descent

[cancrymods]

growing heavy for the vintage

Like flakes of snow, the days spent in the Sloth Layer slowly but surely begin piling up. Life here is quiet and easy, even with the anxiety that comes with needing to move onto the next layer. But as the days drag out, so do the mysteries at play here – with the gradual uncovering of the odd doppelgangers and the seeming lack of any way to proceed to the next layer, it leaves the Executors at a loss for what to do. Until one day, everything changes. It comes entirely without warning – the ground lurches under everyone's feet in a sickeningly familiar way as a brief but violent earthquake rattles through the town. Then all of you feel it; a snapping sensation deep from the very foundations of Purgatory followed by the most cataclysmic impact any of you have experienced in your lives – or unlives. Snow explodes up from the ground, houses creak and lurch and the whole layer seems as though it might shatter apart under your feet. It seems like it's going to last forever. Then, finally, it stops. The silence that follows is even more pronounced in comparison to the hell-rattling noise from before, but as some semblance of calm starts to return, you realize several things. First is how eerily quiet the town is. Surely after all that, you'd hear a Specter or two... but there's nothing. Secondly – a splash of something wet strikes your cheek. Then again. Until it becomes clear that the weather has taken a sudden drastic turn and in place of the gentle snowfall from before, the heavens have opened with a torrential rainfall. Why? Possibly because of the steadily growing heat you suddenly feel burning up through the foundation of the layer and radiating out through the town. Will you investigate?

Comments

[mementomoritz]

Whoops! [Medic is just going to helpfully send down a tendril from her Mantle- thank you, Mantle- for Lion to hold onto. So he can at least brace himself and hang there like a mountain climber instead of sliding all the way down.] Here, hold on!

...Do you see anything interesting down there? [She's concerned about your physical safety, sure. But also like. You're already dead and she could be doing science to this stuff right now.]

1/2

[cancrymods]

[ The heat blasting up from the chasm is strong enough that even the rain pattering down into it is being reduced to steam – the same unfortunately goes for Wolfsbane's ice as well.

More worryingly, though, is what happens when Lion begins his own (unwitting) entrance. While the Executors see him start to slide down, after a few moments the dude just vanishes – too quickly for Mantle to secure him there. Maybe he was lost in all the billowing steam coming up from the chasm but perhaps not.

After all, Medic – and the others as well, at this point – will be able to sense that the heat pouring out from the chasm originates not from the layer's underside but the Wrath Layer of Purgatory. Hm. ]

[cancrymods]

[ From Lion's POV, what he sees is much the same. Not long after making his way into the chasm, he loses sight of the others and finds himself swallowed by an almost unbearable steam-filled heat. Eerie purple light pulses like a heartbeat all around but aside from the steady hiss of steam, there's not a sound to be heard.

Proceed? ]

[emberserker]

Oh, no, you don't!

[Wolfsbane leaps down after, her cloak billowing out and a flash of blue briefly visible when it flies up.]

If there's anyone built to handle the heat, it's me!

[mementomoritz]

[...Welp.]

[Medic tilts her head, peers curiously down, and then shrugs.]

Bye-bye, see you at the bottom!

[And then, with a cheery wave, she flips herself over the edge and begins slithering down on Mantle's tentacles.]

[As it turns out, if all her friends jumped off a cliff, she would jump off, too.]

[daughterofthemark]

[Okay she kind of expected this from you two BUT STILL]

[mementomoritz]

[Sorry Veil, she agreed to "ride or die" and they're already dead, so riding is the only possible option.]

[crypddyd]

[Oh. That's bad probably. The smart thing would be to wait, but he's gonna keep sliding down, his ghosts achingly loud in the silence.]

[daughterofthemark]

[...

Veil silently walks over to Galea. When and how did she become one of the more sane Executors?]

[syrinfacet]

[ guys. guys please. ]

I'd rather the rest of us stick together, please!

[ once everyone's boarded, she's taking off down below, and trying...not...to think about the weird pull she feels, wrath was her sin as well... ]

[daughterofthemark]

Thank you.

[AGAIN: WHEN AND HOW]

1/2

[cancrymods]

[ Separated as they are, it's hard to keep track of the group. Wolfsbane is the first to vanish into the steam, then Medic and Mantle. And with a powerful beat of her wings, Galea ferries the rest of the Executors into the unknown as well. With no way of knowing what they're about to face, the Executors descend...






into the mouth of madness. ]

[cancrymods]

[ Not too far down, the steam dissipates, clearing your lungs but leaving your vision empty of anything save strange, cavernous shapes cast in shadows by the light bleeding up from the Layer below. The heat is close to unbearable, even for the Executors with an affinity for this sort of environment, wringing sweat out of your pores and drying your voice to a croak. But still, you proceed.

You smell the smoke first.

It rushes up like a wall of cloud cover and with no way to slow yourself, you barrel through it. It smells rotten and sweet, like singed hair and summer roses and you cough and choke on it as you continue your seemingly endless descent. No buildings or structures swim into your vision as you come closer to the Wrath Layer of Purgatory and it becomes clear why when you finally make landfall and feel the crunch of hard, barren earth under your feet.

Whatever might have made up this layer before... nothing is left.

Welcome to Ira, the Wrath Layer of Purgatory. ]

[daughterofthemark]

[................]

Perhaps we should ascend again.

[swordofajerk]

[Internally, Sword agrees. What the fuck.]

This is...

[Y i k e s]

[crypddyd]

[Lion lands with a thud, panting already in his heavy furs and armor, hair even greasier looking than normal thanks to the sweat. He peers around, taking in the landscape.

And starts to smile]

Ah. Finally.

[there's a familiar manic tone to his words, and he tears off his cloak, letting it desolve in black sparkly flakes, before starting to walk with very clear purpose. Where? Who knows! Sure as fuck not him!]

[emberserker]

What -- where in Purgatory are you going, Lion? Come on now!

[Wolfsbane doesn't look bothered by the heat, but she stalks off after him, grumbling.]

[mementomoritz]

Oh, wow... [Medic lands with a soft thump, looking around with her usual endless fascination as she hurries on after Lion and Wolfsbane.]

[Mantle's tendrils reach out as she walks, lightly and quickly prodding and examining things as she passes. One even scoops up a teaspoon of the barren soil and deposits it in a little plastic baggie for later analysis, which then vanishes into the depths of Medic's many pockets- the contents of which are always a mildly alarming mystery.]

[Of course, Medic herself isn't slacking on the analysis department, either- she's keeping her senses extended the whole time, partially to understand this place better, and partially to warn the others if anything hostile is coming towards them.]

[If there's anything still out there at all...]

[crypddyd]

[He calls back to Wolfsbane as he goes, his breastplate joining his cape in dissolving cuz fuuuuck it's hot]

Is it not obvious? We have reached the End. The Eternal Flames have scorched away everything, and the gears scream with steam- our purpose lies ahead and I will be done with it!

[So someone might be taking what he remembers of the Church doctrines, Faerghus' self punishing culture and what he knows of Purgatory into one big mental soup]

[daughterofthemark]

You might at least wait until we've determined what direction is "ahead!"

[WHY THIIIIIIIIIS]

[emberserker]

We don't even know where whatever Revenant blasted this place to glass is! We ought to find it before any of this wandering off.

[grumble mutter following anyway]

[mementomoritz]

Oh. [Medic slows slightly, eyes widening a little as her sensory powers brush up against something.]

I think maybe I do know where... well, I guess I don't know if it did all this, but I can feel something that's... asleep?

[Slowly, she reaches out with one hand and points.]

[Straight down.]

I think if we want to find it, we didn't go down far enough.

[cancrymods]

[ Medic senses... nothing. Well, not exactly nothing, but...

She can tell as she makes her way through that something was here before that has been blasted into nothingness by now. The haze of smoke and the acrid leftover stench of burning hangs thick in the air, so it's not too hard to guess why everything is gone. There are no structures left that you can make out – just blasted ranges of rock, mountain and a smooth, glittery mineral that isn't quite like glass or obsidian.

There are no Spectres or Revenants here that you can sense, but...

Deep under the crust of the blasted earth, there is something. You can pick up much about it, almost as if it's slumbering. ]

[mementomoritz]

[Asleep? Well shit, maybe this is still Sloth after all.]

[Is it at all possible to tell how recent any of this feels? Either from her powers or just by good old-fashioned observation. There's smoke, but is anything still on fire? Or does it seem more like something that all burnt out a long, long time ago.]

[cancrymods]

[ It's from a very long time ago. Probably from after the Cogs stopped working and long, long before the Executors ever even arrived in Purgatory, let alone awakened. There's a sense of the damage being not just old but almost forgotten, consecrated in stone and rock for so long that it has ceased to be damage – simply the way things are. And yet, the heat continues to build and something continues to burn.

And yet... there is something new here. You can't exactly describe it, but... it's almost as though the spiritual equivalent of rubble is scattered all about – fragments from the Sloth Underside, broken apart and collapsed into the Wrath Layer, as if the flames and hate down here are rotting the very foundations of Purgatory. ]