[center][h3]Winterhold College - School of Mensis/Aurelian Nexus[/h3]
Word Count: 2199 (+3 exp)
[color=salmon][b]Ace[/b] - [u]Level[/u]: [b]9[/b] - [u]Total EXP[/u]: 516/90[/color]
Level 7 Heismay (55/70)
[sub][@Lugubrious][@Yankee][/sub][/center]

After stepping into the next room and getting an eyeful of yet more bodies arranged in what he assumed was some kind of dark intent, Ace turned his head to look away from them. Of course the rows of deceased scholars -or students- lined the walls, so after a moment the hunter turned his eyes up to the dark ceiling instead. He almost suggested just turning around and gambling with whatever the next random room would be, but it would be pretty irresponsible not to check the place out in case it had any hints on getting out of this labyrinth. Plus he was not keen on splitting up in case Heismay disagreed with just saying 'nope' and leaving this one alone.

[i]I take back anything I said about this being my lucky day,[/i] he thought to himself. He'd seen more horrific scenes of dead and undead over his stint with the Seekers than he had in his entire life prior (though to be fair, the creatures of creepy stories were pure fiction in his world), but it was particularly bad lately. 

[color=salmon]"It doesn't really help, but at least they must have been transported here like that,"[/color] Ace said, expression pinched. [color=salmon]"The last room too. Couldn't have been... uh, recent."[/color]

Technically not true, but the alternatives were much more terrible to think about. The Cadet would stick with his first thought, given so far everything they'd killed in the college had turned to ashes. 

Eventually Ace tapped at the scoutfly cage affixed to his coat. The little insects flittered out and flew a circle around the room. Normally they were more useful in bigger spaces, but if there were any hidden monsters already here waiting to ambush them from the dark at least the Seekers would get a heads up. They briefly buzzed around the hell hound, and after a moment of wondering if they'd be able to get it tag along with them Ace glanced down to Heismay with his arms crossed over his chest.

[color=salmon]"Where do we even start?"[/color]

Heismay remained quiet for a moment as he watched the scoutflies flutter around, until he felt reasonably sure that their aimless meandering meant that no active threats were nearby. Of course, he could only feel so comfortable in a room full of tastelessly arranged cadavers, but the eugief kept a stiff upper lip as he approached one of the seated mummies carefully. “Considering that the slain turn to ash in this world, perhaps these bodies are more akin to ‘props’ placed here along with the College, rather than true remains.”

After entering the corpse’s hypothetical attack range, he paused for a moment, then moved closer. With little more than dry bones and skin like paper, these bodies didn’t rot or smell, at least. Since they lacked any kind of muscule, he reasoned that only magic could animate them rather than any lingering remnants of life, and he didn’t get as strong a sense of magic in this place as he did the Forgotten Commune. Slowly, he extended his hand. “As morbid as this is, these unfortunates may still yield clues about this place’s true nature.” He gingerly pried the instrument in the corpse’s fingers from its petrified deathgrip.

When he got a better look at the thing, Heismay blinked. In his hand he held a toothbrush, crafted from wood and hog bristles. It seemed like all the dead scholars in here had one. Confused, the diminutive eugief peered through the bars of the cage on the dead man’s head to inspect his teeth. Metal braces gleamed faintly in the flickering firelight. As he lingered by the corpse, pondering the meaning of his discovery, Heismay became faintly aware of an unexpected smell. After a moment he picked up a squat, disc-shaped can the size of his palm, containing a mixture of powders with a quite unidentifiable odor. It smelled a little animal, a little chemical, a little salty, and a little burned. Yet, something of that nature wasn’t totally unknown to Heismay’s Renaissance-era world. “Tooth…powder?” Quite baffled, Heismay looked around the room, spotting more canisters he hadn’t noticed before. What was the connection between ritual sacrifice and dental hygiene…?

[color=salmon]"Is that what's in these?"[/color] Ace asked, nudging one of the tins in another section of the room. After the scoutflies returned to their cage the hunter had followed Heismay's lead in giving the area a look around. If there [i]was[/i] a connection, Ace didn't see it yet.

So far he didn't see much of anything that might clue them in on navigating the college, or even that might prove useful in other ways. He certainly wasn't about to recommend using any of the brushes or powders here after all. Of course if the rows of corpses (props or not) weren't very forthcoming with useful information, there was still the lone body that sat separate from the rest to check.

Ace walked over to it, noting the robes the man wore. This was the only clothed corpse in the room, so even leaving its special seat aside it was probably fair to say this person had been more important than the others. [color=salmon]"Probably the leader of this group?"[/color] Ace mused aloud, looking between the deceased in front of him and the auditorium-like rows of the others. [color=salmon]"I guess a lecturer, or... more like the head of a cult?"[/color]
  
He murmured something about the creepiness of it all before getting a closer look to see if the head of the school had any more differences to note. When he did, though, his magic sense began to tingle, not overwhelming but still strong and bothersome enough to give him pause. Although he couldn’t see anything, there was something anomalous about this corpse in particular. 

After a moment of hovering Ace took a few steps backward, opting to trust his gut on this one. If he touched the body it might summon another set of monsters like the ritual monuments in the last room had. Even if this one didn't have the same dark atmosphere, there was definitely still something strange going on. 

The Cadet looked over at Heismay. [color=salmon]"Did you find anything else? I'm not seeing anything that looks important around this guy... and I feel like maybe touching him would be a bad idea."[/color]

He gave the eugief sort of a hapless shrug, his eyes flickering towards the door they came through, which was the only one they could see. It might have just been a cursory look around but they'd still done a little investigating, so now Ace figured it would be fine to broach moving right on. [color=salmon]"Wanna try our luck with the next room?"[/color]

Though he lacked any kind of magic aversion, and was in fact a dabbler in the dark arts himself with his archetype awakened, Heismay felt inclined to agree. His eyes lingered on the long-dead, highly dubious person of interest for a moment before. Then he shook his head and brushed off the whole room with a dismissive wave. “Yes, let’s.” As he turned to go, he beckoned for Edward’s wayward hellhound to follow. “Coming along? The more, the merrier, as they say.”

The door through which the Seekers entered had quietly swung shut while the two conducted their investigation, so according to the rules they’d come to know about this place, it would no longer lead them back to the Forgotten Commune. Ace reached the doorway first, and despite his strength, it took a substantial effort to throw open the doors.

[center][b]Aurelian Nexus[/b]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/HZSR0kz.png[/img][/center]

Before the two stood a large vault with a high arched ceiling supported by stone columns. Directly across from the entrance there seemed to be a small chamber with a recessed statue of impressive height. Clusters of candles provided ample firelight, and they illuminated a grisly scene. Upon the floor a giant pentagram had been drawn in chalk, with a blood-red candle at each of the five points, their flames much brighter than they should have been. Above each floated a unique, unfamiliar sigil. In the center lay a [url=https://mewgenics.wiki.gg/images/The_Coven_Intro_Art.png]grotesque blob[/url] of twisted, coagulated tumor-flesh, with multiple heads and seats of limbs protruding from the inhumane mass.

“Eugh…” In the short time he’d been in Winterhold so far, Heismay had seen some unpleasant sights, but this took the cake so far. “Another ritual? We’ve some truly rotten luck.” 

Ace echoed that sentiment completely, glancing about the room before his attention settled on the writhing thing with a grimace. [color=salmon]"No kitten."[/color]

As they watched, one of the bodies began to stretch out from the mass, adulating in an unknown tongue as it waved its nublike arms. The candle-flames seemed to dance in time with its chants. Heismay gave a heavy sigh in irate fashion. “This one, however, does not seem inclined to wait for our involvement.”

At this point even Ace was finding it hard to stay plucky, but he did his best anyway because disheartenment wouldn't help anyone. In fact it was actively harmful in situations like these, so the hunter threw Heismay a small, sidelong grin. [color=salmon]"If this gnarlycuga thing wants a piece of us, let's give it what it wants,"[/color] he said while forcing a bit of bravado. 

Ace took the hilt of Yato and drew the blade as he took his long sword stance. But that being said he knew better than to assume that a big hunk of muscle-pretzel was all this creature was, so he held back in order to first see what it would throw at them. The fact that it, and the body that looked like it was trying to split off from it, were sitting inside the occult circle didn't help his hesitation to jump right into offense. 

“Hmph!” Heismay kicked off the battle with an experimental slash straight to the cancerous heap. It was dense, and though his longsaber left a long gash it didn’t cut very deep, and nor did it draw blood, if this horror indeed had any to bleed. The faces that littered its mass flinched in pain, and its little protruding limbs writhed, but when it made no move to reciprocate the attack Heismay hacked at it twice more. Going for one of the heads seemed no more effective. “Tis quite sturdy,” he growled through gritted teeth, not sure this was the right approach.

After a moment, another body extruded itself from the mass, stretching upward. Heismay jumped up in order to slice at it, but even then the wretch did not round on him. It merely lifted its own hands and joined the chant. This time, dark magic sprung forth, and a handful of frogs poofed into existence. One stuck its tongue out at Heismay like it might a frog, which did no damage but yanked the eugief toward it. A simple kick was all it took to make sure that wouldn’t happen again. More of his attention turned toward the candles, which had flared even brighter in response to the Coven’s chant. He couldn’t help but get the sinking feeling like this was building toward something, and the monster’s efforts were just an attempt to slow its attackers down.

Once Heismay got started it quickly spurred Ace into following his lead, seeing that nothing strange happened on the swordman's approach or attack. Relatively strange for the situation anyway. He took to the dark mass of flesh's other side, drawing his own blade along it. He cut a line across heads, eyes, limbs, and whatever else made up the blob, but the results weren't much different than Heismay's. Shallow but visible damage on the collection of bodies, even the legendary weapon hard-pressed to cleave through the bulk. And was it just the Cadet overthinking now that the mass had begun casting, or was the flesh hardening further after another individual had pulled itself up?

“Hunter!” Heismay called suddenly, his voice a little frantic. “We’re not hurting this thing fast enough. Mayhaps we should turn our efforts toward the candles, instead?”

[color=salmon]"Candles?"[/color] Ace stopped mid-swing, swiveling to check what Heismay was talking about. There were tons of candles in this room, but he must have meant the blood red ritual ones that dotted the points of the pentagram around them. The flames that burned on their wicks seemed almost alive. A second later and the hunter realized why his comrade had made that suggestion: destroying the components of whatever spell this thing was trying to cast would ruin its plan way faster than hacking away at the creature itself. It was good thinking! 

Ace twisted, bringing his sword around in a low circle slash that brushed painfully against the Coven but was aimed at slicing the candle nearest to him in two. His blade carved through the wax, but even that seemed far denser and stronger than it should have been, albeit nowhere near as durable as the Coven. These were no ordinary candles and would require dedicated effort to demolish. Seeing his comrade’s decision, Heismay peeled off from the meat mass and tried to kick another candle over, only to find it solidly stuck to the floor. “Damn it,” he growled. Confounded at every turn… what were they going to do?