Stage Four: Into the Deep Unknown

[medigel]

Warm spots and snack breaks were great and all, but boy did adventuring take a lot of time. Stories always made it sort of, well, uniform and quickly getting to the good parts. Here it was a bunch of walking...and walking...and--

"Spider!" she whispered to herself, waving at it. It didn't seem to notice her at first - probably because it had no eyes - but then it twitched and wandered off.

 

[medigel]

(+1 AP)

Letting the insect scuttle away, Persephone took a different path and was hit with a sense of deja vu. Dripping wet sounds in a cave...Reminded her of her first real solo journey into the rainy cave where she and Seastone Embers had first met. Brimming with cheer at the memory, she went to splash in the puddle ahead of her -

- and nearly sank all the way through.

Rare panic ran through her as she thrashed back out. Nope nope nope!

 

[medigel]

Shivering, it took Persephone some time to shake herself just dry enough to feel ok with moving on. What if she hadn't made it out? Well, that was a silly thought. You couldn't die in the Afterlife...right?

Curiosity made her wonder, but the little pixie was in no rush to sate it for once. Shaking herself again until her moth fluff puffed out, she went back to searching.

 

[SwordOfTheNagas]

3/3
The path continues ... :: Your legs are getting tired. How deep are these caves, anyway?

He stopped a moment to work out his legs. This was taxing. At least at the end of all this he could confirm that caverns were indeed a pain in the flanks. He would have to give his cousin a few stories of this place if he could remember how to map it out. With a heavy sigh he settled down for a moment to just rest.

 

[ChexaRain]

Renewed after a quick rest, Lydia was all too ready to quit again when she found herself looking at what was sure to be a tight squeeze through the rocks. Sighing, she tucked her camera to her chest and pressed on through the crevasse, moving at a snails' pace until she emerged on the other side. She froze up in an instant, however, when she felt the pattering of rocks falling, half tempted to squeeze right back through after the fiasco of a cave-in not too long ago. When the sound stopped, however, she dusted her hair and found a few measly crumb of rock. She sighed, relieved, and pressed on.

 

[ChexaRain]

Lydia had gotten used to coming back and finding the rest of the group during her wandering spells, but this time she instead found no one on her return to where she'd left them. She snorted, sure that they'd probably found something further ahead, but the quieter her surroundings, the more unease she felt in the pit of her gut. Had they even come this way, or had she missed a turn somewhere? Her nose wrinkled in displeasure as a shiver ran down her spine. Yeah, no, she was going to go back to an earlier point and try to reconnect with the rest of them. The silence was more frightening than the noisy group.

 

[ChexaRain]

Lydia was rather fond of music, so when she found herself humming a rather haunting melody she didn't stop abruptly. Instead she listened to the way it bounced off the cave walls around her, the echo soothing in a way she couldn't explain. It wasn't until she hummed the wrong part that she noticed it: the echo was humming the correct tune, and the voice was just a little too high to be her own. She stopped humming in a second and looked around, snapping a picture to see if she could find anything on the camera, but to no avail.

 

[Natty-chan]

Suddenly, everything goes quiet, and the air around you seems to go frosty, as though you've walked into a snowdrift. It takes a moment before you realize you can't hear anything! You scurry away and the feeling fades, but you decide maybe you should search elsewhere for now.

First time only: +1 AP

Reaper pressed on, still no sign of anything of significance. He was focused on this task up until he felt a shiver run down his spine, followed by another… then another. It was getting colder, little by little. Funny, it wasn’t nearly this frigid when he entered. That wasn’t what bothered him, he was used to the cold from when he would retrieve bodies in the freezers in morgues and mortuaries. What unsettled the stallion was the sudden silence. That was his hint to leave this location, and leave he did… fast. Wings flapping in attempts to add some speed.

 

[Natty-chan]

One wrong step can mean disaster in tunnels like this - and you find that out very quickly. You don't notice that the path dips below you, and seconds later you are slip-sliding down a steep slope into the darkness below. Thankfully, it doesn't go too far, and you're mostly unharmed besides some minor scrapes, but it does take quite a while to get back up, as there's not enough room to fly (if you're able!) and you keep slipping back down.

Once a day: -1 Roll (if you have any left)

In his hurry to get away from that eerily quiet path, Reaper didn’t realize he was heading straight back to danger. That is, until it was too late. Once again, the ground fell from under his hooves and the large stallion goes tumbling down the slope towards the bottom; letting out a variety of expletives between grunts of pain and discomfort, ending with a loud groan when he finally reached the bottom. Clearly furious, Reaper began the slow journey back to the top; now with new scrapes and scratches to add to the collection… maybe even a small limp to top it off when he finally makes it to the top and walks away.

 

[Reoakee]

Chart #2 - Roll 1d50 (Update A)
the way before you lights up with a glow in the distance as you turn a winding corner, and curiously you head towards the light. It's a bit eerie, being a low, dark red, but as you approach it you realize it's just a cluster of mushrooms. You pass by them without too much thought, but a sharp smell hits your nose - and suddenly you're very tired. Maybe you should be more careful of strange mushies!

Once a day: -1 Rolls (if you have any left)


Continuing her ventures she saw a slight bright red glow and moved toward it. Rounding a corner slowly and keeping her head low in the event of a trap she only saw more cave and she looked around for the source of the glow she noticed the mushrooms. she moved closer to check them out they were uninteresting so she kept moving back. the wave of tiredness hit her surprisingly hard. She blinked several times and rubbed her eyes sleepily.

 

[Reoakee]

Chart #2 - Roll 1d50 (Update A)
You come across two others from your group engaged in a heated argument over ... something involving voices or something? You're not entirely certain, but you gather that someone heard something creepy in one of the side tunnels. You listen for a while, finding the sound of real voices preferable to the silence of the cave for a bit.

Finally more voices reached her ears. She new those voices she had heard them before. She saw two of her fellows arguing over something she listened for a while. One of them had heard creepy voices down one of the tunnels and was convinced it sounded like a lost foal giggling and playing a prank but this was an afterlife which is why it was so unsettling. She was just so happy to have finally found others she was still so sleepy so as they moved on she dragged herself after.

 

[SwordOfTheNagas]

1/3
Broken shards? :: You find what appears to be broken glass - or maybe crystal? - on the ground. It's too shattered to be of any use, but it begs the question ... what caused it?

Well. Huh...Passhon had started back out on the pathway. Finding himself coming across a collection of sparkly things. He froze seeing shard pieces. Oh no, did someone break one of those glowing crystals that they needed. Great. Just, great. He groaned as he swiped his claw across the shards to get them off the middle of the path. Just to make sure no one hurt themselves on the shards.

 

[SwordOfTheNagas]

2/3
The path continues ... :: You keep running into other ponies, but unfortunately no one terribly interesting - at least not as far as the investigation goes. Someone suggests you should try mapping the cave, but the guide mutters something about that being futile. You're not quite sure what he means, though.

There was a moment of sheer 'i knew it' that self satisfied feeling of he had the right idea. He was thinking about how it seemed like the caves kept changing to suit the amount of ponies here to plunder its secrets. Most likely a defense mechanism against intruders. He blinked a moment before moving on.

 

[SwordOfTheNagas]

3/3
A well worn walkway. :: Peering down at the ground, you realize the dirt beneath you seems to be tightly packed and worn in such a way that suggests heavy use. Touching it reveals that the long-forgotten hoofprints seem to be carved into the rock itself, as though this way were used by many feet long ago.

Well, things were back to the well worn pathway it seemed. Passhon traced the aged tracks gently with respect and awe. These travelers before them, what were their stories and why did they come here? Would they ever know? Mostly likely not, but he had a feeling it had to deal with their current task at hand.

 

[houllow]

[27: The path continues ... ]

Was this it? Really? Please. Of course it wasn't, because whatever luck Wei Ying may have had vanished when he found that glowing stone and whatever that....that was. Now it just seemed like endless walking trying to get back to the archway, and it just.

He hummed a little as he walked alone, desperate to pass the time and get to his destination. The sounds that echoed back were....unsettling, but whatever. Wei Ying was checking out.

 

[houllow]

[44: A chance encounter ... ]

Seriously please. He was ready to just walk back to the beginning at this rate, and would have if not for the fact he somehow managed to end back into an area that felt...familiar. There was nothing there though, no reason for him to really feel that way, and Wei Ying shrugged.

Perhaps if he got back to here the archway was next?

 

[houllow]

[ 16: Claustrophobia! ]

Well? Somehow or another he'd managed to get himself wedged into a tiny area, the walls around him pressing hard against his flanks. There was no reason to panic despite the sudden pounding in his heart, the dizziness of it in his ears. Carefully he started moving backward, hoof by hoof, until he was free.

Had he been so carelessly moving along to get himself stuck like that? This place was a wasteland.

 

[medigel]

(+1 roll)

Good thing she couldn't get cold here! That impromptu dip had given her much more puse when it came to other random puddles. Mushrooms, though...They smelled really great, and they had a pretty glow to them, but Persephone regrettably stayed her hoof. The last thing she needed right now was to get a bad trip here. What if Momma saw?

 

[medigel]

(-1 roll, cancelling the above lmao)

The glow of her lantern could only illuminate so much. Persephone's gaze wandered at the wrong time and in the wrong direction, and she failed to see the dip just ahead. A girlish yelp left the pixie as she found herself flailing down into darkness, coming to a stop seconds later but not without a thread of panic. If that had been a hole...well...

 

[medigel]

Some searching and feeling along the walls later, she managed to get out of the little cavern within a cavern...and back to the well worn path. A different section of it to be sure, but Persephone recognized the indented hoofprints that she could hop in and out of. She wondered if the ancient souls here had also gotten as lost as she probably was.