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[Redcoat]

...and it intensified, slowing the party further. But as they crossed the threshold, now under the canopy of the jungles, they entered another world entirely.

They hit the warm air like a brick wall. Below them, now, was an incredibly lush landscape; but noteworthy in the minds of the fallen was the single large pit that awaited them. It was directly in the path of their descent, and by this time totally unavoidable, save by Telchi and Kaethe, who had more control over their fates, and by Takeshi and Sakura, who were not present. Anikus noted that its floor was fibrous, almost alive; but he had not enough time to think before his updraft spell tapped into the flows of magic nearer the ground.

Suddenly, fungal spores. Hundreds of them. Thousands of them. The Arkovan's magic had burst open thousands of cells lining the floor of the ancient superorganism, and their payload, orange and purple in colour, went up to meet not only the party, but anything else in the air above the local area. The smell produced was noxious and vaguely intoxicating; the spores stung the eyes and nostrils of the party as they hurtled towards the hole, whatever it was.

Anikus thought for a moment that it was almost a beautiful expression of the natural world. Why in any God's name he would be thinking about such things at a time like this was beyond him; perhaps it was to get his mind off of the immediate peril they all faced. He made peace with the world as he fell; it was a psychological defence of distraction, but in it there was no shame.

They hit the first membrane covering the floor of the pit. Rather than the sound of grinding joints and snapping bones, followed by the moans of unfortunate adventurers in unbearable pain, suffered for a short time before a tragic demise at the hands of cruel and immutable Fate, there was a grunt from Anikus as he hit the membrane with full force--at the same time as most of his comrades--and was, rather rudely, slowed down.

Multiple membranes followed; at least four or five in total. Each stop was equivalent to a particularly well-delivered rugby tackle; as he slowed, jostled every which way, he thanked his luck for, at very least, not yet breaking any bones. He came to rest on the cold, damp cavern floor, surrounded by his comrades. Every nerve in his body screamed in pain. He was unable to move for a time, shuddering in place and sobbing lightly; everything hurt, everything seemed sprained, and, most worryingly, his vision had begun to blur.

[Lyon]

Telchi yanked the cloaks up and to the side as they headed for the pit and was gratified to see it fall behind them. However, his gratitude was short-lived, as he plowed headfirst into a tree, then fell several feet onto the forest floor. He lay there groaning.

Kaethe, who had escaped the worst by landing on top of her companion, got up rather more quickly. After ascertaining that Telchi was in no immediate danger, she moved cautiously over to the edge of the pit. "Anikus? Grimlain? Are you all right?"

[Durandal]

Marketta's eyes opened slowly, the blur in her eyes slowly adjusting, dilating. Once the atmosphere around her was notably clear, she attempted to move her head -  with much sourness and pain, her neck delayed, yet complied; she realized that she was not the only one in this pit; Alec, Ria, Anikus, S'ven, and Grimlain somehow all landed a good distance from each other inside the pit. Her nerves were on fire, and her muscles only wanted to relax, yet her mind wanted to continue further, and with that command, she slowly -- after an unsuccessful attempt -- got up, finally upon her feet once again. Marketta looked up upon hearing a voice - Kaethe, she somehow avoided the pit and was now calling out to them. Mustering all her strength, she hoarsely replied "We're... OK."

Hopefully they would come for them later, but right now, everyone had to get back onto their feet. Clumsily, she made her way to Anikus, and urged him to get up, her voice still rather hoarse and strained. "Anikus! Get up..." She grabbed Anikus' hand and manually -- without much success -- attempted to raise Anikus from the soft membrane of the super organism.

[Chef]

Grimlain opened his eyes, looking straight up.  He fell right on his back and was in intense pain due to their fall, though he didn't remember the details.  Right about when they hit the top canopy of the forest he passed out because of fright.  He was a bit ashamed of it, but now he was just angry about the whole situation.  He knew taking those flying catastrophes was a bad idea.

Grimlain slowly stood up, cracking his back as he did and letting out a slight groan.  He looked up, hearing Kaethe's voice.

"If you want the truth, the answer is no," Grimlain said, annoyed.  "But thanks for asking.  Now we just need to find a way to get the hell out of this mess..."

Grimlain turned to see Marketta trying to pull Anikus off of one of the strange things that slowed their falls.  Cursing, Grimlain walked over, aiding her and raising him out, putting him back onto the ground.  Their leader seemed to be in quite a lot of pain, though the same went for all of them.  He turned to Marketta.

"Is he going to be alright, or what?" he asked, trying not to seem concerned.  "He looks rather groggy to me."

[Kamikaze_X]

OOC: This... is a super late post. Sorry guys. =/ college...


Thalmir was the last to leave upon his roc, and indeed the last to land. Unfortunately for him, he landed farther away from everyone... utterly alone. His eyes slowly opened, his vision was hazy. He was laying upon the moist ground of the forest floor. He could feel bits of moss in one hand, as he waved it over the earth. Grunting, he tried to sit up, but his vision lapsed, and he hastily laid back down for fear of passing out. He started to laugh, nonsensically, as he realized that he had been in grim situations like this before. The only thing that was different this time around, was that he had friends he cared about and didn't know where they were. The faces of Anikus, Telchi, Kaethe, Grimlain, and the others flashed before him in memory.

"Jeez.... I seemed to get the short end of the stick again." Thalmir said out loud to himself slowly.

He sat up slowly and realized that he would not fall unconscious again. Rubbing his head from the bruise he no doubt had, he looked around. He was indeed in a giant forest, abnormally large and fertile. The telltale sounds of chirping and creaking from the many creatures of the wood, he could hear. Looking to his side, he noticed his bag of wood and other various materials for his bow had remained intact. Sighing he got up, a bit wobbly at first, but then balanced himself and picked up his bag, slinging it over his shoulder. His claymore remained on his back, as his only weapon. Throwing his hood over his head, he started to walk off, listening to the sounds of the creatures, and hopefully a sign of his comrades. He didn't fear for his own life, as this forest was his element, but he did fear for the others...

[Nowe]

OOC: Same

---

The fall came, inevitably, but S'ven had already prepared for it. Just as his roc became hit with the burst of wind, he leapt off into mid air. This may not end well... he thought to himself. There was nothing but ground below, rushing up towards him. Perhaps, however, he was the one rushing towards it. Nonetheless, he was falling feet first towards the ground below, without so much as a tree nearby that he could possibly hit. This might have been considered lucky to most, as hitting a dense tree at these speeds might break a few bones, but S'ven would have preferred to land on the canopy of the jungle, where vines strung across trees might help him break the fall.

Having consigned himself to the fate of hitting the ground of the forest floor, he allowed his muscles to relax and his body to become completely limp. He wouldn't try truly breaking the fall, he would merely try not to die when he hit the ground below. He summoned a spark of power from within, trying to create an updraft of wind fast enough to allow him to decelerate before he hit the ground. Wind was already whipping up and past him, he just needed to give it the extra push it needed. He didn't need or want a cyclone of air, but he needed just enough to slow his fall by a few seconds.

He hit the floor of the jungle, just as hard as most of the others. White flashes of light exploded before his eyes, pain stemmed from just about every joint. S'ven's head felt as if it had just exploded open, shattering into the abyss. He was still alive, but only just. "Gods damn your existence, Arkovan," muttered S'ven, allowing his annoyance at the idiot who thought they would be safe flying above the forest, "And if it makes you feel any better, we all could have died from that."

He didn't exactly want to get up just yet, his joints still screamed their anger into his mind. He let his magic flow into them, years of practicing the arts of healing internal and external injuries already at work. He would have time to be more pissed off about their predicament later, for now they needed to be able to move.

[Durandal]

Marketta, wondering herself, looked at Anikus, inspecting at least some of his body to check for any severe injuries. After a few seconds, she noticed Anikus' trembling and the light sobbing, he must have been in shock because of the fall. "He seems alright, Grimlain. Shocked, but... I think fine." Calming herself down, she suddenly realized the intense pain that jolted through her right leg, and grabbed it, grunting as the pain made her slightly shiver. Attempting to get her mind off of her own pain. she limped towards S'ven, whom seemed to be conscious.

Kneeling down carefully, as to not cause herself to much pain, she asked the tribal "Do you need any," she suddenly stopped, another jolt of pain now arising from her left arm, "help?" finishing her sentence, pain clearly showing in her voice, she offered S'ven a hand. She noticed that her body was ever so slightly trembling, and that maybe she was pushing herself too hard. Pushing such thoughts from her mind, she attempted to ignore the pain, hand still trembling, awaiting S'ven to take the offer.

Looking around, she finally noticed the environment - it wasn't just a simple pit, it seemed like whatever it was they were stuck in was living - an ancient organism of sorts far larger than them; the creature itself was fungal in nature, just like the rest of the odd forest around them. Who knew what awaited them in this dank atmosphere, hopefully they'd be on their feet until the danger arrived.

[Redcoat]

Anikus' vision slowly returned to normal, as Marketta looked him over. His head was a mess, but slowly, the facts became clear. He removed himself from the wall with an extremely painful effort, and, silencing his pain for a time, looked around the pit they were in.

Above them was a clouded orange and violet sky, the remnants of the spores that his spell had dredged up. His lungs still burned from their influence; luckily, none were in the pit. Equally luckily, they would signal their presence to Takeshi and Sakura, and possibly anyone else who could help them.

What they were in was fascinating. The pit was at least three storeys deep, walled in with not only dirt but also what appeared to be plant or fungal matter. The floor of it was damp, not unlike the Stormguard tunnels the party had first encountered. A concentration of the bizarre, sticky fungus could be found around the party's location, and the scholar could, through the soil walls, sense an aura coming from it that seemed awfully animalistic; it clearly extended around the entire cavern. They had landed inside of an organism.

"I'm alive," he said, wiping the tears from his eyes, though failing to fully conceal just how badly he wanted to just lay down and, hopefully, die in peace. "Gotterdammerung, my head..."

From the walls of the chamber came crumbling noises; the soil forming the edges of the pit had begun to fall away rather disturbingly. In addition, a terrible smell began to come over the entire pit; one similar in character to the acrid aroma of the spores unleashed earlier, but stronger and heavier. Anikus closed his eyes and cursed under his breath.

"My luck be damned!" he thundered, gritting his teeth. "Everyone! Climb! I don't care what you have to say but climb!"

Near the floor of the chamber, one of the fungal formations--the very one that Grimlain had landed next to--began to form droplets of a strange fluid on its surface. Several grew to the size of oranges before sliding to the floor of the pit; almost immediately, what they touched began to burn, as though it were in the path of a vile, corrosive acid. Mostly because what the acid touched was, in fact, in the path of a vile, corrosive acid.

Anikus leapt onto the wall first. It was smooth, but sticky; a disgusting froth had begun to form, making the escape more difficult Luckily, it was not acidic; flows from above, however, were. Quickly it was obvious that the situation was hopeless; they would drown and burn in a sea of fungal saliva. He couldn't help laughing, internally, at the absurdity of it all.

He couldn't even call for help. The aura of their tormentor was able to silence his cries and, to an extent, soften his magic; they would be dependent on help, some help, from above, in either the supernatural or pragmatic sense.

[Lyon]

Kaethe watched in horror as the acid began to spread across the floor of the pit. She ran back to Telchi, shaking his shoulder. "Telchi! The pit's filling with acid! We need to get the others out!"

Telchi levered himself up on one hand, groaning. "You're awfully spry..." he muttered, having only half heard her. The gravity of the situation suddenly hit him. "Acid?" he exclaimed, fumbling for the coil of rope over his shoulder. "We need to get them out of there."

Kaethe rolled her eyes. "That's what I just said," she muttered, but Telchi didn't hear her. He was making one end of the rope fast to a tree. After knotting it several times, he dashed over to the edge of the pit, lowering it down. "Grab hold!" he shouted. "I'll try to pull you out one at a time!" Kaethe ran up behind him, taking a place behind him on the rope.

"At the very least, let me help you out," she said.

Telchi's grin was stiff with nerves, but it was a grin nonetheless. "It's the least you could do after landing on top of me."

[Luchiaros]

Isabelle had tried to stay on the Roc for as long as possible but she slipped and began to plummet to the ground, she closed her eyes and hoped this was all a bad dream that she could just wake up from. Then she remembered something her father had told her when she was young.

She had gone with him into the woods near their home village one day and on the way home they encountered a bear, Isabelle hid herself behind her father and began whimpering. After the bear had left he picked her up and carried the rest of the way home, and the whole time he talked to her and tried to make her happy. When the arrived at the village he put her down and looked her in the eyes.

''Izzy my dear, always remember this,'' He said to her. ''Whenever you're scared think of something that makes you happy and it will comfort you.''

So now she did just that, she began to think about all the things that made her happy. She didn't even notice the updraft that Anikus has summoned because of how much she was concentrating on what she liked, but no matter how much she tried she couldn't do anything about her fear of death from the fall.

Then came the pain, it came so suddenly she let out a scream as she landed in the pit. It coursed through her legs, up and down her back and gave her a splitting headache. She felt around her waist to make sure her flute was still in one piece, she then pulled herself into a sitting a position and began to check on her injuries. She couldn't tell if something was broken or not but it definitely hurt, she then stood up, the pain in her legs was immense but she managed to keep herself up.

''Do you always go to such lovely places?'' She said weakly.

She sighed and then began to climb out of the pit, it was a painful task but she managed to at least start the climb.

[Nowe]

"Wonderful," muttered S'ven standing up through the pain.

The acid was encroaching upon his location, but it still had a few feet to go before it could reach him. It was times like these that certain memories would come in handy, but his mind was racing to fast to remember them. With acid dripping from above, and seeping into the floor below, S'ven wondered how they would make it out alive. Any rope that touched the acid would instantly corrode, any metal would disintegrate. Perhaps the acid is flammable? thought S'ven. He brought his bow forward, knocking an arrow that concealed a spell for fire. "Well, better to try," he stated, "Everyone, away from the acid least you catch fire."

He broke the seal on the magical fire on the arrow, and almost instantly after let it fly into part of the pit that had already filled with the vile, fluid acid.

[Redcoat]

Anikus tried to extinguish S'ven's arrow with magic; he failed, but, luckily, the acid was, like virtually all acids in the chemical world, utterly nonflammable. The arrow fizzled out gradually, as bubbles of acid rose to meet it, followed by the feet of the scholar. His boots, for a moment, smoked until he pulled himself up.

As he climbed, suddenly fearful, he shot a glare of intense hatred at the mystic. Had the acid actually been flammable, his action would have killed all of them. There was no time to berate his insolence now, but once they were on dry, unthreatened land, he would speak with him.

The rope draped next to Marketta. "Dammit, take it!" Anikus shouted. "We can't stay in here much longer!"

[Vithar Megilaglar]

Takeshi scanned the sky, noticing the large purple-orange cloud. He rolled his eyes.

:Well, I know where they are now.:

He guided the roc towards the cloud. Sakura glanced out, at the cloud, swallowing slightly.

"Lemme guess, orange and purple cloud."

"Yeah. Sorry to drag you into this."

"I'm glad you did, you know. I don't think I would have enjoyed this, but...you know...it isn't...so bad."

"I'm just glad to have you with me. It's comforting."

"Let's save the others for once."

"Indeed."

Sakura looked down, smiling slightly.

:This...this isn't...so...bad...:

[Durandal]

Marketta grabbed the rope with much haste and began to scale the wall, using her feet as if walking upon the ground. As the ooze of acid reached her as she scuttled up the wall, she prepared to jump. Bending her knees down and attempting to kneel as far as she could, she pushed against the wall, the rope swinging violently as she frantically attempted to move above the acid, so to avoid the deadly toxin. All she could feel was fear at the moment, the unknown danger below paired with the deteriorating situation in the living organism breaking her resolve until all she could think was getting to safety and on the flat, stable ground that offered haven above her.

She seemed to be the quickest in the party at climbing - it came to no suprise either, she seemed to beat just about any of the crew endurance-wise, at least when it came to scaling walls and running. Driven by survival, she began to breath quickly until she felt herself begin to feel dizzy - the amount of air began to take slight effect on her already heightened endurance, yet the dizzy effect was causing trouble for her; she became slightly reckless. She had to slow down, otherwise she'd most likely end up falling to her doom because of one mistake. The safety of ground was near, she could see it, but the last few steps looked like it were a climb up a fifty kilometer cliff. Pulling herself together, she began to brave the last steps. "Damnit Anikus, why must bad luck follow you with every step?" she suddenly exclaimed, unaware of her action. The stress of the situation must be affecting her more than she previously thought.

[Lyon]

As soon as Telchi felt the pulling on the rope, he braced his feet and held on. Edging closer to the side of the pit, he saw Marketta struggling to climb the last few feet. "I'll haul you up!" he called down, pulling on the rope. Kaethe took this as her cue and began pulling as well. The cat-eared girl soon appeared over the edge, and Telchi grabbed her hand, pulling her to safety. Then he threw the rope down once more.

"Hurry!" he called urgently.

[Chef]

Seeing no one else jump forward, Grimlain grabbed the rope and prepared to climb up the walls of the pit they were stuck in, acid ever flowing towards them.

"Dammit, we seem to get in the worst situations possible..." Grimlain said, grumbling.  "I am almost getting to the conclusion that there is an evil deity that loves nothing more than following Anikus and causing as much trouble as possible.  That's probably the only plausible argument right now..."

Grimlain gripped on the rope tightly and began to climb upwards, using both his arms and legs to their full extend, not even daring to look down.  If he did that, he might pass out.  He's been through enough abuse via heights today...

Soon enough, Grimlain made it to the top, gripping the edge and hoisting himself up with the others that were not still waiting for their doom in the pit.

[Nowe]

S'ven had used whatever reserves he had left to hoist himself up and over the edge. His head was still throbbing from the fall, the spores, and the vile smell of the acid. He had counted his blessings, and found he had few left; if anything else where to be thrown at him, he might have just decided it would've been easier to die. S'ven had now seen what the others had been talking about. Their fearless, mostly wild and reckless leader had been quick to assure them nothing would go wrong, and soon after it certainly went as wrong as it could. He would suppose that it would be one of the laws of the universe, that if it indeed can go wrong, it'll go worse then anyone had ever imagined. He realized that Anikus and Isabella where still in the pit, but his failing strength would only last a few more minutes.

He grabbed onto the rope that Telchi had been grasping desperately, trying his best to keep them both from falling off the ledge and into the pit, "Looks like you could use a bit of help," he grunted.

[Vithar Megilaglar]

Takeshi looked toward the cloud of spores, which had mostly dispersed by now. The pit was visible, as were the rescued and the rescuers. A nagging feeling picked at Takeshi, telling him that the worst was yet to begin.

"I think, without much doubt, Takeshi, that I can tell you where that false scholar is located."

"You seem to have gotten the hang of heights."

"It doesn't bother me as much."

"Get the rope out. We'll need it soon."

Sakura reached into Takeshi's pack, pulling away his coil of rope. She pulled a coil of rope out of her own, and quickly knotted the two lengths together. Takeshi guided the roc, careful of those standing on the sides of the pit. Sakura hurled the rope, weighted by a whetstone, into the pit, tying one end to a hook on the roc's saddle.

"Anyone unfortunate enough to be stuck down there with Anikus, should probably grab the rope!" Takeshi called down, speaking to be heard.

[Lyon]

Telchi looked up at the pair of outlanders, a tight grin on his face. "You're a bit behind as far as the rope goes," he called up, "but managing to stay on your roc was an impressive touch." He hauled up S'ven and threw the rope down again. Isabelle and Anikus appeared to be the only two left. "You take the bard, and we'll haul up the fearless leader!" he called up to them.

[Redcoat]

Anikus and Izzy grapped their respective ropes, with the scholar being dragged up by Telchi and Kaethe, narrowly avoiding the rising acid.

His head pounded. His heart raced. His hair stood on end. But he was alive, and that was all that mattered. As he clambered over the edge, shaking in fright, he turned to his rescuers, laying on the grass next to the gaping maw that had nearly had him for some eldritch equivalent to an afternoon snack, and thanked them, still unable to speak clearly. Breathing heavily, he looked over the edge, into the gaping hole, which was slowly draining away the acid and beginning to close up near the bottom. It had been--was still!--alive; probably a predatory plant suited, usually, to much larger prey.

He gulped. That meant there were large enough creatures in this forest to make such an operation worthwhile; after all, the almighty did not play dice with the universe. Everything had a purpose. He cringed at that thought; had they been destined to fall into that pit?

Quickly he suppressed these deterministic thoughts with work. He went over the condition of his party. Obviously, Telchi and Kaethe were ready to move. S'ven was shaken but similarly healthy, as was Izzy, who was fished out with rather amazing skill by the unharmed Takeshi and Sakura. Others around, including Grimlain and Marketta, were similarly safe. Thalmir, however, was nowhere to be seen.

"Have you seen Thalmir?" Anikus asked in haste, coughing up some of the pinkish foam from his previous misadventure. "There's no way he's in the pit... he must have landed elsewhere."

Despite his cranium's protests--he was sure he had a concussion at this point--he bellowed directives. "Does anyone know where Thalmir has landed?"