witchesreign | SeeD field exam

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SeeD field exam

Incongruous architecture and reports of suspicious noise around ruins recently unearthed on a Trabia farm have led the local town council to suspect off-world involvement. SeeD has been hired to provide a thorough safety assessment of the site, with an eye for potential future development.

[The town council, who hired SeeD for this mission, have supplied a check list for Namur and Maria to refer to, things like monsters, structural integrity, and other hazards. Amid whining about the overnight appearance of these ruins "DEVASTATING!!" his potato crop and some sideeying of Namur, the farmer with sudden ancient ruins on his farm has shown them to the entrance, handed them flashlights, and gone back to his work.

[The entrance is actually a small cave, half-sunken into the ground; Trabian excavators have dug up enough of the earth around it to get inside. It's dark and dusty inside, but well away from the entrance, one can start to make out what may have once been a city (note: visual guide for architectural style and atmosphere only, not layout) in the stone, about ten metres down: Crumbling walls of a blue stone not found in Trabia, ornate stone doors in the most solid-looking wall with a sign carved nearby, worn pavement in that same blue stone, the ends of clay pipes sticking out of the ground, large boulders dotted around the area.

[There happens to be a ladder down to this level, though one that's seen better days.]

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[They haven't gone in the water because what the hell is going on what is Namur even doing if they go down there they will drown!]

That's understandable, but we have a job to do, and even if we wanted to back out, it appears to be much too late to do so.

[She's on edge, even in a half-crouch, as that noise sets off every alarm bell in her head. Maria is convinced that something bad is going to happen any second now...]

[The contents are almost all innocuous, if by this point decidedly nasty: a couple of little notebooks drenched beyond legibility, spare pencils, the disintegrating remains of a ham sandwich, a leaflet for an upcoming symposium in Deling City, a camera, a Trabian passport and some pretty recently-printed train tickets...

At the very bottom, there's a large lump of dusty, greyish-purple stone. You could probably knock somebody out with it. Stuck underneath that is a slightly yellowed little photograph - the details are probably hard to make out down here, but there are a couple of fairly young men holding hands in the foreground, and both of them are smiling.

One of the loose pages, by now waterlogged enough to resemble more of a twisted-up fibrous strand than a sheet, drifts out of the bag as soon as it's opened - and disappears into the plaque beside this doorway.

Davies, up top, is still squirming.] Of... course, of course... [He really doesn't want to get in the water, but he's not keen on running into another mob of rats, either...]

Oh, shit.

[Namur shuts the satchel as he grabs after the paper, and realizes there's another one of those... disappearing rock things. This time he feels around inside a little, so if there's a self-destruct button... he probably just pushed it.]

[Maria would be lying if she said she liked all the turns this path has taken herself, but she isn't in charge so she is going to keep playing loyal soldier. She peers into the water as if she could somehow see Namur -- going down after him is probably a terrible idea without Davies, but staying up here seems to be getting worse every moment too...]

[He definitely pushed something. With a clunk, the straining of the floor down below seems to intensify -

- and then, abruptly, stops. But silence doesn't reign for long; from the very bottom of the pool, there's another mechanical roar. Though no visible drain of any kind has opened up, steadily but surprisingly quickly, the water level is dropping - as if it's sinking right through the solid floor.]

[Thaaaat's creepy as hell. Namur shoots out of the quickly receding waterline and rolls when he lands on dry ground, spinning as he does to face the place where the pool used to be.]

Ain't ever seen that happen before.

[Then he squints- or maybe scowls- over at Maria and Davies.]

The hell's up with the two a y'? Don't tell me Davies's allergic t' water or somethin'. Like it matters anymore anyway. Let's go.

[And he heads back to the doorway, now dripping but no longer submerged.]

[The floor is damp and unpleasantly slippery, but Davies hurries across it and into the darkness of the stairwell with no ill effect. Since Namur shut the satchel right away, he doesn't know it was opened, and so he doesn't seem much paler or more worried than he already was. ...Not that he's exactly raring to go, either; he just suspects one of them is going to bodily pick him up and hoist him over their shoulder if he doesn't follow of his own accord, and he's close enough to throwing up as is.]

Goodness, what just happened?

[The water hasn't quite made it all the way down the stairwell yet if one of them pushes ahead, but it's loudly draining at the same steady rate. Now there's just the blocked door down below to contend with...

And a patter of tiny feet, somewhat further off.]

Namur took care of the problem.

[Yes, Maria is totally playing to Davies like this had been the plan all along. And his belief is entirely correct. She stops not too far down, so she still has a decent view of the room they left behind.]

Watching our rear, Namur.

Yeah... 'bout that...

[Oh, he hears those little pitter patters, and jerks his head toward them. Namur double checks that he's got Ifrit junctioned as his elemental attack.]

Shit, gonna have company 'gain. Hate rats. Always a million where y' see one. Davies! Stay 'tween me an' Maria an' if I hear y' screamin' like a li'l girl I'mma gag y'. Headin' down stairs first. Think I might know how t' get the damn rocks out the way without collapsin' the walls but be ready t' run if the water comes back instead. Let's go.

[He claps Davies on the back, still kind of wet from his swim, then slides over the muck on the ground like a kid in slush.]

[Excuse you, Namur, he screams exactly like a weedy, bookish professor who hasn't done a huge number of field studies since he hit the wrong end of middle age. Or he would, if clamming up and just traipsing along behind Namur didn't seem like a marginally more attractive option at the moment.

On the other hand, he's not particularly good at clamming up.]

Er - when you say company, do you mean to say down here...? [It seems unlikely, given that the whole thing only drained moments ago (and indeed, there's barely any scent of them to be picked up), but when he can't see more than a few feet through the stifling darkness or smell anything besides the stale air, he doesn't really want to take his chances.]

We've opened a new path. It would be foolish to assume others won't want to use it too. Give a shout when you've got that door, Namur.

[She draws both her gunblades, standing proud in the drained tunnel behind the other two and facing the rear.]

WHOA SHIT!

[Thump, rumble, crash. Namur skids over the edge and slides down the stairs like a boss. He hurts in a bunch of places but it's nothing major, and he starts laughing.]

Damn, that's top scores for grace an' agility right there. Ow. Watch yer step Davey-boy!

[He picks himself up gingerly and sticks his hand in the weird plaque, feeling around inside until he finds the button at the back and pushes it.]

Argh! [He could have said that before yelling and frightening the life out of the poor archaeologist, who flinches so dramatically he almost jumps into Maria's gunblades. He manages to keep his balance on the slimy steps somehow, though.] Goodness! ...Erm, are you all right?

[Even if that might not be the best descriptor, the three of them are at least safe for now - there's still nothing down here but that pile of rubble blocking what might be a doorway ahead. Nothing happens when Namur sticks his hand through the image of the plaque, either; the button behind it won't go in any further however hard it's pushed.

Well, nothing except for some faint, high-pitched chittering gradually fading into earshot, joining the patter of small footprints somewhere in the middle distance. But that probably isn't directly linked.]

[That noise from Maria is just her facepalming, making her gunblades clatter faintly.]

What's making those plaques look like they're their when they're not, Namur?

Hell if I know. Figured y'd be the one with ideas. But this one ain't workin'...

[Maybe if he pulls the button out?]

[The button is firmly sunken into the wall and doesn't seem like it'll budge short of ripping the stone out entirely. Which is fascinating and all, but probably not as much as the deafening bellow that suddenly rumbles through the entire stairway, more felt than heard, knocking a few smaller chunks of rock free and sending them skittering across the floor - not enough to squeeze through, but maybe just enough to squint through. ...At least, if it wasn't almost pitch black down here.

Both that roar and the GF-like mammalian presence from before are much, much closer by now... but the latter still seems to be flickering in and out of existence, inasmuch as that's possible for just a smell.

A few moments after it dies down, there's another wooden thunk from somewhere up ahead.]

Wonder if that's 'nother one a them damn coffins...

[No time to think much about it, the hunt is coming near to an end. Namur checks around the small openings, trying to dislodge some of the other rocks around them and make them bigger. His fingers keep slipping off the scum covered stones, and he swears profusely under his breath. Getting frustrated, he jams his head into the hole, biting at the rocks with jaw strength that can shatter metal.]

Another...? [Yep, Davies is still here, and still nervously hanging back a bit.] It, er, sounded rather more like a monster to me... I say, what are you hoping to do down here, again?

[The rocks are tightly packed together despite their slipperiness, but the years haven't been kind to them. Being able to clear a few of them out shouldn't be as much of a problem as ducking in time once their brethren start to topple down.

The hallway beyond, damp and slimy but in layout not so different from the one Namur and Maria originally found Davies in, remains empty for now. Notably, it isn't flooded. That pattering of feet and the smell of rats can't be too far away, though.]

Namur, did you break through to where they're all at?

[She isn't taking her attention off the tunnel they came down, but damn if things seem to be getting worse!]

[When everything started coming down around him, Namur curled in around himself and hopped back, grateful in a way that Davies was proving to be so timid, as it kept him out of harm's way this time. He got hit by a number of the rocks, but he's been through worse. He pulls his feet out of the rubble and perches on top, bouncing a little to settle things and make a mostly safe passage for the humans.]

Seems like! Come on down, we're headin' through!

[And that is exactly what Namur does, poking his head into the hallway first and turning it from one side to the other, determining where the rats are, trying to find the damn GF in the midst of it all, then slipping the rest of his body through.]

[Even though nobody seems to be listening to him, Davies again elects not to push his luck. He slips through the new gap after Namur - easily, as you could guess from how weedy he is without his bag - and squelches into the long, pitch-black hallway beyond.

Still unnoticeable to anyone but Namur, the scent of the GF wafts through the rank air from further down the hallway.]

Er, are you sure? Those beasts could be anywhere -

[He's wrong, though.]

Aah!

[The little crude spear that zips past an inch away from his nose and thunks onto the damp floor somewhere out of sight could only have come from the
opposite direction to that strange, flickering smell. And if that wasn't enough of a clue, the dozen or so Rat Soldiers suddenly charging out of the darkness with shields at the ready probably should be.]

[Maria eels through the gap after Davies, her jaw set. Rat soldiers on one side, and whatever Namur seems to be heading away from on the other... She doesn't like this, but she knows Namur can handle himself in qa fight easily. That continues to leave her at the rear until ordered elsewhere.]

[Namur rounds on the rats, sighing.]

Y' got jus' this many, right? Somethin' big's over this way, so that's where we're headin'. Don't take too long, a'ight? C'mon, Davies, shit's gonna get hot 'round here an' I don't want y' gettin' set on fire.

[Namur heads down the hall toward the flickering GF smell, moving cautiously. He doesn't want to leave Maria too far behind, but he wants to hurry forward, too.]

[Disoriented from the near miss, but fully agreeing that he doesn't want to be set on fire, Davies hurries after him.

The Rat Soldiers aren't keen to let them escape that easily, though. As the loosely coordinated platoon swoops in, several of them break away from the pack in pursuit, hoping to batter their way past Maria with their oddly polished-looking wooden shields. The rest, spears out, go right for her stomach without a scrap of self-preservation instinct.

Up ahead, far from the current commotion, there's another roar - and then a crash, one that shakes the walls. Whatever's down there, it's getting agitated...]

Incoming, Namur! There's too many to stop easily!

[Well, there's only one real thing to do in this sort of situation, against this sort of numbers. Maria flings up an arm and begins summoning Ifrit, letting the GF's HP take the blows meant for her while she buys the seconds needed to bring it out.]

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