>>5198301>>5198287>>5198281>>5198268>>5198260>Press onward. That’s quite enough.“Very well.” You decide a name is fine enough. You turn your back to the shrine. “Let’s depart.”
“Fine, fine–do try to keep up.” Ava releases a long sigh of exasperation as she stands from her lean. With a flourish, she removes the rapier from its sheath. “However, a fair word of caution; at full sprint, this trip usually takes me several hours. But with a bastard noble and his portly housekeeper on my back.. you may need a cane before we reach the bottom.”
“..I’ll do my best.” Noelle bows.
The second block of the catacombs–GRAVESIDE. As you step out from the shrine into the new block, you are assailed all at once by a maelstrom of chill winds and gael’s howls. A mind-bogglingly vast abyss stretches out before you, a circular chasm lined and spiraled by immense tombstones that stick from the walls and descend downward into it like the spikes of an iron maiden. You take a cautious step onto the first step–the stone surface is vast. 15 meters long, perhaps..?
“If you keep up at that pace, you’ll join these stones.” Ava rolls her eyes as she leaps gracefully to the next. “Shall I carry you?”
You grumble beneath your breath as you maneuver down the block, from one step to another–on occasion, you might have to climb up along a different tomb upward and then back downward again, or even clamber along an open ledge along the chasm’s walls. Your breath and patience begins to run short as an hour ticks by without sight of another human nor monster, only broken corpses.
“And <span class="mu-i">why</span> are we going up again?” You gasp, your face slick with sweat as you pull the weight of your sword and supplies up along another stone. “What purpose does this serve? There’s a path down right there.”
“I know what I’m doing. This route is one of the shortest.” Ava scowls, seemingly having grown just as short-tempered as you have. “Believe me, I’m not a fan of this either. Dragging you along like this.. we’d be near halfway there by now if I was alone. Maybe I should’ve shoved you down and plied along with the maid.”
“..My apologies. I seem to have cause some upset.” Noelle glances back down to you. She’s had a rather easy go about it, much to your surprise–the handmaiden shows no signs of fatigue despite the strenuousness of the climb. And.. her knife appears freshly wet, despite not having run into any monsters. What..?
A low, drawn out wail catches your attention from below, along the route of graves that go downward. You cast your gaze downward–while you might not see the wail’s root from beyond the veil of black below, the rest of your party certainly heard it. “Bah. Another death..?” Ava sighs. “Ignore it. We’d best finish quickly. I’m certainly not stopping.”
>Investigate the source of the wail.>Continue along with Ava.>Interrogate Noel. What’s become of her knife?>Write-In. 