2017-02-26: Holes Are Made For Jumping In.

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<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
Sephilia has gathered a motley team of adventurers to help her explore--some she knows, some she doesn't know, but she's a friendly sort and isn't worried about things like that. She's cheerfully wandered into danger before--but now, she's a little bit stumped.

By a hole.

"I guess we could try climbing down?" she offers as a suggestion. "Did anyone think to bring a rope or something like that?"

Worst case, Sephy knows Chauncey should be able to help her climb down into the hole, but she's not sure if she can use him to help everyone else...



<Pose Tracker> Gasback has posed.

        Squatting down at the hole's edge, Mr. Getaway squinted his lone eye into the darkness... Would have been a good idea to bring some rope, and a lantern. A sour expression sweeps over his face, lips curling into a sneer. He might have taken on this job out of pique alone but the thought of letting a simple hole stymie him?!

Snarling, he spat his distaste, "No backing out now." he uttered aloud. He.. he might be just about to drop himself down the damned thing!



<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei Fong Wong is having a weird sense of deja vu here but he is guessing that's because this is the Ruins of Memory. He hasn't made enough money from selling art so he has to start doing this 'digs' like the doc suggested. Still, at least it's dealing with monsters probably rather than people but even so--he's not sure how he feels about this situation.

"Well I don't have rope but--"

But maybe he can just ... jump down? How deep can it be? really? and maybe he'll dash his head against a rock and die. That might not be too bad.

He jumps.



<Pose Tracker> Vin Barrett has posed.
...Yes, well...Sephilia is a very friendly ki-Young Lady. Yes, a very friendly young lady. As such, when Vin, still hanging about and occasionally living as a Traveling Merchant/Cactus Juice Vendor/Hobo (Depending on how charitable one feels towards nomadic Baskar, really) observed her using the fool-proof strategy of 'hey, person on the street, do you wanna go ADVENTURING?!', the Baskar felt that, well, it really would be best to tag along to make sure she doesn't get into TOO much trouble. 
 
 I mean, sure, Lord Chauncey of Foxington -probably- has it covered, but he'd probably appreciate the help! And, well, if Vin was being honest, he hasn't had time to go poking around the ancient ruins around Adelhyde yet. He's a Baskar. He loves poking around ancient ruins! 
 
 Still, he runs into his old nemesis: Holes in the ground. "...Damn. Knew I forgot something. Ah hahah, embarassing!" Glancing about, the cloaked Drifter glances about for any impromptou climbing equipment or, barring that, attempts to drop down the hole. Cautiously. Hopefully intact.



<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

        At the end of the day, Josephine needs money, and needs it as soon as possible. Thanks to a pickpocket, she's a /wee bit/ (read: totally) broke right now and desperately needs more than a pair of Gella before the next day's bill at the cheapest inn in Adlehyde comes 'round. Luckily, there was a posting for some exploration work, and even more luckily, some of the same folks she met the other day were looking into the same thing.

        There's always a silver lining.

        So.

        Josie leans over the giant hole, trying to see if she can spot anything in the depths. "...Nope," she answers Sephy, before straightening, turning to glance at the others. "Well, no way but the direct way! --See, Fei has the right idea!"

        One hand steadying her pack, she jumps as well.



 <Pose Tracker> Layla has posed.
        As the group ponders the terrible quandry set before them, one figure in particular seems to hang back, preferring to linger slightly behind the others. Wrapped in a long black hood and cloak that covers her from head to toe, the somewhat mysterious woman who had sought partnership with this venture into the depths has remained thusly shrouded so far and quiet to boot, offering only a few words here and there when necessary. Among the few details that she has shared, her profession as a wandering scholar and dabbling magic user were offered up as explanation for her interest in participating.

        Despite her reticence, it's pretty easy to see that the trip here has winded her. Beneath the silky surface of her cloak the rise and fall of her chest moves a little too quickly and the sound of heavy breathing is easy to pick out in the empty depths of the ancient hall. She watches in silence as the others debate how to approach the situation, frowning slightly. Of all the... what kind of adventuring party leaves home without a rope? Ofcourse, her annoyance would be slightly more poignant if she had some herself, but rope is actually quite a bit more bulky and heavy than most people might assume. Not something a noodle-armed bookworm like herself is suited to lugging around.

        Naturally, having no real other option than to turn back, they start to drop into the void one by one, like only crazy people hunting for treasure would dare. She sighs and fishes around in her cloak for something, withdrawing a small bag with a drawstring which she quickly unties. Something small and white is pulled free from within and she quickly pops it into her mouth before tucking the container away again. Time to join the crazy train...

        Taking a deep breath, Layla moves over to the hole and peers down into it for a few seconds. She lets out an exasperated sigh and smiles faintly before hopping down after the others.

        "Once more into the darkness, I go..."



<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
With a series of THUDS and cries of pain, the group makes it to the bottom of the hole. Sephy frowns at one of Chauncey's seams, which has split from the impact. "I'm going to have to fix him up again," she says mournfully. "Is everyone else all right?"



<Pose Tracker> Gasback has posed.

        While the party voices their complaints over their poor landing or smiles quietly and smugly to themselves about their better fortune over those of their fellows, the commotion of their fall has drawn unwanted attention from the denizens of the dungeon of memories!

An Annaberg comes charging down a corridor off to the left, it's boney spines rattling against one another or scraping loudly against the walls of the narrow hallway as it barrels down on our unfortunate troop, it's eyes wild and fangs bared and gnashing!

Gasback, one of the unfortunate sons, lays, face down on the ground, cursing age and whimsy as he tries to right himself, only to feel a weight pressing him down!

"Gerrof!" he snarls, as he works himself to a kneel, turning his eye towards the approaching monster.

Reaching into his coat, his left hand comes free with a 4-barreled shotgun. Leveling it down and towards the charging monster, he starts firing!



<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
Sephilia, were she a normal fifteen year old, would probably scream and panic at the sight of such a dangerous set of foes. Sephilia is not, however, a normal fifteen year old girl. Instead, she grins in excitement and points at the spined equine creatures, calling a command to Chauncey. "Let's smash these guys, Chauncey, and I'll stitch you up after nice and good! Swift Fox Clothesline!"

Chauncey, his button eyes showing no sign of fear or hesitation, rushes forward at the beasts, one arm extended in a clothesline. The battle is joined, and Chauncey is at the heart of it, Sephy hanging from his back and calling out further attacks.



<Pose Tracker> Vin Barrett has posed.
...Yeah, that vine that Vin found? TOTALLY doesn't hold. He gets a few feet into the midair before he hears an ominous creaking. Looking up, he sees what he -thought- was a rather tough set of plant fiber just slowwwwwly stretching...and then, it snaps. "...Awwwwwwwww, craAAAAAAAAAA-" THUD. The Baskar manages to roll a -bit- on the fall, so at least he's not, y'know...dead. But he's certainly going to feel that one in the morning. 
 
 Still, the sound of most of his fellow DUNGEONEERS faceplanting onto the hard ruin floor seems to have attracted a nasty little critter. Welp. 
 
 Vin drifts to the back of the party, hiding behind Mister Getaway and Lord Chauncey as he reaches into his cloak and pulls out a carved statuette. He waves a hand over it, the eyes on the statue suddenly gleaming as the Baskar mutters under his breath, calling upon his patron to boost the combat potential of the party and leave their bodies invigorated with enhanced strength!



<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

        --actually this hole is a maybe little deeper than Josie thought--

        A small feathered shape erupts from the depths of her scarf as she plummets, her pigeon wheeling about after her falling mistress. Dust billows up around her feet as she lands in a crouch, only a slight ache in her left foot betraying the distance she fell. Josie glances up, shading her eyes as Penelope lands on her shoulder, before turning to glance at the others. "Is everyone-- oh, that bad huh?" She waves a hand, briefly. "No problems here!"

        Though there's no time for just standing around-- "We've got company!"

        Drawing her rifle, she falls back a step before squeezing off a shot at the spined creature with a crack. "--And you're mine!"
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
CRASH.

This is all Fei's fault. SOmehow, he knows it's all his fault. He lays on the ground back first for a while, groaning, before sitting himself up. Someone might land on abs (which are definitely rock hard really) and he'll just--he'll just tank it.

He isn't even going to cmoplain about being landed on he's probably just happy that they didn't hit the dirt.

Then Fei Fong Wong looks at this great challenge. He stares it right in the eye--and then draws out his mightiest weapon.

The RPS Badge.

"I choose---" Fei throws himself in a flying jumpkick. "Feet!"

Fei that's not how RPS works.



<Pose Tracker> Layla has posed.
        As anyone rational would have expected, jumping blindly into a hole isn't the smartest of ideas. Layla's descent into the darkness quickly hits a snag, quite literally, as something catches the fabric of her cloak. The sudden tug isn't enough to dislodge the garment from around her but it is enough to turn her relatively straight fall into a rolling tumble, a perilous situation made all the worse by the lack of light.

        Miraculously, instead of smashing her foolish head open on a hard stone floor, the sudden descent is stopped by something atleast a little bit softer, though the pain that shoots through her chest at the impact does its best to ignore that. A soft whimper of anguish escapes the scholar's lips before she manages to clench her teeth, rolling to one side to allow whichever unlucky soul served as her landing pad to scrape themselves off the floor.

        She spends the next minute or so lying in a heap on the floor, silently wallowing in a mixture of annoyance at her own suffering and a morbid sort of amusement at knowing the others fared equally as poorly. That's atleast some comfort. Unfortunately, as is usually the case, fate rarely stops at the first gut punch. The distinctive growls of monsters echo through whatever place they've ended up in and it becomes very quickly clear that their noisy arrival has been noticed by the locals.

        Grunting with the effort, Layla forces herself to her feet but doesn't immediately move to engage. Instead, she watches the others, taking note of the tools and talents they bring to bear on the foes that rise up to challenge them. A strange collection of techniques to be sure, but such is often the case with these Drifter sorts. Tucking that bit of information away for later, the mage moves up to join the party at last and withdraws a tome from underneath her robe. She flips through it for a moment before finding the page she wants and makes a few gestures with her hands, sending bolts of sliver-thin darkness screaming into the fray like tiny missiles, harassing the targets from afar.



<Pose Tracker> Gasback has posed.

        Gunfire, stuffed animals, totemic powers, and magic well up in the depths of the Dungeon of Memory. The Anneberg howerver... is a stubborn fellow! Even after he is peppered with gunfire from Josephine and Mr. Getaway, thuroughly clothes-lined by Chauncy, and just out-right kicked by the Rock Paper Scissor stylings of Fong Wong, even with the backing of Barrett's power, the beast manages to give the party merry hell before it falls still at last, thrashing about with fang and spine before it snarls it's last snarl and roars it's last, ear-shattering bellow.



<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei Fong Wong clenches his fist--was the RPS Badge... not enough?!?!?! Well, maybe next time. For now--there's a lot of rubble. He takes a moment to think about it while wiping some blood from his lips.

BLOW IT UP BRING THE WHOLE RUIN DOWN HA HA HA HA

No, Fei thinks, I'm thinking more like should I try crushing the big rocks so they're bigger to carry or just you know carry them out as is? "Alright." He says, approaching the pile of rubble--he starts to work through it, casually just flinging small pieces of rock away to try and help make some progress. He's not really helping that much. It's almost like he's too worried about what might happen if he goes a bit longer.

"Going on ruins is awful," He says. "But I guess it's the only work available. Maybe this is karmic punishment... Doomed to forever dig through ruins or starve."



<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

        The thing's fast. Even drawing back doesn't spare Josie from the ravages of the monster's fangs, and it's upon her before she can get a clean shot -- her bullet only grazes it. Hissing in pain, another blast of gunfire nearby gives her the opening she needs to pull back.

        At least the thing goes down before too long. Stowing her firearm and checking her wounds, Josie moves along.

        There must have been a seismic shift or something lately -- the tunnel ahead is partially collapsed and newly so at that judging by the color and shape of the stones, a heavy pile of rubble blocking the only way forward. It's either dig a hole/move some rocks or turn back.

        Dropping her pack, Josie briefly digs through it, before extracting one of the archaeologist's best friends.

        "Let's knock this stuff out of the way," she says, before going to work with her trusty mattock.



<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
Sephilia, spying the rubble, rummages in her satchel and produces a pair of oversized metal claws that she quickly straps to Chauncey's arms. "Don't worry, everyone! Chauncey's good for digging, too!" Indeed, with the metal fixtures in place to help the stuffed animal grip, the group gets some decent progress going pretty quickly.

"I hope there's actually something on the other side of all this stuff," Sephy adds, tapping her nose thoughtfully. "Otherwise we might be here a real long while.



<Pose Tracker> Vin Barrett has posed.

         Vin grumbles as he aims a light kick the remains of the damn murderhorse, his ARM held in one hand, the other rubbing his shoulder. The Baskar Guide sighs as he pulls his hand away, eyeing the blood that's been soaking his shirt a bit. Shaking his head, he rummages under his cloak, pulling out bandages and quickly wrapping the wound up, applying a bit of homemade antiseptic just in case. "Ugh. Well, THAT was unpleasant." 
 
 Grumbling in annoyance, the Baskar glances at the rubble pile and sighs, moving up, starting to join in with the rest in helping move stuff. Well, at least there's a bit o' magic lingering in the air, to make things a little bit easier...And Lord Chauncey, of course.



<Pose Tracker> Gasback has posed.

        Already a rough looking character, Mr. Getaway is looking down rigfht haggard. Glowring severly as he sockets in two new magazines into his gun before he tucks it back into the holster at his thigh. He brings up the tail of the crew, limping slightly... This was a rough trip, to say the least... and then they hit a literal wall!

Still, everyone else seems keen to continue, he wouldn't let this ruin his expedition either.

"Gimme some room." he snarls as he trucks up, left hand reaching over to take hold of a heft handle on his right gauntlet. The fist pivots downwards, the drum-like fixture pivots up and forward... and then it opens up, a heavy torrent of automatic gunfire pounded into a section of the debris!



<Pose Tracker> Layla has posed.
        Their foe proves to be a good deal more resilient than anticipated. This actually makes Layla smile a bit, her face shadowed beneath the low hood of her cloak and the dim lighting of the abandoned depths. It would be an easy thing to crush it flat if she wanted to, a pathetic little insect of no consequence. However, she has an image to maintain for the moment, so instead she merely harries the creature from a distance, unleashing just enough of her magic to look halfway competant while the others do the bulk of the work, though it takes a great deal more effort to avoid being wounded herself than she would have liked.

        Once the stubborn thing is finally dealt with, she resumes her place at the rear of the group, nursing her bruises in silence until the next obstacle rises up to bar their path. Of a far more mundane variety, this particular hurdle nevertheless would have been one beyond her means - yet another reminder of her own personal lack of quality. Fortunately, Drifters tend to be a bit on the naive side, simply assuming that everyone is looking for honest work among their little anthill of a society, unaware of the boot that looms overhead. Using their efforts to her own ends is a satisfying enough solution.

        The cloaked scholar hangs back while the others bring out all sorts of odd tools to deal with the problem, moving forward only once most of the heavy work has died down to help clear away some of the lighter rubble.



<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

        It's amazing what a group can accomplish when they all work together! Between Chauncey's mighty claws, Josie's favorite digging tool, an actual stream of gunfire (!) and a bunch of good old-fashioned hefting and moving (even if that just includes some of the lighter rocks aside, in some cases), the terrible pile of rubble is defeated.

        The way ahead is clear!



<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei casually tosses a few small pebbles. "Oh great we did it." Good job Fei you threw some pebbles. Honestly he probably is more tired than if he just helped normally.

And of course behind the passage... is something terrifying. Something horrible! Something...skeletal! A small squadron of skeletons, still in armor--are approaching from behind the rocks. In order to get through you'll have to get past them!

They point their bleached bones in the team's direction--and charges!

Fei does so too, carrying one of the larger boulders as he does so. "What beats skeleton army??"

He throws the boulder. "Rock."

The RPS Badge approves of this punnery. Hopefully it actually works out this time???



<Pose Tracker> Vin Barrett has posed.
...Vin isn't quite sure what this 'RPS' badge is, but he's not sure if it works via rocks. Regardless! Seeing as how there are FOUL FILTHY UNDEAD ABOMINATIONS OF THE NATURAL ORDER...the Baskar Shaman shrugs slightly, pulling that totem out once more, holding it in one hand. The other hand? 
 
 It's got -FIRE- in it. A fair amount, really! Which is promptly chucked towards the back of the UNCLEAN WALKING REMNANTS OF DEFILED CORPSES' formation, hopefully crisping them nicely. The 'backlash' effect of the totem kicks in again, though, helping energize folks' muscles once again! 
 
 ...Magic is awesome!



<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

        Stepping back and dropping her mattock back into her pack, Josie doesn't even bother with closing it as she hefts it again. Dragging a forearm across her brow, she exhales deeply. "Good job, guys! We're getting there!" Though she does take a glance at Gasback. "Interesting piece of equipment!" Meaning the glove. "Y'know, that kind of setup kind of reminds me of a guy I worked with once..."

        Though time for chit-chat is short. "--Look sharp!"

        Her hand flies to her firearm, but falls away, crackling energy gathering in her left hand instead as she changes tactics midstream. Bullets are a poor choice against bones, but an bolt of lightning--

        She hurls the electrical lance overhand at one of the armored skeletons.



<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
The rubble falls, and then there's skeletons! "Ew," Sephilia says. "Skeletons! I hate when they get up and start fighting again. Chauncey's good at them, too, though!"

Hopefully this will go a little better than the last fight--Chauncey's going to need some pretty extensive patchwork already.

"Foxington Press!" Sephilia calls, and Chauncey rushes at the animate bones, falling atop them and crushing them beneath his not inconsiderable hugeness.



<Pose Tracker> Gasback has posed.

        Spirits bouyed by their easy work of the wall, Gasback lowers his right arm, gunsmoke still fuming from the trio of barrels in the drum even as it pivots back to rest once more, the gauntlet's massive fist shifting back to it's proper position with a heft, metal clunk... He laid it to rest too soon.

"Damn..." he uttered, lips twisting in distaste, "Alright, fine!"

"Come and get it!"

Throwing open his coat, he reveals a small armories worth of ammunition, ether potions, and other such combative pick-you-ups to distribute amongst the team! He tosses a magazine here, a clip there, a potion that way, what ever you need, Mr. Getaway's here to help you do it better!



<Pose Tracker> Layla has posed.
        Ah, now there's a familiar sensation. That reek of fetid air. The cold chill that crawls across her skin like a small blanket of spiders. Noisy clattering of rusted metal on dry bone. The undead have set up shop here.

        Idly, she muses on what sort of people these creatures were before their demise. Adventurers such as theirselves, unable to live up to the challenge of the ruins? Soldiers from a long forgotten kingdom sent to their doom against an unknown foe? Perhaps merely lost souls drawn to a place of darkness, tormented by the twisted power that captured them for all eternity. She'd love to study them and find out. It's amazing what you can learn from things most people don't even bother to consider. But, alas, Drifters tend not to be the patient sort.

        The immediate crack of gunfire at the sight of the shambling monsters merely proves her point. She can't help but to quirk an eye at the large man who seems to favor heavy fire power. Well, someone came prepared. Another mental note is added to her slowly growing list.

        This time Layla decides to unleash a little more of her power. If she can't take the time to properly study the creatures, perhaps she can glean something of their nature by siphoning a bit of their essence. She catches the potion tossed her way and stuffs it into her cloak, offering no word of thanks. Instead, she withdraws a different bottle of pink-hued fluid and swigs down about half of its contents. Stretching out her hands, she smiles again and unleashes a burst of shadows that engulfs the entire squad of skeletons, misty tendrils of darkness seeping out of the air to twist into their bodies like wriggling spears.

        "Crumble..."



<Pose Tracker> Vin Barrett has posed.

 Well, the shambling hordes of Spartoi Skeletons are shot, punched, fried, exposed to dark magic, and otherwise quite summarily stomped into little pieces once again, hopefully releasing their spirits from where they are trapped and sending them onwards once again! 
 
 Which is good, because, um...well...there's a large door blocking the way onwards, pits everywhere, and, in a feat of sadism by some long dead trap-builder, the obvious switch to open the door is located on the other side of a pit. This...is going to be tricky, yeah? 
 
 For his part, Vin Barrett, having finished saying a minor prayer for those poor ReDeaded Sorts, pauses, glancing at the door, the switch, back to the door...and then sighing. "Really wish I had some rope." 
 
 Hmming, he shrugs, and, lacking any other plans, and not fancying trying to jump for the switch and risk another painful fall (or worse), settles for picking up discarded, rusted old weaponry and flinging them at the switch, trying to depress it. It's a start, anyways...



<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
Sephilia stares glumly at the far-away switch, across a pit from the group. "Chauncey's good at a lot of stuff, but I don't think he's great here. Maybe we can...uh...any ideas?" She taps her nose thoughtfully trying to figure out a way to do it.

"Maybe Chauncey can throw me to the other side...but then...how would I get back?" This plan clearly needs massaging.



<Pose Tracker> Gasback has posed.

        Who says Outlaws arn't team players?

Gasback resorts himself, tugging his coat back into proper position... by the look of what had been in there, he had plenty to spare!

Dusting some bone shards from his shoulder and picking a tooth out of his mutton chops, Gasback carries on... until the reach another damned jumping puzzle... His bright mood sours and his feature work into another surly scowl.

There ain't no way He's going to make that... His attention flicking towards his cohorts one after the other. His attention rests on Fei, bushy brows furrowing. "You!" he singles out the painter with a pointing finger. "C'mere."

And this is how we have Gasback standing at the edge of the hole, hands joined and ready to give Fei a boost.



<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

        A pick-me-up is just what Josie could use right now -- she's far from down and out, but it's still much appreciated! "Thanks!" she calls out to Gasback, before taking advantage of the brief opening to down the vial tossed her way. Her arm still smarts from that Annaberge before.

        She glances back over her shoulder at Layla, and one snowy eyebrow lifts slightly. Interesting spell. That's right, she said she was a... scholar?

        Moving along through the next hallway brings them to a bit of an impass -- a closed door and a switch. ...And the pits up front. Meaningfully, Josie prods Penelope. "Hey, it's your time to shine!"

        Penelope coos, closes her eyes, and puffs out her feathers. In other words, 'no'.

        Sighing, Josie stoops to pick up a rock, tosses it up and down in her hand, then lets it fly at the switch.

        It's a pretty long shot but--!?



<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"Should I go back and get a rock?" Fei asks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_GlMUx5XXQ

"Yeah I'm going to go back and get a rock." Fei runs off--

--picks up a rock, a big ass rock. Maybe a cinderblock is better, but he intends to clean that switch's clock. He then comes rushing by.

He sees Gasback's hands and says, "That'll help!" And he hops down onto his hands, leaps off of it with the boost, performs a beautiful summersault, and throws the big ass rock towards the switch--He can do it he can make it happen--

--decent chance that he'll just clobber the wall though like WILY E COYOTE.



<Pose Tracker> Layla has posed.
        Unfortunately, the long dead bones are little match for the combined firepower brought to bear upon them, the poor things. A shame, they would have made cute pets. Still, Layla gets atleast part of what she wanted and the dark magic animating the skeletons flows into her body with none the wiser, bolstering her weakened body somewhat. She takes a few moments to savor the taste of the energies. Necromatic magic always has a particularly strong kick to it. There are few forces in the universe as potent as those which grant life, however twisted and corrupt.

        The group moves on yet again, finding their path barred once more not far down the way. This time their barrier is one of perhaps intentional design, a switch on the far side of a deep pit. Ofcourse, it is entirely possible that the true culprit here is time. Forgotten and unmaintained, it's a wonder that so many of these structures remain as intact as they do. Whether by chance or malice, the switch remains out of their reach.

        A hand rises from beneath the cloak's fold to cover her mouth as a few of the fools simply starts chuking random objects at across the pit like a monkey frustrated with a problem it can't understand. Her giggle is caught before it can escape, muffled into a soft noise that might have just been a cough. And then Fei ups the ante by taking the rock-throwing solution to a new level. It's almost impressive in its barbaric simplicity.

        "Well... it's creative... I suppose," she says softly, mostly to herself. Not that she has a lot to offer here in the way of help. A quick thought occurs to her just as Fei leaps to the air and she gestures deftly with her hidden hand, conjuring up a soft burst of shadows to help propel the young man into the air. It's not much of anything noticable, just a little extra oomph. If he happens to go flying into the pit, well, that could be amusing too.



<Pose Tracker> Vin Barrett has posed.
So...The good news is, Fei and Mr. Getaway's plan works -amazingly- well! The young martial artist flies through the air, like a graceful pigeon, SMASHING that switch hard enough to force it to move. The Switch WORKS! Huzzah! 
 
 ...The Bad News is, the Obviously Placed Switch works. The floor suddenly creaks ominously, splitting, and anyone who isn't fast on their feet is going to be dumped down a level in this ill-maintained dungeon with a bunch of fresh bumps and bruises!



<Pose Tracker> Layla has posed.
        Somehow, this hair-brained scheme actually works. Layla continues to supress an amused grin as their daring acrobat hurls himself across the chasm but her mirth quickly fades to surprise as the switch smashes downwards and an ominous groaning noise fills the air. That doesn't sound like a door opening...

        The floor drops out from underneath the lot of them with a sudden crack. Layla lets out a cry of surprise but instead of being pitched into an empty void once again, she finds herself landing on a small broken outcropping only a dozen feet or so below. A quick look around provides her a wide glimpse of the hall, including several more jutting bits of broken masonry that form a sort of zig-zagging staircase down to the bottom. She takes advantage of these make-shift ledges to slowly squirm her way down and take better stock of the situation.

        The presence of sunlight is something of an oddity this far underground but one which she doesn't take for granted. Even as attuned to the shadows as she is, that doesn't grant her the power to see in the dark. The trap seems to have dumped the lot of them into another hallway, this one mostly free of debris but possessing yet another closed door. Taking the initiative this time, Layla moves up to inspect the odd depression in the heavy stone fixture, quickly coming to the obvious conclusion.

        "Hmph, seems we'll need some kind of key to get past. I doubt we'll be lucky enough to simply find it lying around... but stranger things can be found lurking in the dark."



<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
Sephilia taps her nose thoughtfully as she sees this new barrier--a sunbeam, and a door with a moon-shaped hole.

"What we need is something reflective, obviously," Sephy says, "but what? Look around and see if you can find something we can bounce the light off, maybe? There's gotta be something down here, right?"

Least prepared dungeon leader /ever/.

"I mean, it's gotta be that, right? That's the key, right? That's how these things always worked back home..."



<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei Fong Wong CRASH.

Nevertheless, he didn't break his neck. Sigh. He rolls up into a seated position and rubs at his forehead. He looks around a bit before reaching into his bag. He's still moderately beaten up so he takes his itme doing this before he draws out his paintbrush and starts painting on the wall. "I remember the route we took..." He starts drawing an overarching map of where they've been so far. "And the entrance..." paint paint. "Was here--" He then draws an area underneath where they've been so far. "So we should be here. I think this light--" Oh Sephilia just said it. "I think she's got it."



<Pose Tracker> Gasback has posed.

        Despite his earlier run in with gravity, Mr. Getaway made it out of this brush with falling rather well! Maybe he managed to cling onto Layla's ledge for a moment before falling the rest of the way! A few bumps and bruises... and he was favoring a leg but when he got to his feet at the end of the fall, he was still in fighting shape!

The again, any shape he's usually in is fighting shape.

He hasn't had that dungeon experience to suss this one out... But it looks like the ladies have this one in hand. He braves random encounters, scrounging for keys or polished discs. Whatever they'd need to work that sunbeam to their favor amongst the rubble and ruins.



<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

        Alas, it's all for naught. Her little stone bounces off the wall next to the switch. Rolling her shoulders, Josephine shrugs.

        Well, that's a solution. "Good thinking!" Josie calls out as Fei goes flying across the gap. "Now, hit the switch!"

        A hard smash moves the switch.

        The door doesn't move though. The floor does. "Hey--" Josephine calls out as she plummets. Unhelpful again, Penelope takes flight, lazily circling downwards as everyone else not blessed with wings takes the hard way to the next level.

        "Ugh," she utters, picking herself up off the floor as the dust settles. "I don't think anything's broken but... You guys okay?" Brushing herself off, she takes a quick look around. Closed door, single ray of sunlight... She sets off towards it, to crouch in front of the crescent-shaped hole and poke at it. "With a hole like this... Hmm... a mirror-- Yes, exactly!" she chimes in as Fei, Sephy and Layla indicate towards the solution.

        She stands and steps aside, glancing down the hallway. "Penelope," she says, addressing the pigeon milling aimlessly on the ruined rubble. "Try and find something shiny!"

        Do pigeons... even understand commands like that?



<Pose Tracker> Vin Barrett has posed.
Vin, like the rest of the party, looks on with anticipation as Fei gracefully smashed the absolute hell outta that switch. 
 
 Like several others, he is also equally unprepared for the damn floor to drop him alevel. He lands with a loud *WHUMP and a groan, sighing as he lays there on his back for a moment. "...Alright, alright...Ow..." 
 
 Wincing, he pries himself to his feet, rolling his shoulder, testing the range of motion along with the others. Find a key and/or something shiny, huh? Alright, Vin can do that...although, he does stop everyone before they take off a hunting. "Everyone, fill your saddle bags. Isn't as good as fresh heal berries, but Uncle Remington's Trailmix Recipe is just the sort of thing you can use after a rough landing like that, y'know?" 
 
 And, hey, maybe it's the taste of sweet dried fruit in the depths, or the hint of Sage's Mint, but it does help buoy the spirits up a bit! 
 
 Also, snacks are just great in general, so, y'know.



<Pose Tracker> Layla has posed.
        Some quick thinking and industrious work from the team comes up with a solid plan of action. The men and a trusty pidgeon go to work ferreting out a piece of shiny metal with which to reflect the sunlight onto the hole in the door but after a several minutes of obviously finding nothing like that in a dusty old dungeon, Leyla allows their suffering to cease and produces a small hand mirror from under her cloak, smirking mischieviously.

        "Two young girls and no mirrors... honestly..."

        Knowing better than to be the one to actually tempt fate, she hands it off to one of the other two ladies of the group, letting them sort out which of their weird pets is going to be the one who gets the honors. Regardless, once the beam of sunlight is directed at the hole, there is another rumbling sound that sounds disturbingly like the one that preceeded their quick drop into the current hall. Fortunately, there are no more falling floors to contend with. Instead, a sharp hiss fills the air as several small holes open up in the walls and spew yellow fumes into the narrow space.

        Luck is on their side this time, however, for whatever foul poison was once storied in the trap has long since lost most of its potecy. A bit of coughing and wheezing and a faint sense of vertigo is the worst of the symptoms and those will fade soon enough. The door begrudingly slides open a few moments later.

        "Now that I think about it," Layla says, wheezing out through a bit of cloak pulled up to cover her face. "That was a moon symbol on the door..."



<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
The door with the moon seal opens, and then...well, then there's a hallway ending at another, bigger, door.

"Whoever built this place must really have liked doors, huh?" Sephy muses. "Anyone find a key? No? Well...I guess there's only one way forward, and I really really hate to leave without seeing all there is to see!"

Out come Chauncey's digging claws again. "All right--Everybody, /beat up that door!/"



<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"That wasn't so bad." Fei says. And then uh.

...another door. Nughhh.

"I'll get another rock." Fei says as he runs off.



<Pose Tracker> Vin Barrett has posed.
...Well, that wasn't too hard. Why, it was quite easy to get through that door, in the en- 
 
 /There is another door behind it/. 
 
 THE SECOND DOOR IS LOCKED AS WELL. 
 
 "...I hate this place." 
 
 Fire starts swirling around one of Vin's hands as he starts chanting under his breath, turning brighter and brighter. 
 
 "Screw it! Screw these pit traps and SCREW YOU, DOOR! CRIMSON LANCE!" 
 
 Yeah, so...Apparently, while Vin is -normally- pretty easygoing...well, um...it appears that when he loses his temper, it's a bit...explosive. 
 
 And involves -fire-. Lots of fire, which he's trying to concentrate on the door's hinges with the concentrated beam of heat.



<Pose Tracker> Gasback has posed.

        Still trying to clear his head... and his lungs, Gasback takes a moment to catch up, the second oldest, he's feeling the wear of the trip, his breathing labored and sweat running down his face and making those rock hard, delicious abdominal muscles of his glisten in the light.

Steadied, he turns his attention to the door, his lips drawing into a thin line. His brows furrowing.

Jets on his gauntlet loose long streams of exhaust as they lift his gauntlet up, easing the weight on his arm and shoulder even as his free hand grips the... grip near his elbow. The drum flips and pivots as his fist crooks downwards, the knuckle plate levering into position as a short, single, stubby barrel protrudes from the drum.

He shares Vin's sentiment.

He fires, a explosive shell kicked out, trailing smoke. Another, a third, he unloads! Rocking the door with recoilless rifle rounds!



<Pose Tracker> Layla has posed.
        As usual, Layla is quite happy to sit back and let everyone get their hands dirty with the hard work. Whatever was in that musty old gas isn't sitting well with her weak constitution anyways, so she simply takes a seat off to the side and waits while the fools unleash their primitive logic on yet another barrier. Sometimes you just need to gorrilla smash your way through a door, though, which is why she teamed up with the monkies. Casually, she picks up a chunk of old masonry from the ground and lazily tosses it at the entrance.

        "Have at thee, door."



<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

        Grinning comes easily to Josie enough already so it's only natural that she grins here as Vin starts to hand out the snacks. "You sure do come prepared, don't you?" she comments, reserving some of the mix in her right hand before chewing on some herself. It's better than her travel rations, that's for sure. "Is this a Baskar recipe too?"

        Luck is with them -- /and/ Penelope is listening for a change. The pigeon unearths a shiny bit of metal and as if she also understands what's needed, takes to the air with it into the single beam of sunlight. The ray shines on the door just long enough for thing to start rumbling open... and for both the bird to drop the shard (maybe it /was/ just coincidence that she flew into the light??) and yellowish gas to come billowing out of the walls.

        Josie tugs her scarf up over her mouth and winces slightly as she waits it out. A little lopsidedly, Penelope comes to roost on her shoulder, a feeling that Josie can certainly understand once she takes a step. "Ugh... Well, at least it's an old trap." It could have been bad otherwise. "Let's keep moving, shall we?"

        Though there's not much of /that/. Another door lies ahead. Right behind the previous door. A quick tug verifies the obvious -- locked, and they don't have the key. "Let's break it down, then!" Moving to one side as the others unleash their might and fury upon the locked door, Josephine again shrugs off her pack. Only once the rocks, fire and, uh, gun/fire/ have passed does she step up and take a mighty overhead swing at the lock with the mattock.



<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"Maybe we should've aimed for the lock," Fei says.



<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
After what seems like ages fruitlessly attacking the impressive locked door, Sephilia finally calls a halt. "This isn't working," she sighs mournfully. "Whatever's behind that door, it's locked away too tight for us to get through...today, anyway."

She points at the door, glowering. "You mark my words, door, you haven't seen the last of Sephilia Lampbright!"

She pauses and looks around at the gathered group. "Uh...did anyone see a way back OUT of the hole?"



<Pose Tracker> Vin Barrett has posed.
The Baskar is panting as he finishes unleashing his, ultimately, futile furious flames upon the door. Sighing, he rubs his hair, knocking dust and dirt out of it. "Ugh...I swear, whoever built this place was a sadist. First that pit-trap up above, then the Unbreakable Door With No Key. Ancient civilization architects were assholes, apparently." 
 
 He pauses at Sephi's question, then turns, sniffing the air. "Yeah, I think I can smell some moving air that-a-way. Lemme take a look." 
 
 Pulling out a piece of jerky, chewing on it as he carefully follows his nose, eventually finding a tunnel that goes back up to the upper level behind a couple of moving block puzzles and a few hidden doors involving emblems. Nodding, he goes back for the rest. "Found it." 
 
 ...He'll worry about the Hole when they get there. Maybe they can form a human chain using Lord Chauncey, Mr. Getaway, and Fei's Rockhard Abs or something to allow the less physically inclined members to escape this endless hell of DOORS and HOLES.



<Pose Tracker> Gasback has posed.

        The drum clicks, dry of it's heavier fare. Gasback relents, the cannon pivoting back against the gauntlet...

The smoke clears, the door stands.

Gasback glowers hatefully, seething explitives through clenched teeth. It'll be like this until they see sunlight once more.



<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

        A few swings is about as much as Josie can manage -- the lock is metal and it doesn't so much as dent under her furious attempts to knock it right off the door. She takes a few steps backwards, breathing heavily. That was too much -- her hand really hurts. "Whew... Hah."

        The door -- and the lock -- are still standing.

        She slumps against the wall slightly and closes her eyes, her expression slightly drawn. "Let's call it quits for today. We'll come back for what's behind that door later, and... let's look on the bright side -- this means no one else can beat us to it, either." She pauses, straightens herself, and smiles brightly at the group as she opens her eyes again. "Okay?"

        She'll just have to see if there's anything likely on the way out that could possibly be sold... or if she can plead her case to the innkeeper. No sense worrying about it.

        "...Back out, huh?" She glances backwards.

        A beat.

        "Well, let's try climbing the rubble!"

        Josie is back in form again, it seems.



<Pose Tracker> Layla has posed.
        Layla lets out a sigh, resting her chin in the palm of a hand. It would seem she didn't bring big enough monkies for this task. Amazing how often a locked door proves to be the mightest of challenges. It's almost like the architects expected future generations to plunder their lost riches and built everything in insanely convoluted manners out of spite. She'd probably have liked them.

        Unfortunately, the impassible barrier means their efforts have largely been for naught. All she's going to have to show for her trouble today is several bruises, a lot of sweat, and sore feet. Though, perhaps meeting a few more of the local Drifters is something of a positive too. Having worked together before, they'll be more trusting in future endeavors.

        Everyone admits defeat in their own way and it becomes clear that it's time to go. Pushing to her feet, the scholar lets out a sigh and follows along on the trek back to the surface, the thought of a warm bath providing the motivation to keep up.
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