Nyctohylophobia (Perma-death Quest)

[X] If the spell succeeds and Sierra is feeling better, go down the corridor. If not, go back.

[X] Cast a Spell
-[X] Empower Object: Healing
-[X] Target: Strip of cloth, torn from your shirt.
-[X] Ritual Procedure:
--[X] Tear a strip of cloth from your shirt...doesn't need to be a proper bandage, but needs to be possible to tie to Sierra's arm, and needs to be wide enough to write on.
--[X] Write on the cloth strip, in blood (to symbolize life and convey symbolic weight), "Raphael." The name of one of the Archangels, which translates as "God Heals."
--[X] Incant quietly, "Heal and mend that which is broken." Empower the spell.

[X] If it seems to work, tie it to one of Sierra's arms, touching the skin.

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Rice Rolls said:

Cast Spell: Empower Object: Healing = 83 (46 + 37) (SUCCESS)
Spell Success = 89

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You mull over your options for a moment, weighing the pros and cons in your mind. However, after thinking each option through you find yourself coming back to one issue: Sierra. At the moment she is pretty much beat to shit and despite your best efforts to patch her up she was still struggling. This was a problem, especially if you have to run later. You didn't want to think about but at some point she may not be able to go on and you might need to leave her behind.

...No. That won't happen. You won't let it happen. She is your best friend and you would abandon her here now or ever.

Still, this is a problem. You considered trying to use your magic to heal her but after what happened last time you weren't really all that confident. You broke your ribs with your latest backfire! Shit, Lucas was right, you don't have a good track record of this whole magic thing. But you had to do something. Sierra is in no position to do much and she is just weighing Lucas down. You look over to Lucas who seems to be thinking things over in his head, his eyes fixed to the pool of water before you as he no doubt thinks over the options as well. You didn't want to upset him after he begged you not to use your magic after you ended up hurting yourself, but sometimes it was easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission.

So you've decided to try your magic again, but now you began trying to think on how you were going to use it. So far you've successfully cast one spell, but failed all other times with different results. You hurt yourself last time, but what if end up killing yourself doing this? You must be doing something wrong. You think to all the times you tried to use magic and you realize that every single time you've tried to use it you more or less tried to force it to happen. You think about what you want and then try to channel all that energy swirling inside of you out to make it happen. So far, it has only worked once.

But you could do better.

You've seen magic be done with rituals in fiction, and while you can cast magic without them, maybe the same applies here?

A little voice of self-doubt in the back of your mind scolds you for being stupid enough to apply the logic of fiction to reality. Telling you that you didn't bust your ass in high school to get into college just so you can go "It worked in some B-grade fantasy flick!"

Of course you immediately put a stop to that line of thinking by reminding yourself that you are using magic (something that shouldn't exist) in vast, presumably underground dungeon (that logically shouldn't exist) after being chased by a literal monster in the woods the previous night (again, shouldn't exist).

So with that in mind you settled on preforming a ritual, albeit a really small, scaled down one. So step one you need... something. A catalyst or a regent? You really aren't familiar with magical terminology, which as you've just clarified to yourself apparently exists.

What's something that is usually a potent force for magic in supposedly fictional stories? After a bit of thinking you recall one particular thing tends to show up: Blood sacrifices. Blood symbolizes life and carries weight in what you've seen about magic in fiction. Blood being spilled to get magic to work or sacrificing a life to power it. The latter was clearly not an option, so that just left letting some blood out to get your magic to work. You looked over to Sierra, eyeing her injuries up for a moment. They were still bleeding, so you could use her blood...

No. Out of the question. You aren't going to use your best friend's blood as a boost for your magic, no matter how desperate. So you've settle to use your own blood. You didn't like the idea of hurting yourself just so get you powers to work, but you weren't going to use Sierra and Lucas was adamant that you don't use your magic again. So very few options, really.

Next step was to think of what to do with that blood. Was it as simple as making yourself bleed? Do you make some kind of magic sigil? No, a magic sigil or a circle would take too long to do and might take more blood than you'd feel comfortable bleeding to complete. Maybe just settle for writing a word? Words have power in magic, but you don't think just writing "heal" will be enough. No, you need something that carries more symbolic weight behind it.

A word, or rather name, like Raphael. If you recall correctly Raphael means "God Heals" in Hebrew. If you are thinking correctly then perhaps invoking the angel might be a good way to empower your spell. If it does work you might just have to thank your parents for all those times they dragged you to church on Sundays.

Now you just need something to write down on. It is a shame you used up all the good scraps of Sierra's jacket on her, if you had one left over you'd be good to go. There were some scraps left over back where you found Sierra but you are not going to make the run to go grab a few small patches of fabric. Fortunately you had plenty of fabric on hand; that being the clothes you had on your back. It was again that you didn't really have a choice in the matter given that Sierra's clothes were shredded to the point you are amazed they are intact enough to stay on her body, and Lucas might not help you out in this regard given his previously mention plea to not use magic.

So your clothes it is! You need to tear a strip of fabric off your shirt, something long enough to be tied around an arm at least. So you lift your shirt over your head and pull it off-

"M-Medea, the hell are you doing?!" Lucas stutters out.

"Hold on," You say as you fiddle with your shirt. "I have a plan."

"And it involves taking your shirt off...?" Sierra questions, looking at you skeptically with her tired eyes.

"You'll see." You say.

Honestly you kinda felt uncomfortable being shirtless in front of them. Well, Lucas more than Sierra, but uncomfortable none the less. You feel their collective gazes on you as gripped the fabric of your shirt, and you started to feel warm from embarrassment. Though looking down you realize they aren't looking at you because you are shirtless, though that was likely part of it, but rather because you had some pretty bad bruises. You couldn't see them in full, but you that they were bad enough that they had spread to your sides and were pretty bad looking.

"Jesus, Medea... What happened to you...?" Sierra asked, her eyes filled with worry.

"I'll explain later." You sigh as you return your focus to the task at hand.

You tug on the bottom of your shirt, putting as much strength as you can into the task. After a bit you manage to create a tear, then carefully you began to pull on the torn fabric, making sure you don't accidentally make the shirt unwearable, and soon you are rewarded with a good sized strip of fabric. Satisfied with your work you quickly put your shirt back on, noting that it now partially revealed your midriff.

Now that you've got the material you were going to write on, now comes the hard part: drawing blood.

You lift your right hand to your mouth, placing your thumb between your molars...

"You can do this, Medea." You thought to yourself. "You can do this."

You take a deep breathe, trying to control your heart beat as it drummed in your chest...

"This is going to suck..."

...And you bite down. Hard. As hard as you can.

You whimper from the pain as you bite your own flesh, pain receptors pulsating in protest from your self-inflicted harm and soon you felt the coppery taste of blood squirt into your mouth. Your eyes shot open wide and you pull back your hand, your thumb covered in saliva and pumping out blood from the bite marks.

You hear both Lucas and Sierra say something but you ignore them and focus on the task at hand. You crouch to the ground and place the strip of fabric down, trying to ignore the pain in your ribs. You place your bleeding thumb to the torn fabric and carefully inscribe "RAPHAEL" on it.

With the preparations finished you place a hand over the cloth and focus, breathing in and out with you eyes closed. You focused and channel the energy swirling within you, pooling it towards your hand and funneling it towards the strip of your shirt.

But you think you need to add something else to this ritual. Perhaps an incantation? At this point you've got to try. You can't just go "Heal", that wouldn't be enough. Probably. No, you need the right words to breathe power into your spell. So you think for a moment and then the words come to you.

"Heal and mend that which is broken." You whisper.

You feel the power flow through you, and you see a faint glow shine throw your closed eyes... and it was over. Slowly you open your eyes and gaze upon your work, and it looked like nothing changed. You were confused at first, did you mess up? You weren't really sure. You were expecting some sort of change. Maybe the bandage glowing or something? It wasn't clear.

You pick up the empowered strip of fabric and stand back to your full height, turning to Lucas and Sierra. The two of them are looking at you, Sierra with surprise and possibly fear, and Lucas with an expression that seems to be going through an entire spectrum of emotions.

"Sierra..." You say. "Let me see your arm."

"Medea, what-"

"Please."

Sierra looks at you with concern, then shifting her gaze over to Lucas who's expression is still unreadable as he stares you down. Hesitantly she steps towards you and holds out an arm, and you step forwards towards her. You take her arm and began applying the strip of your shirt around the bare skin of her arm and tying it. You watch Sierra with batted breathe as wait for the fruits of your labors, and in mere moments you begin to see those results.

Before your eyes you see cuts and bruises that dotted her body vanished in a instant, the gashes that were unbandaged closed just as quickly and only leaving behind the faintest of scars behind. Once her wounds had healed you noted that her skin was regaining its color and was no longer pale from blood loss.

And soon it was over. Sierra stood before you almost as good as new, looking confused and in awe of what just happened, looking more full of life than her previously injured state. She torn away the bandages that covered her and found that all her grievous wounds had completely heal, with only the light scarring that proved they once existed at all.

"How..." Sierra mutters. "What was that?"

Right, you knew this might happen. Of course she'd want to know what the fuck just happened. It was understandable really. Well, you got to bite this particular bullet and tell her. There was no way you can bullshit your way out of this. You take a deep breathe and say, "It was magic."

"...What?"

"It was, uh, magic." You repeat sheepishly.

Sierra just stares at you, her expression unreadable. You shift around uncomfortably under her scrutinizing gaze.

"How long have you been able to use this?" She asks.

"Since today?" You say, a little unsure. "I woke up and I felt... different. It's a little hard to explain."

She looks over to Lucas and says, "Did you know about this?"

Lucas sighs and nods his head, but doesn't say anything.

"Lucas, I'm sorry." You say quickly, feeling yourself getting emotional. " I needed to help, Sierra. I know you're mad that I used magic even though you asked me not to, but I-"

"I'm not mad."

You stop in your tracks and look at at him. "You're not?"

"No." He sighs. "Disappointed, but not mad. I'd be mad if you got hurt or if Sierra got hurt. I mean, the last time you got hurt, so I-"

"Wait, Medea got hurt because of this?!" Sierra exclaims looking back to you with concern. "Is that why your back is covered in bruises?!"

"Her rips are also broken." Lucas says.

"The hell, Medea?!" Sierra yells as she looks at you with a look of anger and worry. "Why are you using this on me and not you?!"

"Because you're my best friend!" You yell back. "And you were way more hurt than I was! I was worried about you! I was afraid you were going to drop at some point and we'd have to leave you! I wasn't going to let that happen, Sierra!"

"How come you are hurt in the first place?!"

"I got hurt trying to help you!" Sierra looks at you alarmed. You take a deep breathe, trying to regain your composure. "After we messed up trying to make bandages out of your jacket, I tried to heal you. It... didn't work out."

Sierra looks at you with worried eyes, then her gaze travel to the empowered strip of your shirt that was on her arm. She stares at it for a moment then slips it off.

"Sierra-"

"Shut up, you idiot." She sighs as she grabs your arm and slips the enchanted bandage around your arm. It a moment you feel a wave of energy radiate from the magical object through your body. You feel pain leave you as you feel your broken rip shift back into place as they fuse back together. It was over quickly and you felt completely renewed. Sierra eyes you up and asks, "Did it work?"

"Y-yeah."

"I figured as much." She says as she eyes the strip of magical fabric. "I assume you enchanted it, so I guessed that their is enough energy for multiple use."

"How'd you figure that out?" You ask.

"Shot in the dark really." She admits with a shrug. "I have no idea how any of this shit works."

"You and me both." You chuckle bitterly.

"So how come none of you told me when you found me?" She asks, narrowing her eyes at you and Lucas. You shift around where you stood while Lucas rubs at the back of his head.

"You were more important to focus on..." You say.

"And you were the one who wanted to talk about a time when things were normal." Lucas adds.

Sierra looks between the two of you and nods her head. "Alright, but no more secrets alright?"

You and Lucas nod in agreement.

"Good." She says folding her arms. "Can't believe you destroyed my jacket for nothing, though."

"I said I was sorry!" You whine, but Sierra chuckles in amusement.

"Don't worry," She says smiling slyly. "I blame Lucas."

"It was Medea's idea." He retorts pointing at you, to which you shoot him an annoyed look. He isn't wrong, but still!

"Blaming a woman for your mistake isn't very gentlemanly of you, Lucas." Sierra teases. She loses her smile and focuses back onto you. "And about you and your, uh, magic. The fact you can end up hurting yourself because of it troubles me. So promise me that you'll only use it when necessary?"

She looks at you unexpectedly, and Lucas also turns his gaze onto you. You never got the chance to, but Lucas did wanted you to promise not to use it ever again. Honestly, you understand where both of them are coming from. Of course it's not like you wanted to hurt yourself. Still, this power of your's can be useful. At the very least you owe them this much and you don't want to fight with Sierra over it.

"Fine." You say. "I promise."

"Okay." Sierra nods. "Let's get going?"

You nod and walking over to the end of the floor, scanning the water between the three of you and the other corridor. It wasn't a far jump, so you decided that will be the path you'll take. You take a few steps backwards, estimating the jump before, then rushed forward and leaped over the water to the other side. After you cleared the jump Sierra was the next to make the leap, followed by Lucas. Once the three of you were across you proceeded down the hall away from the water. But as you moved away you felt this bizarre sense of being watched as you moved away...

You tried shaking it off as you focused on the path before you, turning a corner and coming across a stairway. The stairway spiraled down deeper into the earth, completely engulfed in shadows as the torches that lined its stone walls had long since gone out.

And the still the feeling of being watched continued. You looked to Sierra and Lucas, and although they didn't say anything you can see the fear clear in their eyes. They feel it to. Something was watching you. But where you couldn't be certain. It felt like it was all around you. Watching your every move ever since you leap across that water. But you can't stand here forever.

[ ] Go back.

[ ] Descend down the stairs.

[ ] Cast a spell - Write in (Secondary action may be taken)

[X] Descend down the stairs.

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It seems like you only have one option, and that was to go down these steps. You couldn't go back, you've done enough backtracking in this goddamn place. You have to keep moving forward if you ever want to get out of here, and not tuck tail and run back to places you've been the moment things get scary. Though things were pretty scary right now. Despite how you've had "normal" discussions with Lucas and Sierra, deep down you were terrified. And right now this feeling of being watched did not comfort you, especially as you prepared yourself to traverse down a flight of dark stairs.

You move towards a torch on the stone wall, take hold of it and pry it off the wall. You look to Lucas and then to Sierra, analysing their faces. They look scared but hold a certain confidence in their eyes as they look at you. You nod to them and turn towards the stairs again.

"Deep breaths, Medea."

You breathe in...

"You got this, girl."

...You breathe out and take your first tentative step forward towards the unknown. You take slow careful steps down the old and cracked stone steps, Lucas and Sierra following your lead. As you walked down the winding stairway you couldn't help but feel dread as the sensation of being watched intensified with every step you took towards the darkness of the depths below, the sounds of your and your friends' footsteps being the only thing breaking the otherwise deathly silence of the stairway which only served to unnerve you more. Eventually you reached the bottom of the stairs and stepped out into the room before you.

The moment your feet made contact with the ground you felt the feeling of being watched dissipate, much to your relief. You look back to your companions and see that they too were relieved that the feeling was gone. You didn't have to say anything, one look of their faces told you everything you needed to know. You turn back towards the rest of the room and then frown at what you saw.

You were in what appeared to be a massive room, with no light source besides the torch in your hand thus plunging the whole room in an oppressive darkness. You looked to your left and to your right but you could see no walls, the darkness of the room seemingly endless as it stretched further than the light of your torch could reach. You could barely see a couple of pillars at the edge of the light, standing maybe a good sixteen feet tall as they held up the stone ceiling of the chamber.

Cautiously you move forward deeper into the darkness, passing through the two support pillars in short order. As you venture further into the abyssal darkness you spot more support pillars coming into view by the light of your torch, and another set beyond them. And yet, no matter how far you walk there seems to be no end to this room. It must be truly massive if you had not reached the end of it yet. As you walked you couldn't help but feel a little unnerved that the only sounds you heard within the room were the sound of your and your friends' footsteps echoing through the vast and empty chamber.

Minutes passed, and still no sight of the end of the room, but eventually you saw something standing high appearing at the edge of the light. As you approached, the light revealed to you an obelisk.

You stopped dead in your tracks after you made out what it was. The obelisk looked much like the one you encountered before but it was different. At the base of the obelisk there appeared to be stone hands reaching up and touching the pillar, while a statue of a creature curled itself around the length of the obelisk, embracing the erect stone pillar with long, gangly arms. Of course, you weren't sure what the hell the creature was even supposed to be. The closest analogy your mind could come up to describe it was some sort of a hybrid, with a long serpentine or an eel-like body with the head of some marine reptile and the elongated, misshapen, hairless arms of some primate. But even as you describe its likeness to yourself your own mind is rejecting that description.

Tearing your eyes away from the obelisk you notice something behind it, just outside the light's reach. Moving forward, the fire's light illuminates the area behind the obelisk, bringing a set of four altars into view. Curious you move forward towards the altars.

As you approach, more of the details become clearer to you and you notice something interesting about these altars...

"Are these... the same altars from that basement?" Sierra speaks up, her voice echoing through the quite empty chamber disturbingly. "Why are they down here?"

"I don't know." You say as you eye up the eagle altar from a distance. It was certainly odd that these would be here. "Though I'm not sure these are the same ones. I mean, they might be duplicates."

If they were duplicates, they were completely exact. Right down to the very last detail they were identical to the altars you all found in the basement of the abandoned house.

"Hey, what are those sitting on them?" Lucas said pointing to the tops of the altars.

You look to where he was pointing and you see that there were, in fact, things sitting on the altars. You step closer to get a better look and once you are close enough you see that sitting on the altars are skulls. Or rather, masks made from skulls. The human altar has a mask made from a human skull, the lion altar has a mask that was made from some sort of canine's skull, the bull's was made from the skull of a deer or an elk, and the eagle was made from some very large bird's skull.

What were these for? You assumed they must have been used for some ritual but you couldn't hazard a guess as to what. And just why were they here? The basement altars didn't have these skull masks sitting on them, so why are these here but not there?

"This is freaking me out a bit." Sierra admitted, shuffling towards you a bit. "Can we go back?"

"No," You said. "I've done enough backtracking through this godforsaken place. We'll have to keep going."

Silence fell after that point. It was so quiet that it actually kind of scared you just standing here, with the all consuming darkness being held at bay by the flickering fire of the torch in your hand.

You need to keep going forward. No matter what, you can't just keep going back when things get scary. But as you think on what to do next, you can't help but feel a sense of morbid curiosity creeping over you as you stood there between the obelisk and the altars. Curiosity that begged to know.

[ ] Interact with the obelisk - Write in

[ ] Interact with the altars surrounding the obelisk - Write in

[ ] Move on from the obelisk and keep moving forward.

[ ] Cast a spell - Write in (Secondary option may be taken)