The Hero's Tomb

Discussion Thread - If you're not in the RP but are keeping up with this, feel free to hang out there.

Ahead, the path looked like it split into two, each heading a separate direction. As the party got close, however, the lights got dimmer and dimmer, smaller and smaller... by the time that any of them could make it to the fork, their only source of light was gone. Now, with only their memory of which direction the paths lead in this darkness, the question had to be asked: Go right, or go left?

Osric came to a stop. He looked across the black landscape, not seeing anything of importance...or much else, really, in this dim and fading light. This strange place was hardly where he wanted to be, and he didn't have a clue how to proceed.

Idly, he wondered if any of his companions could see through this darkness; he'd certainly never seen any of their kinds before. While they had claimed separately that they had no way of seeing either, he was not sure he could trust them. Time would tell, he supposed.

"Does anyone have an idea of which path is best?" he asked out loud, his voice echoing in the darkness.

edited 7th Oct '13 5:15:42 PM by TotemicHero

Dedit felt a great shame as he stared out into the darkness, only barely making out the outlines of his companions. To his race seeing through is an almost natural ability that is learned through travelling for so long through the deep, dark tunnels and caverns. However, Dedit had spent most of his life both young and adult, either in well lit caverns or the surface world, which never got as dark as the caverns. He tried his hardest to gaze through the darkness, but it was all for not. Then he heard a companions question.

"I am unsure of what is the best option, but as an old saying goes 'Right can never be Wrong!'" Dedit replied in an almost upbeat manner, hoping to hide his own shame and self doubt.

Carl sniffed the air as he failed to see anything. He wasn't used to being so blind, being from the water as he was, but this, this fog, it was something else. It felt different. It felt wrong. And those lights, they were like fireflies, except not, and they kept moving, but that didn't matter now that they were gone.

"That sounds like a smart idea," Carl said, catching is right fists in his left palms. The man with the bandages all over him sounded confident to him. "Right is the right way to go."

"...What?" Karas stared at the two incredulously, and it didn't help one bit in the pitch-black forest. Dark forces were obviously at work here - and by the Manifold Spirits, if anyone catches me saying that out loud, I shall die without honour.

It had been a fool's errand to begin with, but it was no better watching the Ten Warlords dither, vacillating between the lust for the Hero's power and the fear of leaving themselves exposed to their rivals. So "Ill-Wind" Karas - strategist-for-hire among the Tengu, loved and loathed for the strategies she'd employed against nearly every faction in the course of her career - had set out alone, deciding that she preferred taking her chances with the great unknown rather than with the assassin's knife.

She was beginning to have second thoughts.

"We don't know enough to decide either way, but if we don't follow these two, we're liable to get 'left' behind. So why not?" She cackled harshly, deciding that she'd taken one step too many on the road to senility.

edited 8th Oct '13 4:27:43 PM by Pyrite

Mernia shrugged. She called over to Osiric, "Well, there isn't anything I can help with. This map lied to me." She said to nobody in particular, "We could always split up, and tell the other group what we find after hitting the end of each path."

edited 8th Oct '13 5:35:37 PM by mrminun

"Well if we split up we'd be able to find the right path quicker," Dedit said as he rubbed his chin. "But, it doesn't seem like that practical of an idea when we are as unsure of our surroundings as we are."

Despite knowing that it wouldn't work, Dedit again tried to light a flame in his palm, but of course nothing happened he was just left staring at the outline of his palm. Despite there not being a flame, he got a warm feeling from just the familiar motions. He brought back his cheerier façade.

"Well, you blew my logic out of the water. Although I still personally think the Right Path is safest."

"See, you're assuming two things. One: if we don't find an exit, there's no guarantee that we'll be able to find our way back to this fork in one piece. And two: if we do find a way out, what makes you think we'll want to work our way back in?"

Karas shook her head. She'd heard too many folktales to know how this played out: split the party, and the black bird always died first.

"Awww, but we just met," Carl said. "If we split up now, I don't think we'll ever see each other again. This place is dark."

> Make makeshift torch

Osric sighed as the failed attempt to create light. It seemed that the bandaged person's fire magic failed, no matter how many times he tried. "Perhaps I could try something different," he said, although he did not have a lot of confidence. He hated having to waste his resources like this, but fumbling around in the darkness was worse.

Reaching into his bags, he felt around until he found the roll of bandages and one of his knives. Unclasping his spear from his back, he began to wrap the bandages around the shaft. Once he felt he had enough, he sliced off the bandages, leaving a section of his spear thickly cocooned. Reaching in his bag again, he pulled out his flint and stored the remaining bandages. He then began to strike the flint and knife together over the bundled part of his spear, trying to create a spark.

"By the Holy Spirit, I hope this works..." Osric muttered, knowing that even if it did, it wouldn't last for long...

edited 8th Oct '13 9:25:28 PM by TotemicHero

Osric uses his own materials to make a makeshift torch, hoping to shed some light on the surrounding area.

His attempt creates sparks - unsure whether to count it a complete success at that moment, Osric quickly holds the spear as far ahead of him as he can without compromising his own grip on the weapon, aiming to see the paths laid before him before all goes dark again.

But as he tries to use his spear to look around, he'll come to realize a little later than the rest of the party that his attempt to make a makeshift torch had not, in fact, worked at all - the cocoon of bandages did not even seem burnt in the slightest. But there was light before them - not at the end of his spear, but straight ahead of them.

The area directly in front of the party seems to become brighter, as though it's the dead of night and there are only silhouettes of landmarks around them - namely, a massive tower of obsidian, presumably, in the form of a great tree or great tower, probably both. At the base of it, where it looks more like the great roots of a tree scattering into the ground a couple dozen feet too high, an inviting white light shines out from the space within. It is much more light than the party has ever seen in their journey, yet it is not blinding.

Although he had not realized it as fast as them, Osric might swear that for a brief second, standing at the head of the assembled party, he saw a silhouette of the upper half of a man in the light, turning away from them and descending into who knows where...

edited 8th Oct '13 9:44:08 PM by InfiniteParagon

>MERNIA: Do something stupid.

Mernia saw the light, almost not noting the figure there at all. "HALLELUJAH!" She shouted as she grabbed her skirt and ran towards the light. "My parents always warned me to never go towards the light but I DON'T CAAAARE!" And she was off. The light was the first she had seen in so long, perhaps she'd be able to do something other than wander aimlessly.

>Carl: Also do something stupid.

"Wait! Wait for me!" Carl called out, starting to run after the insectoid woman. "It's dangerous to go alone, I'll come too!" he added as he tried to catch up.

>Use spyglass, look at distant light

"Your parents would be ashamed," the crow tengu muttered, and searched her backpack for her spyglass. No sense in rushing to one's doom, after all.

>Waits

Dedit fought of the urge to rush off into the darkness with his comrades, but his master would have beaten him within an inch of his life if he had done that while he was still alive.

Instead, Dedit readied himself incase anything happened, and glued his eyes to the outlines of his two companions.

> Wait and watch

Osric wasn't sure what frustrated him more, his attempt to light the way failing or these people abandoning the group and rushing ahead. While it was tempting to chase after them, he had no way of knowing if the light was a trap. And had that been a person he'd seen?

He inwardly cursed the darkness, realizing that it was making him second-guess himself. Calm down, Osric told himself, and watch the situation. If they needed his aid, he would have to be ready.

>MERNIA: check to see if everybody is following.

"Guys, I don't want to have to force you, get a move on! This has to be it!" She shouted at everyone in general. "We can at least take a break here, if you want!"

"Truth be told, I've always been tempted by shiny stuff," Karas remarked to the two who remained as she brought her spyglass to bear, "and I'd hate it if we lost such a fine pair of decoys at this stage. If the coast looks clear, I'm heading down - we can't wait here forever, that's for sure."

Mernia and Carl run towards the inviting light, leaving the other three members of the party. Karas withdraws her spyglass, examining the entrance from afar.

Karas' effort wields no revelation, no sign the two runners missed of it being a trap at all.

As the three wait, they become aware all too late of something whooshing behind them. As the ground gives way from behind and they fall into darkness, Mernia and Carl rush onward into the light, oblivious...

Mernia and Carl emerge from what felt like a long stretch of nothing but light into something else - a hall, grand in size, stretching as far as the eye could see. Torches provided a nice amount of light but there were equal parts light and equal parts shadow. The areas they couldn't see as well looked to have cells of some kind, barred walls separating the two from empty rooms...

Somewhere behind the two, very faint, something starts moving, don't grinding against stone floor. It sounds like it might be getting closer...

>Swear, then examine surroundings

The shock of the fall was a bit much for the old tengu, who spent the following minute in a flurry of expletives in her native tongue, culminating in a loud "WHAT THE FLOCK JUST HAPPENED?"

She got up, feeling more than a little perturbed at her lack of insight - she hadn't quite expected the trap to come from behind them, of all places. Those two young whippersnappers were probably laughing at them by now, too.

Okay. Calm down, Karas. You've survived these sorts of things before. First order of business: get out.

She looked around her cell, seeing only the barred window - and through them, the human and the shade in adjacent rooms. "So, I don't suppose any of you brought a skeleton key? And where is that annoying grinding coming from, anyway?"

edited 10th Oct '13 10:14:21 AM by Pyrite

>MERNIA: draw guns. This looks suspicious.

Mernia drew her pistols. "This looks suspicious. Carl, do you think we should go forward? I think it's the only way to go." She asked the octopus. "Also, if that grinding is going to keep getting nearer, we might want to go away from it."

edited 10th Oct '13 12:58:19 PM by mrminun

>Climb and steal torch "It's hard to see here, this doesn't look normal," Carl said, looking around and seeing all the dark splotches around. That grinding was worrisome too, but given how dark it was, it wouldn't do any good to go around half-blind.

He jumped up at the wall, to try and climb high enough to grab a torch and see if he could rip it off.

Karas examines her surroundings whilst far away, Carl tries to grab a torch for a source of light.

The cell Karas is in appears much like the ones the other two are in - which is to say, empty. It's possible these aren't even cells, but what they'd be for instead of that remains to be seen. Although they are too small to simply fit through, however, the bars look rusted at several places - it's plausible that with enough force, the whole door itself could come off...

Carl is able to use his suction cups to climb the wall and reach the torch. Grabbing it with a free hand, it comes out of where it sat with no particular protest, ready to be used.

Meanwhile, whatever's causing the grinding sounds like it might be getting closer. In fact, if Mernie were to listen carefully, she might be inclined to believe that there was not just one thing making the noise...

edited 11th Oct '13 11:29:20 AM by InfiniteParagon

>MERNIA: give Carl an ultimatum.

"Ok, since we have more light now, you and I can either see what it is that is making those noises, or we can get away from them. What do you think we should do? I am in favor of the getting away from them option."

>Examine cell

Dedit examined the cell door for a moment, and summarized that he may be able to knock it down if he attempted to.

"Hey, I gotta plan here, so, um yeah lets see how this works"

With that Dedit stepped back as far as he could from the door, got into a tackling stance, and charged at the door, wondering what would happen, and hoping that didn't obliterate his shoulder.