Night of the Living Dead![IC]

[dangerprawn]

Firelight District of Sharn, Zol, The 26th of Vult
1st Night of the Three Nights of Long Shadows

The basement of the Temple of the Traveler is a dirt floor. In the middle of the wide room there is a 15ft wide circle marked by white paint. A bar covers the back wall and the stairway leading up is cut from the rock. There is one chair, a stool, next to the bar. A halfling man sits there, wearing the colors of the Traveler, a large sack on the floor and a ledger in his hands. A very tall, very ugly, and very fierce gnoll stands next to the halfling. A large greataxe rests on the bar next to him.

The Burning Ring is full tonight. The crowd is mixed of nearly every civilized race...and some races that have different understandings of the word 'civilized'. A roar goes up from them as the ogre in the circle manages to lay his hands on the nimble dwarf and crush the life out of him. He drops the body to the ground and raises his arms in triumph.

[Adumbration]

Standing in the doorway, Seaster Mineshadow's hands twitch, his face contorted with anger as he follows the battle. His own innkeeper had recommended this place in the way of entertainment, and so, with nothing better to do, Seaster had navigated his way to the place.

Now he wishes he hadn't come. Slowly his hands relax, although he is still angry. He remembers where he is and knows there's nothing he can do.

The moment has passed, and the old, weary dwarf goes to find something to drink.

[Aecus]

Korak sits comfortably in one of the seats overlooking the arena. His strange appearance has granted him more room than most of the other observers, as few want to sit beside a hobgoblin that is covered in scales. He has a bored expression on his face, and holds his head up supported by one of his hands, as if he is struggling to stay awake.

I hardly see how this could be important to the prophecy, unless some great hero or villain discovers their abilities and rises to fame here, or something trite like that. In any case, I hope this is the place, so I can stop investigating already and enjoy what this city has to offer.

[Yuki Akuma]

A figure walks in through the doorway. She - probably a she at any rate - is obscured by a cloak, the cowl of which is up over her head to hide her face. Even with that cowl up, though, one can faintly make out two pinpoints of blue light where eyes would be on any normal person.

As the ogre in the circle manages to crush the light out of the dwarf, there's a small gasp, and the figure's entire body tenses. Anyone looking closely would be sure those circular pinpoints of light just narrowed into a scowl...

[LeoMidori]

Screams, blood, fury, fame, infamy, money... all except the last one were reminicent of the war to the mithral warforged, looking over to his friend, 718, putting her attached crossbow to use on an unfortunate bugbear, blocking an oncoming falcion to the arm and following up with a slam attack to the cleric's stomach, causing him to hold his gut before recieving a bolt between the eyes. People all around him cheered or jeered for her, and Ironfoot was sure she'd be alright. Even if she wasn't, he'd make sure to repair her good as new, his training with Cannith actually able to be put to some use.

[Fishy]

Just another face in the crowd, a stern dwarven woman tosses a bulky but poorly made lock back and forth between her hands. So poorly made, in fact, that it repeatedly pops open of its own accord in mid-air. She catches it each time, and locks it with a squeeze of her hand and a click.

Xin isn't wearing her usual face- it simply wouldn't do for her family's honor if she were seen wandering around the Firelight district- but hopefully the signal will be enough for Jyt to recognize her, because she simply has no idea what her old friend looks like these days. But then, the sheer logistics are hardly the most complicated part of Xin's pilgrimage...

Lost in thought for a moment, Xin snaps the lock closed again, and climbs out of her seat. Past time for a drink.

[dangerprawn]

The halflings voice is amplified over the crowd as he stands on his stool and talks. "All bets final! All bets final! Next match is Vorkil the Destroyer versus TH-187."

The crowd cheers as a Warforged enters the dirt circle, the plates of his body composed of adamantine. Heavy blade gauntlets have replaced both of his hands. The warforged's opponent is a young halfling girl that skips and hops into the arena. She smiles and curtsies to the audience and then turns to face the warforged.

718 walks over to Ironfoot, a slight limp in her left leg. "Greetings, friend. How do you function this evening?"

A drunken elf nudes Korak in the side. "That warforged don't stand a chance! Virkil's gonna tear him up!"

Looking out for her contact Xin bumps into an old dwarf headed for the bar.

[Aecus]

"Truly now? This warforged looks very well built. It would take a powerful opponent to truly rip it apart, and the halfing does not look like her namesake. Unless she is some manner of shapeshifter, most of those would have power enough I think..." Korak replies to the drunken elf, humoring him. It wasn't like he had much else to do this evening, and he had seen far too many blood sports such as this in his homeland of Argonnessen for it to be truly interesting.

[Yuki Akuma]

The cloaked figure walks closer to the combatants, the armor she's wearing under the robes quite obvious as she moves. Cassandra is not known for her stealthiness. Not that she's intending to be stealthy... under that cloak, the woman's arm can be seen reaching for something stored at her hip...

Those two pinpoints of blue light flare dramatically, as the cowl falls down from her face, to reveal... quite a youthful woman, with blonde hair and blue eyes.

Very blue eyes. They're entirely blue, no white or black to be seen, although her irises and pupils can be made out easily enough. They're also glowing, and leaking some sort of blue misty substance, which vanishes a few centimeters from them.

Oh, and they're also scowling, obviously furious.

[LeoMidori]

"I'm just fine! You did good my comrade!" Ironfoot said, praising 718's efforts in battle. He looked to her limp, leaning down. "Hmmm, are you damaged? Your leg is moving oddly."

[Fishy]

Click. Ca-Click. Click. Ca-Click. Xin fidgets with the lock all the way to the bar, where she gives the elder dwarf a curt but polite nod, and finally puts her toy down for long enough to produce the coin for two ales.

"'Ware the gifts of the Traveller," she offers to her newfound drinking partner in alto Dwarven. "You look like you're having as much fun as I am."

[Adumbration]

"Aye. It be good to see anothe' dwarf, so far from home. My innkeeper told me this would be a good place for some entertainment, but... This isn't exactly my kind of fun."

"How about you? What brought you here?" Seaster waves for a beer.

[dangerprawn]

The elf winks at Korak and grins. "Jus' you wait mister, that bucket of bolts is in for a world of hurt!"

A man steps in between the combatants, dressed in a elegant black suit. He holds his right hand up and you see that the entire right sleeve has been cut away to reveal an artificial arm; what actually looks like a warforged arm instead of the human arm that should be there. He snaps his metal fingers and his voice booms over the crowd. "Good evening ladies and gentlemen to tonights main event!" The crowd cheers and shouts as the warforged raises his huge sword gauntlets in the air.

718 glances down at her leg for a brief moment and shrugs. "It has sustained minor damage, but I am overall fine. I did not expect to see you here tonight, friend, I am surprised, but glad."

The announcer continues. "In this corner...weighing in at 435lbs...the Iron Slasher...TH-187!" The crowd roars its approval.

"...And in this corner...weighing in at 27lbs...our undefeated champion....Virkil the Destroyer!" The halfling girl blushes and waves a hand at the audience as they cheer.

Korak

As the announcer introduces the combatants you have a flash of a vision. It hits you hard, out of nowhere, and is over in a second. All you remember is a black shape flying down out of the stars. Glancing at the formless shadow filled you with the greatest fear you've ever felt.

[Yuki Akuma]

Cassandra continues to walk towards the fighters. Suddenly, she dramatically throws open her cloak, revealing for the first time her blue-tinted breastplate, adorned with the symbol of the Sovereign Host. In her right hand she holds a blue steel morningstar, crackling with (yes, blue) energy, and on her right arm is a blue shield adorned with the holy symbol of Arawei. Around her neck is another hoyl symbol of Arawei, made of silver. "Stop!" She holds the crackling morningstar out, pointing it to the announcer.

"Your sins have gone unpunished for far too long, Traveler heretics!" It's quite obvious that she's a Cleric - or possible a Paladin, but a Paladin would most likely be wielding a sword.

"Arawei of the Sovereign Host has decreed that blood sport is forbidden. This ends now."

[Aecus]

Korak almost seems to growl as the visions hits him, and he immediately stands up out of his seat. Was that master? Why would he send me such a dreadful message... no it was something more. Something worse. I have no doubt this is the place... and I am afraid

Ignoring the elf for now, Korak continues to growl, almost seeming like a small roar to those around him as a red glow builds in his scaled jaw. To those looking at him, a slightly crazed look appears in his eyes. One also might notices a set of spectral, nearly invisible, wings unfurling from his back.

Korak looks back and forth across the arena as he stands up like this. A display like this was sure to attract attention, but he didn't really care at this point. He had done nothing wrong as of yet, and what does it matter if he scares the locals with a display of his draconic superiority? Especially when it comes to dealing with whatever just caused that vision of dread.



If you think it matters, Korak makes a spot check to look for anything that could possibly have to do with his vision through the arena.

[roll0]

[LeoMidori]

Looking over her leg, noting the joint was a little bent and out of place. "Hmmm. Don't worry, nothing I can't fix with a bit of time! Did you win any money?"

Before he could hear an answer, the cleric... holy woman... paladin? Whatever of The Sovreign Host decided to spoil the party. He quietly said to himself "For the love of Cannith, woman... do you really think you'll make a difference here...?"

[Adumbration]

Seaster turns to face the woman, disgruntled. He had become so set in his ways that he never seriously considered interrupting. Wisdom brought by age? Perhaps. Perhaps not. Perhaps merely the cowardice of an old man.

Slowly, the old dwarf reaches into his pockets, procuring an old pair of gloves, worn and used. But when he pulls them on, stars twinkle across his knuckles. He checks the scarab holding his cloak, and draws a golden circlet from another pocket.

He sets it carefully across his brow. He steps forward. "I'll stand with you, lass!"

[dangerprawn]

The halfling girl steps back and pouts as Cassandra steps into the ring and makes her speech. The crowd begins to boo and hiss but quiets when the dwarf walks up and stands beside her.

The announcer blinks, staring at them for a moment, then smiles. "Ladies and Gentlemen...we have two new challengers!" The audience cheers wildly, yelling and hooting. "Virkil the Destroyer and TH-187 versus the young woman and the dwarf!"

Virkil smiles and claps her hands, then waves to the warforged to stand next to her. TH-187 lumbers past Cassandra and Seaster and stops next to the halfling girl. She pats his knee a few times and smiles, then turns back to face the new challengers.

The lights in the room flicker for a moment and someone in the back of the audience stumbles into another person.

Korak

Your vision fades and swims for a moment as another vision assaults you. This time you are looking at the world from space. You can a great cold behind you but are not able to turn around. Far below you see a dark mass start to cover the globe. It starts slow, in the area where Sharn would be, but quickly expands to cover the world.

When it covers the whole world you hear a great cry and the vision ends. You are shunted back into your body hard, slamming into the human sitting in front of you.

[Aecus]

"Get away from me you stupid blind fool! Can you not feel what is about to happen?" Korak growls loudly in rage as he launches himself away from the human and into the air. The wings that had been nearly translucent before were now shaded with a green tinge, easily visible for a regular observer, though still obviously magical. Launching into the air, Korak makes a very visible missile as he flies up and into the ceiling, pushing himself into it, such that he is on all fours, except upside down. From this position driblets of acid fall from his scaled jaw, as he looks onto the arena. He looks crazed, and dangerous.

This cannot be. This cannot be. Why? Why must civilization die? Why must the mark of death be recreated? I am sure of it. There is no other reason why I would be getting these visions. This is what my master sent me to investigate. This. Why, why, why!

I can only pray I have gone insane, and that this is merely a symptom of my insanity. I pray that my master cursed me for bad service. I pray that an enemy has smote me for some slight. Anything but what this vision tells me!

[Fishy]

Xin considers the perfectly good ale that Seaster left behind on his way to make a stand for justice and righteousness. "Suppose you won't be needing this, then," she mutters, mostly to herself, and turns away from the bar to watch the show, a mug in each hand. She paid good money for that, after all.

[Yuki Akuma]

The young woman nods to Seaster. "I appreciate the offer, friend dwarf..." She then looks back to the announcer, and she does her best not to laugh.

She fails miserably, laughing out loud. "You... do you actually expect us to go along with this? Don't you know what I'm here for? You're not exactly the brains behind this, are you?"

[Adumbration]

For a moment there, the situation had Seaster worried, but the woman's confidence bolsters his. He stands fast beside her, waiting for the situation to evolve one way or the other.

[dangerprawn]

The announcer laughs. "Little miss..." He opens his arms and waves them at the audience. "Don't you know what they're here for?" The crowd roars. Someone begins a chant and it quickly is picked up. We want a fight...we want a fight..

The announcer turns his head up and frowns, staring at the hobgoblin clinging to the ceiling. "Hey! What are you doing up there?"

Before anyone can answer the kra-koom! of a distant explosion can be heard from beneath the floor. The ground starts to tremble and then shake violently as people are knocked off their seats and stumble into another. The floor appears to be on the verge of breaking up before it settles down and lays still.

In the aftermath of the apparent quake faint alarms can be heard going off in the distance.

[LeoMidori]

After all this varied commotion, Ironfoot seemed both irritated and confused by everything: he could get the outburst in the arena, but what on Eberron was the shaking and the alarms about? He decided to act quickly, loosening his sword a little and keeping his hand to it, leading 178 by the hand out of the arena. "We're getting out of here... I don't know why, but I have a terrible feeling about..."

[Adumbration]

Seaster hears the man's words, and the wisdom in them. He turns to the priestess. "I think we should go, too. I don't like what's going on." He pauses. "Even if this building may be solid, if we'll get trapped by the aftershock, I don't think we would like the company." He turns to head for the exit.

[Aecus]

It is starting. I am not insane. I only hope that I die before I see the worst of it. Korak thinks to himself as a feeling of dread encompasses his entire mind. He remains in the air, ignoring the words of the announcer, as he only waits to see what happens next.

[Yuki Akuma]

Cassandra yelps as the ground starts to tremble! She certainly wasn't prepared for that, nearly falling into Seaster in the process. She glares at the announcer, but then looks around, nodding. "I think... an evacuation might be a good idea. Okay, everybody out!" Back to her commanding persona quickly enough.

[Fishy]

Xin d'Kundarak falls off of her barstool. This is not a new experience for her by any means, but it hasn't happened in a very long time. Beer sloshes across the floor- and more importantly, her clunky little lock goes bouncing off between the legs of the crowd.

Cursing to herself in Dwarven, she goes crawling after it.

[dangerprawn]

The announcer gulps and says. "It's alright folks...tonights main event has been cancelled due to...due to an unforeseen circumstance." He glares at Cassandra a moment. "Please exit the building in an orderly manner..."

The crowd ignores him and turns into a seething mass as people rush for the stairs, nearly stampeding themselves in order to get out. People stumble over Xin as she crawls, the lock getting kicked about just out of her reach.

Virkil carefully holds onto one of TH-178's blades as she follows him up the stairs and out of the building. The people pour out into the streets, confused looks and their faces and questions in their words. Glancing down the street, it quickly begins to fill as people from other buildings come outside.

[Aecus]

I need to see what is happening... however much I might fear, hiding on a ceiling will not help... The draconic prophecy is not always absolute... there are often forked paths where things can turn out differently... Korak thinks to himself as he swoops down from his perch on the ceiling, flying past several people before pushing himself out onto the street. As soon as he does so, Korak flies into the air, attempting to ascend to see what and where the alarms are coming from.

[Adumbration]

Seaster, lagging slightly behind the crowd, "damn these short legs", rises up the stairs with his best speed.

OOC:
My posting capabilities for the next few days may be impaired due to a high fever. Sorry.

[Yuki Akuma]

The cleric woman stays behind, making sure everyone gets out safely... or at least tries to, but the crowd is kinda pushing her towards the door anyway.

[dangerprawn]

Outside in the streets people are clumped together in groups, each asking another questions, none seeming to have answers. The alarms seem to be coming from far away below you.

Virkil taps on TH-178's leg. "I'm scared...what's happening? Why did the ground shake?" The halfling girl asks.

The announcer looks at Cassandra. He smirks. "It looks like you got your wish, priest." He frowns for a moment. "Did your god have anything to do with that?"

718 turns to Ironfoot. "What is going on? The ground feels -" 718 is interrupted by a humming noise that fills the air. It starts low and deep and quickly turns high-pitched, drowning out all other sounds. Right before it becomes almost too painful to hear it stops. For a brief moment everything is silent and then a wave of translucent energy rips through up from the ground. It passes through buildings as if they were not there and expands outward in all directions.

The magical wave assaults you, tearing through your body. It feels like your insides are being wrenched apart, but in a moment its gone.

Ironfoot

The magical force rips through your body. It feels as though it's trying to infiltrate the very core of your being, searching for your soul. You focus your will and force the invading magic out of your body, shaking as it leaves you.

[Yuki Akuma]

Cassandra glares at the announcer guy. "The Goddess of Agriculture is not known for her earthquakes you idiot." She shakes her head, looking around. "Okay, people! We need to head for high ground, away from all these buildings! If there's another quake, we might get buried under the rubble just standing here like this!"

Cassandra heads for the halfling girl, attempting to put a hand on her shoulder and hoping it won't get ripped off. "Don't worry. Everything will be fine, I promise."

And then she feels that energy ripping through her body, letting out a scream and crumpling into a heap on the floor.

[Fishy]

Xin curses as she scrambles out of th building, mostly under the feet of the crowd. The lock goes bouncing merrily across the ground, just out of her reach, until she hits the limits of her patience and reaches out with her hand and mind, telekinetically recalling the little metal device back into her grasp.

Rather a wasteful and obvious display of power, but the crowd has other things on its mind. Surely no one noticed, and it's not like there's anything else that could go wrong-

And then the world turns inside out.

[Aecus]

Hovering in the air above the turmoil, Korak growls in frustration. Everything seemed to be going wrong at once. To him at least, he could easily see how the world's end could be wrought from such destruction. Hearing Virkil's words from his spot, Korak simply snorts I wish I knew exactly what this was myself. But I am a simple agent, I doubt even the greatest dragon would be able to know or avert what is happening here.

[Adumbration]

Outside, Seaster is terrified. Earthquakes are one of the worst fears of every ground-dwelling dwarf, and adding to the confusion are the buildings, swaying about them.

Looking around him, he tries to gather up 6 other people. He has a spell, one that can create an extradimensional space where a few people can weather out almost anything.

Just as he is about to begin the incantation, the wave of energy hits.

Afterwards, he stands still, flabbergasted.

[LeoMidori]

"I... I have no idea what's going on." Ironfoot said, worriedly to 718, suddenly overcome with a horrible feeling throughout himself. He makes a horrified sound, as if discovering something terrible, or akin to coughing up blood for someone who bleeds, shuddering and patting himself down. He turned to 718, his pinkish eyes dimming a bit do a dark red, mostly from shock. "718, are you alright? Did you feel that just now?"

[dangerprawn]

The mass of people in the street scream as the energy tears through them. Some people fall to the ground, others hold on to railings and lightposts to steady themselves.

After the wave goes away the tension in the air is almost palatable. One elf starts screaming, "It's the end of the world! We're all going to die!" A dwarf yells at him to shut up and punches the elf in the face. The crowd is on the verge of turning into a mob.

718 ignores Ironfoots questions. She's still hunched over, body tensed and shaking violently. Virkil glances at Cassandra and takes a step away from TH-178, who is contorted and twitching the same as 718. A quick glance around the crowd reveals a dozen more warforged reacting the same way.

[Fishy]

Xin unsteadily climbs to her feet, and gets her first clear look at the chaos stretching as far as she can see through Sharn's spires-

And in one of those shuddering towers, on the other side of the city, her husband is at a business meeting.

Xin does her part for mob chaos by shouldering through the crowd, pushing her way into the middle of the street.

[LeoMidori]

"718? 718! Come on, answer me!!" Ironfoot said to his seemingly disabled friend, looking around worriedly at the other warforged much the same as her, the people screaming around him. Why was he the only one who wasn't going crazy? Was the world really ending? Were people going to start dying by the masses? ...Would he have to start killing people again?

Pushing the thought out of his mind, he decided to put his friend onto her back, getting out his repair kit. Don't worry, I'll fix you...

[dangerprawn]

718 doesn't respond to Ironfoots questions. She continues to shake, getting more violent with each second, before she finally stops and ceases to move. All the warforged that were affected as her have also become inert, TH-178 among them.

Virkil takes a slow step towards TH-178 and places her hand on his leg. "T..TH? Are you okay?"

The elf recovers from the dwarfs punch and whips out a hidden blade, ramming it into the dwarfs chest. A small circle clears around the two as the dwarf stares at the blade sunk into his chest. He tries to speak for a moment before dropping to his knees.

Xin pushes her way through the crowd when suddenly she's pushed out into an open space. She's standing in the small ring that's formed around the elf and dwarf with the knife in his chest. From the middle of the street she can see far up into the air, towards the Skyway. Glancing up a brief second, she can see that up there the buildings are still swaying dangerously, while down where she stands the ground has settled.

A low, deep, groaning noise fills the air, as if the bones of the earth were stretching and bending. Everyone looks up as they identify the source of the sound.

The Skyway - home of the tallest buildings on the highest district in Sharn - is falling down.

[Aecus]

What is this destruction caused by? That is the question that has not been answered yet! Even now as Sharn falls apart around me, I cannot say where it is all coming from! How can I even hope to run, let alone run if I do not know what I am facing? Korak howls in his own mind as he begins to fall into a mixture of rage and despair. Around him the world is dying, if only he truly knows it is so.

Flapping his insubstantial wings, Korak starts to climb into the sky. From the position he was in, it was near impossible to get a good view on what caused the skyway to collapse, and he wished to change that. Even if parts of the skyway were to start falling onto his position, Korak was confident he would spot them and could avoid them and move out of the way, whether that was folly or not. I must see, I must know. What has caused the skyway to collapse? I fear so much, but even if I could fly away from all this and escape, I would never forgive myself if I did not at least identify the enemy.

[Adumbration]

Seaster stands, dumbfounded. All thoughts of magical solution have fled from his mind, and now he merely waits for death to claim him - rather like a mouse, frozen before a snake.

[dangerprawn]

As Korak flies above the tops of the nearby buildings the whole Skyway comes into view. The Skyway has broken in to two large clumps of falling heaven, the Brilliant district going down straight onto the Central platuea. The Azure district blocks out the moons light as it comes crashing down upon the Menthis Plateau.

The Upper district of the Menthis Plateau, the district right above Firelight, takes the brunt of the falling Skyway. Whole blocks come crashing down and flatten the upper menthis plateau, huge clouds of smoke billowing out. The noise is deafening as thousands of tons of stone and wood impact with the district above you.

The street groans under the weight - the magically reinforced pillars and supports stop the fall of Azure...but only after it completely demolished upper menthis above you. Huge chunks of granite and masonry flyby and zoom down, smashing their way into the street. Not all of Azure was stopped, and buildings are flattened by the random rain of the skyway.

The crowd turns into an uncontrolled mob as people run away. Some push each other out of the way, trying to make for the stairs to the lower district. Others simply leap off the edge of the street, hoping that the cities feather fall will save them.

The warforged that have fallen inert remain so, taking no notice of the calamity around them.

Korak

As you lift into the air something feels different. The subtle lift of Sharns manifest zone is gone.

[Yuki Akuma]

Cassandra stands there, dumbstruck. So many people she needs to help... she can't even begin to choose! But the crowd promptly chooses for her, carrying her randomly away from the fall wreckage while she just stares up at the falling towers, transfixed.

[LeoMidori]

"718? Oh Cannith..." He spoke with exasperation and some level of sorrow. None of this should've happened... he pulled out two oils of repair he kept with him in case of an emergency, and now couldn't be described as anything else besides perhaps a crisis. Maybe a calamity if things were worse than he imagined. He opened the top of one the flasks, pouring it onto 718's damaged leg from before, just to test if it'd work.

[Aecus]

Korak growls in anger. The manifest zone is gone? I have the most perverse luck. Trapped in a situation with the world dying, yet events conceive to save my life! But... perhaps the world is not dying. Perhaps I was jumping to conclusions. This is certainly a disaster of horrific proportions. I don't know much about manifest zones... but there is magic that can affect them, and there was certainly a great deal of magic released before.

Maybe that was what I felt, and not the resurrection of the mark of death. If that is the case... than perhaps there is something I could do. In fact, if it is true and I play my cards right I might be able to bring more about this to my master, or simply exploit the opportunity to eliminate a great threat. I'm sure the dragons would wish to have dominion, or retain dominion over the manipulation of manifest zones to such great extents. They seldom like mortals interfering so powerfully with the world. This could be a great opportunity...

His mind racing like it was on fire, Korak stops his ascending flight and starts to fly closer to the ground. I felt the magic coming from underground. I'll wait till the crowd disperses a little, and then I shall conduct my search. Swooping closer to the ground, Korak sees the many disabled warforged. Calling up from a small height, Korak speaks to the only warforged still standing and shouts in a rumbling voice "Machine that Lives, what is wrong with your forge mates?

[LeoMidori]

Ironfoot turned around, a little startled at first from being addressed and almost going to reach for his sword, before realizing the winged being only wanted to help. "I have no idea... it just seems that everyone has fallen inert... except for myself. It just felt like something was ripping my life out of me in a flood of darkness, but I don't seemed to be harmed. Everyone else is just..." he sighed, frantically wondering what to do. "Just what the hell is going on here? It's like the Day of Mourning is happening again... only worse."

[Fishy]

As giant chunks of stone crash down from the sky in an apocalyptic rain, Xin is briefly reminded of her mother-in-law.

Gerthanka wasn't a pessimist- she simply made it her way of life to keep an exhaustive catalog of every single way that everything around her could possibly go wrong, however unlikely, to report her findings to everyone within earshot, and to roundly chastise anyone who wasn't sufficiently prepared for disaster. Xin always found dealing with her to be annoying, patronizing, and exhausting, especially given how fantastically unlikely her lessons were-

Such as, what to do in the event of a mine collapse with a thousand tons of rock coming down on your head.

In an almost unconscious reflex, Xin twists her hands through the intricate gestures of a spell, using the brief window of time and space that the elf with the knife has bought her to melt her body away into smoke.

[Adumbration]

As the crowds hurry away, like a receding wave, they leave an old dwarf behind, along with the warforged and the flying hobgoblin. What to do, what to do? Finally, the situation catches up with him, as a large chunk of rock hits the ground nearby. He begins the incantation to summon the extradimensional space that should shelter him - and a few people nearby - from the impending peril.

He draws a piece of rope from his pocket, and slowly it stands up above him, disappearing into something invisible. He shouts to the hobgoblin and the warforged: "Hey! If you want to be saved, drag your friends here and climb this rope!" With that, he swiftly ascends to the rope trick he has made.

[Aecus]

After hearing the warforged's explanation Korak shrugs and asks "Perhaps whatever disrupted the manifest zone hurt them too. Did you feel anything happening as the wave of magic passed us by? This could be very important."

Then Korak hears the old dwarf's offer, and sees what magic he has wrought. "If that is what I think it is, thank you very much, and I do readily accept." Korak calls to the old dwarf as he flies down to the rope, and starts to ascend it.

Whatever circumstance this is, if I want to investigate underground I need to wait anyway until I'm sure the entirety of sharn won't collapse upon me.