Round 6

Merrin approached the ancient gate with trepidation, her keen eyes scanning the pulsing runes etched into its surface. The wards hummed with dark energy, and she knew that if they were right about the wards, they had a narrow window of opportunity to bypass them before whatever was inside became aware of their presence. The whispering grew louder, the voice more urgent.

"Careful now," she muttered, not wanting to alert whatever lay beyond by fiddling with the magic too much. But they needed to get through without tripping any alarms. She glanced over at Jeane, her crossbow already loaded and ready. "You see anything useful in those runes?"

Jeane studied the pulsing green symbols carefully, her wings shifting restlessly behind her. The magic here felt... wrong. Not just a simple ward, but something designed to pull at the darkest parts of your essence. She could feel it trying to corrupt even as they stood there. This was more dangerous than she'd thought.

"There's no immediate threat yet—the wards haven't fully activated—but that doesn't mean they're not active at all," she said softly, her crimson eyes fixed on the glowing symbols. "I need a few minutes to map the ward's trigger points and find a safe entry method."

Seraphine watched with growing apprehension as Merrin worked on the lock. The air in this place was thick with dark energy, cloying and oppressive. "Be careful," she whispered, her voice so low it was almost lost in the air. "These wards... they're not just keeping us out. They're letting something specific in." She turned to Jeane, her eyes wide with a mixture of fear and...

Varrika shifted her weight from foot to foot, mace gripped tight in her calloused hands as she eyed the pulsing runes on the gate. The air felt thick here, charged with an unnatural energy that prickled at her skin. She'd faced dark magic before, but never anything quite like this.

"Careful now," she muttered to Merrin as she worked on the lock. "Those wards are no joke. We breach this gate, we do it smart. No rushing in blind."