Eve's Room
This was once the lord of the castle's room, but has been repurposed to serve the lady of the castle instead. And since that lady is still in her teens, and from Rephidim, her tastes are not traditionally Sylvanian. There is a lot of pink and lace, even the curtains. The lamp bases are all carved into fanciful figures, from dancing felines to armored Aeonians and cavorting Kavi. The massive bed sports enough pillows of various shapes and sizes to construct a fort, and the attendant stuffed animals to staff it. There is a bathroom with a large claw-footed tub, a dressing room that doubles as a walk-in closet, and a servant's room that is currently a crafts room. Opera posters are hung there.

A cold, swampy gust of air rises from the recently opened passage, stirring the cobwebs and making a slight moaning noise. "Who is best at avoiding traps?" Eve asks, with a bit of nervous excitement.

Lin raises a paw. "That'd be me unless 'Viri has been holdin' out on us." She chirps.

Aviri steps a bit to the side to allow Linyala to enter. "Never had any experience," he says. "Probably best if a scout ... er ... scouts."

"We could tie the rope around Lin," Trilup suggests. "That way if a big fish monster swallows her, we can probably pull the monster out at least.."

"Or we'd just get pulled along with," Aviri says with a smirk. He gives Linyala a pat on the shoulder. "Just try not to get eaten, alright?"

The otter spy draws her fake rapier and knocks down a few cobwebs. "Looks like nobody's been through here in quite a while." Before entering the passageway, she looks at the floor, checking the dust for footprints or signs of use. "An' we'll be wantin' ta light up a lamp. Aviri'd be best fer holdin' the light 'cause he's tall."

The Lapi accepts this task and, after lighting the candle, leans into the passage and holds it high. "Unless the person that goes through here avoids the cobwebs," he says.

Despite the cobwebs.. there isn't any dust. The floor of the passage looks swept clean.

Lin wipes a finger along the floor and eyes it skeptically. "Looks like yer right, 'Viri. This place is clean but with... Decorative cobwebs?" The scout steps forward, taking care not to do any further harm to the cobwebs.

With a mew, Eve goes in. "I'm glad I'm lucky," she says. "I'm glad her tail isn't big and fat like Lin's," Trilup says as she goes in next.

"Oy!" Lin barks at Trilup and throws one of her wooden throwing knives at the other otter's tail. "An' keep an eye out fer tripwires or loose floor stones, never know if there'll be traps."

"Well," Aviri says as he enters the passage, holding the lamp as high and forward as possible while keeping his ears rotated backwards, listeing behind him, "Ysnor makes one-way squeaky hinges. Decorative cobwebs are probably standard-fare."

Of course the panel closes behind Aviri once he's fully into the passage, leaving just the lantern light.

Aviri starts at the sound of the panel closing, and quickly looks behind them out of instinctive paranoia. "Even if they're not, probably best if we tried not to disturb them," he says, trying to remain calm. "Ysnor probably went through a lot of trouble to put them up."

"Why d'ya think I'm avoidin' them?" Lin chirps, sticking her tongue out at Trilup, "They're not regular cobwebs that you can just walk through. These are intentional cobwebs. Why knows what they could be hidin'."

"You'd think he'd put torches or something in here too then," Eve complains, trying not to crowd Linyala.

"He probably knows these tunnels by heart," Aviri says, with some knowledge of navigating underground passages.

The passage curves, and before it even goes a dozen feet there's a vertical shaft going up and down. Instead of rungs or a ladder, there's a knotted rope dangling down from the darkness above.

With Aviri looking behind himself, he fails to notice the sudden stop, and accidetnally bumps into Trilup.

There isn't any ominous bell tolling when the rope is tugged, only the bark of an otter who just had her tail stepped on. The rope doesn't move at all, being well anchored to whatever is at the top of the passage. The musty air is definitely coming from down below though.

"Oh, sorry Tril!" Aviri says, once again paying attention to things. "Why'd we st--oh." He leans forward over Trilup to get a better look at the shaft.

Lin turns around, still holding the rope. "We've got up an' down. It's your castle, Eve, which way should we go? An' I hope ye kin climb." She steps to the side so everyone can get a good look.

"Pirate booty?" Aviri asks. The jingling of his many earrings reminds him of how they're dressed. "Oh, right. Down it is!"

"Down it is!" Lin repeats and lets the rope take her weight. She swings backwards into the hole and heads down.

It gets dark very quickly in the shaft, since Aviri has the lamp (and it isn't clear how he's going to carry it while climbing rope as well). But there's always another knot under Lin's foot, whether she can see it or not.

Aviri leans forward again, trying to peer down the shaft. "How's it going, Lin?" he asks.

Eve gets on next. At least with the knots there's less chance of anyone slipping.

Aviri shuffls forward carefully, wary of once more stepping on Trilup's tail, and holds the light directly over the shaft (but not so close as to burn the rope).

Trilup grabs on after Eve has descended below the level of the passage. "Are you gonna be able to hold the lamp?" she asks Aviri.

"I could try," Aviri says, clenching his free hand as though to test his strength. "Think you could hold it with your tail or something?"

"Hold it out, I'll try to wrap 'round the stem.." Trilup says, holding her tail out.

It takes a few tries, but eventually the lamp is held in Trilup's curled tail. "Have you found the bottom yet?" she calls down as she begins to descend.

Another ten feet.. then another. Lin must be below the level of the main hall by now. With the bit of light, she can see that there aren't any side passages yet. But there are some scary faces carved into the walls.

"We've got some spooky faces down here and this one has extra grumpy eyebrows." Lin chirps, "Eve, this must be the endless rope of doom. It goes on forever!"

"It can't go on forever," Aviri insists as he carefully gets onto the rope, once Trilup is far enough down.

Below the faces are.. crossed arms, all carved from the same stone as the wall blocks. But they're on every side.

Lin wiggles the rope to get everyone's attention. "Hey, Tril, care ta shed some light on these big statuey people down here? I can't see 'em too well in this gloom." She looks harder at the carvings, attempting to discern teir species or some identifying features.

The seem rather generic.. the features are there in abstract - eyes, mouth, but no nose really. The arms and hands look smooth (but carving fur would be hard) and don't seem to sport any tell-tale claws or nails. Trilup lowers the lamp a bit, and Eve takes it to bring it down lower.

As soon as the kitten brings the lamp near one of the faces, the stone lips pucker, there's a poof of air, and the lamp is blown out.

Aviri freezes on the rope as the darkness falls around them. "And you were worried about cobwebs," he mutters.

Not that anyone can see it now, but Lin frowns and rolls her eyes. "Some statue thing blew out the lamp." She chirps, "Just keep on climbin' an' I'll call out when I find the bottom."

Lin makes it down to the next knot, and something tickles both of her sides, just below the ribs.

The Akwavi's fingers find.. stone. More of the stone arms unfold from the walls and grab her ankles and shoulders!

"The statues are aliiive!" She shouts to the others and tries to fend the statues off with her tail.

Aviri looks upward into the darkness, then down as the rope starts shaking with Linyala's fight. "Lin, get out of there!"

"How do you know?" Trilup calls. At the top of the column of climbers, Aviri hears an odd rustling sound from above, that seems to be moving down the rope.

The Lapi's head snaps back up toward the rustling. "Oi!" he calls, hoping it was only Ysnor, "we're down here!"

The rope also begins to jerk a bit, dropping a few inches lower every few moments. As Aviri looks up, even the darkness he can hear what's happening: the knots are untying themselves, one after another, and so causing the rope to drop because it's getting longer.

"Can we go back up?" Eve asks, pulling her legs up away from Lin as much as possible. As for Lin - it's hard to struggle against stone. And the limbs are starting to pull her down further into the shaft.

"The knots are untying themselves!" Aviri calls down, and starts trying to climb up, hoping to reach the ledge before he runs out of knots.

"Eve!" Lin calls, still struggling futilely against the statues, "You really need ta get a hold of your castle!"

One knot undoes itself right under Aviri's hand, and which each one that unwinds the horizontal part of the passage gets further away. Soon the knot-wave passes the Lapi, and hits Trilup and Eve. The kitten does not know how to cling to a rope very well, yowls, and slides down to sit on Lin's head.

"If I could move my anything right now." Lin grumbles, still wiggling in the statue's grip.

Aviri feels the knot undoing itself under his hands and, with a little squeak, he tries to stop himself from sliding down as the hand-hold vanishes, wrapping his legs around the rope beneath him for extra security.

With the knots gone, there's nothing really for Lin to get a firm grip on - other than the stone arms themselves. The start handing her downwards.. to more waiting arms, with Eve following. Trilup is still above their reach for now.

"Are they pinching you or being naughty?" Trilup calls down. The hands seem to confining themselves to grabbing onto actual limbs, instead of the body itself.

"Maybe, maybe this is part of the way down?" Lin posits. She stops struggling so much seing as stone isn't something that she's able to wrestle. "They're more just lowerin' me."

"Just hope there's another way back up," Aviri moans quietly. Then, louder, "Why must all tunnels we enter be only one-way?!"

Eve has curled herself into a ball, but the hands keep her from falling onto Lin as both are carried deeper down, at a faster rate than climbing would. And the rope itself runs out anyway.

"Should we follow them?" Trilup asks Aviri. "If we try to go up, something else might show up to stop us."

Aviri closes his eyes a moment--useless, anyway, in the darkness. "Let's follow," he decides. "Best not split up. Right behind you, Tril."

The otter slides down the rope, until the arms catch her and start conveying her. "I'm alright!" Trilup calls up. "They aren't booping my nose or nuthin'!"

Lin relaxes and strikes a heroic pose as the hands pass her down, riding the wave of stone. "This is so much cooler if ya go with it!" She chirps to the others.

Eyes still closed, Aviri slides down and joins the stone hands, curling up into as tight a ball as possible as they start lowering him.

Down and down.. until there's finally some light. A greenish glow from below, like the one given off by the odd mosses in the Garden Hall. It's obscured by the stone arms, until suddenly it's not, and Lin is falling - only to be caught by the wrists by another pair stone arms, these growing down out of the ceiling of the tunnel she's dropped into. Moss clings to the curved walls, and there's oily, dark water filling the lower half, just a few feet below the otter's dangling toes. More like comes from under the water.. but it's moving. There are creatures in it, each with glowing spots and stripes in different colors.

"I found the bottom!" Lin calls up to the others then tries to get a better look at the glow fish. She wraps her tail around the wrist of one of the stone hands for good measure.

One of the 'fish' pokes it's head up out of the water, and opens a toothy mouth that looks big enough to swallow an otter whole. Before it can try to jump up at Lin however, the arms begin to swing her back and forth, building up speed until they suddenly let go and send her flying down the tunnel, where another pair grab onto her ankles just in time. Then those begin swinging..

"This is way better than the traps the Wingnuts come up with!" Lin squees as she tumbles thruogh the air.

Eve is a bit more vocal about the transport, and Trilup just laughs maniacally. And then it's Aviri's turn. By now the toothy fish-monster is fairly agitated at being 'teased' by the Magical Food Chute.

Aviri just keens softly to himself as he's carried along, still curled up tightly, not even aware of the glow or the fish.

The relay comes to an end at a bowl that sticks out of one side of the tunnel. Every on is dropped into it, only to find out it's more of a funnel, with sides polished to extreme slipperiness. They all slide down the 'drain', which levels out and deposits them onto a vast mat of moss that lights up when touched.

Subterranean Fairyland
This large cavern is full of colors. Ever stalactite and stalagmite is different, some infused with colonies of glowing flora. Dripping water creates a sort of musical background, like water-chimes, and the pools are clear and also full of glowing plants and crystal outcroppings. Sheets of shimmery moss hang from the ceiling like translucent curtains, and large patches of pillow-moss make for organic cushions scattered over the multi-layered slab floor.

Lin picks herself up and starts taking inventory. She hears Eve coming next and gets out of the way. "Y'allright?" She asks, offering the dutchess a hand up.

Aviri slowly uncoils himself as he no longers feels like he's moving. Eyes fluttering open tentatively, he looks around. "We all here?"

Trilup is lying face down in the moss, and wiggling about to make it light up. "I'm here!" she calls.

Having at last taken the time to look around, Lin gives the moss a whack with her tail then watches as it glows and fades. "This is givin' me flashbacks to the Tree of Death but it's bigger an' gloweyer."

"The Tree of Death," Eve echoes. "I wonder if you can make bark tea from a Tree of Death?"

Aviri pulls himself to his feet and, through careful movements, makes sure his body's working properly. "I certainly hope this cave won't try to eat us..."

"Sure, but what was the deal with those stone arms?" Lin asks, "Last I checked stone didn't do stuff like that without some crazy magic or way too much scumble."

"Phelix was a powerful Earth Mage," Eve notes. "So.. he could have done all those enchantments." She starts towards the nearest pool, to see if there are any fish in it.

Aviri looks around. "Well, I'd say those arms were to move us here." He takes a few steps, watching the moss glow.

The glow isn't always the same color, and the stone doesn't glow at all when stepped on. There aren't any fish in the pool.. or any signs of animal life at all.

Linyala tests one of the moss pillows for softness then tries sitting on it. "So this is some kinda magical wizard lounge or somethin'? Cool!"

"I dunno," Eve says, looking around. "It's pretty but.. kinda boring isn't it?"

Aviri crouches down and pokes at the moss, feeling it between his fingers, but not wanting to pluck any of it. "Did Phelix make notes?" he asks.

Linyala raises her rear and feels the moss where she sat, checking for weird oozes trying to digest her bum.

Trilup runs a hand through the water of the pool, giggles as ripples of light are caused, then strips out of her borowed sleepwear and dives in, leaving a multicolored path of light through the water.

"We only ever found fragments," Eve tells Lin. "There were a lot of flooded chambers, and magical stuff that seemed dangerous."

The moss is certainly like nothing Aviri has seen before. Even the hanging style. Even moss needs some sunlight, generally.

That seems to satisfy the otter as she hops up and lays back on the cushion. "These are pretty nice!" She chirps, "It's like a fluffy, glowey, heated bed thing!"

Aviri stands and makes a slow circle, trying to look at all the things. "Kinda cheating, using magic," he muses. He jogs toward a pool and pokes at some crystals, as though pondering whether they fall into 'botany' before deciding they're fascinating even if they're not, technically, plants.

"Very pretty!" Aviri says enthusiastically. "I've never seen anything so luminescant, especially without access to sunlight! ..." His ears twitch as he realizes he doesn't recognize the owner of the voice. He whips his head around to look for the source.

The doe next to Aviri is very pretty. Her irises are rainbow colored, and her fur is a vary pale green, but it ripples with light whenever she moves or shifts. She's even Aviri's age, has flowers twined around her forehead.. and that's all she wears. "It helps to make your own light," the moss-doe notes.

The warm moss lulls Lin a bit. And the fingers that start to massage her shoulders probably help that as well.

Aviri jumps to his feet, eyes wide at the apparition, taking a shocked step backward with a little eep. "Er ... sorry," he says, trying to regain his composure in the face of what, for the moment, doesn't appear to be a threat. "I ... guess if these crystals glow via magic, they might be able to sustain the moss...?" His words are strained with the internal conflict of wanting to discuss plants and wondering who the moss-doe is.

Lin trills and stretches out on the moss. "This magician really knew how ta relax. Tril, ya gotta try one of these." She relaxes and lets the moss work out the soreness from being flung about by animated stone.

The moss that massages.. feels more like fingers. "You stretch really way!" a masculine Akwavi voice tells Lin.

The doe stands up and puts a hand on Aviri's shoulder (which of course sets off the warm glow effect). "That's a very clever observation," she says. "You must know a lot about magic and plants."

"That doesn't even make sense." Lin murmurs and presses her shoulders back against the moss.

"Plants, mostly," Aviri says nervously, his eyes flicking between the warm glowing hand and the doe's eyes. "I'm Aviri, a botanist. Magic is ..." he takes a deep breath to try to calm his nerves while looking around the room "... a bit out of my league."

"I bet you could figure it out in time," a second moss-doe says from behind Aviri, with a slightly huskier voice. This one hugs him from behind and feels a little taller too.

"Lin! Lin!" Trilup barks, and gets water on Linyala. "I caught a magic fish! Who's your friend? And who is the woman brushing Eve's hair?"

Aviri starts again, trying to simultaneously duck out of the moss-doe's hug and pull away from both of them.

"Mnaf." Lin waves at Trilup and looks up at her fish. "My pillow thinks it can speak." She chirps.

The moss-fur is a bit slippery, and so Aviri finds himself down on the ground and scooting backwards from.. well, the original doe and one that looks disturbingly like Parsley. She's even the color of parsley, and her long hair is made of parsley sprigs.

Aviri pulls himself to his feet again, his head on a swivel to ensure no other moss-things sneak up from behind. "Er ... not too good with the whole ... physical contact thing," he says to the pair, and particularly to moss-Parsley. ".... How?"

Trilup holds out a green, glowing fish to Lin. "Howya do'in," the fish says, and winks at Lin. And with her eyes open, it's clear that the 'cushion' Lin was lying on is actually another otter. A green one. Eve is purring, kneeling down with her head forward while a rather matronly-looking moss-Khatta woman combs through her head fur.

"Maybe you just need practice, moss-Parsley says, and then hugs the other doe instead, causing a bit of a lightshow, especially when they kiss! If this was a wizard's secret lounge.. well, he may have been a rather lonely wizard.

Aviri doesn't even seem to be breathing anymore. When he does speak, it's a bit strained. "Uh ..." he starts walking sideways back toward the others. "Lin, Tril ... Duchess ...?"

Lin looks baffled at the magic fish. "That's a talking fish." She states, "Massage pillow? Please be more massage pillow."

The pillow is looking a lot more like Emmett instead, but is acting very un-Emmett-like. "I'm sorry that I'm disappointing you, Mistress," it says.

"I've always wanted a talking fish!" Trilup says, and then turns to show it to Aviri. "It's a magic fish! My own magic fish! THE BEST FISH!"

Aviri flinches away from the fish with a little yelp. When it turned out to be just a fish and not, say, a Parsley-fish, he calms down a bit. "Yeah, there's something odd about this grotto," he says. "Lin, do you know you're laying on a moss-version of Emmet?"

"Yeah." Lin chirps, "But it's just magic moss an' how are you not sore from travellin 'cross Sylvania?" She rolls off the moss otter and onto her front. "My back now iff'n ya please."

And moss-Emmett obediently rubs Lin's back, palms lighting up and being conveniently warm.

"Wait.. you mean it's not real?" Trilup asks, hugging her fish, which says, "Hey, not so tight kiddo!"

Aviri tries to say something, but can't seem to actually say it. He looks confused, and then turns back toward the moss-does as though making sure they weren't sneaking up on him.

They're both back at the moss curtain, making come hither gestures. "Did you want to have talking moss, Aviri?" Trilup asks.

"Just ask for a back rub or somethin'." Lin chirps, "Bein' all inscrutable like that's prolly makin' the moss try 'an fill in the blanks. Just tell it what ya want."

Aviri seems rooted to the spot, oddly much less mobile than the moss. He turns to Trilup. "Er ... I've got plenty of talking moss already," he says to her. He takes a few steps toward the does. "So, you're magic, right?"

Meanwhile, Eve's moss-mother keeps on grooming her. She's grown bigger, so that Eve seems more childlike in comparison.

"How do they stand up?" Trilup asks her fish. "It's all spongy stuff, moss is." She then starts squeezing the fish, which makes all manner of complaints.

"Kinda does," Aviri says, getting closer. "See, I'm guessing you were ... enchanted, by Phelix, who might have had different interests than me. Like I said, not too big on the physical-contact thing."

"Would do you enjoy?" the original doe asks. "What relaxes you?" not-Parsley (or real-parsley, given some of her makeup) asks.

The question seems to confuse Aviri. "Well," he says cautiously, "I guess I could try that ... massage-thing that Linyala like so much..."

"So how has your journey been?" moss-Emmett asks Lin, sounding actually interested in whatever she has to say.

Lin half twists her head to adress the moss otter, "So, how long have y'all been down here? How did you get here?"

The Parsley clone kneels down and gestures for Aviri to come over. "Just sit down," she says. The other doe.. looks frozen for some reason.

Aviri nods, gathers himself, and approaches the two does, feeling quite rediculous with his earrings jangling.

Lin huffs and lays flat again. "I'll take that as a magical thingie that only happens when there are people there for it to happen for? We've been travellin' fer about a week, all the way from the deep swamps to the East. Had this delivery ta make to yon Dutchess."

Moss-Parsley starts with Aviri's ears. Just stroking them, which is tricky given all the costume jewelry stuck to them. But at least it isn't something shocking, since he even let Eve touch them earlier. The first doe is twitching a bit, and starts walking towards Lin.

"That sounds like a very important mission," moss-Emmett claims, as he works on the back of Lin's neck and shoulders. The other moss-doe arrives, then reaches down and picks up Lin's hat. "Needta borrow this," she slurs, and sets the pirate hat onto her head, displacing the flower tiara.

"Late though," Lin murmurs, "Very late." She starts when her hat is removed. "Who, what? Silver, is that you?"

"So, you got ... Parsley, from when she touched my shoulder, right?" Aviri asks moss-Parsley.

"This is the one you are most comfortable with," moss-Parsley says. "You work with her. She ... shields you from others. She cares about you." She doesn't seem at all concerned that her cohort is being possessed by a spirit.

"That's true," Aviri says, tentatively laying down onto his back in front of moss-Parsley. "Very ... considerate of you, I guess? Where do you go when ... there's nobody here to ... serve?"

"Why would you leave?" moss-Parsley asks. "Stay here always, and we will never have to go.."

Silv looks.. green.. but at least like a slight crazy Rath'ani piratess.. if only for the hat. "Right! Not quite moss, Linny-la-la. Not quite!" She then goes over to draw one of the prop cutlasses, and gives it a few practice swings.

Aviri looks up at Parsley, a bit questioningly, still waiting for the massage. "I meant before we arrived," he says.

The doe pulls Aviri back a bit, to rest his head in her lap as she starts to massage his temples. "Before? There is no before," she claims.

Aviri flinches slightly as she starts rubbing his head, but he manages to not freak out or anything, the Lapi soon relaxing and trying to enjoy the experience. "So you ... came into existance when we arrived?"

"Wanna see something neat?" Silv asks Trilup, who just nods a bit in shock. Then moss-Silv strides back towards Lin, swings the cutlass, and shaves off a chunk of mossy flesh from not-Emmett, exposing bright white bone from an actual skull.

Lin waves off the moss otter and draws her prop rapier. "Avast ye scurvy skydog! T'dey be's yer last!" She says in mock pirateese and points her sword at Silv.

"Well, that's kinda weird. The massage really helped me loosten up though." Lin chirps, "Thanks fer that."

"Sure you don't want to hang out a bit longer?" moss-Emmett asks. "I'll be your servant. Don't you want to boss me around?"

"I'm gettin the feelin' though that yer one of those guys who acts all nice at first then gets weird later." Lin says as she strolls towards Silver, "I don't want'chya gettin' all clingy on me an' bossin' people around is only fun fer so long. Looks like 'Viri's startin' to enjoy himself though."

"Is there a corpse inside my fishy?" Trilup asks Silv.. who slices it in half. A few bones fall out, but that's all.

"You gotta finish 'im off, Lin-yo-yo," Silv claims. "'Afore I give back the hat, leastwise. Can't let these things get the better of ye."

Aviri lets out a soft murr. "Mmm, this actually does feel good," he decides, closing his eyes, wholly unconcerned, and thus not listening to, the world beyond that moss-curtain.

Maybe it's the warm glowing lap. Aviri never had a lap as a pillow before. "We should go somewhere more private," moss-Parsley tells him. "Your friends are getting violent."

Aviri nods and pulls himself up a bit so Parsley could move. "Yeah, they do that," he says. "You probably know this place better than I."

Lin shrugs to Silver, turns back to moss Emmett, draws one of the wooden throwing daggers from her bandoleir, and throws it at his chest. She follows up with a leap and a two handed swing with her rapier at his neck.

The moss-otter looks down at the dagger that sprouts from his chest, and opens his mouth to say something.. but nothing comes out, as the head goes bouncing after the slash.

Aviri shakes his head at Trilup's voice, and looks to Parsley, thoughtfully. "Makes sense," he decides. "Something to actually enchant. Necromancy.... You're not gonna actually hurt me, right?" he asks his mossy companion.

"I'm only going to kill you with kindness," moss-Parsley claims, smiling like the real one. "Then you can be with us forever.."

Aviri mulls on that. "Rather not be killed at all," he says, "even if it is with kindness." He looks back toward the moss curtain, and the sounds of decapitating critters. "But I could stick around a while ..."

With moss-Emmett down, there are stirrings from the other 'cushions' scattered about. They start to get up.. and are considerably more shambly, with the moss not trying to do more than hold the bones together - sometimes in bizarre ways, if there were multiple remains in a moss bed.

Lin retrieves her throwing dagger and wipes her prop sword on the moss thing. "Somethin' doesn't seem right." She says to Silver, "Wouldn't an earth wizard use earth fer stuff like this instead'a skellingtons? That's more like necromancy stuff, right?" She cups her hands to her mouth and calls to aviri, "Hey, Aviri, ya still got that magic thing?"

"This place is old, and necromancy sorta seeps into old, deep places in Sylvania," Silv claims.

"Oh, goody." Lin deadpans as she readies her prop rapier, "I'm gonna need a real sword after this, aren't I."

Since Aviri still wore his pants, the talisman was still on his body. He pulls it out, wrapping the cord around his wrist as usual. "Of course I've got it!" he hollars back. "I doubt Phelix's servants would hurt him!" He turns back to Parsley. "So ... you mentioned getting away from ... that?" He nods back to the curtain.

Moss-Parsley is backing away now, with bits of moss dripping off of her. It's rather disturbing when her breasts drop off and ribs can be seen. "Oh.. I don't think it'll work ouuuuut.." she says, as more moss-flesh sloughs off in the face of the talisman.

"What's going on?" Eve asks, as if waking up from a nap. Her moss-Mother returns to its original pillow form behind her - apparently that one didn't have a corpse in it at all.

Aviri's eyes go wide as the moss-Parsley melts. He backs away from her, and then rushes toward the others. "Guys, I don't think these are Phelix's servants!"

"Oh, really?" Lin snarks as she chops into one of the approaching creatures, "What tipped you off?"

There's a nice bubble of non-zombies around Aviri. "I think there's a way out near the back," Silv says, pointing the way. "I'll hold 'em off while you git!" She also puts the hat back onto Lin's head. "It's a bit tight now.."

"Natasha's amulet, which is supposed to keep me from getting posessed, made Parsley melt," Aviri says, looking with a bit of wonder/horror at the moss-monsters. "Everyone get around me! This thing keeps 'em away!"

And so Aviri finds himself being pressed against by Trilup and Eve. And of course Trilup is still wet!

Lin nods to Silver and tips the brim of her hat to the ghost before running to the safety of Aviri's talisman.

For once, Aviri seems to not mind Trilup's wetness, nor the 'physical contact.' "Oh, Silv's ... back," he says in an almost conversational tone. "Silv, are you ... able to come with?"

"Hah, no," moss-Silv says. "Once you guys skedaddle, these bodies will all go back to mossy slumber."

"Alright. See you around!" Aviri says and starts shuffling carefully toward the 'back', moving as quickly as he can in the space alloted by the cluster of kitten and otters.

"D'ya think that charm of yours'll run out of power at some point?" Lin asks as they go.

"Natasha didn't say," Aviri says warily, watching the monsters keep their distance.

"Well, we'll find out soon enough," Trilup claims! Back through many curtains, and up 'steps' of stone they finally reach a passageway. It has none of the wondrous color or glowing mosses or much of anything but darkness and stairs. But the stairs at least go up.

Lin lights their lantern and holds it up against the dark. "I've still gotta admit that was relaxin'. Nothin like a good back rub an' some target practise ta get the blood flowin!" She pats Eve on the back on her way to the front of the group so she can lead the way with the light. "Pretty cool fer the first secret passage we found, eh?"

"Stay close for a while," Aviri says as they begin up the stairs, looking behind them to ensure no moss was following. "Never thought anything could ruin moss...." he mutters.