Ustris knew two things the moment he entered the cave. The first was that he was correct and that there was water in the cave, the second is that the cave wasn't natural. They had entered a massive tunnel, "Hallway," he corrected himself. Every surface inside the cave was smoothed, with small alcoves on the walls where light was emanating forth. Echoing off the walls was the sound of dripping, which assured him he was on the right path.
"Ustris, what is this place?" "Nothing that I expected, that's for certain." "Should we press forward?" "It's either that or go back outside and wait for our death. Stay close, we don't know what to expect." The cool air in the cave was a welcome change, even if the entire place set off every alarm in Ustris' body. His hair had stood up on his neck the moment he had entered the "cave," his senses straining themselves to hear noises that weren't there. Nothing about this place made sense, why would anyone have created such a useless place out in the middle of a mountain in the middle of a massive desert, where the mountain itself should have been destroyed by the restless winds. He advanced slowly down the hallway, trying to keep his footfalls soft. He unsheathed the belt knife at his waist and kept it close to his forearm, his muscles tense to jump at the slightest provocation.
Kleine could sense the pure tension radiating from her companion and decided to trust in his instincts. She withdrew her own belt knife and kept watch of the rear, Ustris would alert her to anything approaching ahead. Both kept the silence, the tension within the strange hallway was palpable, and both had the feeling that they were being watched. As they progressed further in the sound of dripping water became louder, the echoes beckoning them further in.
"Careful, there's a rather steep drop ahead." Kleine jumped, Ustris' voice being the first thing she had heard in hours aside from the dripping and their footfalls. In front of her spanned a massive room, one which could have easily encompassed Rikuroa. The ceiling appeared to climb forever towards the heavens, and she realized that it had to be the sides of the mountain they were in. Someone had purposefully and meticulously dug out the entirety of the mountain, after which they had smoothed the walls to a finer smoother finish than she had ever seen. There was slightly more light in here than the hallway previous, and she realized that there was a hole in the ceiling letting down the sun from it's noon-time zenith.
"Ustris, do you have any idea what's going on?" Ustris was too busy looking downwards to hear her, he had found the source of the dripping sound. They were standing on a ledge approximately fifty meters above possibly the most beautiful sight in his life. There was a cloud of fog resting on the bottom of the canyon, that could be the only word for it. Occasionally he could see the tops of buildings peeking out from beneath their blanket.
"Ustris?" He snapped out of his reverie,
"Sorry, this is as much a mystery to you as it is to me. The water is collecting on the under side of the ledge we're on and dripping down there. We need to find a way down." "You want to go into that?!" "I can hear the water dripping down there, I'm thirsty, and I don't want to walk through that hallway again. I don't think whatever's watching us would like us going back for the others, either." "... You mean you felt it too? You could've told me!" "It wouldnt've helped, I can still feel it even now. I feel... I feel like whatever is watching us is examining us. I don't feel any malice in it, just... curiosity. Come on, I'd like to fill our water skins, and I have a need to know what's beneath that fog." Ustris pointed towards a staircase a couple of meters along the ledge and they began to descend. Ustris began to relax, his adrenaline had worn down over the course of the walk earlier and his body was aching for food and water. Kleine was in the same shape, but she knew complaining about it would do them no good. They both had some travel rations left, but both water skins had been depleted yesterday even with strict water rationing. The climb down the staircase wasn't long, but about halfway down it became treacherous. They had entered the area covered by the fog and condensation was forming on everything, making sure footing near impossible in their boots that had been worn down by weeks trekking in the sand. Eventually Kleine removed her boots and stuffed them in her travel bag she carried underneath her cloak. Ustris followed suit not too long afterwards, and the both of them progressed in silence.
The duo reached the bottom of the stairwell some time later, fog obscuring their view from practically everything, as they exited the stairwell Ustris noticed the floor changed subtly. Instead of everything being completely flat and smooth, small channels ran in intricate patterns along everywhere he walked. The buildings he saw earlier were also etched with the same intricate patterns, but if they were any sort of script or language it was one he had never seen before. The fog was dense enough to the point where he couldn't see more than four meters in front of himself, and he could swear there were shapes moving within the mist, but he could never hear footsteps or anything other than the rhythmic dripping. A cursory peek within the buildings proved most of them to be libraries, shelves upon shelves of books within each of them. Books were rare on Acheron, most people didn't have the time to read them, let alone make them.
Ustris picked up a couple of the books and rifled through them, their script was different than any he had seen, though that wasn't saying too much. He had seen at least three languages in his life, being sold or brought to different cities and races during his life as a slave. Still, he could tell that something was strange with these books, he was already getting damp from being down here, and all of these books were bone dry. He realized he had been looking at books and wondering about things that were probably magical, instead of looking for water, and belated himself silently then resumed his search for enough water to fill the water skins.
Kleine had been awestruck since they had entered the abandoned city, she didn't have the experience that Ustris had, she knew she was years younger than he was and she had never been outside of the arid lands to see this much water in one place. She had fallen down a human-built well once, and subsequently nearly drowned, but this was entirely outside of her experience. She occasionally stepped in one of the small channels running along the streets that had filled with water, which sent chills down her spine. She had never imagined anything could be so... Cold!
"Kleine, does the floor seem slanted to you?"
OOC: Well I found out how to tab, it's to create all of this in an RTF beforehand and just paste it in.
Also for later use when I said Staff/spear I meant it like a staff with a pointed bottom end for stabbing.
I was sort of thinking of a crystalline quarter staff with sharpened ends.
Basically but I was thinking the top would be blunt(ish it is crystal) for bludgeoning/non-lethal combat.
That's a possibility, we'll think about it when the time comes. Weapons and armor are going to have a pretty unique effect, to say the least. It shouldn't be too much longer before we get some cool exposition along.
Also, just wanted to thank you two for playing along, even though it's pretty railroad-ey right now.
Sorry I couldn't find a different way to not write a freaking book before the game actually starts. >_>
Author
Topic: Acheron & the Shards of Heaven: The Assassination (Suggestions Welcome) (Read 11588 times)