Crypt Solvers [Hikari|Chelvaric|Eclipse|Mission]

Spoiler:

The bright glob of sun hung over the golden landscape of Forgotten Desert. Soft wind constantly blew from the north, kicking up sand along the way. They fell over the turban covered heads of people living there and then gently settled down again. Among the laughter of children, chatter of women, debates of men and musings of older people, a soft voice appeared. It was much like the wind; gentle, calm, so tender and light that it wrapped around your senses. Light pinkish hair flew back as a figure took slow steps through the crowded streets. The long flowing sleeves of her dress moved along with her hand as it swung back and forth along with the movement of her legs. Her small pink lips sung a tune that drew attention but gave none away. The sun created a ring of light around her as she moved, took a turn and halted. The old structure of a museum came into view. Created with sand, it was surprising that it lasted for so long but she had learned that the magic of this world was stronger than the powers she encountered in her own. The tall building was, however, very majestic. It was something like a monument itself but on that particular day, it was a little empty. There was no crowd in front of the doors that day unlike the others she had visited the museum on. But that wasn’t the only difference. Eclipse has always came to the museum by herself, usually sneaked out of the guild just for it and all those days, she had done it alone with no one to accompany her. Yet, on that anything but ordinary day, there were two others who were accompanying her, one of which drew far more attention than her songs. Along with her were Hikari Starr and Chelvaric, both reputed for their skills a mage. And Hikari was the guild master whom Eclipse had only met when she first joined the guild. Though Eclipse was expecting the former guild master, Raven, it turned out that she had gone missing just a few months before she joined and Eclipse had not taken the initiative in getting to know the current guild master but something told her she was just as great as the one she originally admired.

Without wasting any more time, Valerie slipped into the museum trying to find the curator whom she had gotten a little friendly with over the days she spent there. She found him behind his counter, the usual place, reading a book while looking over the room once in a while. This time, he spotted Eclipse and immediately shut the book, a smile spreading over his lips and lifting the grey moustache up a little. “Why if it isn’t little Eclipse,” the man said, his voice trembling with the weakness of his age. After carefully setting the book back on the shelf behind him, he called Eclipse over with his hand. “Come, what are you here for this time? More research on artefacts?” he took a small file from under his counter and handed it over to Eclipse. “This is the last one you did, right? It’s amazing as always,” he praised the pink haired girl who gave him a small smile in return. There were very few people in the universe that Eclipse would respect and he was one of them. He was wise, even for his age, and had a great insight into matters which had often surprised the seventeen year old girl. “I was going to continue my research,” Valerie started, placing the file back down. “But I’m not alone today so I’ll put it off for another time,” her eyes followed the wall towards her companions and when the curator saw them as well, a knowing “oh” was heard. “So you come with friends this time, huh?” he smiled wisely at them as well before slowly putting the file back. It was a secret between her and the curator that Eclipse was researching on the priceless artefacts in the museum. It began when she first visited that museum and found everything to be of interest to her. It was the curator himself who suggested her to start research on them and she had been doing so ever since. She was poking into various magic, all kinds and types. Forbidden, forgotten, ancient; these were all the type of magic that she was paying extra attention towards. Thanks to her memory, she never forgot what she learned either.

“Maybe you three can help me another way,” the curator told them, bending behind his counter and going through something. Eclipse only heard the shuffle of papers but within a few seconds, the curator was standing back up. He handed a piece of paper to her which looked a lot like a help wanted sign. “I was going to pin it in front of the museum today but I guess I’m a lucky old man since I don’t have to do that anymore,” he chuckled, stroking his beard and looking playfully at Eclipse who shook her head. It was his way of saying he was expecting them to help him without denying.

"Well, I never thought someone would actually take this job. You three are the bravest souls I have ever met. Ok, let me give you the mission details. I am only missing one piece of the Lost Magic Artifact exhibit over in our main room upstairs, we only need one thing, the grand staff of the arc, said to contain the power of all arc magic. Of course, it's been deactivated for some time, lost all its power and what have you, anyways... I have to have it, it's all I need. There's only one problem, I don't know where it is. All I have is a map of where I think it is, it's up to you two to figure out if it truly is where I hope. Legend also has it that inside, is a crypt protecting the staff, you two will need a way to get passed the needle ceilings, poison dart shooting walls, pits full of snakes, jump over lava, all that stereotypical crypt nonsense. Then, you will have to get through four rooms each containing a puzzle more difficult than the last, I haven't heard much of them so you'll have to work off the wing, as they say. After that, you will have to face the guardian, no one's ever seen or heard legends about the guardian, so be prepared, and finally, the artefact, it's probably booby trapped, also when you pick it up, you'll be unable to use magic for the escape. Be prepared for the worst, I believe in you three!"

Well, that sounded easy….


1131/5700

Chelvaric was laying on the grass in the middle of nowhere. He was relaxing as countless animal bodies were laying around him. he just did a three day hunt. Nothing else could tire him out so much. Well except for one other thing. He wondered how hikari was doing. He hadn’t seen her for a while since he was out hunting all week long. Nothing else matters when he was on a hunt. His mind became absent and he hunted on instinct. It was something he liked to do. It was like he became a cat again. A real small cat who went out at night to hunt some mouses. He wondered what would happen if he was born a full cat instead. Laying around all day. Sleeping more then being active. Playing around with your master. Ah it seemed such a easy life. Everything was simple. He dint had to care about complex feelings or other things of the like. But that was just a dream he was grabbed back into reality and stood up. he summoned a electrical saw in his hand and went full naked. He didn’t want his clothes getting bloody and nobody was around anyway. He was exited for doing this for some reason. Ah well he did like some blood. He powered the chainsaw up and started to cut away at the bodies. Making them all nice manageable packages of meat. He would be able to provide enough food for the guild for a month again. After a hour or three of cutting and ripping stuffs appart he was completely red from the blood. It dripped of his body melted togheter with his sweat form the hard work. He sighed as he finaly remembered a request form the purple haired little girl. He always seemed to forget the name for some reason.

Ah well he went into the river and after a refreshing bath he put on some desert clothes and went with his meat to sabretooth. After that he went togheter with hikari and the pink haired little girl to the desert. They didn’t say much but that was mostly because chelvaric was realy tired from his all week of hunting he more slept then anything on the trip. He wondered how he even kept going straight in this state. It was not like he was that good at riding camels. Anyway they finaly arrived at a building. It was pretty grand and all. But it was just a sand people building. He wasn’t realy fond of there style of building. Well not that that mattered much for the job. They found a letter for a job on the side of the museum and agreed they would check it out. They went inside the museum where some old dude was who should have died in the hunt long ago. It seemed the pink haired girl was interested in artifacts as she discussed it with the old man. He wondered what that was all about. Was she interested in gaining power from old artifacts. Or did something happen that she need to find something special. Its not like she was that old yet. If she could study them then she was realy smart for her age. Ah well the only thing that stuck to him was traps and finding a old staff. “well what we waiting for lets go get it. I am fired up to get my trap detection skills up for a test. Lets go all out on this job hikari. We can show this kid a trick or three.”, chelvaric said with a smile to them all fired up and ready to do his part.


617/5700

Eclipse moved back a little. The tall figure of her guild master stood strongly next to her. As she observed the playful smile on her lips, Eclipse knew they were going to take this mission with no other questions asked. And as if to confirm it, Chelvaric’s voice came from behind, telling them exactly that. She gave him a mild glare at the term “kid” that he used to define her. With a rather childish scoff, she pushed her foot down on his as hard as she could under the pretence of walking out. “Sure, show this “kid” a trick or three,” her voice imitated Chelvaric’s but pushed it out in a squeaky tone instead, also keeping it low for only her to hear unless the others had better hearing abilities than she thought.

Once out of the old building, Eclipse walked towards where she believed the location was, having taken the map from the curator before anyone else could. She didn’t know much about her guild master and her lover, but Eclipse knew herself very well and also knew she could use a map much better than most could. The tiny curving lines, the shaded land areas, and the structure itself reminded her of forbidden desert which was just outside the village. She could understand why whoever wanting to hide a powerful staff would go to forbidden desert. Other than the simple fact that it was full of difficult monsters and poisonous scorpions, forbidden desert was also very easy to get lost in. There was no certain path to take because all of it would be covered in golden sand and nothing stayed the same for wind did its job every now and then. She had to note than even someone like her with photographic memory could easily get lost in that maze of sand.

However, especially for these purposes, most maps had a compass drawn at the end which pointed the general direction. Taking it to account, Eclipse fished out a compass of her own from her pocket and using it along with the map’s, found it was the north-west direction they had to head towards. “Let’s go! I think I found the direction,” she told Hikari and Chelvaric before taking the path she was pointing to. Eclipse had been right about a desert being the easiest place to get lost in. In addition to it, if one had not enough stamina, the burning eye of heaven would instantly send them to the world of darkness. But Eclipse had considered it all and took the extra details the map had to count the distance they had to travel, the time they would take with their current speed and everything related. Under her estimation, from their current location, it wouldn’t take them more than fifteen minutes to get to the temple’s mouth. It was short but a desert was not something to be underestimated. The general direction they were walking towards was also the area prominent for its sand storms and they came strong or weak as nature pleased.

But Eclipse had always been able to predict. She only had to watch the timing of the sandstorms for a few minutes and she had the pattern in detail inside her head. The first one rose to their left and went north-east and then a few weaker ones followed. Afterwards, another blew from the north and went south west. Once she had it all inside her head, she walked forward, hoping that the others following would take the hint and stay close to her instead of straying off.

A few minutes later, Eclipse found herself standing in front of a giant cave made of sand which had a path that went underground. It didn’t take long for the genius to figure out it was the temple they were searching for. Weird runes marked the top of the cave and two pillars somehow supported it on either side. The path looked narrow and dark. “Well, I think we are here”.

1800/5700

Eclipse stepped into the cave after Hikari and just like her, stood there frozen for a second, staring at the interior of the place. It looked like any other mystic cave out there, only it was made out of golden sand and outside the candles lit above them by some form of lasting magic, there was not another speck of light to be seen anywhere. Just as all of them entered, Eclipse noticed that the entrance somehow got closed by itself, blocking their path backwards. She guessed that this was one of those “enter and you will never leave alive” sort of thing. Now they were truly under a lake of darkness that spread across them. The candle light flashed, making it difficult for the seventeen year old girl to actually see the path she was walking on.

The beeping noise of the scanner drew her attention to it and instantly, she picked it up from Chelvaric’s hand. She didn’t know where exactly she would place Chelvaric in. He acted like a brother sometimes and like a father at other times but both characters was annoying yet fun for the seventeen year old girl. She “claimed” it to be annoying because it made her feel even more like a child than what she was and it somehow appeared fun for her because such relationships were abnormal for that girl. She was abandoned by her two beings who should have taken the place of her father. Michael detests her and the God who caused everything in the first place simply looked down on her weaker existence.

Suddenly remembering her quest on acquiring data of the people around her, Eclipse started to sing a song while they walked the long, narrow path deep into the cave. Her clear voice rang out and for the other two, it would remind them of someone they knew not too long ago; Raven. Even though Eclipse didn’t know this herself, their voice was somehow similar and it could be easily picked up by the ones that knew Raven.

But Eclipse was, in truth, unaware of the similarity, looking into the past of the two she was now walking with. The life from their birth to that very second flashed inside her head. Along with it came knowledge on their magic and powers. Chelvaric’s past came up more vividly compared to her Guild Master’s. His training, the long journey his life put him on and all the events that lead him to nekotama. It was more than she could ask for, and as she filled the mini database inside her head, she felt the scanner go off. It seemed that they were quite close to some trap and she immediately halted, blocking the others’ path for the same purpose. The song fell from her lips as her red eyes scanned the area. She saw nothing that could visibly look like a trap and the small blinking red dot didn’t speak all too well on what exactly the trap was. In the end, she decided to feel around the path with her foot, lightly pushing down to see if anything was odd before moving up a step. At her tenth step, she realized a little too late that she had stepped onto a hidden switch, hidden in such a way that she couldn’t feel it even with her careful steps.

Her heartbeat took up a few paces, and catching the nearest person, Hikari’s, hand, she began running before giving them any details. “Run!” she screamed at Chelvaric as well when the cave started spitting spike at their small figures. This was definitely not an ordinary cave! The walls trembled at the power of the spears and Eclipse vaguely felt the nagging voice in her head tell her it was all her fault and they would never be able to go back. The path would be destroyed by all those spears that rained down on them like in a storm. She let go of Hikari’s hand only after reaching a safe distance from the spears and leaned against another wall, panting, and trying to catch her breath. “Unbelievable. Why did those old geezers have to do so much?” she cursed the ones that buried the damned staff inside that temple in the first place. Why did ancient people have to go to such extreme measures to protect something?

The little bit of relief that took her mind quickly left when she heard the scanner go off again. ‘Here we go again,’ she thought before angrily giving the scanner back to Chelvaric. “You figure this out now!” she huffed and folded her hands in front of her chest before walking over to Hikari and staying next to her. She didn’t want another rain of spears to be caused by her again. It was always much more fun to blame Chelvaric for it anyway. Besides the traps, they had to worry about the rooms with puzzles too. While ancient magic was her forte, even Eclipse was not sure if she could undo them. That would take a real genius.


2648/5700

So a force field and cat language, Valerie mused as she stepped onto it after Chell. Her feet touched an unseen ground, created by technology she didn’t want to bother with as long as they could get to the next room where the next puzzle would await the three of them. She remembered the curator saying they had to pass through four rooms containing four ancient puzzles, all very challenging and most difficult. What made it more difficult was that the dark, menacing pressure the cave gave off. It told them there were more difficult things waiting for them and that no one would have any idea of what hit them until it did. But Eclipse was more than ready for the traps to be set off. She was only worried about the end of the road. Would ancient, wise mages hide a treasure in the middle of a desert where anyone with a little higher than average intelligence can access and solve a few crypts? Would someone hide something powerful with such irresponsibility? Her answers were that either this thing they were searching for wasn’t as powerful or that there was something bigger waiting for them at the other side of the bridge; which will be something to cross when they get there.

No footsteps were heard against the force field. Eclipse felt something like a hard ground sucking her legs in, holding her against gravity until they crossed the gorge. After giving the distance they travelled one last glance, Eclipse was ahead of the group again. With the scanner still in her hands, she started juggling it in her hands, playing with it while listening to the faint rhythm of its indicator. The old habit of singing a tune came to her as she started doing just that along with the motion of her juggles and the beeping noise of the scanner. Footsteps against real ground accompanied the faint music she created and for the rest of their walk, she was twirling and moving her feet in dancing patterns. Hopping, crossing, shuffling, and spinning; it was all done with a soft push, and a gentle feeling that made her look but a happy child having fun in her own way. Her hands flew around with the pattern she followed and rather unconsciously, she had left Chelvaric together with Hikari at a small yet noticeable distance.

Her footsteps ceased when they got right in front of a large door, made of some kind of hard, ancient metal, standing 25feet tall. For someone who loved history and artefacts, it was a beautiful sight. The door was plain; however, engraved in them were historical symbols with no trace of ancient language. It was just some symbols, all clustered inside the big canvas the gate created for them. At the perfect middle was a circle with even more symbols, only, they were runes and stood differently from the rest of the image. While Eclipse was not a professional, she could tell that this symbols and runes were different from the ones they passed with Chelvaric’s help. She concluded so mostly because once she looked into Chelvaric’s past, his knowledge on his own civilization and everything related flew into her head as well. Comparing those nekotama symbols with these, she could easily tell they had no relation whatsoever. Maybe one of the ancient mages who hid the staff was part of Chelvaric’s ancestry. Besides, on both sides of the gate stood huge statues representing –what she figured- hell and heaven.

On the left stood a completely white angel with her wings folded. Her flimsy yet beautifully flowing dress was now marred with dirt of the cave but her beauty was not lost. Her eyes looked up to the heaven and the hands were held against her chest in a praying fashion.

To the right was what Eclipse guessed to be the perfect opposite to the white angel. Painted in a silvery black color which glowed from time to time when the light of candles fell on it, was a man whose features were twisted in a cynical smile, eyes cast towards the ground and wielding a spear in his right hand. Unlike the angel, there was nothing beautiful about him. His chest was bare and she noticed a big hole at the area where his heart should have been. A heartless creature with black wings: a demon, and a representation to the decent of man.

Her attention fell back to the engravings on the door and then towards both of the statues. This pattern persisted for a few moments till Valerie took a few steps back. Raising her right hand alone towards the gate, she felt her fingers come in contact with something. She recalled everything she learned under the curator and soon, a blue panel opened up in front of her. It looked a lot like one’s normal magic circle but with symbols that would make no sense to someone studying them. However, Eclipse translated the symbols to what she could understand. The blue circle swirled in front of her with a taunting light and for a second, she felt the statues come alive in front of her.

But she paid no more attention to it than for a second. The fingers of her right hand started moving, drawing a circle of their own against the blue circle that was already there. She wrote into it, more symbols and ancient text that her research has given her. Photographic memory never let its wielder forget what he or she saw once and equipped with it, she never forgot. Nothing escaped her eyes and nothing escaped her memory. Vivid pictures still accompanied her placid walks to the past she often took and they never left. The downside was that she never forgot the worse things in life either but it never bothered her since she never stuck to her past. Her path laid ahead and not behind her, is what she believed.

Soon, the circle clicked to its place and with a brilliant blue light that covered the whole cave for a few seconds, the door opened. Times had made the huge wall heavier for it opened slowly. Eclipse had to narrow her eyes to see through the gap into the other side but she could tell it was a room that was built in a similar fashion to a chessboard. The floor was painted in black and white square blocks and on each side, she saw pawns arranged in perfect order, waiting impatiently for a game. A large crystal floated above them, shining a bright blue light on the big board below. Eclipse noticed that the square where the king should have been for their side was missing and she didn’t need any scientist to tell her what they intended to have them do.

Seconds after stepping in, the door they passed through had left them. It disappeared, leaving no trace of its existence, replaced with a high wall with no exit. In a shorter term, she would say they were now trapped into playing this dangerous game. Something told her failing was not an option in it and slowly walked towards the large horse; the knight that looked like it was in the middle of a battle, and immediately passed it to occupy the King’s position. She wasn’t sure if her companions wanted to play the game instead of her but at that moment, she felt she could be useful to them by helping them solve all the crypts to the room. This was mostly because she wanted them to save their energy and power since the earlier suspicion of something waiting for them in the other side still persisted.

“Knight to H3,” Eclipse made the first move, calling to the knight piece first and to her amazement, but not surprise, the originally immobile piece moved to its designated spot with no opposition. Soon, movement came from the other side with them moving their knight to the other side.

A number of commands followed by counter moves. Within a short period of time, Eclipse was left with one bishop, two knights, a rook and a few pawns while the other side had its queen, two rooks and the king itself. She felt that they were in a deadlock, unable to move either way but she put her hopes in the knight and opted for a way to draw the king out of its protection from the queen.

“Rook a1 to a7,” she moved the rook up from its original position and across the king who had his queen right behind him, standing there to get in the way of anyone posing a danger to the king and it did just that and moved diagonally in front of the king, standing between him and the white rook Eclipse controlled. Without hesitation, she took the queen out which in turn caused the rook to be taken out by the king himself and this is where the play came to a standstill.

She moved one of her knights to the place she could get the king from while her other knight stood back, waiting for the king to make its move. It was too late for the rook to come help the king and both Eclipse and the unseen force controlling the other pieces knew it. And in a blur, Eclipse blinked as she saw the king drive his sword through himself, taking himself out and essentially ending the game with a...suicide?

“That...that was lucky?” she looked back at Hikari and Chelvaric and shrugged. “I think we pass.”


4251/5700

OOC: Ignore the grammar error...this is 1:16 AM where I should be sleeping - _ -

The member 'Eclipse Valerie' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

'Monster Dice' :

shall edit to include the post in a min

The member 'Eclipse Valerie' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

'Monster Dice' :