A classic sanitorium setting, a very Victorian mansion build over a deep oubliette of stone and sorcery, this place is the living guardian gateway to the world of Mantracorns. Untold miles of hazardous passageway snakes underneath this horror-infested labyrinth, at the end of which there lies the so-called pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. It is a gray, shifting maze of light and sound, and has claimed thousands of foolsih adventurers in its day.

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Julen City
Fairmark Inn

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The ship fires into the sky and, seemingly within a second, they're there. 

Trenton blinks, looking out into the skyline, down over the oddly haunted-mansion looking structure.

Ari's mouth shoves over to the side a little as she steps off of his lap, and jumps to the ground. "It's just too...monster mansion looking, isn't it?"

"A little bit. But that's half the fun, right?" Trenton pulls himself out, banishes his erection and wanders toward the house.

Ari breathes out a shaky breath. She makes the ship cloak itself, and, strapping her gun in easy reach over her shoulder, walks silently after Trenton, tense.

Along the cobblestone path they walk, uninterrupted for some time. The sky above is clear, but the air seems thicker as they close upon the old house, as if it's been breathed once and let loose. A creaking sound rumbles from the house as they approach, and the heavy double doors groan open to reveal a grand foyer, beautifully furnished, and impossibly hot.

Trenton breathes, but the breath comes slow; the air drinks like oil, deep and black like wells of tar.

From a side door, deeply etched; the heaviest of heavy oak, there emerges a cloaked creature, stooped but humanoid, its face half-covered by its feather blue garment. It does not speak, merely waits. Ariella should see doors on either side at the top of the great stairwell, and a mighty sculpture of an Atlas at center. Its hands, though posed as if holding something staff-shaped, are empty.

Outside, Ari hand had hesitated over the door knob. Quivered. She's...terrified. Utterly and completely terrified. This isn't what she does. She's not a face-kicking kind of spy. She's...a perfectly mortal woman walking into a house that will probably kill her.

She doesn't remember opening it. She must have, pistol clenched in hand. She looks around slowly, breathes in that slow, labored way the house demands. And, still holding her pistol, steps slowly across the floor, cautious. Approaches the creature. "Excuse me...?"

"Sooo? Please select your destination. All our destinations are currently full. Please try again later." The creature speaks in a stiff, dial-tone voice, unmoving.

Trenton peers at it, over Ari's shoulder.

Pause. "We need to find the route to the Mantracorns..." she notes, softly. "It's rather urgent..."

The creature nods. "Urgency is always the way it is," the strange creature nods, holding out a three-fingered hand. "But urgent does not get you there from here. Only use your brains."

Ari's quiet at this. Thinking. Finally. "All right. Are there any clues or instructions you would be willing to give us?"

"In the labyrinth, you cannot die if you are not afraid. If you are afraid, you will die. Every door you take will lead you in the right direction eventually." The creature holds out a small clip. "Do you have the wand?"

Ari nods...reaches into her bag without looking, and holds it up, grip on it firm.

The little creature snaps the clip onto the wand, and its ends erupt in light; blue on one end, red on the other. Trenton leaps back, but the fire does not touch him, or Ari.

"Key."

Ari smiles a bit at the creature, and nods. Pause. "What's your name...?"

"Ulalume," the thing responds, its voice for a moment a bit of music.

"Ulalume, then. Thank you." Ari tries to smile a little, and nods. "Is there anything else that we should know up front?"

"Yes. Your friend vanished." The thing points and, sure enough, Trenton is simply gone. The Atlas statue looks slightly off center, now.

Ari jerks back that way. Eyes widen. "Trenton? Trenton?!" She bites her lip, eyes darting...pause on the statue. Narrow. She follows its gaze.

In its direct line of sight there is a bright red candlestick; it's out, but smokes, as if just lit despite the lack of scent and heat. On the other side of the room, a similar blue candlestick sits in a room blocked off by a transparent screen of some kind of glass.

Ari narrows her eyes at the sight of this. She fishes quickly through that survival kit of Trenton's to see if there's anything that can start a fire.

There is a book of matches; fire can be quite the necessary ally in survival situations.

Ulalume looks on, amused. "I wonder what the blue and red ends of that wand would do."

Ari pauses at this. Smirks a little, sheepish-grateful. Looks at the wand. Thinks. But to try blue or red...?

Pause. And she sets the redend to the wick of the red candle, prepared to jump from a bad reaction.

The candle sparks brightly to a loud BANG, but offers no concussive force at all.

Ari jumps a little...just to be sure, glances around for any effect.

There's none, except a slight titter from Ulalume. Behind the glass, a little imp is jumping up and down, holding a belt. Trenton's utility belt.

Ari's eyes narrow at this. The wand quickly flips around, and the blue end touches to the wick.

A flash of soft blue fills her sight, blocking everything out for a split second, and when it's gone, Ariella should find herself on the other side of the glass, facing the blue candlestick. The glass wall divides this hall from the other side, and there's only one door, into which the little brown, bearded imp flees. Inside there seems to be a comfortable reading room.

Ari stiffens, eyes darting...and hurries after the imp. Step halts inside the room, leary of danger. "Trenton?"

Trenton is sitting by the fire, quietly reading something from one of the shelves. He has a distant look in his eyes, and does not respond to her voice. The imp, meanwhile, is dancing around the chair, a neat, black dagger in hand. In this room, clear exits are against the far wall and a side door across from Trenton.

Ari's pale. "Trenton..." she approaches him cautiously, keeping her eyes partially on the imp...and leery of this not actually being the vampire. "Trenton...are you okay...?" She sets a hand on his shoulder.

"Of course," he answers, naturally, but his body is rigid, and cold. The imp continues to dance, waving its knife, but never stabbing or slashing.

The book cover is a bright red; a mirror across the way shows Trenton reading a blue book.

Ari bites her lip. Pause. Takes the wand, and touches the blue side to the book.

A pop, and flash, and Trenton near her is reading a blue book. He blinks. Looks up. "Um?"

The mirror has gone blank.

Ari breathes out, tentatively relieved. "Trenton...? You okay...?"

"Yeah." He stands up, and the book falls to the floor, its pages blank. The imp shrieks, quite abruptly. Shrieks again, like a chandelier shattering a glass floor, and two more float into sight through the bookshelves. Two more, and two more, their daggers glistening bright with some clear liquid. 

The lead imp chirps, and bounds toward Ariella, a crazed look in its bloodshot eyes as it stabs for her heart.

Her eyes snap wide. Pistol is up in a quarter of a heartbeat, and she pulls the trigger.

The little beastie turns a full flip, end over end, its face smoking and ruined, and it crashes to the ground in a heap. Others follow, swarming from the shelves. The way they came is still open, though. Trenton whips one of them back, two, swinging around, stumbling as if inebriated, flowing around their flashing knives to kick and slap them away.

Two more come sailing for Ariella. They fly straight, propelled by deceptively powerful little legs, but are very much berserkers with little apparent indication of intelligent attack patterns. To Ariella's rear is the hall with the glass wall and blue candlestick. To her right is a comfortable settee and, beyond that, a wall of bookshelves.

They need to get out of here...but only once clear to do so. Ari's heart is in her throat, pulse pounding, wondering what that liquid on their daggers is. She can't use her light tactics for fear they'll blind Trenton too...that hadn't occurred to her coming with him. She leaps backward, and again, trying to stay in front of them long enough to shoot both in the heads.

The little monsters flip like the first, and drop, and Trenton slaps away another one, two. "We have to run," he shouts, "there're too many." This as a knife sinks into his calf, to a sharp cry of pain. The imp chitters excitedly.

Ari's heart leaps to her throat at this. She shoots that imp, grabs Trenton by the back of the collar before he can fall, and tries to lunge for the candlestick with the red part of the wand. She has to get trenton out of here. Get im to a hospital. This is her problem, he shouldnt' be here...she can try again.

The wand flashes again, the same world-vanishing flash, and just as quickly they're on the other side, with imps smacking at the glass and yelling.

Ulalume is gone, and now the Atlas statue is loosely holding a pair of baseball-sized jewels; one red, one blue.

Trenton hisses, annoyed more than truly hurt, and glares at the imps. "Little bastards," he growls.

"Forget them." Ari nods. "They had something on their daggers. You may be poisoned. We need to get you to a hospital right now." She's trying to head straight to the front door with him.

He's resisting, naturally. "I'm fine. I'm a vampire, remember?" He smirks. "I may look like a faerie, but I'm much tougher than I look."

The front door takes this moment to slam shut, and a soft, tinkling chuckle floats over the shouting of the imps.

Ari stiffens, sharp teeth bared. "That can't be good." She makes sure Trenton's steady, then reaches forward to tug on the door.

It doesn't budge. It doesn't react, but doesn't budge.

Trenton sighs a bit. "This place pisses me off already."

Ari bites her lip...turns to look at him. Look him up and down. Examines his pupils. "How are you feeling? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," he assures her again. His pupils are a bit shrunken, but otherwise he seems alright at a glance. "I am ready to get on with this, though, if we're out of options."

"Yeah. If you feel ill, remember, we can always just blow a hole in the outer wall or the door." Nods, seriously, and then looks back towards the Atlas statue. Ari considers. "Okay, Trenton...will you pick up one of those? I'll get the other at the same time.

"Of course." He marches up the stairs; a limp at first fading to normal rhythm, and waits for her. The statue looms huge over him.

Ari looks up at it...jumps onto one of the thing's knees, poised to jump and grab the red stone. There's really no quick, easy way to do it that's also safe. There won't be any turning back. "Ready? On three..."

Trenton clambers up the side of the statue, as well, perfectly ready to fall or be blown up or whatever. When Ariella counts three, he grabs the blue stone, and closes his eyes.

Nothing happens.

Ari breathes out, red orb in hand. Smiles sheepishly at Trenton. "Well, we're both intact. It's the best luck we've had since walking in, no?" She chuckles.

"I should think so," Trenton answers, holding the blue ball aloft. "This thing has to weight fifty pounds." He moves it from side to side. "What about yours?"

The jewel in Ariella's hand is feather light.

She blinks. Balances it on the end of a single finger, smiling a little. "...Not so much. Weird."

"They are colored, like the candlesticks. I know this is beginning to feel like a video game, but try touching one with the wand?" Trenton shifts his weight a bit. It's fricking heavy.

"Sure." She nods. "The candlesticks liked to teleport me all over...'scuse me." She loops her arm securely around Trenton's before doing anything. "Ready?"

He smiles a little. "For anything, suddenly."

She smiles a bit, too. Breathes, and touches the blue end of the wand to her red crystal.

The flash again, this time full of warm light that fills their cells with a hopeful vigor. It's literally as if they've stepped from a cold day into a shaft of sunlight, but just as quickly it's over, and they've switched places.

Atlas, meanwhile, has vanished, leaving a wide doorway in its place. The door is covered by a wavering blue field and, beyond that, there sits a lever.

Ari's mouth heads off to the side a bit. she touches the red end of the wand to the field.

It clinks softly, as if touching something solid.

Trenton approaches the wall, brow wrinkled in consternation. On a lark, he holds the blue jewel up, and presses against the wall.

Or he would, had he not gone directly through the wall and stumbled.

If Ari reaches to grab him to stop his fall, she will find herself unable to pass through the blue barrier.

She does...and smashes her hand very, very hard against it, to a yelp of pain. She cringes, sucks in her breath--she's pretty sure she'd just broken two fingers, thank god for ambidexterity--and reaches up with the blue side of the wand to hit the field.

It clinks.

Trenton looks up from the ground, blinking. "Are you okay? I think the jewel is what let me pass through, Ari."

"Yeah..." She cringes, clasping her hand. Grins weakly. "So, want to come back to this side for the sake of sticking together, or try that lever?"

"Let me try this thing and see what happens." Trenton stands up, dusts himself off, and reaches to pull the lever. Bangs his hand, and looks more closely; there's a red light surrounding the device. "Huh. It's got a red field."

"Oh, geez." Pause. "Can you reach through the blue field and see if you can help me through?"

Trenton wraps a finger across his chin. "Why don't you try touching that jewel with the wand again? Maybe it'll switch our places again and you can pull the lever?"

Ari smiles a bit at him. "The smart one," she assures. And she touches her red orb with the blue end of the wand.

Just as quickly, they've switched places. Ariella finds herself in the hallway where Trenton had been standing; about two hundred feet down is another blue barrier. The lever glows brightly nearby.

Ari breathes out...she touches the red orb to the barrier and--carefully this time--reaches for the lever.

Her hand passes cleanly through. The lever resists only a moment, dropping with a deep clank and burst of blue sparks. The barriers vanish.

"This reeks of a training level, you know," Trenton points out as he moves to join her. "Is your hand okay?"

Ari grins at him sheepishly. "Not so much. If this is a training level, I think I get a 'D'..." she snickers. "It will be fine, though. And we're starting to figure things out, thanks to you, so this thing's underway." She smiles at the vampire as she walks.

He smiles too, and follows along.

The next room is wide open. Vast, empty stretches of nothing separates a few platforms... they enter onto a wide platform with a red candle on each side. Two more platforms a few hundred feet out have a blue candle each, and raised stone blocks in the center. A mural nearby shows two pedestals, and two figures. A second mural shows a large figure standing on the left pedestal, and a small standing on the right, and a door opening.

Trenton blinks. "Fuck me."

Ari breathes out. "...Okay. Ready for this?" And she touches the blue end of the wand to one of hte red candles.

And she vanishes, appearing on the platform directly across from the touched candle.

Ari breathes out. Okay...that works. She looks down into the depths...cringes. And begins hopping from stone to stone to the other blue-candled pedestal.

It's precarious, an Trenton cringes, watching her go. "Why are you jumping?" he shouts, thinking. "Why not just come back with the candle and use this one to get there...?"

As Ari reaches the second platform, a stiff wind spirits into the chamber and extinguishes both the candles. Trenton's head whips about, looking for the source of the wind.

Through the barriers they crossed to arrive here, the shimmering form of Shigoriath stares back at them.

Ari's eyes widen a bit at this...not so much at Shigoriath, as the wind nearly sweeping her off the edge. She gets her balance, though, catching her weight as she waits for...whatever this guy's going to do. They'd come on Moorn's behalf, and she seems to recall a bad, bad incident between he and this guy.

He kicks the barrier. The blue light bars him from them, but his expression is crystal clear to Trenton.

"Ari, we need to get out of this room right now. If this mural means anything, I'd say we both have to push a pedestal down to open the door at the end." He looks at the blown-out candles. "Any ideas?"

Ari cringes. "Um..." She picks up the candle and, holding it, touches the blue end of the wand to it.

It lights up blue.

Ari blinks. Grabs the candle and quickly skips across the stones to the other platform again, grateful for not drying, and tries to light the other.

It flares up blue. Trenton's about to suggest something when the first flare skids against the blue barrier. Shigoriath flings fire against it, strikes it with his fists, maniacal so abruptly Trenton doesn't know what to think. The barrier doesn't give at all, though.

Ari cringes. Still holding the first candle, she holds the red end of the wand to the other. 

It flares red. Trenton blinks. The candle next to him has lit up blue.

"Hey, I have an idea," he shouts, just as a shard of barrier bursts from behind, hissing by his ear. A tongue of flame licks into the room, not far enough to hit Trenton. 

She cringes at the sight. "Tell me!" She shouts back.

"There are four candles! I think they were meant to transport one to one, like... the ones on this side correspond to the ones on your side. We need to each be on one platform to push those buttons!" 

The flames behind the barrier die. Shigoriath approaches the wall, glaring.

He leans foward, and presses his lips to the broken barrier. They cut, and bleed, but he thrusts his tongue into the crack.

And through. And further through, blackening as it goes, thickening, snaking toward Trenton. He doesn't see; he's looking at the door mechanism.

Ari stiffens. Gun snaps up, and she fires directly at the tongue.

The bullets strike the tongue, to a sick thunk, but don't penetrate like they should. Trenton dives out of the way, half dodging her bullets, and scrambles back, near the far wall. 

Shigoriath's groans, but it's not really a pained groan. It's like... a lilting, wavering moan, deep, bassy, and endless.

Ari sucks in her breath. Grabs one of the blue candles, and hits her orb with the blue side of the wand.

In a flash, she and Trenton switch places. He blinks, sitting by the pedestal.

Shigoriath's tongue flattens, and whips for her legs.

The wyvern-spy cringes, trying to skip nimbly over the tongue and scramble towards the red candle leading to the other platform.

She succeeds; for all its hideousness, the tongue is rather ponderous and doesn't move terribly quickly. It withdraws, though, as Ari heads for the candle.

She touches the blue end of the wand to the red candle, holding her breath.

And she ends up on the other platform, across from Trenton. Shigoriath lashes at the barrier again with a burning fist, splintering it further, and again, and sparks of fire float through.

Ari glances quickly over to Trenton to see if his candle is still lit, and then puts her glowing blue candle back in its original spot.

Trenton stands up, and stomps down on the pedestal on his platform; he notices Ariella's on hers already, and is not surprised when the doorway in front of them groans open and the floor abruptly fills in with rising stones so they can reach it.

A red wrapped lever is in the hallway beyond, and the doorway's frame sparkles blue. There is no barrier there, yet.

Ari runs that way catiously, eager to put distance between them and Shigoriath. "Blue...you first?" she glances back to Trenton.

He nods, and dashes through the door to wait by the lever. The last of the barrier gives way, and Shigoriath surges through, his entire arm consumed in flames now. His tongue snakes out again, twisting like a tentacle, and he floats into the air, moving across the void toward them.

Ari cringes. Hits the orb with the wand, hoping to switch places with Trenton and quickly, quickly grab that lever to move both of them forward.

They switch, but when Ariella pulls the lever the blue barrier does not disappear. Instead, a gate opens down the hallway; clearly this is meant to be a longer puzzle. Trenton blinks.

"Open the barrier!" he shouts.

"Try to walk through it like you did the last blue one!" she calls, horrified.

Trenton blinks. Duh. He starts to walk through, but smacks into the barrier, blinking again.

Around the edges, he can now see the faintest hint of a red barrier underneath the blue. He looks at the lever.

"Pull it back up--!"

Shigoriath lands on the platform near him, and this time his tongue fires out with deadly speed and accuracy, slapping the blue jewel from Trenton's hands. He whirls, draws a pistol and fires accurately, but the bullets rip into and out of the advancing sorcerer to no effect. Trenton backs up, but has nowhere to go this time. The tongue whips around his waist, barbs piercing his clothing and sinking into his skin, and Shigoriath's mouth opens, cracking and snapping, wider, and wider as his bones break and skin splits.

"Trenton...!"

This is something out of a nightmare. Ari panics...and hits her orb with the blue end of the wand.

The blue orb, lying on the floor, glows brightly but, without someone touching it, doesn't shift her position.

Trenton coughs, his breath lost to the crushing grip of that godawful tongue. He fumbles at his side, reaching for whatever isn't pinned down, staring into that horrible maw, and his fingers slide around a handle, he doesn't know what it is, but he pulls. Shigoriath's head comes down, it's stench and hiss overpowering, surrounding Trenton's head and part of his shoulders. Trenton nearly loses his stomach, the stench is dead, absolutely dead. Something black and oily pours from Shigoriath's guns, coating Trenton's hair, he tries to scream, but chokes on the stench.

He pulls again at the handle, and it comes free. The blooper. He points it up, straight into Shigoriath's horrible mouth.

"I'm sorry, Ariella...!"

And pulls the trigger.

The blue barrier lights up white with the flash and concussion of the M79 grenade. When it fades, the barrier has gone gray and opaque, and the red jewel in Ari's hands goes black.

Ari's breath catches her her throat, tears clouding her vision without spilling. "Trenton! [i]Trenton![/i]" She gapes at her jewel...slams it agains thte barrier

It strikes, but nothing breaks or budges. There is only silence from the other side.

Down the hall, however, a pair of imps have caught sight of Ariella. They chatter excitedly, brandishing their gooey knives.  A pounding sound, like a timpani drum, sounds from there as well.

Just as the first imp begins to approach, the pounding bursts into sight; a massive paw smashes down on the little bugger, puddling it, and the desk-sized head of the Canine Absolute peers inside. Its eyes twinkle brightly; it looks like an enormous, hairless, black German Shepherd. It growls, but only lightly, curiously, without agression. The other imp scampers away.

Ari is just...trembling, hands on the barrier. She hears something huge...hears the growl. Her back remains to it, though. She can deal with things like this. Normally she can. But now...she just trembles. Eyes slide shut.

Trenton. Damnit. This is all her fault. She should have rebuffed him. Should have forced him to stay back like a total bitch. He'd been alive. She'd been selfish, and just because he'd been so good to her, he was dead.

So were a couple of dozen of her comrades. Rasputin had been.

So was her career.

So would she be, soon.

Rasputin would be again.

Trenton...was.

She doesn't turn to face the monster. she doesn't see it. She just hears something big...and that only vaguely. Ariella sinks to her knees, and just sobs.

The gargantuan dog sniffs, its snuffling like the breath of a rhinoceros, deep and wide. Its body won't fit in the hall; the beast barks once, and moves away, its footsteps quick and loping; the next chamber must be enormous to accomodate something that large at a run.

When the beast has gone, the imp returns. It waddles toward her, not chattering, knife at its side.

She's still for a bit...lower lip still trembling though she's largely quieted. She's still a spy. She's supposed to deal with stress. Pause...her forlorn hazel eyes travel to the imp. She doesn' treally move to do anything. Just watches. Wonder if that knife's about to come up and kill her. Pondering whether she could muster the will toe try to move. Wondering whether she cared, or if it would even matter in the end.

The imp looks at her, coming quite close. Its eyes are lighter than the others, and inquisitive. It chitters. Holds up the knife. Mock-swings it, slowly, and chitters as if asking her permission to attack her.

"What was that just now?" the voice of Ulalume floats from the end of the hall, the creature speaking from under its cloak.

Ari...almost has to smile at the imp. She can't quite, but almost does. "Not right now. But thanks.." she trails off softly at the other voice. Brow creases. Eyes close. Thinks...thinks.

"...It was a wonderful peson who should have lived perishing for two people who were condemned to die anyway." She shudders.

"No one should die in here. It's just scare tactics; we wound, and send people on their way." The little creature shuffles closer and the imp, apparently sensing the sentiment, plops down and begins to nibbles its toes, chittering all the while. "That monstrous man does not belong in here. I need to help you find the exit. It's Impossible, and the Canine Absolute is standing in front of it."

Ari's eyes remain closed.

Goddamnit.

Goddanmit.

Pause. "Okay. How do I get past it?"

"Play with it." Ulalume folds her hands. "Fight it."

The imp chitters affirmatively.

Ari...has no words. Her mind is muddled at best, feelings doing their best to leap from her chest and strangle her. She doesn't realize it, not really, when she rises to her feet. Doesn't know why she had, in retrospect.

She just steps past Ulalume without a word, heading for the chamber with the dog.

Ulalume lets her go, and the imp shrugs, and gnaws its toes.

The next chamber is gigantic; football-stadium sized. At the far end, the canine absolute lies blocking a bus-sized gate. Its eyes are trained on the hallway, clearly waiting for her. And naturally, there are hundreds of imps in the stands.

Ari isn't sure what she's doing, really. She's walked about thirty yards before it dawns on some corner of her mind that she needs to do something. Her hands set together before her as she walks, light gathering between them. Her expression's just...dead.

The dog rouses, and lowers its head. Growls lightly. It begins to step forward, but stops, and lowers its head again, growling louder.

The imp comes screaming out from the hall, followed by Ulalume, as a burnt tongue smashes through the black barrier and whips at them.

Ari's eyes widen, head whipping back that way. He didn't...?

Her first hope is that the blooper had been loaded with flashbangs.

The second thought is to run. Fast. And she does, directly towards the hellhound and more concerned with what's behind her.

The wall gives way, and a burnt, scarred Shigoriath drags himself through.

The dog notices her, but bounds over her, running headlong toward the monstrous man pulling himself toward them.

The door to Impossible yawns wide open.

Ari doesn't hesitate, or worry about what's on the other side. She runs straight through.

Everything flashes white, and a moment later, Ari finds herself in a field of grass.