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

[Stygian]

Stygian, or Stygianne, or Sebastainette, or whatever the Hell one was to call the bat now, slapped her hand over her eyes and shook her head. She was about to get up, when Keaton felt that crawling sensation come over her; a strong one, that writhed throughout her entire body.
   The spider must have injected a rather strong dose, because the change that the jackaless experienced was fast. Either that, or circumstances had just made it so that Cog and Stygian had been able to resist their own longer. She felt a sort of ruffle in her fur all over as the yellow of it turned a white that sharply contrasted the black portions of it. Then came a twitch in her wings that built to a shake she could not stop. The joints and limbs twitched, and the hooked claws on them receded, while white, black-tipped feathers began to push through the skin beginning from the base and working out. Her eyes turned blue, her hair paled, and around her head a dim light slowly began to play, growing stronger.
   Most alarming to Keaton herself though was the odd feeling she was getting. The world seemed to be slowing down just a bit, becoming more mellow. Or perhaps it was she who was. She almost felt tipsy, as if high on joy or excitement from someone around, and she fought a compelling urge to smile and do something... cheerful.
   "Keaton?" Stygian said, eyeing her with wariness, and shooting Mel a sideways look.

[Cogidubnus]

Despite Cog's previous maneuvering away down the bench, Sebastian still managed to whack him in the head. His glasses slid down his face and he flinched, glaring at her with one yellow orb. The grin on his face belied any ire in his eye, however.
He leant back and pushed his glasses back on his face, and jumped again when a spark jumped between him and the metal backing of the bench. Static buildup, bit still. Annoying. He was about to continue conversing with Sebastian when Keaton began to start glowing. And continued to glow until she looked like she had a cotton candy cloud surrounding her head, and by the look on her face she was eating a pile of it too. He quirked an eyebrow, and his grin faded. He stood quietly for a moment, and brushed dirt off his torn pants.
"We have an angel." he said, his voice flat. "Fantastic."

[Malicious]

The canine arches a brow at PBH, I'm who in the what now? his mouth opening slightly but his words holding back, uttering nothing more than in inaudible whimper.
              He looks at Mel and down at her hands as she examines his chest, blushing softly at his exposure.  eyes widening at her words That means this is gonna hurt.. he thought to himself.  Clenching his eyes shut as her hands approach his form, instead of pain he feels a cold shiver upon the touch of her hands which soothed the pain, flowing deep into his torso.  He bit his lip, trying desperately not to giggle ticklishly at the feathered touch of her cold hands.
              As she began to remove the shards of wood, he flinched as one particularly large piece in his cheek came free, blood flowing now free from the obstruction and down his face. "Ow.." So much for "tough guy"

[Prof B Hunnydew]

***taking a clean cloth, PBH cleans 75's face  from the blood and applys pressure to his wounds until Mel healings them.***

"Well, You are in a Fantasy adventure, now, Tough Guy.  Magic,  Dragons, Demons, warriors, and adventurers, you are in for some fun and adventure.   Oh yea" giggles PBH and quickly hugs the Canine.

"Now Sirs ..ah  Lady Bat How serious is the sitution?" said a suddenly sober  and serious PBH as she stands but leaves an support hand on Canines shoulder...

PBH

[Gareeku]

Gareeku was about to comment in agreement with Aisha, when he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. Turning round, the wolf saw Keaton, and what appeared to be some form of transformation.
"Ah...I take it she was bitten, too..." he commented, raising an eyebrow in curiosity as the jackal succubus' transformation took place.

[Boog]

Jeremiah quirked an eyebrow at Bambi's introduction, "Nice to meet you Bambi. You too, Tough Guy," with his usual grin, he nodded in 75's direction as well as he was tended to by Mel, "We're pretty much like you; all of us just staggered in for our own reasons. Except Sebastina over there," the frog jerked his head at his subject matter, the grin dropping slightly, "Apparantly, her family owned this place, and now to fix whatever curse the castle's under she has an angel to kill. We, naturally, are along for the ride if we ever want to get out. Which means you are too, I would guess. The ferret's possessed by like five diferent personae, so play nice. And you are officially up to date with everyone's various quirks and reasons for being here." he finished with a flourish, "I'm Jeremiah, resident civilian. Don't expect usefulness from me. If you're hurt, go see Mel, and if you want someone to hit things there's the rest of the gang." The grin broadened again, "Welcome to the party, folks."
Then, of course, Keaton began changing. The frog sighed, "You know, at this rate you folks are gonna make me feel left out for not getting bitten. Really, I think I'm developing a complex." He didn't take the issue too seriously. After all, they were able to help Cog.

[Sunblink]

It happened like clockwork. Mere seconds after Keaton realized the existence of the gruesome spider bite piercing her flesh and bone; she began to experience a series of intense, quivering sensations budding along her body, racking every corner of it. "Wha--" Keaton's pupils dilated, her hands leaping for her stomach in a vain effort to keep herself still, and to prevent any nausea that may occur from such erratic movement, "What's--"

She never got to finish her sentence before the transformation began. Purest, ivory white s flooded her instinctually electrified fur, purposely evading the outlines of her melanoid markings almost as though it were some diseased rodent, something that would contaminate the undeniable virtue of its shade. Keaton's pupils dilated down to pinpricks as the white continued to exude along her body in wispy trails, quickly spreading to every contour and ridge like a beautiful plague. "WHAT--" she started, "WHAT THE FU--"

Then her wings began quaking as her body did, reducing her already jerky, uncertain movements to uncontrollable, ferocious shudders. Feathers emerged from the fleshy membrane of her wings, her claws began to sink into her body almost fluidly, liquefying bone and melting flesh with ease. Around Keaton, at first unseen to her, the changes didn't stop there: there was a quick flash, blinding her vision for an agonizing second, before it died down, leaving her eyes a crystalline blue. Light coalesced off from around her head like oceanic, lapping waves, encircling each pallid strand of her hair like an arctic halo. No. What the hell was going on? Why--

This thought, too, was interrupted, replaced with a pacifying mist that clouded her senses, whisking away every unpleasant thought in her head and replacing it with nothing but unnaturally harmonious, reeling joy. Combating with her restrained confusion and quickly-escalating fear and nearly kicking it into the stagnating corner that it belonged, Keaton realized this wasn't natural--this was too artificial of a feeling, like she was having this injected into her--

The lips of Keaton's mouth twitched, struggling to form a smile despite her efforts to keep her face as it had originally been: a contorted mask of shock and dismay. As her body and these false emotions battled, Keaton felt her body continue to convulse, her mind staggering and crumpling within her skull like an abused dog in a rusted cage. "What's... what's going..." it was hard to speak, as fighting her instinctual urge to smile was becoming a losing battle, "Why--"

Stygian was looking to Mel now, uneasiness evident in his eyes. This did nothing to help Keaton's growing anxiety, which was also beginning to be smothered. Mellowness started to regain complete control over Keaton's thoughts, soothing her for a moment and allowing her smile to slowly become genuine, whispering sweet nothings and cooing in her plastered ears that it would be alright, that things would be just fine...

Until the deadpan, succinct words of Cogidubnus stabbed right through the burgeoning, empyreal shell that Keaton's newfound relaxation had forged, entering her mind like the cold, invading blade of a sword.

Slowly, Keaton's head turned to Cogidubnus, her expression one of monotone horror. "What... did you say...?" she started, each word like a barely-chained shotgun blast. "An... An ANGEL? You're... you're joking. You can't..."

It couldn't be. It just couldn't be. It was impossible... no creature could change the race of a Creature, could they? It was unheard of. It was outrageous. But despite that spell of denial, and against the wishes of the crooning voices that tried to seduce her back into calmness, she whipped her body around in a desperate effort to gaze at her newly-feathered wings.

At first she didn't succeed, as her movements were too jerky and frantic for her to get a proper look. But the feather that was knocked from its tidy arrangement on Keaton's wings that drifted to the ground was enough for her.

Sapphire pupils dilated into pinpricks as they landed squarely on the dreaded, ebony-streaked feather, gazing at it with such unadulterated hatred that every pleasant voice in her head was cowed back into hiding. It was a precious thing, made of delicate fibers and seemingly velveteen to the touch by just looking at it, tarnished only by that one spot of sable on its tip...

...And that only made Keaton hate it even more, as her head snapped around her shoulders to finally stare at her wings, covered from joint to joint in budding, flowing plumage. All traces of serene entrancement that was once in her expression before her horrific revelation was gone, sucked right out of her by some parasitic, wretched leech. Her eyes widened, her pupils expanded to the point they nearly engulfed the whites of her eyes—

--and Keaton let out a horrified, blood-curdling scream.

The moment after the uproarious shriek departed her mouth, Keaton's hands clasped over her muzzle in a late effort to stifle the following screams that threatened to erupt shortly after. Nearly falling over herself in her haste to scramble the hell away from that hateful feather, that goddamn fucking piece of shit feather which she had already begun to blame for all of her troubles, that she hated so fucking much and by this point Keaton's rage and incredulous, thunderstruck shock was engraved in her formerly tranquil facial features, hideously juxtaposing with the heavenly appearance her body had unwittingly adopted.

"No—nonononoNO!" Keaton exclaimed, eyes wild; a weaker individual who witnessed her outburst would've probably recoiled from her almost deranged expression. "How is this happening!? This ISN'T supposed to happen! I don't—I don't--"

Her first instinct was to rip those wings off of her back with her tentacles and fling them to the ground like the trash she knew that they were, but for some reason no matter how hard she concentrated, she simply could not will her wing-tentacles to emerge from their resting place.  Perhaps she was crippled by her panic, perhaps it was a side-effect of her transmogrification: it was uncertain, and Keaton wasn't in the state of mind to speculate. For a moment it looked like she was on the verge of breaking down entirely, her hateful thoughts nearly lost in the jackhammering palpitations that echoed in her firmly-pinned ears. Clouded blue eyes searched the room frantically for what she knew was the only way to remedy this curse, as though she were beseeching everybody to DO something, to STOP THIS...

...then her vision skipped over to Mel.

Only those with a keen eye would've seen what happened next. Keaton dashed from where she stood, away from the feather and toward Mel, where she staggered over to her. It was obvious she was resisting the urge to grab Mel by the shoulders and shake her, as indicated by the tremors that vibrated Keaton's hands.

"Change me back," she stammered, "You have to change me BACK. I CAN'T stay like this. You DON'T--" It was becoming impossible to keep herself from dissolving back into incomprehensible jargon, and even more so to tackle Mel altogether and outright threaten her to undo this travesty. Finally, Keaton squeaked, "This is NOT happening. I don't... I just don't..."

I don't want to be an Angel.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel was busy removing slivers from Spinters or Tough Guy or whatever they were calling him when she heard Keaton softly say that she had been bit. In fact Keaton spoke in such a normal tone that it took Sebastian calling her name in an agitated tone for the words to sink in. She turned to see the transformation already in progress.

Mel's eyes shifted back and forth between the Keaton and the canine. She smiled apologetically for interupting his healing yet again then crossed to the new-made angel. "Where is the bite Keaton?"

It was then that Keaton let out a scream and just about tackled her. Luckily Keaton wasn't that much larger than Mel's current size so she merely staggered backwards under the impact. "Show me the bite, Keaton. I need to see the bite." But with the girl shaking and babbling about angels Mel herself had to find the holes and begin pulling what poison she could from the jackal's body.

[Aisha deCabre]

As Aisha watched Keaton, her eyes widened as she admitted to being another victim of the spiders.  The panther started to back up a little bit, for there was no telling what kind of effect could be had with the venom of an arachspearian within the blood of a 'Cubi.  It was a wildcard chance...the panther was both relieved that she hadn't been bitten herself, and yet feeling sorry for those who had.  Even so with Keaton when, as she transformed into an angel, she had let out a scream the likes of which could cause everyone's pulses to race.

Aisha had started to step up and help to comfort her, but she had already raced over to Mel, pleading to have the poison drawn from her system.  The panther's ears flattened against her skull.  There must be some deep-rooted hatred for angels... she sighed quietly.  Paths of sadness converge here.

[Gareeku]

Looking on as Keaton underwent her transformation, Gareeku jumped slightly when she emittied her scream, watching her run over to Mel with panic evident in her eyes.
I take it someone doesn't like angels then... the wolf thought to himself, slightly puzzled at the succubus' react to her transformation. Where Sebastian had been annoyed at his transformation, Gareeku found it odd that KEaton was, to be blunt, absolutely terrified and loathing of hers.

[Prof B Hunnydew]

"Mel, I think I have some Anti-venom or anti-poison shots in my first aid kit for the cubi. If you think that could help?..." 

**PBH starts looking her backpack, but she only finds some dresses, some spell books and basics magical technique , and personal computer notepad... the first aid kit **

"Murf, I wish I had a better understanding of magic, like you Mel.." says PBH as she watches Mel work.

PBH

[Malicious]

The canine listened intently to PBH, suppressing small flinches and baring his teeth as she and Mel worked.  Blinking in suprise at the abrupt display of affection, he remained still and gripped the bench, digging his claws in with each shard of wood Mel removed.  His eyes widened at the Succubus and watched her rush over, leaning back slightly in the bench out of fear.  He discreetly clenches his fists in preparation, still unsure of the strangers, he wouldn't let his guard down.  Feeling the heat of his torn and bloodied palms clenching, a small drop of blood falls from them, he stares up at the succubus' torment. Oh snap..

[Stygian]

Stygian stood in simple shock at the jackal's new state. Nothing, not even her scream, moved the bat's facial features. It took until about when Mel began draining the poison of the bite, establishing that she would not be able to counter its effects, as the venom had already circulated Keaton's bloodstream and seeped into her cells, along with the magic, so deeply that it really could not be drained, that 'Sebastainette' shook her head and walked up to the jackal.
   The bat's eyes were narrow and her hands hesitant as she placed them on Keaton and began sensing her through.
   "There is nothing to be done... It's..." she began, showing teeth a bit, still with that same wariness toward the jackal. The girl acted as if she were herself, but who knew what her senses and feelings might be telling her now? "It's... something like semi-permanent. It's made a complete switch, like with me... But this is... Can you change your wings?" the bat asked, looking at her worriedly. It was not quite as if she were an Angel in the traditional sense. Not completely. This was more than just that...

   For Keaton, the sensation of Stygian walking up next to her was something of the strangest thing she had ever felt. She realized that there was something telling her, something letting her know, that Stygian himself, or herself, was... similar to her now. But still not. And it also seemed as if she could feel the darkness that hung about the bat. Just like she could feel some in Mel, in Gareeku, in Aisha, in all those around. She realized, without knowing, that she could sense the darkness in the house, in those around her, and almost smell the evil or good. And the presence of Stygian, and what she somehow knew he, or she was, made her want to vomit.

[Sunblink]

It took a tremendous effort from every corner of her body, but somehow Keaton was able to peel herself away from Mel and allow her to attempt to drain the venom from her bloodstream. Uncontrollable convulses made her body shudder, her beryl pupils tiny in the luminous expansion of the ivory-whites of her eyes, and her teeth clamped into her lip with such ferocity it was nearly remarkable it didn't tear in half like damp paper. What little self-restraint Keaton had left in her body kept her from ripping her cursed wings to shreds, so instead she settled for wringing her tail despite the disturbed scrutinization of those around her.

An immediate, encroaching presence advancing on her alerted Keaton to Stygian's arrival, one which made the jackal-turned-Angelic-entity feel unfathomably ill. For one who was so attuned to the inner workings of Dark-oriented magic and the wicked art of the darkness itself, Keaton couldn't help but feel irrepressibly disturbed by the palpable, malevolent radiation crawling along his--or her--form.

Clutching her tail a little tighter and shifting her unsually iridescent eyes over towards the advancing bat, Keaton waited for him to finish his sentence before her heart sank and complete horror took over her expression. It should've come as no surprise that Stygian's words wouldn't be as edifying as she hoped they would be. But it didn't make the impact less staggering.

"You..." she choked, "You have to be kidding me. I can't stay like this. I don't want to BE like this. I can NOT be like this. I don't want to be on--"

She nearly said 'one of them', but she didn't want to make her abhorrence for Angels more obvious than it already was. Instead, Keaton let her gaze sink to the floor, lip vibrating and ears flat, wings drooping like dying willows in their sockets--yet somehow the feathers coating them remained as resplendent as before, much to Keaton's everlasting HATE.

A thousand different protests and curses welled up in Keaton's throat, threatening to leave her mouth as her quickly-evolving expression attested, but somehow the jackal endured her rising hatred and frustration. If Keaton weren't so critical of her own weaknesses, she probably would've burst into tears. Better yet, she would've plucked the feathers off her wings one by one, just to see how pure and virtuous they would look as a rotting skeleton--after all, for her, violence was the solution to every problem that life presented her with.

She had yet to encounter one which she hadn't overcome with sheer barbarism before.

"I can't change my wings," Keaton said succinctly, "I just... can't. I don't know... why, I..."

Once more, Keaton's words deteriorated into mindless murmurings, color retreating from her face beneath her already alabaster fur. The fact her markings remained as monochromatic as before provided some form of comfort: it was good to see at least SOME trace of darkness hadn't been chased away.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Cogidubnus]

Cog walked softly towards Keaton and sat, his face a mask of sadness. He felt for the girl, he really did: his mouth quirked in a sorrowful half-smile as he turned towards her. He didn't know the former 'cubi very well, but he felt for her a sort of kinship now - unwanted and detested change was the arena of lychanthropes, after all, and Cog had felt that pain before.
"Change isn't always forever, dear girl." he said, his voice soft. "And bad changes sometimes help us be strong, without needing what we did before." As he said so, he stood and pushed his shades over his eyes, walking towards the bench again. "Won't make you feel better. But a body is the least part of a person, and no moon or spider changes that."
As he said so, he sat back down on the bench, his face blank and his eyes hidden beneath black lenses.

[Stygian]

Stygian eyed Cogidubnus very meaningfully, as if trying to tell him; 'Sometimes change isn't for the better, no matter what sort of power it imparts.' Or, as in his case, it didn't change knowledge or power, just your situation in life.
   "Regardless," the bat said, backing away from the jackal whilst feeling a part of the same feelings she was, "we have to move right now. Everyone's about recovered. And I know precisely where to head." She stepped to the side, leaning against a pillair and looking them all over intently. "So, at your leave?"

[Sunblink]

Keaton absorbed Cogidubnus's consoling words with minimal signs of response, her hands having moved away from twisting her tail to grasp at her body, embracing herself tightly. Free from its owner's mutilating grip, her bedraggled tail whipped away from her, coiling in a disheveled tangle behind her. Keaton's expression was unreadable, but could easily be described as "deadpan" from the unmoved look on her face, even blank from how she vacantly stared at the ground. Unfortunately, it appeared as though Cogidubnus's sentiments had been wasted. She was never one for kind words or philosophy and probably never would be, as she simply did not have the emotional capacity for it. Especially not in this crestfallen state.

'Easy for you to say,' Keaton wanted to say bitterly. Her tongue refused to budge, however; it was as though it were petrified in her mouth. 'YOU don't have to spend god-knows-how-long as a fucking ANGEL.'

As devastating as her predicament was, Keaton had no other option but to depart from her little mental soliloquy. Turning numbly toward Stygian and nodding her head slowly, the jackal tried to avert her gaze as far away from her wings as possible, as though denying their existence altogether, or trying to exile them from her mind.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Aisha deCabre]

Aisha sighed, staying to the side with Gareeku, her arms crossed as she watched Keaton and her responses to the now-female Sebastian's words.  Again there was some pity for her, and thinking of what everyone had gone through so far in the castle, it was about time that these things would start to get resolved.  Her head hung as she watched the jackal basically retreating within herself.  They'd better be.

Then, as the bat spoke again, her ears quirked and she pushed herself away from the fallen bench that she was leaning on.  "S'alright with me," she replied, only taking a moment to adjust the weapons on her belt before getting ready to move, eyes falling over the rest of the group.

[Gareeku]

"Hey..." a voice said from behind Keaton as a red gloved hand rested on her shoulder. "...keep your wits about you. I know you don't like angels, that must is evident from your reaction, but your time would be better spent keeping your wits about you for the time being."

Turning to Sebastian, or what was now the female equivalent, Gareeku spoke once more, the same calm yet hard expression on his face.
"Lead the way." he said, his voice equally as calm, yet serious, as his facial expression.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel looked around at everyone at Sebastian's request to move out. Half the company were walking wounded in one way or another but it wasn't going to get better in the next few minutes. Now was as good, or as bad, a time as any. She nodded and began moving towards the door.

[Stygian]

The bat didn't nod, or speak, or do anything in particular. She just grabbed the now crying ferret, and walked up next to Mel and led away. They went forward, to the left, then a right...
   They arrived at a hall some way down the corridor into the library. It was a large one, quite important by the looks of it, with stairs to both sides of the walls. None of them led down though.
   "That's..." Sebastainette began, looking around. Then, her eyes stopped, and she smirked. Against the wall on one side was set perhaps the largest single picture they had ever seen, framed with ornate black and gold. In it, a white marble hall of pillairs that towered into a barely visible ceiling were shrouded in darkness, with just some heavenly light trickling in from above to the side and illuminating a grand floor, to the back of which was a stairway, leading down. The painting covered the entire wall between the two stairways up, an enormous, intricately detailed piece that made all the others they had seen hitherto look drab. It was so vivid, in fact, looked so alive and so perfect in perspective there in the dark that one could almost imagining just walking into it and touching the columns...
   That seemed to be exactly what Stygian had in mind. Slowly, the bat walked up to the front of the painting, placing a smooth hand on its surface, trailing claws over it and eyeing it with curiosity.
   Then, she stepped in.

[Gareeku]

Following "Sebastianette", Gareeku looked up at the painting with widened eyes. It looked so beautiful...so real...like one could step right into it. The wolf's eyes then widened again, however, when the bat actually did step into it.
"I've heard of realistic, but..." Gareeku commented, before taking a breath, and stepping in after the bat.

[Aisha deCabre]

Aisha's eyes wandered the dark halls once again as the group went on the move.  All in all she was certainly grateful to be walking again, as after the previous battles, staying in one place proved to be a very deadly idea.  She hoped that no other strangers would want to enter the castle until the angel was destroyed, only for them otherwise to face the fate of getting lost in an ever-changing labyrinth.

Coming up to the large hall, she traced the columns and the stairways with her gaze, until they fell upon the large painting, she let her crossed arms fall to her side in awe at the magnificence and the size of it.  The panther approached it with such reverence as she had done with setting eyes on the chapel for the first time, only to step back with surprise as Sebasianette actually stepped into the painting, followed by an awestruck Gareeku.

Will the wonders never cease?  She thought, before stepping up to it and cautiously placing her hand on its surface and through it, followed by a cautious step inside, the rest of herself coming after.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel paused to stare at the elaborate gate. It was a magnificent piece of magic that she would have loved to stop and analyze. She could do small gates but this was the type of thing that left most magic-users breathless in awe. But she couldn't dawdle to admire the fancy toy and quickly followed the others through.

[Cogidubnus]

Cog padded softly behind the others, his mind a distant place of old, unhappy and far off things, and battles he'd fought long, long ago. His face was somber as he gazed at the portrait, and he didn't even flinch as Sebastian walked into the oil and canvas. Instead he merely adjusted his sword so the hilt hung within easy reach, and stepped through the artwork.

[Malicious]

The canine hoisted himself to his feet, grunting at the effort requiring him to press down on the bench as leverage.  Buttoning his shirt as the group moved out, purposefully taking enough time to let them leave the room first. Slowly following them down the hallway, he kept a few yards between himself and the back of the group, he wanted them where he could see them.
                                   Stopping to gaze in awe at the tall painting above, he watched the girl step through the painting.  He arched a brow in confusion, watching the others begin to step through, he hung back. ..Here we go again Standing still outside the painting in hesitation.

[Prof B Hunnydew]

** PBH travels just ahead of the canine, keeping an one eye on him for his sake and lost in her thoughts.   **

  I hope that new fireball spell will works,
  Murf, I feel exhausted,
  yet my emerald has stop flashing 

**PBH could see the aura of magic around the paint, but couldn't fathom Mel's awe.  It must be extreme differicult to master the workmanship of this articfact , she thought.

At the painting, she waits for the Canine with her hand out to him, **

"Com'n Tough Guy, take my hand and we'll walk through, and save the day" says PBH 

PBH

[Boog]

Jeremiah had followed with the rest of the group, tsking a little at Sebastina's treatment of Gina. No call for that, really. As for Keaton, while her shrieking had been a little unnerving, he wasn't too concerned. So she didn't like angels. With they reputation they'd set themselves up with by manipulating those around them for their own ends, few people did. The cubi reputation wasn't too complementary either, however, so it was hard to work up the will to care all that much. His recent funk had translated into an overall mood of Fuck insanity, fuck curses, and fuck the bloody creatures who use them!
When their charming hostess stepped into the painting, however, he was happy to hang back. He didn't trust magic that powerful any more than he'd trust someone wielding that sort of power.

[Stygian]

The hall looked as impressive from within the painting as it did from without. It was enormous, easily large enough to occupy nearly all of the castle if it had really been set in it. The perfect white marble, lined only intermittently with grey streaks, glistened in the light that came from several spans above through an opening in the roof, through which a heavenly sky could be seen, clouds shifting and flowing over a pure, light blue. There was a sound in their ears that permeated the place, an aura or an air of music, as if a choir and a pipe organ were playing somewhere far off into the marble forest, celestial tones frisking about everywhere.
   Still though, there was something about the place that emitted a completely different kind of emotion. The broad stairs leading down into the floor at the end of the open part of the hall, down into a dark archway beyond which little could be seen at all, and the darkness to the sides among some of the columns gave the place the impression of a crossroads of sorts, a place where both Heaven and Hell were close, right on the borderline between the elysian and the abyssal.
   "The Hall of the Summit," Stygian said, not without a sense of awe. "This is... If I'm guessing right, they have created a symbolic representation of purgatory for us to traverse. Stay close." She slowly began walking over the floor, squinting in the light and heading for those stairs...

[Boog]

Closing his eyes, Jeremiah finally worked up the nerve to follow the others through the painting. Just in time to hear Sebastina's comment about purgatory.
"Great. Just what this day needed. A scenic romp through someplace only slightly removed from hell," he winced suddenly, a horrible thought occuring to him, "This Dante's purgatory we're talking about or someone's idea of a celestial drawer in the same cabinet as heaven and hell marked 'none of the above'? Dante had some very unsettling ideas about purgatory, and his weren't even the worst."