One branch of the Training Dungeon Quest! Please read the main thread before choosing a section to explore.

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The Gembounds entering the "training" dungeon would need to split to enter one of its four branches. The tunnel beyond the initial, rusted steel gate was worn stone. In places this would change to brick, or even water, but here--in the rightmost branch of the cave--it was a mix of things.

Ancient, worn brick was filled with hanging vines and giant, perforated leaves. Light shafted down from natural collapses high above; rubble piled here and there, making traversing this ground a test of patience and a challenge in caution.

The light this deep was dim, but enough to see by.

The question was--what might lurk beyond the vines, behind the leaves, or just within the dungeon itself?

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Gembounds proceeding into the Jungle Overgrowth branch of the dungeon should roll for any form of perception. This may be an Other roll or magic perception of any kind. They may instead roll to prepare for specific threats if they may guess what they'll encounter. Posts will occur every four days; the next post will be on Saturday, June 7th, afternoon/evening GMT.


click to enlarge

Howler - having become deeply interested in the rewards prompted by the dungeon, enters the one that seemed most interesting to him. Vines coat the outer wall, leaves high up above him. A sight to see - Howler would like to explore this area more if it stays open to them after this adventure.

He hums, a clawed hand running down a long leaf. Yeah, he'd like to know more. Maybe they'd figure it out while exploring? With so many options, Howler is curious to see how many gembound (and others) will show. Howler adjusts the spectacles on his face, eyeing up the darker areas around him.

It might be a good idea to lighten up the place a bit more, just in case some with bad vision come in. For his first time using magic, Howler gets it down quick. A light blue wisp appears in his palm, before moving to one of the darker locations. Anything over there?

@Rosary

She was called to adventure, wanting to explore, to learn, to see what she could uncover. And along the way, she hoped to make friends, make adventuring partners, and who knew what else. The stars were in her eyes and she was more than ready to explore and learn what she could.

It didn't take long for her to find the way there, figuring heading to the jungle overgrowth was the best place for her to go. She loved nature, enjoyed the earthen state around her and wanted to explore it more, and this was the best way to do so.

As she got there, she noticed another, seeming to hold a little wisp of light in their hand. Hello there. She called out, nodding her head as she reached up to pat the head of her little creature, who remained wrapped around her shoulders, cooing softly in curiosity and a soft hello.

Glancing out past the light and into the darkness, she spoke to the creature as she walked ahead to meet up with the stranger. I'm Flower of Ivory, this is Fernie. Its nice to meet you. She smiled warmly at them, hoping to make friends with this stranger before they headed off into the unknown.

The Valkhound was paced behind the werewolf creature, never straying too far from where they walked, feet dragging with each step, soft moans falling from her wretched jaws, but it wasn't...as bad as it had been. Howler, perhaps, had seen her at her lowest. Now, at least, there was effort in movement. Her head was drooped, but not sunken. Her eyes looked forward instead of off into nothing, locked on the white figure she followed.

She did not know where they were going. She did not seem to care that much. She had said to Howler before, "You go....I go...." and had hoped with the faintest spark that they would not mind. And they hadn't. Perhaps, then, it wasn't an impossibility that this miserable creature could feel joy - the faintest warmth that bloomed in her heart then couldn't be anything else.

As they stepped past the initial gate, Rosary at last questioned, quietly, almost a whisper - "What....is this....why are we...heeeere...." It wasn't accusatory, but softly mournful, as its voice ever was. And when another joined, a smaller thing, much smaller, its head slowly lowered to be more on her level.

Oh...oh she was small, so full of joy and innocence, so unmarred by the evils, by the chaos, and...ah, there were the tears. The softest sob echoed from its throat as oily-black tears began to drip from the hollows of its face. "Ohhhh.....Flower of...Ivory....and Feeernieeee....." It turned away, almost hiding her face behind Howler. She did not need to see the Valkhound's horror, its wretchedness. She did not need to know it.

@Flower @Howler

Relic was yet another late arrival to the scene, missing out on the endless benefits free food and drink provided. But she had her strength and the strange armour on her back, and that was all she really needed.

It was weird to be in Fornax again, AND in an odd dungeon in the middle of a jungle. We're coming full circle. She wasn't sure what that meant for her - maybe if she could remember what Giggle had told her it'd make more sense. Maybe the bones had predicted this all those cycles before.

"Hellooo." She called non-specifically, her attention drifting over the other three already here. (That was one fucked up horse.)

Again, coming full circle, she attempted to cast the spell that'd sabotaged the rest of her experience. Maybe this time it'd work out better for her.

Sergei held his buckler in one hand and his spear in the other. He'd never actually done anything like this; he'd fought, but not explored dangerous areas. But he was... curious. And hopeful.

And he'd met Flower.

So he gently shouldered his way toward the front of the pack (at least, past those who would allow it), excusing himself--and explaining himself, too. "Let me use the shield," he said. He had one. He didn't really know how to use it. But he had it! And he was here to protect others, if he could.

He thought... no. He didn't want to imagine there'd be Hive in the other branches, but he'd seen something... white. Howler was suspiciously so, too, but Sergei kept his distance, side-eyeing the strange beast.

Anyway, Sergei wasn't the most observant of creatures, so he left it to the others to do actual exploration, hunting, and so forth. He just put up his shield, and sidled around, studying the shadows at the edges of the tunnel with a sort of baleful, bearlike suspicion. If something did attack, he'd be ready. Ready to launch himself forward, to defend against attack.

At least... he hoped he would.

"Hello, Flower," he said. To Flower, obviously. And he plodded forward, into the musty ruins.

Naskarra came in late, but already at the peak of her energy and excitement. She was panting heavily, chest heaving, tongue lolling out. One wouldn't be remiss to assume she'd run all the way here at the thought of something new to do. Because she had. Naskarra didn't get out much. 'Much' in this case meaning at all. She slurped her tongue back in, and stomped through the group, giving Sergei and Howler a warning rumble as she passed for being too large for her liking. It was a brazen, if halfhearted show of aggression. She didn't think much of them once she'd passed--too focused on what was in front of her, or could be in front of her. Though, quite like a wild animal, there was still tension about her, a readiness to bite. She was, unfortunately, missing her reactive dog vest.

Naskarra kept astonishingly vigilant. Perhaps being so high strung came with its benefits. The rest of the people in the tunnel faded out of notice, and Naskarra found herself wholly focused only on everything around them. Every sight and each sound was met with a whip of the head. Each scent investigated thoroughly. If there were anything ahead, Naskarra was sure to be one of the first to notice.

And thus it was time for Attikias to venture forth- though not without company, herding Plover on through behind him as he squinted out through the dim light. A good number of folks were already conversing and exploring, and Attikias simply gave anyone who looked at him a soft smile, not particularly introducing himself just yet. (Though, something of Rosary's whole everything was a little off-putting, even if he was familiar with the Forge...)

He wasn't disturbed enough to feel anything other than strangeness from it. His attention was more-so on Plover, just in case xe tried to eat some random plant; that's probably not a good idea here. He didn't need to deal with any sort of stomach illness once they got out of here.

Why is he even thinking about after this? He should focus on the present. Squinting forward, Attikias joined the party with a murmured "hello" to all the greetings. He felt at ease with the amount of gembound around; it was nice, protected, and... surely this wouldn't go bad.

Plover thinks two things of this party: WOW, THERE'S SOME FREAKS HERE (upon gazing at the... xe doesn't know where to start and end other than "walking pile of carrion"); and, NOBODY HAS ANY SNACKS.

For the latter, xe knows Attikias has snacks on his person, but xe knows that xir newly-acquired father isn't liable to give them up so soon into the journey. He would if xe begged, but xe isn't going to yet, just to show xir mental fortitude—

And they did just eat at Scorpio, but I'M HUNGRY...

The overgrowth makes xem think of Pegasus, and where there was dense roughage in Pegasus, there was some manner of berries or rather tasty root to stuff into xir mouth. Here, where it's all foliage that's nigh impossible to see in, there's clearly going to be some kind of a nice treat. Right? Right.

Naturally, the first thing that Plover does is start to wander from the pack, sniffing with all six nostrils working hard in tandem with beady, night-sighted eyes. Ears twist around like sonar dishes, but find themself useless with all of the chattering and footsteps. Sniff, sniff, sniff.

Where there was adventure, there of course had to be... valkhounds. Especially since, at least in the Chaos Forge, Master Vargas was liable to give them rewards for investigating "cave events". If Khavur's Janus heads could spot any valkhounds... it looked like maybe one or two. Well—three? It wasn't too important; the gathered parties looked strong enough to handle whatever might come. Besides, in a world of magic that could spawn from a tardigrade and immolate an entire forest, strength was hard to measure by appearance alone.

The trouble with no recognizable valkhounds was that now there were a few other things he had to worry about. Things such as, well it is impossible for all of them to turn down the opportunity to explore and earn prestige. But then, did they enter a different tunnel? How am I supposed to know what is going on in other tunnels? Ah, if only I could...

And other such matters.

Regardless, he was here now, and he supposed that for the time being this group would have to fall within his temporary jurisdiction instead. He would simply have to... trust in the safety of his comrades—in their own ability to keep themselves safe—for now. Wherever they might be.

In the interest of the present group, Khavur's heads swiveled around. Jungle, jungle, and more jungle. This felt unimportant. It was true that he had more eyes on one body than most, but the reality was that there were more than enough people to render that fact obsolete. This early on, what was likely more advantageous was sensing incoming danger, which, for all his various sensors, Khavur could not do as efficiently as a simple magic spell.

Only magic could accurately tell him whether there was blood to be spilled.

OOC: Khavur rolls to sense danger via Red Sense! and FAILS