With Simon guiding your descent, you all leap off the side of the ship and fall. Then one by one each of you pop your chute and this time the process goes off without a hitch. Even Selina who when last put on her chute had all but accepted her fate of plummeting to her death seems to quickly get the hang of the contraption, realizing it wasn't at all as complicated as she thought. The descent would be almost relaxing if it weren't for the numbing cold wind piercing your garments.
The billowing smoke shooting out the back of your airship has completely engulfed your pursuers as the ship careens upward attempting, rather successfully (for now), to lure the undead away. With teeth chattering, you set your sites downward and now see a large pit-cave peeking through the icy mountain top directly beneath you. Simon waves his arms to get everyone's attention and then emphatically points toward the opening to indicate that the pit-cave was indeed your destination.
After a few chilling minutes of gliding you float through the icy opening and immediately notice the change in temperature. The numbing cold was replaced with a warmth emanating from somewhere deeper within the cave. Lush vegetation grows up the sides of the cave's interior as exotic birds chirp all around you. Soon you spot the ground but you're also aware of a strange buzzing noise echoing off the walls of the cave. Suddenly several large bees, the size of small house cats buzz in around you from all directions. You ready to defend yourself but they don't attack. The seem to regard you with curiosity and one even flies up look at Selina face to face. Selina notices now that these 'bees' did not appear to be your typical wasp or honey bee. Roughly the size of a kitten, the creature resembles a cat with a large wide tail ending with a bee stinger. It has soft fur, colored vibrant yellow, white and black. The back paws are more feline, whilst the smaller front paws are more insectine. It does not have ears, rather horn-like antennae. It's wings are much like a pixie's.
You continue to slowly descend while the creatures seem to happily buzz around you. Almost as if their pleased to have your company. Finally everyone manages to land in a large patch of thick grass dotted with large yellow flowers. The one creature lands on one of the flowers and buzzes (or was it purring) happily.
Betimi quickly unstraps from her gliding harness, then cautiously she will reach out to see if one of the bee-kittens will let her touch them, first holding out her hand, fingers relaxed and downward to let the creature investigate her hand. Just as one would reach out to a stray dog or cat.
The tiny Fur-bee crawls around on the huge flower collecting pollen on it's brilliant fur. The others of its kind seem more wary of strangers and keep their distance while doing the same. When Betimi draws close the creature's wings buzz intermittently like it's giving her a warning to not try anything threatening. Eventually Betimi gets close enough to be able to touch it's soft, fluffy fur. The creature presses it's chin down against her fingertips, much like a cat does when it wants to be pet.
"This one seems friendly."
She slowly turns her hand around so her fingertips are up and gently scratches it under the chin, remembering that Beast used to enjoy that as well.
Selina finally gets her teeth to stop chattering, uncertain if it was from the cold wind or the abject fright of going through another drop with those...contraptions. If we were meant to fly, we would have been born with wings!... Or the ability to cast Fly.
When they finally landed, she uttered a prayer of gratitude to Selune and had a look around. The strangeness of this place knew no end. But at least this bit of strangeness seemed... innocuous. Adorable, in fact, the furry insects looked like something one wanted to cuddle half to death, then gather in droves at singular events to discuss for weeks at a time. Perhaps even to dress up as them.
That thought was good enough for a shiver that Selina was uncertain was due to the chill she was still chasing from her form. She checks in with everyone, making sure they are all unharmed. She sees Betimi attempting first contact with the Fur-bees and can't help but smile.
"Is everyone alright?"
Ning ignores the feline-bees for the moment and explores the area around them,looking for features beyond the flowery patch of grass.
His kobold nature always has him looking for danger first.
Simon watches the tiny creature with amazement. "I've never seen this creature before. I assume it's either a completely new species or it was created by the nearby Torque energy." He takes an instrument out of his satchel. He twists a few knobs then slowly rotates himself in a circle. "Hmmmm... the Torque energy seems much less concentrated in this place but I'm unsure why. Perhaps the strange energy reading which drew us here is to blame. The levels in this cave are extremely high. In fact, it's nearly off the charts. But I don't think it currently poses any threat to us. I will keep an eye on the energy levels and notify you if there's any sudden change."
You take in your surroundings and find you're in an enormous cave filled with mostly green jungle-like plantlife with splashes of large, brightly colored flower patches of all colors that dot the cave floor and crawl up the walls all the way up to the opening in the ceiling. You also hear a rumbling sound coming from deeper in the cave. The Kobolds and Betimi who live in the underground believe it's likely a waterfall.
[OoC has it been 24 hours since I bound Leraje yet.. the undead ship attacked in the morning before we memorized spells for the day supposedly so I was still bound to Leraje. But she will leave at the 24 hour mark.]
![[Image: anvuewbmy5301.jpg]](https://i.redd.it/anvuewbmy5301.jpg)