Coral Maiden, Coffin Mine [Ponytail, Talea, Charis, Missy]

[rosallora]

The Siren's song wanders in it's melody, the sound echoing through the cavern. For now, the lyrics dissolve into calm waves, leaving them distanced from the sound of her personal melancholy. When Ponytail sets down his things to dry, he becomes aware of a slight change - the thready trickle of water that once wound through this room had thickened to about a third of a meter, coming closer, but so slowly that in watching it it wouldn't be fully apparent. Little lapping waves press against the smooth rock, slowly eating another millimeter of dry land.

[Vanitypirate]

With his salt-irritated eyes, Ponytail glared at the gradually encroaching water as though it were a sentient beast that stalked him-- and it might as well have been. It was a slow force, albeit unrelenting; their only option was to move quickly before it could swallow them up unawares.
Satisfied that, at least, the steel of his guns were free of most of the moisture that would draw rust, he set about reconstructing their parts and setting them back into their holsters.

"We must make--" A bout of wet coughing had him double over as he reached for his damp clothes, "--Haste, and be quicker than the tide. I do not wish to swim another time." He tried some attempt at humor as he stifled his coughing to fit the silk shirt over his head before making to retrieve his jacket and boots...

[twostepsback]

"Let's move, then," Charis says as she heads towards the right tunnel with the lit torch in hand.

[EtherealNoire]

Bare-foot in the tide, Talea parted ways with her dance, soothed by the song that brushed against the rocks. It led her onward, independent of torches and light that Charis wielded. Against her hips, she bore her shedded garments. A gift not to be forgotten amidst the light.

As they drifted towards the arching tunnel, the cavern awoke from its slumber. It stirred in their shadows, breathed in the melody of water. Its essence painted their heels aqua and pressed glowing hands against their backs, urging they depart.
She longed for it to guide their way, but whilst such beauty donned both jewels and fangs, only fire harbored safe return from within the ocean's haunt.

[Machevelli]

"Yes, we should get going, before the tide comes in! Onward!" Missy's pale skin grew dark and mottled, her form shrinking from petite human to average crow as her feathers grew in and limbs rapidly changed. Her beak formed and she let out a caw before experimentally flapping her wings and lifting off the ground shakily. Once she got used to the different mode of transportation she circled above the party before landing atop Talea, perched upon the skull she wore on her head.

[rosallora]

The passage is damp. Cold, and colder as they go further - the heat and light that the torch gives off seems to be more and more essential as they continue on. Their flame echoes off of the hallowed halls, the passage affording them headway enough not to feel as though they had to crouch. Still, there is an impending sense of claustrophobia, especially since now the only light they have is their own. At stray touches to the cave walls, moss can be felt. Stray bits of coral and barnacle are not strangers to the group, their crusted outlines stark against smooth stone.

Ponytail's eyes sting with salt water. He is relegated to the back, opposite to his position before. So quickly the eager young man was eased into the back position, but his eyes serve him well as he looks back and sees that the glow has started up again. The room with the pool glows brighter with every step that they take away from it until it disappears around a bend, and is no more.

Missy, from atop Talea's little crown, sees an object of curious nature, befitting her form. From the wall all crusted over with organic life, she sees the stark and clear shape of a lock. At a bit more of a peer, eyes narrowing, she can see the rift where bottom might separate from top - perhaps a hidden compartment, grown into the cave itself? Strange.

Charis, hand gently glancing along the wall, is the one that sees a passage branching off and to the left. She sees beyond a slight glow, not unlike the first room with the pool... and something more? The glimmer of jewels, perhaps? Or something else precious, and strange? The true nature of whatever lays ahead remains obscured by the limitations of her vision.

But it is Talea, otherworldy, who sees the all too mortal threat ahead. She is the first of them, and she witnesses first, two pelagic guards. They grumble to each other in tones that are strange on her ears, like the burbling water that is still heard through the cavern, calling off of the caves. They have a language, as twisted as it is, double-lidded eyes looking to each other, conversational. They are distracted for the moment, as the siren's calling turns their attention. One leans on their staff, casual, nearly human, looking towards whatever passage was ahead. The call of the Siren is louder, and more present, now than ever before. And yet, it does not have any more draw than any other beautiful, human voice.

[EtherealNoire]

Talea whirled, a current in the narrow burrow, stirring moss and halting step as she motioned for the torch. In her hands it warred with darkness, like a light-bug in a cage, and her whispers coaxed it darker beneath the weight of her warnings.

"There lingers guards amidst the path, tis drawn to siren call. Two forged thalassic, bearing staffs."
Cloaked in mystic aura, she seemed to melt into the night, visible only by the spark of fire in her eyes. Even her skin faded behind a swarth of crimson tresses. Evanescent save for her guidance, Talea beckoned to yonder passage.
"Children of the depths; fire and light may not yet prove to be their ally."

Then her presence drifted towards the walls, caressing stone and dwellers forsaken by the tides, beseeching knowledge from their ways. To the others, she entreated direction. "Tarry not betwixt peril's whims. Yea, dost aid be found within thy sight?"

[twostepsback]

"I see another path to the left... And there is something glowing down there..." Charis whispers as she points towards said path. Taking note of Missy's crow form, Charis mutters. "If you see anything, Missy, just fly over to it." 

[Vanitypirate]

Stifling a pained cough, the aching in his lungs all but faded in light of these new monsters just in front of him, completely unawares of the group... for now.
And while he could suppress his coughing, he made no effort to hide the grin that spread across his face as he crept forward to the head of the group, silently slipping his rifle from its strap over his shoulder.

It would take only one shot to eliminate one of the monsters from this distance. There was no breeze to account for, no glare of the sun to blind him. Just himself and these unaware beasts.
Rifle in hand, he lifted it and looked down its barrel. His aim had never failed him yet... he worried for the gunpowder, which may not wholly be dry, but he did not require the bullet to fly very far.
It simply needed to hit its target.

Briefly, he motioned for his compatriots to plug their ears, hoping that the noise would be enough to stun the fellow he'd still have yet to shoot.

He set his sights on the only one with an obvious weapon, a staff, supposing it might be the cleverest of the two on account of it. With all the focus of a crouching lion, he readied to shoot once his allies were prepared.

[Machevelli]

Missy flies behind Ponytail and transforms once she lands, her corvid features quickly morphing into pale human limbs as she points at the lock on the wall she noticed. "There's a lock right there on that wall, and it looks like there might be something hidden there, like a small door or compartment!"

At Ponytail's motion, Missy covers her ears with her palms, backing away from both the locked compartment and Ponytail.

[twostepsback]

Charis sticks the torch into a crack in the wall of the tunnel, procures a vial from her bandolier, and shifts in front of Ponytail's musket. Drawing her shortsword, she mutters, "Mind aiming at the other one? I've got something for that shaman-looking fish," Charis pours the vial's contents, a dark-colored, vaguely alcoholic smelling syrup, over the blade of her shortsword. Once emptied, Charis recaps the vial and places it into a pouch at her waist, before slinking out towards the staff-wielding Pelagic, staying behind and to the right of the creature.

[Vanitypirate]

Ponytail's eyes widen as, finger on the trigger, down the barrel he was staring at Charis as she drifting into view and dawdled with her drinks and her swords in front of his loaded gun.
He watched as she seemed, to him, to take a pleasant walked to the enemy.

"Idiot 'ore!" He hissed in his thick accent, quickly diverting his gun to the other, heavily armored beast and promptly missing.

[twostepsback]

Was it the sudden retort of Ponytail's musket, causing the shaman to flinch, the fishman itself being faster than it appeared, or just Charis' swordsmanship not rising to the occasion? Whatever the cause, Charis' attack goes wide. The one good thing is that the poison she applied is still on the blade, ready for another attempt. Charis darts back towards the group, keeping an eye on the Pelagics for their inevitable retaliation. "Hey, Missy? Have you ever seen a murder of crows mob an eagle?" Charis asks

[rosallora]

In a moment, it is begun, some invisible drum struck, some leviathan awakened. At the sound of the shot the narrow hallway cracks and burns with it, the smell of gunpowder filling the groups's nostrils. The shot goes deeper into the cavern, the shattering of some unknown thing the final effect of Ponytail's efforts. The shaman lets out a growl as the the woman sweeps by him, poisoned blade smelling foul to his fluttering gills.

The large one with the shield calls out in a horrific tongue, the sound of men drowned, and a distant splash is heard. He levels his shield and lashes out at Ponytail, the edge of the shield clipping against his side. The siren's song had stopped at the sound of the shot, and aside from the new sounds of battle, the cave is silent.

The shaman twirls his staff and reels back, preparing a strike to the woman that dared to strike him first. He swings the spiked anemone into her gut, the impact shuddering enough that he feels it vibrate through his cold and fleshy limbs. He bares his teeth, blue lips parting to reveal a sea of needles, sadistic glee evident on his face.

[EtherealNoire]

Amidst the creature's blow, a freezing rage stirred in Talea. Like venom lacing through her blood, it consumed her, bowed her to its might. Her eyes shone opal before the flames, and the glow reflected in her hand as she pointed towards the shaman.
She did not move, yet the passage seemed to reach for her, poised on every sound that fell from her lips. And as the gunshot chorused and creatures screamed, she sang.

In a silent pulse, the shadows sharpened with her command, voices echoing in the blackness as though it were not her song that swept against the din but the call of something darker, something ancient risen from styigan realms. And to those near the edge of light, it grew ominous, sentient. Its shape glinted ebony, twisted and keen as it erupted beneath the shaman in rivlets of crimson. Thorns.

It shredded through the creatures flesh, twining and twisting around limbs and gils till it burrowed to the bones, coaxed on by Talea's haunted lay. And in her melody, another harmony called for penance, paid in death.
It coiled at the shaman's shoulder, renting sinews, crushing bones, scattering pieces like scraps to feed the shadows howling below. Yet helpless within the snare, the being could not hault its impending demise.

As its arm fell, dripping, to the sanguine pool, so too did its staff. Its blow repaid in full.