ORIGIN - [Quest] Ignis Fatuus

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Wilder sniffed the rock curiously as the wisps began to light up the room. She didn't need a lot of light, but it certainly helped when things began to grow bright. She began to notice things. A soft pulsing from the rock, as if it were moving, as if it were a creature. She tilted her head, curious as she continued to inspect the rock and the pedestal. "Hey, look..." She touched the pedestal softly, tracing her claws over the lines. "Scratches! And the rock thing is moving. Look, it's like its breathing!" She stood still for a moment so the others could see as well before something else caught her attention. Hyperactive as she was, she immediately swiveled around, her whiskers twitching.

There was a breeze, kind of, coming from that direction! There must be more there. She hopped and turned back to the others. "Hey, I think there's something that way!" She pointed her tail in the direction of the air that she felt. "We should go see!"

But before she did anything else, she knew she had to understand what this rock was. It looked so alive that Wilder was completely convinced it was a creature. And if it was a creature then she could talk to it. She extended a tendril of magical though and tried to poke at the rock, wondering if there was any kind of mind, any kind of soul, that she could listen to.

as a maiden she tiptoes shy with her light...

The giant spider was practically blind for most of trip into the pitch black cave, not even Yoosung's wisp provided much light. She had only the hairs on her legs and the foot falls of the others to guide her. Still, the witch did not waver, for she was fairly sure of her fate. She knew, in her heart, that she was worthy.

The black cat was first to point it out, a gray slate on a pedestal, and the black, writhing walls that surrounded them. At first, Thothaga thought it was a trick of the light, until she got closer. Are the walls... breathing?. She found its organic pulsing to be somewhat disturbing, yet also intriguing. Was it an illusion, or was this very tunnel alive? "Good find, little-Wilder," She congratulated, taking her mind of the strange surroundings. "And 'tis big enough to take along, how... convenient." Thothaga was curious about this gray stone. What was its purpose? Surely the Merchant placed it in their path for some reason. She shuffled her fangs suspiciously. With a crooked spider leg, she reached out to touch the stone with her paw.

Show me.

Magick churned to life within her gem, and demanded the slab to show its past, for a sign, a clue, or perhaps a warning.

"Thothaga speaking."
Thothaga thinking.

Pride paced over the organic, black stone, pausing when Wilder called their attention to it. His head went down, nostrils flaring, and he took scent, but he smelled only wet rock. Wet stone, if a little-... metallic. Though it does seem to be-... almost breathing.
"Is it me, or is the cave around us--moving?" he asked, lifting his head to gaze around. But the cave must have been vast--he could see no border, not in any direction, no wall with which to orient himself, nor to study. The stag moved toward Wilder once more when she called their attention to the relatively lifeless slate, poring over it for a moment. "It certainly looks as if those markings mean something, but-... I could not guess at what. I have never seen anything like it before. Is that a spider?" he added uncertainly, looking over the lines edging outward from the main point.

He lifted his head, again, as Wilder mentioned "something that way." He took a few steps in the direction that he indicated--calling upon his flickering magicka, as he did so. He wasn't certain that using a wisp was wise, here, given that their controller was apparently orchestrating this potentially-deadly "test," but he had no other way of creating light bar igniting a rock into superheated flame--and that was a very dangerous spell. "--I sense--I feel air," he agreed, surprised. A breeze, and a relatively steady one. A passageway?
His wisp now sputtered into being, a small, weak thing, but it provided enough light for him to see the ground at least a few yards ahead. It would do.

"Whatever we do, we ought to stay together." He glanced at the others, to see whether they agreed, and then he headed forward--into the darkness, his wisp-light leading the way.

Hopefully, someone more capable would carry the stone.

The hybrid listened in silence, peering briefly at the gray slate and mostly ignoring the organic nature of the obsidian-like stone that appeared to make up the cave. He didn't care about any of it. His half-animalistic brain was seeking a storm, the roll of thunder or the patter of rain, or the comforting rustle of a heavy wind through jungle trees.

There was none of that, here; it was dark, and lifeless, but for once--rather than being noisy and aggressive--Shango remained quiet. The others seemed to be better at all this thinking than he was.

When Pride moved forward, though, he spread scale-wings and leapt, gliding ahead even faster--eager to see what lay past the faint wind that he could feel through his whiskers. Maybe there'd be a storm! Maybe another sea, like Fornax. Heedless of the danger, eager for excitement, he moved ahead. His body, in this dim light, was no longer the rich gold of a leopard-like coat. Instead, his strange, hybrid hide shifted to a dark, dull grey--though the black spots remained visible over his hide. His scale-feathers, rather than iridescent green, now shimmered cobalt blue wherever the wisp-light touched them.

His eyesight sharpened as he moved ahead, the natural glowing green-white flaring more brightly as it reflected the phosphorescent glow of Pride's wisp.

THE LONG TUNNEL

Into The Throat

Ahead, should the Gembound continue to follow the stale breeze blowing toward them, they will travel for some distance before at last coming to a cave wall. This is vast, stretching up dozens of yards into the darkness--though they should not be more than a few yards deep.

Strange.

The wall is made of the same strange, organic-looking, swirled black stone, and is beaded with moisture. To a Gembound who looks long enough, it appears to slowly shift and twist here and there.

There is a hole in this wall. It is a few yards high, and a few yards wide. Stepping into it leads out into a large, long path: a narrow walkway with steep falls to the left and right, with no visible bottom, ceiling, or sides... only blackness in all directions.

At two points, there are obstructions in the pathway--abrupt upward shifts too high to climb, though those who can climb vertical walls, or fly, can pass over them. These are smooth, with no purchase. To either side, however, there are pillars that one could leap to, and then jump higher still to get onto the further pathway.

To progress past this point, Gembound who cannot fly or climb vertically will need to roll a Barely Successful or higher or risk plunging into the unknown abyss. Those who can fly or climb vertically can roll a Barely Successful or higher to aid one other Gembound in progressing forward.

____________

Wilder's mind reaches out. There's a vast emptiness... a sense of void, not only empty space but as if nothing could possibly be there. Her young mind will feel as though a consciousness may have been here--a something, a someone--but was long-since torn out, leaving a strange hollow where something should be. It is unnatural, and eerie, potentially rather disturbing to sense.

Thothaga's mind will be touched by echoes of the past: a figure, squat and hooded, antlers at its crown. There is a noise in the darkness, as its hand moves over a slab that it holds. Scratch, scratch. Scratch, scratch, scratch. The imagery continues, eerily unchanging, for several long minutes--lingering in her mind--before at last fading.

@Shango @Pride @Yoosung @Miru @Wilder @Thothaga

The sense of emptiness, the sense of the absence of anything, the feeling that there should be something here but there wasn't, was deeply disturbing to the young kitten and as her mind touched the strange void, her eyes widened. The sparkle of humor was replaced by a dull, fearful gleam and she backed away. "This should not be," she wheezed hoarsly. "This place is wrong."

Without any explanation, she whipped around and continued, following the draft. As she got further from the place where she had connected, her head cleared and she shook herself out. That was strange. It now felt like a distant memory, but still nagging at the back of her head. The deep disturbance would linger for a while, but as soon as she reached the new challenge, the old Wilder was back.

Her mouth gaped at the strange pit. She trotted right to the edge and looked over, trying to see the bottom...but there was nothing. "Huh? I guess we shouldn't fall."

Without another moment of hesitation, she backed up, lined herself up with the pillar, and took off. Right at the edge she jumped with all her might and landed right in the middle of the pillar. She used her momentum to turn and jump off, leaped towards the top of the next wall. She gracefully landed and turned to see if anyone else was following. "Come on! It's easy!"

as a maiden she tiptoes shy with her light...

The vision ended just in time for Thothaga to hear Pride's comment. "Oh, good eye, stag, I feared no one would notice. " She added sarcastically, as if the this "spider" he mentioned was her. Thothaga withdrew her leg from the slate. "I'm not sure they mean anything at all, but our little masked friend did spend a considerable amount of time scratching them in." Thothaga recalled, amused. The memory was strange one, but at least it was honest-- she hoped. The spider plucked the slab from the pedestal with her fangs and began wrapping it in silk. "Let's take it, perhaps we can ask him ourselves." This Masked Merchant fellow seemed like the proud creator of this little labyrinth, she had the feeling they would be seeing him again.

After she wove the stone into her drape, Thothaga scurried after the rest of the group. They followed soft breeze which flowed deeper and deeper into the cave, until at last they came to wall, writhing with the organic-like substance. Fascinating. There was large hole in the wall that Thothaga had no trouble crawling through. It took her eyes a moment to make out the obstacle before her, a long, narrow bridge, and underneath it, a bottomless abyss. Its abrupt upwards shifts could prove to be a problem for those not as adept in climbing as she is. Thothaga almost did not notice the black kitten in the darkness before the gemling called out after jumping to a pillar next to the precarious pathway.

Good, they can cross. She thought to herself. Not my problem.
The spider scurried up the first wall with ease and peered down to watch the others below. As much as Pride's daftness irked her, he was right. They should stay together. She may need their assistance later.

"Thothaga speaking."
Thothaga thinking.

Shango's scaled wing-feathers were not built for long-term flight. He couldn't leap up and glide to a cave's ceiling. But paired with a jump and a scrabble, they were more than enough to aid him to the top, and he knew this.

But he--normally an impulsive, reckless being--even he noticed that the spider had skittered up without lending a... hand, or what have you, to the other little ones. Now, Shango had very little sense of responsibility, but he did have enough the presence of mind, and the pride in himself, to pause before ascending. Instead, he focused on his magic, picking the smaller of the remaining gembound--Miru--to help. He'd have probably chosen the stumpy dog, but the dog was nowhere to be seen--lingering behind, perhaps, in the darkness?

After a moment's focus, a strong wind began to sweep along the shelf and forward, up in a powerful blast toward the top. He himself didn't need it, necessarily, but he certainly revelled in it, leaping and spreading his blue-glowing wings. He glided with the updraft before landing neatly at the top, the hard bottoms of his feet clacking like a horse's hooves as he landed. He then turned, alongside Thothaga, to peer back down.

Should Miru jump, she'd find the air bouying her up, and he could grab her if she started to falter. That stag, though-... He was way to heavy for this.

"You can jump. Little one. Not you, white--you're too big," he explained. Glowing white-green eyes stared down at those below as he waited.

Pride stared uncertainly at the wall. He had a great deal of magic, but the one thing he hadn't gained--neither from the Three Kings, nor elsewhere--had been an ability to fly. Instead he was left with the rather daunting prospect of trying to leap to a pillar that he couldn't reach, and then up onto the ledge above.

He found himself rather irked that Thothaga hadn't bothered to... Dangle a string, or... pull one of them up, or something. She was a strange being. But then, he was too large for anyone, he supposed, to really aid. He turned, eyeing the platform that Wilder had taken. "It's easy," she'd said, but she was small, and very athletic. Could he make the same jump..? What if his hard hooves slid on the stone? Would this be the "test" that killed him--would his stone be claimed by this monstrous masked fiend, and Pride taken from his children and friends, simply because of his impulsive desire to help the headstrong hybrid that had run in first?

This will be tricky. He looked at the pillar, and half-started toward it, as if to gauge by way of a strange bluff-charge whether he could make it, and how fast he'd have to go, and when he would need to jump. Then he backed up, lowering his antlers and taking a deep breath.

"If you have spider silk, I'd greatly appreciate a tether should I fall..." he said warily, though he hardly knew how the spider's methods might even work. Or, for that matter, if he himself was too large.

He took a few steps back, again, then rushed forward. Three great bounds, and then a leap, and he was sailing through empty space: over pitch black, toward the stone ahead.

Ahead--? No--that wasn't right! It should have been below, but his hind hoof--it had slipped, as he leapt, just as he'd feared, and before he could even register this he felt the panic of the falling.

He watched himself falling short, the pillar-like column rising above as he fell away, the blackness rising up to swallow him.

Miru followed along with the group in silence, her gaze darting across the floor and along the bizarre walls for any signs of danger they might stumble into. Nothing out of sorts seemed to appear though beyond the pulsing and darkness which sat as a constant. The group would continue deeper into the cave, following a breeze of unknown origins.

The breathing of the world and the pulsing of the stone... could we have entered the maw of a great beast? her thoughts arose as a towering wall of damp swirling stone became visible before them Or perhaps it is not strictly a living thing, but an aspect of the realm of darkness in which the dream hunter had ensnared us before.

These unvoiced thoughts tossed and turned in the fox's mind even as they found passage through the wall and into the first obvious trap of their journey. A perilous pathway with walls and columns scattered throughout.

The hoarse realization the fated one had made before seemed to disappear as they bolted toward one of the suspended columns, crossing the border between life and death as though it were nothing to fear. Miru would not be so hasty; her destiny was still unknown and in this deadly situation she would do all she could to guard the number of days she had remaining in this life.

The spider and the winged beast ascended the first wall with no issue, with the winged one being so kind as to summon magic to help her in turn. Fur bristled in the wind as she prepared to jump into the lift, but as her calculations were still being made the deer had a go at it.

Silence, deadly silence. Not a note of surprise of fear or dismay dared echo from her throat as she watched the great beast skid on the rocks and begin to tumble down into the unknown. The first victim, and an ironic one at that. The one who paid the passage would be the first to fall to the road's trials...

Miru's red eyes closed for a second as she took a deep breath. They could mourn the loss of a companion later, for now they just had to survive. Eyes opened again and she took the leap straight into the air, hoping the jetstream would push her the rest of the way up the wall.

One paw hit the wall, then another. Before either of her back paws could hit it to bounce her back into the stream, however the surprisingly smooth surface caused her to slip. The small fox was tossed in a summersault by the wind and no longer had the momentum to ride it to the top. Her landing would be hard, but at least she had made the attempt above the path rather than toward the column.

Though my thoughts are my own
"This is my greatest tool to hone"
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