Round 653

The ground beneath them gave way with a sickening crack of stone on stone, and they tumbled into darkness. Merrin landed hard on her shoulder, rolling to avoid Varrika's falling form. The dwarf warrior hit the floor face-first, a grunt of pain escaping before she could stifle it. Merrin scrambled to her side, torch held high. "Varikka! Are you—" Her words died as she saw the angle of the ankle, already swelling grotesquely in the flickering light.

Varrika's face was pressed against the stone floor, eyes squeezed shut against the agony. She pushed herself up slowly, one hand braced on her mace, the other clutching her ankle. When she looked at Merrin, her expression was a mixture of pain and something harder to define—fury? shame? "It's just a sprain," she ground out through clenched teeth. "I can still fight." But even as she spoke, her voice trembled slightly.

Merrin knew better than to argue the point openly. Instead, she moved the torch around their prison, taking inventory of their situation. The pit was deep, the walls rough-hewn stone that seemed to close in as they watched. Overhead, the sound of shifting rubble continued—a constant reminder that the entire tomb might come down at any moment. And the air... something was wrong with the air here. A sweetish, cloying scent that made her head swim and her eyes water.

"Can you stand?" she asked, crouching beside Varrika. The dwarf shook her head, still gripping her mace like a lifeline. "Not yet," she admitted. "Give me a moment." She took a deep breath, then another, before slowly shifting her weight onto her good leg. The movement made her grimace, but she managed to get upright, leaning heavily against the wall.

Merrin stood as well, torch held high. The beam of light revealed little beyond the immediate area—the walls were too close, the darkness too thick. But something moved in the shadows at the far end of the pit. A figure, human-shaped, emerging slowly from the gloom. Merrin tensed, one hand dropping to her dagger hilt. "Varikka," she hissed. "We've got company."