The Castle (Rebma, for the heck of it, but don't hesitate!)

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel gave Sebastian a suspicious look in return. He was acting as if he could see through her illusion. How powerful was he? Which lead to the question of how powerful the archangel that imprisoned him was. She shivered. She started to scan the papers on the table nearest her to at least get a sense of what someone had been studying when she heard a noise from the hallway and looked up.

[Boog]

"Wouldn't it make sense that shadows would be nice? After all, without light they don't exist, so they'd love light. It's darkness I'm worried about... Sorry, somewhere between trying to be funny and waxing poetic here," Jeremiah grinned and shifted Gina slightly to free up his hands and grinned, "After you, good sir."

[Cogidubnus]

Cog nodded to Jeremiah and took another step. "As you say, perhaps." He grinned lopsidedly. "Well find out soon enough, yes?"
The hallway was short, and it took little time for them to traverse it and enter the light at the end.

[Stygian]

Stygian turned, and looked at the doors. His eyes narrowed, and the heavy wooden pieces swung up by themselves, creaking just a little bit, admitting the wolf and the frog with the ferret in his arms. The bat smiled.
   "Darkness doesn't matter from some perspectives. And a shadow can be anything that isn't illuminated fully. What you're looking for is 'good' and 'evil', good sirs. And immediately it becomes very hard to judge," he said, another testimony to his hearing. "Welcome."
   The papers and books that Mel could see mostly concerned things about light and darkness, about the nature of celestial beings and 'higher powers', whatever that might have meant. Others were on sealing techniques, and one seemed to be some sort of account, or perhaps a lab report. The book that held it was smaller than the others, and written by hand with a sort of leaning, fine text that was somewhat unique, a journal or a diary perhaps.

[Boog]

"Getting the sneaking suspicion he just did all that stuff with the directions just to make us worry," Jeremiah muttered to Cog, either demonstrating a resolute refusal to learn from prior experience or a mere refusal to care. Louder, and to the room at large, "Good to see you lot again, glad you've had a better time of things than us. Is there a doctor in the house? We're not in the best of shape here."

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel picked up the handwritten journal first. Notes were more likely to be clues than published works. She had barely glanced at it when the frog asked for a healer. While her ability to read a multitude of languages would help searching the paperwork a healthy group was more valuable. Weakened members were a weak spot the angel could exploit. "I have a little skill with healing, if you wish to risk it. What happened?"

[Cogidubnus]

Cog muttered in assent to Jeremiah's suspicions and nodded to his suggestion. "That we're not." he said, putting a hand to his back. "I don't mean to whine, but her especially," he said, pointing to the girl in Jeremiah's arms, "she needs help from more skilled hands than either of us."
He blinked and remembered his manners. "Good to see you all alive, by the way." he said, and looked up at Sebastian. He nodded and adjusted his hat. "I'll suppose you all know about the nature of this house, then?" he said, closing the oak doors behind him. "Truly, I haven't seen the like. The staff especially! Such hospitality I've never seen..."
He walked further into the room and leaned on a bookshelf and sighed. "I dearly hope one of you is a healer. Or perhaps an enchanter?" he asked hopefully, fingering the empty charms in his jacket. "I don't know about you guys, but I've used up a lot of stored magic recently..."

[Aisha deCabre]

Quirking an ear as she heard someone enter, Aisha stood and crossed her arms curiously, casting a questioning glance to Gareeku before looking to where Sebastian and Mel were greeting them.  Indeed she recognized the voices of their fellow adventurers...she nodded a quick greeting to Cogidubnus and Jeremiah.

"Nice to see you alive, as well muchachos," she remarked to Cogi.  Her head tilted with slight concern, having heard that they were asking for some healing.  No kidding... she thought, noticing the unconscious one they had also brought with them.  Her eyes narrowed.  Someone's definitely gonna answer for all this.

Her head shook briefly, but apologetically.  "I'm not much of a healer, I'm afraid."

[Stygian]

"Then you should learn more of the ways of magic yourself. You seem to have the spark, wolf. A strong one, even," Sebastian said with a smile to Cogidubnus, ignoring the jibe at his manners. "I could teach you a thing or two," he then continued, but then changed subject very quickly. "We've been talking about our agendas here, common and individual... Might you share yours?" the bat asked, looking through the book with the drawing.
   Then, they all heard a growl, like the rumbling of cracking stones grinding bones between them, from far down the dark hallway outside the doors. The shadows down there shifted and moved, intensifying and pushing the candlelight back.
   Eerily, Cog's hat jumped on his head, and the bowl of the cloth wrinkled and bent into a shape reminiscent of a face around two suddenly appearing hollow eyes and a fanged-looking but toothless mouth made from the now open seam between the brim and the bowl at the front.
   "Shizcakes!" it yelped.

[Cogidubnus]

Cog gave a low laugh at the shade's words. "You speak to me, good sir? I think you perhaps refer to the frog. I'd not become a mage for all the power in the world. They can keep it." he said, his disdain for wizards obvious. "As far as why I'm here...odd you'd ask." His eyes danced with some unknown mirth. "I'm looking for someone, actually. It's apparent he's not here...but ironic you should ask."
He was about to go into detail, when he heard a low growl, then something move on his hat. Annoyed, he was about to reach for it to dust whatever had fallen on it off, when he head a voice. Coming from his head. Above his head, more precisely. He tilted his head forward, and when nothing fell from it, he leaned back up very quietly.
"Please tell me my hat is not talking to me." He said, somewhat dejectedly.

[Stygian]

The bat had stepped to the side at the growling, his eyes narrowing and fixating on the darkness. Then his head snapped around at the noise from the hat, and despite himself he laughed.
   "They're a coming! Once more, dear friends, or close up the door with our dead! Oh, the blood, mommah!" the hat exclaimed, in the strangest mixture of an English and southern North American accent, twitching on Cogidubnus' head, and Sebastian laughed harder, clenching his gut. All the while, the rumbling growls grew closer.

[Boog]

"... Erm..." Jeremiah backed away from Cog worridly, "On the plus side, as hats go it's rather eloquent..." He looked around when the growling started, searching for the source of the noise, "Please tell me that's someone's stomach? Wait..." He squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head, "Bad thought. Please, for the love of god let that not be someone's stomach..."

[Prof B Hunnydew]

The storm was worst than I thought, I was blown off-course and lost over the mountains in my proto-type skycar.  I could barely see out front of me, then I bounce off a large dragon.  He wasn't amused and in very foul mood.  I was out of control then he hit me with his tail, send my little craft into canyon.. and barely controled crash landing.  I just enough time to pull my packback and trying stuffing my battlesuit into bag then I caught the sight of the Dragon coming in for strifing run my crash site.  I ran into trees as he torch the remains of my ship.

After a few hours, I wandered to the edge of a lake with a castle overlooking it.   Soaked through the fur and cold, I head to the only shelter I could find.  On the dark path, I follow it to the bottom of the castle's cliff and a twist path into the cave entrance in lower parts of the Castle under kitchen and service areas.

With a light spell, my first spell, I managed to learn, I follow a narrow tunnel up into the mountain and then the castle.  it looked like the only promising path up.  After a hour, I stop as I hear voices but I can't make them out.  I feeling something dark and foreboding as that growling noise.  I knocked on the wood nearest the voices.. and search to see if there is a door or something in the wall.

PBH

[Aisha deCabre]

Observing the others as they spoke and just tried to become more comfortable, despite the ominous surroundings, Aisha was leaning to the side of a nearby bookshelf.  She grew tired of standing still after a moment or two and was about to make herself useful in some way, either by searching the bookshelves or at least try to help with their injuries, though the panthress knew not what to do about the invalid they were carrying...her own experiences with healing hadn't gone much beyond some uses of light magic and the basics of curbing some heavy bleeding.  But the sudden growling noise made her jump just as much as it had done with Sebastian.

She eyed the dark hallway ahead, and the lengthening shadows, her expression returning to nothing short of stern fear.  Aisha's right hand was slowly reaching for her weapon belt, out of caution.  But the fact that Cogi's hat had apparently come to life was at the second more confusing.  Perhaps it was just the randomness of the situation...already the adventurers were almost used to things as scary as the growling.  Aisha laughed too, despite it all.  "Who did you say was possessed?" she snerked at the bat.

The humor didn't stay for long though.  Hearing these things, watching, she was just on the edge of wanting to confront it, already...

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel set down the book in her hand and walked towards Jeramiah and the injured ferret. Then the noise started and the hat shouted and the frog began hopping around. "What happened to the girl? Hold still and let me see." When Jeramiah ignored her she switched to an imitation of her grandmother's commanding tones hoping to focus his attention, "What is wrong with the girl? This isn't my strongest magic so you need to stand still."

[Boog]

Jeremiah stopped mid-panic. The noise wasn't as immediate as Mel, and even when you don't know you're dealing with one a dragon can be an imposing creature.
"Ah, sorry..." Jeremiah grinned weakly, "We're looking at blood loss from all three of us, plus she was in shock when we found her and was also apparantly possessed. Got anything for that, Doc?"

[Cogidubnus]

Cog's face alternated between bemused confusion and complete dejection. His sighed, and his face settled into a sort of resigned acceptance of the event. He began to speak to Sebastian, become somewhat more animated the more he spoke.
"Why is my hat speaking to me?" he said, keeping himself oddly rigid. "My chapeau, should not be chatting! Last I checked, my hat was quite mute!"
He began to mutter under his breath. "Why the hat? I liked this damn hat. You have no idea what I went through to get it!"
He almost reached for it, and then stopped, not quite sure if his now-sentient headgear had teeth. He sighed again, perhaps somewhat dramatically. He addressed the bat again. He seemed most familiar with this house, and seemed to find his hat quite amusing.
"Why is my hat speaking to me?" he asked again, his face one of resigned recognition.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

As soon as Jeremiah steadied Mel looked the ferret over. She was pretty much scratched up all over but the worst injury was the gouge in her right thigh. Barely missing the major femoral artery that would have bled her dry in minutes it was still close enough. As she focused her magic on the girl Mel remembered why she only received a mediocre grade in healing class, she hated doing healings. Too many things to think of at once and all of them critical. Yet despite her focus on the task she noticed something else, something more along her typical line of work.

Mel's brow wrinkled in concern as she checked more thoroughly. "That is most peculiar. I'm not finding any thoughts. Even deeply unconscious there should be something, if only the mental equivalent of a moan. Nothing older either." She brushed the hair from the girl's face and checked her eyes, then her pulse. Mel scowled at the girl as if she was deliberately trying to be confusing. "Half my senses tell me she is alive and half say she is dead. Where did you say you found her?" The noise from the hall was getting louder, dividing Mel's attention between it and the perplexing ferret.

[Stygian]

Sebastian slowly regained his composure, and looked at the werewolf, still with a quirk to his lips and humor in his gaze. He did not mind the growls down the corridor just yet, though he shot them a short look before eyeing Cogidubnus and his hopping headwear.
   "Honestly, good sir, I have no idea. I certainly have not done anything to it. Maybe you should not have left it on the hanger?" the bat said, and cocked his head to the side.
   "Oh, what a thief this deformed fashion is!" the hat exclaimed, and the bat began to laugh again. However, this time he stopped short, and looked over his shoulder at the encroaching darkness down the corridor. His face reassumed a serious look, and his eyes narrowed.
   "More wolves to join the feast, it seems... But we can't let them into the library. So it seems we shall need a bouncer for this job. Unless, some might want to provide a distraction? No, wait... that's not a good idea..."
   Something began moving down at the bottom of the hallway, slowly coming against them.

[Cogidubnus]

Cog grimaced. This is perfect. he thought. He opened his mouth as if to speak again, then stopped and seemed to calm. He took a deep breath and grabbed the sword at his waist. He took the coin he had out of his pocket, and rubbed it thoughtfully. It no longer gleamed with stored sunlight, and he frowned, and put it back.
"I'm out of magics." he said, slowly drawing his sword and letting it hang at his side. "As long as we have light, they should be vulnerable, correct?" he asked Sebastian, keeping an eye on the oak doors. "We can kill them in here, yes? Or can we kill them in darkness too?" He said while trying to pick up on the the tables scattered in the area, but as he tried to scoot it over to the door he dropped it and grabbed his back. He shrugged and simply stood back from the door.

[Stygian]

Sebastian stepped up beside him, a gentle smile spreading over his features, and his eyes becoming a deeper black again. That corona of light that wasn't light seemed to gather again, and their surface writhed, as if the light were bending around them, or being drawn into them. Like a pair of black holes, set into his face.
   "We can kill them regardless. These are not creatures of darkness, but evil. There is a great difference..." he said, looking down the hallway. He slowly flexed and clenched his fingers. "And when darkness turns upon the evil that hides in it, that evil fears..." he murred, quirking a lip just over a fang.

[Boog]

"A big damn hallway. There were some couches and stuff," Jeremiah grinned weakly, "She was lying on the ground with a lot of blood everywhere, and then started ranting in someone elses voice. Ah!" He raised a finger to the classic, 12 o' clock "aha!" position, "The bat guy with the stunning personallity kissed her, and she went out cold. No talking from either voice. There was a few whispy things going from her mouth to his. That explain it?"

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel looked from the girl to Sebastian and back again. "Yes, I understand now." She didn't know what to say to Jeremiah. Beings tended to get funny over things like this. She couldn't really fault Sebastian for taking advantage of power available from someone who was moments from death. Even with the magic Mel had just expended on the girl she would still have been likely to die either from extended blood loss or being possessed. "I really can't do anything else to help her. I'm sorry but I don't think she has much longer. Why don't you tell me about your injuries."

[Gareeku]

While the others talked, Gareeku had once again stayed silent. He seemed to be doing that a lot today. Looking off into the dark hallway, the wolf could sense the approach of something sinister. He did not laugh at the hat's antics, rather humourous ar they were. He instead approach the entrance to the hallway, his katana unsheathed and glowing softly in the same manner as his hands were.
"If it is wolves that approach, then it is a wolf that shall meet them." Gareeku muttered, standing strong as he faced the approaching evil with a hardened resolve.

[Stygian]

Sebastian returned Mel's gaze. His face was perfectly still and cool, and yet... she got the impression that he was smiling at her somehow. A smile that would have chilled anyone's spine, especially with those eyes. Then he turned back toward the doors, and slowly walked out of them, into the crossing of the hallways and up beside the wolf.
   "Swords would usually be no good here, you know..." Sebastian started saying. But then, his nose twitched, and he made a bit of a sour face, as if he'd just caught a foul scent, and shot a look at the wolf's katana. "...but you seem equipped for the deal, I guess." He stepped forward just a bit, and looked at Gareeku over his shoulder. "Just don't get in my way," he said.

   The girl lay, her mouth slightly open and her eyes now completely rolled back, limp in Jeremiah's arms. Her heart was beating, her breath was light but steady, and her wound was nearly gone. She would stay that way forever, until someone saw it fit to put an end to her hollow shell's continuance.
   Then a chill came over the frog and the dragon in disguise, a chill that had nothing to do with temperature or wind. Like a movement through another medium, that could not be seen nor heard nor felt, just sensed...
   "Really, nurse? Can nothing be done?" the girl said, leaning up and looking at Mel with ghastly white eyes. "Oh, well... I suppose that I knew, in a way..." She was speaking in the voice of a much older woman, a grandmother perhaps, one with power and pondus, but one who had found death was coming for her, and come to terms with it. Her face settled in a serene smile. And then, twitched and contorted into a snarl. "You can't know that! Talk about ego. As if you ever studied! And where are those books, young mister? Where are they!?" she spat, the last part directed to Jeremiah.
   Outside, in the corridor, the bat's ears twitched, and he growled. Thin cracks started appearing in his skin at his hands and around his eyes...

[Gareeku]

Listening to Sebastian as he spoke, Gareeku grimaced.
Asshole...who does he think he is... the wolf thought to himself angrily. Calming himself down, Gareeku's look of anger then turned to a smirk.
"Well then, I'll just let you take care of the threat by yourself." Gareeku replied in a calm voice, resheathing his katana and leaning against a wall with his arms folded.

It was then, however, that the wolf overheard the girl. Looking at her, a grim expression appeared on Gareeku's face once again.
"Someone still controls her..." he muttered to himself.

[Cogidubnus]

 Cog shrugged at Gareeku and let his sword hang loosely in his hand. "If you wish, sir, you could use that weapon to good effect. If you can truly use it, aiming for the head works wonders. At least, it's worked well for me so far."
He turned to the tiger-lady and frowned glumly. "I'm sorry to hear that. We went through a lot to try and save her..." he sighed, and turned to the door again. "I suppose there's nothing to be done, then. If she lives, so she lives. We've done what we can."
He was about to walk into the corridor and see what could be done, when he heard the girl began to speak in a strange voice. One that did not match the young girl's age. As she spoke further, and seemed to jump from subject to subject with seeming randomness, Cog snarled and removed the cross from his necklace again, letting it swing from his hand.
"Another demon, then. Let's hope that this one isn't stronger than the other."

[Stygian]

"Leave her alone," the bat said, his voice darkening again. "I'll want to talk to her later. That old bitch..." He growled.
   "You have a lot to answer for, young man!" the ferret shouted, her voice still that of a dry, prude middle-aged woman. And then it changed again, to a musty, male one of about the same age. "Oh, damn, am I on the floor again...?"
   Sebastian just ignored the whole of it. As a rumble grew closer, and three pairs of red, glowing eyes came into view, he started slowly walking down the hallway again.
   "Yes... that's it... come a bit closer..."
   A heavy, thudding sound came, and a fanged, horrible maw came into view beneath one of the pairs, growling and hissing. Another Fenris. The other creature behind it though, was not. It seemed more like some sort of lizard made of coals and embers, like some offspring of that wyrm from before. The growls of both creatures mixed, and they paced closer, sounds behind them signifying the presence of more like them...
   "Come have a taste...!" Sebastian hissed, and grinned. The shadows seemed to congregate around him, slipping and writhing, almost as if they were alive, as if they were taking shape...

[Gareeku]

With one ear swivelled towards the girl, Gareeku looked back at the hallway. Seeing the eys and the maws, his eyes narrowed. He was itching to fight, but thought that, seeing as he hadn't seen much of Sebastian's abilities, it would be better to let the bat fight. Watching the bat in front of him, Gareeku raised an eyebrow as the shadows around Sebastian seemed to come alive.
This should be interesting. the wolf to himself as he looked on, waiting for the inevitable battle to commence.

[Cogidubnus]

   Cog grimaced at the woman, and placed the cross back around his neck. "I don't know why I trust that shade, but by god, you should thank and not scold him."
   As he turned from the ferret, he removed his shades and walked into the darkness of the corridor. His eyes adjusted unnaturally quick, and he found himself suppressing another snarl. He remembered those red eyes, and he certainly remembered that kind of dog. Of course, in his state, it was unlikely that he could kill such a creature. The lizard, though...perhaps a salamander? If so, he did indeed have something for fire...
   His sword was already drawn, so he merely reached inside a pocket and pulled out a silver hound's-tooth. It was an intricately detailed model of a long fang, and it's surface beaded with condensation. Cog grinned and ran it down his sword. The metal of the blade reacted with the charm, the blade suddenly sucking the moisture of the air around it to it's surface, and a slight pall of smoke rising from the edge. The air around it cooled, and the innermost part of the blade glowed with cold, blue energy. Cog grinned.
   Cog ran and swung at the dog, not really expecting anything to happen to it, but merely trying to distract the creature with pain. Blood slopped from it's cut maw to the wall, and an unearthly growl escaped it's lips. He had caused it no permanent harm, but it had let him run past to his real target.
   The lizard reacted quickly. The lizards maw snapped down, and Cog grinned and merely stepped to the side, bringing the sword up in a block. It is of course impossible to block a mouth, but the cold edge bit into the lizards face, and it recoiled from the cold, surprised. Cog merely flowed with his block, never really stopping at any moment, and brought the sword down in a vicious strike. The blade passed clean through the creature with incredible force – it was perhaps one of the strongest strikes he could muster.