Ben quickly departed, and though Ian expressed his eagerness to follow, his brother took the lead to Ben's left as the former took the time to secure a torch from the side of the door. Galen remains sitting and reading while Jeremy is unfortunately caught and held rapt by sleep. "Hold on a sec," Owen tells Ben, as he casts the spell that left the unseen mark upon his spellbook. To this Jeremy finally wrests himself from sleep with the realization that the bed he should have been sleeping in was not wrought of stone.

"Ian, Owen, Ben?" Jeremy saw the three at the door. Still mostly engrossed in his book, the name of the long haired teen escaped him at first. "Galen?"

"Holy . . ." Owen interrupted. Jeremy steped closer just in time to watch the fading lines of the design. "Krutz?" Galen offered to finish the oath. Owen glanced up at him, "Sure. Onward then."

Galen shut his spell book and rose to his feet conveniently close to one of the torches set along the sides of the room. He extracted the thin limb of wood and cloth from the metal arm holding it and followed behind Jeremy. The shortest, blond haired high-school student continued to ask questions, "What is this place? How did we get here?"

"I don't know," Galen responded from behind him. The ideas work through Jeremy's head until he concludes another question. "Have we been kidnapped?"

"That," Owen begins, pausing to step out into the darkness after the impatient leader, Ben, "is a possibility. Do you remember what dream you had?"

The fairly wide hallway took a turn to the right, where it apparantly opened into a larger room.

-Sorry if it seems like I'm rushing things. Those who remember anything about the first time through will know that you have a total of 2-3 seconds to reply to each other before I throw in the first initiative rolls.-

much later note: Galen doesn't have a spellbook anymore, remember.

The faintly disgusting aroma that clung very barely in the air began to stengthen as the friends moved down the hall. As soon as they turned the corner the could see that the hall opened up, including that the ceiling suddenly shot up and away into darkness. It wasn't until another few steps that the two standing human skeletons were visible.

No visible explaination was given for their full standing position. Immediately upon being cast into the light of the torches, the yellow, unbleached bones sprung forward to attack. Their bony faceless expressions were locked in a pair of hollow-eyed, manic grins. Within their eye sockets Ben and Owen could barely see twin pinpoints of red light.

Owen cried out in shock, horror, and pain. Three bloody lines had been etched into his stomach by the sharp fleshless claws of the skeletons. In attempt to get away from the lifeless claws he fell backwards to the ground. Ben too, was struck surprised by the skeletons and received a slash by the hands of the undead. (Ben -3HP [12/15]) He was not visibly set back by this attack however, ignoring the bleeding wound.

Initiative:
to be posted here after first round. Whoever acts first gets the place where I was standing at their option (I am still alive, incase that frightened you). You may now post your actions for this turn, and indeed future turns if you forsee yourself following a particular path.

New note, I've decided not to post initiative anymore. Just to mess with you people who constantly demand to know it.

It happens too fast. With a thud, Owen falls to the ground. An icy claw grips Galen's heart, but he looks inside. I can't afford to freeze now. Krixa! Help me.
Galen's eyes go flat as he allows himself to fill the role of the soulless warrior. Maybe unhealthy, but right now the skeletons had to be dealt with, before any more damage could be done. Taking a step to the left, Galen lets his book fall out of his hand with a thunk on the ground. He raises his hand, and swiftly traces a magic rune in the air, almost like the oval outline of a leaf angled to point up and to the right, all the while allowing his words to shape the mystical force to form the desired result.

The words are uncomprehensible, but if they were written down, they'd look like this: "Ad ghv togwr hq vijgn, oorh ghv ihpnkiu vijgo qv giteer ghv vamsgrf vijgp."

Galen then clenches his hand around the now shrunken and glowing silver rune, and from his fist a bright aura of similar colour envelops his body. "Jeremy, get out of the way." The tone of Galen's voice is near emotionless and, strangely, almost androgynous.

He reacted slowly to the attack, but much to his luck the meatless enemy had only scratched him. Ben held his torch strong and stood in a stance to combat the skeletons that stood before them.

"Stand back everyone, I cannot be harmed by such weak attacks, so let them strike at me instead!"

Ben then swung forward with the torch at the one directly in front of him.

the words reach not the sentient part of my brain. Only the primal instincts of self preservation coarse through my mind. All I want to do is be safe, safe from this nightmare, safe from the undying, safe from it all.
I take off towards the graveyard in hopes of making more progress now that I can see.

"Oh my God! skeletons!" Ian blurted. After the shock faded, Ian realized that Owen had collapsed from the strike from one of the Skeletons, then realizes that he is fine, but is slightly discouraged from going forth and striking back, but Ian still wants to help his friends none the less.

Ian, rather then listening to reason jumps a head of Jeremy, and atempts to punch the Skeleton in front of him.

As Owen falls backwards almost onto Jeremy, Galen forces himself to be cool and collected, almost to the point where human emotion is nothing. He allows his arcanabula to plummet to the stone floor, landing with a thwap, to free up one hand for the gestures of spellcasting. He intones the words to a spell and suddenly is illuminated with a bright silvery light playing across his entire body and spilling holy radiance over the dungeon walls.

"Jeremy, get out of the way." Galen said as he prepared to turn the radiance into a concentrated beam of celestial light.

Meanwhile, Owen was hastily semi-crab walking back from the skeleton that had attacked him. He backed up until Jeremy now stood ahead of him. It was not an action of bravery, but he was on the ground with a wound in his stomach, he really didn't want to be close to the undead creature.

Ben, on the otherhand was completely into the battle, yelling bold statements above the cries of war. He drew back his arm with the torch and a brilliant idea formed in his mind. With the torch he swung a smokey trail at the skeleton, which reflexed back out of harms way.

Jeremy, under command from the cold, stern voice from behind him, doubled over and retreated out of Galen's way. However, Ian seemed not to hear, or else to ignore out of adrenaline rush, Galen's warning, and jumped in front of his older brother. His torch arm swung back as his fist leapt up to attack the skeleton. The bone walker took advantage of Ian's proximity, though Ian hopped back from the claw at his abdomen. As a consequence, neither of the hand to hand combatants struck each other.

Both skeletons lunged out again. Ben easily dodged the swipe his arm and though Ian had a bit closer of a call, neither were struck.

Galen now was ready to strike, to the drastic misfortune of Ian. With his radiance in full force, Galen was ready and able to strike at anytime he so chose. It was an unfortunate thing that Ian happened to have misheeded the warning. Of course, killing the skeleton would be the most desireable effect of his attack, so he tried to target the undead monster.

Silver light built and fluxuated around him, streaming in argent rivers to a concentrated point before his palm. With a single thought, he takes as careful aim as he can and unleashes the beam of celestial light. The ambient silver glow around Galen wanes instantly upon releasing the assault, diminishing to merely half its former stength.
(Note: Changes have been made and this description is now moot. From the looks of things, Galen instead fired a small crackling ball of electricity, not a Light of Lunia spell. Same holds for the second time he fires the light. In the zombi encounter, picture him lamenting the lack of a shield rather than casting one.)

The skeleton targeted could not help but see the stoic long haired figure surrounded in silvery light. When the energy concentrated at Galen's palm, the necrotic energies mastering the puppetry pulled the bones out of the way. As the beam grazed past Ian's head, he could feel the energy of the beam as it streaked past and blasted into the door at the other end of the room. Quick as it came it was gone as it was absorbed by the door.

Owen, having had a front row show to the blast stood up then. His body almost completely blocked Galen's immediate line of sight as the injured giant stretched out his hand. His stomach was burning in three lines, and with each throb he could feel more blood trickle out. He had never bled out like this as far as he could remember. The arm that was carrying his spellbook was applying pressure to the wound, while the spellbook lay at his feet. As great as the pain was, Owen focused his mind to a single task. With a quick utterance of words, energy of a different sort compiled into his outstetched, slightly cupped hand. He channeled this power as the spell description indicated, forming a single shuriken above his hand. It was transparent save for the outline sketched with blue energy, making it appear similar to a crystal statuette.

He saw over his brother's shoulder the intended recipient of the spell, and gestured forward by dropping two fingers. The shuriken of invisible force glidded forward instantly, weaving over his younger brother to come to direct contact with the skeleton, no matter how it moved. In the slightest second before impact, the shuriken formed a small explosion, unleashing the energy put into its creation. The fairly lightweight structure was blasted back and after so many missed attempts, the energy holding the skeleton in animation was defeated. The bones were strewn back from the skeleton's position carelessly.

The sudden turn in luck of having only a single offender to hold off may have helped Ben, or perhaps he judged his strike better this time, but torch and skeleton connected. The skeleton recoiled from the hit and the bones were chared from the heat that they were introduced at a forcible rate.

Jeremy, seeing the high-intensity beam of light subside, begins to move up between Galen and Owen. When Owen strikes down the skeleton, he leaps into action and throws himself past Ian. His nimbleness and perhaps even size allow him to cavort past the skeleton without provoking an attack. When he came to a stop directly next to the monster, he shot his fist at the skeleton, which evaded him, though the counter attack was far less than impressive against the tumbling invader of personal space.

Ian then leapt in, utilizing his torch the same way he had seen Ben do so. Though for all his eagerness, the narrow miss from the beam may have thrown off his equilibrium, but his attack came no where close to striking the lone mindless warrior. Surrounded on from the from and right, the lack of a brain couldn't tell the skeleton to retreat, and the mindless energy holding it together again attacked Ben. It threw itself with both claws at Ben, but the one time sword trainee knew enough to watch for where the attacks were going to place themselves and get away from there.

Galen resigns his magic for the time being, the spell will last for at little while, and so it may be good for use later. If not to fire, as a personal source of light, should he tire of the torch that now provided better illumination than there energies. Owen too, realized that there was nothing to be done but nurse his injury and watch the other three beat on the undead abomination.

Ben swung again, and in a repeat performance of his first shot, he missed with his torch. Jeremy too, swung but in being overly wary of the return attack that would be suffered, missed. Finally a deft swing with a torch put the triple-threatened skeleton out of its misery. The blow cracked the skull skull of the undead open.

Ben let out a deep sigh to semi-calm his excitement.

"Haha, thrilling, absolutely thrilling," he panted, "Hey, Owen, you alright back there?"

He waited for a reply from him before continuing down the hall. He would have to be more cautious now that he realized they were in danger. It had been a while since he had been in the heat of battle, but he knew that he hadn't lost his touch, and knew he would only improve from here.

This is great, I finally get to embark on an adventure in a foreign land, this is something I've always wished for.
He kept his torch outstretched in front of him so that he could see as far as the light would allow them to see.

Galen lets Krixa's cold mindset slide away as he recovers his fallen book. What a hostile world this is. Galen thinks to himself, perhaps a bit sadly, But then again... if I'm given the means to fight, what else would I expect?
Galen's aura pulsates softly and subtly, with a kind of heartbeat. Well, if there's more, and there is always more, since both Light and Darkness are limitless, then I'd best be prepared.
Without much of a word, Galen passes the torch to Jeremy, taking a smooth femur bone from one of the fallen skeletons to wield. Galen is slightly disgusted at having to wield it, but admittedly, it wasn't all that much worse than some of the dissections in biology class. At least the bone was devoid of flesh, so it just had a bizarre smoothness about it.

Ben had asked Owen if he is alright, but Galen needed to see for himself. Owen's clothes are torn where the skeleton's sharp clawlike hands slashed through, and the cuts could be seen through them. Those are some nasty cuts, Galen thinks, We need to find some sort of first aid kit or bandages as soon as possible. Galen looks down at the bony hand that did the damage, It'd be good to keep an eye on that wound too, to make sure it doesn't get infected.
"You were hit too, weren't you Ben? Can I see?" Galen asks.

"We'd better keep an eye out for some sort of first aid kit or something." Galen adds in general to everyone.

Ian, seeing his friend Galen picking up the bone as a weapon, came to the conclusion that it would make a better weapon than the torch, then went to pick it up. He was slightly disgusted that someone would disterb the dead just because they was to lazy to do it themselves.

Ray beganed to build into a full panicked state as more and more deathless aberrations continued to show themselves. His legs returned to full motion once again as he vaulted over the low stone wall surrounding the graveyard. The second Spectre merely watched from before her tree as Raymond passed.

Inside the Graveyard there were laid out a fairly large number of modest graves, usually 2-3 feet tall. Disturbingly, every grave held before it a patch of disturbed earth where the ambient dead grass had never thought to grow back over. For all that Ray could see, nothing was left with life in this damnéd land.

He flew between graves, most standing with ages of wear, though a number had collapsed into rubble. The dismal light of the gray day revealed at the far end of the field of tombstones three horribly thin men. He didn't need to think to know he would be avoiding these individuals. That which he had seen thus far made his choice blatantly obvious to turn.

With the ocean and cliffs waiting to his left, animated corpses before him, and bodiless evil spirits behind, a sharp rightward adjustment to his course became ideal. In addition, in this direction lay the badly rusted barred gates to the den of death. One lay broken off it's hinges in a half-opened state, the other hung rusted and fully opened. Not that he had time for inspection in his haste, but it was clear to see that the gates were bent outward by some force. Also, there were words forged on the gate.

The old dirt path he found himself following led ahead and bent slightly to the right. Ray paused for a moment, heart pounding and just about to need a breather. He decided to get that breather now, fifty feet down the road, for lack of immediate signs of danger. He saw that the fog not completely gone where he stood, but greatly dispersed. At the moment now, he could not make out much of the scenery of his new position. To the path off to the left were tall shadows that could be many dead trees for their size and shape. These shapes continued, forming a treeline that extended away into mist, along his side. To his right and back, the obelisk wasn't actually visible anymore for the fog seemed to thicken greatly in that direction. Down the path lead nothing within sight, yet.

His breath was fully caught, and he was free to determine what direction he would continue in now. Though for the lack of immediate threat, he decided that the three undead men in the graveyard might have seen him and could be coming after him at this moment. A quick glance over his shoulder showed their absence from his present line of sight.

I feel the need to get out of this place, but I dare not go anywhere where I might also get lost. As a path is linear: going only two ways, and is set on the ground, I can use it as a landmark of sorts. I decide to follow it... wherever it leads me too.

Wandering around in the room, looking up at how high the ceiling was Ian whistled at the change in altitude of the two lids.

After amusing himself, he continued on ward following Ben to the next room shining the light in, to be sure that there isn't anymore unwanted and unpleasent beastes.

Breathing heavily because of fear and fatigue Jeremy looks to his allies. "What the hell were those?" He pauses for a second, "No thats not the right question. I know what they are, but how can they exist?"

Jeremy wipes the sweat off his brow and tries to understand what has just happened. This must be some kind of ruse, but why would some one try to scare us like this? He looks over to Owen and Galen remembering the books and the silver glow. No, its not possible, yet it must be. I can't dismiss it as an unexplainable scientific phenomenon. This is just too absurd!
Seeing Owen's wounds Jeremy decides that there will be time to understand this later as he rushes over to assist Galen in any way he can.

"How can it exist?" Galen murmurs, and closes his eyes.

"Because it can. That's all there is to it." Galen murmurs, "The rules of this world and the rules of the world we come from are different, here there is so much more that is possible, or perhaps it is just more accessable."

"What is possible and what isn't possible is not something that can be defined. People can try to define it, giving it rules and noting patterns in an otherwise spontaneous world, but this is just one of the many systems within reality. There is what is referred to as the natural, and there is the supernatural. They are called different things, but they are the same thing, part of the same whole, reality."

"You cannot say what is and isn't possible, until you try, and even then, some things are still possible, they just need a different way."

Galen looks over at Jeremy, "I have thought quite a bit about the natural and supernatural, even though I have taken science subjects in school. To me, it's just obvious they follow different systems, undefinable by the other. However, this doesn't matter at this time. Right now, we should concentrate on just getting somewhere safer."