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Kara looks on as Sora pulls with the drawer. She starts to say, "Maybe if--" but then the drawer slams open, and the words die oon her tongue.
Shrugging that there's naught for it, she gathers up the disgusting leather-and-spikes armor of the former whipmaster. She can't bring herself to wear all of the thing, since it seems to serve more of a sadistic purpose than martial...but maybe it could be made more functional?
She sits down and starts to whittle down parts of it with her speartip, while yanking out most of the more obtrusive spikes.
She doesn't think that there will be much left of it when she's done, but honestly she keeps falling out of her rags so much it's either get this to work, or just rip the top off and start shouting "Uganda!"
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Kara manages to do it, but she goes a little too far with her trimming. It works for now 1 armor but now it is fragile
The earlier entries? Not surprising, other than the diligence and methodical nature of it. The a!+#!&! really was devoted to his work. But then it gets to the sections about her. The pictures. The poetry. The sheer level of fixation here outmatched even the level of detail found in his whipping reports. She wrote about him like one would their lover. There was a single-minded focus and adoration here not oft seen outside stories.
As much as she was sickened to admit it, the poetry actually wasn't too bad. It was rather flattering. After a few rough first attempts, he'd apparently started learning to write better, and it had flourished into something elegant, let alone for someone like him. Continuing on...th-there were plans! He'd been trying to figure out ways to seduce her! He'd just not had the guts to try anything. Some of these ideas weren't even bad. Then...escape together? "See darling Sora soar?" This...whispering winds, he was nuts. He didn't really think he could pull that off, did he?
The journal had revealed some interesting things. He'd taken less pleasure in his work after her arrival. When he'd seen her recoil at the lash, it began to lose its satisfaction. His experiment logs became more clinical. They became less frequent, and he focused more on romance and escape. There were inquiries when he bought the feathers as to how it affected her...the Tunnel-Keep lied and jacked up the price. It seems he'd never heard her cries during the process of taking them. She was his first introduction to her kind as well. As angry as she was, she knew he'd done no wrong himself by the law of her kin. Not in this matter, anyway. His glee was palpable in the writing, and the fantasies intensified from that entry. The Tunnel-Keep just seemed to use the info he gained from these interactions to control the Whipmaster further.
Thinking on the new information, a memory returns. Slowly, she looks at her shoulder. The caged bird. She remembers the Shipmaster being about to start, and then being halted by the Whipmaster, who whispered something to them. The Shipmaster's grin. And the subsequent tattooing. This...this wasn't a joke. It was a statement of intent. A claim. This was right at the start. Before his subtle investigations let him know how stupid doing that was. The dumb orc only seemed to lament it later when he found out what it meant to her. There were musings about using magic to undo it. A number of elaborate apologies devised.
That's all she can take. There was more she could learn, but this was all that she could handle right now. The journal goes flying away, lying open on a description of family life in a far off land as Sora starts violently vomiting on the ground. As she heaves up from an almost empty stomach, a last thought drifts through her mind, and the vomiting intensifies. She knew what he had been like, what he had done, and it was not a thought she wished to have.
Perhaps, with some change, he wouldn't even have been so bad.
Amaranth watches with fascination as Sora is reading through the journal. The emotions going about seem wild, like something is toiling inside. Over the course of it Sora is slowly turning pale, might be the air. Amaranth flares up a bit, trying to smoke out the stench, but then Sora starts heaving. At this moment Amaranth rushes over, pats her buddy on the back.
There there, it's okay. Is it really that bad?
She would go over to the book, but books turn to ashes in Ammy's hands. It's one of the many things she wishes she had someone to help with.
At this point, finally Nibbles has awoken. All the chaos and the commotion didn't do a thing, but now he wakes up. Nibbles was the only creature Ammy had been able to hold for prolonged periods of time. Nibbles flies up to Ammy and lands on her head, resting there, warming up.
Are you always tired then? Ammy inquires from the bat. It simply squeeks a little, before hopping off and inspecting the dead Whipmaster. Nibbles starts to do what his name implies to the Whipmaster, specifically his ear.
Nathan eyes the journal, glad to be out from the front of that particular storm. "Anyone else notice the lever? I'll take your solemn apologies and adoration now, before I'm as much a legend as the corridors below."
He doesn't pull the lever himself, but instead stays near the door.
"Is there another way to go forward? If not, the lever may be our only option. But I wonder what it does..."
The lever causes part of the floor to love and reveal what is below
As Amaranth comforts her, Sora finally manages to pull herself together. Not before emptying out everything in her system and some bile on top, but she does it. Slowly, she gets to her feet. "Ughhh...trust me, Ammy, you have no idea." She makes her way over to the journal, closes it, and stows it. Some of the information may be useful. Besides...the poems really weren't that bad.
She looks at Nathan for a moment. "If you want to make me sick again, keep going. Now is not the time for more of your arrogant posturing. I'm sure I could top up that hat if I wanted."
She wipes her mouth with a stray fabric scrap, walks over, and yanks on the lever. "Really, Nathan. I thought you wanted to see this thing? If there's going to be any legends, it's going to be of a creature with a mouth bigger than its body."
Nathan uses his spear to get up from a crouch. "Sorry, just got done murdering a sadist with a cloak full of deathwishes, I'm a bit winded." He lights a splinter from the busted drawer on a nearby torch and prepares to light the lantern. "Anyone care to carry this? I'm not looking to paint myself a target right now. Unless our mystical friend can provide some hands-free lighting."
There is a kid scraping sound as the floor moves and reveals stairs down with a soft blue light eminating from it.
As our heroes move down to the small room, about 20x20, the see each corner has a sconce with a glowing sapphire in it, all around the room are boxes that were obviously at one time nearly stacked but now they are in disarray after the quake. Additionally in the center of the room is a throne like chair with a suit of armor and gleaming sword. Around the throne is red paint in a circle and the whip masters writing which says
Don't step over the circle moron'
Sora stays away from the circle. "W-well, it gets to the point." She walks about the room, examining the sapphires, looking for a way out, and making a point of not crossing that circle. She's outright ignoring anyone who wants to be a smartass and suggests flying over the circle. She sets to thinking just what the significance of the setup here is.
Nathan stands just outside the circle, looking at the armor and sighing heavily. "Not sure I like my odds..." After a few moments of licking his lips and pacing, he turns to investigate the sapphires. He probes at them with his knife. He'll try to look through the crates as well. Avoiding the circle.
Kara's suggestion pulls Sora's attention briefly. "Nope! No way. Don't you dare! I do NOT want that thing marching out and murdering us."
Sora's hasn't long finished vomiting. She's still pale, and she doesn't need something else to stress her out. "For all we know, the armour is a distraction and the room will explode! NO!"
"I wonder what this room looks like with the ceiling closed... I mean, I might be able to reach down from above... Hell, I could lower a rope from the ceiling of the room above..."
As the talking continued, Sora became increasingly convinced that there would be death in this room, and it would be the fault of at least one of those two. She finds herself glad she hadn't pointed out just who wrote that warning, otherwise they probably would have taken the excuse to ignore it. With little left to check, she starts investigating just what was in those boxes. She had an idea of what was likely in there.
Sora opens the first batch of boxes and finds ropes and hooks and pitons and clamps.
In another set of boxes she finds food. Dried meats and hard tack mostly, then in another corner casks of water.
Finally in the last corner are weapons. Cudgels and axes and swords and bows
Maybe, because I'm not made of flesh like you all, I can cross the circle? Amaranth offers in suggestion, gently poking and prodding at the edge of the circle.
Ooh, or we replace one of the sapphires with this ruby I found?
Amaranth is trying to figure this out, maybe she'll accidentally stumble upon the correct answer.
Amaranth realizes that she deserves an XP. As she starts to look around the room she gets distracted by the way her own fame light glitters off the gem in her hand, she stops paying attention to everyone until someone talks to her to shake her from her revery
Himnon looks at the circle carefully, trying to figure out if he can recognize any of the magic behind it.
He realizes immediately that the circle is in no way magic. It is just paint out there as a warning. He also realizes, though no one else would that this particular pain is very fine, curious what it is doing here
"It seems clear to me that the circle isn't magical. I suggest that the warning not deter us."
"...And? The armour might be! The circle could just be its activation range! And what about the sapphires? They're glowing!"
Yes I missed them. I'll post on then asap
Nathan sees that he could remove the glowing sapphires if he wanted to,and could do it without any danger, and other than the he doesn't find anything different than Sora did with the crates. Sora meanwhile does not see any ambush coming her way, especially if they stay out of the circle.
Sora loads up on equipment and rations. She then starts examining the armour - at a distance. If she could just find something about this, then the others might stop with these stupid ideas. Or at least, come up with better stupid ideas.
Sora flicks through the Whipmaster's journal for something relevant. In between the...other stuff...there had to be something. That was the Whipmaster's writing by the circle.
Sora the armor is not what it appears to be. It seems to be just a suit of armor, but you are positive that it is more than that. It is probably dangerous. You should probably stay away from it.
Sora flips through the journal and finds an XP and a reference to the Armor of Cuddles that the whip master wanted to bestow on you to protect you from all danger. This must be what he was talking about! He must have drawn the circle to keep anyone else from taking it from you.
'Armour of Cuddles'? Seriously? Wow, he did get delirious. That thing'll ruin me. I couldn't wear it anyway! Maybe...he thought it would follow? Obey orders? But how...screw this. They aren't gonna leave this thing. Might as well preempt this.
Sora walks around the circle, until the entrance is behind her. She stands at the full range of the chain, and lashes for the sword. It's still armour without it, its punches would hurt, but it wouldn't have whatever this thing was. "We all know where this is going! It's going to wake up when we get close! Might as well try something!"
Sora whips the chain out and yanks it back, but she misses completely. Instead she strikes the ground, wiping away part of the circle and as it whips back to her hand it clangs on the Armor. The armor moves with in credible speed, especially considering it is just armor and raises its sword and lifts Sora off the ground by one of her wings, squeezing it very hard, perhaps breaking some bones inside, then it positions its sword to cut one off
What do you all do?
Nathan drops into an instinctive crouch when the armor moves, then tears up the wall toward the opening in the ceiling. Moving above the arc of the armor's swing.
Himnon tries to cause quaking in the ground to trip the armor, which might cause him let go of his grasp if nothing goes horribly wrong .
Amaranth goes off the earlier order of protection and springs into action, ready to remove the threat.
SORA, no! Oh god I'm so sorry!
"AAAAGH!" This hurt, this hurt so bad, it HURTS! Sora squirms and struggles, attempting to slip out of the grasp of 'Cuddles' and get the hell away from it. Above all, she's trying to keep her wings.
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As soon as the armor is moving, so is Kara. Reflexes born out of responding to the slightest change in an enemy's stance cause her to immediately lash out, trying to aid friend Sora. "Whoa! I thought I was going to activate the nightmare murder-armor, but I see you beat me to it. Try not to let it hurt you!
Kara tries to cut clean, but the deadly sword whirls in an arc toward her, and the thrust becomes a parry, the ancient blade ringing off her spear as Kara back peddles, trying to aim another blow.
Nathan bounces off the crates and wall and moves up to the ceiling, he does so silently and quickly and no one notices he is there, he moves to a position near the stair well.
Himnon, meanwhile mutters some strange words and the ground rumbles once, twice, then stops, but it is enough to knock "cuddles" off its feet, at the same time Amaranth strikes it a blow that leads to a large spiderweb of cracks to spread across the backplate of the armor, and up to its shoulder.
Meanwhile Sora shrieks in pain and manages to spin herself around and pull her wing free.
Kara charges in, but gets her leg caught on a crate and moves a bit slower than expected, which lets Cuddles swing at her from the floor, and she bats it away.
Cuddles is already rising from the ground, but it is still down.
What do you do?