Mapping the Labyrinth: full up.

We can call them by their surnames! XD

Also, Dreamwalker - I wasn't sure if you were clear on this, but a natural philosopher is approximately the same as a scientist. Is that all right?

Oh yah, I know. I just thought scholarlyness would go well with scientificness... if that is politically correct. He's good with literature, and has a natural want to know things, which sort of makes him good at science. I myself am not bright when it comes to science, but I'll fake it as much as possible .

As they say, DaVinci was an avid reader and painter, but he was an incredible scientist as well and had many a studies on the human anatomy. He was skilled in all three aspects.

Ah yes, of course. A proper Renaissance man a half a century late. =D Just making sure.

*Okay, I think there's just the magician left, yes? So I'll take her -if I'm wrong, just PM me and I'll change my profile, a historian would be cool too *

Name: Alyssia Toyer.

Profession: Magician

Age: 19- just out of her apprenticeship.

Gender: female

Physical description: small but quite wiry and strong. She's got long yellow-blonde hair which she usually wears in a crown of plaits, and green eyes. Medium pale complexion. Quite pretty, although not beautiful. Loves her clothes, and has a wide selection of leather, strong linen, worsterd and other such garments along with her.

Personality: Alyssia is generally friendly, with sarcasm laced edges. She can follow orders to an extent, but when she thinks she's right, she will argue until the cows come home. She's got a sharp mind and is insistent that others accept that. Loyal to those that are loyal to her.

Skills/weaknesses: Alyssia is good with magic. She especially likes to use fire and light, and water. It's useful that she can conjure water, sadly, however, not food. Her staff is a pretty good weapon too.

Her stubbornness at times definitely leads her astray, and when worked up she's bound to do something rash. Like all magicians, when she's angry, her magic is unpredictable and she can hurt herself and those around her.

Background and reasons for joining the party: Alyssia came from a wealthy merchant's family, the type that would be able to pay for the seven year's apprenticeship to a magician. However, when her master died shortly after she had received her hood and staff (the mark of a fully-qualified magic-doer), she was left with no job. Her family offered to support her, but she heard about the trip and decided it would be her first test as a magician without his help.

Tools: Her staff is her most important weapon. Apart from that, a few pots and pans, some rope, a small shovel, and a little ceremonial silver dagger.

Stella, that should be fine. Have fun with the magic system; I want it to be at least partially non-human-based - as in, you have to use potions and possibly kill small animals and so on for certain charms - but otherwise it's your playground. =D

I'm reopening this to applicants because jok101's application doesn't really fit. If he wants to submit a new one for the remaining historian role, though, that would be nice.

Okay my computer won't let me edit my post but okay he's the historian and you know I was thinking those very old handguns and since you said this was LIKE dart one of those with a good fire rate.

OH! All right then, will go and change immediately.

Would you also like me to make an edit to the clothing? Or I suppose it could be 'passes for 1752 Earth in every aspect except for the inexplicable presence of purple hoodies'. That works well enough.

~Mallory~

The gates opened, inch by inch, describing their twin massive arcs on the soft mulch and underbrush of the forest floor, weeds and shrubs and young trees flattened by the weight of iron pressing outwards, until at last they were flush against the earthen wall of the grassy mound that was the entrance to the labyrinth.

Mallory stared at them, trembling with anticipation, his hands fluttery and his pulse loud in his ears. The magician and the two guards who had between them forced the way clear were obviously too tired to fully appreciate the moment, but John, standing next to him, was equally anxious, from the way he was shifting from foot to foot like a nervous horse.

"Quite a sight," Mallory said. His fingers wanted to be drawing this first lines, but there were things that had to be done first, he reminded himself. Yes.

Alyssia-

I leant against my staff, out of breath, watching the gates open. Beyond was a gloomy tunnel. The cartographer, Mallory, had pushed past me, staring into it. Elizabeth and Johnathan stood either side of me, also tired, having pushed the gates back as I broke the protective spell.

"Mercy, this will really take it out of a girl," I said. Elizabeth shot me a glance.

"We haven't even got inside yet," she said icily.

"I was joking," I said, standing up straight to try and make her look lazy, although the fact I was shorter than her didn't help my situation. "Right."

Benjamin, John and Mallory had not moved either. "Can you run a scan over this tunnel?" Mallory asked, glancing back at me.

"I doubt there's going to be any magic in the entry hall," Benjamin said quietly. "Possibly a few rats."

"Who will have chewed through any physical magical holdings, apparently they taste nice," I murmured, almost to myself. "Hang on."

I stepped to the very threshold and waved my staff in a wide arc, waiting for the vibrations of alien magic to pass up my arm. There were none. "All clear, from what I can see."

"So on we go," Mallory said, signalling for us to pick up the packs we had left on the ground. I shouldered mine, momentarily wishing I hadn't brought so many clothes, and waited for someone to take the lead.

"Who's going first?" I asked, grinning with mischief.

Jonathon Ashford

He stepped forward shouldering his heavy pack. He whistled lightly and Chip came running towards him and stood by Jonathon's side eyeing the other people wearily. The gate had been opened at a smell of stale air, dirt, and dust wafted out of it making Jonathon crinkle his nose slightly.

"I guess I will." He took out a small oil lantern and held it out patiently in front of himself, candescent light spilling onto the ground and revealing and places that could possible end up causing injury. Jonathon identified a small black beetle scurrying across his bath.

"I believe I should!" Elizabeth spoke calmly grabbing the lantern swiftly from Jonathon's hand. "You can be in the back."

"I can handle anything that came at us from the front. They would be more afraid of someone my size then... you." His voice came out gruff as he looked down at her warily. Elizabeth was curious by nature, always wanting to be in the lead. Her long red hair was splayed around her and her eyebrows were furrowed in anger by that remark.

"Well, they also might be more threatened by your size causing them to attack. I am a lot less vulgar looking then you." She scoffed back.

"As you wish then." Jonathon stepped back warily, not wishing to fight. He wished to stay in the background as much as possible, staying on the edge of the spotlight so that he would be able to identify any happenings. Chip automatically side stepped around the group in a semi-circle and found his place beside Jonathon, nudging his leg reassuringly.

June 8th,
We found the Labyrinth. Preparations were made to enter, not knowing what would befall us, or cause us harm.

------------------------------------

The italics are kind of like mental notes that Jonathon, makes after all, he will be reporting to the royal family. This will also help me in the future.

~Incognito

~Mallory~

It would be his luck to get a belligerent guard, he thought, sighing inwardly. "Miss Herm, if you would do the honors, then? And quickly?" he added, with a very slight inflection on the offending word.

She turned to face him and gave an evil look through her fall of gingery hair before stalking down the stairs, sword drawn. Mallory waited for her to get perhaps halfway down before following at a less wary pace - he took the steps two at a time and only stopped himself from sprinting on with effort.

Instead he satisfied himself by drinking in the room, taking it in slowly, angle by angle, until he started to get a kink in his neck, looking up; for the tunnel here was low-ceilinged, hung with strange webbed vegetation that shone golden where the sunlight fell on it. Impossible to say whether the curious, fanning pattern of growth evidenced here was once intentioned or not, but Mallory had never seen this kind of lichen, if such it was, before, and he rather thought that even if it wasn't intentional it should be investigated who had any idea what the difference between, say, lichen and algae was, i.e., not him.

His other companions were already descending after him, and Miss Herm was investigating the juncture where the tunnel first forked, some ways down, going west and southeast. "Lawrence!" he called. "Come take a look at this, er -- plantstuff!"

Lawrence nodded, making his tedious way to where Mallory was batting curiously at the gilded curtains. There were, now he examined them, some vines, too. He pointed this out, in his best helpful fashion, to wit, "Look! Vines!"

(He may at this point have waxed a touch overenthusiastic, but who could blame him for that?)

There were other things, just in this front hall; the tattered remains of some ancient mural spanned the westward wall, for instance, and what paint was left appeared to be astonishingly vivid, though crumbling. And chalk hieroglyphs, still preserved through what history had passed this place by; chalk marks everywhere, some long lines stretching down to the floor, Mallory realized belatedly, as he jumped back from where he had almost stepped on one. He didn't recognize the language precisely; something Copic, perhaps. John was already on his knees deciphering them, so that was all right.

"Well!" he said, brightly, rubbing his hands together. "What a lot to see, indeed. And it's quite a nice tunnel, as these things are judged. Hands if you think we should make camp here for the evening? It's getting late, and we have access here to at least two more tunnels it should be safe enough to explore from this base without getting lost. But so much to do, so much to do..."

Alyssia-

I frowned. "But... we've only just got in."

"And?" he said, turning and looking at me. "We should map and study as we go."

"Alright," I said shrugging. He had a point, after all. We weren't just trying to get to the centre of the maze, we were looking around us on the way. "Might be a bit drafty though."

I glanced up and down the hall at the white marks, settling my bag against the wall. I began making my way slowly up the tunnel, to where the concentration of white marks was strongest. There was a cluster of scribbles, resembling what could have been people, and opposite them, another scribble, smaller and more angular. What was strange was the straight lines that surrounded it.

"A pentacle," I mumured to myself, waving a hand over the knot of my staff to set a soft, white glow in it. It was bizarre. Demon magic had never been strong in this civilization, from what little I had read of it- as a magician's apprentice, I hadn't had much time for reading history books.

"John," I called, and the historian looked over. I beckoned to him and he came. "Did they have strong roots in demon magic?" I asked him.

I pointed to the pentacle.

"I don't know," he said, touching the marks. "They certainly believed in it, but whether they practiced or not..."

"Toyer!" called Mallory. With a sigh, I shrugged and began making my way back towards the entrance.

"Yes, my lord and master?" I said sarcastically.

"Tell me, girl," I winced at the 'girl.' It was such a demeaning address. "These plants, are they of any magical use?"

"Ask Benjamin, he's the natural philosopher," I said wearily, fingering the lichen. "I don't recognise them. Possibly." I blew the light of my staff out and waved it over them. "No particular magical aura, I can tell you that much, but then again, neither does beetroot."

"What does beetroot have to do with it?"

"Good in potions," I said simply. "And there's a pentacle on the wall down there. Just so you know."

"Really," he murmured. "I should start recording as soon as possible."

"If you like," I said. "I don't want to waste all my energy on light for tonight though, so make up your mind now."

~Mallory~

He blinked, startled, and then winced at his own folly. "Of course. Sorry about that; you needn't keep the light going much longer, just a moment - I'll have the, ah, non-magical lanterns lit soon enough, and then you can stop wasting energy."

"Thank you so much," said the magician, dryly. He nodded, and took his pack near the center of the hall, where overhanging and potentially inflammable mystery moss had mostly thinned to a slight fuzz on the ceiling, before striking a match. The flame sputtered a little, and the oil spat, but soon the lantern was bright enough, if not as brilliant as the light from the girl's sorcerous walking stick, as he thought of it; satisfied, he replaced the metal hood and lifted the lamp to eye level until the doubled light made it almost painful to keep his eyes open.

"You may douse yours now," he said cheerfully. "Except -- oi! John! Get your own lamp, will you? Our resident witch is tiring."

"Stuff it, Broussard," John retorted, turning to show that he'd already had it out, albeit not yet started. He'd been cutting the wick even as they spoke, it looked like.

"Right then," Mallory said to the girl.

Jonathon Ashford

Jonathon stepped in not going any deeper than when the stairs stopped. The rest of them seemed to be bemused and astonished at their surroundings, and Jonathon felt a twinge of regret. He had never been taught or gone to school. He only knew the necessities of being able to fight, read and write. He did not know philosophy or alchemical plants. He only knew the basics of what he needed to know. He could not help feel envy.

They had their lanterns set up by now, Mallory seemed to be in his prime, running over to one side of the room to the other, perfectly entranced. Jonathon felt himself step forward to see what they were so willing and happy to see, but nothing stood out to him. Nothing of importance.

But then it happened. Chip's fur went up on end and a growl escaped his barred teeth, hackles rose. Jonathon whirled around pointing his musket towards the top of the stairs, trying to figure out what had alarmed his dog.

Chip started to release loud barks breaking everyone vigorously out of their reverie. He barely noticed the dogs barking, used to it from there many travels and missions. It was only a worse sign of danger, a called warning. Eyes preying, Jonathon saw a glimpse of a shadow hidden in the ferns, hiding itself cautiously, eyes glinting amber in the darkened forest.

Jonathon pulled the trigger of his musket, and a lead ball when charging at the shadow at an obscene pace, Jonathon willing it to strike.

----------------------

~Incognito

John

I looked at the pentagon and took out a chisel chipping off a bit of the chalked rock. I put it in a small plastic bag and then into my pocket I would give it to the natural philosopher to study later different chalks could mean different things. I looked around and at the other side I saw another Pentagon this one with a circle in the middle I took out my chisel again an got another sample. Then I drew the two symbols in my notebook.

"Hey" I said walking up to Mallory.

"did you hear that roar when we opened the door man that was cree-" I was cut off by a thunderous roar coming from the fork I had just come from.

"bugger" Mallory said standing up quickly as I took out my pistol and loaded it.

"I'm guessing we shouldn't go that way" Ashford said as we started to hurriedly pack up.

"no we shouldn't" I said standing in front of Mallory from previous experiences I knew he was no coward I also knew that he wasn't exactly a fighting man as I was I believed even if you were something like a historian you could still be exciting.

"It would be worth a look though" Alissa said and I nodded.

"definitely" and another roar erupted as three of us edged toward the fork in the maze.