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Tales of Malaketh: Ritual of the Blood Red Night - Part 1: On The Run


Nanami Touko
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"No monsters, just... that." Alex spoke slowly, observing the light with doubt. It seemed too suspicious --even the color was unnatural. Why should they try messing with that? "I don't trust that much... but I guess I'm the one better equipped here. And if we're going to stay here, we should figure out what that's all about before it surprises us..." Taking a deep breath, Alex walks towards the door, examining its design... it wouldn't be too cryptic to open it as well, would it?

Alex to (4,15), check the door.

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"Well, it would appear we are taking a look at it... do be careful, Alex. You may have your armour, but I would still think it wise to allow me to take the lead here... the sun's rays do not reach us beneath the ground, so even a practitioner of light shouldn't pose a particular issue." Astrid noted... these humans were so curious to explore that they were overextending themselves, somewhat. The Countess had managed to come up close to Alex, but if something foul was afoot, she was still just out of reach of the young soldier.

Astrid to 6,15

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Almira moves to 18,18

"Uhm... S-Seph, my, uh... You're, uhm, m-my hand..."

Sephtis inspects the chest and finds... 50g leftover inside

Alex inspects the door and finds it quite old, and without a lock. A simple push would open it without issue.

"Oh, Astrid, don't be so worried. If we were going to run into something, we would have. There's no one left here~" Sharena waved her hand at Astrid's concern of leading, things were going just fine.

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Of course, she'd said too much, too harshly. Wilhelmina recognized that, but people telling her what she must be feeling or wanting always rubbed her the wrong way, even worse with the kind of day it had been... week it was shaping up to be. Misea chased after, sounding a little hurt themself, which hadn't exactly been her goal, and the gentled hand catching her shoulder drug her out of the daydreams and delusions Glen's words had sent her down.

Opening and closing her mouth a couple of times before settling on what to say, Mina was inwardly glad the vampire was behind her, not staring at her face trying to read her expression. "I was... more bristly than I ought to have been, but I hope you can understand. Half of the things you were on about didn't make any sense and the other half, well..." the teacher sighed. With most of her frustration vented in that previous exchange, she was feeling considerably more conciliatory. "It's been a long day, and things are just getting started. Maybe later?"

If the knight wanted another one-on-one to flesh out what they were driving at, while managing not to be offensive about it, she wouldn't turn that down. Hopefully she'd have sorted out a few of the other issues she was struggling with by then. The topic of traps was, of course, apt, and not to be taken lightly. A little out of her realm of expertise, too, as most of what she dealt with was pure hobby, no actual risk, no actual reward. None of the puzzles her father had ever made for her had been trapped, obviously.

"I suppose this is an 'after you' situation then? You want to take a first look at them?"

Mina delays for now, to take her move after Misea.

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"You were no more bristly than I deserved, Mina. Later, as you wish it. Now, let's see about these chests, shall we? I just so happen to find myself an expert on them." With a wink that Mina may or may not have caught, Misea approached the display, carefully. It seemed quite the trove to have simply been left behind... Had people been here, or not?

Misea moves to 57,18--

And as they approached the metal protectors, their hand shot out to their side... Not quickly enough, it would seem, as a spear had founds its way into their side. At least a quick grasp had made the implement go no further than its head's length into them, but... "Wasn't really expecting to get impaled today... Huughh..." With a moment's effort, Misea removed themselves from the spear, and took a step away from it, allowing it to finish its trajectory out of the wall and onto the floor.

"Well! I suppose that might be a moment's karma... That rightly smarts. Should've been watching my feet better." Their right foot lifted, a pressure plate followed. "Suppose you... Wouldn't mind using your staff, Mina?"

Misea takes 10 damage!


Alex gave the door a hefty little push, the iron moving at her command... And as the area opened up, the light illuminated the woman, perhaps blinding her a moment. Once done escaping into the area outside, Alex could see clearly, the room contained a bright, glowing crystal... With... A person, inside of it?

Map updated!

SmPLkxh.png

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"Hmm? Oh, sorry. I forgot." Seph chuckled and let go of Almira's hand. "Hmm, looks like there was a bit of gold left in this chest. Not bad. Still, you wonder who was here before us? Someone had to have been, right?" He pocketed the gold, glancing back around for the rest of the group. "Wonder what everyone else found. Which way do you think we should head next?"

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Mikaela followed Alex, weapon at the ready if something were to happen.  Staying behind her as she went on, his eyes widened at the scene before him.  "I...well, this is certainly something," he says with a nervous chuckle.  "Hey guys, I think you'd want to see this!" he calls out to the others, or well to the people that can hear him as he now stands next to Alex.  "Now the question is whether or not they're alive..."

Mikaela to 5,15 SHOCKER

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Mina nodded, later maybe, and stepped aside as the knight carefully moved around her and up past Glen who'd been leading their push. Following slowly after, the teacher couldn't stifle the gasp when a triggered trap impaled Misea with a short spear, and even though the vampire seemed only slightly worse off for the wound, it was definitely a thing worth healing, even had he not requested it of her.

Approaching cautiously, despite Misea having cleared the way it was hard to just ignore what had happened, Wilhelmina paused a moment once she caught up to Glen's position. From here it would be unknown territory, she'd be stepping on fresh tiles whichever side of the knight she moved to heal them from. Lightly nibbling her lip as she considered, Mina finally settled on the assumption that if more traps were to come, it would probably be in a line crossing the approach to the chests, from wall to wall. Perhaps it was mistaken logic, but she pushed past and stood close to the chest itself, quietly calling for her attention, boasting that it had better rewards than any the vampire might have to offer, but the teacher drowned out that siren's call and focused on the task at hand.

"Don't mind at all, let's get that taken care of."

Mina to 57,19, heal Misea

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"Thank you, Mina... You're a blessing I don't rightly deserve~" Misea played back ever so faintly, glancing towards the tiles beside the other unopened chests. "Paying attention now, instead of tossing caution to another gust of wind, it would be in our best interests to avoid approaching these from the front... Whatever's inside must have been worth protecting, I suppose. Be careful opening them, would you, Mina? If these are the traps on the outside, I'd rather not think about what's inside." Surely the woman knew what she was doing, if she was able to handle cracking them open...

Player Phase, Turn 5!

"Uh, wha? Me... Well--" That was Mikaela, had they found something? "I, guess we should go and check out what's been found... Is that alright?"

Sharena bounds into the room without a care in the world~ to 3,17!

"Goodness! Just what is this? This is amazing! All I can tell... Its magic, but I've never heard of, or felt this sort of magic before. How interesting... Anyone wanna touch it?"

Misea stays put, for now.

X4v7KSt.png

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"Well, I do suppose this is the moment of truth, is it not? Allow me... stand back, just in case." Astrid noted, following after Sharena and stepping up to the odd, luminescent gem, Astrid placed her hand upon it.

Astrid moves to 4,17 and uses TOUCH

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As Astrid pressed her hand against the magical container, a small ripple waved out from the area she pressed, as the magical energies around it began to dissipate. The light disappeared, and the crystal slowly dissolved, the-- now quite clearly --girl inside collapsing against the dungeon's floor.

"Uhnnn... Who, what's..."

"What... How'd you do that?" Sharena was quite shocked, staring wide eyed at the situation... Before realizing that they had a living person on their hands. "Whoa, uhm, w-we should help her, right?"

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"I simply touched it... it seems all it needed was contact to open." Astrid replied, taking a moment before stepping forward towards the new arrival... how curious. Kneeling down next to her, the Countess stretched out her hand, offering it to the strange girl.

"Can you stand? Or tell us anything about this place, or you? This whole situation is... quite peculiar."

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"I think we should leave the questions for later," he quipped before looking over at the girl with a gentle smile on his face.  "For now, if possible a name would be nice," he says, letting the countess help her up as he observes on the side.

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"My... A name?" Though clearly shaken and confused, the girl managed to stand. A tan complexion, bright blonde hair, a pair of shorts and an oversized shirt. They seemed quite worn, like she'd been made to wear them for a long while, now. "Uhm... Ahhh... M-My head, hurts... Gimme a second... Nn-- J-Juneau?" She whispered a name out, staring around the room, and then smiling at the group.

"Well, you all don't look like crazy wizards, so I guess I'm in good hands. I'm Juneau! I think... My head's still a big foggy, I've been stuck in there for a... Uh, I dunno, but a long time, now." Her ears were pointed, but she had no visible fangs...

"Uhm... What, are you, miss?" Sharena was moderately confused, but...

"Huh? You've never seen an elf before?"

"A-- A what?"

Sharena and Juneau shared a confused staredown.

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Mina grunted a small affirmation to the vampire knight, and leaned her staff against the wall. It would continue to glow for a little bit, even without her in continual contact with it, but it would slowly fade. Certainly no hard time limit, as she could easily take hold and charge some more magical energy into it, so there was no reason to rush through the mechanisms either, but the teacher didn't want to keep everybody waiting either.

...she didn't want to keep herself waiting for that matter either. Curiosity is a harsh mistress.

Wilhelmina sets about opening all three chests

 

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Alex just... stands by the entrance, very reluctantly. That room couldn't be less bizarre, the lighting unnatural, and the crystal even moreso. Alex was held back by suspicions and doubts --this was a lot to assess in such little time. The source of that crystal, and possibly most of the room, was magic for sure. Easily confirmed by Sharena, as well --Alex wasn't going crazy and seeing things, then. Now, this person... was it truly a good thing to check up on them? If they were sealed here...

Alex instinctively got on guard the moment Astrid touched the crystal, readying for the worst possibility, or at least what she could think of as the worst. A moment's passing was enough to tell it wasn't going to be a fast and nasty surprise, if any of the sort. This... woman seemed fairly off-guard, and was trying to gauge the team with one interesting comparison. 'They didn't look like crazy wizards' was as good as lead as any to start questioning this lady, as well as the way she identified herself. "You were imprisoned here by wizards?" It seemed like a fair assumption to make, one that still didn't bode good confidence as to this woman's animosity. "I can't say I've ever heard of elves aside from a few folk-tales back home... I thought they weren't supposed to be real?" Perhaps there were some truth to myths? Personally, that was more troubling than anything to Alex. Some myths were better left as myths...

Edited by Xinnidy
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"An... elf?" Astrid repeated, quickly taking a sniff of the area. She smelled... almost like a human, but there was something distinct about it. Like fresh foliage, a verdant forest... she also didn't quite look human. Pointed ears, but she was most certainly not a vampire... such a description certainly matched what an elf was supposed to look like, but...

"I would not expect anyone here to have ever seen an elf, Miss Juneau... there hasn't been a reported sighting of a living elf in over three-hundred years."

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Luckily for Mina, the traps seemed to only be surrounding the chests, not inside them. In the first, a pile of gold! In the second, some books, a few robes, and a small vial, that most certainly radiated magical energy. And in the last, tucked into a scabbard, one would find an emerald blade that held some form of anima magic.

Mina gets 300 gold, a ??? Vial, and a Wind Edge

"Wonderful. And your lovely face is still in tact. A win win on both accounts... Careful stepping away from those, yes?" Misea was surprised so much was left here, was this cave truly abandoned...?


"Not real? But I'm right here." The girl paused, grabbing up at her ear, nodding and chuckling. "Still an elf. Now, uh, where are we, exactly...?" Before she could ask any of her own questions, she was hit with... "Oh... Wh-What? You're joking, right? I... I, oh... Oh, r, right... There's... There's the memories. I guess that means none of you are working for Sanctious... He's not here, is he? Did you run into anyone else coming in here!?" Juneau was suddenly worried, some rather unfortunate memories coming quickly to mind.

"I-If there's anyone left, we have to leave! Uhm, uh... Wh-Where's the exit...?"

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"Sanctious? I know of no such person... as for others, we have yet to meet anyone, yourself aside, who did not come in here with us. I can't say for certain if the others have run into anyone though... we split up to explore this place taking shelter from the rain." Astrid replied, watching this elf closely as she began to panic.

"What is it that we've to fear? I'd rather not spring to the other end of this cavern to retrieve them without any sort of explanation. We are not overly far from it, if need be it should not take long to leave."

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"Uh... Wh-What is there... L-Look, if everyone else is... Is dead, then... Then I've been in that crystal for over a hundred years. I'm... Th-This is a lot, uh, i-is there some place we can go to rest or sit down, or..."

"The other room was empty, from what I saw peeking into it... Before checking stairs or exploring further, we could collect everyone, and setup a camp, no?" Sharena was confused by the name as well, but the girl seemed distraught. "Well, everyone? Is that fine?"

Almira follows along to 11,15

"Hellooooooo? What's going on in there?"

//(If wanted, characters can all be moved to the empty room, to setup together and discuss the situation. Please discuss in Discord~)

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  • 2 weeks later...

After some hustle and bustle from the groups exploring the cave, Mina had opted to continue exploring, instead of hear about whatever had happened. A nearby wall had proven to be rather weak, and a steady blow from Misea had knocked it over, into what appeared to be some sort of throne room. Whatever purpose it served was foreign to them, but for the moment, they'd run into no issues. None yet, at least.

As they did so, the rest gathered in the empty hall, Almira staring mystified at this Juneau. "Wow... You're, really... I've only ever read about your people... This is crazy."

What an odd little vampire... "A... Any, way... Did people have questions or, should I just... Rattle off about, whatever comes to mind?" There was a lot to discuss, and bits and pieces were slowly popping back into her memory.

No movement for this part! Talk as you will!

o69vSFY.png

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Seph frowned, glancing around them. "Alright, well... What is this place exactly? Is there any chance anyone else could still be here? There was that treasure chest... Opened, but gold left in the bottom. Like someone had been looking through it quickly, but had to flee. What's going on here?" He wasn't sure what to make of all of this. Elves were fairy tales, not something that existed in real life. So why was one in front of him now? And what were their next steps? He glanced over at Astrid. She had to have answer, right?

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