Ganymede felt himself slam into something smaller than him, and judging by Sailor Soul's reaction it must have been an attacker. The pressure of the smoke increased, and he started to get a headache. He wasn't able to attack the creature he had run into as he coughed a few times to try and clear his lungs. He saw it get up and try to run for it, and Ganymede forced himself to run after it even with his now hazy vision and bleeding nose.

As the smoke grew thicker Achelois found it harder to see as her eyes burned and began tearing up.  A commotion behind the pair caused her to turn around back towards the group.  She could make out fighting, yelling, and Mossen crying for help.  She didn’t want to leave Enya alone in the smoke but it sounded like the others needed help.   Before she could take off running towards the group the noise from that area became louder; more voices, more people, more attacks.  It sounded like people had already gone to help them. 

As the smoke grew thicker Achelois felt a warm liquid begin to trickle from her nose.  She reached up and touched the liquid with the tip of her finger; dark red.  Achelois gripped her staff and clenched her hand into a fist.  Can I really do nothing? As she tensed up she burst into a coughing fit.  As she tried to calm her breathing down she heard Enya call her name.  Achelois turned back around as her coughing eased to find that she could no longer see the other Senshi.  Achelois closed her eyes and focused on her breathing.  It was difficult but she found a rhythm that brought coughing down to a minimum. 


“Enya!” She called out, her voice raspy from smoke and the earlier coughing fit.  She knew that she was in the area ahead of her but she couldn’t pinpoint exactly where…  Should she attempt to find her?  In a fog this thick the only way they could keep tabs on each other was through physical contact, but that would only hinder Enya.  For the moment Achelois took a defensive stance with both hands on her staff and angled in front of her.

DM wrote:

Shadow's efforts lowers the smoke from the tree tops to around 2/3 down their length! The smoke is about 3 feet above their heads!

The smoke thickens

• defensive dex is lowered by 7! 
  
• Perception is lowered by 5! 
  
• Characters within the smoke cannot see their hands in front of their face!
  

The air pressure raises

• characters in the smoke will now feel pressure from all sides that starts to hurt immensely! 
  
• Every breath is difficult! Characters with HP less than 15 fall to their knees! (Red below!)
  
• Ears pop! 
  
• Blood vessels in eyes pop! (All eyes are red and hurt immensely!)
  
• Mossen Faints!
  

The acrid fumes from the lake condense

• The fumes start to condense! Acid is mixing with the sweat on their bodies!
  
• Noses that weren't bleeding before are bleeding now!
  

Everyone within the cloud loses another 3 HP!


 

	Player	HP	MP
Enyalius	Uranus	30	15
Achelois	Anait	28	23
Andromeda	Mercury	8	25
Bellatrix	Pluto	9	15
Shadow	Jasper	26	14
Soul	Addelyn	16	19
Ganymede	JupiterThunderCrash	22	13
Leviathan	CJ	14	15
Pluto	CrystalSetsuna	17	15
Venus	Miss Moon Rose	14	28

DM wrote:

The gnome easily loses Ganymede in the smoke!

She heard Achelois calling back and moved forward cautiously, the sound bouncing and spreading with the thick smoke terribly. It was getting worse. Enyalius grunted as her ears popped, her lungs struggling to breathe. Blood was gushing from her nose now. She dropped her sword; there was no way she would be able to fight like this. She couldn't see anything, the air was so thick in front of her. Her skin started to prickle and burn; what was going on?!

As the air grew thicker around her, she began coughing again despite her attempts not too.  The blood gushed out of her nose with more force and she couldn’t wipe the red liquid away fast enough.  Her eyes burned from the acid and she blinked repeatedly to try and ease the pain.  The pressure became intense and caused her ears to pop.  She lowered herself down into a kneeling position and wondered how the others were doing.  There was nothing she could do for them until this fog was gone.  For the moment she could only bear it and hope that the group would make it out still conscious.

Sailor Venus was taken completely by surprise when smoke erupted in front of her, engulfing everyone at the front of their group. She lost their forms immediately and took multiple steps back, making sure to stay away from the malicious air. She had a feeling that the smoke was no-doubt dangerous, but over half of their party was trapped within. Seconds passed, and Venus could hear multiple shouts and screams. Sounds of battle, metal entering bodies, and cries of pain reached Venus's ears, and she watched in shock as the fog only seemed to grow thicker. She knew everyone was in danger, and she had to help.

"EVERYONE, GET OUT OF THE SMOKE, NOW!!!!!!" She screamed at the top of her lungs. She continued to yell, hoping her voice could reach those trapped. Clenching her fists and sucking in a huge intake of air, she held her breath and ran into the smoke. Her eyes immediately began to burn as she searched for other figures, but the smoke was incredibly thick. Her breath was still held as she ran, hoping to run into someone soon. She kept her chain in her hand, ready to lash out if she came across an enemy. She needed to hurry - Sailor Mercury had only taught her how to hold her breath for so long.

As the gnome finally dropped dead—and not a moment too soon too—Andromeda fell to her knees beside him. She thought she was going blind. Her ears popped and the pressure increased, making her unable to concentrate on anything. She squinted her eyes closed and was even barely aware that her nose was bleeding profusely. What was this hell that she was in? She thought the acid was bad earlier, but this—this feeling of being trapped with nowhere to go—was worse. She felt as if she were in a box and all the walls were pressing ever closer.

Soon she would run out of room. And then what? Was she going to literally explode?

Ganymede Knight cursed and started coughing again as the gnome disappeared. The smoke was getting even worse, and he was forced to stop running as the pain intensified. His ears popped and his eyes stung so much he could barely keep them open. He pinched the bridge of his nose to try and stem the bleeding.

As the crushing mass of air moved past her face, Enyalius could finally breathe again. A coughing fit wracked her body, an she struggled not to fall over; there was a clear line in the smoke, as though an invisible force was pushing it downwards; everything below her chest was still compressed from all sides, still burning and aching - What was this?! Looking around she could see no sign of Achelois - "Achelois?!" she called around her coughs. Farther back from the path she could see Sailor Soul from her shoulders up - what was happening back there?!

She made to rush forward, but froze, remembering her sword. She had dropped it; it was still down there somewhere. She pulled her tiara from her head and strode through the slowly lowering fog as one might through a pool, cursing the gods for the pain all over her body, the burns she was feeling on her skin. More acid. If they didn't come across a clear pool of water soon...

Her strides shortened until she was stopped as the thought traveled. They had to find water... and the only one who might know where some was, was Mossen... Mossen had been left with Bellatrix, whom she couldn't see... What if they were somewhere beneath the smoke? What if she stepped on them, or on him?! She stayed rooted to the spot. "Mossen! Bellatrix!"

Every breath hurt. Andromeda had tried to keep herself up with her hands planted on the ground in front of her, but the pain was everywhere now. She was seeing stars. She was going to pass out again. Was she really facing death for the second time in a span of a few minutes? Her body tilted and she fell, her mouth open in a futile attempt to suck in fresh air. She was crying tears of blood and began to wonder if this was her punishment for withholding forgiveness for so long. Maybe she deserved a horrible death.

Stupid... cursed... blasted... planet…

Even her thoughts were stuttered now.

As the air grew thicker the fog began to feel more like a liquid than a gas.  Achelois struggled to breathe but she couldn’t tell what was worse, taking in the liquid acid or holding in the acid already in her lungs.  She heard Enya call her name and gripping her staff she used it to push herself up from her kneeling position.  At first it was heavy but as she broke through the layer she found that the air above her chest was thinner.  Achelois gasped for breath as she looked around.  There was still a yellow tint to the air but she could see now.   She spun until she saw Enya looking around for something.   As she walked over to Enya she tried to hold as much of her arms above the layer of dense smoke.  Before she reached her she saw her turn and yell out to Mossen and Bellatrix.  Achelois stopped where she was, if he was unconscious somewhere…  They would need to find him and quick.  Achelois looked back towards the path they had come down but could only see Soul.  Were the others farther back or on the ground?

DM wrote:

Shadow's efforts lowers the smoke! The smoke falls to the ground, compressing into a thin layer of yellow ilk and acid on the dirt.

All characters are revealed; one dead gnome bodies can be spotted near Andromeda in the middle group; The groups on the extremes (Enyalius and Achelois, then Shadow, Pluto and Leviathan), can see the middle group (Bellatrix, Andromeda, Venus, Ganymede, Soul), but cannot see each other from where they are standing.  The middle group can see the two dead gnomes Enyalius has killed.

There is no sign of the other gnome(s), or Mossen.

 

	Player	HP	MP
Enyalius	Uranus	30	15
Achelois	Anait	25	23
Andromeda	Mercury	5	25
Bellatrix	Pluto	6	15
Shadow	Jasper	26	14
Soul	Addelyn	16	19
Ganymede	JupiterThunderCrash	19	13
Leviathan	CJ	14	15
Pluto	CrystalSetsuna	17	15
Venus	Miss Moon Rose	11	28

As the smoke finally pushed to the ground and Enyalius could see where she was heading, she strode back for her blade and, still coughing, picked it up and hurried over to her downed allies. As she got closer, she could see the rest of the group behind them; Pluto looked a little worse for wear, but they seemed otherwise fine - their faces clean of blood and their eyes still white. They had been lucky, then. She kept her distance, leaving the fallen ones to be checked over by Achelois, and instead stood watch, her eyes searching the foliage around them for any sign of the enemy... or Mossen.

"Has anyone seen Mossen?" She asked, managing to cough only once in her sentence. The air was clearer and cooler now, as though taken from higher above them.

Finally as the layer of smoke hit the ground several forms began to appear.  Achelois dashed over to find Venus and Ganymede a tangled mess but what took her attention was the bad shape Bellatrix and Andromeda were in.   They were covered in small burns everywhere and their faces were covered with blood; their breathing was haggard and their faces pale.  Achelois immediately came up next to them and began to glow.  She focused her healing energy on Andromeda and Bellatrix at the same time.  She hoped that one wave would be enough to get them back on their feet.

Ganymede Knight wasn't able to react when Sailor Venus ran into him, and they both hit the ground. The smoke was still too thick to let him breathe, and he couldn't even concentrate enough to try and untangle himself. Then the pressure was suddenly lifted and his head cleared. He could see a couple of senshi on the floor, but Achelois was already tending to them, so he concentrated on standing up again. It was then that he realized that Venus was the weight that knocked him down while he was blinded.

"Uh, do you mind shifting a little..?" he asked, trying to get out from under her.

Shadow lowered his arms, letting the telekinetic field drop as soon as the smoke was pressed into the ground. His mouth dropped in surprise over what had occurred within; the senshi appeared worse for wear! To make matters worse, he couldn't see Mossen anywhere on the ground. Wounds aside, only two bodies remained as evidence of their struggles against the sinister cutthroats.

This one was my fault. I won't deny it, but there is no reason for me to be the first to acknowledge my mistake out loud. He had made a mess of things, and the experience was sure to leave a bitter taste in his mouth. Nonethless, all Shadow could do was keep moving onward and use it as a lesson learned.

"Are you okay?" He rushed over to Sailor Pluto to examine her injuries from the reflected Chronos Typhoon. She still appeared to be standing and keeping watch over Leviathan, whom he could only imagine had never experienced this degree of pain since her reincarnation. Some of the girl's words had wandered to his ears, but he had not paid them much attention.

Shadow gestured with his head towards the dead gnomes, watching Pluto (and Leviathan, by extension) with a troubled countenance. "Mossen's not anywhere to be found. I've got only two leads to follow; can you help me make some space around them?"

OOC:

"Are you guys ok?" she asked when she spotted Ganymede on the ground with Venus on top of him. She heard him ask Venus to shift and Soul could feel a bubble of hurt swell in her throat which she ruthlessly pushed down. It's not like there was anything between them, not really anyway.

Satisfied they were alright for the time being, she continued to survey what was going on. "Has anyone seen Mossen?"

"Bellatrix? Andromeda?" Enyalius asked, turning to the pair to answer Soul's question, though it was clear to her that Mossen was with neither girl, and each had been dealt terrible blows from one force or another.

He was gone, then. 

"Look around for him," she suggested, "Whatever pressurized the air probably affected him more than us. Keep your guard up; who knows if the others creatures have left or are still hanging around."


She carefully fit her tiara back into her hair and strode over to the bushes, searching carefully for any sign of a threat, or their tiny fairy guide.

After seeing that the two Senshi looked a little better Achelois looked around at the others.  It seemed like there was some damage taken; Pluto appeared to have taken a lot of damage but her overall health wasn’t too low.  Achelois decided to hold onto what little power she had left even with so much damage having been dealt from this… ordeal.  She didn’t like not being able to rejuvenate the group but she knew that it was best to wait while they still could.


Achelois stood by as the group questioned one another about Mossen.  If they could just find him…  She began to look in the nearby bushes after seeing Enya do the same.  Maybe by luck they would find him.

Sailor Leviathan chuckled and giggled until Sailor Pluto unleashed her Chronos Typhoon. Her eyes went buggy when the attack bounced off of an unseen force and shot back at them. Fortunately, she was able to dodge it in time, but she became separated from Pluto in the smoke.

"Sailor Pluto?" she called out in fear.

She heard terrible noises. Sitting on the ground to try and stop inhaling the smoke, rational thoughts came speeding back into her mind. That's right. She was on a mission with other senshi. They were trying to attack some kind of fish... but she wasn't aware of how that encounter burned her clothes.

"Guys?" she asked.

Long after, the battle ended. Sailor Leviathan found herself walking with the group again. She was confused, but no longer delirious. For some reason, she recalled telling Pluto about the degrading articles she had written about her. That was impossible though. There was no way she'd tell her about something like that.

Sighing, she nodded when Sailor Enyalius made an executive decision.

"I agree with the armor chick. We should go straight."

Leviathan immediately started to head left. Maybe she wasn't all that there yet.

Mossen..

His search of the dead gnomes provided little of material use. They used crude knives fashioned from bone, and their other possessions indicated that the lake provided them with a necessary reagent for their smoke bombs.

Shadow grit his teeth, then nodded his acceptance of Enyalius's driving desire to push ahead to the castle. They had to find the Queen and save her before the already hostile planet of Zenar could get worse. But perhaps they didn't have to go blindly.

Before Leviathan could veer down the left path, Shadow ran forward to guide her back into the group. "These sharp little bastards were wearing shoes! Perhaps they left tracks; can someone with sharper eyes help me find them?"

Sailor Venus rolled off of Ganymede and stood, saying, "My apologies." This journey was beginning to become more and more intense by the minute, and there was only so much sanity the senshi of love had. She felt weak and tired, and her lungs burned from having held her breath for so long. Thankfully, she was able to breathe when the smoke disappeared, but the amount she was exposed to burned her eyes.

Her judgment was beginning to cloud with every scenario she entered, and she knew it was way past time to pull herself together. Taking a deep breath, she thought of Serenity and all of the other senshi back home. She thought of Artemis, and Chibiusa, and the beauty of Crystal Tokyo. It was more than enough to assist her in composing herself. Squaring her shoulders and ignoring the aching pain throughout her body, Venus agreed with Enyalius by saying, "I think we should go straight, as well."

She just wanted the pain to end… and suddenly it did. Now recognizing the healing magic of Achelois after being exposed to it so many times, Andromeda blinked and sat up, feeling as if she had just been injected with a rejuvenating solution. She took a deep, long breath and thought her lungs had never been more grateful. “Thank you,” she said in awe to the healing senshi before she left. How many times had she owed Achelois her life now? She’d literally saved her life at least three times over counting the previous mission. It was like having nine lives. And yet she knew that it was not given for free. Achelois’ own magic must be depleting, and as much as she wished she wouldn’t keep dying, she began to wonder if saving her life would prove worth it every time if fate seemed intent on making her die young since she was fifteen years old. Maybe this was some kind of curse.

Shaking herself off from the dreary thoughts, she helped Bellatrix up and realized with dismay that their guide seemed to be missing. She shook her head at the question about where he might be; she hadn’t seen him since he took off after she warned him to hide. Had he gotten captured after all? Or had he simply decided he’d faced near death one too many times and decided to use the opportunity to leave and save his life? Feeling disappointed and like an utter failure when her brief search yielded no result, she followed the others reluctantly. How were they supposed to navigate the forest without him?

When they arrived at the crossroads, she took a moment to drink from her own supply of water. It was when she raised her hand to tip the container that she realized all the burns from the explosion were completely healed. Again, she looked toward Achelois with a mix of gratitude, awe, and concern. She couldn’t keep doing this.

To the question of the right path to take, she didn’t particularly have any preference—as long as they all got the hell away from this damned lake.

“Straight’s fine with me,” she muttered.

She turned to Shadow questioningly, wondering why he wanted to go after the gnomes. Did he hope to find Mossen, thinking he’d been captured?

Sailor Bellatrix

The soothing warmth of Achelois's healing was a comforting thing. She remembered it from before, and she welcomed it now. Standing, Bellatrix instinctively went to see how Mossen was fairing in all of this. She thought that she might have blacked out, as the last couple of minutes were all kind of blank.

Mossen was not with her, and she could hear everyone trying to find him. The realization hit her then that Mossen was gone. She had failed him, and the entire group as a protector for their guide. What a waste of a senshi she was, to not even be able to protect someone put into her care.

A part of her wanted to apologize, but she didn't quite know what to say.

Talk of choosing a direction came up, and Bellatrix tried to focus herself on that. It was important to continue on, right? But she couldn't stop from feeling like she was a completely useless senshi at the moment.

"Straight sounds good," Bellatrix said. "Though what if Mossen comes back here to find us, and we are gone?"

But then, that was assuming he hadn't been killed during all of this.

Bellatrix looked down to the ground, unable to face any of her comrades at the moment. "I apologize for not protecting him better. I suppose he would want us to continue on with the mission, no matter what."

Many senshi agreed with her choice in path, though Shadow, it seemed, intended upon following their enemy. While she understood where he came from, their primary goal was reaching the castle before it was too late for the fairy queen, and taking precious time to search for their lost guide may well prove to be a hopeless distraction, especially should the path lead to some sort of pack of the animals. Her lips pressed into a small, hard line: she would not wish that fate on anyone. The creatures were intelligent, well earning their 'crafty' reputation, and had relatively high constitutions; who knew how they fought in numbers, or if Mossen were even still alive... they had never asked about the motives of the enemies they were facing. Yet another missed opportunity, and a world of horrible imaginings as to Mossen's fate, had he been captured and not escaped. No, chasing after Mossen was noble, was just, but it would not allow them to accomplish the greater good they had been sent to do. 

She might have said so herself, and in similar fashion, had Bellatrix's heartfelt query not followed so soon behind. The depression in her tone and the defeat in her stance resonated with Enyalius, and she knew the girl should not go a moment longer thinking Mossen's disappearance was on her tall shoulders alone. Sheathing her sword, she quickly moved to stand before the blonde young warrior unarmed, her copper gaze looking up into her light blue eyes, slightly shifting as she searched from eye to eye to make sure she had Bellatrix's attention. Lightly she laid a comforting hand on the girl's forearm, "Bellatrix, this is not your fault. I heard Mossen's warning; I know the fight was not easy for you, nor was it for any of us. You did your best against cruel foes, but fate was not kind. What happened to Mossen is on me for foolishly leaving the group behind, is on our enemy for their cruelty, and is on whatever magic they possessed that pressed the air in around us. It is not on you." She felt a cough coming and let go of the girl to turn her head away, her lungs spasming from smoke and acid inhalation. When she finished she looked to Bellatrix, then over to Andromeda, then to Soul, and Ganymede, and Venus, and Achelois - everyone who's countenance bore the markings of someone who had been trapped in that hellish haze, and then caught Pluto, Shadow and Leviathan's gaze, as she was sure they were not idle during the fight. "We all fought bravely and honorably, and I have the deepest trust in all of you." 

She turned back to Bellatrix, "If Mossen is alive and returns here, he will know where we went." She turned and walked towards one of the trees on either side of their intended path, removed her tiara, and quickly scratched an arrow pointing straight, smirking as she did so about what the fairy's reaction might have been had he seen it. "And he will either follow us to scold me for harming his trees, or he will return safely to the fairy city, and wish us well from there."

She strode over to the center of the mouth of the middle path and looked back on them all, her eyes pausing on Shadow as she said, "Either way, I believe we should keep moving forward. I do not like the idea of potentially leaving an innocent behind, but I like less the notion of letting his and his people's worst fear come to pass. If you would like to split up at this point, and send a small squadron after the gnomes in hopes of learning Mossen's fate, now would be the time to do so. I will continue on to the castle and face this Evil One they so fear with whomever will join me. Do what you feel is right." She would have turned at that point and started walking, but remembered well her previous mistake and stayed in place, though averted her gaze as not to pressure the party into coming with her.

OOC:

Pluto watched her attack fly, she could already feel a bit of the wind it would produce. She almost smiled, until the attack rebounded against something and her eyes widened. She tried to move out of the way, but was not fast enough, though she saw Leviathan diving away. She cried out and was knocked down. She groaned, feeling much more sore all over. What had happened? She slowly dragged herself up, hearing something from Shadow, but not quite understanding. She leaned against her staff, still feeling mildly groggy.. She could see the fog was gone now, from whatever Shadow had done. And he was coming over to her, asking about her. “I...I'm fine. Mostly. I didn't think that would happen...”

She got her breath back a little and frowned a bit baffled from what Shadow had said. But then he was already searching the bodies, and everyone was agreeing to head on. Then she realized completely Mossen was gone and she clenched her staff tightly with both hands. What had happened to him? He should have been kept safe! But then, she heard Shadow talking about tracks and Pluto lifted her head hopefully. Did they have the time? But they couldn't really afford to go on without their guide could they? Enyalius spoke and Pluto bit her bottom lip gently. The planet had to be saved...but their guide.

She knew what Usagi would have done. She would have immediately declared her intentions to save Mossen, no matter what. And she had always somehow come out in the end, things perhaps better than they would have been. At the very least, they had to give an explanation if something happened to him. They owed the other fairies that much at least, as it would have been their fault if something had happened. And the senshi had split up many times in the past. But then distance didn't matter when your hearts were connected, did it? The mission could still be accomplished, and Mossen possibly saved.

She closed her garnet eyes a moment, then stepped forward, determination on her face. “I will go with you Shadow, to find Mossen. We must know what has happened to him, for our sakes and the other fairy's.” She turned to the others now, with a gentle smile. “I know those who choose to continue onwards can do this. You all seem like very capable senshi...and I am proud to call you my teammates.” she addressed them, all of them. She took a moment to meet each of their eyes. Yes, she would follow in her queens footsteps.

"...I guess I'll go too," Ganymede said after a few moments. "But just for protection." He did feel kind of bad about losing Mossen like that. He said he'd protect him, but now the fairy was gone, and it wouldn't be right to let Shadow and Pluto go off alone to find him. Even if he couldn't track, he could still fight. And Ganymede was still somewhat hesitant about leaving Shadow alone with a senshi, so now he could keep a closer eye on the man.

Sailor Leviathan had a choice.

Should she continue with Sailor Enyalius and the others to go to the castle? Or should she go with Shadow, Sailor Pluto and Ganymede Knight on what could be a pointless mission? It was clear what she should do.

"I'll go to get Mossen too. We'll totally save him and this planet too! Just you wait!"

In reality, Leviathan's fear was getting the best of her again. She had to admit. She didn't want Mossen to die, but trying to find him now was likely fruitless. The fairy was likely gone forever, which meant that getting to the castle would be that much harder. Leviathan rather preferred staying in the forest than rushing to a castle that would be likely full of more dangers than this place.

Her one regret was not waiting to see what Sailor Venus would decide. She prayed the senshi would be OK. She'd hate to have to write her hero's memoir in the newspaper.

"I'm with Pluto!" she cheered. "You guys can do it! I believe in you!"

She didn't.