Mine Massacre! The RP!, [Starring: Children! and Barez!]

[Barez Damask]

On a rare warm winter's day, the party trudged through open road and countryside. On their right, towering thousands of feet into the air, the mountains of the Silverstrait Range loomed like needles, their summits barely perceptible through high clouds. Though the mountains were visible from Maristheum, they weren't impressive until a traveller came closer.

They were certainly close enough now.

It wasn't pleasant, but the weather was better than it had been for days. The old road was snow-free and the dry winds from the mountains had frozen out the mud, leaving it hard and traversable.

His horse picked its way through this hard, packed dirt. The mines were up ahead. Not far now...

They hadn't crossed a soul on their way up here. Two days in and no sign of life. No travellers passing in the day and no camp fires spotted at night. Just a lot of vast vistas, cold winds and broken roads. The mountains, while impressive, lost their appeal after two hard days of riding, and most the of journey was spent moving. By the time they arrived at the mines, they'd seen little in the way of action of danger.

While he was initially inclined to believe the stories of bandits and organized criminal cartels, he was less inclined now. Bandits always had scouts—and scouts were easy to spot. Scouts were also liable to raid, and Barez made sure their fires each night were large and impressive. Inviting even. He waited and watched—in fact, Barez hardly seemed to sleep at all—and nothing happened. No sounds. Nothing.

He glanced back at he four others he led. They were children, all of them. Recruits in every sense of the word. Miss Branth was there, which was a surprise, as was Miss Jyotis, which was less so. Barez had asked the latter to join him. A field trip he called it.

In the world of Barez Damask, that was the closest he got to a joke.

There were others too. A young recruit by the name of Seabourne—a bastard then. And there Miss Aresa, who seemed more green than the others.

Again: Children.

And they were going into something even Barez couldn't guess.

He wasn't the type to be troubled, but he was inching closer to that point. His brows seemed heavier somehow and his forehead creased a little as they crested the final hill to look down into an open pit that branched off into countless tunnels. They were here, and, like all reports, there was no one in sight.

Well, no one alive.

There were a few bodies. Not many, probably six or so. From a distance they seemed oddly disassembled, as if they'd been ripped apart. Barez was reminded of a table after a feast. Bones stuck out and the stench of meat was everywhere. But there were no animals, no birds to peck and pick at them. They were just there and that, finally, troubled Barez Damask.

“Stay alert,” he ordered.

And then Barez urged his horse forward, picking his way through the slope towards the open maw of the mine.

[Ari Branth]

Ow.

Ow.

Ow.

Her butt seriously hurt. She wanted to be a good person and worry about all the potentially dead people, but her butt hurt so bad from this freaking horse that it intruded on any and all attempts she made to being an empathetic human being.

Ow.

The horse didn't seem like it was making any effort to being easier to ride. Slowly, she began to resent it.

Towards the end, she felt like her butt was going into a coma, and wanted nothing more than to take a break and walk around to get some feeling back into it. As soon as that thought occurred, though, Barez spoke and her attention snapped to. Looking around in earnest, she tried to mentally prepare herself for some bad mojo. Releasing the reins one hand at a time, she tried to move her fingers around to shift the blood black into them.

She looked up at the dead bodies and went a little green in her effort not to puke.

[Qhori Jyotis]

Stay alert? Was there any other way to be when faced with such dire circumstances? And in such...unusual company?

When Master Damask had requested her to join him on the excursion, Qhori had felt incredibly honored, not questioning him for a second. And really, she didn't need to doubt his judgement -- it was that of everyone else in their assembly that gave her pause. It didn't matter how familiar she was with them. They were all still untested as soldiers, and barely trained as recruits. The High General was playing a very elaborate prank by sending them out here.

She was wary of their quest to begin with, and that concern increased tenfold when they finally came across signs of carnage and mayhem. It wasn't the dead that bothered her -- she'd pulled trinkets off corpses more fetid and putrefied than those -- it was the silence left in their wake.

All she could hear was the steady trot of their horses, clopping hooves rebounding louder and louder as they drew near to the open shaft. From the crest of the hill, one could see that the walls were broad enough apart for at least four of them to pass, but the ceiling was far too low for riding comfortably. Maybe a pony to drag a cart could have fit in that tunnel, but they hadn't ridden on pack horses accustomed to such confined spaces.

They would have to dismount outside. Qhori was glad for it, though. She was unknowingly as eager as Ari to get off her mount and back on her feet. Riding wasn't one of her greatest skills (horses were for those who could afford them, and she'd never been wealthy), though she'd tried to get herself accustomed to it over the past two days. As they met the final rise, the mage gave a light tug on the reins to bring the beast to an even slower pace in preparation for a stop on Barez's command.

[Aurelia Karun]

Two days has passed and she had yet to get tired of the scenery.

On the outside Aurelia was calm and composed but on the inside she was bouncing around like a toddler who had too many cookies. She couldn't even help it, this was all so new to her that being bored wasn't possible. She thanked whatever lucky star that allowed her name to be drawn out of all the random recruits who could have come on this mission. The others would not understand how she felt which is why she kept her energy to herself.

This would most likely be her first and last mission.

Aurelia was just happy to be on a mission even if it was dangerous and she wasn't properly trained. Her eyes lowered to the short sword strapped too her waist, it felt weird for it to be there because it was still hard for her to accept that this all was really happening. If she survived this than she would definitely come back stronger than she was before she left.

Horseback riding proved fun.

Her rear end would not agree but she wouldn't let it dampen her spirit in the least, nor would she let her company. Aurelia wasn't sure what to think of the make shift group they were. Frankly their Captain was intimidating and seemed like the unsocialable type. Then there was the mage girl, Aurelia would stay out of her way, she had no desire to be a frog. All that was left was Isa and Ari who she hadn't said anything too really, she wasn't supposed to know them when others were around so she acted that way.

Blue eyes locked onto the back of their Captain when he gave the command before glancing around the surrounding area. The fun trip was over and now it was time to be serious, she would not become a burden to them. Not this time.

[Isa Karun]

There are no words which could be used to describe Isa Karun's hell.

We shall attempt to, for the fun of it, anyway.

There are three names which could help shed a bit of light to his situation: Ari Branth (the little sister he was sworn to protect), Aura Aresa (the girl he was related by blood to, but knew the least out of all three) and Qhori Jyotis (let's not even go there).

No further information shall be given at this point in time.

He'd been sent on an investigative mission with three girls and the other Damask guy - Captain Damask, the battlemage. That's why the name sounded familiar - Qhori had told Isa about him. Two people could share the same name in the military and not be related - it was possible. However, judging by the lack of a sense of humour, an all-business attitude and a complete stinginess when it came to spoken word, Isa could safely assume that they were related.

~

For two days they'd been riding. That brought up his riding experience to an astonishing total of three days. To Isa's credit, horses liked him. Any decent smith's prentice was instructed as a farrier and being around horses was - shockingly - mandatory. That didn't save his ass, though. Whenever they stopped, he dreaded getting off his horse.

~

As they approached their destination, Isa couldn't shake the feeling that they were walking into a trap. The scenery around them seemed painted on, still and frozen, with no sign of animal life. The eeriness of it crept up, with chilling fingers, along his backbone as he expressionlessly looked around.

All was silent around the deathly scene before them.

Stay alert, needlessly said the Captain as they drew closer. The bodies almost looked like they had been especially arranged for the small party to find - arranged as a warning.

Go back, they seemed to say. Beware.

On Isa's inquiry, Damask had declared that they weren't expecting bandits. So, obviously, the question they had to answer was: who (or what) had done this?

As they slowed to a stop, Isa realised he didn't really care to find out.

[Barez Damask]

He slipped off his horse and immediately felt better.

But not by much.

He lifted a hand as he walked, an order for the others to halt—or dismount; whatever they saw fit. Miss Branth, at least, would know that as long as it wasn't a direct order to stay on her horse, she was free to do whatever she wanted. She could dismount or she could stay on. As long as she was prepared to deal with the consequences. The others, however...who knew?

Barez tied the reins of his horse loosely around a hitching post and proceeded towards the first of the bodies. They were arranged haphazardly, like a badly constructed puzzle. He crouched next to one of them and turned a head. The face had been ripped off. Eaten.

He pushed himself to his feet.

“Eaten,” he stated. In the bowl of the mine entrance, his voice carried an odd little echo.

Barez realized none of his troops were scouts—not by a long shot. For a second he longed for the competence of Galia Baryk, or one of the other Scouts in the military. But she was off investigating a town, and the others were too important to be wasted on a private citizen's mission. Pity. He could have used her now. She would identify the bite marks, and if Barez had any skill in such things, she would come to the same conclusion he did. Humans did this.

His boots crunched in the light snow and dirt as he walked back to the others. Then he stopped. His eyes glanced up towards the rim of the bowl. A second later they narrows.

“Miss Branth, please ready your bow.”

Then he stepped around the horses and planted himself a few feet between them and whatever he'd seen up there.

Lit by the fading sun, there were a handful of figures gathering on the edge of the hills surrounding the mine. Dark, vague figures that stood deathly still even as their clothing whipped around them. Then, after a brief pause, they began to move. Like ants scurrying down a mole hill, Barez saw five of them, with more coming to stand at the rim. Too many. They ran with a rolling gait that reminded Barez of birds before take-off. It wasn't normal—people didn't run like this.

“Mr. Seabourne,” Barez called behind him. “Scout into the mine with Miss Jyotis. See if you can find a defensible position. Miss Branth, Miss Aresa and I will be joining you shortly.”

Then, dropping one hand, Barez opened up his fingers and began to mutter a spell...

[Ari Branth]

Those were not animal bites. Ari pulled a face and hastily dismounted. She was in the process of tying the horse to the hitching post when Barez gave an order. Tugging the reins sharply to tighten them, she pulled her bow out and drew an arrow, trotting up to the mage to stand abreast of him, perhaps five feet away.

People.

Not the sort of people she really wanted running at her, to be honest. Gritting her teeth, she threaded her arrow through the bow and pulled it a little more than halfway, targeting.

She was shaking. Calm down, she ordered herself. Inhaling carefully, she reminded herself that there were people here she cared about. Everyone here, she cared about. Even Qhori, by extension of Isa. She waited for the shambling things to get within range.

[Qhori Jyotis]

As commanded, Qhori had stepped away from her horse once it was secured to the post, walking briskly (and sorely) to the mine's entrance. It was hard to see far within the cavern as the sunlight could only stretch so far, but there were unlit torches set into the walls already. Hopefully, their presence extended deeper inside the shaft, as that would make less work for her when it came to casting spells. She didn't look for Isa, expecting him to be following closely.

It was only as she set foot on the gravelly path that she turned to check behind her, and saw the strange swarm of black figures descending toward their group. They looked like...people? But not quite. Somehow, they were worse, and just the glimpse of them sent a shiver down her spine.

There was no time to delay. She reached for Isa, ushering him into the mine with one hand, while lifting the other. Under her breath, she whispered a Command, an orb of light springing from her palm. It hovered an inch above her skin before steadying in the air in front of them, illuminating the way forward.

[Aurelia Karun]

Isa and Q(what’s her face) investigate the cave! Ari man your bow! Aurelia!...stand there.

Way to make a person feel like they had nothing to offer on this mission, even if she also felt it was true. Aurelia said nothing as she dismounted from her horse following Ari and the mage girl’s example by tying her horse up. As she walked towards the cave she stopped by the bodies glancing down for a moment before moving on.

It was a disgusting sight but it didn’t bring her the shivers like it might for some of the others. She couldn’t explain it well but she wasn’t afraid, maybe because dying lost it’s meaning to her. As gloomy as it sounded she had nothing really to live for so why did it matter if she died. That really did sound gloomy…

Aurelia stood next to Ari glancing at her friend, the girl was shaking but she had no idea how to calm her down. Isa was probably better at that stuff than her, so maybe she would leave it to him. Throwing her bag over her shoulder she let her other hand fall to her short sword the way she had seen trained soldiers do.

Her eyes drifted behind to where their emotionless captain was only to move past him to some strange black figures. What were those? Failed mage experiments? Her eyes dropped to the corpses; maybe that’s what happened to them. Mages sure were scary and yet she was going into a dark deserted cave with two. Oh well, nothing to do but stand and wait for the captain to give the order to run.

[Isa Karun]

Eaten, he said. Eaten.

Fantastic.

Isa didn't ask by what - he didn't have time to.

Very soon, he was hoping he hadn't found the answer.

As soon as he'd tied his horse, the Captain gave him an order. Glancing back, he noticed the figures descending from above. It was against his every instinct to leave Ari and Aurelia there, but Qhori snapped him back to the task at hand and he slipped into the darkness alongside her silently.

His sword was out - when had that happened?

To his right, Qhori whispered and light blossomed from her palm. Only a split second was spared to glance at it, wide eyes trying to comprehend how light could dance on human skin. Then he pushed forward. Years of sneaking around made his pace light and soundless.

The tunnel was large enough, but Isa was sure it would get smaller. The idea of having to hunch through didn't appeal to him, but between that and getting eaten... no contest. Stories told of mines branching out like labyrinths, treacherous to the unknowledgeable. Not the most reassuring thought.

[Barez Damask]

They came.

Their loping, odd gait made them surprisingly fast, and they came in a rush. They were human—they looked human—but they weren't...right. It was a hard definition to make. One that wasn't solidifying in his mind. And that was bothersome.

Barez released his spell, his hand snapping forward with the final whisper.

What came was ice.

It erupted in the air, crackling and hissing as it formed long, narrow projectiles. These spears hovered for a few seconds, as if waiting. Whispering another spell, Barez pushed them, striking them out at two of the...things. The spears struck with a punch, and the sound of fabric and skin being skewered was both reassuring and cold. The spear-points rammed into the ground behind the two attackers, effectively pinning them to the ground.

In most cases, the attackers would have died. No one took a skewering and lived easy, but what happened next just confirmed his deepest suspicions. Both attackers, as if in unison, grabbed the ice spears and began pulling them themselves off, snapping the ice and showing no flickers of pain. They weren't even blinking. They just broke themselves off, bleeding and leaking, and continued striding forward. At the exact same pace as before.

His brows twisted over his the bone of his skull. Barez then took a moment to call out to Qhori.

“Moving faster would be much appreciated, Miss Jyotis.”

He didn't move though. The two girls were still with him, and though he was only peripherally concerned for their overall well being, Barez Damask wasn't the type to lose men (or in this case, women) during a mission; no matter how incompetent they were. They would just have to live.

Drawing his sword, he advanced to meet the first of the undying.

[Ari Branth]

She loosed her first arrow.

It embedded in the thing's eye, just by chance -- and still it came, clawing the arrow out. Horror stole her breath for a second. Then she drew another arrow and shot it. And another. She couldn't stop, and paused only long enough to aim around Barez.

She managed to blind two of them, at least. They were still up and running, but flailing mindlessly.

[Qhori Jyotis]

Plunging further into the depths of the mine, Qhori kept one hand on her warded dagger (the one she'd bought from the smithy what felt like ages ago), and the other at the kit tied to her waist. Much as she wanted to look behind her, hearing the sounds of warfare, turning would have been counter intuitive to the spell she'd cast. The incandescent orb was suspended before them, fluttering and bobbing like some sort of lightning bug, following the motion of her head and always staying in front of her.

They couldn't go back anyway, though Qhori knew how hard it must have been for Isa to move along with her instead of standing his ground beside the rest. Barez had given her an order and she'd promised to obey. Find a defensible position. Whatever that meant; maybe it made sense to a soldier, but not quite to her. She hadn't advanced to military tactics, yet.

"Watch your head," she murmured in Parasi, just barely ducking beneath a dripping stalactite herself. From there, just beyond the edge of her light, she could see the tunnel begin to branch off into two separate forks. She gave a sideways glance to Isa, "Which way?"

[Isa Karun]

How should he know? The best answer was to split up, but he didn't want to leave her alone and he'd be lost without her very awesome light, anyway. "Left," he muttered. "Keep your voice down," he also added. "If this is a trap, we must be quiet."

He pointed to the left, praying with all his mind he wasn't leading them into their doom. "Defensible point. Needs to be narrow. Preferably with only one entry," he muttered, quickening his step even more. He was skulking, really, but it felt natural - he'd done that whilst on roofs, so it wasn't much different.

The pathway seemed to carry on forever. Both did. As far as he could see, they had no end. He quickly undid his scarf and left it at the entry point to the left side. "We want them to find us, right?" he asked, with a smile, then hurried forward.

[Qhori Jyotis]

Qhori nodded at his explanation. One entry, narrow. Like a cave within a cave. That made sense. And she supposed Barez, when he followed them, would be able to set up some sort of stronger defenses, but she could at least establish a protective barrier with a temporary Ward on the ground.

Trusting Isa's (arbitrary, though she didn't realize it at the time) sense of direction, the mage turned left, glancing back at the scarf he'd left. Dire as their situation was, she couldn't help smiling back, brow arched. "Not enough clothing to leave everywhere," she remarked, pausing in her step.

Her hand went to the small satchel at her side, slipping her fingers inside to blindly feel for the right object. A few seconds later, she pulled out a small piece of white chalk and passed it off to the recruit. The carved walls were rough, but they had enough smooth planes to hold a crude marking. All she had to hope was that those creatures outside were too dumb to be able to read them.