It was a long descent, and the crack in the earth that had become the crack in the sky above them slowly closed and made their journey grow dark. Of course, the air and the earth only chilled more as they went down, but Tony felt hot and cold all at once, growing tired well before he expected to hit his wall and regretting the challenge he had presented. Obviously, he was out of shape without the demands of the Iron Man to keep him in top form. But the three men that had come down this hole with them were panting, too, and taking extra long breathers at scant intervals. Their rock climbing guide should have at least been a little more bodily ready for this. None of them, outside of the scholar, were terribly ready to admit it, though. He was whining enough for the whole group.
Generally, they were thankful when they were forced to stop to dig out flares to be able to see their footing. With a crackling chorus, the cavern was illuminated with a slightly eerie red glow. Tony released one of the sticks to fall down into the river, now loud and close, to try to judge how far they had left to go, but it hadn't been out of his hand long before it sputtered and winked out, well before it hit the water. A second did the same, and Tony frowned, gesturing for them all to move on. They had only made it a few feet when the lights they carried started to go dark as well.
"Is your magic doing that, too?" Tony shouted irritably in the dark over the rush of the water, making the voudou expert shiver apologetically.
"I-I-I have night vision--" he offered weakly, making Tony shout at him again to repeat that because, if he didn't notice, it was a little loud in here. "GOGGLES! NIGHT VISION!" the man yelled back as he searched through his backpack. It was quiet for a while then, except for the water, which covered the sound of the man's blind fumbling, then the sudden shatter of glass that turning the device on caused.
His shrieking was the next sound heard over the river's relentless noise, and Tony demanding, "What? What happened?"