Of Magic and Dungeons [IC/PG-16/Accepting]

[Chaos Sonic 443]

“Don’t go too far. but look out, there are more coming in. I’m, uh -...I’m a little busy. But I can handle it. Come here, you. You know how many undead we had to fight just to get here?”

While he couldn't initially see Chris due to it being harder to see and make the figure out, Ziun could at least hear him. ...charming, that doesn't sound all too wonderful for him right now... he thought, letting out a slight sigh. Which means whatever he's dealing with, we'll be dealing with at the same time. Well, I suppose we'll have to handle it as we can. He moved slightly, walking a bit further ahead than he was. In the process of now passing by Lana to follow further after Chris.

That's when he saw it...the same thing Chris saw: the mausoleum poking through the thick, eerie fog. Not only that, he could see the figure of Chris fighting another skeleton, this time one with a sword that was being brought down onto the young man. Unfortunately, he saw other figures in the distance...which wasn't a great sign in the long run. Truly wonderful...more opposition. he let out another sigh, shaking his head. It was obvious Chris was having a bit of a hard time with this one skeleton. The bard immediately unsheathed his rapier, immediately giving a quick and precise strike onto the joints, it being the elbow. "A thousand pardons on interrupting and butting into your brawl, Chris...but it seemed you were having some troubles."

[Skaia 578]

As the group continued to creep along through the misted room Chris was the first to advance as a zombie came into view. With him taking it down pretty quickly, giving a warning to the others as he started to engage with another undead, Lana began to move up. Getting her axe ready, the girl was about to join the fray when Ziun had passed by her. Turning back as he walked past, the girl then noticed that there was someone else bringing up the back. Not just Estelle, but a skeleton as well that was getting ready to strike at. "Watch out," the girl said, her voice not a shout but very clearly not a whisper either as she brought her axe down, smashing one of the arms of the skeleton. It had managed to avoid the brunt of the attack, and instead turned its attention from the mage to Lana. 

Taking a swing at her, Lana stepped back to avoid the swing only for the skeleton to go for yet another. Bringing her axe, the girl countered its swing with her own. The sword cut her arm only for the axe to still smash through the arm of the skeleton, destroying it completely. Wincing in pain from the cut, she said, "why you," before swinging her axe into the skeleton's head, smashing it instantly. With the skeleton dead, Lana looked over to the north seeing something else, and letting out a sigh. "I am sick of all of these ghosts and zombies." Looking at Estelle she said, "well, I'll watch your back so let's keep going." 

[LordCowCow 840]

Chris and Ziun both struck different areas of the skeleton, cutting through various limbs and slicing parts of it off. It seemed to wobble in place for a moment before crumbling into pieces, unable to hold itself together anymore, the foul magic that caused it to move failing its damaged body.

They didn't have much time to celebrate this success. From ahead of them they saw yet another skeleton approaching. It was moving right for them as it came out of the fog which seemed to show the creature could see them earlier than they saw it.

Similarly, but also differently, a zombie emerged from the fog more towards the right. The creature seemed to be wandering and just happened to come across them. As it did though it wouldn't be long before it took notice of them and started for them much like the skeleton.

Lana had also felled an attacker only for it to be replaced with another. A zombie had found them and was heading for her. Unlike the skeleton it hadn't noticed her right away but it was now shambling in her direction with its arms outstretched.

Out of the corner of her eye she thought she saw movement to the left, around the gravestones, yet she couldn't make out what it was even enough to see the shape or size of it.

---

Important OOC

Spoiler

They're all important but it is imperative that you make sure to read these too from here on.

Lana cannot see Ziun or Chris, nor their attackers, and they cannot see her though they can barely tell where the zombie is (but not what it is). Estelle can barely make out their forms and they hers.

Also Ziun and Chris can see more of the building and see there is a closed door on it.

Map

 

[radio414 907]

Chris let out a “What? Hey! Whoa!” as Ziun’s rapier entered his peripheral vision, and he adjusted his swing to make absolutely sure he didn’t get hit by it. He’d already had to dodge out of the way of one sharp object fighting this skeleton, what was another? One thing Chris did have to admit, though, it was effective, and Ziun was already apologizing so he couldn’t be too upset about it. “Just say something before you come in next time,” he said. “It’s all good.”

With the skeleton gone, Chris was more able to take in the new surroundings, or, more specifically, his lack of them. He could see Ziun and the mausoleum in the middle, of course, but anything further than that was well and truly obscured. He really hoped one shape behind them was Estellise. It was about where he and Ziun had left the two women, but if it wasn’t her, they had a whole new set of problems on their hands. As it stood, their current set of visible, confirmed problems numbered two -- another zombie and skeleton were headed their way.

If it were any other environment, Chris probably would have charged at the zombie. It was closer, he’d already demonstrated himself able to deal with that sort of undead quickly, and, most importantly, that was what he was used to doing. But no, he wasn’t about to get lost himself. He’d have the fight here.

When the zombie got up to him, his opening swing was already wound up, but because he didn’t have that extra forward momentum attached, it didn’t have as much force behind it as it should have. The zombie just kept moving forward, and Chris was pushed back a step, desperately trying to get his stuck sword all the way through. It was no use, though. He had better things he could be doing. Chris kept one hand on his sword to keep pushing back, but he drew out a dagger to swing with. “Lana!” He called out to the one person he couldn’t see in the meantime. “Just letting you know where I am, Lana. We should try to regroup just- ergh!” He took a hit as the zombie took advantage of his arms being well within swiping distance. “Let me know if you can hear this!” he finished as he stabbed back.

[Skaia 578]

Taking down one skeleton only showed that there was one more undead for the girl to worry about. A zombie had slowly walked towards her from the mist and - the girl's eyes quickly looked to the side thinking that she had seen something there but only for an instant. She was only further startled when she heard Chris's voice call out to her, looking back to see that she couldn't in fact see anything aside from Estelle and this accursed fog. Annoyed and spooked by all of this, the girl shouted back, "I hear you! I've got something else here first but uh, ugh." Looking back to the zombie Lana had a half mind to go charge it and try to kill it one attack. However, she had already been cut once in her reckless actions in this floor and she was pretty sure reducing the number of injuries she was getting was something she had wanted to work on when coming into the dungeon today. Something she had been failing at considerably at that. Now annoyed at herself, the girl decided not to just charge into the fog and instead hold her ground. 

Once in range, the girl swung her axe down into the creature's head, burying the blade into the skull of creature though, being already dead, it didn't seem any bit in pain from the attack. Instead, it continued to push its way towards her in spite of this critical injury, still trying to reach her. "Not on your life," the girl said to the zombie, putting a considerable amount of strength into her arms and pushing the blade, and thus the zombie, to the side and away from her. Pulling the blade out as she had essentially shoved the zombie away, the girl swung the axe again, completely destroying the head of the zombie. Letting out a sigh of relief the girl shouted out, "alright I'm coming over now!" 

Slowly, she took her step into the fog as she started to move where she thought Chris and Ziun were likely to be. Out of the corner of her eyes she was pretty sure she saw something, again, coming into view only to vanish once again. Being put more on edge by this the girl eventually looked over and was able to see both of her other party members. Being engaged with the undead, Chris seemed to be already fighting a zombie, though coming eastwardly another skeleton appeared from the fog and looked poised to join the combat. Lana had a half mind to rush in again to try and help him, as she was wont to do when someone else was in danger, but looked back seeing that if she was too reckless she would also leave Estelle behind in the fog. Not to mention she didn't know what else could come out any second.

So instead she stood her ground again and said, "Chris! Look out there's a skeleton coming at you! Uh," looking back she said, "Estelle can you shoot it?" Knowing that the mage was more able to respond to situations like these from a range she decided to leave it in her hands, only to then look back from where she saw the figure in the fog before. It wasn't there now, but she wasn't sure when it would appear again and there was no assurance that something wouldn't pop out to try and attack Estelle again when she made her move. 

[Chaos Sonic 443]

“What? Hey! Whoa! Just say something before you come in next time. It’s all good.”

"Once again, a thousand pardons. But we can't lose another party member, especially to a simple skeleton to which we've had no issues with prior." Ziun gave a small smirk, staying on guard however. He was with Chris, but Lana and Estelle were still a bit further behind. Luckily, Chris tried to call for Lana while he was now working on the zombie and skeleton that shambled their way towards them.

At first, Ziun wondered why Chris wasn't attacking head on like he normally did on the other floors. A quick rush forward and he could dispatch them without any questions or qualms. Then it hit the bard: the visibility. Of course, that's a smart move. Considering that we know nothing of our surroundings except the mausoleum, we could become further and further lost within this fog and mist. Alas, had I only thought of that before I moved in. he lamented in thought.

"Chris! Look out there's a skeleton coming at you"

Ziun heard Lana's warning, turning back around to hopefully see her, but yet…he could not. "Lana, which direction? Left flank or right?" he shouted back, attempting to assist. "He's currently attempting to dispatch a zombie. If you can make out a figure, direct me towards it. I can at least help Chris out in this regard." He swung his rapier a bit around him, prepping to strike when he could. If only Estelle was able to be in the close vicinity to him, could've used that extra sharp edge to his blade again...would've been nice. Alas, he couldn't worry about what-ifs at this point...he needed to focus here and now. He was to help Chris and the others and leave this dungeon alive.

[LordCowCow 840]

Chris managed fairly easily to stab the dagger into the zombie's chest. The undead creature didn't stop there though. It went forward, pushing against the hand that held the dagger and driving the dagger even deeper, and its mouth opened and closed as it tried to bite at Chris's face. The teeth making a disturbingly loud clacking sound as they mashed together again and again, drawing closer and closer.

The skeleton that Lana had warned them about was making its way closer and now it was clear for most to see. Even Estelle, farthest back, was able to vaguely make out its shape now. The creature was heading for Chris and had its sword raised in preparation to attack.

Ziun had been focused on looking for this skeleton, which had been on the other side of Chris and the zombie, so much that he didn't even register the skeleton that had been nearby until it was too late. He felt a sharp pain as the creature brought its sword down and sliced into his arm. Though it wasn't as deep a wound as it could be the skeleton didn't stop there. Going for another swing, this time towards his neck.

Lana was keeping an eye out for the creature she had seen move before. While she didn't notice it again just then she did see something shambling out of the fog a bit farther back from where the movement had been. A zombie had wandered within her and Estelle's eyesight. It seemed not to have noticed them until just then, when it raised an arm up and began towards Estelle.

Spoiler

Map

As far as vision goes

Ziun and Chris can't see Z3 or Estelle
Estelle can't see Ziun, Chris, Z2, S5, and barely can see S2
Lana can just barely make out everything on the map

 

[radio414 907]

“I see it!” Chris said. With so much mist there wasn’t as much surroundings to be aware of. That said, he was a little occupied at the moment. “Just gimme a… rah!” With a burst of effort, Chris twisted his entire body to the right, dragging along the clawing and biting zombie along with him until he launched it in the skeleton’s direction. In an ideal world, this would have resulted in downing both of them, but Chris would have settled for at least having the zombie take the skeleton’s attack. The skeleton had its sword raised, after all, though it seemed cogent enough to simply toss the zombie aside itself, and the zombie was sent stumbling into the fog. No such luck.

At least the skeleton was distracted, Chris thought. And it was close enough that he could still make his way back to Ziun (and probably Lana) without issue if he was quick enough about it. He took a running start and jumped up to swing at the skeleton’s head.

His sword stroke took the head clean off, but the skeleton kept moving despite that. Again, it stumbled a bit, sure, but it still lurched forward with its sword up. “That’s really rude of you,” Chris said. After all that work, it was still moving! Chris wouldn’t do any of that if he got a dead body thrown at him and then his head chopped off. He almost leaped in again, but stopped himself, batting the skeleton’s sword away. If he kept doing this, if he kept pressing his advantage forward, he’d get out of sight of even Ziun who had just been right next to him. So instead he took a few steps back to where he had just been before. If the skeleton could navigate its way over to where he was without a head to guide it, it could do that. He would be ready for it here, his own sword raised and ready to bring it down on the first undead limb to get into range.

[Skaia 578]

Being in the center of it all, Lana was able to see that just about everyone was in danger. With two undead on Chris, one on Ziun and one slowly advancing towards Estelle the girl had to make her decision quickly about what to do. She briefly lost track of Chris in the fighting his two opponents in the fog but he seemed to have it more or less covered. Meanwhile, Ziun had already taken a swipe from the skeleton into his arm, and it looked ready to go again. Lana felt bad about leaving Estelle by herself, but seeing the skeleton already ready to go for another hit on the bard the girl took off towards him first. Bringing up her axe, running closer to the mausoleum, yelling, "watch out!" as she struck the skeleton's skull, trying to fell it in one blow. 

The axe cleaved off about half of the undead's head and it seemed to notice this as well, the skeleton pausing it's wind up. The girl eyed it curiously, seeing that it hadn't fallen to the ground yet, before noticing its body seeming to continue its movement. "That's not fair!" The girl remembered last time she went to attack a skeleton mid-swing she had still taken damage in the clash, and this time she was dealing with helping another person, not just herself. Trying to quickly think of how to intercept the attack, her mind went back to her lesson with Joan, the woman teaching her a different way to use her axe in such a situation. She didn't need to kill it she just needed to deflect it. To push it. 

Shifting her grip on her axe upward, giving her more control of the weapon, the girl pointed the top of the axe towards the skeleton's arm. Shoving the weapon forward as the sword came down, the girl struck and shoved the arm, knocking it to the side and keeping it from cleaving through the boy's neck. Feeling yet another sense of pride from having a lesson go correctly, the girl shifted her grip back before swinging it hard at the skeleton's spine. She, however, completely misjudged the amount of force needed to kill the skeleton and similarly misjudged what it was like actually fighting this close to another ally. Her blade managed to just barely not hit the structure next to her, as well as cleave through the skeleton's spine rather effortlessly. However, her blade kept going in its horizontal arc. Pushing back on both of her arms and legs the girl fought the moment of the swing, her axe stopping inches from the bard's torso. Letting out a sigh of relief she said, "that was close." She couldn't help but feel some sense of deja vu from this, but didn't pay much mind to it. With the threat dispatched the girl looked to Ziun and said, "alright I got here. Estelle's back there though so make sure she's fine. And keep a lookout, there's some weird thing that keeps popping up that way," the girl pointed in the direction she came from. 

[Chaos Sonic 443]

Unfortunately, Ziun was focused on the zombie...that he failed to register the skeleton that was near him, until it was already too late. When it was finally near him, Ziun was surprised. "S-Shit!" he exclaimed, about to block the attack, but it was too late. The sword strike was delivered right into his arm, it wasn't deep, but it was bad enough. "D-Damnit...how careless of me..." he spoke through gritted teeth. The bard prepared to strike back at the skeleton, but too little too late...the skeleton prepared to slash down at his neck. This was it, wasn't it? He feared this was it and that he would end up being the end of him...

Luckily, fate found it would not be the case.

Shockingly, Ziun saw Lana's axe coming in and immediately dispatching of the skeleton...with only seeing the axe stopping inches from his torso. He let out an audible sigh of relief, learning he wouldn't be cut in twine today. "P-Perhaps a bit easier on the swing there, my dear..." he huffed softly.

"alright I got here. Estelle's back there though so make sure she's fine. And keep a lookout, there's some weird thing that keeps popping up that way,"

"Fantastic, so we have more than just the mausoleum and the undead still?" Ziun sighed in defeat, doing his best to keep his wound from getting any worse. "May I suggest for our next venture after this...we stock up on some potential healing supplies and the like? Because I feel like we'll need more of that in the next floors if we're dealing with things like this." he gripped his rapier tightly, calling out to Estelle. "Estelle, how are you fairing my dear? If possible, try and follow our voices in order to get to us...this way we have the power in numbers."

[LordCowCow 840]

Perhaps it was exhaustion, she had used many spells after all, or fear, be it the one that came from the creature earlier or otherwise, that caused Estelle to hesitate. Whatever it was likely wasn't helped that she now found herself alone. She couldn't see the others through the fog anymore. It could be all of this that combined to make her not notice the zombie until it was almost upon her. Ziun's words broke through to her but too late for when she finally noticed the creature it was when it was upon her. The undead creature, stronger than one would expect a corpse, dragged her down to the ground and began to attempt to bite into her unguarded flesh.

Chris found that the first of the two undead to approach was the zombie. It hadn't been stunned by the toss, it seemed that was an impossible state for these creatures, so it only took some time to reorient itself before it lurched towards Chris. Only to be reward with a sword slicing into its shoulder. Still the creature, letting out a low groan, raised its other arm to bring a heavy hand down towards Chris's head.

The skeleton, sans skull, was an unusual case. While it could function without the head, and had no true eyes to begin with, it still seemed to be limited in some way due to its loss. Even still the creature eventually seemed to take notice of Chris again and went to try once more.

Ziun and Lana didn't have any more sightings yet they both felt something wrong. As though enemies lurked just out of sight all around them.

Spoiler

Map

I may have mentioned a few times but be sure to let me know how/where your characters are moving cause depending what they do more info might be available.

Also, Estelle can't see anyone but the zombie. In theory she could just barely see S2 but she's a bit distracted
Everyone else can see everything except Estelle and the zombie attacking her. They can't even be sure she's being attacked though Lana saw the zombie heading that way earlier.

 

[radio414 907]

It was the zombie that got there first, and therefore it was the zombie that met Chris’ blade once again. The chunk sound as his sword cut through rotted flesh and bone was satisfying, but Chris found himself in trouble as he realized just how deep he’d cut in. His sword was stuck on something, and the zombie was somehow still moving. Chris’ sidestep out of the way of the zombie’s counterattack -- another wild flailing of its clawed hands, trying to bring one down on his head -- was an awkward one. He wanted to hold onto his sword. He wasn’t about to lose it in the fog. But that meant he couldn’t get entirely out of the way, either, just rotate the zombie around. He ended up having to duck out of the way, which left him with a grazed shoulder. After he had just gotten it healed, too! Chris hissed through his teeth and jumped back up.

Behind the zombie now was the skeleton, or what was left of it after losing its head. Chris had already complained that moving around without a head was cheating, and he was sure that differentiating between a fellow undead and a perfectly good alive person, while still cheating, was still within its capacity. He tugged at his sword again, and though it was still stuck in the zombie, all that maneuvering had finally gotten it to loosen a little bit. “Let’s see how you take it a second time,” Chris said, giving one final pull while, at the same time, raising his boot and kicking the zombie in the chest, sending it sprawling back into the skeleton.

Both undead disappeared into the mist for a moment before Chris heard the sound of crunching bones. The zombie slowly reappeared in the mist, shambling back towards Chris yet again, but the skeleton had fully disappeared. Chris hoped it was for good. The zombie, though… “You just don’t know when to quit, huh?” Chris said. He brandished his sword and took a chance on another look-around as the zombie approached. He didn’t see anything near Lana or Ziun, so “Hey, go back and regroup with Estellise!” he said. “I’ll be right there, just gotta… Rah!” As the zombie got back into sword range, Chris whirled back around with a high horizontal cut that he aimed right at the zombie’s neck.

[Doggo 218]

Contrary to experiences in the Dungeon thus far, Estellise was not a fighter and did not have the mindset of one. When she could see the battlefield unfolding as with most of the other floors it was simple enough to force herself to act like she did have a knack for these things and participate accordingly. Casting spells was simply acting on things she'd practiced quietly at home with the added stress of being attacked. But the fog had stilted her movements and overwhelmed her other senses trying to account for the lack of useful information sight was providing. So as the others jumped into action as quickly as ever it surprised the mage who found more of her allies and new threats slipping out of view. She heard them calling to her, asking for support but she had trouble positioning everything in her head let alone to take aim. By this point even Lana had disappeared from sight yet something was nearby.

"Gah!" Estelle cried out as the zombie that had approached her from behind tackled her to the floor with a thud. She should have been able to see it coming but as focused as she was in the direction of her comrades voices she'd failed to notice it until she'd finally thought to perhaps try to simply add light to the situation to see better. She struggled against the rotted arms grabbing hold of her but the woman had never had much of any upper arm strength and thus found herself singularly unfit for grappling. All she could do was try to slip one of her slender arms out from the thing's grip to get a hand on its frankly disgusting face. Magic surged into the hand as she did so with no thought for form or finesse other than blowing up the head of the thing on top of her. This her magic accomplished, several unfocused lasers pumped directly into the thing's head in gruesome fashion, spraying the gore around and onto the mage herself. Though Estelle didn't have the room to simply be grossed out and gather herself as the now headless creature was still moving, grabbing for her neck with its hands.

"Of course..." the mage grunted, reminding herself to research what it actually took to kill the undead when she got home. Losing one's head apparently wasn't cutting it. Estelle moved the hand still flowing freely with the blasts of light down toward the nearest shoulder of the creature. The limb too was blown off and the rest of the mass seemed to stop moving after she did so. Stilling her magic and using her muscles Estelle instead pushed the rest of the thing off of herself rather than soak her garments in any further mashed undead flesh. She shuddered and shook herself as she stood, reorienting herself to her comrades voices.

"I am alright!" She called out to let them do the same. As she approached she saw comforting silhouettes again in her sight which sure enough seemed to be her companions and not yet further zombies looking to grab her.

[Skaia 578]

Lana looked at Ziun with a small bit of disbelief as she exclaimed, "at least move so she can see you!" It was then that she noticed that Chris was having to tangle with two of the undead at once. While he had managed to hold his own relatively well, the girl still thought she'd be able to move in and help even the odds. Without much warning, she charged forward, not really caring to mind Ziun being directly in her way as she shoved past him and moved straight for the zombie. Chris's sword had managed to cut through the zombie's neck, the undead's head now only hanging off of the neck loosely, but the undead itself didn't seem to mind or stop in its pursuit as it continued towards the boy. It was stopped, however, as Lana had charged in, using the head of her axe to shove the body of zombie and causing it to topple to the floor. The zombie attempted to get back up, however Lana wouldn't allow such a thing as she brought her axe up and swung the blade down into its chest. Now re-lifeless, the undead corpse lied on the ground. 

"Gotcha," she said, both as a declaration of victory to the zombie and as a means of reassurance to Chris. Looking past Chris however, the girl saw that Estelle was still doing fine as she was on her way to regroup with the rest of the party. Waving to the girl she said, "we're over here!" The girl kept her eyes peeled though, ready to move at a moment's notice if something had appeared from behind the girl. 

[Chaos Sonic 443]

"at least move so she can see you!"

"Oh, how careless of me!" Ziun groaned, contemplating that Lana might've been correct in moving forward to bring Estelle back to them, but he didn't think about that...and he figured that was one of the reasons that Lana shoved past him. Perhaps he should've thought clearer, but alas, that was neither here nor there. Now, the question remained: what would Ziun do now? The undead were dealt with for the moment, but right now, he had the feeling that still things lurked in the foggy shadows within this room.

I suppose, we need to act. he thought, looking around the area for a moment. It was nothing but fog, and the shadow of the mausoleum. This would get them nowhere if they remained here.

The bard eyed near his feet: a couple of severed arms. An idea began to formulate in his mind to which he gripped the arm and gave it a heavy and strong chuck into the fog. He waited...hearing a THUMP nearby. He took this as a good thing, as he grabbed the other severed arm. "I believe I hit something...I'm going to investigate it." he shouted to the others, to keep himself in check. He then proceeded to inch closer in the direction that the thump was heard. After a few steps, he took the severed arm and chucked it again...hearing another THUMP...and now he saw the something he was hitting: another zombie, now looking his direction.

...oh...gods be praised... Ziun thought sarcastically, sighing a bit after seeing yet another zombie. This wasn't what he was going to be dealing with right now, he didn't want to deal with anymore. The bard proceeded to cast an illusion, a mirrored image of himself as he sent it forward towards this zombie and even passed the undead creature. Luckily, it seemed to have worked, as the zombie began to shamble after the illusion, no longer able to see it due to the fog. "It seemed to be another zombie, unfortunately. I wished for either a trap door or a chest, but alas it was not."

[LordCowCow 840]

While one of the zombies had wandered off, chasing the illusion Ziun conjured, the other one was still in sight. Unlike the previous zombie this one hadn't seemed to notice them yet. Having been simply milling about around a few gravestones. Eventually it happened to look Ziun's way and, upon seeing him, let out a groan and lurched in his direction.

While they were out of range of the zombie the other three would suddenly experience something unnerving near them. Estelliese, Chris, and Lana, though stronger for Estelle, would feel a sudden wave of fear wash over them. Even the farthest from the source, Lana, would feel unsettled. Were they to look towards the left-hand side Estelle and Chris would see the creature they had briefly glimpsed before. Humanoid in size and shape but with grey skin and a distorted face, complete with an elongated mouth that hung open, the creature looked even less natural than the undead they had faced thus far. And it was making its way towards them at a steady pace. Not as determined as the skeletons but not as shambling as the zombies this undead seemed to simply be leisurely walking towards them. Once it got nearer it seemed to attempt to lock eyes with Estelle.

Spoiler

Map

I'm not sure if Estelle would know enough about undead to know what this particular creature, in which case she might not know to look away. We can discuss this OOCly before saying for sure though.

Estelle and Chris can see the Bodak, Ziun and Lana can see the zombie

 

[radio414 907]

Again, Chris had to get out of the way of someone charging to his aid. At least Lana wasn’t running in point-first like Ziun did (it would be pretty hard to do so with an axe, he reckoned), and he was sure neither Ziun nor Lana wanted to hurt him (right?), but accidents happened. “Thanks,” he said, “say something next time, though, so I don’t get an arm chopped off. You’re getting better with that axe -- want to stay out of the way of that.”

Despite his grievance, Chris found himself in a small break in the action, with enough time to recoup and adjust his grip on his sword as he took in the surroundings again. Ziun was facing away from him into the fog, his stance like there was some other enemy that Chris couldn’t see. After some brief acknowledgments, Lana moved away too, looking not like she was about to attack, but just playing defense, getting between whatever it was and Ziun with her axe brandished, at the ready for whatever came.

Chris might have gone over to help her too, but on their other flank with him and Estellise was a big, more visible (to him) problem. The creature that had introduced itself as they’d entered the dungeon floor was back. Chris nearly pointed at it with his sword again, but Estellise was already looking right at it. He actually sheathed his sword as he formulated a plan. This was something they probably had to fight at a distance, something Estellise was better suited for than he was, but he wasn’t without options. How many daggers could a whatever-this-thing-was possibly take, anyway? Speaking of, “Estellise, do you know what this thing is?”

Not that Chris needed to wait for an answer. He pulled out his first dagger and lobbed it at the thing’s head.

[Chaos Sonic 443]

The zombie closed in towards Lana, while Ziun watched this unfold. While he at first wanted to swing around and attack the undead being as quickly as he could, he remembered, it'd be improper manners to just continue to cut his fellow party members off in mid-combat like this. He did, however, ready his rapier in hand...just to prepare for a strike. Once the zombie got in range, Lana's axe swung true and hit the undead being right in the chest...and yet, it kept moving forward...with the axe lodged in it's chest.

"That's most unsettling..." Ziun said, moving in the direction of Lana and the zombie. "On your left, my dear!" he called out this time, before moving around Lana's left side and immediately slashing at the zombie's arms. With a quick slash, one of the zombie's arms were cut into, and yet the zombie got it's glancing blow right into Lana's shoulder with the other arm. "Damn...was hoping that wouldn't have happened." He immediately moved with his footing and prepared to disassemble the zombie with various swift cuts and slashes. The cuts and slashes found their mark on the zombie, but even still, it prepared a dive towards the bard. Not only that, it was already pulling Lana along with in the motion of the lunge, due to the axe still being lodged in it's chest.

"Sir, I'm flattered, but you aren't my type!" Ziun shouted, moving out of the way of the lunging zombie, who eventually pulled itself loose from the axe and started stumbling towards the bard. "I believe I speak for all involved when I say that I believe we're quite tired of you undead beings!" he said, swinging his rapier in a swift manner, watching the zombie's head roll right on off the body. "Truly uncivilized creatures..." he sighed, helping Lana up as he glanced over and saw...unfortunately...another skeleton. "...right..."

[Doggo 218]

Reconvening with the group was hardly the relief from the troubles of the floor Estellise might have been hoping for immediately after her grappling with the zombie earlier. Yet more undead loomed on the edges of the mist, one in particular came into the mage's sight which Chris reacted to first. The Fereis house had been sure to educate her on some of the basics of necromancy so it was easy enough to say it was undead. But none of that study had been about actually practicing the school of magic or much of the specifics. She knew general common categories of things to look out for but whatever this was hadn't shown itself in any lecture or book the woman could remember. She tried to scan it through the mist for some sign, some thing she could latch onto to identify it. But that was when she locked eyes with it.

"It is nothing I-" Estelle tried to start to answer Chris' question of what it was but found herself unable to continue. All she could feel was its eye's on her. How the simple act of looking imposed a physical presence was unknown to her. Before she could process the sensation pain surged through her body, eliciting a shout. The pain led to images surging through her mind. Images of herself in the room she was currently standing in only surrounded by legions of the undead dragging her to the ground and tearing at her flesh. The vision lasted only a moment as Chris' dagger landed in the side of the monster's head. The gaze broken Estelle came to her senses, catching her breath she'd been involuntarily holding during the affair. Her body was still intact and there were no more undead than before. A premonition of its intentions perhaps? After steadying herself the monster seemed no worse for wear despite the weapon lodged in its face but it had gotten closer. Estelle readied her magic a volley of arrows with somewhat shaky aim, images of her own death still fresh in her mind. Her aim was toward the monster's chest in an effort to avoid eye contact with it. Once was enough to know not to repeat it.

"I know nothing helpful about it. Though I would advise not looking it in the eye." Estelle stated her breathing evening out as she fired her magic.

[LordCowCow 840]

While Estelle wouldn't have noticed, Chris, being of sound mind and body, would have seen the knife plunge into the side of the creature's head. It recoiled from the blow but, after a moment, it seemed to recover enough to make its way towards Estelle. The mage girl had recovered as it got closer and almost immediately fired off an arrow of light at the undead.

Said arrow struck the creature in the chest. It halted once more as the glowing projection lingered for a few moments before fading away, leaving only the wound behind. The undead almost seemed to consider its options, which was unlike most of them who simply kept attacking, and then began to back away. Unless impeded it would keep backing off until the fog swallowed it. Which would also swallow the effects of the aura of fear it seemed to bring.

Unlike that creature the skeleton that Ziun had seen did not back away. It instead went right for Ziun. Without any thought or strategy it advanced towards the bard. Despite the recklessness of the move the creature looked to be able to handle its sword well. As it brought it down in an arc, aiming to score a deep cut with the curved blade into Ziun's chest.

Spoiler

Anything involving the Bodak will have to be figured out but otherwise am assuming it backs away until out of sight.

Map

Chris can barely see Ziun, Ziun can barely see Chris, Lana can barely see Estelle and Estelle can barely see Lana. Only Ziun and Lana can directly see the skeleton.

 

[radio414 907]

Chris saw his dagger strike true, but it didn’t have the desired effect of grabbing its attention away from Estellise. Well, killing it would have been the true preferred outcome, but he wasn’t so cocksure at this point in his dungeon-delving career to expect things to go down in one hit from a measly dagger. No, the thing kept moving towards Estellise, and the only thing that stopped its advance was one of Estellise’s light arrows. He breathed a sigh of relief for two reasons. Estellise was no longer crying out in pain (and had enough wherewithal to let loose one of her magic arrows), and they had once again driven the thing back into the fog. “Don’t look it in the eyes, got it,” he said.

Would he be able to follow that advice, though? He thought about how often he had to read people in his normal job, trying to sus out who was offering something worth considering and who was just leading him on, trying to take advantage of his youth and perceived inexperience. He looked people in the eyes for just that reason. And that wasn’t to mention all those years of etiquette training he’d had to go through. Some of that was instinctive now despite his best efforts.

At the same time, there was no use worrying about it now. As much as he wanted to go rushing after the thing and get his dagger back, this was the second time it had shown up after wading through the fog. “It’ll be back,” he said. “Let’s go get the others, it’ll be easier to deal with if we’re all together. It can only look at one of us, right? Lana’s right there, and then Ziun…” He squinted, looking past the girl. “Yeah, he’s just past there.” It looked like he was fighting something, actually. Chris kept his sword drawn and brandished his second dagger with his off-hand. “We should hurry.” 

[Chaos Sonic 443]

Ziun stared down the skeleton, or at least tried to if it had eyes within it's hollow eye-sockets, but nevertheless the bard stood his ground whilst looking at the undead creature. It was simply lumber and advancing towards him...and from what Ziun could see, it was able to handle a sword rather well. "At least this one seems to have a grasp on their weapon better most of the others that have been here, but alas, I don't think that's a good thing." he lamented, his grip on his rapier growing tighter.

Once the skeleton's sword was brought down in an arc, Ziun simply dodge to his left and the skeleton's right in order to avoid the impending chest gash that would be coming his way if he didn't. After moving, he attempted to dispatch of the skeleton's right arm with a swift swing of his blade. The swift swing hit true, cutting into the arm, however...the arm didn't fall off. Upon further inspection...the cut did not slice cleanly through in one swing...this wasn't good. The skeleton shambled a bit, attempting to reach out towards the bard with it's bony hand...going for his eyes...to gouge them out.

"If I could implore you to...NOT go for my eyes, I would be eternally grateful!" Ziun shouted, swinging the rapier at the other hand, watching the blade cut through the two bones and immediately severing the hand from it's host. His eyes would live to see another day. Now, if the bard would be able to make it past the other arm with the sword. The skeleton rattled, bringing the sword arm down once more. Another swift dodge occurred and with another flick of his weapon, the skeleton's wrist was severed. "And thus, you've been handily disarmed."

However, it wasn't stopping the living bones...as it moved faster, trying to stab Ziun with the cut off portion of it's wrist. The bard simply acted first, delivering a quick blow...but he felt a sharp pain in his side. True to the skeleton's intent, his side was now stabbed with the skeleton's wrist. "...b-blasted..." he grumbled.

[Skaia 578]

Lana winced as she was hit in the shoulder by the zombie and let out a, "waa" as she was pulled around by the zombie. Though she managed to free herself, she didn't do much more after her first hit as the zombie had managed to be dispatched of by Ziun's efforts. That didn't seem to be the end of it though. Lana was starting to get used to the steady and constant stream of undead that had been coming at them, find it both tiring but maybe more welcoming then having to deal with the waves that the other floors had had thus far. Of course, she was still on edge from how little she couldn't see, and she didn't even know if there was an end to this kind of stuff. 

Ziun had been first to intercept the skeleton this time, exchanging blows with it until it managed to stab him with its lack of a hand. Moving around it, Lana went to keep it from doing any more damage as she heft her axe up and smashed down into the skull of the creature. The now headless and handless skeleton stepped back only to now be open for the girl's next attack. Bringing her axe back, the girl took another swing at the skeleton, this time at the spine of the creature to shatter it entirely. With the skeleton falling into the fog before them, Lana pulled her axe back saying, "well, let's walk back to the others just incase more of these creeps come at us." And so she turned around and walked back to meet up with Chris and Estelle. 

[Doggo 218]

Estelle found herself still trying to regain her composure, the monster's visions occupying her mind despite the thing itself receding into the fog surrounding the area. Chris was already trying to take stock of the others. Certainly the group could better defeat it together but the idea of anyone having to bear those visions while the others engaged the undead monstrosity was more than she dare ask of any of them. It was a matter for the group to decide on and so the mage followed behind to rejoin the others. There was some small measure of comfort of having the four of them back in one place but that still left an unknowable amount of undead in the room with them. But there were more important matters first.

"Is anyone injured?" She asked but didn't wait for an answer. It was hard enough to examine anything in the fog so she took to passing a small bit of healing magic onto each member, taking particular note of the recent stab wound ZIun had received to his side. "There remains a frightening beast outside our view. Chris and I were not able to slay it. While hard to describe it looks and acts differently than the zombies and skeletons we have thus encountered. Its powers seem to work by making eye contact and from first hand experience they are not pleasant." Estellise explained as she went about the healing work of quick patches to get Lana and Ziun up to speed. "I do not intend to remain helpless and await its next move however." She asserted while ceasing her healing magic. Now it was time for light, a sphere in particular to light the way as she had done at other points in their dungeon excursions. How well it would function in the fog remained to be seen and she had wanted to avoid drawing attention. But this particular monster needed tracking.

The Fereis did her best to approximate the direction the bodak had vanished away into from where the group now stood. Once the orb let fly in that direction it began glowing brighter and did bring some measure of visibility to its surroundings. A ways off a figure could be seen to the right of the orb but the detail was insufficient to identify it as the creature and Estelle herself dare not look too long at it at a time lest she catch its gaze again.

"Well there is something." She spoke the obvious turning to the group to agree on a path through the rest of the room.

[LordCowCow 840]

The group once more found themselves alone. This time all four of them were together again yet none of them could see any more creatures nearby. They had a better view of the mausoleum now. Roof supported by pillars and, at least on the two walls nearest them, doors made of stone shut out against them. Part of the building was still in fog but it remained the only thing besides each other the group could see.

When Estelle sent out the light it moved until it was into the area of the fog they couldn't see. The dim glow didn't really pierce the fog but they could still see its faded light floating there. The brief shadow that they could see, off to the right as they faced it, only lasted a moment. Whatever it was seemed to be at least aware enough to keep away from the light and it moved away. How far was uncertain but it didn't seem to have to go far to be completely out of sight.

And so they stood there. As far as they could tell there weren't any creatures nearby. Though if they focused they could hear faint noises of slow footsteps off towards the direction opposite of the stairs they had entered from.

Spoiler

Map

And thus, not much for me to write out. Got some hints at where enemies may be. The circle ftr is Estelle's light orb. If you want to move as a group you can, just know if you have that in your post you'd need to be sure with the others which way they're heading and also know whoever moves will be limited in how actions they can do given the others would be with.