Having opened the door and stepped inside, the group took a look around and saw the intricate carvings on the inside walls. They took a moment to prepare themselves mentally before Cynthia spoke. The only lights being cast came from outside, the water from the waterfall splashing in as they dried themselves off as best as they could. Iisska and Cheshik found torches on the wall that were long burned out, but were able to reignite them easily. As they did, bugs skittered away in fear and they were more easily able to see the path ahead.

"I apologize." Cynthia said. "I must be returning to my master. I will leave marks on the way back to guide you back to the mansion."

"Whoa! No!" Iisska stepped infront of her, "And just leave us here to get killed I bet?"

"My master is gravely ill and does not have long to live without medication." She said coldly. "I must not dawdle in returning to his side." She stepped around him effortlessly and disappeared behind the waterfall. Nyrette placed a hand on Iisska's shoulder and tried to reassure him. "Don't worry. We'll be fine, she at least got us here. It can't be that bad, I mean, you put up with Zen for a year."

"It's not the same thing!" he fumed.

"Oh really? Just two weeks ago he put you through an invisible obstacle course and threw you into walls for hitting an 'invisible spike'. You spent four hours in the kolto tank."

"Exactly! It's not the same thing! We don't know this person. We don't know what's down there. We don't know if we're stupid, trapped sacrifices to I don't fucking know what horrible... ness... You guys..."

Before Nyrette could try and stop him, Cheshik came close and placed a hand on Iisska's head. "Stop whining. We have seen worse bad things in super market." He turned and walked away into the darkness, scouting ahead.

"Don't you talk to me about the supermarket," Iisska grumbled, "So you all trust these people? Really?"

Nyrette placed a hand on her hip and shook her head. "No. But as a group that have been doing borderline mercenary work for the past year, aren't we used to this by now?"

"Mm," Quin nodded, "And as it stands, we either do this and get a foothold in this world or go back to wasting away alone in the wilderness."

From deeper down the hall, the group hear Cheshik yell. "If only we had incredible Togruta that heard slightest sounds in darkness here and could easily point out bad things!"

"Shut your face!" Iisska snarled before visibly calming down, "I guess... Yeah... You're right. And I guess that's a reason I'm not all the way usel--" he cleared his throat and rolled his shoulders before punching his fists together, "... Let's go."

Having finally come to a consensus, Iisska, Quin, and Nyrette ran to catch up with Cheshik, whom was much farther in. He was at the entrance to a larger room. There were more carvings on the walls and ceiling even. On the far side there was a large statue of what seemed to be a jester with a cane. Seeing nothing moving so far, the group moved on. "See, Iisska. Not that bad. Is better than supermarket." Cheshik quipped.

"Cheshik!" Iisska hissed.

"Do not take attitude with me Iis-" He froze then, hearing a something scraping against the ground in the distance. "Stop. We are not alone." He reached to his back and drew his Zweihander. 

"Stay close and keep moving forward." Nyrette said.

Quin stuck to her like glue but was careful to give her enough space. Enough for her sword and enough to put a bolt into anything that moved. Even though she herself couldn't hear or see anything. Only her pulse, the soft crackle of the flames and the the breeze that was coming from the deep. It sounded reminiscent of a slow shallow breath. Air rustled through the hair by her ear like being stabbed with burning ice.

She nearly jumped out of her shoes. She didn't scream. Her voice was stuck with a sharp gasp. She wheeled around and was met with a set of glistening, bloody rubies hovering just before her face. And the cold, the deathly, gripping cold washed over her. It was well over six feet tall, rotting and skeletal. The flesh had frozen black and it's jaw hung open revealing a hollow mouth lined with broken teeth. Instinct kicked in and she pulled the trigger on her crossbow. It released and the bolt sank into the creature's chest. 

It staggered back a few feet, hunched, wobbled and then stood once more. It looked right at her.

And then it screamed.

Cheshik wheeled around and took the creature by the head, wrapping his huge muscular claw around it and slamming it into the ground, crushing it into dust. But it was too late. All around them, bloody red eyes pierced the veil of darkness and more screams rang throughout the room. They were surrounded by at least twenty of them. Nyrette drew her blade and took stock with Quin to give her time to reload while Cheshik pounded his chest and roared, drawing the attention of the creatures as they broke into a sprint and charged at the group.

What had been fear turned to pure adrenaline and Iisska dove headlong into the mob of creatures coming at them.

"No don't!" Quin yelled.

The first punch he threw connected with the face of a creature and sheared off solid flesh and bone alike in a burst of debris. It twisted from the force, but did not fall. More were behind it. Iisska backed up immediately. His arm from knuckles to shoulder felt like a bolt of electricity had been sent through the nerves.

Unlike Iisska, Cheshik was in his element. Two sword slashes sent heads rolling across the floor as one leaped onto him. He stopped it mid jump via grabbing it's neck with his iron grip and throwing it across the room. He swung around and connected his blade with one, then two, then a third. He didn't stop to watch them fall.

Meanwhile, Nyrette and Quin were set upon by three of them and, unlike Cheshik,  Nyrette was not able to take heads off in one swing. More along the lines of two swings as she swung and sliced at one that was getting too close. It twisted around her blade and fell to the ground for a moment before snarling and getting back up to charge at her again. She swung around and decapitated it before moving on to the other two. She froze for a moment as a bolt flew threw her hair and struck home between one of the creature's eyes, making it crumple to the floor in a heap. Nyrette didn't have to give Quin a romantic thumbs up before the last of the trio jumped on her in her moment of weakness and got her to the ground, trying to pin her and bite at her.

No time to reload. Quin threw the crossbow over her back and pulled her vibro-dagger from her belt while she came down upon the monsters swarming Nyrette. She sank it to the hilt into the nearest one's skull with a [i]crunch[/i] before kicking the now limp corpse aside. Like a wild animal she visciously cut, sliced and stabbed her way through the next two. The last one was still struggling with a roughly hacked neck barely hanging on to the spine when Quin grabbed Nyrette by the arm and yanked her upright and away from danger.

Despite his best efforts Iisska had been taken to the ground. He ripped away from the vice like jaws of the thing ontop of him, shoved it down and rolled over it. A bit of his bloody jacket was still lodged in it's mouth, but he didn't even feel the pain. Just rage and fear. He clamped onto it's neck and sent punch after punch after punch into it's face until the bone and features cracked and shattered away. With each successive strike it became harder and harder to clench his fingers. He was hit hard from behind by a shrieking monster. That insane high pitched waling felt like an axe to the brain. With a scream he pushed off the ground hard and landed on his back crushing the creature below him, but it just seemed to grip harder with it's disgusting hands squeezing tighter and tighter around his neck. 

Rushing to his brother's side, cheshik knelt down and slipped his claws underneath the creature's and pulled them off of iisska's throat. He pulled iisska off and, as the creature scrambled, planted his armored boot on its face, crushing it into an icy dust. Not reveling in victory, he went to iisska to help him to his feet. "Girls, okay?"

Nyrette held onto Quin for dear life for a few moments after, gripping her sword in her off hand. It took her a few seconds to realize that Cheshik had asked her a question. "Uh...yeah." She said, finally letting go of Quin's hand and massaging her shoulders. She noticed that her stomach armor was torn pretty badly, but nothing more than a light scratch underneath. She looked to her partner in crime and saw that she was alright too, aside from some scratches. "You alright, Iisska?"

"Fine," he replied.

"Do you need hug?" Cheshik said, shifting his weight from foot to foot.

"No. I don't need no fucking hug," Iisska spat, "Let's just get the thing and go."

"Quin? You want hug instead?" He joked.

Quin gave Nyrette a quick squeeze around the hips before opening her arms and winking, "If you're offering."

Nyrette barely got a hug back before Cheshik bounded over and gave a big ol' victory hug. She shook her head and took Cheshik's torch to go about the room to light the others that dotted the room, giving them enough light to be able to see the death before it hits them. She approached the statue of the jester and found two more torches that cast an eerie light onto the statue. "Think this is some kind of god or something? Seems weird to put a jester in a tomb. Owner maybe?" She asked nobody in partitucular.

Quin sidled over when she heard Nyrette talking and sized up the statue as well.

"Maybe it's not a jester," she suggested, "If it's anything like the carvings around the door outside I would say it's a god or spirit. Perhaps a guardian."

She proceeded to walk around the statue, examining it closely and running her fingertips along the base.

"If it's not gonna help us find this cure bullshit or whatever then just leave it alone," Iisska yelled from across the room.

Nyrette ignored the screaming person across the room and examined the statue a bit more closely, taking into account the room. "Well, considering what we just fought it couldn't be a guardian. If it was, it'd probably come to life or something. Wouldn't make sense either since the hallways are smaller than it." She said. "Lets move on though. Iisska is right, it's not helping." She said and made her way over to the next tunnel. She peered into the darkness for several moments, waiting for the others.

"Quin, I think I see something shining at the end of the hall." She beckoned.

Quin was there first with a torch, lifting it high to see deeper down the hall. Cheshik and Iisska weren't far behind.

"I don't see anything but..." she began to walk along the edge of the wall here, "It's worth checking on, right?"

It took several more moments for her to make it down the hallway enough for the light of her torch to glint off something in the distance. She could barely make out it's location, resting inside one of the catacombs carved into the stone.

Following Quin's footsteps, Nyrette crept alongside the other wall, leaving the boys to stay behind just in case there were traps. As she made her way down, she saw several strange patterns dotting the floor, making her think that she was more right than she would like to admit. She made it down far enough to parallel Quin and move with her down the hallway. It seemed that the architect did not exactly account for people of intelligence coming through and just using the wall. Within just a dozen minutes or so, they had reached the far wall and saw the bright white vial on the carved out shelf. Before moving towards it, Nyrette rose her hand. "I got it, keep a look out."

Stepping off of the wall, she kept low and slow, using the torch to light the ground and let her know where to step. The insignias were all over the place now and she was fining it difficult to navigate them. After a few more minutes of navigation she reached the wall and simply grabbed the vial...nothing happened. She carefully looked around after she grabbed it and didn't see much other than another corridor. Though it was hard to see, she could make out large shadows moving far down the hall. She shook her head and made her way back across the trapped floor. "Seems like there is something deeper but..." She held the vial aloft. It was white and had strange writing on the front. It was barely as large as her hand and it was icy cold to the touch, but not quite frozen judging from the liquid on the inside.

"You think that's it?" Quin getly took the vial from Nyrette, "I suppose your guess is as good as mine and it does fit the description. Let's take it back. If we wind up back here we will at least be prepared and we can explore whatever else is down there."

"Agreed" She said and the two made their way back. It took a little less time for them to make it back this time and when they did they found Cheshik giving Iisska a hug. He set him down as the girls returned and spoke gladly. "Have potion?" He said, happy when he saw Quin nodding her head. 

"At least we are somewhat sure we have it," she shrugged, "We'll know for sure when we get back to the cabin."

"Fantastic," Iisska snorted. He was already walking back toward the long entrance tunnel.