Into the Deep

[Koran]

(Closed)

"Ghah!"

The cry escaped his lips before he could suck it back and the tall Shadow Meld tumbled to the ground in a flurry of flailing arms, loose fabric and long silver hair. He hit hard, a loud "Harrumph!" forcing its way from his lungs, through his throat and out between his glimmering white teeth. He slid for a moment, finally coming to rest only after hitting his head several times on some rather large boulder like protrusions in the earth and he lay there a moment, catching his breath.

"Curses," he mumbled as he pulled his now bruised arms beneath his body, levering himself up onto his knees. "You'd think I never learned to walk." Groaning in pain, as this was the fifth such fall in the last hour, the tall being sat up onto his heels and looked down the mountainside falling away in front of him.

Bleak, that being the best way to describe it during this season, ragged protrusions and gaping maws rolled out before him, looking like a giant with a temper and a rather large pick axe had decided to exact his vengeance on the lifeless rock. Small patches of stunted trees and shrubs dotted the landscape, failing miserably to bring a lighter feeling to the landscape and it didn't help that a constant east to westerly gale like wind blew over the rocks and cliff faces. He was fortunate, for the moment, to have been beside a rather large cliff face for if he hadn't, he would have surely been blown free from the mountainside to tumble to certain death on the jagged rocks below. Well, maybe not certain death.

The thought had more than once occurred to him that he should fly down the mountainside, just as he had flown up it, but he quickly shuttered the thought. Flying in these winds was not only dangerous, it was borderline suicidal. I haven't lived nearly eleven millennium only to be bashed to death on the side of some strange mountain far from home. No, his death was going to be a grand spectacle. Explosions, death, screams and all around chaos. He had always been a fanatic toward dying in the heat of battle.

A low, deep gurgle, somewhere off to the far west, rolled across the landscape for a moment, rumbling in the Shadow Melds chest. This had been the seventh such time that that had happened and because nothing had come of it as of yet, the Shadow Meld did exactly the same thing he did the second time he had heard it; he ignored it. It was probably just some dwarves experimenting with some new explosive in their extensive mines beneath the surface of this mountain and by the sound of it, rather far away, therefore not worth the attention.

The Shadow Meld sighed, pushed himself to his feet and after leaning momentarily against the cliff face to catch his breath for a moment, began his descent down the mountain once again. He only made it twenty or so yards before the gurgle came an eighth time. The Shadow Meld once again began to shove the sound to the back of his mind but something about the sound quickly changed and it brought it back to the forefront with an earth shattering force.

Literally.

The gurgle grew to a rumble, which then vaulted to a shudder and then climaxed into an all out quake and before the Shadow Meld could even think to brace himself the ground beneath him cracked and he disappeared from sight, swallowed whole by the mountain.

[Mutant_Lorenor]

Time: Roughly 3:00 P.M. Standard Althanas Time/Alerar (S.A.T.)
Date: Friday August 7th, C.P. 1831



Working in Alerar was quite different from working in Corone. In Alerar, one had to make connections to survive due to the influence the Drow had all over the economical super structure of Alerar. Alerar politics were also not Corone's politics, and the mutant suddenly found himself with a place to call home. He'd been there since earlier in the summer, roughly May but standard Althanas time keeping. The mutant hooked up some weeks prior with a Dwarf named Rikard Dimet of Clan Iron Heart. One of the many large families of Dwarven folk that lived within the Kachuk mountain range.

The finest deposits of Mythril ore, and other precious metals were to be found for a price of hard, physical labor. Dwarves of all ages worked the mines most of their lives whilst forging their potent combat skills into lethal killing machines. Lorenor found himself traveling to Alerar on what started as a diplomatic mission to the mines. Lorenor was to serve the Red Hand and establish connections into Alerar's mining community. Eventually, the Red Hand would conquer Alerar's trade routes as they had attempted in Corone. Lorenor found himself immediately in the employ of Rikard Dimet's Mining Outfit 7. They explored the more dangerous shafts of the Kachuck mountain range in an area of the super structure prone to earthquake and dangerous monster attacks.

Rikard Dimet and Lorenor V'halkulus shared a drink, and later a bed. It was during the lover's embrace that the mutant discovered the secret project that the miners were working on. He decided to keep the knowledge to himself for the time being for later use. In the meantime, the mutant was employed as a Miner. Rikard Dimet had parted to Lorenor the knowledge of mining for mythril ore, and a special gift, a Mythril Pickaxe.

So that's how Lorenor found himself in Mining Outfit 7. Operating in full operation in Mining Shaft 10B the mutant worked alongside the stalwart Dwarves. A few Drow were even present in the mining company to add a dash of entertainment to the mix. Lorenor was used the limitless passageways and corridors of the Kachuk mountain range. After all, he was initially a native of Haidia proper. A Haidian at heart, the mutant was used to the cavernous chambers of natural earth and granite. Deep within the granite deposits lurked veins of Mythril and other metals that had to be filtered out from the rest of the useless granite. It took Lorenor weeks to learn the process of mining Mythril. It took Lorenor several more weeks, just to get into the rhythm of the job at hand.

Lorenor admired the Dwarves' courage and tenacity. He worked alongside them as one of their own, often trading sexual favors for information and promotions. That's how Lorenor became a ranking Miner. He found that the miners were more willing to divulge information after a few shared drinks and the act of physical consort. Lorenor had ridden out earthquakes before, but this was different somehow. A dark energy was in the air. The mutant grabbed a nearby rock outcropping, held on to his pick for dear life, and waited the earth quake out. He heard the rumblings as several nearby passageways were blocked off. Men shouted in confusion, shock, and despair. Lorenor kept his calm at all times. In a situation like this, one had to remain calm at all times. That's when it happened, the earth broke open from above and something, big, tall, and heavy landed on the mutant nearly breaking his neck. If not for the fact that Lorenor weighed two hundred pounds, the mutant would have been crushed underneath the weight of the heavy object. Taking a few seconds to orient himself, Lorenor saw a man on top of him.

I am used to being a bottom, but this is a whole new meaning to the word... Lorenor thought to himself as he took a glance at what had landed on top of him. He was surprised to discover a humanoid...

"Fuck! Hey you took quite a fall there. Are you all right?" Lorenor asked as he tried to push the stranger off his person.

Small bunny of your Character to get things moving along. Let me know if its okay dude. I thought it would be amusing to have Jordhan Kol'Alamar landing on Lorenor.

[Koran]

It's all good.

It took a moment for the Shadow Meld to orient himself after the ground beneath his feet simply disappeared. Several in fact; one just doesn't leap up onto his feet after the world he lived in came crashing down from beneath him. Literally. No, instead he lay there for a moment, staring up at the now flickering orange-black area that used to be a bright blue sky with scattered tufts of white cloud flitting across its surface, outlined all by a bright yellow-orange ball called the sun. It took a few more moments to realize that he had landed on something soft and that that something soft was a person. Alive and well apparently, judging by the abrupt curse, followed by the cliche 'Are you okay?' bit, followed almost too quickly by the rude shoving to get the Shadow Meld off said persons person.

Well shit sir, it's not like I just fell through the fucking ground into an abysmal black hole or anything! Sheesh. As much as he wished he had said that, the Shadow Meld merely grunted his acknowledgment of the fact that he was alive and indeed, unharmed, and then rolled free of the bothersome being.

His palms met cold stone, worked smooth by some sort of machinery, or else long, tiresome and weary hours of being walked upon and it came to him abruptly, surprisingly through his still slightly foggy senses, that perhaps he hadn't just fallen into some random hole. These mountains are crisscrossed with old mine shafts! That meant there might be a way out. He looked up quickly, searching for the telltale signs of an escape...

...and found only a torch, casting a faint, flickering orange gloom upon the walls as it slowly burnt itself out and the cold, unforgiving surfaces of a collapsed mining tunnel in all directions. His heart sank and he sat heavily on the cold earth, kicking his legs out in front of him like some forlorn child of eight come to find out that he had lost his favorite play toy to the family dog. He brooded for a moment, the gravity of his situation finally beginning to sink in.

Lost in the bowels of a great mountain, far from any place I'd dare to call home. Stuck in the dark with a person, maybe creature, I know nothing of. No telling how long the torch is going to last. No telling if there is even a way out. Shit! In a brief moment of rage, he silently cursed his luck and punched the stone beneath him repeatedly, before falling silent a few moments later.

"Great," he muttered to no one in particular, his voice hollow and filled with sorrow. "Now what?" A noise came to his ears and he looked up just in time to see the torch pop one last time before finally extinguishing itself and plunge the cave and its two trapped companions in complete, utter darkness.

"Perfect, just fucking perfect."

[Mutant_Lorenor]

Lorenor stood up a moment or two after the man moved. Well there's something that doesn't happen everyday. Lorenor thought to himself as he cleaned himself off. Inspecting the mine shaft, with a start, he realized that they were suddenly cut off from the rest of the mining troupe. Only a few of the stalwart miners were present in the corridor with them. Lorenor could hear and sense their movements all about. When the torch decided it wanted to go completely out as a result of the earthquake, the Living Dark filled the entire passageway. Feeling his strength returning, the mutant stretched briefly and gathered himself. He also gathered the situation at hand. "By the Thayne. You took quite a fall there, friend." Lorenor picked up his samples of the Mythril ore they were mining, and put some of it in his pack. When in emergency situations, it was every man for himself. The mutant's sole responsibility was finding a way back to the miner's guild in the Dwarven city of Horal'Rin deep within the mountains of Kachuk. In this mountain range, the Dwarves had several large strongholds built into the cavernous shafts.

Horal'Rin was an ancient Dwarven settlement that was located several miles away from their current position. It consisted of several Dwarven Guilds that operated in secrecy from the current Drow government in Alerar proper. One of those Guilds was a Mining Guild that horded the material resources of the Kachuck mountain range. Lorenor was a part of that Miner's Guild and a recent recruit. The Guild was set up so that miners had to increase their rank through months of hard work in order to obtain the privilege of mining rarer materials.

The most rare of materials came from the depths of the Kachuck mountain range, far away from the nearest Dwarven settlement. Brave miners ventured in teams with a few foremen in order to claim this bounty of the earth.

Lorenor went through the mining ranks quickly having a knack for discovering veins that contained precious ore. His enhanced sensory array proved useful in the halls of the Living Dark. Lorenor looked about and saw several individual miners working to get themselves together. Regrouping, they walked over to his position and started the dialog. "Hey, Lorenor. You okay there?" Asked their foreman, Rikard Dimet. He was accompanied by two drow miners and one other Dwarf. Lorenor did not recognize any of the other miners, but it was only natural. Mining Outfit 7 was a large outfit. Lorenor could hear men screaming behind the rock slides and underneath and assumed the quake had killed most of the miners, if not all.

Lorenor turned to look at Jordhan Kol'Alamar. "Hey there. We're going to try to find a way out of this place and back to a nearby Dwarven settlement. You're welcome to tag along with us unless you have a better plan of escape. You're welcome to tell us." Lorenor said, he didn't have to hear it from the foreman, it was protocol. Rules were in place through the Guild to protect miners from natural disasters. Lorenor waited to hear the man's response.

[Koran]

Darkness was a strange creature. Of the five senses, sight was the most heavily relied up, especially when dealing with human kind, the stock his people were of originally. Granted, his people were the culmination of generations of cybernetic enhancement, genetic engineering and bio-enhancement, but the basic rules of human sensory still managed to be carried over. So, when the tunnel was plunged into complete blackness, the Shadow Meld felt a brief moment of panic as his brain scrambled to compensate for his suddenly useless optics.

Sounds, some he had not heard or would have thought to have heard when the torch was still burning, assaulted his senses and rang loudly in his skull, bringing a wave of nausea he had not experienced in a long time. Smells and tastes in the stagnant air of the now sealed tunnel pummeled his taste buds, increasing the wave of nausea that set him to swaying. Even the stone beneath him felt colder, more solid and less forgiving. It took a few moments to mentally rearrange himself before he became aware that he and the being he landed on weren't the only ones alive in the tunnel.

Leather boot soles, scraping heavily on the stone floor told him that two heavy set individuals, Perhaps dwarves?, were steadily making their way toward him and the being beside him. He also thought he caught the lighter step of two more individuals, but he couldn't be sure. He tilted his head toward the sounds, listening further but they stopped moving before he could clearly identify them. Moments later however, one spoke.

"Hey, Lorenor. You okay there?" The words had a liquid sound to them, a little too heavy on the r's. Dwarf. A second voice spoke then, thicker in accent and sounding like some ethereal. "Hey there. We're going to try to find a way out of this place and back to a nearby Dwarven settlement. You're welcome to tag along with us unless you have a better plan of escape. You're welcome to tell us."

It took a moment to realize that the voice had been asking him. Me? What the hell do I know? The Shadow Meld turned slightly, looking in the direction of the voices. He was completely blind so it was hard to pinpoint their exact locations but he guessed at the location of the second speaker and cleared his throat.

"I've no idea what use I'd be, seeing as I'm the one that fell from the ceiling. If you know of settlements near by, then perhaps it is best that we make for them. I'm not sure how to get there, seeing as all the exits I saw right before the torch blew out were sealed." He twisted further, staring into the darkness, squinting despite it not being of any use. After a moment he twisted back around and dusted the front of his robes before pushing himself to his feet.

"Any of you got an extra torch lying around?"

[Mutant_Lorenor]

"Not a torch, but we have some glow-balls." Lorenor heard his foreman's voice as the Dwarf acted and handed Jordhan Kol'Alamar a glowing orb that gave off a radiant blue light. The orb was turned on instantly by the orb and pierced the Living Dark with its illumination. Shadows danced around the light with the eerie effect of creating forms that almost looked like people. The mutant covered his glowing eyes for a moment. Having an adverse affect on him, the light was always a harsh element to behold. Granted, this was magical light and not holy light, the light still caused a psychological pain to the mutant's deranged mind.

Lorenor moved slightly away from Jordhan Kol'Alamar's position and began to further explore the passage a bit. In the moment, he'd been mining and hadn't had any need for exploration until he was cut off from the rest of the expedition. The Dwarf and his companions remained by the strange lad's side. Lorenor saw an eerie glow about the fellow and decided that he would be of some use in the expedition. Lorenor walked over towards one of the rock-slides and began to attempt to move some of the rock. A Drow walked up behind Lorenor without making any noise, creeping up against his sensory grid. Lorenor was not aware of the Drow until he was already behind the mutant.

"It's no use there Lorenor. They are cut off, they will have to find their own way around if any of them survived. There's no way of knowing how extensive the damage is to the mineshaft. Luckily, I did find another way deeper into the tunnels. Maybe we can find a way around if by the shadow of Lloth." The Drow whispered into Lorenor's ear as if attempting to seduce the mutant. Lorenor only smiled in the dark. "Keep your blasphemies friend. I keep my goddess with me." Lorenor said and finally gave up attempting to rescue his fellows. He'd managed to only move a few stones before deciding that it was indeed, a worthless endeavor.

Perhaps, some of them made it out of the passage before the quake could strike in full force. Lorenor prayed to N'Jal for that blessing. Standing up from his position, he turned to look at the Drow. "We're leaving. It's not safe here." Lorenor said to the Drow. "Agreed friend. Let's go while the going's good."

Lorenor followed the Drow back towards the position of Rikard Dimet and Jordhan Kol'Alamar. So far there was no immediate danger, but the mutant wasn't sure if there were going to be anymore earthquakes or not. With his working pick secured by his side, the mutant was free to keep going. Rikard Dimet turned to look at Lorenor. "You got your samples with you?" Lorenor nodded. "Aye sir." He saw that his foreman nodded in returned. "Then let's be on our way. Welcome to Mining Outfit 7." Lorenor heard the foreman say to Jordhan Kol'Alamar. "You're officially drafted into the unit." The Dwarf said, and would not take no for an answer. Digging into his packs, he also handed Jordhan Kol'Alamar a Steel Pickaxe. "There will be work for you later lad if you wish to make use of that pick axe. Our primary concern is making it back to Horal'Rin with our fucking balls intact." Lorenor heard the Dwarf say with annoyance in his voice. The mutant grinned at that and prepared himself for the long journey ahead. He started to walk with the two Drow that were in their party. Lorenor drew a prevalida longsword and prepared himself to face the dangers of the deep.

[Koran]

In a brief, but eventful few minutes, the Shadow Meld found himself not only in the possession of the strangest blue light emitting magic ball, a steel pick axe he had absolutely not use for, two drow, a dwarf, a human and a strange looking fellow with glowing purple eyes, but he was also now an officially drafted member of a dwarven mining unit. What the? Everything had happened much to fast for the nearly overwhelmed Shadow Meld to comprehend and by the time all the pieces had clicked into place, everyone was already moving off.

"Hey," he said loudly. "Wait a minute!" Before he could take four steps though, the tunnel was rocked suddenly by a violent earth moving tremor that nearly knocked the tall being off his already wavering feet. "Shit!"

"Aftershock!" He didn't know who had shouted it, the drow, human, dwarf or purple eyed fellow but they couldn't have been any less correct. The shaking last only seconds but by the time it had subsided the walls of tunnel had cracked and dust was falling in droves from the ceiling above. "Hurry lad!" This was the dwarf shouting. "The ceiling's coming down!"

The Shadow Meld, against all his better reasoning, couldn't help but glance up. He froze for the briefest of instants, his eyes widening in horror as the strange glowing orbs blue light danced flickering shadows against the sinking ceiling of the cave. Oh shit! Someone shouted again but the Shadow Meld barely heard it; he was already charging forward, making a running dive toward a barely discernible opening in the wall where the others were scrambling forward.

An instant later, amidst the ear shattering roar of thousands of tons of rock and dirt come crashing to the floor, the Shadow Meld was through the opening and crashing heavily onto the floor. The air in his lungs escaped in a violent whoosh and he was quickly reduced to heavy fit of coughing as those around him scrambled to get him away from the still shifting and collapsing wall. He let himself be dragged a few feet before pushing himself to his feet and freeing himself of their helping hands.

"Thank you......but that......will be......quite enough," he said around brief but violent fits of coughing. He continued to cough for a few moments before finally forcing it into submission and bringing himself under control. Wiping the tears forming in his eyes the Shadow Meld straightened and looked at the other survivors. "Well," he said before coughing once more. "That was fun." He cleared his throat loudly. "Shall we," he asked in a strained voice, pointing up the tunnel with the pick axe. "Before we find ourselves trapped forever?"

[Mutant_Lorenor]

Lorenor was thankful for his reflexes and speed, he'd grabbed the Drow nearby his person and ran forward when the aftershock struck. Making it towards a stable hallway, the mutant stopped running and took an observing glance at the damage. A thick cloud of dust and debris flowed up from the ground making it hard to breathe. Lorenor heard a lot of coughing in the hallway and he couldn't help but do the same.

Adding to the strange lighting of the hallway, the blue orb was making Lorenor's eyes sting. He receded into the living dark for a moment whilst he grew accustomed to the penetrating light. Lorenor looked at the passageway that was revealed by the quake and its aftershock. They were one person less in the party, the human that was with them was now gone. He hadn't been so lucky. His remains were somewhere in the previous tunnel. This is not going to be easy. Lorenor thought to himself as he oriented his person.

Taking into account their remaining party, there were two Drow with them, one Dwarf, Lorenor and that stranger. There had been no time for proper introductions. Now was not the appropriate time for introductions either.

The mutant gathered himself and wiped sweat off his brow. The passageway, cold once, had grown extremely hot due to the friction and force of the earthquake. Lorenor knew it got cold in the depths of the mountain range, but it depended on where you were in the actual tunnels. Certain of the tunnels could be exceedingly cold, whilst others could be extremely hot. It all depended on what sources of energy were nearby. He knew this from his brief experience as a miner with the outfit. Lorenor looked up but could not see the ceiling, or even sense it. It was not within his sensory range. Taking a mental note of that, Lorenor started to move without being told. "Let's get moving." The mutant said and started up a hill towards the exit of this mining shaft. Looking back, Lorenor saw the closed off areas of the tunnel and with a sigh, kept moving forward. He was still pissed that the Thayne sought to curse them with such a tremendous loss that day. Shaking his head, he realized that the Thayne were a fickle lot.

"Something on your mind Lorenor?" It was Rikard Dimet talking. The mutant kept an expressionless face. "Nothing important, let's just keep moving. I'll scout up ahead." Lorenor volunteered, and one of the Drow went with him. The Dwarf and the other Drow remained with the Shadow Meld. Lorenor kept moving and found himself walking towards a familiar location. "Thayne. I know where we're at..." Lorenor said and the Drow next to him looked him with a nod. "Titeg Slateiron Gorge." The Drow whispered cautiously, a sense of respect audible to the mutant's sensory grid. "No more than about one hundred feet ahead. We're in a bad place."

The Dwarf had already caught up. "The 27th used to mine Prevaldia out here. There was a large vein of Prevaldia worth a over a billion Gold Sovereigns supposedly discovered by the 27th. Titeg Slateiron found the whole thing. At least that's what the legends say. The 27th vanished shortly after the discovery of the pit. They say it was some legendary beast that done it." The Dwarf said, Lorenor heard a malice. "I think if we find that creature or it finds us, we better run." Lorenor shook his head. "Thayne. It's just a legend man. We don't even know if it's true or not." The Dwarf suddenly became angry. "Lorenor. I used to work for the 27th in my youth. I knew Titeg Slateiron. He was a great man as far as such matters go. Anyway, we better keep moving we're far away from Horal'Rin. I'd say at least a month of traveling out." The Dwarf judged by their current position in the tunnels. Lorenor cursed at that. "A fucking month. Great. Let's just get going." The mutant said and started walking again, he assumed that the stranger was there with them the whole time.

[Koran]

The conversation between the other survivors was lost to the Shadow Meld as his eyes took in possibly the greatest feat of engineering he had seen in the last nine thousand years. For as far as the eye could see, or at least until the light from the orb ran out, scaffolding, mining cart rail, carts, engines, piles of parts and equipment stretched down into, up above and around the visible edge of the, Titeg Slateiron Gorge I think they called it. Something that the ethereal said tugged at the Shadow Melds ear.

"Wait, a month?!" He snapped out of his day dream and looked around, only then realizing that he'd been left standing at the edge. His head was a blur as he spun, twisted and turned it in every direction at once, looking for the other survivors. "Hey, wait!" He called when he spotted them, about twenty yards to his left, slowly descending into the great gorge. He darted down after them, racing to try and catch up to them before he was completely left behind.

"Hey, guys, waaaaaaaaaah!" His voice stuck and carried the vowel when his foot hooked itself on a piece of protruding rock and keeled him forward, stumbling to regain his abruptly absent balance. It was no use and after flailing for a few yards the Shadow Meld slammed hard into the ground, both arms outstretched beside him, his body completely spread eagle. The force of the blow jarred the blue orb loose from his grip and in a surreal slowness, he watched it bounce down the path and disappear over the edge of the gorge cliff face.

Uh-oh! Scrambling forward the Shadow Meld slid to a halt just short of falling out over the cliff himself, and stuck his head over the side just in time to see the orb bounce twice against the cliff face, land heavily on a platform of dry rotted boards and roll slowly into a overturned bucket. No, no, nonono! The bucket, balanced precariously on the edge of the platform was now dangerously close to falling off of the edge, and possibly create the loudest sequence of bangs since the earthquakes. Who knew what was down in that pit? No, no....yes...yes... The bucket tipped a little and with painstaking slowness, settled back against the platform; it wasn't going to fall. The Shadow Meld heaved a sigh of relief and quickly pushed himself to his feet, intent on climbing down to retrieve the orb...

...and abruptly lost grip on his pick axe! He watched as it too, fell with a surreal slowness, spinning and twisting end over end through the air to land smack on the bottom edge of the bucket holding the blue orb. The two made a ringing clang as they connected and then, with the sound still ringing in the air, they fell, the long shaft of blue light from the bucket holding the orb like a strobe in a never ending sea of blackness. There was a loud sequence of clangs as the two objects hit whatever it was that was below them and then, abruptly, a silence that was thick enough to be almost palpable filled the air.

The Shadow Meld, his mouth agape in complete surprise could only stare at the faint blue light far below him. He slowly looked over to the other survivors, his terror plain on his face. "Oh shit," he mouthed silently. "That was close!"

A low creaking noise, like wood long since rotted out and now feeling the strain of weight on its surface for the first time in years, rose up from the depths of the pit and with a sudden swiftness there was a low boom, followed by a series of very loud crashes, bangs, clangs and then, as if to further slight the clumsy Shadow Meld, a monstrous explosion rocked the entire cavernous pit.

It was all over in a manner of seconds but the reverberations of the sounds still rang in the Shadow Melds ears as he stood. He looked to the other survivors. "Guys, I'm soo sorry." Then, as if his luck wasn't already deep into the negative part of Karma, a great bestial roar exploded from the black of the pit, shattering the new silence. Everyone stared, silent, still, terrified.

Then, before he could even think of what he was doing, he was running, as fast as he could past the group, down into the pit. Perhaps if they found one of those mining carts on the rails, they could roll themselves away from whatever it was. He thought he heard someone screaming...

[Mutant_Lorenor]

All the noise was air shattering. Lorenor could see vibrations of energy in the Firmanent as the sound traveled across his sensory array. The Dwarf and his Drow companions covered their ears and he was thankful that he did not have to deal with the ear-splitting pain. However, for a brief moment, his sensory grid went completely black and he had a blind spot. Lorenor immediately crouched down against the ground and clutched at the earth with his sharp claws. He balanced himself as the ground shook for a brief moment as a result of the sudden disruption.

When he thought everything was over, another terrifying sound came up from the pit. Once his sensory grid readjusted, he realized that his companions were scrambling to get on their feet. "Everyone on their feet!" Lorenor heard the Dwarf yell in annoyance. The mutant stood up on wobbling knees, and gathered his balance as best he could. He was thankful for his enhanced reflexes and speed, they weren't much, but it helped ride out the terrible sound that came up from the abyss. Lorenor stared at Rikard Dimet for a moment as he waited for their orders. Then, something came moving past his person. Fuck, its that guy! Stop him before it's too late...

Whatever was coming was coming fast. "Run like the pyre!" His Dwarven boss finally said. Lorenor nodded and took off at top speed, fifty miles per hour, and quickly caught up to the running form of Jordhan Kol'Alamar. "Hey. Slow down man. You're gonna trip or worse..." The mutant suggested having already witnessed the clumsy nature of the man firsthand. Lorenor suddenly saw where he was heading towards, one of the mine cards. "Rikard! The Carts!" Lorenor yelled and then suddenly, a scream that was a shriek of agony filled the air.

Lorenor stole a glance backwards and saw that one of the drow companions had been swallowed up by a malevolent entity. The mutant had to stop and stare at what was coming up and out of the abyss. "Lorenor! Don't stare at it, keep moving!" The mutant heard Rikard Dimet but couldn't help himself. He stared at the hulking behemoth with awe. In the Antifirmanent, he saw a beast of elegant proportion. A shadowy presence, with energy cascading everywhere. It had several large eyes in what appeared to be a head with a giant maw. The whole entity seemed to be made up of a carapace of the Living Dark. Lorenor stared in awe as he was tackled by Rikard Dimet and dragged into the cart. Now, there was only four of them left...

[Koran]

The Shadow Meld reached the carts first, slipping and sliding the last few feet in a graceless display of balance that he had failed to exhibit just a few short moments before. After giving the carts a quick look he turned just in time to catch a stumbling drow by the shoulders and prevent him from keeling head first into the nearest cart; a concussion would not have been in the parties best interest for one of their members. The Shadow Meld glanced up and saw the two other survivors, the dwarf and other being, sprinting the final fifty feet or so as fast as their legs could carry them. The latter of the two moved with an inhuman speed, quickly outpacing the stocky dwarf and reached the carts first. Something pricked at the Shadow Melds panicked thoughts and he looked further up the path they had just so rapidly descended, his eyes searching.

"Wait, where's the fifth?"

"Eaten," the drow next to him said in a strained voice as he used the Shadow Melds outstretched arm to climb into the nearest cart. "He's dead."

The Shadow Meld stared up the path, blinking in disbelief. I didn't mean for this to happen! The dwarf yelled something and a flurry of motion beside him brought his attention back to the fact that they were still running from a monster unlike any had seen before. Shit!

"Find the lever in your carts, it should be toward the front!" The Shadow Meld yelled as he himself jumped into the cart nearest to him, jostling a moment with the drow as he made himself room. The drow, apparently stricken by the loss of yet another survivor, fell heavily out of the way and lay as if in a trance near the rear of the cart. The Shadow Meld paid him little mind as his hands and eyes searched for the lever that had to be there. Shit, nothing! "Rikard, have you found it!?"

A moment of silence and muffled bangs and clanks as the two in the cart ahead of them fumbled for the lever. "No! Nothing," the dwarf called back. "Shit sonuvabitch!" The Shadow Meld shouted as he twisted to the rear of his cart. "We have to find the disengaging lever to get these things moving!"

A blood curdling roar blasted the survivors ears and there was a loud thump from further up the path; the beast had finished with its snack. Moments later, while the Shadow Meld was still scrambling for the disengaging lever, something fell from out of the blackness and onto the lap of the drow. There was a momentary pause as the two occupants stared dumbly at the half eaten remains of what could only be the second drow, before both cried out in terror as they scrambled to get it out of the cart. Just as they pushed the bloody remains free from their cart a loud metallic snap came from the cart ahead of them and the whole train jolted slightly forward.

"I found it," Rikard yelled triumphantly. "Ha ha! Let's blow this joint!" Everyone cried out in agreement and settled into their carts, waiting for the roller coaster ride from hell to begin.

Instants passed before the Shadow Meld realized something was wrong. He sat up just as the dwarf cried out in terror. "We're not moving!"

"I know," the Shadow Meld yelled back as he twisted himself across the rear of his cart, squinting into the darkness.

"The other carts," the drow said, his voice trembling. "We need to get rid of the other carts!"

God fucking dammit! The Shadow Meld growled the curse to himself and bent down, his hands fumbling with the grappling mechanism that held the carts together. "It's not breaking - " Whatever he had been going to say was cut short by another roar, this one almost on top of them. How the fuck did it get there!?

Beside him the drow screamed and the Shadow Meld threw himself backward into the front of his cart just as a huge black nothingness slammed into ground where he had been hanging. The carts, abruptly free of the train that had been holding them fast, shot forward with unnatural speed. The Shadow Meld, still partially standing when the carts shot forward, fell head first against the rear of the cart, hard enough to cause the steel to clang loudly.

A blackness darker than the pitch black around him rolled over him and the last thing he remembered hearing before consciousness left him, was the startled and terrified cries of the other three survivors as the carts started down into one of hells worst roller coaster rides.

[Mutant_Lorenor]

Having ridden the carts before, the mutant understood somewhat that they were capable of having tremendous start-up problems. Not the greatest pieces of Alerarian technology, the Dwarves of Kachuk had allowed some of the carts to rust together entirely too much. Lorenor allowed the others to work on the carts whilst he moved out of their way. Rikard and that big fellow searched for the control levers, and this allowed the mutant to concentrate on the beast that was coming for them. Having drawn his prevalida sword, after all, Lorenor was taking no chances, he prepared to confront of the beast. The creature came in quickly despite the size and mass of the beast. Lorenor stood at the very rear of the cart giving himself decent spacing to do battle with the beast. A large, snapping maw came in quickly to pick Lorenor off as another snack. Lorenor did not like that. He swung skillfully with his prevalida sword and began the attack. It slammed loudly very near to the position of the train, its large body flopping down against the ground.

Lorenor took a quick swipe at the body of the creature as its hide writhed and twisted with every breath it took. Lorneor could see a beast made up of nearly pure energy. It cascaded from the creature's internal organic structure. The creature added a unique glow to the Living Dark and smelled incredibly bad. Lorenor had to concentrate in order to keep from passing out, or throwing up.

Seeing the lateral portion of the beast, the mutant took a quick stab at its side opting to trade a hit for anything fancy. He didn't want to risk making any elegant maneuvers at their close-range. Calculating possible responses, the mutant prepared himself to attempt to finish the huge beast off. He wondered if this was the same creature spoken of in the legends of the 27th. If it was, Lorenor had to find a way to quickly engage this creature and buy them escape time.

A huge face with two large eyes, and several armored pods turned towards Lorenor as the mutant cut its side. Lorenor removed the sword quickly and saw that his weapon had not pierced the hide. Cursing in the dark, Lorenor reacted quickly and prepared to swing for its face. The maw had many layers of sharp teeth that seemed to be rotating rapidly in a saw-like movement. Lorenor did not like this creature at all. He respected it, but did not like it. About to take a quick stab at the creature's eye, the mutant was knocked downward into the cart when the train began to move quickly and suddenly. Lorenor looked up towards Rikard Dimet and sighed heavily in his general direction. "Did I get him?" Lorenor could see Rikard's head shaking in the negative even as they zipped through the tunnel towards an unknown destination. Rikard assisted Lorenor and the mutant stood up, sheathed his weapon and sat there for a long moment. He was watching the distance as he saw that the beast had given chase! "Fuck! It's coming for us now!" Lorenor could see that creature in the Antifirmanent quickly gaining on them, and then switched back to his normal vision. The creature was still far out of his sensory grid, but he knew it was there...

[Koran]

The cart that the Shadow Meld lay unconscious in jolted abruptly and he started awake in a rush of flailing arms and legs. The drow, squatting uneasily next to him, cried out in terror at the sudden movement and nearly threw himself out of the moving cart before catching himself on the edge of the rocking bucket. The Shadow Meld regained his composure and sat up hurriedly, his eyes wide with anxiety mixed with fear and surprise. "What's happening?" He asked, his voice matching his rolling eyes.

The drow looked behind him and paused for a hairs breadth before answering in a terrified voice. "The beast is giving chase." The Shadow Melds eyes widened further, if the action were even possible at that point, and scrambled to the rear of the cart. Peering over the rusted lip of the bucket, he scanned the fast moving blackness behind them and after a moment, slowly sank to the floor of the cart.

"Are you sure?" He asked, terror ringing loud in his voice. The drow must have nodded because no response came from it. The Shadow Meld sighed loudly through clenched teeth and then hauling himself to the front of the cart, shouted up to the cart ahead of his. "Where is this taking us?"

Before an answer could be given however, the cart suddenly bucked and the Shadow Meld was thrown hard into the left side of the bucket as it screamed into a hard right turn. The feeling of his stomach suddenly wanting to be anywhere but inside his body lasted for only a moment before he was deposited rather ungracefully into the bottom of the bucket. Scrambling quickly back up to the front edge of the cart he readied himself to shout again but he ended up swallowing his words when the carts plummeted down a steep decline into the heart of the pit.

His steel like grip on the edge of the cart was the only thing that kept him in the bucket and a moment later he was once again slammed into the bottom of the cart. Fuck! Before he could even think of pulling himself back up to the edge of the cart, the entire bucket swayed to the right as the carts dug deep into a hard left turn in the track. "Shit!" He yelled, his voice shrill in comparison to the squeal of the steel tires on the track and the rushing wind around them. A second, sudden dip in the track threw the Shadow Meld into the air, nearly tossing him free of the cart, and he landed with a heavy thump in the back of the cart. He felt the track tilt even as he was regaining his senses and he was once again thrown to the left side of the bucket as the cart banked hard right. "What the hell did we get ourselves into," he screamed into the darkness.

His words were lost to the world however, as the carts once again fell into another dip and then banked hard right. The occupants thrown about in the buckets like loose pieces of dirt in a empty container being kicked down the face of a mountain.

Up ahead, unknown to the occupants of the carts, a switch track, malfunctioning from long years of neglect, was quickly approaching.

[Mutant_Lorenor]

Lorenor kept fighting off the creature with swipes of the blade when it came at him in an attempt to make a quick meal out of him. Ducking in tandem with the cart's movements was a difficult process even for an agile specimen like the mutant was. Lorenor was not making any progress against the beast, his sword was simply not capable of doing the type of damage necessary to pierce the epidermis of the creature. Every time that Lorenor took a skilled slash at the hide of the beast, the creature roared in a mixture of anger and pain. The pain probably fueled the creature's power of the living dark as it continued its relentless assault.

Moving skillfully, the mutant was able to adjust his body weight and center of gravity with enough ease that he had developed a certain sense of comfort. For a moment, he almost forgot that he was cascading on a mine-train through a perilous mountain underbelly whilst being chased by a creature out of some bastard's nightmares. Taking one last evasive slice at the creature's body, Lorenor suddenly cursed out loud when he sensed the sudden lack of a solid surface. He quickly sheathed his sword, and grabbed the side of the cart he was in and prayed to N'Jal for safety.

A sudden dip sped up the train so much that his brain felt like it was going to erupt from his mouth. The world became a blur. It was difficult to discern the Firmanent from the Antifirmanent as he clutched the sides of the cart and held on for dear life. Ducking down against the cart he kept feeling the train making sudden and erratic movements. "This is not normal!" Lorenor yelled to nobody in particular as he mentally concentrated. His stomach felt like it was churning in place. The mutant felt his sharp claws digging into the thick iron of the cart as he held on with all the strength he could muster. His strength, dexterity, and agility, were considerable. They were not legendary, but they were considerable.

He used his abilities to their full advantage as he moved against the friction and weight of the train. Gravity moved at a heightened speed as the train sped up in excess of several hundred miles per hour. Lorenor was not prepared to handle speeds and the pressure of such a gravity. He stole a glance towards the general direction of the beast and noticed that it had stopped giving chase. Just when the ride to hell couldn't get any worse, there was a second dip in the earth as they traveled deeper into the 27's Gorge. Lorenor couldn't help but scream in agony as the friction caused him to feel a tremendous pain. He turned towards Rikard Dimet and yelled at him. He knew that the Dwarf was steering the mine cart as best as he could. "Get command of this thing man! What are you doing!?" The mutant yelled in anguish and then something terrible happened. The control lever of the train buckled against the pressure of the speed and friction, and broke. The sudden change of center of gravity caused the Dwarf to yell and go cascading off the side of the train and into the darkness. The Dwarf yelled all the way down into the pit as he fell.

"Rikard!" Lorenor yelled in further agony. He had lost a dear friend. Hanging onto the side of the cart, Lorenor moved against the powerful gail force winds, and leaped forward into the front cart where the mechanism of the train was. He successfully made a dive forward, grabbed his sword whilst balancing himself with hand and jammed it into the control device. He used the sword as a make-shift control lever. Suddenly, he saw a switching device up ahead meant to change lanes. Lorenor had no idea how to operate the switch. "Fuck!" He yelled as the train hit the side of the rail and flew up into the air. The train was deposited mercilessly off the train tracks and Lorenor, found himself flipping out out of the cart. Somehow hanging on to his sword, the mutant's face twisted in terror as he looked at his companions and the cart falling through the air. He had no way of knowing how deep the pit was. And then, gravity became a cruel mistress. It was an unwanted dancing partner and the mutant cursed his very existence as he fell. He knew he would be joining Rikard soon enough.