The Nexus

Behold, all that was has passed away, the whole world gone, and yet this place remains, created anew in this new semi-true (oh, it is everyone, it is!) world.
Now, where were we?

Penelope, injured, was resting at the exit from the dungeon, the stairs into the long-crumbled castle above.

Gwas and Charles are looking for the hidden button that lifts them up in an elevator trap, as had happened to a pair of explorers before. Unfortunately, Charles first found it by accident while it was nearly pitch-black down here, so there's a fair bit of ground to cover. As they look around in the light of Gwas's torch - shame that he didn't fall for the earlier trick of hearing a voice in the wrong direction - they hear the distinctive sound of a stone sarcophagus lid crashing to the ground.

From his perch on Gwas' horns, Charles ruffles his feathers in discomfort.
"More friends? Do you need me to make you another light, Gwas? It sounds like we might have more friends. Did you find anything interesting while I was gone?" Maybe Gwas made friends with the local undead and there's nothing to worry about.

"I suspect we do not have time for that." Gwas rumbles, changing his priorities from finding the button to examining the cracks in the stonework for any hints of the elevator itself. "What other magic can you still cast while in that form? Anything that might slow down our... friends?"

”I can cast anything I could before. Which still isn’t much but um.”

Charles flaps his wings and produces an illusory brick wall about ten feet ahead of Gwas. Maybe it’ll fool whatever is making those sounds.

"...That might do it." Gwas gives an impressed little nod and resumes his search for the elevator, feeling for a crack to wedge his fingers in.

This is a good plan. It worked before. It's the sort of thing that's hard to stop in the dark down here.
Still, the thing after them now is not a simple-minded giant bug. And so Charles will be able to see a shriveled corpse, barely more than bones and dressed in fine plated armor that now looks far too big for it, meandering through the passageways towards them, and then curiously poking a finger at the brick wall.

Gwas, with his new approach, will find a seam where the recently-lifted stone meets the actual wall. It's well-fitted together, but not impossible to wedge something into. Or, knowing where the edge is, he could narrow down his search for the button quite a bit.

"Gwas hurry up I don't think he's falling for it." Charles hisses into Gwas' ear.
"Maybe you should just arrow it? Aim for the six row of bricks down." he suggests

Armed with this new information on the button's whereabouts, and with knowledge of the elevator's boundaries, Gwas searches the area again, this time focusing on the aforementioned row of bricks within the bounds of the elevator itself. Compared to the area he was searching, this should be a small enough segment to do the job very thoroughly in a short period of time.

Charles, you're confusing him.
And this has already gotten so off-track...

After a moment of searching, Gwas hits the button, and the floor beneath them lurches upwards.
The dead thing that had been searching for them is thrown back by the sudden motion of the walls and ground behind the illusion, and is left behind down below.

This brings them to the same room of brass cages that Charles is familiar with. The one to the left with its door picked open, the next one along cut apart, and the door on the far wall hanging open on its hinges. It should be a simple matter for Gwas to bend the bars and let them pass.

"Okay. Well. I guess that's it. Just get through the cage and you're home free." Charles looks around.
"Um. Are you sure we should just...leave? There's definitely stuff farther down. At least one entity that did this to me. What if we just leave and that means me and Penelope are cursed forever?"

"Conversely, there are things further down." Gwas points out, seizing ahold of the bars and slowly straining against them, in an effort to form a gap wide enough to step through. "Things which have already cursed you once. Allowing them a second opportunity, absent any strong reason to believe they'll undo the first, seems unwise. You may simply be cursed forever, no matter which direction we go from here." The strigoi groans and presses outwards against the bars. "So, do you think we should go back down? As we are now?"

"...Well, I'm not actually diminished in my abilities like this. So really, it's if you can take it. I guess if they can curse me they can curse you, so if you want to cut out losses I can't fault you..."
Really, can he expect Gwas to risk getting made some ridiculous bird just to stop him from being one? No, of course not.

But you do want to go back down, don't you Charles? You want answers.
The bars slowly bend outward in the strigoi's grip, until the gap in the cage is large enough to let them out.
It's a simple matter to step across the room, between the other empty cages, and up the steps.

The steps lead to the same trapped hallway that Gwas protected Charles through the first time. Dangerous to Penelopes, just inconvenient to armored undead warriors.
Turn right, and the hallway leads towards the cell block (and the exit) on the left, and to the sinkhole on the right. But now the two doorways into the cell block are covered by a shifting, gummy darkness, which exudes a palpable feeling of something terrible being just across the thresholds. And if you turn left, instead of a stone wall with carefully hidden launcher traps (like there was before), there's more hallway, lit by glowing opal stones in sconces, the walls between them hung with golden tapestries depicting the castle and its kings in their prime.

"And what about Penelope? Is she undiminished by this bird curse?" Gwas points out. He sees no need to elaborate beyond that; Charles seems to be in agreement anyway.

Hm. An ominous gate of fog, with something terrible just beyond it, approached by an undead warrior? Where has Gwas heard that one before?

"Is this what stopped you before? Perhaps I can break through."

"...considering she can still hold items without hands, technically yes. I really do wonder how that works." Charles muses.
At these new sights, he can only balk.
"Huh? No, Penelope and I safely evacuated and then I came back to make sure you escaped as well. None of this was here before." He squints at the new hallway to the right. "That over there is definitely new. Maybe something over there is what is creating those inky walls?"

"That would seem to be the most likely explanation." Gwas concedes, poking the ink wall. "Whether that is relevant depends strongly on whether this can be penetrated. So, without further ado-"

The ink wall seethes and stretches slightly when Gwas pokes it. It's quite solid; Charles could never force his way past, but probably our archer can. There's a clear sense that the barrier wouldn't like that, though it's less clear what it could do about its displeasure.

Well, are you going to help Gwas avoid his destiny, Charles?

"I don't think forcing it is a good idea." Charles comments. If Gwas pushes forward anyway Charles will bail from Gwas' horns.

"...Perhaps you're right." Gwas says finally, lowering his stance and turning to look down the other hall. "If the forces at work here can modify the layout of this dungeon, then the fog wall may be more dangerous than it appears."

"...Then again, if they can modify the layout of the dungeon, the fog wall may represent a crude attempt at cutting us off, which they will complete if we wander away." The bullknight frowns and rolls his shoulders. "...That makes more sense than the alternative. And as it implies time is off the essence..."

There's a furious clopping of boots as Gwas charges forward into the fog wall, attempting to break through. The stinging nature of it doesn't seem to bother him too much, other than earning some nonchalant brushing of his fur if and when he crosses to the other side.

And just like that, the heroes are separated once again.

Gwas tears the fog wall from the doorway it covers, and it stings him as best it can, but before long he's brushed it off. It seems to be reforming in the doorway behind him, trying to separate him from Charles.

If Gwas was expecting a climactic battle beyond the fog, I'm afraid he took a wrong turn. No, it seems the only thing to do is reward him for his cleverness with an easy way out.
At the end of the prison hallway, Gwas sees a pair of eyes gleaming in the dark, which quickly vanish off to his right. The cell doors each hang open on their hinges, the long-dead prisoners, each tightly holding a little bundle of their belongings (the end must have come quickly here) all seem to watch him as he goes by.
There's just an ordinary gate and a short walk between him and the stairs out of this place.

Gwas doesn't want to say it and risk jinxing the expedition, but that seems almost too easy.

"Well, Charles, all we need to do is grab Penelope, and..."

Wait, where is Charles?

"...Bloody hell."

Of course he didn't come through with him. That would be far too easy. Now he's going to have to go back through the fog wall (ow) and try to convince Charles to suck it up and endure two seconds of blistering pain so they can get out of here.

Why does he get the impression breaking the wall again, twice, is going to be the easy part?

Gwas sighs and rushes back through it, looking around for Charles.

Charles scrapes at the fog with his talons.
"Gwas...?" he calls.
And then Gwas returns. Oh good.
"Oh good. Welcome back."

"I was right. The exit is right up there." Gwas motions back toward the barrier. "All we have to do-"

Wait. There's one more detail he's neglected.

"...Where is Penelope?"

"I told you. Penelope and I evacuated the place before I came back to find you. She's outside." Charles explains. He definitely said that!

Think it through for him, Charles. If I need time to modify the dungeon's layout, what has been happening all this time you two were downstairs and Penelope was alone up here? Guess.

The fog barrier stands there, dark and painful but no harder to get past than the first two times.
Below and behind them, they may here the sliding of the elevator-cage-trap going off a fourth time.

"...Right." Gwas frowns, aggravated at himself over the lapse in memory. "Then all that's left is for use to go through this curtain again, and then we are free to leave. Climb on and brace yourself."

"Gwas, we still have no reason to believe that the exit hasn't been altered. You could be charging us into an acid pit." Charles insists, yet he still attempts to climb into one of Gwas' pockets to protect him from whatever that fog is.

"True. But it seems as though there is still some delay if our captors wish to alter things. That may well be the exit and we have simply outpaced them." Gwas replies, folding over the top of his pocket as a way to provide Charles with additional cover before charging through the curtain again.

Please, Charles. Would I put a pitfall into a lethal acid trap anywhere down here? What would be the point of that?

The fog is not dissuaded by simple pockets, but passing through the wall of stinging fear is, honestly, no worse for a little bird than for a big bull. Just a bit of serious pain.
And then they're back in the prison hall, where the skeletal prisoners seem to have crawled with their few possessions even closer to the hall where they must pass by, but nothing really stopping them from walking out and joining the wounded Penelope.

That was awful... Charles peeps from Gwas' pocket. He's had just enough of this. But he also isn't sure he wants to leave with so much business unfinished. But it's not like he can really do anything now. Gwas will not be swayed.