Quest for the Codex Hospitalariae - Part 1

"This feels like a bit of an anticlimactic start to this search," Mack muttered, speaking more to himself than to either of his companions. They had journeyed together from Talonia to Oak Town and, overall, the trip had been rather uneventful. After making it to the town they had spent a few days canvassing the Great Library to gather as much information as was possible about the catacombs that ran beneath the town.

As it turned out, they ran for quite some distance.

Miles and miles, in fact.

Searching them all to find one small section that supposedly contained an ancient shrine of the Hospitalariae Order was, in all likelihood, not going to be an easy task or one that was accomplished in a short period of time. After all, if the Shrine were easy to find then it would have been found long before now. Or else, well it was always possible that there was no shrine to be found.

Given all of that, and all they had discovered concerning the Catacombs themselves, the silver haired healer had expected there to be some kind of impressive door within the Great Library that marked the entrance to the Catacombs. Maybe some kind of revolving bookcase, or a painting that swung out to let people inside, or some kind of ornate wood door with sigils carved into it, or maybe a wrought iron portcullis like what castles had but smaller.

"It's just a simple door, like all the others," the Healer muttered, leaning on the polished ebony of his crozier. "This doesn't look all that impressive." He shrugged his shoulders and regarded the two women with a calm and level purple-eyed gaze. "Oh well, I suppose I'm ready if you are. We'll see if that tip was any good." Taking the simple silver doorknob in his free hand, Mack turned it and pushed the door open with a soft hiss before disappearing onto the stairwell beyond.

Word Count: 325/1500

Luna came out of concern for the man, she figured better to have his back then worry. She followed the two closely, in her human form to make sure she could keep up and not cause any trouble. However within two days of research, and memories of past experience in the library complemented with Integrated mind, it was a simple task. However her attempts to communicate that to the male seemed to have failed, as it was not until he found later on his own. She laughed a bit at Mack's thoughts coming in. "You do know I tried to tell you all this yesterday, right? I've been here before. The catacombs aren't a secret, so there's no secret passage, and if it leads to catacombs, no need to dress it up. Usually hidden doors are further on, double deception."

Luna followed the man and the Kitsune down the dark path, she could sense a looming darkness. It was making her uneasy being so far from the sunlight, she could start to feel her heart beating rapidly as she grew concerned. She tried to focus her senses, however without as much life as there would be, most of her senses were limited to magical energy. She nearly jumped startled as her iLac buzzed, notifying her of a text. Checking the text made her feel almost sick. "Thank Shirain, just my sitter, they're starting to charge overtime fees, I've been gone for a while."

However there is an issue that has been bothering Luna since the encounter in the Soul Bar. "Hey Virvidox, what makes you think that the tome found here is the original and not just another copy?"

"I guess I just imagined something that was a bit more, Gothic maybe," the healer said in response to Luna's remark about the rather nondescript nature of the door that would allow them to enter the catacombs from the Great Library. Of course, this raised an entirely new and interesting question.

Why did the Library, of all places, have an entrance to the catacombs within its walls?

After all, when someone died, the first thought of most people was not that the recently deceased needed to be immediately taken to the library for proper entombment.

The silver haired mage was on the verge of taking the first step on the plunge into the dark abyss when Kumi slipped in front of him. The curvy kitsune forced the healer to come to a complete stop, so as not to bowl the smaller woman over and, as it was, he just did manage to stop before he would have collided with her. The purple eyed mage tried to avoid glancing down, well glancing down further than the woman's eye level anyway, as she peered up at him but he had the distinct impression that there were less than three centimeters separating the two of them.

"Uh, yes," he asked, peering down into the now dark haired and furred woman's face. And just like that, her eyes were the same shade of purple as his. Or, at least, they were close enough to the same shade that he could not tell the difference.

"Oh," he said, brought up short for a moment. "Well, I suppose imitation is the sincerest form of flattery," he muttered, moving past the Kitsune as she made her remark about ladies going first and ignoring the jest. Given the narrowness of the doorway and the close proximity of the woman, to say nothing of her build, it was impossible to squeeze past without brushing against her in a slightly awkward manner, with one of his hands practically passing through the bushy black fur of her tail.

As he started down the stairs and into the darkness beyond he tapped the ebony crozier in his left hand three times. With each thump there was a resounding and solid sounding thunk of the staff on the stone steps. At the third tap, a soft golden light erupted from the staff, illuminating an area out to about thirty feet in front of the trio. "That's better."

Continuing down the steps, the question from Luna reached his ears at roughly the same moment as the staircase came to an end. "In truth, I don't know if there's a shrine in here or not. I absolutely doubt that the shrine, if it exists, will have the original copy of the Codex Hospitalariae. Such an artifact would not, I think, be in a place like this. But, information about all three of the ancient orders, Templarum, Teutonicus, and Hospitalariae is relatively scarce. Beyond what's contained in copies of their ancient texts, none of which is a perfect copy. The theory is that each copy was made with deliberate errors, in order to conceal the secrets of the orders and make it impossible for anyone other than the leaders of each to know all the secrets and spells they had."

As he moved through the darkened passageways, following no particular path, the healer would occasionally tap a stone. Each stone that was tapped would have a glowing golden arrow pointing back the way they had come emblazoned onto it. It was a simple way to make sure they did not get lost in the catacombs. "The Hospitalariae were known for their healing spells and magics. It's said that more than a thousand years ago their original High Priestess was the most powerful healer that the land has ever seen and that the secrets and knowledge of the healing arts that she possessed is unrivaled, even today. Even her burial place is, today, lost to us. But, if there is a lost and hidden shrine here, from the waning days of the order, it may contain clues to locate other such shrines. Find enough shrines and enough clues and, maybe, we can trace that all back to the original codex."

Word Count: 1028/1500

Luna's senses were going into overdrive as she felt as if she was surrounded by sharks. However she hated to admit she shared the same line of thought as the kitsune about the navigator of the trek into a pit of death. Her finger's twisting the ring on her right middle finger as she could sense the eerie aura of death in the air of the catacombs. "Leading a being of pure life into a pit of death without a map,a cruel deed if held true. I don't belong down here, the life in here is dead, the dead has claimed the life." Luna thought her anxiety was starting to get to her, however that seemed to make some sense when she sensed the vermin crawling through the catacombs. Vermin that live off of the flesh of the deceased.

Luna saw a group of rats pass by, so she called out to them, wondering if they would be able to give directions. "You! Please, may I have a word?" The rats stopped before looking at Luna, their fur died red around their jaws, while piercing red eyes glared. "flesh.... flesh...." Luna backed up nervously, the rats seemed to have a one track mind. "What do you know of these catacombs?" The rats seemed to be mindlessly focused on Luna as they rushed at her and leaped at her, jaws open. In a reflexive reaction, a white energy gathered around her forming a white disk shield as she bashed the small group of rats, knocking them back before the shield dissipated.

She felt a great deal of regret. "Those poor souls... They've only feasted on human flesh their entire lives. Incapable of sane thought. What is it about human flesh that drives these poor things crazy? Well, isolation has a factor here." She couldn't watch as the rats suffered, she wanted to heal them, but she sensed the life draining from them. It was too late. Returning her focus to the main goal, she wondered what ungodly horrors were to follow. "This place... sickens me. I never thought I'd say that. But a mausoleum of death..." Luna's hands started to clench into a fist as she was resisting the urge to bring it all down around her. "Has no rightful place. I can't heal life if the soul has died inside. Again, Virvidox, how do you know where to go?"

WC 399

"Or, maybe I just have a really good poker face," the healer said in response to Kumi's complaint about how he was not very much fun to tease. Of course, if he told the kitsune woman the kind of teasing that would be most effective, it was quite probable that he would wind up being slapped, or worse, for his trouble. No, it was best that the foxy woman figure that little mystery out all on her own. Safer too.

In rather short order after the trio had entered the catacombs the questions began to be voiced as to whether or not he knew where he was going and where he was leading them. The absolute truth of the matter was that the silver haired healer had no more clue than did either of the women where it was that they were going within the catacombs. They would get there when they got there, as the general saying went. At the same time, though, it was not as if they were simply bumbling along blindly.

"I don't precisely know where we are going," the man admitted, tapping another stone at an intersection so that a golden arrow would appear to indicate the way in which they had come. "But, we do have a guide, of sorts," he continued, holding aloft the lighted staff as he spoke. He then fell silent for a few seconds as Luna held a brief conversation with some rats that had creepily glowing red eyes. Based on her reaction, and her need to defend the small group from the rodents, the conversation did not end well.

"A word to the wise," the healer commented, his purple eyes narrowing on the last of the rats that was still clinging to what remained of its life. The vile, insane creature squeaked and twitched madly, but it seemed to have broken its back when it slammed into the shield created by Luna. While the front legs worked madly, the back legs remained eerily still.

"If you begin a battle, be prepared to finish it." The man raised his crozier and brought the butt of the ebony staff down on the rat's skull with the crushing force of finality. The creature twitched once, and then was still and silent. "If you cannot heal or turn the creature, it must be killed. It is inhumane to leave it here to suffer or be torn limb from limb by its comrades once we have departed."

"Now, as I was saying, we are not totally without a guide," he continued, moving past the scene of Luna's brief battle with the rats. "Even though I don't have any map to speak of." As he was talking they reached a four-way intersection in the catacomb's tunnel. Stepping into the middle of the intersection, the healer extended his staff down each of the possible ways that the party could travel in. The light from the staff grew noticeably brighter when waved in the direction of the right hand corridor.

"I happen to have a small relic from the Hospitalariae Order, a Star of Saint Janine," he said, shaking the staff slightly which set the small medallion affixed to it to swinging. The medallion itself consisted of four mother of pearl chevrons attached at their central point to form a sort of eight pointed star. In the large spaces between the arms of the star, at would have been the intermediate compass points, there were two golden lions and two golden unicorns. A unicorn occupied the northeast and southwest corner, while there was a lion at the northwest and southeast corners of the medallion.

"Are you familiar with the basic principle of magic, like calls to like," he asked, pushing on before the question was answered. "I've tied this medallion into the lighting spell on my crozier. The light will glow brighter the closer we come to our goal, and given that the light has been growing slowly brighter... there is definitely something connected to the Hospitalariae Order in these catacombs."

Before he could continue to explain the grand scheme a dull, dead moaning sound filled the intersection they were standing in from every direction except the one from which they had come. The moaning was accompanied by the sound of rusty, long disused, metal scraping along the paving stones that made up the walls, ceiling, and floor of the catacomb. Holding his staff aloft, Mack directed the light down the halls in every direction and, within a few seconds the owners of the voices and weapons came into view.

Zombies.

Zombies in rusted armor, half hanging from rotted flesh. Zombies dragging weapons that had not seen use for their intended purpose in who knew how long. Zombies that had, most clearly, been gnawed on by rats, if the occasional missing eye, ear, nose, toe, or finger was any kind of indicator. "I believe we've found the cause of the madness in the rats," the healer said in a calm tone, turning to face the zombies approaching from the corridor directly opposite of the way the group had come.

WC: 1881/1500 (Word Count met and exceeded)

The sight of the man finishing off the rodents was not easy for Luna, almost sickening as she covered her mouth. However anger quickly set in as she felt the life for. Before they proceeded, Luna grabbed the man by the shoulder with an intense grip. Normally she didn't get set off by things, but this man who had claimed to be a healer failed to act the part. "Don't do something like that again. Even in a sickened state, they were still alive. They could've been saved, if you were a healer, you'd know that."

As they progressed, Luna couldn't sense any life force, but she sensed some form of magical energy. She saw the undead beings walk through the catacombs. While Kumi had an impressive display of force, Luna used it as a time to prepare. She gathered a ball of white energy in her hands, it expanded to a diameter of twenty centemeters before Luna gently guided it forward passed the group. In Luna's opposite hand, liquidized energy seemed to pour out and form various tiny seeds. After the ball passed a significant distance, Luna threw the seeds down in front of the party. The last thing seen was the ball dividing itself many times over before a wall of ivy managed to grow in the way. "Those bombs will go off any minute now."

Luna stepped back as the bombs blew up one after the other. She twitched as she heard the moans of the undead and the sound of their guts splashing about. The ivy wall soon fell, revealing that the attack was successful, but there were still stragglers of the party that were coming towards the trio. "Alright, I admit, not the best move for closed corridors or spontaneous. How are these things still alive? Either there's a necromancer, or some form of magic keeping them animate? Any guesses?"

WC 315

"The mark of a healer is knowing who can be helped, and who cannot be helped," Mack replied grimly, dropping back into a defensive posture with the two women and zombies began to advance and Kumi fired off some sort of a spell that temporarily filled the space with a prismatic light display. "The rat's physical injuries were not the problem, the problem was their mental state and there was nothing that could be done for any creature that far gone. Attempting to save them would have been every bit as cruel as attempted to save these zombies."

Standing between the two women as they squared off against the zombies, the platinum haired man slammed the end of his crozier on the ground. A flood of brilliant white light blazed out from the medallion to completely illuminate the area. The effect of the lighting spell on the staff would not last all that long, but it would hopefully at least last long enough for them to deal with the current threat posed by the hordes of the undead coming at them from every direction. The light itself did not slow down the zombies in the slightest, there was no practical damaging effect from the spell, but it was at least something to increase the group's overall effectiveness.

"Of course, if you think these zombies can be saved I welcome you to attempt negotiations with them," he continued in a dry tone. "I'm not sure you speak the same language though." The healer watched as Luna threw something that looked like seeds which exploded into some kind of plant-like display of force. In truth, the amethyst-eyed mage had never seen anything quite like it. No doubt the display had something to do with Luna's heritage as being one of the fae.

As for his own display of magical power. Well, for the time being the women seemed to have things well in hand. There was a large number of zombies, no doubts there, but they were slow and relatively weak enemies owing to the relative age of the corpses being reanimated. The smell of the bodies, or lack thereof, coupled with the obviously desiccated state of the remains made it apparent to everyone that these reanimated bodies had been buried in the catacombs for quite some time. The leader of the little party was jerked from his thoughts by Luna's next question.

"Odds are good it's something connected to the Hospitalariae Order. When they were active, before being destroyed, they were known as powerful healers though the lore is somewhat fuzzier as to how they went about conducting those healings," Mack admitted, shrugging his shoulders and stepping back into the very center of the small intersection as the hordes continued to advance.

WC: 2343/1500

Going forth, Luna couldn't help but be pressed by the feeling that at the back of her mind, something was very much wrong. As Mack had led the way, Luna tried to sense around, but all she could sense were ominous vibes, so she decided to occupy herself with her thoughts. "So you speculate the healing capabilities of the Hospitalariae Order can animate the dead? I find that, a bit, odd as we've gone out of the realm of healing and into Necromancy."

As they passed the zombies, Luna knelled down for a second and touched one on the back, triggering Integrated Mind. She tried to analyze the creature, but there was another force at work, all she could ascertain was the mission. "I can sense there's some form of magic at work, perhaps the book might have been holding them together, after they were animated? Like some form of preserver. Still doesn't answer if it animated them or not. Perhaps a failed attempt to raise the dead. Seems like no one told them about three days."  Luna stood up before continuing with the party. She was growing immensely concerned, now about the one who was leading the trio down into this abyss.

Something so powerful in anyone's hand, could potentially be a great risk to everyone. Luna then leaned against a wall for a second, giving off of pink magical energy in some sort of steam as she faked some form of energy loss before she forced herself to turn into her fairy form, of 5.5" tall, before she flew onto the Kitsune's shoulder for the meantime. "Must've exhausted my human body, been suffering unconscious shifts in correlation to stamina lately." Luna hated to lie, but she wanted to have a small talk with the kitsune. She whispered quiet enough for just Kumi to hear. "Don't react too much, but I'm starting to wonder, if this codex is so powerful, there must be good reason to keep it hidden, can you think this man can be trusted with something so dangerous? I can't get a read on him."

WC 349

"Healing magic can easily be perverted into something monstrous," Mack said in response to Luna's question. "Especially if some of the stories about what the High Priestess of the Order could do are true. There are legends of the Priestess regrowing limbs that had been amputated from something called spirit flesh," the healer continued, advancing into the middle of the intersection with his ebony crozier and its light in his left hand. As he had prior to the attack of the zombies, the silver haired man held the staff out in the direction of each of the forks coming off of the intersection. As he did so he held up his right hand and summed a small cerulean orb of energy which added is soft blue glow to the light coming from the staff.

"Kumi, here," he said in a nonchalant tone, flicking the orb of energy in her direction. The small orb of pulsing blue light zipped across the space separating them and struck the woman in the chest. A soft blue glow spread out from the place where the small missile had struck Kumi, the glow slowly dissipating as the energy was absorbed. "You want one too, Luna?" As he was speaking, the healer slowly started down the right hand fork in the passage way, brushing some cobwebs away and trusting that the women would follow.

"Back to what you were saying though, Luna," the healer said, his voice echoing down the dark stone corridors as the light from the medallion affixed to the crozier grew ever brighter with each passing step. "There's even one old legend I have come across in the journal of a soldier that claims the first High Priestess, the so-called Blessed Saint Ravenna Thomi, once raised a king from the dead on the battlefield mere seconds after he had been killed by an archer." The hooded man shrugged his shoulders, reaching another intersection in the twisting labyrinth of passages, turning left, and tapping the crozier on the ground to mark the pathway that would lead back out.

"I have my doubts that story is true though," he continued, starting down the next passageway. "It's more likely it was just a very elaborate shield spell that intercepted the arrow after it had hit the king but before it could do deadly damage. If we find the Codex, I suppose we'll find out together."

WC: 2742/1500

Luna paid careful attention to the telepathic message of the kitsune, but she was glad they were on closely the same page. However she realized that she was talking to someone part animal, and she tried her luck at giving a telepathic response, hoping she was animal enough for her telepathic capabilities to work. "I concur, I was lured by the mystery of a legendary tome, but as a legal wizard I can't afford to risk it falling into darker hands. I don't want to be picking fights and making enemies, but at some point my hands are tied."

Luna looked around the catacombs, she couldn't see as much given that she shrunk herself, but she knew she had to be careful. She wanted to trust the man, but she knew all too well that her forgiveness stabbed her in the back twenty times at least. She knew she couldn't be as trusting as she'd like to be when something powerful is involved. With the man leading she had no idea what to expect, and the suspense was starting to get to her. She wished she could have a bit more information about the situation. However there was one thing that was clear in this ordeal.

She spoke aloud, hoping to be wrong. "Still, I expected some form of guardian guarding the tome, however those undead beings didn't feel like it. Have the stories you heard mention any such being Mack? I always imagined something that would stand the test of time better."

WC 257