A Rescue Mission (& the End of Maximilian Wolfe)

Riven (LRRiven Resident): The mist is as thick as it has been, swirling around the island in its eerie way. Today is the day - The entrance to the tunnels has been found through the hospital, but also the cave entrance on the water has as well. One way in may draw more attention then the other.

You are prepared - you have planned this. Today is the day that Hunter gets set free and Max pays for daring to touch one of the family!

Please state how you are prepared in your first posts and work out which way you intend to enter by.

Naoki Sato had kept the use of his mechanical arm, its facilitation in the use of his blood magic instrumental. It hummed with the power of the hermetic sigils carved into the metal, lines connecting the kanji that stirred up his blood. What most of Seiiki would consider 'prayer paper charms' were wrapped around his other arm, all inscribed with the command phrases he used for his necromantic spells, already slick with his blood, readied for him to plaster onto what corpses he'd find in the event they would be useful.

He lingered by the trees near the entrance to Eumenides, awaiting the arrival of the three siblings that came to bring the wrath wrought by daring to harm one of their own. The beasts Dinah had summoned had not exactly been told to leave HIS blood be, even if Hunter himself was safe... so Sato had to be careful. He was skulking and sneaky, not one to venture out into the open where ghasts and other such things might mistake him for a snack until one of the three could mark him as 'friend' not food.

Dinah (dollihead Resident) was traveling light today. Most of her reagents were at home, but she did carry two things with her. Her ritual blade, and the abused, twisted wax poppet that she had created of Maximilian. Still studded with stones and splinters, covered in blood and malformed from her attentions, she curled it tight against herself.

She had made certain that everyone's wards were strengthened against magical damage. Physical damage was something that could be worked around easily enough.

Her blade wasn't empowered as a sacrificial knife tonight, but as a wand; something to help direct and control the beasts of the night that they had called forth to help them hunt for their littlest brother, and act as a focus for her spells.

The ghasts would receive their amended orders; Stay by the water tunnel entrance. STOP and TRAP anyone that tries to escape. Do not kill them just yet.

oh, but she was furious.

The call to enable access via Eumenedes would likely be the access point that would be least expected, and so that

Dinah (dollihead Resident):  was where dinah wanted to be. Wearing a hooded cloak to hide the worst of her mutations from the prying eyes of the public, she moved through the fog on footsteps of empty air. Ready for blood.

Drystan Windgrace (Jacksonn Shepherd) walked a few steps behind the others, head looking down at the cobblestone as his boots peeked out from under his long robes as he made his way towards Eumenides. He wore the vial around his neck, various rings that had protection sigils in them, and hidden away inside the upper vest portion of his 'raiments' were several small vials and bottles, and small sacks with various dusts and premixed reagents he might possibly need. In fact, one of them, he was pulling out from his hidden chest pocket now, pulling the small bag open from the strings. dipping a fingertip inside to daub the iridescent offwhite powder on it, and murmur out to his sister, "My Dear, ibn ghazi?" He had already ingested several other drugs and arcane powders on the way over, to enhance himself and be able to see the bends in time, to reach closer to his patron for power. Also under the folds of his robes was a belt with his revolver hung on it, tied down against his thigh. It was a last resort sort of thing now, but some of these

Drystan Windgrace (Jacksonn Shepherd):  would be very much humans, and if need be..it was there. Otherwise he had no blades, no 'weapons' other than himself. Around his wrist was the protective band, He looked over at his brother. "And you?" The powder assisted in ritual times, but he wasn't sure if Dorian was simply buzzing off his adrenaline or not.

Lance is most certainly present. He's not wearing anything special, though he most likely has been briefed at least a little on the proceedings regarding Max and the effort to retrieve Hunter. Still. Weapons? Disguises? As much as he hated to admit that he was beginning to come around to that little voice inside his head, such things were quite clearly for those who had no better way of killing or hiding. No, instead all he bears is his usual garb - made to be easy to clean in case of emergency - and the pale serpent ever coiled around his neck.

Dorian (Alexandros Lycomedes) enjoyed the old feeling of donning armour. It put him in a certain mindframe for a particular sort of duty. For a specific and singular purpose that brought the middlest Windgrace's mind and body into harmony, the same way dancing did. Or varied other physical pursuits he spent his time undertaking, and would again redouble when the fog fell and the water was available to him once more. It took experience to move in tactically placed plate upon mail without just clanging around like an automaton. The golden stuff was not weighty to it's wearer, and the magic fused into it only made the heart beneath more stoutly ready to take on whatever might be ahead. Strapped to his hip as an afterthought was his well-maintained saber.

There was no hiding that he was dressed strangely for the times, but for his presently untapped ability to call upon shadows to obscure him. This was why his fiery eyes were blazing from one edge of his peripheral view to the other. Thankfully there were blessed few to greet or look

Dorian (Alexandros Lycomedes):  twice at him on the walk to the sanatorium at the hour it was undertaken. He'd reply, turning to his brother as he did, casting his voice quietly through the mist-thickened air, "I think I am better off without."

Riven (LRRiven Resident): Night time. It's eerily quiet. The hospital hasn’t been the friendliest of places to many but lately that seems to have just gotten worse. Many of its occupants have experienced nightmares, or gotten sick with something beyond what they came here to treat. There is a sickly feel about the place, a corrupted aura that seems to have snuck in within the past couple weeks.

Some people are relatively unaffected. Niles hasn’t experienced any of the horrors that have settled into the place - but then, he has tasted Dinah’s blood and would be considered hers. Other doctors have not been so blessed. Some have taken sick time, staying away from the facility and leaving their patients to be tended by others. Those who remain.. Well, it might be hard to tell the difference between patient and nurse, doctor and orderly. They all carry the same look. Many are sick, and none of them are happy.

Niles had located the entrance to the caves for you. His note had indicated that it's painfully obvious when you see it,

Riven (LRRiven Resident):  but it is located in an area that not many people visit. He surely hadn’t. A door under the stairs leads down to a boiler room and a rusted metal door from there leads to tunnels. The door is kept locked, but that shouldn’t pose much of an issue for you. Right?

At night there are less people moving about. Patients are fitfully sleeping though as the beasties are pulled away, many may be sleeping much easier tonight than they have in weeks. There are no staff at the front desk but a murmur of conversation from the cafeteria indicates that some people are nearby. Down the hall that leads to the stairs, someone dressed like an orderly is looking over paperwork. He looks a bit green and has a wheeze to his breathing, a sway to his stance. Maybe /he/ should have called out sick. The lights are low everywhere but the main reception area.

Naoki Sato spotted Dinah first - or smelled the blood, rather. His eyes tracked the cloaked figure as she approached the asylum but he didn't move from his hiding spot nor did he call out. Seeing the other siblings and one Mr. Song close behind Sato finally budged, emerging from the trees to approach them on the cobblestones. "I ran into none of your beasts on the way here," he remarked to Dinah with a few clicks of the claw-like fingers of his metal arm. "Have they been recalled or are they busy elsewhere? It would be easier if I didn't have to avoid them."

Sharp eyes roamed over the the other three. He stared for a moment at Dorian's armor as if baffled at the idea of moving in so much metal but moved on without commenting to greet Lance with a nod. "Hope your toxin experiments have gone well so far," is all he said in greeting. Turning to the asylum proper he frowned as he scrutinized the windows. Sato had been kept in that place before and entering again was not a terribly pleasant prospect. "Would you like th

Naoki Sato  halls scouted? A homonculous could pass relatively unseen to check numbers and locations."

Dinah (dollihead Resident) nodded at Drystan's offer of the Powder and she bowed her head towards his hand for the powder to be dabbed to her eyes in it's proper place.

She curled her hand around the little wax dolly in her fingers, pricking it with the tip of one of her claws. It would be risky for her to use it here, risk putting herself down with something inflicted on him but she had wanted him to see it.

"be wary when we find maximilian" she said softly "if his personal ward remains, it will inflict what you do back onto you" she warned the men around her, blinking as the powder amplified her already progidous second-sight.

"If when we get there, there are any left alive, what do we think of giving them one chance to bend the knee and recant their ill-placed faith in the presence of their betters?"

Sato's greeting had her smiling beneath the hood, too many eyes and teeth gleaming. As he approached and mentioned her creatures, she reached her free hand to her mouth to nip the tip of her finger off and reach out to daub

Dinah (dollihead Resident):  it across his brow in a sigil, if he would let her.

"The ghast have been sent to the water tunnel to trap any who try to leave through the alternate exit. The horror remains skyborne. The night haunter...well. He will be doing as he wills, but he should keep away from us regardless. Do not let him see your eyes if you hear him whistling. Marked, you will be safer ."

Lance seems content to follow behind the others for the moment - indeed, the less he has to do the better. Which of course isn't to say that he's disinterested in being a functioning member of this team, just that... Okay, maybe he was being a little bit lazy. But he could be lazy! This wasn't his jurisdiction, and as far as he and Baihe were concerned, they're here as chaperones.  Reserve combatants at best. Besides, he's pretty sure that slowly filling the hospital with poisonous gas would - at the very least - make Dorian a bit more nauseous than thankful. Not to mention Dinah and Drystan's reactions. Also Niles. Niles might be upset about the indiscriminate killing. All of these on their own very good reasons to not do so, but together! Together they make a pretty good reason to not do so.

So instead, Lance simply shifts to gathering information for himself, gazing upwards and into the ceiling as his eyes shift to infrared light, searching for the telltale heat sources - or perhaps even lack thereof - in the

Lance  upper floors.

Drystan Windgrace (Jacksonn Shepherd) walked into the lobby as if he was meant to be there, pausing once inside to bush his sisters eyelids - at least two of them - with the powder. He nodded at his brother, and met eyes for a moment with Mr. Song. "I would offer, but I don't know how you'd ...react." He said softly, calmly. He then took his fingertip to his own eyelids, smearing the powder into the creases and then above his third eye as well. He cinched up the packet and slipped it back into his top. He blinked a few times, and gazed at Naoki, not giving him a word. Instead he simply looked him over, and flared his nostrils as he took a deep breath in, the tang of blood of all kinds swirling about the young man. 

Dorian (Alexandros Lycomedes) considered the Ibn Ghazi powder again, but recalled it being disorienting more than orienting. He'd rely on instincts and siblings to see anything he might miss if he didn't sense it himself. He would heed what the others said, but offer his opinion, "I think a chance to surrender is the generous thing to offer. We will have to live with these people on this island, though, which speaks against such generosity."

Sato got an upward nod of his blond head, and Lance a look over his shoulder and a smile of encouragement.

Drystan Windgrace (Jacksonn Shepherd) sighed and pressed his lips thinly together. His eyes searched the empty space in front of him nut in his mind, he was watching scenarios unfold, fast forward through time, playing out possibilities. One he seemed to come back to again and again. "One chance. They bend the Knee and serve us. That, or death. Make it quick and painless." He stated before closing his eyes and drawing himself up, folding his hands behind him.

Drystan Windgrace (Jacksonn Shepherd): ((rolled d10+3 psychics: (5)+3 = 8))

Riven (LRRiven Resident): The conversation in the cafeteria does not stop though as you linger in the reception area you will pick up bits and pieces from it. Someone is complaining about the scarcity of food on the island and how some people seem to have it when so many others do not. The other participant is making light of the situation and suggesting that the other could be inventive on how they procure food. Clearly one is attempting to cheer the other up - the clink of silverware on dishes suggests that the topic of conversation was inspired by what they are eating.

Around the corner, near the stairs, someone has a coughing fit.

As yet, the group is unchallenged. This may change.

Echo’s gaze goes up and he sees so many people in the rooms above. Many of the rooms house more than one bed and nearly all of them are filled. Even the sanitarium’s padded rooms have occupants. Smaller life forms skitter about the place: Rats. The place is infested with them.

Drystan’s vision can see a path through the hospital with little

Riven (LRRiven Resident):  or even no detection.Or they could draw more than they want. It all hinges on the orderly around the corner and how quietly they can move past the cafeteria. He can also see acolytes bending a knee - but some paths lead to Hunter gorging upon them. There are some scenarios where they serve, but how long and well they do fracture off into too many possibilities to comprehend at a glance.

Naoki Sato looked immediately to her finger as she pricked it, his eyes focused on the bead of red that grew at the puncture site. "I wonder if that applies to someone puppetting one of his men," he wondered when Dinah spoke of Max's personal protection. "Will the blowback hit the puppet or the puppeteer?" He quieted as she approached to smear the blood on his brow. A little flinch ran across his features as the blood seemed to collect into the Seiman still marked into his forehead, appearing as an inverted five-pointed star filled in with her blood. "...I'll keep that in mind," he said with a little nod of thanks that went unspoken otherwise.

He met Drystan's stare once he felt it on his skin. A simple tilt of his head was his reply to the bid to make the deaths of the acolytes quick and easy. He breathed a ghost of a sigh before turning back to the asylum's entrance area. Evidently he agreed with Dorian, who he met with another tip of his head. Walking over to Lance, he held out his metal hand for a little swirl

Naoki Sato  blood to run through the holes in it and onto the slick surface. "Your blood is still toxic?" he asked the butler. "Lend me some." And if Lance agreed, his blood wrapped around it and skittered across the floor as a centipede to deliver that toxin to the orderly down the hall with a vicious bite.

Lance looks over to Naoki for a moment - considering updating the man on the state of his entire body. Sure, it would probably behoove the other to be informed about the overall status of Lance's body and whether or not he should touch it at a moment's notice... But on the other hand, Lance is saving that information for a surprise. No one needs to know about the fact that Lance can PROBABLY kill you with a touch. So many people would stop talking to him. Or a breath. Actually, that latter part would probably make less people talk to him.

Instead, the man simply pulls off a glove, and proffers a hand to Baihe - bidding the serpent to sink her fangs into his finger. Once done, he extends his hand over the floor to let the crimson fluid fall from it and splatter over the ground. It has an almost rainbow-like sheen to it, as if Lance's blood was also some kind of oil.

"My everything is toxic," is all that Lance remarks.

ᴄᴀᴇʟ (helio5igma Resident): (( rolled 1d10+6 go go toxic blood bug: (6)+6 = 12 ))

Dinah (dollihead Resident) smiles sidelong at her brothers. One for mercy. one for not. She would at least give them the chance; not out of any sort of sense of respite or decency but because it still seethed beneath her skin that Maximilian wolfe the fucking pretender had cultists and she did not.

At Sato's question regarding the puppet, she hunched a shoulder in a shrug. "Honestly? I don't know. This will be the first time seeing it in action personally" she admitted. "Most wards I have used are less...reflective. it depends entirely on the composition of the spell and I can't tell that until I get to see it" she murmured, watching admiringly at Lance at his news that his everything is toxic.

"Let me try with the cafeteria" she said to the gentlemen around her and she drifted closer. No footfalls to alert them to her approach as she peered around  

<"Sleep."> was the command, whispered in a voice that was both male and female, human and inhuman.

Drystan Windgrace (Jacksonn Shepherd) allowed himself to unful into full fangs and claws, his skin swirling under the long sleeves and robe. "There is a possibility they will serve us well, If we are able to keep them in line. Hunter can rip apart as many of them as he'd like - his choice. But we give the opportunity to serve, and we will use it well." He flexed his fingers and watched as his sister tried her mind control on the ones in the cafeteria.

Dorian (Alexandros Lycomedes) did reach for shadows once inside the sanatorium to cover his clanking by, though the plate wasn't full. He walked  in a little pool of darkness he'd pull along with him to cover the gleam and clamor of him. It likely wouldn't help anyone on the edge of sanity, or nominally safeguarding those edges to see an otherworldly sort of knight walking by calm as anyone pleased. He didn't offer anything further on whether mercy was warranted. He was thinking about how many old families had gone over to help at the chance to bring the name Windgrace low. As best he could, when Di was doing her thing, he'd halt his motion so as to halt the noise that went along with it. He didn't argue further, just listened to his big brother make the magnanimous choice.

(@Dorian Windgrace (& Pandora) rolled 1d10 +3 for shadows: (6) +3 = 9))

Riven (LRRiven Resident): Lance and Sato make a good team. The blood snake is born and the ordely down the hall is way too sick to see it coming. He has a hand lifted to his chest and is rubbing it, sweat beading his forehead. He blinks as he sees something slithering toward him but he’s been dodgingrats lately so a snake? Not surprising. A foot is lifted to stomp on it .. but it isn’t a snake. And he gets bitten. There is the sound of a curse as he jumps back, a pained sound. Then a thump as he leans heavily against the wall.

Dinah’s efforts are not wasted. That one softly spoken command sneaks over the two in the other room. The conversation abruptly stops and there is a soft thump, almost simultaneous, as the two pass out over their food.

Dorian is the spookiest looking golden knight ever. Shadows trail off him like black flames, writhing around his form even as they obscure it. He is striking - anyone close by will likely have the indistinct image burned into their minds. If they see him.

The way is clear. There are no

Riven (LRRiven Resident):  other people nearby and that orderly? Is probably gonna die very badly shortly.

Naoki Sato had not touched the blood on the ground directly since Lance had been so kind as to plop it down there instead of on Sato's waiting hand. He opted not to recall that particular bit of lost fluid back to himself, letting it seep into the poor orderly's bite wound instead before releasing his control. He gave a nod of gratitude to Lance - or Baihe? Both probably. When he turned to the others again his brow raised at the sound of thumps from Dinah's efforts in the cafeteria. "Any more?" he asked and pressed onward without awaiting a reply - only to freeze up when he saw Dorian and his shadows moving by. Shadows emanating from a blonde person were a very particular image for Sato and he stood for a moment of hesitation before pushing himself to move forward again, heading for the stairs to listen for movement below. When looking to the siblings for further instruction he turned to Drystan, much easier for Sato to stare at than Dorian and his shadowy presence at the moment. It probably would have been easier t

Naoki Sato  ask for instruction aloud but instead he just stared. As one does.

Dinah (dollihead Resident) cocked her head to one side and listened. It was quiet enough that she heard them flump down into whatever muck they were eating and she poked a hand around the corner, the eye studying her two sleeping victims with amusement. Part of her was tempted to call the night haunter, to distract him with their nightmares but...he'd find them, soon enough.

She turned to look towards the others and she grinned, giving a nod towards them without reaching towards their minds.

"Clear" she drifted upwards, closer to the ceiling, nodding to the rest. Sato's temporary freeze caused her to cock her head to one side, and she hummed in thought.  A flick of her fingers pointed out the door they were to take; towards the door under the stairs, towards the boiler room.

Lance yet again follows the group further into the building, though one eagle eyed - or perhaps just unhealthily focused on Lance in the middle of a dangerous mission - would see him holding the injured finger between opposing thumb and forefinger. A brief application of Fleshcrafting, and the wound would no longer bleed. It would, after all, be beneficial to the party that Lance's toxic blood does not leave a trail.

Drystan Windgrace (Jacksonn Shepherd) heard the thump of the pair fall to sleep and smiled, pleased for his sister and her actions. He strode past the cafeteria door only glancing in to see the pair zonked out next to their meals. He wondered how long they would sleep, but it was no matter. He walked with his hands behind his back towards the direction his sister indicated, and then met eyes with Sato, feeling his unease. "Is there an issue?" Was all he said to him though one brow raised at him as he passed him towards the stairs. He knew whatever it was had nothing to do with them personally, but that was about it. He was wary of him. He knew things about him, via Elijah, and he didn't care for those things. But he was here to help, because Hunter means something to him, and that was enough for now. He passed his silent judgment as he turned into the stairwell.

Dorian (Alexandros Lycomedes) noticed the feeling of eyes on him at length and turned to look Sato's way. He'd give Sato a thumbs up gesture before turning to go about his business again, tiptoeing in golden armour, wreathed in shadow like a walking contradiction. He'd eke his way toward the door that Dinah pointed out, fully intending to be the one to lay a gauntleted hand upon the knob to brute force it open, unless someone deigned to stop him.

Riven (LRRiven Resident): Down the stairs the group goes! As they travel, a rat skitters out of sight, leaping off the tread and into the room below.

The broiler room is like any other room. Just as described, there is nothing that sets it apart from any other that might be attached to a building such as this. The rusted door on one of the walls is easily found. There is moisture seeping around from the other side and something has chewed a hole through the door frame at the base.

The door is locked. It is heavy and will likely shriek when opened, if the rust on it gives any indication.

Naoki Sato uttered a quiet, "Yes. But not with your brother," in response to Drystan's question. He moved along after the group, lingering near the back if he was allowed to. Dinah's stare and Dorian's thumbs up were only met with a blank stare of his own - though psychic probings revealed the apprehension. Not being a psychic himself he certainly couldn't tell what they felt beyond the subtle (or not so subtle) changes in their bloodflow. He was bad at reading faces. Once they reach the boiler room he paused and stepped aside, not one for brute force when it came to big rusty metal things. "That's going to be loud," he observed as if that weren't readily apparent.

Lance remains quiet, trailing behind the rest of the group! Again, he mostly considers himself here as a chaperone, so if Dorian wants to endanger his life by opening an old and rusty door.... so be it! At the very worst, Lance will just have to fill the entire underground with gas. Hey, this was the underground. Technically different from the overground. Nile's patients probably didn't go this far down.

Then a thought hits Lance, what if Niles was in on this? It was improbable, but one ought at least consider the possibility. Though, the more that Lance considers it the more he becomes focused on one singular fact - it really wouldn't change much, would it? After all, Lance didn't care particularly for the lives of Niles' patients anyways. If it was the difference between the life and death of his principals, then he wouldn't hesitate to carve a bloody swathe through as many lives as he needed.

Dinah (dollihead Resident) lifted her hand when dorian reached for the door, giving a quiet but cautious 'wait'. She lifted her hands beside her head, a flare of eerie green luminescence emitted from the tiny eyes on her face plates, and from the eyes in her palm

"we know he has at least one ward assembled. not that I expect it to trouble us, i want to make sure i can see it if he does" she explained, dark eyes scanning the door intently.

Dice Golem

BOT

 — Today at 18:26

@Dinah & Tiffy rolled 1d10+6 Checking the door: (4)+6 = 10

Drystan Windgrace (Jacksonn Shepherd) paused next to DInah, and watched as she looked for wards or other such magics. He made a small Hmm to himself to respond to Sato, "Good. Stay focused, your mind seems a bit scattered when you look upon him." He pointed the fact out as bluntly as Sato would say most anything to anyone, but Drystan had no particular tone nor inclination of feeling other than to simply - stay focused.

Dorian (Alexandros Lycomedes) backed away with his hands up on being given the sign. He'd let someone with subtle deal with it instead unless given the go to knock the thing down.

Riven (LRRiven Resident): Sato is right - that door will likely be loud. Perhaps someone could dampen the sound? What a great time it would be to be able to control sound waves.. Lance's thoughts are swerving into interesting paths, especially since the poor gentleman was dead for a good chunk of the events that have occured. He wouldn’t be the first or last to think the worst of the good Doctor, however.

That metal door is warded. Its shiny - but its not just the door. The warding extends beyond it and the more Dinah looks, the more blinding it becomes. Like a bright, yellowish glow that sinks into the ground. The ward on the sanctuary below is a bit like her own - It fills the caverns that the cultists are using below. This close? she can almost see the where of it in the swirl of magic that pervades the island.

Drystan can see possibilities. His sight is still up, the dust enhancing it. Breaking through the door isn’t likely to alert anyone. But there is something very unpleasant beyond the door.

Naoki Sato either did not seem inclined to help with the door problem or had no way to do so that he knew of. He lingered off to the side, taking the time to drop his glamor and likely fill the boiler room with the same sort of dead smell they'd find on the other side. "I'm focused," he said after a lengthy pause since Drystan's warning.

Dinah (dollihead Resident) studied the door in some consideration for a few moments, Flexing her fingers beside her head.

"It's warded. But I see the marks" she flashed a grin and she laughed. The more technical way of dealing with things would be to counter the entire spell. but why would she do that when there was a simpler way of dissembling the ward.

Drawing the ritual knife from the silk of her 'dress', she reached her fingers out to touch each of the cleaner spots where the marks were scratched into the metal. Nipping her lower lip, she leaned in with the tip of the knife. It wouldn't take a lot.

Change a mark here. a mark there, even subtly. at least one or two in each of the cardinal points.

"... amateurs"

Dice Golem

BOT

 — Today at 18:43

@Dinah & Tiffy rolled 1d10+6 Hermetics: (10)+6 = 16

Lance simply smiles and hangs back - watching his charges go about figuring out what the best way to break and enter is. Personally, he'd probably do something like have Baihe bash her way through solid stone, allowing himself to bypass (presumably) a large portion of the hideout, but that itself had a number of problems with it. Most notably the fact that it would alert everyone. Perhaps he could also just go with his gut instinct of fumigating the place, though again it was a fallible plan.

Hm. Perhaps he needed more diversity in his skillset?

Nah. He was perfect.

Dorian (Alexandros Lycomedes) didn't seem to notice there was anything about him that drew Sato's eye inordinately, likely because he might have been busy looking at Dinah's form in battle gear. That and thinking about when or if to unsheathe his blade, once it came to fighting. He reckoned it might be easier to simply swing metal clad limbs given potentially tight spaces and mercy being the prevailing sentiment. Either way he put himself on the balls of his feet once his twin futzed with the warding, and drew in a breath which he held as he waited for something to happen in response. While pressing that breath calmly through his nose he'd flick his gaze to his siblings to see if it was time yet to charge straight in. His shadow nimbus dispelled as they seemed about to head for points more out of sight.

Drystan Windgrace (Jacksonn Shepherd) smiled at his sisters handiwork and nodded to Dorian. He took a step forward now that the doors themselves had been "unlocked" and he decided that rusty old doors were just too much right now. He turned his head to the side, and muttered old latin phrases under his breath and flicked two of his fingers towards the doors. If it worked, they would transform from the rusted ugly loud shits they were into barely held together sand, held by moisutuse that seeped around it. ((@Drystan Windgrace rolled d10+6 Hermetics transform: (10)+6 = 16))

Drystan Windgrace (Jacksonn Shepherd): *moisture

Riven (LRRiven Resident): The markings on the door are kind of obvious - powerful, but there was no effort made to hide the runes that were scratched into the surface of the rusty door. Dinah could see where the flakes of rust were scraped away and clean metal was left behind. Her knowledge of just what to do to alter the spell woven in place is obvious as she carefully etches her own markings to obliterate the ward that was set in place.

There is a popping sensation, like a pressure change, when the ward falls. An errie quiet follows that, like their breathing, makes everything else seem impossibly loud. Then the damn broiler automatically turns on beside them. The thing rumbles and groans like it's a living creature and the room becomes notably warmer. The thrumming of the machinery fills the air.

The ward is gone, the door, though still in place? Free to be savaged. Its hinges and lock mechanism disintegrated to sand.

Dinah (dollihead Resident) jolted a little at the starting up of the boiler and she narrowed her many eyes at the thing. stupid bloody machine. As drystan followed up her taking out the ward by dissolving the hinges to sand, she smiled and swept her hand forward as if in a bow.

"Dori darling? be a gentleman?" she canted her head to one side, idly wondering if the deactivation of the ward itself would alert those down below.

Depending on who it was that had cast it, she supposed.  

"it should have disassembled the ward through the whole place" she said thoughtfully. "but we'll have to be careful for more of them"

Dorian (Alexandros Lycomedes) turned to look at the boiler when it kicked on and instead of leaping or anything he just gave it narrowed eyes. Then, upon Di's urging, he stepped in just when his brother's magics sandified the hinge and lock to lift then move the door physically out of the way, he'd grab the thing by its hinges and heft it to one side, leaning it against the wall. He was already ready to not inhabit a space by the boiler anymore, warm as it was inside his layers of leather and metal.

Drystan Windgrace (Jacksonn Shepherd) would follow along to get out of the boiler room. There was the smell and char of burned dead things coming from the place and it made his eyes sting. He knew it would get nasty quick once they encountered anything of import, and he was silently readying himself for that. He walked through the doorway and paused and turned off to one side, blinking a bit and closing his eyes, turning his head to the side. Something nasty was ahead. He couldn't quite put a finger on what, but the place was glowing in his eyes with the transient magics left behind. It could be from Max and the cultists, it could be from DInah's creatures..but he felt something. ((@Drystan Windgrace rolled d10+3: (9)+3 = 12 "WHat Lies ahead?""-))

Lance follows the others in and out of the boiler room, descending into the subterranean tunnels with them. How long had this taken to carve out of the solid stone? Had it always been here? Or perhaps was this a more recent work, borne of mortal magicks boring into the earth and fortifying itself? He couldn't tell, he would have no way /to/ tell. Unless those magicks made use of nature's power, they would leave no spiritual residue, and it wasn't as if he could just simply ask the earth itself. No, this was something that he would have to be content simply observing - or perhaps waiting until someone made a statement to enlighten the others on it.

ᴄᴀᴇʟ (helio5igma Resident) Sato looked quickly at the boiler as it kicked on, blood quickly swimming over his flesh and blood hand and halfway toward forming a claw. Once nothing else seemed to happen he relaxed a bit, shaking his head. He was getting jumpy. He did not hesitate to move on once people began moving past the doorway, no stranger to the smells of dead things and rot. He took a moment to place his hand, bloodied as it was, to the soil and mix a slurry of blood and dirt. Little dabs of the mixture went above and below his eyes. He muttered something, quiet and foreign. ((Rolling necromancy))

Riven (LRRiven Resident): Without the door in place, a sickly sweet stench rolls down the earthen corridor that is revealed. Sickness, death, offal.. This is a familiar scent to some. It's more potent than what clings to Sato. The death is recent, however. Only a couple days. It could be much worse - but even so - heading down that corridor and into the caves will be no walk in the park.

Drystan can see that there is sickness below, and rot. Dead things. Because he checked, you can add a +2 to this roll if you also post a way to prepare yourself for the stench. (covering your mouth/nose, etc)

Resilience rolls - Difficulty 6

Pass: Eye, stinky

Fail: Nausea. Reroll next round.

The tunnel ends at a set of stairs. They are open, just boards set in place. As the group heads down them they creak a little and the stench gets worse. MUCH worse. Sato can sense the dead. Many of the dead. They are familiar to him. He knows that they are there before they even come into view.

At the bottom, pile behind the stairs, are bodies. So many

Riven (LRRiven Resident):  bodies. And rats. The mud is black with .. fluids and there is a surreal quality to the sheer disregard for the people who were once members of society. There, toward the top of the pile, is even a face that looks vaguely familiar. A professor at the academy. An older man who wanted Dinah’s spot, but was passed over for her. Now she stands here, and he lies there, stripped of everything that might have given him some dignity. Including clothing.

Lance doesn't seem to mind the smell.... Much. Okay, he minds it a lot. However, he doesn't have the same violent reaction to it that others may have. Instead, his lips and nose are contorted into a grotesque grimace. All things considered, this is the /good/ option.

For perhaps the first time, Lance speaks up and offers a word of input on his own, "That smells /terrible/. Would anyone like me to ah... As they say, freshen the air? There will be an effect of course, but it will smell /so/ much better."

Dinah (dollihead Resident) swallowed and grimaced in distaste at the stink of rotting corpse and filth. This was not the sort of bloodshed she was used to; THEIR rituals and bloodshed were cleared and cleaned properly. Slipping her knife back into the strap of silk holding her clothing together, she gave the wax dolly another little squeeze in her fingers.

When Lance suggested something alternate to the stink of rot and rat, she nodded eagerly.

"please do, mr. song. this is absolutely repellent. they have the sea right there and they cannot dispose of their corpses?" she peered at the pile, the familiarity of the professor's face causing a quirk of her brow and huff an irritated little sigh

 Dice Golem

BOT

 — Today at 19:42

@Dinah & Tiffy rolled 1d10 resilience: (6) = 6

Dorian (Alexandros Lycomedes) smells the wave of awful aroma, feels the difference in the quality of the air that hits his face, but he just grits his teeth and puts the potential source out of mind. Whatever he was about to do down there was not going to make the blood and gore smells any less fresh. Nodding Mr. Song's way, he was thinking about what delicious scent to request from Lance, but shook his head against distracting thoughts, letting his eyes adjust to the dim.

Dorian (Alexandros Lycomedes): ((@Dorian Windgrace (& Pandora) rolled 1d10 + 6 resilience: (9) + 6 = 15))

Drystan Windgrace (Jacksonn Shepherd) followed Dinah and slowly pulled up a scarf that was tied under the collar of his robes, slipping it over his nose and mouth. He smirked though, and made a small wave, transforming the scarf mask into one far more elegant looking, serving the exact same purpose however. "This place is disgusting. Fitting somehow for their ilk." He lifted his head and the scarf was now a metallic mask with something like a cage that allowed his breath to flow but the smells and toxins in the air to have a buffer. He stepped over some rotting dead and paused, holding his fingers up. <There, Ahead...> And for the first time the tenor of his voice entered the minds of those just around him. His one time inability to speak to others minds was gone, and he didn't even really take notice of it. He cowered himself down and lower to make his frame less looming, and hide some of himself at the signs of movement. rolled d10+2: (8)+2 = 10 (the +2 to cover with cloth around his neck over his nose and mouth

ᴄᴀᴇʟ (helio5igma Resident): Sato said nothing about the smell. He did however offer a, "I could eat some," to Dinah as if that might help the smell. Without waiting for a reply he headed for the nearest corpse and peeled one of the paper charms from his arm. Pressing it to the forehead of the corpse he muttered again to himself, attempting to bind one of the nearby drifting spirits to the body under his command. Meat shield or extra peon or guide through the place- he figured it may be useful. ((necro roll again))

Riven (LRRiven Resident): The section of the cave that they have come down into is not very well lit. The group is mostly obscured by shadow but they can see acolytes moving about in the better illuminated parts of the cave from where they are. There is a soft murmur of a prayer in guttural eldritch words - the language butchered with the accent of the man reciting the words.

Another acolyte seems to be guarding over an area right in front of them though he is the shittiest guard ever as his back is far more often turned toward the tunnels than to what he is supposed to be protecting.

There is another, also possibly guarding? Along a wall to the left. They are acting a little oddly though, pacing about and lifting their hands to their head, muttering. Gestures follow and then they are pacing again. The squeak of rats can clearly be heard and it is clear that the caves have more in them than the hospital above does.

So far, none of them are aware that they are not alone.

Riven (LRRiven Resident): Sato’s effort to bind a soul is successful. He has one Peon to throw at the acolytes. The horrors these people have faced..

Lance steps to the fore of the group and exhales, spreading a thick misty cloud across the room that they are in. Unfortunately for Dorian, Lance has one single flavor - and it is the sickly sweet scent of Lilies.

As for the toxin in Lance's breath... It's Theobromine! Also known as the active poison in chocolate. That's right, Lance has Chocolate Breath. Woe, ye who enter here - inhale and despair. Effects include (if consumed in excess), headaches, sweating, and shaking. Fortunately however, Humans have something of a resistance to most kinds of toxins, and this isn't in high enough of a concentration that it'll cause immediate effects.

 rolled 1d10+6: (7)+6 = 13

Drystan Windgrace (Jacksonn Shepherd) is able to make eye contact with each of the moving bodies at once. Around him the faint glow of spectral arms drape around him with eyes on every palm, facing in all directions. He has always had a tie with DInah and her sight, and his psychic sight would be no different. From this knelt position he could spy on every individual, and broadcast it to DInah. <Let me guide you, I will watch your six.> He would stay knelt there in the shadows, with his impossibly angled sight to allow DInah to choose thier paths, and to also sound the alarm if anyone was on the way. ((Drystan Windgrace rolled 1d10+3 Psychics (sight connected to Dinah): (3)+3 = 6))

Dinah (dollihead Resident) cocked her head towards Sato at his offer, gesturing to the professor's corpse as she passed with her free hand.

"That one will probably taste bitter. But be careful. I sent a rat king down here. Who knows what these wretches are carrying?" she nodded her agreement to Drystan's words. Fitting. Absolutely.

With eyes on the various, inept cultists in front of her, and off to their side, she tilted her head.

Did they really want to try and recruit them?

Inept. clearly sickly.

She nodded at the elder brother's suggestion. "Keep an eye on the ritual room. we'll get rid of him first." she gestured to the muttering man ahead of them. If nothing else, if they interrupted the rite and this one went to get reinforcements? better to have him out the way now.

"dori. do we think it would be worth grabbing him and asking him a few questions?"

ᴄᴀᴇʟ (helio5igma Resident): Sato paused as Lance saturated the air like a freshly brewing hot cocoa. Of lilies. He was a bit slow to process Dinah's comment on corpse flavor as a result and simply shrugged it off, instead going to check on his new dead buddy while the siblings planned. "Smells like disease," he remarked once it clicked they were talking about the living cultists up ahead. "Or... did." The look he gave Lance was bland enough that his opinion on lilies was hard to guess. Sato nodded at his raised corpse. "Could send this one. Or kill him first. Don't necessarily need him alive to ask questions."

Dorian (Alexandros Lycomedes) appreciated the new scent to hit the air, and watched his very tall brother become one with the shadows. Just as soon as Di made the suggestion, he was moving swiftly toward the nearest guard to grab him up. He'd have to be careful when reaching for the guard not to konk him accidentally. Despite not being a small man, and bearing pounds of plate and mail, he was pretty quick. Counting on his prodigious strength above his inhuman speed he'd rather fearlessly approach the man and without warning pounce upon him with an aim toward putting a gauntleted hand over his mouth and dragging him back toward his sister.

It was a pity he didn't pause to listen to Sato, nor have many subtle bones in his body, nor neurons for that matter. He'd been too tightly coiled not to move when his sister told him to. So with his blazing eyes alight in unglamoured ferocity, he was already trying to get the guard.

Dorian (Alexandros Lycomedes): ((@Dorian Windgrace (& Pandora) rolled 1d10 + 6 for guard grabbery: (10) + 6 = 16))

Riven (LRRiven Resident): The stench in the air is dialed back by the surprising scent of .. chocolate? Well. Chocolate and dead things must go together well, for those who were struggling to not loose the contents of their stomach no longer are.

Drystan settles in to led his aid to Dinah and she can immediately feel his connection to her boost the depth of her own perception. Everything is sharper and clearer and, thanks to her brother’s abilities, she can see ghosts of possible realities playing out ahead of her own. For those who are not so intimately familiar with her brother’s gifts, this might be rather disorienting. For Dinah.. This is Power. Its heady. The future revealed in increments.

They won’t be unseen for long.

The healthier acolytes seem to be in the ritual room. The healthiest is on the dais, hands lifting as he drones out his prayers. There is a flash of a knife as he slices his palm with a knife and holds the bloodied hand up, his voice raising.

Everyone familiar with the eldritch words can tell that he

Riven (LRRiven Resident):  is seeking healing. For the sickness to retreat. He is offering a bit of his life force in exchange, so that he might overcome what has been done to him.  Of those that are seen, he seems to be the most educated, at least. The most driven. And a believer.

Dorian strikes like a snake in the grass, unseen, unheard. He is there and then gone. The cultist facing the assault has his face covered with a mask which is tilted floor ward as he laments. The golden adonis does not attract his attention at all. The man he captured however? He starts as he is enclosed and then starts to struggle in the man’s grasp, flailing in a way likely to damage himself more than Dorian, but the chaos of the motion has some potential to do damage if he can make contact.

Riven (LRRiven Resident): (@Riven rolled 1d10: (6) = 6 Degrapple / FAILED)

Lance seems content with his livening up of the place, though doesn't make any further attempts to better the lives of his compatriots. In fact, he just stands there. In the open. Openly. As if he belongs here. Because, lets be honest, Lance has complete and utter confidence that nothing here can hurt him. Hurt him enough that it's a problem at least. A stab wound won't be fatal, and if it does happen, Lance can simply have Baihe consume the offender. Or he can perform impromptu surgery. Without surgical implements. Or blades of any kind.

Dinah (dollihead Resident) brightened at Sato's suggestion and she nodded. "a very valid point. we don't need them alive~" she agreed. And then her brother was OFF, moving in a gold-sheened blur to grab up the man that had been flailing already.

Distracted by the flash of the knife, by the prayers, she stared out towards him and she looked towards the man that dorian had grabbed.

"Find out what he was guarding. find out where hunter is. I want that one" she gestured to the ritual room, eyes shining. "don't worry boys. I'll be fine" she reassured them, drifting through the air towards the cultist at the altar. When she spoke, it was in the eldritch tongue.

<"Who do you pray to?">

Dorian (Alexandros Lycomedes) dragged the guy back, altered and softened his grip so the man was held by his own arm around his middle like an unwilling dance partner pressed against golden cuirass. He'd keep the hand over the mouthparts to stop screaming from sounding out. Back and around a corner he'd drag the man, trusting his sister to her own machinations. He whispered a tone of threat to the cultist's ear, but few such actual words, "If I wanted you dead-- you know the rest. So what were you guarding and where is the one you have imprisoned? Truth can set you free. But only truth." He trusted fear and seeing their raiding party might induce the man to understand the final shoe had dropped and the Windgrace bill come due.

ᴄᴀᴇʟ (helio5igma Resident): Sato squinted at Dorian as he dragged the man back and threatened him for his information. He wasn't necessarily cognizant of how he contributed to the party's intimidation factor but he did reach out to dig his fingers in to grip the man's thigh without hesitation. Sato felt for the man's pulse, attempting to read it for changes in its rhythm and speed. "I'll know if he's lying," he explained to Dorian in a whispered tone. "If he tries I'll remove something painfully."

Riven (LRRiven Resident): Somehow? Lance is correct. At the moment. Nothing here is seeking to hurt him. So he won’t be. Yet. He can stand there looking like he belongs and nothing is going to disturb hi,. For now.

The acolyte on the dais is in mid prayer when Dianah flies up upon him. Despite her question, he finishes the words, drawing them out on a low breath. She can tell, its something that she’d not want to stop either. But he does lower his knife and stare at her through the skull mask he wears. His bloodied palm lifts up, presented to her. Blood drips free to splatter the muddied stone beneath him as he provides an answer, spoken. “Aletheia. For she has shown me the Truth. I will survive this and seek the answers.” he could live or die now, but there is a level of awe in his tone that suggests that come what may, he has already seen more than many mortal minds can comprehend.

Dorian’s cultist starts giggling. Yes, giggling. Then coughing. It's an odd sound behind the gauntleted hand but its surely quelled when

Riven (LRRiven Resident):  Sato reaches out to grip him and then makes that lovely threat. The acolyte’s eyes widen behind his mask and now he is wheezing, trying to breath. His hands lift in a ‘me give up’ gesture then points at the hand on his mouth.  He can’t answer with it covered.

If Dori drops his hand, the acolyte rasps out, “You sound like Jules. THe truth! The idiot has been talking about seeing beyond for days. He sealed Wolf up with that thing and has been braying to like a donkey his empty god since.”

Riven (LRRiven Resident): donkey ABOUT his empty

Lance simply.... smiles and watches. Like a good chaperone! His charges are doing SO well, figuring out everything and interrogating the cultists. It'd be easier if they could extract their memories or if Sato could command the dead to speak, but one couldn't have everything in life. Sometimes, it was about the journey moreso than the destination, and Lance is having fun watching this journey play out.

Dinah (dollihead Resident) 's expression became almost enraptured as the cultist in front of her said that he was praying to Aletheia. She flitted closer, as close as she could without stepping into his circle, and she lifted her palm,, peering at him with the eye there, the other still holding onto her wax Max dolly.

"She is my patron. One of them." she said in delight. <"the others are darker still. But She does not lie. She knows where the old ones broke through of old, and where they shall break through again. She knows where they have trod the earths fields, and where they still tread them, and why noone can behold them as they tread.">

Dinah reached her hand out towards his blooded one.

<"Your loyalty to the Old Ones has been unwavering, your dedication unmatched to stay here even now. But look around you... this supposed sanctuary of power, cowering in a basement. The full stop in the suicide note of an idiot charlatan."> she shook her head <"You have knelt in servitude to a leader whose reign grows feeble by the moment.

Dinah (dollihead Resident):  But it isn't wasted. Your suffering has not been in vain. His foolishness put you in our path. Tell me you are smart enough to know what to do. Show me that you are worth us sparing from my bloodbath, and I will share with you one of the blessings they grant us">

Dorian (Alexandros Lycomedes) did take his hand away once the cultist's giggling gave way to pointing. Once the cultist spoke, he'd look at Sato with bewilderment playing out across his gold hued features, bewhorled with aetheric magics keeping him alive long past his time. He didn't really know what to make of the answer he'd gotten, but he was pretty sure what words had been given weren't helpful or indicative of future helpfulness. He'd offer to Sato as if it was not a life he spoke of, as if it was instead a pudding, "You can have this one, if you'd like. He is already broken, I think." As yet he held onto the recently giggling one, saving him from whatever he might run into if he fled or certain sooner death if he did something disagreeable. Like continuing not to say where their leader was in clear terms.

Otherwise Dorian intended to knock the man over the head and leave him in a heap before trudging toward a spot where he could better see what his sister was doing.

ᴄᴀᴇʟ (helio5igma Resident): Sato was unaware of Lance and how proud he seemed to be of their shenanigans. He might've looked at the man in wonder if he were but as it was he was embroiled in the task at hand. Once given free reign Sato's hand tensed, his own blood flowing in and swelling the veins and arteries of the cultist's leg. It flowed in and Sato willed it upward to slice out of his crotch and abdomen before continuing upward to stop just short of his heart. ((Blood working roll))

ᴄᴀᴇʟ (helio5igma Resident): Whether or not he succeeded, no apology was offered to the golden knight for any mess made on his resplendent armor.

Riven (LRRiven Resident): “She has shown me.” The acolyte before Dinah states, “She has shown me the work of unraveling in Wolf. She has shown me the madness that contorts him. That has pushed him into the ultimate sacrifice - for vengeance. I want none of that.” the man is tired. Ill. But Dinah can see, as he speaks, that his hand heals before him. He could be the sort that regenerates. But he isn't’t. His prayer was answered. His body is healed, but he is still sick. “I am not cowering! I have sealed him up.” Jules gestures behind him. There is a familiar looking ward glinting across the cave entrance. “He isn’t Wolf anymore. He has changed. His lies have led to his destruction. To all of our destruction.” his arms lift, encompassing everyone in the cave. Or perhaps, everyone above, on he island. “He has called for the unnamed mist and shaken it. But it would not wake. He has FAILED.” the last part is yelled, just a little off beat, ragged. “Am I not worthey?” but he is not asking Dinah. No, his eyes

Riven (LRRiven Resident):  have rolled back and he is entering his goddess. “Aletheia!” and then his prayer begins again, short and badly accented. But he is trying.

The man in Dorian and Sato’s care starts to giggle again, then cough. That soon turns to a howl as the blood working slices in and through him. The wet sounds he is making gathers the attention of the other acolyte, by the candles. He calls, “Whats going on over there?”

But the man in Dorian’s arms starts a high pitched babbling, “He’s locked up. Up! Locked up. Locked up.I swear!” and then he passes out.

Dinah (dollihead Resident) canted her head as she listened to the cultists' words. When Jules spoke of sealing Wolfe up and away, that he wasn't wolfe anymore, she glanced down at the little wax doll in her fingers. How much of it was her work?

"he was always going to lead everyone to their destruction. That was his intention the whole time. To harm my brothers and I... and to destroy everyone, and everything. He took my boy. He took Hunter from me. So I hurt him, and he refused to relent. He brought this on himself." she smiled, too many teeth.

"he has failed. he will fail. I have the rite to send away the mist once more." she paused as he started to pray once more and she muttered a prayer of her own and reached through the ritual circle, pressing her hand to his blooded skin. A pulse of chill shivered through her clawed fingertips to bring him healing, bring him respite.

"Tell me of Hunter. Does he live?" she asked quietly as her magic worked. "I will need you to let us through that ward. I am going to kill maximilian

Dinah (dollihead Resident):  wolfe. I am going to carve out his heart, and eat it, and I am going to reclaim my boy"

Dorian (Alexandros Lycomedes) turned his head when spatter threatened to land on his face in some glorious arc, but he held the guy up for as long as Sato seemed to be doing his thing. Until, of course lights went out for the cultist at which point Dorian would ease him down to the floor somewhat gently. It seemed like these people were already having quite a time. When the other guard called over, Dorian summoned the shadows again, deepening the darkness in his immediate area of the cavern before standing to his full height again then calling back in a lame approximation of the giggling guy's voice, "Nothing, just talking to rats."

The middlest Windgrace was no great impressionist. But the man calling over did at least give him a new target, should the guard come to see what was going on.

((@Dorian Windgrace (& Pandora) rolled 1d10 + 3 for shadows: (5) + 3 = 8))

Lance hums and leaves Dorian and Sato behind with their new friend-toy before wandering off in the opposite direction of Dinah. Something about the way that the hall seems to stretch on bothers him... And he won't be satisfied until he's gotten to the bottom of it. Again, he shifts his sight into different spectrum of light - looking for traces of life, or even living beings themselves in the distance.

rolled 1d10+3: (1)+3 = 4

ᴄᴀᴇʟ (helio5igma Resident): Sato was a bit done with stealth. His irritation had been rising since the acolyte had referred to Hunter as an it. "No more hiding," he hissed to Dorian as the golden knight took to the shadows. He couldn't keep the edge out of his voice. Moving out into the open, he threw the gore from the first acolyte across the floor, bidding it to skim over the stones before rising again to entangle the inquiring acolyte's legs like thorned vines. (( Blood working roll ))

Riven (LRRiven Resident): “He was destroyed!” Jules informs Dinah, ranting. “Everything he touched - he destroyed. He used everyone, manipulated everyone. Our families.. His family!” the knife lifts and he reslashes his hand, spilling more of his blood across the altar. An offering. A penance. Aletheia has opened my eyes. I see the web! I see the lies! I see his desperation!” the man tilts his head forward, bowing it now. This is when Dinah’s magic washes over him, healing him. He lifts his head to look at her, marveling that she is actually healing him. There is something in his gaze that says he was expecting her to rip him up, or something. In thanks, he drops to his knees before her.

“I can open the way, but he will come. He has been battering the ward for days now. He was so certain in his own ability, he did not think that any of us would dare try and stop him.”

The inquiring acolyte was not ready for what has come his way. He sees the splash of gore coming his way and yelps, dashing back and tripping over a

Riven (LRRiven Resident):  root. He is further entangled by the blood. His screams fill the air and he kicks his legs, trying to break free. One of the nearby candles is dislodged and falls to the ground, the flame catching on his robes. He starts to frantically bat at the flame, hands flailing as he dives right into panic. His creams reverberate through the caverns.

Back in the ritual room - watching Dinah and Jules is another acolyte. He sort of sinks down begins the table he was standing at. Hoping beyond hope to be overlooked here.

Lance .. sees life down the tunnel. A couple cultists so close to death that their heat signatures are fading. And rats. And beyond that? The tunnel gets cooler. It leads the water.

Lance hums and then returns to the main group, satisfied that the tunnel behind them will not be used for some great beast to appear through, slaughtering them all instantly.

Dinah (dollihead Resident) watched Jules as he slashed at himself again, but as he knelt before her, she smiled gently. Drawing her own knife, she sliced it across her palm as he had done; the wound healed instantaneously, but the blood remained. She reached forward, daubing her sigils onto him.

"The most foolish always are overconfident of their own abilities. The rest of us are patient. Controlled. You will learn it too, in time." she said delicately. "Begin to lower the wards, but do not release it just yet. Let me get them ready. When he comes, leave by the eumenedes door. You are marked. My beasts will know you as mine"

She turned, sliding her knife away towards the rest.

"Be ready. My new friend here will be releasing the wards. Maximilian is changed, and I daresay he shall not be happy." she paused.

The cultist that was hoping to be overlooked had been seen. She tilted her head, peering towards him too.

"...and you? do you remain loyal to the charlatan?" Too many eyes glanced towards Jules once more. "Can that one be

Dinah (dollihead Resident):  trusted?" she gestured towards the spying stranger.

Dorian (Alexandros Lycomedes) shrugs off the shadows and follows the blood-wielder out. Seeing Sato fell the other guard, he'd almost felt ashamed that his count was still zero to the jikininki's two. But he focused up, rather than dwelling on keeping count. He'd watch Dinah speaking to Jules trying to focus on hearing what they were saying given the cavern's odd way with sounds. From what he could hear, his sister had brokered a way forward. The overlooked one got a glare, as Dorian realized the man had been hiding, which might well have meant laying in wait. He smelled like the blood staining his now, but when he got a whiff of lilies it assuaged the distaste of it all.

At least it wouldn't be Lance's job to clean up the armour, Dorian was a firm believer of maintaining his own kit. His years in the navy surely helped with that. For the moment he'd simply tromp toward the warded entrance that his sister mentioned and get loose again in the legs and shoulders before... ...whatever was about to befall, befell.

Dorian (Alexandros Lycomedes): *blood staining his armour now, but when

Drystan Windgrace (Jacksonn Shepherd) had seen what was playing out, but lifted from his sentry position to deal with the cultist that Sato had brought down. He stood and the spectral hands and his sight connection to Dinah waned as she turned to look at the hiding one. He took a few steps over and pulled the tangled one up off the ground, off his feet, holding him in the air with his mind. "And what say you? You know who we are, why we are here. Do you follow the fool Maximilian Wolfe to your Death or do you swear upon your knees to the Windgraces? You. Get. One. Chance." He annunciated but never yelled, and approached the floating man with his hands held behind his back, looking him over, the blood coils being worked up his body by Sato. "Best make it quick, He's not family." He nodded towards Sato and his link to the man via the strings of blood. His brows lifted at his face and he stayed there holding him aloft while he made his case one way or another. ((@Drystan Windgrace rolled 1d10+6 TK hold the cultist up around his middle: (9)+6 =

Drystan Windgrace (Jacksonn Shepherd):  15))

Riven (LRRiven Resident): Jules glances aside at the man cowering behind the stone table. He furrows his brow but clearly he isn’t about to start lying for anyone right now. “He’s lost everything. Max said he’d help. He didn’t. He’s only still here because he is lost.” his head tilts and he looks back up at Dinah, “I do not trust people without ties. His have been severed and it links him only to despair. Like Wolf.” the screams that reverberate through the cavern make him flinch. The wet sounds that follow have him swallowing but he nods at Dinah and holds still as she anoints him then stands, backing a step to center himself within the ring of the candles. “I am ready to bring it down when you are ready to go through.” Its a simple thing for him to pull his magic out of the working and make it crumble.

The man behind the table spits a curse at Jules, “You asshole!” he is a little frantic, fear taints the air around him and he is sick and shaky. “I have myself to live for! Isn’t that a fucking tie?”

Riven (LRRiven Resident):  he nearly stands upright as he is yelling at Jules but then realizes that he is just making himself more visible. This realization has him freezing up and he wavers, uncertain. “I.. don’t want to die. I helped him,” he points at Jules, “With the ward. Sort of. I found what he needed to cast it.” he is looking around nervously. The screams have him whimpering. “I can be trusted. I swear!”

Back with Drystan, the Acolyte there is freaking out. He is at his end - sick, manipulated by Max, his life has fallen apart - and now he is being told that he can serve someone else and live, or die. Defiance is real in that one for he starts screaming, “Fuck you! Fuck you!” and nope. Its quite clear he isn’t going to take that chance he was given.  He flails mid air, trying to wrest himself free of the telekinetic hold. To escape. Its not happening.

Drystan Windgrace (Jacksonn Shepherd) draws a lon breath and nods, turning around and slowly walking away from him as he used his tk to slowly start pulling the man in half. He will feel the bloat of his stomach, the crackle of his spine as he is being forcibly ripped and stretched apart, the skin ripping, muscle and tendon snap and guts pile out of his body onto the floor with a splat as he still screams his dissent. It was his choice. He silences his screams by  forcing his lungs to fill wiht the blood he'd otherwise be spilling on the floor, it gargled and sputtering in the back of his throat as he finished breaking the man in half, and let him fall to the floor behind him. Sato could do what he liked with that. ((@Drystan Windgrace rolled d10+6 TK - Bye bye: (6)+6 = 12))

Drystan Windgrace (Jacksonn Shepherd): *long

Dinah (dollihead Resident) 's full, many eyed attention was on the cursing cultist as he shot back at Jules, and she stepped away from the circle. She didn't descend the steps; merely walked through the air to where he stood, peering down towards him.

"Lost does not equate uselessness or untrustworthiness. Being lost in the eyes of one sometimes means found in the eyes of others" she said thoughtfully. With the drying blood on her palm, she reached out to dab the sigils against the cultists' brow- but this one, she didn't heal. not yet.

"you will follow him when the ward comes down. you will wait outside for us. if you ever give me a reason to mistrust you, then I will be grievously upset. But if you prove trustworthy, I can help you. I will teach you. Heal you. Both of you... please wait outside when the wards come down. I am quite certain you know what waits out there for anyone I deem beyond my protection so be sure to follow my instruction" she murmured. Turning to look over her shoulder, she smiled towards her brothers.

Dinah (dollihead Resident):  

"Lets drop the ward, my new friend. I want to eat his heart."

Dorian (Alexandros Lycomedes) sighs, looking at the unfortunate soul with Drystan who squandered a chance to continue having a purpose beyond the end of his nose to go on sucking down air. He'd turn his head away from the sight before approaching the warded area, or what he presumed was that. Even if his siblings and allies were capable of caring for themselves, he sought to put himself in front of whatever might come out that door. In such adrenaline filled situations it's strange what sorts of things the brain will flash at one. Dorian was thinking for a moment about how much he was looking forward to even having salt water up his nose, once the water was warm enough to swim again. Which lead to thoughts of what Dinah's swimsuit would look like when the weather was warm enough. He only had to get through this night before he could start looking forward to such things well and truly once ore.

Meeting his sister's eyes, and her smile, he'd nod once, then look at his brother nod once again before turning to the warded place once

Dorian (Alexandros Lycomedes):  more. There was no mirth in his face, just a dutiful seriousness settled over his features.

Riven (LRRiven Resident): The scared acolyte behind the table mutters his thanks, though he shortly follows that up with a thanks to a christian god. This may be amusing, perhaps, considering he is in a cult for the elder gods. Jules just gives him a blank look but he doesn’t argue or even pretend to know better than Dinah. He just nods. He waits for her family and Sato to be ready before he drops the ward. There is a popping sensation and then the air is pulled from the room and into the tunnel he has just unsealed. Stepping off the dais, he gives a bow of his body to Dinah and her siblings before he does as directed, heading for the exit out. Juels doesn’t look back. He isn’t going to check to see if he is followed. He is just going to continue on.

The scared acolyte scrabbles after him, stumbling in the mud before he catches up. He looks back, frightened, then around at the remains of the others that they pass.

A moment later there is a roar from the unsealed cavern. Max knows the ward is down.

Dorian (Alexandros Lycomedes) follows the air into the tunnel without looking back to his siblings. He knows they'll be there. When he strides toward the roar, with a 'shing' he unsheathes his saber and holds it out in front of himself while he walks on. There can be no doubt he is coming, as his footfalls in mud squelch under the weight of him. He does not raise his voice to taunt Maximilian, though the thought does cross his mind.

Lance follows the rest of the group in as well - letting out a low whistle when he sees the raging beast in the back. "That does not look friendly," he remarks, as an aside. Neither do you Lance.

Dinah (dollihead Resident) walked.

This had been a long time coming. Far too long. She'd been far, far too focused on finding her boy. Getting him free.

Hurting the one who had hurt him.

"I See you. Gifted... or cursed?" she whispered playfully "I've waited for this for so long. it's all i've been able to think about" she murmured.

She drew the ritual knife as she passed through the ward, absently wondering if her two new apprentices would wait for her outside. She paused, Doll in one hand. wand-knife in the other.

With a kick she pushed herself into the air. Opened her arms as if she were to reach Maximilian for a hug. To embrace him.

"Leave me his head. And his heart?" she asked the others, not taking her eyes from the beast. She lifted the knife-focus and pointed it towards him, whispering with a crackling of violent golden light that arced towards her far inferior rival.

Drystan Windgrace (Jacksonn Shepherd) pulled his hands from behind his back as they walked down the long tunnel into the round cul-de-sac at the end, reaching up to drag the metal mask from his face, and have it transform back into just a scarf that went tucked into his neckline. He saw Max, or what had become of him, and then his eyes caught sight of Hunter, in his small innocent bunny form. Drystan himself boiled with rage each step closer he got, and he stopped before stepping into a glowing sign on the cave floor. Instead, he kicked the dirt and sand on the ground and broke the sigil. "Of course Darling." He responded to his sister before stepping into the 'ring' with Max. He smiled at the wretch of him, wide and toothsome and bowed a little at the waist. "Do you know who I am? Max. Wolfe. Do you recognize me? My name is Drystan Windgrace. Your Sara liked me very....very much, or didn't you know?" His mind peeled open to connect and flood Max's mind with a mix of emotions and visions. THe emotions were of care, arousal, the height or

Drystan Windgrace (Jacksonn Shepherd):  orgasm, and regret. The visions were of the stolen glances between Drystan and Sara while she had been with him. ALl the times she'd left him food while he went mad in his bed chambers nearly a year ago this day. He showed him how easily Sarah fell into his arms how wanton her mouth was, how she rode on him like a stallion and the joy she had while doing it. Drystan forced him to watch and feel what REALLY happened. Including Drystan's own fear when the shadows and silent screaming of the madness took over his body, used and twisted his mind. How Sara seemed to WANT to die. And he blasted her death over and over again into his head. "I'm the reason you did all this! And all it was...was an accident. An UNFORTUNATE accident." He paced with his hand opening as Dinah threw her energy at him. "You want me? You want to try and KILL me? MY family? Now is your chance." He commanded his  voice at Max and let it echo loudly off the stone caves walls. He had zero fear of this thing in front of him, whatever he had

Drystan Windgrace (Jacksonn Shepherd):  transformed into. He could crack this island in two if he wanted. Instead he seized onto the blood that still ran inside his veins. He grabbed his heart and seized it, sending it beating harder and faster than it ever should. His bloodworking pushed the blood around in Max's body, manipulating it to drain from his brain and then relinquish it, depriving what he had left of his mind and control on anything of precious blood. It began to clot and curdle in his veins slowly, starting at his extremities. It would be slow creeping as Drystan contorted his blood and his thoughts and emotions.

Dorian (Alexandros Lycomedes) upon seeing Max, transformed and without any acolytes, is certain his siblings have this one in hand. He resheathes his sword and goes to lean upon the wall to watch, to listen for any approach from behind them. When his sister asked for heart and head, he'd shove off from the wall to go and retrieve these gifts, but it seemed Drystan had it covered. He spied Hunter and felt sorrow over his loss for what was hopefully the last time. To think the poor guy had been trapped down here for quite so long... He was sure Dinah's arms were the ones he longed for though, and for once the elder twin wouldn't begrudge someone else a place there. Besides, the blood Sato had shed upon him was only just starting to dry anyway. Every so often he'd look back the way they'd come to make perfectly sure they were not in for an ambush from the sickly lot they'd waded through to get here. He didn't look bored, not at all, he was rather interested in how this all would play out. Should the wolf try to flee and get past the

Dorian (Alexandros Lycomedes):  others, well maybe then he'd stop simply watching. He'd look to Lance and give him an unsubtle wink after Drystan had made his challenge. It was the kind of expression that said, 'this is going to be good.'

Riven (LRRiven Resident): Max waits. He can sense them coming. Can smell it. He is waiting for them with the single minded focus of the transformed creature he has become. As they are moving down the tunnel toward him the ground begins to tremble, to shudder and shake. Little Cracks form in the walls and even the least astute of people could tell that something is creating enough strain in the tunnel to make it less safe. Rocks fall, dirt, and a few other debris. But the ceiling holds firm as the make it to the end - to the final ritual room.

Here is where they find Max.

Only. Its not Max anymore. This looks nothing like the man that they had seen pictures of. Nothing like the gentleman in society who was wheeling and dealing, manipulating and destroying families. No. This may have once been a human of some sort, but now he has transformed.

It has made him both powerful, and so much weaker than the man he’d been. The payment for the transformation is high. The flesh he inhabits is not quite alive, the soul bound to it is

Riven (LRRiven Resident):  tortured by a self-inflicted rite to gain power. This is no longer a man. It is a shade of the man he was and now a single finger, or perhaps a toe of the Nameless Mist.

Despite the fact that Dinah is sending her magic his way? Despite the threat that she poses to him? His focus is entirely on Drystan. The deluge of images, the passion and accidental death - All it does is serve to enrage the man past any shard of humanity. He is pure rage, wrath. Anger that boils. “You!!” his voice isn’t a voice. It's a gasping sound, a warble of vocal cords exposed to the air. His body has been rearranged and nothing works quite right. “I want you to DIE!” and then he slashes his hand toward Drystan, bringing the full weight of his telekinesis - a power born with this new shape, to slash down on the man. He screams,  “I want you to rot in hell!”

And then the light hits him. He is sent reeling back and crashing into the steps. His heavy limbs twitch as Drystan’s magic begins to slowly creep through him.

Riven (LRRiven Resident):  His response is to scream and push himself back up, or at least try to.

Beyond him, huddled in a tacky puddle of his own fluids, is Hunter. He is small and tightly curled into a ball. The chains that had held him tight are no longer wrapped about him, but the poor squidling hasn’t the health or energy to move. Its clear by what lays about him that he has been through more than any creature should ever experience.

Dinah (dollihead Resident) was trying her best to not look towards Hunter. She could sense he was alive; that familiar energy that she had seen in the stars and called to earth with her own blood was as familiar to her as the auras of the others in the room except for the beast, but between her light and Drystan's onslaught, the almost excited expression had drifted from her face. There was almost no expression at all now, nothing but the glittering green roping around her arms illuminating her eyes.

As Max tried to push himself up again, the wand was lifted. She should use her doll. The poppet she had tormented him with this entire time. But with him tied to the Nameless one too, she wasn't sure that at this range she would be able to weather the backlash.

"There is no hell" she spoke instead, not striking at him, though signs flickered and bloomed from the end of her knife, as if cutting them from empty space themselves. she spoke almost mildly, patiently. The sight of hunter had stilled the fury of her rage to ice. "When

Dinah (dollihead Resident):  you die, your soul will float around, Aimless and lost like all the other dead who die on this island. There are no gods that care whether we live, or die, or sin, or persevere, maximilian. Had you paid attention to any of the writing, you would know this. Your daughter was chosen. You ought to feel blessed that the pharoah himself reached for her through my brother. Any true believer would."

A flick of her wrist sent another arc of screaming golden energy towards the max creature before she dipped closer to the floor, drifting closer to Hunter.

Lance is quick on the uptake - extending his hand and letting Baihe practically fly off of his neck and towards Drystan. It at first seems like a futile move, though in an instant the pale serpent seems to almost balloon in size, changing from a miniscule garden snake size to a massive serpent, each scale as big across as one of Dinah's hands. Defiantly, she wraps around Drystan in an effort to protect him with her body - all the while keeping her head reared and mouth open - ready to strike should the transfigured enemy move in to attack once more.

Dorian (Alexandros Lycomedes) listened to what vengeance sounded like, watched what it looked like, and marveled that anyone ever dared to challenge his family. there was the pain that they'd suffered for these months, but over the long years of their lives... it would be only a small passage of time. Wolfe's anguish was almost pitiable. If only he hadn't struck out at them, assuring his doom. He'd pushed himself up from the wall as Drystan was targeted, keeping an ear out behind them, though it was becoming clearer than clear that there was no treachery coming from that front. He could keep a close eye on whether it seemed brute force was needed, though it didn't seem the time. Afterall Baihe had just buffeted the blow coming for his brother. He was a heartbeat away from applauding, but the seriousness of the situation and pitiable state of Hunter halted that impulse.

Drystan Windgrace (Jacksonn Shepherd) laughed, sincerely laughed with his arms opened wide. "That is what all this has given you? You fool! You impotent little worm." Baihe sailed towards him and coiled herself around his form, blocking any of the telekinetic attack Max managed to get out before Dinah had struck him down. The Aether around him glowed brilliant green and twisted around his body and hers. "You broke the rules Max! You were so inferior you had to go through all this to get an inkling of the power you wanted to use like your own. You know Nyarlothotep himself believes you crossed a line? He gave Dinah and I a child, a Hunting Horror, one of his very own to help strike you down. That's how badly you've miscalculated all of this Max. All you've done is make a mess of things.." He let his mind open wider and his mind connect to Baihe to mind her to allow herself to relax her coil so she would not be damaged when he let loose. The smile never left his face as he kept the mental barrage of imaged of his daughter from all points

Drystan Windgrace (Jacksonn Shepherd):  of time that Drystan had ever known her, from points of time outside his each that he could pull from the mush that win Max's head, images of her young, and then older as she was forced to go find work, as she tried to escape her father into the rich new family on the island. "Face it. She wanted to die. She knew it would be painless from me. I gave her exactly what she wanted." He clenched his fists and inside of him a small box slid open, and then several others did as well as a wall of boxes opened into a crumbling wall he kept up at most times. "You brought this on yourself Max.." The room shook, much as it did when they entered, the ceiling held thanks to deep roots that held the cavern together but the earth itself shifted and rocked in areas around them all, caving in some of the rooms behind them, crushing statues and inking out candles buring uselessly. People above would be woken from thier sleep, not only in the hospital but across the land of Callisto as Drystan allowed his full strength to

Drystan Windgrace (Jacksonn Shepherd):  shine through and be aimed at Maximilian Wolf. He knew he had to save his head and his heart, but at that moment he imagined so many possibilities to use this level of power on. Finally, his eyes lowered and he looked at Max from under his brow. "I will not touch any part of you that has attracted the Elder, I will not touch your skull, or the meat of your heart, but i will touch every bit of the rest of you. You will feel my touch throughout whatever happens to your soul after this. You'll never ever forget this, how sad a thing you are. To try and attack a king."  With that he sent the forcewave at Max, a wave of force so strong, and so razor chisled that when it hit Max, his skin gave way, then the meat of his body, and then bones began to fragment into dust, Except, Drystan was also manipulating the time of this attack. It wasnt a sudden blast. It was as if time had slowed itself, like...falling into a blackhole, so Max could fully experience his essence being ripped from the world.

Riven (LRRiven Resident): Agony lances through the Max creature as Dinah’s magic rips through him again. It sets his body afire with sensation and pulls a scream from his exposed lungs. There is a light that builds from within his body, centered upon his chest. When he screams the glow brightens and mist spills from his orifices. The feeling that something is wrong is intense about him. It's different from how Grace felt. She did not exhibit these traits - but she also was not dedicated to the endless mist directly.

Dinah might have gone the entire fight without the focus on Max’s ire. But Baihe was curled around Drystan and Dorian was too far away. The woman had to taunt him, to lord over him what she thought his existence would be. All that does is inspire more rage. He turns away slightly, giving her the suggestion that his focus was not on her and an opening to move in and scoop Hunter up. If she takes it, he spins and pounces - far faster than he looks like he should be able to move. Those elongated claws slash down,

Riven (LRRiven Resident):  tearing through her hair and ripping at the strands. His other hand will then loop about her body and curl inward, claws sinking into the soft meat of her stomach and forcing their way up toward her chest.

Somehow, some way, he still thought that he would make this family hurt as he has.

How he has miscalculated.

His head lifts as the full force of Drystan’s attack hits him. There is a look on his face, in his eyes - pain, yes. Insanity, certainly. But also a strange sort of relief. Even as his body begins to break apart - and a strange shadow began to form over dinah and the ground beyond - the man is there. His soul is still there, held in place as each fleck of his mortal shell is disintegrated by Drystan’s sheer will. He feels it all.

And then he is gone but for the meat of his  ❤ and mass of his brain which falls tumbling down toward the dias below.

Dorian (Alexandros Lycomedes) winced as Dinah and Drystan made a mess of Maxiilian Wolfe, wishing there had been room in his armour for his case with his smokes in it. One would hit so right if he had such a one to puff on. He dodged as a bit of cavern came crashing down where he'd been standing. Even if some boulders were in the way now, Dorian was sure he could clear the way out, at uttermost need.

When Max lunged at his sister and tore at her, he would have done something about it, but the guy was already toast before he could take a few steps in his direction. He'd keep eyes on him after that until nothing was left but the trophies. These he'd move to collect so that Di could scoop up Hunter without encumbrance. He was already gorey, and being no king was not excused from the very necessary task of schlepping.

Dinah (dollihead Resident) had expected to see Max paying more attention to drystan. She'd ventured closer to Hunter, hoping to begin channeling the healing magic before the spindly madman was on her. She'd not even seen him coming.

In her trueform, what would be hair was thick, almost fleshy tendril-locks, so even that bled as his claws scythed down. As it ripped into her, she managed a startled cry, and even as he was blasted into literal chunks, she lay on her back, cursing under her breath as her wounds re-knitted themselves. She healed far too fast to worry even about an injury that would be fatal for a normal mortal.

She rolled onto her side, then her knees, muttering curses to herself. Heart, and skull. that was what she had asked for. Limping a little, she approached the stairs, reaching her hands out for Hunter, curling him up into her arms.

"it's us. I'm sorry we're so late, darling. i'm so sorry" she whispered, pressing her head against him. She remained on the stone for a few long moments, the healing magic

Dinah (dollihead Resident):  pouring from her in almost palpable waves.

Drystan Windgrace (Jacksonn Shepherd) felt baihe uncoil herself and as she slithered back to Lance, she shrunk back to neck scarf sized and settled back together with him. With her freeing him he was able to take a step forward and as Dinah slumped to the ground, healing as she did. She would get Hunter. She would help Hunter. He looked over at his brother and gave him a smile through hs eyes and said to him mentally, <You've never looked so good in gold and red brother.> He stepped forward towards Dinah, and had his eyes on what he could see of the small bunny in her grasp. He looked around, and paused, sensing the area around him, the flare of spectral eyes and floating arms sprang up again. Maybe it was just an echo if the Elder that had held tethered to the man himself, so he looked around them all form every way he could, making sure all that remained would be the fleeting energy of the Mist, and the ghost of Max. But the skull caught one of his eyes and they all swiveled and turned to face it before his face and then body did. Dorian

Drystan Windgrace (Jacksonn Shepherd):  was picking it up to give to Dinah, along with the meat of the heart. "His soul.... it lingered a moment. You should know Dinah love." He gestured to the braincase. "In the end he was glad it was over. Our enemies pray for release. It is now confirmed."

Riven (LRRiven Resident): Hunterbun is a shivering ball of fluff that startles when Dinah picks him up. But he burrows into her chest (Not literally) and makes himself as small as he possibly can, while still retaining his shape. His parts are rejoined now. It took a great deal of time and effort to accomplish that. The healing is like a touch of bliss and his little body trembles in response. He is twitchy, scared, and so very hungry. These are things that he wordlessly conveys to them all. Most importantly - he conveys relief.

As the dust begins to settle only the soft scurrying of the rats disturb the quiet of the caves. Here and there, candles are still lit. But it is finally over. Max is dead.

Dinah (dollihead Resident) remained in a hunched crouch, fingers brushing through sticky fur. Her boy, her precious boy. Her eyes closed as she focused, the only sign that she had heard drystan as he spoke on his approach was a flick of her tail, almost irritably, behind her.

"I am not yet decided if I am done with him" she muttered coldly. "He hurt hunter. If I have to drag him back from wherever he lingers and lash him to something to keep him around until I am satisfied. If I break what I attach him to, I will do it again. And again. Until I am bored of it" she curled her arms around hunter, giving a cooing sound in her throat, and she pressed a kiss to him again, finally standing and opening her eyes again.

"I want to get him home. And then I want to come back and search his materials. Just in case there is anything extra that we can find. Tomorrow, maybe. Hunter takes priority"

Dorian (Alexandros Lycomedes) held a heart in one hand and a braincase in the other, and when his brother complimented him on looking good, all he could do was darkly chuckle and shake his head. Aloud, he murrs to both his siblings, "I am ready to be quit of this place, there are foul humours under the sweet smell of lilies. Let's get Hunter and ourselves home."