I Pillage, You Pillage, We all Pillage Together!

[Lasair Anubail]

(Closed)


It was a bright and sunny day. No clouds lined the jewel blue sky or Corone on this day, nope, not a single one. Instead, the sun shone high and mighty like the face of some God forever looking down upon those below it and providing them with warmth and light. The wind gave barely a whisper to its presence along the trees and the long grass and all around the sounds of many types of creatures could be heard. They danced among the trees, hopped along the ground and scurried their both tiny and bog feet in all directions. One of the many sounds that could be heard was the energetic and high sounding voice of one very lost Fae.

“Lasair, sweetheart, just admit it. You read the map wrong.”

A perfectly oval face, with smooth lined and golden eyes glared down at the tiny figure of a famous warrior known as Godhand Stryker.

Now, this figure is not the real Godhand, not entirely anyway. He was a plushie, a replica of the man that Lasair had met herself and spent some time with. So he had some of Godhand’s powers and all of his personality.

“I am not lost!” The fiery, red headed Fae said rather defensively. “I know exactly where I am!”

“Really, then where are you?” The twelve inch plushie place both little cloth hands along his side, covered in his little replica trench coat and glared right back up at her. After all, Godhand had just as much pride as Lasair did, probably even more.
The glare left her face rather quickly and Lasair turned her golden eyes on the area around them.

Tree, tree, tree... log, grass, flowers, birds...

Her eyes wandered around the thick foliage of Concordia forest, not as thick as Luthmor, but still a forest nonetheless. The trees looked exactly the same as the trees she’d been looking at two hours ago, but she wasn’t about to tell Godhand that. Besides, all trees looked the same; brown and green for the most part. Then again, she had seen a lot of grey, a few white and even some green and green trees, but those ones were usually covered in fuzzy moss, which was really good to sleep on.

“Well... I’m obviously in a forest and Underwood is supposed to be in a forest as well, so therefore I am in Concordia and therefore I am not lost, I am found!” Lasair smiled rather triumphantly over her logical deduction, if someone could even call that logical.

Godhand on the other hand, well, he just shook and then hung his head. This was a tiring argument and not the first time it had happened either. Lasair got lost, a lot. She got lost in Salvar and it had caused her to become stuck in a battle with an Ancient God of Destruction. She had gotten lost in this very forest once before and had wandered into an ancient and cursed village that tried to steal her soul and she had gotten lost while searching for the headquarters of an old powergroup she was part of called Imperial. It no longer existed rather it was exterminated by another group called NWO, that she had changed sides to join midway through the war. But if you asked her, she was never on a side to begin with.

“So which direction do you propose we walk in next then?” The small plushie asked.

Placing her finger on her lips, Lasair thought for a moment. The wings on her slim back shimmered and shifted as she did so, catching the light of the sun in pockets filtering through the canopy and exploding into a rainbow of colours. Reaching a consensus within her mind, Lasair jumped. Her wings fluttered in a speed of motion that could only be described as a blur.

“I got it! We go that way!” She exclaimed, pointing in the vicinity of north.
Without waiting for a further comment from Godhand, she started walking. Her bare feet crunched down on the dry and dead leaves and sticks littering the forest floor.

Godhand remained in the same place. “Sweetheart, we came from that direction...”

“Of course we did, I knew that, I was just testing you.”

Nodding her head rather vigorously, Lasair turned and marched back over to Godhand. She scooped him up, placing him on her shoulder, readjusted the light weight of her rucksack and then went south. Mainly because south seemed like a good idea at the time. So she marched, through the brush and under fallen trees and carefully picking her way through bramble and branches and thorns. It didn’t take her long to trip on a root and tumble practically head over foot down a small hill. Amazingly, she missed a few trees a rather large rock on the way down. Unfortunately when she landed, she landed on Godhand. He was neither big enough to cushion her fall, nor was he too happy about being squished under her meagre weight.

“Lamshir... ghet... off...”

“Huh?”

Blinking and shaking her head to clear it of the slightly dizzy feeling, Lasair quickly rolled over and sat on her butt. Godhand, took a deep breath of fresh air and began dusting himself off before he went about removing leaves and twigs from Lasair’s not tangled, red hair. Lasair was too distracted to do this herself, mainly because no more than thirty feet ahead of her lay the ruins of some ancient...something. She had no idea what because he lay covered in veins and leafy things and trees had started growing where walls may once have been. Truly nature was taking over here.

“Wow, Godhand look!”

He did, though he didn’t seem impressed. “It’s probably full of monsters, better to just stay away, sweetheart.”

He may be right, but Lasair’s curiosity demanded that she check it out. It could be filled with treasure after all! And what girl didn’t like treasure?

[Eburk]

“Hm, well this seems like a bit of a predicament,” the giant beast commented to himself. He had been traversing the deep woods of Concordia for the better part of three days and found himself without any sense of exactly where he was. As fond as Acropisies was of nature, having no contact with another person for days was beginning to take a toll on his psyche. Nevertheless, he trudged along mindlessly in what seemed like a straight line. He had always assumed that if he walked far enough, he would eventually just come out the other end. It would have been a grand plan were it not for the fact that countless numbers of trees, gigantic rocks, hills, and other random obstacles stood in the way of his straight line.

Heaving a deep and bellowing sigh as he paused for a moment, he gazed at the sun and winced slightly as it glared in his eyes. The day was beautiful and looked as though it had been crafted by a skilled painter. The only thing missing were small creatures frolicking, though he did not expect to see any since the pounding of his footsteps caused most creatures to flee. To say that Acropisies was growing a bit lonely would be an understatement.

As he stood and pondered his current situation, the sound of rustling and crackling brought his focus to an area ahead of him. Rubbing his rocky chin, he stumbled forward as best as he could. As he drew closer, he wondered if those were indeed voices he heard. He hustled forward, slowly gaining momentum and crushing small rocks, logs, and twigs that were in his way. Slowing quickly when he noticed that there was a sudden drop-off Acropisies looked over the ledge to notice a small creature and an even smaller creature that looked like some sort of doll.

Although he was fearful of scaring the creatures, his yearning for human contact was dominant.

“Hey down there!” he bellowed. The cry came out louder than he had hoped, as he sometimes forgot how powerful his voice was compared to that of a normal person’s. He would have to remember to reign in his voice a bit. Ahead of the two figures below him, Acropisies’ noticed some sort of construct that looked as though nature itself had enveloped it. His curiosity was peaked, and his mind slowly began churning about the stories that it held.

[Lady Blackwell]

Max Sighed his time in the citadel didn't go so well, he got his ass handed to him by another man PAID to beat him, and Max didn't even put a scratch at him.

“ahh man, I need to get all this frustration out!” Max said as he stumbled over root's in the Concordian forest. “Where is something interesting when you need it” Just then he walked into something big cold and hard

He rubbed his nose and looked up there was some kind of structure there, and covered in foliage. Max walked around to the front and went to walk up the stairs, maybe there was something inside that could help him out in the long run. But as his foot hit the first stair he heard a loud booming voice come from behind him.

Max froze in his step's and slowly turned around to see a small being with a doll of some sort, at the base of a drop, he decided to run over and see if they were okay.

As he got closer he felt something surge through him and sit on his chest, for some reason it felt like mana was slowly starting to focus in his chest area. He slowed his pace and dispersed the mana through out his body as he sped up again.

As he drew close he looked up through a clearing, not a single cloud nothing, the breeze was barely there but brought the sweet scents of nature with it, as well as a rouge leaf or two. Just outside what he could now see was a girl's range of immediate attack, he leaned against a tree.

“You need any help ma'am?” Max said as he crossed his arm's and looked at her.

[Lord Anglekos]

As Eric watched the scene unfold beneath him from his perch, he raised an eyebrow as yet another player joined this little party. A Fae, complete with wings, an obnoxious plushie and innocent personality...a large but seemingly gentle being that looked to be made of rock...and lo and behold, the warrior he'd fought not a tenday ago at the Citadel. Unbeknowest to those three, Eric had reached the ruins long ago, and like the Fae before him he had been attracted to the sense that within these walls lay the promise of treasure and riches. And Eric, despite all his experience and morales, was human at the core, and thus was as attracted to the temptation of riches as any other man was. He'd been traveling from Underwood, where'd he stopped for the night to get some rest and supplies, and had been on his merry way to Radasanth when the spire at the top of the ruins caught his eye. At first his instincts told him to ignore it, but then curiousity got the better of him and he'd come upon these ruins.

At first he thought it was the home of some ancient goddess, from all the statues of a feminine figure covered with snakes that decorated the pyramid-shaped buildings. However, as he'd continued through the ruins, he found that his initial interpretation had been wrong; it was not a home, but a temple city. In reverence to the goddess represented by the statues, he assumed. Not all of them were identical; some of them showed her directing the snakes to tear someone's heart out, while others showed her taking lovers in explicit details. Whoever or whatever this goddess was, he did not want to meet her nor her acolytes. He'd been tempted to leave, but confirmation of his first assumption convinced him to stay:

He'd found a single gold piece, with the image of the goddess he'd seen all around engraved upon its face. And where there was one gold piece, there was many.

So he'd sat down upon the ledge outside the ruins and was trying to figure out how to get farther in, as many passages were either blocked or trapped; he'd sprung one on his way out and had nearly been impaled on a spike coming up from the ground. Why they had traps in a temple city he didn't know, but he'd been working on the problem in his head when, all of a sudden, the tiny Fae girl came into play. Rather than go and greet her, as Maximillian had, he'd stayed where he was and listened in on their conversation. Who knows? They might just go into the place themselves, he thought.

[Lasair Anubail]

Lasair’s mind filled with thoughts of shiny things. Not the kinds of shiny things that most people thought about. Of course not, because Lasair was not most people. She thought about pretty crystals and raw pieces of material, like prevalida and maybe even mythril! Oh, and what about some ancient and really strong enchanted cloth that she could use to make herself a pretty cloak and a funky enchantment on it. That would be awesome. Oh, oh and maybe she could even find some really old plants with some cool properties that looked all pretty and fuzzy and had very nice blooms. She’d like that a lot.

Her mind had just wandered into thinking about a new toy for Godhand when the loudest shout broke the stillness of the forest. Lasair let out a small cry, which means she meeped. She also jumped—almost right out of her dress if you asked her—and then proceeded to hide behind the nearest thing. The nearest thing happened to be a tall statue on the way to the crumbling building, temple thingy. Unfortunately for her, another man showed up at this point. She had no idea who he was or where he came from but he surprised her just as much. So much so that she tripped on her way to hide behind the statue.

A small rock caught her foot and sent her flying. Her dress ripped. Her leg scrapped against the rough, sharp end of the rock, causing her to let out another meep.

The poor, small Fae lay prone once again on the ground. Her leg throbbed, her foot hurt and she knew she should be running from something right now but she didn’t want to move too much. Whimpering, Lasair sat up and looked at her leg. There was a nice, long scratch down the side of her calf, now welling with thick, silver blood.

“Ohh... oh no, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts!!!”

Lasair suddenly seemed more interested in the superficial wound on her leg then the sudden appearance of a few people she didn’t know about. Thankfully, Godhand was always nearby to keep her on track.

He walked over to her and took a quick look at her leg, though he was more interested in the two new figures around her. In fact, he made sure his eyes never left them for more than a few seconds.

“I’d be more interested in the people than your leg right now.”

Blinking—and suddenly remembering the reason why she ran and thus tripped in the first place—Lasair turned her attention to the giant and the human. She didn’t know either of them. Godhand didn’t appear to know them either.

“Yes, umm... hello...” She said a little uncertainly. Lasair wasn’t good at being uncertain, so she quickly began to revert to her normal stuff and ramble about almost inconsequential things. “I was walking through the woods tying to find some little town called Underwood. I need to meet a man there and do some trading to gain some items that I really need for Synthesizing. But I’ve been wandering around in Concordia for quite some time now, but I’m really not sure how long and Godhand thinks I’m lost, but I don’t think I’m lost. Oh, by the way this is Godhand,” she barely even stopped talking to point to the small plushie Godhand and introduce him, “and my name is Lasair and I wouldn’t mind some help and my leg really, really hurts!”

And then she started to pout.

[Eburk]

Acropisies’ eyes shifted from the new figure, to the small creature, to the smaller creature. This pattern of glancing from one to the other continued briefly until he realized that the female had hurt herself. Raising a large granite hand to his mouth in concern, he looked at the slope and determined that it would be possible for him to get down without much hassle. Taking a few heavy steps forward, he slowly slid down the path, dragging up many roots and a large amount of dirt as his feet uprooted everything they were drug through.

“I am Acropisies,” he said, his voice much more regular now that he did not feel the need to yell.

Upon reaching the bottom of the slope, he noticed that the girl’s blood shone silver. Never before had he seen something such as this, and as such, was quite intrigued. Acropisies moved slightly closer, still afraid of frightening those around him. He was very aware that his figure was quite intimidating. His shoulders alone were almost a foot more broad than any normal man and the thickness of his limbs could be likened to that of tree trunks. He moved closer to her and gently leaned over her, examining the cut silently.

The concern on his face quickly turned to curiosity as he was intrigued not only by the color of the Fae’s blood, but also by the ruins that were seemingly rotting behind her. They were an impressive sight indeed, something the likes of which Acropisies had never before seen. His eyes were slowly pulled away from her as he stood upright and looked at the large temple. The various structures of some sort of goddess left him with a feeling of discomfort, though he was unable to understand why. Never before had he been stricken with a feeling of dread simply by being in the presence of a place, and the fact that it had such an adverse effect on him made the giant quite uncomfortable.

“I know not of the town you speak of, unfortunately,” he murmured, prying his gaze away from the stone masses. “However, I am a bit lost myself, and any idea of where to find such a town would be greatly appreciated. First I must ask, though; what are these ruins?” The question seemed to slip from his conscious and out of his mouth without any thought given to it.

Realizing the rudeness of ignoring the large gash on her leg, Acropisies interjected suddenly, “Oh, about your leg…I am unskilled in medicine, but if necessary, perhaps I could carry you or help gather some plants that may help? I have noticed a great deal of unusual herbs scattered throughout this forest.” Truth be told, all the plants Acropisies saw looked rather strange to him, but that stemmed mostly from the fact that he had lead a rather sheltered existence before venturing into the real world.

[Lady Blackwell]

Max sighed as he saw the young girl trip and fall, cutting open her leg and ripping her dress.

Max smiled he found it somewhat amusing that he had startled her, and as he sat up he realized she was bleeding, but not the normal red or even blue he had seen, but SILVER.

Max was puzzled as he was about to bend down and help her when tree's and dirt started falling to the ground only a few meter's behind her, Max looked up and saw a huge ROCK thing coming at him.

“Holy crap!” he said as he jumped back with his hand on his sword hilt.

But as the thing hit the ground and came over with a concerned look upon his face, he knew that it was no threat, and relaxed.

As the big thing looked at her leg and offered to go get herb's max spoke up.

“No Herb's wont have any immediate effect, but it may be better for the long run, but for the short term I can do this.” Max said as he grabbed her leg gently in his right hand and charged his left hand with mana, as he gently slid it over the cut, hopefully numbing all pain but keeping her leg normal so she could walk on it. As she introduced herself and just kept going and going and going.

“Now all we need for the time being is … ahh I got it!” Max said as he grabbed the piece of ripped dress and tied it tightly around the wound so it could stop the bleeding “Now how's that?”

Max said as he leaned back and smiled at her.

“I am Maximilian Cannon nice to meet you Acropisies, and Lasair. I am have to admit I am certainly a bit lost, I left the Citadel and walked, and ended up at that structure, and then you guy's showed up so yeah” Max paused as he scratched the back of his head. “Anyone up for exploring that temple or whatever it is?”

[Lord Anglekos]

Bunnying approved for characters.
Sitting upon the ledge, the swordsman could barely contain his mirth. Oh, this certainly was an odd little gathering, wasn't it? The little woman that wouldn't shut up, the gentle giant, and the exotic but helpful hero. All they needed was a wise, seemingly omniscient and mysterious spellcaster and they'd be all set. Unfortunately, he didn't see any of that sort, so they'd have to make do with him. Eric decided he'd eavesdropped on their "conversation" long enough and, picking up his quiver of arrows and slinging it over his shoulder before leaning on his yew bow, he made his way down to the small group down below.

They were too busy focusing upon the Fae's "wound" that none of the three noticed him approach until he cleared his throat and spoke up. "Well, I don't know about you guys, but I am."

As they turned almost simultaneously towards the sound of the voice, Eric saw the white haired warrior's eyes widen in recognition and his hand fly to the hilt of one of the blades at his side. "Be at peace, Maximillian." Eric snapped quickly to him, one hand on the hilt of his own sword, Amalia. "I bear you no ill intent." The older man's eyes narrowed in suspicion, but he didn't prevent Eric from coming forward to the group and addressing each member in turn.

"I am Eric Anglekos, and I have already tried to get into these ruins." He gestured with his head at the towering buildings that seemed to the sole fascination for each of them. "From what I can tell, this place used to be some sort of city devoted solely to the worship of this...goddess?" He walked past the group slightly and looked up at a stone figurine of the woman with snakes protrating herself before a faceless man. "I don't know, really. But I do know this." And without further ado he pulled out the gold coin he'd found in the ruins, large enough that the group would have no trouble in identifying the face of the stone woman upon it.

Maximillian's eyes immediately grew to the size of coins themselves and the Fae's surprised face lit up, and in her eyes he could see the famliar glow of greed that he felt himself. In fact, the only one that looked at the coin with little or no emotion was the rock giant. Hmm, interesting. "I'm sure that there's more where this came from in there, and if the detail and workings of the city are any indication, there's a lot." He pocketed the coin again before speaking.

"However, there are several passages and places blocked by landslides or boulders that I cannot reach, for I lack the strength." He looked intently at the rock beast before him at this. "And I've found signs of the inhabitation of this place by other, more savage creatures, and I'll admit I'm afraid to go in there unprotected. However..." He looked at each of them in turn. "...if you three will accompany me, I'm sure we can make it past both the obstacles and the monsters inside and take the treasure for ourselves." He met the rock beast's eyes and tilted his head. "And treasure does not always take the form of gold."

Those eyes widened as the creature understood the meaning of his words. Continuing on, Eric leaned his bow against his shoulder and crossed his arms. "I'm not demanding you to come. If you have more important things to be doing, I can point you in the right direction to Underwood, as I just came from there. I'm only asking that you accompany me."

[Lasair Anubail]

What may have been originally mistaken for greed in the eyes of Eric Anglekos was not greed at all, at least not to this Fae.

“Oh, it’s so shiny!” Her up beat voice seemed to just echo around the ruins. “I bet it would make a great button!”

It would probably look really cool sown into one of her dresses, oh, or maybe Tristram could use it as a little shield. That would be an even better idea. Oh, but gold was not a very strong material and it would probably break after a few hits from a sword, or at least become dented rather heavily. She’d have to keep repairing it if that were true. But if they had gold, they probably had other kinds of materials in there as well.

The Eric fellow seemed mildly surprised when she mentioned turning the coin into a button. He probably just didn’t understand how much she liked buttons. They came in all kinds of shapes and sizes and designs and that one had a pretty lady on it with some snakes! True, the dress she wore right now had no buttons on it, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t alter it to put some there. Aileen also liked buttons, maybe she’d bring some back as a souvenir to her sister.

“Yes,” Eric said after a brief moment, “I’m sure it would make a great button and I’m sure there would be plenty of other ones in there as well, not just this kind either.”

“Yay!”

Lasair practically jumped right up off the ground. The injury on her leg was forgotten, thanks to Maximillian kindly numbing the pain for her and then wrapping it with the remnants of her dress. Her wings fluttered. The thin, sheer membrane caught the light of the sun and created a rainbow effect of colours.

“Uhh... Lasair, don’t forget not to stress your leg.” Godhand said to her.

He still hadn’t calmed down since the three strangers had arrived; in fact he had only grown increasingly intense. They may not have noticed it, or him even, but she did. She couldn’t understand why though. They were clearly just other explorers like her who appreciated shiny buttons and wanted to explore the ruins.

“Don’t worry, my leg will be fine.” She looked down at the bandage part of her calf and at Godhand as well.

“You know you could have healed it yourself...”

“Oh, I know! But don’t tell the others that, especially after that Maximillian helped me.”

Godhand just shook his head. Lasair was clearly oblivious to the fact that all three of the others could hear her conversation with the plushie perfectly, since well, she was speaking out loud and all.

Godhand sighed. “I’m not even going to bother trying to persuade you not to go into that most likely monster infested temple city, because I know you won’t listen to me. But will you at least bring out Tristram and Avery to help protect you?”

“Hmm...Okay!”

Slipping her rucksack off, Lasair undid the straps and buttons—ohh, shiny buttons!—and opened up the flap. Immediately two other plushies emerged from the darkness of the bag, more than happy to finally be released.

“Lasair!” Tristram bellowed. The small Draconian plushie was clearly not too happy. His black eyes were narrowed at her and he gripped his spear as if he wished it were her head. Quickly, he took to the air, his little blue scaled wings bringing him up to Lasair’s eye level. “If you ever lock me in that bag again, alone, with that...thing I will kill him! And then I will come after you!”

Avery quickly took to the air as well, his one wing bringing him up to Lasair’s shoulder where he quickly perched himself. He had a rather big grin on his face.

“Avery, you look like the mouse that ate the cat.”

“It’s the cat that ate the—never mind, sweety. So what are we doing and why are there three other people here?”

“Oh, well the stone giant thingy is Acropsises, the cute one with white hair is Maximillian and the cute one with brown hair is Eric. The four of us are going to explore those ruins over there!”

“Sounds like fun to me, let’s get going!”

Tristram--like Godhand--knew better than to even attempt arguing at this point. They’d done it before and lost miserably. Instead they just kept near to her to protect her from anything, including the three people she now found herself with. They didn’t trust them, especially that Eric guy. Godhand wouldn’t mind breaking his face with his fist.

Practically skipping, Lasair headed towards the ruins. The closer she got to them, the more structures could be seen. It became increasingly obvious to her that what Eric said was true. This place was indeed more like a city than a simple temple. Which meant once they got past the initial outside walls, the inside should be more intact, if her digs in the ruins in Dheathain had taught her anything. It seemed like getting in was going to be a problem though. The first entrance Lasair came to—a rather plain looking thing with two columns—had indeed collapsed.

“Godhand smash!” The small Fae commanded.

Godhand just shook his head and walk over to the pile of heavy stones. With very little effort, the plushie began picking up rocks and tossing them aside as if they were a pebble. Indeed, most humans would have a hard time lifting them, but to him they weighed barely anything.

[Eburk]

Looking at Eric intently, the giant’s mind raced. Acropisies was not entirely comfortable with this man, who seemed very sure of himself. Nevertheless, his intentions seemed innocent and true enough, so the giant felt he had no choice to trust him. Besides, it was not as though he had done anything exciting since first taking to the road and this was the perfect opportunity to gather a few stories for his own use. Nodding a bit so as to confirm that he would accompany the three of them, the giant glanced once more at the ruins.

The pale stones that littered the landscape reminded him of his own skin. Each looked as though it had been through copious amounts of ware and century’s worth of being subject to the elements of nature. Vines gripped each as an admirer holds a lover, looking as though only death by either party was the only thing that could break the bonds. The grass was dead and trampled, looking as though something had been through recently; most likely some deer or other forest critters. A few dead trees littered the outside of the pyramids though they all appeared as though they had not held their former beauty for quite some time. Trying to see exactly how large the city was seemed impossible- from what the giant could tell there were at least ten structures in his site, probably more had he been able to see down the lanes even further. Rubble cluttered the paths between each pyramid and many collapsed structures seemed to block various passages.

The small region in which the city sat in seemed to be separated from the world. For about fifty yards in either direction the giant saw that the trees had been cleared out and he guessed the gap widened the further one went into what he assumed had once been a city. Acropisies tried to judge the architecture in an attempt to estimate how old the ruins were, but realized that he had never seen anything similar to what lay before him. The pyramids lay next to one another, five in a row before going back further. Some had visible entries, others showed no signs of a visible entrance, and still more had their passages collapsed. Whoever had devised this city seemed to prefer symmetry. In the distance, towering above the tips of the pyramids stood a spire, which Acropisies assumed marked the center of the city.

The statues of the goddess that littered the grounds were very odd as well. Covered in snakes, the woman depicted was beautiful. Her eyes, however, showed some sort of great evil, and as Acropisies followed the Fae past a statue he paused to stare into them. A feeling of foreboding gripped his conscience and he pried his gaze from hers. Now he was sure of it; there was something inherently evil about the ruins they were about to enter. Looking ahead to the wall that he had previously failed to pay much attention to due to its diminutive size he realized it was more to stall attackers than to be a truly effective means of defense. Lumbering over to assist Godhand with dismantling it, he picked up a rock in each hand and tossed it aside. The slight skepticism in this plan did not fade in his mind, but Acropisies knew that if he hoped to further his goal of chronicling the stories of adventurers, this would be a good starting point.

[Lady Blackwell]

Max scowled as the other's seemed to want to follow this 'Eric' guy, who the only thing max knew about him was that he had some skill in fighting and controlling magic, as well as some prior knowledge in the 'Temple city'

as they entered the front opening, or pathway, max looked around, this was almost like a huge city completely carved out of rock itself, and could be used to house and shelter thousands of people, and even be used as a staging ground for Assault's on nearby cities. The small girl who had talked to her doll type thing out loud went another route then max did, and was followed by the rock giant, they were clearing the only way further into the city. Max however was looking through what he could where they were.

Max occasionally shot a look at the small creatures, he had no idea what they were capable off, or if they were friendly to him let alone the mission.

The mat Grey rock walls, the caved in door's it all seemed so ancient to him, and then he looked up to see a statue, it was a beautiful goddess with snakes wrapped around her, as she point's to the way they had just come in.

“Hey Eric what do you suppose that is?” Max said as he saw a building far off, with a few pedestal's in it.

As he sauntered through the city of the damned he found skeleton's and bodies with what looked like half eaten body part's and one was laying face down wearing a crimson colored robe with it's head up, curled up in the fetile position.

“Umm Guy's what's this? Max said as he reached out to grab the hood.

[Lord Anglekos]

To be honest, he was surprised they were so receptive to him. Yeah, he'd shown them a glimmer of what might lay forward (even if the Fae that her dolls called "Lasair" was more interested in their shiny properties...), he hadn't expected them to be so agreeable. He'd half-expected at least one of them to go "No way, loser." and walk way, but none of them had. Sure, there was obvious dislike and suspicion, but no outright rebellion. Well... He mused. ...things may go smoother than I imagined.

Another thing that had surprised him was the strength in those little plushies Lasair seemed to carry around. The one that'd she'd called "Godhand" was obviously stronger than Eric himself, and that disturbed him a little. Something that small shouldn't carry so much power, and it made the swordsman more than a little nervous that Godhand kept shooting dirty looks and suspicious glances at him. He was a good swordsman, but trying to hit something that small that could probably rip his leg off...well, it wasn't a very comforting notion. The rock giant that called itself Acropisies had skepticism written in his eyes, but Eric was far less afraid of him than he was of the plushie. He may be big, tough and strong, but he was slow and, if the swordsman guessed right, not a warrior by nature. And Maximillian...speaking of which, where was he?

Eric turned around, searching for the snow-haired warrior he'd battled in the Citadel, and found him already within the city and examining some dark shape. The swordsman rolled his eyes and strode past the rock creature, the Fae and her companions before coming up before the other warrior. Maximllian stood there holding a blood-red robe in his hands with a bewildered expression upon his face, and Eric came closer he saw a design upon the back of it that made him blink in surprise. It was obviously a figure of a woman, and he figured that the long lines around her that looked like tentacles at first were the snakes that decorated the same woman's statues around the city.

Wordlessly Eric took the robe from Maximillian. Taking off his gauntlet, he ran the crimson fabric between his hands thoughtfully, but to tell the truth, he had no idea what kind it was. It was thick, but as he ran his hands along the inside of it he found the inside stayed cool, even though the sun was high and mighty in the sky. It was unlike anything he'd encountered on Saleria and so far on Althanas. Looking from the plushies to the seemingly nonsensical Fae, he went up to her and handed her the robe. "Do you know what kind of fabric this is?" He asked somewhat hesitantly. Her chaotic nature made him jumpy.

[Lasair Anubail]

The giant rock-man seemed even stronger than Godhand, or maybe he only appeared strong because he was so much bigger. She didn’t know, but the two of them worked well together. They systematically took rocks starting from the top and working their way down. After all, if they took them from the bottom then the stones would become unstable and further collapse upon them and then Lasair would be very sad because Godhand would have been squished. She’s already had to repair him once before, she’d hate to do it again. Plus, she didn’t really know whether or not her plushies felt pain when they got hurt. She really hoped not.

A dark opening was just beginning to appear at the top when Eric came over to talk to her. Looking at the cloth in his hands, Lasair tentatively took it from him, ignoring the strange stains and the weird smell. Part of her didn’t want to know where it came from but another part of her was a little too certain where Eric had picked it up. Why he took things from the garbage she would never know.

“Umm...”

Biting down on her lower lip, the small Fae began running her fingers along the fabric and examining it and the lovely stitch work that someone put into it. Truly it had been made with quality, but if anyone asked her she could make one just as good if not better.

“There’s two kinds of material here, at least, maybe three. It’s a little hard to tell.” She said with a slight giggle and a smile.

While she talked with Eric, Godhand continued to work away at the wall with Acropsesis and Tristram and Avery kept close at hand. Avery still sat on Lasair’s shoulder and Tristram hovering nearby. Neither of them took their eyes off of Eric as long as he was close to her, not that Lasair even noticed.

“One of them is definitely just your basic linen, nothing special about it. But the other stuff appears to be some kind of animal sinew. My guess is a form of lizard since there are a few scales stretched and sown in here along the seam, see?”

She ran her fingers along the edge of the seam, which glided over the smooth, cool, red scales.

“I can’t tell you what kind of lizard it is, I don’t know that much about Corone creatures.”

She extended the cloak back to Eric.

At the same time, a loud grinding and cracking could be heard as the loose stones shifted and crumbled, revealing the passage to the four adventurers.

“We’re through!” Godhand called.

“Yay!”

Jumping up and down, the small Fae rushed over to where Godhand and Acropsesis were and peered into the dark tunnel. She could in fact only see a few feet in before the light from outside dimmed to nothing.

“Tristram, light please.”

The Draconian sighed and created a two inch ball of flickering, bright red flames, then flew in ahead of her. Godhand quickly climbed up onto Lasair’s other shoulder and then the tiny Fae led the way into the passage. From what she had seen outside, this should go straight through the pyramid, ruin thingy and then come out the other end, most likely into a street of sorts. But in the end it was only an educated guess from all the exploring she’d done throughout Dheathain.

Standing a few feet into the space, she stopped and waited for the others to join her.

[Eburk]

As he threw aside some of the final boulders that stood between him and adventure, Acropisies stood to his full height and stretched. His large granite-esque body made a strange crumbling noise as he settled back to his normal stance. The doll that he had assisted, Godhand, had proved to be quite strong, perhaps as strong as Acropisies himself. He examined the small creature silently unsure of what exactly allowed this small being to possess such strength. However, he did not think it overly strange- after all, he was a gigantic rock-beast, and he realized that most people were not accustomed to seeing such creatures.

The crumbling wall had lead directly into one of the pyramids. The Fae wasted no time in rushing ahead even though the tunnel was black as night. However, thanks to the one the Fae called Tristram, a small light was provided. Rubbing his chin softly with curiosity about the girl’s acquisition of these small dolls with great abilities, he shrugged it off as something he would later question her about.

Before following the girl into one of the pyramids, Acropisies decided it was best to check where his other new companions were. When he watched Max and Eric stand in close proximity, he seemed to sense some sort of hesitancy or apprehension on behalf of Max. Perhaps this was not the first time the two had met or perhaps it was simply that Max was untrustworthy of strangers- the latter choice seemed unlikely, as he had willingly offered to help Lasair with her injury.

The cloth the two passed back in forth seemed of little significance to Acropisies. He had little use for material goods such as this. Regardless, this cloth seemed to be of meager value, or at least that was what he had assumed. After the discussion by his companions he realized that he knew very little about tailoring. The rock-giant was unaware that one could weave numerous materials into something that looked so fine. It was evident to him that he still had much to learn about the world around him.

Looking again to Max and Eric, he said in a calm tone, “Let us go,” before following Lasair into the dark tunnel. Apprehension and excitement weighed upon him, though his face remained calm and solid. It seemed nonsensical to become overly joyous about entering some dark, foreboding tunnel that may very well lead to death.

[Lady Blackwell]

Max yawned as the Stone giant and the small doll finished moving the rocks, he found all this jibber jabber boring. He would much rather be in someone's face fighting for his life, then doing this slow paced adventuring.

“Finally let's get going” Max said as he brushed past the giant and looked back at Eric, well slow poke you coming or not?

Max was unsure of any of these participants in this little make shift adventuring group. Eric seemed very untrustworthy but knew his stuff, The rock giant could crush max with a lift of a finger, and he girl that had dolls with magical power's. And himself who knew nothing about the temple city or fabrics or even metals, all he had was his paralysis touch.

Max charged his hand full of mana and walked into the tunnel a bit more, creating light with the glow from his hand. It wasn't much but with him and the flying doll both creating light, it worked fairly well.

[Lord Anglekos]

Eric was the last to enter this foreboding tunnel, letting Maximillian, Lasair and Acropisies go in before him as he reflected over what the Fae girl had told him. Lizard scales, mixed with cloth? He'd never heard of such a feat, nor why it would be made so. However, he could not deny the practicality of the application; keeping one's body cool amongst the rays of the unforgiving sun was a hard job to do normally, and even more so when they wore a dark cloak that drew those rays to the wearer. A cloak like this, which did the simultaneous job of obscuring, protecting and keeping one's temperature comfortable...surely a cloak like this was worth something.

By the time he'd finished examining the cloak, Eric realized that all three of his companions had gone on without him, and he could barely see their retreating forms in the gloom of the tunnel. Stuffing the cloth into his bag quickly he chased after them, following the bobbing lights of the Tristram doll and Maxi's hands. If only he had a light as well, he thought to himself somewhat gloomily, as he felt somewhat useless walking behind the other three with nothing more than his weapons to keep him company. Lasair was still talking animatedly to her dolls and the other two, Acropsisies remained almost stoicly silent save a few gentle remarks, and Max, despite his wariness of Eric, seemed to be loosening up a little. Watching the other three interact brought a small smile to the swordsman's face. He remembered a time when he'd had comrades like that, a time when they thought all they had was time. Time, however, was the greatest and most dangerous bandit of all, and those lives...well, no point in dwelling.

The shadows ahead flickered a little strangely from the make shift torches of Tristram and Max, and Eric's nerves jumped. Maybe it was just from being around that Lasair girl, but he felt more touchy and jumpy than usual. Even so, it didn't stop him from barking out to the other three. "Everyone, stop!"

They did, and each turned to look at him with a different expression upon their faces. Ignoring them, however, he drew his long sword and walked ahead of them, keeping it at the ready as his blue eyes flickered from shade to shade. As he stepped forward, however, he saw that there was no danger to be held and sheathed his blade as quickly as it came. "Well, this is a problem." He said loudly enough to be heard by the other three and gestured forward.

What he gestured to was a set of paths, each of varying diameter and direction. Also, each had some engraved sigil carved into the stone above them, in a language that without a doubt Eric couldn't understand. Sighing with frustration he turned back to the other three and jabbed a thumb back at their current issue. "Can anyone read those glyphs? I can't."

[Lasair Anubail]

Lasair knew a bit about sigils. And by knowing a bit, she thought they looked pretty and sometimes made very nice tattoos. Though that really depended on where they were placed and who the artist was that put them there. She’d seen a few Draconians with tattoos that had not turned out so well, then again she’d heard of a few Draconians dying from complications due to getting tattoos. Apparently really bad infections could happen when a needle repeatedly pricked the skin. She’d never thought of getting one, maybe she would one day. Oh, but that’s not what Eric wanted her to think about. He wanted her to look at the sigils and tell him what they mean. Well that was going to be easy.

“I can’t.” She said a little too cheerfully. “But I do know which tunnel we should choose.”

She walked forward until she stood before the second tunnel from the right. A sigil was carved upon the rock on this one as well, an intricate symbol of intertwining lines that formed a very lovely design.

“This one!”

Eric looked sceptical at best, even crossing his arms over his chest. “How do you know we should go through that one?”

She smiled. “Be quiet and listen.”

He was going to say something else but she placed her finger to her lips and that made him be quiet. As they all settled down, the soft sound of drifting voices become apparent. Lasair couldn’t tell what they were saying. The sounds were too garbled and for all she knew they may not even be speaking Common. But Lasair knew that where there were voices, there were people and if there were people here they probably knew something about this place. After all, they were here for a reason too.

“See? If we follow the voices then they’ll lead somewhere. As long as the voices aren’t ghosts, but if that happens then we can always just run away!” Like before, her voice came out a little too cheerfully considering the words she was speaking.

“You don’t have to worry about ghosts gorgeous; I’ll protect you from them.”
Lasair turned her head and smiled at the Avery plushie perched on her shoulder. “Thanks!”

Tristram shook his head and Godhand grumbled in term. Then, for a change of things the two of them spoke in unison with not only words but their thoughts. “Avery, don’t encourage her!”

Of course Lasair merely giggled at the two of them and acted like she didn’t know what they were talking about.

“So let’s go!”

Without further pause, Lasair began heading down the tunnel she had indicated. The others would follow her. After all, they had nowhere else to go and she had indicated the best tunnel of choice, so why would they pick another one, unless one of them really could read those sigils, but she highly doubted it. If she couldn’t read it, then they definitely couldn’t read it.

Only a few feet in, she heard the others shuffle along behind her. The walls along this tunnel were far narrower than the other ones; they were also filled with large cracks, some of which leaked slowly dripping water.

“This passage is rather tight...” Lasair heard the gravelly voice of Acropises echo down from behind her.

Stopping Lasair turned back around to see the rock giant tightly pressed against the passageway on almost all sides. His head was ducked low and his shoulders looked as if they were almost scraping against the stones. Truly, he seemed rather uncomfortable.

“It shouldn’t be too much farther...” She told him, trying to comfort the giant.

He made a sound that resembled a sigh or even a grumble, then adjusted his positioning in the tunnel. His shoulders grinded against the stone above them and before Lasair knew it the rocks above the rock giant were shifting and straining.

“Acropises stop!”

He did, but it was too late. As he shifted he roof shifted with him. Small pieces start coming down at first, then larger ones. Stones began to fall and the impact of them giving way began to cause the walls to shift and collapsed inwards as well. Large chunks of rock fell from the ceiling and impacted harshly in the ground, splitting the stones by their feet as a terrible grinding sound filled the tunnel.

“Lasair run!”

Listening to Tristram for once, the small Fae turned and ran down the tunnel as chunks of rock hit the ground inches from her bare feet. It all ended in less than a minute and when Lasair turned back around, the tunnel they had travelled down had collapsed.

“Max, Eric, Acropises!?”

Her eyes quickly found the other two, but where was Acropises?

[Lady Blackwell]

Max stretched as Eric shouted and ran ahead, for some reason he seemed rather sleepy today. When Lasair had started heading down the tunnel she had directed, but one thing was still bugging Max. Ever since Lasair said there was voices, the Tunnel they entered was sealed off how on earth could they have gotten in themselves. He was just about to voice his opinion when he heard the rock giant speak, followed by Lasair

“Well you are ...” Max was cut off as Lasair yelled run. Max took off as fast as he could, he didn't feel like being buried here. As he was about to reach the exit of the cave, he felt his cape being hit by rocks and knew he would have to lose it. He brought his arm up to his neck and undid the strong holding his cape on. He stumbled and rolled out of the cave from the sudden weight loss.

He was now in a room with very high ceilings a beige color on the stone walls with several things carved into them. Most of them seemed to be decorative lining, but there was other random placed ones, that could have been glyphs like the ones before, or Sygils that he had heard about back in his bandit days. These sygils were usually signs of very powerful wizards.

Max got up and brushed off his shoulders and cracked his neck.

“Please don't let us do that again” Max said to the other two as he saw his pouch area of his cape and went over to Analyze it. “Eric when you got a moment can you help me out here? This seems to be stuck right in there, and I feel kinda lite without it.”

Max then stopped dead in his words as he then realized the people they had heard were now staring at them. There seemed to be quite a few, a few looked like scholars and researchers, the others looked like brainless muscle hired on to protect them.

“Well Hi there” Max said putting a boyish grin on his face.