The Castle (IC) [M] {04}

[lucas marcone]

Ian followed close behind Cog guns ready. "So, uh, you guys know anything about this 'hell on earth' thing? 'cause I...well, I am really freaked out right now." Every step seemed to magnify the horrible evil feeling. His only comfort was the light hum of the UV clips in his guns.

[Aisha deCabre]

"That is only to be expected," Rynkura staunchly answered the shaky rat.  "If you are so afraid, perhaps you still have the chance to turn around."

She continued along with the others toward the next stairway, carefully navigating and warning the adventurers against the pitfalls and dangers.  The cavern-like area was daunting, the patterns so realistic that she wondered whether or not the underground catacombs had actually been there for long.  So far underground it seemed they were, that they weren't breathing the freshest of air...and weight seemed to pull down on them a little harder...yet, they had to keep going.

It was only a little further down, following the hellish light.  "Stay together," she reminded.  "If any one of us strays from here on, it will mean the end."

Moreover, at least the tiger liked when the silence was filled with words.  The bat was gone, and she wondered if they had really gotten themselves lost...or if it was his intention to speed on ahead.  Whatever the reason was, at least they had themselves a path to follow.

*     *     *

Aisha lifted her head as she heard Mel, and tried to comprehend her words.  So it was at least close to morning...the light had not yet been seen again.  With the overall feeling of the chapel, it still felt like night.  But the dragon was with them, and she could hear someone's whistling breaking the silence from somewhere off.  Other than that...she wondered what Mel meant by waiting for the others to return.

"Uh..." Aisha grunted, putting her hand to her forehead.  "I think...I think I'll be fine, yeah...thanks.  That is...thank you both.  I don't know how I could...ever..."  the panthress turned to cast a smile at Gareeku, in whose grasp she remembered that she was resting.  Her face was warm as she tried to move so that his arms wouldn't be tired in holding her up.  Somewhat hard to do, as she remembered that one of her own arms was missing...the stump still wrapped in gauze that was no longer completely white.

The panthress cringed and turned away from the sight, pulling the cloak she was wrapped in over it.  Instead she looked at her left hand, a bit of a forlorn, confused look crossing her eyes.  "...How should I even be alive?"

[Gareeku]

As he sat there, the feeling of fatigue had finally caught up with Gareeku. Having more or less fallen asleep, his eyes opening slowly as he felt Aisha move in his arms. Looking down at her, the wolf smiled softly.
"Hey there..." he said in a whisper to her, glad to see that the pantheress was awake. Listening as the others spoke, Gareeku shook his head slightly as Aisha commented on how she was still alive.
"The important thing is that you are alive." the wolf replied softly, his hand gently holding the sie of her face as he spoke.

[lucas marcone]

"I'm just wonderin' how to fix all this. actually it's kinda exciteing down here." Ian had a big smile on his face.

[Aisha deCabre]

Caught in her morbid thoughts for only a moment, the panthress looked back to Gareeku as she heard his gentle voice and felt his hand softly on her face.  No doubt, he could feel the warmth on her cheek, the feeling of security and protection coming back to her...something that she hadn't felt in the longest time.  With a soft smile back to the wolf, she placed her hand on his and closed her eyes.  "That's true," she solemnly agreed.  "And I suppose I have all of you to thank for it, with my life...and you, Gareeku, for watching over me...I never thought you would have missed any fights," she joked, smirking slightly before she softly nuzzled her face into his palm.  "I owe you so much now.  I who've probably only been not much more than a burden."

She opened her eyes and sighed quietly, turning her gaze away.  "I just wonder as to how I still lived...before blacking out, all I remember seeing was..." her eyes narrowed.  "Fire, everywhere.  And blood.  And that demon, with a knife in his hand..."  She took a deep breath.  "If I'm here then...that must mean he's dead...right?  I killed him."

As she recalled the details of the fight, the look on her face became dark...it began as an appearance of anger, then slowly formed into a wicked grin as the situation drove itself into her mind.  "I killed him.  I killed him.  I...killed...him..."  Her voice wavered.  For a moment it seemed like she would break down.  But then she growled slightly.  "I hope that demon's torture in hell is having his heart ripped out again and again.  Just like he did to my father."

It was then that she turned her head outward, gently letting herself off of Gareeku's lap to sit beside him, and looked out at the darkness of the chapel...everything that still reminded her of the fight.  Then, she stood, and shook her fist in the air.  "You hear that, bastard?!" she shouted upward, elation catching up with her now that she had recovered, intent on letting out all of the last of her anger.  Her voice echoed.  "A Cabre still lives!  We're avenged!  Avenged, basura!  You peace of filth!  We.  LIVE!"

For a second it looked like Aisha started to overreact...but she calmed almost as instantly, leaning back into the seat, hand clutching the area on her chest where her heart was beating ferociously.  The expression on her face was no longer dark...it was one that Gareeku would probably have identified with.  The most sincere smile on her face, tears streaming from her eyes...a look of pure and absolute elation, and accomplishment.

"Sorry...but I've been wanting to do that for so long..." she whispered.  "Finally..."

[Stygian]

The stairs wound down fairly steadily. It was not long however, before the walls and clear references of support began to fall away into the dark. They found themselves walking down damaged and cracked steps that had no visible or explainable support. And now the red light was everywhere. They could vaguely hint stony, uneven structures out in the darkness, but that was all. Once, they thought they could hear the sweeping sound of large wings out in the nothingness, but it passed quickly, and was hard to distinguish from the ghastly, living sounds of the place.
   Finally, they reached another platform, large and decidedly solid yet it too without much visible support. Half-crumbled walls and a seemingly ancient, gothic arch-like structure stood above them. From the platform more stairs originated, one set leading upward and another down, and a bridge-like arch to their right beyond which at least Rynkura thought she could see something resembling a cliff.

- -

Aisha's words echoed long and strongly in the chapel, adding perfectly to the message and the mood of the situation all in the same. Silence followed for a few seconds, during which she thought she could almost see the statues frowning on her exacerbating loudness. Then the quiet whistling resumed.

[Cogidubnus]

 Cog remained silent as he thought about what to say to the college student behind him, his glowing sword just barely illuminating the sides of the stairway around him. He opened his mouth to speak when Rynkura answered, and Cog sighed a small sigh of relief. He didn't know how to explain this place. It was hell, with all that was implied.

At the rat's second comment, however, Cog almost stopped to check if the little guy's eyes were dilated. There was bravado, and there was simple stupidity. He began to wonder if the wererat really knew where they were.
If they died, they might not have very far to go.

As they continued into the depths, things began to make less and less sense. Walls and floors began to have no discernible sign of support, and strange and organic sounds permeated the crumbling stone walkways, only once punctuated by the sound of leathery wings. Cog kept his sword resting on his shoulder, and his eyes constantly roving.
Finally, they reached a platform, more stairs going up and down, and a path leading off to the right. White brightness pooling about his feet, the wolf stood in the middle and waited for the others.
"Don't get split up, he says..." the wolf muttered, looking for some sign that the bat had left behind.

[Boog]

Jeremiah flinched at first at Aisha's outburst, but soon found himself grinning along with the overall sentiments of the pantheress' cry. Take that, hell! Take that, monsters! Take that, universe! Everything you throw at us, we're still alive! WE'RE STILL ALIVE! It seemed almost poetic to him, the way the shout echoed down the halls. If he closed his eyes he could almost see it, track it's passage through the castle by sound as her shout delivered their boasts to everything wandering the halls of this accursed place. WE. LIVE.
Wait...
Eyes still shut, but now concern creased the artists lids. Something else. I hear something else... Some soft background noise, so soft it seemed almost nervous to be heard. What is it... It was going on a second ago, Jeremiah realized, before Aisha spoke. Gradually as he listened closer, head bowed, eyes shut and both hands clasping the axe as though this mere act of listening left him without free strength to stand. His mind made the connection, dredged up words to go with the depressing tune that he mouthed aloud.
... And the itsy bitsy spi~der went up the spout a~gain...
His eyes snapped open. The frog turned around, ignoring the grating noise as the end of his axe scraped across the floor as he switched to holding it horizontally.
"Guys?" eyes wide, voice only avoiding being a nervous whisper out of necessity, "That whistling isn't me..."

[Stygian]

Silence was all that answered Jeremiah's call. The whistling ceased, and for a while they could all just look up and around into the dark.
   All Mel heard was a faint swoosh before something hit her in the back of the head, and she was sent tumbling forward a bit, sliding to a stop on the floor. The dragon had been knocked out cold. Whatever had hit her swung back up into the ceiling as quickly as it had swept down. There was another pause, and then Jeremiah felt as he was gripped and tugged by his shirt up into the air and back, flying toward the benches behind him. A shadow moved above, climbing around the columns.

[Aisha deCabre]

Much like Cogidubnus, along with a very quiet Keaton, Rynkura had decided to ignore most of Ian's nervous talk.  Though the youngster made himself out to be brave, she wondered just how long he...or any of them...could keep up with a front until the right monster would appear to place a creep up their back.  It was one step after another through darkness, save for the hellish light coming from around them and from various glowing items.  The tiger felt well enough with her staff cutting through most of it.

The morbidity was unending.  The further down they went, the more it felt like they were going so far underground that not even the collapse of the castle would outright kill them.  The creeping feeling of being cooped up, although they were in such a wide chamber with slowly crumbling stairs beneath her feet, was still present in anyone's mind.  At one point, Rynkura took pace to the head of the group so that she would have more room to maneuver.  "Pardon me for a moment," she excused, and with a touch, deactivated the gems on her sleeves.  Slowly, the bold-striped and white-feathered wings materialized from her back once more and rested around her shoulders like a makeshift cloak.  In this pit, she found it useful to be able to fly if something were to happen.

But finally, they had reached a deciding point.  A rocky platform, which mostly only seemed supported by the air itself, was their stepping stone into an abyss of red light, crooked and misused stone patterns, and a veil of shadows.  As the Healer waited beside Cogidubnus for the others, she gazed up at the gothic arch before them.  And when Rynkura counted the exits, she looked just as frustrated.

"Three ways..." she muttered, looking over the stairs, and then over the bridge where a cliff stood.  Dammit...we may very well have to split.  With a hum, she looked back at the wolf, jackal, rat, and feline.  "Well, we have just been going down thus far, it may make sense to do so again.  And there seems to be nothing but a sheer drop in the direction off right.  But it may be worthwhile to take just a glance at the other paths.  What do the rest of you propose?"

[lucas marcone]

"Down seems to be the best choice, but for the sake of arguement why don't we take a short trek down all of them? We could all split up meet back here in five and report." Ian was stareing at the passage to the right. There was something about it that he couldn't explain. It drew him to it like a moth to flame.


Edited. where is my head sometimes?

[Boog]

Jeremiah should have known better than to point things out. It always, always, ALWAYS ended badly. Things don't like being pointed out.
This is of course what was going through his head as two and a half seconds after he was jerked into the air, gravity already having yanked the axe out of his hands in the first 0.6 seconds. Everything seemed to slow as he tumbled through the air, the tugging sensation on his back fading as he reached the top of his arc.
And directly in front of him was a line of web. He craned his head back, looking at the floor. The line went down, and looped up again to him. He'd been caught, and then flicked through the air like a fly on the end of a fishing line. Except instead of landing on the surface of a stream, he'd be slammed and shattered against the unforgiving furnishings below.
Unless...
Both hands shot out and grabbed the line in front of him, and the world sped up again.
Gravity still had something to say in the matter, nearly jerking and twisting his arms out of their sockets as he did everything he could to keep his grip on the line and astoundingly enough succeeding. Lucky me, I'm stuck in something. His gaze traveled up to the shadow above, noticing the meager light reflecting off of eight eyes, I'm stuck in spider silk. Lucky, lucky me. The momentum that would have carried him to the ground instead ended up pushing him horizontally, swinging on the web line across the room. He assessed the situation as best he could while screaming his head off in fright.
She was smart; took out our only really usable heavy hitter right away. Mel is down. Aisha; HA! Alright, no kidding myself. Gareeku...
Gareeku's looking after Aisha.
Oh my gods, I'm all alone up here.
The strand of webbing curled around one of the columns and stuck. Jeremiah braced his feet against said column and held on like a rock climber, his knuckles turning white to keep their grip as his slick amphibious palms slowly neutralized the gluey substance on the webs. His eyes scanned the area above him again. He'd stopped screaming. He was too scared to.
Where are you? Come on, where?
Breakbreakbreakbreak-
Hide!
Get closer! Wanna see!
Gain the upper hand!
Just let her finish her!
HeehehehAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAH!
Where? Wild eyed and searching frantically, loose fingers motioning through an illusion that would hide him against the column, Where?

[Angel]

What did I get myself into?

Upon finding the others, Ketefe was astonished to see how badly everyone had been injured. Keaton had been covered in cuts, Aisha had – oh dear God – lost her sword-hand, and everyone else was just plain battered and exhausted. The feline's own exhaustion was catching up with her, but she managed to pay attention when Rynkura asked for the bracer back, nodding her assent. The healer seemed remarkably calm, given that a battle had obviously ended within a few minutes of Ketefe and Ian arriving. Gareeku was hovering over Aisha, and Stygian was focused on Keaton.

When a voice came out of nowhere, Ketefe's muscles froze and her eyes widened in terror for a moment. Then she realized it wasn't her recently vanquished demon... it was something different. And everyone heard it, not just her. If anything, the one most affected by this unseen presence was Stygian, who snarled back at the voice and silenced it. She stayed silent and still, because it would be easiest to figure everything out that way and there wasn't much she could do to help. She watched as everyone was doctored, learning that the voice was Stygian's grandfather, and only moving to avoid a falling column that nearly smashed an already badly-injured Jeremiah.

Finally, Stygian spoke about closing the gate to Hell in the castle. Cog, Ian, and Rynkura had already offered to follow the bat. As Ian took his gun out of Ketefe's unresisting hands, she pondered whether she should stay or go, but her own body answered the question for her. She was one of the few people who hadn't received a severe physical injury yet, and now that she was of sound spirit, she was healthy enough to fight. True, she was tired, but hadn't the break she'd just received allowed her to recharge?

Without saying a word, she followed the others through the darkened catacombs, seeing Keaton get up and follow out of the corner of her eye. The darkness in the hall wasn't a threat to her stamina; her other senses made up for the shadows impeding her vision. And yet, it weighed down on the group. Once again, she felt as though the gloom itself was conscious. The macabre carvings on the wall did nothing to dissuade her of this sickening dread. The voice threatened them, but Ketefe glared at the darkness and hissed quietly, partly to reaffirm her own courage. I've been scared by worse things than voices, bastard. You're gonna have to do better than that. But she couldn't deny the darkness and spite in the eldritch voice...

Something seemed wrong all of a sudden. She sniffed the air and listened, but someone was missing. "Where's Stygian?" she said to herself. But that thought left her head when she realized they'd hit a tight spot. Some stairs, a bridge to the right, and the abyss below them... Ketefe shook her head and glanced at their exits, taking note that Rynkura had just sprouted wings.

"The path to the right looks sturdier than the stairs..." Ketefe said aloud. "But I'm not so sure splitting up would be the best idea." The bat had said to stay together, but where had he gone? She sighed and waited to see what the others had to say.

[Cogidubnus]

 Cog shook his head. "Splitting up is a bad idea. We're not at full strength as it is." the wolf said, looking somewhat nonplussed. "And we aren't alone here." he said, his eyes passing over the almost impenetrable darkness. His magic-seeing told him nothing, the umbra complete in it's concealment. There was nothing to see.
Not where he was looking, anyway.

He turned to Rynkura. "I agree. We've been going down so far. And if one way is closed to us, we can try another. Splitting up will only make it easier for whatever is watching us." Cog sighed, turning again to look at the downward-spiraling staircase.

In the distance, through the organic sounds of hell, Cog almost though he could hear wind, slow and mournful and infinitely despairing, and perhaps the whistling of some far-off jutting rocks, whistling high and gleefully. A double tonality that drove spikes of fear into the wolf's brain.
And loud they sang, and long they sang, for they sang to wake the dead...

[Gareeku]

Watching as Aisha gently got up from his lap, and then making her declaration to the heavens, Gareeku watched, a slight smile on his face as he did so.

It was then, however, that it became apparent that something was amiss. A whistling sound...
Suddenly, Mel was down. The wolf leapt to his feet as he looked at her. His eyes darting, Gareeku then saw as Jeremiah seemingly disappeared. Growling, the wolf continued to look around, until he suddenly spotted something up above; a shadow, climing around the columns...
Not taking his eyes off of the silouette, while at the same listening for anything else, Gareeku began to slowly unsheathe his sword, the shimmering blade reappearing once more as he gripped the weapon firmly in his hand.

[lucas marcone]

"To the right." Ian said confidantly "I think it's the right way."

[Aisha deCabre]

Rynkura stood patiently on the platform, almost below the arch as she resisted the fearful feeling of the dark atmosphere--and thoughts of what might be hiding in those shadows--to listen to the group's feelings on which path to take.

So far, Ian had suggested taking the path on the right on a strange feeling.  Ketefe had also suggested that path, and indeed it looked sturdier than the stairs.  Cogidubnus had brought up a good point, as well...there wasn't any way that the group was splitting up.  Although each had their own talents in battle, a few were only just recovering from injury.  And the bat had warned them.  Going separately, even for just a few minutes, could be ensuring death.

And also, it was another good point...if one path were to be blocked, they could try to come back and choose again.  The group was without their guide, and in ways scared, but they were not helpless.  All had considerable abilities against whatever creatures they could come across, and more eyes at one's back were important.

"Right then...nobody splits up.  And nobody becomes tempted to explore other paths," Rynkura asserted.  "No matter how compelled we are.  On the best guess we have, we will try to keep going down unless circumstances prevent.  If the stairs cannot hold us, then we run back immediately.  If one of us falls, I will help to catch them."  A slight ruffling of her wings emphasized that fact.  It was useful to be able to fly.  "But we watch over each other."

With that, the tigress's gaze turned to the stairs, although she fairly listened for any objections before moving.

*     *     *

The statues hadn't seemed to like Aisha's declaration.  But still it lingered, and listening to her words echoing through the grandeur of the chapel, it felt like the greatest victory in all of her life.  Her heart managed to slow down, and she could stop clutching her chest and just rest on the bench alongside Gareeku.  In that moment, the adventurer didn't care if she had lost an arm.  One thing to make up for it was that Mistress Rynkura would probably finally remove the scars from her back.

That is, if the tiger made it back from where she had gone...

And that was when the whistling started again.  Aisha nearly wanted to disregard it, but something about it kept an ear in Jeremiah's direction.  It seemed to be nerves coming from the frog.

Until he had said that the whistling wasn't coming from him.  And in the seconds that followed, the calm came to a dead halt.  Something had flown from the ceiling, rushing in through the darkness and hitting Mel straight on, knocking her unconscious in an instant...and in the next instant, had grabbed Jeremiah and threw him to another column, only for him to hold onto a piece of...

...Web?!

With most of her energy back, Aisha didn't waste any time in standing up again, just like Gareeku.  While the wolf readied his sword, the panthress rushed to help Mel.  The dragon was out cold...how strong was this thing?  It's not wise...but dammit, hard choice.  The panther's left hand dove to her belt and drew the Dragonblade.  Though it was a little pokey in her off-hand, hopefully she would feel the practice to wield it coming back.  She just wished she had her boomerang to knock the thing down.

"Stop throwing us around and show yourself!" she demanded angrily to the air.  She had a pretty good idea who it was that had dropped in on them.  And if she, or Gareeku, or anyone else had anything to do about it, the bone would be picked.  And clean.

[lucas marcone]

"If you're sure. Well who weighs the most? If it can't hold them then we can't go that way, we should send them first." Ian looked over the group "well come on speak up."

[Sunblink]

Shortly after Stygian's inexplicable disappearance, the group had entered an immense, aphotic chamber, dilapidated and cracked and tarnished with giant snaking fissures rupturing the stony walls, their forms suspended over the atramentous pit yawning at the heart of the monstrous structure by the rocky platform they stepped onto. Throughout their journey Keaton remained unsettlingly quiet, having not spoken up since her brief conversation with Rynkura, as she was devoting her attention strictly to keeping her guard elevated and her eyes on the darkness. Being paranoid about her signature element wasn't something Keaton was comfortable with. The last time she had felt like that she had--she wasn't well. Not in the head.

Ian was suggesting different tactics to explore the area, none of which Keaton commented on. It was probably best they didn't split up, Keaton decided. Lord knew what was lurking about this treacherous chamber. As for who was the heaviest... Keaton knew she wasn't. At a diminutive five-foot-two and one hundred ten pounds, she was hardly the weightiest in the party. For now, Keaton reluctantly acknowledged the fact she had nothing to contribute, and resorted to wringing the pommel of Catastrophe to relieve her stress.

Without their guide, Keaton knew the group was grasping at straws when it came to different approaches to safely traverse the castle. Where the hell was he?

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Stygian]

A few seconds passed, before a familiar, slightly raspy but at the same time strangely melodic voice answered Aisha's words. 'Now what would be the point in that?' Sal said quizzically. She clambered out of sight again, and for another few moments she seemed completely gone.
   'Tell you what... We don't even have to do this. All I want is to go past and down,' she said, her voice dislocated and echoing from above so that Aisha had trouble hearing just where she was speaking from. 'I'm not going to hurt you or your friends. All I want are the bats.' More clambering, and her voice seemed to shift direction a bit. 'Put down your weapons, and I'll just go past.'

[Angel]

Ketefe happened to know she wasn' the heaviest, so she shook her head. "Ms. Rynkura already said she'd catch whoever fell. Maybe we should just all go one at a time, to be safe." She prayed silently that no-one would fall, wishing desperately that Stygian would come back. She really hated and feared the darkness around her...

[Gareeku]

Listening to Sal's words, Gareeku's eyes narrowed. Like Aisha, he had a pretty good idea of who it was who had decided to intrude upon them so rudely.
"I'm afraid I can't let you do that." the wolf replied, gripping his sword firmly in his hand as his ears swivelled, looking for any sign of her presence. "The others are down there, and I'll be damned before I let some spider-commanding psycho interfere with what they're trying to do."

Shifting his feet slightly, Gareeku continued to try and get an idea of where the hell Sal was, his eyes moving to look in every direction as his ears continued to swivel.
"We're not letting you pass." the wolf said, a tone of finality in his voice as he spoke.

[Aisha deCabre]

Before Rynkura could take one step towards the stairs, Ian had spoken up with another point...albeit disrespectfully.  The tigress turned and eyed the rat, the look of a disciplinary tactician in her eyes, before she looked up to listen to the others.  She took Ketefe's answer as satisfactory, and nodded.  "One at a time is best.  We'll space out a little from each other so that weight is distributed, but none of us will be separated.  As was put, I will catch anyone who may fall, although I'm pretty sure that some of you have the ability to keep your balance well, as adventurers," she grinned.

And with that, the Healer turned to stride back off in the direction of the downward staircase, wings spreading behind her as she placed one cautious foot on the first step...followed by another, and then another, and motioning for the others to go.  Inside, she was adverse to keep going down further, but for the moment this seemed the proper choice.

*     *     *

Aisha couldn't help but let out a hiss as their assailant answered her demand in a smooth tone.  Her eyes scanned the ceiling, while she stood over Mel with her sword raised defensively.  It couldn't easily be told from where the voice was coming...but she was there, somewhere.

Sal wanted to go on ahead...after the bats, she said.  But when the panthress heard Gareeku say that the others had gone ahead into the depths as well, her ears flattened against her skull and she growled between her teeth.  "Agreed.  Nobody's going to interfere with our comrades, bruja."

It was easy to see that the bunch of adventurers would take a bit of convincing before anyone was let to pass.

[Cogidubnus]

 At the question about who was lightest, Cog simply scratched his neck. It certainly wasn't him, he knew, although he'd lost a considerable amount of excess baggage on the way down here. He felt lighter, anyway.

The consensus was finally reached that they'd try the stairs, and Rynkura was the first to go, her feathery wings spreading wide as she took a first hesitant step. The stairs seemed to hold, and pausing to look around only once the wolf followed, his steps thumping faintly. Stepping as delicately as he could, he followed the angel in front of him down into the darkness.

[Angel]

Ketefe was a little confused when the stairs won over the path, but she shrugged it off. She watched as Rynkura went first, and relaxed inwardly when they didn't crumble. Cogidubnus was next to go, following Rynkura carefully. After Cog was a good few feet down the stairs, Ketefe followed, holding her arms to her sides, but her hands slightly out for balance.

She focused alternatingly on Cog's back and the stairs below her, each step as cautious and light as she could make it.

[lucas marcone]

Ian may have been taller but he was very light, he walked calmly after Ketefe. "I hope the bat's ok." He said solemnly

[Stygian]

The descent went well to a beginning, only the scrapes of dirt and footsteps signaling their movement down the stairway, while other shapes and paths hinted in the dark. But if the unfortunate adventurers had thought that things would go so well, they were wrong.
   The one signal they had was a sudden creak. They had come just up to a point where it seemed they could see another platform before them, and a stone column leading down into nothingness held up the stairs behind them, when the stairs gave way out under Cog. A large block of steps ground loose, and the wolf could not immediately recover his balance mid-stride. Jerking reflexively, he slipped on his heel and slid down, his backside hitting and scraping against the last step before he managed to turn around. The scrambling fingers of his right hand found a grip just before he plummeted down along with the two blocks of steps that fell away silently under him. Almost twisting his arm around, the wolf caught himself and hung, tensing to near the point of breaking and his hand already starting to ache.

- -

Aisha almost thought she could hear something like a sigh or a breath in the dark, and for a moment she almost had a fix on Sal's position. 'You're not being very smart. We're not really on opposite sides here,' the spider spoke. 'I'm only doing what I have to. But if that's how you want it...'
   There was a stretching sound, something akin to the faint vibration of an elastic band being tugged at rapidly, and then suddenly a huge, roughly circular web, spun into a net, shot out at Aisha and Gareeku from up one of the columns.

[Cogidubnus]

 Despite the possibility, Cog hadn't actually thought that the stairs might give way. By virtue of incredible luck, he'd just barely managed to catch the lip of the stairs behind him, already straining to hold on mere moments after grabbing the ledge. After the brief clutter, the noiselessness with which he hung was terrible, the wolf swinging gently in complete silence. Cog didn't made a noise, all his effort concentrating on not letting go.
Although he didn't react, the wolf noted distinctly that he never heard the stones falling below hit bottom.

Pulling himself up was out of the question - dangling in his left hand, and still shimmering with holy light, was his sword. Cog didn't possess the superhuman strength necessary to pull himself back up with one hand, and so the wolf simply dangled off the ledge, trying to think of some way to bring himself back up.
He remembered Rynkura's promise to catch them - he didn't hear the angel's wings, but he probably hadn't been hanging there for more than a second or two. Angling himself, he began to try and slide his sword back up on the ledge, and thereby free his other hand...

[Aisha deCabre]

It turned out, as the group each in turn took their cautious and fleet steps on the winding, crumbling stairs, that wishing for things to go smoothly would be a futile effort.  Rynkura could almost breath a sigh of relief when the adventures could make out ahead of them another platform upon which to stand.  Again the crawling discomfort of things lurking in the dark and in the abyss started to seethe into their imaginations...

But the sudden creaking of rocks shoved that distraction aside for another.  Nobody had time to warn anyone else...and then the stairs gave way under the weight of one of their comrades: Cogidubnus.  Rynkura's head swiveled urgently at the sound, just in time to witness the wolf catch himself with his right hand and grip the surface, struggling to get back up again.

"Sir Mithlome!" the tigress growled, wings flaring open in an instant.  She leaped from the edge and caught the air, working the flight muscles and her magic to power her up again.  "It'd be a good idea to run to the platform, quickly!" Rynkura warned the others...whether or not they would obey was their choice, but she certainly hoped.  The path behind them was now closed...one wondered if perhaps it was a way of saying that maybe their choice wasn't the right one...

She reached the opposing stairway where the wolf hung, landing above him with her wings outspread in preparation should the rocks crumble under her own feet as well.  The Healer reached and gripped Cogidubnus's upper arm with one hand, pulling while digging the point of her staff into the stone for leverage.  "Get yourself up..." she grimaced.  It might only be a bit of work to carry the wolf to the other side, with luck...

*     *     *

One of Aisha's ears quirked up when she heard the spider's reply, ignoring the part about not being very smart.  But she had to snort.  "'Not on opposite sides'...?" she murmured.

Before the idea could be thought of further, her ears caught a sudden sound like stretching or coiling...and then a flash of silk.  Aisha's eyes widened.  "Gareeku, look out!" she cried, before dashing and attempting to roll out of the way herself...some of her coordination had been lost along with her arm though, and she ended up getting a leg caught in a part of the web.

"Mierda!" she cursed, trying to sit up and look to see if Mel or the wolf hadn't gotten caught in a part of it either.  "The hell do you mean we're on the same side?"  She snarled up to the ceiling.  "Last thing I recall, some of us had been made into goddamn slaves!  For what purpose?!"  Aisha growled as she struggled and tried to bring her blade around to slice herself out...however hard that was to do.

[Angel]

Ketefe was so completely focused on surviving the trip down the stairs that she had tuned out almost all else. When the stairs beneath Cog gave way, she snapped back to life. Biting her tongue to keep from yelping out and jumping back from the void where the stairs had been, she watched as Rynkura spread her wings and swooped to help the wolf - who, thankfully, had grabbed onto the stairs and was now hanging for his life.

She didn't want to leave them behind, so she didn't do as Rynkura said. She watched Cog and the tigress carefully, not running for the platform just yet in case any help was needed.