9011/The Savage Sword of... Cypher

The Savage Sword of... Cypher
Date of Scene:	30 August 2019
Location:	Savage Land, Savage Land and Pangea
Synopsis:	Between the ages when the oceans drank Atlantis, and the rise of the Sons of Aryas...
Cast of Characters:	Cypher, Magik

---

Cypher has posed:
The Savage Land.

"So I was fooling around with some gear I found in a closet when I got a ping off a piece of old technology that was bouncing off a Satellite, and I traced the signal back here. I think something from one of Magneto's old Savage Land bases has gone live, and I wanted to check it out." Doug gives a stretch, as he looks around at the expanse of jungle.

He glances over to Illyana, "If we do this right, we can get the gear and get back before anybody even knows we're gone."

It's just a jungle full of primordial animals... what could go wrong, Doug?

Magik has posed:
Illyana is nothing if not pragmatic. When she heard they were going to the Savage Lands she chose several weapons for the occation, simply by dent of the place being full of premordial nasties that delight in the simple pleasures of devouring people.. specifically intrusive people there for technology they've got no business being there to get.

"I trust you." She says quietly beside Doug, a mace laid across her shoulders with her arms looped over the shaft at one handled end and nearer to the spiked ball end. "Where is ping now? I can get us closer so we are not having to walk through jungle. Mosquittos big as car are not my idea of good vacation."

Cypher has posed:
"That's the problem, I can't get an exact bead on it." Doug thumps his phone against his palm. "The very nature of the Savage Land makes global positioning an inexact art." He adds, "And I can't exactly rely on the information the X-Men have, it's years old."

Then Doug gives a big, cheeky grin, as he bends down to snug the laces on his boots. "Besides, it's an adventure! We used to go on all kinds of adventures. I miss it."

"So if the maps we have are still good, we follow the tribal signmarks through this forest and out to the other side, where we'll come to a cliff we can follow, then cross a ravine, there's a hidden supply elevator to the base."

"What could go wrong?"

Something roars, in the jungle, and Doug's grin only falters a little.

Magik has posed:
Illyana is listening, but she makes little expression that she's doing so. Staring out across the jungle spread out before them with cold blue eyes slowly scanning the tops of trees and rustling of leaves where something moves beneath. Be it a giant predator or just a massive humming bird... who can even know with the Savage Lands?

"Da." Said about missing adventures. She's verbose tonight. Very expressive.

When something roars in the distance, Illy turns to stare at Doug and blink owlishly. "If this thing eats me, that is on your head."

Cypher has posed:
"I cannot imagine a carnivorous dinosaur half as terrifying as you in full fettle, Illyana." Doug says, before he shoulders his pack, and sets off through the jungle. Apparently his idea of adventure is an hours-long hike. But he planned adequately, brought plenty of supplies, and his directions are good.

It isn't until they're leaving the forest that things begin to go awry.

There is a symbol, carved into a tree - a five-headed snake, with its heads forming an arch around a sun and a moon. A warding spell to keep away the native wildlife has been cut into the tree

"That's... not local to the natives." Doug says.

Magik has posed:
Illyana snorts at Doug. She knows she's sentry on this little treck through the wild lands, but she usually is. If it's not mystical, it's almost universal that Illyana is up ahead taking point.. arms looped over her mace, she walks with her head turning towards the random sound with a critical stare only to keep moving along to Doug's guidance through the forest.

When they reach the clearing and symbol warding off predators, Illy raises a pale blonde brow and glances towards her companion. "Any idea who then?" Turning a small circle to look behind them, then further ahead. Mace comes down off her shoulder to blunk audibly against the soft soil at the right of her foot.

Cypher has posed:
"Eh... no." Doug says. He doesn't quite touch the symbol... he doesn't seem to want to touch it. "It almost looks... Atlantean. There's some similarity in the way the glyphs are shaped, but if there is, there's years of linguistic divergence--" He narrows his eyes. "No, it IS Atlantean. Ancient Atlantean... modern Atlantean would've descended from this."

"...We should press on." Though he looks a little less confident about it.

But then they emerge from the woods, and out into the sun, and Doug brightens, visibly. He looks over to Illyana, and then he says, "...You know, I never noticed. The sun, shining through your hair -- it glows." He blinks, and then rubs the back of his neck. "It's pretty. Is all."

Magik has posed:
Illyana dressed for the invent, cargo pants and heavy boots, and a tanktop against the heat. Her hair, usually worn straight, is tied back into a bun to keep anything from snagging it or catching it on the forest hanging branches. Also, lots of weapons. Mundane edged weapons, knives, swords, the like.. and of course her mace.

She just accepts Doug's iteration of what he reads in the marking, though she does note the slight mystical edge to it, "Very powerful." She adds with a brisk nod, following him out into the sun with narrowed eyes against the shift in light.

Also, she does glow. Both because her skin is almost white and her hair isn't much darker. A shimmering aura to her as she glances over at Doug with her head tilt, "Is this time for your observations of my attractiveness?" She's not even being facisious or condescending. "Save it for when we are not surrounded by man eating plants and beasts as big as skyscrappers, da?"

Cypher has posed:
Doug gives a little smile. "If we only noticed certain things or felt certain emotions when it was convenient, well... the history of the human race would be a lot different."

He starts picking his way along, and then he starts to whistle.

His whistling is cut short, when a rapid-onset storm blots out the sun, and he's suddenly drenched by sheets of driving rain.

"...How is it that I'm getting soaked," He says, to Illyana, "And you barely even look *damp*--"

Magik has posed:
Water doesn't bend around Illyana, but she does have a strange way of avoiding things that people tend to just take for granted. Call it luck or.. maybe demonic blood. Is it a small price to pay to be half unfathomable evil?

Illy glances at Doug with a smirk, "Genetics." She totally just made a joke.

Pale blue eyes slipping down over Doug's drenched clothes, "You looking like wet dog. Could maybe try not to get hit by /every/ drop of rain? Oh... I think you are missing one..." Pointing any direction basically points at rain, so she just points. "If you are hurrying I think maybe you have one spot dry."

Cypher has posed:
Doug reaches down and peels off his t-shirt. He wrings it out, then realizes he's still in the rain, so he gives up, and just half-heartedly tosses the sopping thing at Illyana. Splop.

Then he shoulders his pack, which he waterproofed, and sets back off. Of course, when the rain *ends*, and his wet hair starts to dry, he ends up looking like a dandelion. His techno-organic arm isn't seamless into his shoulder joint -- the techno-organic matter of his arm roots into the muscles of his shoulder, his shoulderblade, and his chest.

"Okay." he says, as he sets off along the cliff. "So based on the X-Men's files, there should be a hidden access-- ah. Here it is." He brushes vines away from a console, and hits a button sequence, which causes a door to reveal itself in the cliff face. "Going up."

Inside, he rocks on his heels, and then says, "...Thank you, for coming with me. I appreciate it."

Magik has posed:
Illyana slaps the shirt out of the air with a smirk. A small dimple appearing just outside her mouth for a half second before the expression is gone, returned behind the iron curtain as she lets his sopping wet shirt dangle from her free hand. It's not until he starts moving again that she hurls it back at him towards the back of his head.

Waiting, perhaps precognatively, to when the rain stops and his hair starts to poof, to do so.

Because she's a brat.

At the door, she's hoist her mace back up on her shoulders and is looking at the roots of Doug's techno-organic arm at the shoulder when he indicates they've reached the entrance to their destination. Shifting away with a turn of her head towards the rising doorway.

"How prepared should I be for trouble in here?" Said in lue of addressing his appreciation for her coming with him. Of course she'd come with him.

Cypher has posed:
"Oh, I don't know, on a scale of one to ten probably a--"

The elevator door opens, and they step into a supply bay for the old base, now overgrown with vines, a section of wall collapsed to the outside. "Eleven, maybe a twelve." Doug says, as he picks along. "If this was a Jurassic Park movie, this is where we'd run into raptors. But given that sign earlier, I imagine what we'll run into is--

A spear slings through the air, and embeds into the wall a few inches from Doug's head. He jerked backward, a few seconds before it came whizzing by. "...That."

Magik has posed:
Illyana is on guard as soon as they step into the complex. She's listening to Doug, but her attention is elsewhere and she's holding the mace by the midshaft so she can more easily wield it quickly if need be. Her head dips a little as he explains the precarious nature of their position when a spear whistles through the air and embeds itself int he wall above her companion.

Her armor appears instantly, silvery white glow as it covers her clothing, replaces it really, and the mace comes up in a long grip as she stalks forward in the direction from which the spear was thrown, "Stay here."

Cypher has posed:
"Yes ma'am!" Doug says.

Another spear gets hurled at Illyana, before the figure breaks, and runs. It's a Savage Land native, but dirty and emaciated, with greasy hair and a dull look in his eyes. The stink of magic is about him, clouding his senses. Others join him, a woman aiming a bow, a young man with a crude stone axe.

Magik has posed:
Illyana is half disappointed that magic is involved.

She would have very much liked to hurt the natives.

The spear is smashed out of her path by the swing of her mace, clattering it harmlessly in a lopping direction that proves quite harmless to herself or Doug. Then she holds out her hand searching for the exact pattern of the magic enthrallment that has captivated the natives, murmuring in the filthy tongue of her dark half to attempt to break the spell that commands them.

Baring that, there's still plan A.

She's fine with Plan A.

Cypher has posed:
It is black magic, as black as the pit from pole to pole, but that just means it's easy pickings for the Witch-Queen of Limbo.

The spell snaps, and the clouded look in the natives' minds fades, as they suddenly snap to, and begin speaking, perplexed, in their native tongue.

Doug looks up, and says something from behind Illyana, tersely. The woman holding the bow says something in reply.

"A cult has taken control of the compound for their own ends. They're trying to... that's... weird." He scratches his head.

"What do you know about ancient sorcerers?"

Magik has posed:
Illyana is not homicidal, no matter what people think of her, so while she may have wanted to exact a little vengence for the attack, she doesn't look upset that things ended nonviolently. The mace is once more hoist up on her shoulders so her arms can loop around it.

The armor remains, however, as she glances back at Doug with a raised pale blonde brow. "Could also be Alantian, da?" Seems to fit, what with the markings near the clearing. "Could be they are here trying to find same as we are?" Turning to look ahead, "Is bad if they get it, I assuming?"

Cypher has posed:
"Well she's babbling about a cult dedicated to resurrecting some ancient sorcerer."

"Something about a head, and a body, and a curse--"

"Well that... huh. It sounds like they ARE using the technology here. They've been using this place as a base of operations while they look for something."

"But the rest of what they're saying doesn't make any sense." He says, as they all speak at once. "A head severed from the body, the curse of the rainbow serpent so the two would never meet again... and a name erased from the histories, too filthy to be spoken aloud? I don't get it."

Magik has posed:
Illyana looks from Doug to the yammering native and back again, brow raised as he works through what the woman is trying to tell them in a language the Demon Queen couldn't even begin to understand. Her arm slides towards her to lay a palm flat against her forehead, just above her eyes.

"Julunggul?" Straightening slightly, looking ... actually it might seem a little unsettling ... a little startled. "Is she referring to Rainbow Serpent, Julunggul?" Apprehension in her voice. "This is very bad, Doug..."

Cypher has posed:
"She's using a different name - Jandlinajtari, but all the different linguistic words root back to the same entity. Julunggul, Jandlinajtari, Ayida-Wedo. The Rainbow Serpents." Doug rubs the back of his neck.

"Apparently the sorcerer was so foul that the Rainbow Serpent cursed him so that fate and time would always intervene to prevent his head from being placed with his body..."

"Which would restore him to life."

He furrows his brow. "He says they have the head, and using the technology left here... they located the body. Now they just have to -- break the curse that keeps them apart. How would they do that?"

Magik has posed:
Illyana follows the walls with a turn of her head, tracing the outlines of the carved designs while l istening to Doug's explanation of precisely what the intruders are up to. Her brow furrows thoughtfully, turning to look at Doug fully, "They do not understand technology?" Pointing two fingers up at the Natives as if they're beneath her and, now that she's kept from killing them by freeing them, she needn't speak to them. "To prematives who are not understanding it, many things could look like magic.. maybe some kind of enclossure or.. shielding?"

Cypher has posed:
"I don't know." Doug says, furrowing his brow, "I guess we'd have to go on to find out. I think... they're using both?" He glances back at Illyana, and then says, "You know more about magic than I do. I mean, my knowledge pretty much ends at the D&D player's handbook. Well... multiple editions of it, and I can't exactly cast a Bigby's Clenched Fist at our problems."

He stands up, slowly. "But I think between us, we can do just about anything."

Magik has posed:
"D&D." Illyana rolls her eyes and turns to extend out her hand to help him stand. The other tightens around her heavy mace, "IT is true, we are very good team. Let us go find Alantians and destroy them before they summon dark old serpant god." Her attention shifts down one of the carved stone hallways, then back to Doug, "You know your way around facility or are we realling of dice to find out?"

Cypher has posed:
"Well, in true Gygaxian fashion we would normally generate the dungeon a room at a time using a map algorithmically determined by--" He looks up. "I have a map. It's just five years old." He says, shaking out his shoulders, and then says, "All right, let's go." He looks up at the natives, and gestures to the way they came, speaking in their native language, before he steps over a tree root and goes further in.

The next room was an old storage room, but has been turned into a sort of library, with moldering old tomes and scrolls in stacks and on shelves. A dehumidifier has been set up in the corner, and its whine sets up a background sound in the room. He glances at Illyana, and then reaches up to pull a book off a stack, and open it. "...Between the age when the oceans drank Atlantis, and the Rise of the Sons of Aryas..." He skims the page. "Get a load of this. This is a story about *Selene* the Black Queen. But this... this is pre-history. Well, I mean, I guess it's NOT pre-history. It's just... old."

Magik has posed:
Illyana is on high alert, head turning slowly as they pass through the stone hallways. She pays almost no attention to the natives once they begin travelling deeper, she's not here to communicate with primates, her job is more martial.. Then her magical knowledges. She steps over towards Doug and drops the mace down with a clank, handle leaning up against the edge of the table upon which those books were stacked.

She leans to the side and glances over Doug's shoulder, eyes moving slowly in a steam across the page, then turn up to him. "How are these two things being related?" Her expression remains stoic but for the hint of a frown starting to form, "Not sure why she would get involved with Alantian plots to ressurect serpant gods... but..."

One fine white brow slides upwards, trying to put her finger on a detail that remains ellusive.

Cypher has posed:
"The Sorcerer's in this story too. She's part of a group of evil sorcerers contending for a ring of power, and he's another of them. Then... " he skims the page, "The rest of the story isn't in the book. It doesn't say how it ends." He sets the book down. "But based on what I'm extrapolating from this, and the linguistic shift from this to descendant alphabets like Linear A -- that would make Selene over *ten thousand* years old. Twice as old as Apocalypse. Maybe older. That thought really disturbs me."

Then he looks around, and says, "I'm starting to wonder if what they're doing here is a part of something bigger. I never got a chance to show you 'Highlander'. Did you ever see it?"

Magik has posed:
Illyana is looking around them again, a slow shift of her head in a half turn as Doug explains what he's gathered from what he's read, but she does snap back in his direction at his extrapolation of Selene's true age, "Maybe... It is hard to determine exact age in world that has time travel." Everything gets a little muddy, she shrugs a shoulder and grabs hold of her mace to hoist it back on her shoulder. "We should probably stop them. Even if they are very old... or very young... Or somewhere in middle." Moving her hand along an invisible slider.

"I did not. It was suggested by you, I wanted to watch it with you."

Cypher has posed:
"...Right. Well, we'll watch it when we get back, and I'll explain the thought going through my head then."

He glances up. "Okay. So." He says, "The map says Magneto's throne room was down the hallway..." He opens the door, and steps over old roots and through corridors lit by dim emergency lighting, "And through here." He stops, outside the door. "Together."

He steps inside. Inside, Magneto's old throne sits empty, but in front of it a pedestal of wood and stone has been built, and a skull, gleaming white rests on a pillow on it, ringed by guttering, burning candles.

The room is empty, otherwise.

Doug rubs the back of his neck. "Uhhhh."

Magik has posed:
Illyana nods once, stepping over roots as they pass down the hallways towards Magneto's throne-room. At the doorway she pauses, lifting her weapon off her shoulder to get it ready, then nods for him to open the door and slips in just a half step ahead of him. When she enters and finds nothing, she immediately begins feeling for some form of magical deception or the nature of the alter. Pale eyes looking to the positioning of the candles around the gleaming white skull.

"What?" Glancing back at Doug as if expecting him to have some other insight he's not yet shared.

Cypher has posed:
"I don't know. I was expecting... I don't know what I was expecting." He walks inside, and then up to the skull. "It's... well, it's in perfect condition. Doesn't look..." Precisely human. There are subtle, little things off about it. The length of the brainpan, the shape of the jaw.

"This isn't Homo Sapiens." He says. "It's--"

Pinpricks of red light appear in the skull's eye sockets, and Doug *leaps* backward. "Holy CATS!"

Magik has posed:
Illyana is right there beside Doug as the other moves closer to the skull, but she's a lot less surprised or startled by the slightly inhuman object sitting on the raised platform. "You expect the skull of a diety to be human in appearance?" Not even indignant about it, she turns a little to watch him startle away from the red light appeared in the empty sockets.

Her attention returns to the skull proper, but she's taken a single step to the side so as to put herself protectively between it and Doug now that he's created just a bit of space by leaping away from it. "From candles, they are not long gone.." Looking up to the length of each of those flickering flames. Specifically she's paying attention to the /color/ of those candles. Since different colors would signify very different intent.

Then down at the floor around the pedestal for any chalk/bone powder runes dusted onto the ground like a protective or empowering circle.

Cypher has posed:
The candles are rusty red... the color of blood. Infused in the wax, made of human fat. Illyana can tell by the smell, by the way the tallow drips onto the pedestal.

There is powder around the pedestal, in the ring.

The skull speaks, its voice reedy and thin, yet somehow clearly heard.

"...I smell the taint of the N'Garai and the Elder Gods upon you, girl -- how intriguing. Why do you seek me--"

"Uh..." Doug approaches, slowly.

"And this one. He has crossed the barrier of death and returned! How rare. The Word of Life is etched upon his brow, and this gives him power -- do you draw strength from him to empower your own magicks? How *delightful*--"

The skull is speaking the debased language of Demons. And easily, too.

Magik has posed:
Illyana stares at the candles, expecting as much by the way she nods her head approvingly, as well as the powdered ring around the pedestal itself. Pale-blue eyes shift towards the skull, however, when it speaks to her and one brow arcs a little. It isn't overtly surprising to hear those words, as much as she's seen, but it doesn't make it any more settling for the experiences.

"Nyet, I do not draw any essence from him." Turning her head a little to look back over her shoulder at Doug approaching. A hand come sup to stall him a few feet shy of the ring of powder. When she speaks again, she too is doing so in the demonic tongue, "Are we the first to come seeking you? Where there others recently?"

Cypher has posed:
"The first sorcerer of any *real* worth." The skull says.

"The cultists seek to break the curse of the accursed Rainbow Serpent to make me whole once more, but as yet, they are foiled. Even if they were to retrieve my body, fate would intervene to prevent them from bringing it here."

Then the skull says, "But I sense that within you lies the power to *break* that curse. Yes... a shimmering light, inside of all that darkness, against which no mere spell can hope to stand. Do you know what you carry within you? I do. The blood of the Elder Race rises to prominence in you, as it does in him! Debased through the ages... could it be reasserting itself once more?"

The skull clicks its teeth.

"Your power is limitless but underdeveloped. *I* could make you the most fearsome sorceress this world has ever known. *I* could give you the power to succor thy allies and smite thy enemies."

"Help me become whole once more... Witch-Queen of Limbo, and all the world shall exalt thee."

Doug says, "You're talking like the villain in a Robert E. Howard story. Next, Co-"

"SILENCE!" The skull says, suddenly enraged. "Still thy *tongue* wordshaper!"

Magik has posed:
Illyana is not so easily tempted by great power or the demonic responsibilities that come along with it. She continues to stare at the skull, however, as if lured by the promises it makes. One hand upon her mace, the other laid down at her side, expression void. "I could do this for myself, what is difference from freeing you from curse only by embracing my full self... tell me why one is better than other? You will not enslave all of humanity? I definitely will do this..."

Her eyes do go a little squintier when it shouts in Doug's direction, "Is best if you do not threaten him. He is one of very few people I will find way to make curse very worse for you, for."

Cypher has posed:
"You have the blood of the Elder Race in you, of which I was the last." The skull clicks its teeth. "It is your *right* to rule over lesser men."

The glow in its eyes is brighter. "Power bends itself to the hand that wields it. Only the desire of the sorcerer matters, if the desire be strong enough, all can be overcome!"

Doug shakes his head, slowly, and says, "We've seen beings like you before. You're full of it, uh, mister."

The skull just laughs, at that. "I would tell a thousand thousand lies, to stand under a red sky on my own two feet once more. I died my *first* death before Atlantis fell below the waves. I fielded armies against Adg the Conqueror and leveled nations whose names were forgotten by those whose names have been forgotten--!"

Magik has posed:
Illyana straightens from her slight forward bend and turns towards Doug, a few steps bring her closer, but each has the mace dragging across the floor with a loud scrap. Likely an intentional desire to be an annoyance for the skull who has little ability to do anything to prevent the sound. "Cannot leave skull here... but cannot take skull where it can easily be found." She muses aloud, glancing around her with a thoughtful expression. "Could take it to Limbo. Would be safe there until we are able to locate body and assure they do not combine.."

All the bluster of past deeds are of no real concern or impress upon the Witch-Queen. She's problem solving and lets the last Elder God brabble about until its lacking heart is content.

Cypher has posed:
"Oh yes. Otherplace--!"

"It's a little too gleeful about that." Doug says. "Um. Um. We could take it to Doctor Strange--"

The skull hisses. "The Sorcerer Supreme? HA! When I come into my full power I'll crush the Sorcerer Supreme under my heel, and delight in the agony of their screams--"

Doug frowns. "I mean... we probably put it in the basement. Or... bury it?"

"I have abided since forgotten ages. I can abide longer yet." The skull says, unperturbed.

Magik has posed:
Illyana moves her hand back and snaps, casting a quick silence spell around the pedestal, rather than directly on the skull itself. "It is making you second guess yourself. Either we taking it to Limbo, where it can do little to nothing against me, or we take it to Doctor Strange." Her hand returns to the mace that was left to lean in against her armored thigh, having not desummoned her Eldritch armor.

"Wherever it is going, it cannot stay unprotected... buried is not good enough." Motioning around at the bunker where it is now, "This is as good as buried and they find it.. none here to defend it except primative natives who are easily swayed.."

Her eyes fix upon Doug, "My suggestion is Limbo. I understand why you do not want this, it means I must stay there... so the only option, /real/ option-" She is clearly refering to hiding it in a basement, "-Is The Sorcerer Supreme."

Cypher has posed:
"Well if you're taking it to Limbo, I'm not leaving you alone there with it--" Doug says. "Who knows what this creepy thing might be able to do in a place full of demons?" He pauses. "I mean, not to say you can't take care of yourself. I just--"

"Don't want your only company to be Baron von Creepen."

Magik has posed:
"As opposed to all of Limbo's denizons?" Illyana actually smirks at Doug and straightens her shoulders, rounding them off in what could be regal, defiant, or both. "I appreciate you wanting to protect me, Doug.. ill placed, but I appreciate." She glances back at the skull, the expression gone before her head fully turns. "I do not fear its sway over the powers of Otherworld. It is /mine/, but I understanding your fear." Looking back to her companion.

"We will take it to Strange."

Cypher has posed:
The skull seems to stare right through the two of them. "I can abide. Do your worst. And I shall do mine."

Then it screams, an ear-piercing, otherworldly *wail* that echoes throughout the old complex. Footsteps start, getting closer.

"Ah--" Doug looks up. "Illyana." He squares his shoulders, streaked with sweat and grime. "They're coming. There are a lot of them. I don't think I'm gonna get my hands on that tech--" Because he isn't going anywhere.

Magik has posed:
Illyana cants her head at the ear piercing shriek and turns to glare at the Skull, then over at the doorway into the throne-room. The horned helmet of her armor materializes when Doug informs her that they are coming and she pulls a long black felt cloth from the confines of any number of hidden places where she can store magical implimentations. "Get skull." Holding the cloth out to Doug, mace springing up into her hand with a jerk of her wrist.

Her right hand held out and the massive glowing Soulsword materializes.

"Do you /need/ tech?" The shadows practically sing with the sounds of dozens... many dozens... if not hundreds of dark voices. They brought /a lot/... So did the Witch-Queen. "If not, we leave before they get here... otherwise..." Eyes on the entrance, "We go through them."

Cypher has posed:
Doug looks down, and then says, simply, "...Some things are more important."

He reaches down to collect the skull in the cloth, which is difficult, because it snaps at him. It sinks its teeth into his techno-organic arm, and he says, "YEEEOW!"

The skull looks surprised, if such a thing is possible, and Doug scoops it up in the cloth and ties it tight. "Let's bounce, beautiful--"

Magik has posed:
Call her a devil if you must, but Illyana gets a devious idea while waiting for Doug to join her. The tip of the Soulsword stabs down into the ground beneath their feet, near the doorway, to carve a quick runic spell, all the while grinning wickedly as she backs away from it with her palm out to add a bit of her own dark magic to disguise it amongst the taint that's already permiated this room with the skulls presence.

Nice dark surprise for those coming to collect the Skull.

She turns sharply, hoists her mace after desummoning the Soulsword, and steps up beside Doug... it isn't that she needs to be close to teleport both of them, she just does because she can.

The pair are gone long before it goes off, that rune, and it likely wouldn't be enough to 'kill' an atlantian... only destroy the exit once they're all inside.

Trapping them them there.

She's only half human.

Cypher has posed:
"Bye-bye," Doug waves, as they vanish in the stepping disk.

He didn't get what he came for. But who cares? He had an adventure. That's good enough.

The rune explodes, and now the cultists have to escape from an old base that has suddenly turned into a deathtrap. Good luck...

In the bag, the skull says, merely, "I am immortal. I can abide."