The steadily expanding dust cloud continues moving in your direction, you judge it likely to hit as the others are climbing down, even if they started immediately before Flynn and Lenneth finish investigating the cave.
Flynn and Lenneth make it down to the bottom of the canyon and Lilith's lights hover at the entrance. The passageway goes back twenty feet or so, then it becomes impossible to see further due to the twists and turns, you'd have to explore deeper to see wher it goes, but one thing is for sure, there is a passageway leading deeper in to the rock.
Flynn shouts up to the others.
Feldus yells to the others. Once they have scurried down the rope he follows behind.
Valex begins clambering down the silk rope, reciting under his breath a paragraph from a manual on physical exercise he read once, striving to recall the exact technique and trying not to think too hard aabout how far away the ground is.
Whisper waves Skyfall away and pushes a glaring Aura at the roc, who senses her master's urgency and wastes no time, claws resting on Aura's shoulders as she moves to pick her up. In a panic, Aura flinches at the movement and steps backwards, out over the drop...
...as the dust cloud billows all around, she falls out of sight...
Her eyes going wide, Whisper lets go of Lenneth's offered hand and she pushes her in the direction of the canyon floor after Aura...
Lenneth swoops downwards, almost as quickly as Aura fell...
disappearing from sight in to the dust cloud...
Flynn tries to urge Skyfall into a dive after Aura but with the dust and detritus blowing up the bird panics and veers itself away before it's eyes get damaged.
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Melo looks back at the cloud rushing towards them he shifts back and jumps for the rope.
Clinging on he attempts to climb down. "Did you grab her?!" He shouts out into the darkness.
Lenneth is unable to see Aura, and Skyfall seems disoriented by the dust cloud. As the pair circle, Melo begins climbing down the rope. Despite the feline claws he seems to me making headway, then the rope is buffeted by the winds driving the dust cloud, and he is falling...
Flynn wheels Skyfall away from the dust cloud, the stinging sand and rocks blasting into his face and Sky screeching in protest eventhough he feels how eager she is to dive after Aura.
Then, he sees Melo in his human form, his handhold crumbling from beneath him and then he is tumbling too, crazily turning end over end as he plummets to the ground.
Flynn acts on instinct. In truth, if he had a moment to think perhaps he would take a different action... but then perhaps not. These people had become his family over the last months and wouldn't you do anything to protect your family?
He kicks his feet out of the leather straps on the flanks of Skyfall's barding and in an instant pulls himself into a crouching position onto her back....
....and
Melo too worried about the others takes his mind off the rope for a moment and slips unable to grab on he falls. All the breath is knocked out of him as he shouts out falling straight to the bottom unable to help himself.
Lilith winces as she clings to the rope, but Melo falls past her, missing knocking her from the rope by a hair's breadth.
In a heartbeat everything seems to have erupted in to chaos, as Melo falls, Flynn leaps from Skyfall's back and grabs the druid around the waist as they both fall out of sight in to the dust cloud below.
Valex shouts an incantation, flinging his hands out as Melo and Flynn disappear from sight.
...as you continue to fall it strikes you that you have been falling a while, longer than perhaps you believed it would... and then the ground appears a few feet below you and you smash in to it...
yet your landing, whilst ungainly and leaving you sprawled across the canyon floor, appears to have left you unscathed. You are far from out of the woods however, as visibility is down to five feet, and you have no idea whereabouts on the canyon floor you landed...
the wind begins to howl.
Lenneth stares desperately after Aura, but unless she wants to dive in to the dust cloud where visibility will be reduced to a few feet, there is little she can do
Flynn sprawls as he hits the ground. He takes deep gulps of air as he runs his hands over himself, almost too afraid to do so in case his body has gone into shock and he suddenly feels a protruding bone punching through his flesh.... but thankfully he seems unscathed. That is, except for the dust clogging his nose and mouth.
He rolls over and retches, getting as much of the stuff out as he can before tying the scrap of shirt he was using to protect his head from the sun over his face.
he roars. he fumbles around until he feels the druid, also pulling himself to his feet.
Meanwhile, Skyfall screeches in protest as Flynn falls. She frantically circles around the dust cloud, her calls loud even in the whipping wind.
Desperate to discover the fate of Aura, Flynn, and Melo, Lenneth takes a deep breath and dives down into the cloud, doing her best to shield her eyes with one arm as she descends.
Reduced to a role of helpless bystandeer, Feldus mutters vehemently under his breath as he scurries down the rope as fast as his hands can move, aided by his natural skills in climbing, until he reaches the bottom. He does not call out for his pack-mates, instead sniffing the air for traces of them.
Melo stumbles to his feet the fall not hurting him but disorientating him.
Spitting out whatever the cloud was kicking up into the air he covers his face as best he can. "Flynn.. I don't know what happen but we survived that fall!" He shouts over the loud whipping sound of wind. Now finally looking around he attempts to work out where they could be.
Skyfall spins around in frantic circles, head whipping this way and that as she caws in frustration, her excellent vision no help to her finding her master in all this dust.
Lenneth flies down in to the cloud...
Feldus rapidly climbs down the rope
In front of you is the cave entrance, but of the others there is no sign...
moments later...
Lilith climbs down hand over hand
"Calm down Lilith! We'll find them" Feldus barks softly as he begins sniffing the air cautiously while trying to keep the dust from getting into his lungs. "They must still be above us..." He shields his eyes as he peers through the dust.
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Feldus sniffs the thick air, and despite the dust-laden environment, manages to catch a scent... of Aura, she's close by. Of Melo and Flynn he smells nothing.
Wolf and Whisper join Lilith, Feldus and Valex by the cave entrance.
Melo, come on! We've got to get inside or we'll choke to death!
He heads into the cave but very soon the darkness of the dust cloud is replaced with the darkness of the cave.
Please tell me you can light the way....? Flynn asks hopefully, drawing his longsword. All my stuff is in Skyfall's saddle bags.
Melo follows Flynn closely as they get to the entrance of the cave he draws out his club the feeling is so strange not in his normal lion form. "I'm not sure how good I'll be if we get into a fight down here." He says as he casts a spell into his club and it begins to light up. "That's one problem solved." He waves his club about attempting to see just where they are.
"Thank you... You saved me. I... The cloud and Aura, I lost my grip and just fell."
** spoiler omitted **
What do you think we should do, hold up here and wait for the others to find us or try to make our way up and see if we can signal them somehow? I'm worried about Aura though, she fell and I didn't see any sign of her....
Feldus holds up an arm to get the others attention. "Aura. She is close by." Muttering a minor spell a soft glowing sphere appears in his hand. "Now she can find us." Without wasting any further time he heads towards where the scent is strongest.
Melo smiles. "I think we should at least wait for this dust cloud to clear." He coughs slightly his throat dry but continues to look around.
OK, let's wait here for a few minutes and see if the dust clears. I hope the others are ok.
Feldus' light illuminates the immediate surroundings, but in the murk of the dust-laden air, doesn't travel that far. The others would need to be very close to use it as a beacon. Regardless, Feldus follows his nose, sneezing frequently, until he reaches a body slumped on the floor, Aura.
Hoping that his spell helped, Valex continues his climb down, hitching his tunic up over his nose and mouth as he goes.
"Dammit!" Feldus mutters softly as he sees the unconscious Aura. "I think she is alive, but we need Lenneth!"
Melo looks to Flynn his face registering the tracks at the same time. "This could be bad." He whispers now. "Where are we... I'm starting to worry about the others."
Valex arrives down the rope, leaving everyone back together except Melo and Flynn, who seem to be lost somewhere in all the dust.
Feldus and Lilith seem unable to rouse Aura, though Lilith's spell covers the girl in dark energy which seems to be hungrily snatched and absorbed by her body. She shudders and wakes up, glancing around and then shakily standing. Indigo appears by her side, like he just walked out from behind her.
Lenneth's attempt to find the missing men is in vein, the dust simply makes it too difficult to see, and even flying around in a search pattern does not find them.