[PP-F27] The Mysterious Divide, Part I: Dagan

[Morningstar 0]

He eyed the remaining NPCs, trying his best to judge their weight. He tapped his chin. "Two of the smaller ones at best. I haven't been to a gym in    years. And I was really more of a squatter," he shrugged. "I'll head out with this group and then come back for the others. Keep 'em alive for a while."

His group stumbled around in the dark. They were much less enthusiastic about it than NIGHT, but Morningstar's glow stone soon cheered them up. He remembered it about half way through the tunnel and immediately felt silly. NIGHT probably could have bumped into him a few less times had he equipped the stone earlier.

The stone formed in his hand and light poured into the halls of the mine. The villagers awed aloud, curious about the odd type of rock the player held in the air. They could see quite far, but the light wasn't endless. "Stay close, please. Single file. Cheers."

At their would-be exit, Morningstar discovered that his pully system had gone slack. Fair. Their arms were probably tired. He called out for whoever was on the other side to lift the boulder, but no response came. He gave the crumbling rock wall a brief knock, but no one returned a thing. 

MS: uh nobody's opening up the cave for us.

[NIGHT 0]

"two of the smaller ones at best. i haven't been to a gym in    years.”

night made a sound.

“wait, how did you say that—”

star didn’t answer, but they agreed upon her waiting behind. so there she was, idling on her lonesome, making sure the injured didn’t pick at their wounds. gravel sifted and fell through the cracks of the ceiling, but there was no sign of any activity that would send her to be on alert.

then the message game.

NIGHT: wym

she paused to think.

NIGHT: can we destroy the rock w/ a sword art

it was probably the worst possible suggestion for her to have made in that moment, given the risk of introducing yet another collapse within the caves. and yet, night struggled to come up with an alternate solution. she had half a mind to go wandering in the dark again, taking the other route less travelled by — maybe star did have a point to head down that direction after all. they could only be sure after they exhausted all of their options.

but while night waited on star’s cue to move, she eyed the walls of the cavern around her. were there any possible other exits? probably not, but it couldn’t hurt to try.

NIGHT: or all of u start singing to get their attention on the otherside
NIGHT: lol