((OOC: I can’t tell where people stop and start speaking. It’s rather long, sorry. It’s even longer than my last post. ))
Brimstone Cave
Asher Ikakois
Asher stood still while the others read what was on the metal. ’Saying this is merely the same as saying “I do not know, but I will attempt to calm everyone down and prevent rash decisions,” yet why do feel as if this was necessary?’ he thought, trying to justify his nearly-empty comment. He was attacked by his own mind, which was trying to tell him that going to Galvez Prison without a clear plan in mind of how to conquer it was a foolish and irrational thing to do. He knew that it was, but what else was he to do now that his master and father-figure was dead? He was useless to the group as he did not know how to fight, and would only slow them down once the true fighting began. ’Should I run away?’ He put the metal away in the bag, in a place where could quickly draw it out, lest he be required to communicate again.
Artus began to consider their options. “Well, considering that the river seemingly runs through this cave, I would assume that either way we would have to cross it at some point.” That worried Asher, and he began to back away slightly from everyone else. He would not, would not, would not voluntarily cross any rivers, going to save a princess or no. Water in general was bad, standing water he could avoid without being splashed, but in the fast-flowing water of a river he would be dissolved to his core. He would stay behind or look for a different way to the prison if they were to encounter a river that he could not cross without getting wet. “I say we take the left path. It seems like a good way to go,” Artus said, confident in his selection. Asher could see neither rhyme nor reason for that choice, for there were no clues, no previously-trodden path, for them to ascertain the correct route. He would not follow Artus down any path until they had “thoroughly considered” their options.
Footsteps in the darkness alerted Asher to the group’s state of not being alone. He wondered why, exactly, they could never travel in peace. Artus voiced the party’s collective thoughts, saying, “Huh? Someone else is here?” As soon as that was said, a tall young man stepped out of the path’s entrance. He was tall, taller than Asher, clothed in a blue tunic, and something silver reflected off of his forehead. At his hip there was a whip.
The person who had interrupted them said, “If you are here for the artifact, good luck finding it! I’ve been looking for it for a few hours, now.” Asher was now thoroughly confused. They were in a cave. To go to Galvez Prison. At a fork in the path. With a strange person approaching them. About the non-existence of an artifact. Now, he could tolerate maybe one or two of those things together, but combined into one bemusing whole, they confounded him. He was not worried, but merely not understanding. Asher had read about artifacts in caves and other remote locations, but further research had shown that those were likely rumors spread by bandits and other unsavoury types to lure people in. He hoped that this cave was not home to any more of the bandits, or, heavens forbid, it was their base – those musings were quickly dispelled by the memory of the spider webs: bandits could not have entered this place unless the cobwebs were there to fool people into believing that this was an undisturbed place. The new person could be acting as a lure. But still…this person not ambushing them was a point on the side of “not a bandit”.
Artus was apparently as puzzled as he was and said as much. “Uhhhh...artifact? We're not...here for an artifact...” He was voicing everyone’s confusion. Then he, foolishly, told the newcomer the group’s more-or-less collective main goal. “Actually, we're here on a rescue mission. I'm sure you've heard that Princess Luna was kidnapped right? Well we're going to....Galvez prison to save her...” Even Keres, the group loud-mouth, would have hesitated to tell the odd stranger that they were off to somewhere where no one ever returned from. Artus continued on, as if he had said nothing wrong, “Anyways...I don't suppose you know the way out of this cave do you? You came from that path over there, is the exit that way as well?” Asher agreed with him on that the stranger would probably have that knowledge, but he might also misdirect them.
Despite previously being rather quiet, Coelnar said, “Yes, let's tell the random stranger everything.” Asher was confused at the mention of “random stranger”. Were all strangers not random if they were encountered in caves? The axe-wielder continued, “Great idea. For all we know, this guy works for Diaz," as he finished that sentence he shook his head. "I'm just saying, Artus. You can't trust everyone, and the closer we get to Galvez, the more dangerous things'll get.”
Coelnar was ignored by everyone as the blue-clothed stranger said, “You know, Artus. Your friend here is correct. You should probably not divulge information so easily. I didn’t even have to threaten you.”
’No! He real- wait. His tone of voice is strange for one who is serious. If he truly worked for Diaz, he would have attack us before saying that and bragged afterwards. I do know that tone of voice – it was often used to tease the me who had just been born and unable to discern the intended meaning from the actual words.’ Asher thought, being ever-rational about assessing the situation as it was. If the new person did indeed operate under Diaz’s orders, then the construct would chide himself for not reacting when it was possible to escape.
“I do know the way out of here. It’s down the other path. This one…” Fabian said, pointing down the path from whence he had come, “leads to a dead end.” Asher assumed that he had been withstanding the smell of the brimstone for the past few hours and had gotten used to it. “I’ll accompany your little group for research purposes, but let me ask you a question…” the blue-robed mage said. Asher perked up a bit when he said “research purposes”, but then was slightly less enthused when he mentioned questions. Asher disliked question when they were directed at him, but he was fine with people being as curious-as-cats with others. “What do you plan to do once you break into the prison? I’m assuming you know the layout of it and aren’t blindly marching into a heavily guarded facility that no one has been able to break out of.” Asher considered something at that point – it was true: they had no plan besides going in there and rescuing the princess; they were not omniscient, they were fallible, yet the party believed that they could perform miracles.
“And I’m assuming you know how easy it is to get your hands on the layout of Galvez or any information about it for that matter,” Natalia said, irritated. Asher wished that she would not be so confrontational, but this new person seemed pretty level-headed. “We are capable enough to assess the situation and come up with the best course of action after that.” Asher could tell that she was trying her best to use words that might potentially impress the stranger, and the construct was fairly confident that she knew what she was talking about – except for the “capable” part. He, himself, certainly was not able to decide for himself; deciding for others would require a great degree of foresight, which Natalia may not have possessed. The noblewoman’s judgment needed mending if she engaged Keres, the death-crazed maniac, in any sort of fight.
Asher would have guessed that Fabian was on the defensive verbally if he were stymied by her words, but he was not. Fabian said, “No need to be so defensive, girly. Besides, if that were true, you probably would have known that this cave were here and how to get out of it. I don’t have any information about Galvez, but you should know where to find that if you really want to save the princess.” He, to Asher, appeared to be hiding something vital about the prison.
Keres had decided that this was the best time to interrupt and tease the person who had him aggravated. “Nat.. Nat.. Poor naive Nat. That's not how you treat strangers in possession of strong magic. But she's right…kinda,” he said. “Do you happen to know anything about the layout?”
’Ah, so he shares my suspicions about the quantity of knowledge about Galvez Prison that this stranger holds? It is strange that we would hold even a single thought in common,’ Asher thought, edging closer to Keres. The necromancer was insane, but at least he held no antipathy towards the construct.
The man responded to Keres’ query as if he had no time to spare for questions that should be obvious, saying, “Like I said, I don’t have any information about Galvez’s layout, but I’m sure it exists somewhere.” He turned to stare at Keres, and said, “Say, are you a vampire or something?” Asher did have to agree that Keres’ appearance would subject him to speculation of his species or origin, but as a person with mud-colored skin and silver-grey eyes, he had no place to talk. Vampires took damage from sunlight, but Keres was not hurt by the sunlight, so Asher ruled out that as an explanation as to his life before joining the group.
’I had best obscure my appearance from him, for he seems as if he could raise suspicions as to what I am.’ He lifted his head to look at Fabian and silently apologized to him in advance, ’I am sorry for avoiding you, but that is a measure I will have to take in order to hide who I am. The others are not as observant as you are, so I may be able to successfully conceal my origins.’
Keres seemed to take the vampire comment in stride and said as much. “I like you.” Anyone else (nearly) saying would not be creepy, but when Keres said it…there was no touch of emotion behind those words.
“Hold up Keres. I’ve got more important questions,” Ethan said, breaking his period of silence. “How do we know if we can even trust you? Here’s a start, what’s your name?” To Asher, he seemed like a pillar of sense in a sea of inanity, so he began to like Ethan just a bit more. He was suspicious, which signaled a person who was able to stand back and consider everything thoroughly; however, there was something about him that Asher did not like. Perhaps it was that he joined the group in search of a weapon.
“Well, the fact that I haven’t killed you, which I am fully capable of doing, should give you an inkling of hope that you can trust me. My name is Fabian Alabond of Feyburg. My hometown was destroyed by Diaz’s troops in his conquest of greed. You see, I was one of the top researches back in the Feyburg Mage’s Guild, so it is my duty to procure the relics that were stolen and restore Feyburg back to its former state,” Fabian said, sure of himself. Asher was tired of people, who had more confidence than skill, but he was cautious of his judgment of Keres in that regard, and Fabian could prove to be the same. At the mention of “Feyburg” he became a slight bit more cheery, perhaps because Aime, his hometown, and Feyburg had been in a friendly rivalry for the past century or so, with Feyburg being more advanced in pure magic and Aime more adept in the scientific analysis of magic and both competing for title of best application of it.
“Has your curiosity been satiated? I don’t recall any of you introducing yourselves. The few names that I have picked up are Artus, Nat, and Keres. So who are the rest of you, and keep it short. The odor of this cave is starting to affect my ability to think rationally,” Fabian said, snapping Asher out of his mini-reverie.
’He is quick, picking up those names from merely a mention. I do not doubt his claim to have belonged to the guild, perhaps we may be comrades in the pursuit of information on magic?’ Asher was feeling a bit more hopeful about Fabian now that he has related his story. The construct was hesitant to tell his own background, so he remained silent. Artus could probably be relied on to introduce those that had not spoken.
Instead of Artus speaking first, as Asher had predicted, it was Coelnar; Asher made a mental note to himself that Coelnar was more confident that he appeared. Coelnar said, “Well, I suppose we don't have much choice but to let you come with us. In any case, we'll need all the help we can get. My name's Coelnar. I'm a member of the Polrin, and I'm going to save my people from Galvez, if they're alive, that is.” Asher dug around in his files of memories for the explanation of “Polrin” and found it buried in the place where all of his “not enough information to pass judgment” memories and experiences were collected. It was odd that he did not know of something, but he let it slide and would rely on Coelnar to explain everything.
“And this is Ethan, and those quiet guys over there are Asher and Undine,” Artus said, following up on Coelner’s comment. Asher considered him as the most personable of the group, as he was certainly more outspoken than the construct or Undine, and friendly than Keres or Ethan and Coelnar did not restrain himself when it came to conciseness.
“Anyway, I wish there was an easy way into Galvez, but it doesn't seem so. Still, I suppose the problem isn't really with getting in, as much as getting out again. If you have any decent ideas, we'd be glad to hear them. I'll be the first to admit that we don't have much of a plan,” said Coelnar, ever the sensible one. Asher silently wished that he was brave enough to speak honestly in front of the group, but he was not.
“Also, my name is not Nat, but it seems Natalia is too complicated for some to remember. I hope you’re still able to think rationally enough to remember this,” Natalia said, wishing to replace the name “Nat” with “Natalia” before Fabian started to call her the shortened version.
“Coelnar brings up a good point. It's not so much about getting in, then it is about getting out,” Artus said, showing some reserve about the whole expenditure for once. He propped his head on his hand. “I mean, we do have Keres here, who can take on the whole prison by himself 'cus he's the master of death.” That was obviously directed at Keres, who Asher assumed had bragged about his abilities.
Keres apparently had a malfunctioning sarcasm-detector, as he said, “That's true, killing one could easily take out the rest if I cast the right curses...” Asher knew that is partially the truth, as the revenants were stronger than even him, and he did not doubt that the necromancer had more tricks up his sleeves.
“We can think of something after. Let's get out of this cave first, the smell is really starting to get overwhelming,” Artus said, eager to remove himself from the cave. Asher also found that the smell disagreed with him, but he could bear it as long as it was required.
_______
“Hey Fabian...you sure this is the way out?” Artus asked Fabian, as they were walking along the path in the cave. Asher was certain that everyone was uncertain about the path, and as they came to a section of the cave that resembled a dome, he could smell a cloying scent. It was akin to the one he had smelled behind the house with the bandits, but the smell of brimstone tainted it. He began to get suspicious. Keres, on the other hand, seemed so sure of Fabian’s directions that he told Artus to quit complaining. “I think that's the exit…” Artus said, as he pointed to the other side of the dome. Even in the low light, Asher could see several lumps on the ground, and, upon further examination, they were revealed to be bodies. Keres commented on their appearance, noting that they were half-eaten.
A scuttling noise alerted Asher to a large centipede’s presence. He recognized it as a Pincer Centipede, which was an apt description for something that used it mandibles to chomp on its victims. Artus muttered something to himself, and asked Fabian if he knew that there was a large bug lurking in the depths of the cave. He did not concentrate on the giant vermin, which crept closer to him. He launched a lightning bolt at it, and it hit its mark, but it did not appear to be very effective. He ran from the group, trying to lure the centipede away.
Keres attempted to rid the bug of its energy, but it kept on moving without even being affected. Natalia called for everyone to close their eyes for a moment and released a bright flash of light, which temporarily stunned the creature. It continued to advance after Natalia ran in the opposite direction that Artus had. Coelner used a Light-aligned spell to sear off a few of its legs, but, as Asher knew, centipedes operated just fine with a few of their limbs missing. It lunged at the axe-wielder, narrowly missing his internal organs and head, but its pincers clamped onto his shoulder and Coelnar was lifted into the air. He kicked at the centipede and it let go of him, dropping him on the ground. Asher could hear something crack, but Coelnar placed his hand on his shoulder and it began to heal.
Ethan, realizing that Coelnar’s healing spell would take some time, fired a wind-assisted gunshot at the bug, and it pierced it, but it did not affect it much. Ethan drew his sword and slashed at the immense thing, but that only made it angrier. He was soon cornered by it, even with the sword stuck between its jaws, and Artus seized the chance to hit it upside the head with a lightning spell. It scuttled up the wall after abandoning Ethan, only to lunge down and grab Artus to haul him up. Keres cast a spell on the orb, enabling him to float on it, and launched a fire ball at it. It smacked him with the tail end, and he fell off his orb.
Asher dashed forwards to catch the necromancer, and jumped to catch his falling body. He landed nimbly among a series of puddles, and as far as he could tell, none of them held clean water, so he leaped back across a pool of water. Near him was Coelnar, whose shoulder seemed to be getting better already. Undine disappeared under the ground, along with the robe that had covered the majority of his body. She leaped from the wall and latched onto the centipede’s head, causing it to drop Artus. Asher quickly set Keres down by Coelnar and went to evade the lashing of the bug’s tail and any puddles while catching Artus. He was halfway successful, remaining unscathed by the centipede, but his right foot landed in a puddle. He quickly took it out, but his toes were already…not there. Artus was heavier than Keres, but Asher supposed that that was because he had armor on.
Undine was keeping the centipede at bay, so Asher took advantage of the distraction and laid Artus down by Coelnar. The centipede was concentrating on the blue-haired girl, but by no means that meant that Asher would rest. As the creature mostly stayed in the same around and thrashed around in a side-winding pattern, he was sure that he would be accurate if he were to hit it. The construct silently thanked Undine for creating an opportunity for him. He jumped at the wall and used Restoration to latch his fingers into the cracks in the wall and restore his toes. He climbed up the ceiling using that method of absorbing the wall into him, and he soon reached the top of the “dome”. Here, he was directly above the centipede’s writhing body, and he could judge where he would land if he were to form a weapon out of the rock.
’Weapon…weapon,’ he thought, urgently trying to decide between the many vying ideas in his head. ’If I drop down from here, will I hit it in a vital place? I do not know the build of centipedes, but pinning it to the floor seems like a good idea. If I take a large chunk of stone from the ceiling it might collapse, but I can probably remove just enough to form something to stab though it and merge with the floor. Weapon formation!’ The rock of the top of the roof of the cave began to accumulate by his side, and it finally shaped itself into a sturdy spear. Asher waited for the optimal moment to drop, calculating how quickly he would fall and where the centipede might be, detached the spear from the ceiling, and dropped while twisting himself around so that he would land side-first. He landed perpendicular to the centipede’s body; the spear impaling it cleanly -- through the middle. He could feel something of his being broken, but he did not know what, for he was concentrating on joining the spear with the ground – in a few moments, the spear was a solid pole of rock sticking up from the floor of the cave. The centipede could not move from its current position; however, it was more enraged than before and it had a new target now – Asher. Its tail lashed about wildly, smacking Asher in the face a few times, and the jaws tried to clamp onto him.
Asher was seized around his torso by its mandibles and gripped by an immense amount of pain. If he could, he would have screamed. Concentrating on dealing the maximum damage while he could, he attempted to pry the jaws from around his waist and bent one back so far that it came out. Asher knew that his strength was greater than a human’s, but he had never experienced such pain and panic before, so he was rather surprised. Upon further consideration later, he remembered that, while the centipede could close its jaws very tightly, it had a limit on how much the jaws could bend back. He had merely reached that point and one of the mandibles was no longer attached, but he had no leverage to remove the other half, so he attempted to back away after hitting the centipede a few times with its own body part, which he disposed of by throwing against the wall. His middle was bleeding profusely; something on the lower part of his right leg was broken, badly; the bite from the centipede left him reeling in pain; his strength was leaving him as the blood oozed steadily out – he knew that he had to get away from the centipede, but it was battering him with both ends. He sat down by the place where the centipede was impaled, covered his neck, and attempted to minimize damage taken; although, upon later reflection, he realized that running from it might have been wiser, but during that moment, he was in massive pain and taking even a single step away from there would have resulted in being knocked over by the centipede’s attacks.
((OOC: Samantha, AJ, and Keres, your posts are all conflicting, so I attempted to meld them together. Yay for 4k word post?))
