Loot: The Eternity Dungeon

[Celadon's Penultimate]

Xlprq is taken a bit aback by the suggestion.

Though, he had to admit, it was a mite difficult deciding which he preferred over the others.

Still, if the others didn't mind...

He grabbed the two blades up, and pocketed them, still a bit hesitant, "I suppose that is best, then, isn't it, Star? Assuming nobody else wanted them?"

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

"'A great weapon may not make a great hero, but it certainly helps,' is what my father always says." Says Star. "Besides, you handled your weapons very well in that last fight. If you upgrade your blade it helps everyone in the group."

[Smackgiver]

/Praosk heads in the direction of the exit, hoping to watch the arc and landing of the hats to see if it produces any effect/

[Philote]

"I wonder if we need to eat with these new bodies" Willow ponders

"In any case, I'll take a closer look at these plants. They may serve us in other ways besides nutrition." Willow examines the moss and flowers closely (Cue Marv.)

"If they are useful, I'll store some in my pack. Thank you Proask. We should begin to advance, cautiously, towards the next path though."

[Marvelous Miscreant]

The moss, other than being almost too green to believe, seems fairly normal as far as moss goes. There does seem to be an awful lot of it though.

The flowers, at first glance appear average as well, though they are no species that Willow has ever encountered. They are a brilliant orange and their fragrance is difficult to describe but cloying and sweet. Looking closer Willow notes a strange twinkle about the center of each flower. The pollen there seem to almost sparkle.

[Marvelous Miscreant]

The new passageway is clear and relatively straight. At the far end, Star can just make out a thick layer of vines draped over the exit. The slime hats again meet no resistance as they are flung down the hall.

[Philote]

The others were already starting to travel down to the next hall, so Willow had to decide quick what to do with the flowers before his allies got all the loot. He wasn't going to miss out on a new chance to add to his collection now that he was free to actually own his own items.

"Praosk, these are not any flowers that I've seen before but they seem unusual enough to be useful later. I'll pocket some now so that we can examine them later while we catch up with the others."

Willow adds three of the flowers to his inventory.

[Smackgiver]

/Praosk moves down the hallway on the opposite side of Star, attempting to stay even with him.  As he gets closer to the vines, he nocks a bullet in his sling and starts to twirl it./

"Don't get too close just yet.  Let me see if a nasty surprise awaits an unfortunate soul who jostles the vines."

/Praosk aims for the center of the vines and lets fly, while preparing to move quickly if a trap activates./

[Zaleramancer]

Name stands in amazement that no booby traps activated when the sword was pulled. The fact that nothing terrible had happened would have to mean that something worse was waiting, like the universe was storing bad-things to come like a demented cosmic squirrel.

He stared off at the vines with intense suspicion.

[Celadon's Penultimate]

And while Name eyed the vines, intent on something dangerous to arise from them, Xlprq was much more wary of the flowers. The gleaming blooms might mean useful purpose, true enough, but it could just as easily be a pretty ploy to attract unwary passersby.

Still...Willow had only taken up three. If the flowers were any trouble, they could possibly be dealt with, by their group's numbers.

What could possibly go wrong?

Having reassured himself, he picked up his pace to catch back up to the group.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

Star takes his flower and lines his helmet with the petals so that the inside smells sweetly.

[Philote]

"Praosk, back me up" Willow says

"If nothing comes through those vines in the next couple moments, the two of us should go forward and scout."

[Marvelous Miscreant]

The stone whistles through the vines uneventfully and clatters to the ground eerily beyond the green veil.

Nothing seems to happen.

[Philote]

Willow creeps forward.

"Star, be ready to charge through if something happens while Praosk and I investigate. You're the most armored of us."

Extending his staff out, Willow pushes aside the vines to look through from a safe distance.

[Marvelous Miscreant]

For a moment, Willow isn't sure what he's looking at. The room beyond the vines, if it could be called that, seemed at first glance to be a clearing in a large jungle. Light, bright and glimmering, trickled down from the between the leaves of the dense canopy and gloomily lit the scene before Willow.

Directly in front of the tunnel's exit, about a 100 yards away was a large, vine-chocked wall in which another tunnel could be seen. It was apparently the exit. To either side, the jungle extended into a gloom that formed a thick wall that blocked the rest from view.

Next Willow noticed the trees, they were different from any tree he'd seen before despite his knowledge of plants. Opposite to any normal tree, these ones had bright green trunks that were criss-crossed with tiny veins and leaves that were hard, rough and bark-like. The leaves clattered and clicked in a wind that seemed to come from nowhere.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

"HIIIIII-YA!" Star says, leaping forward and slicing the across the top of the mouth of the passage. As they fall in coils at his feet he gets his first look at the jungle beyond the doorway and steps through to join Praosk and Willow. "Wow." he said in awe. "Are we outside?"

Not even waiting for an answer he makes his way over the vine choked wall and starts trying to climb it.

[Zaleramancer]

Name creeps over to the entrance to the room and closes his eyes, listening for sounds.

[Smackgiver]

"I am your shadow, Willow.  No harm will come to you as long as I draw breath."

/As Praosk moves into the next room,  he reclaims his spent bullet taking the left side in surveillance and re-nocks it into his sling and starts its twirling./

"I don't like the sides of the room being so obscured from our main path of inquiry.  I have the left half covered.  Could someone else be so kind as to cover the right?"

[Marvelous Miscreant]

GV:

The vines were somewhat sticky, Star notices as he slowly scales the wall. They seemed to want to cling to him as much as the wall. Fortunately, this made it easier to climb them. As he approached the canopy, he could see the light beyond the bark-like leaves glowing ominously. Now that he was closer, he could see the sky above.

Well, he could see what looked like a sky...

It looked exactly like a sky, but there was something inherently wrong about it. Perhaps it was the way it seemed to move. Or maybe it was how the whole thing felt, stretched, squash and twisted in some places as if the whole thing was meant to fit just above the jungle and nowhere else.The whole thing was difficult to look at and gave Star an odd sensation at the back of eyes.

Looking back down to he companions to clear his vision, Star notices something he didn't earlier. Or rather, he notices many somethings strewn about the clearing's edges in the tall grass and dirt.

Bones...dozens, maybe hundreds of bones. Each picked clean.

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Zale:

It was hard for Name to hear anything other than the grunts and noises of Star climbing the wall and the background roar of hundreds of bark-leaves clacking together in the wind. That was all.

Some small detail about what he heard shouted in the back of Name's mind as he listened. Something didn;t sound quite right. What was it? It was difficult to tell. All he could hear now was the clicking of hundreds upon thousands of little wooden leaves rattling in the wind.

The wind

The word bounced around inside his head for moment until suddenly it clicked.

He couldn't hear the wind. There was no subtle whoosh. No telltale whistle. There was no wind.

The Leaves continued to rattle...

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Smackgiver:

As he gazed out into the fog, Praosk tried his best to scan the gloomy jungle for any sign of movement. A difficult task given that the dark shadows of the tree's seemed to constantly shift and bend in the dim light. The whole effect was mesmerizing. It had a way of sneaking into your head and causing everything to blur into one big, slowly shifting haze.

Praosk suddenly snapped back to attention. Had something out there moved? Surely, there had been one more tree there a moment ago. But no, tree's don't just disappear. Right?

The uneasy feeling the he was being watched wiggled into the back of Praosk's mind.


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[Gentleman Vaultboy]

Star's ascent had been as quick as he was possible able. His descent was even faster than that because he let himself drop as soon as he judged he was low enough. He tucked, rolled and scrambled to his feet to call the others. "This is a bad place." he called urgently. "This a bad room and we don't want to be here."

He drew his sword and swung to cut a path through the vines and away from this place.