Regina, meanwhile, was focused on finishing her healing... and she kept a little bit of ether at the ready, just in case it was needed. It had already been useful, after all, and there was no telling when it might be needed again.
"Showoff" says Aurora to Regina, as her own wounds heal preternaturally. As the others look at the trap, she leans on her spear. "If you want me to skewer that rune, just say the word."
"Part of the mark stops her moving, the other stops the rest of us from being able to move her out from under the mark's influence space. They really wanted to hold people or something by this door...I'd guess both parts need to be destroyed together but that's a total guess, I'm no expert in dispelling layered traps or these kinds of sigils. Skewering sounds good, unless? Do you see something or maybe ask Valda first?", Nurai said as she finished her magical examination of the mark before glancing clearly concerned to the doctor and then to Valda. Nurai's message spell would require Valda to be able to whisper so that wouldn't work and as much as the summoner would prefer more information - this was risking a friend after all - with how the previous occupants had done their magic, that might not be possible.
"I'm a bit nervous about trying to disrupt magic we don't totally understand. I'd rather not any harm come to our host. This is her house now, after all. But I suppose we ought to leave it up to her." Solomon looked at Valda expectantly. "There could be risks, but there are obviously risks to leaving you here. And of course you might miss all the fun."
"Showoff" says Aurora to Regina, as her own wounds heal preternaturally. As the others look at the trap, she leans on her spear. "If you want me to skewer that rune, just say the word."
Jennifer shrugs.
"Do it.'
Unless we have a better option, do it,[/b] Valda mentally replied. [i]Can't turn my eyes enough to see it myself. Just...be careful.
"Okay, you heard the woman." Solomon pauses. "Well, no, I suppose you didn't. But the sentiment is there. Aurora, destroy it."
Solomon descends and takes cover in case something blows up.
Moving close to Valda, Aurora aims carefully before throwing the spear at the crest.
-
The magical circle crackled and fizzed, the scent of melting fat floating in the air as the markings seemed...sag from the ceiling. The marks droops like they're made of slowly melting wax, then for a moment they still. The barrier around Valda flickers, sparks...and expands with brutal force.
The shockwave leaves no room to move, nowhere to dodge. Beds leap into the air, bedside tables jump up and crack against the walls. Solomon, Jennifer and Auoura are all hurled across the room with enough force to knock you breathless, but without doing more harm.
Nurai slammed into a door frame, and landed bruised and battered. The door knob gleams, obviously a much more dangerous thing to hit.
Regina flew across the room and, somehow, twisted in midair enough to avoid the bed leg that would have impaled her through the skull. Even her healing abilities may have been challenged by near decapitation...
Valda, in the middle of the maelstrom, remained frozen in place. Then, slowly, without the barrier holding her up, she fell over with a thud.
"Woah!" Aurora lifts herself to her feet, forcing air back in her lungs. "Packed quite the- Valda! Are you all right?"
She hurries over to the woman, checking her for life signs.
Valda was still breathing, but also still held by the second part of the spell. Knocking out the barrier had knocked out the support, as it were.
That had been... interesting. "...Is everyone all right?" Regina asked after a few moments, pushing up after having landed on her feet.
"Fine."
Jennifer brushes herself off and quickly re-does her disheveled hair into a bun. She checks the portal room and then, assuming that she sees nothing unexpected there, she goes to the hallway to make sure that the explosion hasn't drawn anything unexpected coming their way.
Solomon stands and struggles to relax his chest to allow air to flow in and out. But in the meantime he maintains a dialog with Valda to make sure she's alright. Being in that kind of magical trap would have to be unsettling, and he wasn't sure how she was doing after all of the magic that had blasted the room in the past few minutes. But he was no healer, so giving her a voice was the best he could do for now.
"I've... been better... but... I'll live." Solomon struggles to answer. He methodically collects his stakes and returns them to his case, snapping it with finality. "Now then, I'd suggest the rest of us leave the room while a brave volunteer deals with the second part of this glyph." He surveys the room for such a volunteer. "Regina, I wonder if you could incinerate it so it doesn't, sort of... break down slowly."
Fire flickered around both of Regina's hands as Doctor Solomon suggested a thorough... cleansing... of the glyph. "Sure." she said - and that was exactly what she'd proceed to do if everyone else agreed and vacated the room. (She would not, of course, start blasting if someone had a real objection to it - she was totally here to provide destructive power, but like any good tool, she knew better than to be silly about it.)
"I'll stay too." Leaving the spear away from where it could be dangerous, Aurora moves to grab Valda, shielding the woman with her own body.
"You know, actually we could just try moving her." Solomon suddenly realizes. "It appears to be a location-based curse, and with the barrier gone..." Barring any protest, Solomon prepares to lift Valda from her position on the floor and move her out of the room.
Jennifer has no problem evacuating the room.
As Valda left the circle, she shuddered back into life. "I. Hate. Thrice. Damned. Paralysis." Shuddering, she got to her feet, and nodded. "Thank you all. That was less than fun. And what the hell was that thing? I could only see it out the corner of my eye."
Fwooooooosh.
"Whatever it was, it was nasty." Regina said as she worked to make sure the circle would no longer be a problem. She didn't know much of anything about these sorts of things, but seeing the effects was enough to make her want to stop them.
Regina's fire eventually scorched the wood itself, and therefore the glyph, away. It took a surprisingly long time to do, however.
"There was the cold mold thing. It came from that." Jennifer indicates the mangled tablet that she and Aurora... mangled.
"And then there was a black liquid thing, which escaped through there." Jennifer indicates the portal in the adjoining room. "I wonder if ruining this magic circle would trap the thing on the other side.
"Unless we want to try and follow it."
"Nurai, could you send something into the circle to see what's on the other side?" Solomon half-asks, half-wonders-aloud. "I'm terribly curious."
When the glyph had been totally scorched away - and Regina was quite thorough about that - she switched over to a brief blast of cold in order to rapidly reduce the temperature of the area and prevent any hidden little bits of heat from igniting later. She emphatically did not want to burn the house down.
Nurai took a long moment to shake off the blast, stumbling out of the room and resting against the wall while Regina dealt with glyph. Staring at the door knob handle until her attention moved at the sound of Valda's voice, causing Nurai's smile to start coming back. She shook aside her thoughts though it all had made her feel wobbly. "Conjured inky sassy thing, really didn't like that one...a lot of strength and magic..." they said unsurely.
Hearing the question from the doctor, the summoner considered it, moving back into the room once Regina finished. They plopped down on one of the beds.
Her covering shadow clung to her for a moment before slowly curling down from Nurai's upper half to lay in her lap and across the bed.
Nurai pointed to the shadow for a moment, "I would have to desummon them, even if they detached I wouldn't risk them like that and I've only the ability to hold one...but...if I did that and summoned something suitable...it is a possibility. Likely wouldn't last long though and not a certainty, but there is a chance. Whether curiosity is part of the plan at this moment...", Nurai said as she leaned back on one hand, looking to Valda with a look and a gesture that her friend should also consider sitting for a breather if not to be checked, [b]"is not my decision, though I guess it could be explored at any point..." Nurai finished with a shrug as she turned her attention to the shadow. She looked them over with great care and a fond if slightly concerned smile.
The shadow made no sound throughout the commentary, though the upper half seemed to shift almost fluid-like and continuously like they were trying and couldn't get comfortable across Nurai's lap and the bed. The shadow's shape, humanoid with clawed hands and feet with whisps of shadow coming off of them, the lower half looked at this time far more solid looking as they remained draped over Nurai's. Likely a very awkward position for a person, but the shadow seemed persistent on remaining that way for a time while Nurai's checked them as the two listened from the bed what was going on around them.
"I'm not going." caws Aurora's raven, flying out of hiding and back on her shoulder.
"No intention of sending you, birdbrain. And Caerser can't go either, not without me, so... I have no options. It could be a portal to the Temple of Elemental Evil, for all I know. Does anyone know how to read magic diagrams?"
Valda sat next to Nurai and patted the Shadow, looking bemused. "I have no idea. This is a new one on me, and I've done some strange and whacky stuff. I can read magic script, but that's only going to be of limited use unless you can understand it too."
Shrugging, she looked out the window. "We can explore the wierd circle, check the rest of the house or head down into the basement. Or, you know, take a nap. I'll let you guys decide."
"If we don't deal with the circle now, the thing could just come back behind us."
"Yeah, all I know of teleporting magic circles is from stories. I can try to read the magic circle, and certainly will before sending anything through, but...yeah." Nurai shrugged, unsure.
She thought on it a moment longer while she healed her shadow...
"I suggest fixing ourselves up, then we can take a look at the magic circle and see whether going through all that now is a good idea or if we should just try barricading the door to reduce our risks until we can bring in more fire power...or if fire is the only option." Nurai said, ending with a chuckle as she fished out her wand of cure light wounds, turning it sideways to offer it to Valda. "May need stronger one of these next time."
The shadow continued to lay there quietly, wisps of shadow spun around Valda's fingers as she patted them. After the rejuvenating spell, the shadow stretched and continued adjusting uncomfortably now and then.
"If we're waiting a bit, I'll fly back to town and grab a bite. Is Chinese alright?"
"If you're not sure what a circle is for, breaking it is usually for the best." Regina noted. "...Unless it's active. Don't mess with an active circle unless you've got an expert." Miyu had been very firm about that. Something about magical explosions or releasing devilish horrors.
"Chinese works for me. Cantonese style sweet and sour, please." Valda said, watching the Shadow. "And even active circles and sigils can be altered so long as you're careful. You just need to delete the right sigil in the right order. Now, working out the right order..."
"...is probably not worth it unless you know exactly what you want to alter it to and why? And preferably have experience doing so?"
"No, it really it isn't." Valda shrugged. "It's never an easy option because they're complicated and dangerous, but sometimes it's the easier option."
"Be right back."
Opening the window, Aurora jumps off in the icy storm. A second later, the form of a winged horse rises against the clouds, her voice yelling in joy.
Jennifer eyes the winged horse jealously while fingering the SUV key fob in her pocket before turning to the others.
"Fine, then. Just destroy it from a distance and hope it traps the thing on the other side. And then let's move on."
"I'd like the chance to understand it first before we take any destructive measures." Solomon says in a calming tone. "I'm confident any one of us can destroy it if need be."
He approaches the rune and stoops to investigate
When he returns, Aurora is gone. "Did she..." He pauses. "I sort of thought she was kidding about flying out for food. I hope she brings back something soy-free. I have a mild allergy." Solomon looks perhaps more concerned than he has since Regina last threatened to burn something.
He approaches the rune and stoops to investigate
Regina just blinked at the Doctor. "Flight is what weirds you out?" she said, looking down at the part of her body that, a few moments ago, had been a mangled and bloody mess.
"None of this is exactly within my definition of 'normal', to be frank." Solomon thought back to the vampires and blood golem in the mansion and the fey rider; to the blizzard and the mysterious obelisk; to the winter wight and the artifact-driven moss monster; an involuntary shudder passed through him. "Actually, I'd say the otherworldly contracts and invisible horrors are the most familiar things I've encountered since meeting Miss Simmons." He added with a contemplative surveyance of the many magical persons with whom he now shared a room.
Valda looked at the doctor with a tilted head. "Did you have psychic attack daggers out not too long ago? I mean, I'm not good at normal - although I'm glad to help you feel comfortable - but normal doesn't quite cover that one." Considering, she added, "Normal really doesn't apply to anyone I've met, though, so..."
As you fly past the house, along the drive and down the road, the storm closes in and the world turns white for a moment, snow and ice covering your vision. When your vision cleared you were flying back towards the house.
Solomon raised his hand to object to Valda, but withdrew it again and held his tongue, pausing momentarily. He considered for a few seconds before starting again. "I suppose it's... mildly supernatural. But it's far more sensible than all of this." He said with a broad gesture basically everywhere. "Extending the reach of the mind beyond your own skull is, really..." He paused again, finding the distinction difficult to articulate.
"It's not the same."
"Does it help if I say the word 'quantum' got used a lot when Miyu was figuring out how I do stuff?" Regina asked, legitimately curious about this topic of conversation. "She said something about the Observer Effect and this ether stuff tending to obey set patterns. Like, if I do a cone of fire? Same size every time, unless there's a wall or something in the way. The thing I can do to run faster? Same improvement in my abilities, regardless of my physical state. I'm pretty sure there are rules... and a serious scientific effort could probably figure them out. I don't think it's worth being bothered by the unknown - just start figuring it out, like humans have always done."
...Admittedly, her laid-back attitude might stem in part from the fact that she'd been torn apart and nearly had her head knocked off, yet looked fine. When you didn't feel like you were in danger, relaxing was a lot easier.
"Son of a..."
Aurora moves Caerser towards the window to get back inside, choosing to show off some more. Calling Geidihr and old powers to her at the same time, she channels transformative magic as the winged beast disappears under her.
An unkindness of dark ravens floods through the half-opened window, all but one swirling in a spiral and coalescing into Aurora's casually striding form, brushing snow off her shoulders. "Bad news, this place is a proper Hotel California, we can't leave. Food'll have to wait. Any progress on the circle?"
"Damn, I was afraid of that." Valda sighed. "Well, it looks like with our friend down we can probably rest, at least, if it comes to it. Even Moldy seems to be going now." Nodding, she points out the mold is the other room is slowly turning to dust, and being swept away by...something.
Solomon began pacing when Aurora returned. He walked slowly, but his face carried a look of intense concentration. After a few moments he looked up and spoke.
"I don't think we should break the circle. It may be our only way out of here."
He sighed.
"Ideally we'd hope to break the curse, or curses, surrounding this place. But we need to keep our options open. So I think we need to leave the circle for now. Let's finish exploring the second floor, then get something to eat and bed down for tonight."
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"We're setting a watch, D&D-style," Jennifer demands as she leaves the attic room. She heads downstairs to the second floor, and opens the door to the room near where they downed the undead wright.
"Oh, sweet. I get to be a Barbarian!" Valda looked around. "What? It's fantasy roleplay. I wanna be ripped." Grinning, she added, "Plus it means I can take first watch and sleep in."
The room Jessica walks into is a ladies room. Decorated in pale pinks and purples and whites, a large four poster bed of painted white oak with lace curtains, a large vanity and mirror and two wardrobes against another wall.
A massive hulking set of armour dominates one corner, oddly, carrying a sword longer and heavier than some of the smaller party members. Odd weapons - a pair of clawed gauntlets, a sword with a razor-thin blade, an odd looking whip, an old style pistol and a small buckler with a red gem in the middle.