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

[Aisha deCabre]

Some tough meat that thing has, Aisha thought with a growl as she stayed out of the way of the blow the creature made to the benches, jumping around them as they were flung around.  With the creature's tail towards her, the panther swept her hand out and called the boomerang back to her fist, watching the beast's reaction to Gareeku's sword and Mel's ice.  Well damn, looks like I'm outclassed here for the moment, Aisha thought, narrowly dodging a flying bench with a quick and slightly painful wrench in her limbs.

Keeping behind the monstrous wyrm with weapons in hand, Aisha looked around for Mel and called out to her while Gareeku formed an ice blast of his own, trying to get her out of the way of it's attack.  "Quick, amiga, over here!  You might get a better aim, too!"

[Stygian]

As Cog rounded the corner, a rather familiar sight greeted him in a way. Blood, smeared over the carpet and floor, as if a body had been dragged away over it. Yet, he could hear whimpering from somwhere off, just a bit up ahead where the corridor opened out into another room.

   The enormous beast fumed and roared, the flames from its maw scorching them and very nearly concealing its shape entirely. Yet Gareeku's blast came from the side, and tore into all of the fiendish creature's face, freezing the side of it. The monster howled and spewed more flames, tearing through the benches and into the columns where the wolf and the dragoness-in-hiding had stood just an eyeblink ago, before the wolf had thrown them both to the side and tumbled off.
   Around them, the darkness mingled with a fiery glow, and the cracks and peels of thunder still came strong from outside. The fiendish creature's thrashings made old dust fall down from the roof, and it seemed as if shapes were moving among the shadows in the eerie light, as if the chapel was somehow slowly coming alive and becoming more and more angry with its invaders and the destruction they caused.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

When their tumble came to a halt Mel was on her feet quickly. She began lowering the temperature at that end of the chapel. Chill would increase the power of Gareeku's ice magic as well as her own and hopefully slow the monster's speed. She just barely felt that spell click into place when they had to run from another charge.

After some ducking of flying pews and running from curls of flame she found herself in a place where she was behind the monster and able to effectively aim at it. This time she chose ice mist. While not as immediately satisfying as daggers of ice she could cover more of the body with a clinging jacket of ice.

[Boog]

When he heard the scream Jeremiah's staggering gait sped up, the blue woman shifting to follow him.
Nex'll keep me safe. Isolate them. Just like me. Isolate us. Don't have to worry about monsters. Monsters? A scream. Gotta get to them. The blue woman's eyes flashed once, and the two attacking creatures stopped, looking back and forth. Their movements were panicky, like one suddenly blinded who doesn't know the source thereof, and their every attempt to touch anything at all was met with a flash of blue light and some force pushing them away from it.
Catching up with Cog, he looked around the room. His eyes looked glazed over, as if he wasn't really seeing anything, but he was still able to make himself clear.
"We should help the girl, probably... The other things are probably done. Gone. Not an issue. The girl..." He put a hand to his forehead and grimaced, "Don't feel so good..."

[e_voyager]

Epyon hears the echoing sound come form beneath him. for a few moments he holds his head trembles and he remembers one oh his old family outings that ended in disaster. Then stealing up his nerves he decides it is better to find what ever made that roars sound then have it find him unaware. beast case it was nothing to worry about, worst case he's be fighting for his life against some forgotten guardian. Epyon follows the sounds until he found a way down. he then updates his map on last time before braves the passage. " with my luck i it's something intent on killing all intruders."

[Cogidubnus]

Cog was somewhat surprised to see Jeremiah joining him. That blue one must work fast, he thought. Cog wiped his brow and handed Jeremiah the golden-glowing coin and put both hands on his weapon. "Hold onto that if you would, and keep it close to both of us. It's very...dark." he finished, not really wanted to conjecture anything about the darkness surrounding them. He walked quietly and slowly into  the next chamber, his senses as sharp as the steel in his hands.

[Stygian]

The supercooled mist emanating from Mel's hands oozed off the beast as steam at first, but as the spell continued, one could actually begin to see how it was taking effect. While the thing dove after them, trying to seek them out by hearing them as best it could, it was getting slower, and darker, the fire of it dimming. The creature thrashed and slammed the floor, its weight and strength shaking the chamber and making clear marks. It struck out at the blows from the panthress and the wolf, but hit mostly nothing. It was getting weaker, even if smoke and steam still rolled of it intensely.
   Finally, the thing collapsed forward on the floor, one hand supporting its weight, the other clasped around its face. It growled and hissed.
   "Fools! I will bury you for this! Your transgression has awakened the evil, and I will let you go no further!" it roared. Still, its fiery breath seemed ragged, and its burning, bloody wounds were healing very slowly now, barely emitting a glow at all. The only point that still burned seemed to be something like a congregation of cracks, just a bit to the left on its chest...

   Then, it was as if the air behind Epyon erupted into a cacophony of shrieks and hisses. Behind him, a multitude of leathery wingflaps batted, and a veritable swarm of what had to be bats, large as small dogs, swept by, knocking him over. He could feel claws and teeth as they swept over him like a black flood...

   The chamber was a large two-story room with a great carpet in the centre, two sofas set against a the walls, some tables and chairs and a suit of armor set against a wall. The blood that was smeared around had created great blotches on the carpet, where a woman lay, her clothes bloody and torn. She was obviously some sort of mustelid, most likely a ferret, and had medium-long hair, round glasses and a digital camera hanging around her neck. Her right leg looked limp in some way, and she was bleeding profusely from her thigh, whimpering and shaking with soft crying sounds escaping her throat.
   "Helllp... please... I don't want to die..."

[Aisha deCabre]

With a sigh of relief as Mel managed to escape, Aisha made a silent cheer when Gareeku's blast hit the side of the creature's face.  She was standing hunched on an overturned bench behind it, still holding both weapons and yet keeping out of the way while the others made use of their strength over the obstacle.  Hrmph, if only I were a magic user, she thought for a moment, observing the ice spells that Mel and Gareeku had cast...she could even feel the temperature of the room dropping steadily, a feat from Mel that she found quite impressive.

A smirk came to Aisha's face, observing the wyrm's flames lose their power and it lose its strength to the polar element until it finally collapsed.  She gripped the handles of both weapons tightly.  This is either going to help, or hurt.  Let's hope it does more helping.  When the panthress saw her chance, she rushed forward, staying at the side so as to hopefully avoid a thrashing.

Aisha bunched the muscles in her legs and leapt upward with a roar, jamming her sword in a lower part of the beast's back.  One foot was on the floor, the other having a hold on the cross-guard while trying to avoid the simultaneous sting of fire and ice, hoping to help pin it there and weaken it enough for the final blow.

"Gareeku!  Your turn!" she shouted to the wolf with a grin, though she was taking it a bit hard from the sudden temperature fluctuations.

[Gareeku]

Walking up to the downed creature weakened from the cold mist that Mel had created, Gareeku looked down upon it with a raised eyebrow.
"...Awakened the evil...?" the wolf replied, before noticing the cracks on the wrym's chest. Holding his sword to it in a threatening manner with one hand while ice magic shimmered in his other, the wolf growled. "Tell me what you mean or you will die right here and now."

[Stygian]

The beast looked with unseeing, blackened eyes at Gareeku with a look that said all it could ever need. That it would die no matter what now, and that it would fight any intruders to the death.
   Then, Aisha's blade took the lower of its back, and it howled out.
   "Insolent little creeps! Die!" it screamed, and then struck out wide with a fist against Gareeku. He saw the cracks in its chest exposed.

[Gareeku]

Looking down at the creature with a hard cold stare, Gareeku narrowed his eyes as he saw the wrym make its move, easily being able to leap out of the way to dodge the attack in the creature's weakened state.
"...So be it..." the wolf growled as he saw the exposed cracks on the wrym's chest.

Acting quickly, Gareeku took his sword with both hands and, making a leap, plunged it into the creature's chest, feeling that, from the movement of the sword, he had bypassed any possible ribs and had struck straight into the wyrm's heart. Gareeku then forced his blade to the side and out in a powerful horizontal slash from its previous position, knowing that, if his actions worked, the creature's heart would be ripped from its very body.

[Boog]

Jeremiah clutched the coin in both hands, nodding, and continued with him. Seeing the woman lying on the floor he got the overall impression that he was, somehow, out of trouble. Energy and lucidity flooded back into him, provoking a groan when he realized why that was bad. Nex didn't think he needed her for now; she'd stopped what she was doing, which meant that the beasts were loose! Dammit, why did she choose now to start thinking I'm capable of doing anything at all on my own!? Holding out the coin as a talisman the frog followed Cog into the room, eyes nervously darting back and forth. Annnd I'm still bleeding. A lot. Splendid. Just bloody beautiful. My day needed this quite a bit. Oh yes.
Ceasing his inner whining long enough to remember where he was, Jeremiah rushed over to the mustelid's side and used what he'd learned in those college first aid classes.
"I... think she's in shock or something..." The frog bit his lower lip; a nervous habit, "Makes sense, what with all the... Look, Miss, can you hear me? You're gonna be okay, don't you worry," As he continued to try to make soothing noises, he cast another quick illusion with one hand behind his back. Letters that may have just been a trick of the light flickered across the blade of Cog's sword. I only delayed those things back there; I don't know whether they'll follow us or anything, but plan for the worst and don't spook the young lady. If she panicks or something, that could tear these wounds wider. His eyes continued to glance around the room, hopefully to find alternate escape points.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

As Mel tried to keep the temperature down she hoped Gareeku wouldn't argue with the beast too long. While it didn't have any heat source to fight other than the monster it was a darn big room. It was eating magic at a great rate to keep the grand space cool enough that the ice wouldn't melt. She hoped the thing didn't have any friends in the immediate vicinity because she was going to need more than a minute to recharge after this.

[Stygian]

The creature let out its last breath in a roar of flame and ash, and then fell forward, almost on the wolf. Its hide cracked and cumbled in places, the source of its power now ripped from its body and impaled on the end of the canine's sword. It seemed to begin to turn into ashes and bones before their very eyes.
   "You... impudent... fools..." were its last words, ragged and sounding already as if dead.
   A thunderstrike, closer than any other, flashed light through the windows on the scene of destruction, almost as if signifying some fateful event. The shadows had grown still now, only a few candles and torches still lit. Yet, they seemed more dense somehow, more... alive, even if still.
   Well done... now... We wait... here... down... the voice came again, from the passageway they had opened.

   "Please... I-I... don't... no..." the ferret said, her face pale and her head swaying back and forth. She was indeed in shock, probably with the blood loss. She could barely support herself on her arms.
   Then, she looked up, and screamed. And the next second a huge axe swung by just next to Jeremiah. The suit of armor was coming alive, red light blazing behind the bars of its empty helmet, and shadows slipping out between the metal sheets.

[Aisha deCabre]

Aisha watched as Gareeku made his move, holding the sword still in place in the creature's back with one hand and foot steady next to the grip.  She could feel through the metal its fiery pulse ebbing once it spewed its last breath.  Once it was finally over, the panthress took it from the ash and bone-ridden remains and nearly polished the blade clean with one sweep through her cape.

"Ay!  Now that was fun," she commented with a smile cast at her fellow adventurers as she replaced the weapon in its dragon-skin scabbard, though the expression didn't last for very long, noticing the storm raging outside and the lightning barely illuminating the dark and now very messy interior of the chapel.  The mood once again turned so easily from intense to quiet and somber.

Catching the voices, Aisha took a step towards the dark corridor and looked down into its depths with a look of curious concentration.  She glanced back at the others.  "...What do you think it meant by 'awakening evil'...?"

[Boog]

Jeremiah screamed too, although it would take an expert team of torturers to get him to admit his was higher in pitch. Scooping up the wounded woman in his arms (he was no Hercules, but ferrets are small and Jeremiah himself of average size) he scrambled away from the aggressive, axe-wielding protective equipment. Clutching the coin in one hand and attempting to guesture for a spell with the other, he tried to make it appear as though there were two more of him running away with the girl, plus one that was under the armor's axe. With any luck, it would confuse the creature long enough for the person more skilled in things of an adventuring nature to deal with it.

[Cogidubnus]

Cog jupmed and cursed. The damn thing was pretty quiet for a suit of armor...but its back was turned to him. He shuffled up behind it, and reared back and kicked the thing in it's back, knocking it to the ground with a loud clang. He ran towards Jeremiah and grabbed the coin from his hand. "Sorry, I need this for a second again..." he said, placing the coin in between his fingers. As the armor got back to its feet, Cog took a deep breath and once again let loose a blast of force: this time, blasting the coin with it. The coin, glowing with the light of the sun, slammed into and through the creature's armor, richocheting around with a deafening series of bangs. "Lets hope the shadows inside it don't like the sun..." he said, taking a low guard with his sword.

[Stygian]

There was a kind of chill that rose up from the darkness down those stairs, and a thickness and aura that made the shadows in the chapel seem pale in comparison.
   Down... come... I... pain... free... me... the voice whispered, and it really seemed to be coming from down there now. Break... chain... free...

   The girl whimpered in Jeremiah's arms as he ran, her pain seemingly worsened, and she cried, still pleading for mercy and salvation from death.
   The coin seemed to do its trick with the armor, for it twitched and let out something like a wail, before collapsing together, the darkness that held it up eradicated. It clattered into its constituent parts on the carpet.
   And then one of the wraiths appeared from out of the wall in front of Jeremiah.

[Gareeku]

Watching the creature turn to ash and bone, Gareeku looked over to the dark passage and frowned. With a quick flick of his wrist, the blood and gore on his blade was whipped off, splattering onto to the floor. Hearing Aisha's question, the wolf's eyes narrowed.
"I would take a guess and say it was referring to whatever is down there..." Gareeku muttered in reply, not taking his eyes off of the dark entrance. Sheathing his sword, the wolf then made the decision to enter the passage, quickly becoming engulfed by the shadows as he entered the darkness.

[e_voyager]

Alerted by the noise Eypon turned around only to be  blinded by the swarm. as he was clipped knocked over. This was madness. what were these things flying around him? they ware too large to be bats yet they seemed to be.  Epyon curled  into the fetal position his wings covering his face and vulnerable neck as he waited hoping the swarm would pass.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

As Mel tiredly released her hold on the ice and chill she felt a chill that had nothing to do with temperature. She felt as if the shadows were watching them. She was going to need a snack soon to replenish but wasn't exactly in the right form to do that casually. She'd have to watch for a chance. She noticed her still glowing crystal nearby and picked it up. Dusting the ash off and popping it into her wand she prepared to follow the wolf.

[Stygian]

The stairway stretched down quite far, into some sort of catacomb or crypt. There were coffins set on shelves in the walls, some rocks and dust strewn over the floor and old cobwebs hanging still, unmoving in the dank air of the chamber, that smelled of ash, and dust, of blood and of a fire long since put out, of corpses and most prominently of old and darkness. And beyond even that, it turned, leading even further down through a room-wide stairway into what must have been right beneath the heart of the castle. Darkness hinted there...
   Yes... here... down... in the chamber... these chains... break them... set me free...!

[Boog]

Jeremiah winced as the girl's whimpering worsened. Stupid! Her panicking could hurt her, yes, but so could your jarring her about! The armor was after you; you didn't have to get her away from it!
Then, of course, the wraith showed up. BLOODY HELL!
He'd tried illusions. He wasn't lucky enough for part of his curse to start acting on his behalf again. He didn't know how to make some manner of specter-annihilator using the contents of his pockets (that is to say, his wallet, keys, phone, an erasor, a button and some twine). He was unarmed, and carrying a wounded girl. He was left with one trick in his bag before he had to resort to track team experience and quick thinking.
Despiratly hoping that this thing was vulnerable to hypnosis, Jeremiah stood stock still and looked it in what he figured were its eyes. "You see nothing... We are not here... You see nothing... There is nothing for you here... You see nothing... You have no reason to be here... You see nothing... You will go away..." He murmured under his breath, sending a small amound of magic along the path of his gaze. For the love of any gods listening, please let this work!

[Aisha deCabre]

That's what I thought... Aisha grimaced upon hearing Gareeku's answer, ears pinned against her skull as if to block out the voices coming up from the darkness...though to no avail.  It still had a feeling to them, urging the adventurers to continue with the task that they started.

After the wolf disappeared into the dark, Aisha grabbed a torch that had fallen nearby and started to follow with Mel, pausing only to look back at the virtually ruined chapel and the remains of the wyrm before catching up, close behind the other two.  Whomever comes after us would be in for a shock...she thought.

With the dim light fading behind them, and the darkness creeping up with each step downward they took, Aisha was beginning to become slightly impatient, though her pace was kept steady and slow by the voices.  The aged and decrepit smells made her nostrils flare again, the telltale signs of approaching a crypt, and it only went deeper. 

She kept a hand to her belt.  "If whatever's here is as nasty as that wyrm..." she whispered, really only talking to break the eerie silence a bit.

[Gareeku]

Heading down the passage, a white flame appeared in Gareeku's hand once again as the group descended into the darkness. Looking at the surroundings as they walked through the crypt, the wolf smirked.
"Cosy..." he muttered softly, before coming to a stop as he heard the voice.

Listening to Aisha's whisper, Gareeku glanced to her and nodded his head.
"I know what you mean." he muttered in a reply, before narrowing his eyes and descending down into the place where the voice came originated...

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel held her wand above her head but it was as if the shadows frightened the rainbow-tinged white light back into the crystal, it barely illuminated the path before her feet. While most of her wanted a bright bold light so she could see what was going on in every corner a small part of her was glad she couldn't see much. She didn't like crypts, didn't understand the need to build homes for the departed. Her clan burned their deceased. No undead, nothing for necromancers to despoil. And no place for adventurers to be tromping about looking for trouble. With the wyrm battle upstairs and mysterious voices down here she could only curse the owners of this castle for not being so sensible.

[Stygian]

The stairs descended steeply into a large chamber of some sort, a tall ceiling feeling almost as if it pressed down on them with all the weight of the cliff and the castle atop it. This room was empty, save for one thing.
   In the centre of the room, from a cross standing on metal beams that lay over a well that seemed to plunge down into infinite darkness, hung a body. It was that of a man, seemingly some sort of bat. He was athletically built and long-limbed, with very handsome features, neck-long hair as whitish blond as his fur, with somewhat long claws and a short, slim tail. He was dressed in what looked like clothes from a late victorian age, a torn and shredded white shirt hanging open over his upper body, exposing his chest and stomach and some white strips of cloth, and black pants that were equally ruined. His large hands and feet were nailed to the cross, and his body chained up with spiked chains that looked corroded or broken at places, and pieces of scribed parchment hung off him. He bore horrible scars, deep cuts into his pallid fur and skin that seemed to have turned dark with time. He looked absolutely dead.
   Free me...!

   The wraith did not heed the spell. It did not seem to be the kind of creature that would respond to such things, perhaps because it did not have a mind to be fooled or maybe because it did not have eyes. It wailed behind its mask, and came at Jeremiah with its long claws extended...

[Gareeku]

As Gareeku entered the large chamber, his eyes widened as he saw the body of what appeared to be a bat hanging from a cross, held in place with spiked chains and pieces of parchment on his body.
"I guess this is the guy we're looking for..." the wolf muttered as he walked towards the suspended body.

Hearing the voice, Gareeku frowned, not taking his eyes off of the body on the cross in front of him. The bat certainly appeared to be dead. But that voice...it sounded as if it were the bat speaking, though his lips did not move. Careful not to fall into the well the bat was suspended over, the wolf observed the chains and parchment which covered his body.

"Something tells me I'm going to regret this..." Gareeku muttered, before reaching out and removing some of the parchments and chains, careful not to cut himself on the spikes...

[Stygian]

The chains and strips of parched paper came loose rather easily, as if something had already been struggling against them, corroding and loosening them. They began to fall from the bat's body with soft clinks and scrapes, uncovering his ragged figure.
   Then, Gareeku felt just a tiny bit of movement, and looked up into the bat's face. And then probably immediately wished he hadn't.
   The man's head had risen slightly, and his eyes were open. And Gareeku instantly recognized that seething blackness. It was deep, cold and absolutely dark. And then, much to his horror, the man smiled at him, stiff and cold lips growing softer and smirking slightly. It was like having the devil smile at a joke you made.
   "I owe you a great many thanks for this, cutie," he said in a smooth voice that very much fit the face, and his black eyes turned up, looking them all over through the dark of the chamber. "All of you."
   Then, he began to move. His limbs forcefully undid the rest of the chains, the scars and cuts on them beginning to heal and vanish before their very eyes, and broke off the nails that held them. Grinning, he stepped down onto the metal beam under him.
   "And who do I owe the honor, I ask?"

[Cogidubnus]

Cog, still trying to keep himself from grasping his back, cursed under his breath at the new shade. He didn't really have time to retrive the coin, or to run close to it, or even to rear back and slam it into a pulp, so he'd have to settle. He simply punched at the damn thing.
The weak wave didn't really do much to the creature, but it did hit it in its only vulnerable point, the face. It jerked back for a moment, more stunned than actually hurt, giving Cog the time he needed to close. He swung in two perfect angles, one up and slicing through the face and the other back through the body.
He spoke to Jeremiah. "You alright? You and the girl?" he said, inching his way back toward the armor, glowing eerily with the light of the coin inside it.