VRMMO: World's First Glyphborne

With the help of Figg, and the directions of the Stonemuncher in his arms, the party soon found themselves standing at the edge of a large hole that looked like the burrow of a colossal man eating mole.

Which was, weirdly enough, the perfect way to describe the Earth Dragon, if you think about it.

Vestra stepped to the edge, holding a small stone no bigger than a golf ball. With a tap of her wand, the stone started to glow with a soft light before she let it go. Making sure not to throw it, but instead just letting it fall with the power of gravity.

She watched it plunge into the darkness, the light growing smaller and smaller, dimmer and dimmer, until it finally shifted direction as it hit the bottom and bounced. The sound of its impact echoing upwards a moment later.

"Just over three seconds... So about 150 feet, give or take." She muttered, before turning to the others who were all wearing confused and blank expressions. She rolled her eyes and let out a sigh,

"45 metres... It’s like jumping from the 14th floor of a building."

The last one finally got their heads bobbing with understanding, as Figg muttered,

"At least she did a sensible one instead of going for Football fields..."

"Roughly a half." Vestra quickly answered with a smile, before moving to the side to allow the others to step forward and look down the hole.

"Figg," Belladonna said, turning to the Druid in question, "Can you get a vine down there or something?"

Figg quickly shook his head, "No. It’s too far. Teleporting? Or maybe your rocket feet?"

"Rocket feet?" Revenant muttered in confusion, but everyone ignored him as Belladonna shook her head.

"I don’t know if I can carry more than myself with a Teleport, and unless Corpse face is gonna taxi too I wouldn’t have enough juice to carry us all down."

"Neither would I. I can take another with me, but I wouldn’t be able to transport all of us." Revenant answered.

"Flames should also be avoided, ideally." Saige cut in, drawing everyone’s attention to him. He glanced between them, before miming the action of an explosion with his hands.

He had a good point. Although the tunnel might look safe, there was a reason people used to use Canaries in mines when the earth still had resources for them to mine. Belladonna subtly glanced at Revenant, wondering if she could use him as the Canary, before shaking it off.

It would have been fun, most definitely, but he was useful. Even if she hated admitting it.

"Looks like we’re jumping then." Belladonna said with a sigh, before stepping back and starting to stretch as if she was just going for a casual jog.

"Vez, you wanna go down with me? Saige can piggy back with Lilith, and Corpse face you can taxi Figg down. Sound good?"

"Wait... If there is some kind of gas then, won’t we just choke and die?" Vestra asked nervously, wringing her hands around her wand again.

"Hold your breath then!" Belladonna said with a laugh, before charging forwards without warning. Vestra yelped as Belladonna yanked her off her feet and pulled her onto her back. The illusionists arms wrapped around Belladonna’s neck, hanging off uselessly as if she was a strange cape, as Belladonna leapt into the hole and plummeted into the darkness.

The wind rushed past her ears as she fell, whipping away Vestra’s screams, as Belladonna’s leap carried her to the other side of the hole. The darkness of the hole latched onto her, swirling around her hands and extending off of her fingers as they formed wicked claws of pure blackness. They even did the same around her feet, giving her claws on all four limbs.

Her [Shade Claws] dug into the wall, slowing her momentum, before she leapt backwards and flew across the tunnel to the next wall and did the same. Vestra finally managed to wrap her legs around Belladonna’s waist after the first stop, allowing her body not to flop around as she dug her head into Belladonna’s shoulder to stop herself from getting whiplash from every jolt.

Pinging ponging herself down the walls like this, Belladonna eventually landed on the ground and allowed her [Shade Claws] to fade back into the surrounding darkness. She glanced upwards, then quickly stepped to the side just in time to avoid the scantily armoured meteor that crashed into the ground.

Lilith straightened up as she held Saige in a delicate princess carry, her powerful head crushing thighs feeling no issue from the simple 14 storey drop, although it might have been thanks to the damage reducing aura surrounding her that she allowed to fade.

She smirked at Belladonna, giving her a cheeky wink, before letting Saige down as Figg and Revenant stepped out of the darkness beside them.

They stood in silence for a few moments, awkwardly waiting, before Belladonna finally cleared her throat and whispered,

"Vez. We are at the bottom, you can let go of me now."

Vestra opened her eyes, which had had been clenching closed with all of her might a moment ago, as she looked around the hazy darkness at the people staring at her. She blushed deeply, still wrapped around Belladonna’s body like a Koala.

She quickly unwrapped herself and dropped to the ground, stepping back and clearing her throat. With a wave of her wand, she generated a few floating orbs of light, and flashed a strained smile towards the rest of the group.

"Let’s get going, shall we?" She said with a nervous laugh, before turning and walking deeper into the tunnel as if nothing had happened. The rest of the party laughed and followed after her, forced to stay close as not all of them had the dark vision that Belladonna had.

It wasn’t long before Vestra’s magical lights started to catch hints of golden glints scattered across the ground. Glints and reflections that became more plentiful and much more compact, until they turned a corner and were greeted with a veritable lake of pure gold.

Was it wrong that Belladonna’s first thought was to swim in it?