over the river & through the woods

[doggedly]

CHARACTERS: Our Intrepid Explorers (Bucky Barnes, Gavroche Thernardier, Jack Benjamin, L, Remus Lupin, Rey, Rue Lancaster, and Sirius Black)
LOCATION: UNDER THE MOUNTAIN
WARNINGS: will update if necessary
SUMMARY: an exploration with necessary details here. to seek out new life and new civilizations. to boldly go where apparently someone has already tunneled before. starters for each stage of the journey have been posted below but also please ad your own.
NOTES: BACKDATED to January 7-10

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A SERIES OF MONSTROUS AFFLICTIONS.

[doggedly]

Before they cross the river, Our Intrepid Explorers find their first serious opposition. It's not that the jungle is easy-going. There's plenty of pitfalls and sudden swales and low-hanging branches, plus vegetation to bodily hack through, plus the enduring humidity and the feeling of loss that may engulf one or two of the explorers. Back at the main camp, the ranks were thin and getting thinner.

Physical exertion is a good cure for despair. Good fresh air, good sunlight. The zest of the quest may restore some spirits, and as the morning of their second day out dawns fair and bright, the chittering of jungle creatures makes for a cheerful backdrop. In the canopy above, about fifteen little creatures leap from branch to branch, keeping pace with the line. They might be new, to those of their party who haven't ventured out into the jungle. To others, they may be more familiar, though still rare enough for this attention to feel unusual. Sure: it's a little adorable, at first. Then it starts to get a little creepy. The creatures grow bolder, range down lower in the trees, and their noise gets louder. Glimpses through the leaves and branches reveals signs of disease, patchy feathers, bloody eyes, the loom of sharp shoulderblades twisted well above their little heads.

Then one of the creatures drops out of the tree onto someone's shoulder, assault from above, and that's when a very concentrated series of hells break loose.

A CAMP.

[doggedly]

At night, the sound of the jungle might be more unsettling. Everyone here has likely grown used to sleeping a thin wall away from the great outdoors, but that was before the great outdoors was mobilising against them. Now the call of animals sounds more forbidding: desperate, angry, a little crazed.

If they dare a fire, it's probably good to keep the flames low. If they dare conversation, it's probably good to keep that low, too. If they dare to sleep, they should probably post a watch. Restlessness is nearly a given, even for their boldest.

THE CLIFF AND THE ROPE.

[doggedly]

At the top of the cliff there is a tree, and tied to a tree there is a rope.

It's a nice rope, well-made, stiff fibres that would have made for a good sturdy climb except for the fact that someone cleanly cleaved it short. This will not stop our Intrepid Explorers, who have means of scaling the cliff besides an old left-behind rope, but even so. Who left the rope, and who severed it? Good questions for the group, as they assemble themselves for the descent.

FACED WITH THE FACE OF THE GLOWING CLIFF.

[doggedly]

There's nothing at the bottom. Jungle, more jungle, more jungle. Vegetation grows thick, creating a sort of screen that your arm could get lost in up to the elbow. The treeline skirts very near to the cliff's face in places, like the line of some vast green tide.

It's hard going. They follow along with the cliff for awhile, using it as a guide until they get their bearings. The dusk of the night comes suddenly, more a heavy drop than a gentle filter of pastel shadow and light. Even with fire and illumination both magical and artificial, they soon have no choice but to stop and make camp.

That's when the glowing starts.

THE TUNNEL.

[doggedly]

" With a scream of grinding stone and a sudden cloud of displaced dust, it will become more obvious that the patterns depicted a door -- one that is opening, splitting into two, and sliding aside via some concealed mechanism. Inside, it is completely dark. That is, until someone brave enough steps inside, and the walls and ceiling begin to light up with green bio-luminescence like which they found outside, and similarly attracted to their presence by gathering where they step or touch, or even breathe if close enough.

What lies ahead is a long, dark tunnel, carved perfectly round into the stone. It continues on for about a minute, before opening up into a wider chamber of staggering proportions. The ceiling seems to lift up above them into darkness, save for a faint green glow, and following the walls to the left or the right will indicate a subtle curve that implies an immense round space. Headed towards the centre, the floor begins to descend in sharply carved stairs (which are about a foot shallow and several feet wide, so 'stairs' is a generous term, given scale), following the curve of the wall, descending down and down until they reach a hole in the ground at the centre of the chamber, approximately twenty feet in radius, and sealed off only with a criss cross of metal bars. Bearing in mind, any visuals beyond the meagre light allowed by the green glow will have to be helped along with their own sources of light, as it's extremely dark....."