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

[Chaos Sonic 455]

Ziun found himself in quite the predicament, with Chris in the process of slashing a mummy's leg off and the other side was Lana being attacked by the skeleton. A bit further, was a crawling mummy and it was heading towards the closest coffin in order to right itself up. The bard took note of this and nodded. "Perhaps this will work then..." he muttered, before making a bee-line straight for the space between Chris and Lana's respective battles and he turned to deliver a strong ice spell right towards the skeleton. "This may get a bit cold for a moment, just bear with me!" he said in warning.

The icicle strike immediately hit the skeleton's wrist and it broke it off...now Lana was free once more. "Perfect! Now...if you'll please...back up!" he shouted, delivering a shoulder check right at the skeleton, sending it stumbling back. Ironically it landed right on the mummy who had reached the coffin and was in mid motion to grab it. "Now...another set of acid on the both of you!" Ziun delivered another Acid Splash on top of the mummy and the skeleton. The mummy soon had it's head ate away and removed by the acid, while the skeleton was already banged up from the fall just ended up crumbling.

"P-Perfect..." he said triumphantly, before noticing the coffin in the upper right corner slowly open up as another mummy began to rise. "O-Oh no you don't!" Ziun immediately cast another Acid Splash on the rising mummy, though at the same time, he was feeling the same feeling as before. It wasn't as bad, but he knew he needed to pace himself. "G-Goddess a-almighty...this is ridiculous..."

[LordCowCow 878]

Chris had managed to, after several attempts, do significant damage to the creature's leg. Despite all this the thing didn't relent in its attack. Chris would notice as it turned itself that the one leg seemed more wobbly and unsteady but it seemed to still be enough to keep standing while simply turning around. The creature swung one arm down at Chris and at the same time raised the other in preparation to swing again even if Chris dodged the first blow.

The last undead to arrive was also the last one to move. It made its way out of the coffin and went straight for Ziun with a single-minded determination. The wrapped creature was moving in a straight line and it seemed momentum carried it towards Ziun slightly faster than normal and the creature brought both of its arms down towards Ziun's shoulders.

Lana was closest to the exit and, despite what was going on in front of her, she thought she heard something. A slight noise. Some sort of rattling coming from behind her. If she were to look she wouldn't see anything different than before.

Spoiler

Only two foes remain. One with a very damaged limb and one entirely....well fresh isn't the word.

Map

 

[Skaia 618]

Lana was glad that the acid had melted the arm off the skeleton she was fighting. However, as Ziun shoved it together with the zombie and she saw him about to cast yet another spell, the girl gave a "thanks," followed by a "wait don't -" though her warning had come too late. As the the wrapped up zombie had come out of the coffin, being ushered in by the death of the skeleton, Lana watched as it charged over to and grabbed at Ziun. She couldn't help but wonder if this was what people meant when they used the phrase "reap what you sow," but now was not the time to ponder such things. Her attention was briefly, as well, distracted from the fighting as she could've sworn she heard something coming from the exit, but when she looked saw nothing at all. "Great, another creepy floor of the dead," she muttered. Letting out a sigh, turning her attention back to Ziun now, the girl gripped her axe tightly with two hands and shouted, "no you don't!"

Bringing the axe down, burying the blade into the back of the monster's skull, it seemed to knock the attack of the monster off course and away from the bard. This had turned its attention over to Lana instead, who for her part was not trying to give it a chance to finish its movement. Bringing the blade back, she buried her blade this time into its neck which did nothing to deter the zombie's next action. As it swung its arm down at her the girl took a back step away from it to avoid the attack. However it still seemed intent on attacking her, this time using its full body weight to try and shove into her. Breaking out into a full blown retreat to avoid getting hit she shouted back to the bard, "he's all yours!" 

[radio414 940]

Of course, the monster didn’t have any sense at all. The fact that it was still standing was impressive, but Chris didn’t really have any time to be impressed with blow after blow raining down on him. He sidestepped the first one easily enough, but he had to block the second one, jamming his sword into the arm with as much force as possible to keep it from crushing his skull. It was kind of like a riposte if he thought about it, not that Chris had the time as the other wrapped hand raised back into the air.

It was weird how he kept forgetting how hard it was to wrench his sword back out again. Chris blamed the chaos of the fight. Each time he yanked his sword from one of these things was a little harder than the last, but he had been managing with two hands and now that he had a dagger in one of them it took his entire weight. He staggered back, trying to regain his center of balance and only just managing. “Can’t you just die again already?” he said. But he tried to focus his energy less on complaining and more on readying up again. The blows to the leg were helping, and he had just gashed one of its arms. Maybe it would listen if he gave it one more proper stab.

The creature wobbled like it might come towards him but did not quite have the strength to pursue Chris to his spot a couple steps back, which was fine by him since he was about to close that distance right quick. He didn’t grip his sword with his dagger hand, but he did try to steady it as he ran in to pierce the thing in the chest, and now that he was way too close, he went to work with his dagger too, giving a few extra stabs before he raised his leg and kicked off, taking his sword back with him.

He chanced a peek behind him to check on Lana and Ziun and exhaled. “Okay.” They were still okay. For one last good measure, he wheeled around and gave one final swing at the monster’s tattered leg.

[Chaos Sonic 455]

The one Acid Splash he had delivered to that mummy did not hinder it's stride...quite the contrary, it actually just upset it more to the point where it reached Ziun and attempted to grab at him. "A-And this is what I was trying to avoid..." he groaned, preparing to brace for impact, but it never came. No, quite the contrary, it seemed that Lana came to the rescue and buried the blade of her axe into the mummy's skull. "A-A marvelous shot, my dear!"

It was now focused on Lana for the time being, which gave Ziun enough time to attempt to do something. Best course of action...get it to fall over. While it chased the axe-wielder, Ziun immediately fired off another ice spell at the mummy, aiming for it's legs. Given the right angle he had, the mummy began to fall because of it. "Now...let's give you that treatment like your fellows..." he said, casting another Acid Splash right beneath the mummy, to where it landed in a puddle of acid. Unlike the others, however, it wouldn't immediately melt...unfortunate. However, the fortunate part was there wasn't any way for it to get back up without pushing up into the puddle of acid. A catch twenty-two scenario here...and Ziun was happy for it.

"That should take care of this one..." he muttered, leaning against one of the coffins for a moment. Two...that was two back to back. His limit currently was three back to back...at least he was pacing himself. He glanced over and saw Chris taking swings at the other creature's tattered legs. That could in theory be the last thing they need, and they could rush off to the exit. Leave one legless over there and the other one in a perpetual state of melting due to the acid. "I-If you're about done there...we m-might be able to leave for the next floor..."

[LordCowCow 878]

The creature that Chris was facing off against had a multitude of injuries that would usually add up against a living opponent into leaving them a bloody torn up mess. This creature didn't seem to bleed though so it was only torn up. Still this seemed to be enough that, as Chris backed away after his last attack on the leg, the creature toppled to the side.

Its leg tore off and one of its arms was hanging uselessly at its side. And yet the creature would continue to, slowly, attempt to drag itself towards Chris with one arm.

The other undead remaining had fallen into acid. As it tried to push itself back up its hands met with the acid as well and part of them began to melt away. Which caused it to slip into the acid puddle again. Yet the creature clearly felt no pain from this and didn't cease in its attempts to get back up.

Even though much of it was falling apart it still would eventually find its way, albeit with much less in the way of hands and arms, back up. But this would give the group plenty of time to reach the unguarded door.

Or so it would seem.

The standing coffin next to the door was making noise. Something inside was moving back and forth and causing the thing to rattle. And then it began to creak open.

Revealing another mummy. But this one had its legs, chest, shoulders, and head covered in golden armor and in its hand it clutched a spear.

Spoiler

the pharaoh! or something idk but yeah imagine something kinda like this but with covering over the chest too.

Map

It's in the coffin but will be stepping out right away.

 

[Skaia 618]

Lana was glad to see that Ziun had made some use of the distraction she provided, toppling the zombie to the ground. And then behind that, Chris had managed to take care of the zombie he was dealing with as well, or at the very least made it fall to the ground. With the field clear of opposition, the girl was ready to book it to the exit only for her path to be barred by yet another coffin opening. As an armored zombie with a spear popped out, Lana let out an exasperated sigh saying, "really!? Ugh, alright then..." The girl was getting ready to charge it when she had remembered her whole, "try to be cautious," thing. Especially with Estelle no longer here. It had a reach weapon and she knew there was no way she could just overpower and kill it in one go. So, instead, she'd wait for everyone else to help her out with it. 

To that end, the zombie that Ziun had dealt with wasn't dead it was just heavily injured and still getting back up. Thinking that it would be a problem to just keep that around while they were trying to deal with this last guy, the girl quickly retreated and moved over to the zombie. Bringing her axe up from behind, she was able to finish what she started with relative ease, striking through its neck twice while it was busy just trying to stand to actually retaliate at her. With the zombie beheaded and now motionless properly, the girl looked back to the other two. "So what's our plan for the big guy?" 

[radio414 940]

Chris couldn’t believe the thing was still moving. Before he could do anything about it, though, noises from further down the room caught his attention. One more of those creatures stepped out of the final coffin, and this one looked more important than all the rest -- or at least meaner if such a thing were even possible. It was imposing enough to almost remind Chris of that bull-man they’d fought a few days ago. He couldn’t help but stare as it lurched towards Lana and Ziun.

It was a moment of weakness for him. He forgot about the creature at his feet until it was batting at his ankles. Chris noticed just as it was about to make a good solid grip on one of them. “Hey!” he said, twisting out of the way. He hopped over to the other side of the creature and watched as it slowly tried to turn around and meet him where he’d moved to. They really didn’t know when to quit, Chris realized. Like, he knew that, after floors and floors of the things, but the extra reinforcement didn’t hurt. He almost wanted to kick it to death again but that was what daggers were for. He had them already in hand.

He nearly fell on the creature, dropping to a squat so he could keep up with the still-constant turning it was doing, even as it was taking more and more stabs to the back. Occasionally it would even take a wider swing with its arm, maybe trying to catch Chris off balance, but it was still easy enough to see it coming and get it with another stab to the back. It took way too many, but the dance eventually subsided; the creature slowed down until it stopped moving altogether.

Chris stood back up and caught his breath. Lana had dealt with the monster harassing her with what seemed like much fewer axe swings than the dagger-stabs he’d needed. He felt a pang of jealousy rising up but swallowed it back down. She was asking for plans on the last, crowned one.

“We could, I dunno, flank it?” Chris said, moving to catch up with everyone else. “One behind and two in front to keep it busy?” Part of him wanted to steal the crown, too, but he kept that part to himself.

[Chaos Sonic 455]

Just when they were finished, another mummy appeared... and this one looked more important than the others, on the account that this one adorned in golden armor and held a spear. So this thing had a long range advantage from the looks of it, so this would be an issue to an extent. Ziun huffed slightly, shaking his head at this sight. "...I swear..."

"So what's our plan for the big guy?" 
“We could, I dunno, flank it? One behind and two in front to keep it busy?”

Ziun heard the plan from Chris, before rubbing his chin slightly, now this plan had merit... a LOT of merit. However, to his plan, the bard had to think of a different manner of it. Two in the front would indeed help, but he knew better... with this situation, things had to be a bit different. "Aye, I believe that plan may work... however..." he held a finger up before, looking at Chris. "...but may I suggest an addendum to that plan of yours?" Ziun paused before sighing. "Don't get me wrong... I love this plan, but perhaps tweak it? Let's be honest, the two of you are able to hit harder than one of us here... That being the case, I'll offer myself as the distraction. I can conjure something to keep it in place while keeping it's attention solely on me with the illusions I make. I can cast about three spells in succession... I'm starting to learn that now. But with its attention on me, you both attack it's rear flank. Will this suffice?"

It seemed like a drawn out silence between the three, but he noticed Lana nodding at the idea. She was on board, but what about Chris?

"Uh, yeah, sure," Chris said. "Just watch out for that spear."

"Naturally." Ziun gave a smile, before nodding. "I'm putting my trust and life in your hands... don't disappoint me now." he said, allowing the others to get in position as he immediately cast the Webbing that he cast earlier and then proceeded to cast a kind of Hypnotic Pattern at the mummy, dancing shapes and colors... weaving into what would then be a series of dancers. "Now... let's keep your focus on me..."

[LordCowCow 878]

The mummy was struck with the webbing as it took a few steps out of its coffin. This slowed the creature down as it moved its way towards them. The lights didn't appear to have much of an effect on it but when they transformed into more visible shapes, seemingly small humanoid things, it took notice and swung its spear as if to bat them away.

This would give the other two enough time to circle around out of its immediate line of sight though it wasn't long before the mummy took notice of the bigger, and more solid, thing he could see. Which was Ziun. It moved directly for him, the webbing slowly tearing off as it moved, and by the time it reached him much of it had been removed.

Instead of swinging wildly like the other mummies this undead took a wide stance and brought the spear it held backwards and then thrust forward at surprising, considering the other undead they had faced, speed right for Ziun's face.

Due to its movement the armored creature was now standing almost directly in front of the doorway. They no longer had any chance of getting to the door without first going through it.

Spoiler

I doubt you need a map for this one. Honestly you probably don't need host posts for this one either until you go to next floor though I still will keep track of who posts and when they post.

 

[Skaia 618]

Lana readied her axe as the plan went underway and Ziun was now the target of the armored zombie. The girl wasn't sure that attacking it the same way she had been the others would work as well this time as it had a weapon and seemed to be much quicker in its reactions then the others. As such, she figured rather than going for the kill immediately it was better to use this time to try and rob it of its weapon to make it even easier, or at the very least if Chris was going to go for its neck she'd be able to act as a secondary distraction for both him and Ziun's acid attacks. Charging forward, the girl brought her axe up and struck the arm that was thrusting towards Ziun, managing to get a solid cut into it. This naturally attracted the creature's attention, prompting her to back off before immediately going in for yet another attack.

The zombie then turned to face her, swinging its spear towards her, to which the girl retaliated with a strike of her own. Swinging at the arm again, the girl managed to cut into it once more though not quite where she had hit previously, as well as knocking the spear off course and allowing her to duck away from the attack. This small victory was met with a much less pleasant defeat, as she felt the force of the monster's fist, from its free hand, smash against her head. "Ow, ow, ow..." The girl muttered, before backing off and letting the other two have their go at it, now having the monster's attention on her. 

Edited August 19 by Skaia

[radio414 940]

Everyone was moving without him, but at least they were moving along with the plan. Ziun took one side with his magic and Lana went the other way with good old-fashioned metal. Chris knew where he was supposed to go, but since he was already behind, he took an extra moment to line himself up. The way Lana was fighting, hacking at the shoulder to remove whatever guard the creature’s mantle had, it looked like she was trying to get the neck exposed for him. Well, Chris thought, it would be rude not to try and take that opportunity. When Lana got bludgeoned by the thing’s wrapped fist, he knew he had to act quickly.

Chris sprinted in and took a running leap, sword in both hands as he aimed for the bottom of the thing’s headdress. From a distance, it looked like a gold adornment, but Chris knew from experience (a hilarious story involving a frog, a makeshift batch of itching powder, and just enough sword training to know enough but not know better) that he could slice through gold if he put his mind to it. He did, in fact, catch the monster in the neck, chunking into it. But before he could land and regain his footing, the back of the spear caught him in the chest.

He flew backwards. Even when he landed, he still slid quite a bit further, though he was at least able to avoid falling over. Chris’ hand drifted to his chest, to the impact point, and immediately regretted it, swearing under his breath. This was the sort of thing Estellise would have been helpful for. As things stood, he could already feel the bruise forming, perhaps even something worse. One of many sore points he’d notice walking out of the healing tent up above, he was sure. But it didn’t seem to impair his movement too hard, so he readied up and tried again.

“Readying up” meant two things. The first, Chris noticed that the monster was quick enough that feinting was a relevant strategy again. With the other creatures of this type, it was more efficient to just hit them again instead of doing some tricky maneuver. Not so here. For this attack, Chris darted Ziun’s way, just careful enough to stay out of the line of fire of any more spells while also making sure he was being tracked by the monster, before bounding back to Lana’s side and swinging in again, dodging a spear strike before the point could even get near him and he caught the creature in the neck again.

The second bit of readying up was his own magic, the magic string. Because he needed to keep the spindle in hand, his second swing was a bit weaker, but a whole lot safer for it -- at least for the time being. After Chris landed and made sure he wasn’t going to get all dizzy again, he looked up and saw that the monster was now giving chase, turning away from Lana and Ziun to come after him. “Rotate!” Chris said. “I’m ‘it’ now, you two, uh, your turn to follow up!”

[Skaia 618]

Lana shook her head a little to reorient herself after taking the blow. Thankfully she didn't have to hold onto the zombie's attention for very long as Chris had gone in to do his next attack. The girl saw that the zombie was still pretty swift to be able to react with its weapon to Chris, and it only made her job all the more clear. While Chris had called out for her and Ziun to go next while he kept the monster's attention she took a moment to steady her grip and take a deep breath. She knew that simply attacking at its neck again was likely not going to be able to kill and that would just put her in range for another counterattack from it. She was fairly certain that with their combined efforts the head of the monster wouldn't last particularly long, but she didn't want to take any more damage than she had to as they now lacked a healer. So she waited and bided her time. 

As the zombie made its way towards Chris, Lana slowly shuffled to keep herself in range and made sure to focus on the point she wished to strike. Instead of going for a few reckless swings merely to get its attention, she was going to go for one focused strike. And then, after a moment had passed, the girl lunged forward brought her axe down on the wound she had formed earlier on the creature. Her axe had managed to cleave through the zombie's arm, causing it and the spear to drop to the ground. "Take that! Alright he's unarmed now guys!" Of course as she said this the zombie, momentarily dumbfounded by this, simply reached down and picked up the spear with its other arm. "Oh...right. Tsk." While it certainly presented an opening to her to attack she wasn't sure she would land a fatal blow and with it one more armed she simply took to ready herself and keep a safe distance from the monster now that its attention was back to her. 

[Chaos Sonic 455]

"Thanks for the assistance..." Ziun was glad Lana stopped the thrusting of the spear in his direction, but right now it seemed like the plan was now officially them moving in a circle to shift the change in direction and attention of the mummy...which now that it was in execution, it was sort of genius. At this point, it was on Lana...and then...

“Rotate! I’m ‘it’ now, you two, uh, your turn to follow up!”

Ziun took notice and rotated when he was told to, now he was able to get a different side of the mummy...though right now he was still trying to keep in mind his three spell in succession limit. While he did that, after Chris, Lana now had the attention of the mummy yet again. It was down by one arm now, but at the same time...it was obvious it was still going strong even after the dis-arm-ing...

"Seems like I'm up then..." he said, immediately casting his webbing spell, trying to slow down the creature as best he could...but he knew one time wasn't going to be enough...so he cast it twice. If one web spell would hinder something small like the previous undead...then perhaps a version of this spell cast twice would do the same here.

The webbing would coat the the mummy quite a bit, though despite this nuisance of the webs, it kept wanting and trying to attack and move...albeit just doing it all a bit slower. Which Ziun knew would play into their favor. If the three of them were faster than this creature, they could continue to rotate and change the creature's target up with relative ease. However, he knew another way to put the pressure on this creature in it's slow stupor.

He exhaled slowly, before glancing at Chris and Lana. "Be mindful of your footing when making any other moves from here onward...I'm putting whatever pressure I can on this thing..." he said, immediately conjuring a puddle of acid beneath the mummy's footing. The webs would hinder it's movement and speed, while the acid puddle it was standing in would slowly start to eat away at it. And it was indeed doing that, sizzling away beneath it's feet. "I suppose, that should help for a bit..."

[radio414 940]

Chris really wanted to think of something quippy to say when Lana cut off the creature’s spear arm leaving it without a weapon, but couldn’t think of anything before it just picked up the spear with its other arm and kept trundling onward. The moment passed. He was grateful for Ziun stepping in and impeding the monster’s movement, too, even if it did make rushing to stop the monster from bearing down on Lana a little trickier. He’d done the required movements already, but now he had to be aware of where he stepped and how his legs were oriented in the air to avoid the freshly conjured pool of acid on the ground.

“This better not give me another headache,” Chris said as he unwound more string from his spindle. Magic was about belief, right? He’d heard something to that effect, anyway. It couldn’t hurt to hope as long as he was still prepared for the possibility things of things going horribly wrong. Despite such reservations, Chris took off and did another running jump, pushing himself as high as possible and cleaving through the webbing and bandages covering the monster’s neck, just where he’d made a gash already. Before he could even run the risk of touching the acid, he was gone again. “Tag,” Chris said.

But all that focus on airborne poise caught his legs in an awkward position when he came back to earth by teleportation rather than natural forces. After so many times nearly doing so, Chris finally lost his balance, and he fell squarely on his butt. Unfortunately, his proclamation of attack had proven accurate as well, as the creature turned to face Chris and, though still impeded by webbing, advanced on him. As Lana had put it, he was “It” now.

Chris pushed himself to a crouching position with one hand, the other holding his sword out in front of him in case of a spear swing that would surely be plenty mighty even if the thing only had one arm. “Come on, then,” Chris said. “You don’t think you’re going to lose the other arm too?”

[Skaia 618]

Lana continued to hold her defensive stance, waiting for someone to get the attention of the zombie, with her wish being answered by Ziun next. As the zombie was struck by both webs and acid, Chris was then the next to make his move, delivering a slash yet again against the creature's neck. His maneuver ended with him on the floor, and Lana knew that she needed to move quickly. With Chris on the ground the length of the weapon the monster had, if he managed to close the distance between them it would be trouble for the boy. However, Lana took a deep breath and kept herself calm. It was moving slowly, and currently in a puddle of acid, and so there was no actual rush on her part and there was no need to recklessly endanger herself. Instead, she gripped her weapon tighter, waiting for a clear shot at the thing's neck and lining it up as she had done the arm before. Then, once it had taken a step too far, she made her move. 

The monster, however, was ready for her advance. Bringing up its weapon, the girl's axe was stopped by the spear, though given the force of her blow and the weapon that it was using, her axe had managed to force its way through the spear and sever the spear's head from its haft. Taking a step back, now the attention on her again, the girl knew that once again there was no rush. If she had charged in to go for a finishing blow it was likely to be met with some retaliation, and she couldn't afford any more injuries then she had already sustained. So she waited, readying her stance such that when the zombie had thrust with its broken spear she was able to strike at the haft, bringing the weapon down with the weight of hers. With no more means of defense and a clear target, Lana took one more swing at the zombie's neck severing it from the body complete. 

With the zombie falling to the ground, Lana let out a sigh of relief as her shoulders slacked. "Well, that's that for this floor. There's way too many things that treat coffins as a bed," the girl complained before walking over to Chris. Reaching down a hand to help him up, she added, "looks like we should be able to get going now. I'm not looking forward to the rest of these floors." Not like there was ever a time Lana was. 

[LordCowCow 878]

The group had some time to catch their breath but it wouldn't be long before they felt compelled to leave this room and go through the door which had unlocked and had started to open when the final enemy had fallen.

Once again they found themselves on a familiar staircase heading farther down into the depths of the dungeon. The door at the other end opened up into a tunnel. The floors were entirely dirt, and in many areas quite mucky, and now and then they could see stone slabs that looked to be grave markers along each side of the tunnel.

It was wide enough that six people could walk side by side down it and it stretched quite a ways ahead. Off in the distance they could see the doorway. Unlike other floors this one didn't have a door in it at all and was completely open.

The ceiling was only seven to eight feet high, close enough to fairly easily touch if they wanted, and seemed to be dirt as well. As though they had just walked into a tunnel dug out under the ground.

Beyond that they could see....nothing. No enemies were in sight. Beyond being a distance away there didn't seem to be anything to stop them from going straight across and through the opening to the next floor.

At least that is what it seemed as they stood in the entrance and looked into the room.

Spoiler

And now we have hit floor 17. I'm sure this is perfectly safe....so who wants to go first?

Be sure to decide who will be going first in chat and they can get any information....not that there's anything to give, of course.

Also, make sure to check with the group how close they're following behind and if they'd stop at some point.

Map

 

[Skaia 618]

After helping Chris up and getting to the door, Lana made her way into the next floor of the dungeon. The floor itself was a large corridor that seemed incredibly wide for how entirely featureless and straightforward the room itself was. A frown immediately formed on Lana's face as she was, at this point, savvy enough to know that there was nothing as generous as a monsterless floor in this nightmarish dungeon. Keeping her axe at the ready she looked to the others and asked, "so uh, who wants to go first?" Though, based on who she was with she didn't even bother waiting for a response and just said, "right." 

Taking a step forward, nothing immediately happened. Lana couldn't help but feel like the floor was going to collapse with every step she took but more than that decided to keep her eyes to the ceiling. After all, last time she was in such a straight forward room she had perhaps the worst experience with a monster that had tried to eat her face. So, prepping for any more face eaters, the girl continued forward with the others of her party lagging only slightly behind her. The room seemed to still be vacant, even about halfway through the trek into the room. She was certain by now something would have - 

"Ahhhh!" 

Lana yelped as a cluster of arms suddenly burst out from both the floor and ceiling every which way she looked, writhing around and trying to grab anything that was nearest to them. Then, looking to the end of the hallway the previously unbarred path now had a collection of cultists - three with daggers and two with crossbows - seemingly pop out of the wall. Looking behind her it had appeared to be more of the same. After getting over her initial shock and disgust - a task she could not fully accomplish with zombie arms trying to grab her at every which direction - she shouted, "ugh, I knew it!" Her emotions had already shifted back to their usually annoyed state, and angrily the girl started hacking away at the arms near her to clear them out. 

The zombie arms themselves didn't seem particularly sturdy, her axe being able to make quick work of them. However, before she could enjoy any form of respite from these arms she groaned in annoyance once more as new arms had burst out from the ground to take the previous one's place. "Fine!" With standing still not being an option and the cultists with the daggers slowly advancing at them from both sides, Lana decided it was time for her to bring the fight to them. 

Moving forward, trying not to be grabbed or trip over the sea of arms, the girl made her way towards the cultists. The two that had crossbows already had them trained on the girl, however, and fired it at her. Not wanting to get speared by the bolts, the girl quickly ducked only to find that this solution had its own problems. While she had managed to avoid being shot at, the arms that littered the grounds found her an easy target and grabbed onto her, pulling her as if trying to sink her into the ground. "Ahhhh, get off, get off, get off!" The girl struggled against them for a moment, not wanting to use her large axe this close to her own legs and looked back. "Chris help me out - uh Ziun, armor!" The girl figured if she had a suit of armor like last time she wouldn't need to do this whole dodging thing as much but more than anything else she really just wanted to be able to run as fast as possible to the exit. 

[Chaos Sonic 455]

From a crypt like room, to a long hallway... it was a strange change of scenery for sure, but Ziun didn't think much of it. Luckily, the others weren't too banged up or injured, meaning he could still save the two healing potions for when it came time for it. If the last room of the day was anything like the day prior, then he'd be needing them for sure.

Things, however, weren't all as they seemed with this hallway. As they got halfway through the hallway... it shifted. Zombie arms and hands emerging the ceiling and floor and if this wasn't bad enough, there were cultists with daggers and crossbows at the ready. To an extent, this was relatively better than the previous room, but this was still something that wasn't the best case scenario. He kept following after Lana, and heard her request: the casting of that mage armor that he put on her before. "A good a time as any, I would say." he said, putting a hand on her shoulder and immediately casting the ethereal armor on her again. "Let's give them hell."

With the armor cast, he turned his attention behind him, seeing the cultists that were following. A quick conjuring of an Acid Splash right in their path was delivered. "I'm sorry, but alas, I don't take autographs from crazed cultists. Just my policies, you understand." he said snidely, watching the three dagger cultists stop their advances and even watched the hands and arms wither due to the acid. That would slow them down, however, the crossbow cultists now had aim and a line of sight set on the bard. "Well, I suppose I expected that...no matter!" Ziun decided to take aim at the cultists and fire off a few icicles. One moved and lost their aim on him, thankfully... but the other ended up getting hit and continued to fire. With a slight yelp, Ziun moved out the way of the bolt, though now had to forcibly move out of the grasp of the hands and arms.

Through this though, Ziun noticed something. While he had done three spells in a row, he didn't feel... as tired as before. It dawned on him: these weren't strong spells, nothing like casting the same one three times. No, these were smaller ones and not immediately one right after the other. Perhaps that was the thing... if it wasn't in rapid succession and wasn't a strong enough caliber of spell, maybe he wouldn't feel so tired. He'd have to test this theory out...

[radio414 940]

Chris still remembered the fight with the kobolds, so the blank appearance of the next floor put him on edge more than anything. Still, the arms reaching out of the walls did get him to jump. He recovered as soon as Lana called his name, though, and he rushed to action, sword already drawn.

The first thing he did was try and cut away at the arms around Lana, but although they were easy to cut through, they also grew back almost as quickly as Chris could remove them. It was a losing proposition to try and free Lana that way, so instead Chris hooked his hand under her arm and wrenched Lana up, pulling her free of the ones that were keeping her down, even as more tried to latch on. Some of the nearby regrown arms started to nip at his heels and he had to kick them away. “Stop it, you!” He was a little jealous of Lana’s magic armor, but as he shuffled around, he noticed a sort of vulnerability. Maybe he wouldn’t have to need it. “Keep moving so they don’t get a good grip,” Chris said.

At the same time, the cultists at the other end of the hallway seemed to be having no such issues. No, the hands seemed to part wherever the cultists stepped, and three of them were brandishing daggers and getting closer. Chris surveyed his options. He wanted to weave his way around them, find openings while still avoiding the grasp of all the stalaghands, but the hallway was so narrow that it was hard to mentally chart a path through that didn’t involve either pressing up against the wall or being in stabbing range. Another option was to leap up, bringing his sword down swiftly on the cultist’s head, but the ceiling was low enough that the stalachands would surely seize on that particular opportunity.

There was nothing for it. Despite the erratic terrain, or perhaps because of it, Chris focused hard on his fundamentals. He maintained a careful focus on his footwork and kept his grip on his sword firm, but not too firm. When he charged to confront the nearest cultist, he kept his center of balance vertical as much as he could, and he exhaled as he swung horizontally at the cultist’s neck.

The cultist tried to block with its dagger. Well, “tried” was a loaded word. The cultist did successfully block his sword swing, deflecting it off-course and sending the sword into the dirt wall -- thankfully not embedded, just bouncing off. More importantly, though, the cultist’s dagger hit the wall too, and it dropped to the ground, out of the cultist’s hands entirely. But Chris didn’t have time to ready up another blow; the zombie hands on the floor were already trying to cling to his ankles. Instead, he retreated back to near Lana, leaving some space to one side in case she needed to get past. It was enough of a journey to satisfy his “keep moving” requirement, but short enough that, if the cultist decided to make the tactical error of reaching down for its dagger, he would be ready to run back in.

[LordCowCow 878]

With the aid from Chris, Lana would be able to get herself back up to her feet. As she did she would notice one of the crossbow wielders moving to the side to get a better position to fire at her. And right when she was fully standing they would raise their crossbow at her.

The cultist that Chris had disarmed did in fact reach down to grab their dagger again. They moved in a strangely casual manner. They didn't seem concerned as they carefully scooped the weapon up. Notably the hands that were in the area didn't so much as brush against them despite how close they were reaching. The other two with daggers began to move around to try and flank Chris from both sides. Meanwhile the other with a crossbow was getting ready to take aim at Chris as well.

The pool of acid that Ziun had created was large enough to take up about a third of the width of the tunnel but it wasn't hard to avoid it still. And so while the dagger wielding cultists were slowed down they carefully began to navigate around the acid. Two heading towards Ziun's, were he to face them, right and one to the left. The last two with crossbows hadn't been near the acid spray and were already preparing to fire off another volley of bolts. Though they seemed to be waiting longer this time, perhaps for the cultists to make it to the other side of the acid.

All the while the hands didn't stop. Even if one was cut in twain it wouldn't be long before another took its place. Grasping and reaching blindly towards them wherever they went.

Spoiler

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[Skaia 618]

Now armored up and with her legs unbound, Lana looked back to the others and shouted, "thanks!" Then looking at the cultists in front of her she said, "let's see how strong those stupid knives of yours are!" Holding her axe tightly, the girl began to rush forward in a straight line towards one of the cultists wanting to clear a straight line through their pincer formation. The cultist slowly raised up its dagger but was powerless to do anything as Lana had brought up her axe and brought it down. The cultist was felled immediately as the weapon found its mark, causing Lana to look ahead and see the cultist up north had begun to move to her left had begun to advance on her as well as the one with the crossbow having taken aim at her. Beginning her rush forward, the girl angled her body as the bolt was shot and let the armor absorb the brunt of the impact rather than avoid it. Lana let out a pained grunt as the attack struck, gritting her teeth as the force of the bolt had still managed to make its way through though she remained unskewered. 

She continued to make her rush towards the crossbow holder, though her path was now barred by the cultist who had come behind her, ready to bring its knife down on her. Not wanting to get stabbed and take another attack the girl twisted herself and to bat the knife away by swinging her axe at it. As she could feel the arms on the ground start to grasp at her again and could see the cultist begin to recover from her swing she decided to stand her ground and press her advantage against her melee range opponent. Bringing her axe down yet again, crushing part of its shoulder Lana felt a slight bit of disgust at how easily these humanoid figures took damage in comparison to the other undead she had fought thus far, though this didn't give her any sort of pause. In fact, as the cultist had dropped its knife and attempt to grab at her the girl shouted, "hands off!" Taking a hand off her axe, she brought her gauntleted fist into the face of the cultist, pushing it back and away. 

Turning her attention back to her original target, the girl let out a, "ah!" ducking away as they had fired yet another crossbow bolt. Though the attack sailed harmlessly overhead, she could feel the floor hands grasp tighter at her legs and lock her in place. "Oh come on - I'm stuck again!" 

[radio414 940]

The moment the cultist bent over to get their dagger was the moment Chris had been waiting for. He sprung into action. It had left such an obvious opening that it would be rude not to. But Chris got no further than a few steps into his charge when he heard Lana coming up behind him. There wasn’t anyone else she could be aiming for with a charge like that, so Chris pushed off sideways and turned to face the cultist on his right. He swung in a diagonal arc, shoulder to hip, and the cultist leapt back to avoid the strike, but that meant its back was against the wall, and as soon as Chris finished with his follow-through, he was levelling his sword to ram a stab into the cultist’s chest.

Chris could see the cultist slump a little when his blade went through them, but they were still moving, and they reached out and grasped onto Chris’ hand. It was right about then that Chris realized his mistake -- a hand was also grabbing his ankle, and unlike the weakened grip of a dying cultist, the zombie hand on the ground wasn’t about to let go. Chris wrenched his hand out of the cultist’s grip and pulled his sword out of their body before immediately slashing downwards to get his ankle free.

It was right around then that he was hit by a crossbow bolt. Chris’ first reaction was to exhale violently, “Ffffuuuuh,” followed quickly by hissing his next breath in through gritted teeth. It had been a while since he’d been properly hit by something, and it was right in the shoulder that was already sore from the last time he’d needed magical medical attention. It was hard not to think about the thing sticking out of his shoulder, but he tried to focus on one thing at a time. He had to keep moving, and though it was more of a stagger, Chris still avoided any more arms grabbing at his legs. Then he had to make sure there wasn’t another attack coming from a direction he wasn’t aware of. His vision was blurry, but only on the edges. He was as safe as he could manage if he kept his head turning.

At the same time, Lana was calling out for help again. While he couldn’t do much in his current state, Chris still tried to move to where he’d heard her call out. The way he was right now, they needed to stick together, and maybe Lana could pull herself up just by grabbing onto his arm from where she was or something. He did hope Ziun had that armor coming for him, though.

[Chaos Sonic 455]

As if on cue, or perhaps answered by the divines themselves, Ziun looked to his other compatriot and proceeded to cast a Mage Armor on him. Like with Lana a few moments earlier, an ethereal armor began to cover the squish parts of the human. "Wouldn't want you both to get injured whilst on this adventure anymore than you have to, right?" he laughed a bit, doing his best to move backwards while he watched the two cultists try and navigate around his pool of acid...meanwhile, he noticed the crossbow ones were simply...waiting. More than likely, he figured, that they were waiting for their allies to pass the acid.

"Now, let's try and keep ourselves away from these interesting individuals..." he said, immediately casting Acid Splash again, keeping the dagger wielder to his right trapped with the new pool of acid. Now while he planned to do the same on his left, Ziun watched as this dagger user started to rush him. "I'm sorry, but I believe you need to wait your turn!" he said, firing off some icicles at the dagger wielder. The dagger one was injured, bleeding quite a bit but they kept going...albeit slowly...with dagger raised. Meanwhile, Ziun noticed about the crossbow users...they were preparing their next bolts and took their aim at the bard.

"Let's move slightly...give me a bit of leverage..." Ziun said, positioning himself to face the dagger wielder, now using him as a sort of human shield. In the meantime, the bard took aim at the dagger wielder's dagger hand and launched another icicle at the hand, more specifically his wrist. It struck true and knocked the dagger out of the hand, so now he was weaponless. Now came a different idea, this time for the crossbow users. "I think I have something for you..."

"Hear the verse and rhyme that I sing...
Come forth and assist thy master..."

To his right side, materialized and formed a couple of bats flying around him. "Go take care of those crossbowmen, if you please." Ziun said with a smile, watching the two bats flutter and fly off. But from where two...there started to duplicate and multiply...more and more appeared around the two bats and they swarmed the cultists and started flying around them. What happened in actuality? Simple: Ziun utilized his Summon Creature with assistance in a Minor Illusion, creating more bats to confuse the enemy. "How are we doing back there you two?"

[LordCowCow 878]

Ziun had slowed down some of the cultists considerably. The one on the side with the most acid had to carefully and slowly make their way across by nearly pressing up against the wall. The cultist that had been going that way had to hurry around and go the other direction but as they did they raised their dagger and advanced on Ziun.

Which let them avoid the sudden surge of bats that converged around the crossbow wielders who began to try and knock them away with said crossbows. Some of their blows passed through what was essentially air but on occasion they managed to land a hit and knock down one of the bats.

The daggerless cultist was injured but they still attempted to grab onto Ziun as though to pull him down. At the same time the hands beneath Ziun were grasping for him too and he would soon find himself being grabbed at from multiple directions.

Across the other side only two cultists remained. Though as both Chris and Lana were having trouble they had some time to try and reload quickly while the hands attempted to pin them down and as soon as they were able each would take aim at a separate one of the two.

Spoiler

bit of a sticky wicket guv

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