Round 123 Transcript

As Jeane presses back to the wall, her eyes lock onto Silra's as she struggles to hold the mirror against the door. The wardstone energy intensifies, its glow illuminating the dark corridor in an otherworldly light. Hera crouches beside Halie, her face set in a determined expression. The floor creaks ominously beneath their feet as the structural collapse draws near. The sound of shattering glass and crunching metal echoes through the corridor, growing louder with each passing moment. The air is thick with tension as the group braces for impact. Suddenly, the mirror gives way, shattering into a thousand pieces as the door bursts open. A blast of wind sweeps through the corridor, sending the companions stumbling backward. Jeane's eyes widen as she sees Silra slipping on the slick floor, her body mere inches from the edge of the abyss. Jeane's gaze darts to the mirror's fragments, her mind racing with a single thought: "Hera, grab Silra!"

I see them stumble back into the corridor—the wardstone's energy pulsing through the broken door like a heart beating too fast. The building groans overhead, and I know we have minutes at best before this place comes down around our ears. Hera's eyes are wide with terror; she clutches that heavy mirror like it's salvation itself. Silra is trying to brace the door with her body alone—foolish girl doesn't understand leverage or demonic pressure fields. Halie huddles against the far wall, praying to gods who can't hear us in this cursed building. I push off from the wall I've been holding up and cross the slick floor in three quick steps. The wardstone pulses again, sending sickly green light spilling into our makeshift shelter. My own demonic nature flares in response—ancient instincts screaming at me to feed or flee instead of standing here playing hero to these mortals. But no. I'm Jeane Cromwell, and I don't abandon my companions—not even when every fiber of my being screams against this proximity to raw arcane power. "Silra! Stop trying to hold that door with your body and let me actually cast something useful!"

Oh god, this can't be happening. I feel trapped in here, like a mouse caught in a snake's den. The wardstone pulses with an otherworldly energy, its very presence making my skin crawl. I can hear the building groaning overhead, as if it were a living thing in pain. And the floor, slick with lube and water from the broken shower, feels like it could give way at any moment. My heart pounds in my chest as I crouch beside Halie, the two of us bracing the door with a heavy mirror. It's a makeshift barrier at best, but it's all we have between us and whatever horrors that wardstone might unleash. "Is there anything else we can use?" I ask, my voice trembling slightly. "We can't just sit here and wait to be crushed or corrupted."

Halie shakes her head, her expression grim. "I don't know. But we have to try something. We can't just give up."

I nod, swallowing hard. She's right. We can't give up. Not yet. But as the building shudders around us and the wardstone pulses with ever-increasing intensity, I can't shake the feeling that our time is running out. That this is all for nothing. Still, I take a deep breath and steel myself. If this is to be my end, then I'll face it head-on. No matter what happens, I won't go down without a fight.

I drop my grip on the slippery mirror, which immediately slides away into the gathering water and lube slick on the floor. The building groans overhead like a dying whale. "This door's not holding shit anyway," I say to Jeane, stepping back from her attempts to brace it with her body. "The whole damn hallway's about to come down." She turns toward me, her face illuminated by the wardstone's sickly pulse. "Then what? What's your brilliant rogue insight this time?" she snaps, genuinely angry now. I don't blame her—we're trapped in a collapsing building with an active wardstone and no easy way out. But I'm not about to throw myself against a doomed door either. "The service shaft," I point past the broken door into the darkness beyond. "I saw it when I was scouting earlier. It runs parallel to this hallway, down to the basement levels." Her eyes narrow, calculating distance and probability. "And how many tons of concrete does it need to support before it collapses too?"