View source for 2017-05-22: A Dungeon Run Where All The Wits Scores Clearly Apply To the Party Banter Only

*'''Log: A Dungeon Run Where All The Wits Scores Clearly Apply To the Party Banter Only'''
*'''Cast:''' [[Character :: Cassidy Cain]], [[Character :: Jude Moshe]], [[Character :: Noah Hawthorne]], [[Character :: Morgan Newkirk]]
*'''Where:''' Lolithia's Tomb, Somewhere in Adlehyde
*'''Date:''' May 22, 2017
*'''Summary''': ''Knowing that the incoming disaster heading for Adlehyde has some connection with the Lolithia golem recently pulled from the dirt by [[Emma Hetfield]], Cassidy Cain and Noah Hawthorne bring Jude Moshe and Morgan Newkirk to the Tomb in the search for answers. As always, considering who is involved, the excursion is less an expedition and more a series of ridiculous disasters. In the end, they don't get much out of it, especially when Cassidy accidentally steps on the only valuable thing they find. With no answers forthcoming, the group decides that there is no choice but to enact Plan B.''

----

 <CARD DRAW>

++++++++++++++++++++++<* CHALLENGE - Trusty? Elevator *>++++++++++++++++++++++ <br>
|Type: Entry       |Dungeon Ability: Wits      |Challenge Rating: 1          | <br>
+++++++++++++< Challenge Information: >+++++++++++++ <br>
The descent into Lolithia's Tomb would be a challenging one in most          
circumstances. But thankfully there won't be much of a physical challenge     
today - one of the elevators is at the top of the dig site, ready to take     
the party into the dark depths below. Of course the controls are also         
somewhat complicated, promising a jarring ride or worse if someone hits the   
wrong lever at the wrong time...     <br>                                         
+Dungeon Conditions: Injure+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

DG: Cassidy Cain has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Trusty? Elevator. <br>
DG: Noah Hawthorne has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Trusty? Elevator. <br>
DG: Morgan Newkirk has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Trusty? Elevator. <br>
DG: Jude Moshe has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Trusty? Elevator. <br>

DG: The party led by Cassidy Cain has passed this challenge! The party gained 12 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon''draw.

 <Pose Tracker> Cassidy Cain has posed.


Before their arrival, there was a quick briefing of sorts in which Cassidy facilitated a round of introductions and a few hits from the precious bottle of McLellan forty-year that she had managed to once again pry away from Morgan's greedy Beastman grip the last time they all saw one another. With the additional gift of information, informing the rest of her ''crew'' that she has managed to make the necessary arrangements for their break-in at the palace, they all picked up their gear and headed for Lolithia's Tomb.

By the time they arrive at the site, the sun is fat and low on the horizon, scattered clouds gleaming with streaks of red and gold in defiance of the encroaching twilight. Surrounding rock edifices reflect the heat of the rest of the day, leaving their surroundings warmer than the rest, but it is a welcome aid to ward off the devastating evening chill that would inevitably follow, though they do not have to worry about that for a few hours yet. Most of the Hetfield Industries worker bees have left for the day; save for a few drifters hired as security along the perimeter, there would not be much in the way of interruptions to their own independent explorations, but given the distance between the boundaries and the actual crevice in which they are to descend, probably also means that they would not be able to help if things go wrong.

And for excursions like these, that is most definitely guaranteed.

The blonde herself has experience with exactly ''one'' instance of tomb raiding, and that put her face-to-face with a Hellkraken weaponized by a Hellbearcat, before an underground lake tried to drown her and Physics decided not to apply to ''anything'', ending with a death-defying chase across rocks with Hellwolves nipping at her ankles. A decade of traversing the planet's wastes, that journey with Noah Hawthorne into the dark belly of the Hollow is bound to color her biases and opinions on other like experiences that would follow. With the memories of that past insanity and sore bones and muscles very fresh in her memories, it probably isn't surprising to see a look of flat resignation on her face as she stares at the yawning pit leading into the heart of the Lolithia's resting place.

"Another tomb," she says tonelessly.

It is rare that she carries the lion's share of her gear, how little of it actually exists, but she is a fast learner and elected not to take any chances this time; her kit's strap slung diagonally from shoulder to hip, with two pistols in their holsters and the engraved revolver tucked into the small of her back. Her bandolier, as promised to the relic-hunter two weeks ago, is ''full'' of grenades. Their cold weight and presence are a small comfort, but not by much.    

"Anyone want tae wager on what's down there?" she wonders. "Anything's at play, except giant boulders that dinnae give a shite about Physics. Sommat tells me that's nae much of a gamble. Spiders, methinks. Giant spiders out tae get Morgan and introduce him tae its queen considering he's been here before and he ''always'' leaves an impression."

To the fox-man, she flashes him a wink.

"In case you want tae add a thirteenth marriage tae your list, luv, we're well prepared this time now that we've brought a former holy man tae this wee shindig."

The sight of yet another elevator, though, is nearly enough for Cassidy to turn her heel and walk ''right'' back to where she came from. After a moment's long look at it, she rolls her head sidelong to look at Noah. It is an expression that reflects many things, undoubtedly inspired by the last time they were in an elevator together. There is, at least, no hesitation when she gets on, stepping on it carefully - at least there are ''controls'', unlike the archaic pulley and rope system that she had come across the last time. She squints at the levers, the buttons. Eyes gravitate immediately to the glaring red one on the top-right side, encased in glass:

DO NOT PUSH

"Ach, fook me. Already? This is seriously happening already?"

 <Pose Tracker> Morgan Newkirk has posed.

"Its sixteen now, and every one prettier than the last." Morgan drawls back towards Cassidy as he lets one ear tick back. "And I did meet a spider beastgirl once." A beatpause. "She was all hands." 

Yes. Yes he went there. 

"Besides, you wern't officiating at ''every'' weddin." He drawls out as he steps into the elevator. "...though. If I do say so myself. You ''do'' make a mighty fine looking priestess. All demure." A beatpause. "I thought ya were gonna burst right into flames." He adds with a smirk as he slips into the cab of the elevator. 

"Lets see though. Last time I was here...how did we get this to work..." He mutters half to himself as he starts poking at the control systems with one finger. "...it wasn't that complicated." He squints slowly at it before the light of rememberance shines upon him and his ears perk forwards. 

"Oh yeah! Percusive maintance!" 

...wait what?

Without waiting for anyone else to say a thing the fox rears back and slams his foot into the control pannel. Gears start to spin. Lights begin to glow. The pannel ''would'' have done perfectly right. However Morgan seems to have kicked a might too hard. 

One of the levers snaps to ricochet around the interior of the elevator. Narrowly missing Noah, nearly parting Jude's hair, and ''pinging'' off the ground between Cass's feet before flying...well...

There is a sound of shattering glass as the lever meets the Big Red Button at speed. Smashing though the fragile covering to depress the brightly painted piece of ancient machine. 

Morgan pauses. Glances at the button. 

"...I'm sure thats fine..."

 <Pose Tracker> Jude Moshe has posed.

"Well... at least it's what it says on the tin." This is Jude Moshe's casual observation as he stnds in front of the chasm leading down towards the rediscovered golem's tomb. His hands lock behind the back of his head as he whistles, lowly. "That's some drop," he helpfully observes before glancing Morgan's way. A second passes. 

"Don't think you're gonna find that spider of your dreams down there Morg," Jude Moshe says this with a casual sense of certainty, even if no less apologetic. He offers the beastman a reassuring flash of a smile to go along with Cassidy's wink, blithe and easy as can be. 

"I ''have'' heard of a special variety of pillbug that loves living in deep, dark places though. I hear the queens like to lay their eggs in their mate and then, well..." 

Jude demonstratively has his hand pantomime eating his other hand with a waning 'oh noooooo.' 

"... y'know." 

... 

"So if we run into one of those, I'm pretty sure I remember the rites and all." 

And just like that, he carries himself away towards the elevator, casually leaning back against the railing. Above them, what looks like a bird glints metallic in the sunlight before it goes diving down towards the chasm ahead of the group. Jude, at least, pays it no mind, eyes running through all the levers with a thoughtful stare. 

"... huh. This one's actually kinda more involved than most of the stuff on this god-forsaken continent," he observes, mildly impressed. He pushes up, moving forward. "Alright, here's what we have to do--" 

''Percusive maintenance!'' 

"... Sure, why not--" 

And Morgan, helpfully, shows ''exactly'' why not. 

Metal and glass smashes. Gears spin, lights sputter furiously. The lever whizzes past Jude just above his head-- "God dammit -- watch the hair!" is all he can think to shout before it ricochets past and hits that glass case. Depresses the button. 

Jude Moshe, for the longest time, stares at that button as with the exasperated indifference of someone who is sure it just signaled the apocalypse. Stark silence passes. 

"... You know the second one of us says something--" 

And the elevator just goes shooting down groundwords like a god damn bullet trying to punch to the core of the planet. 

 <Pose Tracker> Noah Hawthorne has posed.

Mountains of correspondence are keeping Noah Hawthorne perpetually busy in Adlehyde, coordinating logistics for storing provisions outside of the city's bounds. He was already busy before Morgan Newkirk threw his weight with the Guild behind those efforts; now, he barely has time to eat and less time to sleep. The deadline for preparations swiftly approaches, the looming question mark of an ill-defined catastrophe worse for the lack of detail about what to expect. 

The evening's adventure will cost him in both meals and rest when it's over, but it arrives as a sorely-needed change of pace. As unexpectedly gifted as Noah appears to be at organizing things on a grand scale, and as strongly as he must feel about the matter to hurl himself into it at potentially great expense to himself (surely he must be getting out of it on the side?), he has no love of the work itself and chafes for the yoke. All of this ''responsibility'' is gradually accumulating the kind of clockspring tension in him destined to eventually experience spectacular structural failure. On that day, anyone caught in the blast radius of that catharsis will, if they survive, have one hell of a story to tell. The world will shatter on the axis of his need for excitement and drown everyone in his vicinity in an overabundance of improbable nonsense. 

For now, though... 

There are faint shadows under hazel eyes, but none of his sharper edges appear to have been blunted. He tosses the others a sharp half-smile when they convene, makes his introductions to Jude, and probably spends a few moments silently observing the little clockwork wonder of that flitting bird, fascination evident in every line of his face. 

He doesn't ask, though. 

Of course the first thing they come to is an elevator, and all he can say, glancing sidelong to meet Cassidy's dry look, is, "At least this one seems like it goes in the right direction?" 

Once they've all filed in, Morgan ''boots'' the console, and Noah spins in place, eyes wide, and throws his arms out to either side. "REALLY? ALREADY?" 

Maybe he's just annoyed at being upstaged. 

He glances at Jude as the reporter begins that ominous remark, and just before the elevator rockets downward, he lifts both of his hands and covers his face. 

It grinds to a successful halt, though Noah feels as though his stomach is going to collapse into his boots in the process. And when they emerge... 

He stops dead, staring at the stone 'block' sidelong. 

"Always. Always. ''Every time''," he's muttering, mostly to himself. 

The only other point of interest in the room consists of the gears, which he approaches and considers, hand on chin, because obviously he hasn't learned that leaving a gap in the action means that someone else is going to do something insane.

 <CARD DRAW>

++++++++++++++++++++++++<* CHALLENGE - Yet Another Gear Puzzle *>+++++++++++++++++++++++++ <br>
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits      |Challenge Rating: 1          | <br>
++++++++++++++++++< Challenge Information: > ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ <br>
A large stone block has been rolled across the exit to this room, leaving     
the party with no way to venture forward. However, there does appear to be    
an ancient machine consisting of a number of large gears set into the wall    
that can be manipulated by moving the parts about. When connected, it will    
run the machine and move the block. Nothing too difficult here.              <br> 
+Dungeon Conditions: Injure+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

DG: Noah Hawthorne has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Yet Another Gear Puzzle. <br>
DG: Morgan Newkirk has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Yet Another Gear Puzzle. <br>
DG: Cassidy Cain has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Yet Another Gear Puzzle. <br>
DG: Jude Moshe has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Yet Another Gear Puzzle. <br>

DG: The party led by Cassidy Cain has failed this challenge! The party gained 2 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon''draw.

 <Pose Tracker> Cassidy Cain has posed.

Noah's aside has her grinning broadly, though she says nothing else to that.

To Morgan, she laughs. "Ay, that. Well we're two verra independent people, luv. I'm sure that if we started doing everything together, people are going tae talk, and I'm sure you and I have reputations tae think about."

Not really.

"But dressing up in pure white and playing the part of the sweet virginal priestess did take its toll. Started tae feel flames licking my face and feet by the time that sordid mess with Olenka was over, but it was worth it." Cassidy's expression turns dreamy. "I thought you were going tae break out in ''hives'' when  you saw me act that way. As if you looked up and saw a star rock come crashing intae the earth tae take you with it. I tell you, the memory of it has sustained me in several verra difficult-- "

The lever flies off at Morgan's kick, smashes through the glass and presses the button.

"...times..."

And then Jude ''had'' to say something in that way. There is a look angled in his direction before they plummet like a downward rocket down into the shaft. While everyone else manages to keep ahold of some composure, the thief does ''not''. She is ''not'' used to this, so she hangs onto the edge of the elevator with a death grip and shrieks.

"MORGAN IF ALL OF US DIE BEFORE WE EVEN GET IN, I SWEAR TAE GOD I'LL-- !!"

The elevator jerks violently into a stop, and miraculously they're not dead. 

"....well I guess we'll never know now." 
 
She is already stumbling out of the elevator, hands on weak and trembling knees, hunched over when the next obstacle reveals itself. She gives it a flat look, turns to look at the machinery that Noah finds and reaches out to touch it. 
 
It sparks. Arcs of electricity ''spit out'' of the console and smoke curls up towards the ceiling as a small fire ignites within its innards. 
 
"...that's nae going tae work. I wonder if..." 
 
There's a loud BANG, echoing all around the chamber. The sound of rocks cascading slowly rumbles through tetonic vibrations that seems to come from everywhere. Nothing has happened YET, but something ''is'' happening and the sinking sensation at the pit of her stomach suggests they're going to find out what it is soon enough. 
 
"...." Wide eyes turn to the rest. 
 
"Look, all I did was touch it!" Cassidy cries. "I dinnae even PRESS a god damn button!"


 <Pose Tracker> Morgan Newkirk has posed.

"Look I told y'all it would be fine!! WHY DID YOU HAVE TA GO AND SAY SOMETHIN' ELSE, JUDE!" Morgan's shout echos off the side of the shaft. Ears pinned back against his head. His teath grit as he holds on for dear life. Expecting this to be the last few moments of his life. 

And then it stops. 

Right on the verge of many confessions. 

"See! I told ya it would be fine! I know what I'm doin!" He absolutly does ''not'' know what he's doing. Not at all. However he can fake it pretty well. But now its a block. Not an elevator. 

And he squints at it. 

"You know. Who the hell gets paid ta reset all this mess every time we go back down here. Its like its a new damn tunnel ''every'' time. There has ta be some secret guild that does it." A beatpause. "A Guild run entirely by assholes." 

Then suddenly there is sparks. 

Fire. 

And Cass shouting denials. 

"I didn't press anything!! I kicked it and tha' lever pressed something!" Morgan shouts towards her as he looks round wildly to put the fire out with. 

There isn't much. 

Its a bloody cave. 

"Throw some dirt on it! Git tha' fire out!"

 <Pose Tracker> Jude Moshe has posed.

Jude's response to that look is to just point at himself as if to wonder 'what the hell did I do?' 

... before they all come plummeting to a raucous stop in the bowels of the tomb. 

Dark red hair a mess (more than usual), Jude just spills his way clear of the elevator, looking back at it with a long, pensive moment of silence. 

"... I'm starting to get the impression I should never, ever ride an elevator with any of you again." 

Ultimately, though, Jude meets this near death experience with an ambivalent shrug and a shake of his head. He walks off after the others into that wide chamber leading into what looks like an actual facility, blocked off by... ... a block. Of course. Brows furrowing inward, Jude tilts his head as he fishes through his frock coat pocket. Above them, Jacob just circles the air, blocked from going any further. 

"Y'know, I've never understood this fascination with blocks. It's gotta be some kinda fetish, right?" he asides to the rest of them conversationally, apparently not really in the mood to make any obvious moves to help out -- or maybe, like Noah, he's just thinking as he pulls free a lighter and his cigarette case, producing one and settling it between his lips. "But we oughta be careful. The ancients were a bunch of sadistic bastards with way too much time on their hands, so there's probably some sort of trick..." 

Spark. 

BANG 

Amber eyes just focus, flatly, on Cassidy for a moment that seems to stretch to infinity. 

"... like that." 

Rocks cascade, vibrations rumble. Everything sounds like it's falling apart. "Hold on, let me see what--" Jude begins, cigarette forgotten as he makes his way over to the console and tries to peer inside. He grips it. Fiddles. Nothing. More and more those sounds start growing louder and louder and eventually-- 

BOOM 

... eventually there's a giant hole in the rent wreckage of what was once that console as Jude points the end of his smoking ARM at it. The rumbling stops. 

"There. See--" 

And then the floor starts to just disappear. Crumbling, shifting, and falling until soon enough the entire floor starts to give way to the ominous unknown of the darkness beneath. 

"... Huh. I really thought that was gonna work." And then he just starts running. C'est la vie. 

"Well I'm out of ideas, so if anyone wants to move that block as soon as possible, that'd be great!" 

And Jacob just stares at them from above, full of weary mechanical criticism. 

 <CARD DRAW>

++++++++++++++++++++++<* CHALLENGE - Disappearing Floor *>++++++++++++++++++++++ <br>
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility   |Challenge Rating: 1          | <br>
++++++++++++++++++++< Challenge Information: >++++++++++++++ <br>
Someone, long ago, decided that it would be a cute trick to make the floor    
just disappear from existence when you stand upon it. In truth it is not so   
much 'disappear' as 'rapidly collapsing', but the distinction is not really   
helpful for anyone who happens to be standing atop it. And look, they made    
the entire room out of this sort of flooring. Better get moving!              <br>
+Dungeon Conditions: Tire+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

DG: Noah Hawthorne has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Disappearing Floor. <br>
DG: Jude Moshe has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Disappearing Floor. <br>
DG: Morgan Newkirk has used his Tool Force Lash toward his party's challenge, Disappearing Floor. <br>
DG: Cassidy Cain has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Disappearing Floor. 

DG: The party led by Cassidy Cain has passed this challenge! The party gained 12 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon''draw.

 <Pose Tracker> Noah Hawthorne has posed.

Morgan, asking the tough questions. "Probably Hetfield's people." His tone is so dry it could sap all of the ambient humidity out of the air in the room. "The woman owns six pairs of identical shoes. Who can guess at the contents of a mind like that one? It's impenetrable to logic." Yeah: he's never going to get over that. 

Jude says that the blocks are probably the consequence of some kind of fetish. This checks out for Noah. "I want to blame that on Hetfield too," he admits, "But I've seen block traps dating back to the Zeboim period." 

Sparks spit from the mechanisms like temporary fireflies. The scent of ozone perfumes the air. Noah sloooooowly turns his head, and though his expression remains fairly neutral, judgement still seems to preside in the hazel eyes that fix on the blonde conwoman. Judgement, and what -- warning? Highly cynical expectation? ''Resignation?'' Whatever it is, he's only just beginning to underline it with the help of a growing shadow between his brows, the tenuous crease there emphasized by the sudden mood lighting, created by the complicated machinery in the nearby wall ''which is now actively full of fire''. 

And dirt. Less 'full of' than 'peppered with,' given Morgan is trying to scavenge handfuls of dirt in a cave made out of stone, but nevertheless. 

And then it's full of nothing, because there's a gigantic hole in it. Noah almost jumps out of his skin when the report of that ARM goes off, broad shoulders hiked high, and then as they slowly lower he turns to look at Jude with slightly widened eyes. "Do you want tinnitis? Because this is how you get tin--" 

--itis. 

The floor trembles, rumbles, begins to collapse from underneath them. He sidesteps the tile he was standing on, watches Jude begin to sprint away; watches the way the tiles in his wake all begin to vibrate not long after he places the weight of a foot on each one, creating a trail of unstable flooring behind him. 

There's no time to broadcast the realization. He just turns and books it for the block and begins jumping up and down on the plates that surround the perimeter of it. It's not clear whether or not his weight and the active jumping hurry the process along or not, but the tiles do eventually give way and with their support the block topples downward, too, leaving the way forward clear. 

"TIME TO GO!"

 <CARD DRAW>

++++++++++++++++++++<* CHALLENGE - Gregarious Gomoratoads *>++++++++++++++++++++ <br>
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat    |Challenge Rating: 2          | <br>
++++++++++++++< Challenge Information: >++++++++++++++ <br>
Unusually large and unfriendly monsters, the Gomoratoad generally is willing  
to eat just about everything that it comes across. This includes unruly       
adventurers who have wandered into their underground territory. Looking like  
giant red toads except with evil little wings on their back, they also cast   
water spells to make things interesting. Because giant man eating toads were  
not bad enough on their own.                                                  <br>
+Dungeon Conditions: Slow+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

DG: Morgan Newkirk has used his Tool Shield Gauntlet toward his party's challenge, Gregarious Gomoratoads. <br>
DG: Jude Moshe has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Gregarious Gomoratoads. <br>
DG: Noah Hawthorne has used his Tool Clever Traps toward his party's challenge, Gregarious Gomoratoads. <br>
DG: Cassidy Cain has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Gregarious Gomoratoads.

DG: The party led by Cassidy Cain has failed this challenge! The party gained 4 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon''draw.


 <Pose Tracker> Cassidy Cain has posed.

At Jude's ad infinitum stare, Cassidy throws her arms out to the sides, expression all innocence with those wide eyes. The word 'WHAT' is practically writ on her face. But she does turn to glance over at the red-haired reporter when he attempts to start fiddling with the console, its internal fires burning. "I dinnae think any amount of tinkering's going tae hurt than any, luv," she tells him. "It looks like it's f-- " 
 
The cavern amplifies the sound as Jude's shotgun just ''discharges'' into the mechanism. 
 
And then the floor starts to fall. It is her turn to give her a very long look, but one that she doesn't even have the satisfaction of applying to its full effect when the floor starts ''disappearing''. 
 
"You shot it, Jude," she exclaims as she takes a running leap forward before the space underneath her cascades into nothingness, gripping the edge of the remaining floor tight and surging over it. For someone taller than average, her light-footed steps enable her to maintain a lead on this latest catastrophe. "You ''shot'' it! You and I are going tae have tae reach a consensus as tae how the two of us solve problems, because I thought shooting first was ''my'' job!" 
 
With the block coming free, though, and with Noah yelling the same to the rest, she twists from her present trajectory and surges forward, and in that run, she overtakes the rest; she's lighter, faster, and when given the impetus to run, she can ''run'', a flurry of pale gold and red as a boot braces on one rock before she twists sideways into another and doesn't even hesitate when she launches herself towards the cleared opening. Arms outstretched, she soars like a bird, latching onto the end of the opening and using her forward momentum to vault over it and land safely into the other side. 
 
...but something viscous, wet and slick wraps around her wrist. At the very end of the cleared path, a single golden eye flares into view. 
 
"Oh, nae. NAE. YOU HAVE GOT TAE BE KIDDING ME THIS IS NAE HAPPE--" 
 
She is ''yanked'' inside, the rest of the word escaping her as she's pulled into the dark like the end of so many horror genre novellas. Blade out, she slices at whatever it is that's dragging her across the floor, leaving her skidding out on one side. Color bursts in the fringes of her vision on impact. 
 
With a groan, she rolls on her front, fingers finding slick, wet sand silt underneath. 
 
A shadow falls across her prone form. She doesn't even look up, already kicking off and yelling unintellible epithets as the engraved revolver comes spinning into her grip and fires at whatever's lurking in the darkness right into the face and those glowing eyes. She doesn't even ''wait'' to clearly see what it is, it needs to ''die''. The shots explode, dead air suddenly coming to life in a burst of powder, cordite and hot lead.

 <Pose Tracker> Jude Moshe has posed.

"I thought I'd try it your way for once!" Jude shouts back to Cass, even taking his time to lift his hands up helplessly as he runs. 

"I think I've got it pretty down pat, right??" 

The block topples. That's good! 

The rest of the floor goes with it. That's bad! 

Feeling paneled flooring shudder and give way beneath his feet with every step, Jude Moshe grimaces. His darting run brings him from panel to panel in short succession, ARM gripped tight as he makes his blitz towards the collapsing block. 

"If all that happens to me today is tinnitis--" he begins in his ever-so-casual rebuttal for Noah. His body tenses as he lands on a nearby panel. Legs bend in preparation as the tile wobbles, tremors... 

... and when it falls, Jude -leaps-. 

"-- I think I'll have found God!" says the man who claims to have been a priest. 

The lunge is made with perfect timing so that Jude land on the very edge of that entrance right as the block topples away, wobbling with spread, steadying arms as he stares down into the abyss behind him. His hand lifts, touching at his lips. And, feeling the absence of his cigarette, the man just grimaces. 

"Dammit. Cassie, d'you have your lighter? ... Cassie?" Bright amber eyes slowly blink. Jude looks around him, frowning... until he hears the thunderclap of a revolver going off. The flashes of muzzle flares and the stench of gunpowder. Jude presses a hand to his forehead and heaves a sigh as Jacob very wisely flies -past- all this nonsense and flutters far, far away. 

"If it's not one thing, it's another," grouses the reporter good-naturedly before he starts sprinting towards the source of the gunfire, seeing them in between the flashes. Wet. Full of mucous. Big, bulbous eyes. Large mouths. Jiggling, slimy bodies. Toads. 

Toads ready for battle. 

"-- So," Jude shouts over the boom of his shotgun and Cass' revolver as he unloads on the beasts. 

"I guess they chose you to be the bride today, Cassie -- lucky you! Hold on -- I think I'm remembering--" Some piece of knowledge of these creatures that will help? An escape route? A distraction? 

"-- Cassie and Gomoratoad, have you come here to enter into marriage without coercion, freely and wholeheartedly? Are you prepared to love and honor each other-- " 

Or that. That could be it, too. 

At least he's shooting at it. 

 <Pose Tracker> Noah Hawthorne has posed.

Cassidy is a lean torpedo of blonde and red, followed swiftly by Jude. Noah is turning back to the room with the collapsing floor in expectation of Morgan joining them when there's the heavy thud of a body hitting soft earth. Subtle. Easily lost, in corridors that bounce soundwaves around and dilute them in the hollow, white-noise rush of air in a confined space. 

And then ''extremely unhappy accented shouting'', which is not so easily lost. Or guarded against, either. Noah flinches even as he reaches for one of the ARMs holstered at his hips, the wince lingering as he pivots and flicks the light-emitting bracelet on his left wrist. "''Tinnitis,''" he repeats, just before he's socked in the middle of the chest by something slick with phleghmy ooze and solid as a sandbag. He catches it on reflex, looks down into the glittering eyes of a face that appears to be all mouth, and is immediately slapped in the face by a tongue that cannons out of its mouth at full speed. He topples over backward and is swiftly lost under an accumulating pile of what feel to him like aggressive living boogers.

 <Pose Tracker> Morgan Newkirk has posed.

The floor goes. The fire and mechanics with it. Then thanks to Noah the block. 

"Well!" Morgan calls as he flings himself across the rapidly dissipearing floor with all the energy in his long legs. "At least the block isn't a problem anymore." 

That grappel of him, glowing blue white and humming, streaks across the dark corridor to anchor him to the far side. Pull him further across at break-neck speed until he goes sliding by the damn block and into the far tunnel. 

He collapses back for a second, breathing hard. "Shooting sometimes works!" He adds of the discussion on the proper use of pannels in ancient ruins. Then that statement is punchuiated by gunfire, cordite, accented cursing and deep throated ribbits. 

"Case in point!" He adds as he scrambles to his feet. His shield ignites throwing bright light against the shadows to reveal the toads hopping forwards. There only seem to be three or four of them. So...well...go big or go home. 

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!" He shouts as he goes charging after them, the shield adding to the intimidation effect as the toads scatter from around Noah, hopping back into the corridor. Even Cassie's future husband is startled by the sudden rush from the Fox as they go leaping off into the darkness. 

Morgan follows, still shouting as he dissipears around a far corner. Intent on chasing them off. 

However...

Mere moments after Morgan's form dissipears around the corner the light from the shield and the fox himself both reapear. 

Running back towards them. 

At speed. 

"THERE ARE MORE! LOTS MORE! PICK A DIRECTION!" He shouts as he sprints back towards the group. "Anywhere but here is fine!!" 

And sure enough around the corner come a veritable wall of hopping, winged, angry battle toads. 

 <CARD DRAW>

+++++++++++++++++<* CHALLENGE - Return of the Gear Puzzle *>++++++++++++++++++ <br>
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits      |Challenge Rating: 2          | <br>
+++++++++++++< Challenge Information: >+++++++++++++ <br>
A large stone block has been rolled across the exit to this room, leaving     
the party with no way to venture forward. However, there does appear to be    
an ancient machine consisting of a vast of large gears set into the wall      
that can be manipulated by moving the parts about. This is getting silly.     
Who puts this many gears into a wall just to open a door?                     <br>
+Dungeon Conditions: Treasure+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

DG: Jude Moshe has used his Tool Jacob toward his party's challenge, Return of the Gear Puzzle. <br>
DG: Morgan Newkirk has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Return of the Gear Puzzle. <br>
DG: Cassidy Cain has used her Tool Pocket Lighter toward her party's challenge, Return of the Gear Puzzle. <br>
DG: Noah Hawthorne has used his Tool Personal Journal toward his party's challenge, Return of the Gear Puzzle.

DG: The party led by Cassidy Cain has passed this challenge! The party gained 31 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon''draw.

 <Pose Tracker> Cassidy Cain has posed.

Her revolver fire is thankfully added onto with shotgun fire. The grateful look that is initially cast at the red-haired reporter's way, however, flattens to utter neutrality as he starts to read marriage vows. "Should nae have given me a choice if you wanted this tae happen, luv!" she calls out over the hail of bullets, already hopping backwards at every shot of her revolver. "Because I'm ''pretty'' sure this is coercion! I cannae feel my wrist! Dinnae think I dinnae caught ontae your secret evil plan tae drink all the booze at the reception!"

With Noah going down somewhere in her periphery, she cuts a path around Jude. "Distract it for a bit!" 

It isn't as if she can use her grenades here - the relic hunter is somewhere underneath and she moves in an attempt to blast a few rounds on the toad that is pinning him down. Splashes of dark blood wash the ground underneath her feet, though it manages to turn its head and flap its little wings; much to her amusement, really, because there's no way those things can fly.

It lurches off the ground slowly and takes to the air.

"What."

Morgan leaps in to help, eyes catching the shield emanating from his body as he chases the rest off the relic hunter....and proceeds to follow them down around the corridor. A hand reaches down in offerance to try and help Noah up, fully cognizant of the fact that the fox boy is rapidly vanishing into the unexplored parts of the corridor. Her jaw drops. "Morgan, nae! Dinnae do it! COME BACK HERE WHERE WE CAN SEE YOU, DINNAE-- "

He comes back out. She sags in relief.

It doesn't last long when he brings an entire ''horde'' with him. She doesn't see the need to question his instructions, already turning sharply on her heel and ''running'' to the other side that doesn't seem to be occupied by much of anything but distant shadows. Passing by Jude, she reaches out in an attempt to tug on his arm and turn him towards their chosen means of escape.

"Step lively, luv, we've got company!"

Once everyone else is running ''ahead'' of her, she lags behind, turning around to unclip one of her grenades and throwing it to the amphibious crowd hopping after them. "Why is it that whenever I'm with you, we cannae help but piss off the scaley or furry natives?" she asks Noah. "I'm starting tae miss angry ''human'' mobs!"

'''KA-BOOM!'''

Rocks fall from the ceiling; all of Noah's earlier warnings about using grenades in caves come to life as waves and waves of rock tumble out from the ceiling and the walls at the force of the blast. It probably only kills ''some'' of the toads, but it ''does'' seal them into the shaft they're in, meaning if they need to get out of the Tomb, they're going to have to find another way.

Luckily, there's another door.

Luckily.

It takes up most of the far wall, an archaic mechanism clearly controlled by a panel on the stone outcroppings adjacent to it, filled with large gears. After a few flicking noises, Cassidy's lighter flares to life as she takes a few steps towards it and squints at it. She is not as mechanically inclined as the rest, but those that tend to pertain to doors come easier to her than others. That single, red-gold tongue of heat casts faint light across brass screws and copper inlays...enough to give her a sense of a few details.

"Symbols," she says, pointing to the gears. "And I think there's a failsafe locking mechanism also that looks like got triggered from the last time someone's here....hole's too small for even my fingers tae get in. Might need tae disengage that first and then....I dinnae know. Figure out the right order, maybe?" There's a glance at Jude and Noah at that.

 <Pose Tracker> Jude Moshe has posed.

''Distract it for a bit!'' 

"You shouldn't run at the first sign of commitment, Cassie!" chides Jude Moshe as she goes, loading up another shell and firing it off. It explodes into flame, searing the stagnant air in a thick wall of fire to fend off the toad. 

"The rogue who runs on her wedding night -- that's just a disappointing number of stereotypes right there-- " 

He'd have more to say, if not for the tongue snapping through the flames and wrapping around him. 

"Uh." 

YANK goes Jude towards Cassidy's potential betrothed, tugging at that thick, rubbery muscle as best he can as he gets closer and closer to that gaping maw. "Shit, shit, shit--" 

The sound of gunfire and a toady shriek cuts through the air as the tongue Jude is catching a ride on is severed by the wild firing of Morgan Newkirk. He goes soaring, hitting the side of a wall with a 'HNG!' of impact before hitting ground in a crouch. Toad saliva and now dirt drenching his coat. 

He's not going to say how he just got this fixed. They should know. 

And off Morgan rushes into the horde of toads, scaring away Cassidy's future husband. Jude plants a hand to his forehead, eyes shut and heaving a weary sigh. 

"Star-crossed love never works out. ... huh. Gives me an idea, though..." 

And his sentence trails as he watches Morgan continue to run. Inadvisably straight into the darkness. The respectable reporter's dark red brows screw together. 

"I'm pretty sure that was a bad way to go," he notes off-handedly to the others, slowly taking a step backwards in another direction. "So my advice right now is--" 

And back Morgan runs. 

"-- yep do that, go, go, go--!" 

Jude quickly turns that backwards run around into a full-bodied sprint, making his way as far from Cass as he can, because he knows what's coming next. The deafening boom resounds as Jude leaps into the new area, stone filtering into the metal of Lolithia's ancient tomb as he lands into a stumble, coughing up dust and dirt inelegantly. He looks around him. Glances towards Noah. 

"So, how's that tinnitis working for you?" 

It's only then that he looks towards the gears. More gears. And another box. "Definitely a fixation..." he mutters to himself as he stands up and takes his sweet time to dust himself off. Above them, Jacob flies, having been waylaid yet again; Jude looks up towards the automaton as it hops from gear to gear in a very specific order. His head tilts. Jacob hops off, and then flutters towards that failsafe mechanism, perching on it quietly to start slipping a tiny, metal talon within with a click and whirr of gears. 

'''click'''

"C'mon," says the redhead, making his way towards the gears to start working them. "I think I've got the right order." 

 <Pose Tracker> Noah Hawthorne has posed.

Fascinating facts of nature: Gamoratoads have teeth not entirely unlike those of a human being. This is by evolutionary necessity; omnivores require flattened teeth for grinding plant matter and sharper teeth for slicing through flesh and, really, the point is that Noah is in the process of being absolutely covered from head to foot in bite marks that he would have a very difficult time explaining if he had enough time to take anyone to bed lately, including himself, which he does not. 

He hears Morgan thundering toward him. "''Finally!'' Get these things off of--" 

He hears Morgan go thundering past him, and down a hallway. 

"I'LL REMEMBER THAT, NEWKIRK!" 

The announcement of Jude's shotgun promises that not ''all'' of them have left him behind, though, and in the end it's Cassidy that comes to his assistance, though that assistance entails splattering his chest, neck, and one side of his face with whatever passes for blood in these things. Still: beggars can't be choosers, and he's not too proud to take the hand he's offered to help him get his footing again, boots slick with foul excretions. He doesn't even have time to get the word 'thanks' out before Morgan comes tearing back into the room, followed by a rolling wave of water. No. No. Wait. 

Greased boots notwithstanding, he makes excellent time bolting for the exit on the far side, slowing only enough to see that the others make it into their chosen corridor, too. It's during one of those backward glances that he watches Cassidy arm and toss a grenade behind them, but for once he has no objections to offer; there are still tooth-shaped bruises all over him, and those little bastards deserve whatever it is they're about to get, in his opinion. He can hear the rumble of the rockfall, but when it fails to travel up the entire length of the passageway it becomes a feature rather than a bug, and he doesn't complain about ''that'', either. 

Instead, he stands for a moment in the next room over when it's clear they're not going to have to face off against a tidal wave of amphibious hunger, hands on knees, and spends a moment enjoying the luxury of breathing without inhaling goop. 

''How's that tinnitis working for you?'' 

There's a long breath and sigh as he straightens. Sees Jude looking at him. "Huh?" 

So, going pretty well, obviously! 

By the time he's standing next to Cassidy and looking at the mechanisms in the wall, he's reaching for his journal. He pauses. His hands are covered in frog filth. 

He turns, studies Morgan with great solemnity, and then wipes his hands ''all over him''. For ''leaving him behind.'' 

Whether this gets them clean enough or not, he pulls his journal and begins to flip through the pages, glancing periodically up at the symbols. "Might have something to help us along with the pattern, if that's what this is about." 

He pages through a section containing symbols from various time periods, cultures and traditions, but before he can land on a relevant page -- if there is one -- Jude's got the solution already in hand. He tucks the journal away, and takes the moment to appreciate that he at least got to wipe his hands on Morgan.

 <Pose Tracker> Morgan Newkirk has posed.

Morgan is breathing heavy after his little 'jog'. The Fox drawing in deep lungfulls of oxgyen as he braces his hands against his kees and lets the three of them work on this newest puzzle. He'll just catch his breath even as Noah catches up to them all. 

Not at all noticing the look Noah is giving him. His eyes closed. "Look Hawthorne, I was tryin ta chase them off ya. I remember what happened the ''last'' time I dragged ya towards people tryin' ta kill us instead of away!" And he turns just in time to have Noah start wiping his hands on him. 

He starts slapping at the hands. "Stop that! I was tryin' ta save yer ungreatful skin! Go...play with your gears or somethin' ya ingrate!!" He shouts back even as Jude and Cassidy start trying to align everything correctly. "Looks like all of ya are doin' a great job. Cass good thing ya brought those grenades this time. Though shame yer new husband couldn't come back with u-- " 

The coments are cut off as Morgan leans against the wall. Not noticing the glint of metal gear under the built up sludge of centuries. 

Sparks arc from him to the metal and a distinct sizzling sound can be heard as the foxes tail poofs out like the worst of all bad hair days. 

Slight smoke wifts up from his tail. 

"...don't touch this one. It's live..." 

He's helping. 

 <Pose Tracker> Cassidy Cain has posed.

''Shame yer new husband couldn't come back with us.''

"Wife," Cassidy says, looking over her shoulder as Jacob does the work ''for'' Jude, at least in disengaging the failsafe. With the pattern sussed out, she reaches for the next gear and leans her weight into it. "It was a ''girl toad'', Morgan." Probably not the time to ask just how she knows this. "Stop being gender-insensitive, we're living in modern times now. Besides, I'm pretty sure she would have left me eventually now that she's got a taste of Jude."

She reaches for another gear, grasping the handhold and giving it a yank. She can hear it, sense the rumbling through stone as mechanical dials wedged deep within the spin, tumblers and unseen metal beams disengaging. Emerald eyes and their gold flecks turn to the door expectantly.

It doesn't budge.

Confusion ripples over her expression. "What the bloody hell?" she mutters, glancing at Jacob, and then the gears and their symbols. "Dinnae we do this r-- "

Morgan electrocutes himself. The smell of burning fur laces the air. She turns her head slowly at Morgan.

Finally, what they are waiting for, the resounding telltale ''click'', a sound so simple compared to all the ominous sounds from earlier that it could easily be missed, and is somewhat anticlimactic, emanates from the door.

It starts to swing outward.

"...oh. Well, then. Yay."

 <CARD DRAW>

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++<* CHALLENGE - Plentiful Pillbugs *>+++++++++++++++++++++++++++ <br>
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat    |Challenge Rating: 1          | <br>
+++++++++++++++++++< Challenge Information: >+++++++++++++++++++ <br>
Pillbugs are modest sized for monsters, and generally tend to be slow and     
unthreatening individually. Unfortunately, the party did not find one         
pillbug. Or two. Or even ten. There's about a hundred that come rolling into  
the room in a giant wave, looking to munch on whatever they can find,         
including the unfortunate party!                                              <br>
+Dungeon Conditions: Treasure+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

DG: Noah Hawthorne has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Plentiful Pillbugs. <br>
DG: Jude Moshe has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Plentiful Pillbugs. <br>
DG: Morgan Newkirk has used his Tool Shield Gauntlet toward his party's challenge, Plentiful Pillbugs. <br>
DG: Cassidy Cain has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Plentiful Pillbugs. 

DG: The party led by Cassidy Cain has passed this challenge! The party gained 17 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon''draw.


 <Pose Tracker> Noah Hawthorne has posed.

"Right! Because saving always looks like running away from! And I don't wanna hear about that. It worked out in the end. ...mostly." 

Noah stands off to one side while Jude and Cassidy see to the mechanism, splitting his attention between watching what they're doing and examining some of the more serious bites, most of which will need only a few days to heal at the outside, anyway. Enough for discomfort and inconvenience, but probably nothing serious...assuming they weren't poisonous, anyway. The lack of wild hallucinations or liquid fire trying to climb the inside of his wrist and shut down his heart are both promising signs. 

The door fails to open, Noah reaches for his journal, and there isn't even enough time for him to retrieve it before Morgan accidentally provides the missing link and jumpstarts the whole process, turning himself into a bottlebrush in the process. Noah tries valiantly+ not to laugh, but it leaks out around the edges of his words anyway, hitching in his chest and shoulders and more than just implied in the wide, sharp crescent of a disreputable smile. "You look like the nethers of that lady of the evening you hired in Timney that one time. But good job 'making the connection.'" He tosses a thumbs-up that way. 

Strolls, casually, toward the door after it clicks, grasps the handle, and sweeps them grandly aside. 

There is rumbling. 

There is an incline, the lowest point of which is the interior of the room they're standing in. 

There is a boulder. 

At least, that's what Noah thinks it is at first: in the fitful illumination of the dim ramp leading upward into unseen territory there comes a rushing blur of grey and black, blurred in the shadows, almost certainly the facing side of a spinning stone big enough to crush them all. 

It's not a boulder, though. As it nears the door he can hear it beginning: the clicking of chitin, the rasping of exoskeletons against one another. 

He should warn the others. 

He should tell them to prepare. Give them concise instructions. 

"AAAAAAAAAH!" is what he chooses, as he slams the double-doors shut again and leans back against them. 

In the precious few seconds before the tidal wave crashes into them, he lifts one hand and points it straight at Jude. "YOU," he says, an accusation without an explanation. 

And then the wall of pillbugs hits the door, bursting them inward explosively and sending Noah stumbling away. This time he's quick enough to unholster his ARMs, and as he spins and begins to fire into the seething ocean of pillbugs he apparently hits the point at which it's time to vent steam. 

"HOW COULD YOU POSSIBLY KNOW ABOUT THE PILLBUGS, YOU SAID PILLBUGS AND NOW THERE ARE PILLBUGS. IS THIS A WISH FULFILLING RUIN IS THAT HOW THAT WORKS, BECAUSE IF SO I'M PRETTY SURE WE'RE ABOUT TO BE MENACED BY-- " One latches to his leg. The hand holding that firearm whips downward on a cleaving stroke, the oversized weapon transformed in the blink of an eye into a wicked blade the length of a short sword, splitting it neatly in two. The one that clutches his back moments afterward has him lifting that same hand up, pointing downward over his back, and the report that sounds assuredly comes from a firearm again. "-- REALLY EXCELLENT BOOZE. AND PILLOWS AND GIRLS WITH MORE PILLOWS AND HOT WATER, AND ALSO STEAK!"


''+not at all valiantly''

 <Pose Tracker> Morgan Newkirk has posed.

"I was chasing them off!" Morgan protests before he rolls his eyes. "Don't remind me of that one, or I'll remind you of some of yours!" Morgan shoots back as the door opens and he casually starts to stroll towards it. Then Noah is spinning back around and...well...screaming. 

"That's sure your normally articualte self there." He says of the screaming seconds before the door bursts outward and...and...

Pillbugs. 

Roley Poley Pillbugs. 

"THIS IS TOTALLY YOUR FAULT, JUDE!!!" Morgan seems to agree with the shouted logic behind Noah's paniced words. "YOU HAD TO SAY PILLBUGS! WHY COULDN'T YOU HAVE SAID WE WOULD BE ASSAULTED BY GELLA! OR BARRELS OF AGED WHISKEY!!" Then comes the tide, rolling over and around Noah to fill the rest of the little room. 

The shield snaps on again, but itss not big enough or fast enough to block them all. Some of them latch onto arms and legs and the Fox franticly punches and kicks to get them to come loose. 

Then he remembers. 

That plate was totally live. 

There is more sparks annd sizziling but at least the bugs arn't chewing on him. "YEAH! TAKE THAT! There is no laying eggs and eating parts of this fox!!!"

 <Pose Tracker> Jude Moshe has posed.

"You choose fickle frogs to fall for, Cassie," is just about all Jude Moshe has to say about that. 

"Just asking for heartache, going for the ones you just know are gonna disappoint you." And that. And the cluck of his tongue. And, "... you made sure that entrance was really thoroughly caved in, right?" 

So it turns out he has a lot to say. But maybe he's just not ready for a life of toadish matrimony yet. 

And so they work, Jude turning one gear after Cassidy turns another, working at an easy, self-assured rhythm. When he looks towards the box, he rubs the back of his head, brows furrowing. He looks at Cassidy, looking at Jacob. He frowns. 

"Don't blame the bird," he chides. "The bird's done nothing wrong here." 

Jacob, pointedly, tweets in defiance. Or just tweets because someone entered his visual range. It's hard to say. 

"It's probably just..." 

'''FZZZZT'''

Jude stares at the electrocuted, fluffy mess that has become Morgan. He looks towards the box, slowly groaning away from the exit. His brows lift a fraction of an inch in a baffled tick. 

He doesn't laugh. He doesn't. He just calmly walks past Morgan, giving him a congratulatory pat on his static-charged head. 

"Way to go, champ." 

At least he sounds sincere. 

That might make it worse. 

Jacob flying ahead once more to scout the path beyond, Jude shoves his hands into his pockets as if this were some leisurely stroll, his gait lackidaisically indifferent as ever as he heads towards those open doors... only to be halted as he catches the sight of something rolling towards them in the distance, seconds before Noah slams those doors shut again. He blinks. His right brow hefts upward. 

''YOU,'' accuses Noah. Jude points at himself. Looks around. 

"Yeah? What's up--" 

'''CRACK!'''

The doors -blow- open, sending Noah stumbling past, and Jude just staring in wonder at the rolling wall of chitinous pillbugs unfurling and lunging at him. 

He barely has time to catch the unusual transformation of Noah's weapons before he's threatened with being overruned by pillbugs. 

''HOW COULD YOU POSSIBLY KNOW ABOUT THE PILLBUGS--'' 

"FUNNY STORY ABOUT THAT, I TRIED SOMETHING OUT ONE DAY ON A WHIM, IT'S CALLED 'READ A BOOK.'" 

Pillbugs pounce on him, scratching with clawing limbs and just barreling into him as he pulls free his revolver shotgun. "BUT YOU ALL HAVE BETTER THINGS TO DO THAN BLAMING ME, LIKE NOT," subtle pause here!, "AROUSING THEIR ATTENTION," that might have been intentional. The symbols on it glow and whine a bright blue-- 

--before the deafening booms of it firing gives way to explosions of ice to try to freeze their way through the nest of bugs. 

"I JUST HOPE WE DON'T HAVE TO DEAL WITH ANYTHING WORSE, I'VE HEARD BEARCATS SOMETIMES TURN OLD RUINS INTO NESTS--" 

That definitely was not intentional. Definitely not. 

 <Pose Tracker> Cassidy Cain has posed.

For a moment, she doesn't know what is beyond the door, because Noah slams it shut too quickly. There is a brief look of confusion at the rest until Noah ''rants''. And then, her head turns slowly from Morgan to Jude.

This is the part where Cassidy hits it again; the battered ceiling to her sanity, the point where some aspect of her life goes off the rails, and there's nothing to do but cling to her psyche's defense mechanisms to keep it intact. She leans against the wall, and ''loses her shit''. She doubles over against the gears as she ''cries laughing'', tears leaking on the corners of her eyes and threatening to spill over as she clutches at a gear for dear life, rendering her utterly useless to her party for a few precious minutes. Because she can't. She can't.

Because the last thing she needs is to believe that Jude Moshe is a fucking ''prophet''. Out of the top ten worst things that can happen to her in her riotous, colorful, disastrous life, Jude being in any way a mindreader, seer or psychic has to count as one of them. She doesn't need that. It would ''explain'' a few things, certainly, but no. Just no. It can't happen.

Instead: "Morgan, you...you...snnkkkghhhh..." She makes an attempt to choke back her snickers and fails ''miserably''. "....your WEDDING GUESTS ARE HERE!!"

The swinging becomes all the more pronounced and evident when something on the other side ''slams'' into the heavy stone appendage. The skittering of tiny feet emanate through the strange acoustics of the chamber as the flood persists, and then...

...the door explodes outward, and the wave of pillbugs descends upon them. The blonde, ''still laughing'', turns and, pulling a page from Noah Hawthorne's Survival Guide, ''leaps'' on one of the massive gears, boots scraping into the mechanisms, and reaches up for a higher one. Hooking a leg around it, she twists her body until she dangles free, reaching into her kit to pull out a spray can of some kind.

"GET OFF THE GOD DAMN FLOOR!" she cries to the rest, because she's about to ''set the entire god damn thing on fire''. With that, she hurls the can in the midst of the insects, the revolver chambering an incendiary round as she squints along the sight. She will wait...at least, for a few seconds, for the boys to clear off the ground.

And once she is ''relatively sure'' they're clear, she fires.

 <CARD DRAW>

++++++++++++++++++++<* CHALLENGE - Excessively Electrical *>++++++++++++++++++++ <br>
|Type: Final       |Dungeon Ability: Wits      |Challenge Rating: 2          |  <br>
++++++++++++++< Challenge Information: >++++++++++++++ <br>
This passage into the heart of the Tomb has been blocked off by a heavy       
powered door that does... not appear to have any power at the moment. The     
reason why becomes clear relatively quickly - something has ripped out much   
of the electrical circuits that run the motor to this door, and they've been  
left scattered across the room. Even worse is the fact that someone has       
already made a set of jury rigged repairs here already, and the new damage    
on top of that means that repairing the door and gaining access to the inner  
ruins will be even more challenging...            <br>                            
+Dungeon Conditions: Injure+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

DG: Morgan Newkirk has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Excessively Electrical. <br>
DG: Noah Hawthorne has used his Tool Personal Journal toward his party's challenge, Excessively Electrical. <br>
DG: Cassidy Cain has used her Tool Pocket Lighter toward her party's challenge, Excessively Electrical. <br>
DG: Jude Moshe has used his Tool Jacob toward his party's challenge, Excessively Electrical.

DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! <br>
DG: The party led by Cassidy Cain has successfully explored Lolithia's Tomb!

 <Pose Tracker> Morgan Newkirk has posed.

"I DON'T KNOW WHAT KIND OF BOOKS YOU READ, JUDE, BUT MINE ARE NOT FULL OF AMOROUS PILLBUGS!" Morgans shout comes as he starts to scale the wall. There has to be a different way though the door. A different passage forward. Somewhere that isn't ''full of pillbugs''. Gunfire echos though the chamber as the Drifers open fire and Jude's frozen blasts tear though the pillbugs on the ground. 

The problem being? It tears into other things too. 

Like the water pump that was powering parts of the gears. Frozen solid and made brittle the ancient pipe shatters in a spray of foam that sends water cascading and sloshing though the floor of the cavern. 

Pillbugs bob in the sudden flood that distressingly begins to creep higher. The exposed electrical systems starting to arc into the water even as the water creeps slowly upward. 

"AND I SEE YOU LAUGHING CASSIDY CAIN! I HOPE YOU GET ONE IN YOUR HAIR!" He shouts back as he jerks his tail away from the top of the water and starts to climb up and up. Away from the water. 

"Emergency drain!! There has to be some kind of emergency drain!!" 

The electrified water creeps slowly higher. "Someone find it! Shoot...something!" 

 <Pose Tracker> Noah Hawthorne has posed.

"I HAVE SO MANY PROBLEMS WITH THIS CONVERSATION! FIRST OF--" ''BOOM'', goes one of the ARMs Noah is holding. "-- FIRST OF ALL ''I READ''! AND -- YOU KNOW WHAT FORGET IT AND SECOND, MORGAN NEWKIRK, WHAT THE HELL KIND OF AMOROUS ENCOUNTERS HAVE YOU BEEN HAVING?!" 

He is, in spite of this ranting, a spinning dervish of blades and bullets. Aside from those lucky first two attacking pillbugs he's been able to reduce everything that has come within five feet of him into twitching, disgusting piles of disassembled insect. They're making headway against the horde -- maybe? And just as that precious, beautiful, stupid, STUPID little flame of hope finds the temerity to kindle inside of him, Cassidy Cain yells, ''GET OFF OF THE GOD DAMN FLOOR.'' 

He turns around, everything about him saying: 'what?' 

Across a glittering, icy field of snap-frozen pillbugs, he watches her pull out a revolver...and a can. 

His expression wipes clean. Both firearms pivot-whirl-click-reconfigure into their bladed aspect, and he ''leaps'' at the wall, sinking them both clean into the stone, all the way to the hilt. All of that time spent climbing proves itself useful time and time again, much to his ongoing displeasure: he walks himself up the wall, pulling a blade and spiking it into the rock face higher up, walking himself upward that way and casting the occasional anxious glance over his shoulder. Eventually he stops looking, focuses on climbing, and that's why he's looking at the wall when he hears everything go straight to hell behind him. Feels, on the sudden current of the air, a mist of ice-chilled water trail its cold fingers over the nape of his neck. 

''Maybe if I don't turn around,'' he thinks to himself, ''None of whatever that is will actually be happening.'' 

 <Pose Tracker> Jude Moshe has posed.

"ROUGH RIDERS, MAINLY," is Jude's answer, glib as can be. 

"IT'S BEEN GETTING STRANGE RECENTLY." 

One more ice-laden shot is peeled off; Jude would probably have more to say -- he's probably got entire minutes worth of flowery exposition about a book that doesn't exist, if one pushed him -- but there's just no time. He hears Cassidy's words. Looks back at her, ice fields around him glittering with dangerous beauty. Jacob is already ascending, and Jude... Jude tips his fingers towards Cassidy in a simple salute. Before rushing to the wall to start scaling it as fast as possible, his ARM swinging back into the hidden safety of his coat. 

"I'M NOT COMPLAINING, CASSIE," he shouts back to the obviously crazy woman as he climbs. 

"BUT I THINK YOU MIGHT BE A LITTLE TOO FIXATED ON FIRE." 

He looks down. Sees the water spilling out. His brows screw together in a way that actually expends a shocking amount of effort to look mildly disapproving of this -entire situation-. "I really, really, REALLY don't want to sound like I'm judging--" he begins, conversationally, as he feels icy water lick at his heels. Up he climbs so as not to be electrocuted horrifyingly. 

"-- but some of you are awful at this and should probably seek a different from of employment, like desk work." 

Not judging. Not. 

"Jacob!" The bird flies, moving from spot to spot, looking for that emergency drain -- something, anything to fiddle with, anything to point out. "C'mon c'mon c'mon already JACOB I REALLY DON'T WANT TO STRESS YOU OUT OR ANYTHING BUT BE A -LITTLE BIT FASTER- --" 

And stops, on something that looks vaguely, maybe, like some sort of lever, possibly. Maybe. It's hard to say, maybe it's-- 

"THAT. SHOOT THAT. PLEASE. SHOOT IT." 

 <Pose Tracker> Cassidy Cain has posed.

''AND SECOND, MORGAN NEWKIRK, WHAT THE HELL KIND OF AMOROUS ENCOUNTERS HAVE YOU BEEN HAVING?!''

"NOAH," said with all the deadpanned seriousness she can manage to show despite the sheer ''ridiculousness'' of what is happening around them. "IN MORGAN'S CASE I'M ''PRETTY SURE'' BESTIALITY IS NORMAL."

Everyone starts to climb. She aims and fires. The incendiary round impacts the can, igniting the gas inside and a mild explosion causes a fountain of pillbugs to spew upwards. Emerald eyes reflect the sudden light show, lips tilted up in a gleeful, giddy grin as flames follow the rush of the noxious mist.

''I'M NOT COMPLAINING, CASSIE,'' shouts her partner, somewhere below her and already scaling up. ''BUT I THINK YOU MIGHT BE A LITTLE TOO FIXATED ON FIRE.''

She blows him a kiss. "I DO WHAT I CAN LUV," she shouts back. "TAE LIGHT UP YOUR LI-- "

Water suddenly gushes from the burst pipes. Cassidy's jaw slackens when the rushing torrent sprays over the ground and slowly fills the chamber with water. It ''douses'' the spreading fire that she has just created, killing it dead. Disbelieving eyes stare at all that hard (?) work left to ruin, and she turns to face Morgan's part of the wall...

...and then an explosed wire falls into the water.

The sparks that suddenly arc all over the wet surface nearly blinds her, frying the pillbugs even as the water inches it upwards....''towards'' them and their climb on the wall. It promises to be a very deadly bath and it only has her attempting to scramble up higher and further into the darkness encroaching the craggy paths towards the ceiling. With her laughing fit ''spent'', all that's really left to emphasize her disbelief is:

"WHAT. ''WHAT''?!!!"

Jacob, clearly the only competent member of this party, is a steel streak cutting through the dark and the dangerous sparks. The bird manages to find their ''only way'' to salvation and at Jude's finger pointing at the exposed lever, in an impossible angle from where she is. At a glance at the rapidly rushing electrocution bath underneath them, she ''groans''. Because she ''doesn't want to do this'' and also kind of wants to, already calling her relative levels of sanity to question. With her heart at her throat and the white-hot rush of adrenaline spiking the blood in her veins, the urge is back and she is always never more alive than when she's about to die. 

"Ach, my gidddy aunt."

She lets go of her gear.

She rushes past Jude and Morgan in her fall, both sets of fingers closing over a lower gear and jolting to a stop. Teeth grinding together, she pushes the limits of her agility, bones and muscles ''screaming'', all reminders that she is not as young as she was in her traveling circus days as feet find the tops of another large gear,  just above yet another one that is already rapidly being submerged in the drink. She pivots sideways, angling the revolver, aiming towards the lever now that she has a better view of it.

She pulls the trigger. She doesn't bother ''aiming'', nothing like the smooth impossible shots that she has taken in the past. She empties ''the entire chamber'' in her attempts to get at it. "COME." BANG. "ON." BANG. "GIVE." BANG. "YOU STUPID." BANG. "GOD DAMN PAIN IN THE ARSE-- "

'''CLICK.'''

The gun is empty. "Ah, shite."

Her luck manages to hold, however. A rock falls from where a couple of her shots have impacted, slamming into the lever and jerking it down on the way to the flood of death below. There is a cavenous roar before a chasm in the middle of the ground opens, the deadly swirl of water churning around the epicenter. The water level starts receding, and she exhales a breath she doesn't know she's holding.

It isn't long until they're able to pick through dripping rocks and dead chitinous bodies, clinging to their boots and trousers with the corpses of the tiny dead, finally through the door and into a stone chamber. The vaulted ceilings, even while here, are impressive, and while they've managed to reach an untouched recess in the heart of the Tomb, they find very little else for the mystery they're actually ''here'' to solve. In the near-oppressive darkness, there's another set of clicks, until Cassidy's face suddenly flares into view, illuminated by the flickering flame of a lighter.

'''CRUNCH.'''

Her expression flattens. She looks down...and slowly extricates her boot from a pile of ceramic that she had just stepped on.

"...hope that's nae important."

 <CARD DRAW>

++++++++++++++++++++++<* CHALLENGE - Plentiful Pottery *>+++++++++++++++++++++++ <br>
|Type: Discovery   |Dungeon Ability: Discovery |Challenge Rating: 1          | <br>
++++++++++++++< Challenge Information: >++++++++++++++ <br>
An exploration of this part of the inner Tomb reveals a large amount of old   
pottery and other cultural artifacts. Most are painted with abstract          
patterns, but a few show stylized scenes of large humanoids fighting against  
smaller, demonic looking creatures set before fields of fire, water, or       
mountains. As cultural artifacts of the ancient past, these will fetch a      
decent price with a collector, the Ethos, or the Adventurers' Guild.          

 <Pose Tracker> Morgan Newkirk has posed.

The swirling mess that is debris, dead pillbugs, and ancient water is carried away leaving a very damp and dark room behind. Thankfully what was behind that door was higher in elevation or everything might have been washed right out to sea. Morgan gingerly drops to the ground as his boots splash softly in the few puddles left. 

Stepping gingerly around the live wire left dancing on the ground he starts forwards after the flickering lighter that marks Cassidy's position. 

He raises his gauntlet and sends the mental commands. Thrumming lines of power igniting in blue across the dull metalic surface. It doubles as torch in cases like this. 

An effective on for them to see...a...whole lot of not much. 

Though there is a wince as Cassidy steps right though a vase. 

"Oh no. Just cultural artifacts from an ancient and extinguished civilisation. Nothing much really." A beat pause as he glowers at her. "And I AM NOT HAVING AMOROUS ENCOUNTERS WITH PILLBUGS! I WAS ACCUSING JUDE OF READING ABOUT THEM!" This shouted back at Noah. "Don't make me kick something else that looks important!" He adds threateningly. 

Then a glance at Cassidy. "...and I'm...you know what. I'd tell you what I am but you wouldn't believe any of it if I did!" He makes a face at her before glancing back towards Jude. 

"You know, if we were ''totally'' aweful at this we would all be dead by now." Just a nice conversational tone with a grin. "I perfer to see us as...adventuresome. Thats more sellable to clients that 'Totally Functions on Luck and Whiskey'." A flash of a grin before the fox finally turns his attention to whats left in the inner chamber, his light shining over the dust and mess. 

"...so..." As he crouches near a mural of some kind. "...any of this help us?"

 <Pose Tracker> Noah Hawthorne has posed.

A lot of things happen. Some of those things might have involved taking a bead on the lever that Jude very politely requests that someone shoot, only to wind up huddling into the stone face as Cassidy blows through an entire cylinder of ammunition and sends bits of chipped stone zinging through the air around him; muttering in an uncommon language about -- oh, who knows what? Pillbugs? Electrified water? Firebug thieves, or beastmen with distressing carnal habits? It doesn't really matter, ultimately. Eventually the water drains and they're left to make their way back down to terra firma. "That just makes both of you strange," Noah offers Morgan by way of rebuttal, conveniently ignoring 'basically everything that was the point of what he said.' 

Grisly insectoid sludge coats his boots soon enough, muffling his footsteps. Muffling them enough, in fact, that the sound of Cassidy leadfooting through a priceless (?) artifact becomes very loud indeed. 

Her lighter flares to life, and one second afterward so does the light-giving bracelet around his left wrist, the stone set into that ARM cuff emanating sharply brilliant illumination. He slowly turns his gaze down to the shards under her foot, slowly raises it to look at her -- one brow travels upward simultaneously -- and then he slowly drops into a limber crouch. "Well, let's have a look and find out, shall we." 

Half-kneeled that way, he casts his gaze across the assembly of other artifacts -- and it is a ''discerning'' gaze. This is what he does. If he didn't enjoy doing it, he could stop any given day and take up a position as a fence or appraiser, and make an ''excellent'' living. Better than the one he makes doing this, without a doubt. 

"Hundred gella...two hundred gella...fifty gella...mmm, not worth anything, that one...hundred to two hundred gella depending on the buyer. Well, none of those seem to be worth much, so..." He glances down, plucks up one of the broken shards near her foot. Turns it over thoughtfully. His lips thin, corners pulled inward. He slants a look up at her. It is ''pregnant'' silence. 

The exhale that leaves him is very, very long, the way his eyes unfocus as they stare off into the dark reminiscent of the way soldiers begin to look when they've spent too much time on the front lines. He drops the shard on the ground and rises. 

"Nope," he says, not even bothering to try to lie convincingly. "Not valuable at all."

 <Pose Tracker> Morgan Newkirk has posed.

"...she shattered the only valuble one didn't she?" Morgan's gaze slides towards Cass. "...how do you manage to ''always'' find just the right one to step on Cass? ''HOW''." 

 <Pose Tracker> Jude Moshe has posed.

BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG. 

''Ah, shite.'' 

"'Ah, shit' really isn't what I want to be hearing right now--" 

These are potentially Jude Moshe's final words as the water sloshes its electricity-lancing ascent towards them all. Eyes shutting, half-leaning off the wall as he feels his muscles strain in protest, he reaches out, tilts his splayed hand towards that lever-- 

-- and pauses. As a rock falls on it. As a damn rock falls on it. 

A second passes as he hears the water below audibly drain with deafening, sucking sounds. 

"You can lie to me," he asides to Cassidy as the water reaches ground floor and sluices away, "and say that was on purpose, if you want. I'll believe anything at this point." 

... 

"Honestly. Anything." 

Eventually, he scales down to the ground floor, shoes squelching against the stony earth. He looks at his dry saliva-caked frock coat, and heaves a defeated sigh as he shakes his head. "One day," he utters to himself before locking his hands behind the back of his head and strolling further inward in a way far too casual for someone who was very nearly electrocuted to death. 

Through the depths they plunge, chitin crunching beneath Jude's heels as he makes his way into the encompassing darkness of the chamber. "Hold on," he says as that lighter flicks on. "I can get us a bit more light too-- " 

'''CRUNCH''' 

Slowly, Jude turns. He looks down at the shattered remains of that pot. His brows lift. He's already rounding up the totals in his head as Noah does the same. His lips quirk upwards into a smile. Into a grin. Into-- 

"Ahahahahaha!" 

-- into full blown laughter. 

And he just keeps on laughing, finding a wall to lean against, shaking his head as his ribs ache and lungs burn from all of it. But he just laughs, and laughs. Jacob, flying into the room, lands on one of the ruined shards. It looks around, and then hops on it, as if to just indicate 'THIS WAS THE VALUABLE ONE, TAKE THIS POT, IT'S VERY VALUABLE.' 

"I think -- I might -- have just slid further into debt since -- becoming your partner, you know that-- ?" And Jude couldn't sound happier for it. 

"At least we... learned some valuable information about Morgan's love life... through this...!" 


 <Pose Tracker> Cassidy Cain has posed.

At Noah's dead stare and Morgan's more accusatory one, Cassidy throws up her hands. "It was ''dark''!" she protests. "I dinnae do this on purpose, stop looking at me like that!" To the relic hunter more pointedly: "Have I mentioned your hobby sucks?"

She would say more, but the sudden explosion of laughter ricochets from the wall that Jude is leaning against, sputtering about his skyrocketing debts. A hand plants on her hip as she jabs a finger towards the redhead's convulsing form. "Dinnae even ''start''! You knew what you were signing up for, and I'm pretty sure you were already an irresponsible adult well before we met! I gave you an out ''repeatedly'' Jude! Dozens!"

All reminders of the fact that none of these stubborn, daft idiots that she's with don't seem to be inclined to vacate a doomed capital city ''at all''. 

The blonde tilts her head back and ''sighs''. Reaching into her pockets, she produces a cigarette, lighting up the end. As embers burn through thin paper and braided ropes of tobacco, she tosses the silver lighter and its ouroboros decal to Jude, as he had tried to ask for it earlier before the toads happened, tiny sapphires from the serpent's eyes winking at the light from Noah's bracelet.

"I'd like that back," she tells her partner of the precious thing, though something tells her - more intuition, really, than anything else - that he already knows.

She ''does'' try to avoid stepping on more lost relics, sinking against a large rock in a lean, an arm banding around her torso as her eyes move to the far wall. All that trouble and no answers.

"Guess we know what this means," she tells the rest. "Wish we dinnae havetae, since God only knows stomping around His Majesty's private property's riskier than getting eaten by giant frogs." Her expression slowly gentles, tones that are more inscrutable passing through those glade-green eyes, though it could just be a trick of the artificial light pulsing from Noah's wrist.

"I got almost what we'll all need, but I figured I'd put it out there. Last chance tae bow out, lads."

 <Pose Tracker> Morgan Newkirk has posed.

"He can't leave now, darlin." Morgan's drawl cuts though the laughter with a smirk as the fox leans back against a wall with a smirk. "If'n he left now, life would just seem so boring." He flicks one ear as he reaches up to try to wipe some of the frog slime on his coat off and onto the stone wall. 

"I mean really. Where would we get to experiance all this if we didn't know ya." He adds as he shifts again, his eyes scanning the remains of a lost time with sharp eyes. Trying to pick out any hint of golems of metal demons out of it all. 

He can't really. 

Mostly cause there isn't much. 

"Bow out? Now? Ain't no way. I gotta see this through till the end. Else I'll just be wonderin about it for the rest of my days. And I have many, many days ahead of me." He pauses for a moment, head cocked slightly to one side before he tilts his bright and amused gaze in the direction of the exasperated ruin explorer. 

"Besides, after all this work. We back out now and poor Noah there is reduced ta a pauper. Not ta mention me, do you have any idea how hard it is to convince dozens of Diggers to head down this way on short notice?" A smirk at that. "Sorry darlin, looks like you're stuck with me at least." 

 <Pose Tracker> Noah Hawthorne has posed.

Virtually all of Noah's theatrical disappointment is ornament, substanceless. He doesn't do this for the gella, and he never has. He does it for the experience; to see things people haven't seen, do things people haven't done, filling the hours of his life full the point of oversaturation. To the point that he needs to fill journal after travel-weary journal, not only every last scrap of empty space on every last page, but the spaces between the pages too, stuffing in mementos, notes, sketches, leaves, prints, locks of hair, ribbons, fragments of a busy existence. 

In the final balance, the pot probably meant less to Noah than the story he'll be able to tell later: a story about an absurd descent into the legendary Lolithia's Tomb on a desperate errand with the sands running low in the hourglass, and the conwoman he once knew who managed to find the only thing of material value in the whole of the plundered place...and put her foot through it. 

He watches Jude wracked with laughter against the sidewall of the passage and good humor glitters in his own eyes, bite-marked arms loosely crossing his chest. There's something to be said for surrounding one's self with people who can roll with misfortune and the unexpected and avoid letting it drag them down -- especially when you're Noah, and misfortune and the unexpected happen on what feels like a daily basis. 

Cassie's tone gets a different look from him, though. A sidelong one, momentarily inscrutable beneath brows that suggest but do not entirely embrace a knit. She offers them a way out -- again -- and the look clears. While explaining his own reasons for sticking around Morgan mentions him in passing, and maybe he finds that sufficient explanation for himself, though he doesn't nod to confirm that that's his reason...just stays silent, and standing where he is. 

And, after a pause: "We should probably start finding another way out, since we collapsed that tunnel."

 <Pose Tracker> Jude Moshe has posed.

Waving a hand through the air at Cassidy's accusations in the midst of his quaking laughter, Jude just shakes his head, tears forming at the corners of his eyes. It tapers off slowly, gradually, into little dwindling fits before those amber eyes crack open. "Don't get me wrong, Cassie," he reassures between those dying chuckles. "It's pretty reassuring, just watching you being you." The rock, the pottery. 

"You sure don't do anything by half." 

Shoulder blades digging in to the cool stone of the wall, Jude flattens the back of that red head of hair against it, eyes tracking around the room. He catches that glint of metallic and gem-encrusted light from the corner of his eyes, and snatches the small, flying object out of the air. When he opens his hand up, and sees the cool metal of that intricately-wrought silver lighter resting against his palm, he blinks. I'd like that back, she says. He smiles, a wry thing. 

"I'll keep that in mind," he says, in a way that suggests he knew that before that lighter even hit his palm. 

Without a word, he produces that slim cigarette case. He flicks it open, his amber eyes falling at the light of Noah's bracelet for a brief, curious moment before he brings that cigarette to his lips and ignites its end into so many orange embers of menthol-laced tobacco. He draws in deep, and releases it in a slow exhale of smoke. Cassidy gives them an out, again. Jude just stands, makes his way towards her, and reaches down to take her right hand, to rest that warmed-over lighter against her palm. 

"Honestly," he says, ever-so-ambivalently, "Give me any more last chances to bow out, and I might start feeling hurt." 

And with that, he stretches out and starts to wander off back itno the darkness, Jacob hopping up into open flight to lead the way ahead. "Jacob'll scout out a path," he claims, voice easy as it comes. 

"And maybe we can take a detour and pick up Cassie's wife on the way out." 

And so off he goes, disappearing into the dark with one last, important thought: 

"... I sure as hell hope I can get in some time at the tailor before the apocalypse..." 

 <Pose Tracker> Cassidy Cain has posed.

Where else could they experience ''committing treason'' if it wasn't for her? Stuck with him, too, Morgan says. The silence from Noah, though the last few weeks have instilled her with enough insight in his character to know that it speaks volumes; in that, he and Jude were similar, and it isn't as if he needs to reiterate it. His one statement when she first broke the news to him, a question sincerely put, told her enough as to where the relic hunter was coming from.

''Don't you think Adlehyde is worth saving?''

She knows it's useless; she is stubborn but it begets the company of others with the same degree of hardheadedness. It is this because of this specific characteristic, however, that she keeps trying no matter how many times it ends in failure. And regarding this, she says nothing, as always incapable of expressing what she needs to say in moments like these. To rail at them and tell them all to run, at this point, would be fruitless.

The redhead reporter's shadow slants across her own and she finally reanimates when he takes her hand and deposits the lighter back within her grasp. Eyes move up to meet his amber stare as familiar fingers close her digits around the pretty silver thing, once more returning the ouroboros and its shining blue eyes back into the shadows of her keeping. His chastisement is taken in stride, though she feels a nagging tug in her stomach, remembering what has been said and not in this chamber; Morgan's assured confidence and easy determination despite the odds. Noah's poignant silence.

Jude and his mouth, and every single attempt by her to throw him out of the doors of her life to date.

It is a sensation that is alien and unwanted and warm. It feels...

...like embarrassment.

Thankfully ''everyone'' is leaving and already picking their way out of the tunnel, and she ''scrubs'' her face with one hand, as if she could physically obliterate any trace of the emotion. With an exasperated exhale, she starts moving forward, tucking the lighter back into her pocket.

[[Category:Logs]]
[[Category:Chapter 1]]
[[Category:Chapter 1, Act 1]]