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Ganondorf Dragmire      This is the Gerudo Desert.

     Beyond the walls of Gerudo Town is a nightmare and a half. The sandstorms come and go of their own volition, without rhyme, reason, or respite. In the midst of the sands, shadows dance - some illuminated by lanterns, others vast and unquantifiable shapes like ships moving through sand. When the storms recede, there is the vast desert before them, and in its own way it is beautiful - cacti stretch shadows throughout the day along sandy dunes, fresh with fruits; glittering pools of glass, once sand changed to something other by some powerful fire or explosion; sandfalls from atop large rocks, pouring endlessly down into deep wells. There are pitfalls, and pits, and vortexes, and all manner of sinkholes; there are great rocks that spread like winged beasts to menace travellers.

     Finally, there are monsters. All manner of monsters. There are Bokoblins that menace with spikes of wood, there are the great Moblins that slink about with heavy weaponry, there are riders on great sandfish mounts. There are all manner of monsters, and Ganondorf clearly didn't warn them that the party was coming, because they are *aggressive*.

     Ganondorf's directions to the Mirage Graveyard were also, at best, spotty. Clearly he does not know the way exactly; the best he could do was offer some assistance in the form of a blessing from the Great King of Evil, which, if accepted, confers them with remarkable dexterity in exchange for a ring of darkness around them when they make use of it.

     Beyond that, though, the party is on their own. Fortunately, as they crest over another dune, three locations strike interest - a large skull-shaped fortress, a whirling storm of sand that appears to be completely localized, and what looks like a huge moving set of dunes with platforms on it.
Raziel 'The Gerudo Desert was a harsh place, alive, but harsh.  Fauna continues to thrive despite the conditions, a stark reminder of the wasteland that Kain had created in Nosgoth.  While this land was no less harsh, there was a certain beauty to its harshness.'

Raziel forwent the blessing, he should do this on his own or not at all.  The ghostly knight leaps over the pits, and claws up rock faces to overcome sliding and quicksand-like traps.  It was fortunate for Raziel that he was already dead because the toll on such a place to a living person would be monumental.  

Raziel defends himself, preferring to avoid combat, but not shying from it either.  He was not trying to make enemies of the people, but if they needed to be shown reason, he would do so.  Raziel accepts surrender but does not abide trickery either.  

Finally, cresting a final hill there appear to be three points of interest, a skull citadel, a localized whirling storm of sand, and dunes that are huge that appear to be moving with...were those platforms?  Raziel's eyes scrunched with disbelief but shook his head.

'It appears, even here, that I can not escape such inane puzzles.  However, there was only one path forward, so which one would lead to the graveyard?  It appears we had our work cut out for us.  However, the best place to start checking out would likely be the strange skull-shaped building.    Though it would make it more of a mausoleum than a graveyard.'

Raziel continues on towards the skull-shaped citadel first, for lack of better options.
Staren     As before, Staren wears a loose cloak over his armor -- that and a swarm of cleaning nanites are TRYING to keep sand from getting in anywhere bad, but... well, it's better than nothing. It's not like futuristic all-environment body armor is going to break from a few hours in a desert. Hopefully.

    He accepts the blessing, because why not? Just because OOOH SPOOKY EVIL DARKNESS? Come on.

    The desert is full of life. Hostile life. "Why. How. What do they EAT? If they're made of magic, can't the King of Evil command them not to menace us?" At least moblins and bokoblins aren't much of a threat to a party of heavily armed adventurers, but it does mean that not only do they have to deal with the desert, they can never let their guard down.

    Also Staren is reminded that sandstorms are bad for his forcefield. Fortunately, the dark blessing makes up for it by helping him dodge shots.

    Staren, like Raziel, regards the PLATFORM PUZZLE with disdain. Why is that even here? He reaches the same conclusion: The skull building, being an actual structure, seems the most significant thing here and worth investigating first. He approaches it.
Sanary Rondel After spending so much time in the desert, Sanary's gotten fairly used to the general shittiness of the desert. Sandstorms, the heat, and even the monsters have become something of a routine to avoid as the group heads in the vague direction of the Mirage Graveyard, a light and sandy cloak replacing her usual coat while a longer hatchet rests on the healer's shoulder. She's gladly taken not only the King of Evil's blessing to her mobility, but she's also taken on a secondary blessing as well.

That probably explains the foreboding aura of darkness surrounding her weapon. She could get used to this sort of thing, but she's trying not to let herself get too complacent. As those monsters menace the group, the axe-wielder sticks to just smashing her weapon into the creatures and throwing about healing magic left and right. Ironically enough, this focus on holding back with the big guns for the time being actually makes her rather efficient in defending the group!

When they encounter the trio of strange sights, Sanary's attention shifts about unevenly. THe obvious place to check out is the skull-shaped fortress, but the sandstorm must be hiding something!

The dunes, meanwhile, go completely ignored. "If you're headin' that way, then I'll check out the storm. It's too... Weird to be normal. Might even be magic!" Sanary comments to Raziel and Staren as she starts heading towards the whirlwind, clutching her cloak around herself tighter. "Holler if you find anythin' weird in there or if you need healing. I can't fix you up if you're dead!"
Penelope Vasquez     Penelope Vasquez is very hot. She's kinda used to it, summer is killer back in Boston, but this is something else. She's forced to dress down to deal with the heat; traditional rubber-looking black coat rolled down to her waist, and a wide brimmed hat not unlike what one would see on a rice farmer creating a mobile puddle of shade below her. She hasn't accepted The King Of Evil's blessing; extra dexterity would probably just be a bit excessive, honestly. So she trudges her way through the desert with the rest of the party, performing three equally important actions; scouting ahead on dangerous terrain, slicing Moblins into poofs of smoke, and, of course, complaining about the conditions.

     She sticks with Sanary, marching towards the swirling and stable whirlwind; with such a large party, it makes sense to split up, but only leaving one member of The Gang to investigate something is asking for a bad time. She's focused and plodding, trying to maintain her stamina during the long-haul torture of the heat and flying grit.
Link Link actually heavily considers the offer of power. It's clear on his face when Ganondorf gives it. But he rejects, politely. It's not because it's darkness, though that contributed, and it's not because it gives Ganondorf leverage over him, because that never crossed his mind. It's because if Link can't do this with his own abilities and tools, he can't truly be the hero, can he?

Link is not in his green tunic. He actually listened to Ganondorf, and while the tunic is in his magic bag, he's wearing desert survival clothes he bought in the Multiverse, hooded, brown, with a cloth to cover his face from sand.

His steel sword goes flying as they move forward, sawing through monsters and picking up their loot afterwards to sell. The sandfalls and pits are troublesome, and Link uses his dexterity, flips, and agility to get out of them.

At one point, knowing absolutely nothing about cacti except that they're apparently eaten and drank as juice, Link tries cutting off one with his sword and gets himself jabbed in the hand. Good times.

When they reach the three locations, Link waits in thought as everyone else heads to a destination, and then, without a word, makes his decision. He heads towards the huge moving set of dunes, because the logic is simple. His time in the Lost Woods had taught him well.

Platform puzzles always lead to good things.
Sarracenia      As others were starting into the sandstorm and through the monsters, an airship that some here might recognizes flies in overhead and attempts to just bypass all that nastiness. It disappears into the heavy sandstorm...

     ...and a moment later emerges going the exact opposite direction of where it was headed. "...what the...?" Sarracenia murmurs from her spot at the bow of the airship. The airship turns around and heads back in, and once again emerges a moment later. "Of all the..!!" she starts angrily, then huffs and leaps off the airship. She rides her hammer down, and the massive thing causes a small shockwave and a shower of sand upon her landing. She then follows the others through the established route, having to use several of her powerups and plenty of hammer swings to make it through the monsters and traps.

     And of course she has been complaining the entire time about sand and heat and how she is actually sweating and why did she even come here?! But, she is trying to be a hero, and if that means helping the Great King of Evil help his people not die, then that's something she's prepared to do. Of course, Link is an actual hero with hero in his title, so she follows after him when he heads toward the platforms. "So! Link, isn't it? Is this something that happens often? Helping someone who by all accounts is likely to be your enemy in the future? I...am sort of new to this hero business."
Note     Note is a bit late to the party... but only slightly. It's quite likely she got lost somewhere! But...

    Well, when you can fly, and fly VERY fast, eventually you'll figure out where you're going. It doesn't take her long to sense out a gathering of strong life forces and home in on them!

    "Hey, everyone! I'm here!" She announces from the skies above them, floating around forty feet in the air. Whitish energy was storming around her, but as she comes to a halt and drops down to the ground the filmy aura fades. She lands with a THUMP near Staren when the group's figuring out which way to go.

    "This world's AWESOME. I got chased around by this huge whirly thing on the way here! Then I stopped by a river for a drink and something else spat huge rocks at me. Wish I had time to hang around and challenge the stuff properly." Because being HARASSED BY MONSTERS is apparently REALLY FUN when you're Note.

    The desert is certainly an oppressive environment, but she's doing fine for now. She couldn't call herself a martial artist if she couldn't handle a little extreme environments at least for a LITTLE while...
Rean Schwarzer The desert still sucks. He's got a cloak on over his uniform, hood and cowl up to keep the sand out of his face. He also didn't take the the blessing. Even if it could've been useful, he wasn't sure about the whole darkness thing, and he wasn't sure how taking in some of it would go given how just sensing it felt.

He deals with the monsters fine, his sword glinting in the sunlight as he fights.  He grumbles a bit as a spear wielding Bokoblin turns to smoke in front of him. If Ganondorf was truly onboard with them helping him, why didn't he call his troops off so that they didn't need to kill them unnecessarily? Did he even /want/ them to help him?

The group eventually reaches a trio of landmarks. Rean spots Link slipping off towards the shifting dunes by himself. "Hey, where are you-" Rean starts, but then everyone splits off on their own, and Sarracenia goes after Link too. He sighs, and follows Staren and Raziel into the cavern. Spooky.
Ganondorf Dragmire      The skull-shaped fortress yawns wide. Staren, Rean, and Raziel approach it, and the jaws quite *literally* open, quite *literally* yawning wide. Sand pours from the nostrils. Lights flare in the eyes, ominous red candles lighting on their own.

     From inside, skeletons. Of course there are skeletons. They are feminine in build and hip-structure, carrying long, curved swords. They are dressed in tattered Gerudo clothing long-rotted by the heat and sand. They lumber forward, not particularly threatening individually - but there are enough of them to be worrisome. Beyond them is something gleaming in what little light is passing through, a shining thing in the shadows.

     Penelope and Sanary head towards the swirling sandstorm, with the dark fairy Veran trailing behind. The sandstorm is a roaring vortex of might, but as they approach, the spinning...twists. The sand begins to shift, rising upwards into a pair of massive sand hands. A huge eye swings around in the midst of the sandstorm. The hands come swinging down, one for each of them, forceful and vast. There's something glittering inside the tornado, but what it is is impossible to see clearly.

     Link and Sarra head towards the platforms. They are not platforms - or rather, they are not a jumping puzzle. This much is clear when they start turning towards him. On the back of those platforms are bokoblins, clatting their sticks against the ground and pointing at the oncoming Hero. Several of them turn bows. A few of them turn the ballistas Link can now see towards him, and the whole set of platforms starts turning ponderously in his direction. Sarra can tell that this is some kind of ship as it starts to turn, but what kind of ship becomes painfully obvious as the sand starts to roll off its underside.

     It is a big, armored fish with platforms mounted on the back, and it is firing at them. On its back, at the top of one of the platforms, is something glittering.
Raziel 'The more I heard of the tale of this land, the more disturbed I became at the similarities between it and Nosgoth.  Save that the world was not dying to the selfish decisions of Ganondorf...yet.  Was this a world that was a mirror of my own?  Would it too, be dragged down the slide of decay and ruin?'

Raziel finally approaches the skull itself, eyes narrowing as the yawning cave gave way to skeletons.  The undead claimed these halls, which seemed to lend credence to the fact that this could be a graveyard.  However, it's guardians would not let its secrets go so easily.

'And so the defenders of this place stirred to life.  Feminine structures, obviously of the exiled Gerudo who came before and were interred here.  There only remained one path forward.'

The Soul Reaver ignited from Raziel's arm.  Those who could detect magic could sense another entity on it, ravenous and insane that was the shape of the sword.  It was a parasite, not a partner, and one that would threaten Raziel's own life someday.  Such was written in the stars of his home.  

For now, he approached the skeletons that threatened him and his allies.  His blade swiping out at the closest, aiming to stay light on his feet and let his blade to the talking for him.  Raziel's goal was to lay the spirits of the damned to rest, and the reaver was surprisingly effective on those who were already dead.  
Sanary Rondel With Penelope joining her on the SANDY WHIRLWIND ADVENTURE, Sanary marches forth, her cloak doing... Not a whole lot to keep the sand actually out. Not all of it is getting in her eye, at least, but it's certainly a nuisance that won't make it any easier for her to get inside. "Mouth closed, or-pltpltpluh!"

Less advice-giving, more moving. As the sandstorm starts to transform, the healer slows down and lowers her axe to keep her hold steady on it with both hands. When that eye appears, she cautiously raises a hand in a stiff wave. Alas, her greeting is not met with a greeting, but with a big sandy hand!

She makes another attempt to yell at Penelope to watch out, but only succeeds in sputtering a few more times before just starting to run instead. She leaps just as those hands strike down, the shockwave from the impact sending her hurtling forward and rolling down a dune while speeding (sort of) towards the tornado. Looking only a little rustled from the tumble, she skids to a stop and leans back as she channels magic energy into her eye, firing off an explosive laser at one of the hands to see how it fares against firey explosions!
Penelope Vasquez     Sand, sand, cactus, monster, more sand. Sandstorm, approaching. Penelope slows, and rolls up her coat, despite the heat; tucking her head down a bit to prevent the whipping sand from cutting into her, stray grains pinging off her coat (and hat) like gritty rain. And then the shifting sands begin to twist and turn and shapes solidify from the darkness of the storm, recognizable limbs shifting together as a malignant eye takes her in. And swipes down, hard, at both adventuresses!

    Penelope takes a split second to recognize what's happening as the behemoth pulls up to take a swing; her eyes widen as both hands swing down, hard! Sanary is on her own; all she gets from the woman is a "Wh-fuckfuckFU- DISTRACT IT, SAN!" before she's ducking and dodge-rolling against the grit, deeper into the storm! She can't see for the life of her, of course; even her goggles would be useless in this sort of storm, though they're slipped on to protect her eyes from flying debris. A cancel out of the roll as she digs a boot into the sand, sliding in the grit, before her blade is drawn, and stabbed into the back of one of those smashing palms! She doesn't anticipate being able to really hurt it; all she can hope for is that the sand is compacted enough for her hooked sword to latch onto something as a handhold, so she can clamber towards the Big Squishy Weak Point of the eye! Or perhaps be thrown or shaken towards it.
Link Sarracennia joins Link! He's not against it, he wasn't going off on his own to be alone or anything. As she asks him her question, he takes a second to think, and shakes his head. "I've never done it before." And then, he lapses into silence.

He may not be a great conversation partner.

As they approach the platforms, it is not a jumping puzzle. This hurts Link's soul. But there are bokoblins. Link steps in front of Sarracennia - she's a capable combatant, but she is a princess, and therefore he can't let her get hurt - and moves to slash at the bokoblins. When he notices the ballistas, his eyes widen, and he moves to shout, but the words don't leave his throat. He's too anxious.

He doesn't know if they're going to fire immediately, as the platforms move, but Link immediately draws his shield and moves to push Sarracennia out of the way of the ballistas, possibly right before they fire.

And then, Link takes his sword as he gets back up, and moves to charge at the bokoblins, his sword a whirlwind of murder as he moves to take out those handling the ballistas.

He'll probably get shot in the process, but hopefully his shield can help deflect it. Either way, this is going to be uncomfortable.
Staren     "I knew you'd like it." Staren comments to Note when she shows up.

    The sand vortex is hands and the platforms aren't a puzzle. Good to know, but right now, the skull castle is... opening its jaws. Staren is surprised and wondering where this is going, though the candles might be a bit much.

    The skull building does not care for his internal critique, though. Instead it disgorges... creepy skeletons. Staren steps back, a little creeped out, but it's not the first time he's had to fight skeletons. He flies back and fires the particle beams, but hitting with that sort of ranged weapon against something that's just a skeleton is troublesome. He could blow some up but that might damage the structure. There is another option though...

    Staren doffs his cloak, and grabs a cylinder with a hemispherical, clear crystal on the bottom that's clipped to his waist. It fits snugly in the palm of his hand. Suddenly there's one in each hand. He takes a fighting stance and waits for a skeleton to get close, then--

    Staren can't swordfight. He hasn't practiced parrying and riposting and feinting and controlling his stance and weight so that he can move from swinging a big metal blade one way into swinging it another smoothly. But he's not swordfighting.

    --The dark ring activates, Staren dodges the swing with enhanced agility, and then the hilts in his hands project 'blades', really just purple energy in the shape of long rods. Hopefully it's powerful enough to cut through the skeleton, or this is going to be really long. 360-degree microcameras in his armor are used by his computer to construct a 'third-person' view alerting him to when attacks are coming from behind. Dodge, slash, roll, slash, tumble, slash, leap, slash, Staren keeps up the dark ring while slashing with swords of light and heat, trying to cut/burn the skeletons to pieces! His armor lends him some weight that hopefully stops him from being knocked too off-balance when hit, and can take some punishment, but if it looks like it's turning into a beat down he's ready to turn on the wings and jumpjets and try to fly out of there for a bit.
Note     Since Staren summoned her, Note politely sticks with him! All the way to the Skull Fortress. She's not really intimidated by its shape... but when she gets closer and closer and the ominous lighting casts deep shadows, and the rattle of bones reaches her ears...

    "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" The girl squeaks, stiffening and shuddering in a brief stint of fright. Her tail curls 'round her waist in what might be a cowering, defensive reflex.

    Note... does NOT like undead. There's been all of ONE undead she got to like so far, because it was friendly. Getting used to it took a while.

    "I'm... guessing... you folks aren't glad to see visitors..." She tentatively attempts to greet the skeletons!

    Of course, if they don't respond... "Any closer and I'm gonna get rough!" Is delivered warningly. And if that warning is ignored as she suspects it will be...

    Well, she just goes downright on the attack, pouncing forth and spinning her body about in fancy kicks meant to send the skeletons flying away more than break bones. It's her FINAL warning.

    JUST in case these things can talk or care for anything besides swinging those swords!
Sarracenia      Okay, that definitely doesn't look good. Which is actually good! Sarra can show off for another hero! At least, that is what she is thinking as she charges toward the incoming giant fish, only to be gallantly protected by Link! "You really are a hero~" she says in a dreamy tone.

     But, she isn't a defenseless princess. When she is pushed she goes into a twirl with her hammer held out at arms' length to deflect incoming arrows and things. And when one of those ballista shots comes in, she gives a particularly hard swing. Sparks fly from her hammer as it impacts the shot, and she grits her teeth as she pushes against the hit until the bolt is deflected back toward the giant sand fish.

     Her spinning attack takes her in an arc around the incoming fish. Hopefully this will allow her to flank it and avoid being swallowed whole! If and when it does, she runs up along the tail of the fish, aiming to catch the bokoblins above in a pincer between her and Link! Hammer strikes fall like rain on the first platform she reaches.
Rean Schwarzer There's a bunch of skeletons in the fortress, clearly dead Gerudo that didn't stay so.

Rean lets Raziel take point, but he's not one to just stand by while others fight. He dashes in, and tries to follow up on Note's kicking with sword strikes of his own.

As this happens, he's eyeing whatever is glinting in the back, trying to edge closer to it as he moves.
Ganondorf Dragmire      Raziel's blade puts down Desalfos with ease. They come at him two at a time with curved swords flashing, and he outmaneuvers them, out-swords them, out strikes them. They're nimble and fast in combat - shadows of Gerudo skills, no doubt the same sort of skills Ganondorf endowed the party with but far greater thanks to a lack of muscles to weigh them down - but Raziel is quicker and faster. His blade flashes into their ribcages, tearing them to shreds with supernatural force. There are, however, a lot of them. Staren's blades help ease some of that tide, with his energy weapons smashing through the undead monsters only slightly easier than Raziel's. Unlike Raziel, Staren finds that his skeletons keep trying to reassemble until he destroys the head; after a few of them try to get back up, however, Staren can easily just crush the skulls in with his weapons, and any bones still about fall over, dead - again. Note, too, finds the same thing as she spins, kicks, and smashes - the skeletons not only don't take warning, but just knocking them about isn't enough. Still, her karate has enough crushing force to clear through the skeletons with ease, and it just takes smacking a skull into a wall to break it and let the whole thing topple. Rean, while the whole thing is going on, edges close to the glittering thing, only to find that it's a shiny piece of metal in a strange cracked formation. It looks like it's one-third of something larger, some piece of some big mirror or something. Rean can lay claim to it easily - it's not very big.

     Sanary goes in with explosive lasers, attacking the giant hand. The hand, upon being struck, hesitates furiously, allowing Penelope to try and...climb the sandstorm.

     Hm.

     Still, as she clambers onto the back of the hand, she manages to find some purchase around the eye; as she drags herself up, she lands on a solid platform *inside* the tornado of grit. Below, there's some kind of broken object sunk deep in a pedestal - glass, maybe? A mirror of some sort? But it's missing two pieces.

     Another round of explosive lasers keeps the other hand from going after Penelope and plucking her out of the sand. Like any good boss monster, when it's stuck in the hand, the eye turns red, and it begins making lots of noise as angry music plays. The hands start slamming at Sanary every which way as the tornado becomes more furious, and the eye turns on Penelope and fires a beam directly through the sand tornado.

     Link is indeed a brave hero. He pushes Sarra out of the way just as the ballista bolt hits the sand with a huge cloud of *THUD*. Sand spills across them both as he gets back up and goes charging at the bokoblins, who meet him with equal vigor, if...far less skill. Sarra's whirling hammer protects Link from the worst of the bowmen, but can't stop that huge ballista bolt from nearly pushing him off the side. Still, she can easily smash her way through the bokoblins - and indeed smash clean through one of the platforms, breaking it into pieces. A piece of shiny metal falls into her hand as the cabin fragments, broken along the edge, a third of something already fractured.

     The fish, unburdened by the bokoblins, starts swimming away. The skeletons collapse as Rean removes the object. But the sandstorm is still kicking, furiously defending whatever it's defending. In fact, more hands are coming out of it, ready to fight all comers.
Note     Her enemies are armed and she's not. Despite being much faster than them, Note's learned that STRANGE things can happen in the Multiverse. So when a bunch of skeletons go down... she wipes her brow and loots one of their scimitars. Can she use it terribly well? Of course not. But she'll be able to use it to parry other blades. Or perhaps she can just fling the thing.

    "It's times like this that I wish I learned some of the Energy Blade Arts..." But she is primarily taught New Turtle School techniques, and weapons aren't really a major part of its curriculum.

    With the monsters down though, she finally decides to ask her fellows, "So what exactly are we trying to find here anyways? Really spooky place for anything to be!"
Raziel Raziel nods towards Staren and Rean...but when Note barrels in...he just sighs.  A clawed hand rests on his face as he walks towards Rean and examines the object.  He makes his guesses, which happened on the radio already.

"I suggest we move to the Sandstorm and aid them before they are overwhelmed.  As the princess found another piece, the third is most likely there.  Call it...a hunch," Really it's pattern recognition at this point.

Raziel quickly turns to leave the cave, moving towards the Sandstorm to hopefully help before the pair are overran with sand.
Sanary Rondel Success! Except not quite, because those hands are still intact and coming for her again.

Crud. Tucking her cloak's hood over her head to keep the raging sands out, it takes all of the healer's effort just to not get battered around too much by those raging hands. She still gets battered around a fair bit, though, grunting and cursing each time they bounce her off each other or smack her into the sand. After the first few cycles of this, though, she finally starts to fight back!

Sanary's just going to have to cheat a little with Ganondorf's dark blessing. Channeling that boost to her dexterity and the strange whirling darkness, she starts to actually work on deflecting those hands, lashing out with her axe in time with the hands' movements to try and cleave them in two or knock them way off course.

"You almost done up there?! Freakin'... Sandy... Bullshit!" Another laser gets shot at the hands, but the axe-wielder is focusing her efforts primarily on trying to cut those hands apart now, seemingly focused more on beating the crap out of sand rather than the actual objective of getting at whatever's in that tornado eye thing.
Penelope Vasquez     Nice job, Sanary! Lasers are a solid distraction, even if attacking the hands constructed of sands isn't effective at actually bringing the thing down. Her stab into the hand for purchase goes... poorly. But apparently a lucky kick into the winds grants her a solid platform as Sanary continues to blast at the angry guardians. Her loot senses tingle as she spots the glinting shard-of-mirror elsewhere in the storm. She makes her way... down? Aside? It's somewhat confusing in here. But she definitely heads Towards the glint, and yanks the mirror out of the pedestal! If it isn't nailed down somehow. This is either the key to the guardian's power, or you have to kill the sand-hands to get at it, if her Adventure Sense is correct.

     And she's pulling at the item just as one of those angry, angry hands turns away from the battering healer below, and towards the thin assasin in the storm! One of the nodules of stimulants at her neck inserts itself with a hiss, Penelope's pupils dilating as her reactions speed; fast enough to percieve the laser mid-flight, if only for a moment! If that mirror comes away from the pillar, she yanks it and sets it directly between her and the incoming laserbeam!

     If it doesn't, well, she's probably fried.
Staren     Well, that's done. Eugh. Staren deactivates, remerges, and clips the plasma saber back to his belt. Then he looks away from the bones to see Raziel claiming a piece of metal. Hmm...

    Staren keeps well away from the sandstorm, hoping to stay outside its aggro bubble and cheese it by sniping hand-eyes with his laser rifle from far away. We'll see how well that works!
Rean Schwarzer Rean picks up the metal thing and looks it over. What even is this? Which he asks on the radio. Apparently Sarrancenia found something similar, too, so maybe it was a key of some sort? Unfortunetely the third piece was probably in the sandstorm with Sanary and the others. And it sounded like they were having trouble.

"Right. Let's get going!" Rean says, and he bolts out of the cavern after Raziel.
Link Sarracennia is safe, but Link can't check on her again, because his shield is hit head on by the ballista. He's sent flying backwards, the shield blocking him from getting directly injured, but the sheer force bruising his arm and sending shock through his body, and he's almost knocked off the side, having to stall, grab onto the nearest thing he can hold, and struggle to remain upright.

But one the platforms break and Sarracennia has the piece of Something, Link jumps off the fish and approaches her, clutching at his bruised arm.

Before getting ready to reunite with the others, he asks her one thing. "Are you alright?"
Sarracenia      Sarracenia in contrast is all smiles after they hop down off the fish. "Yes, thank you!" she says rather cheerfully, much better off than Link thanks to his protection. But, when she sees he is injured she gasps. "Oh no! Here, take one of these." She reaches into her satchel and pulls out a green mushroom with white spots and big cute black eyes. She presses it against Link's arm and it disappears in a shower of magical sparkles that soak into the arm, healing it by a decent amount.

     She then holds up the piece of mirror metal. "Do you know what this is?" she asks Link, but the radio chatter makes it clear that whatever it is they need to meet up with the others. And that sand creature seems to still be causing trouble. She grabs Link's hand and smiles brightly. "Let's go!" she says before taking off toward Sanary and Penelope.
Ganondorf Dragmire      Staren quick-snipes one of the hands just as it's about to punch Sanary in the face. It freezes in mid-action, hesitating as it turns red, and then starts shaking like it was stung by a bee. Raziel runs over to slash it, and carves through it in one shot, and the sand disintegrates into nothingness.

     Meanwhile, Sanary draws all the aggro onto herself. The dark power gives the sand hesitation before the hands come at her, which makes her job even easier - batting them aside and swinging them away. Another laser catches another hand, and like Staren's, it hesitates and shakes after flashing red. A quick strike from her axe, and it falls unconscious.

     Inside, Penny tries to yank the broken mirror out of the pedestal.

     It does not come out.

     Fortunately, however, she's merely lightly singed - the last hand falls apart under the barrage, and the eye falls apart with it. The sandstorm fades away, leaving the mirror and the pedestal.

     The party slots the two missing pieces into the pedestal, and then heroically...begins to wait.

     Nothing happens until the sun has moved down a bit, and the orange light of sunset cracks over the horizon. The light hits the mirror, and the mirror erupts in an orange blaze of light, a pillar of solid sunset shooting straight up into the sky. It breaks like a dome, spreading across the area.

     The sand shifts. The ground begins shuddering.

     In front of them, the dunes collapse.

     First comes up the mausoleum. It is like a palace. Four great towers come up first, sand rolling off them as they shake into the light of the dying sun. Stained glass windows catch the light of the sunset and flicker with eerie movement, showing images of bandaged knights on horseback riding down enemies. Untranslatable letters are carved atop its crest, and two massive stone double-doors guard its entrance.

     The sand is still sloughing off the rising mausoleum with its towers when the gravestones begin to rise. They are eerie things, most of them simple slabs with names carved on in languages no one has spoken in ages. Some of them are statues of knights. Some of them are statues of warriors. Some of of them are simply wrapped in bandages.

     Finally, the fence. An iron fence. A wrought, unpleasant iron fence, curled in unhappy shapes as it clears the sand. Inexplicably, a pale and unhealthy-looking grass emerges as the ground ceases its shaking, and diseased, dark earth spills onto the flawless sand.

     This is, without a doubt, the Mirage Graveyard.

     Sitting out front of it, there is a knight wrapped in bandages. It makes no aggressive moves. It sits, with a sword between its legs, hands on the hilt.
Raziel 'At first, placing the pieces of the artifact seemed to do nothing.  Had they gotten it wrong?  Was there something more to this than meets the eye?  When the ground started to move, and the sun hit the center stone in just the right way, our questions were answered.  If this was not the Graveyard we were searching for, then it would never be found.'

Raziel approaches, from the front, the site was stunning, but still dangerous feeling.  He knew all too well the dangers that lurked behind the veil of the other world, and graveyards they were especially dangerous.  With the people of this land turning into ghosts, it would no doubt be a dangerous place.  

The knight stands in their way, and Raziel offers a motion of respect towards him.  "We seek entrance to the Mirage Graveyard to obtain a cure for the people of this land turning into ghosts while living.  We mean no harm, nor do we wish a fight," Raziel says, as diplomatically as he can.  

For his part, it was true.  Knights were to be respected and only faced down if either your honor demanded it, or theirs did.  
Staren     It worked! Well, who knows if the hands would've come after him without the others stopping them first, but good enough. And then... everything starts shifting. Staren stands well back, watching to see the shape of... what must be the mirage graveyard.

    With a knight. "Well." Staren puts the rifle on his back for the moment. "Are you..." alive doesn't seem the right term. "Aware? Able to hear us?" If it responds, he'll follow up with "Who are you?"

    Also, keeping an eye out for that flower...
Penelope Vasquez     The mirror doesn't come out. Oh no. Oh no there's nothing to conveniently reflect the big deadly laser coming directly at Penelope which is very bad for her long-term health. She tugs frantically at the shard embedded in the pillar, before she's bathed in deadly radiation of the visible-spectrum variety!

     And comes out mostly unharmed, aside from her hair being on fire, which is rapidly patted out before the area can smell too badly. Go team, again. Said team converges, slots the puzzle pieces into the puzzle recepticle, and... nothing happens. For a while. Penelope takes the opportunity to take a smoke break, and roll down her coat again. Sanary is given a thanks-for-saving-me high five.

     And then- an honest-to-god castle rises from the sands, after a bit of waiting around. Ominous. Large. Gated. A gate? Nothing, no problemo.

     Except for the knight guarding the gate. Many of her compatriots are respectful, perhaps cautious. Penelope giggles like an eager schoolgirl as she sheathes her blade, and adjusts the sheathe to her hip for some quickdraw action. She visibly contains herself before stepping with the gaggle, allowing those already doing the talking to ask her questions for her.
Ganondorf Dragmire      The knight stirs only once the party crosses the threshold, passing through the creaking iron gates. It raises its head, its eyes lighting red.
     It says, in a voice as creaking as the gate, "You seek relief from the desert's woes."
     "You seek respite from cursed Poes."
     "You seek the power that lies within."
     "But graveyard's test you must first win."

     The knight rises with another creaking sound. "The King of this land resides within,"
     "Waiting at last to be freed from his sin,"
     "Bring to his seat a flurry of blows,"
     "That at last the Gibdo might find our repose."

     The knight turns, and the huge blade slams into the door three times. On the third time, the lock clicks and opens, falling to the ground, and the hall swings wide.

     Inside is a massive, massive affair. It has carpets, for god's sakes. Lights spring to life as the party enters, eerie, ominous blue lights. Coffins line the walls. Past another set of double-doors is a huge room, atop which is a massive throne.

     Upon the throne is set a lanky, bandaged man in a crown and armor. His sword is even more massive than the knight's, and he himself stands almost as tall as Ganondorf. There is a sense of sorrow about him as music begins to fill the chamber, a deep and somber melody.
Note     With Staren, Rean and the others in Skull-cave heading out so fast, Note flails! "Ah! Hey! Wait for me!" She dashes along after them, catchjing up in no time...

    Unfortunately, by the time she takes stock of what's happening out there... well, she arrives just in time for the Big Floating Hands boss to get creamed. She very visibly deflates with utter disappointment at a fight she didn't get to enjoy. Did she pick the wrong place to go...?

    She's still carrying the weapon though, if only because she wants to smack something with it and see what happens.

    And she ABSOLUTELY HATES the wait that they have to endure. The impatient youth paces this way and that and spends some time practicing a move that involves making her hand glow, but not much else. Seems it's a work in progress...

    THEN EVERYTHING STARTS SHAKING right in the middle of a kata! "Uhhhh. UHGHHH?! GUYS--WHOAH!" Thankfully, a GIGANTIC BUILDING erupting from the sand, well, that could be much worse. It's certainly awesome. So she sets to floating away from the epicenter and watching the thing rise, ready to grab anyone who's endangered by this wacky phenomenon and drag them off!

    Still, it ends up being a graveyard. That's pretty spooky. But the one lone guardian of it... Note intuits that he might, MIGHT not be hostile like the other undead.

    She springs over to the gathering though, and hops over, perching atop a tall grave.

    Hopefully an angry Poe doesn't pop out and yell at her or something.

    She WOULD totally go talk to the knight, but since everyone else is already crowding him, she chooses to stay back and watch instead.
Penelope Vasquez     Penelope looks almost disappointed when the massive bandaged knight doesn't attack; merely speaking a rhyme at the party and politely opening the door for them. What a kind lad. The knight is given a respectful nod as she enters with the rest, her bloodlust fading as the somber airs of the tomb put her towards a more somber tone in turn. She trods the carpet, not veering from the path, as the lights flicker on one by one- until the reveal the massive seated king.

     A glance at the rest- before she steps forwards before the throne, draws her blade, and presses the curved tip into the ground, voice strong and spirited as she calls to the king!

     "We aim to cure the land, put the dead to rest,
    But tell us, what is the graveyard's test?"
Note     Once the door opens - weird rhyming or no weird rhyming - Note springs straighjt into action and straight past the doors. She's tired of hanging back by this point, and she's got a sword she still hasn't tried out! But... what she finds doesn't seem at all like swordfight time. Instead...

    Instead... "U-urm... hello... ... your majesty?" She tries the title out, as if not really sure of her own words. She's not exactly used to being that polite. But she's trying.

    It doesn't help that he's a mummy. Doesn't help at all.
Staren     The first knight doesn't want to fight. But apparently the king might? Although, that rhyme was unclear. Does blows upon the king's seat mean kick his ass, or literally destroy the throne he's sitting on? "So. What was your sin, and why do you think travelers in the distant future are able to free you from it? If you can give us the cure for the poe blight, though, at least that would be a good act."
Link As the light spreads over, and reveals the Mirage Graveyard, Link steps forward towards the knight with the others. They choose to talk. It turns out to be what they need to get inside. The doors open...

And it's a grand affair. Far fancier than anywhere Link lives. He steps inside, listening to how they need to strike down the king. Link's steps are slow as he takes in the entire castle, and approaches the king. He does not kneel to a foreign king. Instead, he speaks. There's hesistance to his words. The others try talking to the king, and Link waits a minute to see if he replies, but then, Link gets the courage to speak.

"If it is to free you of your sin, I...I will strike you down." Link draws his sword, waits for the Gibdo King to have a chance to recognize or respond, and after he either rises or does nothing, Link moves to strike.

Link does not skip any cinematics, though. What kind of hero would he be?!
Raziel Raziel sighs, it was never something as simple as retrieving a flower, no...there is always something else underneath.  Some layer of complexity that makes everything more stupid or longer by comparison.  Still, the wraith walks forward, as the lights fill the central room until the king is revealed.  

'A profound sense of woe overcame me as I entered the castle now turned mausoleum.  Some tragedy had come to these halls, and it appears to have been done by the king, either in ignorance or in short-sightedness.  Was this the source of the affliction the people of the desert faced?  I could not say.'

"I am Raziel," Raziel starts, "Forgive our bargaining in, but we seek the flower to cure those of this land afflicted with the disease.  I am to assume you know of which we speak, and how we may obtain said flower?"
Ganondorf Dragmire      Penelope's rhyme falls upon dead ears. The king does not stir. Staren's question, too, falls on dead ears, as does Note's greeting, and the Hero's statement, and...pretty much everything. The dead don't talk much.

     But, at last, as everyone enters, the doors of the mausoleum slam shut. The head of the mummy rattles left and right unpleasantly, as though jerking in pain; then, a pair of blue-fire eyes light beneath its bandages, and it pulls itself to its feet. It hefts the blade upon its shoulder and begins walking down. As its gaze sweeps over the party, they can feel a paralytic grasp at their chests, as though supernatural terror was enough to stop elites in their tracks.

                             G I B D O K I N G                              

Behind them, the coffins blow open. From within come more Gidbo warriors, each wrapped in bandages, each wielding heavy swords. Their eyes are all blue-fire gaze, and looking directly at them is ill-advised.
Sanary Rondel Things are moving along at a steady pace, and Sanary is more than happy to continue on her way with the rest of the group (after returning Penelope's high five, of course). With the knight successfully spoken to, the healer focuses her efforts on helping patch up her allies' wounds with liberal applications of healing magic as they step into the even-fancier room with the carpeting that feels kind of good to walk on after all that uneven and shifting sand.

The relatively giant mummy king is probably going to be an issue. Taking a cue out of smarter people's playbook, the healer doesn't move with the rest of the group to converse with or even confront the bandaged king. Instead, she starts to shimmy along the wall of coffins, keeping her breathing to a minimum as she tries to just sort of inch along while hoping everyone else holds the mummy man's attention.

AND THEN THE COFFINS OPEN. Whirling around with axe in hand, Sanary aims to cleave right through those closest to her, although doing so also involves looking directly at them! Not that she knows the risks of doing so just yet, but still.

Someone had to reveal the new enemy's gimmick eventually.
Sarracenia      It chafes Sarra a bit when Link is either too nervous or too oblivious to notice she took his hand for a few moments and used a healing mushroom on him, but she excuses it as him being too busy with hero stuff. The graveyard castle rising from the sand is both dazzling and spooky, and Sarracenia is somewhat glad when the bandaged knight doesn't attack. But, as others have pointed out, the riddle is unclear. So, she holds her hammer at the ready as the others approach. "Oh yeah. The flower. I had almost forgotten." she says quietly, then more loudly says, "Who or what is a Gibdo?"

     Just in time for all the coffins to open. And of course, she has little knowledge of the undead so almost immediately looks at the blue-fire eyes of one of these Gibdo and feels that supernatural terror. This in turn causes her to make sure Link is between herself and as many of those creatures as possible.

     That's only half at best, so she turns with her back to his. "I guess it really did mean beat up the king!" she exclaims as she reaches into her satchel and pulls out a Bob-omb before tossing it at one of the Gibdo warriors. Kaboom!

     But she finds her feet having difficulty moving as that fear just deepens with so many eyes to look at!
Staren     There is no talking. The kind just approaches... and then it feels like SOMETHING is squeezing at his chest. Not as strong as Vortigern's bullshit, though...

    And then the coffins blow open. Staren whirls. "Sanary, get back!" His first thought was to missile the lot of them, but with her there... Ugh. He just fires a couple, then, in hopes that the gibdo prove far more flammable than Sanary! The tiny missiles are focused on producing heat rather than explosive force, but it's going to be uncomfortably warm anywhere close to them! The blasts of heat aren't exactly small, but are far more intense at the center.
Raziel Raziel shakes his head, of course, it was to be a fight.  The dead are rarely lucid, and whatever happened here would no doubt have driven the people mad.  Once more, the Soul Reaver ignited in his cloven hands, taking a step towards the king who had summoned his people to fight.  There was only one way out of this.

The glowing eyes of the wraith narrowed, well so be it.

'The doors slammed shut, trapped in here we were against the might of the old king and his remaining subjects.  No doubt they wanted to draw us to share in their cursed fate, nevermind that I could not do so, as I enjoyed my own grisly fate.'

Raziel does not immediately go for the king, it was likely the minions were more of a problem should they be overwhelmed with numbers.  Those eyes were dangerous, but they would not likely affect him as much as the living members of this group.  Raziel flipped backward, aiming to send the Reaver blade into the first of the guard.  

He moves like a flurry of blows, aiming to try and cut the numbers down as fast as he could.
Link Link did notice that Sarracennia helped him, she grabbed his hand, but no, he didn't give a reaction. It was too awkward for him, and he's not much of a talker, but at least internally, he appreciated it.

And then Sarracennia gets behind him as that terror clutches into him, and grips in his chest. His heart's racing, as he grabs it with his shield hand. He's petrified, for a second. He has no magical or otherwise resistance to stuff like this. But...

After a few seconds, long enough for the king to get close, Link snaps out of it, raises his shield, raises his sword, and takes a combat stance. And then, after another second, Link charges on the Gibdo King, moving to slash into him, trying to hit him in the chest before he can bring down the sword to block. That massive sword's going to be a problem, so he keeps his shield at the ready.

Even if it might be big enough to /shatter/ it.
Penelope Vasquez      Oh. He doesn't talk. Slightly disappointed. She did the rhyme and everything. But those eyes blaze open; and Penelope is locked in her stoic pose for a moment, blood pounding in her ears.

     Blood pounding in her ears. Stepping closer. Closer. Swordfight is imminent. Swordfight imminent! Her eyes glance from the king to his blade, and that's enough to break the spell! She pulls her heavy hooked blade up as the rest of the gang tackle the mooks, charging forwards with Link! Her blow is not at the King himself; instead, a whack to the sword in a test of strength, trying to divert it to open a route for Link's own blade to pierce forwards!
Note     No response. No response no response no response. Note's expression wavers from nervous hope to jittery anxiety...

    And then, the tomb doors slam shut with a mighty WHAM and her hairs stand on end in pure fright. TRAPPED WITH THE DEAD that's NOT COOL. "Aaaaaaah... bad, bad!"

    She can tell what's about to happen though. And while her fear of the dead's one thing... the promise of a good fight with a SWORD KING, now that's still quite something. So it's with a very mixed expression that she declares, "Alright then! CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!"

    She draws her arms up - still clutching that weapon awkwardly... and then brings them DOWN as she drops into a deep stance and draws deep of her power. The youth bellows a spirited kiai as golden energy flares up in torrents to surround her, casting her previously-black hair upwards into an array of golden spikes and making her eyes turn from a frightened black to an uncanny light green hue. The aura persists even after she's done with this transformation, filling the tomb with a soft pulsing noise of *whoosh-whoosh-whoosh*.

    She wastes absolutely no time rushing straight for one of the Gibdo minions, aiming to FLYING KICK it hard into the coffin it emerged from. If it takes swing, well, she's got that scimitar to parry with in a pinch!
Ganondorf Dragmire      Sanary cleaves right through one of the Gibdo warriors as it comes out of the coffin. It doesn't stand a chance, not when it's in the middle of its awakening state. The others, though, won't be nearly as easy prey - as Sanary discovers immediately when one of them moves to grab her by the face with its hand and force her to look into its eyes in a soul-shaking strike. Staren disrupts the process, knocking the thing back, so it settles for just swinging its sword at her with all of the force it can muster as its bandages burn from the flame. .

     Sarra throws a bomb at another, and that one, too, erupts, having been in the process of awakening. It crumbles, but one behind it emerges from the flames, its fallen compatriot's blade in hand. The blade is hurled bodily at Sarra despite its massive size, whirling end over end towards her chest. Raziel hurls his blade in turn, and carves through that same Gibdo before the sword can ever return to him. The Gibdo behind that one comes swinging in to meet Raziel's blade with one of its own, massive weapons.

     Link slashes the Gibdo King in the chest. It's a solid hit, and it carves into the King's armor, cutting through some of the bandages in the process. The King raises his blade to sweep down into Link, but Penny comes in and knocks it aside; the mummy is surprisingly...weak, for wielding such a massive weapon?

     Note flying kicks one of the Gibdo hard enough to send it back into the coffin. The coffin falls over forward, shattering. Another Gibdo comes in, swinging hard.

     The Gibdo not slain by Raziel...start reforming. Or, no, rather, their ghosts emerge - Poes, with lanterns and blades and bandages, swinging their ghostly blades at the party members not engaged with the King. The King himself is still hale and whole, and its massive weapon comes down, a shockwave striking the ground around him.
Sanary Rondel As Sanary follows through with her initial swing to cleave through a Gibdo, the next one manages to get a hold of her head! Thankfully, it only latches on for a moment with Staren's intervention, but the paralytic effect holds her still just long enough that she doesn't quite deflect its slash cleanly.

"Tch... Crafty bastards!" Feeling the adrenaline pumping again, she jerks forward to try and stave off the slowing effect still holding her back. "Don't look too close at their faces! Just... Swing and back off!" Once she feels enough actual momentum in her arms, she whips that axe around at the Gibdoe while backing off at the same time, apparently opting for a more defensive strategy this time around. She needs to bide her time until that paralysis wears off at the very least.
Raziel Raziel's blade swings in an arch, catching the dead's blade before it could take advantage of its.  These skeletons might be swift, but Raziel proves he is just as swift, if not more so.  Another one swings from in front of him, and with a blur of motion, he spins the first opponent around and brings the blade out to just barely touch the second opponent's blade.  Just narrowly out of reach.  

Raziel rapidly thrusts into the body, aiming to keep them off of their toes, before he comes back on the defensive.  Ghosts that form quickly find themselves in a problem, as Raziel pulls the standard that covers his face.  What is revealed is more grotesque then what one would imagine.  

The lower half of Raziel's jaw is just gone.  The upper half looks like what a vampire's jaw would look like.  There is no tongue, but it is clearly /wrong/ looking.  This is mostly because he starts aiming to draw the spirits of the dead towards him, aiming to suck them into himself like a vacuum.  

Once devoured, or aware if they could resist this effect, the standard comes back up.  Once more Raziel prepares to strike down the minions.
Staren     They're already mummies! Now they're DOUBLE UNDEAD? And one's swinging a sword at him! "HECK NO!" Without thinking, Staren tries to turn the blade aside with his armored hand, and by incredible luck, actually hits it just right to completely avoid the edge hitting him. Well, that makes him feel pretty good! Wasting no time, he blasts the ghost point-blank with his beam cannons! Hopefully that actually works.

    "Raziel, we might need you to eat these ghosts so they stay down!"
Link Link slashes, and almost gets hit in return, but Penelope knocks the sword aside. He gives her a thumbs-up, straightens himself up, and then...

The sword slams against the ground. Link rolls backwards, missing the brunt of the shockwave, but it still batters against his body, striking him. The healing earlier is helpful, as another hit to his arm without healing would have likely crippled his offense. Link leaps to his feet, and dashes forward.

And then, he leaps, moving to strike overhead on the king and use his momentum to hit strong, while aiming for an accurate attack. "Hyaaaah!"
Penelope Vasquez      Penelope grins like a maniac as she diverts the king's blow towards Link, but the success is short-lived; he brings that blade around and knocks it hard into the ground, launching Penelope off the floor! She's tossed a short distance and fumbles the roll, coming to rest as a black-clad lump.

     She's at rest for about a microsecond before she's rising like a bolt of lightning, using her blade like a polevault to up her speed; her pupils are wide as a wolf's once again, her movements laced with a preternatural coordination. That hooked blade is dragged behind her, aimed to catch the King by the knee; if she can lurch the undead to the ground, Link's flying strike has a better chance of hitting!

     She's letting the rest of the team handle the chaos around the fight; it's Team Attack Time with her and Link!
Rean Schwarzer Rean stares at the mummy eyes too long and is paralyzed for a while. Oops.  He eventually snaps out of it, though and sees Link and Penelope fighting the king. Right. Ok. Don't look in the eyes.  He takes a deep breath, psyching himself up again. He then draws his sword, and charges in, sword ignited. Those bandages look pretty flammable, after all. He aims for the king's sword arm, and with a shout, does an upward strike, trying to get him to drop his weapon and or light that arm on fire.
Sarracenia      "Hah! D-didn't stand a chance!" Sarracenia says shakily, trying to project confidence and bravery despite the magical fear. And failing for the most part.

     Especially when that sword is hurled at her. Her eyes widen and her feet feel like cement blocks. 'Move! Move!' she screams at herself in her head. When she finally does it is too late. The sword catches her in the shoulder as she tries to sidestep, and that is enough to send her spinning backward with a pained yelp and a deep gash in that shoulder.

     She can't really hold the injury with both hands needed to wield her hammer. But the pain helps distract from the terror. Especially when she realizes...there's a deep cut in her dress! It might be her battle dress but still! "How dare you hit a princess like that!" she says as she charges forward. She leaps at the offending Gibdo and somersaults before bringing her massive hammer down in a powerful overhead strike. Whether she hits her target or not, the impact produces a pretty good shockwave that might endanger those Gibdo that are nearby.
Note     Note rebounds off her target, flipping backwards through the air and landing neatly... just in time for another Gibdo to come straight for her! A bit too fast for her care. With a hiss, she brings the sword up using both hands. The ancient metal takes the brunt of the blow at first... but quickly cracks and SHATTERS in her grip, leaving the heavy sword to continue on its journey and draw a nasty gash on an arm she raises in panic. Though reinforced with glowing Ki, blood still drips from the nasty cut...

    "OW ow ow ow!!! No more being nice!"

    As she's neatly bound its blade thusly, Note thrusts her free palm forward towards thje Gibdo's gut and focuses her power. With a roaring screech, energy pours forth from that palm in an expanding BEAM with the power to vaporize plenty of things in its path!
Ganondorf Dragmire      Sanary smashes her axe into another Gibdoe. Its head splits open, but it doesn't go down. Those blue eyes fade, but the sword keeps going, stabbing at her midsection with all force. Fortunately, before it can transform, Raziel is there, consuming its undead force into himself. Some of the other Gibdpoes go down with it, vanishing into his vampire maw, before two of the knights just swing their blades at his head in the hope of decapitating him. Staren blasts one of the ghosts with his cannon, and that helps, and Raziel's maw consumes another. The ghosts are semi-corporeal, at least; they're Poes, not true ghosts. Sarra's hammer strike and shockwave knock aside several more, sending them sprawling out on the mausoleum floor before Note's ki beam can blow them to shreds.

     Link swings, hard, as Penny catches the Gibdo by the knee. She manages to stagger it; the green hero's jumping strike comes down on the Gibdo King, who recoils back for the first time, bending backwards with an unearthly moan that fills the air. Rean takes advantage of the shot to swing in and set the bandages on fire, and the Gibdo thrashes again three times before it falls over, bent at an unnatural angle, its legs still straight up but its torso on the ground.

     It rises back up, and its eyes turn to red. With it, the eyes of every other Gibdo do the same, and the Poes as well. They crumble into dust. Those not caught by Raziel's maw go flying into the King.

     A halo of lanterns surrounds the King's back. They begin shooting blue flames at the party. The sword glows with an unearthly inner light as it swings the blade at Link, Penny, and Rean, a circular strike that seems to have a phantasmal followup - which does very real touch damage!
Link The circular strike comes at Link. As it's coming, he's scared, but in his last few seconds, he remembers something his mentor told him, before he died.

'Confidence isn't something you're born with. It's something you teach yourself. Even when you're nervous, you have to keep trying to learn, to put on that smile that everything's going to be okay.'

Link exhales, and suddenly, tilts his body backwards, moving to slide forward and narrowly under the strike, the blade inches from his face. The followup comes, and Link brings up his shield, which is cracked in the exchange with the phantasmal energy...but Link himself is fine. He'll need a new shield.

Link tries to build confidence. He has a plan, but he doesn't share it. Instead he slices once while he's this close up, a hit-and-fade strike as he then pulls backwards, moving to get running room in between himself and the Gibdo King. He's going to try and finish this, but he needs time.
Sanary Rondel Although the chop works, Sanary still gets a stab to the gut for her trouble. Luckily, it's shallower than it could have been, and it doesn't incapacitate her so much as it gets her more fire dup through seeing red.

Also leaking red, but a hearty application of healing magic will keep her from bleeding out. Drawing her axe across its head as she pulls back, the healer takes a moment to prepare herself and to try and figure out what else she could do aside from charging back into the fray.

For once, she's actually trying to see if there's an alternative to hitting the obvious target. Doing so is harder than she'd like, though, as the King launches his flaming blasts at the group, and the healer slashes her darkness-infused weapon forwards to mitigate the worst of the blast coming her way even as she feels her arms and sides being singed terribly.

"I wonder... Hey, keep him busy! I got an idea!" It's not a terribly good idea, but Sanary's working with what she has as she tries to work with that other boon from Ganondorf: Being able to mess with things with shadows. She aims them at the throne, trying to pool enough of that shadowy essence around it to just fling the whole thing at the King. Whether it works or not, though, she's quick to move right back into the melee, hacking and slashing at the King with a flurry of powerful strikes aimed at the knees!
Penelope Vasquez     Penelope whoops her victory as she manages to bring the king down to Link's level, and Link stabs the bastard right in the chest! A third enters the fray, but she's never been afraid of a menage a trois. The king howls, scattering the spirits else through the room; drawing them into the screaming king. A breath, the woman jittering as she calls to her companions, setting her feet! "He's the graveyard! The graveyard test to give us our best better thantheresttobeputtothetest and this is the TEST!" Her voice is shrill and babbling; it seems the stimulants being regularly sieved into her through the fight are interfering with her ability to coherently voice her thoughts.

     Her actions, however, are consistent and striking. Her screech ends in time with the King's swing. She doesn't duck, or dodge, or try to block the phantom blade; she leaps above the swing, above the fray, towards the King's back; she sees glowing blue lanterns, and they look important. She swipes at them with a manic flurry of blows, unable to decide on one target at a time, trying to cut as many as she can in her burst of energy!
Staren     Oh good, the 'ghosts' go down to physical attacks. Staren wasn't 100% sure it wouldn't just phase out. He smiles a bit as he searches for a new target... and then all the eyes go red. "Well, that's not good..." Well, they're down to one target, now. Staren looks over the king, considering, and then the lanterns throw fireballs! Staren's quick to turn on his forcefield, which flickers and jitters a bit as the fireballs hit it, but holds. It seems it stands up better to fire and magic than physical contact and bullets.

    "You think this makes you free, that defeating you will save the gerudo?" Staren pulls the rifle off his back. "You're a coward! Making us kill you so you don't have to face what you've done!"

    Staren's grip on the weapon shifts as he aims a reticle only he can see. "In the end it doesn't matter though. I guess you get your wish. Fire in the hole!"

    The forcefield drops, and the underbarrel grenade launcher fires... PAST the king, at the circle of lanterns behind him, and explodes! This time, it's just plain old high explosive. Let's see just how sturdy those lanterns are!
Raziel Raziel can not get out of the way of the axes in time, but he CAN control where he gets hit.  He moves, letting go of the standard and attempts to swat the axes away, only just narrowly changing their direction while he moved to avoid a direct strike.  

This quick move makes sure he does not lose his head, but the axes dig into his undead flesh, causing a splattering of blue blood to wash the floors behind him as he turns towards these new minions.  

Quickly he turns the reaver on them, aiming to try and quickly slash through their bodies, aiming to try and put them down before they can do any more harm to himself or the others.  Repeatedly trying to thurst and strike, aiming to overwhelm them with a pure number of blows and dancing out of their range.  
Sarracenia      All the ghosts and mummies disappearing is helpful in some ways. But, seems like it might be much worse in others if they powered up the king. Those motes of blue fire start pelting them, but with graceful twirls and a few well placed hammer swings Sarracenia manages to avoid being hit by any of them and even manages to send a few back toward the Gibdo King.

     But, she doesn't stop there. She grips her hammer tightly and it starts to glow bright white. That glow flows over Sarracenia and becomes a prismatic aura that leaves sparkles in her wake. Her hair starts to float upward and she levels now glowing blue eyes at the king. "The sooner we get this over with, the faster we help those people! Not to mention isn't he already dead?" she says before...she seems to become possessed. By her hammer.

     She closes in on the king as magical strength fills her and sends her into a hammering frenzy. Blow after blow rain down on the king, each sending out a small shockwave. The hammer time lasts about half a minute, and as the aura starts to die down Sarracenia's hair falls back into place and she looks pretty drained.
Note     Blue flames, blue flames everywhere! Note's speedy, but she can only shoot down a FEW of the blue fireballs... because those Poes are undead, she can't sense them properly... and so she's pelted from all sides with blue flames that burn and scorch and send her yelping across the chamber, scampering like a little monkey until she's in a corner where there's only one direction to approach her from.

    And it's here that she decides to get serious, filling the air with a rapid barrage of weak but focused blasts for the Poes en masse!
Rean Schwarzer Rean's sent flying backwards by the sword strike, skidding across the floor on his back. The back of his cloak is torn up now, and there's a large gash on his torso as well, staining his uniform shirt bright red. "Agh..." He mutters, clutching the wound. A ring of blue light surrounds him as he drops a light healing spell on himself. After a few moments, he gets up again, using his sword as leverage.  At least the wound is staunched for now, but he needs to be careful with how he moves from here on. He then cahrges up another spell, this time launching an arc of darkness at the Gibdo king.
Ganondorf Dragmire      Link stabs forward, building confidence. He swings fast, and before the King can lash out, he's gone. Penelope leaps onto the King's back and starts smashing the lanterns, one after the other. Knocking them away sends them out of the rotation; they stagger, unable to strike her back. Helpful!

     Staren calls out at the dead man. He does not answer. But the grenade launcher joins Penelope's attack, incapacitating the lanterns as they crack. One of them even breaks, bursting into a blue light that streams upwards into the sky. Note pins them down with a barrage, forcing them to keep on the move rather than respond. Raziel joins in, smashing another of the lanterns as Sarracenia starts smashing her way into the boss, hammering against the King with a might possessed. He's having trouble blocking her blows, forced back further and further, until she's forced him down onto the throne itself. She smashes it, and it cracks, and the King thrashes. Rean follows up with an arc of darkness that bowls the King back over into the throne, a furious attack that nearly takes off one of its arms.

     And then, in the end, Sanary's action is...decisive. The throne comes ripping free, and the King with it. The throne broken, the Gibdo King staggers to his feet, and then stops. The remaining lanterns fall around him, bursting on the ground into howling blue lights that vanish into the sky. A burst of radiant music fills the air. A spotlight surrounds the King from on high. The mummy stands there for a moment. At last, a mouth that hasn't opened in perhaps centuries, maybe more, cracks. A single word passes his withered lips.

     "Free..."

     And then he falls, sand.

     The Mausoleum lies silent, but for what lay behind the throne.

     There is no passage to a flower. There is no passage at all, nor flower, nor anything else. Instead, there is a great slab, engraved with the crest of the Triforce at the top. Below are lines. In the lines are notes.

     It is a sheet of music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDX4ZwUeOok

     The music flows around the party, the same music they heard from the Gibdo King's passing.

     That's the treasure? That's it? A song?
Sanary Rondel That worked? Holy crap, that WORKED. Sanary's looking rather pleased with herself as the Gibdo King attains his final rest, the serenity of the moment lingering as she bends down to place a hand on the remains. Although her magic isn't holy by any means and it certainly isn't helped by being augmented with Ganondorf's power, she can still put a bit of healing magic into the ground to... To...

She's not sure. Symbolism or something. Whatever it is, it makes her feel smart.

With the immediate threat of beheading, igniting, or othering gone, she turns her attention back to the ground around them. "Alright... Let's fan out and see if we can't find this plant, huh?"

The slab just gets a passing glance. It's not like she can read any of that stuff. Someone else can handle the transcribing or music'ing of all that! Even weeds won't escape the healer's mangy grasp after the first minute or so of nothing.
Link Link doesn't get his final slash. But he got something better - he bolstered his confidence after all this anxiety. So as the throne collapses, and the king passes, he has the courage to speak. "May you rest in peace."

And after he crumbles, Link goes up to the Song of Healing's pedestal, and...doesn't parse it. He never learned music.

But he realizes it's important, because of the seal of the Triforce. "This is what we're looking for." He urges the others to write it down, and then moves to help Sanary, even though he's doubting there's an herb. They've found what they need.

If only he knew what it meant. Hopefully, at least, Ganondorf can make use of it to help his people.
Staren     It really was all about the throne. Staren got so distracted defending himself, he momentarily forgot, even though he was the one that pointed it out!

    COLON VERTICAL LINE.

    And their reward is song! Staren has his computer transcribe it, playing a bleepy bloopy version that indeed matches the song they're hearing.

    "Well. Let's look over the place thoroughly while we're here. We've been tricked once, it'd be dumb to get tricked again and just /assume/ this is the cure." He starts searching the room for any secret compartments or the like, and gives the graveyard outside a look over too in case there's a treasure chest tucked behind one of the gravestones or something.
Penelope Vasquez     Is riding high as she rides her high, holding onto the king's back like a bucking bronco as she smashes and slashes at lanterns. She whoops and hollers and dashes to avoid flaming balls as the rest of the team focus their blows!

     And then a blow destroys the throne, and the mummy she's riding drops, knocking her off. She's breathing heavy, one hand on her blade, the other her sheathe as she stares at the holding mummy.

     And then he collapses into fine sand. She's locked still like a statue, before she breathes, long, slow, smooth. Sheathed. Clothing readjusted. Back to normal.

     As the Squad searches the boss arena, Penelope simply makes her way outside. She's not searching for a special flower or anything, beyond the casual glance. She's looking for the gatekeeping knight.
Ganondorf Dragmire      The Knight's armor and bandages can be found outside, collapsed atop a pile of sand. It seems that all of the Gibdo have been released from their curse with the playing of the Song of Healing.
Note     And everything just comes to a peaceful halt with the breaking of the throne. This... is very confusing. And also very calming. The strange music's relaxing in a way Note has rarely heard. With a splutter her Super Saiyan form fails as she just can't maintain the tension to keep it going!

    "... What just happened? Breaking the throne and everything stopped? Was the throne the source of the curse...? Why...?" She is one curious kid, and NOTHING that just transpired makes any sense to her! But magic is weird sometimes. She'll just have to accept that! "Plant, plant..."

    Despite that jarring change of atmosphere, she does go about snooping past the throne with the others.
Sarracenia      Sarracenia is left blinking in surprise as the King turns to dust...merely because someone really did break his throne. "...what..." she deadpans. "...we...really did just have to break his throne?" She shakes her head and sighs heavily before listening to the music and looking at the staff of music. Others seem to have copying it covered, so she puts her hammer away in her satchel and looks around for flowers or other plants. Nothing really seems to be here though. She scratches her head a bit. "You guys are sure it was a flower or something, right? Could it be a cactus flower? Or...is this song really what we were after and the guy that calls himself the Great King of Evil was just playing a trick on us?"
Staren     Staren repeats, "It was in the rhyme the knight gave us. We needed to deliver a flurry of blows to the seat of his power. We just got so caught up in defending ourselves..." Staren shrugs. "I don't think he was playing a prank on us. He had incomplete information."
Raziel Raziel, with a sigh, finally returns the Reaver to a hateful swarm of energy on his right hand.  He wouldn't call Sanary's actions smart, but rather lucky.  After all, God loves fools and children.  When spreading out, the song filling the halls was...

'The song was haunting, but not in a bad way.  It stuck with you, whatever the purpose of the music, it was clearly important to the old king.  Was the herb that Ganondorf saught really here, or was it even a herb at all?'

'Was it actually anything?  Was this hope for his people simply a cruel joke?  Or was this all an elaborate plan to kill the Hero of Courage?'

'Whatever the case, either we had failed, he had failed, or we had all succeeded.'

Raziel turns to leave, apparently, all he had to do to get back was get lost in a sandstorm.  Sounds easy enough, honestly.  He turns towards Staren, "You, perhaps.  My power was effective on the undead minions that kept coming back.  I figured you would understand my plan because I did not have neither the patience or time to explain the obvious."

"Come, let us quit this place and return."
Penelope Vasquez     Penelope's banter over the common communications is mostly wordless; her voice fading from people's devices as she simply stands with the guardian knight, in something like reflection. Or it's just a smoke break. Hard to tell, and she doesn't volunteer.

     As the rest of the party begins to scatter, so does she. She pulls a small bottle from her pocket, scoops it through what remains of the knight, seals it with a cork. A metallic donk as she bops the helmet again. "Did good, old dog. Rest easy."

     And that's that. She sticks the vial into her pocket, and heads into the sands, to get lost.
Sanary Rondel Whether or not Sanary's able to find any grass or weeds, the healer won't stick around for too much longer. At Veran's direction, she barely even hesitates upon leaving the graveyard to go right into one of sandstorms as directed. Why not? It's not like she can't just wash off the sand later.
Rean Schwarzer Rean facepalms. "...He really did mean 'break the throne.'"

Some more discussion happens, including Sarra asking what they were looking for.
"Yeah, positive. We were looking for an herb or something along those lines." Rean says to Sarra.  He looks over the slab some more and shrugs. "There's only one way way to find out what it does. Play it back and hope it helps."

Hopefully it helps. It /had/ to help.