[At some point, during the day, the weather clears - long enough for it to feel safe to step outside. Perhaps you left the lodge to explore, or perhaps you simply stepped out for a moment. Either way, after a moment, you feel lost and confused. When you turn around to head back to the lodge, you don't see it there.
Instead, you find yourself in a cave made of ice. There are stones on the ground, and you're walled in on one side. But on the other side there is a thick sheet of ice. You can vaguely see through to more cave on the other side.
[ wow, he doesn't know how to get here either other than just walking through the snow? great. ]
Hm... [ xichen takes a close looks at the ice, looking through it to see if there's anything stuck inside. ] We should start a fire, for our own sakes and to start melting this ice.
[ thankfully he has a sword he can start a spark with so it should be fine as long as there's something they can set on fire. ]
[ This is what happens when you go out for exercise: you end up trapped in a cage orgy with three humans.
Still, Belial has lived through worse, and he settles a hand against the ice as well, testing its strength before his gaze sweeps over their motley crew. ]
A fire? And here I was hoping we might just use our bodies to get heated up.
[She looks around the area, around the stone and the ice and the people she's found herself with. She almost considers stopping to see if the fire will work...
And then Belial says that and she decides she is already tired of being here, so she just. Walks forward and tries to stab the ice with her weapon, if nobody stops her. She's fleeing from his energy.]
[ mugen just spends like, thirty seconds staring at the wall. his finger is probably in his nose because he's disgusting. similarly to endorsi, the second belial speaks, he gets this like, almost spooked look on his face before he's moving forward.
she stabs the ice, and he just straight up kicks it with his sandal'd foot. goodbye. ]
[Thanks for the smart thinking, making a fire like that! Unfortunately, when Endorsi stabs the ice, a crack appears in it. And then when Mugen kicks the ice, it shatters around him.
Behind the wall, you can see that the cave continues. It starts to look less and less like a natural mountain cave, however. The ice on the wall is still there, but behind the ice you can see that the cave's walls are especially straight, like they're manmade. And a set of stairs are carved into the ground, plated in metal, descending. There are even circular lights in the walls, glowing a low, eerie green.
A voice, which sounds somewhat mechanical, speaks, though there's no obvious source.]
Good, you're here. Come down. It's time you learned what this place really is.
[ children, all of you.... xichen sighs as the ice shatters, rubbing his temple.
better that it's gone, but the new scene leaves him incredibly wary. the green lights give the whole place an unnatural look, and he wishes for not the first time that his cultivation was in tact so he could sense what in the world was going on.
especially when there's a voice. welp. xichen draws his sword and holds it at his side, looking around for if there are other ways to go besides the stairs. ] Stay together and be on your guard. There is probably more than one other person or thing here.
[ That's not ominous at all. At least he's surrounded by people that are armed, and hopefully if anything untoward happens he can sit by the sidelines while they defend his honour.
For now he steps past the shattered ice, not particularly eager to follow along with the directions of the disembodied voice. Of course he wants to know what's awaiting them, but he'd rather one of the guinea pigs go barrelling into any traps. ]
We should probably get to know each other better before we invite a fifth party.
[ He reaches out to tenderly caress Endorsi's arm. ]
[She readies her weapon as soon as she hears the voice as well, before she realizes she can't place where the voice is coming from and there's nobody new in the cave. There's a mild look of disappointment at the mysterious voice's absence, but she sounds amused when she speaks, all the same.]
Ah, how eerie, how eerie! I wonder if we're supposed to be frightened.
[That being said, following the mystery voice's instructions immediately sounds questionable, so unlike last time, she won't rush ahead. Like Lan Xichen, she's looking around to see if there's anything other than the stairs.
Also, she's immediately trying to smack Belial's hand with the blunt edge of her weapon when he touches her. Maybe a little bit harder than she needs to, but not enough to bleed.]
Consider yourself lucky! Most people would have lost that hand, if not their head. Touch me again and I won't be so merciful.
[ mugen just like immediately zooms away as far as possible from belial and leaves endorsi to beat him up. he maybe laughs a little when she smacks his hand. for a moment he stares up at the ceiling like he's gonna be able to see whatever voice, and then: ]
Hey! Come out here and say that to my face! [ he says, cupping his hands around his mouth.
a beat. and then he'll just go down the stairs. he ain't afraid of no ghost. and also he doesn't like being told what to do by dudes like lan xichen, rip. ]
[The voice continues to call to them as they head down the stairs.]
Hurry, hurry. I've been waiting for the four of you. We have a lot to discuss.
[The light down the stairs continues to grow dim. The area begins to take more of a shape of an industrial building than a cave. There are rounded hallways, circular doors, and what appear to be large circular windows, though they currently only show a video of falling snow.
Aside from the voice it's eerily silent down here. . . until you hear the clink clink clink of something in the shadows. It sounds like the clink of glass, but it also had the cadence of footsteps.]
[ wow, lan xichen hates this because he recognizes none of it. this whole places looks new to him, and he is not having a good time. ]
Fine. [ he motions to belial and endorsi to follow mugen down the stairs so he can take the rear, just in case anything actually is following them. ] Let's go.
[ Belial's smile grows tight, growing slightly more agitated as the voice sounds again. His mortal senses are so dull he wonders what the point of them is at all, unable to pinpoint where it's coming from or to sense what awaits them downstairs.
Throwing up his hands, he shrugs as they start to trudge down the hall and the stairs. Nothing that he sees there causes him to relax any, wandering over to one of the windows to tap it helplessly. ]
I wonder if these will cave under a little show of strength as easily as the ice upstairs?
[As long as someone else is going first in case there are any traps, she’s good. She starts down the stairs, looking curiously at the change in scenery as they go. She doesn’t look too concerned before she hears the sound, and then she’s readying her weapon again, looking in the direction of the noise and trying to tell if it’s approaching. To Lan Xichen:]
Ah, you were right! It seems we have company. [And then, in the direction the footsteps were coming from:] Will you show yourself now, mystery person?
[ i'm glad that endorsi just lets mugen find the potential traps with his face
the voice doesn't scare him, but the sound of... footsteps? puts him on guard. he's got his sword out, readying it, and readying himself, dropping a bit low. he doesn't say anything for now, waiting. ]
I see. I still can't control everything in this place. But you'll be able to handle it.
[There are no traps! And when Belial taps the windows, he'll find that the picture disappears beneath his fingertips, but otherwise the windows don't break. The windows are actually more like television screens. As the others get down towards where Mugen went, the sound of glass gets closer.
Out of the shadows steps some sort of large white insect, apparently made of glass. It's feet go plink plink plink on the ground as it scuttles right towards Mugen. With a hiss, it rears up on its hind legs and tries to bite at him.]
This one is weak. Your weapons will be able to defeat it. Do so quickly, before any others discover you're here.
[ this voice is not very convincing, or helpful, but at least xichen knows 1) he doesn't want anyone to die and 2) how to kill beasts. with it reared up like this, xichen runs as quickly as he can under the spider's belly to cut the hind legs at the joints to ruin it's attack and leave it immobilized, and then getting out behind as to not get squashed. ]
[She looks so excited? Even after Xichen goes for the insect's legs, there's a broad grin on her face before she's trying to stab her needle straight through this thing's abdomen, aiming downwards once she's close enough.]
Ah, but to think it was a weak one after I've waited so long... You can try harder! I'll paint the walls with their blood!
[If these things even bleed, since... glass. It's the thought that counts (?).]
Gimme a break, like I ain't been chomping at the bit to kick something's ass --
[ yes something to murder!! the insect leans forward to try and bite him and he immediately responds by stabbing his sword forward, right into this thing's - throat? does it have a throat, whatever.
teamwork! even belial. belial as the cheerleader. ]
[Xichen will realize, once he gets close to the insect, that it isn't glass it's made out of, but ice. The area around the insect is freezing cold - so cold that he'll find that as he gets close to it, his skin begins to burn from the proximity. He'll successfully cut away the hind joints, but as soon as the sword touches the joint, it becomes too cold to touch, and if his hand on the sword hilt is bare, his palms will be burned as though he just touched dry ice.
Other than that, he'll be able to pull away, but will be chilled to the bone and unable to feel warm.
Endorsi will encounter the same problem when she stabs it in the abdomen - her needle strikes, but will immediately become too cold to continue touching, and her hand will be burned if bare. As soon as she breaks open the abdomen, there's a sound like ice cracking on a cold river, and a blast of freezing cold water begins to flood the ground. Everyone (except Belial, smartly hiding to the side) gets their feet soaked with freezing water.
The insect doesn't have a throat, but Mugen will successfully be able to stab it in the head. Endorsi and Xichen's actions manage to prevent the thing from taking a bite out of him, but he'll still feel the jaw begin to clamp down on his arm right before he stabs it. His arm will come away frostbitten in the shape of the insect's mandibles. And again, his sword is now frozen to the touch and will burn his bare hand if he's holding it.
The body of the insect collapses and begins to crack into pieces of ice. But further away there are the sounds of other plinks of ice footsteps.]
Sorry, Endorsi. You'll need better weapons before you tackle the powerful ones. Come quickly. I'll explain everything about why you were brought to this mountain.
[Down the hall, past the corpse of the creature, a dim green light is shining. The circular screens on the walls light up with arrows pointing towards the light.]
Ah-- [ his palms are bare, which means his hand sure does get burned. he hisses as he shakes his hand out, again, wishing he had his powers so he could heal it. at least he's wearing good boots.
xichen also doesn't like that whatever this voice is knows their names and weaponry (if it knows endorsi, it must know all of them). he holds his sword in his other hand, trying not to aggravate the injury. ]
Come. [ again, xichen will urge everyone else forward first down the hall, and take up the rear, just in case. they can patch up injuries when they're somewhere safer. ]
[ The others do a good job of crushing the insect, though Belial's expression is grim as he watches the sheer freezing of the temperatures scald them. His head snaps to the side when it appears as though reinforcements are on the way, and for a moment it occurs to him that they might actually die playing this little game.
Best to keep as many pawns on the table as possible then. ]
Aren't we popular today?
[ The arrows are a little much, and there might be traps ahead, but it's better than fighting an ice army, so he doesn't wait to start running down the hall, boots against the water as he grabs Mugen on the way, pulling him up under his arm in case his injuries and lack shoes is slowing him down.
It is super annoying to actually have to listen to the disembodied voice though. ]
[She makes a noise of surprise at both the sudden burn and the wave of freezing water moving over her feet.]
Ah, my beautiful hand...
[As much as she would like to stay here and kill a few more of these things in retribution for the burn, she doesn't want to miss out on the promise of answers. Still, she doesn't want to head back without a weapon, so while she isn't excited to repeat the experience - she takes off her cloak and uses it as an extra layer to try and pick up her needle again. It leaves her colder, but it's better than being unarmed, she figures.]
[ mugen hisses sharply when the bug leaves a mark on him - is that frostbite, what the hell - but it only bothers him for a second. because what's more important is the fact that his sword is burning the shit out of him.
he drops it at first in the water out of shock, shaking his hand out, and then drops down to pick it up again. it still hurts to carry, so he likely burns his hand again, but he's not leaving it behind. with an annoyed sound he shoves it into the sheathe on his back - and is promptly scooped up by belial. ]
Hey! What is with you and picking me up, is this some kinda kink of yours -- [ be prepared for him to be a squirmy baby the whole time they run down this hall. he wants to fight the ice army! the hell!!
but he does let himself be carried off down the hall. he's very cold and hungry. and his feet are soaked. ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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Instead, you find yourself in a cave made of ice. There are stones on the ground, and you're walled in on one side. But on the other side there is a thick sheet of ice. You can vaguely see through to more cave on the other side.
How do you proceed?]
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Hm... [ xichen takes a close looks at the ice, looking through it to see if there's anything stuck inside. ] We should start a fire, for our own sakes and to start melting this ice.
[ thankfully he has a sword he can start a spark with so it should be fine as long as there's something they can set on fire. ]
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Still, Belial has lived through worse, and he settles a hand against the ice as well, testing its strength before his gaze sweeps over their motley crew. ]
A fire? And here I was hoping we might just use our bodies to get heated up.
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And then Belial says that and she decides she is already tired of being here, so she just. Walks forward and tries to stab the ice with her weapon, if nobody stops her. She's fleeing from his energy.]
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she stabs the ice, and he just straight up kicks it with his sandal'd foot. goodbye. ]
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Behind the wall, you can see that the cave continues. It starts to look less and less like a natural mountain cave, however. The ice on the wall is still there, but behind the ice you can see that the cave's walls are especially straight, like they're manmade. And a set of stairs are carved into the ground, plated in metal, descending. There are even circular lights in the walls, glowing a low, eerie green.
A voice, which sounds somewhat mechanical, speaks, though there's no obvious source.]
Good, you're here. Come down. It's time you learned what this place really is.
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better that it's gone, but the new scene leaves him incredibly wary. the green lights give the whole place an unnatural look, and he wishes for not the first time that his cultivation was in tact so he could sense what in the world was going on.
especially when there's a voice. welp. xichen draws his sword and holds it at his side, looking around for if there are other ways to go besides the stairs. ] Stay together and be on your guard. There is probably more than one other person or thing here.
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For now he steps past the shattered ice, not particularly eager to follow along with the directions of the disembodied voice. Of course he wants to know what's awaiting them, but he'd rather one of the guinea pigs go barrelling into any traps. ]
We should probably get to know each other better before we invite a fifth party.
[ He reaches out to tenderly caress Endorsi's arm. ]
It's never any fun to go rushing toward climax.
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Ah, how eerie, how eerie! I wonder if we're supposed to be frightened.
[That being said, following the mystery voice's instructions immediately sounds questionable, so unlike last time, she won't rush ahead. Like Lan Xichen, she's looking around to see if there's anything other than the stairs.
Also, she's immediately trying to smack Belial's hand with the blunt edge of her weapon when he touches her. Maybe a little bit harder than she needs to, but not enough to bleed.]
Consider yourself lucky! Most people would have lost that hand, if not their head. Touch me again and I won't be so merciful.
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Hey! Come out here and say that to my face! [ he says, cupping his hands around his mouth.
a beat. and then he'll just go down the stairs. he ain't afraid of no ghost. and also he doesn't like being told what to do by dudes like lan xichen, rip. ]
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Hurry, hurry. I've been waiting for the four of you. We have a lot to discuss.
[The light down the stairs continues to grow dim. The area begins to take more of a shape of an industrial building than a cave. There are rounded hallways, circular doors, and what appear to be large circular windows, though they currently only show a video of falling snow.
Aside from the voice it's eerily silent down here. . . until you hear the clink clink clink of something in the shadows. It sounds like the clink of glass, but it also had the cadence of footsteps.]
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Fine. [ he motions to belial and endorsi to follow mugen down the stairs so he can take the rear, just in case anything actually is following them. ] Let's go.
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Throwing up his hands, he shrugs as they start to trudge down the hall and the stairs. Nothing that he sees there causes him to relax any, wandering over to one of the windows to tap it helplessly. ]
I wonder if these will cave under a little show of strength as easily as the ice upstairs?
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Ah, you were right! It seems we have company. [And then, in the direction the footsteps were coming from:] Will you show yourself now, mystery person?
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the voice doesn't scare him, but the sound of... footsteps? puts him on guard. he's got his sword out, readying it, and readying himself, dropping a bit low. he doesn't say anything for now, waiting. ]
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[There are no traps! And when Belial taps the windows, he'll find that the picture disappears beneath his fingertips, but otherwise the windows don't break. The windows are actually more like television screens. As the others get down towards where Mugen went, the sound of glass gets closer.
Out of the shadows steps some sort of large white insect, apparently made of glass. It's feet go plink plink plink on the ground as it scuttles right towards Mugen. With a hiss, it rears up on its hind legs and tries to bite at him.]
This one is weak. Your weapons will be able to defeat it. Do so quickly, before any others discover you're here.
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But he does offer an encouraging, ] Get'em tiger.
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[She looks so excited? Even after Xichen goes for the insect's legs, there's a broad grin on her face before she's trying to stab her needle straight through this thing's abdomen, aiming downwards once she's close enough.]
Ah, but to think it was a weak one after I've waited so long... You can try harder! I'll paint the walls with their blood!
[If these things even bleed, since... glass. It's the thought that counts (?).]
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[ yes something to murder!! the insect leans forward to try and bite him and he immediately responds by stabbing his sword forward, right into this thing's - throat? does it have a throat, whatever.
teamwork! even belial. belial as the cheerleader. ]
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Other than that, he'll be able to pull away, but will be chilled to the bone and unable to feel warm.
Endorsi will encounter the same problem when she stabs it in the abdomen - her needle strikes, but will immediately become too cold to continue touching, and her hand will be burned if bare. As soon as she breaks open the abdomen, there's a sound like ice cracking on a cold river, and a blast of freezing cold water begins to flood the ground. Everyone (except Belial, smartly hiding to the side) gets their feet soaked with freezing water.
The insect doesn't have a throat, but Mugen will successfully be able to stab it in the head. Endorsi and Xichen's actions manage to prevent the thing from taking a bite out of him, but he'll still feel the jaw begin to clamp down on his arm right before he stabs it. His arm will come away frostbitten in the shape of the insect's mandibles. And again, his sword is now frozen to the touch and will burn his bare hand if he's holding it.
The body of the insect collapses and begins to crack into pieces of ice. But further away there are the sounds of other plinks of ice footsteps.]
Sorry, Endorsi. You'll need better weapons before you tackle the powerful ones. Come quickly. I'll explain everything about why you were brought to this mountain.
[Down the hall, past the corpse of the creature, a dim green light is shining. The circular screens on the walls light up with arrows pointing towards the light.]
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xichen also doesn't like that whatever this voice is knows their names and weaponry (if it knows endorsi, it must know all of them). he holds his sword in his other hand, trying not to aggravate the injury. ]
Come. [ again, xichen will urge everyone else forward first down the hall, and take up the rear, just in case. they can patch up injuries when they're somewhere safer. ]
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Best to keep as many pawns on the table as possible then. ]
Aren't we popular today?
[ The arrows are a little much, and there might be traps ahead, but it's better than fighting an ice army, so he doesn't wait to start running down the hall, boots against the water as he grabs Mugen on the way, pulling him up under his arm in case his injuries and lack shoes is slowing him down.
It is super annoying to actually have to listen to the disembodied voice though. ]
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Ah, my beautiful hand...
[As much as she would like to stay here and kill a few more of these things in retribution for the burn, she doesn't want to miss out on the promise of answers. Still, she doesn't want to head back without a weapon, so while she isn't excited to repeat the experience - she takes off her cloak and uses it as an extra layer to try and pick up her needle again. It leaves her colder, but it's better than being unarmed, she figures.]
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he drops it at first in the water out of shock, shaking his hand out, and then drops down to pick it up again. it still hurts to carry, so he likely burns his hand again, but he's not leaving it behind. with an annoyed sound he shoves it into the sheathe on his back - and is promptly scooped up by belial. ]
Hey! What is with you and picking me up, is this some kinda kink of yours -- [ be prepared for him to be a squirmy baby the whole time they run down this hall. he wants to fight the ice army! the hell!!
but he does let himself be carried off down the hall. he's very cold and hungry. and his feet are soaked. ]
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