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Bloody Revelations     The place where this Deathlord apparently bides his time could not possibly be more different than the Mask of Winters. Where the mighty ghost tyrant of Thorns brazenly rules much of the east right out in the open, building his citadel atop a mile-tall undead behemoth and surrounding himself with armies, this one is so out of the way that you'd never hear of it, never mind find it, unless stumbling into the nearest, tiny villages in the area by blind luck. It's practically a crevice, and seems to have no sorts of defenses whatsoever.

    As with any other sensible juiced up mega ghost, Eye and Seven Despairs has made his home base in a Shadowland --a place where the existential rot of the Underworld seeps up into Creation and taints the area in shades of death. Unlike the huge and swiftly growing Shadowland that surrounds Thorns however, this one, unimaginatively named 'Bonetree', is perhaps only a few miles across. With some aerial elevation, one can see the far end before even entering it.

    The name is obvious. Where one continues on past enough dry grass and scrubby vegetation, and navigates a couple of lukewarm creeks and dark stones, they wind up at an extremely obvious boundary between the land of the living and the halfway point to that of the dead, with a threshold cleanly delineated by the beginnings of a sort of 'forest', or perhaps 'orchard', for the fact that its 'trees' are very carefully cultivated. Clearly of no natural species, every tree present is a tall, spindly, stark white thing, with a glossy texture that looks as if it was carved (or /molded/) out of some single huge piece of bone. The only things that grow on them are dense blossoms of ruby flowers that faintly drip thick, sticky nectar that looks and smells suspiciously like blood.

    Crossing into the forest, the change that overcomes everything else is unmistakable. The tough, yellow grass becomes grey and brittle underfoot. The loose soil becomes acrid, stagnant dust, easily stirred into low clouds by walking feet. The sky seems to dim and grey, as if through thick layers of hazy clouds or fog. The single creek that trickles through here is placid, black, and silent. Stranger still, turning to look back at the healthy world they'd left behind them now shows them nothing but more of the same, as if it had never existed.

    There isn't much looking or wandering to be done. The only real feature of this Shadowland is hard to miss. Sooner rather than later, someone or other will come across the massive stone manor erected on these strange and dreary grounds. Three storeys tall, the building itself covers roughly an acre, between all of its various wings, and has cleared another few acres of 'forest' around it. The courtyard out front is completely bare --nothing but sterile flagstones and a magnificent but dry and mold-covered fountain.

    The only feature of note, aside from the bleak and austere front of the colourless mansion itself, is a small field of clustered spears or pikes, upon which several bodies have been impaled. One of them is so old as to have eroded to a skeleton, with a missing head. Two more are old enough to have become mummified and unrecognizable. The last was probably female, and dressed in the remainder of a courtesan's silks, but is also deep into advanced decay.
Bloody Revelations     There are no guards, no wards, nor obvious familiars around the place. It's as if it were completely abandoned. A spooky old house down a road nobody lives on. Nevertheless, the place still radiates a palpable aura of uneasiness, wafting from its walls like a physical chill. It is not an imagined sensation, but something distinctly and obviously part of the house itself.

    The missing head of the skeleton is quickly located, approaching the front doors. The skull (with holes in the back of it, suggesting spears were rammed through its eyes) is sitting practically on the doorstep, like a leftover Halloween decoration. The top appears to have been cut open, and a compass of black metal has been jammed into its brain pain, with a silver needle that points directly to the blackened oak doors, and an affixed handle to carry the thing like a bucket.

    Upon approaching either one of those things, said skull suddenly rattles to life, practically hopping down in place, and possibly startling someone hoping to slowly approach the supernaturally creepy and foreboding manse. Little green wicks flicker brightly in its otherwise empty eye sockets, and it immediately begins talking in a dry, nattering voice totally out of synch with the flapping of its jaw.

    "Oh! Oh! There you are! People were supposed to arrive, right, right! The mistress said so after all! Oh boy I was wondering if you were ever coming! I've been sitting on this step for . . . hours maybe? I don't actually know. Probably hours! Anyways, anyways! You need to take me inside! I'm your guide, you see! Or at least I'm supposed to be. The mistress said so. The one who talks to herself! If you go in there without me, you'll never find your way back out you know, so it's really important I go with you!"

    "I'm Mister Bones, by the way! I decided on that name myself, just now! I guess it's not very creative, but I've only had a few hours to think alright? It's because I'm bones! Or wait, I guess a skull is only one bone isn't it? No, no, the jaw is a different bone, so that's at least two bones. Do teeth count as bones? I'm still going with Mister Bones! I hope you're ready!"
Starbound Flotilla     Albert once again leads the Flotilla here; he'll be part of the vanguard, leading the movement up to the Manse. A hoverbike as usual, though this one's bristling with an unnerving array of tools and terminals, and has two forward prongs that look suspiciously like a cannibalized railgun.

    This place reminds him of the homes of high-ranking MiniKnog officers. He hates it already, as he advances over the flagstones. He settles his hoverbike just outside, near the front steps, and heads up them in a determined way. When he gets to Mister Bones and his... Disturbing cheerfulness. He lifts the skull by the handle, examines it while it speaks, and then when it's done speaking, he holds it out to the others. "Someone hold this." He says, more a command than anything else, because he really doesn't want to be the one gridironing a skull the entire operation.

    He knows plenty about dentistry, but he's not going to answer those questions. Because he's kind of a stubborn, grumpy dick. "Do we tneed to do anything anything special to get inside?" He's just going to shove the door open, following the needle on the compass.
Empty Tidings Who gets assigned last-minute to go follow the crew into a horrible Shadowland to go look for a Deathlord? Falling Rain, that's who. Apparently, prior experience means she's stuck with the bunch of you.

Hooray.

The Dragon-Blooded agent crosses into the bone orchard with a look of obvious distaste on her face. She keeps one hand on the hilt of her sword at all times, an air of tension around her as she traverses the Shadowland. It's not unusual in the slightest -- she's alive, and nothing in the Shadowland is, and the two don't mix. She slows to examine one of the blossoms, but doesn't dare touch them. Maybe she'll take a sample for the thaumaturges on the way back.

Eventually, they reach the manor. She's not in the vanguard, but she's right behind it; as a result, she ends up in Albert's immediate vicinity when he's looking to foist the skull on someone else, and takes it with extremely non-vocal commentary about it. "I'm Falling Rain," she tells Mister Bones. "And I'm presently talking to a skull."

Rain sighs, takes a step back, and opts to be the one with the compass for the immediate future.
Tomoe Getting mixed up with the Abyssals and Death Lords was really a damned if you do? Damned if you don't, sort of situation. Sure don't get involved and one day it will be like Viridian Sunrise spilling out beyond the borders of Creation. Or you could get involved and deal with the insanity. So here she is now making for Bonetree. She'd been flying part of the way but had set down some distance away to not be noticeable by anyone who might be watching.

She moves in, on foot and feels more and more unnerve the closer she gets the dead grass everything almost feels like in an odd way like the ruins of somewhere a nuke got dropped in a way. There seems to be no guards no wards, she doesn't like this. What the heck is going on?

Then there is a talking skull and she looks at Mister Bones for a moment.

"I am ready as I'm going to be Mr. Bones."

The Iron lily looks very unsettled by this place, very unsettle. Tomoe will move to fall in and luckly for Falling Rain? She's made of Soak.
Miari     "Ugh..." The smell of the Bonetees isn't what sets off Miari's frustration as she travels with the party. Probably just the decoration. Or perhaps it's the way that the stagnant necrotic taint of the area is like breathing in ASH except instead of your lungs it's rasping at your soul. Yeah, it's probably the latter. She wrinkles her nose, shakes her head, and plunges onwards into the bleak and monochromatic lands...

    All up until they are faced with a talking skull. Who doesn't seem to know how to talk to people. "An animated skull for a guide, a quick work of artifice... my, that woman has figured out some crafty tricks. Hello, MISTER Bones. Who might you have once been?" There's hints of disdain and disgust in Miari's tone as she adjusts her clothes and checks over her equipment, but a degree of resignation too. No reason to be rude to an energetic skull, even if the atmosphere has her in a foul mood. It's not efficient.

    "I'm Miari. What did you mean by not being able to find our way out?" Not that she doesn't have five theories on what it could mean, but better to hear from Bonesy itself first!
Gawain Gawain's ready, though he's not in his armor just yet. He's in a black suit and gold tie, sword sheathed at his side, the sheath actually matching his suit pretty nicely. As they approach, the knight is pretty cheerful, though he does frown at several points: the tree flowers, the fog and the world changing, and then the corpses, which cause his frown to be sharp. The blonde knight approaches them briefly to check how recent they are, before moving on towards the house.

Once there, there's a skull. Gawain moves to approach it, especially once he sees the compass...and it springs to life. Oh! It's friendly, too. Well, then. "Hello, Mister Bones! I'm Sir Gawain, Knight of the Sun, Warden of the Paladins. It's a pleasure." Though, hearing how he was animated...did Bloody Revelations kill these people? Or were they already dead and she just took a head? Either way, it's creepy. "Let's get along, then." Well, Falling Rain has him, so Gawain moves up to the door with Albert. He doesn't have the benefit of the sun's blessing in here, but he's still willing to try and tank any potential obstacles.

"Everyone, stick together! This house reminds me of a horrible murder mystery, like one of those movies on TV at 3AM." The way Gawain delivers it, cheerfully and excitedly, does not fit his stance or really even the words he just said, as he's absolutely on guard.
Azure Armature What a horrible night to have a curse.
That's normal though. Every night is terrible when you're cursed.
The trick is to not get cursed.

The curse of a lack of intelligence, however, is an operator's geasa. Learning the lay of the land, certainly, but also gaining ideas on targets, ways to remove them, and other fact finding missions.

Other times they are incredibly bored.

This time, however, there was a posted mission. Taking posted missions was a lot easier than doing your own thing, because being compesated for objectives gave focus and meaning to one's meanderings and information, and if nothing else, Azure Armature enjoyed a little structure in her life. So, she had linked up (suddenly and without proper social greetings in a 'bip' of muted light) with the rest of the party who didn't do anything like fly in on air transport and instead wandered in. Like Gawain! And Falling Rain.

On the way, 'Blue' moved to snap a branch off a tree, feeding it into her mouth before a coffee grinder-like sound rang through the SPOOPY FOREST, before a soft 'ding'. The same action was repeated as she plucked a flower from a branch and popped it in her mouth, this time accompanied with the sound of a puree machine or food processor.

As THE PARTY approached the house, she checked her right wrist, a small display popping up. "Hmm. Bone, Bone Marrow, and other assorted products - human. Blood - human. I'm not sure it's relevant, but those trees seem to be sourced from a human skeleton. If you'd like I could spend more time confirming if it was a single sourced skeleton or a composite."

The real questions, being answered.
Staren     Staren is here! Well, okay, it doesn't /look/ quite like any armor he's worn before -- but the helmet has cat-ear protrusions, there's segmented tail armor, it's the same white-and-green color scheme, and anyone with tacnet access gets the expected data and passkeys and such.

    The armor generally looks bulkier, like maybe there's another inch or two of armored plating in places -- although some of the thickness is probably more mechanical muscle as well. The upper legs and especially the chest look better protected, with a clearly-discernable extra layer of armor over the upper chest, back, and sides. There are short protrusions above the shoulders to protect the lower face from getting shot from the side, the helmet itself is actually full -- he must be using screens inside -- and the hands look more like thick gloves with armored plates wherever there's not a joint, instead of gauntlets. The shoulders are a little bit bigger too, although not to space marine extremes.

    Staren nods in greeting as he meets people, and walks through the forest. "Geeze. Bone trees that drip blood? Where do they even get the materials?" He shakes his head. Azure Armature's Analysis actually gets an appreciative nod from him. Curiousity... partially satisfied!

    And then there's a mansion and... Mister Bones! "Huh. I didn't know she could create things like you. Would you like a body?" He looks around. "Could try to make you one, quickly..." Staren looks back to Mister Bones. "So... inside the mansion is an extradimensional space of some sort? Or is the actual lab down in the Labyrinth? I guess of course it is... I'm Staren, by the way. Nice to meet you, I guess?"
Touta Konoe This place screamed death in more ways than one. The ominous feeling was just so pungent in this place you could probably cut it with a blade. It's understandable that very few people would want to take the lead in this sort of place. This place was deathly silent in the most literal of senses. Still for one reason or another Touta Konoe has found himself here amongst the others.

Luckily for Tomoe, even if she's unsettled there's another person whose got plenty of soak of his own...Maybe more so. Touta Konoe pats her on the back as he moves towards the door where Albert and Gawain are taking point. "Sorry I'm late. Really hard to keep track of directions in this place. All those trees looked the same ya know?"

It's not like he's completely unphased by the decor of this place but looking at everything sort of subjectively it made sense for him to be here. At least to him it did. He works in an organization that deals with immortal beings regularly. He himself was an immortal vampire so it wasn't like he was entirely out of place in this bizarre scene, though from his appearence he'd probably just look like a twelve-year old holding a sword. Plus, there was the possibility that some of his friends would probably end up here, and he wanted to look out for them. The plast part proving to be true as he sees plenty of familiar faces who ended up arriving way before he did.

"Albert, do you want me to go in front just in case?"

While Gawain's never met Touta before, Albert's definitely seen that he can take a few hits here and there so he figures he should ask if he should take the lead. Especially since no one was really sure what to expect from this.
Carna     Carna said she'd be here, so she is. She still has little grasp of what is going on, but has trekked along with everyone else to the destination. Long walks (or short ones) are not new to her (she thinks), and apparently neither is going into places of death to stab ghosts. There's some other plan in mind beyond stabbing (or burning), but for the time being, new as she is to all this, she has chosen to simply follow everyone else's lead. The chattering skull is regarded with suspicion. She ditched the wax skull she was carrying before for communication purposes in favor of a radio. While no less unfamiliar, it seemed less sketchy.

    "The one who dwells here left this 'Bones' here? Are we certain we can rely upon a tool of the enemy, if so?" Relevant question is relevant. Unless it was put here by what's her face. The person they came here to do the dirty work for. Whatever her name was.
Bloody Revelations     "Oh no, nothing special, just open those doors! It's all too easy to enter Cold House. Getting where you're going afterwards is the hard part! Just you trust me on that!" Mr. Bones says as he's pawned off on Falling Rain like a bucket of unwanted Halloween candy. "Hello hello everyone! You all have such fantastic names! I'll have to think of a better one later."

    He stops for a second to ponder Miari's first question. One gets the impression he might be scratching his chinbone with a skeletal finger, if he had one. "You know, I'm actually not sure. I think I was dead for a really long time. Or I suppose I'm still dead! I used to live here though, I know that! The mistress said I was a clever one and my talents were wasted, or something, so I should have a second chance to make a difference. Whatever that means! I think she was nice! Except when she was talking to herself. Between you and me, it was a little creepy. Something about someone stealing something from her?"

    "I know for sure that Cold House isn't here though!" he says, quite certainly. "Or rather, the outside is here, but the inside isn't! The master of the house was actually quite a talented guy you know. Just . . ." Somehow, the disembodied skull manages to make a shifty, mildly grossed out, sideways wince. ". . . weird. Lots and lots of people have gone in. None of them ever come out except the Deathknights you know, and they're almost all dead! As in, again! Just don't drop me okay!"

    He ponders Staren's question for a bit. "I don't really know? I'm not sure I could walk if I tried! I don't really know what I'm supposed to be, to be honest! Maybe later, cat-like friend!" He rattles in negative to Carna. "Oh no no! The mistress is from somewhere else! She had the incense of Stygia and the cold of the Labyrinth on her, not this dump! Frankly, if the master stole something from her, I don't know why she didn't go in and get it herself! Do you have any idea about that? Maybe I should thank her for bringing me back to life? Sort of! Haha!"

    Regardless, Albert pushes open the door, and people follow him. The grand oaken doorway creaks exactly like how one would expect from a 90s horror film in surround sound --with an impossibly drawn out echo that booms more than it grates. The palpable chill of unnatural malaise intensifies exponentially as they approach the threshold, and then disappears completely once they step over it, unexpectedly being replaced with a feeling of deep, profound peace, so oddly comforting that it is almost soporific, and might make one wonder why they were ever concerned about coming here.

    The silver needle in the compass immediately spins 180 to point towards the door again; it is clearly functioning in its capacity as a tool to find how to get back out, though it doesn't seem too difficult at the moment. The interior is a lushly appointed but gloomily decorated state house, lit by dull blue candles and covered in plush rugs and old, faded oil paintings. No overt signs of Deathlord madness in its design seem to be present. Just endless rows of vanishes doors and stairs, and vases full of red flowers with white bone stalks.

    There are people inside, of a sort. Almost immediately once the door closes, the party is visible to at least one ghost at all times, as the spectral visitors wander the halls on all sides, crossing intersections, opening doors, and going up and down stairs like faceless men in an Escher painting. Though all of them have individual definition --a swarthy man with a bloodied chest in leopard furs, a gaunt mother holding an empty swaddle with slit wrists, a young boy with a spectral crack in his head who totters along in noble clothes-- all of them look tired and lost, moving almost without conscious awareness of where they're going, and without making a sound, as if they were mere background elements rather than people. The same one is never seen twice. By ten minutes, it'd be easy to count a hundred different ghosts.
Staren     "Oh, no." Staren clarifies. "I have no idea how you work -- the body would carry you around responding to verbal commands, I don't know how to make you able to control it directly." For future reference.

    "It /is/ curious that the 'mistress' isn't here herself. If the inside is indeed in the Labyrinth, her abilities would be a great help."

    And then in they go! "Nnh." Staren grunts as the Bad Feeling gets worse... and then suddenly goes away. "Yeah. We definitely shouldn't split the party." Staren answers Gawain. And looks down the hallway. "Well, Mister Bones, do you have any idea where we need to go? Or do we just pick doors at random, and your job is just making sure we can always get back out again?" If they HAVE to just pick a door... someone else probably will. Somehow, Staren doubts the ghosts will be helpful. It's probably better not to interact with them.
Starbound Flotilla     Albert looks around, drawing his heavy radiation raygun as he sees the strange ghosts! But they seem to not be making any particular gestures of hostility, and so while he doesn't re-holster the gun in his Matter Manipulator, he does leave it more at rest. "The compass will guide us out. But we need to find Seven Despairs first." He clicks on his helmet light to compliment the dull blue candlelight, and decides his path. He hands off what looks like the end of one of his grappling hooks to Rains, making sure there'll be no separation through a direct connection. "We need to make sure we don't split up. Find a path down. Viral development necessitates containment and climate control. Best done underground." If the others want their own tethers, he'll be providing them as well, from an ample stock.

    He keeps a wary eye on those ghosts, but starts on his intended approach himself, seeking out anything that looks like it would head downstairs, anything that looks better for controlling climate, anything that looks effective for preserving quarantine, anything that shows signs of chemical fumes... He is more at-ease and less grumpy about things now that the unusual effects of the place have settled in a light surface-level haze, but it'll be fine as long as he can stick to a rational plan... Or so he thinks, anyway.
Miari     The doors close, and Miari is very grateful that she's chosen to disguise her Essence. Currently, she registers as a weak source of Wood aspected Essence, not really anything special. Perhaps a young Dragon-Blooded, or an Elemental-Blooded human.

    Of course the moment the door closes, she's also focusing all of her spiritual senses to analyze the situation at hand and be alert for hijinx, and comitting every step she takes to crystalline memory. A mental map forming in her head. She suspects mere Directions won't be enough if they lost their guide, though...

    Which is why, to any else's spiritual senses, a tether of wispy Essence flows from her to the skull. Miari's Mind-Hands are ready to catch that skull if it AT ALL looks to be in danger of falling. She's taking NO chances. In fact she sends a look over at Carna that almost screams, 'of COURSE we dont TRUST it'.

    But for now she'll play its game and hope it's telling the truth. "Ah, that's a shame. I'm still not sure what your talents are, but you could aspire to more than this." She clucks her tongue supportively. "Know ye anything then, of this house's master? His name is... a bit on the opaque side. I wonder as to its depths." ... Is she making a joke about seven despairs, but only one eye?
Gawain Mister Bones is excellent and Gawain wants to be his friend. "Mister Bones is a fine name, don't worry! It's simple and memorable, and likely uniquely yours. Names don't need to be complicated, after all, and if you came up with it, then that only makes it more special, doesn't it?" Sort of just going on about his name to make the little horrifying skull feel better.

The brief feeling of despair causes Gawain to shudder slightly, but the peace quickly overcomes it and he smiles. "Well! This is a very nice house. Though..."

Gawain spots the ghosts. Most of them don't look okay. "Hey, are you people alright? Can you give us directions on where to go to find someone?" Gawain tries to shout out to the ghosts and get their attention. If that doesn't work, though, he'll try a doorway. The first one he sees, in fact. Though first he'll take one of the grappling hooks from Albert, just because it sounds pretty cool.
Azure Armature Joining the party inside, led by Albert, Azure Armature gains a more and more prounouced furrow of her brow, tugging up her scarf around her neck to gain more coverage before finally stepping over the line of the door and stopping cold right at the entrance.

Inside her head, a big <!> binks in the corner of her sight, and she then takes a step back (to be bodily outside of the door. Then she returns inside, seemingly satisfied. She mutters in an unintelligible, gravelly sigh, before the door closes firmly behind them all. Because of course it does.

'Blue' takes a few moments to inspect the door, tapping it with a knuckle, jiggling the handle lightly, and placing her ear against it, and resting her right hand against it. Then, shrugging, she announces to the group - "This appears to be the only exit. Toriki Falling Rain, may I see the... Head?" She asks, extending her right hand out in a receptive 'gim gim' posture. It's mildly, but not rudely, impatient, together with her stance.

"This... soporific effect is not unlike apostate or lumpen opiates. It should be found and rooted out, for the good of all." Azure muses, while waiting to handle the head. Probably after Albert gets his Safety Cord tied up around it.

If given a chance to handle it, Azure simply turns the head over in her hands for a few moments, ignoring its doubtless constant stream of consciousness, to give it a few structural inspections before palming it back to Falling Rain.
Empty Tidings Falling Rain's unwanted Halloween candy babbles and points the way out. That's probably worth, like, half a Three Musketeers, right?

Creeeaaaaaak. "Marvelous," she deadpans. Rain steps in, keeping Tomoe ahead of her, and shudders as her feet graze the threshold. She grits her teeth and presses through, and audibly gasps on the other side. The difference in sensation is like night and day -- or, more appropriately, like a cold night and a warm blanket on the same. She looks around with a tiny frown, taking the grappling hook and winding it around her left forearm, passing the skull to Azure Armature while she does it.

"It's peaceful as a tomb," Rain observes, because someone has to. She takes the head back and keeps it in her left hand, keeping her right free for blade or whatever concoctions she was using on ghosts last time. "I'd recommend avoiding confrontation with the ghosts until we're sure we're ready for a fight, though."

"There are a lot of ghosts," she adds unnecessarily, and, truthfully, a little darkly.
Tomoe Tomoe is glad for more support as she notices Touta, she didn't expect him here? Yet he is a welcome addition to the crew they have formed up t0o deal with thing she does notice Staren's new armor and he gets a nod. "Well welcome to the madness Touta."

It's an attempt at being good natured but it could come off a little off here, given the place they are at.

"So it's like a Roach Motel, easy to check in but not to check out."

She takes a deep breath.

"Remember out jobs to get in, kill the master of this place and trash his plague before it can get used."

Oh she's likely going to piss off some plague gods and after her experiences in another universe with similar beings she's quite /happy/ to do so.

She will follower Albert in and move to try and take point as that's her job, to be shot, stabbed, and otherwise hurt so other people are not.



"Azure right? We really didn't need to know that about the trees."

Then there are ghosts and the back drop right out of a horror movie from her wor,d yet it's all real she's actually here and things arte as always with creation going to get worse.

"Miari any ideas about this? Same to you Staren."

She does not mind Rain using her as a meat shield.

"Peaceful? The dead are restless evne if silent... and I agree not picking a fight with them if we don't have to."
Azure Armature "Blue." Azure Armature corrects Tomoe, automatically, because she HAS A CODE NAME that's really boring and uninteresting. "And gaining intelligence is part of the mission, even if your weak consitution wasn't planned for." She retorted, shrugging broadly. "Learning the parameters of the land around you is valuable for infiltration and reconnaisance."
Touta Konoe There's a bit of tension that builds up in Touta's body as he takes passes through the entrance, but as quick as it arrived it vanishes. What replaces it is a more calming sensation. He doesn't really know what to compare it it to. It was definitely comforting, but not in the sense he was familiar with. It wasn't like sunshine was raining down on him, or the kind of comfort that you get when you're around friends. It was a different kind of comfort, a comfort that he can't exactly put his finger on. But that wasn't a big deal at the moment was it?

At this point Staren and Miari continue to talk to Mr.Bones trying to figure out how he works or something of the sort. Touta's seen plenty of magic and undead to sort of just accept the reality of the situation as it comes. It's only more reinforced when he sees the ghosts flying through the place. Once more he can't really say he's entirely frightened. He's dealt with spirits before, one of his best pals is a revenant! These spirits didn't seem as dangerous in comparison to what he scene. If anything they looked like they were in pain. Just wandering around aimlessly. Speaking of aimlessly though, he always loses track of the group watching the spirits traverse through, taking the opportunity to take up Albert on his grappling hook idea. "Oh, thanks."

He turns his head towards Rain, hearing her declaration and Tomoe's acknowledgement of it. "Oh come on, this isn't too crazy. Besides these ghosts don't look that threatening. If anything most of these spirits look like they already lost a fight." Tell him he was wrong. Almost all of these spirits looked like they were victims of some sort. Or maybe that was just him overthinking it. Speaking of overthinking...

"Hey Mr.Bones, you said something about DeathKnights or something right? You think there are any in here, right now?"
Ryu     Ryu is tagging along with the party. He's never been in a Shadowland before... or, well, not this deep into one, where it's essentially the core of a big bad's lair. He frowns to himself the whole time while the atmosphere's overbearing stench of death distracts him. He's in his draconic form right now, and he's keeping his hands to himself for the most part. He's also maintaining his cloak of invisibilty, but his presence can be noted by footprints or the occasional glimmer of light from his direction, like a reflection off a pool of water.
    Ryu stays invisible when he's very uncomfortable. He is very uneasy about a place full of undead things.

    "They can't move on as long as they're trapped in here. We need to deal with this place's master sooner rather than later," Ryu says, "Let's go."
Lemeza Kosugi Huff, puff, huff, *schlurp* puff... a fancily-fedora'd archaeologist-looking fellow hurries up to the party, somehow managing to eat curry while running and panting to keep up. If it were possible to be more unfashionably late... well, at least his fedora looks nice still. "Sorry... sorry I'm late. Argh... *huff* had a long talk with... *cough*..." He holds a finger up while he catches his breath. "O...okay. So, Deathlord, immortal, need to get around immortal. Also plague. What did I miss?" He takes a good look in the crypt, a grin immediately taking over his face. Yeah, coming here was a good idea, even if he had little idea of what was going on. Or, actually, /because/ he had little idea. A place like this is bound to have a rich history behind it!
Staren     Staren takes a grappling hook and connects it to his armor, making sure he can reach it to disconnect it if needed. To Tomoe, he shrugs -- he has no idea where to go.

    To Azure, he blinks. "The what?" Then he sounds angrier. "Oh-- DAMN it, I'm tired of having my mind fucked with!" He tries to cling to that anger. If Eye of Seven Despairs wants him unnaturally calm, there's probably a reason.

    And then, Lemeza's here! Staren looks back at him. "Not much. The talking skull is our guide back to the entrance. Probably."
Carna     Carna takes the skull thing as its word for now even though it could easily be lying. Her distrust of her own memories and judgement lend her to that these days. Even if her instincts say, 'NO. DO NOT TRUST THEM. WHEN THEIR BACK IS TURNED CRUSH THEIR SKULLS AND SKIN THEM.' for basically everyone she meets, she is erring on the side of trust while she waits for an opportunity to verify. It seems more prudent.

    As someone starts trying to tie her to others with grappling hooks or something, the courtly-attired, more living-looking and not-skeletal figure that is the new Carna seems even more dubious about all of this. Being bound will severely handicap her mobility, one of the traits she needs to avoid getting murder-killed.

    She has never known peace in her recollection. Maybe in life, but she has the scattered memories of a knight and a witch providing conflicting testimony of her prior existence, melding and merging more and more by the day, but still disjointed in ways that are straining her psyche. She knows she desires knowledge. That there is an emptiness inside of her that she wants to fill by learning everything. She knows loyalty and duty. They are her code, her conviction, even if she is still unsure whom she should be loyal to and so simply assumes she has a duty to whomever she is working with at the moment as a result.

    But peace? If there was such a thing in her past, she does not remember it. And something in her rebels violently against the sensation. She hunches her shoulders, lowers her head like a beast, and flexes her fingers, the fingernails a bit too pointed, a bit too sharp, to be fully human as she practically slinks after everyone else.

    There are terrible things to see here, but Carna's vision is lousy with terrible things all the time. She can't differentiate these from her normal array of horrific sights and experiences until Gawain verifies he can see them too. Though that's no guarantee he's seeing the same ones she is.

    There's an odd hunger inside of her beyond her thirst for knowledge. She has tried eating 'normal' food only once since coming back from death, when Enark was trying to make her feel welcome. She became quite ill. Is this what she eats? Whatever type of ghost she is, does she consume other ghosts?

    Crimson eyes stare intently at the visions as they appear one after another, on the stairs, behind doors, and so on. But eventually, the gaze shifts to her allies of convenience.

    Invisible allies lurking around is somewhat familiar by now, thanks to Priscilla, so Carna is not nearly as unnerved by Ryu as she might be otherwise. She checks her journal to see if there's any pictures or notes on any of these people, and at least picks out Lemeza, Staren, and Tomoe from among them as 'folks she's met'. If there's someone else, they aren't coming up immediately. So she jots down a few more notes on what has transpired so far, and then focuses on the mission at hand.

    "If this 'Bones' can lead us, let it do so. If it fails, we know what to do with it. For now, it makes little sense to bring it with us if we are going to pick a path at random."
Bloody Revelations     "Yeah, it is a little weird, right?" he says to Staren. "Oh, that might be handy! Hmmm. Ask Falling Rain maybe? If you need me to show the way though, that's my job! This compass in my noggin doesn't just point back! I can point it all sorts of places! The mistress said she took it from some guy called something something Ghost-Cold Wind. She said it'd be a good crutch for remedial babies like yo- whoops that was rude, I shouldn't have repeated that! I'm pretty sure it works though! I saw a compass that was sort of similar on her sash, but it was . . . different? I don't really know how to describe it. I'm pretty sure this one's made of Soulsteel, but I don't know /what/ hers was. Kinda made my eyes cross. Well, figuratively speaking! Just tell me what you're looking for and I'll give it a try!"

tBeing carried down the hall, Mr. Bones makes pleasant conversation with Miari. "Oh, all of the Deathlords have weird names. They all picked them themselves y'know! Let's see, uh: Eye and Seven Despairs, The Mask of Winters, The Bodhisattva Anointed by Dark Waters, The Lover Clad in the Rainment of Tears, The Bishop of the Chalcedony Thurible, The Walker in Darkness, the Dowager of the Irreverent Vulgate in Unrent Veils, Princess Magnificent with Lips of Coral and Robes of Black Feathers, though she's going by 'The Black Heron' these days, the First and Forsaken Lion, Sixteenth Night's Silence, Flickering Embers of Glorious Agony, . . . I don't remember the other two. I think one was the Prioress of Bloody Sands? I don't really get them. They're probably references to something. The Deathknights have their names chosen by the Neverborn themselves, so /those/ probably mean something significant!"

    Mr. Bones wobbles like he's trying to shrug. "I don't really know what other things I can do. I know there /are/ other things, but- ah well, I'm sure I'll remember if they're important! Eye and Seven Despairs though, /that/ was a creepy dude! Really smart you know! Like /really/ smart! But practically a kid when he died! Suicide, I think. He claims he was the first Deathlord --that he went to the Neverborn willingly and gave them the whole idea! Don't know about that though. Seems like a tall tale. Bit of a spastic. Can't pay attention to anything for long. You know the type! Never left his house, kept a bunch of concubines, bullied and tortured his Deathknights, and then they killed him! Good riddance!"
Bloody Revelations     "Thanks guy!" he says, quite emphatically and cheerily, to Gawain. "I guess you're right! Mister Bones it is!" When Miari goes to try and sense the surroundings, she gets an impression that may or may not be similar to what Azure Armature has figured out. Inside the mansion, they aren't even in a Shadowland anymore; they are directly inside the Underworld, or something very similar to it. The range of her spiritual senses caps out completely, meaning that the inside must be much, /much/ larger than a single acre, and she detects no less than eight hundred ghosts moving in and out of her range. There had been no portal. Not really. Azure plays with the door and it works exactly like a door. Inside the walls of Cold House, they are simply Somewhere Else.

    Mr. Bones keeps talking the entire time Azure examines him. "He was really into grafting robot things onto zombies, but I don't remember much about him other than him being nuttier than a squirrel behemoth. Kept saying that his master was yelling at him in his dreams to give all his stuff to the Mask of Winters. Got twice as bad after that. Never left his room until he bit it!" He looks very much like a skull. Male. Mid-20s. Clearly killed by extreme, brutal trauma, which had almost partially healed. The compass jammed in his head is indeed soulsteel, with a tiny needle of starmetal, which resonates faintly with the surroundings, and is covered in intricate, mazey markings along its entire outer surface. There are layered magics on it, not incredibly strong, but not insignificant either. Forms of bleak astrology and star-reading specifically attuned to the Underworld's Essence.

    Finally, Gawain tracks down a ghost. It's a young woman in funeral veils, who looks like she was shot through the throat, but speaks perfectly well anyways, albeit in the most hollow and depressed tones Gawain has heard in a long time. "Directions? You won't need directions in a place like this. I've been looking for my husband's will for a hundred years. Do you think I could give you directions?" When Gawain goes to try a doorway, what he finds is-

    A bedroom. A guest bedroom, actually. A guest /stateroom/. It's especially fancy, with a four poster bed and a baroque vanity and everything, though still lit in the same gloomy blues and varnished in very dark wood. No sooner has he opened the door, that a spectral valet shows up noiselessly behind him, this one in a butler's attire, without a discernible cause of death on his body, who bows deeply and politely. "Welcome, good sir. If you are looking for quarters to settle down for the night, I would be glad to show you to one of our spare rooms. I regret to inform you that this one belongs to miss Chakat." The ghost butler turns to look as Lemeza catches up. "Good day to you too, esteemed guest. May I ask you to refrain from eating in the hallways? We have a perfectly well-stocked kitchen to meet all your needs."
Bloody Revelations     Mr. Bones keeps nattering away at the same time. "Viral development? You're looking for a disease? Seven Despairs was a doctor in life you know! . . . I don't know how I know that, but he was! I think he even invented the whole Necrotech business, but he never really did anything practical with it! Can you believe that? Just experiments and theories and prototypes, pushing the field by himself, and never once did he do anything but sell his ideas off to the others when he needed favours! What a waste of space, I tell ya! I wouldn't put it past him to cook up a disease on a rainy day, just for fun! You'd want to go /up/stairs, not down! His room's up there! I don't know how I know that either, but I do!"

    The compass needle in his noggin abruptly swivels and points north. "Never had a proper lab I think. Weird shut-in who never left his room most of the time! Who sits in their room all day and plays around with technology and /reads/ all day, right?" With only the ability to talk, he seems extremely happy to keep blabbing away as people ply him for info. "Oh! Well you see, every Deathlord gets a few shards of Exalted power that they can give out as they please! They pick mortals who they think would be useful and loyal, and then make them Exalted! They gain the official status as knights, with all the rights and everything! Seven Despairs only had a few, and he only ever /used/ four of them. I don't know why he even picked the knights he had! They were so random! And he hated their guts too! I know a couple are dead, so there might not even be any left here! Their Monstrances might still be around." he says to Touta, not at all clarifying what that is.

    While Mr. Bones points quite helpfully towards 'upstairs', and the strange butler from nowhere offers to show people 'to their rooms', one last point of direction is present solely and exclusively for Carna. In addition to the feeling of deep, sleepy peacefulness, she can hear the barest hints of a low, pitchless humming, like something vibrating outside of her audible range. There's an oddly . . . alluring quality to it. As if it comes from a place she is meant to go. A place she is Supposed To Be. It feels as if it is coming from somewhere below.
Staren     Staren follows Gawain to the first door. Ghost lady is creepy. Ghost butler is also creepy. "No thanks." Mister Bones CAN aim his compass at things besides the exit! So that's good.

    Staren coughs when Mr. Bones asks what kind of person sits in their room all day reading and playing around with technology. "What's a monstrance?" he asks, and of the butler he inquires, "Just tell us the way to the stairs." He'll trust Bones's needle over the butler's word, but he's just curious if the ghost will attempt to decieve them.
Gawain Gawain smiles at Mr. Bones, though it looks like he won't get directions. Oh, she looks very sad, and also kind of irritated. "Ah, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend. Good luck in finding the will, maam!" A tip of his head, sort of sheepish, as he opens the door, and is immediately interrupted by a butler. As he's told the room is already taken, he closes it back up. "Oh, my apologies. Thank you, sir, but would our rooms happen to be upstairs? That's our destination." This is probably some sort of horrible ghost connected to Eye and Seven Despairs, but it could also just be a servant. A ghost isn't necessarily a bad person, and while what has been said of Eye and Seven Despairs makes him sound pretty creepy, but there's no reason to doubt.

"Is Eye and Seven Despairs home, Mr. Butler? We would wish to reach him!" The tone is slightly grim even if it has Gawain's usual cadence, as he outright asks the ghost 'hey where's your boss'. No such thing as subtlety, as he'd follow along towards the stairs with the others.
Azure Armature Armature tugs down her scarf with a spare hand as the unnatural, oppressive cold had abated when they entered, her right hand shimmering slightly as she handed back the skull. And then the exposition started. So much exposition. All of the exposition. Filled with proper nouns, which get gravelly-repeated by Azure, though she does know a few of them.

"Necro... tech?"
"... Monstrance...?"
"A magical disease?"
Etcetera.

Staren's questioning about something 'messing with his head' gets another shrug. "Before we entered, I felt a fear impulse, a forboding, the feeling of something about to go very wrong. However, I generally think any plan involving more than one operative will go very wrong, so that wasn't outside normalcy. When we entered, though, I was overcome with a foreign emotion - One I cannot possibly accurately describe."

It's comfort and relaxation. She can't accurately describe that.

"There must be foreign agents at play, potentially techno- or necro-magical, that is causing this effect, which should be disposed of for the good and productivity of all. Such an opiate cannot be tolerated."

Looking to Falling Rain, Azure points to the bucket. "If you keep the... skull close to you, I may be able to lead a second party.

Tapping her (right) wrist display a few times, Azure moves to the head of the group as she runs a hand through her hair to re-displace it, revealing a shock of bone white. "If we need to split, I'm confident I can at least lead us back, though..."

She gains a particularly Specific stank-face as she does, a narrowing of the eyes, tightness of the brow and mouth, and scrunching of the cheeks. "I'd really rather not, actually. My..."
"Reception is... spotty." She finishes with, oddly inflecting 'reception'. "If we want to stick together and go upstairs, that plan agrees with me."
Starbound Flotilla     Albert scowls a bit, but accepts the advice wordlessly. "Viral development without any preparations. No equipment, no security. Absurd. Upstairs then." That Seven Despairs might have a different definition of equipment or security doesn't really occur to Albert. He follows the needle. North. Something flickers in his mind, and he keeps trying. "Keep telling me about Seven Despairs." He says, in a sort of commanding way. "Technology. Reading. Tell me more about where he resides and what he's doing." The challenge here might be keeping Mr. Bones focused on what he's doing.

    There's no special regard or disregard for the butlers, but Albert's default way of handling the servants or ghosts here seems to be... Very isolated. Treating them like scenery, in a way that would be deeply rude if they were to care much about that sort of thing. The only reason he seems to be willing to start conversations with Mr. Bones is to keep the chatty cranium focused on directing the path upstairs.
Ryu     Ryu flickers into view, his cloak disarming because the others are showing a fair share of confidence. The silvery-scaled faerie dragon turns his eyes briefly toward Falling Rain -- he knows her -- and then Staren -- he also knows him -- but largely he stays as silent as before. He gives the butler a suspicious squint and keeps silent. He isn't very useful here just for the moment, his nose simply twitching as he lingers like an agitated, barely restrained attack dragon just waiting for an excuse to put his claws through something's chest.

    He lingers near Falling Rain specifically.

    "This place sucks."

    Intelligent observations from the dragon.
Lemeza Kosugi Lemeza swiftly puts away his remaining curry, at the butler's behest, and exchanges it for his notebook so he can properly review his notes on the mission at hand. He also starts writing down some unfamiliar terms for later investigation - necrotech and soulsteel and manse? No time for those right now, though. After reading his notes, and listening to Mister Bones' admittedly long-winded exposition, he moves to speak, but Gawain cuts him off. Though, if Gawain hadn't spoken up, the professor would simply have said basically the same thing, so he contents himself with looking about, taking in the sights.

He's also looking for anything out of the ordinary, although his definition of "ordinary" includes damn near everything that has transpired so far, including the undead talking ghosts and weird room transitions. Even the calmness taking over isn't that bizarre - he's certainly excited for the mission, and calm isn't that far off, so it doesn't really register. There's still the issue of navigation though. "Hey. Question for anyone who would know. If I were to go back the way we came, where would I end up? And if I doubled back again, would I end up back here? If pathing is predictable, I could lead a party back out no problem." After his question, he resumes looking around, hoping to note any potential secret passages hiding themselves from the party.
Staren     Staren glances back to Lemeza. "Unknown. I have an inertial tracker, so I too can retrace my steps... but who knows if that's enough? It might not work that way. Thus, we need Mister Bones."
Empty Tidings Falling Rain hefts the Bone Bucket and nods in Blue's direction. She's got a firm grip on the handle. It seems to be well-attached, anyway. She'd hate to be the skull that finds out it isn't at a key and inopportune moment. By this point, she's holding it like a lantern so that people aren't talking into her armpit. The skull-weight doesn't seem to be bothering her.

"It does," Falling Rain agrees, nodding at Ryu. He's a familiar and welcome sight inside a place like this. "Stick together. I get the feeling we might very well need you, and soon." A dragon who can raise the dead seems suddenly super useful inside a house full of ghosts and who knows what else.

Rain, presently holding the Find Our Way Home Device, starts heading upstairs. "Monstrances," she repeats slowly, as if testing the word. "Do you know where they're kept?"
Tomoe Tomoe says "Well then Blue, I like to keep focused on task at hand. My job is to make sure the rest of the party isn't torn apart."

She says no more of it, there's nothing else to day that might not cause a fight. So she keeps her trap shut and honestly Blue could have a point there. She does take note of Lemeza catching up with them and nods a little bit to them.

"Don't pick fights with the ghosts if we don't have to."

"Don't let your guard down they could be part of the security system."

She notes to them for a moment, Carna skulking along is welcome given the sorts of fights they are likely to face in a place like this.

"They do Mister Bones, then again by my world's standards most names on creation are odd. Though the Deathlords really do take the cake."

She thinks for a moment about that. The words Gawain in reply to Gawains question to the ghost? Leaves her kinda frowning but what can she do really? Now they find a ghost asking them, being on guard? Oh she's totally being on guard here.

"Sounds like a few inventors I know of on my world. Or they go and do something insane with it."

Heathcliff pops into mind for a moment but she ends up shoving that memory away it's far more stomach churning to her than the bone trees are.

She replies to the butler.

"I'm fine no need to trouble yourself."

the mention of Necrotech She takes note of she alsop trying to pay attention to any sounds about them too her ears twitch slightly as she does so but she odesn't have super tech.

She looks to Blue and nods.

"I agree on keepint together so I'm all for going upstairs as a group."
Carna     A desire of where she belongs, of where she needs to go, tugs at her. Somewhere below. If it led AWAY from the sleepy peacefulness, she might consider going there. But her skin crawls at the feeling of belonging. It is utterly different from the urging she feels to go forth, and to go upwards. The motivating voices that tell her, 'to discover the truth, you must go above, to the world of the living' and that don't seem to consider any of the other living worlds she has been to so far to 'count'. They are not HERS.

    But she can't deny that she felt it vaguely before as well, in Lumiere. A pull from below. An emptiness with a desire to be filled that matches her own, a sort of... Abyss. Is this it? That gravity? That tugging on her soul(s?) that nags at her to head DOWN even as everything else tells her to go UP? Unlike the voices that tell her to go the world of the living and do not consider the living worlds of other universes valid, this draw seems very similar to the one in Lumiere.

    She keeps the option in reserve for now. But she's going to trail behind the rest of the group more and more as they go along, slowly paying out the cable she has available to her, just enough to prevent it from noticeably growing taut. She is motivated by so many different forces seemingly conflicting in their goals and messages, that it's hard to decide what to do sometimes. In the end, after careful consideration while others try to figure out what to do, Carna decides that she can neither ignore it nor can she afford to become lost in this place by responding to suspicious sensations.

    "I feel a draw from below. That there is somewhere down there that I belong. There's a sort of... Almost-humming, just out of earshot. Are we certain that upwards is where we must go?"
Miari     "I've... never heard of any sort of sorcery... or its twisted, dark twin... that can link a place in Creation STRAIGHT to the Labyrinth. Yet... here we are. It is possible. And I don't believe I like this fact." Normally, it's hard enough to create a Shadowland... but linking STRAIGHT to the Labyrinth?

    Makes the world a much less secure-seeming place than it already is...

    But then she hears a piece of information that really tickles her. Exaltations, somehow kept under control.

    She finds herself looking towards Falling Rain, who is of such few words and walks with such purpose that one might well wonder if she isn't Secretly a Sidereal or something.

    Regardless, Miari casts a very keen gaze towards her. "I would very muchlike to see those Exaltations that aren't in use. I've never seen one up close."

    And if she can MAKE OFF with one, all the better. Maybe she can command her own Deathknight or two, and have them go wipe out the Arczekhi for her. Or something useful like that.
Touta Konoe Man that was alot of stuff to try to wrap his head around all at once. But as far as his question goes he's pretty sure he caught the part about there being a few DeathKnights who are mostly passed away at this point, except for their monstrances. Touta can't help but give the skull a wry smile. "You know, when I hear we're dealing with immortals and then you say something like that you know you're raising a flag right?"

The haunted house vibes only continue as the appearence of the butler spirits arrives asking about their 'rooms'. Touta works at an inn most of the time so he's use to giving out rooms to people. So the fact this butler says he's got them prepared for them makes him feel a bit uneasy. It's like flat out saying they were expecting their arrival. Last he checked, he hadn't put down a reservation of any sort.

As Gawain talks to the deceased widow, it only helps reaffirm how aimless they all seem. Though he gets really surprised when Gawain asks the Butler where this Deathlord was out of the blue. On one hand it probably went against the whole 'Don't mess with the ghosts' thing Tomoe and Rain were talking about before, but at the same time if it could get them an actual answer wasn't that also worth trying as well? Well guess they'd find out in a moment.

But that gets interrupted when Carna mentions something that concerns humming and going downard. The exact opposite direction of where they're being told to go. Truthfully he doesn't know what to tell her. So when in doubt, ask the guide. "Hey, Mr.Bones do you know what's down below us?" It's a pretty straightforward question. He figures if he knows great, if not well...I'm sure they could decide to check downwards if up isn't the way to go. What was important was just making sure no one decided to leave the group right?
Bloody Revelations     "I apologize, esteemed sir. While the first and second floors are available to guests, the third floor is strictly off limits, as ordered by the master." the ghost butler says in his slow, stately tones. "The master is currently out." he replies to Gawain, so plainly and without subtext that it's almost cryptic. "While he is out, the Lady Chorus is the steward of the house. I will fetch her for you." he says, bowing deeply, before just disappearing. Ghosts.

    "A Monstrance?" Mr. Bones clacks at Staren. "Oh, it's a Monstrance of Celestial Portion I suppose, being the full name. It's like . . . a soul cage, I guess? It's hard to describe it unless you've seen it! It holds Exalted essence. The Deathlords each have a bunch of them, and they store the Exaltation shards in them until they find a human they like, and when they die, the shard comes back so they don't lose them! Each shard is tied to one Monstrance, so when a Deathknight exists, he's linked to that Monstrance as well. I don't really know how it all works, but I know a Deathlord can cast spells on the Monstrance and it works on his knight. Mostly they use that to talk to them over long distances. Sometimes it's to help them out. A lot of the time it's to punish them. Seven Despairs mostly just used it them for the last one."

    "It's basically like insurance I guess! To make sure the Deathknights don't just go crazy and do whatever they want. I heard there's even a switch that just remotely kills them! Scary stuff! I also heard that if you break one, the Deathknight is cured! Weird, right? There was someone here who was trying to figure out how to break theirs so they could escape, but it's really really hard. I don't know how I knew that either! They're probably dead. I know Seven Despairs kept all of them in his room. The other Deathlords probably keep them in more secret and better guarded places. Couldn't tell you where!"

    The incredibly chatty skull just keeps talking as Albert directs the group. He is a head, literally capable of doing little more than talk. He apparently remembers 'living' here, and knows a great deal about it, so why not answer every little question? It's not like he has much else to do. "I told you, he's dead now, remember? Or at least I think he is. I /remember/ he got stabbed a bunch. Eventually his Deathknights just /snapped/ you know? Couldn't take him any longer. They stole his favourite courtesan for themselves too! I think they planned to defect. I don't blame them! He'd just keep them cooped up in here and play these /creepy/ games."

    "He liked tests too! He had this super elite undead retinue thing he was building! 'The Envenomed Assembly To End All Hope!' His naming sense sucked! They were the real deal though. He'd obsess over the applications of black Essence to medicine and biology all the time. Necrotech is still a fledgeling fields you know --nowhere near as complete as the old Realm's magitechnology was-- so he figured that with enough diligence and science, there was no limit to what he could accomplish. Maybe he was even right? 'till he got stabbed, I guess. Like, a lot. A lot of stabbing."

    The skull tries to sortakinda wiggle to do his best at looking back at Lemeza. "I doubt it. This place doesn't work that way. The only place it's easy to get back to is your room. Other than that you can wander around in circles forever! I mean /forever/! Cold House never ends! You start walking the halls and there's no stopping once you start! Not that most people /want/ to leave after they've spent some time here." To Carna, he suddenly says: "The Answer to Everything is the Heart Room." On that particular point, he fails to clarify, 'blinking' at Touta and saying: "I'm actually not sure what that is. I just sort of blurted it out."
Bloody Revelations     He just keeps going, nattering away to Miari next. "If you want to see one up close, you'd have to take a peek inside one of the Monstrances! That is, if they weren't already given to the Mask of Winters so he could make better use of them. I don't think actually /looking/ inside of them is a good idea though. You might go crazy? Then again, crazy is in the water here! I don't really know how Seven Despairs managed to put a chunk of the Labyrinth in a Shadowland, so don't ask me! It's really impressive. That's probably why everyone got so mad that he didn't do anything with it! The mistress had some kind of way to go straight there and back --I don't know how-- but nothing on this level. Then again, even most Deathknights don't like going near that place!"

    The compass, to probably general relief, leads them true enough. Each hall they turn down is at least different than the hall last, and there is the real feeling of making some kind of progress, even though most of the place looks and feels dizzyingly the same. Going upstairs to the second floor is easy, and yields mostly the same, but all the stairs from there only seem to lead back down, as if the third floor doesn't even exist. Mr. Bones leads them up and down, left and right, north, east, south and west, for what must be a solid hour, all the while the heavy, calming feeling of 'there being no hurry' seeps in, with something just being so quiet and peaceful about this odd place. Eventually though, they do find a double flight of grand stairs on the second floor, surrounding a small lounge decorated with cultivated bone tree sprouts and plush sofas. Someone meets them there.

    This woman is very much alive, obvious in everything from the amount of sound she makes while moving, to the lack of any death wound, to 'actually breathing' and 'not being slightly semitransparent'. She's blonde, pretty, in her thirties at most, and dressed in the equivalent of the fanciest house coat and slippers anyone has ever seen, and looks exceptionally bothered to be coming down the stairs to see all these people. Apparently, the valet did actually summon someone.

    "Who the hell are you and what the hell are you doing here?" she immediately snaps, getting right to the point. "Do you have any idea where you are? Did somebody send you, or are you just the dumbest treasure hunters in the universe? What do you want?" It isn't difficult for someone with magical senses to place her in the same basket as everything else around here: death Essence-flavoured, though significantly more powerful than the ghosts. There may be at least one living Deathknight at least.

    Mr. Bones pipes up chipperly from Falling Rain's grip. "Oh, hey Chorus." The woman starts in surprise, then leans slowly to look around Albert and peek at the skull. "Blood Scavenger?" she asks, clearly more than a little shocked. "How did you- you died! Scar of Uproar killed you, remember? Don't worry though, I got back at the traitorous bastard. He wound up on the spears outside, just like how he put you there. What are these people doing with your /head/ though?"
Ryu     Ryu's expression kind of... dulls as he listens to the skull drone on and on and on about various topics. He doesn't seem to listen to anything about what's being said, and the sheer boredom and numbing sense of lethargy in this place has him, paradoxically, looking more and more agitated and unhappy with the lack of energy and action around him. He doesn't mix well with death-themed dimensions and it's pretty clear why just by his appearance alone. And then they run into a lady who basically greets them solely with profanity, and he's snapped out of his trance to give her a disgusted look, eyes giving her a once-over to determine how powerful she is meant to be, and then he disregards that.

    "'ey. Fuck you, lady," he blurts out, pointing at her with one of his claw-tipped index fingers.
Staren     "I don't think this IS the Labyrinth." Staren replies to Miari. "It's too thematically coordinated. The Labyrinth was constantly changing, this place has got that consistant haunted mansion aesthetic goin' on."

    So a monstrance is... a powerful thing to get their hands on indeed. "Cured? Cured of what?"

    So the creepy deathlord is a man of science, sort of. But this isn't like some sort of mirror of Staren, so much as it sounds like your more 'typical' mad scientist, if there is such a thing. Disregard for morals and everything else in favor of just pushing technology further, just to see what happens.

    "Where's the Heart Room? Is that where we're going?"

    It feels like there's no hurry, so Staren calmly chatters on with Mister Bones and the others until--

    A living person?! Staren stares at her in surprise. "Do you serve Eye of Seven Despairs?" he asks. If she answers in the affirmative, he just fires his beam cannons at her with no warning. But if she claims to just be stuck here or something... well, then he offers: "Stand aside, and you can follow us out when we're done."
Gawain "I understand. I will wait for the steward, then!" Gawain's thinking they'll need to get to the third floor somehow, but for now, it's fine to be respectable and honorable about it and follow the rules. Perhaps whoever this is would have information. "I see...what does one of these monstrances look like? Destroying them sounds like it can only be for the best."

As they head through the second floor, they eventually reach the woman, who is actually /alive/. Gawain is humming at this point, super calm from the overall feeling of the room, as he notices the starting hostility and raises a hand to step forward. "Sir Gawain, Knight of the Sun, Warden of the Paladins. We have come to slay the Deathlord Eye and Seven Despairs and recover his horrible virus! While I assume you are one of his Deathknights, your assistance would be most appreciated. I understand if not, however." Gawain's hand slowly moves towards his sword as he says this, primarily to show it. He moves his hand back, not drawing the blade because he could do so rapidly if necessary.

"But, ah, you're a friend of Mr. Bones? Blood Scavenger, was that your name?" A glance to the skull, before back to the woman, Chorus. "Mr. Bones here, or Blood Scavenger as you would know him, has been our ally in navigating this mansion. Please, we mean you no harm." There's a calm, soothing smile from Gawain, who is feeling pretty calm in this mansion right now. He truly means what he says.
Starbound Flotilla     "We're here to do what we're here to do whether he's dead or not." Albert says, in a plain, no-nonsense tone. "We've got instructions to follow and we're going to follow them once we find him, dead or alive." Executing a corpse might be a bit weird, but it's not like that would be the /strangest/ thing one could have to do when it comes to Deathlords. He narrows his eyes though. "Tests. Tests. Wonderful. Man of science who treats other people as a venue for /tests/."

    "We're not here for answers. We're here to deal with one thing. We need Seven Despairs, so we need his room. Everyone goes back to their room eventually." His tone is growing urging, almost insisting. He's fighting the idea that there's no hurry, at least, and his egotistical over-focus helps in just that one particular way. And then they approach... A living woman?

    "Lady Chorus." He says, when he hears the exchange. "We're here for Seven Sorrows and we don't have time for idiocy. Stop distracting my compass." Albert doesn't like that lean over him, and he expresses his strong dislike of that lean by brandishing his raygun in a quite threatening way.

    Like Staren, he intends to open fire. Unlike Staren, this isn't a matter of asking about her nature or intentions; if she doesn't back off and immediately demonstrate some lack of affiliation with the Cold House -- something unlikely, given her role -- Albert intends to unload rounds of radioactive fire directly into her, focused on the legs to limit both movement and lethality in a death-centric and mobility-centric location.
Lemeza Kosugi "We're going up those stairs." Lemeza speaks tersely toward the rude Lady Chorus, even as the supernatural calm tries to stick. "That is our destination, and why we are here." He's rather visibly annoyed, but decides not to openly contest her insult to his intelligence for now. "As for who? You don't need to know that." That'll do for a rebuttal. Like hell is Lemeza treating this rude bitch with any more respect than he has to. He proceeds to ensure his pistol is loaded, both in preparation for the fight with Seven Despairs and a possible altercation with 'Lady' Chorus, while he waits for the others to make a move.
Miari     "Naive, Staren." Miari snaps at the boy, though a bit more sharply than she might want to. "You've seen what our friend can DO with the Labyrinth, have you not? Now amplify that by ten." She's probably referring to the nightmare carving that Bloody Revelations used to seemingly make her cozy ghost abode."

    She also gives Ryu a baleful look. "No way to act to someone when we are in their house, Ryu. Courtesy is well-regarded in Creation, sometimes even between the bitterest enemies." How serious about that... remains to be seen, because her tone was a bit airy. Nevertheless, with the back of her mind still churning on all these details... she's forced to focus on their accuser instead of wax along with the skull.

    "Ah. It appears that our guide was once a Deathknight. No wonder he is so knowledgeable." She claps her hands togetehr, donning a polite smile and giving the barest of respectful nods towards this Chorus. "Apologies for the surprise. I doubt anyone would have come to the door had we simply knocked. It is as the warrior of the sun says. We are here for a very narrow purpose. If you could help guide us to our goal, we will be out of your hair all the more quickly. Really, though, Chosen of the Grave. Are you truly so surprised that someone bears grievances towards the master of this house? The decoration isn't very neighborly."
Tomoe Tomoe hears the warning that they are not to go up to the third flood, when they do? That will set off any defenses this place has or she presumes. Tomoe is glancing about about for a moment, before Mr. Bones spills the beans on what a Monstrance is.

"So they can be caged?"

That something she didn't expects, and it's a possible weakness of the Deathknights at the very least. That's something for later though as Tomoe gets the idea this skull loves to chat like someone on a trade channel.

"They seem to be trying to use their very names as physical weapons with how big they get. So got a question any ideas hot to take the plague out once we find it?"

She notes to Mister Bones.

This is well as they run into someone who is alive she halts for the moment she tenses for a moment.

"Getting the guided tour from Mister Bones here."

She nods for a moment, Miari's concern troubles her even more. She watts as Staren asked his question her body tense when dealing with exalted anything could become hostile hell the even air could be. She looks to Albert for a moment.

"Do not forget the other objective Albert."

She's not chiding she knows this shit has him worked up /hard/. Gawain's promise is given she will follow it, though she half expects the very room somehow to turn into a hazard at this woman's behest.
Empty Tidings Falling Rain listens intently, but her demeanor is calm and mildly disapproving. That calm feeling is definitely contributing to it. She feels like she's got all the time in the world to figure out what to do about all of this. Fortunately, anything anyone else wants to hear has to go through her, since she's the one carrying Mr. Bones and all. She's just sort of passively absorbing the piles of information he's happily chattering about.

By the time they get to the staircase, she's totally relaxed. Keeping up her guard in an enclosed, unfamiliar space like this for a solid hour is tiring under normal circumstances. With the warm blanket effect going on, she stopped giving a shit about six doors ago. By this point, Falling Rain's stride has stopped being the straight-backed gait of a soldier; instead, it's shifted to something just as relaxed, casual, and incidentally more attractive than a parade march. It looks better on her, but also a little... weird.

"Mm?" Chorus presents herself. Falling Rain looks her up and down. The Dragon-Blooded narrows her eyes slightly. Her grip on the skull, by this point cradled in her arms in front of her instead of swung carelessly to one side, tightens fractionally.

"I like your coat," she says.
Touta Konoe It seems like almost have the group is ready to open fire on Chorus the moment they see her. Though the moment Touta sees that he's the first to step in between the group and her. He gets Albert's desire to get this resolved, but was it really worth it if there was a chance that someone got hurt who didn't deserve it. He makes this very clear as he stares down Albert. It's basically a 'You're shooting me first before you shoot her.' That extends to everyone whose aiming down their sights, or prepping their swords. Slowly he turns around to look Chorus over. The woman honestly didn't look like she was trying to start a fight. If anything her entire reaction to what she was seeing seemed pretty reasonable. Some random strangers broke into her place while she was probably minding her own business and then they either started being disrespectful or was getting ready to point a weapon at her. Seriously guys? Seriously? If anything if she was coming to cause trouble in a house coat and slippers she must have thought very much of herself.

"Sorry, sorry. We've been kinda going around this place left and right for a while now, I think everyone's sorta trigger happy at this point. Not to beat a dead horse here, but your friend, Mr.Bo- Blood Scavenger lead us here. You two seem pretty buddy-buddy, you think you could help us about a bit with this whole Seven Sorrow's guy? If you do it'd be a huge help, plus we'd totally owe one."

It's at this point Touta makes sure to act as the barrier between Chorus and the rest of the group, he's a small guy but he figures if someone tries something on their side he can get in the way quick enough, and if he's wrong and Chorus decides to bludgeon someone out of the blue...Well, better him than someone who didn't have a pretty good healing factor right?

"You can even ask Blood Scavenger, he'll vouch that we're not bad...Most of the time."
Azure Armature Monstrances are filed away under 'material of interest', Azure stepping abreast of Albert while they walked. "I suggest we pursue these cages when our business is concluded."

THEN: Hours of walking through the castle start to take their toll on Azure Armature's internal mapping, her augmented reality sight's automapping feature having conniptions. "But we took four rights, and our true location is now to the left of our starting position..."

Maintaining her vigilance, her tracking gaze, and her sweeping of rooms becomes harder and harder. The mental stamina toll is incredible.

When they find 'Chorus' in the room, Azure's hair falls mussedly over her face, the white shock having been scattered out of her bangs with a frazzling hand sometime during their journey. Her eyes dart left to right furtively, and she's clearly paranoid and on edge. "The water, I suppose. Air has a large quantity of water within it, and perhaps it contains some sort of reactant element in it - or a Process effect..."

Albert's agitation towards the not-dead-but-oozing-it lady's and the conversation on the sideband strikes her a pointless. "Yes. We are the most foolish treasure-hunters." She agrees, before just sort of walking on towards the stairs. "The others wish to trade words with you. I wish to complete our mission and leave." She explains as she just rudes past her. She even forgets Falling Rain and Compassbro!

"Don't need all the dead weight... Heh. Dead weight." She mutters to herself.
Carna     Comfort. Belonging. Peace. They are so alien to a Lantern, even one with memories nearly-fresh of life in a distant land that is definitely not Lumiere, a place where a fire burns but is ever in danger of going out and plunging the world into darkness. Like music, like laughter, even after learning of the concept, they are foreign, mistrusted. So though she hesitates for a little while, lingering and looking down, she eventually decides to just follow along with everyone else. The very concept of warmth and comfort makes her uncomfortable and hostile.

    The particulars of how death knights work and death lord machinations escaped Carna, distracted as she was, though she just assumes knights are generally honorable and loyal and duty-bound like her, except when they're not, so it can't be their fault if they're serving a bad master, except when it is. She still has no particular trust for... That... Lady with the voice. The one who hired them or whatever. You know the one.

    But she has no particular trust for anyone, so big whoop. She just sort of has to be agreeable and work together with people until it turns out they were traitors all along.

    A divergence from oldCarna's 'stab first, loot the corpses, and ask questions never' policy.

    But even so, upon hearing about this Heart Room thing, her first impulse is predictably Lantern-ish. It sounds like something that needs to be stabbed to her. Thankfully, her sense and curiosity win out. "And where is the Heart Room?" she inquires of the skull.

    But then they meet a woman on some stairs, get more names thrown at them she won't remember, and people alternate diplomacy and counter-jackassery. Too many people are trying to talk at once, to bombard one ego with their own egos, and sabotaging the attempts of others to seem reasonable while trespassing.

    So she doesn't bother trying to do what they did. Instead she starts looking for anything at the top of the stairs she can use to hook with her Chainsword and pull herself towards in order to bypass this guardian completely. Perhaps she can slip out of sight with her stealth skills, get up to the ceiling or something, and just swing on by. Better to do it before hostilities begin, but doing so might trigger them.

    Again, her distrust of her own judgement makes Carna hesitate. But whether she seeks to bypass or just to be in position to act when necessary, with this many bodies between her and the death knight, she can at least try to ghost away before she's spotted and remain nearby to wait and watch for an opening.
Bloody Revelations     "Cured of being a Deathknight I guess. At the very least, you'd be free. Probably even from the Neverborn. You'd probably lose your attunement to the Underworld, maybe? I don't know what you'd /become/, I just assumed it can't be a bad thing if the evil soul cage breaks, right? I don't know /that/ much. I don't think anyone's even pulled it off before!" Mr. Bones says to Staren. "This place is a Manse, which is a big structure built on top of a natural wellspring of power, so it has a Heart Room, where it focuses all that power. I don't know where it is. I don't know what's in it. I just had the feeling there was something really important there." he clatters unhelpfully.

    "They all look a little different, but it's hard to miss one. Like giant coffins or cages or altars or that kind of thing. They're /supposedly/ made by the Neverborn themselves, and they sure don't look like anything made by human hands, Exalted or otherwise. They're also huge and really heavy!" Mr. Bones says to Gawain.

    "Fuck off and die." the blonde lady suddenly shoots back at Ryu. "You look like a Lunar fucked a fairy lizard and then had an abortion. Eat shit." When Staren asks her the million dollar question, she flatly replies: "I used to. Then I killed him. Now answer the question." She immediately steps in his way at the bottom of the stairs. "How do I know who /you're/ working for?" If Ryu had to guess, she seems pretty powerful, at least compared to the forces of the dead he'd faced at the redoubt. Not 'trounce the entire group in a fight' powerful, but enough to maybe hesitate in punching in the nose. It also seems as if she's equally as confused about everything going on as everyone else is. Does anyone have any idea what they've gotten themselves into?

    "Oh, huh. I guess I was." Mr. Bones replies a little lamely. "I remember now. I used to live here as a Deathknight too. Was that how I died? Scar killed me? That's upsetting. He seemed like a swell guy." he continues to Chorus. "Wow, so is it really just you and Red Famine left? That's it? Running this whole house?" 'Chorus' looks askance at the talking skull, then at Gawain. "You might as well turn around and go back. That filthy bastard is dead already. I made sure of it." "That's what I told them!" says Mr. Bones, jiggling on his handle. "All three of us did it, remember? What happened to Star of Dirt and Doubt?" "She's dead too." Chorus answers flatly, still giving nobody any context. "Scar killed her too." "Wow, what an asshole." says Mr. Bones.

    "Instructions? What instructions? From whom?" Chorus suddenly asks Albert, suddenly looking much more attentive. "Who sent you here? How do I know you're not just some of his old cronies looking to take over?" She seems sufficiently inflamed and paranoid to stand in the way of the raygun. "And he's not a compass! He's- he /was/ my comrade you bastard! What the hell did you do to his bones?!" Said bones reply. "Oh, that wasn't them, it was someone completely different." "What?" "Yeah! It's real confusing! I already answered all these questions, they just never end!"
Bloody Revelations     "We all agreed to seal off that freak's room years ago." she states quite plainly to Lemeza. "Nothing good can come out of touching that insane man-child's work. The fact that you want it only makes you even more suspicious. Of course I need to know." In all fairness, if she is a Deathknight, that room literally contains her metaphysical leash and kill switch according to Mr. Bones, so she has a reason to be cagey.

    Her face twitches a little when Miari keeps going. "No, I guess not. Even the other Deathlords thought he was a joke. He /was/ a joke. Even if some Solar roped you all into this, nobody just /waltzes/ through a Deathlord's door if they believe he's still around." Then she pretty much just blinks at Falling Rain as if she'd said something profoundly dumb instead of innocuous. "Clearly, not all of you were prepared. Not that I expect much otherwise. In twenty four hours, none of you are going to be able to muster up the willpower to leave, even if you can find your way out."

    "Please don't start a fight with Chorus at Midnight." Mister Bones asks very nicely, albeit completely impotently, since he has no means of stopping anyone. "If Scar really did betray and kill everyone, I'd feel bad if I became involved in hurting her." "Don't baby me." Chorus sighs. "C'mon Chorus, we both know Seven Despairs barely taught us anything. How well can you even use your daiklave?" Mr. Bones pleads. "Better than before." she grumps. "You've been dead for a long time."

    She seems to de-aggro a little as Touta steps right out in front of the group, picking up on the general lack of coordination and agreement in the group, meaning it's unlikely they're any kind of effectual repo squad or minion horde from another Deathlord, but also just because someone else here than just Gawain is trying to act sensible. "Is that true, Scavenger?" she asks Mr. Bones. "Well, they seem like okay guys to me." says the skull, little green lights in his eyes flattening and decompressing like a placid blink. "Someone told them that Seven Despairs is still alive so they came to kill him, I think. They won't believe me that he's already dead." "Who told them?" Chorus insists, now caught up in the struggle to get in front of Azure and muscle her back down the stairs. "You think- sit down!- they could be an ally? Or at least, we could jump ship?"

    Unfortunately, she's so deep in the process of trying to fight Azure that Carna just climbs the staircase behind her. She takes a moment to notice, and then turns and goes "Hey! Hey get back here you- ugh! What are you people doing with that gross little rogue meat puppet in here! I'm surprised it isn't staggering off downstairs with the rest!" Eventually, she settles on giving up and chasing Carna down. Holding the rest at bay is a little pointless if one already slipped past.

    The third floor seems to be significantly navigable than the first two. It also feels smaller, colder, and more cramped, with fewer candles and no paintings. The walls and desks are instead hung and furnished with strange diagrams of occult significance, preserved specimens of unknown origin, elaborate soulsteel machinery of uncertain significance, and what looks like the panoply of a small, slain Solar circle hung as trophies --if they aren't, the artifacts are very, very old. Following the compass, whoever is actually doing so would wind up at a pair of doors almost as large as the front ones, heavily crisscrossed back and forth with arm-thick lengths of soulsteel chains, fixed with five different locks sealed with Old Realm glyphs. Calligraphy has been scribbled around the entire doorway in black ink, probably as some kind of ward. Faint pulsing can be heard on the other side. Chorus will catch up quickly after probably tackling Carna halfway there.
Ryu     Ryu doesn't know how to process the woman's retort, sufficiently skilled in its bile as it is. He doesn't know her enough or have a gnarly enough attitude to go blow for blow with that kind of venom, so he just flicks an ear and makes a face like he smelled something gross, but largely shuts up and lets the adults talk. The exchange thereafter makes him scrunch his snout further, the dragon looking increasingly uncomfortable with what's going on. He could just dart past if he wants, but he seems content to stay near Falling Rain for the time being. He'd never be able to escape if he got lost in here by himself, no matter how fast he is, and he can't subsist off of whatever passes for food in this hellhole...

    He spends some time poking around the more navigable space, sniffing here and there and getting a feel for the environment. He makes sure the others are in earshot at all times, because he isn't about to get too comfortable with this place.

    He pauses to examine the diagrams and specimens, checking for curse-related symbolism, or perhaps anything suggesting viral research. He knows a bit about both, and might prove useful in this specific case. He ignores the loot, though. He's got no interest in the gaudy trophies of evil jerks.
Carna     When she is chased down, Carna calls back while making the best use of the growing shadows as candles become fewer and weaker to try to slip in and out of view, confusing her location, as she hunts for the room they seek. "I was sent by a woman who I understand to be another death knight. She says that this 'Eye' has a plague of some kind, faked his death, and that she wishes to permanently kill him through some special means. I do not trust her, and if this plague exists I intend to keep it until it can be safely dispose of, not turned over to anyone. It does not seem the sort of thing to take from one necromancer in order to give to another."

    She falls silent, as Chorus attempts to tackle her. Physical contact is an immediate violation of her willingness to talk. As she impacts the ground, her sword congeals from a length of black chain around one arm, blood and liquid despair, the essence of dusk, the moment right before hope dies along with the sunlight, in-hand. She attempts to apply this to her assailant.

    She is not, at least, aiming for lethal wounds but more to try to discourage continued contact by holding a very sharp object up to the other's face. She is fairly certain that if this woman had intended to kill her she had other means available beyond tackling to do it with. As an added benefit, even if all that happens is that Chorus and Carna remain at a stale mate, she is keeping her trapped here at sword point (and possibly at sword point herself soon enough), while the others are free to investigate.
Gawain Albert calling the skull 'my compass' makes Gawain wilt a little, though Touta trying to be diplomatic does encourage him quite a bit, as the knight moves to stand near him and support the younger man's attempts. As Chorus seems to calm down a bit, Gawain moves to give a thumbs-up to Touta. "As I said, diplomacy is always the best first option." There's a turn towards them as they insist Seven Despairs is dead. "We have been informed by the one known as Bloody Revelations that he's still alive. Even if you killed him, and I don't mean to doubt you or call you a liar, it would likely assuage all doubt from my allies to see his chambers or his corpse."

There's a brief pause. "And of course, if you'd like to escape here, we'd be willing to help you! You seem like a nice enough person." Gawain remarks again to Chorus...who dashes off to chase Carna. Gawain waits a few moments before deciding to pursue, heading up to the third floor. Glancing around, he notices the artifacts and takes a small glance at them, but his main focus is the big locked door. Gawain approaches it, and glances at the glyphs only briefly, not expecting to understand them. Instead, he draws his blade, and starts tapping it against the chains and locks, trying to get an idea of how solid and sturdy they are. "This can only be his room, correct? Well! Let's all see if we can force the locks open, then! Albert, would you like to try your raygun on it?"

Gawain's under the impression Albert might really enjoy that, and cheering him up is probably good for everyone.
Miari     Miari takes a small LEAP up to follow along with Carna shortly after Chorus goes dashing after her... and immediately marvels at some of the treasures on display. She didn't come here to loot and pillage... but the gleam of unspoiled Orichalcum immediately catches her eye.

    At the one side of things she notices that Carna's in a bit of a bind, but she's also surrounded by HEROES OF JUSTICE who'll surely go to her aid. Miari sees an OPPORTUNITY. She immediately goes to work, mind cranking up to hyperspeed and senses focusing on the workings. She produces a journal from elsewhere and a quill, both of which start to write on their own as she pulls her Mind Hands attention away from Mister bones.

    She'll jog down and copy everything she sees in GREAT DETAIL and study it later. And also investigate whether that Solar panoply is in any way booby trapped. Because if it's not... she'll rip it clear off the wall with her mind hands and stuff the works into Elsewhere!
Starbound Flotilla     "Seven Despairs is a necroscientist. He has a virus somewhere in there that could wipe out millions or more. We're here to stop Mask of Winters from storming the Cold House and stealing it. I'm going to burn /everything/ I find related to it. If you want to suspect someone, find someone else, preferably one of Mask of Winters' insane necroscientists." Albert says, as his tension rises and his tone goes to more of a growl. "And when you do, tell me, because I've made sure as many of them die as possible. If you want his dangerous necroscience contained, then get us to his lab as fast as you can, so we can burn it and ensure Mask of Winters has no cause to storm your home." His posture rises in its determination and imperiousness. He's actively fighting the comfortable effects of Cold House by digging deep into just as awful a mental space.

    But, for what little it's worth, perhaps it's the only way he can compromise with the people who want to be diplomatic. "We're here to stop Mask of Winters from fucking up your ENTIRE LIFE" is a little bit better than "fuck you I'm gonna shoot you in the leg". He shoots Gawain a dirty look, still retaining his tension towards the knight, but seems to have allowed his method to win out... For now, anyway. One hopes that this gesture will be acceptable, because either way, he's planning to head on up to the big double doors -- ignoring the loot, Pavo would CRY right now -- and press forward into them, unless Chorus has somehow turned out to be a Mask of Winters loyalist in need of fighting or appeasing.
Staren     Staren doesn't agree with calling Skull Buddy a compass, but there are more pressing concerns here than correcting Albert. He's clearly in A Mood, anyway.

    Huh. Staren didn't account for the possibility 'She believes the deathlord is dead and wants to keep people from messing with him'.

    He considers this for a moment. "...We're here to destroy his virus, and to /make sure/ he's dead. Forever. Permanently gone. If you really believe he's already gone, then there's no harm in letting us check, right? As for joining the one who sent us... I'm not sure that's a good idea, but what do you mean 'jump ship', if you don't serve the deathlord? If you're trapped here, you can follow us out, but what will you do then?"

    Carna walks past and gets Chorus's attention, though, so they can all move on.

    "Hey! She's not a meat puppet. She's... something unique. Not whatever your magic senses are telling you. If you /worked/ for someone making all kinds of weird things, you should understand."

    And then a fight's breaking out. He's not sure how to intervene, though. Trying to pull them apart will probably get him stabbed, possibly with some stupid deathknight weapon or charm that attacks his soul and bypasses this fancy armor, who even knows.
Lemeza Kosugi Twenty-four hours. That's the party's time limit, and diplomacy is taking too much of that time. And Lady Bitch is being an offensive and insulting bitch who isn't moving aside, so the practical thing to do is--er, stroll up the stairs unopposed? Carna's sneaky antics catch Chorus' attention and cause her to give chase, allowing Lemeza and the others to simply go to the third floor.

A couple things catch Lemeza's eye: the locked door with pulsing evil energy that is vaguely deathlordy, and some old-looking artifacts that seem like they have /plenty/ of history behind them. As Skull Bro's compass points toward the locked door, that's where Lemeza heads first. Time to pick some locks! He rummages around his backpack, looking for something to pick the locks with, until realizing that he doesn't actually have anything like that. So instead, he makes his way back to the artifacts lining the walls, scouting them for traps just like Miari is -- though Lemeza's methods are far more mundane. Nevertheless, he's dealt with more than enough traps to scope out anything that would trigger upon taking those Solar Circle weapons.
Azure Armature The world is narrowing, the frame of things slowly constraining together. Azure Armature is stopped, temporarily, even as she 'walks against' Chorus like the woman didn't exist. "Please stand aside. If you require the person who is 'being an asshole' to be eliminated, that can be arranged, but we are here because a reliable expert on the matter referred us to it. If you can bring a case justifying the existance of an entity who tortures his subordinates, does nothing, and is a colossal waste of resources in all respects, do so. By all means. But please, do it succinctly."

"And do it as we walk. You have already revealed a time constraint on our objectives. So facilitate them, or kindly get out of my... our way."

There is a giant storm of a clusterfuck coming, the operator can feel, or perhaps that's the rapidly fraying sound of her personal sanity as she continues to force herself to stay aware and active. "Yes... The virus. This place, this feeling, this entire setup, is a disease." Blue mutters, potentially forgetting the actual point of this entire expedition in her current haze, as Gawain tells Arthur to blow the door.

"I'm done waiting, being delayed. I don't plan on being here any long."

Azure Armature points her right arm at the door, right at 'lock level', and rings of bright red energy curl around it in geometric designs, rotating around her forearm and wrist, before in a flash of red, a screaming blast of fire superheating the lock.

Then she just step-kicks the door with her boot, in exactly the way that Every Action Hero Does And Literally Nobody In Real Life Does Because Human Legs Don't Work That Way.

Guess what? Hers apparently works that way.
Touta Konoe It was pleasant to see that someone was willing to encourage his desire to not watch someone get shot at, but sadly it's a little too late to enjoy such praise for Gawain.

"Carna wait!"

Seriously, where was Enark when you needed him? He was always so good at managing her when she was out and abou- Oh right...Never mind that. Either way, it seems for the most part the group was able to get to the third floor if not without a bit of confrontation. Unfortunately it only gets worse when Carna points a blade at her throat. It's going to be near impossible now to convince her to help. Especially as he looks around and sees the locked doors.

Tensions were higher than before and people understood the necessity of getting this resolved before the Mask of Winter arrived. It looks like it's do-or-die. Either he needs to convince her to help them out completely or they have to just all come together to try and bum rush through this whole ordeal. This would essentially be the beginning of the end. Touta goes down to the ground and stares the blonde in her eyes. She's got a blade to her throat so he understands if she's not looking his way at the moment.

"Chorus, Blood Scravenger told us about you DeathKnights. He told us about how Seven Despairs had the thing was used to control you and if it gets in the wrong hands you're screwed. But no one here gives a crap about that! Look at everyone here, they're freaking out cause they know just had dangerous this thing has to be. Listen, if you're not going to help us then at least do it so you can get the last laugh at that asshole by screwing with that virus he was so proud of at least!"

He honestly has no idea if this guy is alive or dead, but if what Mr.Bones said about the Deathknights was true and how they treated them Touta can only imagine that Chorus would want to get back at that asshole anyway that she could. "Chorus...Where's the keys for the door?"
Empty Tidings Falling Rain narrows her eyes further. Is she being mocked?

Somewhere in her hazy brain, a squeaky piece of chalk marks a little tally in the 'wreak bloody vengeance' column next to Chorus' name.

She stretches before she climbs the stairs. It's a sort of stretch that she'd make when she wakes up, a jaw-creaking yawn accompanied by arms raised above her head. Falling Rain saunters up the stairs, blinking blearily. When she gets to the top, the atmosphere changes. She transfers the skull to her right hand in a bit of a daze, and then lifts her left and, without further preamble, strikes herself across the face.

Falling Rain spits a curse in Rivertongue. She blinks angrily, juggling Mr. Bones back to the other hand. The door is handled, so she stays clear... and takes a look at the contents of the desks and the odd machinery. The panoply feels like an obvious trap, and she doesn't want to be in the blast radius of the wards on the door.

She also starts to low-key look for the equivalent of load-bearing struts for the Manse. She's seen enough of them to have an idea of what to look for. Her Plan B is to level the whole place through inadvisable geomantic fuckery.
Tomoe Breaking Soul Cages? That is something that could be done but damn it would be no easy undertaking and the heat they'd get afterwards, would be pretty big. She looks at Woman for a moment she does not say a thing yet but she moves to shift a bit for she is now getting the idea the master of the house may be indeed dead. Dead as in not moving not able to do shit anymore.

"I came to burn his work."

She notes but well it's fight time it looks like with Azure, then suddenly Carna, and the way now is clear so to speak and she gets moving she doesn't like the third floor, she notes the solar loot on display but there's no time for it.

She looks as Gawin and Albert nodding then looks to Miari for a moment.

"Can you read those glyphs?"

She asks she also looks to Lemeza as well

"Same to you, can you?"

She's clearly keeping over-watch for the moment, as much as she might be tempted by the fallen solars gear. Now is not the time to fall prey to murder hobo urges. So for now she guards those working on the lock aiming to get between anyone, who might try to go after those trying to work on it.
Bloody Revelations     The diagrams Ryu picks out on the third floor landings are far too dense and complicated to make much sense of. They're steeped in fifteen layers of advanced occultism and ciphers on top of ciphers, sharing only characters and some recurring arrangements between them, and all looking insanely creepy, many drawn in human skin. Some involve diagrams of bodies from a medical standpoint, others on what looks suspiciously like cell culture, and some just being abstract messes of lines and runes. The jarred specimens aren't much better. While a few are as simple as preserved hearts or eyes of strange creatures, some of them contain things like 'a petrified fetus', 'a severed tongue licking the insides of its jar', 'an millipede with legs that are all tiny human arms', and so on.

    Chorus at Midnight successfully tackles Carna. It's more about the gesture and the principle than actually being effective, since she's currently unarmed and unarmoured. She feels weirdly light too, though she doesn't so much flinch at having a sword in her face, even as unusually freaky as said sword is. "/Permanently/? What, you think he came back to /life/?" she spits out. Apparently the idea that the Deathlords might be immortal wasn't even floated to her, never mind something she'd researched. She sounds unwilling to believe it.

    "I mean, I don't doubt he whipped up some kind of ridiculous plague for fun. That sounds just like him, disgusting as it is. Why does that matter though? If he /did/, it's been sitting in his study for like twenty years or something! Are you sure you aren't just handing it over to someone else? Because if you are, then you're not just stealing it! I want in on whatever they're giving you! If someone's going to get credit for selling off that /rat's/ stuff, then I /deserve/ the spoils for killing him in the first place!" That was pretty sudden. Sudden enough that she gets up off of Carna and chases the rest to the doors.

    "It's not that simple!" she calls out when 'accosted' by Touta. "Sure, Eye and Seven Despairs is dead, and I could leave if I wanted to, but he was just my /boss/. No matter where I go, the Neverborn /own/ my soul and I can't escape that. If another Deathknight sent you here, then obviously they're doing it at the behest of /their/ Deathlord, who wants to repossess all of Seven Despairs' gear and research for his own gain, right? So I might be able to get in good with him if I can get credit for handing it over! You have to understand, the Neverborn are going to kick my ass when they wake up and notice I'm just spinning my wheels here! I need to pick /someone/, and I want a better deal than the insane, abusive creep I just got rid of!"
Bloody Revelations     Instead, Albert explains that the Mask of Winters intends to come and get it, and Tomoe corroborates that they intend to burn it out before he can. "You can't wreck /everything/! If I let you do that then they're going to fry my soul out of my eyeballs!" At this point she's pretty much stopped being offensive and started pleading in panic when she realizes what's going to happen if Cold House actually does burn down.

    Miari and Lemeza go to the artifacts on the wall. They're a collection of weapons, but also more importantly, jewelery, finery, and complex mechanical items, wrought of golden orichalcum, moonsilver and diamond, easily worth a fortune each. They initially don't find anything wrong, but when Miari goes for them, Mr. Bones is quick to pipe up: "Oh! Don't touch those! Those belonged to some people Seven Despairs knew a really, really long time ago! He hated them a /lot/, so they're cursed all up and down the place. I think he was hoping their reincarnations would come back to find them, so they're probably set to melt your face off, or maybe make you explode into some awful zombie disease when you take them somewhere populated. He gathered them up pretty obsessively, so I know it's the creepy kind of super revenge, especially if he's still mad at people from millennia ago."

    Chorus at Midnight keeps pleading even as Albert and Azure team up in forcing open the door. Gawain's initial tap with Galatine confirms that the chains are, in fact, legit soulsteel, and a cursory examination of the glyphs by anyone capable of reading them determines that they are related to ghost sealing, but the group quickly finds they're shoddy work. The former has only been nailed into the (admittedly, hardened stone) inner wall sections of the manse, and the latter is mortal thaumaturgy --slipshod measures enacted by a group of rookie Deathknights with no sorcerers, occultists, or technicians between them, doing the best they could with their incredibly basic knowledge.

    While blasting them doesn't actually destroy the chains, it incinerates the door and its frame pretty handily, and allows anyone sufficiently dedicated to squeeze and wriggle through the mess of chains. Chorus at Midnight seems like she's going to step in the way to try and block them, until Gawain gets to explain when she catches up with him at said door. For whatever reason, when he drops the name of the particular Deathknight they're cooperating with, Chorus' face pales, and she freezes up on the spot. Mr. Bones obliviously chirps "Oh! Was that who the mistress was! Wow, she's as old a Deathknight as I was! Weird one too!" but Chorus immediately begins backing away, no longer concerned with Eye and Seven Despairs' study.
Bloody Revelations     The room beyond is, much like Cold House itself, even bigger on the inside than it looked from without. It clearly can't fit in the corridor the doors were inserted into, being roughly the size of a baseball diamond at least, though it's also the darkest, dustiest, gloomiest room in the house by far. The blue candles only sputter weakly to life as people by enter, apparently triggered by proximity, slowly revealing stained shelves and desks covering the walls and breaking up the central partition, loaded top to bottom with much the same kinds of things out in the hallway, though any papers are packed into weighty tomes that occupy most of the space; the writings of an obsessive, shut-in scientist many, many centuries old, piled up after all this time.

    It isn't just storage space, though. There are medical tables laid out with corpses that are much fresher than those outside at the front door, partway through precision disassembly, and held under lattices of incredibly fine cabling and articulated arms and tools. Workbenches nearby are covered in complex mechanical assemblages, bearing all sorts of magitechnology wrought in dark soulsteel and studded with ghostly crystals. Tanks of icy blue fluids hold what must be finished products in suspension; ghastly chimera of men and machine, bristling with more weapons than the average military vehicle, and studded with endless vials of liquids and powders that must be an infinite variety of toxins and diseases, ready for deployment.

    Clustered in a dark corner, where the candles don't light, is a pile of suspiciously coffin-shaped objects, covered in a white cloth that's so thick with dust it clearly hasn't be moved in decades. In the near-center of the room, a lab table has been set up, faintly fuming as a vile greenish substance drips from it into a rack of soulsteel vials built into the cabinet below --possibly a freezer-- which constantly moves trays of identical containers to catch the substance, having filled at least a hundred of them already. At the far end, a huge parorama of windows looks over the dark expanse of Bonetree, thick curtains drawn across them, before which is a small cafe table of solid bone, and beside which is a bed even more lavish than the state rooms. A cup of tea sits out on the table, still steaming.

    A dessicated, high pitched voice --like what would belong to the risen, mummified corpse of a twelve year old-- titters from somewhere in the room, echoing from every surface with the grainy cadence of a broken gramophone, worming its way into the ear more than it is simply heard. A few seconds of demented, gleeful cackling are all that is needed to get every single hair standing on end, in instinctive recognition of those certain traits that mark out the perfect psychopath. The kind recognized even by the earliest humans, and outcast or killed without conscious awareness of why.

    "Oho! Oh wow! Oh gosh! Really? /Really/ now?! Stygia's own 'Angel of the Abyss' sent you here? And you just /went/?! Oh my that really is too much! You're just /too much/! Ahahahaha! AHAHAHA! Oh you have /no idea/ what you've done! You really /are/ the most idiotic treasure hunters in the world! You'll make the most /excellent/ gifts to bring to good ol' Winters! AhahahahahaHAHAHAHAHA!"

    "Oh." says Mr. Bones. "Maybe he actually wasn't dead? Wow! The ride really never ends."