The Basement Fall Hufflepuff MS

☁ Interacting ☁
All of Hufflepuff Basically

'Oh my Goddess. Oh my Goddess. Oh my Goddess.'

Willow's thoughts were going a mile a minute as her spell went off so flawlessly the floor began to cave in underneath them. Her body flailed and tried to grasp for something, anything, but the only thing that slipped through her fingers was air. Her wand was thankfully still in her hand as her body collided with the cold ground. It was a familiar place. Flashes of the darkness lashing out at her and her friends. Desperate lashes of fire in order to try and save themselves. The only saving came from Professor Browne and Professor Jensen coming to save them.

Her body continued to ache as she pushed herself up from the floor, looking around to see who had been heavily damaged. They all seemed pretty ok, for now. Except there was no sign of Ethen anywhere. So her spell was basically for nothing. Or maybe it wasn't?

Willow knew where they were, from her short stint of being a prefect she remembered escorting students to the Slytherin Common Room. There was help. Help was to be found here. She scrambled towards the portion of the wall that seemed like it could be their door, truly she had no clue. Her fists started banging against the stone mercilessly. "Slytherin!! Its Hufflepuff!!" She didn't know what to say, how to convince them it was actually them. "Its Willow, please! This... thing! Took Ethen. Please!" They needed help. They needed numbers. They needed spells. "Please, please, please! Help us!" Her cries were desperate and strangled. A beg for assistance. They didn't defeat the darkness alone last time, she wasn't going to try and face them with just Hufflepuff again.

☁ Action || Banging against the wall, desperately trying to reach Slytherin ☁

Interacting with: All present Hufflepuffs
Mentioning: Paige, Willow

The back of her head felt like it was on fire.

Martyna lay flat on the cold, damp floor of the dungeons, staring up at the hole in the ceiling that they'd fallen from. It was hard to focus her eyes, but from what she could tell, it didn't look like they'd dropped too far. Ultimately, she'd not sustained much more than a couple bruises and a headache, but she still felt a dull throb when she reached one hand through her curls, holding the part of her head that had borne the brunt of the force, wincing. Her headband had come loose. She stretched her less dominant arm out to the side in search of her wand. It had clattered to a halt on the floor after she'd landed because she'd been unable to keep her grip amid the shock of the fall, but it hadn't gotten far. Her fingers clutched around the length.

As though ignited by the magic inside her wand, Tina's mind was suddenly full of images of the spiders they'd been evading, and she sat bolt upright, crawling onto her knees and looking around with renewed fear. Was Paige here? From what she'd gathered, the biggest spider had attacked her. Maybe if Tina had tried harder to talk to her, or deter her from opening the box she wouldn't have been bitten... What had Willow said to do? Oh! "L-lum-!" Upon sucking in a breath of air, Tina choked on dormant dust, messing up the incantation. She coughed, ducking her face into her elbow.

"Slytherin!! Its Hufflepuff!"

Whilst everyone else was still collecting themselves, Willow had figured out where they were, and had taken to banging on the door - Slytherin's door. Strangely, this was comforting. Tina stumbled to her feet, moved forwards by the other girl's continuing shouts for help, and ran up beside her, pounding both of her fists into the door again and again, hoping to increase their volume.

"Help! HELP US!" Martyna yelled, her voice still croaky. Her fists slammed against the door with no pattern or rhythm, desperate to draw attention to the group as quickly as possible. "There's these spiders! A-and they're hurting people!" Tina choked a bit; the memory was quite harrowing. She'd never seen anything so scary. Suddenly terrified that they might not be heard, she turned her head over her shoulder, directing her question at the badgers. "D-Does anyone happen to know Slytherin's password?"

Action: Banging on Slytherin's door

Stamina 7 • Evasion 8 • Strength 4 • Wisdom 6 • Arcane Power 8 • Accuracy 7
Abilities: The Muggle Condition • Healing Sage

Reducio

outfit of the evening

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- Open to interactions! -
- Interacting with @Willow Anderson & @Martyna Romero -

Even with her eyes closed, Lydia could see the incredibly bright light that had filled the Hufflepuff common room, as the screams and voices of her housemates kept echoing around. She carefully opened her eyes, the light shining bright above her, and as Lydia turned around and moved, with her lit wand moving with her, she could see how some weird looking spiders seemed to disappear the moment they met the light.

"This is so gross, oh gosh," she thought as a feeling of uneasiness crept up her spine; she didn't like insects that much in general, but spiders were just a big no for her. It was probably the sight of the giant spiders that seemed to paralyse her, and for the next round she couldn't move; her eyes kept looking everywhere for the possibility of more spiders coming towards her or any of her housemates.

She was so concentrated that she didn't even notice Ethen going missing, or how some of her housemates had opened up the presents that the weird creature had left them. Everything was pure chaos, so difficult to understand what to do, and the next thing she knew, Lydia heard the floor beneath her feet groan, and she became as pale as a ghost. She knew that whatever was below their common room wasn't good, she had seen the horrors that had happened when, during her first year, some of her classmates had fallen into the darkness. Back then she had been lucky enough not to be dragged down there, but this time, as everything seemed to collapse, she wasn't that lucky and she fell with her housemates down into the dungeons.

It felt like the fall had lasted forever, and as she was laying on the cold floor, with the broken furniture and her housemates around her, Lydia thought that, for a second, she was still falling. She opened her eyes and slowly sat up, her right hand still curled around her wand holding tight onto it. She recognized Willow and Martyna, and she could hear them asking for help and- wait a second, did Willow just say that the creature had gotten Ethen?

Carefully Lydia got up and walked to where Willow and Martyna were. "Are you alright? What happened to Ethen?" she asked confused and then shook her head. "I don't know their password, but- maybe they'll hear us?" she said and looked around, hoping to maybe see someone from Slytherin arrive. Aside from the Potion classes, Lydia hadn't been down in the Basement, and the feeling of being out of place and confused lingered in her. Then she realised that with the fall, most of their light had gone out, and if any of those creepy spiders or the creature were still around, then they had no protection from them.

Turning her back towards Willow and Martyna, she faced towards the unknown and lifted up her wand. With her Duelling teammates already asking for help, she would have made sure to help protect them and the rest of their housemates.

"Lumos!"

Action: attempting to cast Lumos;
Stats: Sta: 5|| Eva: 7 || Str: 5 || Wis: 15 || AP: 5 || Acc: 5
Abilities: Alluring || Lovely Creature || Scream

Interacting with: Everyone

Continuing from this post

Serena groaned as she hit the floor, on her side. Her fall was slightly more graceful than earlier, at the very least, and she did not fall flat on her face this time. But the distance was a lot higher and it hurt. It was definitely not elegant, just slightly better than earlier. If she was not panicking about the shadow thingy, she would probably worry about how stupid she looked in front of the cute boy uh her friends.

If she was still holding her wand, she would grip it tightly. If it had fallen, she would quickly reach around to try and grab it. It took a moment to realise what had happened. For the second time, she had fallen into the dungeons. Serena sat up quickly, trying to look around. The last time she was here, the darkness was literally trying to kill them. The same thing that that that creature was made out of - ughhh. What if she was right? She did not want to be right but the image of that face haunted her.

The light escaping from people's wands helped ease her worry a tad bit. If her own wand was still lit from her Lumos Maxima, she would raise it to help her attempt to evaluate the situation. If it was not, she would use the light that others had provided. Whatever happened, Serena tried to look around.

Where the hell was it? Where was Ethen? Who had fallen? Wait- where was Pizza Rat? F- How was she supposed to find him if he had fallen?!! Was he still in the common room? Had he fallen too? Dammit. Where the hell were they? She could not immediately see the shadow creature thing nor could she see Ethen but she could hear his name being screamed.

"Does anyone see him? Where the hell did he go? Shit, we need help..." She mumbled to herself, panicking as she realised that there was nothing - absolutely nothing - that she could do if she was correct in her thinking. What she was imagining was beyond anything she would have thought or considered if she had not seen the face. That face. Why the hell was it so familiar? Who was it? It must have been a student. It was young. It had to. But she could not think of a name or a house or anything connected. It could have been anything. It could have been her imagination. Was she going crazy? Perhaps. She had no idea.

Why would it take him? Why did it need- oh god. No no no no no. A dark thought entered her mind and it did not help her to panic less, "Arania Exumai!" She would screech, pointing it directly at the largest spider she could see, if she saw any of them trying to come towards them. If they were the same spiders as what she feared they might be, the spell might not work. But in her panic, it was the first thing she could think of doing.

"STAY IN THE LIGHT," She screamed to anyone who would listen, fearing the dark. She would stay as close as possible to the light.

"And. This might sound insane but- don't hurt it. That thing. I think- " What did she think? Did she think it wanted to be friends? Did she think it had feelings and could talk and might actually be good? Perhaps but then why would it take Ethen? Why? What if ... it was doing the worst thing she could imagine... what if it was stealing... children? Locking them in the dark abyss forever.

She gritted her teeth. "We have to find Ethen." And that boy... She thought to herself. Her tone of voice was less shaky in this statement than it had been all day. She refused. She refused to allow the last thought she had to be real. There was nothing worse in the world than that fate: a fate worse than death. Admittedly, she had absolutely no idea how to save anyone or anything but that did not stop her from being determined to try. What the hell was she going to do if her thought was real?

And she still had to find Pizza!

ACTION: Cast Arania Exumai at biggest spider she can see, if present. (Maintain Lumos Maxima if possible? I have no idea if this faded or not)

Stamina: 10 | Evasion: 13 | Strength: 1 | Wisdom: 15 | Arcane Power: 5 | Accuracy: 10
Abilities: Part-Goblin, Evasive Maneuvers, Beastmaster
Fifth-Year Armour: +10% auto-dodge on attacks [=20% auto-dodge overall]

OOC: Beastmaster has been approved. Pizza Rat to the rescue!

Interacting: @Jack Warren
Mentioning: @Rosie Parker, @Ethen Emrys, @Serena Towers

Aaron was in a daze.

From the moment that he felt something on the back of his head, he had found himself frozen. Everything seemed to happen so quickly after that. The sharp pain that coursed through his head had been inflicted by what he deduced was a spider made of some sort of darkness. He had seen Rosie get attacked by the same sort of creature, so although he never laid eyes on the one that attacked him, he was fairly confident that was the reason his head felt like it was on fire. His vision blurred and his eyes watered at how intense the pain was, but he was still able to watch as, moments later, the Slenderman creature engulfed Ethen and disappeared from the common room.

As his vision blurred more intensely after that, Aaron didn't know how exactly it happened, but the next thing he registered was being tackled by someone. Whoever it was seemed familiar - wait, Jack? And then suddenly the ground beneath him had disappeared, and he let out a gasp as he fell through the air entangled with the former Hufflepuff prefect. The floor below came a lot quicker than expected, and Jack actually broke his fall, but it still wasn't a pleasant experience.

"Sorry," Aaron wheezed, rolling off of Jack and onto the cool stone floor beside him. He tried desperately to get onto his hands and knees so he could check on his friend and make sure he wasn't too hurt, but an intense feeling of dizziness left Aaron collapsed on the stone floor and unable to move. He tried to focus on breathing, because even that seemed hard to do in that moment. The feeling of his scalp being on fire from the spider creature was still there, and getting the wind knocked out of him by the tackle hadn't helped.

After a few seconds of Aaron laying on the floor and trying to recollect his thoughts, he was able to make out the shouts of his fellow Hufflepuffs. Slytherin? Is that where they were? Aaron's vision was stabilizing as he finally managed to sit up a bit and cast his brown-eyed gaze around. The dungeons?

There was a lot of information he was missing, and as he saw Serena nearby waving her wand, Aaron suddenly realized his hands were empty. Where had his wand gone? Not that it would do him much good in this state. "Jack, are you all right?" Aaron asked, his voice faint and still slightly wheezy as his eyes landed on his mate.

Action: Looking around for his wand, talking to Jack
Stats: STA: 9 | EVA: 9 | STR: 9 | WIS: 4 | ARCP: 3 | ACC: 13
Abilities: Martial Artist | Muggle Condition | Calming Presence (allies: Hufflepuff)

Open to Interactions
Mentioning: The Other Fallen Huffles

Colliding harshly with the floor, Atlas would feel the horrific sensation of the air being forced from her lungs. The impact had instantly forced the wind out of her. To make matters worse, her mouth had been slightly agape during the fall and her teeth came down hard on her lip. In the darkness, she wouldn’t see the crimson now leaking from her split lip but she would taste the ever-familiar metallic flavor of her blood.

There was pain, but Atlas paid no mind to it. She had landed in a horrible position and had enough pain radiating from her back to contend with. She was lucky to have avoided any more serious debris hitting her. Lucky...She wasn’t quite sure that was the best word to describe her current predicament. As far as house traditions went, falling through the floor seemed to be just about the worst tradition imaginable.

With a pained groan, Atlas forced herself back to her feet. Wiping her bloody lip on her arm, she peered around in a discombobulated haze. Realizing that her nails were digging into the palms of her other hand, Atlas relaxed her grip on her wand some. As she began the fall, she had instinctively placed a vice-like grip on her wand, knowing she would need it. She so dearly hoped that she would see Ethen’s face somewhere in the dark mess. Her heart pounded as the anxiety continued to creep over her. She had seen the creature disappear through the floor. He had to be here! There were plenty of other Hufflepuffs, forced down by the ruptured floor. But as she scanned the faces she knew. He wasn’t there. She hadn’t noticed the tears again welling in her eyes or her quickening breathing as the panic set in.

In a dazed and defeated stance, Atlas turned her attention to the vague sounds of several housemates banging on a wall and shouting for Slytherin to help them. She watched them for a second. Passively, as tears rolled down her cheeks, Atlas would turn away. “I have to find Ethen,” Atlas mumbled. It was barely audible. A verbal reminder to keep going through the torrent of hopelessness. “I have to find Ethen,” she repeated to herself.

It was her boyfriend that had been taken but Atlas suddenly felt utterly lost. Deep within she could feel the need to press on but her legs felt suddenly weighed down. Each step was sluggish and delirious as she began to walk. She had no idea where she needed to go. She could not see anything that suggested where Ethen might be and she didn’t even know if he was down here. But she couldn’t just stand there. Couldn’t just wait with a faint hope that he would turn up.

Focused solely on the singular task of finding Ethen, Atlas’ mind began to ignore the possibility of threats. Her distaste of the horrifying spiders had been pressed far to the back of her mind and Atlas began walking down the passageway in search of a door. Holding her wand out, Atlas would attempt to cast Lumos but she would carry on regardless of the success of the spell.

ACTION: Attempting to cast Lumos and moving down the hall in search of a door.

Reducio

STATS:
Stamina: 10
Evasion: 1o
Strength: 4
Wisdom: 7
Arc. Power: 7
Accuracy: 10

ABILITIES:
Fearless
Effect: Fear effects such as a dhmpir's aura, the ability terrible presence, a lycanothrope's intimidation or certain charms, potions and jinxes that would normally cause a fear effect do not work on you as you are immune to them.

Back in the Common Room

Success! With flawless form Howard had torn his sleeve and disassembled some common room furniture. All he needed was another moment to set his homemade torch ablaze and he would soon be sending those shadow spiders back to the hell they came from. No more Huffles would be cursed, no more screams of terror and pain. He could save them!

As he turned to plunge his torch into the fire a flash from a spell would light the area only to be followed by the sound of wood splitting and tearing apart. The floor boards under his feet would begin to buckle and creak before they too began to crumble. A fresh wave of screams would fill the room as everything began to fall.

In the basement

Crunch! Howard would slam into the ground. Fighting through the pain he would scramble to his feet, red eyes bouncing around as they searched for any sign of the spiders, but for now they seemed to be free of them. A few of the students would begin to call for Slytherin to come to their aid, while others would begin to question the whereabouts of Ethen. He would stumble towards Serena as she called out for them to stay in the light. Hopefully it would provide enough protection from the shadows for them to regroup.

It would only be then that he realized the makeshift torch was still in his hand. Hopefully like many of the areas of the castle there would already be lit torches to light the way. If so, Howard would grab one to arm himself. If not, at least he could use the one he fell with as club. He would repeat what many had said before him. "We have to find Ethen! Come on, try to stay together and keep to the light."

Action: Grab a torch if available. Prepare to search for Ethen.

It was raining Hufflepuffs... Yet strangely enough nobody was saying hallelujah. @Aaron Jones had landed on top of @Jack Warren. Aaron was not built for this sort of abuse, both the landing as well as the arachnid's assault had left the boy pained. It was hard to concentrate. "Sorry," Aaron choked out. He did not mean to land on the burly youth even if the teen likely softened Aaron's fall.

"Jack, are you all right?" Aaron would ask, Jones not being OK at all. Aaron was not even standing upright. On his hands and knees, partially from the pain, partially the disorientation caused by both the chaos and the fall, and the fact that he was searching for his wand. His wand had not abandoned him, he was just in too much pain to notice. The wand fell with him, it was jammed unfortably into Jack's pocket (no additional injury) and visibly apparent to Aaron (free action to get it, was not going to make you lose your wand, don't give me ideas!).

@Atlas Reid would land on the ground hard. It would not be the first time she fell through the Hufflepuff floor and landed into the basement. The circumstances this time no better than the last, falling meant mortal peril for Ethen rather consistently. She was holding onto her wand, the indentation of her nails into the palm of her hand would ache as she relaxed her tight grip on her wand. She did not let go, she did not fail. She could not fail.

Atlas would look for Ethen and not see him. Yes, Ethen was the damned damsel, the princess in this story and Atlas was his handsome white stallion-riding prince. The inversion might be more entertaining if it was not for the fact that stories have far less investment than life does. The consequence of failure is more than a dissatisfying story, it is the loss of something she held dear. “I have to find Ethen,” Atlas would announce with tears rolling down her cheeks.

As they came crashing down to the basement level, they were missing one of their own -- Ethen Emrys. "Does anyone see him? Where the hell did he go? Shit, we need help..." Him being Ethen of course. Wouldn't it be a cruel prank to find Ethen playing hide and seek, his entire house being the seekers? At this moment, as full of worry and terror as they were, that would be the preferred conclusion.

Serena's thoughts would be on the face that she saw. The form within the darkness. The features she hardly knew. The life, the essence, the darkness and the terrible fate suich a face represented. She had seen that face many times before. She had seen that face in her peers, in other Prefects and even in the dead. Not that she ever knew that unfortunate boy that died last year, but she would know one thing for certain -- shadows do not have cheekbones.

@Willow Anderson knew where they were. It was not a place she had any reason to frequent but she had been this way recently. As a Prefect it was not uncommon for first years or those born without a sense of direction in the upper years to get lost, to get turned around in this massive Scottish castle. In the early weeks of a given year it was more frequent, but time and time again a student would take the wrong set of stairs, get turned around someplace and not know their way back. She would have to escort them up far too many stairs for her hamstrings to tolerate or amble into the cool darkness of the basement to lead her peers to their common area.

They were in front of Slytherin. has she cut a few feet to the left she would have fallen where she had before. A few feet to the right and she would have landed on Percival Grey. Slytherin represented help, something Hufflepuff was in dire need of.

"Slytherin!! Its Hufflepuff!!"

Willow would bound on the door with the side of her fist. There had to be someone on the other side. Someone that could help them. @Martyna Romero would scramble alongside Willow, she had the right idea -- get help, don't try to do this on your own. Little did she know that Slytherin had suffered a bit of fortune themselves, had they broken out of their common room, something Percival Grey and Selim Faust had prevented, then they would have been buried beneath falling Hufflepuffs. A lucky moment that might be lost to most of them.

"Help! HELP US!"

Martyna joined Willow banging on the door with her fists. Fist or claw, the door would not yield to them but rather require the acquiescence of those on the other side. They had no way of knowing about the tense stand-off, the fear that had bound the snakes to their common room as they were told that something had escaped. Not what or where it had gone, Victor did not know. Yes, the very dead Victor Moore that had died the year previous during their summer holiday in a strange Fight Club scenario where the alleged organizer was the only fatality.

"Its Willow, please! This... thing! Took Ethen. Please!" They needed help. They needed numbers. They needed spells.

Ethen had offered this shadowy creature a humble carrot. A gift for the bringer of gifts no child would want. Ethen perhaps did not consider the effect of reciprocity or the circumstances of the strange, terrible gifts provided -- spiders made of pure darkness and a severed finger. He never considered from where they came. Or why. The connections he was trying to make or the connection that he had. Ethen had made an attempt to communicate, to parlay. He was taken without a word as effortlessly as one might breathe.

What sort of creature would want Ethen of all people?

"Please, please, please! Help us!"

Willow begged through the door. Her voice would be muffled and desperate. From behind someone would approach Willow and Martyna, @Lydia Cooper. Mildly disoriented from the chaos and the fall she was not entirely certain of what has happened, only that they were in a place that was a far cry from their cozy common room. "Are you alright? What happened to Ethen?" Only minor injuries for all of them, at least from the fall. The fate of Ethen unknown, there was much to explain but little time as long as they did not know their housemate's fate. They needed help, their injuries could wait. Their lack of understanding could be addressed at a later time if ever as the two of them begged for a hand.

"D-Does anyone happen to know Slytherin's password?" Martyna would ask.

"I don't know their password, but- maybe they'll hear us?" Lydia suggested. She was right, even as Prefects the Prefects present and former did not have access to the other dorms, but the dorms were certainly not sound proof. That was how the shadow earned ingress into their room -- they simply knocked and were allowed inside.

It was instinct at this point to favor the light. The terrors of the darkness seemed to be consistently thwarted by a ray of golden light. She would turn from the two girls as they begged for help, they did not need a third. Something could come for them. So Lydia would face towards the unknown and lift up her wand. She was a skilled, trained duelist, she was more then capable of wielding a wand.

She could help...

"Lumos!"

Lydia cast Lumos.
Wisdom Roll: 8 Success

A bright light would emanate from the tip of her wand, like a muggle flashlight flooding the already dimly lit hall with a bright, warm light. It was enough to make the shadows retreat and become small. For her to see what was near and more importantly what was not.

Serena maintains Lumos Maxima.
Wisdom Roll: 18

This coupled with Serena's own Lumos Maxima, yes the formerly undefeated Hufflepuff Seeker's wand remained stubbornly lit. Her wand, her defense, remained tightly gripped in her hand with a vice-like grip. She was not a physically powerful midget but she was determined to not die. She would look around for Pizza Rat, the small unfortunate creature had fallen with her and landed on the cold, stone floor and scurried off. Still alive, a bit disoriented and terrified. Pizza rat sought a safe, dark corner to call its own.

"Arania Exumai!" @Serena Towers would screech as she pointed her wand towards the darkness, beyond the penumbra of their (Lydia and her own) wand's light. There was nothing there, just the terror that there might be something amongst the unseen and unknown. The infestation from above had perished in the fall. Faded in response to her as well as Lydia's light.

"STAY IN THE LIGHT," Serena demanded. A lesson she learned her first year as she and her peers learned to stave off the darkness. That was the first publicly known incident of the darkness that came to life and how the light would repel it. It was their only defense. Now of course being a time of narration, the darkness on that day had ripped Serena asunder. Tore her apart and she should have died. She did not. She also was never cursed. A question she never asked that day and therefore never got an answer. There was a time when she might have been among the first to suffer this terrible curse, something luck or something else had allowed her to avoid.

It was the fire and the light that had saved her, before the darkness could take grip the scalding flames and blinding light had diminished the darkness so... it never could take hold. A prophylactic of sorts, how it saved her from the fate of so many others. Of course that failed to consider the effectiveness of fire on those that were already afflicted, infected with this dark, spreading curse that changed their blood. It made their blood inky dark, decayed them from the inside out. Fire did not save them, many had been burned, the boy she had seen in the darkness being one. There had to be another option for them. An other way, perhaps several. Setting someone on fire would more likely kill them than save them.

@Howard White would approach Serena while she shouted orders, reminding the Hufflepuffs to stay in the light. Wow she was pretty when she said words. When she shot at things...

Howard was far from the simple, sweet boy that first joined Hogwarts. unbeknownst to him, he held a number of keys to the truth of what was happening here. He was well aware of the hags, the hags that once dwelled in these basements before they were driven out. He had changed into something be was not before. He had suffered and he had seen things but he had never had the chance to put all of the details together.

He never considered why a dhampir of all things. He never noticed the persistence of BLOOD, blood magics and blood curses. He was even given a phial of Vladimir's blood. Blood that he was given as it was self drawn. What person draws their own blood? What person willingly gives it away?

Again, the blood curse was spread, by spiders made of pure darkness. There would be a rumor that he had likely not heard if not told specifically that the blood comes from Vladimir's own blood when spilled. That he was cursed like the others. Why didn't everyone's blood create such chaos when they bleed? Well, there was that one time with Opeila's blood... But only that one time...

Howard was an unwitting key.

"We have to find Ethen! Come on, try to stay together and keep to the light." Howard had Serena's back. he was her ally, in spite of how he looked. Once soft and pleasant he was now pallid and hard, his nails thick and long like claws rather than hands that could be held. His eyes burned like infernal coals. A monster with an anger that bubbled beneath the surface and the heart of a man.

Two ends of the spectrum. Serena the beginning and Howard the end. Perhaps, even if not in terms of romance but for the sake of this mystery one day they would meet in the middle. Howard would light his self-made torch and it would burst into flames. Hot on his skin, the darkness would be sent further back.

"And. This might sound insane but- don't hurt it. That thing. I think- " Serena called out. Yes, it sounded absolutely mad. But perhaps it was not trying to hurt them in spite of its very very bad taste in gifts. A symptom perhaps of the madness that came from the icy grip of death. What if it was desperately trying to communicate and if so, what did it mean?

Shadow Spiders? -- didn't spiders come from just one person? Indeed, they did. A bit of exposition once again. There were other dark creatures made of shadows. Serena encountered them in the woods the first time she came upon the living darkness, but there were spiders there also. At first there was in fact a mixture of creatures. Centipedes and strange shadows with bladed limbs... yet now it would seem they were reduced to just spiders. The Ravenclaws knew this as did a few others, the spiders came exclusively from Vladimir. The pieces of the puzzle too remote to consider on their own, information always required collaboration at the risk of metagame when said in one space. Yet this was where things were coming to a close... Vladimir was attacked months earlier in the Owlery, his blood stolen. He claimed then by Victor, the dead boy. Perhaps the boy was not lying.

Of course, it led some to worry -- where the heck did shadow daddy get a severed finger? Whose finger was it? A disgusting, macabre bauble or perhaps a succinct warning. It belonged to someone that was no longer alive. Someone who was long dead. Did their identity matter? Surely to those that missed her or him, likely there was some but they were gone, devoured and long dead. A morsel left forgotten, perhaps discarded. Some might forget as they rarely encounter such a vile creature and live to tell the tale, but there were hags making meals of the children.

"We have to find Ethen." Serena asserted.

“I have to find Ethen,” Atlas repeated, changing the we to an I. They could try but she HAD to. A one-track mind, she was determined. She would hold her wand out in front of her and announce the word of power for the wand lighting charm. "Lumos."

Atlas cast Lumos
Wisdom Roll: 4 (+7) Success

The tip of Atlas' wand would start to glow with a clean, simple light. t was not as flashy or as powerful as the others but she did not need power for light, only the power to rescue the fair Ethen. She was not going to wait for help, she was going to move on from the site of the fall. She would venture away, deeper into the dungeons of Hogwarts, away from the common room door. If they summoned the Slytherin toops, good on them but precious time was being wasted. She would move onward.

"Aaron?" @Rosie Parker called out quietly. It was hard to move, she was terrified and in pain. This was not a good place. This was a place that she remembered but for the wrong reasons. @Eris Fawley and @Max Avery had fed a crazy Slytherin's delusions. Yes, Erin Ryan was out of her damned mind. What was she on about? Midget Giants and Death Witches. Why did they confirm such madness? A truth that was beyond her. Erin was aggressive and violent, the actual outcome of that thread wholly unknown by the narrator because it was never completed but it was presumed that there was possible ass kicking involved but the canon occurrence is truly up to Parker.

Regardless of the outcome, there was information to be learned that day. Of a delusion that had a thread of truth, a dangerous warning and an addled mind. Erin was infected by something else entirely, she was paranoid and dangerous. She was sick and she was dying. Howard saw the scars on a pureblood YEARS earlier but never questioned the existence of such markings on a pureblood. On any wizard with the accessibility to healing spells and a school nurse, even one with barely a modicum of competence. She was going to die in a few weeks, well effectively die as the change completes.

Slugs... slugs in her head all wiggling and writhing, gnawing in her head.

"Jack, are you guys okay?" Rosie would inquire. They probably were not fine but manliness would prevent the admission more than likely. Jack and Aaron had gotten too close in that freefall. In addition to shame, there were actual bruises and potential concussions. "We should start walking as a group if we do move forward," Rosie wheezed, "use Lumos as protection, with the people on the outside..."

What Happened?
Willow and Martyna are banging on Slytherin's common room door. They can hear you.
Serena maintains Lumos Maxima, she also cast (there was nothing to hit) Arania Exumai
Aaron Jones got off Jack, is looking for his wand. It is on Jack and you can see it.
Lydia Cooper cast Lumos
Atlas Reid cast Lumos and is walking further into the dungeon.
Howard lights a torch
Rosie Parker checks on the boys.