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

[Gareeku]

Before he could do anything more, Gareeku looked up to see the spidermorph shooting web at him and Keaton. Narrowing his eyes, the wolf swung his blade at the incoming web, the sword glowing with magical energy as it sliced the web to pieces. Seeing that the spidermorph's attention had turned away, Gareeku took the opportunity to get Keaton to a safe distance, checking her over to see if she was alright.

[Aisha deCabre]

With a harsh growl, Aisha half-cut and half-tore the last of the webbing that had confined her to the floor, relief overcoming the heat of frustration.  At least while being pinned there she had enough time to get some strength back, though she used most of it to make some distance between the battling spider-morph and Sebastian.  Looking around, she could see from the corner of her eye another of the larger spawn about to pin down the canine.  The panthress tossed her boomerang, aiming for the spider's head, and having it return stained with entrails, hoping she had gotten it.  "Dammit, move!" she shouted.

Then, she took a quick look around...everyone was either too far away to help, too weak, or have been shot by webbing, as she saw that had happened to Gareeku and Keaton without her even giving a chance of a warning.  Her head jerked around the chapel rapidly, her tail whipping with annoyance.  There has to be something...

Her eyes passed the ceiling then, and did a double-take upon catching the sight of the giant chandelier hanging overhead.  An idea had suddenly crossed her mind, and her eyes seemed to gleam and sharply as the bladed sides of her boomerang, drawing back her arm and to aim straight up.  If only...now! her nerves released as soon as the spider-morph was beneath it.

"Everyone who can, get some cover!" she roared above the noise.  Aisha's arm whipped forward, and she let the thing fly like the spinning sawblade it was meant to be, holding her hand still in the air and giving the enchantment a little control over its flight as it sped and snapped at the chains...

[Stygian]

The spinning boomerang cut a rope and supporting lock for one of the chains, and the suspended chandelier creaked before snapping its chains and crashing down upon the spidermorph with a sound of smashing benches, cracking stone and bending metal. The spider-woman called out as it hit her, roaring and crying out in pain. Stygian had just been out of the range of the impact, and quickly ceased the opportunity to nail her to the floor with a few well-placed tentacles once she started budging the metal structure. She yelped once again, cursing and crying against the floor, hissing and growling low words of fury as he swept out the pieces of chain and starting to restrain her.
   "It's got to go, Sally. Don't struggle," Stygian said with a chilly tone, grunting and getting up a bit.
   "Curse you! Curse you and Hell take you...!" she replied, more weeping than foaming at him.
   "Been there, done that. Now, hold still...!" he hissed, the claws on his hand lengthening as he closed on her.

[Sunblink]

Much to Keaton's eternal relief, before the jackal could exhaust herself swearing and struggling in the grasp of the net imprisoning her, Gareeku intervened. Slicing through the ropy strands of ichor like butter with his impeccably sharp blade, the wolf then proceeded to help her to her feet. Keaton groaned and swatted some strands of gooey webbing off of her shoulder, absorbing the rest into her body with ease.

"Ugh," she arched her back with an audible pop as she relocated it, stretching her arms out and flexing her tentacles. "Thanks for that. I owe you one." Checking over her body for any stray strands of web, Keaton remarked, "I've been socked around worse. You holding out alri--"

Keaton noticed the incoming glob of gelatinous substance flying at them a moment too late, but thankfully, Gareeku disposed of it with a swing of his sword. The next moment, Aisha was shouting at them to find cover before Keaton could realize what was happening, the jackal reacting instinctually. One of her tentacles looped around Gareeku's waist, pulling him in toward her, and with a wide sweep of her arm the shadows pooling around her sliced neatly through the air, covering them in an opaque, protective, black dome. The chandelier came crashing to the ground in a brilliant explosion of flying shards and crushed wood, chunks of stray debris pelting the shell of Keaton's shield. When she was positive that it was safe, Keaton dispelled the shield with another, minimal gesture of her hand, and looked around the chapel.

Crystallizing her tentacles again, Keaton snapped her head in the direction of the spider-woman, who appeared to be distracted by Stygian. The bat and the spider were fighting against one another, the spider-woman releasing a terrible string of noises as she sobbed, screamed, struggled, and swore in retaliation to Stygian's attacks.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel managed not to jump when Jeremiah came up behind her. After all, she'd grown up in the Fortress where things of every species passed through every day and he wasn't the strangest thing she'd ever seen. "We don't want the spiders to hurt our friends. We..." Before she could finish there was a loud crash. She turned back to the fight to see that the spider queen was pinned by the chandelier. Sebastian appeared about to finish her off. Mel peered at the smaller spiders, wondering how they would react to the loss of their leader.

[Prof B Hunnydew]

**PBH looks on the trapped arachnoid and what the bat was up too.  But she sees the nameless canine is in bigger trouble on the other side of the room and quick goes to he aid.  **

[Boog]

"Don't let spiders hurt friends. Gotchagotcha," the faux-Jeremiah replied, just as the chandellier came crashing down on the spider woman. Not being certain if that would spook off the rest of them he made a few swipes and jabs at what few were still nearby, keeping them from getting to close to the center of the room where Sebastion was giving the spider woman a bad day. He darted from place to place keeping them back, although without the finesse he was putting into it earlier.
Tired... Gonna nap soon, and keeper will find me a nice part of the mind to sleep in wrapped in the rest of myself, and that bit of me can handle things from there. So sleepy...

[Prof B Hunnydew]

edit delete

[Malicious]

The canine's eyes widenend in suprise as a metallic object flew into the spider's head from above him.  Its entrails flying backwards, it twitched for a moment then slumped on top of him, lifeless.  He grunted at the immense weight of the corpse and began shifting his arms to lift it off of him,  pressing his elbows to the floor and his palms flat against it's body, he gradually raised the spider off the ground, sweat forming on his brow.  He took a deep breath and managed to raise himself to his knees, holding the large spider up above his head.  Before he could free himself, he caught out of the corner of his eye a large object crashing to the ground with a mighty blast, shrapnel fired into his side and before he could scream, the shockwave sent he and the spider flying across the room.  He felt his back slam into a cold, flat surface.  The weight of the spider crashing into him was crushing, he slumped to the floor with the spider atop of him.  As ash and rubble buried him and his late attacker, his eyes drifted shut. Can't... br-  His body finally succumbed to the immense and multiple injuries, passed out beneath  the rubble.

[Prof B Hunnydew]

PBH can't much more than bind the canine's wounds... She watches over him while turns to study her spell books.  She is out of magic, but she will have to learn news spells...

PBH...(see ooc)

[Stygian]

Stygian stepped down in front of the woman, and with a forceful hand jerked her head back, eliciting another cry from her. She thrashed violently in her chains, but futilely, the weight on her shifting and the metal creaking from her enormous strength but her limbs still being held solidly in place by the evidently stronger bat. Claws flashed as he slashed open the front of her cloth, and then she shrieked as he dug his hand in, ripping up her skin and prying out the glowing fragment inside that fuelled her transformation. With a spatter of blood, he then withdrew it, holding up a piece of fiery and glowing substance, like a hot coal, sizzling in his hand. The spider-woman's cry died out abruptly, and she fell together, collapsing and twitching under the steel. And that seemed to be the end of the rest of the spiders. The wounded ones on the ground stopped struggling and simply fell together as dust and coal, while those still alive made fearful shrieks and ran, scuttling away and out of sight into darkness and corners and dissappearing.
   Stygian stood for a second, eyeing the fizzing thing in his hand, before standing back and slowly reassuming his normal form, putting it away. He looked down on the woman with emotionless eyes for a few seconds, and then stepped forward again, grabbing and wrenching the metal on her over and off her, and then carefully laying her on her back.
   "That's another one..." he said coolly, but sadly. "We had better get to that chamber." Then, he stood up, and immediately winced and grabbed at his neck and arm, where red, swollen marks blemished his skin.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

The fight over before Mel could even figure out what to do. She came around the pillar and looked at the chaos and counted allies. Sebastian was moving the chandelier off the spider queen. Aisha was standing nearby. Keaton and Gareeku were together and looked battered but upright. Jeremiah was... well he was probably beyond her skills. The ferret and Cogi weren't within her sight. "Everyone okay? Where is Gina and Cogi?" Then she saw the two new people. The canine was buried in the dust-like remains of spiders and the feline seemed to be giving first aid. Mel crossed the room to investigate. She knelt on the other side of the canine from the blue-haired feline and said, "I'm Mel. Can I help?"

[Stygian]

Stygian straightened, and assayed the situation. The two books he had brought along, the notebook and the larger one on the subject of the sealing, were laying to the side, people were wounded but it seemed they had reached an end of the danger for now, and...
   "Azel!" he shouted forcefully, and a tiny whimper could be heard from somwhere. The bat's ear twitched, and he turned and walked back. He returned a few seconds later, hauling a flailing and tongue-talking ferret along under his arm.
   "We're heading for the chamber as soon as we get ready. The entry should be through the second chamber under the castle. We'll get there through the cellar, since this entry is sealed," he said matter-of factly, walking up behind the group and placing the ferret against a pillair under the balcony. He eyed the others, and then slumped down against a bench, holding his neck. The poison and exertion was weakening him, and he didn't know if he'd be able to hold off the effects. It seemed it might have been a good idea to just take them on and deal with them, while everyone was being healed.
   "Kitty... Mel... Use this..." he said, and threw a little pendant-like metal object against her, a thing he had picked up in the library. It landed on the stone floor next to her with a metallic tink.

[Gareeku]

Before Gareeku could say anything more, he found a tentacle wrapping around his waist, before being pulled close to Keaton as she summoned some form of protective shield as the fight against the spidermorph continued. Watching the shield dispersing as the fight came to a close, the wolf turned to the jackal next to him.
"Looks like we're even. Thanks for that." he commented with a smile.

Sheathing his sword, Gareeku looked around. Various members of the group seemed to be in bad shape, though he knew that, unfortunately, he did not have any healings skills to put to use.

[Boog]

Nothing to stab. Uh oh.
As the spiders fled, the Jeremiah-thing curled up and started shaking. It in itself was neither Jeremiah nor the spectral curse, and was being pulled on by leashes leading to both of them. Working rather hard to keep listening to the one he was made out of, rather than the one who rearranged those parts to get him, he stayed where he was and shuddered, giggling every so often.

[Sunblink]

Keaton didn't readily respond to Gareeku's thanks, instead distantly watching Stygian scuffle with the spider-woman with an almost twisted, sadistic interest. She was putting up a noteworthy fight, kicking and thrashing, but the bat proved to be the strongest out of the two when he deftly pinned her down--then much to Keaton's surprise, shredded the front of the spider-woman's clothing and plunged his hand into her flesh. Moments later, his claws surfaced, holding an indiscernible object aloft.

The spiders surrounding them started to dissolve, crumbling into a collective mound of half-stagnating ashes. Their remaining brethren simply scuttled fearfully out of sight, but Keaton didn't notice, focusing on the spider woman's body for a moment before she averted her gaze back to Gareeku without so much as a hint of ostensible concern on her neutral face.

Although mildly unnerved underneath the shell of disregard, Keaton returned her attention to her other 'comrades', who she assumed she was going to stay with whether she liked it or not. Inspecting her body for any stray pieces of detritus, although she was almost positive that nothing would've penetrated the shield without her noticing, Keaton's head snapped up to look at Mel, who inquired on everyone's well-being.

Having no idea who this 'Cogi' person was, Keaton shrugged her shoulders loosely, then, with a snap of her fingers, the lamination of shadows hugging her body disappeared on the spot, withdrawing into the darkness pooled around her and Gareeku's feet. Flipping her once-more disheveled hair out from her eyes and examining her injuries--including the ones that had lacerated some segments of her clothing, but thankfully nothing revealing--Keaton decided that aside from the livid cuts criss-crossing over her body, she looked far from dead. Then again, it was hard to tell without any sort of reflective surface to project her visage.

There was still a dull, throbbing pain stemming from the gashes, but Keaton endured it--it was really nothing, compared to the enormous injury she had suffered before. For now, it was bearable, and could probably be treated later.

"I'm fine," Keaton said, prodding at one of the cuts with the tip of her finger, "But don't you think you should be focusing on THAT guy?" Keaton jerked her thumb over to the convulsing, giggling, obviously disturbed Jeremiah, who had apparently run out of spiders to carve up.

While Mel tended to the teal-haired feline and her fallen canine acquaintence, Keaton turned back to Gareeku. Idly tearing off a strip of cloth from her sleeve, she used it to bind her disorderly hair back in an unkempt, low-hanging ponytail, struggling with it for a moment, but looking rather satisfied once the ligature was secure. "By the way," she said, dusting her hands off and smirking loftily, "I guess we are."

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Aisha deCabre]

By the time the boomerang returned to her hand, Aisha was already well away from the site of the chandelier's fall, her back being pelted with debris from the pews, the floor, and the glass while ducking her head.  Afterward, she turned to watch this exchange between the spider-morph and Sebastian with slight curiosity, though she quirked an eyebrow at the way the monster was dealt with...no doubt with much pain.

At least the smaller spiders had finally decided to leave them alone, as the whole of the chapel's interior settled into a quiet relief.  The very air itself was saturated with the smell of death, which the panthress sneered at with a little disgust, knowing that there was surely more to come...the calm before and after the storm, this seemed to be.  Aisha polished her blades clean and placed them back on her belt.

With a sigh, another quick head count was taken.  Everyone was alive, some barely, some more winded and clothed head to toe in dust and blood...and a few were missing, which made her wince and close her eyes in silence for a moment.  Glancing briefly to Jeremiah, or the thing he had become, she took out her bracer again, the artifact still glowing in the steady and soft colors of the enchantment that it was forged in.  It had come off the frog's wrist, but looked if it wouldn't do too much to help him now...

[Boog]

When Aisha took out the bracer from wherever she'd been keeping it, the masked thing chose that instant to look up. At the sight of the bracer it's trembling lessened, and the flames running along its length banked slightly.
"S.. Ss... Sleeeeeeeep..." He managed to giggle out, raising one "hand" to point at the bracer slightly. Said hand suddenly jerked toward Mel, the nearest party member, but the other hand darted out to pin it to the floor by the sleeve of his exessively billowing cloak. Of course, with only the blades on his hind feet being used to hold him up he fell forward onto his elbows, "Breycrrrrrrr... Rest... Reeeeeynnnn..." Another slight giggle, but with both eyes fixed firmly on that bracer.

[Stygian]

Judging from people's reactions, Stygian decided that it was about safe and appropriate to use the time for quick healing, before they went on to their final objective. After all, he was probably the one who was going to have to dispel the whole ordeal after they had finished the archangel, and he didn't think that anyone else knew how to unseal the chamber right away. Fighting the angel with poisoned wounds would be hard as well. So, he ceased to hold back the effects from the three bites and prayed for the best.
   The first thing he felt was the tingling sensation as the magical poison began flooding his system, an itching and unpleasant feeling for the greatest part. Then, he felt a concentration of the itches forming into a sharp sting at the base of his tail, and the next second he had to move in his seat as it swelled and lengthened, falling out and down to the floor next to him under his shirt. The tingling continued somewhat, but the change seemed to stop, and he looked at his tail, the short little flick of it now having become perhaps four feet long, maybe more, and much thicker and more muscular.
   "Well, that's not..." he began, and then the itching grew to a crawling in all of his body. He looked at Mel. "Ehm... I think I might need some help here..." he said.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel picked up the little item Sebastian had tossed to her and looked it over. "I've read of these but had never seen one before." It was a small silvery tube on a chain, about finger long and as slender, delicately carved with symbols. "Magical storage, correct?" Then she heard his request for help. She looked up from the little item to see the bat wasn't looking well at all. She looked down at the canine in front of her. The blue-haired feline seemed to have his injuries under control for the moment. She stood and moved closer to the bench where Sebastian was sitting, "What's wrong?"

[Stygian]

"It's these bites..." Stygian said, watching the swellings and redness go down on the wounds in his skin and slowly begin to regenerate. "I can't resist the poison without purging it actively, it seems... And I can't do that now..." His face flushed under his pale fur, and the redness began spreading a bit. "And now I'm starting to feel warm... And stingy... And what the Hell just happened to my voice?!"
   Like the bat had remarked, his voice had begun brightening considerably. And he was getting shorter, his clothes suddenly a few sizes too large for him. Except for the front of the shirt, where the fabric began straining a bit instead. His face, the skin on it shifting and squirming before it settled on a different bonestructure, looked at Mel, now a great deal cuter than before. He, or she, or whatever, quirked an eyebrow at her, and watched her expression. Then, she looked down on herself, and yelped.
   "ACK! What is this faggotry?!" she exclaimed, and whipped her white tail angrily, the tip flaring a bit. "Stop! No! Not for real! Argh!" She stomped her foot angrily and pulled her skin and clothes, trying to smoothen down the front of the shirt but failing. And then, the third wave of itching hit her, more of a burning sensation than before...

[Sunblink]

Keaton normally wouldn't have given Stygian's wounds a second thought, as she was too preoccupied and concerned with her own well-being--not to mention the attempted repair of a few of her lesser injuries. Adjusting her pants slightly so she could effectively conceal the shredded sections of black, faintly bloodstained fabric, Keaton turned around to look for more spiders, carefully surveying the area--

--until a sudden commotion over where Mel and Stygian were garnered Keaton's attention immediately, the jackal's head snapping in their direction. Ears pivoting upright, Keaton raised her eyebrow, originally slightly perturbed--and yet amused--by Stygian's exclamations, and his suspiciously high-pitched voice, up until she noticed how dramatic the changes in his body were.

Although it was somewhat hard for her to tell from where she stood, Keaton noticed that Stygian's chest had inflated slightly, and his--or her, she couldn't tell--height had decreased, his features more feminine. Unable to control her facial muscles, Keaton felt her jaw drop open, her eyes widening. If she were in any right mind at the moment as she watched Stygian flail and curse, she probably would've been aware that she resembled a dehydrated goldfish.

Finally able to form a coherent sentence, the first words out of Keaton's agape mouth were: "What... the... FUCK?!"

'What is this faggotry' indeed.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Boog]

The masked thing didn't show much change, save for his laughter sounding less manic and more authentic. How do you properly appreciate comedy gold when you're a knife-limbed monster without spooking them bad enough for the act to stop? He seemed distracted from his rapt attention to Aisha's bracer, but who wouldn't be?

[Stygian]

Stygian stopped pawing down his, now her body, closed her eyes and muttered, rubbing a temple.
   "Okay... No panic. It's a passing condition. I can do this..." she said. "It could be a lot, lot worse." Still, a slip of a look down the crack in her shirt made her swallow, and she averted her eyes with an annoyed look. "As I said, a lot worse."
   Then, her ears suddenly caught fire. Her eyes went all wide, and they twitched, before her hands darted to cover them. But it didn't stop. Next, with a fizzing and then a veritable rush, her entire fur over all her body and subsequently her clothes were set on fire. She went still, reached out her arms and silently looked at them with beady eyes. Then, she screamed.
   "AAAGH! OH, FUCK! THIS SHIT HURTS!" she cried out, and grabbed and yanked Mel. "IT'S NOT SUPPOSED TO HURT! MAKE IT STOP! AAAH!"

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel jumped backwards from the terrifying fire but luckily her second instinct was to put it out. Icy mist, just barely frozen, to coat the flaming bat, hopefully stopping the burns as well as the fire.

[Aisha deCabre]

Aisha had been distracted for a moment, watching Jeremiah's reaction as she drew the bracer from having been clasped to her belt.  Her head tilted, wondering what had made him so fascinated with the artifact.  Questioningly, her eyes darted between the two, and she had a thought that maybe it wouldn't hurt to try putting it on him again...

However, her thoughts were interrupted when there happened to be some sort of commotion with Sebastian, and Mel.  "What the...?" she muttered as he seemed to be shifting and suffering, and definitely cursing.  By the time the bat was finished with his (her?) transformation, the panther was dumbfounded...and were it not a serious moment, on the verge of laughing, clasping a hand over her mouth.  But as he rapidly burst into flames, she stopped laughing and grimaced at the pain he seemed to be enduring...though Mel took the situation quickly enough.

That's just a wierd effect for spider venom... Aisha thought briefly before turning back to the frog, and opening the bracer while taking a step towards him, though cautiously as she didn't know if his wraith-sickness could still be passed, despite that he hadn't attacked his comrades. Let's see what happens.

[Boog]

The masked thing began shuddering again when it noticed Aisha approaching, but had itself pinned thoroughly enough for it to not be a risk.
"Braycrrrrr... Sleeeeeep..." The grin widened in what appeared to be some manner of relief. It wanted the bracer on, even though it knew that would put it to sleep. It wanted to sleep. It didn't know why.

[Stygian]

The chilly mist swept around the bat, but it didn't even manage to touch her, instead becoming steam as soon as it came in contact with her skin.
   "IT'S NOT WORKING!" she wailed, shaking and looking down at herself. "IT'S THE POISON! AAARRRGH!" Stygian was trying to stay as coherent as he could, but he couldn't help but feel the pain. Focusing, he put all of his effort into purging the poison and pushing it outwards, into his skin, which began peeling and singeing away as his regeneration turned its work inward to deal with the toxin and the magic causing him to immolate. As Mel applied more freezing cold, and the bat's skin burned off, the poison slowly went away, before it could really seep into Stygian's body as deeply as the other toxins had. It took a while, but it worked, and Stygian's skin slowly began healing back.
   The bat now stood, looking almost bluish underneath her bare fur, with frost coating some of it, big-eyed and shivering, with steam rolling off her and her tail frozen stiff, staring straight forward.
   "W-we... are dealing... with th-this now...!" she said.

[Malicious]

Blackness, a deathening silence and his own thoughts were all the canine had known during the commotion.  As close as he came to the brink, he held on, determination and his high pain threshold not allowing him to simply slip away.  He heard voices and a small light appearing ahead of him, hands appeared to be pulling the black away, casting light down onto him all he could see was a blurred vision of what looked like a catgirl and snow leopard.  He had felt pains in him as something had moved and lifted him briefly, wrapping something strange around him.  Whatever it was, as soon as it had ended his light headedness stopped and he felt his strength returning.  One of the blurred figures had moved away, followed shortly after by the other, where she went he could not tell. But it didn't matter, I'm Alive
             He blinked, squinting his eyes as they adjusted, thankfully shielded by his shades.  He winced upon feeling a shooting pain in his cheek, reaching his hand up he grabbed what felt like a sharp wooden object.  With a grunt he pulled it loose, feeling heat rush to his cheek as he did.  Holding it above him he sees it to be a shard of wood, half drenched in blood.
             The canine began forcing himself up, pushing debris and spider remains off of his form, grunting in exasperation.  He could hear a commotion to his right but he was so distracted by his own welfare he didn't seem to notice.  Sitting upright, he cracked his neck and looked down.  Seeing his shirt had been opened and heavy bandages had been wrapped around his torso, the right hand side of his ribs had evidently lost a lot of blood.  Pressing a hand to his chest he winced in pain, baring his teeth and growling lowly. He gave an indignant sneer to his attire, slowly buttoning up his shirt and re-adjusting his tie. 
                 He tries to lift himself to his feet but the weight of his injuries is too much to bare, falling to his side he yelps in agony upon his chest slamming to the ground. You don't need help, c'mon pansy, get up already. And get that crap out of your face and clean your suit, you look atrocious!  Pressing his palms flat against the ground, he raises his torso aloft, bringing his knees up beneath him.  He finally relaxes, slumped down upon his knees, his hands wiping down his trouser legs.  Feeling a small convulsion in his chest, he lurches foward and spits out blood onto the floor before him. "Ugh." He grunts in disgust.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

With only a moment of hesitation Mel removed a ring from her left hand, heavily carved gold with a ruby center. She was immediately miserable without it but the bat was the key to getting out so her personal discomfort was a secondary concern. She handed it to him/her. "See if this helps. It suppresses heat and fire and speeds healing of burns. It works for normal and magic fire, but I have no idea if it will do anything for cursed fire." It was then that realization truly hit, Sebastian had shed all of his skin and despite rapid regrowth looked more like one of the University's musculature models than a living creature. Yet he/she was upright and talking. She blinked once, twice, then shook her head. Okay, she already knew that Sebastian was a tough bastard, back to business. "How many bites did you take? Are there any more effects coming?" And how the heck did you find a bite on someone with no skin?

Then she heard the canine trying to get up. "Will someone keep him still until I have a chance to see what is wrong."