Return of the Emblem Chapter Seven: Reunion

[Snowy_One]

Robin glowered at Gytha as she bit her tongue. So what if the people calling themselves priests in one temple had been drunkards? Priests were supposed to be pure and set apart, not swimming in swill. She was not a horribly religious person, missing out on many services due to long hunts, but she still felt the comment poorly placed. Still... there were more pressing matters than Gytha's poor manners... like being dead in purgatory.

"It is. If I had suggested paying the priest in rum, both my father and mother would have thrown me out of the house and the town shunned me for a week. I... ... ... I am sorry though." she said, biting her tongue as she did so. "We have more important things than your poor manners to worry about right now."

[Acacia Sgt]

<They're going to get into an argument again?> John thought looking over the two. <Even here? Hopefully it won't end with another gunshot.> Thankfully it didn't seemed to be the case this time.

Sophia looked over at the door. Could we really find something beyond those doors? Her mind wandered about the endless possibilities. And what use could the building have in a place like this? If something is being kept here, would it be guarded? ...

[Snike]

"We may as well. The supplies aren't going anywhere," Blake said, as he continued to direct various members of the group over to the ruins. Once Raquel and Skotian Lady went into the ruins, however, the mercenary followed after a few minutes of establishing exactly where they were going. A quite possibly angry Bert landed right beside their leader, so Blake took the opportunity to move past unnoticed. At the end of the hall, the wyvern lancer and her wyvern were at the door, waiting for something. In front of them was Gytha and the archer. What was it, like round 3 now? Bloody hell, they needed bygones to be bygones, already! The swordsman put his hand on the pommel of his sword, and moved to the side closest to the door, directly in front of the middle of the space between the two women. If anything were to happen, he could just step in.

[Phoenix]

Main Hall Concerns

Amon watched nervously as the two made their exchange of words. Robin as usual seemed angry and Gytha seemed to either not care or was keeping a level head about things, even after being referred to as a pirate. He was able to calm down a little, but he couldn't help but silently reach out with his free hand as if trying to break things up. He couldn't work up the courage to get between the two though. Gytha he trusted, and Robin he figured he could evade, but he had no confidence that he could really do anything.

"Okay I'm bored. Ringo, take a crack at it." Gabbie instructed. Ringo had no clue what she was on about. She sighed. "Look, lizard." she began before trying to push the doors open. Nothing. Ringo watched her but was convinced that it was a wall and not doors that one could poke their head through. "Shit!" She began kicking the door a few times. This got a different response. Walls could sometimes be broken through and Ringo interpreted Gabbie's actions as an attack on the wall. So that's what she wanted, to break the wall. He put his head against the door and clawed at the ground as he pushed. "Argue or help but do something!" she said to those around.

Amon couldn't help with the potential fight so he ran to the door and put his shoulder to it. He began pushing as hard as he could. Raquel just watched for a moment. "That's a really big set of doors ... can they really open them like that?"

[Mercakete]

Gytha was a bit annoyed at Robin, but decided it wasn't worth dealing with at the moment and started to also push against the doors. Figuring he might as well help, too, Norbert also joined them in trying to open the doors, adding his weight and strength into the mass shove.

[Phoenix]

Don't Let The Door ...

Working as a group was doing something, uncertain what, Gabbie pushed even harder spurring others on as well. Pebbles and dust began to rain from the crevices between the doors until finally noises of slight movement could be heard. "Don't give up now, puuuuush!" she yelled. A thud almost like an impact sounded on the other side of the doors. Gabbie stopped pushing right then and there. "... was that a shutting impact? Don't tell me these things open the other waaaay." She looked up and didn't see anything they could grab to pull with if that was the case. She scanned the nearby area trying to find some sort of clue on how to get through. "I just wanna ... grab all of the grenades and blow a hole in this thing but that's probably ... not for the best." she admitted.

"What should we do?" asked Amon.

"... the password is ... 'fucking open, already'." Gabbie said firmly and slowly. Nothing. She shrugged back at Amon. "Almost makes me wonder if this thing was rigged to keep people out ... t's not impossible ...." she noted. Just then she heard a noise. Like rubble falling but accompanied by the clang of old metal. Looking to the source, she saw a couple of intertwined cylinder like objects. Her face went pale. "Amon ..." she pulled him in so he'd have a similar view of the object as her. "Tell me ... does that look loike a door hinge to you ...?"

"Yes." he replied uncertain of what she was getting at. She immediately dragged him over to the left side of the door. The right was apparently unhinged and if they could get enough of a grip to pull it down they could get past it, but if it fell with anyone in front of it ... well they'd be down a party member for certain. "Okay new plan ... we need to get a grip on this door without standin' roight in front of it and yank it down. The hinge on the roight door isn't even attached." she explained.

[Mercakete]

"Okay, so what're we supposed to do?" Norbert asked, "Not like we have much to grab a hold of." Gytha voiced her own idea shortly after Norbert's annoyed question. "Anyone have a blunderbuss?" "Uh, Gytha, I don't think that'd be the best idea to start out with," Norbert mentioned. "Why not?" she innocently asked back. "As a last resort, sure, but if this place comes down on top of us, it probably wouldn't be good." "Ah, right..."

[Phoenix]

Suggestions

"Well ... if we pull the door down it's bound to come down with a huge crash. If a blunderbuss could cause a cave in, the door'll probably bring the whole place down. It looks pretty stable, though. At the very least it's in far better shape than the fortress that warped onto it ..." Gabbie weighed in. "If you ask me, we should get a wyvern or two to pull it down. We just need some really good rope and somethin' to hook to the door."

"This sounds dangerous." Raquel chimed in.

"I'm not waitin' for that eagle headed psycho to come back and chop us to bits, if there's somethin' in here that can help us get out of here or at least foight back, we need to get it sooner, not later. There should be plenty of rope in the wagon ... not sure about attachments, though ..."

Edited December 10, 2011 by Phoenix

[Mercakete]

"Eagle?" Norbert echoed, confused.

[Acacia Sgt]

As the others started to push the door, John had joined as well. Turned out, it wasn't enough, but they did some progress elsewhere.

<Pull down the door? I guess it's truly necessary to bring Gil here then.> ''In that case, I'll be heading back for Gil.'' He said. ''If we need all the force we can afford, then might as well. I could bring back the rope as well'' With that, he turned around and ran back to the entrance and down the stairs.

[Phoenix]

The Psycho's Head Gear

"The Aquilans are pretty reclusive ... in fact any flier that leaves becomes a 'dark' avian for some reason." she explained shrugging. "They've got a small army called the Cloud Legion and they've got some of the strongest light weight armor possible. Some of the dark avians tried to sell the designs, and every now and then you may spot a winged mercenary with the stuff. That guy's helmet looks loike a different model, but I'd recognoize avian armor anywhere. Those types of helmets get nicknames loike eagle or falcon ... ya know, 'killer birds'." she explained. "Well ... that's the lesson on random shit for today. Where's John with that rope?" she asked no one in particular, placing her hands on her hips.

Edited December 10, 2011 by Phoenix

[Acacia Sgt]

John ran until he reached the wagon again, stopping a little to catch his breath. He then entered the wagon through the back. <This make take a while.> He thought as he started to search.

Eventually he finally found some rope. <Is this long enough?> He shrugged. <Can't say with just looking at it, but I'll take it anyway.> Heading out, he then approached Gil, who was currently just lying on the floor. ''Hey Gil! Follow me!'' He called out with an arm motion. The wyvern grunted before standing back up and flapped his wings, taking off to follow in the air.

And so the pair made it past the fortress back into the temple. ''I'm back!'' He called out as he ran back again to the door, Gil following closely behind.

[Mercakete]

"Hm." That was interesting. That'd be nice to get a hold of. I could use some armor... And the lighter the better for Rizen's sake. It'd be good to get her some decent armor too, besides what leather armor I have on her already. This particular kind sounds expensive and hard to find, though. I'll probably just have to settle for a heavier kind when I have the money for it. Norbert thought. Of course, that led to less encouraging thoughts, too. He can move around easily, then. All that armor protects him and doesn't slow him down. If we have to fight him, that's going to be a problem... 'Course, it's almost harmless by its self. That armored guy in general seems pretty dangerous. He's got a sort of anti-carisma about him, too. Makes me nervous... I don't like it.

A short while later, John returned with the rope and his wyvern. "Good. Let's tear this door down."

[Snike]

Well, the archer-mercenary rivalry died down quite a bit. And Gytha managed to move on to more important things, like opening the gates to the inner part of the building. Sadly, that endeavor did not work out as planned, what with the gate returning to its' locked position. Luckily, the lance lady noticed one of the doors was unhinged, so now it was a matter of getting the blasted thing out of the way. John had a solution in mind, and he quickly departed and returned with rope. Then Bert mentioned 'tearing down' the door. That implied breaking it apart, which might cause a cave-in. Oh dear.

"Let's just lower it to the ground, first," Blake said, as he examined the stone door. "So, are we to loop the rope behind the door?"

Edited December 10, 2011 by Snike

[Phoenix]

Methods

"I don't know how much one of these things weighs and the last thing we want to do is foind out the hard way." Gabbie replied. "If we can get it leaning sloightly we moight be able to slowly let it down ... at least with two wyverns ... and that's bein' optimistic, moind you." she explained while looking at the door for places to attach the ropes. Someplace higher up, near or at the very top were preferable, that way even if the door turned out to be mountains too heavy, it wouldn't be able to crush the wyverns pulling it. Yank them to the ground like nothing they've ever experienced before, yes, but at least it wouldn't crush them.

"Ringo." she summoned her wyvern over and hopped on. "Okay hand me the rope. Gotta look for a place to tie or hook it." she explained. Once she had the requested item, she had the wyvern take off. Once at the top of the door, Ringo took to one of his usual habits. Instead of trying to hover in front of the door, he simply latched onto the crevices between the top of the door and the wall above it, letting his feet claw for a decent grip on the door's massive face. His wings folded up, and Gabbie was free to move about, somewhat. She didn't have much reason to move at all until she found something up there to tie the rope to. There were plenty of engravings and other designs, but none of them were deep enough for what she needed. "Dammiiiiit." she muttered.

She continued to look, and Ringo continued to cling to the door, occasionally clawing around to steady himself again when he lost his footing. This wasn't going without effect, however, as more and more dust was beginning to come off and away from the door and the frame. Ringo was having a hard time staying on the door and eventually decided to haul himself up a bit higher. Gabbie wasn't expecting it and he wasn't expecting a simple beat of his wings to cause any trouble, but the moment he flapped, the door bumped into the inner frame, and then Gabbie noticed a slight lean. "... oh shit." She didn't have to tell Ringo what to do. The wyvern climbed up onto the newly formed ledge as the unhinged door began to fall back. "Move your asses, it's comin' dooown!"

The door slammed into the ground and sent a gust back through the main hall. There was no collapse, fortunately, and Ringo and Gabbie were somewhat perched on top of the door. "Uhhhh ...." She wasn't sure what to say to the others about that. Suddenly she remembered why she was up there in the first place. She quickly looked in the direction of the open half of the door and saw the walls all converge toward a single human sized set of doors. Gabbie winced at the sight of them until she noticed that these had handles. In the event they were locked, she planned to default to her grenade idea since a falling stone door hadn't done much harm ....

[Mercakete]

Norbert and Gytha both moved away from the falling door, Gytha grabbing Amon and yanking him away with her and Norbert just moving himself since no one of significant enough importance to him or who he thought couldn't get out of the way in time was near him. No structural collapse, all was well. He waved away the dust as he took a look into the next room. "At least these doors look easier," he muttered. Gytha looked, too, but she didn't really have much to say about it.

[Acacia Sgt]

And turns out, not even this idea worked out the way it was planned to. At least the door was so big and it's falling was precise it wasn't that hard to avoid it. Both John and Sophia had took cover behind the pillars while Gil just moved towards the entrance of the temple.

<Well, that takes cares of it.> John thought. <Now let's see what is behind.>

Both of them reemerged from their respective pillars and took a look.

<Well well, looks like we aren't finished with this.> He thought.

That's it? Another set of doors? Sophia thought. Well, at least those don't look like they would be as hard to open I guess. Unless they're locked.

Edited December 10, 2011 by Acacia Sgt

[Phoenix]

The Chamber

Amon found himself yanked before he could even think to avoid the door. Well, over protective or not, it was good someone cared. Gabbie didn't wait around for the others and dismounted from Ringo, leaving him on top of the fallen door and ventured into the smaller section. "Another door ... so are you locked or are you not, I wonder." she said aloud. "Koinda just wanna kick the damn things open on principle now but I'll check first."

Amon had followed Gytha and Bert in as well, but didn't arrive until Gabbie was standing cautiously in front of the door. She even stopped to look for tiny holes in the walls to the sides the door, or anything else that looked like a booby trap. There wasn't anything obvious, so she gripped the door handles, and began turning them downward. Slowly. Once the doors were opened, she gently pushed them forward. It was a very well lit chamber. The whole area seemed built to put emphasis and attention toward the center, where there was a strange looking structure, almost like an open tomb. Gabbie squinted her eyes trying to see through the brightly lit figure on top of it.

It was a woman, with white hair, and white wings ....

[Mercakete]

Is that...? No -- no way; that's impossible. Norbert thought as he looked into the room. He didn't enter, though. He just sort of...stared from around the door. Anyone could go by him into the room. I heard a story or two, saw a couple pictures, but... No way... He was stunned into silence as he gawked.

"... What's th' big deal? There's a lady sleepin' in thar," Gytha asked, wondering what all the fuss was about. "You've never heard of--? How uneducated are you?" Norbert asked, hardly able to believe what he was hearing before his attention snapped back to the winged woman, "There's a legend sleeping right there and you don't even know it..."

"Legend?" Gytha echoed, still confused.

"Yes. Haven't you ever heard of the Vasili?" Norbert was still incredulous.

"Aye, Leviathan's one!" Gytha was proud of herself.

"Of course you'd know about him..." Norbert muttered to himself before explaining, "If the artists who drew and sculpted her are correct, this is Lilith: a Vasilus who used light and a sword in battle. She's an avian and very powerful, but she rebelled against the gods along with some others. They lost. I don't remember everything I was taught about her, but I remember that much. I never really wondered what happened to her afterwords..."

"Wow, ye sure don't look like th' scholarly type. Never suspected ye'd have any useful information," Gytha genuinely and obliviously mentioned.

"The man who raised my sisters and me taught us a lot about this sort of stuff. I don't remember it all. Never thought I'd need to know it," Norbert answered, still somewhat dumbfounded, but growing a bit more nervous, "I think we should keep looking for a way out of here and leave Lilith to her nap... She's probably here for a reason and we'd stand a better chance against that armored man than her." The pegasus rider turned away from the door and started back they way they'd come.

Gytha remained, though, curious. She turned to Raquel, "Raquel what'd ye think we should do? Maybe she can help us." Norbert wasn't quite away from the procedings yet, so he was able to stop and add, "Or maybe she'll destroy us and start another war."

Edited December 10, 2011 by Mercakete

[-Cynthia-]

Veronika

"Are you sure she's asleep and not...dead?" Veronika noted after seeing what was behind the door. "This does appear to be some sort of tomb after all. Though one has to wonder why she's here, dead or otherwise. I can't fathom why there'd be a tomb of an avian inside an old military fort," she commented. Not sure if Bert is right in saying that she's one of the vasili either, she doesn't seem to have a sword with her at any rate.

[Psych]

Sirocco climbed into the carriage, throwing on her Oracle clothes. "This land...Mercy." She looked around frantic for anyone. A man had come into the carriage before leaving, and Sirocco didn't see anyone else still outside the fort. She quickly ran inside after the others, as she didn't want to be alone in this strange place.

[Snowy_One]

"Maybe she died here fighting against the gods and her followers tried to give her a burial, but didn't have the time for a full grave." offered Robin from behind the others. "Either way, we should not disturb her. If she awakes, she may try to kill us or the Gods may be very angry with us. I already have enough enemies, I would rather not add to that list."

[Acacia Sgt]

Well well, this day was full surprises. <Who knew we would stumble across something like this.> John thought. He had heard stuff about the Vasili, but never could he have guessed he'd be seeing one in the flesh. <Although, is she really the only thing housed in this temple? I don't think the chances of finding another old temple in the area are high at any rate.>

Lilith? So this is where she ended up after her defeat? Sophia wondered. And as a few had commented, she quite agreed on that. Who knows what could happen if we try to awaken her, and if she does... but, is she really the only option available?

[Zsword]

Shadrak

"We should leave. Now. Before we wake her on accident." Spoke the ellusive shaman. "Everyone, out... I will not have this... thing, woken on my watch..." It was kinda odd, coming from him, something so openly hostile to the group... but something about it said 'I'm serious.' Maybe the fact that he had his Tome out and nestled in the crook of his arm.

Zel

The knight shook his head... he wasn't much for the deeper end of religion, he knew the basics... what more would he need? Evidently a lot, if that's what the current scene was telling him...

[Phoenix]

Investigating

"Well she's gotta be aloive. If she wasn't she'd probably be nothin' but bones by now." Gabbie weighed in. Of course just saying this meant nothing with the kind of magics they had recently witnessed. She walked over to the dormant woman taking gentle steps hoping to investigate.

"G-Gabbie, are you sure you want to approach her like that?" Amon asked from near the door. Gabbie glanced back with an annoyed look on her face.

"If that door didn't wake her up, and this arguing didn't wake her up, I seriously doubt checking for any koind of movement is going to be the end of us. Besoides, I'm still hopin' to foind somethin' we can use, even if it isn't her. Let's just see what we're dealing with, here." she shot back. Once she was up next to the altar-esque structure, she took a closer look at the woman. There wasn't any kind of movement. She didn't even appear to be breathing. Gabbie leaned over the woman trying to feel even the slightest breeze a sleeping person would naturally give off. Nothing. She knew the next check she was about to run would be going a little too far given the current argument but ... Gabbie honestly didn't care. She placed too fingers gently onto the woman's neck to check for a pulse. Nothing.

"... grrr." Part of her was hoping she was alive. At the very least they may have had a potential way out of this place. Turning to the others, she said "She's ... some koind of dead. No breathing. No pulse. She's not warm, eoither. We've discovered a tomb ... congratulations, people. Please pay your respects and then we'll get back to searchin' for weapons." She added in a non serious tone, though knowing her it was obvious that she was serious. That really makes me wonder, though. Corpses ... generally rot. What is- ... what was she?

Raquel sighed, partly in sadness, and partly in relief. She hadn't picked a side in the debate. "What now?" she asked no one in particular before letting her head drop. She held her piece of the emblem in hand, beginning to wish it could warp them back to Sardius and away from the current crisis. That was when she noticed that it was starting to shine again, dimly, so dimly she wouldn't have noticed had she not been looking right at it, but it was definitely alive again. "Hmm." She held it out in her hand and began putting it at varying distances from herself and trying to see if anything nearby was causing it.