[Arc 1: Class 2-E] A New Day Dawns

[Oath]

Trying to get her bearings, Ardelia looks around confused, then looks over at Lilly remembering their conversation from earlier in the day.

"I think this counts as weird, and I told you i'd look out for it!" She laughed nervously while surveying the rest of the situation, trying to get a feel for how other people were handling it. She was a bit spooked, but she tried her best to keep her composure regardless of how weird things got.

[Asta]

The injured boy's scream still rang in her ears as the darkness receded and revealed the Escherian terrorscape. For the moment Lilly stood stunned, her glasses slipping to the end of her nose as she looked around in bewilderment. The world was a disjointed mess of classroom parts and floating objects that defied gravity, no, logic.

Without turning to look at her, Lilly responded to Ardelia's comment in a hushed monotone.

"Yes, yes you did."

The new boy from her class was there, the bubbly girl from before too. Lilly turned to look at her flaxen haired classmate and adjusted her glasses. This happened when she touched him...

Addressing Serena with the practiced sternness of an older sister and parental figure, she crossed her arms and shot a serious look across the space.

"You... I remember you from the museum... What the hell did you just do?"

Lilly had forgotten her niceties, the whole situation was outrageous and there was little point in being polite when directness would serve just as well. This place was unpleasant, and she misliked the strange sounds in the distance greatly.

[Neko]

[spoiler]http://youtube.com/v/akGdHniy1P0&autoplay=1[/spoiler]
The moment her hand touched the sobbing student, the negative aura around them grew, and everything was quickly enveloped in the darkness.

Serena coughed, still in a bit of a panic as the aura cleared. ?What....?? She couldn't quite comprehend what she was seeing. It was as if the school was a puzzle, and someone had done a rather pitiful job of fitting the pieces together. Was this all just a dream or something ? Had she passed out after club? Serena was quiet, that is, until Lily called her out.

?Excuse me?? The idol's hands met her hips as she turned toward the short haired blonde.

?What makes you think this was my fault? I was just trying to help the kid, like you guys....? Her sentence trailed off a bit though as an unsettling noise in the distance caught her attention. The noise wasn't the only unsettling part of it though ? The dark void outside the school structures made her wonder what might happen if they stepped into it. Would they fall to their doom?

[Asta]

Lilly watched Serena strike an indignant pose in response to her accusation. No matter, she would pursue the issue regardless.

"You touching him set him off, and lo and behold here we are."

She punctuated the statement with a sarcastic flourish of her hand.

"He was literally seething with some kind of dark energy, you should have kept your hands off!"

She folded her arms across her chest again, eyes still leveled at Serena. The noises continued to grumble in the distance, and a shiver went up Lilly's spine, though she would not show how unsettled she was.

How the hell do we get out of this?

[Oath]

Ardelia looked at the two girls arguing. "I know this isn't the best situation... but we should probably be angry with each other after we figure out how to get home." It was quite clear that the situation was abnormal, so they should try to pool their abilities and work together to get out safely and then fight among themselves after they are safe.

"We don't know what is out there, but if there is anything odds are it isn't friendly. I don't know what to expect, but it would be nice if we faced it together." Whatever is out there, I hope it isn't something that requires us to fight, I don't think I could handle it.

[Mysticsage]

Unfortunately as those thoughts Lia?s mind the sound starts again this time much closer. From around the corner behind you all a dark ooze like shadow begins to envelope the floor and walls of the maze rushing it?s way towards you all. At the front of this force is a person seemingly entirely made out of the shadowy stuff. A basketball player in his uniform dribbling a ball yet he had glowing red intimidating eyes. With each step that he got closer so to did the spreading shadow.

The vibes from the whole scene is not good. Whatever that stuff is you can tell that you don?t want it or the guy made from it touching any of you. Then something even worse happened. The basketball player let out a blood-curdling yell that was like nothing you had heard before.  If any of you had not noticed what was happening before you certainly did now. There is only one way to go for the moment away from the being.

[spoiler]If You chose to run:

As you are running there are any number of things floating in the void. As you runn through the maze. You sporadically hear the sound of a woman's voice at times no more then a whisper "Quickly... you.... must.... find..... the... boy..... if.... you.... want..... to...... escape ......from... this... place..."  [/spoiler]

[spoiler]At this point characters can be damaged
All characters start with 40 points of heath and 40 points of endurence look at the cheatsheet for more info[/spoiler]

[Asta]

Lilly broke her stare on Serena just long enough to notice the specter and its shadowy veil encroaching upon their space, its burning gaze was furious enough to blast away her previous suspicion and anger. Those feelings had been replaced by awe and cold terror. Jesus Christ, what the hell is that.

She turned back to Serena.

"This can wait, I don't think we should let that thing get too close."

Lilly turned to beat a hasty retreat attempting to move Ardelia into doing the same with a gentle push, simultaneously she waved frantically with her free hand for the red headed boy to get moving as well.

"We have overstayed our welcome, and I think it's time we leave!"

As Lilly moved, she could hear a woman's voice calling to her in whispers, telling her... something.

Find the boy? In this mess?

It seemed an almost impossible task, but Lilly was willing to give it her all... Just as soon as they escaped their pursuer that is.

[Neko]

Serena's hands remained on her hips as she gave Lilly the stare-down. The two seemed momentarily locked on each other, neither girl wanting to back down. What did she know? Was the blonde suddenly an expert in...whatever all this was!? In general, Serena did her best to get along with people - Lilly was likely going to be an exception to that rule.

As Adrelia spoke, Serena sighed. "Adrelia is right you know. There's no reason to argue at this point, it's not going to get us anywhere..." It wasn't until she finished speaking Serena noticed the halls darkening, and some kind of dark force was rushing toward them. Lilly had obviously noticed too, seeing as she agreed to saving the arguments for later. Serena followed right behind Lilly and Adrelia, not wanting anything to do with the red eye'd creature. "Stay away!" Serena yelled back at the monster in a panic.

[Oath]

[spoiler]http://youtube.com/v/x_qieSA8AmQ&autoplay=1[/spoiler]

Looking around at the ruined dreamscape around them, Ardelia knew that staying in place was not the best course of action. She'd have to think on her feet as she ran.

"Glad to see that the two of you can put aside your differences when you are in a dangerous situation."
It wasn't exactly a nice message, but it was the truth, and that was important.

She took off running and wasn't sure what to do. Everything felt like a very lucid dream. A voice, seemingly deep inside of her mind kept saying that she had to save the boy, but how would she go about that?

"Any ideas on how we can save this guy!?" Ardelia shouted while scanning the area for anything that could be used to defend herself if the situation called for it. If there was this crazy thing made of shadows chasing them down, it was possible that there were more, and it is possible that in this plane of existence... or whatever it was that there was a way to combat them.

[Mysticsage]

The four of you run on the only path available in twos do to the width of the corridor, carefully all the while as not to trip over some of the larger wiring that snakes it's way along the floor. Eventually you all make your way to a staircase to another level of the maze. How many levels and passageways is almost impossible to make out, however because of the manic and twisted design of the labyrinth. The walls being just above head height is not helping either. The general disregard this place has for natural laws like physics also makes things rather disconcerting. You all stop as Lia asks her question about finding the boy who had brought you here. At the moment it seemed the creature chasing after you was a like ways behind.

At the top of the stairs the passage splits in two both a right and a left path.

Those of you who all tall enough to see over both, the walls and floating electronics and school debris can now see a platform,  floating in the middle of all this mess just as you reach the top of the stairs. The platform is overflowing with wires, interwoven and tangled spilling over the side like millions of ivy plants. The massive heap forms a kind of glowing nest or more apply a cocoon.

Then your attention is diverted by yet another blood curdling yell of those shadow beings, this time in stereo. There were without a doubt more then one of these things in here with you, exactly how many and where are impossible to tell due to the onslaught of sound. There is one thing distinctive mixed with the ear splitting  wails, however a human cry that  could only be described as pure anguish. Who ever is making a cry like that will not be lasting very long.

Looking around for a weapon to defend yourselves with besides your book bags and other belongings, you could attempt to grab something floating in the abyss, however that would require getting up and leaning at a minimum half way over one of the walls. While you all try to react to the sounds, however the noise almost made you miss a basketball made of shadow ricocheting off the walls like a missile aimed straight for you all.

The creature that is chasing you has seemingly just made it to the stairs.

[Spoiler]Please make a defense roll which is the same thing as a attack roll. Lia gets +1 die for being so short However if at any point you want to shield your book from harm take a minus -1 die to your roll. If any off you attempt to shield yourselves with your stuff also add a +1 die.

Look at the cheat sheet if you want to look at your action possibilities, along with endurance based actions and costs in combat. [/Spoiler]

[Asta]

The beastly cries rang in Lilly's ears as she pounded down the path full tilt hopping as deftly as she could over the wires that threatened to trip her up. When Ardelia voiced her question she came to a halt, the shadow out of sight. She looked up the stairs at the forking path. Marvelous, left... or right?

"The path splits up ahead, which way do you want to go?"

While weighing her options she looked at the floating tangle of glowing wires.

"Hey, what do yo- HEADS UP!"

As she turned around to pose the inquiry to the group, a speeding ball of shadow hurdled its way down the hall and broke her off mid question. There wasn't time to think, but basic instinct moved her into a defensive posture. Shrugging her backpack off her shoulder she swung it around in front of her as a makeshift shield and hoped for the best.

[spoiler][dice]Rolled 3d6 : 4, 4, 1, total 9[/dice][/spoiler]

[Oath]

[spoiler]http://youtube.com/v/4EiWV2DkKyM&autoplay=1[/spoiler]

Ardelia ran along with the others, not sure of what to do next. She continued to scan the ground for anything that might be able to be used as a weapon. Being short, she wouldn't be able to do much if she kept her head up anyways. When they reached the top of the stairs, Ardelia continued to search the area. Noticing that there were now two paths to choose from, she wondered which should be taken. She then heard a multitude of sounds, a few which distinguished themselves. The first was multiple shadow beings, the other was a human cry, likely the boy that they are supposed to save.

"Well... I'd say we should go whichever way it seems like the cry came from. Unless you guys can see something that I can't. We should also look for something that could be used as a weapon if we need to. There is a lot going on here that is out of the ordinary, so maybe we can hurt these shadow creatures somehow." Right as she finished speaking, Ardelia noticed the bouncing ball of shadow speeding down the hall bouncing off walls as it went.

I need to protect this book... I really want to know what is inside. As she thought that, she doubled over and protected the book while reducing her size, hopefully reducing the likelyhood that she would be hit. Another realization hit her as she cowered. The shadow ball was bouncing. If it can make contact with the wall... and the beings are made of a similar substance, it stands to reason that the beings would be able to be hit by something as well.

[spoiler] Defending the book, so dropping down to 2d6. A question though, if I have something else to defend with, can it cancel out the penalty for protecting the book?

[dice]Rolled 2d6 : 5, 3, total 8[/dice][/spoiler]

[Neko]

Serena sighed inwardly, having done quite a bit of exercise that day already. Her legs were tired, but certainly not so worn down she'd be unable to run from something that appeared this dangerous. She glanced back at the dark creature every so often as they ran, keeping in mind that she'd need to watch for wires on the ground as well. A thought suddenly struck her ? Was she running gracefully? She had to have the proper form or she'd look silly! She automatically changed her posture. ?What am I doing...?? She shook her head, trying to push the thoughts away. Right now wasn't the time to worry about that!

As they neared the top of the stairs, she took a moment to look down each of the paths. They didn't have time to choose if they were going to get away from the creature.

?HEADS UP!?

Serena gasped, then just like Lilly, used her backpack as a shield from the dark matter. ?We don't have time to sit around and decide, lets just go right!? Serena said. She raised a brow at Ardelia's comment. ?Hurt them? I'd rather stay as far away from the things as I can.?

[spoiler]
[dice]Rolled 3d6 : 6, 2, 6, total 14[/dice]

If she's fine after this, Serena is going to rush down the right path.
[/spoiler]

[Mysticsage]

Health/Endurance
[spoiler]LIly
40/40

Ardelia
37 health / 40 endurance -1 health the following two turns for necrotic damage

Serena
40 health / 40 endurance

Desmond
40/40
[/spoiler]
Actions
[spoiler]Still to move lilly, des, ardelia[/spoiler]


Being the first to notice the incoming projectile Lily is the most easily prepared for the attack shrugging off her bag with plenty of time to absorb the blow entirely causing the ball to bouce off harmlessly. As it approached Ardelia however she was not so prepared and in her fluster to protect the object rapped in her jacket the ball grazed her arm sending a chilling wave of pain and emotional distress through her entire body. As Ardelia was hit however it gave Serena enough time to deflect the ball as it came back off Ardelia and directly at her. As soon as she deflected it back down the hall she sped off down the right branch of the path on her own.

Serena

As you run down the path further still careful of wires you reach a three pronged junction continuing foward and heading to the left and right.
Only the one directly in front of you can see in the distance is blocked off by one of those seemingly mindless thrawls as you reach the intersection it takes notice of your presence and begins heading in your direction cutting you off from that path.
 

[Asta]

After deflecting the projectile successfully, Lilly breathed a sigh of relief. It was a short lived moment of triumph however, the ball bounced straight into Ardelia. Lilly winced as her companion took the glancing blow. She looked to Serena to see if she had taken a hit as well, but the girl was already dashing down the right path after shrugging off the attack. Desmond seemed to avoid the shadowy assault entirely, so she didn't bother to check in on him.

Lilly called after Serena.
"Hey, wait for the rest of us! We can't afford to split up!"

Turning to Ardelia, she put a hand on her back to comfort her.
"Are you alright? That looked unpleasant."

[spoiler]After Ardelia replies, Lilly is going to follow Serena down the right path matching Ardelia's pace. (Provided that is the way she goes.)[/spoiler]