The Collector is Coming

#106

The barbed tendril did hit the altar sending cracks racing from the impact point around the altars base. Apart from that, and showering the ground with stone flakes it didn't do anything drastic-but the channel the viscous silver blood had been running down through suddenly had a diversion. The liquid wound it's way through the cracks until it began to drip on the floor near CP.

The paper took a little to answer CP back, the red writing staying on the paper for longer this time of time:
'Why yes, the barb are poisonous, such a delightful effect it has on animals and people, I had such fun making it just right'

The middle tendril wound itself up again-and it was plain to see why, as the sweeping tendril was coming back to reform the wall.

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The darkness shrouded woman did disappear into the trees this time, off to see The Collector. Even Guardians remark didn't wipe the smile off her face.

The dracon would soon find the indent in the ground, followed closely by the tunnels entrance, a faint rumbling sound coming from within it, getting steadily closer, along with a melody of growls and hissing that was quite loud.

#107

Brushing off cracked stone flakes, Coolpikaaa admired his handiwork. The altar had been successfully damaged- perhaps not as much as he had hoped, but still enough to prevent the flow of blood into the Collector's realm. Slightly above him, a tendril wormed around, reforming a wall around it's now less useful treasure.

But... Was that really it?

CP expected some sort of anguish at the tie being disrupted, but the last thing visible on his slip of paper was some gloating about a poison The Collector had made up.

"Oh... Kay...?" he breathed to no one in particular, staring to see if there was something, anything, he had missed. If need be, he could probably try to squirm into the wall before it completely closed up, but for now, that seemed to have no point other than being trapped.

Tav · #108

Approaching the indent in the ground, Guardian reasoned that it was probably the cave that the collector had been talking about. Looking around outside, he covered a small dot on the top of his head, between his horns. His parietal eye; The only part of his body that could sense light and darkness. With it covered, he tricked his body into adapting to an even deeper darkness that he expected to find in the cave; his scales darkened, and his pupils grew, enhancing his night vision.

Then he descended down the indent, and into the cave, using his night vision to travel through safely- Or at least, as safely as possible.

#109

The writing on the paper faded, quickly replaced by more:

'Ok? Is that it? Is that all? You disappoint me, dear interesting one. Such a shame, I thought you were smart. Or maybe you were just lucky then and I am overestimating you now. I can see being able to roam this world freely isn't going to be a challenge at all now.

Why don't you go home and enjoy the view?'

There was the laughter again, coming from the very walls and echoing around the room. The tendril on it's way back to covering the wall stopped further away than it's companion to the middle-it had found the diverted flow and was stopping to remake the link.
Inside the Altar, now the base was partly exposed, something dazzlingly glinted.

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Guardian would find the enhancement he had just given himself helped a lot-in front of him was the path lit by the mushrooms, two very dark passages to the right and two equally dark on the left. The second one on the right was bare, whilst the first wasn't-only his night vision letting him see a few tiny mummified creatures on the floor, and the ghostly Wraith responsible for it who had snuck as close as he dared to the entrance-the source of the growls and hissing.

It was one of the passages on the left that contained the steadily growing rumbling noise, though that could not yet be seen. Probably the one closest to the entrance, since it was the loudest near there.

#110

Well, Ouch.

Coolpikaaa read and re-read the verbal onslaught dished out by The Collector. Such hostility, he simply had to wonder if he might have angered her a bit by temporarily straining one of her precious ties. As much as he would love to trade back insults, a point was made clear, he hadn't achieved what he needed to do at all.

Even as he read, the tendril's had rediscovered the leaking blood, and were now trying to lap up as much as possible. It was plain now that Coolpikaaa would have to do something more drastic.

As this thoughts crossed into his mind however, CP noticed something rather intriguing. An odd glint, something shiny hidden among the rubble in the altar's base. Moving quickly towards it, Coolpikaaa tried to get a better look, and eventually tried sticking an arm in to see if it would wiggle loose.

#111

As CP got closer the glinting thing got brighter, with a bright gold hue-that was abruptly blocked when he stuck his arm in through the tiny hole.

What was inside had a cone like shape, whilst hard and smooth like a finely cut gem. On the narrow end was a sharp point, whilst at the wider it was rough and jagged.

The barbed tendril let loose it's tension again, another blow aimed at the electric rodent.

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For Guardian, things were about to get a little tense. The Wraith spoke with bitterness and determination etched into his odd voice, the head under his hood seeming to look at the dracon "No" he wheezed "I've let one intruder past already, I'll not do it again today!". With another hiss, the ghostly being leapt at Guardian with surprising speed, pale white hands outstsetched, even as the luminescent light began to burn his 'clothing'.

Tav · #112

Guardian leaped back, his arms crossed over his chest in order to protect his torso. Backpedaling the entire time, he thought quickly; First of all, the entity had confirmed that Coolpikaaa had passed through, and also exactly which passageway he'd gone through. He did his best to back away from the wraith's pale light, even leaving the cave if necessary.

Guardian, as part of his preliminary studies before he left his homeland, once researched the undead. Running water and fire were normally their weaknesses, he recalled. Faith worked as well, sometimes, but faith was a fickle thing and he'd prefer not to rely on it.

Once outside the cave, he had to wince and close his eyes, the brightness of the planet in the sky, and the bio-luminescent plants nearby almost blinding him. After spending a minute or so to let his eyes acclimate, he knelt, setting down the knapsack around his back. Most of his material was no good; the cloth, made for repairing clothing and making rope, wouldn't catch fire, due to the materials made in their construction. The bandages, however, would light perfectly, especially if soaked in lamp oil.

"I'll need to find more bandages after this." He said aloud, as he wrapped the soaked bandages around himself, covering his arms, legs, and torso. Holding a flint and steel firestarter, He covered his parietal eye, and inhaled as much air as he could, inflating himself like a frog, and set himself alight, walking down the passage on the left. He held his breath, with the immense amount of air he'd taken in, so that he could avoid breathing in smoke long enough to pass through the spirit's domain.

((Ahahah, I love guardian's reaction. 'Undead's weakness is to fire?' 'Light myself on fire and run through! Nothing is wrong with this idea!'))

#113

Coolpikaaa removed his arm, struggling a bit as he kept getting caught on the stone's rocky edges. Something was in there, something quite glamorous. It seemed to sparkle with all the possible signs of wealth.

CP briefly wondered if it may be the broken tip of a golden sword. Upon reaching in to touch it again, He quickly disproved this theory though. It was far too thick to be any sort of conventional blade. He gave it a pull...

...And found his arm was stuck. Normally, this wouldn't be too much of a problem, but it was just at that moment the unfortunate rodent saw the barbed tendril twitch.

"Uh-oh"

Coolpikaaa made a few panicked pulls before realizing that wasn't working. Hastily charging, he released a ball of electricity up towards the decending tendril, hoping the shock would cause it to freak out instead of impale him.

What a time to get your hand stuck in the cookie jar...

#114

CPs quick thinking worked-sort of. The barbed tendril was hit squarely by the electric rodents discharge, but rather than freak out the barb stopped in it's tracks, twitched slightly, and then kept on going down. It's aim had been disrupted enough that it ended up smashing into the Altars base a second time, right next to CP, further shaking loose rocky flakes as well as making the small opening leading to the 'treasure' wider.

The tendril not currently engaged in the grisly task did 'freak out' though, this one frantically sweeping the room-which would make going anywhere right now with any ease quite difficult

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((Lol Tav, that's awesome XD))

At Guardians backpedalling the Wraith completely missed his target, crashing quite spectacularly into the wall opposite as the smell of impossibly old cloth burning filled the air of the cave. The dracon got out of there just in time to hear the the creature screech in rage and pain before it quickly faded away.

When Guardian reentered, he'd find no sign of the Wraith other than the old mess of small bodies and the horrible smell he'd left behind.
The rumbling had stopped too-as the creature that had made it now blocked the lit path directly ahead, a round mouth filled with sharp fangs opened wide as it yawned, most of that on it's head taking up the entire single pathway.

#115

Cp breathed out slowly, realizing he had once again escaped death by the skin of his pointy ears. The hasty shock had almost not fazed the tendril at all, and with it's barbs, any sort of contact would have surely been deadly. Hitting the altar the way it did was also a stroke of luck. The rocks could have easily shifted together if hit on the sides, and crushed his trapped limb in the process.

Not one to under-appreciate lady luck, CP quickly pulled his arm, and the treasure, out to safety and high tailed it to the chamber's mouth. From here, he hoped to be safe enough away that he could inspect his new treasure- while no longer under the threat of whipping.

Unless of course the Wraith snuck up behind him...

Tav · #116

Guardian screeched to a halt, seeing nothing but the wide maw that he'd almost run into. With the beginnings of a growl, he started tearing some of the flaming bandages from his arms and legs, and wadded them up into a single ball, before throwing them into the creature's mouth.

"You are getting bothersome." He said to the darkness, where he assumed the collector was watching him.

#117

CP would find the thing he'd pulled out from underneath the altar was nothing less than the severed horn of the unicorn lying upon the altar, the sharp golden object now glittering lightly even in the gloom. The wide end that had once been attached to the creatures head was quite rough-clearly it had been removed both violently and in a hurry. Why it had been removed and then hidden though, there was no clue to that where he currently was. And once more The Collectors laughter echoed throughout the cavern.

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It echoed for Guardian too, even as the giant maw closed around Guardians flaming clothing in curiousity and shrieked in protest at the inner burning sensation with a high pitched voice not suited at all for such a massive creature.

It also made it quite mad, and instead of returning back the way it had come the beast bolted straight forwards at the dracon. By attacking the creature he'd also given away his position, and it headed straight for him.

#118

"Something funny, C?" Coolpikaaa said curtly, inspecting the glimmering cone he had freed from the altar. Now that he had a better look at it, it was clear it was a horn of some kind, and the rugged edge on one side indicated it had also been violently broken off.

But why?

Could it have simply fallen off while the beast was on it's last legs? Perhaps whatever had killed it had simply knocked it off that way. But then why seal it up inside the stone of the altar?

All the limited clues seemed to lead toward someone especially not wanting this piece of bone attached. So the simple course of action to undo whatever was done would be to stick it back together.

Maybe. Or he could be wasting his time.

Coolpikaaa lowered the horn, and began to inspect the room once again. He could probably make it back to the altar easily enough, but getting up to the Unicorn's body posed a bit of a problem.

This was the only clue he had though. So, with a sigh, he once more ran at the stone.

Tav · #119

Exhaling all of the extra air he'd inhaled, Guardian prepared himself for battle, and charged the beast, speaking in his own, rumbling language.
"First order of business; Prevent it from opening it's mouth. A bite could injure me." Guardian said to himself, aloud, and prepared to hold the beast's maw closed.

#120

CP might find that just running at the stone isn't as easy as he thought it would be, as the tendrils that had been chaotically sweeping the room wasn't just going back and forth, but moving rather like a snake in the desert, in an S shape across the room. It was also slightly raising and lowering the two curves of the S as it moved-it wasn't going to be as easy at all, he was going to have to figure out how to deal with that before he got to the stone altar and it's barbed tail guarding the body.

The paper, meanwhile, had a few sentences scrawled on it in red which CP would probably be able to read once he stopped moving:
'Oh yes, something is very, very funny indeed'

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The creauture Guardian had decided to crash right into kept it's maw shut, as it was still feeling the burn of the clothing that had entered it there. It knew as little about the dracon as the dracon did it, and like the Wraith, was also quite intelligent. Unlike the Wraith, it hadn't quite reached the self-destructive state of affairs, so it didn't want to get burned inside again. But it couldn't help the shape of it's body, so many of it's long teeth were still outside of it's 'lips' holding it's mouth closed. It smacked into the dracon with just as much force as the speeding reptilian being, and seemed quite intent on just pushing him out, as it began to slowly exert more force against Guardian.