Gabriel Solomon & Sephara Na
BOOM!
Splintered wooden shards lay fragmented around the doorway. The door rocked softly on its hinges like a baby in a cradle. Ahead was a long, dark corridor - nothing new for this place.
Sephara materialized over Kaltor's right shoulder, "Well done," she said after inspecting his work.
Kaltor beamed with arrogance, "Who needs a lock pick when you have me?"
Jade rolled her eyes at the blatant display of machismo. "Save it for another day Greycloak," Sephara silenced him. "Right. We follow the path Jasper gave us. This corridor should lead to another identical room, and so on, and so on." It had been nearly fifteen minutes since he'd last checked in, and they'd all been getting anxious. Aram had taken to biting off his finger nails, a deplorable habit that ranked somewhere between alcoholism and chit chat, and so she'd decided Jasper must have made it through on this last attempt. Nothing left to do but follow.
"Stay close together." They were the last words spoken as the group silently made their way through the labyrinth of identical rooms. The only difference, as far as she could tell, was that only the first doors had been locked. Other than that, if she hadn't known better, she would have had no way to know exactly where they were. A chill scraped across her bones at the thought of being lost in an endless maze, condemned to aimlessly wander blind. All at once the world around her felt very small and she was gasping for air.
"Are you alright?" Jade was at her side, one arm resting protectively across her shoulders. Sephara opened her mouth, but no words would come. She wanted to say something, anything, but she could barely breathe. She began to panic more. Unable to communicate the world shrunk a few more sizes, a great invisible weight was bearing down on her. Uncontrollable shakes gripped her body. This was end! With no air in her lungs she'd collapse soon and die. "Sephara just listen to me, listen to my voice." The doctor's voice was calm and slightly soothing. Just hearing it reminded the First Mate of where she was and that she wasn't alone.
"I want you to think about your homeland. Think about the people in your tribe. Your mother, your father. Think about happy childhood memories. Now try to take a deep breathe." Eyes clenched she weaved her way through her mind, to a earlier time in her life, a simpler time. And all at once the air came back. Rushing into her lungs and filling her with life. Her chest heaved stronger than the ocean tides, but it didn't matter because she could breathe. Once the trembling stopped she was able to stand up straight. A few more deep breaths and she felt relatively back to normal.
"What the hell was that?" Kaltor's gruff voice filled her with a sudden, immense embarrassment. How was she supposed to explain what they'd just witnessed.
"An allergy attack most likely. Probably from all the dust," Jade readily volunteered. "Too much inside her lungs, caused her system into overdrive, too many systems trying to work at too high a level, and so nothing works," she shot Sephara a reassuring smile and rubbed her arm.
Kaltor was eyeing the air around him with a new found suspicion, "Best we don't be lingering then." He shoved into the lead and went through the next door before anyone else could respond. "Hey this must be it!" he called out from just through the door. Everyone turned and moved towards the pirate. "It's a narrow gap, we'll have to crawl, but it has to lead out."
"Let's go then. Watch your step everyone," she managed in a barely commanding tone of voice. When no one else was looking, she shot Jade a look of thanks. She owed that woman dearly now.
-o0o-
As they entered the final resting place of Ptolemy Gabe was overwhelmed by the magnitude of it all. As if the entire way here hadn't been enough, the tomb of the great Latium General sprawled across what appeared to be three floors (it might be four, I wasn't sure) and what looked like many corridors.
"All roads lead to Rome," he mumbled in awe.
"What?" Tarra asked.
"Hmm?"
"What was that you just said?"
"Oh, all roads lead to Rome?"
"Yeah, that."
Gabe smiled and pressed his finger across the spine of the nearby books, "Just something I read from a book once."
"You wouldn't happen to have a little food you could spare? I ran out of food a few hours ago and I am starving. Also I suppose this would be good time as any." she paused for just a moment. "Would you mind explaining to me why ALL of you are here?" It was a fair enough question.
"I may have mentioned that I'm the captain of an Airship, the Requiem Dawn, and this is my crew. We're searching for a book called the Spider's Way, an old child's fable I think is tied to the legend of Shandalaar. I'm just not sure how yet. Ptolemy happens to be the proud owner of one of the eight surviving copies." He looked her right in the eyes, "And we need it."
As he stepped fully into the room for the first time his gaze drifted not to the splendor of the tomb, the many riches or artifacts that it contained, it's perfect architecture, or to its formidable occupant. Instead, he looked over the faces of his crew, relieved to see so many of them, and that, barring what appeared to be a broken arm or wrist on Drice, they were unhurt. Steiner, or the living shield, as Gabe had so fondly taken to calling him. The big man had been a tower of strength and safety standing between the Dawn and those that would do it or its crew harm.
Archamae and Cyradis stood together, a new bond radiating between them as plain as daylight. Arlen, Cailey, and even Kyra were all there. Many were still missing however. Most notably was Sephara. Where was his closest friend. He'd kill her if she'd gotten herself killed.
With most of the crew assembled they grouped together. In the midst of this nightmare they exchanged smiles, hugs, and other pleasantries, yet everyone kept their guards up. They rationed what food and water they had left, and then Gabe set them to the task they'd come here for.
"We'll have to search this entire place. In twos, go corridor by corridor, bookshelf by bookshelf, starting at the top until we find it. Help yourself to anything you'd like along the way, I don't think he needs it anymore. But keep in mind we still have to get back out of this place, and we can't afford to be encumbered trying to lug out a horde of treasure. Let's get to it people." As the groups split he kept Cyradis, Cailey, and Kyra back with him.
The two mages and the cleric were obviously unsettled by this place, even more so than they'd been when they'd first encountered the walking undead. Whatever was causing this curse, they were probably the only ones who could solve it. "I have a different task for you three," he pointed at each, "You need to figure out the source of the evil in this place. Whatever is causing those nightmares is probably here somewhere. You need to find it an neutralize it, if you can." None looked happy about their new objective, but they weren't surprised by it either. They all bore looks that said, 'What do you think we've been trying to do?'
"Right then... best of luck ladies," and he dashed off to search the book stacks with Tarra.
The monotony of going from book to book was taking its toll. He had to force himself to focus on each title, so he'd read them out loud as he went, not wanting to risk overlooking the one he searched for. A cry pierced his veil of concentration, and he turned around in time to see Arch deftly tumbling away from something. All at once the floodgates opened and a current of skeletons and zombies was rushing toward them.
All around the crew of the Dawn fought for their lives. They were doing so against a supernatural foe, but that made them all the more desperate. "Form up around me!" Steiner's loud voice boomed out. Gabe could see what he was getting at, and he tried to pull Tarra back towards the central position with him. Hands shot out from the bookshelves and bony fingers tried to grab onto any piece of him to hold him back. Over his shoulder he saw a skeleton approaching, and he threw Tarra towards the main hall as he turned just in time to deflect the blow with his pistols. With his opponent off balance he brought down the butt end of his firearm against the things heads, smashing the skull into pieces.
It didn't stop though, and once it had regained its footing it lunged at Gabe. Out of nowhere Sephara came flying in from the side, shoulder lowered, she knocked the headless corpse against the wall corner, obliterating it into nothing more than bone fragment. "Good timing," he panted.
"Arriving here just as you all get attacked but our friends is hardly good timing Gabe."
"You know what I mean, come on, to Steiner." The two raced back toward the ex-soldier. They'd all survive a little longer as a group than fighting alone. The real question was, would it be long enough to matter.
OOC: That was long overdue. Phoenix, that was a stellar post. Just had to let you know that ^_^