[h2][center][b][color=ed1c24]Novak[/color][/b][/center][/h2]
It seemed at first that Novak's symbol-pressing had no effect.  But when he viewed the pedestal with the mask's sight again, he was greeted by the sight of a light floating over the pedestal, and figures surrounding it.  He beheld as the phantoms grabbed the light and a series of flashing images depicted them fleeing down the hallway into the unexplored section.  Beyond the darkness, Novak beheld what looked like...something humanoid peeping at him from behind the corner.  A disconcerting giggle sounded and the figures vanished, followed by a few strange whispers.

Perhaps it was simply a primal fear that would spook almost anybody, or perhaps it was the vestige of a fear from his past life.  Whatever the case, it was too much for Novak, who let out a short, quiet scream from beneath his mask.  He put the glowing crystal down and moved his hand to the hilt of his sword, fearful at the prospect that something was down here watching him.  He stood there, frozen in fear, heart pounding, waiting to see if those...things would emerge from the darkness.  Would he be able to defend himself against them?  Would he even be able to hurt them?  Or were they just more memories of this place, perceptible only through the mask?

As Novak pondered on this, the latter possibility- that they were harmless phantoms that the mask was showing him- seemed to become more and more plausible as nothing happened, and with it his fight-or-flight instinct subsided slightly.  The place was almost certainly empty, and the figures he saw were nothing more than memories that the mask was recounting to him.  At least that's what he told himself.  He pocketed the mask, bent down to pick up the crystal, and it was only then he noticed the skull in the room, which once again caused him to let out a short, relatively soft scream.

[color=ed1c24][i]How did that skull get here?  Was that always here?  I don't remember it being here before.[/i][/color]  The presence of human remains, even if it was just a skull, was of some concern to Novak.  Just what happened here, he wondered.

With one hand holding the crystal and the other tightly gripping the hilt of his sword, Novak tentatively walked down the unexplored hallway, as his alarmed mind tried to make sense of what he had seen.  Those figures had taken the light from the pedestal and run off- it almost looked like they were stealing something, some sort of object that had once been stationed on the pedestal?  What would happen, he wondered, if someone were to return that stolen object here?  Further speculation could wait; first he needed to explore here and prove to himself that it what he saw was just the mask's images.  At least that's what he hoped he'd prove.

[@Rune_Alchemist]