Ponysona 4, the Campaign.

Zeela rushes into danger and heads upwards up the place.

Tilt stops to wait for George to catch up while Zeela blazes past. "Oh dear." she sighs, "Melody, would you mind going after your girlfriend, and making sure she doesn't get herself hurt? We'll wait for George to make it then catch up - we can make it fast between Daikon and I."

"...Wait, Zeela really just-...She's already gone, isn't she?" Melody sighed a bit, looking at the others. "R-Right, can't just let her go in all alone...R-Right?" Melody took a deep breath, a little more rattled than she'd like to admit before heading in after the winged zebra, really wishing she hadn't charged in. "T-Try to catch up quickly...Please?" With that, she turned, took another deep breath to steel herself, and ran in after Zeela!

Alice stealthily sneaks after Melody and Zeela, as Shiro summons Arachne and forms a bit of a base for the rest of them. "I'll stay out here and keep an eye out."

Zeela, Melody (And soon Alice) can see that the entirety of the floor melds between some more natural, appealing and clean stone, and dark gritty cobble stone, and there's a large burst of heat in the area. Quite specifically, there's a split path right ahead, one direction filled with steam, and the other dripping with goo.

Soul is caught up unaware by Tilt's sudden rush, eye twitching slightly at the Large Red Stallion. She barely notices, and ends up partially wrapping herself around the runner as she begins giggling. "So, Tilt, do you saddle up with this Arabian? Or do you have a lamp for this genie you summoned?" *snrk* "I'm sorry, he's-" She halts her joke at the look the LRS gives her. When Melody jumps to chase after Zeela, Soul wings after the two. *eep!* "Wait for me!"

"Huh...Eerie...It's like the place can't make up its mind..." Melody looked at the goo carefully, leaning close though she didn't touch it...It was the same as what that zombified one on the Midnight Channel had been leaking and oozing...Creepy...Also disgusting...She backed away from it after a moment, sticking her tongue out and seeming a bit disgusted. "Blech! Disgusting...But...It's connected to the other Shadow, I remember seeing this same kind of stuff oozing out of it...They're both here, then..." She paused, sighing a bit...Whose was it, then...?

"Oh hey... Where's the rest..." Zeela asks seeing Soul and Melody, then facehooves... "I jumped the gun, again, didn't I?"

"We'll get there as soon as we can." replies Tilt, nodding as Melody runs off after Zeela

---

After the others leave, Tilt turns to Daisoujou. "Okay, so Alice and Dai-k..." Tilt's irises shrink as it dawns on her, "Oh buck, where's Alice?"

She shares an alarmed glance with Daisoujou, the joke fading away in an instant.

"Shiro, tell George to try and catch up! There's no time to lose!" she yells, accelerating herself and Daisoujou and bolting through the door after the others.

Spoiler:

"Just a little, Zeela..So, which way? Goo or steam? I doubt either one leads to fun times...At least not what we'd consider fun..." She paused, thinking for a moment...The Steam path probably led to Icing's, but whose was the goo...?

Soul stares down goo-laden path, and starts walking toward it. "This way," she says, not even looking down the other path. She startles as she looks back at the two mares. "Uh, the steam is bad for your coat? This stuff is icky, but it'll wash out."

"If you think so..." Zeela said as she follows Soul.

"Uh, ooookay? If you say so...Guess I've probably stepped in worse before." Melody really didn't know what to think of that, but she followed the other two, looking around.

arcana check:

Zeela as she walk in this mystery gunk, tries to figure out all chemical and magical info she can infer from it...

The mystery gunk seems to be made of some sort of acidic properties, however it's not harming everypony just yet. Some trigger must be activated for the goop, sticky and thick, to start acting on its properties. The trigger seems to be pony-to-pony contact.

"Ok... Everypony be careful with touching eachother while you got this gunk on your hooves..." Zeela warns as the trio heads forward.

"Huh? Why?" Melody looked at her for a moment, though she did make a note to keep a bit of distance to avoid accidental contact with the others. "It's disgusting, but it doesn't seem particularly dangerous...Still, thanks for the warning..." She made a note to clean herself off very thoroughly after this regardless, just in case.

"I'm not 100% sure, but this goo... Seems to be some type of acid-ish thing... With some magical trigger... Which I'd bet good bits on that it's pony-to-pony contact." Zeela explains with a hint of worry.

Tilt, Daisoujo, and George rush into the dungeon, finding Alice glancing between the steam and the goop, slightly panicked. When the party reaches her, Alice points down the goop. "The others went down there, but it's icky. And that-" She points at the steam. "Makes me feel sick."

In front of Tilt and another in front of George, a holographic screen appears and an image of Shiro and Arachne appears on it. "... Oh cool! It worked! Arcana showed me how to do this in case you guys split up. A quick scan shows that the goop makes contact and being attacked hurt you, and the steam gives a gradual bit of damage. but the first floor's a big loop. Both paths lead the same way." A small note on the goop and steam appears below him on the screen, with "Gooped: Vul 2. Steamed: Ongoing 2."

Shiro then shows a map of it, three dots at around 9 o'clock with "Soul, Zeela, Melody" all colored appropriately, and a set of 4 dots with "Alice, Daisoujo, Tilt, George" at 6 o'clock."

"So we either suffer slow burns by steam or greater injuries from the goop, hard choice."
George rubbed his beak in contemplation.
"Since Melody, Zeela and Soul took the left path I guess we have to take the right."

"There's no way we're going Princess-knows-how-far getting first degree burns all the way just because the others went down the other road. And either way, we're the only first aiders here so it's better if we catch up to the others." argues Tilt, sizing up the routes with care.

"Alice, George, hop on - Dai-kun and I are a lot faster than you and we can keep the goop off you too."

She waits until everypony is saddled up, then bolts down the goop corridor, all but flying through the hallways as she makes a pace to catch up.

Spoiler:

George opens his beak for a second, thinks and helps Alice climb on before doing so himself.
"Just hope nothing stops us going this way."

Daisoujo is a lot slower at the moment, though still fast, but the quartet reach the other members of their little group quickly, though some goop does get onto all of them, no matter how much Tilt and Dai try to protect the others. Their efforts, however, keeps the acid property from activating as they reach the other group just as that one reaches a pair of staircases, up and down. Shiro's holoscreen appears. "Wait... This is... weird. Icing and the shadow have moved."

"Come and find me, sweethearts. I'm sure you and I will have a lot of fun."

"Well that's not ominous at all..." Melody murmured, looking at the others for a moment and nodding. "Well, good to see everypony's met up..." She smiled before looking back to the staircases, thinking. "So...Up or down, or are we going to split up again...? I can keep us linked, but not for really long distances..." She said, thinking. She really should have been more up-front about her telepathy, but...Well, she was still worried about what the others would think

Shiro's eyes get covered for a moment. "Down. On basement... 3-4. The other shadow's at B5."