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Bright Journey It's a cloudy, drizzly grey morning, just at the crack of dawn, that sees a small knot of people at the mouth of an alley in the Temple District in Great Forks. Most of the previous crowd has dispersed, fortunately, but there's a few stragglers, perhaps the ones that don't have to get to work this morning, still milling about. That knot stands at the forefront of a violent mystery; a murder without most of a corpse and a trail of blood and magic that leads further down the alley. Whoever it was didn't care about coins and didn't care about leaving a mess, clearly, but other than that the only way to make sure it doesn't happen any more--and rumors across the city make one thing this is far from the first victim--is to track him down and finish him off.

Bright Journey is just finishing up dealing with the guards who've just arrived, and turns towards the rest of the group, a more serious look on her features than she normally has. She looks at everyone else meaningfully, one at a time, then, nods firmly. "I think we've done everything we can here. I don't know how dangerous the man--or whatever--we're hunting is." She grins a bit. "But I think with all of us, we're going to be a lot more than he can handle! If we're all ready, I guess we can start off. Shall we?"

Spring Wind "Oh, but I am only a little rat posing as a human!" Spring says with mock drama, her apparel of choice reflecting her far more shady Rat Queen persona. "Woe is-... OK, you know what? That joke is getting a little stale. I agree though." she adds, looking to Journey.
Reforged Resurgence Resurgence glances at his armor, dusting it off slightly. Then he turns his attention to the dagger at his side, drawing it and checking its edge methodically before sheathing it again. He takes a few hops in place, making sure his backpack stays with him. He then looks up to Bright with a nod. "Ready and waiting."
Amethyst "Starting off sounds like an excellent idea. I've all my gear" The young alchemist steps forward, and her blood whip is still glistering and just sort of moving with no real purpose or direction. "And I'm prepared for whatever is coming. Sooner we go, the better." And she glances towards the others.

With tattoos that stretch much further than just her arms, going down her legs as well now. All in the same shimmery rainbow color. And maybe those eyes of hers look just a little bit more like the coming storm than like a peaceful ocean.

Silk Moon Lotus Silk nods to Bright and checks her leather fighting gloves to make sure they are in place. "At least we know what we are hunting this time. Amethyst's pick me up potion seems to have done the trick. I feel like I just got up." She looks to Rishi "Ready when you are."
Rishi Rishi nods, her long silken hair sliding across her shoulders as she does so. She looks around, then pitches her voice that sounds of song and honey low so that none outside the group may hear. "This attack was being done by a large demonic spider and I am having found it's scent. Shall we be off to hunt it?"
Fudou the Mountain Now this..is an interesting crowd. One that has caught the attention of a what looks to be an old looking but still fierce eyed hawk that has perched atop a tall roof overlooking the murder scene with the casual observation of a..well..a bird! It's not supposed to have any clue or interest in these sort of going ons right? Not beyond noticing the blood and remains that is.

Either way it remains perched and present if not actually part of the group. Because it's a bird.

Bright Journey At this point, there's no more percentage in staying put. As the party moves forth down the alley, switching from banter mode to hunting mode, it can't help but draw the curiosity and concern of the people still left watching the proceedings. Six people, some of whom are clearly sporting dangerous armor or weaponry, already know each other and are working together to hunt down what appears to be a supernatural threat. It's impossible to avoid certain conclusions being drawn, and impossible to keep the rumor mill from spinning up at this point.

Not long after the party has traveled down the alleyway and around a dingy corner, Bright holds her left arm out and a splinter of glimmering moonlight resolves into an ornate powerbow of moonsilver and bone. Two quivers appear at her shoulder and hip to accompany, and Bright Journey looks a little more ready to face a demon spider than before.

The trail winds through dark, forgotten alleys and filthy side streets, keeping without fail to the darkest shadows and most remote corners. It's hard to tell without having an exact notion of the length of the thing's legs, but it seems like it's been moving at a good clip. There's enough blood that the trail can be followed, but it's not as if the creature is bleeding--it had simply stepped in, or perhaps skittered through, a blood pool. This means that those bloody prints are fading fast and to follow this trail to the end will take a little more than a simple morning stroll.

Bright Journey As the party moves along, Rishi sniffs forward mightily, but scent is not quite as much of an advantage in a garbage-choked city as it is in the wilderness. Despite being led astray by her nose, she still manages to do a decent job tracking alongside everyone else. Amethyst, however, notices that one scratched wall, that one freshly fractured wooden beam, that no one else does.

And with that last, tiny piece of information, the party slips past one final side street and into a dead end alley. Dust, leaves and trash are scattered here and there in this roughly 50 foot alley. There's a couple boarded up back doors, none of which look to have been opened in at least a decade. Grime is caked on everything, and the best source of light here in this narrow alley is still Amethyst's concoction, an alchemist's torch if ever there was one.

Bright looks down the alley, biting her lip in concern. "Are we sure this is the right direction?"

Amethyst Amethyst looks towards the wooden beam, brushing it with a wrapped hand. "This is pretty fresh. But." She turns her attention towards the end of the alley and lack of anything. And then she looks up. "Do you think it might've climbed out of here?" She looks at the wooden beam again.
Rishi Rishi closes her eyes for a moment, allowing essence to fill them, so that when she opens them again the secrets of the spirit realm are laid bare. At which point she cotinues to search forth for the distinctive scent of malfeas or any glimpses of spirits that think they're hiding.
Reforged Resurgence Resurgence looks to Amethyst and grinds his teeth. "Maybe." He turns to address everyone else. "I know we can all trust each other further than we can throw each other, but...does anyone think they can throw me if it actually got up there?"
Fudou the Mountain Apparently being a bird and having a birds eye view of things isn't very helpful. Either that or this bird is just bad at being a bird.

It does manage to track the group from high above though, keeping up with them as they make their way through the labryinth of rooftops. Finding them after they occasionally disappear under tarps and coverings that hang between the buildings before seeing them again once they are out in the open. When things look like it's beginning to get harder and darker for them, the hawk descends and alights atop another high roof to observe.

Just an investigator hawk. Nothing to see here.

Silk Moon Lotus Silk puts her spear away and wills the oricalcum blades to extend from her fighting gloves. She then glances around and the light reflecting from her eyse intensifies. Silk drops to a low crouch as if expecting an ambush.
Spring Wind Glancing over at Amethyst, Spring's eyes light up. "Ooooooh, nice ink." she says with a nearly audible grin beneath her mask. "Can't be standard tats, we'll have to talk about that later though they look really interesting." she says, then pauses. "-Oh! Yeah, the blood trail. Whurp." she says, suddenly switching the topic. "So what do we /really/ know about this thing anyway?" she asks, "Any prior incidents? I came to follow the sound of violence and fear myself."
Bright Journey Those party members using supernatural detection can definitely see, or in this case smell, a generalized whiff of spicy Malfean odor on the wind. This is the right place, but the demon spider as far as anyone here can tell doesn't lurk above. There are no indications whatsoever of it climbing high. Surely something of that weight, materialized, would have broken something. Some crown molding, perhaps.

Regardless, the demon spider's path out of here is not obvious. Perhaps a more thorough search is in order...

Amethyst Amethyst considers the evidence already present, it's some sort of demon, and the trail ran cold here. It's also clear that it didn't go into the rooftops, and this alley is a dead end. Maybe she's read something somewhere or heard something from Rishi about these sorts of demons, or maybe about demons in general, that could give her a hint as to where the spider went.
Reforged Resurgence Searching for signs in the dust and leaves, Resurgence keeps his eyes to the ground and scans carefully. This spider has legs, thus it has feet. It has feet, thus it leaves footprints as it travels. And it definitely traveled this direction, somewhere..
Silk Moon Lotus Silk takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly as she slowly states to look at everything in minute detail. Her eyes missing nothing, her nose smelling the urine from the drunks that stumbled through a few hours ago. Her ears picking up the sounds of her companions breathing and the acceleration of their hearts as the frustration starts to set in. She pushes them all aside looking and listening for that something that is out of place.
Spring Wind Twitch. Sniffsniff. Spring is kneeling down at the blood trail, lowering her mask just a bit to allow her nose unobstructed access to whatever the blood and the area around it smells like. "What passed this way?.." she mutters to herself, lunar tell whiskers twitching amidst her focus.
Fudou the Mountain They seem stuck.

Not that he's been particularly helpful. Giving the hawk's equivalent of a 'sigh', the bird takes to the air once again, this time opting to try and actually use its talents versus the sort of lazy ill-focused following it has been doing. Once again it begins a pass over the area, eyes sharply studying and looking for signs of any clues to the location of the target of this elusive hunt.

Bright Journey After it's become clear that the anuhle isn't actually hiding and getting ready to pounce, the party sets to work. Their quarry -was- here, wasn't it? Seems to not be in question.

So where did it go?

Several of the party members begin carefully searching while others call on their gifts of reason or perception and carefully scan the premises. Bright, Spring, and RR unfortunately search in vain. Rishi can be reasonably certain there is no magical illusion or something similar hiding anything, and she, Fudou and Amethyst are beginning to see the pattern. It didn't climb out, it didn't dematerialize, it isn't still here. No illusions. There's only one real option left, camouflage. This alley isn't actually a dead end.

And then, Silk's sharpest gaze and analytical mind come together in harmony, a reflection of the perfection of the Unconquered Sun Himself. Every shimmer of light from Amethyst's concoction, every line and angle of every leaf on the ground analyzed in minute detail finally reveals to Silk's eye the cleverly concealed trapdoor built into the very ground itself, up against the back wall of one of the side buildings. The mechanism to open it is similarly obvious to her divinely inspired sight, one brick near one of the shuttered doors with just the slightest scratch marring its grimy exterior.

What lies below?

Silk Moon Lotus Silk shakes her head at the solution as she walks over to the brick. "I believe this will open that trap door." Silk points to a spot up against the back wall of the area. "Everyone be ready" Silk pushes on the brick to cause the door to open once more.
Amethyst Amethyst is pacing along when she considers the idea that there's a hidden passage somewhere in this alley. As she's about to speak, Silk pushes the brick. And she straightens up, calming her breath, calms herself in the same way she does before casting her magic, and focuses. Her whip unfurls and she stands with eyes like a threatening storm, waiting for whatever might be lurking beneath.
Reforged Resurgence Resurgence stops his search for tracks upon hearing Silk, and gets into position beside Amethyst before drawing his dagger. He's done this a million times before, and he'll do it a million more.
Fudou the Mountain o O (Clever girl..) muses the bird to itself, thinking very un bird like thoughts.

The hawk goes to observing with epic observational skills and cinematic preening. This is a large hunting party. Surely the prey has no chance. At the moment Fudou, seems disinclined to intervene for what worth is a battle with no challenge? They won't grow stronger from intervention that will coddle them after all. Or so he reasons.. He still can't help but feel lightly on edge now and as such the hawk actually leans forward slightly, peering down at the group as the door begins to open... Anticipation where there should be none.

Bright Journey The trapdoor opens in utter silence, a complete anticlimax compared to the proper creaking noise it -should- make. The cleverness of the camouflage can't be overstated, though: It's certainly large enough for a demon spider of considerable size, yet so cleverly built that the lines of the door follow the contours of leaves and stones on the ground, covered in dust and more leaves. Nothing emerges, though, when the door opens downwards. It yawns wide into the black ness below, awaiting new visitors.

Rishi cannot be certain what variety of anuhle this is, but it's definitely a larger and heavier variety, and it is absolutely one she has not yet encountered.

By now, it is probably obvious that a certain hawk overhead has been following and watching in a most un-hawk-like fashion for quite some time now.

Amethyst Upon the anticlimatic opening. the Alchemist relaxes her stance, exhales, and her ears relax too. She peers a little closer, but her ears twitch. She's been listening to this bird circling them for some time, and now her attention is drawn upwards towards it. "Is it just me, or is that eagle following us?"
Rishi Looking at the trap door and the potentially space inside, Rishi tilts her head, hair flowing over her shoulders like black silk,and sighs. "As I cannot be telling you more of the nature of this demon, I think that I shall be of much more use to all of you in another form. Please wait one moment."
	 Rishi breathes in and out as scales and feathers form over her body, she hunches over as her feet split apart into large and dangerous looking claws, and her face extends out into a dangerous looking jaw full of sharp teeth. After a moment later, a Claw Strider stands where Rishi once was present.
Reforged Resurgence Resurgence taps Amethyst's shoulder with his free hand. "Don't let it know we know," he hisses. "If they're a friend, they'll approach us and say hi. If they aren't, they'll approach us and attack. The safest option is to assume the latter."
	 Ready for whatever might pop out of the trapdoor, he takes up a stance, refusing to let Rishi's sudden change in form break his concentration.
Silk Moon Lotus Silk glances at Rishi and Spring "A feathered friend of your's?" She looks up at the wayward bird. "You might as well join us down here. I'm afraid the tunnel below will be much more difficult for you to maintain that sort of elevation. Besides, we can always use the assistance of another touch by Luna."
Silk looks down into the darkness with her essence enhanced vision trying to judge just how far down the hole goes.
Spring Wind "Huh." Spring says, "Silent... Seems someone was preparing this." she observes, "Careful maintenance means no noise." she adds, speaking in somewhat low tones.
Bright Journey Bright Journey frowns as she peers uselessly into the hole. She holds her bow forward, the shining gem mounted on it providing a little more illumination fortunately. She grumbles a bit, though, frowning as she tries to look inside. "Honestly, I can't see a thing from this angle. I think we'll have to head in to get a better look..."

Bright's voice trails off as she realizes everyone is not even looking at the hole. She looks at everyone, then at the hawk they're looking at. "Huh. I didn't notice that before. I don't suppose any of you have a hawk friend...? Familiar? Or maybe it's watching us for our enemies. Not like we don't have enough."

She lays an arrow across her bow, but does not draw it. Yet.

Reforged Resurgence Glancing...and perhaps glaring...into the darkness, Resurgence stays poised. "Well?...Anyone see anything in there? And if not, anyone willin' to toss a torch in?"
Fudou the Mountain Whelp the jig is up.

The hawk spreads wings and then descends for the alley behind the group. As it nears the ground it seems to somehow ..unfold itself. Changing colors, growing in size..growing in size..growing in size..size...size...uh..yeah this is a big one.

Only a few here have actually met Fudou before. For the others his arrival is something akin to a small earthquake deciding to pay attention to you. His outrageously immense physique rumbles fully into view.

Moonsilver armor drapes into view, a sleevless jacket and armoring along form fitting leggings and a wide belt causing the behemoth to appear more like some sort of epic strongman, made even more apparent as the column sized grand goremaul weaves its way into view from elsewhere, also gleaming in protean silver.

"Are you going -in- there?" he rumbles, deep voice vibrating in the alley as he lifts a hand up and points a finger as thick as a childs arm in the direction of the hole.

Rishi The Claw Strider waves in Fuduo's direction, a general hello, before turning her attention back to the trapdoor. She blinks for a few moments, before she remembers that, unlike her normal body, Claw Striders do not see well in the dark. She gives an annoyed sounding huff, before going over to the trap door and hopping down inside, lighting up her castemark as she does, to fill the shaft with a diffuse silver-blue glow, like moonlight reflecting off the water.
Amethyst The little dragon looks up, and up, and up at the immense figure that's formed from the eagle. Earsback. Yep. That's a Lunar. She looks around nervously for extra eyes in the area, just in case someone could spot them. But alas, she sees none, and turns her attention back towards the Lunar. And she focuses for a moment, deciding that since /everyone else/ seems to be obvious about things, she'll drop her own facade. And suddenly her own skin ripples, little scales forming along her skin, her pupils slitting, her gills becoming visible and her skin shifting just a few shades towards the background color of the environment. She takes a deep breath and her ears middle out.

"Yes, we are intent on going down there. Also, who wants this? I don't particularly like being the brightest point around like this." Amethyst says, gesturing the light she made. The light of it is bothering her sensitive eyes just a little bit.

Bright Journey Rishi's caste mark illuminates the darkness as she descends...and only at the last moment does the silvery light reflect off the virtually invisible silk webbing just out of sight of the opening!

As Rishi falls, the strands of silk lunge almost like a living thing themselves, wrapping and ensnaring her in an instant, suffocating cocoon of silk.

Reforged Resurgence In comparison to the giant who just arrived, Resurgence feels just a little helpless, but he tries not to let it show. "And since you're here, and probably not here to kill us, maybe you should help us."
Rishi Rishi falls into the webbing, but a quick twist of her saurian form slides her through it. That said, she does see movement in the hidden world approaching. Her head tilts as she considers, then she calls for the others. "Wark! Wark!"
Silk Moon Lotus Silk glances at the mountain of a man. "Called it!" she says in a whispered shout. "Sorry Ames, lights kind of don't mix with what I do best." She watches as Rishi goes past and down the hole. Noting that Rishi seems to twist a bit as she drops to the sloped floor below. Silk drops down with one hand on the wall to assist with her speed if needed.
Fudou the Mountain Fudou the Mountain's expression is, more or less, deadpan, as this all goes on. He looks between the others as their explanation is given and then he makes a casual gesture of his hand towards the direction of the warking Rishi.

"Perhaps -not- rushing in headlong without a plan or your strongest defenders first would be in order."

He steps forward but it actually seems that they're getting things back under control so he takes a measure of the size of the opening and frowns lightly to consider the logic of attempting to squeeze in and down. "We should try and drive the creature out."

Reforged Resurgence Resurgence looks to Amethyst and gives a slight shrug. "If you think you can see in the dark, I could take that off your hands for now so I can see."
Bright Journey Bright Journey is frowning deeply at all these turns of events, but since Rishi and Silk seem to have the tunnel well in hand, she turns and looks at Fudou. "Not that I'm saying I don't trust you or anything, sir, but may I ask who you are? And if anyone here can vouch for you? This is a sensitive time to find someone spying on us, after all."
Amethyst Amethyst hands over the vial of light and heads towards the hole, looking down. "I would've said 'At least let me drop a light down there first'." Then the little Alchemist has a thought that perhaps trusting random lunars she doesn't know isn't exactly the best of ideas. And so her attention is also drawn back to Fudou.
Fudou the Mountain "Oh, you don't need to trust me as such things go but did you forget our little match in the arena where I freely showed you what I was and you and our spear wielder friend responded in kind?"

Fudou looks away from the entrance back to Bright Journey, bemused looking now, "But remember that or no, all you need to know now is that I'm also interested in putting a stop to the killings you are dealing with. Now let's move ahead."

Spring Wind "Hoo boy." Spring says, hearing the cry from below as she moves over towards the trap door to leap down. She's trying to be quiet about it, of course, the indirect calls are often a sign one doesn't wish to draw attention unnecessarily.
Silk Moon Lotus Sigh, invisible spider webs, great. Silk flexes her hands enough to slice through the webbing holding her in place. As she starts to fall, she flips around to land on her feet and slide down to the bottom next to Rishi. "Spider webs are lacing the entrance. Exercise some causion when you come down." Silk grasps a stone that looks to be worked into her robes. After touching the stone, the starts to shed light as bright as a torch.
Rishi Rishi starts to help Silk free herself, but the other woman slices herself free before Rishi can do much. Thus, instead, she points down the tunnel and "WARK!"s again. Hopefully that will convey a general sense of danger to the other Exalt. She definitely needs to work with Frosty on getting better at communicating with people like this.
Reforged Resurgence Resurgence looks to Bright, Amethyst, Spring, and Fudou. "Onwards, before the warking becomes screeching!" he demands, gesturing with the point of his dagger. Without further hesitation, he runs to the edge of the hole and drops down."
Bright Journey Bright Journey looks surprised for a moment, blinking as she looks at Fudou. "Hm? Do I...oh. OH." She sighs in embarrassment and shakes her head. "I'm sorry about that, I -do- remember you. It's been some time, though, and believe me when I say a lot has happened since we met, plus this is not the situation I expected to see you in. I apologize."

Bright pauses for a moment and leans over the hole, holding out her bow over it again. The hearthstone in the bow sheds considerable light, reflecting off the shredded strands of webbing. "Oh, dear. That trap looks..." Bright's voice trails off and her eyes narrow as a realization comes over her.

"Hey...everyone. Listen up. I just thought of something. Why wasn't this demon spider we're following lying in wait to take advantage of this web trap? Was it just to slow us down? It doesn't do the spider much good as it is..."

Amethyst Amethyst follows the others in suit, and looks at Rishi. There's a good chance that she knows Rishi better than any of the others here. And the sense of alarm doesn't sit well with her. She looks into the darkness, trying to perceive anything that might be coming, while trying to make sense of the warning Rishi is trying to give.
Fudou the Mountain "Always assume it's a trap. You all weren't exactly discreet and who is to say that the demon is working alone or lacks a master..."The basso thrum of Fudou's voice makes his words sound that much more sinister but he actually looks cheerful despite it all.

His previous words aside, he actually waits to let the others go ahead of him and then comes in last, curling his body up as best he can and positioning his weaponry in a way to squeeze down into hopefully more open spaces. Worst case scenario, he may haev to make the spaces open up more..and that might not be ideal for the others.

Bright Journey The tunnel is pretty spacious, actually, rounding out at about 9 feet in all dimensions. It's fairly well carved out and rough enough that footing isn't an issue.

Everyone is worried, though, as Rishi's frantic claw gestures forward, down the tunnel, start to grab some attention. It's far more than just pointing, after all. She's holding up one, then two, then all her claws, then pointing down the tunnel...then repeating. Bright looks mildly confused, but whatever happens, her bow is ready, an arrow still nocked. "Hey...does anyone know what Rishi is trying to say? It's not as simple as 'that way'..."

Silk Moon Lotus "Well, I could be misunderstanding her but I think she is telling us that we have multiple enemies that are about to be on top of us."
Amethyst Amethyst's ears pull back against her head, her whip floats menacingly around her as she tries to see what's going on. "I can't see them." She says frustratedly. And then she reaches out with her ears too, moving them out to try to hear whatever's coming their way.
Amethyst Amethyst closes her eyes and listens, ears tilting slightly one way or another. "Oh no." She murmurs to herself. "How bad would it be if there were three of them coming this way?" She then says to the group. The wyld-blooded Dragon keeps her eyes closed to better track them with her hearing. Nothing gets past her ears.
Rishi Rishi gives Ammy an odd look, with her head tilted...then her eyes go wide and she taps Ammy on the head until she opens her eyes and she starts gesturing for a moment ..then gets frustrated and goes to the wall and claws in the number for Six in Riverspeak. Also Mirror and she taps her eyes while she does it.
Amethyst Ammie opens her eyes, and looks at Rishi, looks at the words. And finally she understands it all. "There's six of them. Oh my. -The others are immaterial." And with that it's a specific pouch with a specific mixture in it, and she drinks a single vial of it. It's always disorientating at first as the essence flows fade into view with the things that aren't as real. And sure enough, her vision focuses enough to perceive the demons approaching. "They're on top of us! If you can't see them, prepare for an ambush!" She stands ready to strike the moment they become material.
Silk Moon Lotus "I hope everyone packed their demon smashing gear and a spare change of clothes. Looks like we got a swarm of the buggers coming."
Silk blinks her eyes as they gain a milky look to them for a moment she can now see into the spirit realm.
Fudou the Mountain Fudou's face scrunches up into a look of annoyance and frustration. Immaterial isn't something he's prepared to deal with. How bothersome. "Figures.." he grunts while reaching up to curl his hand around his grand goremaul. An instant later and his shape begins to warp. Sinew piles on sinew even more then is already there. Massive horns begin to curl into view and his body begins to actually grow -bigger-, straining impossibly at his moonsilver armor and beginning to shred his non artifact garments as he begins to don his warform.
Bright Journey As the anuhle approach, Bright slowly and reverently draws her nocked arrow back, ready and waiting for the first of them to appear. Her bow, a living thing in her hands, begins to shimmer in anticipation as creatures of darkness, its special prey, approach within range. She's not especially prepared against immaterial enemies either, but it doesn't matter now. It's time.

They're here.

Rishi Rishi exhales in relief ...then takes on a rather basic fighting stance and makes a toothy grin at one of the currently dematerialized spiders. It is quite possible that, between the mark of a No Moon shining on her forehead and the grin, that the spider will come to the conclusion that she has anti-spirit charms.
Reforged Resurgence Resurgence takes position beside Amethyst, ready to jump forward at anything that gets too close. His heart pounds, slightly, but in a familiar way. His armor squeezes at him, but it does not restrain him. He doesn't remember fighting things he can't see.
But he feels ready.