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Rurufon	The third and final Realm of the Chasm of Emerald is one that had been put off for good reason. In the eerie blue web of walkways suspended over a bottomless abyss beyond description, two of the three strangely petrified, seemingly once organic doors, no longer open, their mysterious runes of white chalk and fossilized thread unresponsive. Only the sign of the Tower slick with translucent violet on pitted stone allows them inside, and only the very first room will let them off easy.     Only by the grace of Arthur's suicidal determination is the chamber they enter, incongruous doorway sliding abrasively closed behind them, safe to navigate. Ankle deep in cold, clammy water, its walls are plain, corroded stone, but it has something of an industrial look to it anyways. Corroded metallic grates bar off the ceiling, which is little more than a thick, dark mass of enormous, twisted pipes running wall to wall. The floor is somewhat tiled, but filthy and worn away beneath the water, which is the only insulation from the reek of mildew, arsenic, and formaldehyde beneath.     The doors inside are completely different than the strange one that had lead them here, opening automatically on approach. This doesn't seem like it was always the case, as there are numerous dead bodies scattered around, most against the doors or adjacent walls, but some eerily tied to the ceiling for whatever reason, and not with ropes. They might be very old, or very recent, with no way to tell due to the obscene level of decay that has turned them into something like ice mummies left on a hot sidewalk. These have been examined for everything of worth already.     The room is host to a single pedestal of ornate, almost fountain-like make, standing out against the partial machinery. Slotted into it is a football-sized crystal of some chalky white quartz-like mineral, which slowly pulses bright and dim with a soft white glow. The water directly around it is warmer and clearer, and the air less oppressively thick, damp, and cloying. The party has some of these from the Place With White Walls. PURITY STONES. They have only four.     The ways that lead out aren't promising. Stopping at each door like an experienced adventurer who has run at least one paranoia dungeon before would, one door emanates the sound of wet wriggling and throaty slurping from the other side, revolting in a deep, gut instinct way. The other has the sound of trickling water, but also a constant, wavering hiss, like an insidious gas leak, contained by the water underfoot sealing the crack under the door from vapours.
Seifer Almasy	"Holy shit, if there's a blood monster with chains at the end of this dank craphole sewer, I /am/ asking for a raise," Seifer Almasy complains as they wade through the water, "'slike two years overdue."      The smell of it alone is enough to make him unhappy, even without the constant barrage of dead bodies on both the walls and ceilings. Ice mummies are a thing that Seifer Almasy has negative desire to see. In fact he didn't even know they /were/ a thing, /or/ that he had negative desire to see them, until /after/ he had seen them. That's how bad they are. Seifer's walking with Hyperion drawn in one hand and his other hand over his mouth, staying close to the front, and close to Caster at the same time. If nothing else, the young man falls into the role of bodyguard extremely easily.      He stops to look at the PURITY STONE. It's a key item. He'd know that anywhere.      Then he listens at the doors, and he immediately regrets it. He turns to look at the party and jerks a thumb (and Hyperion) over his shoulder.      "Yeah there's probably a sewer monster on the other side of that door," he says in a matter-of-fact kind of tone, "And I bet it's probably the same thing that hanged all these dudes up on the ceiling. It sounds super gross and I bet it is super gross, so, y'know, heads up, prepare for that."
Tamamo no Mae	"Ugh, the water is going to ruin my robes." comes Tamamo's immediate complaint, "And it's so... ugly down here." she sighs, "This is not where a Queen is meant to go, but... I decided to grace you with my Knight's and my presence to help." she makes a light grumble, her trio of tails twitching behind her, a recent 'ascension', that happened. "Smells bad too." she follows behind Seifer without question, after all, he's her tank.     Gotta have the knight in front of the sorceress, y'know.     "You're very sure about this?" she questions, moving towards the other door, taking a listen, her fox ears twitch visibly... "There's a hissing sound behind this one, it might be a better way to go, but the dripping water behind this one doesn't give Caster a good feeling either." digging into her sleeves, she pulls out a few talismans, "I say that we just throw some magic in both and eliminate them together. WHat do you say, my Knight~?" there's a pause, "And... everyone else..."
Yuuki Kuran	The three areas of the Shadow Tower that had spread before Yuuki Kuran the day she showed up to MEDDLE USELESSLY AT weeks and weeks ago had drawn an unnatural amount of attention. Here, surely, was a place where she could get in at the ground floor, and meddle thouroughly with things. Here, surely, was a place where she could live the fantasy she never could in the Union. It was fate that she had missed the second of the areas, the zone of White. Her duties and needs called her elsewhere, and she resented them. Almost as much as she resented the smell, wading in with her thick boots, slim pants, collared shirt (unbuttoned at the top), and fashionable black half-jacket. POWER: Hyper-enhanced smell. FLAW: Hyper-enhanced smell. Oh, god, it's like jamming rotten eggs in your nose, but the eggs are also filled with cleaning supplies and ass. Holding a handkerchief to her nose, Yuuki gives a little 'ha ha haaaa, here's... this place!!!' gesture to her companion. "Well, I mean... I knew this area would be bad, but..." She looks up to the pipe-caked and corpse-dotted cieling. "Not this bad. Seifer, please, don't invite the worst. You're just making it true. And you don't feel like you're paid enough? Is this... a real problem?" She wonders. Well, a giant blood sewer monster would at least be... relatively tame. She could handle blood. For some reason.
Solty Revant	Those present might wonder how a bright-eyed young girl with green hair and long furry ears who is dressed in a rather unusual outfit even arrived here. Truthfully Solty Revant isn't even sure herself. A curiousity driven walk through a strange gateway and rumors of people in need is all she can really track. But, she is here now, and from what she has heard clearing out this place could do some good and bring justice to many others. Her long ears are twitching at the strange noises and like Seifer she has a gloved hand over her mouth and nose to try and block the smell. "The other side is hissing...does that mean there's a giant sewer snake down there?" she asks Seifer.      The young girl is obviously the naive and inexperienced sort even if one is just judging by her demeanor and reactions so far. She has no weapons and her clothing doesn't really inspire confidence. What is she even doing here? Tamamo being a queen catches Solty's attention and her ears perk. "You're a queen? I thought queens only stayed in their castles and had their knights go out and fight monsters for them?" Yuuki doesn't get much attention at the moment, other than a cheerful wave in greeting when they first met on the way in.
Zero Kiryu	Same story, different day. Zero Kiryu trails at Yuuki's side like a shadow, an especially unpleasant expression and demeanor dominating his features. It's not the ordinary barely-restrained predatory body language he usually exhibits, but a combination of enhanced senses and the surroundings overwhelming him /and/ the usual. It isn't doing wonders for his mood. He doesn't have a hankerchief because it would interfere with hitting and shooting things if he needed to do that. "... But what?" He asks, shaking his head. "Would've brought a mask with a little more context." Zero glances from Yuuki to Seifer and adds, "If it's true, it's true. Haven't met anyone yet who makes things like that happen just by vocalizing them at an inauspicious time." His expression flattens out slightly as /pay/ is discussed. Zero is quite certain he's the worst-paid person here... though, the benefits are probably better than most.
Seifer Almasy	Seifer is visibly grinning at Caster calling him 'her Knight'. Sure, he's grinning through his hand, but he's grinning. "Might bring the whole place down if that's a leak, right?" He asks, "Otherwise, I say do it, if you think it's a good idea."      Yuuki asks him if it's a real problem. "No, it's...it's from when me and the other boss lady worked a bunch of stuff together. Ask her about it later," he clarifies, "It's not a concern. Don't worry."      Solty gets a similar grin. "Hey. Seifer Almasy. I think I'm technically king of the moon." He's enjoying saying that. "I mean, it might be a sewer snake, or it might be a leaky pipe. I'm betting on leaky pipe. What kind of sadist would have two bosses right next to each other?"      "Then again, if it's two bosses, Caster's right, a blitzkrieg's the best idea...maybe better safe than sorry?"
Nova Terra	Nova wrinkles her nose a little as she examines the room through the lens of her visor. It's not the worst smell she's ever encountered... But it's not too far off. However, she is more grateful that her suit is sealed up to her neck, as she steps through the probably equally unpleasant water at her feet. At least she won't be forced to endure the feeling of it seeping into her boots and soaking into her skin.     A quick glance at the pedestal seems to confirm Arthur's words. The stones do seem to purify the area, if only to a tollerable degree. She nods a little with Zero's comment about bringing a mask, longing for her own. Too late now though, they're in this until the end.     A glance towards the two paths simply draws a shrug from Nova, responding to some of the comments about which to progress down, "Really, I don't think we'll be able to predict what either path contains. Based on experience with the previous zones. Though it's probably safer to choose one for the moment, rather than risk being overwhelmed by both."     Looking towards one, and then the other, Nova nods her head in the direction of the door with the hissing, "I'd choose that one, myself."
Arthur Lowell	Arthur swaggers on in and says, "This room used to KILL A DUDE! Fuckin' AWFUL." He knocks on the wall as if slapping the top of a used car. "Alright, I poked THIS AREA just a li'l bit a WHILE BACK, on account of a MISTAKE. We got a couple PURITY STONES, and you gotta get those things up in the PLINTHS. When you do that, the TOXIC HORROR-GAS STOPS." Thanks for that briefing. Real helpful, Arthur. He continues on with the same cheerfulness. "I was kinda blinded and losing oxygen at the time so I don't got a ton of other DETAILS. Just keep EYES OUT for any spare PURITY STONES." With a flick of the wrist and a snap, he brings up the PARTY INVENTORY, noting the numbers.     His HP bar has already gotten a sister meter spawned below it. Unlike his HEALTH VIAL, this one's a MEPHITICITY INDEX marked with a friendly skull on one end. Just the smell is kind of awful. The bodies are something he's horribly averse to, and he's already wincing and averting his gaze in as subtle a way as he can, before trying to move on. "The HISSING ONE is probably from the GAS, on account of these rooms kinda REFRESH THEIR GAS outta the VENTS. We got some PURITY STONES, let's take a HARD DIVE up in this bitch and SLAM DUNK up on that PLINTH!"     He also notes Zero's complaint. "YEP! You would have! But that's not the DEAL. The idea is, everyone goes in BLIND. I got a little TASTE TEST earlier, but you gotta make sure you're going in with ZERO WARNING, so I couldn't get the BIG CHATS about it. We're here for BUGTESTING, and for that, we gotta do this LEGIT, see?" Speaking of legit, he agrees with Nova, and is already charging on through the hissing door. He's taken a big gulping breath of air, and intends to leap into the room and try to find a plinth to slam that Purity Stone on!
Touta Konoe	It's not Touta's first time in the room. The first time he arrived into this floor he had arrived with Arthur and Sanary. The last time they got to enjoy the first hand experience of the poison area. Looks like the place hasn't really changed from the last time either...Great... It appears like some from before came back, and even some new people he knew appeared! Also people he didn't which was cool too! Though while everyone is thinking about how obnoxious the gas was, or how unpleasant the water was, Touta's look up at the ceiling. He recalls the sounds of squelching, slithering, and growling from above all too well.      "Yo Arty, don't forget that there's more than just the fog in here we gotta worry about."      Of course he trusts Arthur hasn't forgotten. Oh wait...We were suppose to be bugtesting weren't they? Whoops, he'll probably keep his mouth shut then. Though...Considering the difficulty that this room posed he couldn't be blamed for giving a bit of spoilers could he? As he arrives into the room along with the others he basically understands the game plan. Get the stones on the plithes and they won't have to worry about it. Though he clearly remembers how much of a hassle that was from the last time so he can only hope that with more people hanging around the level of difficulty will decrease.
Tamamo no Mae	Tamamo perks up when someone directly addresses her being a queen. Turning to take a look at Solty, she gives her a quick look and frowns, "This queen is a sorceress, so I don't mind backing up my Knight." she smiles, "We work well together." She hmms a bit, "But a girl like you with no weaponry? I question why you are here risking your life for... who knows what reason." she gives a bit of a shrug and turns towards the door that's got the hissing sound behind it.     Not a moment after it's opened by Arthur, a mirror comes into view while talismans whip out from her fingers, lighting on fire. "Hoi!" she launches three talismans towards the now opened door, and they burst into small balls of fire, and she follows it up with a full body spin and a thrust of her mirror, launching an even larger fireball into the room. "Fire~" she gets a grin, and just waits for her Knight to run in before she follows.     "Touta~, mind helping out here?" she smiles, "Get up in front with my Knight, you're being enlisted~"
Rurufon	Taking the hissing door is about as bad as one could expect. The strange, faintly purple, heavily corroded metal bears an odd pattern of twin rows of connected, diminishing spheres, like vertical rows of spiders' eyes. When it swings open, and people charge into it . . .     No description relayed by the others can prepare one for it. There is a reason it hadn't just been 'the poison area' -why an adjective like 'violent' of all things had been ascribed to it. The air is so thick with it that it tinges a livid, bruise-purple colour, saturated to the point that the toxins form actual fog that condenses on the walls into corrosive slime, as there is simply too much to dissolve into the atmosphere. One can barely see twenty feet through the mottled violet haze, and probably don't want to either, considering the stuff actually burns directly on contact. It's like dunking one's head into a bathtub full of battery acid, with all the revolting humidity of a sweltering rainforest summer and all the disgusting clamminess of wading through a cold, filthy tide pool.     It doesn't just get in through the mucous membranes like the eyes and nose, but is strong enough to go directly through the skin, given no pause by keratin and soaking through into the bloodstream in seconds, having immediate toxic effects that cause the immediate urge to vomit, just before intense, painful, body-wide muscular cramping, numbness and sluggishness of extremities, and searing pain in the nerves. It's like taking a trip to the theoretical elemental plane of poison. Even the water, absorbing as much of the toxic haze as it can, becomes a soupy, potent acid, easily capable of melting through armoured greaves in minutes. The humidity is too much. The poison is not courteous enough to burn. It's too wet. Too oppressive.     The 'bodies' in here aren't even recognizable as such, mostly being half-melted collections of ribs and the corroded remains of tactical body armour from a more modern challenger. A long dirk has been jammed into a section of the wall across the room, with the brittle remains of a skeletal hand and forearm dangling from it. There are no doors in and out, and nothing so convenient as another fountain plinth, but there are strange 'wells' in the floor and ceiling, as if water were meant to pour vertically between them, sculpted so that they are surrounded by curving 'fangs' of stone. There is also a message in alarming red on the wall, in that inexplicable style, written like a journal entry despite ostensibly left by a corpse, in something like blood which isn't.     "This seems to be a purification facility. Poison came from somewhere. The flow will resume after the stone purification. When this clears up, we will find something. But I won't make it. We will follow those poor souls. I will die soon."     "I see, the bodies are melted."     "Purified."
Seifer Almasy	Seifer immediately dislikes Touta as soon as he hears 'Hime-chan.'      His demeanor shifts almost *instantly*. It's *visible* as he goes from grinning, excited, and ready to set Arthur on fire out of the goodness of his heart (long story) to not-grinning, frowning, and generally giving Touta a real, real unpleasant look, like he's seriously considering pushing Touta through the door without giving him a chance to take a breath.      He is.      He's an angry nineteen-year-old wearing jealousy on his wrist like it's part of his Command Spells. If a person knows literally *anything* about Seifer, it's not hard to guess why. His emotional reaction gets even more obvious as Touta gets shoved unceremoniously forward to join him, and he basically shoulder-checks the smaller kid as he shoulders his gunblade and takes a deep breath.      Shit.      The poisonous room is hellish. He wants to throw up on contact. He can feel the goop seeping into his skin, and he's going to need - and /willingly take/ - an hour's worth of baths in the Moon Cell to deal with *this* awful thing. The ribs and tactical body armor are enough to get his attention, as is the fact that Caster can't set it on /fire/, which is a huge problem, because this place is hideous.      Seifer takes a second to read the riddle.      Nope. Seifer's bad at riddles.      He's really regretting not going in the Sewer Monster door. At least then he'd have something to kill. He moves backwards a bit, probably intentionally bumping Touta again as he starts examining the wells.
Solty Revant	Solty blinks when she is directly questioned about her reasons for being here and her combat abilities. She gives a double fistpump and a determined 'hnn!' before she replies, "You don't have to worry about me, Miss Queen! I'm really strong!" she insists before blinking again and quickly covering her mouth and nose once more, this time with both hands. Seifer's strange assurance that no one would put two bosses together like that draws a curious look until he suggests a blitzkreig in the next breath negating his previous assertion. She sighs softly and her ears droop a bit before springing up in surprise when Tamamo suddenly launches that fire spell in a rather impressive display. "Woaaah!" Solty is dazzled by it. "How did you do that?" she asks excitedly before realizing everyone is going through the door. She flails a moment before leaping after them.      All the pained yelling makes Solty think they are being attacked until the poison hits. The young girl's cries join the others before rising into a piercing scream as it really sets in. She's never experienced anything like this!! "M-make it stoooooop!!" she cries, almost collapsing from the amount of agony. The only thing in the room that isn't terrible horrible poisonous death and decay is those wells, and she has no idea what to do. She can't even noticed the decay through the painful haze, which might be the only upside right now. "Wh-what do we do?!"
Zero Kiryu	Zero isn't a particularly chatty person, but acknowledges Arthur's explanation with an affirming vocalization and a small nod. He's one of the last to enter the room and its horrible poison atmosphere, taking a deep breath before doing so. Beyond what would be expected of a superhuman, he isn't especially poison-resistant. His regeneration kicks in as the poison soaks in and gnaws at his body, and so he finds himself rubberbanding back and forth between the milder symptoms and the surface symptoms. A few steps in and his eyes begin to take on an orange-red shine, not quite glowing but very clearly not their natural color for the moment. But once they get in there, he's only marginally more confident in his ability to solve this than Seifer is. Which is to say, not so much. But he's willing to give it a try. Once he's done reading he moves towards the curving fangs of stone to examine the wells between them. There are only so many features of the room to check out-- and he's certain that dagger in the wall will draw somebody else to it readily enough.     here is an uncharacteristic slowness and clumsiness to his movements that isn't ordinarily there. Some days are worse than others to be starving on, and this is /definitely/ one of the worse days for that.
Arthur Lowell	Arthur's already struggling through the pain of the poison soaking into him. His own breath doesn't last long, but his skin and blood already burn. Luckily, the man has plenty of spare blood and spare skin! His MEPHITICITY INDEX jumps harshly, and his HEALTH VIAL drops at a steady but terrifying pace. "Fuck, fuck, FUCK!" He shouts, after he finally has to let go of his breath. He runs through this on his brain, trying and failing to discard the distraction of the corpses. If this is a purification site, then there /must/ be a system that would normally emit energy from the purity stone as it passes through!     He begins to work as quickly as he can. What looks like the most probable thing that will purify the water as it passes? The stone fangs! What could power them? An external system! For which the purity stone is a batter! "Look for anything hooked up to these fuckin' FANG BITS!" He cries out, stumbling as his MEPHITICITY INDEX jumps another several worrying notches. His thought? Either Nova Terra's right and there's no way to progress here -- and trying to find energy conduits to those "teeth" on the wells will lead them right back out the door, but give them a clue -- or he's right and they lead to somewhere HIDDEN, somewhere he can dash to, following it like a man pulling copper wiring out of a wall, and dunk the stone. Either way, a victory! A poisoned, horrible victory.
Yuuki Kuran	Yuuki gives most of an 'are you sure?' look/worried frown to Seifer, except the worried frown is covered by her handkerchief. "Well, if you're sure. I won't gainsay Priscilla, then, if she's handling things." Yuuki offers, with the calm demeanor of a concerned friend. Seifer is basically a big dumbass who is delightfull pointable in the direction of bad things and is considerate. Really, he's everything Zero isn't. Hopping-to as people enter the room, it's immediately apparent that this is a TERRIBLE IDEA and ALSO SO IS LIFE, as she's sizzled and burned and eaten away, looking blearily for a PLINTH at Arthur's indication. The vents, he explained, as well as the awful poison, but every aspect of this is a torture greater than any Yuuki had experience before. She had been burned, but this was less merciful than a fire. She had been corroded, but this was more insidious than an acid. She had smelled A Bad Smell, but this was unique in its olfactory assault. Purple, poison-laced tears streaming down her face from her poison-addled dimly-shining red eyes read the message, reaching up to retrieve the DIRK from the wall as something to cling to, something simple to grasp upon, before Yuuki just turns and FUKKEN HARD BAILS back to the previous room. Her words on the radio make her mouth fill with the taste, her lungs burn with the miasma, and when she retreats to the previous room to throw up into the grate on her hands and knees, the rotten floor is a welcome reprieve from the other area. "Not there! OTHER DOOR! ANY OTHER DOOOOOOR!" She bawls, trying to wipe her eyes with her forearm since her hands got mucked. Everything is mucked. Even the residual effects make her want to curl up and die. Unfortunately, she is not allowed to. Eventually her body simply purges the funk, weeping purple poison from her pores as she does so.
Nova Terra	Nova walks through the newly opened door, takes one breath of the horridly toxic air and immediately regrets the choice of this path. She once more wishes she had packed her head mask, which she typically reserves for romps around space or landing on planets with hostile environments. The only saving grace is her visor protects her eyes for the most part, at least allowing her to see relatively easily.     Nova doesn't stay in the room long though, just long enough to quickly glance around, letting her visor record the visuals. Nova then quickly backs out, returning to the previous room.     Finding the disgusting smell an almost relief compared to the painful air, Nova goes into a coughing fit for a full minute as her body tries to cleanse itself of the gas. Finally recovering enough to actually think clearly, Nova taps at the controls on her wrist, the display inside her visor rewinding back to show the poison room. She slows down the playback as she takes in the details more closely, before finally radioing, "I don't think there's anything of immediate use in there right now. I imagine it's something we will have to come back to once we find a way further on to cleanse it." Returning her visuals back to the present, Nova turns to look towards the other door. The one with the slurping. Well, there's no other choice at this point.     Nova makes her way over to the other door, to open it... And hope that it isn't another room full of poison death.
Touta Konoe	Touta's assistance is requested at the front. Not that he would have it another way. So he takes the opportunity to the front along with Tamamo's...Knight? The guy referred to himself as the 'King of the Moon' so it immediately makes Touta raise an eyebrow as he attempts to look at the guy's hands. He's pretty sure he knew what that meant but figured he should check just in case.      Touta figures he may need to give a brief introduction before things really start to escalate so he'll do just that. He gives a smile and a wave to those he's not too familiar with, mainly being Seifer and Solty, though he does give a brief wave to Yuuki and Zero as well. He remembers Yuuki a bit from a while back but he's pretty sure he never really talked to her much. Her shadow-like body guard though...Not so much. Either way the young man was a little late arriving. If not for Solty's arrival he to those who hadn't known him before would have probably thought he was the one least suited to this sort of hazardous place. Like Sorty, Touta's a young man looking about the age of fourteen if that. His attire is mostly black, even his small katana was jet-black in appearence. His demeanor though couldn't be brighter.      "Hey, name's Touta Konoe. Nice to meet you gu-"      Just as the young man gives his greeting he gets...Shoved? He blinks for a moment. That was a bit of a surprise. Oh well, no biggy right? After all, they were about to go into the poison area, they were gonna have to get serious.      Yeah, this place still sucks...One moment into the poison area and the fog becomes all too familiar. Thankfully, he also remembers how he handled it the last time. He reaches into his jacket hoping to pull out a certain item that would help make it a little more viable to deal with the fog, but just as he's about to...He gets smacked again! Was this guy seriously bullying a this fourteen-year old kid? Yes. The moment that Seifer does that, he gets an annoyed 'Really?' look. It's after that moment that Touta looks like he's about square up with Seifer. But he stops himself midway as something he hears a cry.      He just stares at Seifer pissed, "I don't know what your deal is but would you cool it, it's /toxic/ enough already!" From there he runs back from the others. The last time he did this he ended up getting a double dose of the fog, but at the very least he was hoping it would help reduce the amount that the others had to deal with while trying to traverse the place. He pulled out his hula-hoop just as he did the last time and begins revolving it around his waist. As it began to spin the air around him would begin to whip up around him into a small sort of vortex. He was hoping to use Revolution once again as a form of suction to draw the poison fog towards him, so that the others wouldn't have to suffer through it as much. Though...Even if Touta's immortal he remembers the last time he did this getting a double dose of the fog, and even now shutters to have that experience again. Hopefully, someone will resolve this quickly.
Tamamo no Mae	Where's the boom, the Servant Destroying Boom?     Tamamo huffs a bit at this and she continues forward, covering her nose from the poison... she doesn't even go fully into the room, keeping herself by the door entrance. "Ugh, this is not going as planned." she coughs, her ears pinning back. With the poison finally reaching her, she lurches forward, "OH god, Caster doesn't feel so good." she whimpers, backing up and up... and dodging Yuuki as she bails the room..     Yep, that was probably a very bad idea.     She turns to Solty, and between soft gagging sounds, "I'm a sorceress, I produce magic. I can show you later... when poison isn't trying to kill us all." She'll have to have a talk with Seifer and Touta later, but here wasn't the best time... "Ugh, okay okay. Caster feels like she's going to vomit... le... let's go into the other door please. PLEASE!" she cries out, dropping down some to try to escape the smell and poisons...
Seifer Almasy	Caster asks Seifer to get along with Touta.      Seifer wavers. On the one hand, this kid immediately has put himself on Seifer's Shit List, like, instantly. On the other, he /did/ promise literally just last night not to make Caster sad. The war on his face is visible as he exits the room and takes a sharp breath, panting for a minute. Unlike everybody else he doesn't have superhuman regeneration or anything, so instead he's just gonna be sucking it up for a while.      "Yeah," he says after a bit, "Other door."      Touta gets another look. "Be happy she asked me," the Gunblade Knight says quietly, so that only he, Touta, and Solty can hear. As his hand goes onto his shoulder Touta gets a good look at exactly what he was looking for - the Command Spells that now decorate Seifer's hand.      "HEY, GUY!" He shouts in after Arthur, "OTHER DOOR, MAN!"
Rurufon	Checking the wells certainly gives the impression they were used for water flow. The walls around them are only thigh high and inwardly slanted, so that they'd allow water in once the water level reached a certain height in the room. It's too low now of course, only stagnating around their ankles, given the cessation of the 'flow' the mysterious red text talked about. There are signs of gratings in certain, out of the way positions in the walls, only harge enough to put an arm through.     The level above can only be seen as a ceiling, albeit without so much awful purple fog, as it seems to be heavy enough to sink, albeit very slowly, and there's so much of it there isn't much lower for it to go, adding up and rising like a water level of its own. The level below has much deeper water, and a dry fountain plinth with an empty socket can thankfully be seen, but getting back up with absolutely require flight, and they'd be putting the fumes between them and the next safe room if they used a purity stone there. How many plinths there are in how many rooms is a serious, relevant question.     The dirk appears to not have been jammed in solid stone by inhuman strength, but wedged in the crack of a hidden door that the unlucky wielder hadn't been able to open in time. Yuuki yanking it out causes a section of slightly smoothed stone wall to slide open, giving way to something like a ghetto, low-tech 'airlock', going who knows where. When it opens however, she bails out in a panic just in time to avoid something that looks like a thick, bloated, mastiff-sized maggot dropping out of the vent in the ceiling, hitting the floor with a disgusting, wet thwack. It isn't agile enough to give chase, making its ambush somewhat useless, but it's kind of in the way, and there's no way of telling if it's a trash enemy or if it explodes or mutates or something.     Touta's Revolution technique works exactly as well as it did last time. Nothing has changed here. No doubt this is one of the most dreaded of possible Realms to crop up in the Chasm of Emerald, seeing as it seems almost nobody gets very far here. Those who run back into the first room find that there is one small mercy; the poison is incredibly intense, but highly volatile, and causes most of its heinous damage by actively decaying inside the body. If they can survive a minute without exposure, it burns itself out and becomes inert.
Rurufon	Opening the other door of course exposes them to the same purple haze -they aren't that lucky- but at a much thinner, ambient level, stinging more like lemon juice than battery acid, and painfully numbing more like frostbite than constant electrocution. This room is host to a blue and red beacon on opposite sides of something that could be called a ladder only charitably, being a hilariously crude and oversized thing hacked out of solid stone, but then one of wood or metal would have decayed by now anyway, so if it's stupid and it works, etc. It leads directly upwards, whereas another fanged well leads downwards behind it.     Something nastier than a gross maggot happens though. This thing /leaps/ out of the well like a salmon flicking its way up a waterfall, arcing through the air and smashing into the floor with a much heavier noise. The size of one of those massive, twenty year old amazon-dwelling crocodiles, it has the 'face' of some kind of leech, with its pulsing maw full of circles of teeth down its throat, but the eyes of a spider, glowing faintly orange, and a lengthy body shaped like a scorpion's tail with the texture of an eel rather than a hard shell, which slithers like a snake. Rather than simply being an advanced form of giant leech however, it also possesses the arms of a man extended from both sides of its head, rapidly dragging it across the floor with clawed, dragging motions.     It approaches Nova at a horror movie-esque lightning crawl, arcing its 'tail' over its head and spraying almost a shotgun blast of poison so dense that it is a viscous, purple-black liquid, and fast enough to hit her like a spray of bullets, concrete-dense as hitting water from a too-high dive.
Zero Kiryu	Zero is observing the Well when Yuuki bolts out of there. He can feel her in his mind, moving away. His head rises rapidly to look towards where she came from-- which is where the maggot is now. Approaching the end of his ability to hold his breath, he draws Bloody Rose into a lazy grip and fires at the maggot while backing out the way they came. What Yuuki found would be /useful/, but he's not about to go charging off in the opposite direction of where everybody else is going with an uncertain air supply. By the time he emerges out into... cleaner... air, he's only holding onto Bloody Rose because it's thrust several thorns into his hand to stop him from dropping it. His hand hangs -- uninjured but bereft of energy -- at his side as he takes a breath and allows his body to do something like recover. He rifles around in a pocket with his free hand and asides to Yuuki, "You found a door." His voice is labored, strained. The distinctive voice of somebody coping with a great deal of pain. On closer inspection he's probably sweating heavily as well, though that could just be the godawful heat and humidity too.
Solty Revant	When the others start to leave, Solty is more than happy to follow! She doesn't just run from the room, she leaps with the speed and distance of a giant frog, almost crashing into the wall opposite the poison door, which she proceeds to lean against and just shudder while panting heavily against the pain before wondering if the gross water will wash off the nasty poison. But, as she considers it she realizes that the effects on the surface seem to be gone. So, she doesn't dive in for now and just concentrates on holding out against the effects. "I...l-look forward to it..." she stammers a belatedly reply and a forced smile to Tamamo.      She looks over as she hears Seifer but isn't really sure what he's talking about. Why's he mad at Touta? When the other door is opened...Solty definitely does not rush in. She goes in, but slowly, fists raised, still shivering a bit in pain. "F-fighting a monster would be much better than that other room." she says. Of course, she's never really fought a monster but it has to be better, right? The stinging isn't nearly as bad here and she ends up wincing a bit but continuing isn't too hard.      The monster shows itself and wastes no time attacking! That shotgun blast of poison is fired and for Solty the world around her suddenly freezes as she uses her Overclock. It would be very hard to tell she even moved before she appears in front of Nova, arms raised in front of her in an X to block the attack. The green-haired girl cries out from the hit before drawing a fist back. "Go away!" she yells as her fist starts to visibly vibrate and glow with a yellowish light before she dashes in and throws a punch with all the enhanced strength her android body can muster combined with the destructive kinetic energy she can generate. She aims right for the head, hoping to smash those terrible teeth and the head containing them. "Hyaaaaah!!"
Seifer Almasy	Thank Hyne there's a sewer monster.      A sewer monster is something to hit. A sewer monster is something to take his aggression out on. A sewer monster is something Seifer can just *absolutely* hammer the fuck out of, something Seifer can take all his aggression out on. Touta immediately finds himself no longer the target of Seifer's aggression as the sewer beast comes surging in and Solty gets right up in the way. Seifer's right up along next to her, gunblade flashing through the muck. He cleaves a line right through it, sending waves of goo outwards as the long, thin blade of Hyperion comes up for the horror's neck.      He's mad as fuck, and it doesn't stop there. Seifer is an undeniable master - more than a master - of his sword, and as Solty beats the Hyne out of it, Seifer's blade dances in his hand like he's some kind of artist. It's direct, and brutal, but beautiful nonetheless, carving arcs of silver in the air. He's stupid good at what he does.      It's just, you know, right now he's pissed and working it out in the most direct of all possible means - killing a thing to death.
Nova Terra	The other door opens and Nova cautiously enters, glancing around. She quickly spots the beacons... If she recalls correctly, they're used for obtaining items and restoring health. The 'ladder' is also noticed, suggesting a way to move further in. The air here is almost as bad as the room she just escaped, but at least this time she was able to mentally prepare herself for it.     Of course, it turns out the poison gas is the least of her problems right now as the armed leech-like creature makes itself known. Once more this strange tower provides one of the more disgusting creatures Nova has ever seen as she instinctively takes a step back, "Oh sh-" Not enough time to react!     Thankfully, Nova doesn't have to. The Ghost watches with surprise as Solty just seems to appear in front of her, taking the blast of poison meant for her. A little shocked that the girl would just do that for someone she doesn't know, Nova just watches for a moment as Solty continues on to try and punch the monster.     Quickly recovering from the near-ambush, Nova tries to refrain from saying too much due to toxic gas. But she does get out a quiet, "Thanks." While Seifer and Solty engage the leech-thing in close combat, Nova moves to the side a little to try and get a clear shot. She raises her rifle, training it on the creature and waiting for an opening before firing a precision shot between the two frontline combatants to hopefully blow a hole through the the hideous monster.
Arthur Lowell	Arthur's MEPHITICITY INDEX is creeping far too far up. It slams into the top end of the bar and goes to a second layer of units, the skull cracking ominously -- and with that comes an abrupt speed-up of his HEALTH VIAL's drop! It looks like his weird videogame-logic health goes in exponentially-increasing levels of poison! He swears a little under his breath, gasping with pain, and drops a portal. He's gonna leave the GATE here for anyone who needs to get around fast! It's over near the airlock. This should make sure he can check that thing out sometime if there's little else to do. For now, he's gotta head into the ladder room!     He stops in the cleared room to let his MEPHITICITY INDEX go back down to zero, and then joins the others in heading to the next room, where luckily his poison meter isn't going up so quickly. His reaction when the horrific attack being shows up is, "FUCK, MORE LEECHDUDES!" Pushing through the stinging and pain, he lets out a particularly intense BATTLE ROAR, and intends to put his experience fighting leechfolk in this tower to work! He drops a portal in this room as well, which folks can get back to the purification room with if they want, and for now he charges into battle! First blasting at the assailant with huge machine-gun blasts of magic bolts whenever the melee fighters knock the thing away, and then...     Leaping onto the well it jumped out of, ready to blend apart anything that follows it up with his blender-broom! And observing where it goes -- hopefully by diving down it broom-first if the monster got taken out!
Touta Konoe	Touta eventually stops when the others get the other door open. He swears that worked alot better the last time. Or maybe that's just the fog talking? Either way, with a need to let the excess fog around him disperse he'll take up Art's portal to go into the cleared room to catch his breath for a moment. He takes a deep breath of /NORMAL/ air. You appreciate it so much more when your stuck in a place where breathing just hurts immensely to do.      "Oh man, Arty, you're a life sav-" Apparently he still needs to get some of the poison out of his system as he vomits. Okay, much better now...      He follows Arthur's lead back into the next room. Yeah, this area was better...By comparison. Lemon juice beat out battery acid any day.      "I'm gonna check if there's anything up top!"      With Solty, Seifer, and Arthur all dealing with the leech and Arthur jumping down the well to deal with any others, Touta decides to check up what might be lurking above. So his attention is brought towards the stone like ladder, but rather than climbing it, he'll be using his movement techniques to try and run up the ladder. It'll be quicker plus his arms will be free to deal with any sort of surprises!
Yuuki Kuran	Yuuki manages to wash her face of the worst of her toxic tears as Zero comes up to her, already feeling completely miserable. But, she's ok. Everyone's OK. Arthur's health bar gets a worried glance, what with the cracking skull. Thats worrisome! But Zero's words bring her a new curiousity. "A door?" She hacks, spitting out the last bits of sick in her mouth with some mild disgust. "Well... We should go back later. Maybe there'll be an item to pierce the area, or maybe the door leads to some hidden treasure you can get... or some further hints. But this place needs to be clearable by a human, right? Someone normal. They'd die instantly if they entered that room - so we must be able to clear it. Come back later. They wouldn't put treasure only reachable by the strongest and most advantaged... This doesn't seem like that kind of place. It's too 'fair'. If the trick was pulling out the knife - someone strong wouldn't have time to pause. It's only because I thought it would be nice, and I threw away the last knife I found here. Pinching pennies seems so stupid, for me, I know, but..." She stands up, following slowly after the other group. "I hope it was just some grub and not the enemy type of the area. That'd be--" She rounds the bend and immediately shivers from head to foot. "Ew! Ewwww! Ugh, disgusting, gross, the worst!" She raises a finger to blast it out of existance, hiding her face behind her other hand, but notices Seifer in close combat of her ill-aimed kinetic shock-attack, and aborts it with a gagging noise. "Even the monster's shapes are toxic... Uuuurgh, this is the worst."
Rurufon	When shot with a gun, the maggot convulses and splats with only a couple of bullets, being a soft target. When it dies, it dissolves into some kind of mist, rapidly evapourating in the fog. At least it doesn't explode, even though one might not want to breathe around it. That's one consistent aspect anyways: the things that live on this level aren't actually that strong. The deformed insects, enslaved fire-bearers, and now these horrid animalistic predators, didn't have the individual capacity to ascend higher, and so settled on the lowest level. It's a recurring pattern that the droves of human corpses found eliminated on the Chasm of Emerald are those who came lightly armed -explorers and treasure seekers, not soldiers and heroes.     That much holds true in the other room as well. Though it's bigger and scarier and certainly more freakish, Solty's destructive punch is enough to blow its head off completely in a spray of cobalt blue blood, leaving it flailing blindly until Seifer then hacks its arms off and its main body into chunks. When he does however, its slug-like length bulges and tears at the skin, and then separates into four of those bloated maggots along each section, which crawl out of the corpse and begin leap attacking the two of them, flexing and jumping off the floor and snapping at them with insect-like jaws.     They still aren't tough-bodied. The canister rifle is more than sufficient to shoot through all of them at once if Nova lines up a fortuitous shot. Even if she chooses to conserve ammo, Arthur is more than capable of blasting them as well. When he just leaps head first down the well, he is surrounded by many more of them, and equally capable of blending those too. They don't appear to be intelligent, either individually like the slaves in the White Walls, nor eusocially like the Deformed Insects. They're lurkers that seem to thrive in this horrid poison, and prey on wanderers.     There are more bodies webbed to the ceiling by greenish 'nets' of wet thread. Seifer is probably right. Dropping down a level, the poison gets heavier, as expected, but the lower room appears to be connected to the bottom well in the opposite direction, both landing on opposite ends of a long, rectangular hallway that can be used to cut under the central area. It's large enough that there is a fountain plinth on each side, and they're raised up enough to be on dry ground, but separated by a small lake of water so stagnant and toxicified it's almost black, and easily waist deep. There are no convenient ladders back up, meaning a human without a grapnel hook would be screwed here, as it seems many were before. It doesn't look like anything is even here, but it's sort of difficult to believe there'd be purity stations in a dead end ditch. Two stones is half their budget.
Rurufon	Touta runs up the ladder. It's a little showy for a perfectly servicable ladder, but it works fine. Up above, the toxins thin out quite a bit. He ends up on a less horribly corroded level, where the air is only slightly purple, and stings more like acrid Beijing smog, and is probably only about as likely to induce lung cancer. The place continues to be even more and more of an awful maze, with samey-looking rooms opening up into more samey-looking rooms only identifiable by the flow and bends of pipes and small vents and channels in the samey-looking walls. Yet another level above is suggested at by a well in the ceiling of the only room that serves as an exit from there, and another in the floor drops back down to the 'ground' level they'd entered from, suggesting that water once flowed top to bottom through this place, to some eventual end, purified along the way by those fountain stations. Whatever took the crystals away, stopped the flow of water, and made this area as horrible as it is, remains a mystery.     The room beyond is very plain, almost bereft of any detail save the wells and one more door at the far end. A further look around finds a number of old bones however, from someone who had dragged themselves up here to die slowly in a place less viciously horrible. The wall above them bears the mysterious words "I see a strange gate inside the seething poison mist. What the hell is over there?"     Yuuki has a Dirk. It is a marginally nice one. It's poor treasure for how much they've aimlessly wandered around this hellish, toxic maze, finding more and more routes as they go, rather than locating a concrete way forward. The best they have to go on is a single 'secret' passage, and at best, if Solty really trains her ears, the piddling flow of water from the single fountain they've activated so far, and its progress in trickling down the lower layers. It's sat around for long enough to breach the maximum water level of at least one room by now.
Seifer Almasy	Uuuugh. That thing was vile. Just, absolutely vile. As soon as it splits in two Seifer is recoiling back to stab it, and then Nova shoots through it and blows it the fuck up. Seifer exhales, shoulders Hyperion, and gives both Solty and Nova a thumbs up. He exchanges some words with Caster in quiet tones; by the end of it, he looks much less annoyed, and much more...well, back to...normal? Back to less likely to just push Touta around a bunch, at any rate.      He takes a minute to take a breather, and then goes up the ladder. Less awful air? That's fine by him. He'll go poke around the maze, looking for more stuff to kill, or looking for a way through the identical rooms to something new. He scratches a line into each room he enters with his gunblade, just...to be safe. So he and Caster don't get lost.      Seifer's not great at puzzles.
Nova Terra	Nova lowers her rifle once more after taking out the death-spawned worms. She's glad that she didn't have to take them on in close combat, noticing the rather gruesome deaths and remains left behind. At the thumbs up from Seifer, Nova simply nods back.     Nova is happy to move on to higher levels, leaving Arthur to handle the lower ones. He's been here before, so obviously he's got a higher immunity. That's totally how it works and is valid reasoning for not going into the thicker poison air.     Working her way through a brief coughing fit, Nova explores the upper levels along with Seifer. Eventually she comes to the room that appears to be the way forward, judging by the remains of another previous adventurer and a door beyond. Well, perhaps no a way forward, but certainly a way of interest. Judging by the various wells they've seen, Nova wonders over the radio, "Perhaps we need to use our limited supply of purity crystals in the correct locations to cleanse everything." While she lets the idea circulate amongst the others, she moves to check out the door beyond the sorta-bloodied message.
Zero Kiryu	"No," Zero says to Yuuki as he rubs at his own eyes, "your weaponsmiths are mediocre. They make durable tools, not 'good tools'. You should take a weapon that survived in this place, if you need one." This is probably not entirely fair, but it comes as no surprise that a hunter would be critical of vampiric weapon manufacturers. The Association does have a monopoly on 'special weapons', even if there are a few loose ones. Like Artemis. He trails after Yuuki, sluggish and uncomfortable-looking. Although he is regenerative, he doesn't recover at /nearly/ her rate. When one of her hands rises to point at something, Zero twitches the barrel of Bloody Rose upwards in what /would/ have been a hipfire blast that probably would've missed, but her hesitation is mirrored in him. The hunter lapses into a haze, but he manages to offer a suggestion in reaction to Nova's statement: "The writing on the wall in the hissing room said that that location was a purification center."
Touta Konoe	Touta had reached the exit room after some time, only waiting for the others to eventually make it there as well. He's eventually graced by Seifer being the first to arrive up...Yay? Nova's a quick second apparently. He hopes he's not gonna try to shove him this time... Well, ignoring the company at least this area was safer. Or...At least safer than what they had been going through at least.      It's very easy to take notice of the wells both at the floor and above on the ceiling. The thing that should clearly grab the attention of everyone who sees it though is the pile of bones. The message left behind as his last words.      Since there's still a pipe that was connected to the ceiling he figures there's absolutely gotta be one more level yet. Hopefully, if following the same pattern then it'll be even less fog-filled than this area.      He turns towards the guy whose been nothing but an ass to him since he's been here, "Just hold on a second alright. We'll see if the air gets any better on the other side..." While it'd probably be better to wait for everyone, one look at Seifer says that the guy could use some better air quality. He'll be going along with Nova to check out the room. "Hey Nova, I'll take point. No need to have the gunner up front right?"
Solty Revant	Solty offers a genuine smile to Nova as she is thanked. "Glad I could help!" she says before turning her attention back to the monster. Is it down? Surely her punch and Seifer's slashing it is down, right? She stays near Nova, apparently ready to defend her again if it is needed. Which is seems it is as giant maggots leap at them! Without hesitation Solty winds up again, but her other arm gets clamped on by one of those maggots. "Ow!"      She falls backward with the creature clamped onto her arm, but this time Nova gets to help her! A shot or two and the creature explodes...covering Solty in nasty goo. She slowly gets up, just her big green eyes visible through the grossness, then smiles and gives Seifer a thumbs up in return. She looks up as Touta mentions the cleaner air, but that one guy dove downward into who knows what and Touta sounds like he's okay up there. So, Solty climbs down the ladder, stopping before she actually touches the water because...that's even more unpleasant than just being down in this burning poison again. "Mr. Arthur!!" she calls out before looking down then out around the room again. She pauses a moment and a soft yellow aura surrounds her, then she lets go of the ladder and just...floats away over the water to look for him. "Hello?"
Tamamo no Mae	Tamamo's been following along, trying to protect herself from the posion... keeping herself at least on the lookout for anything important... or just being there just in case things go tits up. Seifer's sword play gets a genuine grin from the fox and a nod, an internal self satisfaction from the Knight doing what he does best. She does give a nod to Solty when she responds, but says nothing, trying to not breathe in more of that poison unintentionally.     For right now, with everyone dealing with everything else, she ponders her move. Some went up, Arthur went down.... and Seifer's wandering around and Tamamo finally just goes along with him, she needs to make sure he doesn't do anything too stupid. She'd rather not lose /another/. "Purification rooms, huh? I wonder.." she pulls out a few of her talismans, "Wonder if I can mimic a purification stone with my talismans..."
Yuuki Kuran	Well, thanks to the amazing prowess of Nova's gigantic paintcan gun blowing away the grubs, Yuuki doesn't have to deal with the gross monsters of all, and her abortion of her blast (and, by extension, Zero's hipshot) saves Seifer more pain. But, still, the place is awful. Sweating in a sickening technicolor, Yuuki continues on, gesturing for Zero to follow Seifer up while she investigates the area. "Keep an eye on him, please. I won't go far." Having to constantly wipe the sticky, poison-heavy beads of moisture off her brow so it doesn't fall into her eyes or mouth, she pricks her palm with a finger, 'patting' the air as a few shadowy wolves step out from around her murky shadow, giving her an 'annoyed doggo' look. Even her familiars are offended for being called into this stinky mess, and they're basically made of shadows and 'herself'. She sends the shadow wolves up and down the various stairwells, little knots of them splitting up from threes, to twos, to one as they fan out into any room they can get to. While having barely any combat ability individually, if she can scout out the surrounding rooms and get a clearer picture of the surroundings without throwing her whole self (or someone else doing similar) into the poisonous bogs.
Arthur Lowell	Arthur's down into Monster Hell, but aside from things like human corpses, Arthur finds this /far/ more pleasant to deal with. The lashing energies are eager to take down more monster, and utterly unrestrained in trying to annihilate clusters of monsters that surround him. "YEAH! YEAH! COME GET SOME! YOU WANNA TALE A JUMP INTO A FIGHT, YOU BETTER BE READY TO JUMP INTO A /FUCKING GRAVE/ IF YOU COME AFTER ME YOU /FAT UGLY BUGS!/"     Arthur regards the area critically. Ugh. More corpses. UGH! This fucking water! And the mist they turn into! He hates it all. Thank goodness that nest or something is gone. He keeps floating above it, and spawns another Gate. "YO!" He calls out, popping up out of the Gate he left at the top. "What's GOOD? That ought'a be less BUGS." He flashes a big grin to Solty, and sort of shakes himself off, seeming a lot happier about having something easier to deal with, just the monsters! When he gets up, he's feeling even /better/! Did someone say GEOMETRY PUZZLE?! Arthur's siftly gonna try to take a bit of relief in the thined-out areas -- his poisonous INDEX turns into a longer timer -- and he digs into it, setting off!     Hopefully by leaving enough Gates around, Arthur can map out the spatial relationships of the samy rooms, and the interlinking pipes. It looks mostly like it's dealing with direct flow down -- but is there a chance he can find where the pipes are interlinking most conspicuously using the rooms he's getting? Eventually he does get closer to the bones, though, and can examine the statement, but not... You know. The bones. Gate. What strange Gate? Arthur loves Gates. Which mist? Something thicker? Maybe if he heads up? Or down again? What's visible from that angle? He's gotta find out about this Gate.
Rurufon	Yuuki's wolves are very useful as canaries. Just like canaries however, it is inevitable that they are going to just drop dead. The ways she scouts are expansive and mazelike, relatively the same in terms of threats, but the place is just /big/ enough that anyone who isn't an extremely patient and iron-willed regenerator will just absolutely not make it by brute force. There is no shortest possible route that will allow someone to survive /that much/ intense poison. If they'd bumbled in here without anything from the Place With White Walls, it may have been mostly up to her, Touta, and Zero, depending on how much healing inventory cruft is left between the rest. That's an awful thought.     Still, they scout a lot of places that are valuable to know where /not/ to go. Rambling clusters of hallways that are dead ends, loops of wells up and down that eventually drain into grated floors, entire breeding rooms filled with horrible fleshy eggsacs waiting to spawn more of those creatures, along with a couple of exceptionally huge specimens, with hardened, grey-black hide and massive spines, and apparently at the very bottom of this all, an entire floor that is just one gigantic lake, where all the runoff before the water stopped has congealed into a foul, smoking black pool.     There are indeed, one or two purity crystals still scattered here, whether imported by previous challengers, or originally taken from here by the neighbouring 'tribe', is left uncertain. There are however dozens upon dozens of fountains to slot them into, and it seems entirely possible to waste their current allotment, even picking up some on the way, in an arrangement that leads nowhere. This is extra evident in the fact that the Tower of Shadows' rare but ubiquitous beacons have appeared in some odd places, and all of them are red and purple, as if to give those who plan poorly a sliver of hope at a great sacrifice of their possessions and lifeblood.     One has to wonder if this water was always toxic from the source, and was sent to drain through all these twisted layers of magic holy crystals for use somewhere, or whether someone has intentionally sabotaged it, and to what end. Certainly, nothing remains of whatever intelligent species settled here long ago; only the hideous equivalent of black rats aboard colonial ships remain as their legacy.
Rurufon	Seifer, Nova, Touta, and those poking around with them on the uppermost level have the benefit of 'less heinously inimical conditions', equivalent to taking away 5 HP per second instead of 150. They will have to navigate mostly by Yuuki's and Arthur's directions however, if they don't want to wander just a 'more dry and less toxic' version of the manyfold maze below them.     What they'll eventually arrive at however, if Arthur searches for a place where the pipes converge, is a sort of 'grand gallery', directly over the center of the massive bog-lake, like the dregs of an ancient reservoir. They exit onto a short balcony that rings the entire room, wall to wall to wall, identical to several other balconies beneath it in vertical tiers, without convenient stairs or ladders to connect them. Each balcony has many doors radiating from them, all worryingly indistinguishable. Since most of the mammoth chamber is open and has no floor, they can stare right down to the bottom, and even just leaning a head over is enough to get a skin-melting waft of fumes. The place where the worst of the toxic haze has sunk to and congealed, and where the most ancient, stagnant water is over one's head, is nothing less than a poisonous hell.     This is an issue, because the 'gate' alluded to pretty surely seems to be there. It's only visible through the incredibly, intensely smoggy air by the fact that lines all around its frame glow a cool blue, barely penetrating the seething, flesh-boiling mist, converging to form something like a stylized eye simple at its apex. The issue is that it's right at the ground floor, and all the way at the other end, well past even the furthest balcony, so not only would one have to go down there, flight and teleportation absolutely wouldn't help; they'd be dumped in the bog regardless without any sure way of opening the thing, and would probably melt in seconds. The chance this is a challenge they can brute force skip is slim -possible, but really questionable whether it's worth gambling on.     There is also the matter of the gentle movement of the bruise-coloured water. An intermittent swell and wake, circling the room's perimeter, suggesting a very large, very solid shape just beneath the surface.