Guild Wars III Roleplay (Rated T)

[Fraze]

When he became Spacefleet Commander, Fraze found it necessary to make some image changes.
For one thing, he stopped using his skinsuit, and switched to a top of the line model of Spacefleet combat armor. This was rather like replacing a trained watchdog with a remote controlled toy car. However, the Commander was expected to have the very best equipment Spacefleet could offer--and his skinsuit was not Spacefleet equipment, it had come from his previous higher-ups. If he were seen using it on a regular basis, it would be like the United States president hanging a Mexican flag in the Oval Office, or Bill Gates using an iPhone.
So, he could no longer use it as an instant communication device. Instead, he made a beckoning gesture with one hand, above and a bit behind his head.
The bee-sized flying security drone--essentially a palm pilot with a lethal sting that was programmed to attack anyone who tried to attack Fraze--zipped down from its position above Hunty and Fraze's heads and came to a stop at eye level with Fraze.
"Open a channel to the Spacefleet library," he said. A small red light on the drone blinked to indicate the comm link was established. "This is Commander Fraze." Six months, and it still felt strange to say that. "Get me every document we have pertaining to something called the Underdeep, and have them sent to my office. Find the most recent map of this thing--if we have one--and have it sent to Satellite Monitoring."
The reply was fast, but not quite instantaneous. "Yes, sir. Is there anything else?"
"No, that will be all." The comm link was cut. "Now, open a channel to Satellite Monitoring." When this was done, he continued. "This is the Commander. You should hopefully be receiving a map of a planetside subsurface structure known as the Underdeep. Get satellites with subsurface imaging trained on this structure. If you don't get a chart within five minutes, start searching for it in the vicinity of Tabloid Town and work out from there. I want an up-to-date map of it. Tell me where it has grown, where it has receded, and all locations where it opens to the surface. That includes fissures, underwater openings, everything. If you find ANY openings near cities, towns, or villages, contact me immediately. Get this done ASAP."
There was a slightly longer pause this time. The satellites were always busy with something, and a project like this would require a significant percentage of all the sats at their disposal. However, the 'Fleet had quickly learned that Fraze was not one to give such difficult orders lightly. He usually commanded under the assumption "These people know their jobs better than I do, so they'll work best if I leave them to it." An order like this one meant that something was very serious.
"Aye, sir," came the response.
"Thank you. That will be all."
Somewhere along the way, Bloody Mary had run away. Fraze considered that the last time he had seen Huntress and the dark blue fuzzball separated had been--actually, when they first met. The battle at Castle Kestrel.

"I'm afraid that's all I can do. Even if we don't have a map of the thing, the guys controlling the satellites know this planet and its crust like you know your ship."

--------

Merpo knelt for a long time, weeping. He hadn't cried for at least five years; usually, he was able to distance himself from the reality of his situation. That was the only way he knew to keep what little sanity he had remaining.
When his tears slowed and his breathing began to normalize, he looked up and around. The same lab. No demons, no ghosts. No family.
So, perhaps the Underdeep really was a minded thing. Perhaps it had enough of a mind to escape from the collector. Before his studies on the Underdeep, Merpo had never believed in spirits or anything like that. But his research on the structure came close to persuading him that--yes, maybe things like that really did exist. Certainly, he could think of no other conceivable way that the power loss could have been quite so high. Save for a flaw in the design or construction.
But no, he had built it himself from scratch, had every piece custom made. Still, it never hurt to check. He turned to the collector...
...And almost jumped when he saw a young woman sitting there, looking at him.
It had frequently been noted that Merpo's mind did not work quite like most people's. Rather than think "Who is this woman?" or "How did she get in here?", he thought "There must be a power failure in the suit."
"S-so, you're here to...mock me? What--what asp...facet of m-my fears are you...meant...to be?" He did not realize that his peculiar stutter had returned, having lived with it for so long. "I d-don't think I rem--know anyone who...looks like you."
He paused.
"W-well, get on...with it! Or are you ju-just going to sit and watch--stare--like a...gargoyle while I work?" It occurred to him that if the Underdeep had any mind for symbolism, this would be very fitting.
It was only now that he checked the power supply for his suit. It was operational. Which meant that either there was a malfunction in the suit, or this person was really here.
Two near-impossible malfunctions simultaneously seemed to be astronomical odds. Merpo applied Occam's Razor to the situation and decided that this new person was actually there.
"I--I see. So, who...are you? And c-can you get--bring me the wrench over...there?"

[Rider]

[glow=red,2,300]Outside Tabloid Town[/glow]

"It'd be real nice if you went to the Weewoo after that. She's one of the safest places to be in at times of excessive Underdeep."

The Weewoo. How many months had it been? Rider wondered what had changed in her absence. How would they react to seeing her again.

But it's not like she had much of a choice.

"Let's go."

She picked up Bloody Mary and mounted Shiva. Her body felt like it ought to be sore, but wasn't. Maybe she was just mentally tired.

"Where did they say they were going?"

[glow=red,2,300]The Saucy Elephant[/glow]

"No, seriously, who names a club the Saucy Elephant? Look, it even has an elephant on the top. One with... furry, lumpy tusks?"

Goosh and Zylaa, looking young and in love, like the only two people in the world. Since when did this happen?

She knew where she wasn't wanted. Silently, she dismounted and entered the club. A bit noisy for her taste as well. But booze was booze.

She didn't see Jina until she was sitting right next to her.

[Celestial]

The Underdeep

Celestial's eyes crept open. She immediately wanted to close them again. Her head felt like it has been whacked with a slice of lemon wrapped around a gold brick, several times. Inside it, everything seemed muddled and confused.

As appropriate as a funny remark about drinking with pirates was, she just didn't feel like it. Looking around, this place was too dark and gloomy to even try to joke around with.

The Underdeep. That's where she was. The memories flashed by her, being sucked in and the...thing. Whatever it was, she could feel it in her mind still.

Rikku was sitting beside her, looking just as bad. Whatever it did, it happened to both of them.

"Rikku, is that you? Did you... see it too?" she asked drowsily, not thinking clearly about her words. The Dragon Mage looked around, clearly not having a very large attension span. This was the Underdeep alright and she could see the doors of Mage Manor but they were closed. Clearly nobody counted on them coming back.

"But we're going to come back," she said with determination. "We're not damsels in distress who wait around waiting to be rescued,"

Besides, they still had things to do back outside. The earthquake for example. That needed to be taken care of. No doubt it had opened many holes to the Underdeep and they needed to be found. Controlled even, if they could manage it. Control was everything until there was a way to somehow fix whatever was wrong.

[Deleted]

Spacefleet

She listened with great interest to the explanation from Dr. Cürian. That was quite a dilemma.
Save the many or the few. Leoness pondered. She wasn't bothered by everyone's eyes resting on her. It was a tough decision, but a decision that had to be made here and now.

Suddenly an idea crept in on her. Like a cheshire cat that emerges with a psychadelic smile. Actually... it was more of an urge.
Leoness lifted her head, looking puzzled.

"Dr. Cürian, would you mind showing me said equipment?" She turned to look at the Doctor and the nurse. "And I would also appreciate a full inventory list, current patient dossiers, a blueprint of Sickbay and a toolbox."

Then she turned towards Ethan. Might as well kill two birds with one stone...

Bird. She felt something new this time, but shrugged it away for now.

"I need your help." She hoped that he had the required clearance level to let her into the hangar or get her in touch with someone who could. "Ethan, it is absolutely vital that I get down on the ground as soon as possible. Something is wrong down there. Very wrong."

She turned towards Dr. Cürian again, "I will put my heart into solving this dilemma first, but once I'm done, I have other matters to attend to." Leoness was sure that she could trace some sort of disappointment or disbelief in Dr. Cürian's face. She had left them behind once before. But not again. "Do not worry. I have faith in you. I will be back."
She was not gonna wait for acceptance. She needed to take charge and act. She put a reassuring hand on Dr. Cürian's right shoulder. "Let's get to work then, shall we?"

With her hand still on Doctor's shoulder, she looked back at Ethan "Will you help me? -Can- you help me?"

[Superhero Live]

Cital perked up when Kovaran mentioned that they would be going, and was about to do just that when the strangers walked in.

Oh, let's--

Cital took his katana off his back and stabbed it into the ground, silencing the spirit's voice. Just then, he heard Kovaran's wonderful, inspiring words in response to the question they had asked regarding the earthquake.

"There was an earthquake?"

Cital rolled his eyes. Oh brother. Just then, he heard a voice outside, and PFA suggesting that they should check it out. "Maybe it's a flying pig," he said, and yanked Kitchen Knife out of the ground.

That hurt, Kitchen Knife whined, but Cital paid no attention to him. He headed outside with PFA to see a strange woman there.

PFA seemed to know this Kiddo person. Cital folded his arms across his chest and listened as Kiddo said something about the Gray Lands. "You can probably fix it with glue," he piped up after she asked who had broken something. "Whatever you broke, I mean. Glue fixes a lot of stuff. I should know. Fixed this nice vase I smashed to pieces by accident once." He paused. "Nice wings. Are you an angel?"

Don't be stupid, Kitchen Knife growled.

Hey, hey, I'm just getting to know her...

[Rikku]

The Underdeep

It wasn’t a headache, exactly. More of a headnumbness. Rikku was willing to take whatever she got.

She got to her feet and looked around. Then she decided to never, ever look around again, not in a place like this. It was just inviting trouble. Ghostly shapes flickered in and out of vision, inviting her to look at them. Rikku turned down that particular invitation and glanced at Celestial. The purple-robed Mage looked in pretty bad shape, but then, she herself probably didn’t look much better. She ran a hand through her hair distractedly, succeeding in tangling it further – Rikku’s hair was long and straight, and didn’t tangle very easily, but when it tangled, it tangled with a vengeance.

"Rikku, is that you?” asked Celestial, drowsily. Rikku couldn’t blame her for being a little jumbled.

“Well,” said Rikku, managing a grin, “unless you have some dark, hidden fear of messy-haired necromancers, then yeah, probably.”

“Did you... see it too?"

“See what?” said Rikku blankly.

The Dragon Mage had probably just been rambling, because now she was looking around. Her eyes settled on the doors, and Rikku looked that way too, ignoring the shadowy shapes that beckoned her. The doors were quite unmistakeably sealed.

"But we're going to come back," Celestial said. ‘We're not damsels in distress who wait around waiting to be rescued."

Rikku snorted. “If anyone ever, at any point, describes me as a ‘damsel’, I think I’ll be perfectly justified in punching them on the nose. Or setting Fred on them.” She still felt hollow, and, all of a sudden, exhausted. This was a terrible place, a place of nightmares and half-imagined fears made real. And it had eaten her workshop. The sooner they got out of here, the better.

Conventional necromancy would have no effect here, seeing there wasn’t anything that was, as such, dead. Besides which, she only had a scrap of power at the moment, if any at all. And she sure as Realms wasn’t about to do that inviting-shadow thing again, if she even could. It still hurt from last time, in an empty, aching way.

She considered making a fireball, just to lighten the mood a little, but discounted the idea almost immediately. Fire didn’t seem to have any effect here. Besides which, the state she was in, she’d probably end up dropping it and setting her frying pan aflame or something. So she was stuck. Trapped in this place of nightmares, where fears could kill you as surely as a sword, all alone except for the dragon –

Oh.

Right.

“Can you get us out of here?” said Rikku shortly. “With some of those nifty draconic powers of yours? ‘cos I sure can’t. I’m …” She briefly considered saying ‘exhausted’, but that sounded all fatalistic and depressing, so she settled on, “A bit knackered.”

And they needed to get out. She still needed to find out what caused the earthquake. And then she had the sudden, chilling idea that there might be other places where the Underdeep had broken free like this. No. That wouldn’t do at all, she needed to –

What did she need to do? Something to do with the Underdeep, she was sure of that, though she hadn’t been anywhere near so sure half a moment ago. But she couldn’t seem to remember what, or why.

Because she was tired, most likely, and half-starved with it. Once they got out of here, she was going to eat a pizza or two and then collapse into bed and sleep for a week.

After she’d investigated that earthquake, of course. Or whatever it was that she needed to do.

[Celestial]

The Underdeep

“Well, unless you have some dark, hidden fear of messy-haired necromancers, then yeah, probably.” Rikky replied. Celestial shrugged, deciding not to drag repressed memories and the theory of the subconcious mind into this mess and simply go with it. The Underdeep had enough nightmare fuel to light a thousand screaming bonfires without her giving it hints.

“If anyone ever, at any point, describes me as a ‘damsel’, I think I’ll be perfectly justified in punching them on the nose. Or setting Fred on them. Rikku said, with so much conviction that Celestial, despite the raging headache and the general atmosphere, could not help but burst out laughing. Oh Fred the zombie, what can't you make better?

The haadache was passing away very quickly, subsiding to a feeling of a baby snake in her head, which with some thought was still as surreal and scary as any analogy. Regardless, her head hurt less and that is what mattered. It was clearing, like a sky after a storm.

Magic. Celestial's breath froze. What happened to her magic? In a panic, she created a few flames on her fingers, which flickered for a few seconds before going out from the Underdeep's influence. Well, she was strong enough to cast spells at least. The Dragon Mage breathed out again, relieved. It wasn't at full power but magic was like the power bar in the game; it would recharge with time.

Celestial wandered away, towards where Mage Manor's basement doors. They were there certainly but some insensitive soul had obviously left them for dead and locked them inside. Vines criss-crossed the enterance, forming an impenetrable wall that was almost like stone. She felt it and put her eat to it, distinctly hearing frantic voices outside.

“Can you get us out of here? With some of those nifty draconic powers of yours? ‘cos I sure can’t. I’m …a bit knackered.” Rikku asked. Celestial grinned and cracked her knuckles.

"You have to ask?" she responded cheerily and put her hands just in front of the wall. The air in the narrow space became compressed and turned into pure oxygen, with all light generated from the reaction eaten in the eternal dark of the Underdeep. The light wasn't a problem though. Oxygen kept building up, compressing until the pressure could barely hold. Erecting an air shield around them and extending it outside to contain the explosion, Celestial sparked the volatile mixture.

The vines blew up magnificently, filling her pyromaniac heart with joy. This wasn't abusing the Fourth Wall but it had to do for now, the Fourth Wal would fall soon.lMany of the finer particles flew out of the shield and scattered all over but the larger ones were contained within. Celestial was not keen on harming anybody. Not yet anyway, it would give things away.

Where did she get those malevolent thoughts?

[Ian Wolf-Park]

Mage Manor

Lupehunter noted that the Weewoo was chirping, although it wasn't a happy tune, but more like a danger signal. Then he noticed the cracks in the stone wall that was formerly vines. Judging by that, he had a feeling that the mages who were 'captured' by the Underdeep were about to return.

"Um, guys, I suggest that you move out of the way because the wall is about to blow," he shouted to the mages that were near the wall.

A few seconds later, it exploded, sending debris flying. Lupehunter quickly shielded his face, but he was still thrown back by the force of the explosion.

[Huntress]

Hunty watched Fraze's conversation with the drone-bee with something of a worried scowl. She knew that she should've been feeling guilty for using him to track information, but she was mostly feeling guilty for not feeling guilty because of it. Her crew was her responsibility and the sea was dangerous enough without the risk of sailing into a nightmare rift.

Still didn't excuse the fact that she met the guy what, once in a blue moon. More often than not for some official guildleaderly reason or other. Okay, more often than not it was a bit of a thrown-together reason, but all the same.

Dang, in this state she wouldn't last five minutes in the Underdeep.

"I'm afraid that's all I can do. Even if we don't have a map of the thing, the guys controlling the satellites know this planet and its crust like you know your ship," Fraze eventually said, cutting through her increasingly-emo-downward-spiral of thoughts. Probably for the better. Hunty nodded gratefully.

"I owe you one. I'm actually not sure how much it has to do with geology, how much with magic and how much with weird arcane occultism but either way you're my best bet. Thanks." She shot a glare at the city looming behind them. "This is probably the worst place to be in right now, actually. It's safer out at sea because we can predict the entrances and it's definitely safe on the moon, it doesn't reach there. Technically I should get lost right now. But one, I'm currently short one Bloody Mary and two, I honestly don't feel like it right now."

She gave it a moment's thought, then smiled.

"I give him... fifteen, maybe twenty minutes?"

It felt more like a day.

***

"O-kay," Bloody Mary's coarse rocker-voice said somewhere irritatingly nearby. "I really sincerely hope that you haven't been doing anything that two important guild leaders shouldn't be doing in public."

Hunty turned to glare at him.

"Don't you worry about it," she said icily. "Now what've you been- is that my phoenix down box?"

"There's still plenty left, no worries," said the meepit, leaning against the box that hadn't been fun to drag all the way from the other end of the pier. "So the Underdeep is getting stronger, Rider died, no worries, I brought her back, oh, and she thinks that you killed her, so I'm just saying, if you need a good eyewitness, I can handle that no problem, I can probably get the sentence down to a couple years or then a zero added to your wanted poster."

Hunty's eyes flashed steel grey. Captain mode took over.

"Full story, if you please."

One full story later, she was standing on the pier with a determined frown on her face and a bunch of problems fighting over the right to get addressed first.

"Alright. Once they're back, we set sail. If they're not back in, hm... an hour, we're sending the blarf to fetch them. I'm not taking any chances with this." She shot a glance at Fraze. "Would you rather come with us or go back to the moon? I reckon your guild needs you but there's no telling what you might run into when going through the city. The Underdeep loves places like Tabloid Town, lots of tasty humans all in one place."

There was a 'coughhacksplutter' somewhere behind her back. Hunty spun around and remained staring at the... small furry... blue... thing that'd just appeared on the pier.

"Aw," she said as the initial reaction and squatted down. Yep, wouldn't last a minute in the Underdeep. Why didn't you just say 'how kyooot' for the full package? She looked up at the huge spiky back circling the bay not too far away. "You lucky little sod. How the heck did you manage to not end up as blarffood?"

[Deleted]

Tabloid Town pier


Nasue wasn't sure how long she'd remained this way: kneeling over, coughing up water and -- was that blood? Oh gods, oh gods. I hope it's not my blood... There'd been other creatures in the water; surely some of their blood had gotten into her, right?

Because if this was her blood, then it would mean her injury was a hell of a lot worse than she'd thought. The last thing she needed was for a broken rib to puncture something.

Mercifully (or perhaps not), it was interrupted by the voice of another person: a human woman who squatted down and looked at her. Almost instantly, the face of a very surprised coati looked back, with small ears flattened against her head and big eyes that were of a "gold" colour. (And this RPer was suddenly seriously tempted to try illustrating that particular moment. But not immediately.)

Then the woman looked at something behind her. Nasue also looked, and squawked in surprise when she saw something that was clearly very large, very dangerous, and very capable of eating her.

"You lucky little sod. How the heck did you manage to not end up as blarffood?"

For a few moments the blue-furred one was quiet. But finally, she took a breath in, opened her mouth, and spoke.

"L-lucky? Yeah, you're telling me!" Now, there were two more things to learn about this individual. The first was that her voice was abnormally low-pitched for a female - it still sounded female, but. The second was that she spoke with a very thick accent (it sounded like a British accent).

Taking a few more breaths (and coughing a few times), Nasue went over what to say in her head.

"I-I was running away from a--a--you know, it didn't even deserve to be called a creature. It was just a thing. So I was running from it--across the rooftops--" Why did you say that?! "--then I-I jumped across the sails and the... things sticking up from the boats--then I saw a white boat and fell in.

"I guess I was knocked out. Th-then something knocked me conscious a-and..." Are they gonna believe this? "It was a--a--a giant lobster exoskeleton. H-helped me out of the water for some reason. So, uh..." Scratching her head, it only then occurred to her that this didn't really answer the human's question.

"I... don't know?"

--

Ninja Dojo

The messengers listened to what the young girl had to say, before someone shouted quite loudly. She and the other human ninja hurried off to find the source of the noise.

As for Kovaran, he had something to attend to first.

"If there was an earthquake, damage was minimal, if any. I concur with my comrade PFA - we may not need much assistance, if any."

"Th-thank you, mister...?"

"Kovaran Mokra!" The big lizard nodded. "The Screaming Dragon, and a warrior of this guild. Now, if you will excuse me..."

With that, he headed off to where the other two ninjas in his team had gone. And when he arrived--

that's a complete stranger who PFA's addressing as a ninja what.

"I have something important to ask you," he spoke, still serious and still as loud as ever. It was clear he was addressing Kiddo. "Who are you, why do you call yourself a ninja, and what are you doing here?"

[Angie]

[ Outside Mercenary Base ]

Hawk was quick to agree with the other mercenaries who now stood outside the base - including Scar, who'd run out to join them while bellowing for everyone to flee to the chopper, and Jernath, who was already running - and even though mercs by nature seemed to shy away from very little, apparently a swirling pit of evil was an exception. The darkness was ominous, and the magical fires were growing; in just a few moments, they had already begun to spread across the surrounding area. If he and the other mercenaries didn't get out fast, they'd all be literal toast.

Hawk cast a worried glance up at the Merc Base as he jogged after Jernath. The flames on their heels gave no hint, still, as to their otherworldly origin or their potential destructive power; there was only one way to find out, and Hawk at the moment did not particularly care to explore it. After all, with an opening to the depths of evil in their backyard and magical flames consuming the landscape surrounding, Hawk was having a difficult time figuring out which worst-case scenario was the worst-case scenario to begin with.

At any rate, this was not a good time to be acting alone, so Hawk for the time being resolved to keep close to everyone until they'd reached safety, or at least until they'd gained some idea as to what in the gods' names was going on. Or, he supposed, unless dire circumstances warranted otherwise - though for obvious reasons that included aforesaid ominous darkness and magical fires of doom, he hoped that wouldn't be necessary.

He cast another glance at the pit behind him, coughed once on the thickening smoke, called a quick "Hurry!" to Sytra over his shoulder, and ran.

[Kiddo]

Ninja Dojo

Kiddo didn't reply immediately, only dropped to a crouch and started drawing meaningless scribbles in the sand. She didn't bother looking up, either, when she spoke.

"Did you hear the legend," she said, as if this was a casual conversation, "about a man who built wings of wax? And when he flew, he flew too high and the sun burned his wings away?"

She reached back and pulled a feather off the remains of her wings and stuck it quill-first into the ground. It was bright red, like a bird of the jungle, shot with streaks of gold and sky-blue.

"Legends are funny like that. We're supposed to learn from them. And while I lost my wings I know this..."

Kiddo stood and the feather burst into fire, so hot it burned white, a thin pillar of flame like some hellish candle. And she leapt through the fire at Kovaran, the kunai simply coming in her hands, and she landed directly in front of him, knives driven into the dirt to their grips while the fire vanished behind her.

"I may not be a ninja anymore. But I sure as hell am not Icarus. I survived. So unless you know why the Gray Lands are concerned about the well-being of you and yours, be very very careful what you say."

Behind her, the fire had turned the sand into glass in a short blast radius from where the feather had ignited.

[Deleted]

Ninja Dojo

Kovaran blinked once. In response to some simple questions, the winged person had talked about someone named Icarus, then jumped through a fire she herself had started, appearing at first to be attacking him, then told him to watch what he said -- unless he knew about these "Grey Lands".

He blinked again. Otherwise, the komodo dragon was unusually silent. He seemed confused, if anything, rather than scared.

"All this talk of Icarus is irrelevant," he finally began, his voice slightly lower than usual. "Your reaction to my simple questions has led me to thinking.

"So you say you are not a ninja anymore. Let that be, then - but expect me to treat you as such. I cannot speak for my comrades, but we are on a mission to investigate an evil which threatens the NTWF, and if you do anything which would endanger the people that we ninjas are trying to save, I will not hesitate to cut you down."

It was oh so tempting to call her insane, but he knew -- from experience -- that by merely talking to such people he was walking a fine line. He had never really mastered the art of careful speaking, but coming from his family...

[Sq]

(Outside Merc Base)


"Well, that was weird."

Just as soon as it seemed it had come into existence, the dark void disappeared. The forest lay in an eerily quiet ruin. And then, the fireballs came bursting out from where the evil had been, accompanied by the strange flurry of voices--

Before Sytra had time to comprehend what was happening, she heard a shout from behind. It was Scar, barking at them to head to the 'choppa'. Jernath, Hawk, Will and the other mercs spun and ran wildly for the hangar.

"Wait, we have a chopper? ...Awesome." Sytra smiled, looking somewhat calmly at the fire as it angrily spun around through the air.

"Hurry!" Hawk called to her. She nodded, remembering they were supposed to be running for their lives, and chased after the rest of the mercs.

[Ikkin]

(Mage Manor Basement)

"Yeah... Even with mind-protection, I don't think we'd have much protection against what's already there." She paused again. "It's gotta have some sort of weakness, though. Light... Hope..." She looked over at Sev. "Phoenix song, maybe?"

"Even if they could hold the Underdeep out, it'd be too dangerous to trust those kind of shields," Ikkin said. "If you let your guard down for a second, you probably wouldn't get a chance to reset it."

As for the phoenix song suggestion... Ikkin sighed. "I really wish we could try something like that. But something's messing with Sev, and I think he might be mute. He hasn't said a word since... I don't even remember when anymore."

While Ikkin was talking, one of the other mages volunteered herself to go into the Underdeep. "I'll go," the mage said. "If someone can produce fears stronger than mine--something material, preferably--then we're good to go. If not... then Lika can rein me in. Anyone else?"

Ikkin decided to wait a little bit, to see if anyone else was going to volunteer. She didn't know enough about the mage with the cat to tell whether she would be the best candidate... but she wanted to get a better idea of who the potential candidates were before saying anything.

As it was, that all became unnecessary in a few moments, when the wolf-boy suggested everyone move away from the doors, and a massive explosion rocked the room they were all standing in. Ikkin put her hands up to block, and her magically-enchanted clothing kept her from getting too scraped up, but she still expected she'd have a few bruises (though, fortunately, none on her face) from flying chunks of stone.

She also wondered why, exactly, she hadn't thought to protect herself with wind magic, like she should have done. Maybe she was still exhausted from her stay in the Underdeep... yeah. That was all.

Of course, she had something a bit more important than her missing reactions to worry about - now that the door had blown out, there was nothing holding the Underdeep at bay anymore. And, from the black smoke billowing out from the doorways, that couldn't turn out well...

Two figures slowly became visible in the darkness. Ikkin drew her sword, summoned an air dart into her left hand, and was just about to throw it when the air cleared up enough to see... the dragon and the necromancer.

Well, that certainly resolved the problem of rescuing them.

"Hey, wasn't expecting to see you back so quickly," Ikkin said, trying to keep a positive attitude so the Underdeep wouldn't have so much to work with. "How'd you manage to escape?"

Ikkin had intended to wait for a full response before doing anything, but she was cut off by a loud roar from the Underdeep, and a strong feeling that the darkness was expanding into the room again.

"Actually... why don't we all try to get these doors closed again first." Ikkin would have tried to do something herself, but her magic wasn't particularly suited for creating barriers. Instead, she focused on willing the Manor to restore the doors that had originally been there, possibly with some new enchantments to keep the Underdeep out.

The Manor's magic started to glow where the doors had been, but the darkness fought back, and created a stalemate. Even the Manor couldn't overpower it, apparently.

Well, this was a fine predicament, Ikkin thought.