Tarrow flies over and begins hopping over the scorch mark.
Once the others filter in, and Fred starts getting treatment for his broken ribs by half of a golem, Roxie asks "Any other old locations? Other than the crucible"
Mary, who's currently helping Fred remove his shirt, lists "There's tonnes, the passage, the rafter, shelf. Need to be more specific"
"Any with a large Dais, with gemstones suspended around it. Giving off a sense power" As she clarifies, Tarrow chirps and pecks to the north-north-east "In that direction"
Mary frowns and says "None that I can think of"
"The calendar—" Sarthe voices her thoughts to the surprise of Fred and Mary "There are no gemstones, but there is a pervasive sense of power about that formation of stones. They do also surround a large dais"
Mary ask "But that is the entrance to Keira's home"
"It may be older than himself and may have been built for a different purpose" Sarthe states this with scepticism.
Roxie looks to Tarrow who tilts his head side to side before nodding "Right, how far is it"
Sarthe raises a hand "Fred is in no state to help and Mary does not operate without him. I suggest you wait—"
"They're going to be pulling out all of the stops because they know me and Tarrow are here—" Roxie quickly silences her "So, we have to go now before they wake something big up"
Sarthe huffs and eyes Roxie "Fine. Come, we still have some enchanted gear that we can use" She then starts wheeling off.
"WE! You are not going!" The student shouts as he stops her motion.
She orders him "Yes. We are. Get your familiars ready"
"Isn't there a Scanthama attending?" Roxie asks one she has Sarthe's attention again.
"Yes, he's here tending to wolf. Upstairs"
Roxie thanks her and leaves, quickly making her way up before slowly opening the door to peek in to the Scanthama's room. He's reading, but perks up as Roxie enters "Hello?"
Without further indication, she walks in "Hey, I came to get some protection"
He pauses until Roxie points to the censer next to him "Certainly. Mind if we do it with my patient present?"
"Not at all"
He leaves and quickly comes back with Wolf in tow, who only nods to acknowledge Roxie's presence.
"Verbose as always"
"You don't exactly look like you're here to chat"
Roxie just smiles in response before kneeling towards the Scanthama who proceeds to start waving a censor in front of them. As the smoke, tasting and smelling of salt, settles to create a fog, he reaches forwards and touches Roxie's collar where her soul emerges. It's a small ball formed of multiple rings, some of which have specks of black in them. His tentacles begin waving the smoke over her soul, each wave taking specks of black with it until it's clear, then they start making a wrapping motion around her soul, each time they enter the mist showing that they're dragging a thin white sheet with them that is layering around her soul. Once he's finished, her soul has a barely visible layer of the white around it.
Before he pushes it back into her, Tarrow jumps onto her shoulder and begins looking her soul over for a moment until he pulls a bit of his down and gently presses it against the outer layer.
The Scanthama picks his jaw up and tentatively pushes her soul back in, then jumps back as she snatches Tarrow and begins death hugging him. After a bone shifting squeeze, she releases Tarrow who's thoroughly dazed.
"Right, Wolf, your turn for treatment" The Scanthama reminds him, still in a bit of a daze.
He kneels and the process begins, though much more time is spent washing it with the incense as his soul is mostly black and cracked, with each wave washing a large amount of black off which slowly fade back.
"What did Tarrow just do?" Wolf asks a little while into the process.
"He's given me a clipping—" She looks up to find Wolf giving her an odd look "It's exactly what it sounds like"
He shrugs and settles himself as the treatment is continued.
After it's done, Roxie reconvenes with Sarthe and her student before being driven out to the calendar in a carriage.
The formation is on top of a small hill at the base of a mountain. Its stones surround a roughly carved dais, each one being recently unearthed and moved. Standing by the formation is a figure in an off white sheet that reveals nothing of their shape, flanked on either side by a total of four teams of inquisitors, dressed in similar gear to Fred and Mary with weapons roughly covered in melted silver with each carrying a large pouch.
they meet Roxie halfway, nodding to Sarthe and her student before asking in a masculine monotone from behind a plain mask "Welcome to the calendar, I wish we met sooner though. It is a shame that we are not here to socialize over tea, but I believe you will provide a swift end to proceedings yes?"
"That's the plan, or hope, I guess. But first—" Roxie juts her chin to the calendar "How much do you know about this?"
"But foremost, what are you doing here?" Sarthe speaks, her eyes slightly less bulging then her Student who's frozen to her chair.
"I sensed that my door had been used, without my express permission" He then turns back to Roxie "I know little of its history, bar its basic operation. But your friend certainly knows how to operate it,—" He looks to Tarrow "Though I do hope you don't mind bringing my friends with us"
Tarrow turns his head before flying off and onto the dais. They shortly begin floating and rotating before stopping again. He then turns and chirps for everyone to climb on before that charge is lost.
Once they all step within the stones the world flicks to the end of a hallway, the tarnished brass walls hidden behind a myriad of alien artwork; statues of odd creatures both pedestrian and heroic, tapestries of foreign history and heraldry of their empires all lit up by lights set into the corners of the ceiling. After a second passes everyone begins to stumble to the side and prop themselves up, with only Roxie, Keira and Tarrow unaffected and alert.
She pushes her sight out and down the hall, hissing in frustration as it doesn't penetrate the walls "There's a workshop ahead with a necromancer and a few, things, there; a four armed man, a woman who's blurry to my sight and a feral faulz looking creature with wings" She then frowns and squints "Is that…. That's Sa—"
She ducks and pulls Kiera down with her as a statue comes alive, stone powder cascading off it as it swipes at the pair with a sword. The man, covered head to toe in bandages and filling the area with the reek of ammonia, dodges back as one of the inquisitor's rushes to strike.
Roxie then pulls that same inquisitor back as another statue comes alive and nearly catches him. As he falls back, Roxie switches with him and rushes the second for a slash, cutting off most of the bandage which leaves its 'innards' to spill across the ground.
Roxie backs off and gags as the smell worsens and renders all but the hardiest of the inquisitors retching. Those who stay upright and ready stand at attention between the pair and Kiera, who's unaffected by the smell. Whilst her student is desperately attempting to plug his nose, Sarthe has brought a broach of smelling salts to her nose and throws her hand out. Shadow snakes from the hem of her sleeve to the statues behind the undead.
They break into life, two marching towards the dark red figure sprinting down towards them whilst four flank the pair of undead. One of the undead pair turns to the statues whilst the other continues facing the inquisitors. It then charges with its sword raised at its side whilst tearing open its bandages, spilling the entirety of its contents out and assaulting the group with more smell. As it nears, the only one standing is Kiera whose eyes glow a dark purple. That glow then seeps out and forms into a doll wearing a loincloth, a headdress and welding a flat club with sharp blades in its sides.
The doll swings the weapon with abandon at the undead who folds itself at the waist to avoid the blow; it then springs upright, cutting upwards with its sword as it does, carving a deep mark from the dolls groin to its head. Kiera catches it as it stumbles, then a dark wave of shadow flowing over it as they connect before the doll snaps into life proper, lowering into a crouch with the weapon held back and low.
The undead acknowledges its shift in demeanour by stepping back and readying itself, sword at the ready. The doll runs towards it and swings, twisting itself to avoid the undeads' counterattack whilst making contact. The weapon carves into it, through the bones and nearly cleanly through it in its entirety, leaving the top half hanging on by a flap of skin. Despite bisection it continues by grabbing its own spine to steady itself as it slashes at the dolls' leg with effect, smashing it off at the thigh.
The doll grabs the undeads' sword and proceeds to smash the rest of it to pieces, only stopping once a faint wisp of black floats off it. The other undead fared little better, being torn to pieces by the four golems. The red figure however has crashed past the golems, past Sathe and Kiera, past the inquisitors and only to throw up bile and moan in pain before collapsing onto all four of his arms.
Most of the inquisitors have recovered by this point and are standing ready whilst one begins using magic to move the entrails away. Which begin attacking him and others. It's quickly pulled apart and dealt with, but this spreads more of the smell through the tunnel reducing everyone back to retching, though a few including Roxie did have time to cover their faces.
With her mask on she begins taking stock and ignores the four-armed, three faced man that had barrelled past them. The necromancer hasn't approached, though those with him had moved forwards a bit and are arguing with him. Seeing that she and the others are recovering, they begin to walk away, then the pair start rushing the group. The necromancer pays them a glance, and only a glance before walking off.
The feral faulz is first to arrive, jumping into a drop kick that shatters one of Serthe's golems. He's then quickly dog piled on by the remaining statues and restrained. The woman stops before reaching the group only to turn around and runs as fast as she can, but she's caught by Roxie who charges after her.
"Help! Saltis!" She calls after the necromancer but receives only a headlock in response.
She's dragged back to the group where one of Sarthe's golems takes her and lines her up with the other two. The red man, who has a golem to an arm, is thrashing around whilst the feral Faulz is limp, having gone unconscious after their arm was broken by accident.
"So? Feeling pretty dumb aren't you?" Roxie stands before the three with her hands on her sword and axe.
The woman glares at her, then her head launches off her shoulders at Roxie who catches it, keeping her hands away from the menacingly sharp teeth.
That is such a stupid response, I don't know why I'm even gracing it with this response" She then slams her head back onto her shoulder, her neck retracting as another golem takes up the task of holding it on "Right, first, are you three angels?"
"Of course we're angels" The red man answers.
"No, its not. Second question, where the fuck is Ilia—" Roxie explains as she only get frowns "The witch girl that was teleported in?"
"She w—" He's interrupted by the rumbling of more undead surging down the tunnel, flowing over each other to get to the group. The inquisitors had recovered and this time are ready for the smell, then break into three groups; one goes forwards and braces themselves with chi and shields raised, the second load their bows and crossbows that are fired into the tide with bursts of spirit, whilst the third raise their hands and start carving pillars out of the ceiling that drop either on the undead or in their way.
Then a large hole drops open behind everyone and the golems melt as an Alieon, an emaciated and winged elf held together and kept live alive by its large block of a backpack, quickly ushers them through the tunnel. Roxie goes to follow but stops as she notices a tingle in her wings, much to the Aleons' disappointment. The tunnel collapses shortly after between them and Roxie returns to join the inquisitors in the slow slog of clearing the undead from the hallway. Despite the undead pushing their bodies to the point of breaking, the inquisitors and Roxie push similarly back without the backlash, those supporting them working to prevent the undead from using their superior numbers by creating more or moving the existing pillars and launching piercing fire into any clumps that threaten to surge over the line.
Kiera and Sarthe watch the tunnel but no one else comes through. The tide is eventually stemmed and, after an egregious use of mana to bury the rapidly decaying corpses, the group moves forwards at Roxies' prompting.
The workshop is a series of worktables and machines suspended in the air through a 40-meter drop, it splits into three other direction but the chooses left as that is both the direction of the tunnel and where the undead surged from.
They march through still in formation with the statues and doll behind whilst the student made a flock of small birds from coloured powders and sent them scouting throughout the rest of the facility. They eventually start hearing the sounds of arguing and scraping metal.
The first voice is an old man "—on't have any more. Don't forget that I sent them all because of your screeching"
The second is a metallic drone "Don't forget that we can easily leave you behind"
"But you won't because you will die without our pawns"
"Well, they're three corridors down and nearly in range for the beast girl to see us so do something"
At that, the group picks up their pace through the tunnels.
Despite knowing that they're approaching, only the scrapping and background chatter picks up pace "Why don't you use that superior power of yours to melt them!"
"You're not helping!"
"Neither are you!"
"All this because you wanted to learn from one girl"
"All this because you don't know how to cover your tracks!"
The argument pauses for a moment before the old man continues.
"And they can't trace us through this can they?"
"If we leave now"
This prompts Roxie and a few of the other, faster, inquisitors to break off and rush ahead to find a small group of Alieon, the trio and a few titanoids ordering a dozen clones to move boxes. The arguing pair is the Alieon that carved the tunnel and Saltis, a skeleton in navy blue robes with a gold encrusted scull that's cut apart into sections that move for expressions. Behind them is a dais with gemstones floating around is where Ilia is currently tied up. The dais is hooked up to a pair of batteries, the surfaces around one of them is warped whilst the second is vibrating in place and glowing.
As Roxie's group barrel down the corridor, the others step onto dais as the gemstones start to shift.
"Knock her off with a bolt!" Roxie shouts the command at the inquisitors with her with crossbows "She'll live!"
Two kneel and take aim whilst the third fires as they run.
The first bolt detonates in a cone just before her, the second hits directly but punches through her side whilst the third goes wide but a bright burst corrects its course and lands it in her back, each helping to launch her off the dais as the rest on it are obscured by a haze and vanish, a sudden flash melting through a section of the roof.
Roxie leaps over the now sinking Dais, itself and the floor melting, to quickly remove the bolt and shrapnel from her.
Ilia's then freed from her bindings and quickly slumps onto her back, but Roxie drags her back down the hallway, away from the gradually melting metal and clones. Once the rest arrive they start spreading out, the inquisitors sticking to their teams to search the rest of the facility whilst Roxie, Keira, Sarthe and her student move back with Ilia stumbling in front.
Tarrow urges them into a room before the workshop. Inside is a large table with a map of the realms, labelled with the distance from a central one and various symbols marking the routs.
Tarrow immediately sets upon it, running across the map like he's possessed.
Roxie turns from his antics with a smirk that immediately goes as she spots Sarthe glaring at Ilia.
Roxie gets their attention with a cough "Well, as is my authority, a reward for your assistance in dealing with the Alieon is in order—" She tilts her head "You will have to discuss what that is with Yerrais though"
"Um?" This steals Sarthes' thunder as she and her student look at her with surprise.
Kiera then states "That is a welcome surprise, I didn't know that you could"
"Yeah it would happen anyway, we like paying for good work" She then looks back to Tarrow "Besides, I'm guessing by Tarrows' reaction that we've stumbled across something good here"
He makes incoherent chirps in agreement
"So yeah, coupled with Ilia. We've gained quite a bit"
Sarthes' expression puckers at that, but she doesn't say anything.
Once the facility is explored and any documents are taken, and Tarrow has calmed down, they regroup at the dais where Tarrow presses something on a lectern in the back of the hallway and they return to the Calendar. From there they are driven to Sarthes academy where Ilia is locked in a room with a team of inquisitors watching the door and window.
Tarrow quickly sets to contacting Vetrelous and Yerrais, who agrees to send Scanthama alongside a squad of beasts to transport Ilia, as well as receive several witches to train, as for the reward, they agree to good relations and trade.