Round 23

Halie's cleric senses prickle as she steps forward into the corridor. The air tastes wrong—old decay mingled with something metallic and wrong. Her eyes narrow at the walls. Those symbols aren't just decorative; they're breathing, pulsing with a sickly light that makes her skin crawl. "This is no mere undead magic," she says quietly, voice tight with controlled fear. The runes seem to pulse faster in response to her presence, their hunger obvious even to her untrained eyes.

Jeane steps back immediately, wings half-spreading defensively before she forces them down. This kind of dark sorcery—she's seen it before, tasted its corruption on the air. "Demonic magic," she hisses, crimson eyes scanning for ward sigils or escape routes. "We need to find another way to the sword." Her fingers trace arcane symbols in the air, preparing defensive spells just in case.

Merrin lowers her crossbow slowly, dark eyes fixed on the breathing symbols with a predator's focus. If these are demonic runes, then whatever guards this tower is leagues beyond mere skeletons. She can feel it—the wrongness seeping into the stone itself like poison. "Find another way," she agrees, but her hand tightens on the crossbow anyway. "But if something comes out of that corridor, I'm putting bolts in it first."

Seraphine takes a cautious step back from the threshold, her sharp eyes calculating angles and escape routes. The magical corruption here is thick enough to choke on—she can feel it pressing against her skin like physical weight. Her fingers twitch toward a spell component pouch before she forces them still. Too much power in this corridor for casual magic; one wrong incantation could feed the very thing they're trying to avoid.

Varrika plants herself firmly at the corridor entrance, mace ready and eyes scanning for threats. The air is thick with wrongness, heavy enough to taste like copper on her tongue. These breathing symbols—she's seen their like before in old texts, warnings about gates that shouldn't open and powers that should never be summoned. "This ain't natural," she growls softly. "Whatever's down there, it don't belong in our world."