Obieth stared with dark amusement at the little hyena that'd gotten herself jammed into the tight space beneath the door.

She paced over, probably intending to somehow lend a hand, but attempts to paw Relic carefully free found that the child was very stuck. She knew at once that trying to yank Relic out might just cause the cub pain. And using her own magic would inflict corruption on her, which... might be bad. She came to a halt beside her, glancing up at the puzzle as she did. The others seemed to be investigating it, so she looked back to Relic, addressing her directly.

"Do you need help?" she asked, that black humor thick in her raspy tone. The scent of ruffled fur had joined the musty odors of the cave, and Obieth's hollow ears flicked back to listen to the scrabble of claws behind her, the drip of moisture from the tunnel roof. "I can get you out with magic, but it may... change you."

While Relic and Obieth tried to fight a door and Khavur and Labradorite examined the darkness (finding little of interest within--just a few little Spider, snake and leech-like Lessers), Kaimana's keen mind would find an interesting discrepancy in the tiles.

Those three tiles with water droplet sigils were more worn than the rest, their centers a little smoother, darker, as if they'd been touched a great deal.

Nidhogg's accidental helpfulness pushed one of those two stones inward, and somewhere in the walls, there was a deep, grinding, sliding sound of stone-on-stone.

The great door trembled, dust tumbling from the ceiling. Beyond, the dim light of the squirming Drinker that Relic had thrown showed the smooth, downward-sloping tunnel vanishing into the dark in further clarity.

---

Gembounds may attempt in any way they choose to solve this puzzle; they do not need to roll to find the correct solution. As soon as the solution is found (please GM tag for interaction!), a GM post will be made progressing the quest.

Anyone joining late may still follow the group down the tunnel, for now; those who have not yet rolled will be struck by the emotion-intensifying darts and latched onto by Drinker leeches. Yuck.

@Opie @Catalyst @Tsetse @Bayo @Aethril @Jinyi @Madhukar (Khavur, Kaimana) @Obieth (Nidhogg) @Relic

Kaimana noticed the impressions in the tiles bearing neither the fire-like nor the plant-like symbols. She didn't know what it represented, but the whole thing made her think of magic. The sonorous reaction to the creature that came and pressed on one of the three with that specific symbol, however, changed the direction of the gears in her mind. "The tiles with the drops, the one you just pressed," she gestured to Nidhogg before continuing, "they seem to be worn from usage. I'm going to try to check for magic, but I think those may be worth pressing." It feels a tad too simple to call it a puzzle, Kaimana thought, and from the thought sprung rapidly two lumps of emotion: suspicion and disappointment. They came right down against her throat and her chest, a one-two knockout punch that sent her reeling. How to cope with such intensity, the likes of which Kaimana had... really never felt before?

Just do what he had set out to do, he supposed. He focused away, on his eyes, allowed the suspicion to assist him. He hoped to see if there was magic, if there was a greater consequence to this... whatever it was.

Still and solemn from their place under the door, they watched the light from the leech fade into darkness, as they waited for their turn to rot. They didn’t hear, couldn’t maybe, the approaching steps as the void-cat approached, yelping in fright when they felt large paws around them. They squirmed briefly, but their panic faded when they realised she was trying to yank them free. When she touched them their fur came away wet with something they didn’t know, the sensation was unpleasant to say the least.

The cat’s attempts failed, and dread creeped into the cub’s stomach, even though she had made piece with being stuck moments ago. The offer she received unnerved her in its ominous wording. “Change me how?” you could hear the uncertainty in the question, her emotions were everyone’s to know, until the poison wore off at least.

The grinding of stone, the unseen changing of formation, it filled the cub’s ears and threatened to make them bleed. Were the others figuring out the puzzle? The door could open without that strange magic maybe, and then they’d live! But wait, was that the sound of the door opening or closing? Could she know? Could they know?

They panicked again, urgent scrambling and scratching resuming, nails once again skittering on the hard floor. ”ACK! Just get me out! I don’t care how! they cried, not keen on the idea of being split in two. Or maybe they’d just get completely squished? If they didn’t get out now, maybe they’d find out.

Nidhogg stared at Kaimana dumbly for a moment, all his eyes filled with nothing but mindless light. But after a moment something seemed to click, and he turned, scampering for the puzzle again.

Fat-clawed 'hands' slammed for the water droplet-inscribed tiles, pressing haphazardly and repeatedly with all his might.

"DO SOMETHING-!" he snarled at the stones, as if somehow, that might help.

The moment the tiled buttons were pressed--hard enough, at least--they grinded slowly into place.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then the grinding seemed to... grow, to swell, until the sound was deafening, until its rumble shook the walls around them.

The wall began to rise. It might have seemed that that was that: puzzle solved, door opened. Right?

-Wrong; a moment later there was a second sound, even as the rumbling faded. It was a rushing noise: a deep, bassy hiss and gurgle that echoed along the stone.

Those who knew such sounds might have recognized it an instant before impact: water.

The mouth of the stone beast suddenly expelled a massive blast, a veritable river surging from between its worn jaws: whitewater cascades of first old and stagnant--almost black--and then fresh and clear water poured with immense, roaring force into the tunnel! It would throw the Gembounds back--and then wash them helplessly forward, down the long, curved stone sluice they'd been standing in front of.

Was this a correctly solved puzzle, or had it been another trap-?

Either way--it was time for a waterslide!

The roaring rapids would sweep all of them down the tunnel, into the pitch darkness, hurtling them toward the unknown at very rapid speed. Any screams would echo, though be half drowned out by the roar of the rapids. Spinning, tumbling, they would find themselves carried by this brutal current nearly a kilometer through the claustrophobic dark--a tunnel barely wide enough to fit the largest of them--and eventually spit them out.

When at last they were spat out, it would be to three remarkable things: comparatively blinding light, as they emerged back into the 'outdoors'; fresh, yet swampy air, rife with life and decay; and the sight of a towering island rising up before them, covered in enormous, leafy trees.

Strange winged creatures, too far to make out but unlike any Lessers ever seen within the caves, circled high above the island, and a haunting call--something deeply bass and almost singing--came along the breeze. The island's sides were sheer cliffs in almost every direction, except for the Gembounds' side. The Gembounds would find that they'd been spat out on a muddy flat at the edge of the island, lipped on both sides by the surging of waves--waves that encircled the water, vanishing into a thick white fog. Even their mud flat, however, seemed to lead to a trail that simply vanished into the thick foliage ahead.

Where were they-? And what would they do now? What should they do now..?

---

Gembounds may react to the waterslide, or even attempt to avoid it should they wish not to progress further in this adventure (requires a roll). Those who reach the bottom may react to their new location. Rolls may be made by player discretion--to safely traverse the tunnel, or to look around at the bottom as a perception check, etc.--but are only required if the character wants to stop and exit the thread before the waterslide!

@Opie @Catalyst @Tsetse @Bayo @Aethril @Jinyi @Madhukar (Khavur, Kaimana) @Obieth (Nidhogg) @Relic

The cub wriggled free of their predicament, the momentum pushing the, back on their haunches. They blinked in surprise. They had gotten out! The doorway rose upwards, and they were about to turn around and give the strange cat a big toothy grin of pride when-

The rumbling of the cave around them turned their blood to ice. Ears flat on their forehead, they looked up to the carving above them, the epicentre of the earthquake. No sooner than they had, a jet of water roared just above them, and just as quickly moved back forward to catch them in the current. They flailed around in the sea of water and bodies, helpless passenger as they slid down into an abyss. They wondered if Rabbit would be ok, before they were sent spinning down the tunnel.

Being as little as she was, drowning was certainly a possibility. Puppy paws reached out to make contact with someone, something she could cling to with her sharp baby teeth. Her limbs met only water as she splashed in desperation, having been swept further away from the others. She continued her tumble, crying for help everytime her muzzle met air.

These cries would be answered, with the impact of solid ground a splatter of mud. The cub hacked and spat mud and water as they rose again, squinting as their eyes adjusted to new light.

Nidhogg screeched as the sudden torrent swept him off his feet, tumbling him down into the dark. He assumed the worst: that it would plunge him into a dark pit from which he'd never escape... or maybe into boiling acid, or the waiting mouth of a monster. Or--and somehow this was the worst thought of all--that it'd just sweep him down and around in horrible black tunnels forever and ever and ever, never ending...

He scrambled for the side, claws scraping horribly along the rough stone of the sluice. Now and then he got purchase, stopping his slide from at least being a free-fall, but he didn't manage to fully pull himself out before the current took him again.

His tail thrashed behind him and, at last, he was tumbled and spun out into the open. He lay blinking and heaving in the shallow waters for a moment, squinting against the sudden light--and then was on his feet again, panting as he scrambled onto shore.

He shook himself like a dog. "WHAT WAS THAT?" he demanded, his voice a screech as he turned and stared accusingly back at the mouth of the waterslide.

Obieth hissed, ears flattening and eyes widening in hatred.

Water!
Then she was tumbling ungracefully, claws snatching at the air and snagging--nothing, velveteen coat soaked through with stagnant fluid.

Her immediate thought was to corrupt the water, so that she could then control it, but then she remembered she already had, in a pool that now lay behind them. Frantically she snatched at it, magicka seeking it out, trying to yank it toward her like a protective but watery shroud.

She felt its Oil sweep up around her just as they cascaded around a bend, as the glimpse of other tangles of limbs and hides made themselves seen in her peripheral. But her thought was for herself (barely even Aethril, then) and it was all she could do to even try and slow her own fall. Try as she might, though, the corrupted water couldn't do more than that--couldn't halt her in the stream or throw her to one side.

Maybe if the magic had been stronger-... but it wasn't.

She grayed out, then--and came up coughing, not quite sure how she'd ended up in a still pool. Obieth staggered to her feet, choked out water, and looked up and around--to see the strange birds far away, the towering, fog-shrouded cliffs.

"What the hell is this?" she snapped, and glanced back at Nidhogg, who she'd accidentally almost echoed. To her, though, what lay ahead was far more important than the slide they'd left behind.

Kaimana wouldn't get out of the way of the waterslide in time. Heck, she wouldn't have even wanted to had she known where it would take her. The violent reward for what was presumably their victory would carry her down in such a reckless fashion, she'd likely be facing the bruises for the weeks to come—if any more came after this. During the length of the waterslide trip, Kaimana wasn't so sure. At least she could breathe the whole time though, that was fun. More fun than getting battered against rocks and other sharp creatures.

At the end she would feel... nauseous. Deeply nauseous (he'd deal with that soon enough), and too soggy to notice any wounds, and paralyzed by fear, and then completely and utterly consumed by curiosity and wonder. Fortunately, Kaimana was a congenital optimist, so her emotions were less likely to turn her to places too dark to resurface from. Her wonder eviscerated all of the negative however, which she rationally knew was dangerous. He wondered when this poison would wear off. In the mean time though, he could barely stop himself from exploring.

Gracelessly tottering around, Kaimana searches for anything of note, forgetting in the moment that there's something specific they were all following. That was until he saw the trail! And here is where an idea would form.

Kaimana wound her way to the trail and held a paw in place, not moving forward across it until she had attempted her magic trick. He would then attempt to "check" it, as if it were any magic gemstone. He knew little about the way this magic worked outside of the purpose he often used it for. Perhaps the entire piece of muddy earth was a bit too broad of a target. Maybe he'd wind up giving himself a headache. Ah, well. The poison limited his ability to care. Dangerous as that was, he ought to use the opportunity however he could.