the plot begins now!

finally i can upload this SWAGGY MASTERMIND!AMEYA sprite!!

The pitch blackness is now accompanied by a distant rumble. At first it is the mere sound, but after a while, you can feel the floor beneath your feet beginning to subtly shake. The jostling is enough to make one queasy. Is everything just… falling apart?

And then you go promptly half deaf with the sound of the thunder, and the earth under your feet heaves with the strike of the lightning. Everyone is thrown to the ground, or staggering sideways into walls, until the shaking subsides. 

When the others find Ameya on the beach, her hands are clenched at her sides despite their burns, and her eyes are very firmly on the still-visible lights on the horizon. Though her eyes are suspiciously shiny, she is determined not to cry. Now is not the time for that. It’s been 72 hours, and she’s finally back.

You awake to find it so dark that you consider going back to sleep. But even if you do, when you inevitably wake hours later, the light level has not changed. It’s dark as night, no matter how much time ticks away. Above your heads, the stormclouds have turned pitch black, more like billowing smoke from a fire than a thunderstorm. Or perhaps from a volcano, as you can see lightning arcing between the plumes, crackling and filling the air with the smell of ozone.

Ameya entered the Depths yesterday. She has yet to come out.

Day two, and nobody has seen Ella since last night, when they may have glimpsed them walking towards the entrance of the Depths with steely purpose. They’ve been in there a long time, longer than Jun was, and the storm above has been growing ever darker.

The crash of thunder and strike of lightning hits not the beach, but the temple. And as the students go to check, they find something quite horrifying…

Returning to your cells after the trial, you can sense something is immediately… off. You’re not sure what it is. Everything around you looks the same, there are no sudden dead bodies, nothing so ominous as blood on the walls or chanting, not even a particularly noticeable silence. The fact you can’t pinpoint what has changed is almost infuriating. Maybe it’s better to distract yourself. 

As you take a wander out of your cell and down the hallway, you notice a brand new doorway on the inner wall, where a door to the catacombs would usually appear. The new doorway has nothing blocking its path, and beyond you can see a cave stretching into the dark. The two sides of it are flanked with burning torches but they do little to dent the darkness. Inscribed above the doorway are the words:

Ye Who Enters; Know Thyself.

Well that’s cryptic. A cold wind blows out of the mouth of the cave, and as the chill races down your spine, you get a sense that if you do go in here… you will have to be very careful if you want to come back out again.

Karwasisa Lonasqo Quispe has been found guilty! Commencing execution!