounter!" Lowering his voice a little, he gestures towards the waterfall. "I know you and your companions are after the second Bell of Awakening, and I must confess, you have come a great ways towards it. The Bell lies directly beneath here, in the ancient tower constructed at the edge of Izalith's province. Humans outcast even from the undercity once built their livelihoods down there, as unwanted as the filth sent through the sewers, but even they have not been exempted from the curse. You will find no-one to aid you down there, and so I must urge caution. Though the Bell is not far from here, it would be wise to tread slowly."

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
After a few moments, Yuna submerges beneath the pool's surface - or as close to it as she can, the water isn't THAT deep - and starts over towards where the Gaping Dragon was when it was annihilated. The acid should have had enough time to disperse by now; she'll back off (in a *HURRY*) if it hasn't ...

But if she can, she's checking out the water underneath where that monster was when it died, and the bottom of the pool/river/whatever we're talking about, really.

Priscilla has posed:
    Yuna peeking over the edge of the cliff finds a few things. Rather than the builders haven given up once the masonry reached the cliff edge as initially suspected, it appears as if there was once an actual channel here, going down a very steep ramp, but the entire thing had been worn away. The most obvious culprit was that the gaping dragon had emerges so many times from the caverns below that its feeding eventually dissolved the ramp, and chewed further and further into the room. Another century and there might have not even been any floor left. The waterfall itself vaults completely off the precipice instead of clinging to its edge; freefalling in the blackness for what looks to be hundreds of meters; the sound of it landing barely even audible from the upper end of the chute. Just barely however, she can spy lights in the distance. They don't look like firelights though. Something softer instead.

Priscilla has posed:
    (since Nathan never posed back, for the record, Solaire gave him a shiny Sunlight Medal as commendation for his heroic leadership, and then went off)