this is Salem, a land filled with magic and maladies. It is a place where witches and their elemental familiars gather, a home to legend and
lore that predates time itself. Yet of all the wicked and wonderful stories the past can tell us of, the most magical are the ones yet to happen.
This is Salem - this is the start of your very own journey. Welcome to starfall
Starfall is an animaga witch roleplay set in mostly modern times. Members play as witches in a world plagued by monsters, where the only safe spots are walled cities. Starfall strives to be a character-driven roleplay with expansive lore and a highly interactive plotline. We want to allow members to
create and look back on a magical journey, and mold the site and its plot as their characters grow.
"Thank you for coming with me!" she chirps at her partner as they trek the down the path - if a vaguely linear trail of somewhat-flattened grass curving deep into the undergrowth of a forest that towers over them in both materiality and presence can be called a path. To be honest, the only thing really marking this as a 'path' and not some coincidental wishful thinking of the human mind is the runic anchors for safety wards embedded in the ground every few hundred meters. Probably not something most people would feel comfortable relying on, but to Ling, she both trusts them, and is absolutely fascinated by them.
She keeps on stopping to crouch down and study them, too, which is not helping their progress. As such, she's very grateful for Heath's patience. "Thanks for putting up with me and all this, too," she says sheepishly, waving her arm in a general gesture that encompasses her constant stopping, the long hike into the heart of this wild location, the early hour, the not-very-clear directive of this mission, and also Ling's.... eccentricities. Like her inability to shut up. "Shouldn't be too far now, hopefully!"
Valkea materialises in a smooth step from thought to tangibility, white coat almost ghostly in the morning light. With his crimson markings and chasmic eyes and comfortably graceful in his true size, he looks almost akin to a forest spirit come to guide them on their way. "That's what you said twenty minutes ago," he says dryly.
Ling makes a face at him before her excitement breaks through and she's all but bouncing on the spot again. "But we're actually really close now! I can feel it!" Then she spots the next protective rune anchor ahead. "Ooh! Wait a sec, I gotta take a look at this!" Running up ahead and crouching down while she pulls out a notebook and pencil and begins to jot down illegible notes, she seems to completely forget about their actual destination. Again.
Valkea sighs, but his gaze is warm and fond as he settles down to watch his witch. "You might want to sit," he tells Heath, amusement lacing his words. "This may take a while." As the blond witch has no doubt found out from Ling's similar earlier detours.
Post by heath ambroise on Apr 20, 2018 14:25:07 GMT
Heath is no stranger to long hikes. In his teenage years roaming the woods near his home was how he lulled himself to sleep. The morning hour was familiar as well, he hadn't slept yet but excitement and his partner pushed him through. Her incessant talking gave him something to pay attention to. He shook his head, “It's no problem. Really.” he says with ease as he doesn't have to feign a thing. This was like babysitting, but Ling was a more pleasant child to care for. She was almost of age anyway, and could feed herself and keep herself entertained. He just had to be around her to do his job. No crying. No whining.
“Uh huh.” he adds as she apologizes for her own excitement. He snickers as her familiar scolds her a bit before she goes right back to it. While rune scripting isn't the most exciting thing to learn, Ling makes it exciting by the amount of energy she injects into the subject. He doesn't mind the ramblings and is happy to assist. The blond smiles at Valkea and shakes his head again. “If I sit I wont get back up.” Sleep tended to creep up on him like that and the sounds of the forest were so perfect for a nap. But this wasn't a place to do so. So instead he ambled down the path a little more and observed the natural plants. Occasionally he reached to pick at one. “Ling, I'm here.” he called our as the path rounded a small bend. Out of habit, he grabbed at the leaves of a familiar plant before stopping short of ripping them off for collection. “Aren't those mostly the same anyway?” he called absently. Maybe if he kept talking to her she'd leave faster. After all, there would be dozens more runes at the ruins right?
She beams at Heath’s casual, genuine acceptance long ( longer than it needs to be, in all honesty ) and winding hike, but feels the need to add, “anytime you get sick of starting and stopping and waiting for me, just tell me, okay? I get kinda wrapped up in my work sometimes.” Valkea nods in agreement, sending their fellow jester a drily amused look. “I’ll be nice to have someone else here to help me pull her head from the clouds,” he deadpans.
“Hey!” Ling exclaims in mock betrayal, but she can’t stop the laughter from bubbling up. “You know you love me.”
He heaves a long-suffering sigh, far better at the acting game than she could ever hope to be. “Why I do is a mystery unto itself.” She sticks her tongue out at him and proceeds to ignore him for the much more interesting runes.
Heath’s response penetrates through the happy haze of calculations and runic configurations and linkings buzzing through her brain and she looks up at him and blinks. “Do you want an energy boost?” she asks, hand flying to the bag slung over her shoulder. “I have a couple of arrays that I can use. Kinda like a caffeine boost, without the health side effects!” She’d say it’s definitely better than coffee or tea, except unfortunately runic arrays don’t taste half as nice. Or of anything at all. Well, at least they’re cheap, for the low low cost of completely free.
But he’s already started to go on ahead, and she hastily scribbles down a few more things before hurrying after the blond. Being told that the destination is right ahead does wonders for her motivation. Valkea takes her rear like the overprotective being he is, a ghostly white presence drifting behind her like some sort of spirit guide from the neverworld. Honestly, with ancient runic sites like this and wild magic in the air, you never know if you might actually bump into some sort of spirit guide. She kinda hopes they will. That’d be hella cool.
And then, the Question™. “What?!” she squawks, head whipping up with outrage written in every line of her body. “NO!” She flails her arms about, eyes flashing and expression animated as she devolves into a rant. “Are all stealth illusion spells the same? Or all healing potions the same? Each runic ward is every bit as complex and different as any spell - even more so if you consider the base matrix and the unique geometric structure and the semantics altered specifically for environmental factors-”
“You probably shouldn’t have said that,” Valkea tells Heath drily, watching the proceedings with the fond amusement of one who knows exactly how this will play out and has seen it many times before, and is also unashamedly entertained with watching it play out again. Ling is too busy delivering a spiel on high level fractal modifications within an ancient isolated civilisation’s context to pay him much mind. “It’s okay, you can go explore or something. Take a nap. She'll be occupied for a while."
Post by heath ambroise on Apr 23, 2018 5:00:27 GMT
Heath nods at the pair. “I’ll do my best, but I can’t guarantee it’ll be very effective.” He says to Valkea, not extremely bothered by the delays. He lets out a few soft chuckles at the banter between familiar and witch. For once, it’s nice not to witness it. Sinclair had been relatively quiet on their walk. Vigilant, but ever pleased with not only the time of the excursion but also the company. Fresh air was good for the journalist, and Sinclair appreciated that it wasn’t a terrible influence or some grody older man in their company.
He feels a smidge of guilt as Ling turns on him though after catching up. It seemed like he had hit a nerve and he sends a weak smile to her familiar, unsure of how to deal with her now other than let her tire herself out. Heath can’t quite follow the argument. He was pretty sure every time he used a Thorn spell it was exactly the same. The same activation of mana, and the same type of mental image. Though, he thought it best not to bring this up. As the girl continued, he begins losing focus as she brings up terminology and vocabulary he’s unfamiliar with. There’s no context to back up the definitions and so he’s left feeling lost in Ling’s big words. The blond tilts his head to Valkea and offered a nervous laugh. “I didn’t mean to.” He confessed.
At the suggestion of going off he almost does just that but falters. Technically, these were dangerous grounds, and technically he was the adult around here. Better to not split up. “I can wait.” Heath replied with a shrug. He turns back to Ling and gives an attempt at apologizing. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to oversimplify the runes. I just meant to point out that perhaps in the ruins there might be more of a variety of runes to observe.” He then continued to follow the path, glancing back at the witch again as he waited for her to move along. “I don’t exactly have the ability to create light Ling. Unless you do, once sunset hits we have to leave. You might not be able to see what’s left in the ruins, but moonlight might be enough to see the runes on the path.” With that being said, he moved forward, the path slowly following up to the crest of a hill. He spotted more boulders, though not very large.
It looked like they had arrived at their destination. A bold, but overgrown structure loomed over a clearing. It looks like a large, mostly open-air building, with uneven steps leading inside. Maybe about twenty feet before it looked like the remains of some kind of large and round, slab of rock. A slight platform of some sorts? It looked quite large, even from this distance. He tilted his head admiring it from his position. It looked like it was meant to be a town square, though far smaller than any square in Sundial. The area was dotted with fall over walls of tiny huts. Anything wooden was gone, but he could tell where gardens had existed by the overgrowth of wild berries and flowers. “This is it right?” he asked, resting his hands on his hips. Sinclair emerged from the underbrush and sidled up to his legs. “Don’t you feel odd? You’re a plant shaper after all.” The coati asked fishing for something from his witch. Heath glanced down at his familiar before carefully beginning his descent towards the village? Temple??? Ruins. “The forest feels healthy here. It’s undisturbed, and strong.” He said, his analyses brief as he was careful not to trip over a gravel and lose dirt. “Watch your step, Ling.” He called lightly.
Valkea laughs softly, dark eyes reflecting the glitter of genuine amusement. "Don't worry about it. Ling just likes to rant about runes, you merely provided her with an opportunity to do so. She would have found something to rant about sooner or later." He shakes out his tail and stretches gracefully, before rising to his feet and cutting his witch off with a gentle but firm nudge. "Hey, Ling-ling," he says, smiling. "Time and place, remember?"
She blinks, having been broken out of her train of thoughts ( that had shifted from being a rant to being a stream of musing about possible experimental structures somewhere along the line ) and descends back to reality with a sheepish smile. "No no!" she waves off Heath's apology with flailing hands, leaning forwards towards him earnestly. "I'm the one that should be sorry, I didn't mean to carry on like that. If I start going on like that again, you have my permission to whack me out of it or something, alright?"
Ling forgets, sometimes, that not everyone is as in love with spellcrafting an in-depth academic stuff like she is. Heck, sometimes she forgets that most people have no clue how the basics of runescripting works, especially on archeological expeditions like this. Usually, she'd be going with another runescripter, or some of the students from Lux.
She hurries after Heath, not worried about the incoming night like he is, but very eager to reach the ruins. "If it gets too dark, I have runelights," she tells him. "But actually, you know those runes along the path? They can be activated to light up."
Whatever she might have added is cut off by their arrival; Ling gasps, eyes almost comically wide as she gazes upon the remnants of what was once a temple. "It's amazing," she breathes. Of course, the moment is promptly broken as she trips over a straggle of gravel the exact instant Heath opens his mouth to warn her. But even that can't dampen her exhilaration.
"I'm gonna go take a look at the runes on the main temple over there," she tells Heath, all but bouncing on the spot as she points towards a half-upright wall with carvings on it inked in what was once gold.
Post by heath ambroise on May 27, 2018 21:59:12 GMT
The blonde makes note to try harder to interrupt Ling when she went off the rails with her rune talk. He would’ve thought just letting her tire herself out would have been enough. He didn’t mind it too much. He imagined it may be the result of having no one to rant to so he had thought it best o just let her go off when she needed it. “Noted. I’ll let you know.” He replied politely. He turned his head towards her, eyes widening slightly before nodding. “Oh, that’s really convenient then. I wonder if the ones you’re going to study light up in the dark as well.” He offered. With that solved, their only concern left would be the rations of water and snacks he had packed for the trip. This was just a day trip. They had to leave at some point.
“Ooh, interesting. I’ll catch up in just a second I want to pick some of the herbs that might be growing around here.” Heath returned. “Yell if you need anything! I won’t be too far off.” He adds as he starts into a jog down the large hill before slowing to a halt once he reaches the bottom. Good news, he’d avoiding falling. Sinclair shakes himself as he stands up before giving a nod to the other pair and following his own witch, albeit a little slower than expected. He began at the further stone hut, ambling towards the overgrown patches of wildflowers and fruits. Centuries of neglect had allowed everything to go wild. He spotted parts where different species intermingled without killing each other. He also saw part where the plants had been forces to move out. For a garden’s standards, these overrun plants were expansive. Any path that been created was at the center of the overgrowth.
Though, surprisingly, there were a couple of smaller paths in the outer most parts of the gardens. As he carefully made his way past the second and third home, he realized he was following a trail. It wasn’t very visible but once he stopped to examine it, there were signs of trampling. Even light signs of an animal ripping out a couple of plants, probably to feed. “Careful not to get trampled by the deer that eat here.” Heath said, teasing the coati lightly. Sinclair only huffed in response, sniffing at the underbrush and glancing around so he didn’t step in poop, if there was any. “Shouldn’t you be picking up some of these?” the coati asked, pointing as a particularly thorny plant. “I wouldn’t be averse to picking a few seeds here and there. It’d be nice to grow some more flowers at home.” Heath returned. Sinclair rolled his eyes. “I meant for yourself. In case you find yourself again surrounded by stone with no plant life.” Heath took pause before nodding in agreement. He was right. He could only do so much with his elemental magic. He was training his plant shaping right? If he wanted more missions in the city, he needed a plan other than just hoping wherever he took the mission there was an available houseplant.
“Grab some wild berries while we’re at it.” Sinclair demanded as the blond bent down and pulled out a small pocket knife to cut off a few leaves and stalks of the thorny plant. He went ahead and tried to pluck what he needed out of the nearby blooms before finally moving off the little animal trail and snagging a handful of wild berries. “Let’s go check in.” He’d said he’d be there soon, but the affair had taken a whole 20 minutes longer than anticipated. Oops.
"Sure!" Ling says, already halfway down the slope leading to her intended destination. She only vaguely registers Heath leaving, what with being a little too busy taking out her notebook and making frantic records. Valkea is a silent and supportive presence by her side, large and strong and warm as he lays down next to her and watches her work with dark, fond eyes. He also makes a great pillow to lean against.
The runework on the temple decor is fascinating, but there's something unusual about their configuration that she can't put her finger on. Something weird and outside the bounds of what she expects for runes from this sort of environment, at this point in history. They appear to link together with something else, something greater? Something deeper into the temple at least, and Ling has no idea what it might be.
Without thinking about what a bad idea it might be, she's on her feet and moving deeper into the temple, past a half-crumbled archway and down into the ruins of what was once a side room. The air is colder there, still. A sudden hush descends. Ling blinks.
Valkea shifts, a little uncertain, a little uncomfortable, and certainly not half as impulsive as his witch. "We should probably wait for Heath-" he warns, frowning, before he is unceremoniously cut off by Ling. "Val!" she exclaims, delighted. He swears he can see genuine sparkles in her eyes. "There's a stairway leading down!"
"Wait, Ling, no-!" But it is an exercise in futility and he knows it; Ling is already gone. He huffs in exasperation, takes a moment to look to the skies and pray to whatever gods that might reside up there, and then follows her down because Valkea will always, always follow his witch. Even if it is the height of idiocy and teenage bad decisions.
( It is a maze down there, a twisting labyrinth of corridors and crossroads with runes carved into the walls, somehow yet uncollapsed despite the passage of time. It is only Valkea's bond with Ling that allows him to find her path, to catch up; "Ling, you're an idiot," he tells her as soon as he finds her, but she's barely listening. Something draws her on, draws her ahead, and she's determined to get to the root of the strange runemagic. )
Post by heath ambroise on May 28, 2018 4:51:16 GMT
Heath stared up at the golden runes, in awe at the structure. He takes a few seconds to soak it in. If his hands weren’t full he would’ve taken out a sketchpad to get a quick scribble of the landscape in. But it was going to be a long day, and it was better to feed Ling some of the local resources first before they tapped into their meals. But Ling wasn’t here. She hadn’t yelled for him had she? Was she done with this wall already? A single rune on their walking path had kept her longer than this. “Ling?” he calls out loudly, in case she was hidden by underbrush or in a nearby hut. Sinclair sniff the air but says nothing as Heath looks over the stone pavilion before back at his partner.
“She’s probably not paying attention.” Sinclair offers before pausing and pointing his tail at the steps. “She’s wandered into there.” He adds. The witch shrugged, giving the place another glance. He could check out the other overgrown backyards, but chances were whoever had been using them had been growing the same stuff. After all, this could’ve been a society were people farmed together. The farms were probably somewhere nearby. He turned toward the temple and began making his way in.
The open-air architecture is interesting, but now that he’s here he can’t help but wonder if it was like this by design or by decay. He considered setting down his bounty for a moment, and then briefly thinks about shoving it all in his mouth. Heath snickered to himself, not nearly hungry enough for the latter. He shrugged, there’d be enough time to draw while he listened to Ling mutter to herself about runes. Sinclair leaves him, eager to investigate the large room. Heath idly wanders near the walls eyeing the patterns carved into them for decoration. Sinclair moves back to his witch while he was still admiring the walls. “Let’s keep moving.” He states, reminding Heath that he was the adult and he should keep a better eye on his excursion companion who was NOT an adult. Heath tears his eyes away and follows the coati who sniffs at the ground before taking off.
Both are unbothered by the cold as they descend. It’s underground, so it seems natural that the air would change. But Heath expects a similarly open area like the above, not corridor after corridor. Sinclair’s tail brushes again the bottom of the walls leaving a thing layer of ice from Iced Out, as they both realize they have to start taking turns to find Ling and Valkea again. “Next time we pack torches.” Sinclair murmurs, unable to raise his voice. Their steps are loud enough as it is. Heath dislikes this place. It’s not wild like the overgrowth outside. It feels cramped and he feels cut off from the forest. This was exactly why Sinclair had insisted on beginning a collecting of seeds and leaves and general plant life. This felt like the cave he and Billy Kasparian had gone into on one of his very first missions.
“Ling?” he asked softly, hoping to here the girl’s perky chirps in the distance. He steps into a room, and squints. Shit, he really needed to find her. He didn’t have a source of light. Sinclair could see in the dark, but Heath couldn’t. Leading him around would be painfully slow. There’s nothing in the room, and there’s so many more like it. Shards of broken pottery or lost tools litter the ground. He detects the smell of herbs long turned to ash. He wondered what kind of temple this was I the past. A shrine to the forest? Or had it become that after all life had left it. “Ling?” he called again. No answer. Sinclair moves forward, turning a corner. Heath eyes the fresh layer of ice at the bottom his partner has left. There she is. Sinclair states scurrying forward carefully. Heath smiles in relief, happy to see another human being after too long of a walk through a lifeless environment. “Ling! I was starting to think you wandered out into the forest again.” he says, a little more loudly than he intends as he grabs her arm and gently tugs her towards him for attention. “Did you find anything good?” he adds quickly, eager to destroy the silence that had made him so uneasy.
Uneasy as Valkea is with this mysterious, abandoned place that smells of ruin and dust, nothing seems to happen as his witch wanders along the corridors muttering to herself as she trails fingers over the runes and scribbles notes down every few steps. She's paying absolutely no attention to anything else other than her work, a litany of theories and excitement running through her mind, and were it in any other situation, any other environment, he would accept it with the fond exasperation of one who is very much inured to this quirk of hers. But here, now, when they are miles away from civilisation and the veil of night is descending upon them, he truly wishes his witch would be a little more careful.
Tension bleeds out of his frame when he picks up the sound of Heath's voice echoing down the hallways. The journalist may be a rank below Ling officially, but Valkea would trust him with Ling's safety over herself in this sort of situation any day.
As for Ling, she descends back into reality with a half-dazed blink, then turns and beams at Heath, completely oblivious to her familiar's concern. "Heath! Sinclair!" She bounces towards them with an energy and enthusiasm entirely unsuited to this time of day. Or night, more accurately. Not that Ling has ever really pretended to have anything resembling a proper sleep schedule. "Didja get the herbs that you wanted?"
Her eyes brighten at the question, and immediately she's waving her pages of notes about and all but shoving them at Heath. "Did I ever! This is some really really cool stuff, I swear they've got a configuration or two I've never even heard of and it's so fascinating, I can't wait to hit the library and study it in depth later." She turns back to the runes written on the wall, tilting her head at a particular cluster of golden symbols. "They're also super strong, I think there's a bit of an effect still active even now. Maybe something like a beacon? Hm... Did you feel any sort of compulsion tugging you here?"
Heath is relieved to see Ling unharmed. He hadn’t realized he’d been waiting for a normal response, paranoid of the place they were in. The blonde shook his head. “Nah, I found all these berries, edible of course, and came to find you to share some.” He explained with a shrug. He’d assumed there’d be time to check later but he hadn’t expected to be wandering underground for so long. “Speaking of which, aren’t you hungry? You didn’t eat any of the withered stuff, right?” the man added with a small laugh before holding out to her the assortment of wild berries he’d managed to keep within his palms.
“That’s good. I think we’ll definitely have to make the trip a couple more times, Ling. There’s too much to explore here, and we didn’t bring any camping equipment. Not to mention, wouldn’t I have to sign you out from the coven or something?” The thought of being legally in charge of a minor for more than a few hours made him nervous. He barely kept together in front of others. Extending that to a trip of two or three days even might prove impossible. He’d need the coffee nonstop. As comfortable as nature made him, nothing was better than his own bed. And shower. That was also a factor.
He blinked at the question, pausing to consider the runes once again. “I noticed there were some marking at the big hall upstairs that led down this way but…I don’t know? I think I was too focused trying to find you.” The man explained with a shrug. Heath looked over the golden runes before shrugging. “Do they lead much farther in? It’s getting late, Ling.” He added with a small frown as he dropped a few berries for Sinclair to swallow up. He then popped a few into his mouth, if only to be able to move his hands around a bit more. “If it’s close I don’t mind following, but if this is some sort of labyrinth we should leave. I don’t really have any light magic on me.”
She laughs brightly at his response, completely untouched by any of the concern or worry radiating from her familiar. "Ooh, thank you!" Ling bounces forwards and accepts the proffered berries, offers one to Valkea before shoving the rest in her pouch. She's not exactly very hungry right now, excitement having replaced all other bodily needs, but heck if she's gonna turn down free food.
She does pout a little at the mention of leaving, even though she intellectually understands why they shouldn't stay for too long after the dark. Ling doesn't have anything against camping out in the wilderness for a few nights, not even without proper equipment - they're mages, who needs physical and physical limits when one's got runes and magic? - but yeah, it's probably smart not to tempt fate in a monster-dense area like this.
"Yeah, you're right..." she admits reluctantly, slowly rucking her notes back into her bag. "I'll keep that in mind for next time then!" Like she said, Ling truly isn't adverse to spending a few nights out in the wild camping in an ancient archaeological site. In fact, it'd be pretty damn cool. She does giggle a little at the question though. "Nah, some of the people at Jester's Den might be a little overprotective, but I don't have any official limitations anymore." A pause. "I think. It should be fine, I'm an adept, I can look after myself, yeah?"
Valkea, still recovering from his unease and exasperation at his witch's lack of foresight, mutters under his breath, "you'd think so, yes."
Heath does look a little tired, and maybe frazzled around the edges, Ling notes with concern. She bites her lip at the warring desire between finding out more, and returning home for her friend. "It looks like it does lead further in, but..." She makes her decision. "We can come back another day. Let's head back now." What kind of friend would she be if she put herself and her own desires first? Not a good one, and if there's one thing Ling tries very hard to be, it's a good friend.
"Don't worry about light though," she adds, and scrawls a quick rune on a page before tearing it out and handing it to Heath. A pulse of mana and light creeps along the ink lines, eventually creating a ball of mellow light hovering above the rune. She draws another rune on her own palm, this one a little more complicated for greater control. "I've got it," she grins.
Post by heath ambroise on Aug 27, 2018 2:35:15 GMT
He’s pleased she seems to enjoy the natural snack and as she takes some he drops the rest down to Sinclair who is quick to vacuum them up having been constantly asking for them on the walk down here. He takes a moment to wipe his hands on his slacks after duping a bit of water onto his hands to wash any lingering stickiness. “Let me know when you plan to come back, and I’ll see if I can tag along too.” He adds. While the prospect of roughing it in nature wasn’t his favorite, preferring a real bed, he was decent at it. Heath is quick to nod as Ling explains her situation. He nods though he can’t really comment. Magical skill or not, she was still a child to him though he didn’t voice this. After all, he had no right to speak on something he didn’t know all the details to and it would probably just upset Ling anyway.
Heath doesn’t argue too much when Ling decides they should head back. “Make a good note where you left off, so you can come back to this quickly.” He stated before grinning as she handed him the page. “Thanks, I needed this. I can only rely on Sinclair so much before he lets me run into walls.” He said while the coati let out a snort. He could be dependable when he so felt like it. Sinclair shook himself indignantly as Heath directed him to double back. “By the way Ling, I had Sinclair put some ice every so often at the bottom of the walls, so we could track our way back.” He explained as pointed to a small patch of ice at his ankle and shone the line rune on it. It reflected softly.
The blond held out the page before him, with its help he easily began leading them back in relative silence. Once again, the oppressive rock walls around him made him want to stay quiet. And while Sinclair teased him he snarled back at his familiar every so often. Occasionally he nervously glanced behind him to make sure she hadn’t gotten distracted. His concentration broke as Sinclair suddenly stopped before veering off the path and taking a hard right. “Heath. It smells like shit here.” The coati explained as he trotted into a room, rotted and decaying bookshelves dotting the spacious room. “And…?” Heath prodded as Sinclair scanned the room before circling around and checking the shelves. “No, I mean, its recent. Something’s been here or something’s wafting…filtering into…here.” The coati then stopped pointing his tail at a more intact looking bookshelf. It looked gross, but upon further inspection was probably a little bit newer.
Weird. Oh wait- “Ling, maybe these books have runes in them. A treat for the road.” He said over his shoulder as he looked over the shelf. Most of the texts were faded. He ran his fingers over a couple of spines to clean of the dust. He paused, one spine gave way a little and he stopped. “Oh…that feels rotted…” he muttered to himself before putting his finger to it again anyway. He poked a couple of times before pushing in a little too hard. The book moved forward and clicked? Heath didn’t have time to process as the shelve slowly moved to the side revealing stairs and a wall of stench. Heath grimaced pulling up his shirt to his nose. “Thanks Sinclair.” He said, voice muffled. Sinclair rolled his eyes scurrying over to peer down the stairway while Heath simply stuck his light in. The light only reached down a few feet and from what he could tell it was just a long and steep set of stairs. “Shit…” he murmured. As much as it stank his curiosity was starting to tug him down there. After all, how many ruins had secret passages? “Ling…you wanna come down with me or you good with leaving a mark and bailing?” he asked trying to seem responsible…even if he just really wanted to explore this now.
