14954/The Dustless Library

The Dustless Library
Date of Scene:	20 May 2023
Location:	Patagonian Steppe, Argentina
Synopsis:	When an archeological team goes missing, someone who Nettie Crowe 'owes a drop of blood' to goes missing with them. Nettie calls up Daniel Ketch and Jinx to lend a hand. Things go a little sideways when Selene Gallio, an actual Death Goddess shows up. The group rescues the archaeologists, destroys the Dustless Library and its guardians, and saves everyone!
Cast of Characters:	Nettie Crowe, Daniel Ketch, Jinx, Selene Gallio

---

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    The Patagonian Steepe is one of the largest desert areas in the world. Arid, with dry grasses and low hills, boulders and dark mesas rising from the landscape below dry snow-capped mountains, it seemed like this would be a less ideal place for an archeology dig in the Argentenian winter; it's cold, blustery, the winds picking up and howling, threatening to knock over the tents of the dig.

    The place though, is empty. Tools were laid down mid-work. Lunches have blistered with sand.

    There was Something calling. A music below the wind, heard not with the ears, but with that twisting of heartstrings, enticing people inward to an opening in the earth, just large enough to drive a Volkswagon Bug through.

    Nettie Crowe, one of the leaders of the Justice League Dark, had sent out a few tinglers through the communication lines to see who would be interested in exploring...

    THE DUSTLESS LIBRARY.

Daniel Ketch has posed:
"A little more south and we could see some dinos," comments Daniel, who volunteered to come in a whim. See the world, and all that. Unfortunately, so far, there is not much to see. A few more miles southwards and they would be in the Savage Land, though.

"I guess something happened to the archaeology team? Is this a rescue mission or an exploration thing? Looks like I never get the whole mission memos," which actually, rarely show up anywhere.

Jinx has posed:
"Fuck me, this weather is bollocks" Jinx says as she hugs her jacket closer to herself. Dress for the job you want, not the job you have - and now that she's here she wants to be back home in the warmth of the Titan's tower. But Nettie knew where she 'lived' now and their first interaction clearly meant future ones. Today was that future.

Her release in to Titan's custody had a short run on the news cycle but even though she was safe from law enforcement in the USA, that didn't exactly give her a license to safely roam the world at large. This place, however, is so remote she figured no one would even know she's here.

The puffy winter pants and puffy winter jacket, and warm winter hat should be more than enough to keep her warm but the cold is seeping in to her bones regardless. "Are we going to do this thing or what?" Besides which, this is an opportunity to practice the 'team work' skills she's been learning from Donna. With people she doesn't know.

Hands tucked under her arm pits she shakes her head in an 'i don't know' gesture to Daniel. "A little from column A, a little from column B?" Her British accent unmistakable. "Everyone likes a good mystery." Okay may be not everyone but Jinx sure loves exploring the forgotten. Usually she's getting paid for it though.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "That would be because there wasn't a mission memo, Mr. Ketch --" Nettie replies dryly. "I was reading cards and suddenly got a burst of inspiration. There's someone who I owe a drop of blood to among the missing, but it was too distant to figure out who, too much interferance." the old witch states, tucking her hands into her jacket pocket. She's also stupid cold. This whole thing was dumb. She should be back in New York making tea. BUT NO.

    So she hops, and skids down the dirt into the open door, drawing her wand out as she casts a spell with some pale blue lights arcing up, orbiting her in the darkness.

    She stumbles a little on the landing inside a great sandstone-colored room, with pillars and openings to other places.

    The odd thing is -- as others make their ay down none of the dirt follows in with them. There is definitely magic at work here.

Daniel Ketch has posed:
Daniel nods to Jinx, who he barely knows. And frowns at Nettie, who is being direct for once, and also gives him an explanation he really doesn't like. "Great. I guess 'cards' is slightly better than 'tea leaves' as guiding prop." No. It is not. It is sarcasm.

"I imagine it is a bit too late to do any research on archaeology..." he mutters, checking his cell. Then curses. No coverage. Tends to happen in deserts around the middle of nowhere.

He stomps after Nettie, grumpily kicking at the floor to send dirt and dust ahead... and it doesn't work. Which makes him curse again.

Jinx has posed:
"Owe a drop of blood to -- there's nothing creepy or weird about that at all," Jinx comments wryly and follows after Nettie in through the maw of the library. She notices the way the dust refuses to follow them immediately and turns back around to peer out at the rectangle that is their bright exit.

Taking off a glove, she lowers down and touches the floor. Not stupidly cold - off with the boots. Her toes wiggle as she puts soul to floor and her lips twitch up in to more of a smile.

"What's your deal Ketch?" Jinx spins around walking slowly and lets out an impressed whistle. "Is it just me or does this architecture look really out of place for Patagonia? the people who lived here were meant to be nomads, and this place is clearly magical."

She lets her hands rest upon the air as she feels the place out, twitching her finger tips and letting her eyes drift shut. "It doesn't look hand carved. May be it was magically constructed. We're talking seriously dedicated sorcery."

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "I'm a retired necromancer, duckie." Nettie gives a grin to Jinx, her too-bright-blue-to-be-natural eyes glow dimly in the dark. "Much of what I do is creepy and weird. Sometimes both." she states, and reaches to brush off her jacket. No dust there either. She gives a soft humph, and atches as Daniel tries to kick dirt and dust ahead. Nothing doing, doesn't progress past the entrance.

    There's no dust to show footprints either. The boots come off and Jinx is barefoot and on the relatively warm floor.

    "It is out of place... looks more like Petra. You know... from Indiana Jones and the--" she pauses, and looks to Jinx, and then to Daniel "you might be too young for that movie." she decides, and she takes a couple steps forward.

    One blue orb slowly orbits Jinx, a good two feet above her head. The other orbits Daniel in much the same position.

    There is a sensation of being watched. There are stairs ahead that lead further down into the rooms below, drawing forward into the earth and then doubling back.

    If anyone touches the walls, there are shallow indents, like something was scraped against the stone.

Daniel Ketch has posed:
"Me? I am just a guy from Brooklyn," states Daniel in response to Jinx' question. "I don't know much about Patagonia, but I think this would be out of place anywhere in the world. This place is, yes, clearly magical and I already hate it."

"What about you? Are you also a magician?" Hinting he is not a magician, despite being aware enough to identify the place as magical. "I wonder, if I drop a scrap of paper or an empty soda can, would it vanish too? That would make an archaeologist work pretty hard, if they are crazy enough to investigate an obviously supernatural place like this."

Jinx has posed:
Jinx does let her fingers stroke along the walls and she considers. Her eyes roll at Nettie as she suggests she's too young to have seen Indiana Jones and the one with his dad. They named the dog Indiana. "Yes. I see the similarities too. Though Petra is not so sterile."

Her eyebrow raises at Ketch's assertion he's just a guy from Brooklyn. "Sure you are." She glances at Nettie and thumbs at Daniel in a 'this guy' kind of gesture. "Magicians do kids parties. I'm a Sorceress - and not a necromancer. Name's Jinx. If you've heard of me it's probably all true." That is to say - nothing good. Until recently, in the top 50 most wanted Supervillains in the world.

She taps finger tips against her upper arm thoughtfully. "You know - if I were going to go out of my way to make a structure under the sand and enchant it to keep the dust out, I'd probably be doing it not because I'm a neat freak - which I'm absolutely not."

She raises an eyebrow, "I'd do it to keep things preserved safely. I think our mystery builders might have been archivists...." Some what ironic that archeologists dug this place up. They're all missing -

"Hey may be we should be careful and not Wonker ourselves in this place. If this structure is an archive and the dig site is empty, it's possible someone got sticky fingers and set off some sort of magical security."

She smiles playfully at Nettie as that blue orb lights up her features, "See - not just a pre'hy face." She motions to the stairs, "Shall we?" Stuffing her hands back in to her jacket she pushes on forward. Why couldn't spelunking in forgotten Patagonian Petra be done in more stylish clothing.

Selene Gallio has posed:
Perhaps it is Nettie's ties to necromancy, former or otherwise, that leads the call she puts on the wind to land on the tongue of Selene Gallio. The Goddess of Death had been reclining peacefully enough, languid in a bed crafted of human bone, waited upon by ghouls of exquisite putrescence even while clad as some sort of gothic supermodel, all pale skin and black nails and an uncomfortable gauntneess that outlines her frame.

She was very bored and now she is not.

Black shadows, silent screaming, swirl in behind the adventurers, like interwoven ribbons, cascading back and forth, crisscross caterwampus until they congeal together into the form of Selene. She wears a thick onyx cloak with a hood, a black corset and long gloves. Heeled boots that make her tower a little, over six feet, with her raven's hair tucked back into the hood.

Anyone with a hint of psychic or mystic sensitivity can get a taste of her malevolence.

"Well, well, what have we here? Someone's opened a door. I wonder what's inside," she smiles. "Don't worry, little souls, I'm not here for you."

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "You shouldn't mess with guys from Brooklyn. They're all fairly dangerous. Secondly the gentlemen from Queens." Nettie remarks to the 'this guy' gesture, and she gives a small smile, and then a thoughtful 'mm'. "A Sterile Archive? I thought that was Thoth's servant's bag." the old woman in the young woman's body states, chewing on the inside of her cheek for a moment.

    "But I think you're right. Daniel, I dare say you might be the most resilient of us --" she pauses, and she straightens as Selene makes her appearance.

    What in the name of Every Hell is a *goddess of Death* doing at a dig in Southern Argentina in the middle of the winter? That's not just a little bit of mystic sensitivity. It's like someone is stomping on every marking that is keeping Nettie's soul in her broken body.

    "-- second most resilient of us here--" she corrects herself.

    "Can you be exceedingly loud and rude for a moment?"

    And then the old necromancer turns on her heel, and she looks to Selene and whispers:

    "We're poking around where we shouldn't be, admittedly, should there be something worse than me down there I'd rather like you to be on our side. Natch?"

Daniel Ketch has posed:
Daniel rolls his eyes at Jinx' correction. Magician, sorcerer, wizard. Whatever. Most of them are nuts, psycho or both. He swallows his sarcastic remark when suddenly his 'bad stuff' sense goes crazy.

Gothic Goddess of Death shows up and the Ghost Rider really, really doesn't like her. Daniel pales visibly as he struggles to keep the flaming skeleton caged.

"Nettie..." he growls. "You might want to get out of the way. My partner is... kind of... disturbed." He manages, seeing the British witch is actually talking to the black-clad woman.

Jinx has posed:
Jinx leans up against the wall. If people are being voluntold to go ahead and be meat shields she's not going to complain. She used to send Mammoth ahead for exactly that reason when she lead the Five. "Let me guess - you're secretly Superboy. Just whip off some glasses and let your hai-.."

Magic senses tingling she pushes off the wall and turns to face the anomaly that is transforming in to Selene. Her hands rise up and pink magical energy crackles between her combined finger tips in preparation for violence.

After all, she just did posit magical defences - or may be THIS is the person who owns the place. But then she sees now Nettie seems to know her. Jinx relaxes her posture and clasps her hands together extinguishing the magical energy.

"Riiight," she says taking in the visage that is Selene. "Not gunna lie - I dig the outfit. Lots of panache. Not so keen on the 'little souls' bit though. However accurate it might be." Still her eyes are wary because the sense from Selene is malevolent. That and Ketch, whom she was warming up to, seems to take umbrage at the appearance of the goth queen of the night.

Selene Gallio has posed:
Selene Gallio smiles at Daniel, pulling her hood back as she steps forward, "Such a pretty demon you have. Potent thing, too. Very fearsome to mortals, I'm certain. He cannot draw penance from me nor banish me. As I said, I am only here to satisfy my own curisosity. I tasted a call on the wind and, following its thread, found this little gathering and this strange place," she says.

She reaches out to trace her dark nails along the wall, anyone near her likely to feel a prickle of cold on their spine. "Nettie Crowe. That name is known to me. The dead know you, even some that belong to me. And be grateful your souls are but little child. Too coruplent and I might feel compelled to sup."

She walks past them, then, pushing deeper into the library, pushing her own mystic senses out. She is ten thousand years old, a child of the Hyborean age, a sorcereess who once crossed paths with the legendary Conan the Barbarian. She wonders if this might be the demesne of some old friend, long forgotten.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    Nettie's eyes narrow. She looks to Daniel and his partner, feeling the shift in the energies of the ruins. She gives. small swallow. Unleashing a Ghost Rider against Selene may not end with everyone coming out of this alive, she considers.

    "Keep it in, Ketch, this changes the game, and I dare say she would give the three of us a run for our money if she so chooses." Nettie states, deferring to the sudden arrival, and she looks to Ketch, to Jinx, and then back to Selene.

    "We're here on business, dark lady; the archaeological team was digging at a nomad settlement when this door was opened. Then -- up and gone. Like they went to lunch at a whistle, 'cept there's a sandwich out there that's unfishished too." she states.

    There's a low rumble below them.

    "So whatever is down there, in the dark, I wager is what fascinated our nice, normal archaeologists."

    She looks to Jinx, then back to Ketch, and then she turns and proceeds further into the halls.

    The next room, lighting up around our explorers (Selene doesn't get an orbiting light), there are rows and rows of tall, stone walls.

    THe walls are enscribed with an ancient tongue, not one that Nettie could read, each character a scant four cm tall, and running on for the length of each wall, the walls standing in a dividing pattern. Four meters long, two meters tall, and a meter's space between each wall for six walls running ... and eighteen walls crossed. It's a huge room, with a gallery along the top where it feels like everybody is being watched.

Daniel Ketch has posed:
Daniel takes a step back, giving Selene a very wary look. Does she know about the Penance Stare? Just from looking at him? That is impressive and probably scary. Nettie seems scared and weirdly respectful. So he breathes deeply and keeps the Rider away.

The Ghost Rider rages, but without innocents in immediate danger, he can't override Daniel's will.

"Well, yeah... lets go find the missing people," he mutters, following Nettie. "Who is this woman?" He whispers the British witch. "She can't be human, humans never get the Rider this angry," if only because few humans can commit enough crimes in a lifetime to cause really strong responses.

Jinx has posed:
Hands go back in to Jinx's jacket and she hmms watching the tall darkness stride past her with confidence. Her eyes glance over to Nettie and to Ketch too. Did they just invite more trouble in than they're likely to find in some old non-dusty storage vault?

She falls in behind Nettie though and follows down deeper in to the mysterious place. "Does anyone else get that feeling like we're being watched. And not mall security cameras kind of watched..." She looks up at the gallery along the top narrowing her eyes wondering if she sees anything in the gloom - or if it's just her imagination.

Selene Gallio has posed:
Selene Gallio laughs softly to herself, "I haven't thought of this tale in millenia. Foolish donkey," she says, shaking her head. "Before man began to slaughter trees, to imprint his thoughts in the flesh of their dead, they carved into unfeeling stone. Fables and myths, stories and tales. History and fantasy. And, of course, the horrors. There are always horrors," she says with a wide, wide smile.

She glances back at Ketch, "Good boy. The witch tells you wisely. Don't seek conflict with me unless you must. Be grateful to be spared the threat of my hunger."

She holds out her hand and a spirit coalesces there, the swallowed soul of some worshipper, now an ethereal scout to her hand. "Seek," she says, releasing it and letting it flitter off to scout.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    Nettie tries to seem noncommittal.

    "Your Rider would do well to try and still. Walking with us is Death. In a manner. She makes the markings on my back burn like they were just scored." she muses. Nettie never talks about those. Even if someone mentions them. "Honestly I'm typically surprised neither you nor Mr. Reyes have tried to kill /me/, but penance is a funny thing." she pauses, sniffs, "And poor Mr. Reyes's is a wanker."

    As Jinx watches the upper galleries, there is movement in the darkness. The soft sound of bare feet against the stone.

    The scout spirit flits about, back and forth, to and fro between the hundreds of recordings on the stone walls of the room, carved entirely from the Earth itself, when it stumbles upon something in the next room over.

    The swallowed soul pauses a moment, and then something snaps awake, and tries to reach out and grab it with a wizened, leathery hand!

Daniel Ketch has posed:
"You could ask him about it," mutters Daniel, walking alongside Nettie. "Most everyone has done some wrong, and he... he seems to know it, and can use it as a weapon. But he doesn't attack everyone he meets in the street, mostly, he seeks ongoing crimes."

Then a bit louder. "Have you seen the marks in the walls? I thought they were just scratches, but they could be writing. They are too faint to be decorative, but given how magical it is this place, I think they mean something."

Jinx has posed:
Jinx starts to walk backwards as she spies up at the gallery. There's definitely something moving up there. She tilts her head trying to listen to their motion - but she doesn't like being the subject of prying eyes. She hmms and notices the way Ketch and Nettie are whispering to each other.

The ball of her right foot presses to the floor. Nice earthen floor - none of those synthetics of modern buildings getting in the way of letting her do proper magics. She casts her hand up in to the air and a flash of pink magical energy lances from foot to finger tip.

A pulse of energy shoots up to the ceiling and then bursts outward to illuminate the gallery above, "Reveal!" Magic words they are not, but intent matters when doing magic.

Selene Gallio has posed:
Selene Gallio has no care for the soul she sent. She has no care for any soul, save her own, except that she has none, just a yawning, eternal abyss, a cavernous and wretching hole in the center of herself, ever ravenous, without bottom or potential for satisfaction.

"Such wisdom in one so young," she says to Nettie Crowe. "Perhaps you'll survive. The markings in the walls are tales of the past. Something sleeps here, something old. Something that has begun to stir," she says, her smile broadening as her spirit is snatched at.

//Hello to the deathless, from the dead.// she calls with her mind, pressing outwards, something not quite like ordinary psychic contact, her mind coated with a miasma of poisonous corruption, making any psychic contact with her a bit painful and repulsive. Which is the way she likes it.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "Someday when I'm less afraid, perhaps I will. The problem with being a necromancer is that the Dead and those who keep them tend to not like you after a while." Nettie replies to Daniel, "but we should make an appointment hmm?" she questions, and then straightens up.

    The burst of pink magic reveals members of the archology team, they're all up in the gallery and don't really look too much worse for wear, other than the fact that their eyes uniformly throw back the light of the revelation and their heads are upside-down with gaping wide mouths, their necks twisted.

    "A lot of life experience." Nettie replies back to Selene, and she raises her wand, gripping it tightly.

    <Greatings. You will all be The Dead.> is the answer Selene receives, and it's just as dripping with darkness as hers is, meant to cause the living to shudder in their boots and turn knees and innards to jelly.

    There is a heavy footstep. From one of the doors comes a warrior, bare-chested and skirted in furs. It holds the soul in its hand, which writhes and then appears to fade from view. Its eyes are pinpoints of pale starlight in black eyes. Tattooed with geometric patterns.

    Similar guards appear around the other doors, stepping into place, each armed with an atlatl-like club.

    "... oh bother." Nettie mutters.

Daniel Ketch has posed:
Daniel hehs softly at Nettie's response. But this time he can't blame her, or anyone for that matter, from not wanting an interview with the vengeful spirit. Instead, he glances back to Jinx, just in time to see her spell.

Oh huh. "Looks like we are too late," he states gloomily. Too late for a rescue, not too late for vengeance, which means the Rider is again pushing. And given the creatures appearing, he is sorely tempted.

"Undead," he comments, pointing out the obvious. "And they look like bandage-less mummies." Remarkably calm for a guy from Brooklyn, but the sad truth is he has seen worse. And calmly too, he pulls out a shotgun from his coat and fires on the closest one, aiming for the head. Because they could be zombies, so you gotta go for the head.

Jinx has posed:
Jinx grimaces seeing the dead archeologists lining up at the gallery. Undead it seems. Necks broken. It's a nasty way to go - or not go as the case may be. This is only worsened by the arrival of undead armed soldiers. "Yeah ... that's pants."

Jinx tries to think back to the horrible witch who barely trained her when she was in her late teens. Muttering to herself she recalls "Something something the undead, something something call, something something don't look back but something something ... err.. something." A muttered sing song.

She frowns having not paid much attention to the old wretch who hated her which was a mutual feeling. "Eh. I'm sure it'll come to me..." Jinx draws in power from the earth through her footses and summons the illusion of a dozen Jinx spread out about her to obfuscate which is the true Jinx. A tried and true tactic.

Selene Gallio has posed:
Selene Gallio steps forward, eyes shining, "Ah, but I am Death, creature. You are unknown to me, perhaps because, in your weakness, you were bound and cast aside, pinioned here to rot until these little mortals dug up your grave. So now you seek to show yourself, to prove how powerful you are, in the desperate hope that it will give you freedom. I sympathize."

"Perhaps too much. For I am a jealous goddess. I have no use for rivals. Return to your sleep."

Selene extends her own mystic will, attempting to seize the undead warriors under their command, attempting to seize them for herself. The potent force of her malevelent will manifests itself in her being and dark energy swirls around her, raw necromantic power, death energy itself coiling like a serpent around the body of its Mistress.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "-- no, those aren't undead. Those may have never died--." Nettie corrects Daniel, and she brings her hand down, the wand crackling with dark violet energy. "Miss Jinx! Tend to those in the gallery! There's life in them yet!" Nettie bellows, and from beneath her jacket a crow makes his appearance. And with a rampant, long line of cursing, the crow caws its way up wards to get a bird's eye view on the situation.

    BOOM. Daniel's shotgun blast strikes one of the wizened entities, and it seems to burst apart into a cloud of dust -- in a dustless library. The dusty one walks forward, reconstructing itself, though a significant part of its head appears to be remade out of sandstone and dirt, its eye blinking, replaced by earth tones as it bares teeth and brings uip a spear, launching it at Daniel!

    The mutiple Jinxes do throw the two focusing on her for a bit of a loop, they look to one another, and each picks a Jinx to attempt to pierce with their spear!

    Selene may find some difficulty exerting her will. Theirs is the will of the LIbrary itself around her, and though the death energy coils around Selene, there are two the energy obeys.

    Nettie manages to sidestep a stone spear thrown at her, but not by much. There's now blood dripping down her sleeve, though she's trying very hard to not let it hit the floor!

Daniel Ketch has posed:
Daniel blinks as the spearman reforms. "Oh, shit..." he throws himself aside to avoid the spear and shots again, this time to the chest. Mostly to gain some time, because the not-undead person is clearly unkillable by bullets.

"Sorry, Nettie..." the Rider has heard the archaeologists are alive, but obviously in danger. "Can't stop him now..." says Daniel as his eyes lit with orange flames. Then he screams, bursting in flames.

The creature that stands up in his place is several inches taller and clad in leather and metal. "Undead, undying... no matter," his voice is a deep bass, felt in the bones as much as in the aural channels. "There is always an ending, and you all will be judged. But for those who shed innocent blood, vengeance comes sooner!" He launches to the undying warrior that threw the spear, trying to tackle him and pin him against the library's wall.

Jinx has posed:
Jinx stares at Nettie bewildered for a moment. Help the not-quite-dead archeologists? "You've got to be kidding me..." Well at least she doesn't need to remember the undead song anymore. No, this will require something a bit more sophisticated. "...Fine"

She dashes back as the guardians of this crypt attack her false images. Each spear piercing their veil and the false Jinx turning in to a wisp in the air. The real Jinx however stares in wonder as Daniel's head erupts in to flames. "Fuck me.. that ain't no Superboy." She hmphs to steel herself, clenches fists, she has a job to do - from the battlefield she rises up in to the air as she draws up the wind beneath her. No quite flight but close enough.

Landing in the gallery amongst the not-quite-dead she lets out an exasperated, "Ugh.." and then her hands begin to twirl as she goes to work, shooting out pink magical energy in to each of the afflicted, tethering them together for one big spell.

"Stop stumbling about you fools I'm trying to help you. This will not do!" As one of them tries to grab at her she shoulder barges it back knocking it over.

Her movements dance her amongst the not-quite-dead and the ground beneath her begins to fight back against the death in this place as her magical energy drawing from the Earth itself seems to be making a presence not unlike the goddess Gaia. Earth itself.

Her fake Jinxes engage in a dancing battle against the guardians and their weapons trying not to get hit but each time one does it disappears in a puff leaving fewer and fewer to occupy the two attackers interest.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "In this case I don't think he's in the wrong to show up!" Nettie replies to Ketch as the Ghost Rider burst through, the flames light up the library as Ketch gives control over to the Ghost Rider, and THAT certainly catches attention. The chest-asplooded guard is reformed entirely just in time to be grasped and slammed against the wall, and the wizened flesh and sand-and-stone eyes go wide, a spear reforming in its hands as it tries to stab through the Ghost Rider's jacket the guard appearing for gasp for a breath that can't be filled! One of the guards that was trying to eliminate the many Jinxes on the floro disengasges with the shadows and illusions, and launches his own spear at the flaming head of the GHost Rider!

    Up in the gallery, Jinx is able to start linking the obviously frightened and not-quite-understanding archaeologists with their heads turned upside-down together for one big spell, and Nettie is very thankful that she's gone to do it -- because Nettie isn't precisely feeling her best at the moment. Being so close to Death is throwing her for a loop. It's all she can do to throw some spellery around -- an ice block there to make some of the guards trip. A gust of wind that throws a spear aimed at Selene off just enough, keeping the blood from her left arm pooling at her elbow rather than dripping.

    <We are Not the Dead!!> hisses a voice in Selene's ear, the library itself begins to shudder, wrestling against her control! ?

Daniel Ketch has posed:
Those stone spears don't seem the right kind of weapon to attack a skeleton. The first goes through the leather, but fails to do more than scratch the hyperdense bone of the Spirit of Vengeance, the second bounces off the skull, barely moving it an inch.

And the Rider seems to realize physical violence means little to the undying warriors, but he sets the one he pined on hellfire, letting him write as his soul is scorched.

"It is this construct which keeps them alive," announces the Ghost Rider. "Both the guardians and those imprisoned." Then, uncaring about destroying a millennia old library and its mysteries, he punches the wall with inhuman strength.

Selene Gallio has posed:
The dead here belong to them. That much is clear. But the Earth is a grave, as Selene often reminds the others. The dead outnumber the living, by staggering numbers. You are alwasy walking in a cemetary. You just have to dig deep enough.

What emerges from the Earth isn't recognizably human anymore, if it ever was. Fossilized bone and mummified flesh burst from the earth and begin to assemble into gorgons and monstrosities of their own, patchwork beasts with sharp horns and dry fangs, light burning in their eyes as the Goddess of Death opens her eyes, revealing a terrifying darkness within her.

"I'LL SWALLOW YOUR SOULS!" she cries and dark spirits erupt from under her cloak, those black screamers from which she was formed, going in every direction as she pushes BACK with all of her deathless will against the inhabitant of this place, crying out in ancient Hyborean.

"YOU WILL KNEEL."

Jinx has posed:
A dive roll, a tear in her puffy jacket. She dances off the wall with a foot as she gathers up the dozens of pink leashes linking her targets together. "Right.." Jinx catches her breath as she contemplates the situation. The not-quite-dead archeologists trying to fathom their horrifying situation and Jinx trying to fathom the magic needed.

"Cover me..." But then Burning skull starts punching the temple, "...oh come on. Just a little more time please.." She jumps off the gallery and the wind gushes up underneath her to cushion her landing. Two feet - no squirrel pose for Jinx. She sits down on the sandstone floor and shuts her eyes, communing with the Earth.

A warm light fills her mind, the earthiness, the wetness, the stone and fire. The elements she is so familiar with - but she knows there's something more there. Hiding from her. Unwilling to reveal itself. But she knows it's there.

~~ This isn't for me - it's for them. That's what you wanted right. Whatever you are. For me to help people. That's why you punish me with the bad luck yeah? ~~

There is a pulse of white light that lances through her body and down the leashes. Drawn directly from the planet itself, from whence we come and where we return upon death. But it's not their time and their state is unnatural.

Jinx winces as she feels the energy drain from her as she becomes merely a conduit for a greater magic than she can handle by herself. The healing power fills the archeologists as Jinx's eyes begin to glow white with the faintest tinge of pink. "The... Fuuuuuck... Is..... Thiiiiiss....."

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    Well, between the pounding, the soul swallowing and accompanying megafauna of magic, and the healing going on, there's a decent amount of action.

    PUNCH. The wall begins to crumble a bit about the Ghost Rider's hand. The guard he was pinning against the wall screms and cries out something, the dust and dirt that had reformed his face crumples away to try and fix the wall instead!

    The second guard that had thrown the spear retrieves it through reforming, and turns in time to witness the bones rising through the sandstone floor, and appears to be shocked. In thousands of years of librarianship, he's never seen something like that.

    And the other one finally disposes of the Jinx clones, turns, and lobs a stone spear through the skeletal creatures that the lady of Death has wrought.

    It clatters.

    The twists and the neck breaks of the archaeological team seem to resist Jinx's healing. THe communion iwth the earth, through those elements as the sorcereress bargainss and states that she is going to help. Their state, those poor fifteen people, that was Unnatural. BUt the library hadn't robbed them of life.

    One by one, with satisfying CRACKS of joints being put back into place, all fifteen tethered archaeologists begin to reform, regaining themselves and looking aorund wild-eyed in the dark as--
    "MADRE DI DIOS-- que --?!" one cracks out in a dry voice, looking down as Ketch's partner is ripping up the walls and Selene has summoned monsters from the deep to fight for her, the deathless will pushing out the ancient guardians!

    "-- MISS JINX. We need to get them out of here before this place becomes a Tomb to *everything around it*." Nettie calls out, finally unable to contain the spilled blood in her elbow, and the rivulet of blood, blackened and not at all healthy looking proves that Nettie herself isn't quite alive.

    "STEP ON IT LASS."

Daniel Ketch has posed:
The Ghost Rider lets the guard go, as the library turns its own magic to protect itself, instead of attacking. For a second, he hesitates, considering the value of the construct itself.

But then, it judges it worthless and dangerous. Knowledge hoarded and inaccessible, and guards that kill with little provocation. Worthless. He punches another wall, then pauses, and sets it on fire. Hellfire, that begins to devour the walls itself. "Humans, you should leave now."

Jinx has posed:
Jinx gasps for air as the energy shuts off and it fades back to pink. She discards the tethers like they're hot coals. The look of bewilderment on her face - her patron, whoever it is, just threw a wrench in her life and understanding. All that power that's been there the whole time and she never knew.

She rises up, stumbles a bit. Hearing Nettie's cries of haste she gives a little faux salute. "Why... does doing the right thing... always involve so much running." She grimaces and looks up at the archeologists. Still trapped up in the gallery - she stomps a foot in to the ground and it begins to freeze beneath her toeses.

With a woosh of her arms a blast of ice skewers up to the gallery making a slide. She walks up it and starts to usher people. "Run ya plonkers. Down the ice - up the stairs - out of this tomb! Underlay Underlay... shit. Does anyone here speak Argentina?"

Jinx grabs the first archeologists arm nearby and shoves them down the slide, then points at the stairs. The language barrier is overcome when he realises that's the way out. This seems to get the group moving. "Faster ya fucks..!" She gives a little shove at their backs with wind just to put more pep in their step and then yells down at flame skull Ketch, "Workin' on it!"

Selene Gallio has posed:
Selene Gallio has no fear or need to run. She's been buried before and dug her way out. But there doesn't seem to be anything for her here. No hidden treasure, no untapped power to curb to her will. Just another ancient monstrosity caged and yearning, aching to blacken a sun it will never see again.

So pathetic it's almost delightful.

"Enough, children. The mortals flee. The tomb awaits. If you would wish to rise again, creature, my name is Selene. Pray to me and perhaps, someday, I will set you free once more," she says.

Her dark laugh echoes off the carved walls as she begins to dissolve into those wicked spirits again, swirling like a storm of screaming skulls and whipping up and out of the library again.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "Ponerse en marcha! Afuera! Rapido, rapido!" Nettie barks, her voice seeming much thinner than usual, leaning against a handy story wall, and she breathes out in a huff -- the archaeologists don't need to really be told twice, they are skidding and sliding down the bridge of ice as the Ghost Rider punches out the walls rather than taking out books from this library, Hellfire beginning to burn the sandstone. THe library screams.

    Its guardians drop their attention, wide-eyed and in shock as the library burns around them, something that never would have occurred to someone thousands and thousands of years old -- but Hellfire isn't your normal threat.

    One gets taken out by a large megafauna animal, and there is an ancient, echoing 'Wauuugugh!' of a scream as it's slung against the ceiling.

    NEttie is limping, her wand still in one hand, though blood is pretty fairly leaving tracks.

    The whole place gives an angry shudder, as if it's trying to hold its integrity together. The mgic inside of here is going bonkers. Dust is falling from the ceilings!

Daniel Ketch has posed:
Not so dustless anymore! But the Rider does not stop until he is sure everyone else is out. The continued existence of the library is of little importance to him, but he stops attacking when the archaeologist team, Jinx and Nettie appear to be safe.

And since Selene is gone, there is little more for him to do here. So, for once, he will let Daniel return without the usual rampage through New York.

Jinx has posed:
Jinx offers Nettie some help getting out since she's limping but she's quick to beat a hasty retreat from this place. Daniel not far behind when the ghost rider gives up his assault. The angry dustless library is very dusty now. Once Jinx is back outside - despite how freakin' cold it is (and she forgot her shoes!) - she stares up at the blessed sky and lets out the breath she was holding.

"Nettie... this..." She places a hand on the older witches shoulder, "SUCKED." A very definite little nod of understanding. She then removes her hand and winces as she starts walking back to the previously abandoned camp. "Does anyone have any spare shoes I could borrow?," she calls out to the archeologists hoping one of them understands English at least.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    Luckily, they understand enough English that they get that the bare-footed Jinx needs a pair of shoes. A couple go scrambling for a spare pair of boots. One looks in a VERY SUSPICIOUS expression at the boy from Brooklyn... er.. man from Brooklyn and with a dubious expression they offer him a can of beer.

    There is an older woman who is tending to Nettie's injury, wrapping her arm in gauze a moment as she chides the woman for her carelessness, and what would her mother think of Nettie was going around letting herself get cut up like that.

    Nettie just gives a wry smile. She found the one who she owed that drop of blood to as the woman continues to chide Nettie like it was a scraped knee instead of a giant laceration from a spear!

    "So then we're agreed this should be reburied, aye? Can't have everyone walkin' in to a dangerous place like this." Nettie complains, looking to her compatriots.

    "Good work, all. Everyone lives..." she gives a tired smile, her knees teetering slightly.

    The crow that had come out of her jacket lands on her shoulder.

    "Just this once." he states, grumpily.