The Deceptions of Dance (Combat RP)

Hannah watched as between them Emilia, Noah and Ariel revealed the Platoon's getaway tunnel. Hannah was surprised to find a tunnel behind the wall, assuming that the small town was merely surrounded by the vast wasteland. After peering at the cracks in the entrance, Hannah could see beams of sunlight creeping through the gaps between the tunnel mouth and the town's walls, meaning the troupe had clearly made use of a disused tunnel. Either that, or they were expert burrowers as well as performers: somehow she couldn't imagine the females of that group digging through solid stone.

Despite the warm air that drifted over the town from the surrounding wastelands, a cold, damp air wafted over Hannah as she stepped inside. As Ariel had pointed out, there was no light to guide their way. She was not a fire mage, but creating light was something she could in fact manage.

Taking her harp from her belt, Hannah carefully strung some soft, high notes. Failing to halt her fingers from strumming out a faint melody, thin waves of magic drifted aimlessly into the air around her, floating along the walls and ceiling of the tunnel. The music was quiet enough not to echo down the tunnel, but glowed a light green, enough to illuminate the curved walls and uneven floor. Treading carefully, Hannah continued playing, using the light from her magic to place her feet surely but slowly.

As the tunnel led her around a corner, Hannah noticed a mining cart brimming with debris. From this point on, a corroded rail wound its way down the abandoned mining shaft. Taking care not to knock over the cobweb-covered pickaxes propped against the walls, or to knock her head against the wooden brackets that apparently held up the ceiling. she kept on. A foreign sensation was pooling in her stomach: a peculiar blend of nerves, anticipation, of uncertainty: what she would later identify as the thrill of adventure. Indeed, at this precise moment, Hannah had completely forgotten about the curse: her breath held in her chest as she turned another corner, her playing fingers unfaltering as waves of light continued to bound off the walls.

After this corner, the shaft straightened out with the ceiling sloping upwards, providing the music with a shallow echo. At the end of the corridor was what seemed to be a wood-paneled room, beginning with a door frame cut into the stone with the door itself missing. Hannah stepped through, revealing what looked like a respite room for miners. Two dust-caked chairs sat slanted next to a small work bench, covered in rusted tools and fragments of dull rock. Several barrels lined the far wall, with an out-of-place, pristine oaken door situated between them.

Hannah halted near the work bench, continuing her melody as there were still no sources of light to be seen.

Noah didn't say much on the tunnel but the gears were turning in his head. If they turned any faster one might see smoke rising from his ears.

That they had this in reserve worried him. Did they have some manner of connections? Perhaps they were an older band than they had thought and only re-branded their act periodically. Whatever the case he did not like that they had access to such a large tunnel. He made a note to either inform the guard about it or outright destroy it later. The last thing they needed was bandits, or Risen, or angry Ylisseans, or some ungodly combination of the three, coming through this thing into the middle of town.

"Is it bothering you, too?" he asked, to no one in particular. Though he didn't say it he had a feeling that everyone knew what he meant; how eerie the silence and emptiness was. A drought of information was always the worst possible scenario for a Tactician. A proper plan, the correct tactics could turn the tide of even a battle that seemed hopeless. But how could one plan with... this? It was too wide-open, too vacuous here. They had space to dodge in the tunnels but nowhere to take cover if things went south.

The room was slightly better but it gave him an intense sensation of wrongness. This was getting to him.

"Hannah, stop the music for a bit..." he snapped his fingers a a slight crackling came from them, a low light emitting from them. If there was something or someone up ahead--and he always had to assume there was when he couldn't tell--then he wanted to muffle as much of their presence as he could.

Ariel frowned when Hannah used a harp to produce visible, glowing sound waves. This was new. Her old self might have found it worthy of study. For now, though, she had other things to worry about. The ground was stable but uneven, but now that she could see where she walked, she swiftly and simply navigated it. Soon, however, they reached what seemed to be an at least temporary base of operations.

Noah asked if 'it' bothered them too. Ariel turned to him. "Awww," she said, "The boy's scared. Don't worry, Noah. The Big Bad Witch will protect you." She passed by him. "...as long as you don't get in my way, at least." When he told Hannah to stop the music, she started to sketch a rough magic circle, her magic doing the same thing Hannah's had- it remained lingering in the air, glowing dimly with a purplish white light. It made no sound, however, and while she had to leave it where she had sketched it, between it and Noah's flame they had enough light to vaguely make out some things.

Her attention was drawn to the barrels against the far wall and she joined Emilia, although she ignored the door as she trusted the Thief would make noise if it exploded or gave birth to barbarians. Instead, she tried to pry open the barrels and see what was in them. Without success, sadly. "Hey, Red," she said. "Think you can work your magic on these?"

As the group began to illuminate the room, along with Noah's instruction to stop the music, Hannah her her fingers rest by her side. With her harp still held cautiously in her left hand, she stepped away from the ring of light Ariel had created, finding the luminance was making her squint slightly.

Hannah hadn't considered the importance of their location, just perceiving it as an old, misused mining shaft. Was this how seasoned adventures plotted their moves? Utilizing the one sound her mouth could make, Hannah signed, the breath flowing past her moist lips a soothing sensation to ease her worries. She was of course intent on trying to right the wrongs that the Platoon had caused, but was she up to the task, she wondered?

Emilia had already inspected the door, which did look exceedingly out of place in the dingy, web-ridden room they stood in. Hannah had pretty good hearing too, but upon propping her ear to the wood, she could hear nothing.

For a moment, the mute songstress contemplated their options. Why couldn't they just go through the door? The Platoon passed through here, so surely they wouldn't make their own hideout dangerous. Hannah stared pensively at her feet, tapping one of them in the dust. What would the Merry Maven do in a situation like this?

Holding her breath in order to help make the motion fluid, Hannah gripped the copper knob of the door, swinging it open.

For half a second, she was faced with a plain, narrow room, illuminated by pale light that fell through dusty windows. Then, a jet of fire screeched towards her from the doorway on the other side of the room. Grabbing her harp, Hannah slammed her fingers against the strings, quickly finishing Irato Forza: a serious of high-pitched turning sonic chords. The magic flared into a swiftly expanding curtain of notes, colliding with the fire. Barely holding against the onslaught, Hannah breathed a sigh of relief as the stray flames licked desperately at the musty air before vanishing.

"Someone's ere! Melley, check it out." Shouted a male.

Hannah's heart was thumping. She turned quickly behind her, seizing the door handle and slamming the door shut before any of the others could leap through.

"Ah, you."

Hannah froze as Melley walked through the doorway, her hand perched on her red-garbed hip.

"You saw through our little trick, didn't you?" The fire mage stepped forward casually. Hannah's hand quivered over her harp: she knew that she'd most definitely lose a fight against a real mage. Melley gazed past her at the closed door. "You alone?"

Hannah nodded carefully, her fringe drifting from her face. She tapped her foot gingerly against the door as Melley gazed thoughtfully at one of the dirty windows before Hannah stepped forward.

"Wait a sec... Aren't you... Can you play Her Old Man's Deaf?"

OOC (open) OOC (close)

Just in case it wasn't clear, The door should not be opened! Hannah's going to get the Platoon to take her in so you guys can surprise them.

Startled by her sudden request, Hannah responded with another ghostly nod of her head. In the expectant silence that followed, she gulped, shuffled her feet into a shabby performing pose, and began to play. 'Her Old Man's Deaf' was one of The Merry Maven's most popular ditty's back in the day: its whimsical notes and rising tunes induced waves of nostalgia that drifted through her as her fingers subconsciously recited the song. Hannah didn't hop and turn as she would have done two years ago, but she started tapping her foot: her only display of enigmatic movement as the ditty lit up the dusty room. She only looked at Melley once during her recital, but saw a deep-set grin on her face.

With a widespread gesture from her arm, Hannah strung the last note, allowing silence to dominate the room once more. Melley waited, perhaps expecting Hannah to say something...

"It is you... The Merry Maven!" She cheered, strutting towards the sheepish, harp-wielding girl. Hannah went tense: her secret on the other side of the door in danger of being discovered. "Were the rumors true?"

Assuming she was referring to the loss of her voice, Hannah nodded solemnly.

"That blows." Melley said, her eyes dropping to the floor.

Hannah took a timid step forward, presenting her harp towards the fire mage. Inciting a fraction of her old showmanship, she plastered a grin on her face, praying the message would come across.

"You came to join us; that it?" Melley's hand went back to resting gently on her hip. Hannah nodded as eagerly as she could. "I sensed magic earlier... you could come in very handy. Between you and Rita, those poor saps will be helpless!" Melley flashed a sinister grin, which Hannah had to strain not to frown at.

Without word or warning, Melley seized Hannah by the wrist, gently but eagerly tugging her out of the room.

"We could even get Ed to do a voice over for you; that'd be a hoot!" Melley laughed as Hannah was drawn deeper into the Platoon's hideout.

Noah already didn't like where this was going, and this all but validated his fears. Being separated in a den of thieves was nowhere on the list of situations he wanted to be in. He gritted his teeth and put an ear to the door. The one voice he heard was getting farther, but...

He signaled to Emi to take one side of the door and for Ariel to come over to his own. "I'm going to kick up some dust when we enter," he said quietly, "Be ready to find cover. I don't know how many there are in there, or if there are any." As he spoke he very slowly gathered some of the sandy residue that was in their own room using as little magic as he could to keep it subtle. "Ready? Okay..."

Noah went first, bringing the cloud of dust and sand with him. Or rather, the cloud went first, with the Tactician not far behind. As he saw the dust in the windows he abandoned subtlety and pulled those down and into the room, as well. Before long an intense veil of sand and grime had flooded the room...

Ariel waited until Noah had kicked up his cloud of dust, and Emilia had followed him inside the room. She then waited a few seconds more, just in case it was a trap waiting to be sprung. With Noah and Emilia caught in a hypothetical trap, she could still make herself useful- not so if she were caught with them. When nothing happened immediately after the redhead told Noah to keep up the cloud, she hopped over the threshold and stepped into the room, clutching her tome against her with one hand. "No one?" she hissed, keeping her voice down. She agreed with Emilia. She didn't like this one bit.

She focused. There was no magic remaining in this room, not that she could sense at least. So no traps... that was suspicious in and of itself, to say the least. "So a bunch of organised criminals leave their base entirely unattended and without security?" she thought out loud, "I don't buy it." She opted not to use her magic yet, just in case someone was monitoring from the other side of a door. "Everyone be careful. We don't know if they've sensed us... be ready to fight, but be quiet just in case they haven't noticed us yet. Noah, use as little magic as possible. They can probably sense it."

"Yeah, remember that concert you did in the capital early last year? We made BIG profits from that one. They were so worn from all the excitement we just waltzed through them and scored so much stuff!" Melley regaled, strolling down a narrow, box-shaped corridor, Hannah's wrist still gently tugging in her grip.

"I know this doesn't look like much.. I've never liked this hideout, but we have to keep it this way so people don't come looking too far..."

Hannah tried to look behind them without being noticed, but saw nothing. She swallowed, realizing she was now being dragged towards four quite dangerous foes. She doubted she'd even be able to pluck a single note against them before they quashed her. She'd just have to play along and hope the others arrived in time.

"But, just in case they do," Melley said, regaining Hannah's attention. Pulled safely through the tunnel, Melley flicked a switch, hidden smartly as a spike on a brazier fastened to the wall at the end of the narrow passage. As she did, row after row of musty old felt curtains descended from slits in the ceiling, completely concealing the way. Hannah raised an eyebrow.

"This is so neat: Jake forgot to turn it off once and it almost killed him!"

It?

Of course, there was no way Hannah could ask what trap Melley had just set. Fearing for her comrade's safety, the mute was once again whisked off, this time through a bolted iron door -which was slammed behind her- and up some stairs. Hannah quickly picked up the scent of fresh air, signalling their return above-ground.

Melley shoved her hand into a wooden slat at the end of their ascent, blinding Hannah with streams of sunlight. The two walked through the trap door, which was knocked closed by Melley before she nudged Hannah into the room.

"Look who I found guys!" She grinned.

The Trap (open) The Trap (close)

Okay, so the curtains (heavy things, they'll take some effort to move by hand) are spelled to activate an illusion whenever they move, whether through wind, touch, magic etc. Once moved, they'll continue to drift around. Those who hear the curtains rustling/see them moving will begin to experience their greatest fear. As that happens, the curtains will slowly catch fire from the top down. In theory, victims are supposed to become wrapped up in the curtains as they try to escape their fear, then are burned to a crisp. Lovely! PM me if you have any questions =)