NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Iron Sky" data-source="post: 5096655" data-attributes="member: 60965">Session 29, Part 4There was a sudden pulse of energy – not visible in the air, but felt in the bones – that rippled through them.  A second later, all the stones of the pyramid shifted at once, sending Kormak and the others scrambling and tumbling.  The opening of the crude spiral stair that led into the depths of the pyramid violently crushed closed.  The pyramid ceased to be a pyramid and became merely a heap of rubble, with Kormak and the others trying to stay on the top of it as the rubble composing it rolled, cracked, rumbled, and churned. As quickly as it had started, it stopped.  There was a moment of stillness, then the rubble began to shift outward and reform into the rough pyramid, the spiral staircase boring itself out again into the depths of the rubble.  Thirty seconds later, it was as though nothing had ever happened. “Why am I not excited about going in there now?” Kormak said, pointing at the hole. Bail was sniffing the air and looking around.  “Surprising there isn't any dust in the air after all that.” “We just landed our flying island in a ruined city where stones fall sideways and up, build themselves spontaneously into pyramids, and you think the dust is strange?” Kormak said, staring at the half-dragon. Keeper shook his head.  “No, he stated that he found the lack of dust strange.” Kormak turned to the construct.  “Thanks for the clarification.  You sure the True Stone is down there?” Keeper nodded. “Figures – hey, wait, you're going in now?” Kormak said, stepping in front of Harold. Harold nodded.  “How deep can it be?  This pyramid isn't that tall.” “But... but... did you not see what it just did?” “Perhaps it was an anomaly,” Keeper said. “Of course it was!  Unless rock does stuff like this at the Nexus or wherever you're from.” “No.  For clarification of the previous statement, perhaps in the altered reality of our current locality, the event we just witnesses was not a regular event.” “And if it was?” “Then we'll move quickly,” Harold said, pushing past the dwarf and descending into the hole.  Velea presumably followed since the Guardian hunched itself down and followed a bit behind Harold. Kormak stared at Bail.  “You're not going in there are you?” Keeper followed the Guardian. Bail shrugged.  “The True Stone is down there, it seems we have no alternative.” “But... but... what if... the rocks!” Kormak yelled at Bails back as he followed the others. Kormak crossed his arms and planted his feet.  “Well, I'm definitely not going down there.  No way.” Out of the corner of his eye, a ruined building began shimmering and moving slowly towards the pyramid.  His head snapped around. There was no shimmering and the building wasn't moving, but Kormak couldn't be sure that it wasn't closer to the pyramid than it was before.  The feeling of vertigo began to come over him again.  “Bugger.” He walked to the steps and descended quickly into the claustrophobic darkness of the pyramid. *** They had been descending into the pyramid for several minutes when the nauseating energy pulse hit again.  Bail snorted and braced himself against the walls, and not a moment to soon.  The stone began closing in, pressing hard on him from all directions.  He grunted and strained with all his might, the primal spark of terror at being crushed and buried beneath in the dark depths of the earth filling him with adrenaline.  He gritted his teeth, joints popping, bones grinding against the pressing rubble.  He let out a roar as his muscles reached the point of utter failure, his body straining beyond its limits.  Just when he didn't think he could take it anymore, there was a rumble somewhere deep below him and the pressure released and he fell to the rapidly forming stairs. He lay gasping for several minutes, similar sounds from above and below letting him know some of his companions, at least, were still alive.  “Hello?” he called, once he could catch his breath enough to do so. He stood slowly, his whole body hurting at once. “Told you so!” a dwarven voice grumbled from above. “Everyone alive?” Harold called from below, his voice muffled by the stone. “Mostly,” Velea said, the pain obvious in her tone. “Keeper?” Bail said.  He stared at the darkness.  “Damnit, can we get some light in here?” A moment later, Velea joined him, a faintly glowing white stone held in her hand.  They went up a few stairs and met Kormak coming the other way, dragging the crumpled form of Keeper behind him.  “Gimme a hand, he's heavier than he looks,” Kormak said.  “And boy, Suniel is going to be pissed when he shows up again.” “If he ever shows up again,” Harold said from below. “I'll take him back up,” Bail said, stepping past Kormak and heaving the impressive weight of the construct onto his shoulder.  He ignored the complaints of the others and practically sprinted up the stairs, the strain of having been recently crushed and sprinting up a narrow, uneven staircase through the dark with two-hundred pounds of inert metal on his back driving him to the brink of passing out. He reached the daylight and literally fell out onto the top of the pyramid, gasping.  When he recovered enough to move, he crossed Keeper's mangled arms across his chest in the universal sign of funerary repose and glanced back at the hole in the pyramid with a sigh. A few deep breaths later and he was heading down again.  He hadn't made it far when another pulse rumbled in his bones.  Not again! he though as he turned and half-scrambled, half-sprinted back up the few flights of stairs he had made it down.  He leapt clear just as the stairway closed behind him, the stones pressing together like the door to a tomb. He lifted up Keeper to hopefully keep the construct from getting buried in the shifting stones and struggled to keep his balance.  It was less than a minute before the stones were again inert, but it had felt like hours when he had been inside the pyramid... as his companions were now.  He scrambled, slid, and jumped down the side of the pyramid, laying Keeper down on a stretch of clear ground where they could hopefully find him again and then ascended the pyramid again. When he reached the summit, he gave himself no time to hesitate, practically leaping down the stairs.  If anyone is alive, we'll need to get moving quickly to get to the Stone down there, he thought.  If not, then I need to get what's left of them out...</blockquote>

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