Scene #2038: Dungeon & Draken I

Owner	Pose
Rynn	Not the most likely places to find old ruins from the world of Drakan that has become scattered across the Multiverse, but it would seem such a ruin is located here upon the frozen mountains. Nestled in a little area against the rocky surface is a path leading to a cave and within the icy cave is frozen over stone walls, a few torches that have caused the ice to melt around them and dangerous steps leading down into the darkness below. Rynn is standing at the mouth of this cave right at the start of the ruins, with her companion Arokh no where in sight. She has on dragonscale armor, a bow on her back, along with a quiver of arrows. Her dagger sheathed at her thigh scabbard and a sword at her side. There also seems to be an axe on the other side as well. They will find themselves here by the Warpgate near by and the trail leading up to her. They'll just have to deal with the slightly cold wind that blows by from time to time. Howling against the mountain side as it passes through.
Ryu	Ryu arrives with only a small change to his normal attire in the form of a pale yellow scarf that covers his mouth somewhat. He steps out of the warpgate at a slow pace, not really in a rush to join the adventure, instead strolling up the trail casually. He stops near where Rynn and the others are set to gather, and greets Rynn with an equally casual, "Hey," then starts to look around, his head tilting back to observe nearby mountains and his eyes squinting against the cold that brushes against his face.
Xiaomu	There's just nothing quite like a good old-fashioned dungeon crawl, when you get right down to it. You and a small group of trusted allies, alone against the corridors and the monsters and traps which occupy them, all but cut off from the safety of home (if you didn't bring a quick-escape item, anyway ... and if you're playing a game which doesn't have that, may the gods help you - because the game certainly won't!) So when word got out that somebody wanted to do a real dungeon-exploration run, Xiaomu figured it was certainly worth looking into - and she strides out of the warpgate, the rings atop her staff jingling almost merrily each time the staff's bottom end strikes the ground. She doesn't LOOK like she's geared up for a dungeon expedition, mind you - she's dressed the same way as she usually is, zippered black qipao under red vest/jacket, and while she DOES have a carrypack buckled across her back, she looks kind of under-armed, not to mention under-armored, for a long hard slog through an unexplored dungeon. Of course, those who know Xiaomu would know that she has more weapons than it looks like - her staff conceals an ice-elemental sword, and her twin handguns are holstered inside the vest where you'd have to be looking for them. And who knows what she's stashed in the carrypack for this run? ... Although whatever it is, just the fact that she HAS it means she's carrying extra supplies or equipment. (One might hope it's not just snacks and video games this time.)
Ysuran	Ysuran arrives with a warm woolen coat over his usual attire. He already wears gloves, so that's not a problem. His staff serves as an effective way to balance while walking over any ice that might be underfoot. In the other hand he carries his usual large black tome. He doesn't look quite so unarmed, given he's got a crossbow on his person in addition to the staff and tome. Which is good, because what's he going to do with a book, right? Bean a zombie with it? When he arrives at the location where the group is gathered, he offers a nod. "Greetings to you all," he offers. And to Rynn specifically, "Thank you for allowing me to accompany you." Ysuran's got a bit of a hangup about his skills, see. Not many people in his world tolerate the mage that makes dead things walk around...
Rynn	Rynn looks as everyone gathers up and places her hands on her hips. "Greetings to you all as well," her weight shifts a bit to her left leg as she looks into the mountain and down the steps. "I've done a bit of looking around already. It doesn't smell of Scavengers or Yetis, so that is a start. At worst, there may be some undead or spiders." Rynn then looks back at the group. "Also traps, there is /always/ traps... though the more dangerous it is, the bigger you can expect the reward to be!" The woman then looks over them once more, before she looks to Ysuran. "Also not a problem, after the egg hunt, I figured I would extend a hand out to do a little crawling around in my normal life of adventuring." The red head then looks away from the group and grabs up one of the torches. "Well, no time to waste. Just watch your step, it may be slippery and if you have any questions, feel free to ask!" Rynn then starts to descend down the steps... Once they get below there was a large room with several metal cages that had ice hanging off them. There were old bones that were iced over and the room had a gentle soft blue glow to it. Metal chains were hanging down from the ceiling and there were a few spider webs about the area.
Xiaomu	"Well, this is kind of charming," Xiaomu remarks in a distinctly un-charmed tone, looking around the cages and the occasional icicle or patch of frost. "Looks like whatever's native to this part of the dungeon is an ice-user ..." She pauses, eyeing a web, then prods it gently with the butt of her staff. How big of a web are we talking about here?
Ryu	Ryu has some insightful disapproving grunts to give when Rynn mentions the undead and spiders, not really watching her as she talks but definitely listening. As she talks about traps, rewards and risks, he looks back to her and creases his brow. He's not much of a talker, most days, but it's clear that he's confused by what she just said. She's quick to urge the party onward, however, so he follows after her. Instead of taking a torch, he waves one of his gloved hands and manifests an orb of light that floats behind one of his shoulders, providing a nice range of light for himself and most of the party, if they stay near him. It supplements the light from the torch nicely. His comment toward the room with the cages is just, "Morbid," as he looks up at one of those cages and frowns behind his scarf. He draws his firearm, Agni, from its holster, in preparation for an ice-based threat. The red-colored firearm is, after all, fire-elemental. He holds it loosely in his off-hand, his other hand resting on the grip of his blade.
Ysuran	The mention of undead gets a look of interest from Ysuran. This is interesting given his trade. Though he keeps quiet for the time being. He also nods his head in understanding to Rynn's words of the egg hunt. Once Rynn turns to enter the ruins, Ysuran does as well. His steps are careful, and he uses the staff to brace himself so he doesn't fall. Also he is an elf from Faerûn, even as magic-users they tend to be quite nimble. Xiamu's words get a nod. "Though could it be the temperature outside?" he inquires. There may not be a magical reason. She begins to prod the spiderweb and Ysuran winces. "Be careful," he cautions. "Spiders can feel a touch on their web as long as they maintain contact with a single strand." Ryu's words, however, get a bit of a smirk, but he doesn't comment. A temporary bodyguard probably would be a good idea. By which, of course, is meant to raise a skeleton from the ground. Now, there'd be no reason to raise the bones in the cages-- if he even could, they're iced-over-- since, well... they're in cages. In the meantime he begins to concentrate, hopefully he'll have enough time. He's trying to sense magic-- or death-- in his general vicinity.
Rynn	The spider web is tapped by Xiaomu and Rynn winces a little herself, as it seems even she knows that may been a bad idea, so there is some agreement with the elf there. Ysuran also would sense a great deal of death here, death, decay, this place is also very old and magic is indeed the air and all around. There is even magic on Rynn it seems! Rynn gives a minor nod, "He is right," she says motioning to Ysuran, "The spiders here... you don't want to wake them up." Rynn goes to step around the group looking at the walls, then upward. There was a few cracks about in the ceiling, some large ones as well. There was also some cracks in the ground below the cages, they went down a bit, but there may be another level down there. While everyone was oblivious too it, something was moving in the shadows with a soft click click sound. Xiaomu would hear it and she may also notice the web moving ever so slightly at times. Though if it was above or from below... it was hard to say.
Xiaomu	"Well, if we wake any spiders up, we'll just have to tuck 'em back into their beds, nice and snug," Xiaomu replies - and then she hears something, her ears perking up. (Visibly perking, at that. Gotta love being a fox in human shape sometimes.) "Yyyyeah, think something noticed ..." she says, attempting to sound casual as she plants her staff next to her, then reaches into her vest and draws out her handguns. "Well, better they come to us when we're expecting 'em, right?" She glances down at the lower visible end of the web, then looks up to see if she can see the spider(s) coming from THAT direction. Clearly, this is a foxgirl who knows how to prepare for trouble.
Ryu	Ryu's head turns when Xiaomu points out that the spiders noticed their presence. His free hand draws out the heavy sword and rests it at his side, and his head turns to regard their surroundings, searching for anymore signs of these hostile spiders, from directions that Xiaomu doesn't have covered already. He's prepared to fight, if she starts shooting. He flicks the off-hand in that direction, and casts another ball of light to illuminate the area that Xiaomu so that she can see that spot a little easier.
Ysuran	Ysuran opens his eyes again, in time to hear Xiaomu's statement. "'Tucking them back to bed' generally results in needing to kill them, you do realize?" he inquires, with a bit of a teaing tone to his voice. Though as she warns them that something is coming, he nods in thanks. Yup, he needs a bodyguard! No skeletons nearby that are useful. So he turns again to his shadows. A dark, sibilant chant later, and he's summoned a vaguely humanoid shadow to crouch at his feet. The shadow 'stands' at alert, head turning from one side to the other as if looking for the source of its master's distress. For his part, Ysuran reaches into a pouch at his belt and extracts what looks like a handful of small pebbles. He doesn't do anything with them yet, but whatever he intends to do with them, he stands ready to do so. Ryu's ball of light will probably help Ysuran see, too. Ironically, despite being a Shadow Adept, he can't see in the dark any better than a typical elf can. Which admittedly, is pretty good, but still.
Rynn	Rynn glances over to Xiaomu, "Wonderful." She draws out her bow and takes out three arrows at ready. Her eyes skimming around as well trying to get a feel for where they will come from. "Draken's spiders are not your average eight leg types... while they do have eight legs, the two up front are extremely long and have sharp edges like blades and spears." Rynn shifts her stance and pulls back an arrow, aiming it up, then down. "They also have natural armored backing." The ball of light from Ryu illuminates the area further and shadows dance around the area as things move out of sight. The clacking can be heard by all, before a soft hisss. It was then it was obvious there was a large spider above them, at least four feet in height and goes to leap right at Xiaomu. This was soon followed by another coming from below, that leaps right at Ryu! Soon a few more climb down from the cieling holes and a few more from the floors. There was even some shoving against the wall bricks, as a spider leg could be seen trying to break out of the left most wall!
Xiaomu	As the spider pounces at Xiaomu, she - falls over? Actually, no. While the sage fox DOES seem to collapse, it's a controlled fall into a roll away from where she was standing as the spider leapt - and she's still rolling when she starts shooting, her first few bullets not aimed quite as well before she comes back to her feet (without using her arms, yet!) and focuses on the thing's mouth-parts and whatever passes for its eyes. "Okay, didn't think it'd be THIS many!" she calls out, glancing around to see if more than one spider is showing a live interest in her. And that's about when she realizes she's out of immediate reach of Suiren. The monk staff got knocked over but it seems remarkably resistant to spider-related damage from getting knocked over; it's resilient enough that Xiaomu can block sword blades with it, so it would take a pretty tough AND determined spider to damage it. Having her primary melee weapon out of reach could be a disadvantage, though ...
Ryu	Ryu is glad that he has light spells, or this would be a WAY more terrifying fight. When a spider lunges at him, he whips around with a flourish of scarf, bladed legs grazing him while he trades blows, the hand cannon is placed right at the spider's maw, and the trigger is pulled, in hopes that the blast of fire from point-blank will be enough to take care of the creature. After that, he uses the kick to recoil away with a quick backstep, sliding against icy ground like a trained soldier might; slightly clumsy but not enough to fall on his ass right there. He tries to kick Xiaomu's staff over to her side, when he notices she's not holding it, not wanting his companion to be without a melee weapon in a melee.
Ysuran	here they are, the spiders. But these... these are like no spiders Ysuran has ever seen. Regardless... they probably want to eat the four of them. So really, they're no different. The handful of pebbles he'd picked out of that pouch is held in his hand tightly, and he chants a quick incantation. It lacks the dark undertone of the spell he used to summon the shadow. And then he flings the pebbles at the spiders coming out of the walls. However, the pebbles IGNITE the moment they leave his hand! The result is that several arrowlike blasts of flame end up shooting at the spiders! Hey, it works in his world, let's see what happens to these when they get hit by fire! He picked the spiders coming out of the walls because they were the ones that were structurally weakening the area around them. Right now they could still escape if the spiders got to be too much. But if the place collapsed on them, that would probably be more difficult.
Rynn	Shots are fired, Rynn's arrows go flying, blades go cutting, and bolts of magic everywhere! The Spiders lunge, get hit. They try to go low, get shot, and even those going high don't get a break. The place is a display of power as the four Elites make quick work of the hungry spiders. Only problem is once they are done---- its far from over. Ysuran's quick thinking also keeps the spiders at bay near the walls trying to get out and they can actually be seen trying to retreat to another location! A few more start to arrive from above, but all the activity, causes the ground to rumble. Rynn can only look down, before she notices things starting to give away, "Move!" She barks out as she goes to leap up and actually goes to grab for one of the four cages. The others best be quick too or the may fall to the floor below!
Rynn	-- ROLL INTURRUPT! -- Ysuran, Xiaomu, and Ryu both find themselves unable to reach their objective. ----------- The ground below shatters and the second floor below actually has a pool of water. It is oddly warm compared to the rest of this frozen place ad there is away back up by means of rock climbing to what ledge now remains of the previous floor. There is something shimmering at the bottom of the deep pool of water, but there is also something moving in the water as well, though it stays out of sight. There is also a ledge out of the pool of water, with piles of gold here and there laying about.
Xiaomu	Xiaomu just barely has time to scoop up Suiren (with a quick "Thank you!" to Ryu) before the floor starts to break up underfoot; she spares a split second to re-holster Silver and Platinum, then leaps - RIGHT as the piece of floor she was standing on joins its neighbors in giving way, which deprives her of most of the force she needed to make that jump safely. At least the landing should be relatively soft ... SPLAAAAAAAAASH!! ... if not terribly graceful. "Owww," she grumbles as she rights herself, treads water for a bit, then pulls herself out of the water and onto that ledge, using her staff to help others climb up onto relatively dry rock if they need it. This time, she is NOT poking around at the piles of gold or anything. "Anyone get hurt yet? Bought some healing potions from Fayt before coming out ... got a first-aid kit in my pack, too." On that note, once the group is out of the water, she unstraps her carrypack to check on the contents. Fortunately, the bag seems watertight - and its contents include additional clips of ammo, grenades, a first-aid kit, the potions she mentioned, and plenty of empty space.
Ysuran	Ysuran is too far away form a cage to be able to get to it within any reasonable length of time. The floor cracks open beneath him and he falls, with a surprised yelp. And falls right into water that is warmer than it should be, given the cold outside. The fall is likely to have him ending up pretty far under the water, and he clutches his tome and staff so as not to lose them. Unfortunately, they will also end up dragging him down. But he's not going to drop them. He can't replace them, and he needs them both. It's a monumental struggle, but he finally manages to break the surface of the water with both staff and tome intact, and begins to climb out onto dry land. Thankfully the pages are bespelled to not deteriorate in water. He seems to have lost the shadow-creature in the fall, though. Xiaomu's statement gets a shake of his head, as he climbs up of the water. "It does not appear so," he replies. A look up. "...This place is more dangerous than I thought. Perhaps we should climb back up, find Rynn, and be out of here. Treasure is not worth our lives, and for this to go wrong so quickly cannot bode well for further endeavors."
Ryu	Ryu is definitely not prepared for a fall, not when the ground gives out under him. He lets out a cry of surprise and a bit of terror when he plummets into the water, and quickly stuffs his hand cannon back in its holster and tries to swim to the nearest stable foothold, all of the water soaking into his clothing and making his movements sluggish. His strength is considerable enough to disregard that, though. "Rrrgh..." he growls out, his hair matted down to his head. He pulls his scarf off and blows a puff of flame in frustration, then looks up at the area they fell from, squinting for a few seconds, and the rest of the room they fell into, his grimace full of sharp teeth. A shimmer of light, and soon there is a dragon standing there instead of a human, with shimmering scales. That dragon looks down into the water for a moment, and then leaps down into it, blithely disregarding Ysuran's words of caution and using his powerful muscles to try to reach the object down there. He's got a lot of lung power, so he might last down there longer than the rest of the party would.
Rynn	Rynn glances down from the cage she holding onto, she raises an eye brow, "This is dangerous?" She heard you Ysuran. "You should seen the other places with flaming walls, swinging axe blades, and leaping ledges with arrows being shot at you! That--- is dangerous!" Or perhaps Rynn is just a bit crazy. Just a bit... The red head warrior goes to join the group, but her foot slips and she ends up falling into the water as well. She slowly rises up out of the water with a mild annoyed look on her head, before she swims over to the edge like it was nothing with that armor on, then shakes her head a bit. "At least there wasn't spikes down here..." That is when Rynn watches Ryu jump into the water after his transformation and she blinks her eyes a few times, "...I... didn't remember he could turn into a dragon..." or maybe he never showed that he could. Either way, as Ryu swims down the water stays comfortably warm. Down at the bottom of the pool is actually a sword of some kind, jammed into the water. There is also something moving about that has a shimmer of scales. It wouldn't be long till Ryu spots two pair of serpentine eyes looking directly at him from the shadows of the Pool...
Ryu	As he reaches the bottom, Ryu takes note of the sword. He stops at the bottom of the pool, grabs the hilt of the weapon and tries to pull it free from the bottom with one hand. His eyes raise and focus on-- something staring at him from the murk over there. His open hand flicks in that direction and he tries to light up the water so that creature can't hide in the dark while he's doing this. At the very least, he seeks to stun the creature with the bright light in its face while he's concentrating on retrieving what may be an intact and fairly magical sword, or a piece of junk for all he knows. He's got a couple minutes of air, so he doesn't seem worried about a fight breaking out down there. If he gets the sword free, he'll swim back up with strong kicks of his legs and rudder-like snaps of his tail, moving much like an alligator does.
Xiaomu	Xiaomu double-checks her carrypack's contents, then packs everything up and closes the bag nice and watertight again. THEN she peels off her jacket/vest, removes her holsters, and starts wringing water out of her clothes - the jacket first, then the skirt-panels of her qipao; she can't do much about the main body of it, but it's not like it hid much when the cloth was dry. Then she sits down and starts field-stripping her handguns, drying them out as well as she can while Ryu goes for his swim. "Yeah," she responds belatedly to Rynn's comment, "breakaway floors and giant spiders aren't really out of the ordinary for dungeons. You don't usually find trap floors that close to the entrance, though .... maybe we got a back door by mistake or something?"
Ysuran	Ysuran looks up, seeing Rynn fall into the water as well. He shakes his head. He'd been about to caution Ryu against going after the glittering thing in the water, but that seems moot. Giving a bit of a sigh, he looks back to Xiaomu and Rynn. The former's words of trap floors that close to an entrance gets a nod. "Precisely," he agrees. "Hence my suggestion."
Rynn	Ryu successfully pulls the sword free and the his bright light causes the creature to suddenly dart into an underwater tunnel. It looks to be rather massive, serpentine in body. Its hard to say where it has gone off too once it goes back in the cave. The sword however glistens in Ryu's hands. It has an elegant handle, with rune designs running down the blade that shimmer gently with a soft red glow. The hilt seem made of ivory and gold, this was no poor-man's weapon that got lost. However with the sword pulled out, the hole starts to bubble and soon the whole area starts to rumble. The water actually shakes and the area above starts to drop down some rubble onto the lower part, splashing into the water below. Rynn actually quickly side steps and looks up, "...we may have found a back door... or because of this places age, most of it fell off when my world unified here." She then glances up, then to the wall that leads back up. "We better start moving. You two, make for the exit, I'll wait for Ryu. Go! We don't know if this place will stay together!"
Ysuran	Ysuran doesn't wait to be told twice. He quickly hangs his staff around his shoulder and mounts the tome on his back by the straps, and starts climbing up the wall back to the first floor. Hopefully those spiders will have left by then, or at least thinned out enough to make it a little easier to get out.
Ryu	Ryu emerges from the water at a rapid pace, and finds the nearest handhold to pull himself up. He reaches to try to grab ahold of Ysuran by his clothing and tells him, "I'm gonna throw you up," shortly before tossing him back up to the first floor. Then he tries to leap up, still holding the sword, preparing to flee this place. He trusts Rynn and Xiaomu to be able to handle themselves, for the most part.
Xiaomu	Xiaomu hastily reassembles her handguns - or rather, the ONE handgun she'd had time to break down - and gathers all of her stuff back up, thrusting Suiren through a set of loops on the carrypack's side before she starts climbing, following Ysuran's lead. He's heavier than she is, most likely, so any hand- or foothold HE can use should be plenty to bear the sage fox's weight. He's also finding them, so Xiaomu just has to pay attention. ... and hope he doesn't suddenly fall for any reason, because that would take HER back off of the wall too.
Ysuran	Well that was unexpected! Ysuran suddenly finds himself tossed onto the upper level by a dragon. Surprisingly he manages to stick the landing and doesn't fall over this time. Instead he heads to where the climbers will have to be, and offers them a hand up. Ryu, however, may need to climb up himself, because Ysuran's probably not strong enoguh to pull Ryu's dragon form up.
Rynn	Everyone gets out of the cave and just as Rynn makes it out the whole things crashes down on top of itself, crushing a spider that was actually /trying/ to get out. Rynn staggers back a few steps, looking at the ruins now gone and just stares for a bit. "Well..." She huffs a bang out of her face, "...that was unexpected." The red head warrior looks at everyone else, "Is everyone alright?" Her green eyes are then drawn to the sword, "...and is that what caused all this?"
Ysuran	Ysuran nods. "Aside from being soaked," he notes. Speaking of that, "We should probably go indoors." He doesn't want to catch his death of cold, after all. He isn't quite ready to be dead; he hasn't prepared his phylactery yet! the mention of the sword gets him to look at it, but he keeps quiet. Swords are not his forte.
Ryu	Ryu holds up the sword and carefully examines it. He puffs a sigh as he looks over the details. It's certainly not the kind of weapon he would use, far too ornate... but he scrutinizes it for a long time, his eyes seeming to go vacant of thought, as if hypnotized by the shiny details on the weapon. His tongue sticks out a bit like a cat's would. "It's pretty," he says, and then looks up at Rynn, "Might be enchanted. I'll have it looked at, unless one of you can tell just by looking at it."
Xiaomu	"Soaked, frazzled, empty-pocketed - we didn't need those potions after all AND we didn't get any decent treasure out of the run," Xiaomu grouses. "And did I mention soaked?" Her carrypack is set down again, and she works on dislodging some water from her ears ... then gives Ryu's sword a rather displeased look. "I don't know what to look for with this world's magic," she grumps.
Rynn	Rynn frowns a little to Ysuran, mostly in an apologetic sort of way "I am sure once we get back to Surdana, we can get you some warm soup and at least a warm coat too." She looks over at them all, before sighing gently. "It seemed like a good start, but I am sorry that was a bit rough then I expected." Rynn looks over at the sword fully, "Its enchanted alright. Elemental most likely... I know someone in Surdana who would know or maybe..." Without saying his name, a shadow passes over them, as Arokh flies through the skies. Soon the red dragon swoops down and lands down next to the group. "You all look worse for wear." The red dragon rumbles, before lowering down his head, then he breaths a gentle breath of hot air at Ysuran and Xiaomu, which tries to warm them up a bit and also dry off their cloths. "Arokh," Rynn says to him. "Once your done, Ryan here found a sword. It looks to be enchanted."