Dounia and Cairee rushed over to the edge of the last block and could see the pull chain from their perch.
Dounia felt the faintest of vibrations under her feet, and sensed that their block was about to fall. She cried, "Look out!" just as it fell. She launched herself forward as it began to fall, hit the ground in a roll, and popped back to her feet. She spun around to see if Cairee had been able to land all right.
Cairee found herself again looking at the strange symbols beside the gate. The bowls beyond the gate looked ceremonial, like something used for communion or summoning. She had seen similar bowls used in ceremonies to ask for favourable weather. She hadn't had a chance to really examine the symbols though, and she squinted down at them, searching for meaning.
Dounia called out a warning and Cairee looked up sharply to see her friend leap off the block. And then the cleric was falling. Again. This time she landed on her back with a thwack. She groaned and scrambled to her feet, trying to ignore the throbbing in her right elbow. "You'll have to show me how to do that one day," she said to Dounia, forcing a smile at her agile friend. Then she looked again at the symbols.
Zahra had a choice to make. Now that she'd seen all the items, she couldn't get the sceptre out of her mind. There was only one problem, it was now out of reach. She did wonder if there was anything inside the backpack and gloves could be useful but how she had no idea.
She heard Tymythy shout her name and this made her decision for her. She couldn't wait for the blocks to change again to reveal the sceptre so she went for what was closest, the gloves that were just revealed.
As soon as she had a hold of the gloves, she gracefully pivoted and took off running towards the others before the floor shifted again.
Zahra did not trust her athleticism to get down to the gloves and back up again. Just when she thought she'd have no choice, the sorceress recalled her lessons with Haseena and focused her magical energy on the gloves.
She focused her magic by saying the required words and moving her hands as if lifting something invisible. When the gloves began to lift and move towards her, she beamed with pride. It felt painfully slow but she never broke concentration as she willed the gloves into her hand.
Cairee couldn't quite put her finger on it but there felt like there was a detail she was missing with these symbols. Not in their meaning exactly but something about their significance.
The creatures in these cells had somehow challenged or crossed Hallwyn in the past but this? No, she felt an intent but couldn't decipher it.
-
Prestidigitation worked slowly but it worked. The gloves wafted upward to Zahra and landed softly in her hands. She could see the alcove seal over with a layer of stone melting into place. The light source to her right was gone as well. The other alcove was also sealed. The choice had been made.
A quick look at the gloves showed them to be something like lambskin, close fitting, with stiff canvas cuffs.
Even if she couldn't puzzle out the symbols' greater significance, she could at least interpret their literal meaning. "These icons mean fire, earth, air. They remind me of the language of the gods, emeilu. Or perhaps Seru, used by titans. Seru is used by creatures of great power, like Sphynx and Genies. I wonder if we have to select a bowl and summon one."
"Or a hint that we are to face an group of elemental spirits," Tymythy said, kneeling at the edge of his raised slab as he watched in turn Cairee close by the door and Zahra working on... something at the center of the arena. "Either way, best wait for Zahra to return, then open the gate with some haste."
Now that the gloves were in her hands, Zahra was able to take a better look at them. Her eyebrows raised in surprise as they looked like gloves she'd seen healers occasionally wear when helping people when in the city. How was this supposed to help them fight monsters?
It was clear that her choice made the other items off-limits so she decided to high-tail it back to the others and maybe Cairee could use the gloves. She was a healer after all.
As they waited for Zahra to get back to them, Dounia finally had a few seconds to take stock of her situation. Cairee's healing had helped a lot, and she was no longer bleeding. But she just felt....fragile. Her mind felt fuzzy, but more than that, she felt weak. Not less strong, just....vulnerable. She didn't like it.
Tucking herself around the edge of the cage, she crouched down, her hands on her daggers. After all, what were the chances of a second invisible enemy targeting her?
[ooc]Dounia doesn't really have anything to do, so she's "hiding".
Above the entry door the bricks slid out again so that the protruded from the wall. This time only four drew forward.
Everyone could feel the mechanics under the arena rumble as all of the green slabs shot upward. Tymythy marked their movement. Every six seconds the slabs moved. Every time a slab moved a brick over the door slid flat to the wall.
Zahra began rushing back to the team. She could see Tymythy perched at the edge of a raised slab in the distance.
Tymythy cursed as a grinding noise from a distance echoed through the vast chamber. "We were too late, and the choice was made for us!" he grunted, turning his back to the gate they were next to and looking out beyond Zahra's approaching form. "That was the gate with the prisoners you sought to bargain with. I guess we shall see if they have already pledged themselves to kill or be killed, or if they are willing to believe your promises will sway our host."
Cairee's focus was on the gate in front of them when she heard a noise from across the arena. "The gate with the humans is opening!" Tymythy started to run in that direction. The cleric tried to stop him. "Let them come to us. No point tiring ourselves running back and forth. If they fight, that can happen here as well as there. If they help, then we're already at a gate and won't need to waste more time running around. I think we only have a few moments until another gate opens. Best make that choice ourselves. Let's stay here and open this gate."
As Zahra secured the gloves and prepared to run back to the others, she heard noises coming from the gate where the humans were locked up. She glanced over her shoulder to glean what this meant for them because it sounded like that portcullis was opening rather than the one where the Blackbirds were. She guessed that the others hadn't opened the second portcullis while she went for the item and that their hand was being forced, but she didn't know. Maybe both were opening as part of the challenge.
Now she was faced with a choice. Did she meet whatever was going to exit that portcullis where she was or did she continue with rejoining the others.
She decided that she much preferred to rejoin the others rather than face whatever emerged alone. Part of her still didn't believe that they were only human. Not that she had any proof but after hearing what the others had faced and that the challenges were supposed to get harder, how could they only be facing humans?
Her decision made, Zahra followed her initial plan to rejoin the rest of the Blackbirds; however, she didn't rush to get back just in case they were coming her way. No need to exhaust herself only to return to where she was now.
Dounia agreed with Cairee. "Stay, Tymythy! We're only going to hurt ourselves running with the floor moving up and down. Let's deal with this chain, and the humans when they come."
Shouting, she said, "We still would rather not fight you! But we will if you attack!"
Tymythy could see the determination in the eyes of his teammates and he watched as Zahra hustled back towards them. He stayed put as he stood on the edge of a great raised yellow slab.
Zahra looked back and could see a woman in her late forties climb on top of a raised slab with the ease of a much younger person. The woman regarded the sorceress seriously. She was barely holding a short sword and dagger as she raised her hands in a gesture of truce. Then she began to try to take in the arena. She looked back and said something inaudible.
The shadowy figures in the ghostly stands beyond the arena seemed to be getting agitated. Some were pressed against the fog like there was some glass dome between them and the arena floor.
Zahra turned her back to gate IV as the woman made a sign of truce. Now she needed to get back to the others.
She must have been in a spot of the arena that amplified acoustics because as she moved she heard something that she probably was not meant to. Her face registered a mixture of surprise and confusion. When she referred to 'those two', did the woman mean her and Tymythy or two others within the portcullis? And what was with her voice? She moved like a young woman, moved like a middle-aged woman, and sounded like an old crone. Weird.
"Well if those two aren't coming, as long as they don't get in our way, let them rot."
Of the four bricks protruding from the southern wall, one slides back flush.
There is a now familiar Ka-chunk and in the distance both Tymythy and Zahra could see the woman rush to an adjacent slab as all of the yellow floor slabs fall!
The woman rushed to the far end of her slab, leapt the ten foot gap and landed neatly on the edge of the next row. One of her group climbed up behind her and helped a second person up after. Zahra thought she could see yet another person still on the floor near the gate.
The people from Gate IV didn't seem to be headed towards the Black Birds but were headed east cautiously. They listened at the slabs as they went.
Landing with a soft grunt of discomfort, Tymythy stood up and moved over to the chain that would open the gate. "Prepare yourselves," he said aloud. "On the count of three..."
Dounia nodded, staying near the wall, hoping that she wasn't about to be cut off from the fight by a rising slab. "Pull the chain."
Zahra continued towards her friends. She stole a glance over her shoulder to make sure the other humans wouldn't be a threat. She felt relief that they were headed in a different direction but what were they doing? Listening at the blocks? Strange.
She raised her voice to the other Blackbirds, "Coming!"
Tymythy opened the gate. Cairee had already inspected the signs on the side of the gate and the bowls inside the cell (as best she could from this distance). Now she looked for any signs of magic inside the cell as she walked carefully towards the table.
Tymythy pulled the chain.
The three stone bowls looked like braziers. They were shallow and about three feet in diameter. They began to hum as the twenty foot tall gate began to lift.
As Cairee walked towards them a crack formed in the bottom of one and earth and stone pushed its' way out of the crack. It rapidly formed itself into a seven foot tall, vaguely humanoid form. In its' head-like protuberance, two molten stones burned like fiery eyes. The head shifted and the eyes moved with the shifting so that they drifted apart, went to the back of the head, returned, and paired up again. The eyes moved like this constantly.
The dust in the second bowl began to swirl and raise until it formed itself into a great vortex of whipping white-grey cloud. Firefly lights floated throughout its' form.
A flame ignited over the third bowl and grew until it was five feet tall. Sparks, like embers, floated in the middle of its' crackling body.
Tymythy - yes, if you have ranks in knowledge-planes. They are concidered outsiders.
”Spirits it is,” Tymythy whispered as the intimidating trio manifested from the materials resting in the bowls and faced them, their expressions unreadable, adding to their intimidating visages. One foe formed of earth… that, at least, Tymythy felt he could face, for he had no idea what effect his usriev, magical though it might be, would have on forms carved our of living flames or wind.
Knowing the human prisoners were out and about, and possibly rushing at them from behind, Tymythy didn’t want to take the fight into the arena proper – it was possible the prisoners were worthy of the trust the ladies wanted to give them, but the hunter for one would rather not risk it if he could avoid it. Thus he moved forward the moment the enemies formed themselves, setting himself to block the path of the spirit formed of stone and sand and gravel, thrusting his spear deep into the elemental’s body, twisting it as he wrenched the sinuous blade out to widen the wound.
The white grey cloud billowed like a sail catching wind and whipped upward towards the twenty-foot high ceiling. It shot out of the cell, swooped down towards the entry door, banked northward before cutting back towards Zahra. In a few seconds it had easily crossed one-hundred feet. It collided with her and the harsh whipping winds it contained torn her clothes and her skin. She spins precatiously close to the edge of her slab.
The living flame spews forward like a jet. It hit the ground and reformed just in front of Cairee, where she could feel the heat of it! Its' long arm brushed over Cairee's chest.
The creature of earth and stone took Tymythy's usriev and rock fell free from its' body. It recoiled free from the blade's point and lunged forward. Its' body smashed the warrior's chest nearly caving in his breastplate.
Dounia gasped as the wind creature swirls out of the opening, too fast for her to lunge at it. Then there's a fire creature in the doorway! Hoping that the creature hadn't noticed her yet, (and hoping that it's hot body wouldn't burn up her daggers), she stepped to get a clear shot, pulled two daggers from her magic belt, and threw them in quick succession.
One minute Zahra is waiting for their foe to exit the cave and the next minute she is slammed by wind. The hit disoriented the sorceress a bit as she is whipped around but she is able to find her bearings before falling off her block.
Reacting on instinct, she sends two silvery balls of energy to slam into her opponent that doesn't seem to have much form.
The spirits of living flame flashed past Tymythy straight for Cairee, but the hunter’s reflexes proved its match, and even as he swung towards the pillar of stone and earth he twisted his wrist to put the blade in the flame spirit's path… and while there was no proper sense of impact as the enchanted spear bit into something inside the flames - a host of the twinkling embers flashed bright before burning out and the spirit seemed somehow… diminished while no wounds remained as it rushed past Tymythy, it's malleable form repairing itself behind the cutting blade.
But then Tymythy had no time to worry about that strange foe as the giant of earth seemingly ignored its own wound and slammed its arms into his chest with the force of an avalanche. ”Blood of my ancestors!” he gasped, spitting out blood - had he bitten the inside of his cheek or had the blow cracked ribs and poked holes into his lungs? He certainly hurt enough for that, but he could still hold his spear. He could still fight.
”You are strong, spirit,” he grunted, spitting blood on the earth elemental's feet… an act of offering made in defiance. ”Allow me to return the favor.”
The hunter stepped close, inside the elemental's guard, dodging under a heavy, slow sweep that, had it caught his head, would likely have burst it against the wall like an overripe melon. Ignoring the horrific mental image, Tymythy swirled his spear around, slamming his foot down just in front of the earth spirit, then springing up from his crouch to stab upwards with the usriev's wavy blade, cutting into the spirit's chin and continuing his slash until the blades tip burst through the creature's head, then jumping back to gain some distance while dragging his blade free, vertically, cutting open half the spirit's face… only to see the deadly wound begin to knit itself back together the moment the blade ripped free of its essence.
The living flame spews forward like a jet. It hit the ground and reformed just in front of Cairee, where she could feel the heat of it! Its' long arm brushed over Cairee's chest.
A whirl of wind flew out of the cell and past Cairee. Before she had a chance to turn her head and see where it went, a being of fire formed in front of her. The heat hit her in a wave, and her chest burned and blistered. Tymythy was fighting something else inside and she could hear him cursing. Behind her Zahra gasped. They were in real trouble. Cairee took a step back. Her hands drew to her winged pendant as she called upon her goddess for help. "Ygre Nelne nnahc" she cried, focusing solely on her friends.
Dounia seemed unnoticed by the living flame as she threw two daggers with lightning speed. The first toppled end over end through the flame's centre mass, disappeared, and reappeared on her belt smoking and hot but undamaged. Trying not to hit Cairee set off her second throw which went tall but likewise reappeared on her belt.
Something was strange. The first blade didn't seem to do the damage she was certain it would.
Zahra's missiles of pure force struck the creature before her and the impacts seem to be disturbing the creature's tornado speed. The sorceress' force of will left no opening for the creature to counter.
Tymythy's blow may not have destroyed the creature but it certainly slowed it down. Much of its' body was now debris at their feet!
And that's when Cairee grabbed her pendant. Beams of light, not sunlight but rays of golden-white compassion and peace of thought, shot out from her body and warmed her nearby friends.
All of the blue slabs fell into the floor!
The earth creature threw a mighty haymaker at Tymythy who easily danced out of its' way. The spearman seemed like he had entered some king of battle focus. He was landing every blow while twisting free from his enemy.
The flame advanced on Cairee and blew a burst of flame at her, eating all of the oxygen out of the space for a heartbeat. The flame brazed her armour but she went unharmed.
The wind-being raked at Zahra and tore the flesh from her right forearm as it twisted away (too quickly for the sorceress to strike out) and was sixty feet east before she could do anything about it.
Another brick went flush with the southern wall.