TURN TWENTY-SEVEN: THE GATES OF THE UNDERGROUND
Finish decoding all the runes on the wall, and start brainstorming how they fit together, and what their meaning is.
Hopefully this is what I have a time limit for.
Rune[5 + 2 (roll for focus: 4 + 2 = 6, successful) = 7/6 work units completed]
You decide that you won't need the golems for this part of the chamber. It looks like there isn't going to be some sort of physical threat at this stage, so you might as well release the golems for now and focus on the decryption of this message. You start by taking small steps towards the shining letters and the clock. It doesn't seem that the glow is doing anything special other than releasing light; you don't even feel that much heat coming from it. Rather, you think that you are feeling the opposite - you feel as if the letters are sucking in the heat and making the chamber slightly colder. You don't seem to be able to connect to the letters through your mental interface just yet, so you inch closer to the letters and finally lay your hands upon the cold stone. At first, it's only a slight chill that runs upon your fingers, but you start noticing another feeling. It feels as if your hands are tingling now - a sort of static spark running through your hands. You begin to see different symbols and letters popping up in your vision, which you immediately begin working on deciphering.
You spend an hour or so running through the cryptic messages and interpreting them. Once you are done, you are presented with a bunch of words combined together that make absolutely no freaking sense. So what was the message for? To think that you spent all that time- oh wait, the message was just backwards. Whoops.
THE GATEKEEPER HAS OPENED THE GATE.Behind you, you see that one of the symbols on the floor around the pedestal is glowing - an L and two lines that intersect with the L that glow with a soft blue. You walk up to the symbol that beckons you to touch it. You place your hand over it and you can feel the energy flow. A glowing line burns its way from the symbol to the clock and connects with it. You look back to see if any of the other symbols have done anything. Nothing, apart from the one blue symbol. The line glows brighter and brighter, moving up the wall and splitting off diagonally to the left and the right. You have to close your eyes because of the light now, along with a sharp whine coming from the clock. You step back for a moment and, between your hands, you see the room go dark again. Removing your hands, you find that the clock has moved further up the wall. There is now a large door, in the shape of an elongated pentagon, engraved into the wall. There is no longer a glow in the room, and the words that were below the clock are nowhere to be found. The clock still signals one minute past the beginning, however. The door is split by a cross in the center. In each of the four spaces of the door, a dragonfly, falcon, crow, and dragon are engraved. You try pushing the door, but it does not move nor react.
You look back and find the golems, lifeless as ever. The open tunnels await you.
Eh Ah
"Ah. That does explain the overt guff," Eh Ah says to himself, then turns to the Empress.
"I would not worry too much about this latest turn of events, Your Majesty. While the sudden loss of apparent power may indeed seem highly distressing, this can also be construed as a good thing for you and a less than desirable turn for him. You were not removed from power due to a fault in your leadership, but rather due to the intervention of a malevolent supernatural force that you could not possibly predict or, dare I say, even prevent with the knowledge you had at the time. And said malevolent supernatural force, if it is still at large, is now officially Apollo Devicus' problem in addition to whatever political matter it was that necessitated this war in the first place. This leaves Your Majesty with fewer matters of urgency to deal with, letting ma'am concentrate on the, I venture to guess, more important questions at hand - the breaking of reality on this isle and its causes."
Eh AhYou attempt to counsel the Empress on the matters at hand. She takes a few deep breaths and stares at the ground. You look around to find that her a large quantity of her troops are already moving back to their own work. Only a small group of soldiers, who you assume to be her personal guard, keep watch of the surrounding area. Not that there's much to threaten them now, anyways. You can see that some restoration efforts, such as scaffolds and piles of debris that have been cleaned up, are currently underway to restore the island. You can even see some of the soldiers assisting in such matters. You look back towards the Empress again and notice that something is wrong with your vision. You swear that you can almost see a soft, blue aura around the Empress. When you look at her eyes, you see the same mixture of blue and green in her irises that you saw before when you first encountered her. Her demeanor seems to indicate that she is struggling between going into an outburst and calming herself down. Finally, she begins to steady her breathing and calms her movements. She looks out to the ocean for a minute before she begins talking again.
"Maybe this island is my opportunity to find the truth about this world. Maybe those dreams were real. People don't just start shooting lightning and creating ice and fire, especially my cousin. How the hell is he involved with this?" She shakes her head while thinking. After a few moments, she turns around and begins walking to the edge of the city. She stops suddenly and speaks without turning around.
"You coming or what? I'm not gonna wait around for my cousin to destroy everything I've worked for. We're going to go talk to the Atisi first. I've heard that they might have some knowledge about this whole scenario. At the very least, their odd methods might point me somewhere to start. They might know more about this than some stupid city-dwellers."Once you catch up to her, you notice that her eyes are back to being emerald again, but you can still see a faint outline of the same aura that you saw earlier. Maybe that energy didn't leave her after all.
Your soul has grown in power. You are now the Guardian of Love II and Heart!((Congrats, you've just prevented a young monarch, who has just been thrown in the same situation as you, from having a total mental breakdown. Now let's see what you can really do.))
Warren Drake
Rant to be described below!
Warren DrakeFor your viewing pleasure, here is the conversation that is currently taking place:
"I'm Warren. I'm harmless as far as I know. And no, to answer the question you're probably going to ask, I have no idea how that transformation thing works."
"Well, um-""In fact, I have absolutely no clue whatsoever about anything immediately relevant to the situation we find ourselves in right now. And I'm sure you'd love to tell me something cryptic I have no way to decipher with the information I currently have and then disappear smugly, but frankly, I have little patience for that kind of thing right now. So let's just skip all that and get to the facts."
"Okay, well-""A, I have no idea where I am or what's happening. B, I'm hungry, filthy, confused and more than slightly irritated."
"I can see that-""C, you're obviously either magical or otherwise tied up with all this nonsense happening. D, I'm having a really bad day so far."
"I'm not sure-""E, everyone I know is probably dead or at least under the yoke of some foreign invader."
"I haven't seen any-""F, you're the first person I've met in these frustrating woods. So if you've got anything for me that isn't some mystical mumbo-jumbo and even vaguely approaches useful information or, say, some food, I'd like to have some if you don't mind. Try to speak plainly and, by all means, treat me like a person who doesn't know anything at all. Anything. At. All. And if you don't have anything for me, I'll just be on my way, okay?"
The girl stays silent for a few moments while you take a few quick breaths, tired and frustrated because of your fantastically confusing journey. She looks afraid of you now.
"I.. I have some food.. some.. f-food." She motions behind her to a large tree that has a hole cut out of it - perhaps a door. You look up and find that the tree above the area is mature and has fruit hanging high up on its branches. That would partly explain her answer. She continues talking in a small voice. You can see her eyes watering up.
"I-I mean.. I don't know. I don't usually have p-people coming here, and you.. you were a lizard.." Her voice is shaky and uncertain now.
"I c-can try to f-find water for you, a.. and I have food, b-but.. I don't know how I can help you. I p-promise I can't hurt you..." At this point, she's shaking from fear. Maybe you overdid it a little too much with your rant. Then again, it's not like you were being very forceful against her. She doesn't seem to be that confident in her words or her actions though, and she isn't showing any signs of being a magical, killer maniac, so that's a good thing. She tries to talk a bit more, but she can't get any words out and instead puts her head down.
Around you, there is a slight, cool breeze. The sky above you seems to indicate daylight, so you're still okay in the department. You're still incredibly hungry and thirsty, and there is not much to indicate the path that you took to get here - maybe a few disturbed leaves here and there, but you have to remember that you were a small anole. Other than that, you can't see anything other than the surrounding treeline, several puddles of stagnant water behind you, and the clouds overhead. Oh, and the scared tree-girl, too. That cannot be left out.
Shut them out, just shut them out, Cecil thinks to himself, Just shut them out.
He cuts his thoughts short.
But...
Concentrate just on the mind of the ruffian petting the Raccoon. What else can I hear from him?
Cecil G. PalmerYou can see the old man, just sitting there. Normally, he'd look pretty harmless. But, you wonder, what does he have in his mind to be revealed? You feel a little shameful in reading someone else's thoughts, but there is something peculiar about this person. You need to know more that you're probably not going to find out by simply asking him. Without waiting any longer, you attempt to focus your ability on the old man. The first thing you notice is a flicker. For some odd reason, he doesn't seem to have a shadow behind him - although that might be because there is not much sunlight to shine down on the alleyway. Still, you see some sort of darkness behind the old man flickering and moving about. It might just be your vision playing with you, but it still strikes you as odd. Finally, you get around to hearing some of his thoughts. It is difficult considering the chatter of other people around you, but you manage it.
You're the only one who's decided to stick around for me. Everyone else ignores me. I'm just a shadow, sitting in the corner. Nobody could care less if I disappeared off of the face of this world in a single instant. As you hear his thoughts, you pick up on several other hints that strike you as weird. His eyes look unnaturally shallow, as if the man hadn't slept for more than a week. He also appears to be quite focused - almost too much, despite his obviously aged appearance.
As you think, he gives a small chuckle and scratches at the raccoon's neck before it scurries off.
And just like that, you're gone. Just like the rest of them. No future for me. No, this is my final stop. Everyone takes what they want from me and never gives back. I had my entire life ahead of me, and now I'm nothing more than dust waiting to return to the earth. But there's still hope yet. One final act. This night will be my hour. And then, I shall be free. I shall return to where I came. I shall be with the ones who are like me.You shake your head as you feel some more pain coming your way. His thoughts do not provide context for you, though you suppose that he isn't freely offering his thoughts to you. You decide to back away when he turns his gaze towards you and gives you a mean look. Moreso, his eyes seem to cut right through you - his eyes, which seem hollow and dark in comparison to some of the other people that you've seen around this city. You might just be hallucinating. There's no way that he could be doing anything special to freak you out. You have a minor headache now, but nothing that could make you keel over right now.
The city is still running, despite your efforts to stop the flow of thoughts. Now that you have established this new "power," you can't seem to stop it. You're going to have to find a way to make the thoughts stop, or it won't be long before you run yourself into the ground due to insanity.
((Naturally the player knows far more about that name than the character. Ah well...))
"Not really, no. What can you tell me about him?"
continue to ask questions, accept the offered work when the subject comes back around too it, and ask for a map of the area, citing needing to know how to get to places if I'm going to run errands. Look on the map for someplace I could get myself a sword to replace my missing one.
Lirian"Well, like I said, he's one of the leaders of the Jaunatne. The thing is, he's not as well-known as the other leaders are." He thinks about continuing to speak, but then he realizes that he never mentioned what being a leader of the Jaunatne meant.
"Ah, forgive me. You see, the Jaunatne Coalition is not really organized but any official structure other than a mutual agreement by different territories to promote a mutual defense. However, there is a group of people who unofficially meet in order to coordinate the defense of Survatas. Some of these people are more well-known as the faces of the Coalition, but most of these people prefer to work in the shadows. Artemis Dimikaelo is a good example of a combination of these two types of people. He keeps his connections to the public, but he's fairly quiet about most everything that he does. I believe that it would be a pleasure to have him in our company."You notice that Erin has been pretty quiet through this whole time. She seems to be concentrated on her own thoughts, but you leave her alone. It's not like she's posing much of a real threat to you or your livelihood anyways. Nevertheless, you go ahead and tell Dr. Kito that you are willing to accept his proposition. He responds with a rather delighted tone.
"Oh, that's excellent! I am glad to have you working alongside us. I am not sure when Deon will be back, but he should be able to fill you in on what you would need to know if you are to work around this area. Locations, maps, anything you need." You decide that it would be best to save the sword question until you can get this information from Deon.
"Other than that, you shouldn't have too much trouble adjusting yourself to the environment. Is there anything else that may need to be addressed? Please, do tell me."
Try to turn into a puddle of water
Alex RamanYou begin gathering your strength again and attempt to try another experiment. Those soldiers should be around the corner very soon, so you do not have much time until you are spotted and quite possibly captured or killed. Again, you close your eyes in an attempt to focus your energy and attempt to transform your body. You begin imagining your body liquefying itself and becoming water sloshing against the ground. You can feel the green-blue energy flowing within you, working its magic and taking apart your anatomical structure, allowing you to become something else. You wait a few seconds more, anticipating your change. Finally, you open your eyes to find that you can't move at all. Your perspective is still the same, yet you cannot move. You look down with your eyes only to find that you can see your hands are made of ice now. No veins, bones, or anything else: just ice.
Unfortunately, this means that you cannot move. Your body was able to successfully transform, but the energy did not figure out how to grant you the power of control over your newly-frozen body. You can hear some conversation nearby, meaning that the soldiers should be close. There is not much time to waste now. Despite successfully transforming, you will either have to find a way to control your movements again or be spotted and destroyed.
"The Kito Complex? What that?" Diana asks
Diana CrownThe lady from the market looks around and speaks in a quiet tone towards you. She doesn't seem to intend being secretive, though she certainly is implying it.
"The Kito Complex is up to the northwest. It's on a small hill next to the treeline about a couple minutes' walk outside of the town. Some people have been spreading rumors that it's being used for some secret weapon testing, maybe some kinda poison to use against the Theyins. It's no secret that they're working for the Jaunatne, but people are not sure what exactly they do for the Jaunatne." She backs off and clears her throat.
"Enough of that rumor stuff though. Last time I heard, they were looking for some assistants to work for them. I'm not sure what they would want assistants for, but I guess they have a need for 'em. Other than that, I've already told you the people who may be able to offer you work. Is there anything else you need to know? You still seem a bit lost. 'Course, it's not like someone's gonna adjust to a place like this in a day."
Author's Note: The next update might be delayed again, as I feel I have to recover my bearings and get a feel for how I want to plan out these next few updates. The story is there, but I'm lacking a bit in the flavor of it all, so I want to improve my updates for you all. Of course, this will sacrifice some of the regular nature of the updates, but I will still try my best to keep everything on track.
As always, have a great week,
Artemis.
Author
Topic: Roll To Medium: Awakening [Chapter VI] (Read 145682 times)