Tomb Raider (Kardus, Ask to join but limited to magical characters only)

Annie froze in place and clung to Kasha as Ingrid explained her intentions and what Annie could expect from her.  It seemed that if she just stayed out of the witch's way, there would be no trouble; but what was at the end of this place?  Did she really want someone like Ingrid to get whatever or whoever was in here?  Before Annie could think of a response, Kale entered the scene and made his intentions equally clear.  Annie could already tell that this was not going to end peacefully.  

As Kasha summoned a force field dome around him and Annie for protection, the two could also feel someone else arriving, seeming to be an ally of Kale.  Sensing that this would probably be the start of a battle, and wanting to avoid answering Ingrid's question, Annie started sidestepping towards the entrance to the safe puzzle room to run inside.  She didn't want to be in the middle of this; though maybe Kasha would help later.

Before Ingrid could hear Annie's response, a new face decided to crawl out from the woodwork. By the sound of his announcement, he had been eavesdropping on the entire conversation. At the back of her head, Ingrid had already labeled him as rude. Perhaps she shouldn't have been surprised that someone claiming to be a Teen Titan was prowling around in that cave, considering the Russians were there too. To make matters even more troublesome, he wasn't alone. A second new face showed up just moments later with weapons drawn. Really?

"Don't you mean first obstacle? Or do you intend to let someone else have a turn before facing me yourself?" Ingrid stared at them coldly, unimpressed and unfazed.

"If you're looking for the Russians, they're back there being kept busy by this cave's gracious hospitality. I'm certain they would love to talk to you about using this cave's power to hurt people."

"As for me, my interests are purely academic. Or so I would like to believe. Who's to say if that will change once I actually see what's waiting at the end of this maze? You don't need to answer that question."

She noticed Annie stepping back and casting some sort of shield around herself. The little girl never replied and so Ingrid couldn't tell if she was in league with the two Titans. The more prudent assumption was to think so. Not that it mattered much. As far as Ingrid was concerned, her only real ally was herself.

"Now if you're done throwing false and unfounded accusations, I shall be on my way-"

Before she could finish her sentence, they heard loud shrieking noises coming from the large tunnel ahead. About a dozen or so gargoyles appeared flying towards them, hungry for blood. Meanwhile, on the tunnel in the opposite direction, there was the sound of footsteps and shouting in distinct Russian. The Russian squad from earlier had finally caught up to them and were unsurprisingly preparing engage.

Ingrid sighed and placed her hand on her forehead. Meanwhile her blue knight brandished its blade and raised its shield in preparation for the inevitable clash.

Kale heard the girl's response but was either too savage in nature to take her tone as rude or wasn't versed enough in Earth conversations to notice it. In any case he had deemed her answer as acceptable and not hostile because she said she didn't say she would hurt humans. "Then well be following you, to make sure they stay that way."

Just then winged creatures were flying towards them and from behind were the Russians. It seemed Kale had a decision to make. He walked back and picked up his spellbook then decided on his course of action. "Toji fire something towards the pack of humans, just make them scatter they have long range weapons and might shoot us before I finish this spell." As Kale spoke he sat down cross legged and threw out both his long scrolls before opening the spellbook. As he began to chant the scrolls formed a cricle around the group and gained glowing accents. Within moments of the gargoyle's arrival Kale clapped his hands together and big bubble like aura filled the circle enshrouding them all and making them invisible.

Once they were out of sight the gargoyle pack flew right past them and engaged the humans that had taken cover from Toji. The humans began screaming as gunfire and howling creatures filled the ruins.

Meanwhile, the spell dissipated allowing the group to move forward although Kale now seemed wiped of energy. That was a class four spell after all, well above his level of magic use.

Toji grins, as his leader commands him to fire something at the Russians to make them scatter. "Sure thing, Pack Leader!" Gathering lightning in his hands, he raises them, letting off a seemingly chaotic barrage of lightning bolts, though they were carefully aimed to miss the enemy by a very small margine. Cursing in Russian, they scatter, only to be attacked by a gargoyle. Chuckling, the wild, goofy halfling turns to the witch. "Sorry about mistaking you for a foe." Grinning, he transforms his shuriken back into the tanto, humming as he waits to either fight or advance.

As Ingrid concerned herself with the newly arrived Kale, Annie took Kasha and headed off down the tunnel to the next room. She felt this way was a bit closer to the voice she was hearing and was concerned with it more than two, no, three people behind her. Stopping in the room she noticed several things. It was large, with gargyle statues all around the edge, and a door on the opposite side of the entrance. She approached and noticed that the door was covered in runes she couldn't read, pausing to see if she could figure it out somehow. It seemed to have a bronze disk in the center of it. She took another look at her surroundings. The light in the room seemed to come from a hole in the ceiling in the center of the chamber, landing onto a pillar with a polished, bronze obelisk of some sort, oddly angled and with lots of angled corners and flat sides. It seemed to be very good at reflecting the light that landed on it. Curious, Annie stuck Kasha in her pocket and tried to pick it up. The bronze statue, weighing about twenty pounds, was a bit hard to move, but she managed to take it off it's stand.

But not without consequences.

As soon as it was lifted, the eyes of every gargoyle lit up as they sparked to life. Annie instantly whipped around as she heard them growl at her and lounge to attack. Her eyes went wide and she shrieked in fright as they attacked. Kasha had his shield up in but a second, blocking them off from her. They clawed, bit, and pounded their fists at the blue field of energy keeping them away from Annie, but after finding it hard to get through, most of them flew off down the tunnel to find an easier kill to satisfy them. They soon found that satisfaction as they flew right by Kale, Toji, and Ingrid, tearing away and feasting on the the Russian soldiers. Three, however, stayed behind and kept trying to chip away at the field and get to the girl underneath it. Fearing for her life and with little other option, Annie had dropped the bronze statue to the ground beside her and held on to Kasha for dear life, screaming in the hopes that the others behind would hear her.

When the Titan brought out his spell book and scrolls, Ingrid instinctively did the same, taking out and opening her grimoire. It was a good opportunity to see what kind magic a member of the famous hero team used. She was expecting something flashy, befitting his brash personality so you could only imagine her surprise when he opted for a more indirect approach to dealing with the problem. She was recording every second as the gargoyles flew overhead, ignoring them and going straight for the Russians. To perfectly mask their presence from magically attuned creatures was quite the feat. Perhaps they would be more useful than she thought. She closed her grimoire as the spell dissipated.

"You mentioned you wished to accompany me. Fine, I shall allow it."

Ingrid then noticed that the spellcaster seemed a bit fatigued after canceling the effects of the aura. Not that she was concerned for his well-being, but he better not be a one-trick wonder. There was still quite a long way to go before they reached the prize and he was expecting him to pull his own weight until the end. Her stream of thought was interrupted by a scream up ahead. It was then that she noticed Annie was no longer among them.

She started walking briskly in the direction of the scream, her blue knight following close behind her. Had the little girl triggered the next trap? That would be a good thing. Ingrid had been wondering if she would ever do anything useful. The girl was magical but never gave Ingrid the impression that she was particularly noteworthy. Her familiar looked special though, despite being small and not intimidating.

Ingrid arrived to see three gargoyles clawing away at a barrier surrounding the little girl cowering in fear. Beside the girl was a statue that piqued Ingrid's interest but in order to get it, it seemed she would have to play the "hero" this time. She wordlessly gestured to her knight who proceeded to march forward and attack the gargoyles. The monsters took notice and flew around in circles over it before diving down to attack. Unfortunately for them, their claws and teeth could not even scratch the knight's armor. With one swift swing, the knight cleaved one of the beasts that got within range, causing the other two to back off a bit, regrouping.

Meanwhile, Ingrid approached the girl and spoke from beyond the barrier.

"That statue is the key to this room isn't it? Where did you find it?"

Kale was beyond tired...He was purely pooped out and just as he was about to ask Toji for an electric current feed the scream changed his priorities. "Save her..it's the little human girl, I'm good." Kale staggered forward using the wall as a brace as he crept along the walkway. He had delt with worse than this. He would arrive last to the room if Toji left him as he asked.

Toji, hearing the scream of the little girl, nods."Aye!!!" Blasting off, he runs into the room and past the witch Ingrid, "Coming through, Spell Chucker!", as the gargoyles regroup. Growling,the halfling runs up the walking tin can, using the knight's helmet as a jump pad. Grinning, he laughs as he crashes into one of the stone monsters. Pulling out his tanto, Toji then procedes to chop off a wing, sending them crashing into the floor. "Yahahahahahaha! Whoohoo! That was fun....now....." He looks down at the monster, which was growling and trying to bite him. Raising a fist, he frowns as his eyes turn blakc and gold. Punching the gargoyles face repeately, he yells out. "YOU....DO.....NOT...HURT....LITTLE.....GIRLS!!!!" Standing up as the things's head turns to dust, he transforms his tanto into the chain sythes, wrapping a end around the other one and crashing it into a near by wall. Walking up to the sheilding dome, he smiles gently. "You okay, liitle one? They didn't hurt you, did they?"

Annie didn't have to wait too long before her screams were heard. Aware that they had noticed, Kasha kept his attention focused on keeping the field up to protect Annie till they had arrived. Soon enough, Ingrid's blue knight showed up and took one of the gargoyles out while driving the other two away. Annie looked up to see this, and Kasha felt relieved at the stress taken off of the shield.

Soon though, Ingrid approached and asked about the bronze statue. Deciding just to answer her Annie gave a response, "I-It was on the pedestal..." Said pedestal was actually partly engulfed in the shield, since Annie was sitting back against it.

Pretty soon another adventurer showed up and took out the other two gargoyles, leaving the room free of the stony guardians. Annie looked to her other rescuer, a bit shamed because she was the one that caused the attack in the first place. She could feel that Kale had worn himself out protecting them. "I'm sorry...This was my fault..." She looked down at the statue. "...They came to life when I took this off." she explained, moving to pick it up again. Kasha, now perched in her front overall pocket, dropped the shield.

Now that the danger had passed, Ingrid was able to focus her attention more on the room's puzzle. In particular, she noticed the runic writing on the door with the disk. She did not feel like translating the cryptic-poetic wording used but basically, the hints pointed towards causing the light coming from the top of the room to be focused on the disk. As she had earlier deduced, the statue was the key.

"You can make amends by putting it back on the pedestal. Shifting the statue's position to make the light reflect on the disk will open the door."

"The trap would have been triggered regardless if we were to advance further." Ingrid added. While those last few words could have easily been used to somewhat console the girl, there was not an ounce of kindness and care in her tone. She was just coldly stating a fact.

When the statue was returned and the light was reflected to the disk, the door finally opened. Ingrid nonchalantly stepped through despite knowing a few of her "companions" probably needed a little break. She had made it perfectly clear she was not going to let anyone slow her down. If they could not keep up, she had no obligation to stop for them.

Kale took heavy steps forward. He didn't speak because he needed to conserve his energy. It was almost comedic how much dire stress he was in when just minutes before he had been a strong figure bustling with energy.

It would be clear he was no full mage - a true mage by now would've began to restore magic power but Kale had to eat to do so. He saw the damage Toji had done and reached out and weakly patted his shoulder. "Good Toji," he panted. "I knew...you would do it..." Kale felt like collapsing but as a dragon mage he wouldn't show that much weakness as he followed Ingrid.

Toji blinks."Don't go blaming youself! You couldn;t have known, after all." When Ingrid speaks, Toji nods.:I've got it." He picks up the statue, setting it on the pedstal and rotating it to the proper position. As the way opens, Toji grins as Kale congrats him."Ahahahaha, no problem, blade-brother! It wasn't any moe difficult than those stone gaints from earlier....Hmmmm, looks like you need an Energy Pill. Hold on!" Holding out his hand, he concentrates, forming a nonexplosive variant of a boomer. Tossing it lightly to Kale, he looks at Annie."Stay close, alirght? Me and my Alpha will watch out for you!"

Ingrid said that Annie could make amends by putting back the statue back on the pedestal and turning it to shine the light on the door. Looking to the pedestal, Annie was about to do so before it was taken from her by the eager halfling, who placed it for her. Stepping back to get out of...pretty much everyone's way, Annie turned her attention to Kale. He really didn't feel like he was okay at all, but it seemed that, again, Toji was onto it and gave him a booster charge.

Annie put her arms around herself as she stood back, hugging Kasha (who was under her coat). She continued to feel more and more like she was just getting in the way of these other three. Toji said to stay close, so Annie decided she might as well... She moved closer to Kale, looking to him to see how he was doing after getting a recharge. "Are you okay? You looked like you were tired.."

The tag along heroes were a lot more persistent than Ingrid thought. Despite her slightly quickened pace they were still able to keep up. It was not long before they finally reached the next puzzle but as they did, they felt the pulse from within the cave once more. It was as unpleasant as ever. She noticed however that it didn't seem to affect the heroes that much. It was either that, or they were just as good as she was in acting like it was nothing. The puzzle room was quite large and dark. She could not see the other side. It was like the cave knew to set itself up against anyone who could easily bypass its obstacles.

Torches on the walls lit up to reveal a tiled floor. Most of the tiles were purple but every so often there was a black tile. Ingrid snapped her fingers, instructing her blue knight to move forward ahead of them. As soon as it stepped on the tiles, the area around its foot began to glow and in mere seconds, the knight was down on its knees. Ingrid frowned and unsummoned it but she pretty much got the gist of what this trap was about. She pulled out her revolver and shot a round at the tiles but found that her bullet simply bounced off, as though there was some sort of protection on them. From there she formulated her conclusion.

"The tiles rapidly drain mana until I presume you're sucked dry and dead. It would be suicidal for magical beings and familiars to stay on them for too long. They also seem to be protected from any attempts at physically damaging or destroying them."

"The black tiles are a bit suspicious. If this obstacle makes any logical sense, then they should be "safe" tiles that will allow us to get across. Not that I have any solid proof of that. Any volunteers to test my theory?"

Unknown to her companions, Ingrid had been attempting to open portals directly over the black tiles the entire time. But in the same way her bullet was repelled, there was some sort of interference over the field that stopped magic from working. It seemed like a rather poor excuse to give would-be challengers a physical workout. That was fine though. She was not someone who neglected her exercise and was fairly athletic.

When she said any volunteers Kale immediately stepped forward after seemingly unhinging his jaw and engulfing the orb of electricity Toji had given him in a singular bite. "Alright! I'm full and ready to give this a try." The dragon mage was surprisingly full of life again.  Kale walked forward and stretched a little, he had to display his title as Brave was more than just a given mantle but instead and earned crown. He mapped out the route in his mind. "Toji follow after me after I get across carrying the girls if you need." Toji was strong and quick, he could handle a small female on each arm.

Kale began by leaping to the first black tile then the next ahead of that one and then went to jump to another one that turned colors but the next turned purple too quick for him to reach it. He actually showed signs of panic as he scanned around for another tile. In a last ditch move he lunged backwards onto another black one justa s the one he had been standing on changed. So it's not that gonna be that easy, eh?

Kale had to keep leaping sideways, backwards, and in zig-zags to the squares that wouldn't drain him of life but he wasn't getting much headway forward.