5162/WANTED: Wormfeast

WANTED: Wormfeast
Date of Scene:	25 March 2017
Location:	Lumiere
Synopsis:	In Tacet Sanctos, the civilian Lantern community, a monster is hunting the helpless. Time for the hunter to become the hunted.
Cast of Characters:	974, 774, Count Kord, Inga, Tomoe

---

Carna (974) has posed:
    After the initial assault by the Stone Devils, there has been little further trouble in the construction of a 'safe zone' for civilian Lanterns. Yes, the problem of Unlit remains, in this dark, cold, dusty, death-filled land. Mindless monsters pursuing the essence of others with something less than instinct but more complex than pre-programmed response is not a problem one discards easily. But with avenue after avenue of access into Barrowville being methodically cut off by Elites, the number of Unlit that infest Lostrastra (at least 'above street level') is far less than it once was.

    And the community that has been constructed as a result is much more complete than before. The makeshift walls that were so devastated by what amounted to supernaturally-fast wrecking balls with swords stand at a respectable height, some twenty feet above the tallest buildings within jumping range on either side. No normal Unlit is going to find its way over them. And bone gates provided by Inga seem to confuse and dissuade weaker Unlit as well.

    Security systems provided by Staren watch the surroundings constantly, and wards provided by others, guardian Lanterns hired to keep an eye on the area, and other protective measures render this place as safe as somewhere in Lumiere can really get.

    It has become known as 'Tacet Sanctos'.

    And this 'safe' place is under attack. Not openly, as with the Stone Devils, but rather people are being picked off one by one. Half a dozen have gone missing so far, with no sign of the culprit. A bounty has been placed by the community at City Limits, as Tacet Sanctos is becoming a useful secondary outpost and place to receive resources from the nearby Church of Bleak Mercy for various Unlit hunters.

    The cloying scent of ancient death remains, but it is muted, dulled by the ages. The only light sources aside from a far-distant spire are glass jars with some sickly phosphorous gas, or in some cases flickering gray flames that slowly burn upon bundles of dried fingers, giving off barely any light at all except to those who stand directly beneath them.

    Withered forms stagger or limp through the streets on their own business, though they look furtively over their shoulders... Aware that even here, in this sanctum, they are being hunted.

Dorian Pavus (774) has posed:
    Maybe it's a little weird, but Dorian has always wanted to visit a Nevarran city of the dead. This? This is something different. A whole WORLD populated by nothing but the dead? And some are even CONSCIOUS?! Sapient and aware? So of COURSE Dorian's going to be all over this. And so, when the opportunity presents itself -- and if someone saying 'help, our sapient undead are being taken and we don't know how or by what' isn't the sound of opportunity knocking, he doesn't know what us -- Dorian heads out to this 'Tacet Sanctos'.

    He's in his typical garb here, first impressions and all that. That's his light-colored leather armor with the metal knee-pads worked in the shapes of snakes trying to crawl down his shins, with the white cloak worn over it. It's surprisingly bright garb for an aspiring necromancer, maybe. But he does have a skull-headed staff her. Disturbingly, it looks like a human skull...

    He is clearly not undead, and that may make him stand out even more. To say nothing of the sense of magic that surrounds him, for those who can sense it. Not 'magic' as in spellbinding -- though he would argue there's that too; he's handsome enough. But 'magic' as in 'power'. He is a mage of no small power, and his inability (or perhaps it's unwillingness) to 'suppress' his magical aura might mark him to those with the sense of such things.

Count Kord has posed:
    Kord is not without his resources. Once he began to hear of the alarming vanishing acts of some of the Lanterns, news brought to him by soldiers he had stationed there to keep an eye on the place in his absence, he made his way directly to Tacet Sanctos with bloodshed on his mind. A stronghold he is partially responsible for bringing to being. The deathly Count starts at the Church itself, and begins to prowl the area in search of what might be stealing these people from the one place that had been given any kind of safety.

    He is dressed in the same outfit he usually wears, his strange black and red garb. His scythe is in his hand at all times so that he is ready to use it on whatever might crawl out from the shadows or slip from behind a corner. He has grown familiar with the paranoia-inducing horrors that can appear in this place, the terrible creatures that seek out the Light of others. Much like Dorian, though, he is a beacon. Unlike Dorian, he is a much brighter beacon for different reasons.

    If Kord has collected any Light from his numerous trips here, not a single piece of it has been spent. He knows he could if he wanted to but he simply doesn't bother. The more delicious he smells to the predators here, the less likely they'll go for smaller morsels. And to top that all off, he carries a scent of death that makes him resemble a Lantern to the more instinctual creatures.

    He quietly tracks lone, weak Lanterns, unheard and unseen. He makes no attempts to speak to anyone, instead acting as a predator himself so he might spot the problem in the act.

Inga has posed:
Inga has come to deal with this problem as well. She's no huntress, but she has certain skills that are highly useful in tracking people or objects. Thus, she's come and is poking around the area, looking for any sort of evidence. A residue, a bit of blood, a small object that could have belonged to the predator...anything that she could use to make a tracking spell with which to find whatever or whomever it was picking off the people.

She's dressed as usual as well, in a long dress now muddy around the hem and a good wool cloak, her belt slung with various talismans and her small knife. Witchy-fantastic.

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe has found many worlds on the edge of ruin or in ruins she has helped. Maybe she's trying to pay back thsoe who saved her and thousands of others in SAO, yet it doesn't matter help is needed and here she is. She's clad in her mix of cloth and plate as she comes up behind Inga,.. she's ready for toruble now and she's doens't seem too muddy oddly but then again given her nature it's hard for things to cling for her too long.

She's silent as she hunts the group prey, she knows what they have to do given the trouble they have had here in the past they need to end this once and for all.

Carna (974) has posed:
    The hunt continues for some time. Without any sun, moon, or stars to judge the passing of time, they have only the fatigue of their own bodies (and any time-keeping devices they've brought) to determine how long it's been. Otherwise, for all they know it could have been minutes or hours. The hunt appears to be fruitless. There's no signs of trouble, no hints of trespass. But some sort of predatory monster hunting this close to the Church of Bleak Mercy would have to be crafty or special in some way to go undetected, right? Or maybe the locals aren't as well-equipped and well-trained to hunt such unique prey as the Stone Devils that previously conducted this work and who have now mysteriously slacked off or vanished or something.

    Eventually, however, among the crumbling facades of buildings, the old hotels leaning over onto apartment buildings from perpetually-decaying supports, and all the other myriad buildings included within Tacet Sanctos, a rain gutter for rain that does not fall, and never will, may be tracked down by Kord's keen sense of smell for the Deathly. And therein may be discovered some sort of goopy black...

    ...Black.

    It could be mold, it could be slime, it could be congealed blood, it could be REALLY dark chocolate, but whatever it is, it is smeared all along the gutter, and is pungently Deathly in a way that all the other dead stuff in the area is not. As much as this may be the land of the dead, Lumiere is so ancient that it takes quite a lot for something rotten and decaying to produce a strong odor. Dust and ash is more commonly scented. So whatever THIS stuff is... It's 'fresher'.

    Relatively.

    If Inga was looking for something to use in a tracking spell, maybe this might be it. Though she may wish to use a stick to harvest it or something because ew.

Dorian Pavus (774) has posed:
    Actually this is... exactly what Dorian expected. If whatever was causing the problems had been leaving clues, they'd have found it before now. Or would have at least SOME idea of what it was, where it came from, how it was kidnapping people -- SOMETHING. Mind you, that doesn't mean he isn't incredibly ANNOYED by all this walking aorund and finding precisely nothing. Evidenced by the rather annoyed scowl on his face.

    Finally he suggests, "I don't suppose one of you would volunteer to be made undead to use as bait?" Given his statement, he's not including himself in the potential 'undead' pool. He has no concept of vampires in the traditional sense, so he isn't aware of Kord's situation where that's concerned.

    However they get there, the sight of the black goop makes Dorian's lip curl in disgust. "Vishante kaffas! What is THAT?!" He stays well away from it, not wanting to get whatever it is on him anywhere.

Count Kord has posed:
    Kord's hunt slows to a halt before the sight of some kind of awful slime leading into a gutter, where it would drain down into the sewers. He had conspicuously ignored Dorian's suggestion of turning one of them undead along the way while he was concentrating on the smell of something foul.

    He kneels down near the strange grime and slowly turns his head, examining its trail. He reaches out with his left hand and dips the claws of his gauntlet into it briefly, checking how it might react as his fingers pull away. He pulls a cloth out of a pocket somewhere under that excessive cap of his to idly clean the gauntlet after this.

    "Rot," he surmises, "The dregs of Lanterns consumed by this beast, or evidence of how it has escaped notice. If it can melt in some way it would be able to slide down into the waterworks beneath us and hide in spots we would be unable to search for it."

Inga has posed:
Inga looks toward Dorian, gawking at his suggestion. It was likely a joke, but... "I could do that, if it would help...but I'm not sure that it will and it would take me far too long to get back again. Not to mention, I am not sure you could even communicate with my spirit form," she replies.

Life is weird for the chosed of Gaia.

"I think there will be no need," she continues, taking a look at the black stuff. "This may just do the trick." Inga pulls something from her pouch, a test tube with a rubber stopper. Very carefully, she uses a small spoon to ladle a bit of the goop into the tube. The stuff reminds her far too much of Filth, and she cannot disguise the disgust and fear in her eyes. She must remind herself it is not the same substance. Regardless, if anyone must come close to it perhaps it should be her.

"If this is part of the creature, than it has given us the key to finding it. I need just a moment," she says, looking into the test tube. She pulls a packet of herbs from her pouch and sprinkles a bit into the goop. She then pricks her finger, letting a drop of her blood drip into the glass tube as well. Give it a shake, say a few words.... and the substance in the tube begins to glow with a soft golden light.

Inga next pulls a chain from her pouch and begins to tie it around the top of the test tube, making what is essentially a pendulum. "Now then, this should lead the way."

Tomoe has posed:
The Hunt keeps going there's no light, no sun n moon, no stars. Thus Tomoe can not fly and is grounded from the use of her wings in the mean time. Shes' on edge and the black? Slime>? Blood? Mold?Se doen't know but she doesn't want to touch it and she keeps her blade out she's also spawned a small sphere of light to guide the way and help her to see.

"II don't ... want to know what this stuff is..."

She shivers a bitbut keeps on point and her eyes re darting about looking for any disturbance in this /stuff/.

Carna (974) has posed:
    The substance doesn't appear to do anything outwardly when touched... Though even the sounds as it slowly drips from anything used to contact it are rather digusting. It seems to be suited to use as a reagent, however, because they begin having more success almost immediately. The test tube pendulum leads the group to various places throughout the protective ring of buildings within the walls. It becomes apparent that the very protection that keeps the civilian Lanterns safe from outside threats has given this... THING free rein to hunt as it pleases.

    And just how compromised the defenses actually are becomes plain as well as they are led from place to place. Locations where it has been. Locations it has lingered. Wooden walls, already suffering the decay of age, sometimes have spots where the boards have been rotted through in a different manner. The wood is moist, rather than dry. Blackened, and caved inwards as though something had simply forced its way through.

    It leads them to storm cellar entrances, dark except for their own lights, walls and ceiling dripping with black, floor bearing strange squiggling tracks like many small serpents.

    It leads them to a house deposited from the Land of Ashes above, when whatever happened to End Everything resulted in the trappings if civilization being dumped below. Part of the house almost seems habitable. Semi-pristine (for Lumiere). But then there's the horrorshow of a kitchen, sinks overflowing with more black gunk. A faucet that has probably never provided a drop of water, nonetheless dripping foul rot into a cracked and broken pool of marble and porcelain that waterfalls slow-moving sludge onto the floor. A refrigerator half-open bears marks of more such decay capillary-actioning itself out from within, across the counters, and into the walls.

    And a nursery that probably never saw any use, nonetheless bears the disturbing signs of infestation in the walls painted to look like the night sky, a stars-and-moon mobile dangling over a crib dripping the black into a moldering mass of tattered baby blankets.

    It got this bad, just since they closed up this area to protect the Lanterns. Who knows how many more buildings are like this? How many hiding out in such haunted places fell victm to whatever this is?

    After another hour of searching, during which the pendulum seems to be leading them to newer and newer traces of the Thing, they eventually come to a two-story building that looks like it used to sell musical instruments. The windows are broken out, glass shattered and dripping with awful. And there are sounds coming from beyond the darkened entrance.

Dorian Pavus (774) has posed:
    Thankfully Dorian wasn't actually serious about that whole 'turn someone undead' thing. He is, however, listening to Kord's explanation. And it just makes his lip curl more. "So it's some creature's leavings?" he summarizes. A shudder. He is quite disgusted, yes. And probably a little nervous at the thought that this thing can just melt into nothing without anyone noticing. Not that he'd ever admit that, mind.

    Inga's words get a raised brow. "...I was joking," he says quietly. However, he winces a bit when Inga approaches the goopy stuff. Like Tomoe, he's keeping a close eye on Inga, in case the stuff turns out to not like being ladled into a test tube and tries to attack her. Never know with strange black goop you find on the ground, after all. Besides, the pessimist in Dorian is just WAITING for point at something that should have been obvious and go 'See?'

    It doesn't, but the goop does prove to be a good reagent. So Dorian will follow the group down this trail. Dorian becomes more and more disgusted with this thing as he goes along down the trail. Gross thing, and Dorian's sensibilities are quite offended by this creature's existence. If it is indeed a creature. Particularly when...

    "...Maker's Breath." His hand goes to cover his mouth, in shock.

    The nursery. Sure, there may be no traces of a kid there, and Dorian's not exactly planning to settle down and have little magelets running around. But he IS human. Seeing a space dedicated to children, so violated by whatever this stuff is, traces of this creature that had to have spent a lot of time here to have left this much of this crap behind...

    Yeah. Not pleased.

    By the time they get to the music store, Dorian's snark and flippant attitude have disappeared. His eyes are narrowed, his brows drawn down -- and the sensation of barely restrained magical power bubbling just beneath the surface comes from him, for those who are able to sense it. For those that aren't? The three dragon heads on his staff, their eyes are glowing ever so slightly, and a small flame burns between the three draconic heads.

    There is a possibility that he may be just a little bit upset. And maybe, just maybe, juuuuuust a touch angry.

Count Kord has posed:
    Kord is as silent as before on their way to track the threat that has been consuming Lanterns. He seems to remain on guard the whole way as Inga leads them from location to location, though his silence does break briefly when they reach the nursery that also carries signs of its presence. The reminder that even children had arrived here among Lumiere's residents keeps him at the doorway. He seems unwilling to step inside that room and there's a stiffness to his posture.

    He is not as furious as Dorian is when they finally arrive to an invaded music store. He just pulls his scythe from its holster and unfolds it with a metallic 'click,' then approaches the front door. Since the windows might leave him open, he makes sure that the front door is only slightly ajar as he takes steps to enter the building first, being the one best suited to dark, enclosed spaces.

    He keeps his wits about him. This could be anything. It will likely be disgusting. And the moment it detects him it will attack or flee like an animal. And so he must be aware of every shadowed shape in the area he is venturing into.

Inga has posed:
After a search that long, Inga is tired. It is a lot of walking for her, and more than once she had to stop briefly to rest before continuing on. She didn't want to stop anywhere, here. It was horror and black ooze in every location they visited, and each was scorched into her memory to most likely add the the myriad of terrible things she's seen that now populate her nightmares. An already bleak place more all the more horrible by a monster that now has no competition as a predator. Inga is more determined than ever to find it and find a way to dispatch it. She's thinking fire. Large quantities of fire.

Inga is also highly disturbed by the scene in the nursery, the color visibly draining from her face. Inga has seen many terrible things, but this one she is sure to remember. Hearing Dorian's oath, she reaches over to put what she hopes is a steadying hand on his arm, but her grip is tight with barely restrained rage and horror.

Finally, they approach what appears to have been a shop that sold instruments. This time, there are sounds from inside. She prays that their chase has come to an end and they may get down to the dirty business of trying to erase it from existence.

"Before we continue..." Inga begins, drawing her knife from her belt. She cuts a line of crimson down her arm and flicks the blood toward each of her companions one at a time, a ward surrounding them with a subtly glimmering red aura. That done, she's more than happy to let someone else go first. She looks to her assembled companions, lips pursed, perhaps wondering if between them they have enough force to burn the whole building to ashes. Alas, there may be someone inside.

Kord takes the lead, and Inga makes to follow a little ways behind, fire and blood magic at the ready.

Tomoe has posed:
The goop as Tomoe is mentally labling it is not something she wans to touch she loosk concerned as someone does move to touch it. She keeps with the party knowing splitting the party is asking to die. So she is not going to be part of it as they come upon the house and she looks at it for a moment. The kitchen ahs Tomoe pale she's looking spooked this is like one of the last floors she saw in Sword Art Online and she does not like the memories it brings up. She keeps on guard and then she finds more thing and she's actuall looking spooked and she's just trying to keep her cool. It's just all the little thigns adding up and she looks to Ing and thento Dorian as she attemps to keep with them.

"God...this is..."

There is not much more comming out of her mouth right now given the horrors re getting her she pause for a moment at Inga nodding letting her do her thing. She will move to take point when the group gets moving again though.

Carna (974) has posed:
    Cautiously, they advance into the store. The signs of the foul creature's presence are here as well, in its now-distinctive black goop and filthy smears, like a cross between oil and sewer water. Corroded saxophones lie under their overturned display cases. Walls with racks to hold now-dissolved woodwind instruments are empty. Piles of sheet music lie scattered on the floor, soaking up rot. Most of the store has been cleared of anything that would stand in the middle, displaced by calamity or salvaged long ago, meaning even these few signs of disarray still leave a lot of wide-open space. Desolate-seeming, if not for the more recent indications of something wet and slick moving in.

    There's definitely a quiet, disturbing noise. Like the revoltingly ticklish feeling of many insect legs on flesh, turned into sound. But there's a more definite, deeper noise coming from further in. A thump-thumping noise coming from behind the counter.

    Then something starts flopping out into the open!!!

    It looks like... Like someone trapped inside of a skin-tight sleeping bag, thrashing around. Muffled noises like someone's voice emanate from inside, just barely. The bag is odd though. It has an irregular surface. And it almost seems to be... Moving independently?

    With the light they possess, they will see it clearly as the bound figure rolls and thrashes its way closer to them.

    The victim is covered in many, many, many small worms. Black ooze spatters on the floor where the Lantern's body impacts the floor in its vain struggles. It turns its head towards them, and the hollows where its eyes and mouth are can be seen through the writhing prison. Even as the surface of the prison starts to flow inside of those orifices even as the mouth opens wide to scream silently... And then be filled.

    But this is not the primary source of the squirming noises they heard. Black drips on them.

    Above them, the entire ceiling is a carpet of these wretched worms.

    They have only a few moments to react.

    Then a wall of sharp-toothed little horrors drops towards them.

    It's hard to say whether Inga's wards will burn the enemy faster than they can begin to eat. But if they don't do something, they'll get the opportunity to find out which is stronger, and whether they are about to wind up like that Lantern that has now mostly collapsed into himself as the borders of his body are erased by hungering mouths.

Dorian Pavus (774) has posed:
    Dorian does not object at all when Kord takes the lead to go into the building first. Kord seems to be able to see and navigate better than he in the dark. However, he has been watching Inga, noting the trouble she's having with her leg along the trip. He nods in thanks as she uses her blood to place protective barriers around them. And he sticks close to her as they enter the building. He's looking for movement; that's easier to see in the dark.

    That's when things get really, REALLY bad, really, REALLY fast. It's bad enough with this Lantern that's... actually Dorian's not sure what it's doing. And then suddenly drips of black... and worms. Sharp-toothed little worms. Dropping down. ON THEM!

    Inga's barrier will probably buy Dorian enough time to realize what's going on. And when he does? Well...

    ...Right. Dorian has a pretty decently-low voice. Not super low, but definitely not on the lines of a voice that one would mistake for female. And yet, the screech that he emits once he realizes there are sharp-toothed litlte worms trying to eat him is ANYTHING but masculine. Dorian is kind of reacting pretty instinctually here. Which is probably understandable.

    Although for a Thedan mage, 'instinctual' usually means 'magic'. So... suddenly fire. All the fire. It's instinctual, the magic, and ends up emitting from his hands in a haphazard way. Mostly considering he's trying to frantically shake off the worms, brush them off with his now-burning hands, etc. Unfortunately he's not watching where he's spraying that flame.

    On the bright side this just might work on the worms too.

Count Kord has posed:
    ...

    Kord freezes when he witnesses the Lantern being consumed. He realizes what he's seeing is probably an indicator that the victim is seconds away from expiring anyways. The way the concealed figure looks toward them gets his pale eyes to widen in the dark pits of his bird-like helmet... and then he lifts his head. That precious couple of seconds is capitalized on when he reacts on reflex. Although his attack won't, necessarily, perfectly repel the things dropping down on them in a shower of gluttony, he can...

    Dark Pulse. His body recoils into a crouch and a hand goes up, fingers outstretched. Black and red energy blasts from his hand in a shockwave that tries to hit as many of the tiny targets as he can. He has very few options for defense against an opponent like this, clearly, if he must use an ability like this to repel them. It carries a dark pressure with it meant to get enemies to recoil, though the efficacy of that is questionable against a target with such instinctive, relentless purpose.

Inga has posed:
So.

That happens.

Inga reacts. There's no time to think about it. The lanterns being devoured is already gone, and if he's not yet he probably begs to be released from that horror. If he survives...great, she'll heal him if such is even possible. If not...

Either way, there is fire. Her gorge rises and she stamps it down, releasing all that feeling in scorching flames. She yells the word of incantation and channels a sizable burst of fire, sweeping it in a circle around them. She only wishes she could do more. She hopes that the building will catch, as she is renewing her plan quickly to destroy this building until there's naught left but ashes.

Luckily, everyone seems to be on the same page here. That pages reads; OH MY GOD KILL IT WITH FIRE BAD THING BAD THING FIRE FIRE FIRE!

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe is being a bit more timid than she nmight be normally and while she's sene horrible things? She's not as mentally harden as many in the multiverse about the occult scares the hell out of her also her wondering is there anything for her world when they pass? Were they a world without souls before unification? It's hard to tell and this sort of thing sometimes get stuck in her mind. She looks at them trashing for a moment she stares and moves her light in. She goes to help the vitem but not thing sre falling on her. Tomoe lets out a worldless scream of fear and then comes the casting and the even more mangled than normal Norsel, she's chanting rapidly causing an explosion of fire to go up.

By Fire Be purged is all that's on Tomoe's mind right now from thelooks of things. She may be on the edge of breaking though from how she's behaving...

Carna (974) has posed:
    Fire and darkness are thrown about with abandon, incinerating the foul creatures, and starting to set light to wood and plaster that barely has the 'substance' to support flames. Still, no matter how sickly and gray the fires, the building still burns. The monster hunters may wish to actually back out of the building before they are caught in the swarming masses that are forming into a mound the size of a hill in the center of the room and writhing towards them with alarming speed. Huge lengths of worms are even winding together into 'limbs' of sort to help propel it forwards like a big squirming spider.

    The flames are clearly effective against it, but trying to trap it inside with them to die fighting it, while quite heroic in theory, might not be the best course of action if they intended to live through today.

    Whatever was left of the Lantern has dissolved into a puddle of worms, just a patch of black fluid coated in worms that seek to join the larger host.

Dorian Pavus (774) has posed:
    No need to tell Dorian to clear out; as soon as he sees that thing growing on the floor? He is getting OUT of that building. The fact that the place is on fire only serves to hasten Dorian on his trip. He's not irrationally fleeing; he does so without a big panic. But speaking of haste? He has a way of getting out that shouldn't interfere with the others. Well, only inasmuch as cold smoke does.

    He turns, and his body dissolves into thick, blue-white smoke. And then that smoke races towards the exit of the building, reforming only when he's safely outside. It should pass through anyone else he happens to be too close to without harming them. Though anybody who touches the smoke might feel a little cold. It won't hurt, though.

Inga has posed:
"Out! Get out!" Inga yells, watching the mass gathering on the floor as it tries to crawl closer to them, sickening black and writhing. There is little that ilicits more horror than the thought of dying in such a way. Sure, she would be back, but would she be sane?

Inga focuses her fire, aiming at the growing mound, wondering if there is a heart to strike that will cease this horror. "Pull me out last! I'll blast it as long as I can!" If she falls, she hopes they just keep blasting it. It should not exist. It needs to go down.

Mentally, she is awarding Lumiere as Worst Place in the multiverse...but probably only because she hasn't been to Kingsmouth in a while.

Tomoe has posed:
Fire is thrown so much fire is thrown around but something else is comming she's not sure she does however go for Dawn Breaker and now moves to try and do what she can to keep it back as the other file out. 5R
"Go I'll be rtight behind you!"

Tomoe keeps going she'll folow the others out and does not turn her back as she heads out facing it ready to intercept.

Count Kord has posed:
    Kord is not going to stand inside of a burning building full of carnivorous hive insects born to devour all in a way that puts locusts to shame. The grim man folds his scythe and takes one look at Inga when she says she should get pulled out of here last. He looks to Tomoe, who might be able to do something, but he just reaches out and instantly lift her up by the waist. He is very strong, like, more than one might expect. "I am too damn old to watch someone like you get eaten by swarms of bugs," he complains, to self-justify his actions. He makes sure she isn't impeded TOO much from casting though as he moves to carry her out of the place as quickly as he can. Which is pretty damn quick, in fact.

    He'd set her down outside of the building after that, and begin collecting internal energy to fire that big vampiric beam, his hands glowing with collecting red and black energy while he takes on a ready pose to dodge should the thing try to leap out from the storefront with uncanny agility. He has gotten used to the unexpected actions of the Unlit.

    He doesn't seem too worried about Tomoe. He can't exactly carry TWO people, now can he?

Carna (974) has posed:
    Fire pours over the wormy monster, that now screeches with its many mouths as it barrels into the entrance right as the hunters escape through it. Some worms come pouring out of the doorway after them, but with the age of the building combined with the rot it has spread and the flames eating away at it, the structure collapses on top of the worm-hill-with-legs. It continues to thrash and hiss and screech in the ruins for several moments, but then the wreckage seems to just collapse inwards, not unlike how that Lantern's body did when the worms had finished eating away at his insides until there was nothing to support his gobbled-up skin.

    But the way the noises of the monster fade, rather than growing weaker or petering out, almost sounds like it's growing... Distant.

    As flaming timbers spill down into the newly-formed hole in the music store's floor, and a deep, dark shaft of some kind, it becomes clear that the hunt is not yet over. But it has been driven away... For now.

Inga has posed:
Inga, once the building collapses and the thing retreats, sighs heavily. "Odin's blood and bones, we're going to have to chase the thing," she curses, resigned but not at all pleased.

She looks up at Kord. "Kindly put me down," she requests. He's lucky she hasn't hit him with her walking stick. She supposes he doesn't know better.

"Let me work on more powerful wards before we go after it, now that we have a very good idea what we are fighting." That will give them a bit of rest, as well.

Dorian Pavus (774) has posed:
    Dorian is perfectly fine with not going back in there. Then again, once he looks he notices the thing is gone. "...Kaffas," he curses. Yeah, that's going to be nightmares for a while. And the thing got away, too -- even MORE nightmares, knowing it could come after them again, individually.

    ...Why did you just have to think that?

    "Are you sure we can't just drop something explosive down there and hold a lid over the hole in the ground?" he ventures. No, he knows they can't do that, and his tone tells it pretty clearly. A shake of his head. "Is everyone all right?" he asks. He's got healz!