Family Circle Log 8/26

[leticia]

Leti says, "The boys have just crossed into the slightly hellish interior of the tomb - the fact it's a shadowland, half Underworld, half Creation, does nothing to dispel the effect - with the dust that is all that remains of the ancient macabre decorations. The bulk of the tomb is a wide room, with a small enclosure in the center built of heavy stone - the heart of the tomb. A white jade door leads to it... and against the foot of it (blood streaks the door) is the recently deceased body of a man."

Leti says, "GC, you were wandering through Firewander, beating up thugs that aren't properly intimidated by a tiger, when Yasutora's anima went skyhigh; it's back towards the boring ugly tomb where you left them."

Green Cove does an about face towards the anima. That suggests something interesting has happened. If she's quick about it, she might even be able to kill the interesting thing before everyone else finishes it off.

Yoru looks at the dead body and then at Yasutora and Allen. "So much for being the first person to get past the ghosts."

<<OOC>> Green Cove says "Isn't it the sort of thing every little girl stuck on a deserted island dreams of?"

Yasutora frowns. "That does not seem well.

<<OOC>> Leti says "I never did pick a time. I'm going to say it's late afternoon - 4 o'clock or so. So you have about 4-5 hours until sunset."

"Did he?" Allen wonders, looking the corpse over, and the bloodstains. "What did the ghosts do with those they attacked?"

<<OOC>> Allen says "Any signs that the stains are in a pattern, and is the corpse at all familiar?"

Yasutora looks at the others. "Perhaps we should move... quickly." He frowns, and begins to trudge inwards, stopping only to check the corpse. "They burnt them, I thought?"

Yoru smirks as he looks at Yasutora. "Is that because of the dead body or the giant glowing arrow you left in the sky saying, 'Look here!'?"

Yasutora blinks at Yoru. Then at himself. Then up. "Oh. Perhaps with -more- hurry. Shall I burn the corpse?"

Yoru wanders closer to the body and investigates it as best he can without touching the body. "If you think it best."

<<OOC>> Leti says "Nothing familiar about him at all, Allen. It looks like he was skewered through the belly, and collapsed only after the spike was removed; from the placement of the stains, that was after his death."

<<OOC>> Leti says "It does seem, however, that he died right there."

Yoru has a second thought and holds up a hand to forestall Yasutora. "Wait."

Yoru says "If others come to investigate your little display, this dead body might persuade them not to investigate any further into the tomb. That could help us do our own investigating without extra... complications."

Yasutora pauses midway stretching towards the corpse?

Yasutora frowns. "But his soul. It needs to be passed on."

To soothe Yasutora, Yoru adds, "We can get him on the way out however."

Yasutora grumbles a bit inside his armor. He looks at Allen, Yoru, and Green Cove. "Shall we begin, then?"

<<OOC>> Leti says "Green Cove, when you get back to the tomb, the ghosts are gone, there's an opening in the side, and Yasutora's anima is spilling out the doorway."

Yoru reaches out to pat Yasutora as close to the shoulder as he can. "I'm sorry for the need, but from the looks of things we will need as few extra complications as we can afford."

Green Cove strides briskly in through the opening. That suggests 'interesting', yes.

Yasutora nods gravely to Yoru, the armor glinting. He trudges forward, footsteps echoing as the orichalcum strikes stone and his aura illuminates the inner tomb, slightly behind Green Cove.

<<OOC>> Leti says "In the tomb are Yasutora, Yoru, Allen, Ten River Wind, and a dead body. Yasutora is just reaching for the jade door?"

<<OOC>> Leti says "And now Green Cove!"

Green Cove glances over at the body as she enters. "So who are we killing?"

<<OOC>> Leti says "...You will notice, like they did, that when you enter the tomb, it's a Shadowland. Floating Leaf also notices, and warns you, sticking closer, and lashing her tail uncomfortably."

"He was already here, and dead, when we arrived," Allen says quietly to GC.

Yoru lets Yasutora go for the jade door first, since he is the most able to handle anything that might come through it. Yoru glances back as Green Cove speaks up. "Welcome back. Did we become interesting again?"

Green Cove blinks at Allen. "That's not much fun," she says. She smiles toothily at Yoru. "You became very shiny. It suggested interest was happening."

Yoru chuckles and jerks a thumb at Yasutora. "He became shiny and yes, interesting happened."

Yasutora [to Leti]: Triggering Essence Sight.

The door does not budge under Yasutora's hand at normal door-opening force; it seems to be sealed.

Yasutora inspects the door carefully, looking for runes of opening or other sigils that would give a clue as to how to make it through the portal. He'd rather not have to try and break it.

<<OOC>> Leti idly wonders if anyone would consider trying to close the entrance to the tomb to delay any would-be pursuit.

<<OOC>> Green Cove does not think it's going to spring to her PC's mind...

<<OOC>> Yoru says "If it could be closed I would indeed think of that."

<<OOC>> Leti says "Per+Occult for anyone investigating the door. Or Lore. Your choice."

<<OOC>> Leti says "The white jade door, not the stone-door where you all came in."

Yoru lets Yasutora work with the jade door and he wanders back to the other one to close it off. "I guess Shai will just have to miss out on this one or find her own way in..." he comments quietly.

<<DICE>> Allen rolls 6 dice: <4 7 8 9 9 9> for 5 successes.

<<OOC>> Leti says "Yoru, you can probably find a similar control pad to the one Allen triggered earlier to open it; there's a place to put a hand on a shallow brick near the entrance."

<<DICE>> Yasutora rolls 4 dice: <1 5 7 8> for 2 successes.

<<OOC>> Yoru shall put his hand on the control thingie then.

<<OOC>> Leti says "Hrm, give me an Int+Lore roll, Yoru. :)"

<<DICE>> Yoru rolls 6 dice: <1 1 2 6 6 8> for 1 success.

<<OOC>> Green Cove says "Oh! She...wasn't really examining the door. But if it's just for looking at it, will roll."

<<OOC>> Leti says "All right. Nothing special. As with Allen, you feel the stone pulling Essence out of you; you can yank your hand off to stop it before it gets a mote, but if not, the door will close after drawing two motes."

<<OOC>> Leti says "Your call, Green Cove. :)"

The room does not actually darken when the entrance to the outside closes.

<<DICE>> Green Cove rolls 9 dice: <1 1 2 3 3 4 5 7 10> for 3 successes.

<<OOC>> Leti says "Yasutora is stumped, but both Green Cove and Allen might pick out symbols not on the door itself but on the lintel; they would probably be easier to see - maybe were, once, if the change in the walls came with the shadowland - on lighter stone where the shadows would be more pronounced. Allen is the one who makes the connection between the stylized symbols and the door, rather than just decorations; a series of vertical and horizontal lines across the top appears to be some kind of code."

<<OOC>> Yasutora could try the Universal Lockpick.

<<OOC>> Yoru says "But it is so pretty!"

Yasutora frowns at the door and turns to his companions. "I would rather not desecrate the tomb more than it already has been... Can any of you make out the entry method?"

Allen moves closer to the door, hand raising to trace the symbols and lines, a few inches away from actually touching it. "A code. . . I am trying, Yasutora. The symbols and these lines are linked, but I am still trying to decipher. . ."

Green Cove shakes her head, and wanders off to peer more closely at the corpse.

Yoru, once the door to outside is closed, wanders back to the jade door and takes a look at it too, if he can without getting in Allen's way.

<<DICE>> Yoru rolls 6 dice: <1 3 3 4 7 10> for 3 successes.

Leti [to Allen]: The horizontal lines are shorter, and less deeply engraved; the implication is that the vertical lines were more important to whoever marked them, and the dashes were to keep the vertical ones separated.

Leti [to Yoru]: You'll see the lines as well, and given that Allen has said he thinks they're a code, you can try to decipher it as well. (Same goes for the rest of you.)

Yasutora gently presses his fingers against some of the lines, horizontal and vertical, to see if they're movable tiles or touch-activated.

Yoru peers at the lines as well and hrms softly.

<<OOC>> Leti says "The stones seem solid an immobile beneath Yasutora's armored fingers."

<<OOC>> Leti says "For further description, to both sides of the door are old versions of the symbols of the five elements - basically the same as the Realm uses today, with only style differences in presentation - and ancient warding symbols, which have changed much more since the first age, but not so much as to be totally unrecognizable."

Yasutora [to Leti]: Do they have any unusual Essence-patterns?

<<OOC>> Yoru says "Is there any similarity between the scripts to the sides and the 'code'?"

<<OOC>> Leti says "They seem to be woven in to the Essence that seals the edges of the door. (It's worth noting that it doesn't cross the center of the door, and the jade could probably be smashed, but we all knew that's a possibility.)"

Leti says, "The lines seem to be approximately the same width, and the vertical lines of the code are carved as deep. As mentioned before, the horizontal ones are much less bold."

<<OOC>> Yoru says "Does it look like the important lines are pointing at certain glyphs/anything?"

Yasutora frowns a bit and says the name of each Immaculate Dragon in turn as he looks at the old symbols-- Hesiesh, Pasiap, Danaa'd, Sextes Jylis, and the fifth one his player can't remember. Looking for resonance.

Leti [to Yasutora]: As expected, the door has more resonance with Pasiap - being white jade - than any of the others, but none of names causes it to open.

<<OOC>> Leti says "It's clear that the vertical lines are significant - counting something, somethings, perhaps, separated into groups as they are."

<<OOC>> Leti says "They do not point to anything, however."

<<OOC>> Yasutora says "What numbers are the groups in?"

<<OOC>> Leti says "||||-||-|-|||-|||||"

<<OOC>> Yoru says "4-2-1-3-5"

Yasutora [to Leti]: Reaally. What order are the elemental signs in?

"Perhaps say them in the order of the numbers?" Allen suggests to Yasutora, "Or perhaps touch them in that sequence. . ."

Yoru hrms and nods in agreement with Allen.

<<OOC>> Yasutora says "Wait, what do the lines look like again? Not just the vertical ones, but the whole thing that Allen pointed out?"

<<OOC>> Leti says "Across the top of the door is the line pattern; down the sides are the symbols mentioned - the five elemental symbols interspersed with very old but still recognizable ward sigils."

<<OOC>> Leti says "From top to bottom, on the left, as looking from this side of the door, Wood, Fire, Earth, Air, Water."

<<OOC>> Yoru says "Is it the same on the other side?"

Yasutora tries Air-Fire-Wood-Earth-Water, touching each symbol in turn.

<<OOC>> Leti says "From top to bottom, on the right: Wood, Earth, Water, Fire, Air"

<<OOC>> Leti says "The essence in the symbols sparks, visible even to those without Essence sight, as Yasutora touches them."

Yoru will try Fire-Earth-Wood-Water-Air on the other side.

The Essence sparks again, and then fades away; both touching the door will regain 5 motes, and Yasutora can no longer see the Essence sealing the white jade to the red stones.

Yasutora pushes gently on the door again, trying to open it.

The door swings smoothly in at Yasutora's push. The room beyond would be pitch black if Yasutora wasn't doing his best lantern impression, but he is; beyond is a room built with the same stone, the deep red of pooled blood. This appears to be the entrance to the true tomb, built to placate the spirit of a long-dead Solar, with the outer room simply wards. Rich tapestries bleach on the walls as they are exposed to Yasutora's anima, and begin to crumble at the stirring of the air. The whole of the room is given over to a staircase which winds down into black depths; the smell of decay and soured time rises stale from the shaft.

<<OOC>> Yoru says "So what is TRW doing?"

Green Cove peers around Yasutora, having finally decided the corpse was uninteresting. "Are we looking for something?" she asks hopefully, shifting from one foot to another.

<<OOC>> Leti says "Looking distinctly uncomfortable with the whole thing. Is he armed, by the way?"

<<OOC>> Yasutora says "Nope! But Yasutora has been eagerly explaining brawling to him as well as ethics if he didn't know."

Yasutora nods gravely. "Now that the defenses are down, we must find out whose tomb this is and return their burial gear to them, lest tomb-robbers take it.

<<OOC>> Yasutora says "Actually, nah, he's oathbound, right?"

<<OOC>> Yasutora says "If so, he does have weapons."

<<OOC>> Leti says "Yeah, he is."

Green Cove rubs her nose. "...so we're not taking it for ourselves?"

Yoru will not mention that the tomb would've been safe if Yasutora had left well enough alone. "Who knows, it might even be one of ours..."

Yasutora says "Only if it belongs to one of us."

Yasutora begins to march forward into the depths of the tomb, his sunshine aura brilliantly glaring the long-dark tomb as he heads towards the stairs -- and down.

Green Cove thinks this over for a minute, one hand resting on Floating Leaf's collar. "If we have it, it belongs to us," she says.

Allen will take up the rear, to guard behind.

Yasutora shakes his head quietly. "This is where a Solar was laid to rest after the betrayal of the Usurpation. Whoever that Solar is now, owns these; unless they have been surrendered to darkness.

Yasutora is not happy about the shadow-landsness.

"But if they've been surrendered, then it's ours, right?" Green Cove says.

Yoru will let Allen take up the rear and follows Yasutora silently.

Yasutora nods. "Until such time as they can be purified and have a body at the same time.

"Purified?" Allen asks from the back of the group, voice perhaps a touch rougher than normal.

Green Cove wrinkles her nose, and steps forward into the dark room. "If they're not using it, we should be able to," she says. "Where do we go in here?"

Yasutora says "I suppose we can use it until we give it back. But it is theirs."

The stairs wind down, with rich ornament on the landings for what would be about five stories in any normal building. AT that point, though the stairs appear to continue down, they change to rough granite - no less red - and a wide landing opens out through an archway into another room.

Yasutora sweeps his helmet around letting the glow and the essence sight scan the area.

You paged Allen with 'At the back of the group, you feel the same creeping sense of undeadness that you first felt, though now without direction, tangled with the unpleasant aura of the shadowland, almost suffocating. The feeling of eyes on your back never stops, though nothing appears to be behind you at any point.'.

Yoru peers suspiciously into the room.

Allen peers over his shoulder again, as he has been doing frequently since they began to descend the stairs, and then faces the front again, expression decidedly unsettled. His black widow razors have responded to his unease and gleam in the light of Yasutora' anima.

Yasutora turns back to Allen and nods. "Brought back into the light. One way or another."

Green Cove glides down the stairs as gracefully as royalty, one hand holding her cloak close around her and the other lightly resting on Floating Leaf's collar. "It looks nicer on the inside than the outside. I would have been more interested in it earlier if they put these sorts of decorations out there too."

"There is more than one way?" Allen peers at the doorway also.

Yoru raises an eyebrow at Green Cove's comment and then just shakes his head. "You have odd tastes in decor."

Yasutora nods. "I certainly hope so. The only way my shard remembers to purify an Infernal is to kill the host. Over several generations."

The room was once sparsely but richly furnished, with a great sarcophagus in the center of the open area, and precious objects of art dotting the sides. These are smashed and slashed as if a furious battle took place, and the coffin itself lies open, with a handful of its brittle bones scattered across the floor. Weapon racks which once held grave goods are empty and in many cases broken in a shambles.

In short, the grave has been thoroughly desecrated, though the tomb seemed to be sealed.

Yasutora growls. A deep, thunderous noise raising from the bottom of his stomach, up through his throat and out through the echoing speakers of his armor as rage comes upon him.

You paged Allen with 'And you? Feel cold in the pit of your stomach; somehow you know you're looking at your grave.'.

<<OOC>> Yasutora says "Unless this is a SECOND false tomb, of course."

Yoru is grim as he looks around the looted tomb. "Someone... or something has been here before us."

Allen stumbles a little, and reaches out to steady himself on the wall.

<<OOC>> Leti [to Yasutora]: Such suspicion!

Yasutora [to Leti]: If they've desecrated the tomb, Yasutora's pacifism will start to go away. :P If it's false, he'll just be kind of mad at the designers.

"This-" Allen stops, clears his throat, tries again. "This was mine."

Yasutora stomps forward a bit, then pauses, anger temporarily pushed aside by concern before he hears Allen's words. "... And they did this to you?" he asks in as soft a voice as he can, while he kneels beside the older boy.

Green Cove looks at Allen. "In that case," she says, brightly, "we can take anything in here. It's already yours." She looks back over the tomb, frowning again. "Not that I see much worth taking."

Yoru stares at Allen with sadness lining his features. "I'm sorry... do you remember anything of *waves around at the wreckage* this?"

"Apparently," Allen says, voice a bit dazed. "Though who 'they' is. . . I don't know."'.

Yasutora places a gentle, if huge gauntleted hand on Allen's shoulder.

Allen shakes his head at Yoru. "Nothing." He nods to Yasutora. "Thank you, brother. I will be fine. It's just disconcerting."

<<OOC>> Leti says "Everyone give me Per+Awa?"

<<OOC>> Leti goes digging for TRW's sheet.

<<DICE>> Yoru rolls 8 dice: <4 4 4 5 5 9 10 10> for 5 successes.

<<DICE>> Yasutora rolls 6 dice: <1 1 3 6 8 10> for 3 successes.

<<OOC>> Leti says "No visibility bonus, BTW."

<<DICE>> Leti rolls 6 dice: <2 2 4 5 8 8> for 2 successes.

<<DICE>> Allen rolls 5 dice: <1 1 3 7 10> for 3 successes.

<<DICE>> Green Cove rolls 8 dice: <1 3 3 4 5 6 8 9> for 2 successes.

<<OOC>> Leti says "Everyone will notice that something in the acoustics, or the drafts has changed, though only Yoru was paying enough attention to be sure of what the change is. Yoru, the airflow through the room has reversed; earlier, air was coming down the stairs the way you came, but now it blows up from beneath and drifts lethargically around the room as if the upper door is closed or the passage obstructed. The stale smell of decay is stronger, and can not be coming from the remains of Allen's First Age body, as all flesh there has long since passed into dust and even the bones are on the verge of crumbling."

Yasutora [to Leti]: Was there area further down the stairs?

Yoru hrms and peers back at the stairway. "I think the door has been closed. The air is coming from the other way now... which is bringing with it such a lovely smell." He wrinkles his nose.

<<OOC>> Leti says "The stairs continued down, changing from the smooth, polished stone that makes up the upper staircase to rough-hewn granite (though of the same blood-red hue as the rest of the shadowland building). What was beneath was not visible."

Green Cove moves further down the staircase. "Maybe whoever did this died down below, and your weapons are still here, Allen. That would be handy."

Yasutora rises to his feet. "Would you like me to perform final rites for your old body," he asks quietly. "I suspect there is more-- and further in. Though you may wish to inspect this area to see if there is anything you would need here. Or want."

Yoru says "Too handy."

"This place is a Shadowland," Allen says, tersely, pushing himself off the wall and standing ready. "And the feel of the unclean that I felt from outside remains, though. . . I cannot tell from where. It's lost, in the general feel of this place." He nods to Yasutora. "I will look, and . . . if you would, please, once I have looked."

Floating Leaf hangs close on Green Cove's heels, and cautions her mistress; this is a bad place, she says, and the air is foul with death. It's nothing Green Cove can't easily tell herself, of course.

Yasutora bows his helm to Allen, and waits quietly for the Dawn's word.

Allen moves around the tomb, looking for things that may have been missed by the one who desecrated his burial spot.

Green Cove scritches the tiger comfortingly. Apparently places far from home are full of wrongness and death and undeath. It figures.

Whoever smashed everything was thorough; anything that remains is broken, and not a trace of the magical materials appears to be present - until Allen looks down into the open sarcophagus. Among the broken bones that once were his, a flower formed of a cold black metal rests; the bloom is formed like a lotus, and the outer edges of the petals are gilded with orichalcum. The black metal has an unpleasant, sickly sheen.

<<OOC>> Leti says "Is GC still proceeding down the stairs alone?"

<<OOC>> Leti says "Almost alone; Floating Leaf, of course, is with her."

Allen picks the bloom up gingerly by the orichalcum edges. "Yasutora, do you know what this might be?"

<<OOC>> Leti wonders if Essence Sight makes the tortured souls beaten into the metal visible. >_>

Yasutora [to Leti]: ... Probably, yes.

<<OOC>> Leti rather thought.

Yasutora [to Leti]: Should I make a Lore or Occult roll to see if I know what it is specifically? :P

Yoru wanders slowly around the desecrated tomb.

<<OOC>> Green Cove says "Er, yes, sorry."

<<OOC>> Green Cove says "Traipsing off merrily and all."

<<OOC>> Leti says "Ah. You can give me a roll. So can Allen, if he wants."

<<DICE>> Yasutora rolls 4 dice: <2 2 3 9> for 1 success.

<<OOC>> Allen says "What and what?"

<<OOC>> Leti says "Int+Occult/Lore."

<<DICE>> Allen rolls 6 dice: <4 6 7 8 9 10> for 5 successes.

<<OOC>> Yasutora says "... Memory is on your side, dude."

<<OOC>> Leti says "Holy crap. Allen, quit with the Occult rolls."

The stairs wind down; after two or three twists, even the light of Yasutora's anima (now fading slowly) wouldn't be enough to see by if Green Cove was much bothered by the dark. She has a cat's eyes, though - like her tiger companion, and the dark doesn't hinder her. She has gone maybe another three twists when the hieroglyphic carvings on the wall begin; there are no words in any tongue Green Cove can read - no Old Realm runes or kanji - but they appear to be telling stories of death. Heroic death, tragic death, vast deaths of disease, little tiny heart breaking deaths of children. They follow the stairs down, telling their stories of the loss and sorrow and futility of life.

Yoru glances around, "Where did Green Cove go?" He looks at the two inspecting the weird flower thing questioningly.

<<OOC>> Leti says "Okay, NOW the flower:"

Green Cove moves onward, deeper and further down. She looks from side to side at the carvings now and then, but only presses her lips firmly together and makes no comment to Floating Leaf about whatever she might be thinking on the matter.

<<OOC>> Leti says "As far as Allen can tell, the flower is simply a particularly ...macabre... object d'arte, with no Essence bound within. The orichalcum tracery over the edges of the petals, however, awakens to his Essence. Once, this was a ring he wore, and despite the fact it has been reshaped, it still holds the power it once did as a reservoir of dreams, though it seems more fragile now."

Yasutora reacts with revulsion, stepping back. "Soulsteel. Forged from the metals of the Abyss itself, with the tormented souls of dead mortals trapped therein. I ... know nothing more."

Yoru, getting no response from the rest of his circle, heads towards the stairway down and calls out, "Green Cove." He will then wait a moment for any response.

Ten River Wind eyes the scattering Solars uneasily. Being down in this place is bad enough in the company of others, but if they're all going to go their separate ways...

Yasutora blinks, and looks around. "Green Cove?" he calls out. "Where are you?"

"The orichalcum around the edges . . . it used to be a ring of mine," Allen says quietly, still holding the flower, careful not to touch the soulsteel. "This is all that remains." He drops the flower into a pouch. "Please, brother, do what you may." He walks back to the staircase. "Did she go on ahead?"

<<OOC>> Green Cove assumes she can hear the people calling?

<<OOC>> Leti says "Yeah."

Yoru replies simply, "I do not know."

Green Cove pauses on the stairway, and searches for a suitable response. She finally calls back up, "Has something interesting appeared up there?"

Yoru rolls his eyes and calls out down the stairway. "Come back here please. This is not a place to split up."

Floating Leaf flattens her ears to her head and glares down into the darkness warily. as Green Cove's voice echoes back up the stairs, but is swallowed beneath her by the darkness ahead.

Yasutora shakes off his revulsion, and kneels beside Allen's former body. He begins to pray quietly to the Unconquered Sun, asking for the Higher and Lower souls of the past life of his circlemate to be passed on-- and forgiven for the sins of the First Age and the taint of Soulsteel. With a touch, golden fire lights from his hand to consume the faded remnants.

<<OOC>> Leti says "The remaining bones flare briefly, and crumble into ash and dust."

Green Cove runs a finger along a few of the hieroglyphs on the walls. "Don't be afraid," she tells Floating Leaf quietly. "If anything nasty should appear, I'll kill it." And then heads back up the stairs towards the others.

The stone feels cold as ice, despite the fact the passageway isn't that chill; Floating Leaf keeps her ears down teeth bared, backing up the stairs like she's unwilling to turn her back on the shadows.

Green Cove slows down so as not to outpace the tiger. If Leaf wishes to move backwards all the way up the stairs, she will not object.

Yoru opens his mouth to reply to Green Cove but shuts it instead. Shouting down a stairwell is no way to hold a conversation. He looks back at the others. "Shall we go down to meet her, or is there more to do here?"

Leti says, "As Floating Leaf and Green Cove proceed up, they can hear, from far down the stairs, a quiet rustling, or a dull shuffling. Cloth on cloth, or flesh on stone, perhaps."

Ten River Wind eyes the staircase dubiously, with a "We're not really going down THERE, are we," look on his face, though he keeps his mouth shut.

"We should meet her, I think. It's dangerous, here. She shouldn't be alone." Allen starts down the stairs without waiting for the others.

Yasutora cracks his knuckles, the SNAP, SNAP CRUNCH of the orichalcum echoing in the dark tomb. He gives a bemused (if invisible behind his helm) look and says, as the glow shimmers around him, "Courage gives strength." And then he marches down.

Allen catches up with GC at about the point where the engraved murals begin.

Yoru nods in agreement with Allen. "It's his resting place." he motions for Ten River Wind to go first and he will take up the rear this time.

Green Cove glances back over her shoulder. "Oh," she says. "Maybe it is interesting there." She adds to Leaf, in a considerate voice, "If you would rather wait at the top of the stairs, you may." She looks to Allen. "Did you hear that?"

<<OOC>> Leti says "As does Yasutora. And Ten River Wind, who damn well isn't going to be left behind."

<<OOC>> Green Cove hee. Poor TRW.

<<OOC>> Allen says "TRW . o O (Do all Solars have a DEATH WISH?)"

<<OOC>> Yasutora says "What were the murals of again?"

<<OOC>> Leti says "Floating Leaf is god-blooded, and powerful for such, but not an Exalt of any kind. TRW is an undertrained Outcaste DB. What's reckless to the four of you is ...well. =P"

<<OOC>> Leti says "They're stories of deaths. Single deaths, mass deaths, tragic deaths, heroic deaths. The deaths of populations to plague or war, the heart breaking tiny deaths of children."

<<OOC>> Leti says "Stories of death and the futility of life."

<<OOC>> Leti says "They bear no stylistic resemblance to the rest of the tomb's decorations - and Immaculate art is aniconic."

<<OOC>> Leti says "...I think Shogunate Immaculate art was as well, right?"

Yasutora closes his eyes within the Unyielding Bastion and whispers a quiet prayer of hope, constant, faithful, and simple, speaking it more even as he opens his eyes and walks further in.

<<OOC>> Yasutora says "I don't know; it was less religious until post-Great Contagion."

<<OOC>> Leti is pretty sure the shogunate era did the aniconic thing, too, but.

Yoru grimaces at the writing on the wall. It can't be good.

<<OOC>> Yasutora says "In yours it can! ^_^"

Leaf informs Green Cove in no uncertain terms that if Green Cove thinks she's going to leave her down here to get lost in the dark with these other lumbering two-leggers, she's wrong; Floating Leaf has to take care of Green Cove, after all.

<<OOC>> Leti says "At any rate, the carvings on the walls are distinctly not typical for the purported builders of the tomb."

<<OOC>> Leti says "Even if the iconic nature of the images wasn't a telltale, the subject matter is. Typically speaking, the Usurpation was not a time when the DBs were obsessed with love of death. :p"

Green Cove drops to her knees to hug Floating Leaf for a moment. "You're exceedingly brave," she says. "We'll stay close to the others."

Yasutora says "I am not sure, but I believe that we are passing out of the Shadowlands and into the underworld, or..."

Yoru mutters, "Wonderful.'

<<OOC>> Leti notes that typically, you can only do so at night, but...

<<OOC>> Green Cove says "...yes, GC is mostly sticking with the group so that her tiger doesn't get too nervous. Hey, however works, right?"

Yasutora takes a look at the murals, to see if they're made of the dark ore that is forged into soulsteel.

<<OOC>> Leti says "The walls have faded to almost black with just a hint of red hue to their shadowy surface - but they still seem to be rough granite, apart from the color."

Yasutora is somewhat relieved. "Well, at least we are not approaching the Labyrinth of the Abyss itself. I fear that whatever came into the tomb-- it must not have that which was yours, my brother.

<<OOC>> Leti says "The shuffling from below is louder, and all can hear it."

Yoru pauses and glances behind them. Hard for him to see past Yasutora to the front.

"What entered . . . but from what way did it enter?" Allen moves to the front of the group. "What I felt - it is likely below."

<<OOC>> Allen says "Fivefold Bulwark Stance going up, since I doubt it was still up from the fight with the ghosts. Personal Essence."

<<OOC>> Yoru puts up Ebon Shadow. 5 personal

Green Cove rises to her feet again, and says, "You hear that now?"

<<OOC>> Leti says "Aren't you all still going down now?"

<<OOC>> Allen says "I thought so? XD"

<<OOC>> Yasutora says "Do I have time to do 2 Charms?"

<<OOC>> Leti says "Yes."

Green Cove pulls Snake Form on, moving more quickly downward.

<<OOC>> Leti says "Any other Charms? GC, your Form Charm?"

<<OOC>> Leti says "Ah."

<<OOC>> Leti will give GC time to put up the other scenelong she has too, if she wants.

<<OOC>> Allen says ". . yeah, yeah, WinAmp, go ahead, pull "Passage." Very funny."

Yasutora 's aura blazes forth once more, the massiveness of the Imperial Mountain unfolding from his body in two swift pulses of energy. It flickers in and out, surrounding the impurity of the tainted place with the holy navel of creation, massive veins of orichalcum and jade running through the purity of Mount Meru. As it ascends, the mountain and Yasutora and the Unyielding Bastion of the Tower of the Sun all become one, merging into a single whole, suffused with the impregnable might of a Solar prepared for holy war.

<<OOC>> Yasutora says "Activating Orichalcum Body Meditation and Eight Steel Soul Harmony, 16e/2wp, from peripheral."

<<OOC>> Leti reminds everyone they get half regen in a shadowland during the day, and if it turns night on them...

Yasutora cricks "his" neck, the Unyielding Bastion moving like a body of Orichalcum and Jade. "Inwards, then. There is blasphemy to expunge."

<<OOC>> Yoru says "If it turns night, that's when the fun begins?"

The stairs finally end, or at least pause, opening onto a low room. The dimming light of Yasutora's anima - still bright, but no longer the blazing fury it was - lights a low ceilinged room which bears no small resemblance to a mass grave, and it is from here the smell seems to be coming. A tangled pile of limbs and torsos, heads and bodies piled casually on top of each other rests in an indentation in the floor - no way to tell how deep. The bodies on top seem recently killed, though none are so fresh as to be still bleeding. Further down, the signs of rot begin to take hold.

It is also from here that the shuffling, rustling noise seems to be coming, as all the corpses move slowly, writhing in their pile. The movement speeds up as Yasutora's brilliant anima washes across them.

Yoru says "What in the blazes..."

Green Cove wrinkles her nose. The further she gets from home, the more the things she needs to kill are already somewhat dead, and smell odd, or drop pieces off themselves when they move. No wonder most people prefer to stay at home. The life of a proper servant of the Unconquered Sun is indeed a difficult one.

Floating Leaf hisses, her claws scraping the earth as she watches the abomination.

Yasutora pounds his huge smashfist against the front of his tower shield, letting a resounding CLANG run out for it. "Let us do war upon them," he rumbles.

<<OOC>> Leti says "Okay! We're done here. Thanks for the game, and I hope everyone enjoyed and is at least mildly creeped. ^^ 4xp!"