ooc: nameless skip 1, tellu skip 1
Time: ???
Weather: cold
Mentions: @Tellussoil @Karcen@Nameless Hero
TLDR: party is injured but free to proceed deeper
music:


Xune's spell erupted through the chamber in a violent surge of cold and heat. Frost raced across stone, metal, bone, and armor before being followed by a wave of burning fire. The abrupt shift shattered weakened structures throughout the room. Pylons cracked. Conduits burst. Wardens broke apart beneath the strain. Several scavengers were caught in the blast and disappeared within the destruction.

The barriers formed around Xune, Mantis, and Bones only moments before the waves washed over them. The shields cracked immediately and collapsed soon after, but they held long enough to keep the group alive through the blast. When the light finally faded, all three remained standing, though none escaped entirely unharmed.

The chains binding Xune were gone. Whatever connection had been feeding from her had been broken along with the damaged machinery. The pressure that had been suppressing her lesser magic disappeared as well, leaving her free to act without the same interference that had plagued her since entering the chamber.

The room itself was no longer stable. Ruined pylons leaned at odd angles and shattered conduits spilled fading green light across the floor. Despite the damage, the sensation of lifeforce being drawn away had not vanished. If anything, it had increased. It lingered in the chamber as a constant pressure. Remaining where they were would continue to wear them down.

Across the far side of the room, a section of the wall had split apart during the destruction. Beyond it stretched a passage descending deeper into the pyramid. Unlike the ruined chamber behind them, the machinery within that corridor still moved with steady purpose, green light flowing through intact conduits as the structure continued operating somewhere below.

Xube was glad to finally be free from the chains, but it seemed she had a little overboard. The room was unstable, hopefully the pyramid coukd repair itself as she doubted the black stone was easy to get. Still there was no way to undo what had been done. Hopefully there would be no more surprises like those chains,but knowing this place she would have issues with her main magic getting siphoned for awhile yet. Having the skeletons pick her up carry her xune looked about on where to go next.

It seemed the blast had managed to break part of the walls revealing a passage deeper into the pyramid. " Let's keep moving we need to go deeper to make this place mine Xune called out to the others and as she did she urged her skeletons towards the hole in the wall

As the dust settled, Bones was awestruck by the sheer level of destruction all around the room. Not a single construct was left standing nor could any of the scavengers be seen. So complete was their annihilation that not even charred remains were left to mark their passing. They were simply... gone.

Magic sure is terrifying, Bones thought as he looked at the drider, shook his head and revised his thoughts. No, she is terrifying. And where was all this power earlier?

The answer came soon enough as Xune mounted her grotesque chariot and said, "Let's keep moving we need to go deeper to make this place mine."

Without being able to help himself, Bones tightened his grip on his sword as he stepped forward to shout, "HAVE YOU LEARNED NOTHING?"

He regretted it as soon as he said it.

Sheathing his sword and looking down at one of his lifeless hands, Bones continued in a calmer voice, "Many before you have tried to do the exact same thing, but this place... it only takes and takes from you until there's nothing left. Only a husk."

Balling his hand into a fist, he spoke the way he used to when his companions in life were in need of common sense, "If you really want to claim the pyramid then give up on trying to keep it intact. If there is a way to do it then it won't be through its defences. After all, would you be foolish enough to include such a flaw in its design?"

Moving towards the new passage, Bones picked up his thrown dagger along the way and while passing by the drider, he said in hushed tones, "What you said about bringing back my friends, please don't."

ooc: nameless skip 1, tellu skip 2
Time: ???
Weather: cold
Mentions: @Tellussoil @Karcen@Nameless Hero
TLDR: party is in the throne room and confronted by another defender that is attacking them
music:


The passage descended through the pyramid before opening into a chamber unlike any they had seen so far. The hum of machinery faded into a steady pulse that seemed to come from every direction. Green conduits crossed the walls and ceiling before converging toward the center of the room where a great throne of black stone stood upon a broad platform. Beneath it, vast soul vessels pulsed with dim light while heavy conduits disappeared into the floor below. Above the throne drifted a dark silhouette that never settled into a clear shape, its outline shifting as though made from smoke and shadow.

As the party entered, the vessels beneath the platform brightened. Bone fragments scattered throughout the chamber began to move. Broken armor scraped across the floor. Charred remains, old skeletons, scraps of rusted plate, shattered weapons, and bones from long dead fae slid toward the platform as though drawn by a single will. Even pieces left behind from the wardens and scavengers they had just destroyed joined the mass. Layer by layer the remains assembled themselves into a towering figure nearly twenty feet tall. Thick armor fused directly into its frame while enormous arms ended in heavy blades formed from black metal and bone. Green light burned through the gaps in its body as it took its first step from the platform.

One arm swept outward in a broad arc that nearly covered the entire width of the chamber. The massive blade tore through the air toward the group, the weight of the strike threatening to crush anyone caught in its path while the shock of its movement sent broken stone and fragments of bone skidding across the floor. (all need to defend themselves)

[color=a187be][/color] Xune stopped her skeletons for a moment when the skeleton spoke, things she had no desire to hear. She would take what she wanted, she had taken and taken since coming to this world, from her freedom, to the relics to those she surrounded herself she took them to some degree. The man had died trying to destroy this structure and clearly didn't know its true history. Already damage had been done and if more damage had to be done then fine she would just have to repair it. It wasn't like that would be the first time the pyramid had suffered serious damage. It was the key to bringing the great necromancer to this world and breaking him.

" This is the black pyramid of the great necromancer, not even the spirit king could destroy it that anyone thought they could was foolish " she said not at all hiding the venom in her words " The only way to deal with it is to give it a new master, a master who will bring its old one back and break him open and take his essence " she would break a god a lesser god but a god none the less. she would take what she wanted even if she had to do it alone.

Xuen would take her skeletons into the chamber and watch as the final mangled guardian arose a massive golem of bone. The Thone must be the way to usurp control of the pyramid to make it's power hers and be one step closer to the summoning. The problem was getting past the golem and it was not wanting to let her just take over as it swung at her. thing time she was not just letting the skeletons move her, they were to slow so she left them where they were but snapped as she jumped from them to skilled away while she conjured soul flame barriers to protect them and her skeletal ally. " You bunch help him keep it distracted" She ordered minions.

actions

1. Jump and skitter away with speed A
2. order skeletons to aid bones
3 vast barriers intelligence A componetless magic C barrier C soul flam affinity C Range D Targets D duration E : Manifests soul flame barriers around Xune bones and the skeletons last 1 hour Rank C 3 post cooldown.

Bones stared after Xune for a while before following her down the passageway, hand clasped firmly around the hilt of his sword.

"Fucking necromancers," he muttered while shaking his head. Now that he knew the drider's goals, he wondered if it would not be better to abandon her to this mad quest.

I could stop her right now, Bones thought to himself as he slowly switched his hand to the hilt of his dagger. Stop her right now before she fucks up and brings disaster upon the world.

But then again, what if it worked? It was a maddening thing to consider. That an army of noble heroes could not conquer the pyramid, but this singularly arrogant drider might? And from what Bones had seen, she was certainly powerful. The only question was if she was powerful enough.

Worth seeing at least, he thought as he removed his hand from his dagger.

Upon reaching the end of the passageway, the chamber ahead stirred with necromantic activity and Bones immediately placed himself between Xune and the golem taking form before them. Drawing his sword, he prepared to face this new foe... that continued to grow. And grow. And grow. When its true size finally became apparent, it wasted no time at all in attacking the party.

"You bunch help him keep it distracted," Xune ordered her minions as she skittered away while raising barriers on them all.

"I have a better idea," Bones said as he backed up, turned around and sprinted for the passage where they came from before the golem's massive arm came swinging after them. "RUN THE FUCK AWAY!"

ooc: nameless skip 1, tellu (left)
Time: ???
Weather: cold
Mentions: @Karcen@Nameless Hero
TLDR: Xune gets clipped by attack, her bone warriors are destroyed, Bones is safe for the moment
music:


Xune's dodge kept her from taking the full force of the guardian's swing, but the edge of the blow still caught her and sent her tumbling across the chamber with injuries.

Xune's skeletons intercepted the attack meant for Bones. The guardian's blade smashed through them, destroying every one of the undead servants, but their sacrifice spared Bones from the strike. Xune's barriers formed around herself and Bones moments later.

The guardian immediately advanced on Xune. Both arms raised together like a cone shape plow, they surged toward her trying to crusher her. (defend yourself)

Xune didn't expect the Skelton to run run away, she was used to others that listened to her that did what she said. Now she just had bones and he was to her a coward so much for trying to put a stop to the pyramid when he was to scared to even face the final hurdle. this left Xuen to in her mind do this herself. The attack from the golem had grazed her as her shields hadn't come on line and it was focusing on her. Her skeletons were useless and destroyed. So she was going to have issues dealing with this damned guardian without a distraction.

" Either you get the fuck back in her bones you those friends of yours are coming back to deal with this! " She shouted to demand the Skelton at least distract this guardian " Just buy me a few moments to focus and i can deal with this guardian" she was somewhat bluffing about bringing the old adventures back she didn't have the corpses right here so if she wanted to do it she would need to focus to bring them back and if she got that time she could do far better.

The guardian would come at her and Xune could try to skitter off, but she had her barrier up so she had at least some defense she just needed to block the blow. She would have to put up something solid a wall of ice. and with a snap she cast a spell. the idea was to simply cast the ice in the way of the blade trying to get the blade to be stopped by the ice or slowed so the barrier could hold it.

action:

1. intelligence A componetless magic E affinity ice f magic Aoe E selective magic e rank E 2 turn cool down make and explosion of ice around the the cast trying to intercept the blade.

Bones scoffed as he heard the threat from Xune and shouted in retort while running past, "Stay here and die then if you like!"

He'd heard the skeletal minions shattering to pieces behind him as he ran and had no interest in sharing the same fate. That aside, what little desire he had to help had evaporated the moment the drider opened her mouth, justifying the sheer disdain he held for her kind.

No respect for life or death, Bones thought contemptuously as he ran on. Better for there to be one less necromancer in the world.

But then Xune called out, "Just buy me a few moments to focus and I can deal with this guardian."

An earnest plea. Suddenly, it no longer felt just abandoning the drider to her fate and Bones halted in his tracks as he thought, hesitated and turned away from the room's exit.

"Gods damn it!" he cursed to himself as he sprinted back the other way.

At that point, instinct had completely taken over and he gave no thought to whether Xune's magical barriers would hold. All he saw was a drider about to get crushed by a giant golem and that there was something he could do about it.

With a leap, Bones tackled Xune out of the way of the attack and shouted, "GET OUT OF H-"

His words were cut off as the blow struck.

ooc: nameless skip 1, tellu (left)
Time: ???
Weather: cold
Mentions: @Karcen@Nameless Hero
TLDR: Bones is in a bad way, but Xune is still kicking.
music:


Bones reached Xune first and drove her clear of the guardian's grasp. Her ice rose into the path of the blade rush, slowing it just enough for the tackle to carry her out from beneath the strike.

The guardian's arm blades crushed Bones instead. The impact shattered his body, scattering bones and armor across the floor where he had dove moments before. His sword spun away across the chamber while the guardian paused over the pile of remains, its gaze fixed downward as green light gathered around the scattered bones. The giant paused briefly to consider what had happened before it looked for where the tiny spider had gotten to.

That was not how Xune had expected Bones to distracted the guardian, to throw himself in front of her and push her away. In hindsight she could have tried to make a barrier, but it almost felt as if something was messing with time and forcing it into the least optimal order. So likely if she had tried then the magic wouldn't have kicked in till after she was hit given snaping your fingers was faster than running and intercepting a blow and yet her magic had gone off after the tackle. Something truly was wrong with how time and space were acting if her componetless spells which were cast pretty much at a thought were slower than someone running across the room. Still she had been pushed out and that shouldn't technically count as her moving as she often got moved by others. So she could start casting right away. If she was right about time not acting right then even a long chant would be able to actually happen before an attack came. Xune wanted this whole headache over having her normal companions both need to go and being left with bones while having what she did interpreted as if the most bad faith genie was watching and determining how things went.

" Come you fallen heroes, come you fallen mages come you fallen healers. Come hear my words follow my commands. Come and be bound serve me, protect me, kill my foes, and save my allies. Come Rise rise from your graves Rise a from the afterlife, come your souls are mine your powers are mine. Come my army of fallen heroes, come my legends to be " She chanted the magic ritual and necrotic circles coming to life under her to empower her spell and allow her to not need to corpses to bring forth the undead conjuring them straight from the beyond under her control. " Rise your fighters and attack my foe, rise you mages and strike them down with magic come your healers save and protect them " She commanded as the magic continued. " Protect and save my ally do not let him taste death again"

Actions:
1 summon undead: Intelligence A magic B Catalyst B Raise dead B Barrier B Magic Targets C soufire affinity C magic duration E Selective magic C Magic range D magic circle, ritual circle, necrotic circle. Rank B 5 post cool down duration 1 day: Summon 50 powerful spirit heroes The undead summoned are one grade above the skill thanks to ritual circle and do not need corpses thanks to necrotic circle. The break down is 20 types of various warrior types ( any martial skill specialist) 20 mages and any type preferring those with skills that are powerful against undead, and 10 healers namely those that use magic to heal and support their allies. All 50 undead are also given a b rank soul fire barrier.

2: command the undead to attack the guardian and defend her and bones along with healing him specifically.