The Herald

[The Storyteller]

The Herald continued to placate the skull on the table, drumming his fingers along the back of it rhythmically, as the guests stopped and stared at him. Disgust, disdain, displeasure – all were visible and prevalent on their faces and in their minds, but each negative emotion they felt simply fed his own insatiable lust for suffering. He wore that same gentle, mischievous grin on his face as they took their seats. All but one obeyed his wish and sat down, and he simply stared at Zarya through heavy-lidded eyes. The Mandalorian, stoic and forthright in thought, was the only one to speak to The Herald while the others stared at him with fear, curiosity, or disapproval. Behind the guests, the lurching manservant attended, patiently awaiting a command from its dark master.

”My desire?” he asked, quirking a brow near-imperceptibly, ”My desire is to see this galaxy burn, but I’m afraid She wouldn’t quite like that.” He stood up abruptly, still clutching the skull as he did so. ”Why do you think they think me a menace?” he posed to Tagal, gesturing ambiguously around the room, ”The fine nobles here hosted me and I’ve repaid them in kind. Those who lived on other planets lived meaningless, menial lives. I’m giving them a purpose. A sacrifice not in vain.”

He paced around behind the table, glaring at each of those seated and pointedly ignoring Zarya and Uhtred, who refused to sit. ”No, I think I’m saving those people from a pitiful, pointless life. To die in Her service is a sublime privilege even I cannot hope to be granted.” All the while he spoke, he drew the Force in towards himself, and those who could feel its power would note that he was preparing something – an attack? A defense? It was uncertain.

The half-dead at the table alternated between staring at The Herald, captivated by his speech, and staring at the guests, moaning mournfully. He set the skull down on the table and looked square at Zarya for perhaps the first time tonight. ”More of you will die tonight,” he admitted, his intense gaze boring right into her head, ”And the rest will become servants to their new dark ruler, nothing more than thralls of the Dark Side.” He had no qualms with admitting his plans, though he did not say how they would be achieved.

The Herald ceased his caress of the skull, set it down on the table, and panned his gaze around the room, smiling softly still. ”I wonder what you will sacrifice to save yourselves,” he mused, looking each of them in the face in turn, ”I shall await you below.” With that, a thick smoke enveloped his body. The final thing the guests would see before The Herald teleported away to the crypts below would be his grinning face and suddenly-yellow eyes.

The moment he had vanished to the crypts beneath the manor, the half-dead dinner guests sprung back to life, no longer enthralled by their master. Those unfortunate enough to have obeyed the command of The Herald were the first targets for the horrible creatures.

The one closest to Tagal (@Nefieslab) immediately reached out for his helmet, violently throwing its body against its target in a twisted tackle. If successful, it would attempt to rip the helmet off and expose the bare flesh, ready to feast. Behind Skuld (@Killa Ree), the wretched abomination lunged forward, using its one taloned hand to claw at and grip her own helmet, trying to tear it off from behind in a downward jerk to do the same.

The creature beside Eithni (@Raven_41) immediately clasped its hand around her forearm, pinning it to the table as it turned and grabbed her shoulder with its other bloody, horribly mutilated hand. It would attempt to pull her in to bite at her supple, exposed neck flesh, jagged teeth lining its gaping maw.

Zarya (@christhebarker), who chose not to sit, had full view of the scene, but she was not safe. There were many guests at the dinner table, and, even though not all of them revived, many were now rising and clambering for her. She had earned their master’s ire and thus earned more of their attention. Four living corpses rocked and shuddered towards her, climbing over the table and clawing past each other for a chance to consume her flesh.

All the while more living corpses rose and began to shamble towards the four survivors in the room, perhaps numbering eight more in total that weren’t already going after someone. Some clawed along the floor, their legs having either been removed or long since rendered useless. Others limped along, dragging their useless leg behind them while more still walked forward, arms outstretched to grab at each person and prepare for the meal.

They did not forget about the other Deucalian (@Korvo), either. He also refused a seat, and thus drew unnecessary attention to himself. Of the eight living corpses shambling towards the group, four focused solely on him and began to approach, chomping and gnashing broken and bloodied teeth. This left four more undead, who joined the others in attacking those being grappled with. Two went after Tagal, one after Skuld, and one after Eithni.

The rest of the guests who did not rise simply convulsed and rocked in their chairs, slamming their heads against the wooden table or screeching in some foul tongue that would make even the most stalwart hero’s skin crawl. At the end of the table, watching it all, was the skull The Herald gently placated, except now it looked like it was… grinning?

 

[Tagal Saxon]

Well shite.

The fact that The Herald (it was 100% using capital letters even when spoken aloud right?) had replied wasn't actually all that comforting considering what he actually had to say. If Tagal needed further proof that this karker needed a blaster bolt enema then this conversation was it.

Manners had been observed by both parties however and Tagal could honestly say that he had conducted himself with the decorum expected of a managing director of a prestigious company.

"Well I think we'll agree to disagree on most of that." he replied as The Herald left, "But you're right. We'll be seeing you later."

The corpse thing attacked him suddenly but Tagal had honestly expected that. When it grabbed for his helmet though he was honestly rather bemused... well it wanted his helmet right? Rearing his head back, he slammed it forwards into the thing's face, breaking it's nose and staggering it from the force, allowing him to rear back and come in for another headbutt and another. He caved in the thing's skull with the force of his blows, smearing his helmet with gore.

Standing from the table fully, he fired his blaster rifle once to blow up that smug-looking skull before he focused on the other two undead staggering his way. Backing up slowly as he fired, he blasted out a knee of each of the two attacking him to send them sprawling to the ground. With their mobility reduced, he carefully aimed a shot for each skull.

"Alright, get your shite together!" he called out to the others at large, "Quit playing with dead things and get a move on! If we don't push on we're looking at some gods-forsaken ritual of evil kark descending on the Galaxy and I like my Galaxy free of that kind of thing. Come on!"

With that, Tagal moved to the door that led downwards. How did he know it led downwards? Well it was off the dining area and it was ominous as all hell - seemed logical to him.

@Killa Ree @Painus @christhebarker @Korvo @Raven_41

 

[Eva 'Skuld' Stark]

Well, this had been fun.

Sacrifice though?

Well...

Her hand tightened on instinct with her ax and blade; events like these were hardly ever civil. They didn't even have decent food! And somehow, that was the most insulting thought. That their host hadn't provided dinner for them, at least something that would have been better than rotted pig.

Though the screechy butler abomination thing clawing at her helmet was the last straw.

As it tried to do just that with a taloned hand, she lunged up to headbutt it square in the jaw, and shove her chair back at the same time. As it stumbled away her ax hummed to life, and she snarled something incoherent, the chair shoved aside as the thing stumbled back... joined by her very own undead target practice.

Kark, why did these things love screeching and waving sharp-ended limbs around?

When the abomination lunged towards her again, recovering from its' surprise assault, her ax came down into its' skull, and she shoved down hard, until heat sizzled grey matter and split down the sinew of neck. The ghoul that lurched after it, however, decided now was a better time than ever to lunge over the corpse, razor teeth gnashing.

She bellowed again, and shoved her blade into the thing's face with a sickening crunch. When it crumpled, she twisted around, ready to tear to pieces any other ghouls that attacked her brethren. She now counted the other Deucalian and Eithni in that count. The Sith witch could no doubt handle herself; she had a grudging respect for the salty little thing. So far.

"Agreed," she smirked at Tagal, wiping her blade on the scrap of cloth that barely covered the former manservant abomination and dragging her ax back out of its' skull.

Of course Tagal was prepared to just go on ahead. What concerned most, however, was what laid ahead.

...However, the skull on the table was still creepy as hell. She was half tempted to pick it up anyhow.

...Nei. That just had bad horror holovid written all over it.

@Painus @Korvo @Raven_41 @christhebarker @Nefieslab

 

[Uhtred Wardruna]

It was strange that the first thing to run through Uhtred's mind was that he'd felt like he'd seen this scene before on a late-night slasher holo-film. But this was... real. It was utterly unbelievable to behold with his own eyes, but he couldn't deny what he was seeing. Corpses walking like the tales his own people told of ghouls, dishonorable souls of the dead that were claimed by neither Sáldœm nor Svartur, forever damned to eternal madness as decadent spirits.

And Uhtred would be lying if the uncanny resemblance between myth and reality didn't send a discomforting shiver down his spine.

"I didn't come all this way to die", Uhtred hissed as he pulled his lockbow into his hands and fired at the undead. If there was any advantage to any of this insanity, it was that the corpses seemed to barely walk cohesively, as if each step was a struggle against falling down. That was fine for Uhtred; it just made aiming at their heads easier.

Uhtred rapidly fired a shot at each of the abomination's heads, one shot for each, as he steadily backpedaled. If nothing else, he wanted to make sure he'd keep a fair distance between himself and those... things. If they fell, all the better. If not, Uhtred would unleash another round of shots, firing at each of the four walking corpses yet again, doing so as he ran. Either way, Uhtred would heed Tagal's call and make his way towards him, following his lead.

"You'll get no karking argument from me!", Uhtred yelled in agreement. In times like these, there was always strength in numbers. More than could be found in isolation, anyway.

@Painus @Raven_41 @Killa Ree @Nefieslab @christhebarker

 

[Eithni Vala Stark]

Everything had happened ever so sudden for Eithni. She had listened to what The Herald had said and hoped a bit, that he would know her burning question to how he made the corpse move and talk. Sadly she never got her curiosity fulfilled and instead, she started to like him even less after his little ~the galaxy will be min~ speech. Eithni sudden feared for her mother and clan and for that matter, the Dathomirians, no magick or desire was too great if it meant there was a chance that people she cared for, would die or be enslaved, right?

The young girl flinched when she felt something clasped its hand around her forearm, pinning her forearm to the table as the living corpse turned and grabbed her shoulder with its other bloody, horribly mutilated hand, making Eithni screech in fright and from reflects, she pulled one of her vibroblade daggers, with her free hand, from its scabbard and sliced through the arm that held her forearm down on the table. Getting her forearm free again she slashed the blade down in the corpsed other arm, which still tried to pull her to its horrid maw. "Let me go!" demanded Eithni, with a bit high pitch tone, due to her fright, as she violently kept impaling the corpse's skull. Blood, gore and gooey matter escaped the deep wounds in the head as the ghoul crumbled in the chair beside her.

Eithni yelped as the corpsed grip on her stopped, making herself almost tip the chair, because of the force she pulled, to get free from the ghoul. She had just saved herself from one dead corpse, to turn around just in time to stand face to face with another one of The Herald's ~other guests~. Eithni almost slipped on the floor, thanks to all the blood and her walking barefooted.

With lightning-fast movements, had Eithni sheathe her vibroblade dagger, drawn her Schnee and fired two arrows, hitting the advancing ghoul at her. Not sure why the corpse's head sort of exploded in gore after the second arrow, as they only shock and stunned or paralysing the target. Maybe because they weren't really alive, Eithni was unsure but didn't wanted to check, not that she actually could.

Hearing the other planning to find The Herald and most likely kill him, made Eithni run up to Skuld and stay by her side. "Are you okay?" Asked Eithni a bit worry, looking up at the warrior woman. not that she doubted Skuld could take care of herself, but Eithni just wanted to make sure. Eithni would personally murder anyone, who would dare hurt her Skuld! Yes her Skuld, she was like a cool protective big sister to Eithni.

@Painus @Korvo @Killa Ree @Nefieslab @christhebarker

 

[Zarya]

she expected The Herald would turn the abomination on them, he was predictable and if he was predictable he could be killed. Zarya pulled her four throwing knives from her belt, throwing each one at the head of each abomination crawling towards across, her movements clean and efficient. she spotted the skull at its apparent smile appearance, she pulled it into her hand and whispered into it, "I will kill you even if it's the last thing I do" before she dropped into the floor and crushed beneath her boot.

She now turned to the others, the Mandalorian's plan was one of a fool, the Herald wanted them to follow him into the crypts."I see you are eager to rush into an ambush that will lead you to your deaths, he wants us to follow him. I think it's our best interest to figuire what he planning down there before we venture any deeper" she paused, going back through what he said "he mentioned a 'her' that he was in service to, we figuire who this her is, it might provide with some kind of advantage"

Hopefully, her words wouldn't fall on deaf ears and they would listen to someone had experience with dark siders. if they didn't listen she would follow behind them begrudgingly keep herself aware of her surroundings.

@Painus @Killa Ree @Nefieslab @Korvo @Raven_41

 

[The Storyteller]

The Herald reappeared in the ritual chamber amidst the other cultists and quickly began making the final preparations needed. Above him, the intruders began their desperate bid for survival in the estate.

The corpse-abominations did not put up much of a fight. Frankly, the magic keeping them intact was tenuous at best, and each of the intruders managed to fight off their attackers. Tagal, in true Mandalorian fashion, caved in the skull of his opponent and executed the others coming for him. Skuld, in a similar manner, managed to avoid being taken by the wretched manservant before splitting its skull in twain. An unholy, putrid scent escaped its decayed body, filling the already-foul room with an acrid odor that would make even a Gamorrean retch. Uhtred, surprisingly enough, recovered from his stupor just in time to end the pathetic lives of the four abominations heading his way, his backpedaling leaving bloody footprints in the tiled floor. Eithni, equally surprising, survived more from sheer desperation than apparent skill, and the gushing skull of the disfigured corpse splattered brain and gore across her face. Combined with the disgusting nature of being barefoot in a place like this, she would surely reek of an abominable stench, not to mention the myriad diseases and infections that would assault her immune system. Finally, the impatient, rude Sith woman tossed four knives into the heads of the undead creatures. The blades lodged in them, but they did not halt their movements.

It was not until she pulled the skull towards her and smashed it did the creatures finally die off, the force of the ashen relic’s destruction breaking the magic keeping them intact. All of the dinner guests promptly crumpled in place, truly dead, and began rapidly decomposing. Simultaneous to the destruction of the skull, each of the intruders would feel a profound sense of dread, as if something highly unfortunate had just happened.

Tagal, ever bold, charged first into the unknown. His gambit had paid off, and the doorway he entered did, in fact, lead downwards. The way ahead was pitch black, the oppressive darkness seemingly stretching for an eternity. Truthfully, it only went down about two or three flights. Once Tagal had reached the bottom, he would note a room, perhaps no larger than ten meters by ten meters, with two stone plinths with a single groove built into them. The groove of the first plinth held a small, heavily bloodstained cylindrical stone set into the plinth itself. Beneath this on opposite sides of the plinth were two open grooves, large enough to fit a hand. The other plinth’s groove appeared to be just small enough to fit a symmetrical object like, for example, a recently crushed human skull.

The room was entirely bare, save for a few notable bloodstains around the base of the first plinth that trailed towards one of the walls. Only a set of candles around each plinth illuminated the chamber, and the ancient, cyclopean stones of the room were jagged and mismatched, suggesting that it was older than the chateau itself. It was completely silent, almost unsettlingly-so, to such a point that the intruders could possibly hear their own heartbeats. The truly, unerringly observant may note that some of the stones might appear as if they were cut deliberately mismatched and arranged in a particular order, suggesting that a passage lay beyond a hidden door. The blood trail seemed to reach this section of the wall before ending.

Unfortunately for the intruders, that hidden stone passageway was sealed by the potent Force power of The Herald and could not simply be bashed down, unless they wished to bring the entire room down upon their heads.

If they remained upstairs, the smell of the dining room would only worsen as the corpses rapidly decayed, no longer held intact by dark magic. There were another few doors in the room that led to various places: the kitchen, the larder, back out into the main hall, and a door that led to a small garden. Each of those doors were locked by a simple mechanical lock that could easily be broken or opened with the right key. The only truly sealed door upstairs was the one that led out into the torrential acid downpour that continued to melt the poor intern.

@Korvo @christhebarker @Nefieslab @Killa Ree @Raven_41

 

[Tagal Saxon]

Breaking out some chemical lights, Tagal dropped them at random as he descended down the stairs into the unknown.

Well, he said unknown, but he had honestly expected some unholy torture chamber not out of place in a horror vid so what he actually got at the bottom of the stairs was actually pretty spot on. He looked around it with his rifle raised until he was satisfied that he was alone.

He pushed at the table with the end of the rifle and stared between the two holes and the place that looked made for a skull. Like the skull the Sith had managed to go out of her way to break. He would have bet his left testicle that that would have come in handy but it was... okay.

There might be another way.

From what he could tell, they either needed to put a skull into one place or push arms into two others. Even he would have boobytrapped either so they needed a way to try and get past. Preferably without sacrificing limbs. He tapped his com link and spoke to Skuld, still at the top of the stairs.

"Honey - be a dear and bring the weirdo's corpse. We need a skull. Or some arms. Or both."

@Killa Ree @Painus @christhebarker @Korvo @Raven_41

 

[Eva 'Skuld' Stark]

Honey?

She wondered if her comm was playing right. It sounded like Malmhaus, but...

The rotting smell was progressively getting fouler the longer she lingered. She coughed, eyes watering as she stumbled away from the abomination's corpse, scowling at the Sith witch unseen beneath her helmet. Somehow, it seemed the smashing of the skull had no doubt done wonders to stop the ghouls... but also made it stink in the room greater than anything she could have imagined. It was almost on par with the wampa caves of her youth.

She nodded at the young Dathomiri witch Eithni, her voice raspy. "Ja, little one, it is well. You survived... wonderfully." She patted her on the shoulder, and walked over to the unfortunate corpse of the unknown third Deucalian, where he was still pinned to the table by knives.

"Sorry brother, I do not mean to disturb..." She muttered quickly in Deucalic, carefully plucking out the knives and utensils. Dark blood still seeped; his body was still warm. She had no idea what the body was useful for, but nonetheless she grunted as she lifted all the mass of him over her shoulders, and stared down into the inky depths of the abyss.

She wordlessly tilted her head downstairs to her companions, then descended to where Tagal had disappeared.

Even with her helm's special technology, the darkness was as deep and thick as a Bantha's hide. And the corpse was very heavy as the stairs gently wound down into the depths of the castle. When she at last made it to the bottom, her eyes took in the entire scene, and she swore softly.

...Now it all made sense.

Kark, she sometimes regretted being the one to do the heavy lifting. "Anyone gonna help me bring him over, or do I have to carry him alone?" She bit out over her shoulder, coming Tagal's way. Her eyes took it all in, the eerie silence, the rough stone walls, the plinths... all of it seemed like some antediluvian horror holovid adaptation she had seen when on a jaunt to Mimban.

...Did those videos have any elements of truth to them? And if so, how much did either of their witches know about this castle and its' inhabitants?

@christhebarker @Raven_41 @Korvo @Painus @Nefieslab

 

[Uhtred Wardruna]

Uhtred wasted no time in following Tagal. The staircase was as dark as one could have imagined, but there was an overriding advantage; wherever it led, it was somewhere else, other than where he currently was.

Two flights down, and a new room appeared. It was bare, dimly lit, as was basically expected by this point, and sent off as many warning signs as did the room above. Uhtred said nothing as he promptly reloaded his lockbow and raised it to be level once more. If something would pop out at him, he wasn't going to be taken by surprise by it so easily.

Uhtred hated surprises.

"And how the kark is that supposed to help us?", Uhtred muttered in irritation. He knew walking inside was a bad idea, and his only concern was how they were all going to get out. He didn't mind dying, but there was no way in the Seven Corellian Hells that he would let it be here.

Nonetheless, Uhtred walked over towards Skuld to help her lug the corpse over to Tagal. It felt... wrong, somehow, doing this to one of his own brothers. Uhtred couldn't say one way or the other if he was an honorable one, but he hoped Saldoem had deemed him worthy. This unnatural, uncanny place impressed further upon Uhtred that it was a terrible thing to be a Svartur's mercy... or worse, to be left and abandoned in the mists of Svidibein.

@Nefieslab @Painus @Raven_41 @Killa Ree @christhebarker

 

[Zarya]

It appeared the Mandalorian appeared to be set in his way, she followed him down using her lightsaber to light the way in front of her. she inspected the plinths, seeing the hole that would have fit the skull she sighed, I guess we need to find a new key then. it seemed Mandalorian was one step ahead on this, hearing him call his companion from upstairs to bring the body of Mangus down.

while she did that, Zarya followed the blood trail leading from one of the plinths to its abrupt end, she placed her hand againest the wall feeling the ward the Herald had put down with force, she couldn't break it even if she wanted to, they would have to play the Herald's little game.

she continued to investigate the area until the body arrived, "we needed something to replace the skull I destroyed upstairs," she spoke without even looking at them "now if you would present his head, so I can remove it."

Assuming they agreed, Zarya removed Mangus' head, it was best she did since her saber would make less mess than a vibroblade. once it was down she would place the head in the slot and wait to see what happened.

@Painus @Killa Ree @Nefieslab @Korvo @Raven_41

 

[Eithni Vala Stark]

Eithni gave Skuld a small sweet smile when the warrior woman assured Eithni that she was okay. It might have looked a bit murderous when Skuld looked down at Eithni, as her face still had smeared blood across her face like warpaint. She removed the blood with the back of her hand and wanted to help Skuld, but the other man, a warrior like Skuld, came to her aid before Eithni. Not that the young girl could actually do much lifting of such a heavy dead man, as she wasn't very physically strong.

Instead, she followed the two carriers down the pitch black stairs, only just being lit by the mean red-skinned sith. Being barefooted on floors and stairs filled with blood, wasn't very fun and rather disgusting, not to mention, probably not very clean. Thankfully, Eithni had the solution and just slightly started to levitated over the surface of the ground and blood, letting the blood slowly drip off her toes.
Hopefully, Skuld wouldn't notice.

Eithni was glad to see no blood filled floor and descended down again. She looked around the ten meters by ten meters room while keeping close to her Skuld. It looked like a hole large enough to fit a hand, while the other hole could fit what seemed to be something like a skull. Eithni wasn't a very sensitive girl, so beheading and removing of limps wasn't shocking to her so she didn't really look away if they actually started to remove the head and limps.

@Korvo @christhebarker @Nefieslab @Killa Ree @Painus

 

[The Storyteller]

The intruders, overcoming the hysteria of surviving the horrible abominations, finally decided to get a move on. Tagal stared dumbstruck at the two plinths, perplexed by the puzzle. He suddenly had a struck of genius, and called upon one of the surviving Deucalians to aid him – by bringing the corpse of the man stabbed to death by cutlery to the chamber. Carried as a sacrifice by his former unlikely comrades, Magnus’ corpse made its way down the depths and into the barebones room. Combining the immense mental abilities of their entire party, the intruders stood around, figuring out the way to open the sealed door.

Magnus’ corpse was dropped unceremoniously onto the ground and the Sith, Zarya, promptly ignited her lightsaber, suffusing the room in an eerie red glow, and sliced his head off. A small trickle of blood spilled out as the cut was too quick to fully cauterize the wound, and Magnus’ head rolled onto the floor, staring right up at his betrayers. Zarya wasted no time in recovering the decapitated head and placed it on the plinth, preparing herself for what was about to happen.

The room was eerily silent, as expected. Magnus’ head sat on grim display for the room, a reminder of the fickle nature of The Herald within his demesne of darkness. It was a bit too big for the groove it was sat on, for Magnus had a particularly large head. For those with good short-term memory and noticed the skull before it was crushed, it seemed reminiscent of a child’s, or perhaps a teen’s skull, and the groove seemed just large enough to fit something of that size.

A sound escaped from the wall nearest Tagal, and if he turned to inspect, he’d find nothing but some dust sifting down from the ceiling, an effect of the building settling.

Perhaps their efforts needed revision.

@Korvo @Nefieslab @christhebarker @Raven_41 @Killa Ree

 

[Tagal Saxon]

Well great.

The stupid shite's head was too big to act as a substitute for the bloody skull from the room upstairs... and now upstairs seemed to be less safe. Dust from the ceiling wasn't suspicious in anyway at all; except when you were in a murder-house and you were a suspicious Mandalorian Smith who had quite enough of all the spooky shite happening all around you.

"... gods damn it."

Moving over to the corpse, Tagal instead grabbed the body by the shoulders and manhandled it into position, pushing both of the arms into the groves in the table. He wasn't feeling very certain about this way either but he wasn't about to shove his own arms into the groves - he was rather attached to them.

"Guns up!" he demanded of his companions, "If this works we're going to be getting a party I'm sure!"

IF it worked.

If it didn't?

Well if it didn't he didn't reckon they would all live long enough to regret it for all that long.

@Killa Ree @Painus @christhebarker @Korvo @Raven_41

 

[Eva 'Skuld' Stark]

Gods damn it was right.

It was an idea, but one that ticked off time for all of them. Just in case anything fell, she was prepared, but she helped Tagal in getting the arms of Magnus into the plinths, and then paced back slightly, rifle in one hand, the other prepared to spring out her shield at a moment's notice.

...She had a bad feeling about this. And she did not like using a brother-at-arms' body as sacrifice.. but his death had been in vain. Perhaps this action would give him some small regaining of honor, no matter what his path was before coming here. But there were other bodies upstairs. Others of teenagers, children... but going back up meant facing the stench, decay, and countless bodies once more. And Gods knew what she would possibly have to re-face coming back up there just to harvest another skull.

Perhaps they would have company coming. Or something far worse. In either case, she had to be ready.

There was no direction but forwards. The way back was sealed with acid rain. The likelihood of escape was impossible from any other vantage point that she could tell, since the Sith witch had followed them downstairs after her bold talk about finding another way.

Nei. For once, she was in agreement with Tagal. And wasn't that an alarming thought.

@Nefieslab @Korvo @Raven_41 @Painus @christhebarker

 

[Uhtred Wardruna]

"Hmm...", Uhtred said with obvious dissatisfaction in his voice. "So much for that idea."

It was such a minute detail given the scope of all the things happening around them, Uhtred himself hadn't noticed the discrepancy had come due to the size of Magnus' head. Even so, it was a grim scene in its entirety.

"Upstairs, at that table with all the bone-walkers, some of the corpses placed in those chairs.... their form was smaller. Less than fully-grown", Uhtred said, musing the Herald's introduction to them at the time.

Uhtred's lockbow was raised again, having slumped slightly in the period of his musing, but between Tagal's call for alertness and the strange sound that came from the wall nearest to him, Uhtred was on edge already.

"I know no one wants to hear this, but everyone is thinking it; if this doesn't go as planned, going backwards might be the only means to go forward."

@christhebarker @Raven_41 @Killa Ree @Nefieslab @Painus

 

[Zarya]

Zarya waited in silence for whatever would happen, she didn't feel bad for doing what she had done it simply business and survival at this point, and she was willing to what she needed to survive.

with the silence that continued, it appeared his head wasn't a match for the plinth, too big by looking at it, "I agree with the man, we'll have to go back, for now, to find a more suitable skull, I do believe there were some adolescent children at the dining table" she spoke in agreement with the Deucalian, "I'll lead the way"

With that Zarya would head back up the stairs to the dining room her lightsaber activated and ready since it seemed they were completely alone, hoping someone would follow with her

@Painus @Killa Ree @Nefieslab @Korvo @Raven_41

 

[Eithni Vala Stark]

Everything about this crept her out and when a sound escaped from the wall nearest Tagal. Eithni insanely fast drew her Schnee bow and pointed it the direction of the sound. However, as nothing creepy or macabre attacked them, made Eithni lower her bow. The dust sifting down from the ceiling due to an effect of the building settling, got the young witch very alerted to anything horrible that would jump them.

Standing close to Skuld, she would look to what the warrior woman would do, Eithni wasn't a fan of these ideas, something very bad would happen as The Herald seemed like an unpredictable man. Something the young Nightsister notice, was that some seemed like they almost found this familiar as if they had experienced it before or seen it somewhere else. Eithni the dust and sounds from the walls very suspicious and started to inspect the ceiling, trying to find something that might give anything away.

Holding her bow in one hand, Eithni looked back at Skuld and pulled her a bit in the warrior woman's clothing, specifically her sleeve, like a child trying to get her mother's attention. "I don't like this room... the ceiling creeps me out..." commented the Eithni looking from Skuld to back up at the ceiling, as if it would collapse down on them all at a moment's notices. Her eyes flickered from the ceiling to the only exit that Zarya now disappeared through.

She started to calculate the distance for her to get to the exit and out of the room if the ceiling would suddenly collapse on them all.

@Korvo @christhebarker @Nefieslab @Killa Ree @Painus

 

[Tagal Saxon]

There was a long pause.

Like... like a really long, awkward pause where Tagal was just holding a corpse's arms in place and hoping for the best while the others ran around doing... whatever, he wasn't actually paying attention to them it had to be said. It was getting to the stage where he was considering just bringing down the galleon, blasting a wall down, getting aboard and them bombing the kark out of the building when something finally happened.

The trap activated, cutting off the corpse's arms.

"Glad I brought the corpse."

With the trap activated, the trap door began to swing open, the way no longer barred. Tagal brought his rifle up, stepping forwards cautiously, throwing a glowstick in ahead of himself as he advanced.

"Doors open! Move up!"

Spoiler: OOC

Skipping Painus

@Killa Ree @Painus @christhebarker @Korvo @Raven_41

 

[Eva 'Skuld' Stark]

She snorted at Tagal's wry comment, giving the thing a raised unseen black brow. It seemed like the witch Sith and Uhtred had gone off for more heads. Hardly a shocker, the witch would have been useless anyhow. Her sharpness was all in the tongue, and not in any blade. She brought the rifle up and forward, watching inky black depths swallow the feeble light that came from the glow stick, then nudged Eithni with one elbow, jerking her head at the open door.

"Sith lady, Wardruna. Come," she called over her shoulder, then nudged at Eithni again.

"You have experience as witch, ja? No fear, the dark was your home. You are not child." This was spoken in mild admonishment, and she followed after, jaw clenched. Who knew what other abominations lurked about.

She wasn't going to coddle the young woman. It was time to move on; the way back was no longer an option.

@Painus @Nefieslab @Raven_41 @christhebarker @Korvo