Mihara overhears the sounds of battle as she approaches the room. She tries to remain unseen and unheard as she does, hoping to attack the ram unseen.
"Well, yeah, but it's like using a fireball to light an oven-Oh!" Selena continues to argue the fine art of ram haircutting, before the celestial animal charges her. Dodging deftly, the half-succubus sweeps the ram's legs, bringing it to the ground while keeping it firm in place.
"Don't worry goat, we just want some of your hair!"
"Smooooth" Aibek complimented Selena before turning their shadows into a shadow dagger.
"You shave the left side and I have the right? Or do you want to go head and butt?" Aibek asked Nigrum before the shadow assassin went daggermaster starting to sheer the right side near the butt of the giant creepy ram creature while Selena held it so well.
Mihara walks into the room, disappointed.
"And there I thought you'd need my help."
Mihara flies over and sits on the Ram's back, to help Selena keep it pinned. "Alright, boys, get to work."
Between the two people pinning it and the two people shaving it, the ram is reasonably quickly stripped of it's fleece. By the time it's bare and released it seems to have settled, and with a haughty expression and a grumpy bleat, vanishes back into it's cave.
"Ok, I take it back: wakizashis and shadow daggers are fine for shearing." Selena says, smirking, after they've got the ram's fleece "You learn something new everyday! I'll go check if the torch lit, and where Az is. I'll be back in a moment!"
Sprinting trough the corridors to see if the torches of the Shepherd and Fisherman lit up, Selena stops for a moment to pick into the Scholar room where the lich girl was. "How's it going here?"
"Have you tried maybe adding something you know that that book doesn't? It sounds scholar-y, correcting people." the half-succubus proposes, after hearing what she already tried.
"So, boys, what do you say we take a look at the farmer's room? That's the last one left, isn't it?"
The room of the Fisherman appears to be a field with a large pond in the centre. A mural of a fisherman covers the wall nearest the door. Ayreth's initial attempt did not yield any results, however.
With a little patience Ayreth eventually managed to catch a fish. The cool, deep pond revealed a small-ish perch, still over a meter long and weighing nearly as much as she did. It was clear that this bond contained a little bit more than it first appeared to.
Nigrum is left holding a fleece of deep silver, not knowing what to do with it he pockets it. Putting away his blade he walks off to find the others, checking if they are having any luck with their respective rooms.
He finds Ayreth first.
"Need any help?"
Nigrum moves to help. But then slips on some left over wool that found it's way on to his boots.
Aibek admired the silver wool pile they created before stuffing as much as possible into their backpack. Coming out of the ram's room-cave-thing, Aibek sees Nigrum go into the fisherman' room with Ayreth.
The witchwolf chooses on a whim to check out the other door on the east wall first...
The fish struggles and fights, but with a surprising burst of power Ayreth manages to drag the heavy creature from the water and onto the side of the bond. The creature flops helplessly on the side, while the torch lights unobserved.
~~~
Aibek heads through the door to the final chamber. It appears to be a freshly ploughed field in neat rows, the sun blazing over head. Farming implements and a bag of seeds sits next to the door. The mural appears to be painted on the side of a nearby barn, showing a man with a scythe reaping golden stalks of corn.
Mihara follows Aibek into the room.
"Well, I certainly they're not expecting us to grow this in real time..." Mihara observes.
She sighs, picking up a handful of seeds from the bag. "I must be the first of my lineage in decades to do..." she gives a mild shudder at the thought, "this kind of manual labor. The sacrifices we make, I swear."
Azri continued reading, focused on the tome and theories in front of her.
When she was finished, however, she quietly scratched a few notes in the back - namely some of her own experiences, and in particular, the way a powerful motivating event (such as a certain heroic-ish, orc-ish legend) could encourage undead to avoid falling into the trap of senseless evil that their state so often encouraged.
Aibek chuckled lightly at Mihara's words "I don't know of any of this in my family -- I think most would react as you have, though I think most of them would dislike it more for too much open space or not enough potential for magical mishaps..." Aibek rambled before picking up a shovel and began to dig shallow rows for the seeds.
"Many of the sworn spoke of being from farms...I think they got us too confused with actual wolves." Aibek continued to ramble as they dug.
"The sworn?" Mihara asks. "It dawns on me that I know little of your origins, Aibek."
Aibek smiled softly at Mihara's interest and spoke while finishing the shallow rows,
"Most who come to hunt werewolves and witchwolves usually have at least one person who makes a big speech on how they are sworn to someone to either defend something else from us or that they'll get some prize if they get rid of us or similar. The oddest things got attached to us like our existence made farms on the other side of Tian Xia fail or storms or we've somehow angered a deity of far off lands. Many spoke that their farms would be better off though we're not near any. It happened often enough that my clan just referred to all the groups as 'the sworn'. The Vakana clan's choice to live in land long ago bought so deep in the forest is partially because of them and many, particularly of the older fighters in the clan, still only fight with claw, tooth, and those who can magic because metal weapons are so associated to them with the sworn."
Changing topics, the witchwolf said, So next we scatter the seeds, cover them, and hope this place does it's usual weird thing?
Mihara gives a mild chuckle, before answer in Tien. "To think that we've been travelling together for quite a few days now, and I never realized you also came from my homeland."
"Sadly, People are quick to blame what they do not know. I like to believe I can relate."
"As for the seeds, I certainly hope so," Mihara answers, beginning to scatter her handful of seeds. "I know little of the farming arts, beyond the trading of their products. Do we not need to water them?"
The planted seeds sprout in moments, forming long stalks of golden wheat.
~~~
As Azri completed her notes and experience, the ink flared for a brief moment before turning dry. Apparently the room was satisfied with the explanation.
~~~
As Selena headed up, she saw that all but one of the lights, the Farmer, were now lit. The doors also stood open, and the guardian of the sanctuary stood now within the room, facing them and waiting.
Nigrum rights himself.
"Well I leave the fish's fate to you, as I was of little help in that."
Feeling a touch of annoyance at his uselessness he moves on to the remaining room. Intrigued but not surprised to see a full field of wheat.
"I take it your having luck at your task?"
|
Ayreth takes the time to scale the perch and then guts it, throwing the offal to the side. She turns her back and ignores what Emmitt decides to do with the pile. Holding up the fish on a string, she says, "Now this will make a nice stew. Assuming it still exists when we exit the room. Ready?" Emmitt climbs into his spot under Ayreth's cloak and has a long stretch before settling down into a nap.
Exiting the room, Ayreth listens for where the others are and follows the sound of voices. "How are we doing?"
-------------------------------------------------------------------
"Very well!" Azri called from the scholar's room, where she was still focused on her book and had started re-reading some of the relevant points.
(...That probably wasn't going to stop until someone literally dragged her out.)
"So... perhaps we're expected to harvest it?" Mihara suggests, drawing one of her short swords.
"I assume there are more appropriate tools, but I'm not very familliar with them."
Mihara winds up and performs a low slash, the kind you'd use to take someone's legs out at the tendons, hoping to simply cut through the wheat.
Aibek shrugged at Mihara's comments, in Tien and in Common, "We've been busy with many weird things and what little I speak of it is usually the people rather than the place..." Aibek replied in Tien before turning to look at the picture on the wall.
After a few moments staring, the shadow assassin swiftly pulling shadows to hand and creating a shadow blade sickle.
"This looks close enough...not one of my preferred tools but..." Aibek said, glancing at the picture once more before reaping some of the corn.
Looking to the Nigrum as he spoke, "I hope so, I don't think any of us have farmer's backgrounds. What to help us cut down the rest? Maybe we can give some to that ram... Aibek continues talking before returning to trying to cut the rest of the corn, hoping this would satisfy this part of the temple's weirdness...
As the wheat is harvested the final torch flickers into life. All twelve torches have been set alight, and begin to glow with a golden radiance. Somewhere within the sanctum a bell tolls, a deep and mellow sounds, ringing out twelve times.
Upon hearing the ringing, Aibek says "I hope that means something good. That reminds me, I found another door that looks like it leads to the inner sanctum when I went to check on the torches...and trees...so we won't need to climb up bloody holes or jump through bars. Let's find the others and I can show you all...now what should we do with this stuff?"
Selena arrives at the upper floor as the fisherman's torch flares to light. As soon as the last torch lights and the bell plays, Selena runs back to the basement to tell the others.
"Guys, guys! We did it, all of the torches are lit!" she cheers, eager to know what was going to happen now that they satisfied all of the rooms' weird logic.
"Ah, finally!" Mihara cheers as the bell rings and Selena arrives.
"Let us see what gifts the temple sees fit to bestow upon the worthy, shall we?" the Kitsune suggests, immediately taking off at a brisk walk, with a glint in her eye.
(Still reading her book in the Scholar's room.)
Nigrum goes off to find Azri in one of the rooms. When he finds her he simply picks her up with one hand and takes her to the others.
"I found her."
He holds out Azri like presenting a pup.
"Az, you can read all the books you want later." Selena puts her hands on her sides, smiling "You can do that while we kick dummies. But before that, we've got some inner sanctums to explore!" the half-succubus says, ascending the stairs and moving to where Aibek said the entrance was.
The grand doors to the inner sanctum have retracted into the walls, leaving a path to the altar. Between the altars and the doors stands the huge, hunched form of the Temple's guardian. The construct stares at you with hollow eyes for a moment.
"Welcome to thee, who Walk in Aroden's Path. By tracing the Step of the Last Azlanti in fullness you have earned the blessings of this place..." The figure tilted it's head for a moment. "Although that is not as great as it once was."
"We thank you, noble guardian. It is regrettable that a temple of this stature was abandoned."
Mihara bows to the construct with great respect.
"As the town rises from its ashes, I like to hope this temple will do as well. Will you allow this? Aroden's successors would surely wish to see this temple shine anew."
Sighing, Azri finally put the book down - not into her pack, though, because she had no intention of stealing ANYTHING from the temple. Not without regrets, either, but she did it - and trudged after the others, quietly trying to avoid being noticed by the guardian there. It probably wasn't very friendly to undead, even if she did have a fantastic disguise.
Speaking of, she should probably make sure all of that was in good order - and took a few moments to do so before entering the chamber.
In contrast, Mihara did, in fact, hold on to the mechanical rabbit. She was rather curious about its inner workings. That said, her main intent was, once she understood its functions, to repair it and return it to the temple.
Uh, that wasn't a comment I expected from a golem: I thought it would have gone "ME NOT SMASH YOU" or something like that. Oh well, best not say that out loud.
Selena stays silent and lets Mihara handle the situation, simply waving at the golem when he addresses them.
"Care to explain this blessing and why it has diminished?"
He rather regretted he would not be able to test himself against the guardian but he did not regret risking his life over it. Few living knew true honor, he did not expect a construct to know better.
"...Because Aroden's dead?" Azri suggested. "Stuff powered by divine energy usually fades away if the god stops existing, right?"
"For the most part," the machine agreed, "Although the God's are powerful. Not even death can defeat all echoes of such power, and Aroden was no small deity. Even now the memory of his name lingers, and thus does some fraction of his power remain. If it is true of the vile serpent God, then it is no surprise that is the same of my Master."
Turning to Mihara, the creature added, "Iomadae's church? They would be welcome. I remember well she now known as the Inheritor, and would not object to serving her once more."
"And now," the machine being added, "A question. Who walks the Path of Aroden, and why do feet tread upon it once more after so many years of darkness?"
"We are companions seeking to see Khalharum brought back to its former glory. We were given marks of authority thanks to a friend and family member who was truly a hero of legend. His name was Zhen Halfblood, and it is in his name that we are here."
"I am Mihara of the noble Yao Clan, come to Khalharum in respect to Halfblood's dying wish, to hone my skills and perhaps, one day, present my clan back at home with a bountiful allied state."
Mihara bows again and turns to her companions, signaling for them to introduce themselves as well.
"Azri. I claim authority in the city by mark, symbol, and trial, in accordance with its laws." Which the god of human civilization was pretty much bound to respect, right? If you dismissed a rightful ruler because you didn't like them, that wasn't really holding true to your ideals... right?
She did, however, hold up her staff for easy viewing and verification.
"I am Nigrum Ensis Halfblood, swordsman. We came seeking a symbol as well as to restore yet another part of the city."
He wondered if they could get a message on the next ship to the nearest church of Iomadae. Having some priest around would be good but only if they came to the right understanding. They didn't need zealots interfering with them anymore then slavers.