Quest The Longest Night

[Sarek Valaren]

Sarek stood for a few moments, the remainder of his rats swirling at his feet unseen beneath the bloody mist. It was a particularly odd sensation for him, he'd never killed something without the use of his magic, he wasn't much of a physical person - funnily enough.

His moment of contemplation was interrupted by the screams, shouts and general carnage that was erupting around him. As he turned his jaw dropped and his already pale face lost all colour. His party had been decimated, with three of the hell hounds still remaining. "Fuck" He mumbled, taking a brief second to breath and ground himself.

In the background, a nameless elf felled one of the demon hounds with several kill-shots in quick succession. In retaliation, however, the beast that had annihilated the dwarves, even in his heavily wounded state, lunged and bisected the elf cleanly with a single bite. Sarek swallowed audibly, but thankfully, it seemed, the beast was too busy cleaning up its wounds to focus on the cripple - for now at least.

And then there were two...

Party-members that was. Although, saying that, Farzad seemed to be in quite a sticky situation. A guttural growl emanated from his throat, chittering replied, and suddenly his remaining swarm flocked to the creature behind the colourful mage. They were running to their deaths, in hopes they'd provide even a momentary distraction for Farzad to escape.

"Head for the tower, I think it's this way!" He screamed although he sounded a lot more certain than he felt. In reality, however, Sarek had no idea and simply picked the turning closest to the general direction of the spire.

 

[Farzad Oldsummer]

It was carrion. Dead and thick on it's breath like too thick a perfume. Farzad done little more than stare, he could hear it, but didn't register it. His eyes matched the beasts many a golden flare burnt in his eyes as the beasts whip lashing tongue dragged along his body, taking all too fine slices at his clothing, at first there was nothing. But slowly the beast toyed with min, blood pried free from slim cuts. Farzad breathing slowed, he moved his left arm a wiggle, the beasts all too human hand interlocked around it, he could feel it, the maze seemed to slip around the creatures fingertips like a cosy mitten.

It was only than he saw the swarm slam into the creatures body a million scurrying critters as the world popped back into existence, the muted world returning as a bolt of dread lightning illuminated the world. Dead bodies littered the field a few survived and he heard Sarek's parting words dissipate in the distance. He looked at himself. He wasn't seriously injured, simply slowly scabbing over. Was this the effect of the creature's? His blood seemed to slow. Maybe it was the maze. Maybe it was something else. He didn't have time, the rodent's dug fang to flesh and noxious toxic sludge turned their bodies into a rainfall of grey seizures, bodies and muscle caught in a vicious passion of a spasm.

He pried his arm out, fabric tore, blood seeped out in a thousand cuts as he grabbed a scroll, the beast flung it's body around as the last of the rodent's fell dead, it's mouth was incapable of a smile. But he recognised that cruel passion. That torturer's desire. Farzad wasn't long for this world, so all he done, was meet the many eyed hound with his own two eyes.

Just... Right.​

The beast grew closer, it's body on it's hindlegs. It had seen it before. That posture, it was a torturer's posture. All too powerful, all too towering. It stood at least eight feet tall, it's fingers dragged along his body with disgusting sensual pleasure. The beast passed a smile, it's jaw elongated and split open, what looked like a million upturned, jagged bent fangs approached, a sickening black consumed him as his eyes grew wide, staring into the mouth of the beast as he felt the first tendril of saliva drop down with a clump of carrion falling inside it. Lightning strikes. And a sickening display of red emerges from the beast's mouth, it's jaw interlocking and slamming down.

A million thorns jutted out of it.

​

Just right... Just.... RIGHT NOW! He thought to himself, he dragged and pressed the spell scrolls tiny thread, knocking it out as the spell unfurled, metallic words coming to life and the bolt of lightning making his words vanish into the air. His body became encapsulated in metal thorns, the hedge relenting at that, it's spines forced out as Farzad fell to the ground, the beast's jaw interlocked. His vision was blacked out, he felt the tongue against his skin, the air escaping a rasping throat the thing was jerking with dead muscles, Farzad falling to the ground, fingers slowly coming up to press against the beast's head and pry himself free. He felt like a lion tamer only just getting out of a too angry maw. He breathed heavily when his crown of a head finally peeled off, his body slumped over. His body was in a small suit of metal thorns, spiking and protruding from his body in random patchwork fashion. His head was spooled with blood and leftover carrion. Farzad simply stayed down, head in the grotesque muck and mud.

 

[Draedamyr]

Going towards the tower was a difficult thing to do in a maze. Draedamyr ran away from the corpses of the hounds they had despatched towards its looming shadow, only to reach a dead end.

"They came from that way," he coldly observed to Xyrdithas . It didn't make sense, but he didn't feel like stating the obvious. Either the things had a way to move around the maze or it was changing.

"Where are you all!?" he shouted towards the sky. He could hear movement around them and hoped it would reply.

"Pick another direction."

 

[Sarek Valaren]

The moment Sarek turned, several things happened at once. He wasn't a trained mage, so he was unfamiliar with Farzad's technique and was left puzzled about what had unfolded. Was he dead? Was he alive? Had Sarek simply fallen on his head and was hallucinating, concussed, in a puddle of muck somewhere? All particularly good questions.

Unfortunately, he didn't get too much of a chance to chew on those thoughts, the heavily wounded hell-hound remained circling curiously between Sarek and Farzad. As much as he wanted to, which was quite a lot, he couldn't leave the poor mage to be a plaything to the beast. Thankfully an idea popped into his head, not a particularly good one, but an idea nonetheless.

He sighed audibly, ripped off his shirt and attempted a glamour. Perhaps the wrong choice of words, for Sarek instead used his magic to give himself the most grotesque and disgusting appearance possible. His skin erupted into weeping sores and boils, buboes erupted all over his body, and an awfully pungent musk of death slowly drifted from every orifice on his person. He made his way towards the beast, plucking up one of the gory limbs remaining from an unknown mercenary and began to pump it full of magic.

Essentially, his intention was to make himself so grotesque the demon would think twice about eating him. Foolproof.

The beast hesitated, hissing at Sarek, but made no move for the walking corpse. Even a demon had standards it seemed.

"Here... boy?... demon...? Fetch!"

He threw the limb, imbibed with a serious dosage of pestilence magic at the hound, who promptly snapped it up mid-air. These creatures could turn magic, but Sarek hoped their stomachs, or whatever their equivalent organ was, couldn't.

A grumble erupted from inside the remaining hound, its countless wounds from the late dwarves began to stream thin black ichor at an unprecedented rate. The beast vomited up its innards, howled and ran around - delirious and maddened. The tasty morsel had worked, and Sarek's magic was slowly rotting and plaguing the creature from the inside out. Eventually, it melted into a puddle of steaming black ooze, sinking back into the red mist like its brethren.

"Farzad, I swear to all hells, if you're dead and I've wasted most of my magic I will kill you." He groaned, making his way over towards the mage and giving him a healthy poke with his staff.

 

[Eren'thiel Xyrdithas]

Hmm...

He believed Draedamyr knew what it was he spoke - surely there must have been another way from which they had came? But no, there was something more to this maze of thorn. That somehow though their eyes did not perceive, it moved and shifted and worked against them.

"Pick another direction."

He nodded sharply, turning around and bounding back the way they came. Blocked again. He rumbled with frustration, turning again to yet a third direction. A misty corridor of black and red.

He bounded down that way now, sliding to a halt as Toruuk Stoneheart and Emery Thatcher became visible. He raised a passive blade to them in greeting, "well met."

But from beyond the two before them, with his elven ears he heard... at least half a dozen of those hellish beasts bore down on them once more, their heavy paws thudding hard against the ground.

"Prepare yourselves!"

 

[Farzad Oldsummer]

His body rolled, the muck and mire caught and stained into his fabulous attire like butter lapped to bread. He gave out a sharp, 'eh', bringing a hand to his face to drag away from it the viscous blood that felt like sweet death. "I'm awake... I'm awake..." He responded, his voice a deep baritone as he slowly dragged himself up, a sweeping hand at his shoulders he gave a short stumble, looking at the demonic corpse he had left in desperation. He smacked it's head with his staff, the tendons and sinew snapping quickly as it bounded, head quickly consumed by the hedge maze.

He done a quick headcount of who was left. Himself, Sarek and some of the help. The rest were just smear stains against the deaf coloured green, he shook his head quickly, adding to the blood spray as he snapped out a smile, giving a thumbs up to Sarek. It might've been in poor taste, the rest of the help seemed traumatized by this. Farzad however, "Right! Like I said fantastic day for adventure! A bit of death yes that... That is something to mourn, but we've no time! The sun..." He paused, his head moving more like a mechanical lever more than it did something biological, before snapping back down, somehow gusto in his neck, "The Sky has grown dark! And that tower still sits there insulting us! With it's tallness, and it's not letting us look inside! Well I say no to that hodgepodge! We are the Company of Bell's..." There was a brief pause, his eyes somehow showing the gears turning behind his eyes, "I don't know what we are called my apologies!" He was in his own little world of a ramble, he picked up his staff, twisting it in his hands and letting loose a loud crack as if to challenge the bolts of lightning.

"I don't know where I'm going with this but I know where we need to go and be and that, is,
RIGHT
UP
THERE!"
​

He bellowed, giving a jump kick in enthusiasm than punching the air, infecting this morbid and slunk atmosphere with his unbridled determination the soft limelight glow of orange standing in defiance of the wishes of reality, and he started to take lead heading into the confines, the twisting abode, the dark and dank hedge maze with undeterred determination even as blood still dripped from his brow and now bent spire hat.

 

[Toruuk Stoneheart]

"well met."

Gods, finally. Toruuk felt like he'd been stumbling around in this maze for like, eight days. He and Emery had stumbled into the elven duo at what seemed to be a crossroads, no less.
"About damn time. I hope the mage-folk are doin' alright. Sounds like things are gettin' rough out there..."

And then he heard the growling. Anticipation rippled up the bull's back. He turned slowly to meet the slavering stares of the fell beasts the others had already encountered. He knuckled down on his axes. As they began to move in, hungry maws gaping and gnashing, Toruuk heard the swordsman speak once more:

"Prepare yourselves!"

"The champ's been waitin' on this for awhile now! LET'S GO!"
Toruuk charged to meet the hound at the head of the pack, a guttural roar announcing his assault. He lowered his head as he rushed forward, saw the beast try to sink its fangs into his shoulder only to get gored by Toruuk's horns before it could pierce his flesh. The demon hound shrieked and ichor flooded down into his face. With a grunt, the bull pulled his back straight and lifted the beast off the ground. He twisted and smashed its body into the closest wall of the maze, then began chopping relentlessly at its abdomen.

The whole exchange took only seconds and the creature had gone still. As quickly as he had scooped the thing up he shunted it from his horns, its carcass a half-mulched mess of gore.

"C'mon, better not let me take all the kills here!" He called back as the remaining hounds moved in to surround him and bite at his heels.

 

[Emery Thatcher]

As he and Toruuk reunited, it was not long until Xyrdithas came into view as well. He scratched his head at their strange reunion as it seemed he'd been running from something. Then came the warning. Emery clutched his blade tight unaware of what was to come. More of the demons he'd tried to pounce? The kid couldn't handle all that. He was luck to have warriors on his side as he would likely prove to be more of a distraction than anything else.

He watched as Toruuk took on the pack straight ahead, and really, it filled him with complete determination. He let out a victory yell and moved his feet.

"Show em' what's fer, ya fuckin' maniac!" He called towards the minotaur as he himself began to charge. He leapt forward and aimed to plunge his dagger deep into the top of one of the hounds with absolute accuracy and grace.

and yet...

​

The hound anticipated every one of his movements. It evaded him with ease and for a moment they locked eyes. A devil's signal pouring from it's horrid retinas. The beast lunged forward.

And took Emery's arm with it's mangled maw.

The thief stood their in shock for a moment. He felt no pain from the attack. The beast tossed his discarded limb to the ground and let out a howl reminiscent of a hyena's cackle. Emery looked to the beast and began to see stars. He felt faint.

He collapsed.

The unconscious Emery's shoulder stump poured blood from it profusely. A sign of death almost always. The young man convulsed in agony even without his consciousness. For a second there was silence. Then came the sound of a horrible laugh. One embedded in treachery and shadow. Emery's eyes reopened, completely pitch black.

"Finally."​

The stump where is arm was bubbled, and out shot a sleeveless and doused in liquid brand new one. Emery sat up from his laying position and cracked his neck. A twisted grin painted across his face. He looked towards the hound who'd harmed him.

"Excellent precision. Yet destruction of my host is unacceptable."

Emery's body than vanished into sound, reappearing atop the hound itself. His thumbs entered the eyes of the beast. It thrashed in a wave of suffering and fear yet it could not buck the possessed thief.

"I wonder what color your blood is, my kin." The voice was no longer Emery's. It was wispy and rough and shrouded in demonic energy. He shoved his fingers into the hounds snout and tore. Tore its head straight in half. Some of its blood ended up in Emery's mouth and he licked his lips clean.

"Now, who's next?"

​

 

[Draedamyr]

Draedamyr drew a long knife for his off-hand and flipped it into a reverse grip. He would have preferred a spear against such beasts, but at least two blades gave him more options.

He followed in the wake of the bull's charge. Another hound was sent tumbling as it failed to move aside in time. The agile elf was on it in a heartbeat, sinking the wicked dagger into its eye. For demon kind they were very...real things. Flesh and blood, brains and hearts.

One of the more powerful ones had assailed himself and Seska during their last incursion. A many-faced fiend that had turned several humans against their own kind. These were from the lower order of demon kind.

Emery's body than vanished into sound, reappearing atop the hound itself. His thumbs entered the eyes of the beast. It thrashed in a wave of suffering and fear yet it could not buck the possessed thief.

"I wonder what color your blood is, my kin."

"What the fuck?" hissed Draedamyr, drawing his knife free.

 

[Sarek Valaren]

Sarek sighed a sigh of relief when Farzad began to stir. If only because he wasn't sure he could make it through the maze alone at this point. He was a curious fellow, eccentric, loud and quirky. Talkative too. Everything about the man seemed odd and different, but Sarek would have to make do. They were stuck together now and he had a feeling it would take both of them to get out of this mess.

"Well, I hope you enjoyed your catnap." He paused, surveying the scene around him. The party was in disarray and Sarek was too engrossed in thoughts to hear Farzad's constant rambling. Party name? Mourning? Honestly, he wasn't entirely sure what was going on inside that man's head.

"The only difficulty is how do we get up there..." Sarek groaned, he had no idea where to go or what to do next.

"What's that thing... If you do every left turn in a maze you'll finish it" Or was it every right? He wasn't even sure if that was true, or if he'd made it up.

"I don't suppose you don't have a trusty, break out in case we're trapped in a maze, scroll in your gear?" It was a joke, but honestly, Sarek wouldn't have put it past the crazy wizard.

 

[Eren'thiel Xyrdithas]

Toruuk Stoneheart and Draedamyr wasted no time in dispatching another hound. Erën moved to Toruuk's other flank and slew a demon, drawing his swords up on either side and lunging to bring them down upon the demon in a cross.

It fell, and Erën shoved it with his foot.

"Now, who's next?"

His eyes panned over to Emery, and he snarled. How grotesque he looked, the hound's torn head in his hand, the blood spattered all over him. These damned demons were indeed from hell. The sound of Emery Thatcher's voice was enough to remind him of that.

A terrible fate... he thought, raising his blades to the thief, I will release you from this curse.

And he charged.

Farzad Oldsummer Sarek Valaren

 

[Xiahael The Unforgivable]

"Now, now, aren't we friends?" The slithering voice that had replaced Emery's stated. He flipped over a rushing Xyrdithas with ease and landed with their backs to each other.

"Do we not have a tower to climb, my dear comrade?" The voice chimed once more in an almost mocking tone. Followed by cackling of an extremely horrible nature. One of the remaining hounds came and latched onto Emery's arm once more. His face looked upon it still wielding that treacherous smile as the beast tore the thief's arm off once more.

"Tsk tsk tsk have you no other tricks?" The voice of Xiahael chided as the arm grew back instantaneously, and plunged itself through the temple of the hound. Yanking out its rotten brain and spiking it into the ground like it was fun to him. Another cackle came as it turned to face the rest of these demons.

"My friends here think I'm just like you, you mangy fucking mutts! Let me show you a true hound!"

Emery's hands clasped together and a ray of purple shot forth from his hands into the ground. A hole opened up where a gnarled hand climbed through the violet light. Out came a favorite of Xiahael's;

Oblivion's Best Friend.

An abominable dog shaped creature made from corpses and rotting flesh appeared and attacked one of the demon hounds without thought, tearing it completely to shreds. Emery's body clapped its hands together and looked to his allies.

"I believe I've killed three so far, what is taking the rest of you so long?" Another cackle from the haunted bandit.

 

[Farzad Oldsummer]

It was picture perfect. Sarek stood there pondering, Farzad was heading into the maze with that unbroken joy, about to head right before Sarek made mention of, 'every left' it was halfway through his step that he turned, his leg propped in an L shape as his boot twisted into the muck and mired dirty ground. He took less than ten steps before he stopped at the maw of the left exit, looking around the corner. "Nope dead end!" He responded, returning his stride back to Sarek with confusion lavishing his face, lip crinkled in annoyance.

He ran his fingers through his frazzled beard, clumps of blood fusing into long spindly tendrils that he broke as he forced his fingers through there mettle and defiance. "Hm... Hmm... Yes." He replied, a finger raised as he went into one of his pockets, pulling out what amounted to a sliver of text on paper. "But, actually. No." He replied, looking over the faded text, it was dragged ink and muddy, the lettering had lost every flavour of magic left, now nothing more than inaudible scribbles on cheap fabric. "Probably for the best. Last time I teleported I ended up five feet to my left and three feet in the ground. Teleportation is a tricky school of magic when you put it to paper." He replied, tapping his head a few times... there was a thought forming. The gears were shifting in his eyes, he fell silent for a few minutes, as if his whole body had been put on a reset.

"What if... What if we tracked where they had come from? They would have to be leaving tracks? Magic clearly isn't the best solution for this hedge." His words were crisp, cut and clear. There was no jubilance, no illusion of grandeur, he spoke halfway to a professor without emotion than the colorful charade he was before. "If we are lucky, this maze will only have one exit path... And if that is the case, it'd be like solving the maze but in reverse." He mused, looking at Sarek for his input in the matter.

 

[Toruuk Stoneheart]

With one demon hound chopped to bits and his allies quickly rushing to meet the others, this particular battle seemed won already (as was any battle Toruuk participated in when he lead the charge). The moment he had pried the corpse from his horns a second hound made a gnashing sprint for his leg. The champ quickly lifted his hoof off the ground and smashed the beast's head into the dirt in one fell stomp, just before it could sink its fangs into his flesh. The thing wriggled beneath his weight in an attempt to pry itself free. Toruuk responded by promptly bringing both of his axes down into the back of its neck. The wriggling ceased instantly.

Confidence surged with in the Minotaur, but as he turned to check the state of his companions, he heard a sinister, unfamiliar voice. The demonic tones of Xiahael emanated from his little rogue friend, and worse, another, more malformed monster had reared its disgusting head. An amalgamation of warped human flesh and limbs roughly in the shape of a predatory beast ripped through one of the smaller hounds. Toruuk was confused. Were they attacking their own?

"Oi, what the hell happened to the kid? Is this thing with us??"
He flourished his axes and prepared to strike. He didn't want to have to cut down an ally, but if he had been possessed it might be better to put him out of his misery. He addressed Draedamyr.
"What's the move here, boss man?"

 

[Sarek Valaren]

Sarek was confused. Were all mages just like Farzad? Sarek couldn't say for certain, he didn't remember much of his time in the college before his expulsion. Perhaps Farzad was concussed... No, that didn't seem right, he was strange before - and Sarek didn't particularly think he was any stranger now since the battle. This is what reading does to you, Sarek concluded, putting too many ideas into your head that you lose your own. Thankfully for Sarek, he had only learned to read a few moons ago, hopefully, that would prevent him from losing his mind like his companion here.

"Haha, we had someone try to teleport in the mire once, ended up morphing with a fly and becoming a human-fly. Had to put him down, great thorax meat though I'm telling you." He smiled, content with his contribution to the conversation. Most of his understanding of magic was rough, learned from the undesirables that wandered into his home, which left his knowledge full of gaps and technical understanding.

"Yeah, suppose that would work really. Shall we just wander about for a bit and see if we can pick up any trails?" He smiled towards Farzad. Then turned towards the remaining party-member who looked at him bemused and confused. Sarek turned back towards Farzad, giving him a thumbs-up, they all seemed happy with the idea. Good.

He paused, his brain working overtime. Sarek turned back to face the remaining, unnamed party member. The lone survivor of his group. His group of rangers. Rangers. The word floated in his head for a few moments before the connections began to form, suddenly, the universe blessed him with guidance.

"Farzad, you genius, we have ourselves a tracker with us." He beamed, turning towards the figure who, at this moment in time, seemed to absolutely abhor the idea of heading deeper into the maze. Thankfully, the uncomfortable sight of Sarek staring at him seemed to be sufficient to convince him to shift it. With that, he set off, beckoning them both to follow.

 

[Draedamyr]

"Now, now, aren't we friends?" The slithering voice that had replaced Emery's stated. He flipped over a rushing @Xyrdithas with ease and landed with their backs to each other.

"What's the move here, boss man?"

Xyrdithas

"Where is everyone? Converge on me if you can!" he cried out. Draedamyr lifted Reverie before him. In times like this the family heirloom was a comfort, was the backbone of his strength. It was an extension of himself. His way was of the sword, not magic.

He turned slowly towards the Minotaur. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the new abomination tear into the hounds.

"We kill all the demons," he said plainly. He turned towards Emery too to make sure that the pact was understood. They had the tower to attend to, but the demon in their midst would have to be eradicated first.

 

[Eren'thiel Xyrdithas]

Erën found himself suddenly on the other side of whatever the hell this thing was that used to be Emery. As quickly as he'd been placed there did he leap forward, and when his feet found ground again he turned sharply and brandished his swords taking a defensive stance. He watched in an uncertain horror as he summoned forth some ungodly beast, not too dissimilar from the foes they currently fought against.

His very presence had become abominable, almost more so than the sight of him. Erën looked upon him with an all too apparent contempt.

"We kill all the demons," he said plainly.

"Prove yourself to us and undo your wretched beast, and I shall not attack you," his eyes narrowed as he examined his gruesome figure, but it was nothing compared to the monstrosity he had called forth.

In the distance he could still hear the sounds of the tower's terrors whirling around them, and his patience began to grow awfully thin.

 

[Xiahael The Unforgivable]

An exaggerated sigh left Emery's stolen lips as his hand extended to disperse of the beast, it being sucked back into whatever nightmare portal he'd created earlier. It screaming in agony all the way down.

"That's one of the things about you mortals I'll never understand. Your conditions. I hatched a plan to exterminate your threat with ease and you treat me with contempt? Tsk tsk, little flesh bounds. May your prejudices lead you to your grave one day." Xiahael cackled post these words.

Emery's contorted body lunged itself at the last remaining hound. Again, in an almost invisible flash, Emery appeared beside the creature. He ripped the front leg off of the creature and put the appendage through the top of the hounds head, then took a seat atop its corpse, placing his chin into his hand while smiling at the gang.

"Curious it is how the thing you detest remorselessly did your job infinitely better than you. You were all so quick to turn on a comrade due to his transmuted form. I come to this world to see what makes mortality tick. I suppose it is laziness and blind obedience, no?"

Another cackle.

 

[Farzad Oldsummer]

Farzad nodded in agreeance a shake of his head by the end of the teleportation story, "Yes see, I hear those exact horror stories of the being morphed into creature hybrids and it seems great on paper but you never get what you want. Just too dangerous, sometimes it's better to just walk it." He replied, still standing at the only viable entrance.

Than Sarek, made a revelation, one Farzad hadn't realized, though played off as if he did, giving a wizened nod as if all was according to plan. He took up just behind their sole survivor, staff making sickly noise at it fell into the sludge of dirt and pried itself free, "Do you wonder what has become of the rest of the party?" Farzad mused to the trio, the Ranger was dismissive, ignoring him with his eyes drew into the thicket of the maze. He was about to mention how well they done before remembering the nameless help. He decided to put a pin in the conversation, instead falling into silence for a little and letting the events so far sink in.

 

[Sarek Valaren]

"Yeah it really was a tragedy, but it had been a particularly rough winter, so it couldn't have happened at a more opportune time really." Sarek smiled kindly, his voice warm and bubbly. He could kill for a bit of fly jerky right now, something to settle his stomach after everything they'd just witnessed.

"Well... They have the horse, cow, man thing... The scary elf, the second scary elf... and the fellow who speaks a dialect of common unknown to me - I imagine they're probably having the time of their life." He paused, a second thought taking root in his head and he shuddered. "Or perhaps they've already reached the tower and are venturing without us - we must hurry!" In a panic Sarek prodded the ranger with his staff, a brief exchange followed as Sarek asked, for what must be the 10th time in the last few minutes, are we there yet?

The ranger growled, said nothing, and continued through the maze. Eventually, however, the sounds of battle grew nearer and louder. The trio came out into a clearing only to be greeted with the sight of the group flanking Xiahael.

"Perhaps... We took a wrong turn?" He gulped.

 

[Toruuk Stoneheart]

Curious it is how the thing you detest remorselessly did your job infinitely better than you.

"Now I take exception to that." The bull snorted loudly, steam puffing from his nostrils into the night air. He shook an axe at the demon inhabiting Emery's body. "Say whatcha want about 'mortality' and 'prejudice', or whatever, but I was doing just great before you started puppeting my buddy around and summoning weird flesh monsters. Kill hog."

The Minotaur was nowhere near intimidated by this otherworldly presence. If anything, he was annoyed at the intrusion. He didn't much care about a person's origins as long as they had a sense of honor. This thing was far more focused on the kill than the fight, however.

"Maybe folks wouldn't be so quick to judge if you weren't so fuckin' weird and rude, ya bloodthirsty bastard. Emery wasn't too useful in a straight fight, but I'd take him any day over your annoying ass."

Toruuk didn't want to bother getting into a fight with the demon. He'd made his point and there were bigger and better things to get on to up ahead. It was time to tackle the tower proper, and no extradimensional puppeteer was going to get in his way.

"You all comin', or what?" He hollered back at the rest of the party.

 

[Xiahael The Unforgivable]

"So it seems I've worn out my welcome."

The voice of Xiahael rang out from Emery's lips as the two newcomers presented themselves. The twisting body of Emery stood atop the corpse of the demon hound and pointed a finger at the crowd he'd been with originally.

"I'll leave you all to your little games. Protect this, procure that, kill kill kill. Whatever tickles your fancy. You're all just like the boy." Another cackle.

A sharp tug in his mind thrust his face towards Toruuk. It was Emery. The boy wasn't conscious but his subconscious seemed to take note of what the minotaur had just said.

"You there, minotaur," He stated as he leapt onto a hedge in the maze. "Me and the boy depart today, but it seems he's taken quite a liking to you. He'll be reaching out to you with a proposition soon it seems. Some sort of adventure, who knows, it's all so mundane. It does mean that you and I will meet again though.

I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO IT."​

With that the entity and Emery's body fled into the night, abandoning the quest. Had Emery's consciousness remained he may have seen it through to the end. Xiahael determined the danger he and the boy were in was far from worth the hassle. The demon seemed to be able to leave the maze without issue, too. One last cackle could be heard echoing through the walls of this nightmarish place.

 

[Eren'thiel Xyrdithas]

"You all comin', or what?" He hollered back at the rest of the party.

Xiahael, nothing more than a body snatcher in his eyes, departed with little regard for their current charge - content to leave whatever monstrous evil this was to fester. But not he and thankfully, not the others either. He regarded Toruuk Stoneheart with an agreeing nod. He too had thought quite little of the strange spirit and likewise had preferred the company of the other - even if he had been but a thief like Erën supposed.

"Perhaps... We took a wrong turn?" He gulped.

Turn here, fight there.
​

Lightning split the sky, and Erën's eyes rose up onto the tower. Its dark figure invoked such emotion in him, such frustration. It symbolised so much of what he despised in this world, and with all that he had endured this past year alone - let alone the whole of his long life...

He found that he had had quite enough.

His eyes fell down upon the now reassembled party, such as it now was. There was a look of contempt in his stare. It was not for any of they, but more his silent answer to the sounds of the hounds' calling once more drawing near. He brandished his gemstone sword, and it radiated a brilliant blue light. It crackled, and vibrated in his grasp.

Brightly shining eyes turned toward the tower, and then fell upon the hedge maze just there.

"Enough of this," he declared, and he drew the sword across with a forceful swing, stopping it short pointed directly ahead. From it, a great beam of light shot forth, and blasted through the hedge. The light was propelled far by the fury of his frustration, hopefully bringing them to the base of the tower.

Draedamyr Farzad Oldsummer Sarek Valaren

If it didn't just grow over or some damn thing...​

 

[Draedamyr]

The thick dark coils of the maze recoiled from the light. It didn't make a particularly neat path, but Draedamyr could see all the way to the base of the tower.

He was glad to be done with the moral quandary of a demon in their midst. It hadn't been a difficult decision for him. He would tolerate none of their kind after seeing what they could do.

"Let's get this done," he grunted, wiping Reverie on the hide of a dead demon.



OOC/
The lower levels of the tower are quite empty. There are no lights, but heavy gothic masonry. No more hounds seem to be roaming the maze, but the mists swell up behind us.

 

[Sarek Valaren]

Sarek felt like he was gate-crashing. A lot seemed to have happened while he and Farzad were valiantly fighting for their lives against the foul demon dogs that hounded them. Regardless, he felt marginally safer now that he was back with the party and, in particular, now that the curious possessed thief had vanished.

While he certainly did not wish to cheat the maze, he did not enjoy the prospect of being cut off from the rest of the group and swiftly followed them through the crude makeshift path that had been carved through the overgrowth.

Eventually, he reached the base of the ominous tower and begun to skirt around the edges of the structure. It didn't take long until a vast wrought iron door became apparent, embedded into the hard stone wall. A quick shove with his shoulder was all it took for the entrance to swing open. An eerie screech followed the path of the door.

"So... Who wants to go first?" He smiled calmly. It wasn't so much fear that made him hesitant, it was more that he didn't think a hunchback would make for a good meatshield.