A Failed Hunt?

A Failed Hunt?
Date of Scene:	28 June 2013
Location:	Eastern Continent - Dalmascan Sands
Synopsis:	Alma Hyral learns that her World Shard location method doesn't always find World Shards...
Cast of Characters:	Maira, Kim Possible, Gabranth, Oblivion, Myla Mason, Alma Hyral, Riku, Ryusei Isshiki

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Oblivion has posed:

Alma had discovered something very important in a hidden cavern within the desert of Rabanastre. What was her findings? Not only a deep cave system with running water, but also a possible location of a world shard!

The cave was a good twenty feet down, so a good anchoring point would be needed along with some rope to travel down into the depths of the dark cavern. Down in here was crags that hanged from the ceiling, water running through the middle of the massive cavern with small boulders lined here and there. The water here seemed to be moving at a rather good pace. Easy to sweep someone up if they were not careful to step in.

It was also much cooler in the cavern then it was outside. By at least a good twenty to thirty degree temperature drop. The rock for the most part was rather sturdy, though closer to the running water, it was a bit more slippery.

This section of the cave was rather wide. A good light source would give the indication of possible several directions to go. The most easy would be to fall the river upstream where it stayed rather open. The other would be to go across the river as their seemed to be another tunnel out that way, and the other option was to take the chance down stream and take a bit of what seemed like a swim under the rock ceiling and hope it leads somewhere... safe.

============================={ Pick Your Choice }=============================
A: Upstream Passage
B: Tunnel across the River
C: Downstream Swim
D: FISH!
==============================================================================

Alma Hyral has posed:
So Riku and her had scouted out these caverns once before, just to confirm that there was indeed something worth searching for here. If a shard had made the drop into the desert sands after all, it could take years of fruitless searching to find it. The desert was merciless that way, in how it consumed whatever dropped within it. But instead, she'd plotted the trajectory straight to these caverns.

The verbal scouting report they'd given Judge-Magister Gabranth consisted of the joke, 'Bring fishing Poles'. But there were dangerous things in this cavern as well. Monsters that dwelled within the damp and the dark. Rapid currents that could sweep them away... slippery rocks that would have been next to impossible to navigate even for Riku's parkour skills.

She was dressed in her typical frumpy white mage robes despite the entire caverns giving her the impression of some Ramuha water park ride with the disclaimer: /You will get wet!/ ... the Levitani probably found those water parks quaintly amusing.

Inwardly, Alma fretted, the Arcadian Empire had done much to safeguard her, they'd put a great deal of trust within her, and she hoped that she'd prove that she'd been worth the effort. Finding a world shard that came from Ivalice would go a long way towards proving that. The chill of the cavern was just as biting as before, though luckily her full length robes went a long way towards alleviating that.

She carried a backpack of gear on her back, and had a much more powerful Magitek flashlight. The one they'd brought last time had been far from adequate for their needs. She took stock of those who were with them, before shining the flashlight downstream. She then did a quick sweep of the cavern ceiling to make certain nothing was lurking above them, before focusing the flashlight on the tunnel across the river. Then downstream.. where they would have to trust in the dangerous passage underwater and pray for the best.

And then she swept the flashlight back to the tunnel across the river, before looking to the others, she tried to sound calm, but her voice belied her anxiety, as a stutter crept into it, "Well.. I'm h-hardly cut out for leadership here, as I didn't t-take the a-advanced dungeoneering c-courses, but what do you all t-think? Checking out that t-tunnel ahead might be worthwhile, before we just outright follow the river."

She has personally chosen option B.

Option D, Fish, she'd save for later, for their victory celebration... if they had one.

Riku has posed:
Riku had kept to himself and his studies after the events of the hidden, totally not a ruined laboratory in an active volcano lair that they had investigated. He had barely spoken to anyone unless asked a direct question. He did not so much seem to be fully present as they trekked out to where they had found the desert cave.

He had a satchel across his shoulder, one hand holding onto that while the other rested on the hilt of the sword at his hip. He readjusted his grip on the satchel and didn't even bother with the pretense of a flashlight. It was there, tied to his satchel along with the rest of the small amount of rope, supplies and other gear he had brought on this expedition but it remained there as the teenager swept the cavern with his gaze.

Riku held himself very carefully, every movement small and precise and contained. He twisted his lips to one side, quirking a faint smile at the terrain. He took in a deep breath and let it out, fidgeting with the edge of a black glove and wrapping fingers around his wrist and squeezing hard momentarily before letting his hands fall back to their default places.

"The river doesn't seem all that bad if we're careful. If we can make it over to that tunnel across the way, we might have a way down that doesn't involve sharp rocks, moss and possibly drowning." A very thin smile. Razor edged. A faint chuckle.

Alas. Option D. You will have to wait.

Maira has posed:
News of a possible world shard has brought a certain fire mage and healer along for the ride. Alma had thought maybe someone from VALKYRI would want to help, and well, Maira hadn't really been doing anything important at the moment. Restoring a world? That's important business.

So Maira stands with Alma and Riku, looking at the river nervously. "I'm not a very good swimmer...is it deep?" she asks. "I don't want to hold you guys up though..."

Kim Possible has posed:
Luckily, Kim Possible was off from school today, and she didn't have to worry about babysitting her brothers either. Which is a good thing because Kim would never turn down an opportunity like this. Even if it's in a hot desert, and it's in a deep cavern, Kim doesn't care, since she lives for danger, and making the impossible possible!

As soon as Kim makes her usual swift entrance into the area, she stops to wipe her forehead before taking a sip from her canteen. "Well, this is gonna be a cool looking place for an adventure," Kim says with a smirk as she looks into the cavern and attempts to gauge the distance to the surface below. When she doesn't see it, her smirk gets even bigger. "Awesome, I totally love being able to use my rappeling skills!"

Finding a nearby rock to attach the hook to, Kim begins to slowly descend into the cave, not caring about how far down it might be. Eventually she reaches the bottom and she retracts her line.

She then looks around and begins to survey the general area, frowning a little as she realizes she forgot to bring her wetsuit with her. She takes out a miniature flashlight and attaches it to her wrist, turning it on to provide a beam of light which should shine a little light on this subject. "Hmmm, what to do?" Personally, Kim's going for option A, but she isn't moving out just yet, instead waiting to see what the others might suggest.

Gabranth has posed:

The Judge Magister himself has been asked to come, however because he really doesn't want to do this armor, nor does he really want to do this as a Judge Magister, he decides to go in disguise. So what does Gabranth wear when he doesn't want to be Gabranth?

Today he is wearing a pair of boots for hiking, jeans, a gray shirt with a slight v collar with strings that he can tighten or lose as needed, a brown leather vest over that, a pair of brown fingerless gloves, and a gray bandanna over his head. At his hip however was his two faithful swords, even though the scabbards he carries them in are far more plain then his normal Judge Magister ones.

There was also a curious necklace around his neck. Kept on a black leather cord tied around a chain. The very crystal was small and white. It almost had a soft gentle glow to it; far more noticeable in the darkness then in the light.

So Gabranth got down into the cave, going by the name of 'Ren' this time. He was sure when he told Riku and Alma this, Riku probably gave him a silly look yet again. There was probably going to be more jokes at his expense later for this one as well.

As he studied the cavern, his blue eyes looked this way and that way. He placed his hands in his pockets a gave a shrug. "We did bring the fishing poles right?" He said with a playful grin.

Ryusei Isshiki has posed:
Things had gone particularly bad for Ryusei some time ago. Not only had she gotten lost in the middle of nowhere, not only had she had to eat big creepy crawlies and drink water that was cold as heck to survive, the person sent to rescue her had ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA OF WHERE THEY WERE GOING! She spent days walking around aimlessly until Soan finally managed to find a way back to the port of Carwen, and from there sailed to Luca, then to the Destiny Crossroads, and finally arrived in Traverse Town, where she could rest a little, eat something warm and filling, and get herself clean and buy a reasonably good set of clothes. After that, thankfully, things went somewhat better.

Some days later, she heard an announcement on the radio, about the Archadian Empire hiring people to help recover a 'World Shard'. Apparently, this thing was a fragment of a world that had been consumed by the Heartless, and by using an artifact called 'Keyblade', these shards could be used to restore a world, albeit only partially. She hadn't even spent a month in this strange world, and already was a call to adventure being shouted in her ears! Obviously, Ryusei didn't think twice about accepting this offer. What followed was a long travel through the passageways that connected the worlds together, then a long walk through the desert, until she found herself here, in the Dalmascian sands.

And already she disliked it. It was hot as heck, sand got in her eyes, it was full of giant scorpions... Well, okay, the giant scorpions were not so bad, they helped a bit when Ryusei felt like having a snack. But still... This place was /so annoying/! . o O (What am I doing here?), thought Ryusei as she walked along the desert and reached the redezvous point... A dark cavern.

As she walked in, she took a look at each and every single one of the people in there. Then, all of a sudden, her gaze stops when it registers a familiar face. "Wait... Is that...?"

Myla Mason has posed:
Myla Mason has been helping Alma with looking for the world shards so here she was once more. She honestly felt that restoring any bits of world the Darkness took were generally a good thing. Id there were problems they could deal with it, right? So here she was following off and she was very happy about the water parks. They were the best thing she felt honestly. She doesn't seem to mind the wet at the very least as this Levitani follows the rest of those.

" So here we go again and hey we got your back your the one leading this show."

The magi-tech inventor and sometimes pirate pushed her goggles up and peers head for a moment

"Well I did at least, not as good as say Soan but I passed."

Riku's commend gets another nod out of but the comment about drowning gets a bit of a jest out of her.

"Drowning I think that concept's alien to me."

She understand the nature of Riku's comment yet she couldn't help it.

"Sigh am I the only one here who can swim well enough? Seriously my mom threw me off the ship as a kid to make me learn."

The imposing form of Gabranth blind sides Myla so far as anything like humour coming out of his mask mouth but there it is.

Gabranth has posed:

'Ren' glances over as others start to come down. Quiet the collection of people they have gathered up for this. Which was rather nice, but concerning. Anything they found down here, though be under Archadian protection, would also be known by outside sources. As such-- trouble could follow.

Oh well. They will handle with that when time came.

The Judge Magister in hiding in normal sheeps' clothing gives both Alma and Riku a pat on the shoulders, before he kicks a rock into the river and then turns to face the crowd. "So which way people." He places out his hands. "Though I do suggest we stay in a group for safety reason. After all, no one knows what lurks down here. Could run into a home of a some critter." Yes. Gabranth was pulling out a bit of an accent. He was use to doing this after all, he use to aid Chocobo Farmers and raisers when he was a kid. You picked up on lingoes.

Alma Hyral has posed:
So Alma had had her radio off the previous evening, due to the trip to the Volcano Lair, a tale of horror best left unspoken of for now. Thus, she did not know of the entire saga Ryusei's reappearance. She had no idea she was back out of the darkness. And even if she had, she'd have been.. inordinantly surprised if she even remembered her from school. Few did, or those who did only remembered her as the timid, ultraconservative pariah who had no friends and was constantly bullied.

So when she was addressing the group, she caught sight of her, and did a veritable double take. Huh, was that? A moment later, she managed a tremulous smile, "Oh um.. H-Hi Ryusei. I d-didn't know you were back. Good to s-see you." But that was that, for now.. she'd have more time to talk later, if Ryusei even remembered her, that is.

Ren who was totally not Gabranth pats her on the shoulder. To be frank, had he not /told/ her it was him, Alma wouldn't have recognized him as Gabranth anyhow. As it stood, she shined the flashlight back across to the tunnel. "Well.. I g-guess t-that way?"

If she wanted to, she could get across the river with ease, but she'd prefer not to put that out there... She glances back to the group, "Anyone w-want to t-test the current f-first? It d-doesn't look that d-deep."

Oblivion has posed:

The running water by closer examination appears to be rather shallow. Only ankle deep in a one section, good enough to walk across with careful steps. In other parts, as you head Downriver it starts to get deeper and deeper. Upstream it appears to be around Knee level.

It really shouldn't be a problem or someone could create something to pass. Unless someone doesn't want to get their feet wet, maybe they could try hopping across the rocks.

The width of the lake also appears to be about five feet across at the shallow section. So maybe even one could /jump/ across?

Riku has posed:
"It's alright Maira." Riku says calmly as he looks at the rushing river. "We'll get you across." without comment or fanfare he has put as much distance between himself and the fire mage as possible without being rude or obvious about it. He rarely looks in her direction directly but rather off to one side or the other though there is no tension or hostility. Merely passive avoidance.
 % r"We'll just prepare how we can, and let the rest sort itself out." The teenager threw a brief glance towards the necklace as his gaze panned across the entire party, taking in Kim and her rappelling skills briefly before moving on to his buddy 'Ren'-- and giving another biting close lipped smile and a playful shrug of one shoulder.

"Fishing in the desert." he tchs softly, shaking his head. "We are being down right wasteful with our time." his fingers tightened slightly, hooked like stretching claws before relaxing. He set his jaw slightly and chuckled through lightly-grit teeth. "Of course." he turns towards Alma, chuckling very softly. "..Alma shouldn't have any trouble at all. She cheats."

The teenager turns to regard Ryusei for a moment, mirror shades covering his face and shrouding part of his expression as the silver haired youth rakes a hand through his hair and responds. "That's one way to learn. My dad did that too. Well--" a faint snort. "Something like that anyways. Forgive us poor fools our doubts about raging rivers going to unknown places, some of them possibly very unpleasant." he makes a waving away motion, curling a fist and banging it lightly against his thigh.

"Good to see you again though Myla. Let's hope for something mildly less horrific this trip. Why don't you and Alma help people get across the river if they haven't already. Let's see what is waiting on the other end of that tunnel."

Maira has posed:
"Agreed, we should stick together! Avira says you should never split the party," she says with a nod.

There are several people she doesn't know just yet, but she smiles to them all the same. "I'm Maira, by the way," she says to Ren, Myla, and Ryusei before looking back to Riku. He's keeping his distance from her, which may seem sort of odd to others. Maira figures he's just cautious and knows she has a tendency to light herself on fire. Surely, it was just that?

At least there is ample water nearby? "I'll go whichever way you think is best. If its not terribly deep I can certainly cross--I'm not terribly good with earth magic or I'd make a bridge," she says with a shrug of her shoulders.

Ryusei Isshiki has posed:
And now, that familiar face was addressing her. Smiling lightly, she walks towards Alma and gives her a gentle handwave of greeting. "Hello there, Alma! It's good to see you among the living." She then looks around, and notices another familiar face. "Oh... I see that you are around, too. The girl who liked to grab machines left behind..." Quite the familiar faces she got to see again when arriving here.

That was enough talking for now. Later on there would be more, for sure. Right now, it was time to adress the problem of the current that had to be crossed in order to keep going forward. Scratching the back of her head, she looks at Alma when she asks for someone to test the current. "It shouldn't be too hard to just... Hmmmm... Let's see..."

The young Isshiki walks back a little, seemingly addressing her options... Then she turns towards the current and runs towards it, putting all the strength she can into her legs to impulse her across. "HOP!" She lands on the other side, with relative ease. "Yep. Definitely not too hard to jump across!" She motions the rest of the party to come along. "Come on! It's just a little hop along! And the water doesn't look too deep, anyways."

Alma Hyral has posed:
She offers Ryusei another timid smile, before Riku starts talking to Gabranth. She gave Riku a stern look on the /she cheats/ part of the conversation. Then a moment later she's lifting her eyes to the ceiling as if to say /Cosma!/ like it was some exclamation, or prayer. Maybe to deliver her from men like this.

Another deep breath later and she's just nodding, stating it reluctantly, "Yeah, I do c-cheat.."

Since Maira stated she wasn't a good swimmer, she walks over to her. A yellow Corona begins to lim Alma's body with radiance which illuminates the part of the cavern, and then she takes Maira's wrist. "Um, you m-may want to close your e-eyes."

Maira feels a tingling sensation in her fingers, then up her arm, before a moment later the same aura lines her own body, the two lift off the ground as if gravity has no meaning to them. Then she just alters that gravity, so the two of them zip through the air a few feet over the water across the river, to the opposite bank, where they touch down. ......They'd barely gone any distance whatsoever, however given Maira's assertion that she didn't swim well, she didn't want to take that chance.

It then immediately fades from both of them, like absolutely nothing happened at all.. /nothing/... right Riku?

Maira has posed:
Maira looks over to Alma as she approached, glowing. Maira tries to discern what spell she is casting, but sadly her spellcraft check does not pass.

As she begins to float upward into the air however, Maira smiled brightly, laughing, enjoying the few moments of weightlessness before they touch down once more. "Didn't even have to think happy thoughts! Thank's Alma. You'll have to try to teach me that one!" she responds.

Kim Possible has posed:
"I'm not in the mood for swimming personally," Kim says to nobody in particular. "I'd rather go that way," She adds, pointing in the general direction of the upstream passage. "If anyone wants to come with me, that's fine. If not, I'll tackle it by myself."

Myla Mason has posed:
Myla Mason did find the Judge imposing out of his armour but well as she realizes now he has a sense of humour perhaps he's not as scary of a man as she thought. She does look at Ryusei for a moment peering at her she knows her from somewhere and she knows Alma it's got to be another student who survived, that's a bright spot in a fairly grim week for her. She thinks for a moment about Riku's comment.

"Stranger things have happened. That would be a nice change, Riku. It really would be."

She looks out to Alma for a moment just grinning

"Sure I got no problem with water, I was practically born swimming."

Or Alma could do that whoa she didn't know she could do that oh well if she's got to swim across she can attempt to manage it. She does however attempt to get a feel for the water before she dives in she's not a fool after all. Okay /that/ foolish.

Gabranth has posed:

It seems the choice is made. Ren gives Riku however a puzzling look. He hasn't had much time to talk with Riku like he once did, which-- also bothers him a bit. He doesn't like that, but such is the life of being in one of his position with looming war.

To those who say hello to him, he greets them back with a head nod, a hand shake, and/or a smile. He even tells them his name is Ren and easily with a good jump over, makes it across. For now, the man stays rather quiet, just observing this as they walk. He will probably stay quiet for now.

Alma Hyral has posed:
Sorry Maira, your spellcraft check let's you realize she somehow altered gravity, with energy you'd recognize from a cursory glance as holy magic. But you identify no specific spell that would allow anyone to do that. Strange eh? Alma just offers a slight smile to Maira and states, "U-Um... I d-don't think I c-can." ...if she could, she'd have already tried teaching her sister after all.

Once they're /all/ across, save Kim.. Alma just nods to her, "W-Well I r-really d-don't think it's a wise idea to s-split up.. there's a l-lot of monsters in this p-place from when we s-scouted it out before. B-But if you i-insist.. we c-could cover more g-ground."

/Kim Possible has split from the Party and is going Option A, unless she changes her mind./

The rest of the party begin towards the darkened tunnel... Alma's flashlight lights their way as they traverse within it. At several points, the ceiling grows low, and even Alma.. who is perhaps the shortest individual here, has to duck down in order to avoid it. At a few points, they're even crawling on the damp stone.. The chill grows deeper as they head further down, and the footing becomes even more treacherous.. By now the desert sun has gone down, and the night's air has added to the chill, causing them to see small puffs of their hot breath.

And the damp stone? Becomes slick. Very slick. Alma actually slips once with a muffled cry of surprise, and finds herself on her backside, with a throbbing headache from when the back of her head hit the stone. After a very soft and plaintive /Ow../ escapes her lips, she puts a hand to the back of her head to heal the damage with a quick healing spell, before climbing back to her feet.. slowly, very slowly. She tried not to look as embarassed as she actually was, to salvage her dignity.

Riku has posed:
Yep.

Nothing at all.

That is our story and we are sticking to it.

Riku splashes through the shallow end of the river and joins up with the others on the far side. He looks towards Kim. "We don't know this terrain." is the only warning he gives the unfamiliar teenager before turning back to the rest of the group. "Those with flashlights, keep them handy and don't cross the streams." he smirks. "Also try not to aim them straight at me. I paid a lot for these." he taps his shades and then turns towards the tunnel.

Maira has posed:
Maira just shakes her head, following them into the darkness of the tunnel. "Flashlights, pssht," she says, then simply summons a little globe of bright fire to woosh off down the passage a little ways to help light the way for them, floating about and waiting for them when necessary.

The fire mage does not light herself up as they are in sort of close quarters and she doesn't want to make it unbearably hot in here, nor does she want to burn anyone.

As it gets colder, that becomes a bit less of a concern. Maira lets her heat radiate, the air around her heating by several degrees to keep her companions a little warmer. Maira, the efficient magic powered space heater!

She too is clumsy over the slick rock, almost falling a number of times, wincing when Alma does. "Careful Alma..." she says quietly.

Ryusei Isshiki has posed:
Ryusei looked at Alma using her magic to help Maira cross the stream... Or rather, she didn't. She had to shield her eyes quickly, because the flash of the spell threatened to burn her eyes. Hissing in annoyance, she rubbed her eyes and shook her head, looking at the ways everyone else resorted to in order to cross the stream safely. Myla and Riku just walked along the water, the blond man jumped just like her, and the redhead... Decided to stay behind?

Rising an eyebrow, she poined in the direction of Kim Possible, puzzled. "Is it safe to let her separate from the party? Going along towards an unexplored location doesn't sound very safe." Yeah, exactly like how she herself crossed an entire desert alone? Before she can continue addressing this issue, however, everyone else is walking away. So she can't do anything but follow.

Fortunately, she had brought survival implements with herself. Including a flashlight, which she switches on and aims forward to keep the road ahead adequately illuminated. After catching up, she walks among the first in the group, making sure to keep an eye close on Alma and Maira, who seem to be the ones in the party needing protection. Or at least, more so than the blond guy who is definitely very fit, Myla, who she already knows can fend off for herself, and Riku, who just looks like a freaking badass.

"This place looks almost too quiet. Stay alert, everyone." She warns the group.

Myla Mason has posed:
Myla Mason has manged to get herself across one way or another. So here she is with the rest she looks back at Kim and grimaces, oh this could end badly but she's not about to stop Kim. She's old enough to make her own choices. She continues on ahead wondering about the nature of this place she's hunched over times to not smack her head into the roof.

" This place feels strange it's not what I'd expect to find in the desert at all."

She doesn't seem bothered by the low light and she pauses peering at Riku for a moment wonder what's he's referring to . Clearly there's some movie, or book she needs to get a hold of.

Maira concern echos Myla's own but there's no need to rag on Alma since someone's already said it she looks to Ryusei.

"We'd have to stop her she's made her choice, I don't like if but if she's going to go off and yes. I don't like it..."

Alma Hyral has posed:
They continue down the tunnel until they reach a point where literally everyone must.. crawl, for what looks like it will be a few hundred yards. Deeper, and deeper they go, the cavern grows darker.. and even colder. It seems like a betrayal that /anything/ in a desert could be this cold. Then again they've found a giant underground river in the middle of a desert so really, they've gone past things being strange at this point. After her embarassing tumble,

Alma was kind of lagging around towards the /Damsel/ section, as Ryusei had put it. Until she has to get on her hands and knees.. The dampness started to soak into her robes, making her more than a little uncomfortable, given the cold. But she didn't complain, she just trudged onward with the rest of the group...

As they crawl. There's one point where the shaft stops, and there's a small plunge of about a yard. Nothing they can't get back up from if the need be, but it breaks up the monotony of the crawling on their hands and knees as they have to take a short drop. The illumination from the flashlights becomes ghastly, and in the small crawlspace, some of the streams DO INDEED CROSS! OH NO! But unlike the movies nothing happens except for possibly giving some people a chuckle and mild consternation.. the range of these lights doesn't show an end to this crawl quite yet... until it does. Maybe a hundred yards ahead, the tunnel widens... which will allow them to stand up again.

Riku has posed:
Riku grunts softly as his hands slip out from underneath him and he lands hard enough on his side to knock the wind (and some of the badass) out of him. Thems is some extremely slick stone, yo. He gathers himself up carefully, chuckling quietly as he looks in Alma's direction. With a few quick motions he brushes down the bronze duster over his shoulders and straightens up again (although he almost /klonks/ himself in the head on a overhanging piece of the ceiling when he misjudges height relative to ceiling)

The tight, controlled smile he gives to Alma is bemused and embarrassed around the corners and evaporates like fog as he turns away from the rest of the party after doing a quick check that all were present and accounted for. "Yes." he says in agreement to Ryusei. "There are creatures down here. And extremely quick moving, but we don't want to bring the ceiling any further down on our heads than it already is so be careful, yes?" the end of the sentence aimed at Ren and Myla but the sardonicism put on a wide beam setting.

Gabranth has posed:

Gabranth had remain quiet for this whole trip. He managed to /somehow/ control his steps enough to not slip. Though when he was going to, he was quick to get down. So apparently 'Ren' was use to playing on dangerous caves, or thanks to.. ahem.. other factors.. he had gain a very strong sense of balance.

The hidden Judge Magister peers as the cave gets darker and darker. The stone on his necklace glows brightly for a moment, as he then crouches down and start to follow everyone through the tunnel, mostly wait for other to go ahead and he takes up the rear. "The types of creatures that may live here is unknown. Wolves could have made their home down here. Maybe even a Saurian." Gabranth grunts. "..a Behemoth tribe.." Ha. Ha.

"We will need to remain sharp either way." That was his two cents on the monsters.

Ryusei Isshiki has posed:
Ryusei sighs. "Okay. As long as she knows what she's doing." She responds, regarding Kim's decision to split away from the party. She keeps walking along, then suddenly slows down and starts... Feeling the floor around with her feet. "The ground over here is damp and slippery. Watch your step around here."

The warning came too late, though. Riku had already slipped and fallen. She would carefully step towards him and do her best to help him up. "Are you okay? That fall looked painful! Be a bit more careful, okay?" This incident over, she continues moving along.

And then the ceiling starts getting lower, and lower, and lower... As she crawled along the passage, the dampness around her starts to enter her clothes, making her feel uncomfortable like Alma. She decides to live with it, however, and just keep going, occasionally bumping her head on the ceiling, each bump making her let out an "ow!" sound.

At last, the tunnel widened again, and Ryusei could get up. "Whew. That stretch felt like a claustrophobic person's nightmare. I hope we don't have to go through there again on the way back."

Maira has posed:
As they get deep into the earth, a feeling of uneasiness grows. These are some extremely cramps quarters, especially when they reach the point they have to crawl. Maira lets out a sound that relays her misgivings, but continues on as she gives herself a mental pep-talk. /You can do this Maira. The earth isn't going to crush you beneath it like an ant beneath a boot, nope nope, totally not going to die here in the dark slowly running out of oxygen when you get stuck because you just so happen to be kind of 'hippy' nope nope.../

Then there is the drop, and Maira is pretty darn happy to see it. Hopefully someone ahead of her is able to give her a hand, else she falls over when she hits the ground.

Maira looks to Ryusei, nodding with wide eyes. "U-uh huh...lets keep moving..." she says, the air around her remaining warm, radiating like stone that'd been warmed by the sun.

"Behemoth tribe? How would they even fit..."

Oblivion has posed:

The crawl space continued to be so until the opening. Once in the opening it was almost an under ground. The cave would soon lead to a massive ledge that overlooked a location where the small streams of water broke out from the side of the cave and ran down into a cavern floor below, along with other sections of the cave wall.

Down below, if examined one could see it was a good forty feet down with a deep pond at the bottom, grassy moss that covered the cave floor, and even a few forms of flowers. It was indeed its own paradise. However down their one could also see something rest down in the mossy meadows.

============================={ Pick Your Choice }=============================
A: Go down to Paradise! Who cares whats down there!
B: Examine more <span class=" bold_fg_w bg_n ++ losely.

C</span>: Turn back around.
D: FIIISH!
==============================================================================

==============================================================================

As for Kim who has gone it alone. The path way follows the river upstream. It seems to go this way for some time, until it starts to go down jagged rocks and surfaces. The water itself is gently spilling over as it seems to be coming from a waterfall slightly above. Though the waterfall itself to narrow to climb, but carefully one could start to climb downward.

============================={ Pick Your Choice }=============================
A: Go down the ro<span class=" bold_fg_w bg_n ++ ks B</span>: Turn back around
C: Take a taste of the water
==============================================================================

Gabranth has posed:

"The Behemoths of Ivalice are very resourceful out here. They walk on hign legs and even some have learned how to use weapons. Beyond the Behemoth King-- now-- that is a monster." Ren explains to Maira until they come to the opening which he looks around with a very soft, apprehensive whistle.

"My my. What a sight."

Myla Mason has posed:
Myla Mason is not bothered by the wet and her clothing is designed for water and getting wet. The cold on the other hand is a bit unsettling as she looks at Alma for a moment and wonders if she's all right but she's pressing on. She notices the water does indeed cross and she cringes a bit about the idea of more monster given recent experience she's been left a bit less gun-ho than she used to be. She looks at Riku nodding once.

"I plan to."

She shifts again moving as she also ends up down the drop along with the others however she's all right and finally they can stand up again making the bump she took not that much of a worry. She's just happy to be up and standing again.

The judge gets a odd look from her.

"I hope it's not the latter, that would be a heck of a handful."

She 's up and moving and keeping pace with everyone else.

"Good way to put it and we might have to...."

She stops because she almost said something very stupid but thankfully stopped herself from doing so.. She does however check her pad which she's left a mapping program active on.

"Another entrance we don't know about, Maira."



Then there is something down there. She's going to be taking for a closer look.

"It's ... it quite the sight."

Something pretty that isn't horrific is a wonderful change for her.

Kim Possible has posed:
Kim is about to start down the rocks, when something tells her not to. She decides that she's not exactly keen on going into a place like this alone. She decides to turn around and head back to where she was, and then go in the direction the others went in, feeling there's safety in numbers instead.

Alma Hyral has posed:
She breathes a sigh of relief as they get out of the tunnel, placing a hand upon her chest to allow herself to breathe. The air in the tunnel had felt thinner than it had a right to be. Right, she never took the advanced Dungeoneering courses, but... the basics sometimes were all you needed. /If something looks too good to be true, it probably is. If something looks inviting, it's probably a trap/.

This was usually before she fell for the giant comfy chair trap and got heckled by all of her classmates.

/Alma personally chooses option B/

She peers around for a moment from the ledge, "H-Hold on..." And then she shines her light around.. upon the greenery, the cavern floor, the flowers.. the flowers... Bending down, she takes a rock, and if nothing has reacted to this point, she tentatively throws it in that direction.

Riku has posed:
Man.

Fishing sounds like a great idea right now.

But alas, adventure takes precedence over minigames.

Riku looks out over the ledge, watching the trails of water trickle across the cavern floor below. He looks down at the deep descent and kneels down, fingers brushing the stone as he looks at the grassy carpet of moss and the flowers. He watches Alma and then watches the course of the rock, quickly backing up and gesturing for everyone to move away from the ledge in case something happened.

It's just a rock. It's just a pretty cave.

But he's seen these things cascade quickly enough to know better than to expect normality from most things anymore.

Oblivion has posed:

Those examining closely would find there is vines of moss running down the massive wall. The circumference of this area was rather large. One could probably have a rather good size airship in here really. There was indeed something down at the bottom down there. Yet it too looked green like the mossy floor.

It wasn't till Alma tosses down the rock did several things start to stir. About three of them from the looks start to move. They have an almost cobra like rocky good, with their backs green but their bodies more of a stoney color. They were decent in size and one of them looked directly up at the group.

They may remind one of a mutant stone praying mantis and those scythes look all non to friendly. Yet the creatures remained down there, while the party was up there.

(( http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120902165738/finalfantasy/images/0/06/Killer_Mantis_FFXII.jpg ))

There was also a strange glow one may notice down in the pound that the rock then falls into. It glows softly as the rock gently tabs it. Each time there was a gentle blue glow.

There was something down in that pond.

Ryusei Isshiki has posed:
When 'Ren' starts talking of Behemoths, Ryusei can't help but start drooling hungrily. "Hmmmm, Behemoths..." She licks her lips, then suddenly blinks as her eyes take a look at the lovely paradise that extends below the ledge they are standing on. "I have to concur. It's quite an awesome sight, that one." She then frowns lightly. "And also very out of place with this cavernous environment. We should keep a very wary eye. Something weird is bound to be happening here.

/Ryusei takes option B/

She looks right, then left, then down at the paradise beneath her, then looks at Alma throwing a rock in its general direction, and waits...

And then, she takes a look at the movement down there that is stirred when Alma throws the goshdarned stone, and the glowing water. Looking towards Alma, she frowns. "Be thankful that they are still not aware of our presence." She murmurs. "Those sumo wrestling mantises don't look like they would want to parley." Sighing, she looks down at the monsters and lays low. "So, how do we deal with those things? Suggestions welcome."

Maira has posed:
Maira moves behind Alma, looking down as the other mage throws a stone to see if anything moves. Of course, hideous, terrifying monsters respond. Of course.

Maira sighs quietly, but her eyes move toward that shining light. That could well be the world shard.

The mage looks back to the others. "Burn them," she replies to Ryusei. "Whoever is the best swimmer should maybe go down to investigate the glowing in the pool...the rest of us should distract the creatures, I think," she offers.

Gabranth has posed:

Ren watches Alma toss the rock and glances down to see where it goes. He then glances over at Ryusei. "..did you seriously just talk about Behemoths like a meal?" He stares at her for a moment. It was a very odd look on his face, like one of disgust and-- high concern suddenly.

However when things start to stir he peers back down below once more. "Those are Killer Mantis. I am surprised to see them out here. They tend to be territorial and very cautious. They will raise their scythes as a warning before they make a move to attack."

Ren then notices the glow from the pound and /peers/ at it for a long time before he looks back at the Mantis. "They are also tough.. but not very quick."

Gabranth peers over to Maira as she states an idea on how to handle the creatures. Honestly, he rather just leave them be but there was /something/ in that water-- but it was also a good ways down.

Alma Hyral has posed:
Alma Hyral watches the three stone mantis' emerge in response to her stone, then she watched the strange glint of the eyes in the pond. She looks back to the party. There, at least they had a forty foot drop to seperate them.. now how to do it safely? Or did they want to tackle it at all?

She listens to the others and then looks back at the situation.. she murmurs to the others, her voice sounding a little calmer in light of the deadly situation, "Let's get down safely first. Riku and Ren I think can manage without a problem.." Or much of a sound... "..I can take the ones who can't make it down one at a time, or...they can stay up here and attack when we do, if we take that approach.. Let's avoid the pool until we've found a way to deal with the rest.. maybe, if they responded to the sound, we can lead them away with more sound? Or vibrations? Any ideas?"

Ryusei Isshiki has posed:
Ryusei glances at 'Ren' and blinks. "What? I think they taste well." Her response will probably disturb him even more, but she doesn't really care. She found Behemoths were yummy, and that's that.

She listens to Ren's description of the sumo wrestling mantises, and strokes her chin lightly as she addresses the situation. Something glowy was down there, and a bunch of sumo wrestling mantises stood between them and it. The course of action was obvious...

Ryusei smiles and cracks her knuckles. "I'm all for a good fight. If Ren and Riku are going to jump down as well, that means we can take on one each. Alma and Maira can support us with their magic from afar, and in the meantime Myla, the swimmer among us, can dive down there and check out what is that glowy thingamajig in the water. How does that sound?"

Riku has posed:
Riku nods, letting Alma and the others make plans and decisions without comment. He looks almost abstracted into the near distance for a few moments, completely motionless until he hears the high concern and alarm.

He then smirks to himself, chuckling very softly without saying anything. He rocks up on his toes and then down with a faint squish. "Maybe we can lead them away or frighten them off." he shrugs one shoulder, not offering more than that for right now and holding anything else he might say in reserve.

Maira has posed:
Maira shakes her head. Everyone else seems to not want to kill the monsters. Only /she/ suggested they fight? What was wrong with her? It really had been a rough few months, hadn't it?

"Whatever you think is best..."

Myla Mason has posed:
Myla Mason sees what Alma is doing but it's only a second too late she stares, damn it she needs to pay better attention it's too late for her to stop her but one can see the look on her face. "Right, so we just stumbled into it's house."

She looks to Maira and nods "That would be me."

It's too late to stop things now and yelling more could cause problems.

"Sounds like an idea and I'm such an idiot."

Then again jumping in could be a thing but it could be a very bad thing who knows what's down there.

"If you can distract them I will make a go of it. Jumping down without doing so is asking to make me lunch."

Kim Possible has posed:
At the same time, Kim is making her way to where the others are. When she gets there, she checks the area and then looks to the others. "What's going on down there?" She asks. "I'd go down, but I don't have my wetsuit and I don't want to get my feet wet either." She looks to see if she could maybe attach her grappling hook to something and just lower herself a little to get a good look.

Alma Hyral has posed:
Alma bites her lip, before looking down, then back at Riku and Ryusei.

And then after a moment's thought, she states, "Riku, do whatever you have in mind to try and lead them away.. if they turn hostile, then we default to Ryusei's plan to getting us down rapidly to deal with them." She gives Myla an incredulous look, pushing up her glasses, "Um.. well only if you're sure, but make sure they're /far/ from the water... we don't want you to get hurt." And then after a beat pause, "If we do fight them, nothing.. flashy. We don't want to bring the caverns down around us."

Gabranth has posed:

"I would rather not take on the Mantis personally." Ren remarks glancing over to Ryusei. "..yet they are in our way." The Judge Magister in hiding and gives a sigh before he goes to walk over to the edge. He was not looking forward to this.

"But if its the only choice we have..."

Seems to be the choice and then Ren takes a few steps back before he suddenly runs right off. Almost going down in a dive motion, before he flips in the air and suddenly a rune flashes under his feet which softens his fall as he lands down on the ground.

Yep. Damn those magical runes of summoning.

The man then pulls out his two swords before clacking them together and then barking out a 'Hey!' at the Mantis as he moves away from the pond. Trying to get them to follow him as he tries to step backward and watch his distance between them and the eventual cave wall.

Riku has posed:
Riku grumbles something inaudible, shaking his head in bemused chagrin.

See Ren.

See Ren jump off ledge.

Jump Ren. Jump.

"Let's go see what's in that pool, huh Myla?" Riku doesn't pause for a response. He puts the satchel down on the ground and his duster with it, seeming completely oblivious to the fact that it was a fourty foot drop into unknown water because..

Hey.

It's an Adventure.

And this is Riku wresting option D from the depths of the trash bin.

He goes fishing.

Alma Hyral has posed:
Oh <GOOSEHONK> Ren just jumped down. She thought Judge-Magisters were supposed to be master strategists! Maybe.. this was part of some grand strategy, but she wished he'd informed them first. From her current position she was relatively safe, seeing that she can literally control her own gravity if need be.

So.. what she decided to do is.. remain up on the ledge. She closes her eyes for a moment, allowing herself to focus, before her expression becomes serene. She juts a hand out from one voluminous sleeve, and a sigil of yellow energy appears into existence in front of her.

Playing with her fingers against the sigil subtly, her finger tips every so often glowing with the same energy as the sigil. /Nothing too flashy/. So she just manipulates some of the ambient energy of the Sigil to cause a line of energy every so often to stream diagonally, and downwards at each of the Mantids. One at a time. They were made of rock, and probably tough enough that it'd take her some time to get any leeway with the simplest expression of her magic offensively... ...but it was precise. It wouldn't cause the cavern to cave in, like some of her greater expressions might. Just little needles, or slivers of light energy raining down on the mantids every so often.

And then her friend/boyfriend/crazed associate(See? SEE? She can do it too.) decides to go fishing, and that breaks her out of her state of serenity to give him a horrified look. The sigil fades immediately as the laser fire ceases, and she's just staring at Riku jumping into the pond. Her face might be twitching, just a little.

Ryusei Isshiki has posed:
Ryusei chuckles, smiling at Ren as he remarks that he'd rather not face the Mantis. However, seeing how they are standing in the way, there are not many options. Either try to distract them, or jump down and fight. And she, being a trained martial artist, would very much prefer to fight.

And off goes Ren.

"I'm right behind you!" Ryusei leaps forward, falling down right after Ren, and making a loud 'SLAM!' noise as her feet crash against the ground, the pinkette martial artist getting up after taking the fall and staring at the sumo wrestling mantis with challenging eyes, before adopting a fighting stance and motioning the three rock monsters to come get some, a confident grin in her face.

Maira has posed:
Maira doesn't go attacking just yet, instead getting down onto her belly to inch closer to the edge in order to be able to aim her magic down below but still make herself a small target.

As the melee fighters descend, she gestures outward, casting a warm and comforting glow around Riku, Ren, and Myla to help protect them and aid the probably battle that was to come. It would manifest as a greenish flickering coating of flame that did not burn, but warmed them in this chilly cave.

Maira looks to Alma and smiles, winking to her. "We'll stay up here where we're not in the way."

Myla Mason has posed:
Myla Mason knows the plan now knows some are going in for attacking. They should be able to distract things and time to do something crazy. Her mother would so be approving of her and her dad likely going pale as a sheet. She really was her mother's daughter when all was said and done.

"Sounds like a plan!"

She's already heading for it as thankfully she's travelled light she runs after Riku then leaps aiming to dive into the waters below she's got darn good form then again it's almost a given with her people. Still what awaits her and Riku in the depths. It's time for some extreme fishing!

Oblivion has posed:

The rain of Light dances down at the three mantis seems to stagger back a bit, though when it ends they automatically start head right for Gabranth. Until then Ryusei leaps down. One of them continues to go after Gabranth however with its scythes raised high. Before dashing them down in a five quick lashing strikes.

Ryusei gets a very similar treatment they come toward the martial arts with their scythes raised high, however they don't attack right away. Instead they seem to be trying to side step around the Martial Artist, as if looking for a weakness in them.

Riku and Myla would enter the water would no problem. Actually disturbing the water itself causes something down below to glow softly for a moment before fading away. There was indeed something down there and if someone brought a light, they may notice that the pond start to widen out under water. So looks like it could be under water caverns.. with something in each of them. Seven in total different tunnels with flickers of light from time to time. Flickers of blue light.

Gabranth has posed:

Ren uses one sword to parry one strike, tries to parry the next, however the Mantis ends up slashing right in. Those massive sword like scythes cutting up the man almost with simple ease and shoving him back to the point he almost looses his balance. Ok. Yeah. Now he remembered why he /HATES/ fighting these things.

The crystal around his neck starts to glow brightly as his eyes start to glow gold and he almost snarls at the Mantis. Before suddenly charging right at it taking two heavy swings with a roar of his voice. He was oblivious that Riku and Myla have jumped into the water.

If he might have given Riku a playful salute on the way down. However. Mantis.

Kim Possible has posed:
Meanwhile, Kim has gotten a good look at what's going on down below, and has decided enough's enough. "Get clear, I'm coming down!" Kim exclaims as she attaches her grappling hook before rappelling down rather quickly. No longer concerned about getting wet, Kim's heading down to back her allies up.

Ryusei Isshiki has posed:
Ryusei remains still as a rock as the pair of Killer Mantis looms around her, looking for weaknesses in her stance. A single false movement could be the difference between victory and defeat. And so, she waits, carefully addressing her possibilities...

Then, Kim decides to start rappeling down to join in the brawl. At that moment, as if triggered by a switch, Ryu clenches her hands and focuses her inner reserves of energy, making her fists glow with white fire for a moment. She then throws a pair of katas at one of the mantis, the fire on her hands taking the shape of ethereal serpents. "Souharyu!" Immediately after, she takes a turn towards the other mantis and dashes towards her all in one smooth motion, appearing right on the monster's face before proceeding to throw a fast flurry of punches a point blank range, each strike aiming at a different spot.

Riku has posed:
Mantis.

Riku held onto Totally Night-Vision Shades so that they didn't break, putting them away as he broke the surface of the water. He rubbed at his face for a moment, turning pupiless yellow eyes on the sumo fighting mantises and slashing going on before diving underneath the surface again.

He gestures for Myla to take one of the tunnels while he takes one of his own. The teenager kicks his way down to one of them, hanging onto the top of the tunnel until the blue light has sparked and flickered and gone before peering over the lip of the tunnel and trying to get a look at whats farther down the tunnel farthest to the left before actually going down it.

Alma Hyral has posed:
She looked away from the two divers back to the fight. Alright, Ren was in trouble. No more holding back. A yellow Corona surrounds her, and she glances sidelong at Maira, "Be right back."

She slips into her state of focus and.. Time out.

And suddenly she's moving through the air at relatively high speed. From her perspective, things were moving at a rather languid pace, as time dilates around her. At every point she passes, a sigil appears, until there are eight in the air, suspended. Her movements may have looked chaotic, and at random, but in reality there was perfect order to them.

She comes to land a good distance behind Gabranth, Time in. Everything looked like it was catching up to her at once.

Another sigil forms where her hand juts out, and then suddenly in the air all eight sigils join together through coruscating lines of energy in the pattern of a Celestial Chariot, a constellation from the Land of Dragons. Gabranth might remember it as the constellation that Alma stated his world came from.. if he were paying attention during the lecture, or right now.

Auriga. Bright lights of the Tiger of the West, and the Vermillion Bird of the South. Be Judged... Grand Chariot.

She stabs her hand through the sigil, and suddenly all at once, every single Sigil blazed to life with white hot radiance.. and then as one began to streak towards the trio of Mantids, as every single representation of a fallen star strikes them simultaneously. They sear into them as a burning, radiant pyre of light, assisting the beleaguered warriors in the party.

Myla Mason has posed:
Myla Mason is now in the water no problem she's got her goggles down in short order and is able to see well enough more or less as she heads down moving like she was as comfortable in the water as she was on land. Several people she knows have suspected she might be a mermaid posing as a human, close but not quite. She's now taking in the lower regions which does show signs of there being something there. She follows Riku's advice and goes for one of the other tunnels intending to do the same thing to see just what the heck is down here at the bottom perhaps there's something good or at least something that won't eat her.

Oblivion has posed:

The Mantis' hard skin takes the swords with simple ease, though minor gashes are grooved in. It looks rather pissed off as it gets ready to strike again, however there is suddenly an Alma...

The two Mantis dealing with Ryu suddenly get distracted as Kim jumps into the game. It was enough for Ryu to unleash to swords right into the one Mantis who staggers back while the other is beat nearly into submission. It staggers down to the ground almost, making a horrid screeching sound in pain.

Down in the water...

The swimmers would soon find themselves being surround by small crystals that flickered with blue light as they disturbed the water around them. They will soon find out that there are clusters and clusters of crystals here. Ready for your Ivalice lore check?

Back on the surface...

Alma suddenly unleashes stars of death upon the Mantis. The one fighting Gabranth gets completely knocked back and over, as it skitters to try and get back up. The one that got hit by Ryu's blades gets slammed back into the under side of the wall leading up to the ledge.

And the last one just gets blasted apart and it explodes into pieces along with some green gook.

Maira has posed:
Maira looks to Alma, eyes widening at her words. She nods then. "Be careful!" she cautions, then watches as the timid girl suddenly seems to slow time, crossing the distance in the blind of an eye.

Maira watches with fascination the symbols that appear, the strange magic that Alma works. She gawks openly at the display of power Alma channels. She had no idea the mage was so powerful!

"...or, you could zip down, bring down the power of the stars and leave me up here feeling silly, that works too," she grumbles. Talking to herself. For a moment she expects a response, only to be hit with an inconvenient stab of grief. Uist.

Well, time to be useful. Maira releases some of the control on her magic, letting the fire flow from out of her is coalesce into a swirling ribbon of flame that glows a brilliant white. The ribbons snake out quickly like lashing tongues, whipping at one of the mantis creatures with scorching heat.

Alma Hyral has posed:
She doesn't continue fighting at that point, she doesn't even spare the Mantids another glance, corpses or not. Instead, she just walks over to Gabranth, pressing a hand lightly against his arm. A soft, silvery radiance spreads over him, as a regeneration type spell begins to mend his wounds. This spell then spreads to Ryusei as well, even though she isn't touching her. Ryusei didn't look like she was that injured in particular, so the lesser expression of the magic would probably do.

A moment later she's floating up to the ledge.. touching Maira lightly, then allowing her to float gently down beside her. "Not silly at all, your fire magic is amazing."

When they land, the yellow Corona around of the two of them fades, and she's giving the waters a worried expression. "I hope they're alright..."

Riku has posed:
Riku being on fire underwater is semi-disconcerting, but the greenish fire of Maira's aid is a warm and comfy one even in chill waters. Magic, invariably, does not chase after concepts such as 'common sense' -- much like some of the adventuring party.

But he knew he took that rank or two in Ivalice Lore for some reason. (Even though half of those notes are paper airplanes from Traverse Town to every portal going anywhere) he tries to take a closer look at the crystals, seeing if he could dislodge one of two carefully and bring them back up to the surface.

Maira has posed:
Maira purses her lips and looks to Alma as she returns, blushing. "You were not suppose to hear that," she replies with a sheepish giggle. "That's did look pretty impressive I'll have you know!"

Maira looks down to the others, nodding. "I think they'll be alright...they're tough."

Gabranth has posed:

Ren's eyes were not reverting back, but they almost had a bit of a Primal look in them for a moment before he suddenly has to look away as the starlight attack comes crashing down. He continues to look away, before he closes his eyes and tries to refocus himself.

When he opens his eyes they are a calmer amber color which he peers at the destruction Alma had brought forth including the noting the fancy work Riku performed. He then looks over at Kim. "We have one down." He says with some calmness in his voice. "Two more to go!" Gabranth then goes to charge for the one pinned against the wall. His swords suddenly en-flare with dark blue flame before he goes to slam it right into the wall. Hoping to pin it there, trying to get the dark flames to consume it.

Kim Possible has posed:
Kim nods and assumes her fighting stance. "No sweat, I can handle this!" Kim looks at the nearest creature and then assumes her Kim-Fu fighting stance. "Come on, you uncool thing!" She then attempts to deliver a jumping kick at it.

Ryusei Isshiki has posed:
Ryusei just has enough time to land a kick on the mantis she's beating to a pulp, quick enough to propel herself out of the way. Unfortunately, she doesn't move far enough to avoid getting completely covered in green gunge from the mantis exploding in a cloud of gore.

Ryu hisses in disgust as she takes a look at the mess that has been made on her clothes. "Yeeeeeeeech! All of my clothing, ruined! Disgusting!" She shakes her head, getting most of the stuff off her face, then looks towards the two mantis that are still alive. Snorting angrily, she jumHaoh! Kouraikyaku!</span>"

Oblivion has posed:

One of the Mantis gets impacted by the fire and screeches in pain as it flails around. The other by the ledge wall is indeed slammed by the blades. The dark fire does try to consume it, however the Mantis then slams its scythes right down for Gabranth's shoulders trying to stab right into his body. Then if it gets a hold attempts to shove him back, if not-- perhaps either way it would get free!

If the human wanted to play this game. So could it!

Kim then attacks the Mantis that was one fire. Then Kim strikes true and with one very good kick she knocks it right over. It was getting rather tired, it was obvious at how slow the Killer Mantis tried to stand up.

Then here comes Ryusei to finish off the creature. The foot makes its connection and the very creature's head comes right off, before it crashes to the ground with more of the gook coming out.

Down in the water, Riku would find as soon as he goes to remove a crystal it glows a bright blue. A great deal of magic was this crystal. Then it becomes clear what it is he breaks off. It was a piece of magicite.

The entire under water caverns down here, all the many passages upon passages to the dead ends were covered in raw, natural magicite. Their dangerous mist contained due to the very waters.

Myla Mason has posed:
Myla Mason sadly does not know that much about Ivalice sadly but she's now checking out the crystal. She's got to get a good look at them. She's not moving to move them yet. After all something could happen to they may be otherwise important but thankfully her friends and companions? Should be able to keep the monsters busy right? Hopefully keep them all at bay while she and Riku do their thing under da water.

Then suddenly she is on fire under water Maira what have you done? Okay she's alive and all right but damn it this is like twilight zone level insanity to one such as her. Fire should not do this! It should not do this at all but she's making use of the light once she shuts down any urge to panic. She now gets a hell of a good look at the crystals and also reaches out to see if there's any magic to them.

Alma Hyral has posed:
This is the part where Alma Hyral stopped acting like a show off.. since she really, really, did not like using her magic in it's offensive capacity when it wasn't necessary, and fell back on just healing. She was good at that. She didn't even need contact on an individual to heal them. Soft white radiance draped over each person fighting, like a prophylactic regenerative aura.

It mended flesh, it caused the body to work at replacing lost blood almost instantly, restored blood vessels back to their normal state, and it most definitely restored broken bones. Not that anyone had injuries that dire. She'd only make any sudden movements if one of the remaining mantids decided to come at her.

Myla Mason has posed:
Myla Mason sadly does not know that much about Ivalice sadly but she's now checking out the crystal. She's got to get a good look at them. She's not moving to move them yet. After all something could happen to they may be otherwise important but thankfully her friends and companions? Should be able to keep the monsters busy right? Hopefully keep them all at bay while she and Riku do their thing under da water.

Then suddenly she is on fire under water Maira what have you done? Okay she's alive and all right but damn it this is like twilight zone level insanity to one such as her. Fire should not do this! It should not do this at all but she's making use of the light once she shuts down any urge to panic. She now gets a hell of a good look at the crystals and also reaches out to see if there's any magic to them.

There'sd a whole lot of magic to them it seems she has no idea of what it is but it's clearly magic. There's a whole lot of magic to it and Myla pulls a boot knife out. She'd been thinking against breaking them but they would need a sample of these things. She will move to carefully break it off and prepare to bring it up to the surface. She really doesn't know about the Mist or magicitie but whatever these crystals are? It's likely her companions might know. She wonders could she use this is a power source?!

Gabranth has posed:

Ren quickly pulls his blades free and rolls away from the suddenly Mantis coming at him. The scythes however do clip the front of his shirt yet again, ripping it further up. He may as well go Prince of Persia here and take off his vest and shirt.

Thankfully to Alma's effort her healing magic tends to his injures and he gives her a faint nod. Before he then places the small sword up to his face and starts to whisper words to it. A rune appears under his feet as he continues to whisper words. The very rune circles around as each of the circle points start to glow with blue flames.

He then snaps open his eyes and slams his sword into the ground. The Rune shatters and a dark spear suddenly rushes up from the ground to impale the Mantis with dark magic.

Riku has posed:
Riku grins to himself as he realizes what the crystals are. There is a great amount of catface for someone so grim and snarky. He goes to find Myla and makes a signal that he's heading back. He breaks the surface and coughs, taking some air back into his lungs.

He shakes his head and pushes hair out of his eyes as he looks at the situation going on above ground before hauling himself out of the water. He quickly puts the magicite away to get his hands free again, unsheathing Avakyr and looking for a place to strike and help to clean up the remaining mantids.

Ryusei Isshiki has posed:
Ryusei lands on the ground gracefully after it kicks the mantis' head off cleanly. She then takes a moment to look around, checking if there is still someone who wants to get a beating. She notices that the Mantis Ren was dealing with is still kicking around and trying to pin Ren on its own claws.

She's about to jump forward to help him, but then she sees it is not really necessary, Ren has everything under control. Sighing lightly, Ryusei just watches the last remaining mantis get impaled and turned into mush, not even paying attention at the Cure spell cast on her. The only thing hurt in Ryusei is her sense of smell, anyways. These mantis innards smell like rotten trout. She's gonna have to hit the shower when she's back home.

Kim Possible has posed:
Kim defeats one monster, and then looks around, trying to find any further dangers. There may be just one monster left, but who knows what else might be lying in wait? "We got this!" Kim says to everyone around her.

Maira has posed:
Maira watches her magic go to work, frowning slightly. Rather than throw another offensive spell, she casts a cura spell on those below, namely the melee fighters--Gabranth and Ryusei.

Oblivion has posed:

The Final Mantis does indeed get impaled just as Riku comes out by Ren's attack. It slams right through the Mantis and then once the darkness vanishes it crashes to the ground. It squirms a bit, but shortly it stops moving. Its gook bleeding out from it as it tries to claw, but has no avail of doing so. Perhaps someone will end its misery quickly?

The very crystals when brought to the surface start to gently release their mist. Though it is a very small dose of the mist, so nothing to be worried about.

Yet, what will the party now do? Is their exploration finished or is it just beginning?

Ryusei Isshiki has posed:
Ryusei decides not to let it bleed out. Even if it is a monster, she can't bear to see it suffer. So she throws a Souharyu at the mantis' head, then sighs and tags along with the rest of the party back to the surface, to consider the next course of action.

Myla Mason has posed:
Myla Mason breaks the surface as she does so and seems in good spirits all things considered as she looks about and pulls herself out of the water and shakes her self off. Her strange style of clothing is showing it's for function of all thing it's already shedding water pretty quickly as Myla moves to rejoin the party.

"There's an underwater cave network full of these and they feel like ... raw magic for lack of a better term. I betcha I could power a ship with a few of these things and time to work out how to harness it."

She notices the mist but doesn't quite realize what it is.

"The underwater caves are seriously full of these things."

To those who'd know what the crystal Myla holds it's clearly a magicite crystal.

Ryusei Isshiki has posed:
Ryusei decides not to let it bleed out. Even if it is a monster, she can't bear to see it suffer. So she throws a Souharyu at the mantis' head, then sighs and tags along with the rest of the party as Myla returns to the surface, ready to consider the next course of action.

Alma Hyral has posed:
Alma Hyral has a lot of ranks in Ivalice Lore! Except they're all in their.. stars, astrology, and history. She has no idea what a Magicite Crystal looks like. She does know what the Mist emanating from it generally means though, so she's backing away from it, even if it's just a small puff.

She looks between Myla, Ren, and Riku, and gives them an inquisitive look, "I'm.. what is it?"

She sounds a little disappointed perhaps, given that it does not appear to be a world shard. It doesn't appear like any more pieces of the world were going to be coming out of the darkness as a result of this mission.

Riku has posed:
Riku resheathes the sword and takes stock of the surroundings. He looks briefly and intensely annoyed at Myla, shaking his head slightly as he takes his shades out and reapplies them.

"Some natural phenomena. Well-- natural for wherever it is this came from." he moves over to Alma carefully avoiding the gook.

"But.. yeah. We can explore a little deeper but I think we should cut our losses and head back. Scavengers will probably be picking this place apart soon. We know where this place is if we need to find it again."

Alma Hyral has posed:
Alma Hyral breathes out a sigh, she looks, dejected. Her method had uncovered nothing of worth this time.. Well one for two wasn't bad. The rest of the caverns, it would take too long to search today. Maybe another time.

She does manage to give Riku something of a smile though, "Well I guess we'll just have to keep trying. I don't suppose we could actually.. do some fishing before we go back? Might as well get a little fun out of this if we're going to go back empty handed."

Ryusei Isshiki has posed:
Ryusei looks at Alma when she proposes spending some time fishing here before going back home. Considering the current state of her clothes and her skin, her response is quite predictable.

"I vote for going back to civilization and having a shower before planning our next move! I'm not gonna let this disgusting stench plague my nose any longer than I need to!"

Gabranth has posed:

Ren feels another breeze of healing magic and gives a nod to Maira. Looks like he wont have to strip down to bare chest. Though his shirt and vest are pretty messed up now. He swipes his blades into the air before he sheathes them once more.

He looks at the Mantis as unsure if he should the be the one to end its suffering or not. However it is handled and he turns his attention to Riku and Myla as they resurface. He stares at what they hold, the mist even being a bigger indication and the biggest, damn, smuggest grin crosses his face. "Very. Very. Important crystals."

Ren doesn't seem to say more. "Great work everyone. I need to get in contact with some people, so if everyone wants to go fishing. I say go ahead. Maybe we can have us a fish dinner and some laughs."

Ren then uses his Rune magic tricks to get him right back up the ledge. The runes.. amazingly stay behind for everyone to use. "Come on! Lets go!"

Maira has posed:
Maira breathes a sigh of relief as it seems the creatures are down and are going to stay that way. Trouble appears to be over, though the woman is still on her guard just in case. She flashes a smile to Ren at his nod of thanks, then stands and looks around, chewing her lip. "I'd...really rather not stay underground like this, if that's alright...much better places to go fishing..."

Alma Hyral has posed:
Alma Hyral looks back at Gabranth, then back at Riku, then at Myla, then at the crystal. Wait? /Very Very Important Crystals/? What was so important about them? What were they? Was her method actually not a failure after all? Was /this/ what her plotted trajectory had led them to?

She gives the Crystals emanating small puffs of smoke a ruminative look. Her mind is suddenly not on fishing any longer... Riku would probably notice that her gaze was just.. /fixated/ on the crystals.

Riku has posed:
"Fishing sounds like a great idea." Riku says with a small smile, putting a hand on Alma's shoulder in consolation. "You did say to bring fishing poles, after all." he teases her gently. He does not look at anyone else. Especially not Ren. So--- not even looking in their direction it is almost like a thrown rock. "But yeah. There are probably better places to go fishing."

Ryusei Isshiki has posed:
Ryusei nods. "It's been decided, then! Let's go back and regroup, then we can go fishing if you really want to. Who knows? Maybe we will catch a kraken and then we can have a lunch worthy of the gods!" She laughs at her own occurrence, then walks towards the runic launchpads and follows Ren back to the surface. "Let's go! I can't wait to get back!"

Alma Hyral has posed:
Alma tears her gaze away from the crystals, smiling at Riku again. Best not to ask questions.. besides, she was smart enough to figure it out on her own. "Right.. let's get back to civilization. I think we could all use a hot shower. Ryusei, Myla you're welcome to stay with Kyra and me tonight if you'd like. I'll cook you both breakfast in a few hours."

Ryusei Isshiki has posed:
Ryusei pumps her fist up in the air triumphantly when Alma invites her to breakfast. "That sounds like the best idea ever!"

Myla Mason has posed:
Myla Mason says "That's good news then!" She grins for a moment "Well we do have some why don't we might get some cave fish it could be good eating. Don't worry I'll be able to make fish taste amazing!"

Alma Hyral has posed:
Ryusei has no idea. Given that Alma actually has taken enough lessons to almost be a master chef on her own.. she's about to find that out. Soon. Alma just offers her a shy smile at her enthusiasm and follows the others out.