World Tree MUSH

Every city has its old and run-down neighbourhoods - the sorts of places most don't dare to venture outside of the daylight hours, if even then. In Anchordeep, there's the Font.

Neviah, in the shadow of a dilapidated rowhouse that seems ready to fold in on itself at the slightest provocation, is looking up at a structure heaped amidst the morass of slum housing and crumbling shops. At the centre of the Font is a large building that's seen better days, the barn-like roof slapped over it clearly a newer but still old addition atop stonework and wooden beams that look like they predate time itself. Rusting iron chimneys sprout erratically from the structure, but only a few sad whisps of smoke waft from one or two of them. Beneath the overcast evening sky, the entire place seems to hunch over, stooped like some aging giant.

"They call it Font Hall. If I'm right, it used to be a temple," Neviah murmurs as she shifts her weight, straightening her stance. She's gone with her ensemble of showy plate and straps and capelets, but packed her rifle fairly conspicuously. In her free hand she's carrying a scroll, snugly bound with a blue ribbon.

"The documents from Archimedeus's library say there's some sort of archive hidden in here. We just have to find a room with a door that looks like it's framed by scrolls." She gives her head a quick shake as if to centre herself before looking back towards the others.

"My understanding is that various ne'er-do-wells have holed up in Font Hall. We're likely to encounter trouble. Keep your eyes open, when we go in."

Juniper hasn't been part of Neviah's squad lately, but she *has* come along with the woman before. She likes her, and she likes exploring places nobody has ever been in a very long time. The chance of treasure is always there!

Though, this place looks a little run down for that... not quite the usual dungeon.

Juniper is dressed casually in her usual 'attack of the 90s' colours: a tube top in bright colours and patterns underneath a cropped, short-sleeved bomber jacket, open and unzipped (and probably unzippable, it's more for aesthetics than warmth); blue jeans with some decorative rips in them, baggy everywhere except her hips. Her hair's most of the way down her back these days, pulled back with a scrunchie.

"What if the frame fell off?" Juniper says, looking at the structure with a bit of doubt. "Or someone stole it. Are we going to check EVERY room?"

    Dante's seen some seedy shitholes before in his time, but this one takes the cake. He's got Rebellion slung across his shoulder as normal, and the Son of Sparda keeps alert with a ready, cool gaze. "I've seen much worse in much classier places, I ain't worried." He assures Neviah, even if it comes off as extremely flippant but that comes normally for Dante. He does however make sure to keep close to Neviah like a bodyguard should, making it clear that if anybody takes after her, they're gonna have to go through him too. And nobody with a brain is gonna mess with the guy toting a sword the size of a stopsign.

    "Then we'll just break in every wall until we find it." He offers to Juniper.

    The others here are all familiar with each other, but Kanna Ouji is a newcomer. She's opted to tag along with Dante and Lether, providing a bit of extra muscle as an adventurer with nothing to do and looking for some extra coin. It's always a little awkward working with a group that knows each other well, but she doesn't seem to mind, largely staying quiet and resting her left arm on the sword sheathed at her side. However, something Neviah says puts a small grin on the redhead's face. "Wouldn't mind a little trouble, makes for an interesting night. Crimson Wind, by the way. 'Crimson' is fine. You got a preference for how we head in?"

"Odd place for a library." Joanna took a last pull off of her cigarette, flicking the end into a mostly muddied over train. She had come similarly prepared to Neviah, wearing a plate carrier over dark coloured clothes she'd hoped would blend in well enough with the decaying urban sprawl and with her carbine on her back. She was cautious as she moved, her ears scanning, her eyes behind yellow sports glasses shaped to fit her Jolteon snoot checking corners and alleys just to be sure. 

 "Didn't bring any C4. Walls might be tricky." She said in reply to Dante, though she didn't look over towards the demon hunter, instead keeping her focus on the task at hand. "So this archive, what are we hoping to find in there specifically?"

    "Ah. I know this neighborhood."
    Lether is here. "It was always like this. Never anything good came outta this part of town." The Lizardfolk-girl says gruffly as she stuffs her hands in the pockets of her studded leather jacket, tail slowly slithering behind her. "Used to be a run down movie thater not too far from here that I'd always find half decent chow in their trash back when I lived in the sewers."
    Pause.
    "Anyway." She changes the subject pretty quickly, "Place is a shithole."
    "So you found those notes in Grandpa Archie's library huh?"
    She's eyeing Juniper a bit, having never met her before, but she's not *too* worried if Neviah vouched for her.
    "Ah." ne'er-do-wells. Lether shifts slightly before unzipping her armored leather jacket and reaches a hand inside; fingers curling around the hilt of a nasty sharp short sword briefly. "No one we can't persuade without some gentle poking, I'm sure."

Neviah kept in touch with Juniper. She's a good friend, and she's reliable, and she's just plain fun to be around. Having her along for this adventure takes some of the stress off her shoulders. "I think I'll be able to tell. It'll be in the lower area," she muses, tapping the scroll before sliding it into her capelet. "And the supports will almost certainly still be there. If I'm right, this door can't physically be moved in any case - those living in Anchordeep now will have long forgotten how."

Kanna's not one she knows, but she nods to her nevertheless. "Neviah Younger. I'm a scholar of what's left of this plane."

To Lether, Neviah flashes a little smile. "Juniper's trustworthy," she assures, voice a little lower, before she turns to begin moving down a side street. "We won't have to blow anything up. There are other entrances. Follow me."

It's a short jaunt, then a turn down a slightly stinky alley that runs along what apparently used to be the wall of Font Hall, now lined with slouching row houses in various states of occupancy. Neviah keeps going until she reaches an abandoned one, then turns and slips past the door and inside. Moving through to the back wall, she carefully pushes aside a wooden panel.

A gap in the wall yawns behind, opening onto a short, uneven tunnel full of jagged stonework and beams jutting into the path at odd angles. Stagnant water and muck pool at the bottom of the tunnel. "Be careful," she whispers as she begins to ease through the tunnel, steering slowly and cautiously around the obstacles barring the way. "There may be people listening."

    Still side-eyeing! But. Lether always had trust issues. It's a testament to how far and well Neviah has gotten along with her that the 'gator-girl is willing to follow her almost anywhere.
    So it's down the side-street and then into an alley and then...
    Oh joy tight squeezing tunnels. Right now it is a good thing Lether is considered a runt for her species as she tugs on Neviah.
    'Let me go first'. She 'says' through several silent gestures with her hands. It's a variant of Common Sign Language that is typically used by both the disabled and adventurers for silent communication.
    'Then stop talking'. added on on the subject of people possibly listening, before she starts wriggling her way down the tunnel, as quiet as a mouse.
    A scaly mouse with a razor maw of jagged teeth and a bad disposition, sure.
    But still quiet as a mouse.

Joanna was getting tired of this trend. Seemed near every adventure she'd been on, something had assaulted her nose. Sewers, musty long decaying alehouse, now whatever this was. She couldn't easily identify it save for 'bad' but really she didn't much care to. It was just general rot and decay. Probably. Or just someone's plumbing in desperate need of repair. 

 She stacked up alongside the crack in the wall, her reply to Neviah not a returned whisper but a nod instead. She then gestured to her ears, giving one of them a little *wigglewiggle* for emphasis, trying to indicate her plan to do so, before focusing in and trying to hear anyone or anything before they could hear them.

Juniper looks at Lether for a few long moments since she isn't very familiar with lizardfolk of that sort... and then she offers her a fistbump. "I'm harmless," she says, before grinning just a little wide. "Well, when I want to be. Juniper," she says, by way of introduction - she includes Kanna in that.

The alley doesn't bother Juni all that much, but - "Ooh, secret door," she says. "How very Indiana Jones of you. Actually, wait, did he ever have a secret door or am I getting my movies mixed up?" She peeks into the narrow tunnel.

And then she makes a face. "You had to find the squeeze tunnel, huh?" 

Other people want to go in first, and Juniper is inclined to let them - especially Lether, who's nice and small. Juniper's short, but she's not small. "I'll go last," she murmurs, barely audible since the others want people to go quiet.

Juniper takes a moment to prepare herself, breathing out sharply to try to make herself as narrow as possible as she slips into the tunnel. In parts it's not so bad, but in other parts it's a squeeze for her; she's flexible enough and not afraid of tight fits, but she has to press against one side or another in some of the narrower parts, and once she actually stops for a moment to try to squeeze herself through without tearing either her jacket or her shirt.

It's probably a good thing she went last.

    "Nice to work with you," 'Crimson' replies to Neviah and Juniper with a nod. Then, after a pause, Kanna slowly turns her head to glance at Lether, and a faint frown pulls at her face.

    She makes a quiet, mental note to cook something for the gator at some point soon.

    But onward and inward they go, the redhead unworried about the decidedly unsanitary surroundings - although her nose does wrinkle a little at the smell. It's only the hidden tunnal that gives her pause, the ronin stopping to look at the ground with a mild grimace, then glancing down at her own feet. A pair of wooden sandals over thick split-toed socks; they don't seem to hinder her movement at all, but she's desperately hoping the sandals are tall enough her tabi aren't about to get soaked.

    Dante's pretty sure Neviah is outright untouchable at this rate, with all the muscle she's got with her. "Crimson's a good add to the team." Dante chimes to Neviah, canting his head to the redheaded samurai. "At the very least, you're packed for muscle."

    Speaking of packed, there's a tunnel ahead and Dante takes point, ducking his head as he follows Neviah, using his sword to occassionally nudge things out of the way. "Drat, so much for banter."

    God, Dante doesn't do sneaky at all.

Neviah has learned to trust Lether's instincts on these things. When the little gator-girl holds her up, she blinks and halts, then nods, looking back to the group with a finger held to her lips.

Lether does her Lether thing. Neviah comes slinking after her, trying her very best to pull her shoulders in and not get her body caught on various obstacles. It's harder than it sounds, but a clever gator is a clever gator and is able to find the easiest ways to wriggle through. It helps Neviah to escape without major incident or noise.

Dante is not so lucky. There is a bonk. The Son of Sparda is a bad sneaker. When he emerges, Neviah is giving him a look.

Fortunately he hasn't alerted anyone - yet. The tunnel emerges in what looks for all the world like it used to be some sort of library or archive, but the shelves have long since been stripped clean, painted, peeled, repainted, peeled again and left to collect mildew and mould. Wooden floorboards yawn with holes here and there. Internal walls have been haphazardly erected and then left to crumble amidst chunks of what probably used to be the original ceiling. Here and there, a piece of fallen masonry betrays that the old roof used to be high-arched and sprawling, far more grandiose than the leaking barntop lazily slapped atop the hall now.

Neviah points down the way, towards what appears to be a staircase - but there's a problem. There's a doorway nearby, and a faint light flickering behind it. The low sound of voices can be heard, dull and masculine, occasionally punctuated by rough chuckles.

A couple of bandits, rough-looking customers with weapons, are drinking and playing dice in the room. They're not paying much attention to their surroundings... but they do have some dangerous-looking weapons. One with a sword, the other with a heavy mace. A third bandit naps at the back of the side room, a crossbow laid across his lap.

    Oh a fistbump. That's that thing that happens and we'll rewind a bit to deal with it.
    So when Juniper offers said fistbump, there is a slightly long beat of of a Lizardfolk staring at her unsure of whether to dap or attach to that hand via teef. 
    Lether blinks. Sideways.
    It's a clear nictitating membrane; a feature of crocodilian creatures like crododiles and aligators, some birds, and the occasional rare mammal to keep their eyes dry and protected from water and dust while enabling them to see underwater.
    After a beat however there is a fist dap. Fist dap has been achieved.
    Now if only she knew what culinary delights awaited her back at Trollskull Manor, later.
    The bonk earns a soft hiss of dismay and displeasure but she does not fault Dante too hard.
    She knows he hates this kind of subtle work.
    But then she's silently traversing the hole-pocked floor and pauses, eyes lingering on the door by the staircase. Her lips curl into an irritable sneer, flashing way too many sharp teeth as she listens intently.
    'I hear two,' she gestures at the party. 'Could be more. Plan? Sneak? Kill?'
    The last question is emphasized with how the 'gator girl drags her thumb silently across her neck questioningly.

Joanna was glaring daggers behind Dante. The only thing stopping her from taking action further than that being the noise even a low whisper-snarled 'shut the hell up' would have made. Instead she tried to focus her hearing more. These people looked rough, sure, more likely than not bandits of the more traditional meaning of the word by her reckoning, though maybe a fight could still be avoided if they were careful. 

 She paused by with the others, pistol now in hand with suppressor screwed into place. She looked to the bandits, then back to the others in her group, giving a slight head tilt as if asking how they wanted to handle this.

    A lot of hasty communication and signing is going back and forth between the group; Kanna stands there for a moment, waiting, 'listening', but eventually she just signs a quick, slightly impatient, 'Why not take down? More us, less them.' She's still getting the hang of the sign language, but she's got the idea! Probably.

Fistbumps are a perfectly acceptable way to make friends, if you're Juniper, who is still living in the 90s. She's allowed. It's when she's from.

Some moments after the next-to-last person exits, Juniper practically pops out of the tunnel and immediately tugs her cropped jacket back into place and straight again. She has a dirt streak across the front of one shoulder and another one along the hip of her jeans. She tries to brush off the second, to no real success.

Juniper doesn't really understand the full expanse of what Lether is 'saying' because it's not a language she knows. She gets the word for two, and a couple others, and seems to at least get the *vague* idea.

She's less eager to kill, but perfectly eager to keep them out of their way; she mimes punching a fist into her opposite open hand, pulling it back a tiny bit to avoid making the thump of impact. Two or three or four? They can take them, this team outnumbers them!

    BONK! Dante probably deserved this but he shrugs helplessly at Neviah. Look, you don't hire him for subtlety! Besides, the guy with the bandana's more the sneaky type anyways. Or maybe the skeleton balaclava bloke if he can fit it into his schedule.

    He gives 'Crimson' a nod. "Yeah, we got the jump on these guys." He whispers quietly.

Glaring at Dante is just natural. That's how things go. Neviah looks back at Joanna with a faint smile, then over at Lether.

But there are ne'er-do-wells to deal with, and nobody wants to make a decision. Neviah bites her lower lip, then begins to raise her hand...

...and stops herself. She frowns.

Everyone seems to agree that the right thing to do is clobber some goons. Neviah takes her rifle in hand... before leaning it up against the wall. She holds her finger up to her lips. And then she strides straight into the doorway.

The bandits all look up in surprise at the sight of Neviah, in her rather flattering adventure-wear, stepping into the doorframe with a sashay of hips and a hand laid on the doorframe. "Why, hello, lads," she coos in her huskiest voice, curling one finger. On cue, the bandits, all leering like pigs, get up and start towards her.

Neviah steps aside and reveals the well-armed people arrayed behind her.

    Dante suddenly pokes out from behind Neviah as she rolls to seduce, and he rolls to disarm! He aims Ebony and blasts the chair of the fellow with a crossbow before aiming to destroy the crossbow itself. "Mine's bigger than yours, trust me." He quips.

Juniper follows Neviah up to just to one side of the door, where she waits. She finally wipes about half the dirt off her shoulder and chest while she's waiting, but the rest will require a wash.

When Neviah steps aside, Juniper is *right there*. She wiggles her fingers in a cheerful wave before she moves, deceptively fast - faster than most humans sprint - and comes in with a straight punch toward the one with his mace!

She follows this up, just an instant later, with a spinning kick at about shin level to make sure he's well and tripped, planting one foot on his chest afterwards to keep him down. She presses down with her heel, hard. "If you try to stand up I'm going to light my foot on fire," she says, brightly, though she makes no move to actually do that yet.

Joanna kept herself concealed the best she could, poking her head out just enough to spot Neviah. She had assumed the good professor was setting up for an ambush of sorts, preparing to duck back to avoid eating the worst of a stun grenade or similar, only to see her... 

 ...Flirting? 

 The words "What the f-" were mouthed under her breath, so caught by surprise she actually ended up reacting a little slower than she would have liked, though this likely saved that last bandit's life. 

 She saw that the rest of the team hadn't taken any lives yet, so, instead of simply pulling the trigger on the man she confidently walked right up with her weapon pointed right between his eyes ready to immediately fire should he cause anyone any problems! 

 "You move, you die. You yell for help, you die. You piss me off, you die slower. Drop your weapon. Quietly."

    Lether looks to Kanna and Juniper.
    The silent communication is pretty easy to pick up for her. One says to get punchy, the other says to take down the guys. Easy enough.
    'Take lead, I'll follow.' She gestures before--
    Neviah rolls to distract. Lether blinks sideways again.
    This time in disbelief.
    There's a slight fling as Ebony barks with gunfire and a part of Lether wonders if those guns can be suppressed like Joanna's. But that's a future issue when Neviah steps aside.
    That's the cue.
    Three targets. Dante aims to disarm one, Juniper goes for the mace man- and Lether thought she was fast and wily herself, dang-. That leaves... The guy with the sword.
    Who Joanna very threateningly instructs to lower his weapon.
    Lether, to her credit holds her action.
    There's a dagger sliding out of her sleeve, ready to be thrown in the event of an issue, but.
    "Huh. I'd've just shanked the lot of 'em, quick and quiet."

    While Kanna's vote ended up being for the winning option, the others are quick enough to get in and handle the trio of thugs before there's much opportunity for anything else. Is that... a hint of disappointment on the ronin's face? Naaah, couldn't be.

    With the goons all subdued in one way or another, the Crimson Wind rests her arm on her sword again, and looks to Neviah. "We just leave 'em here? Pump 'em for info? Something else?"

The bandits were expecting a nice time with a purty lady. They were not expecting to get jumped by four violent ladies and a Dante.

Mace Bandit shouts in surprise before Juniper clobbers him and sends him bowling over. The tripping sweep sends him to the floor face-first, and by the time Juniper puts her foot down, all he can muster is a thin groan. Crossbow Bandit jumps as his weapon is suddenly blown out of his hands; the surprise of it knocks him back, and he trips over his chair and falls on his ass.

Sword Man is left with a pokemon lady in his face. The sword falls out of his hands and to the floor as he looks down the barrel of the gun, mouth open ever so slightly. He doesn't so much as move or speak.

Neviah folds her arms with a satisfied nod. "We leave them here," she answers Kanna. "We know what we're looking for, and I don't think they'll be much help. Will you?" She looks back at Sword Man, who continues to not move or speak.

With a sigh, Neviah pulls the door closed behind the three bandits. She crams a piece of rusty metal debris across it, then another. "That should hold them," she says quietly before leading the way onward.

The stairs ahead descend below and turn partway, coming down into cold, dark, unobstructed hallways. The stonework here is ancient, slick and clear of mold. Frowning, Neviah glances to one side and the next, lighting a torch and holding it up. Three corridors branch off in different directions. "Alright," the cleric murmurs. "Let's quickly split into pairs. See if you can find a room with a door flanked by scrolls." She gestures and begins down one hallway, though it's not clear whom she's asking to go with her.

    "Cut their throats? Where's the fun in that?"

    The Crimson Wind looks a little dubious about the prospect of just leaving the trio there, but... well, at least the rusty metal should hold them? She gives a shrug as if to brush the topic off, and falls into easy step behind Neviah. As they move downward, she sweeps her eyes to and fro, taking in the state of the structure in silence. When Neviah's torchlight reveals an intersection, however, Kanna raises a hand. "I'm fast. Real fast. If you want, I can just go scout one and then report back. I can do pairs if you'd prefer, though. I'm fine going with Lether or Big Red."

    "Sorry fellas, no striptease for you guys." Dante says with a faux-apologetic grin, before he passes by the bandits without a worry. With the door blocked, there shouldn't be a worry about these guys breaking through for now.

    "Right-o, we'll be drawin' straws then." He supposes.

Joanna was fairly pleased with herself, though she hid any hint of a satisfied smile behind that cold steely glare she was still fixing the swordsman with, even as she kicked the weapon away Just to make sure he didn't suddenly get any bright ideas. Same reasoning held as she kept the three at gunpoint even while backing away to follow the others. 

 "Alright, sounds good. We picking at random or?"

    With the bandits handled and locked in, Lether mosies down the stairs with the party down to the hallsways.
    Neviah pulls out a torch. An old timey stick and fire torch. Lether blinks at this, reaches into her leather jacket and...
    Te lizard girl pulls out a flashlight.
    She clicks it on and shines it down a path, before passing it to Kanna.
    "Aite. Let's go."

Juni keeps her foot on the guy for a few moments longer - 

"Good," she says, and steps off. "Glad you follow directions~ I don't have to ask one of my friends to bite."

She grins at Lether - yes, that was a joke, because she saw those teeth and knows what they're for - as she follows after Neviah. "Hmm..." Juniper pauses for a few moments, considering. There's no real way to tell which one is which, short of eenie-meenie-miney-mo, which she may resort to if she can't think of anything better.

"Not me, though?" she says to Kanna. "I'm more of a Little Red." She is redheaded, but she doesn't have Dante's coat, and she's only five foot two or three. 

She considers a moment. "I could go with Neviah," she says, "if nobody else wants to stick with her." She's already got a torch so it's convenient for everybody! Juniper can do a lot of things but she doesn't see in the dark that well.

"That might work," Neviah answers Kanna with a quick nod, stopping at the mouth of her chosen corridor, "but we should watch each other's backs. In any case, it looks like Kanna and Lether are going together. Dante, stick with Joanna. I'll go with Juniper."

The group splits up. Neviah and Juniper's corridor is partially collapsed some of the way down, and most of the rooms have been ransacked, but Juniper is fortunate enough to find a chest mostly concealed behind a crumbling wall. Opening it reveals what looks like it used to be a decent armour shirt made out of brassy material sculpted like dragonscales, though the fabric bits attached to it have long since rotted away. Neviah's eyebrows come up. "That looks enchanted. Good find."

Down the second corridor, the mustiness is briefly broken by a swarm of bats fluttering out of the darkness. They're...

...They're in Kanna's hair. Damn it.

Lether, accustomed to the moist and dark, has better luck. Again, most of the rooms down here have been ransacked, but she can find where someone has stashed a bag full of gold coins and another bag with a few slightly tarnished religious-looking urns and pots. Worth a decent sum.

Down the third corridor, there are no open doors. The walls are smooth and featureless. A doorway can be seen at the end. As Dante leads the way, one can see another door beyond thi--

            *splort*

That is the sound of Dante of Sparda walking face-long into the gelatinous cube taking up the width and height of the corridor, too translucent to see in the low light. It wobbles as it slouches forward and begins to completely engulf him.

>> SUMMARY[Neviah Younger] >> Dante walks into a gelatinous cube. Hilarity ensues.

    It feels like Dante's going to have a pretty easy time with this, with Joanna and him going down a pathway in the corridor. It seems like this door leads somewhere but-

    There's a cube. A gelatinous cube. Dante is unable to respond in time, he looks pleadingly at Joanna as it schlorps him up.

    Kanna glances back at Lether briefly, then gives Neviah a thumbs up.

    Despite having expressed a preference for haste, with Lether by her side, the swordswoman walks slow and cautious. She keeps her left hand on the sheath of her sword, her right on the grip, and walks with slow, measured steps. But as good as her hearing might be, it's not quite good enough to catch the wings in the air in time - and Lether will be treated to an alarmed, startled, "GWUGH-?!" In the very next heartbeat, the girl is very suddenly against the wall, several feet further on, and looking back towards the flock of bats from a tension-filled iai stance.

    "...Goddess above, bloody bats," she mutters, finally coming back up out of the stance.

    She notably stays closer to the wall when they proceed.

>> SUMMARY[Kanna Ouji] >> I WILL CUT Y- ...fdskffd. :|

    'I don't have to ask one of my friends to bite.'
    That sure is a joke, and Lether side-eyes Juniper when she says it.
    The rumbling, low, guttural gator bellow that roils in the lizardfolk's chest and throat however says it all.

    'Careful, I DO, in fact, bite.

    Nevertheless it's while Dante is having cube problems that Lether is entirely unaware of, that she mosies with Kanna.
    She'll let Kanna scout ahead while she creeps on after the ronin and...
    Finds a haul.
    "... Yoink." Lether says matter of factly as the bag of coins goes in her jacket and the sack of urns and pots is hoisted over her shoulder as she looks up and.
    Bats.
    The 'GWUGH-?!' is what gets her attention. Seeing Kanna against the wall has her blinking owlishly.
    It is as the flock of bats fly by in passing that Lether lunges-- and snaps her jaws--
    And pulls a bat down out of the flock with a low CRUNCH.
    She'll just have a little snack.

Joanna had darkvision. 

 At least, to a point anyway. Her eyes could see well in darkness compared to her baseline human peers, though, it still wasn't too clear a picture. She was moving more cautiously than Dante, her pistol holstered to be replaced by her carbine held in a low readied position just in case anything else was going to jump out at them. 

 Sure, it looked like this place hadn't seen life in years, maybe even centuries, but Joanna still wasn't too keen on leaving it to chance. 

 She had paused to check an old engraving in the wall, distracted for a moment as she tried to connect it to any origin familiar to her. If she squinted it looked almost ancient Sinnohia- 

 *SPLAT* 

 What. 

 She snapped around, weapon raised, only to see... a cube. Eating Dante. 

 First instincts screamed to shoot it, but she figured that bullets probably wouldn't have done too much to a huge block of thick gel. Instead she let her weapon hang from its sling and raised her hand, arcs crackling between her fingers! What she shot out though was not lightning as such, more a concentrated beam aimed to slice away at the cube and give Dante at least some chance of freeing himself! 

 "We got trouble!" She paused. How the hell would she even describe this thing. "Big... Big hungry cube!"

Juniper has always had a sixth sense for treasure. She found one of the stash of coins the last time they worked together, too.

This time...

"Huh," she says, picking up the brassy shirt. The straps and fabric are missing, but... "I wonder if it'll fit?" She likes the look of it, but she doesn't think she'd be comfortable in heavy armour. Maybe if it's light... "Either you OR me," she adds, thoughtfully.

But she's definitely keeping it for now. Lacking anything else to do with it, she drapes it over her shoulders like a cloak, hooking it to the collar of her jacket. It jingles a little as she takes a step, but it's not too bad. "Lighter than it looks," she says, impressed.

Then her head tilts as she hears something in the distance. "I think they're calling," she says, though she can't make out exactly what Joanna said. "Want to go catch up? I'll try this on later. Maybe after I give it a scrub. And get some padding for it, it'll chafe."

She turns about the way they came, picking up the pace a little (but not so much that Neviah can't keep up).

Lether does, in fact, bite. The poor bat is dispatched of without much difficulty. It is not that delicious, but maybe the li'l gator is used to eating them on the average black Sabbath day.

Meanwhile, the gelatinous cube seems intent on gobbling up Dante and bringing Joanna in with him. It squelches forward, edges slurping obscenely against the walls and dissolving surface grime and mould inch by inch as the semiliquid /thing/ looms over the little pokegirl. The focused beam hits the surface of the goo block, rippling through it sickeningly. Gelatin blackens and sloughs to the floor as the entire cube groans in a fashion more felt than heard, seeping fluid around its edges. It begins to retreat, leaving Dante a little room to move.

Neviah and Juniper come bolting back down the corridor. "A gelatinous cube!" Neviah exclaims as she catches sight of what's got Dante. Whipping her rifle up, she fires into it, but the bullet just splats against it and is lost inside. She clenches her teeth and skids to a halt --

Then realizes something. She can see /past/ Dante and into the room beyond him. "--There! That's the entryway!" she gasps. "If we can get this cube out of the way--"

>> SUMMARY[Neviah Younger] >> OBJECTIVE: Splat the Jello.

    Hard to tell if the gelatinous cube is gonna try and melt Dante or just smother him to death, and he doesn't want to find out! He punches a hand out like a slasher killer at the end of the movie, and reaches for Joanna to pull with all her might. As the cube begins to move, Dante tries harder to free himself, pushing with all his might while reaching for the others.

    Kanna watches Lether lunge with wide eyes, first in confusion, then in realization. She's very briefly left speechless, just kind of quietly staring. There's no disgust in that look, but rather... disapproval?

    "Soon as we get back, I'm cooking you some real food," she finally says. But just as she's about to turn and keep walking with the lady lizard, there's a loud yell from the other direction. At that point, the red-haired girl turns to lock eyes with Lether for just a heartbeat, before she's suddenly just gone back up the corridor in a rush of wind.

    The sudden burst of speed deposits her in the same corridor as the others in the blink of an eye, and she doesn't even break her stride until she skids to a stop right next to the cube, to one side. There's a few quick glances at the others, the location of the cube, Dante and Joanna's efforts to pull the former free - and for a second time, she drops into that iai stance.

    This time, she draws.

    A slash, too fast for the eyes to see. And another. And another. Dozens of inhumanly fast slices, again and again, each aimed... at the side of the cube? Yes. She knows she can't just cut the thing open. But she can slice off corners. Edges. Chunks. Like shredding an ice cube. She's going to try and shave off piece after piece, until either it becomes obvious it's not actually hurting the cube, or until Dante is able to get free.

>> SUMMARY[Kanna Ouji] >> Blender Mode Engaged

Joanna snarled, making sure to keep a good distance so she didn't end up in there as well. She was about to ready another salvo of that improvised cutting beam when a thought hit her. She reached into her pack, throwing a rope to Dante's outstretched hand to grab! Making sure she had a good grip on it herself, and gesturing to the others to do the same, she aimed her lightning again. 

 She was more strategic this time, short bursts, trying to slice and weaken the gelatenous flesh so it would tear away when they tried to pull Dante free! 

 "Gelatinous cube? That's what this is? Real creative name! Alright, pull on three!-"

"A gelatinous cube?" Juniper echoes.

She doesn't know this monster. Neviah does, but... "It looks like a big brick of Jell-O," is her verdict. It's got Dante in it, though. And they're all up in its... uh, face. 

But it's a cube.

"Duck!" Juniper calls, as she takes a deep, deep breath - far deeper than it seems like her lungs should be able to hold, her ribs aching from the pressure. She holds it for a moment, head reared back, before breathing out a gout of flame - a stream, rather than a cone, a constant blast of draconic fire!

She aims it high, and the stream splashes against the high parts of the wall, sizzling against the top of the cube and trying to melt it without scorching Dante or the rest of her allies.

    "What?" Lether asks with her mouth FULL of bloody bat as Kanna gives her a *look*.
    Again she blinks owlishly at the ronin.
    She does not know- she does not *understand* what culinary delight awaits her now.
    But she will learn.
    In time.
    The yell however-- that gets Lether's attention.
    And then Kanna is fucking *gone*.
    But in that same instant, Lether wheels around on her heels and breaks into a full tilt sprint, pumping her arms, tail lashing behind her.
    She's not as fast as Kanna Ouji, who is, supernaturally *fast*. ... But the gator is *faster* than the average human runner by far as she puts on speed.

    Move 30 feet > Action: DASH > Bonus Action: Cunning Action: DASH

    Lether arrives at the scene of the chaos just a beat after Kanna does, but while Kanna starts trying to chip away at the cube and the other work on killing the thing... Lether skids to a halt at Joanna's side and grabs onto the rope to help Joanna start heaving Dante out of the acidic monster.

There's not much Neviah can do against this thing without doing something she's been reluctant to do all day. Clenching her teeth, she raises her hand, ready to draw on divine power to save Dante...

...and she stands there. She clicks her teeth in frustration.

                        /*save.* really./

Neviah can /feel/ the horrible presence in her soul more than hear it - the venomous contempt behind it. She grits her teeth and feeds another bullet into her rifle. But by then, everyone else has passed her by.

Joanna and Lether do their best to pull and Dante does his best to struggle. Kanna, meanwhile, has her own idea. She goes to town on it like the blade of a food processor. Gobs of gelatin splatter about errantly, squelching against walls and floor and ceiling in random directions. Between that and Joanna's blasting, the cube begins to give way, and Dante slips free with a lurid slurping sound. It leaves the hulk of the cube shuddering, misshapen, but still moving.

The rest is taken care of. The cube bubbles and froths under Juniper's flames. Goopy ooze begins to melt into a liquid, then vapourize into foul-smelling steam that wafts down the corridor. What's left simply collapses in on itself, leaving behild little more than a dark, steaming puddle.

Neviah's face is a little pale. "Is everyone alright...?" she asks, taking a moment to check up on Dante.

Beyond, though, is what they came for. The room, stripped clean of detritus by the cube, contains nothing more than a stone door built into the wall. It is flanked by a pair of carved supporters in the shape of scrolls, drawn open with some form of lettering etched into them. One of them, however, boasts a large blank section.

"Archimedeus's book contained the same liturgy written on those scrolls," Neviah explains, voice intent with focus. "But in the book, it's complete. All I need to do is write in the missing words and recite them, and the door should open."

    The frothing menace is swiftly blasted and blended by Kanna and Juniper, and Dante is pulled free! He lands on the ground, dripping with goo as he makes sure he has all his everything. Then he goes back inside to grab Rebellion and his pistols, stowing them. "Whew...guess it's me payin' for drinks later." He says, grinning at the ladies and flashing a thumbs up. "I'll be fine, let's keep goin'."

    He is sadly useless when it comes to secret passwords. So he just watches Neviah.

Joanna raised her hand again, ready to send another bolt at the now retreating cube only for her shoulder to scream at her. Trying to channel her lightning as a cutting beam wasn't exactly easy on the muscles. She winced, steadying her stance, only to see it burn and melt away before she could land a followup shot. 

 Slowly she let her arm drop to her side, stretching her fingers then clenching her fist as the arcs crackle and fizzle to nothing. "Are those things common?" She asked. "Looked like a hungry, uh, what's that game? Minecraft? Hungry minecraft block. Real hungry." 

 She took a couple steps forward, examining the stonework while rubbing her shoulder. "Scrolls. This has to be it, right?"

    It's remarkable really, how good Kanna seems to be at 'not being in the same place Juniper is aiming'. It ends up being really easy to keep flameblasting the Gelatinous Cube without hitting the ronin. But finally, the creature comes apart, and the Crimson Wind skips back a few feet, holding her katana at the ready just in case... until it becomes clear the thing isn't getting back up. Then, she whips that sword sharply to one side, flicking off all the cube goo, before returning it to its sheath with a flourish. "I'm fine. Is Dante alright?" She actually sounds... a little worried?

    But it does seem like Big Red is okay. So Kanna just walks at an angle towards one of the walls, and... steps right up onto it?? Yes. She is walking horizontally, along the wall, just to get around the Gelatinous Puddle.

    Once on the other side, she walks steadily until she's near the door, and then comes to a stop with her arm resting on her sword again. "Just let us know before you start reciting," she replies to Neviah. "If something's gonna jump out at us, I wanna be ready."

Juniper's fire sputters to a stop as she catches her breath. Her face makes a slightly strange expression...

...and she half-coughs, half-burps out a small puff of dark smoke. "Guh," she says afterwards. "Hard on the throat..." 

Wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, she looks at Dante. "You good?" she asks, as she heads forward. She looks over at Joanna: "Beats me. I thought it looked like Jell-O. But I wouldn't want to eat THAT flavor." She looks like she's going to prod the puddle with a shoe and thinks better of it at the last moment, because she doesn't want to melt her shoe. That'd put another expense on the clothes budget.

She hops the puddle instead and follows Neviah in. "So you know what word it is? Need a boost up? Because we've got some nice and tall people around to help you."

(Not her.)

    The cube is dead.
    No one is going to say 'long live the cube' here, though.
    Lether, meanwhile, with a bat wing still partially hanging out of her mouth give Dante a light patting down. He's all mucky and all.
    "That's cheating." She says as Kanna walks *on the wall* like that, but then something else catches her attention.
    Neviah looks pale and a bit off kilter.
    She eyes the cleric thoughtfully, before Lether makes a noise...
    It is a small, almost distressed, little laser gun sound as she lightly headbutts Neviah's side like some kind of scaly cat.
    This odd little act performed, she follows the group to the door.

"Just so long as you don't die," Neviah answers Dante with a little huff. She's still pale, clearly unnerved by something or other.

She draws a pot of black paint and a brush out of her pack and begins to neatly paint symbols into the blank space on the scroll. The symbols are virtually unreadable, but graceful. "Nothing will jump out, if I'm right," she says with a look over her shoulder. "But be prepared just in case." Drawing out the last symbol, she steps back and begins to recite. It's a flowing, almost musical language that seems almost too graceful for her lips, wholesome in a way she really isn't, despite her best attempts.

As she finishes, there's a tangible shift in the air... and the stone door fades away to a glow of white. The light swells, brightening, obscuring the vision. Neviah winces and shields her eyes.

When it fades, the group is no longer where they once were.

Where once lay the crumbling Font Hall, now lies a grand library, darkened and covered in a layer of thick dust, yet with shelves stacked high with tomes and codices and volumes of all sizes. The shelves span from floor to ceiling, broken by racks of scrolls and walls where great maps have been spread, faded but still legible.

Neviah's eyes grow wide. She curls a hand at her throat, drawing in a breath. "These are... maps of Faerun," she whispers. "It's true. A library of knowledge...."

She trails off, her eyes lifting. Her lips hang ever so slightly apart as something begins to come through to her. Distant, passive, yet palpably /present,/ as though what's happening has been noticed in some obscure way by something beyond perception but not awareness, beyond the mundane but not unaware of it. To some, those who had been in a cave in the bowels of what was once the deserts of Mulhorand ensconced now within Tattooine, in the holy place of Zehir, the sense of being noticed by a transmundane force is clear... but not the same. That one, those years ago, was vile, calculating, poisonous.

The feeling in the air here is... curious.

>> SUMMARY[Neviah Younger] >> LOCATION UNLOCKED: Library of Deneir, the First Scribe

    Dante just places a slick hand on Neviah's shoulder and looks her dead in the eye, "I promise I will never die." He says gravely before carrying onwards. Neviah's magic words work, and suddenly, BABAM! BOOKS! SO MANY!

    Man, Dante's mom would love this place. There's so much here to read, more than any human brain could possibly handle at once. Dante grabs a random tome and begins to thumb through it curiously, perking up when Neviah speaks up. "Jackpot." He grins.

Joanna squinted, the sudden light harsh against darkness adjusted eyes. She shouldered her weapon, an act more out of instinct than conscious thought, only to find herself staring down a corridor of tall bookhelves through her gun's optics. She lowered it, slowly, letting the weapon mostly rest on its sling as she slowly glanced around the vast room. She wasn't sure what to say. Did they teleport? That was definitely magic of some sort. 

 A low whistle and a "whoa" was about all she could manage, at least, once she was able to gain back a little composure and stop just looking at the place all slack jawed. "Wonder when the last person came through here? Must have been a while."

    The recitation begins, and once again Kanna takes up her ready stance. Cautious, tense, a bowstring drawn taut, she doesn't move an inch until the stone corridor begins to fade. "What's-?!" She whips around left, right, looking for any possible enemy until it gets to the point where she can no longer look at anything. With a grimace, the girl closes her eyes, reluctantly letting go of her vision - and when the light fades again, she's once more ready for any potential threat.

    And then no threat is forthcoming.

    And then there is still no threat forthcoming.

    Slowly, the swordswoman relaxes. "...so what we looking for? I can help look, but only if I know what." Pause. "...you think they got cookbooks here?"

    Nothing jumps out.
    If anything the sheer bright whiteness of the light makes Lether's pupils contract into two thin slits as she covers her eyes and...
    Eeveryone finds themselves in a library.
    But. ... It's not just any library.
    IT's a library where she feels *watched* and *noticed*. And yet it doesn't feel *bad*.
    Scaled fingers trace over a row of books in a nearby shelf thoughtfully.
    She stops over one book in specific and plucks it off the wall.

    "... Manual of Quickness of Action...?"

    Lether starts flicking through the book but makes a face.
    "This shit's boring and complex." She says putting the *legendary wondrous item book* back on the shelf cluelessly.
    "So... Like what now? Do we get a library card or something?"

Juniper gets away without helping Neviah with the actual translocation.

(It's OK. She wasn't hired for her brains. Muscle, maybe. Or her looks. But not her brains.)

But eventually they're somewhere else, and Juniper blinks rapidly to try to get the spots out of her eyes - she, of course, tried to look into the teleportation light. "These are a LOT of books," Juniper says, sounding impressed. 

Her fingers are itching again. She really really wants to start looking for the valuable ones, the rare ones; she wants to take them, and she doesn't even know if she wants to read or sell them. Just to have. It's her draconic greed, and she recognizes it, mentally stomping it down a little.

She still wants to do it though.

"You only need a library card if you're going to give them back after," she points out to Lether. Then: "Cookbooks, huh? Why not take a look?" Juniper IS a little hungry from spitting all that fire. (Literal, not insults.)

Neviah hadn't overlooked Lether's attempts to comfort her. Looking down at the little gator girl, the once and former professor offers up a faint smile, tight, but with a hint of relief in it. Dust or no dust, this place feels... better.

"The world this place is from... is so lost to the World Tree that its history has nearly been forgotten," Neviah explains in a quieter tone for Kanna's benefit. "Faerun, and all that was once of its world, have become woven into other branches and overgrown. It has been my quest to try and rediscover it... to rebuild the history lost to the multiverse."

She looks up towards the ceiling again, as if at something both there and not there. "The book I found described a god named Deneir... the First Scribe of the world, and recorder of all mankind's epiphanies. This is his Library."

She looks back to the group, to Juniper, then to Lether. "I suspect that one might be quite useful, in time," she opines mildly. "All of them may be. We can look for some cookbooks, or something to eat. I'd like to stay here awhile. In fact, I suspect I will spend much time here."