Mossie gasped as the figures were revealed.

The first creature reminded her a bit of Bacchus--or herself? She wondered if they were the same kind of cat...

The second was just as strange in form as Callum... same shape of muzzle, same sharp horns, same wings.

"They look kinda like us, don't they?" Mossie wondered aloud. "But that's silly, we just got here, there's no way it is...right? Maybe that's the kinda lesser's we'll find down here!! Wouldn't that be funky fresh?" Her tail lashed back and forth with excitement. Her brain was already racing with possibilities and theories--she'd need to take some other creatures down here to check, but once they finished their Epic Cool Amazing hunt first.

"We definitely have to go further," she announced. "See if you can refresh your fire spell again--I'm gonna try leaving a fungus trail so we can find our way back up!"

@Callum

She trotted about experimentally. The fungi took a few minutes to spring up at first, but then they burst from the ground readily. "Yessss," she cheered.

Callum's eyes scanned over the figures carved into stone. Someone had been here before. But who? And why did they carve these things here? He noted that the two creatures bore a slight resemblance to him and Mossie. But surely it wasn't possible for someone to have predicted they could come here. No, he decided. It was coincidence. "It can't be us! After all, uh..." Callum tried to say what it was that made them different from the two carvings, but he couldn't find anything. Creepy. "Anyway! That is not important. We'll find out when we continue."

He nodded, recasting the spell which refreshed his glowing eyes. Even if it didn't help light up the tunnel further, it made him look cool and that's what mattered. Callum led the way deeper down the tunnel, curious to see what they would find. But the smallest seed of fear had been planted. And it could only grow.

Pitch darkness soon overcame them. The risk of a fall, or stumbling into a trap, was great. Water dripped farther ahead, down, but it was impossible to see.

Should they push on, they would find uneven ground winding downward and to their right--but nothing at all was visible.

@Mossie

Mossie's pelt fluffed against the chill. It's completely dark, and she's a bit hesitant now--she's bold, not stupid. But there's no way in hell she's leaving these Giant Mysterious Tunnels unexplored for want of a light. There must be something she can do.

Well. She can't see, but maybe she can sense another way.

"I'm gonna try to sense the terrain ahead with two of my spells," she calls to Callum, before she presses her nose to the ground and tries to sense the mycelium sprawling through the cracks.

@Callum

"Woah," she said, as the fungal feedback tapped into her brain. "Halfway there."

Callum nods at Mossie's words, then realizes that they were in the dark and she probably didn't see him do that. "That's good! I'll go first." He isn't sure how much sight the spell gave her, but if they were to encounter something like a monster lurking down here then he wanted to be the first one that it attacks. After all Mossie really was rather small compared to him.

The dragon readies himself to defend against a possible attack if one were to come. Though he supposed it would be helpful for traps too if there were any. This entire place was rather shady. And he continues.

The life below was a chaotic miasma: tangled this way and that. There did seem to be walls but they intersected, dipped here and there, clustered and knotted. Should Mossie try to follow them, she would find herself mostly banging into rock quite a bit.

It seemed that the other tunnel they had seen--and likely many more--twined and twisted, here. It would make it nearly impossible to tell what was a tunnel curving just above or below their own--and what might be a deadly fall.

Should Mossie choose to push on, she should roll to avoid potential danger, using the same spell: a failure should be GM-tagged for.

@Mossie

Mossie's ears flatten against her head and she presses a paw to her temple, trying to make sense of the blaring feedback that beams into her brain.

There's quite a lot of fungus here, though she supposes that's not surprising with the damp and the wet. She can tell there's a tunnel, but can't quite tell where the holes are--there's not enough information. Taking a deep breath as she cautiously steps forward, she attempts to cast again...

@Callum

Callum, in the front, would receive absolutely no useful warning from Mossie's magic--which would find it impossible to differentiate the winding tunnels from one another. It was a tangle, in her defense: one after another looping and twisting.

But Callum would find, that between one step and the next, the ground was simply... gone. A hole, and a crack underfoot as the last bit of shale beneath him gave way--and he was falling. Mossie would hear nothing, know nothing of it, except a scuffle and silence--unless Callum screamed, on the way down. Or unless he tried to spread his wings, which would find the too-narrow pit (some hundred feet straight down) rough-walled enough to bloody them.

The plunge was a hundred feet or more. This was a mercy, in a way: it meant he'd feel nothing--or at least very little--as he struck the bottom. If he were lucky, his chrysalis would take him.

If not, he'd join the bones that scattered the floor below: a pit where a dozen different narrow drops suddenly gave way. A death trap for all the skulls and femurs, ribs and spines, that littered the ground, here. Not that he could see this... but he might hear the clatter, just before death--or his gemstone--took him.

Hopefully Mossie would have some indication of his fall, before she, too, walked right into it.

note: this was originally a fail for Mossie, but I was informed that Callum was in front and would take the loss. F in chat please

@Callum

Callum knew that Mossie was able to sense things somehow, and trusted her to tell him if anything were to befall them. But in a place where nothing made sense, and the suffocating darkness pressed in from all sides, it was easy to misstep. It get overconfident. There had been no consequences to navigating in the dark, and he was foolish enough to believe that that would continue to be the case.

One second he was on solid ground. And the next there was nothing. His paws scrambled for solid ground, wings instinctively flung out to catch himself. But the walls of the pit were narrow, and didn't allow him enough space to slow the fall. His wings felt like they were on fire, the pain of burning, friction, a useless attempt at saving himself. "DON'T COME HER-" and nothing.

There was a flicker of hope as his spell took hold, but it wasn't enough- couldn't have been enough. He was gone. And a raspite chrysalis took his place.

Exit to chrysalis

@Mossie

Chrysalis Consequence: WITHER

Callum will emerge from his chrysalis weak, exhausted, thinner, and a little withered. He will find himself easily tired, and physically and magically less strong. This is effect is not quite as severe as it could be, but still moderately incapacitating. This can be healed if Callum remains awake for a full four cycles, and then returns to his chrysalis to rest.

Wither - Gembound is physically and magically fatigued.

@Callum