Round 207 Transcript

The chamber lurches violently, sending books and artifacts tumbling towards Abby and Jeane. The stone door swings open, revealing a yawning chasm filled with rushing water that stretches down into darkness. The skeletal figure points at Jeane's back, its bony arm extended. The air is thick with the scent of ozone and something else, an old and rotten smell that makes Abby's stomach turn. The chamber continues to tilt, spilling everything down into the abyss below. The sound of rushing water grows louder, a deafening roar that threatens to drown out all other noise. Jeane's wings wrap around Abby, holding her close as the stone beneath them shifts and groans. The tendril against Abby's breast pulses one final time before going still. The skeletal figure begins to move, its bony feet scraping against the stone floor as it takes a step forward, then another, its empty eye sockets fixed on Jeane's back.

I feel the world tilt beneath us, the stone floor groaning like a beast in its death throes. The water's roar is deafening now—a promise of cold oblivion if we don't act fast. Abby! We have to move! My wings beat frantically against the falling debris as I try to shield her with my body. The tendril pulses weakly against me, barely registering above the chaos—it's spent its energy warning us and now lies dormant, useless in this moment of crisis. The skeletal figure takes another step forward, each scrape of bone on stone sending fresh dread through me despite everything else happening. Fuck! I curse, struggling to keep Abby under me as we slide inexorably towards the open doorway. The edge is maybe twenty feet away now—too close for comfort but too far to reach any obvious escape route before we go over. My eyes scan the chamber desperately, searching for anything we can use—a handhold, a spell component, even just a damned rope—but there's nothing within arm's reach except falling debris and the creature that wants us dead. My magical reserves are at critical—I don't have enough left to cast anything useful without passing out entirely. We're going over! I shout above the din, Hold onto me! I wrap my arms tightly around Abby, her body small against mine as we slide towards the abyss. The tendril pulses weakly once more—its own death rattle, perhaps—but I can't afford to think about that now. All I can do is hold on and hope something—anything—as the edge rushes up to meet us. And then we're falling. Cold air whips past us as gravity claims its due. For a moment, suspended between breaths, there's only the sensation of weightlessness and the roaring water below. Well, shit... I mutter as we plunge into darkness and the embrace of the unknown waters beneath.

The frigid water slams into us like a physical blow, knocking the breath from my lungs and sending icy shocks through every nerve ending. I gasp instinctively, but all I get is a mouthful of salty liquid. Jeane's grip on me tightens reflexively as we tumble head over heels in the churning depths. Panic claws at my throat—this wasn't part of the plan! The plan was to get away from the skeleton, not drown in an underground ocean.
My body screams for air, but there’s only more water filling my lungs with every desperate attempt to breathe. I thrash against Jeane's hold out of sheer instinct, but she doesn’t let go, her arms like iron bands around me. Through the disorientation and fear, a small, rational part of my brain registers what’s happening. We’re falling. And now we’re falling into water. It’s not just a fall anymore—it’s a plunge.
I try to kick, to swim towards the surface, but my limbs feel heavy and sluggish in the cold water. The pressure builds in my chest, a sickening ache that threatens to burst my heart right out of its cage. The world above is nothing but a dim, distant light—so far away it might as well be another universe entirely.
Jeane's form blurs before me, her dark wings billowing around us like some kind of nightmarish shroud. She seems to be trying to guide us, to push against the current with powerful strokes, but the water is too strong, too relentless. It just keeps pulling us down, deeper and deeper into the abyss.
My vision starts to tunnel at the edges, black creeping in like a rising tide. The pain in my lungs is overwhelming now, a hot, sharp agony that radiates through every fiber of my being. I feel myself slipping away, consciousness fading as quickly as the light above us. This can’t be happening... not like this... not after everything we just survived.
Just before the darkness takes me completely, I think I see something in the water beside us—a flash of pale white against the blue-green depths. But it’s too late to wonder what it is. Too late for anything.