As Leo approaches, the man's party turns to him in interest. The mage girl and intimidating cleric both look up from the shared tome they have, and the purple haired half elf offer's the blonde merc a questioning glance as he quickly pushes the cooked rabbit into Leo's hands.
"Hey there! took your time, i was beginning to think you though i was weird!" The merc chuckles, ripping into his own full rabbit. "name's Raph Jacob's, you here for the Baron's mission too?"
Red shadows Leo, sticking behind him.
"...That you're girlfriend? Raph asks, curiously
Leo walks up to Ralph smiling, sticking his hand out to shake.
"Nice to meet you Ralph, My name is Leo and no, he just does that"
"Yeah, I just do that."
Says Red from under his hood. "My name is Red."
"..." Raph looks at Red, a bit disturbed, but turns back to Leo and pat's the ground he sits on after shaking Leo's hand. "...cool? anyway, you guy's sure took your time! we're all heading in soon...place is probably jam packed with treasure"
"Keep your head in the game Raph.." The half elf girl drawls, glancing at Leo and red "...I'm Isabelle, the guy in the armor is Gregor, and the munchkin is Elsie"
Both other member's nod in greeting to the duo.
Leo sits down after giving a smile and nod to the other group members. He reaches into his coat, removes a moderately sized vial holder starts taking inventory of what extracts he has prepped.
"Its nice to meet you all." Red bows politely. He then looks back at Landon and Minato, confused on what these mercs are talking about.
Minato manages to tear his eye's from the saddening scene of the slave's to walk over to Raph's group along with Landon, who seems to be fiddling with a small pane of glass that he pulled from his pocket.
"...Yeah, sorry we're late, can you give us a run down of how we plan to handle this?" Minato responds, eye's narrowed and hood pulled down. He glances Red and Leo's way however, trying to convay something...
He seems to he asking you to play along
Leo really doesn’t notice much of what is going on as he continues messing with his inventory.
Red shares a knowing glance with Minato, turning to the rest of Raph's group.
"Yeah, a little strategy goes a long way."
Raph nod's at that, his party seemingly taking the words at face value. The man blindly grasps at something in his pouch while he devour's his bunny on a stick. successfully grabbing hold of the item he searched for, Raph pull's out a map, labeled 'Isabelle's finding's' and hands it to Red who is the closest.
"Here, Isabelle made some map's for the different parties. she scouted on ahead without actually touching anything so the other groups didn't think we got a head start. She even took the time to mark where your team is being payed to look and loot." Raph send's a goofy grin towards his stern looking half elf companion, who blushes in embarrassment before huffing, irritated. "she only saw a few groups of skeleton's, nothing we can't handle! Baron Lowl's...or was he a count? eh...Lowl's, he's paying good money for us to search this place for magical tome's, we get to keep anything else.
Minato nod's slowly, grinning at how trusting this poor fellow is. but his eye's get more serious when magical tome's are mentioned.
"I see, thank you, would you happen to know what he's looking for specifically? I can't seem to remember..."
"Mostly tomes's about magical rituals, but specifically about dream's or something? Raph say's, obviously not that interested on the topic of magic.
There is suddenly some commotion over at the first tent, The silver haired man in eastern armor stands over one of his slaves, the one who was tending to the fire. she clutches her cheek submissively as she half cower's. next to her feet is a spilled bowl of some sort of stew. the man himself is looming over her and saying something, not nice things if the rage on his face and the stew staining his armors pants is anything to go by. Minato obviously expends much effort in not looking at the scene. Raph and his teammates however openly glare at the man with clear disdain in their eye's.
"what a sad man..." Gregor's deep voice echo's from his armor, while Isabelle stares daggers, hate in her eye's. Raph sighs, looking away and to his party.
"we got 10 minutes till we're set to head inside...keep a lid on it guy's, we need this money.
Leo pinches the bridge of his nose
"It's...gonna be a long 10 minutes..." After refocusing himself on what is being discussed with the group, he gestures for Minato to get closer to him so they can talk.
Dendar pulls Minato to the side and whispers as to not be heard, "Are we going in with these guys to search for the book or like should we wait to see what they come out with?"
Owlbearto sniffs the ground and trots slowly as to not give any intimation of his intelligence, he is 'keeping it casual'.
Red opens up the map and looks it over, showing it to the rest of his teammates.
Minato move's to talk to Leo, only to be yanked off his 4,9 feet to Dendar's side. So instead, Leo feel's a finger repeatedly tapping his ankle to get his attention. When he stare's down, he see's Thanatos' mask partially phasing through the ground in-between his leg's.
"what did you need...? Leo hear's asked, a voice on the wind traveling down his neck and involuntarily causing a shiver to pass down his spine.
Minato stumbles into Dendar face first, letting out a cute grunt as he tries to get steady while Dendar speaks. once that has been accomplished, Minato fixes a slightly upset stare at the elven man, clearly miffed at being manhandled before answering.
"...well what would you suggest? Don't forget we're looking for Daisy's dad too. It would probably help out if we had more people to search, The Map in Red's hands suggests this is a big place."
Red struggles to pay attention and remember any part of the map he's not directly looking at. All he can force himself to notice is how big the whole place seem's to be.
Leo disliked that.
He whispers while writing into his journal as not to draw suspicion.
"I tend to zone out at times, I have no clue what is going on right now."
"we're most likely heading inside with them and using them as body shields while we search for Daisy's dad, and any sign that might point us in the right direction of the cultist's who stole from us" The wind continues, causing a tingling on his neck.
Landon slide's the glass back into his pocket and takes a seat near the fire, set on waiting until it's go time.
"Hmm, alright"
Leo puts his book away and takes a look at the map with Red.
Dendar sighs, "Ok makes sense, I'l prep what I'm going in with then as well." Dendar breaks away and stares at a nearby tree pondering his course of action, he reaches into his satchel and pulls out some sling bullets and stares at them. "I'm doing this for the kinship of my new friend, I will find your dad Daisy." And he kneels down before putting his sling bullets back in his pockets and places his hands on the ground, glowing in a green hue before it fades to show a panda bear with not a black but brown torso and white legs staring at the tree.
Owlbearto moves closer to Dendar and mumbles, "you need to figure something out so that I don't have to keep doing this" And he removes the Circlet of Speaking from his head and hands it to Dendar.
Dendar places the circlet on his head before clearing his throat into his panda arm and saying, "Thanks big guy. Don't worry soon I'll learn that Wild Speech thing I've been reading about." And with that they both trot bipedal to the group and sit around waiting, Dendar picks up some leaves around and just eats up preparing for the fight.
Red stretches out, reciting some of the verbal components for spells without actually casting them. He does this until it's time to head out.
With a sharp whistle from the entrance to the tomb, all the gathered parties congregate together as they prepare to enter the area. Raph and his group stand along side Minato and you all, staring at the one who whistled. A bald Halfling, who's eye's shift between green and blue unnaturally as he speaks.
"Alright...you all know the drill, you head in, kill any monsters you find, loot the place blind, and hand over any tomes you might come across for my boss." The halfings words are oily in you're ear's, unpleasant to listen to. His eye's bore into you're group, narrowing in clear suspicion before shrugging and looking away. "you've been promised a large amount of money for this...don't f@@% up"
The little man quickly cartwheels out of the way and hurries into a small tent pitched at the side of the door to the underground. Raph let's out a small laugh of amusement as he stares at the retreating halfling, something mirrored by most including Minato. A cough get's the two leader's attention however, a dwarf in fullplate waddles over, the leader of the 3rd group it seems.
"ready?" he asks Raph and Minato, seemingly also ignoring the man with the slaves. Both males nod, their difference in height apparent and comical.
"I'll go in first" The eastern man with silver hair speaks up, smug assurance in his voice as he steps up to the door with a hand on his katana. his eye's fall on Dendar in his panda form, a smirk on his face before he quickly looks at his three slaves and nonchalantly ushers them in after him as he disappears down the stairs. The three dirty half elf's stumble to their feet and slowly trudge after him.
Landon's eye's never leave their back's.
Raph and his team grimace before hurrying after them, followed by the dwarf's party.
....Minato slowly looks at you all, before moving down the stairs into the dark with Landon quickly following.
Red stretches himself out and blinks his bright blue eyes, accustomed to seeing in the dark due to the shadow arcana flowing through his veins. He grabs a wand from his bag and taps everyone with Mage Armor. He gives a girlish wink to the team.
"Boys, ...Tether." He calls out, starting down the stairs.
"Thanks Red, let's get the party started then." He follows after, Gari crawling out of Leo's coat and flies above them, enjoying the refreshing darkness of this area.
"Mmmhmmm..." Red hums out, hoping to get this over with. "I havent had to summon something in a long while... I should probably get back to that soon, for efficiency's sake..." He ponders, starting to brush off dirt from his clothes as he descends the staircase.
"Hmmmm might as well do this now, wont hurt." Leo says while he takes out two extracts from his coat. He drinks the first one and then when he starts to drink the second one, he doesn't swallow it but instead spits it back into the vial.
"Eewwww... Leo..." Whispers Red, slightly ahead of Leo.
A ten-foot-wide hallway curves north, where a flight of stairs descends to a corridor leading to a octagonal central chamber. Iron bars separate this room from the eastern and southern hallways, and the floor of the chamber is painted with what appears to be a night sky filled with star's.
Minato's eye's widen, shock in his gaze as he wildly looms around at the empty room. Landon watching in some amount of amusement at the childs shock, yet also wary.
"wha....!? Where did the others go?? The stairs could only lead here!" Minato shout's, running down the stairs into the chamber
"Could be spacial magic or something, I wouldn't get so worked up" Landon explains with not much worry "This place is not normal though, obviously..."
Leo follows suit after Landon and Minato before looking towards everyone of the group.
”Hmmm, anyone of you able to detect magic? That might give us an idea of what we are working with here.”
Red stares in amazement at the open chamber before slowly taking a deep breath. He closes his eyes and begins to focus on the room around them.
Dendar also begins to take in his surroundings, his eyes turning a verdant leafy green as he looks around the room waiting for something to catch his eye.
Though preoccupied with searching for magical signatures, Dendar's keen eyes see that the northern section of the hall surrounding the central chamber features a single shelf that runs along the north and west walls. Dozens of ancient books sit on these shelves, but time has caused the words to fade from their pages, Simply scanning the spines reveals many intriguing titles
written in Azlanti, such as Dreams in Liavara’s Womb, Whispers from the Red Star, and A Myriad Mirrored. The stars painted on the central floor constitute a map of the night sky—a star chart that places Golarion’s solar system at the center and dozens of other smaller stars in the outlying reaches.
A phrase is carved in Azlanti over the western doors:
“Behold and Wonder, for Beyond Lie Enigmas!”
Minato blanches at the androids dismissal at possibly entering a trap, but takes the advice regardless.
"Ok...we'll worry about the other's later.."
Dendar walks over to the books and starts squint to read the names of the books aloud, he finishes and says "Well none of these seem to be special in nature but they said they wanted tomes, so I'm going to slip a few of these in my bag for them." As Dendar funnels a few books into a bag he smirks devilishly, "They wanna treat those servants like crud and that's exactly what I'll give em,"
Owlbearto sniffs the books and squaks in a low tone and follows behind Dendar.
Dendar finishes looting a few books and says, "So who's in favor of trying to go through the east hallway?" And raises his panda hand and smiles, waiting for a response and glancing nervously at Landon then Minato then to the rest of the gang.
"That's fine with me, better than standing around doing nothing." Leo walks over to the books and picks up a couple, giving them a quick glance through before putting some into his bag as well. "Maybe I can salvage some sort of knowledge from these books once we return to the library."
"Yeah...let's go" Minato agree's, his voice a bit more shaky then his usual even tone. He quickly moves for the gate to the next room, pushing open the rusted iron gate and moving quickly down the next dark corridor. His cloak trailing behind like living shadows.
Landon raises an eyebrow at Dendar's nervousness, soft winding sounds coming from his body, presumably one of his android systems.
"Did I do something...?" he asks, before noticing Minato swiftly moving on. Sending Dendar another questioning look, he follows after the child leader.
As they continue onward Dendar begins, "Oh no no no! Nothing wrong, just don't wanna be a stickler for calling directions. I wouldn't want anyone going back to Fox saying I was a burden or a hard-ass out in the field." He looks at his fingers. "1..2..3..4..5 Yea there all there," He remembers last time he had his finger exiled from his body after he accidentally bumped his colleague Chak-Chak down a chasm.
Owlbearto trots slowly behind Dendar, watching his back should anyone try to sneak up behind the team.
This thirty-foot-diameter room seems something like a silo—the domed ceiling rises twenty feet above, and the floor drops away into darkness below. A
ten-foot-wide stone bridge with no railings crosses the shaft to a hall and door in the opposite side, yet a one foot-wide gap separates the bridge from either hall. Below, two additional archways lie in the north and south walls of the shaft, thirty feet below the level of the upper entrances. The ground below is hard and littered with numerous rotted and skeletal goblin bodies.
A carved message over the doors to the north reads (in Azlanti),
“Enigma Vaults.”
When Dendar and Landon catches up with the boy, They see Minato staring down the side of the bridged, where the ghostly aberration's of the 3rd squad of mercenaries lay, eye's colorless and staring, terror filled at the wispy form of a cockroach in a top hat and monocle. The bipedal and human sized insect seem's to be speaking to the fellow phantom's. This only continues for a moment before all the ethereal dwarves and human's are seemingly consumed by a massive swarm of cockroaches. The scream's echo into the first chamber where Leo, Red, and Tether still stand.
The scream's stop and the figures disappear after their all consumed, leaving the three silent in the next room, at the foot of the bridge.
"..." Minato audibly gulp's, his pupil's heavily dilated "I...am having second thoughts...
Leo runs up behind Dendar and grabs his shoulder, a bit out of breathe from his sprint.
"W-what was that? I heard a scream, everyone ok?" Gari flies in after Leo and lands on his shoulder, ears hurting from the recent scream.
Landon glances back at the two, before sending a slightly worried look at the bridge. He explain's to Leo and Tether what they just saw.
"gross"
Red stumbles in last, holding down his skirt as he runs through.
"Sorry, I was busy uh... staring at the wall... What's going on? Why are we stuck? Who's screaming?"
Leo explains what is going on to Red
"Yea so uhm...what's the plan here than Minato?"
"oh wow that's... gross." He says, shivering at the thought.
Leo's question snap's Minato back to reality. He turn's to the gathered group, eye's still dilated.
"This mission has gotten a bit out of our league... he admits "i don't think Fox would appreciate me getting you all killed by...whatever is capable of this...
Landon open;s his mouth to speak, but it's cut short as the shadows on the bridge consolidate in the middle. In seconds, the Roach in the top hat crawls out on two stringy insectiod legs. The mandibles twitch wildly as it stares you all down, bug eye'd.
"Hehehehehh~ I saw you all watch me eat! HEWWO, HEWWO!" It speaks almost fluent common, but the worble in its voice shows how unnatural it really is. "Chogao! That's ME! My master is so great, separating you all into manageable morsels!"
Leo just has a blank expression on his face, Gari with one as well.
"I wasn't ready for today."
"You weren't ready for my sexy body! I can tell! HEWWO, HEWWOOO!" The Roach claim's, pointing a staff with a goat's head on it at the group. "Chogao! That's ME! You are all stuck here now! This place, has separated you all! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHHHHHHHHHH!!!"
Minato's fear seem's to dissolve at the creature's...idiocy
"...uh...
Landon mirror's Leo, only the Android raise's his hand, transformed back into it's cannon configuration, and covers the bug in a gout of flame with a deadpan.
"IIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE" it screams, immediately running off the bridge and hurrying away into the north room.