< Something Humming This Way Comes | Ex Pulplogs | Stone Traps And Sorcery >
Corve "Figured as much. Alright- let's go. Let's not waste more time." He turns away from them and walks over to the spirit. "Guess all that's left now is for you to step aside so we can get going, hmm?"
Clockwork Woman "If you wish to enter, you may."
Corve "Right then." He nods to the others and then steps around the spirit, walking forward. Gotta stay fearless, Corve. Get used to it. He clenches Valor's Fist as he moves.
Carmine walks forward with Corve
Captain_Oteki lingers behind the others for a minute or two, thanking the spirit, complimenting her on her... uh... gears, and that sort of thing. No point in missing the opportunity to make new... friends.
Clockwork Woman responds politely to Oteki, but ushers him towards the darkness that his companions have walked into. As they walk, the clockwork spirit slowly disappears into the distance.
ST The darkness eventually grows brighter, whiter and clears away to reveal that they are now within what is recognizable as the spire in the center of the overgrown maze. A vast winding staircase ascends the stone walls of the spire, leading upwards towards the invisibly-distant peak. At the moment there seems to be nothing but stone and staircase.
Captain_Oteki hums a merry tune as he walks as he heads up the steps. "Hmm hmmmm hmmmm, hmm hmmmm hmmmmmm, spins a web, any size, captures thieves, just like flies..."
Corve "Guess we're going up," he mutters, taking Carmine's hand and starting to cilmb the stairs at a reasonable pace.
Myrrh "Oh this had better not be another infinite hallway..."
Corve "I just hope these stairs end sometime soon, if they're like the last ones we had to climb, it's going to be hell. Last time we were going /down/."
Carmine shivers alittle, next to Corve
Corve wraps his arm around Carmine, kissing her head softly as they continue upwards.
Captain_Oteki seems almost disturbingly optimistic in comparison to the others, grinning wide as he marches up the steps.
ST A few steps away the staircase pauses at a landing where a simple stone door is set into the wall. Further on there are regularly spaced landings and doorways that spiral up along with the staircase, spaced out about 200 steps apart from each other. Each looks identical and unremarkable.
Captain_Oteki "Hey look. Doors."
Corve "Huh. This is interesting," he says. "How are we supposed to know which one..?" And then he frowns. "Knowing the Dragon-Blooded, we'll be walking through all of them."
Captain_Oteki knocks.
ST There is no response from the door
Corve tries the knob. "Everyone stay alert..."
Myrrh "Maybe they have...apartments?"
ST Not finding a knob, Corve simply pushes against the door, which slowly grinds open. The space behind the door is dark and full of vaguely man-shaped shadows standing in rows.
Corve raises a brow and steps inside. "Carmine, some sharp light, please?"
Carmine gestures and Eminence appears in her hands
ST Despite the brilliance of Eminence shining into the doorway the figures within remain shadowed and ill-defined. The light simply refuses to reach into the room and reveal its contents.
Captain_Oteki "I think the word for that particular effect be "ominous"."
Corve "Or 'eldritch,'" he says, perking an eyebrow and slowly entering the room.
Carmine steps within after corve, looking around at the shadowy figures
Captain_Oteki holds the door open for anyone else who wants to head in. "'Chthonic' is a good one, too."
Myrrh "How about "Too damn dark?"
Myrrh follows the others into the shadowy chamber
Corve snickers softly at Myrrh and then looks over to Oteki. "Portentous."
Captain_Oteki is quite conversant with the tricks that tombs and mazes can pull on a person, so he keeps leaning against the door so that it doesn't slam shut on them. "How about 'foreboding'?"
ST Once everyone has stepped into the chamber the light of Eminence flows outwards, revealing to the four visitors that they stand in a long, narrow room full of slumped figures standing in various poses of falling over, fallen down, slumped against the wall or otherwise limp. None of them is standing up. All the figures are dressed in heavy armor that makes identifying their gender impossible
Corve raises a brow. "Are they real..?" he asks no one in particular, his rifle instantly in his hand as he nears one of the figures already on the floor and nudges it with his foot to see what it's made of.
ST The figure makes a clattering sound of metal as Corve's foot touches it.
Carmine leans down to take a closer look, lighting her anima to illuminate the body better
Corve "Huh. Either they're metallic in origin, or someone's been turning people to metal."
Captain_Oteki "Either that or they're just suits o'armor, aye?"
Myrrh "Maybe. Maybe their automatons?" Inspects some of them, trying to look into the eye slits.
ST A pair of blank, empty eye sockets peer back at Carmine and Myrrh from inside the helmet of the figure that Corve was prodding at with his foot.
Corve "Oh. Well. Hmm." He swallows. "Been here long?"
Myrrh "Who would have skeletons in armor standing around? Maybe a...necromancer?"
Carmine "Very long, I think."
Corve "Yeah. Come on, let's see if any of them are less decayed." He opens his eyes to the intricacies of detail and mystery, each of his senses attuning in a manner that will allow him to decipher mysteries beyond those capable for mortals.
Captain_Oteki "Perhaps these folks have just been standin' here for a real, /real/ long time. Waitin' for us, maybe."
Myrrh "They could be war ghosts...you can never know with these tombs..."
ST Investigating the remains shows no signs of battle or combat on the armors, at least nothing that may explain the state of their owners. None of the suits are scattered as if dismembered. Their posture, those that still have one other then sprawled on the floor, suggests that they were standing at attention before death.
Corve shakes his head, rapping gently on one of the standing corpses' helmet. "Hello?" Nothing. Dammit, this place is confusing.
ST None of them has moved from their place on the wall, other then to fall onto the ground. And tapping on them doesn't have any effect.
Carmine "Perhaps we should go on then?"
Myrrh "More contagion dead?"
Corve "I doubt anyone suffering the Contagion would die standing up."
ST Despite nothing *strange* happening when Corve taps on the armors, doing so does have one effect: the armors he taps on are often damaged by doing so. Despite colored tinges in the armors that seem to indicate Jade alloys in some of the suits the armors all disintegrate when handled roughly.
Corve "Oh, shit," he says, watching one of the helmets fall apart in his hand. "Fuck! Myrrh, get over here!"
Captain_Oteki continues leaning against the door. "I'm just gonna wait here, make sure this here door don't, you know, seal up on us, aye?"
Myrrh frowns and runs over. "What?"
Corve "Look- check this out," he says, and grasp one of the gauntlets of an armor, exerting just enough force for it to crumble. Then he points at another piece of the armor. "It has jade bits- but it's completely frail. Ever seen anything like this?"
Myrrh "No...Alloys of the five magical materials are supposed to be indestructable!"
Corve "My point exactly."
Corve "Or at least they shouldn't be, you know, corroded by /time/ of all things."
Myrrh examines the bits and picks up the jade metal, examining it all closely.
Corve "This is odd..."
ST Myrrh would naturally suspect that some form of magic is involved in the degredation of the metals, though he can detect nothing unique about the metals to determine what form of magic was used.
Myrrh "Well magic did something to it...I can't tell for sure i'm afraid. If only I had upgraded the goggles for essence sight..."
Corve "It's alright, buddy. You'll figure it out..."
Myrrh "Well i'll keep it on hand for reference. I don't know of much that could destroy or rot something of the materials though..."
Corve "I haven't heard of anything, ever."
Myrrh gently takes the helmet off and looks for any essence medallions...maybe they were gunzosha?
Carmine wanders off further from the door, bored.
ST The skull looks perfectly normal to Myrrh and, when touched, remains firm. There are no implants or scars upon the bone.
Myrrh "Hmmm...why would they put mortals in jade armor? Well we should get moving, we can check this on the way out."
Corve "Yeah, alright. Let's go..."
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