Log: How We Lost Taleyn. Woops
Fri Jun 26 18:33:24 2009
Beatrice, her junior knight, and the houseguest (who needs a better title) have set out on another scouting mission. They have one guide with them -- the faithful Wmubu, whom Beatrice has decided has more horse-sense than any of his rivals from the other group of guides. And here they've found a ziggurat! It is a very promisign one, with bones around it of some sort of very large animal. Given that the one they want is said to be the 'holy place of the dead' their sensibly includes a Feldane. Right now all four -- the three women and their guide -- are flat on their bellies on a nearby outcropping, peering at the building through binoculars (there are at least two pairs to go around) and sorting out their approach.
Beatrice remarks, "I'm not sure this one is really east-facing," thoughtfully. It's a reluctant remark, because of course they are going to check it out anyway.
There is a distant shrieking sound overhead.
Bearice looks up with a frown. Promachos is with her, but doesn't seem exactly *eager* to go up and look.
Taleyn looks up. "Um," she remarks dubiously. Her eyes have 'GIANT MOSQUITOES!!!!!!' written in script of fire there.
There is another, closer shriek. It sounds more like a preodactyl, and indeed there is now a shape visible.
Miranda shades her eyes with one hand, peering doubtfully toward the horizon, then the ziggurat, and then the horizon again. "It seems to me to be more of a south-easterly facing, but I could not say as to how precise -- good heavens!"
Taleyn relaxes. "OH, it's only a wyvern-- eeeee, a wyvern!!!"
Beatrice frowns, "The wyverns I've seen the last two years have all been affiliated with the Road." She trains her binoculars that way.
It IS a pterodactyl, and there is a figure on its back!
Beatrice decides aloud, "Not a wyvern." She watches closely. Wmubu is keeping a look out elsewhere to make sure no one sneaks up on their rear approach, but even he keeps glancing up at the sky.
Taleyn looks with trepidation into the sky and puts a hand on her weapon.
Miranda says, with a slight undertone of unease, "Do you think that we have been spotted already, or would we be better served to attempt to find better cover?"
The pterodactyl gets closer until it is almost directly overhead, though still several hundred yards up.
--[ Brand ]---------------------------------------------------[ idle 21s ]----
At five feet ten, and slender, he hardly cuts an imposing figure. His bearing however is straight, dignified, downright princely. His clothes are of an elegant, classic cut, well tailored, and a deep forest green that complements his emerald eyes. His hair is flame red, and carefully mussed, just so, as if he had just come in out of the wind.
------------------------------[ male pbg details no-chatter trouble-ok/4 ]----
Taleyn nods at Miranda. "You definitely ought to, in case it's a fire-breather! Here, I'll help you..." And she begins to offer her aid to Miranda and casts about for a sheltering tree...
Beatrice says, "Ah, well. We may have been spotted, but that's Brand of Amber." She's still watching him in the glasses.
Taleyn sighs, "Oh, good! He's not likely to want to burn us," she says, without overmuch conviction.
"I wonder what might have brought his Highness out here," Miranda says, curiousity rapidly overcoming the previous trepidation.
As the beast passes overhead, a green shape detaches itself, and second later, a green silken parachute blooms from it.
Beatrice tucks her binoculars away and stands, though still behind cover. "I suppose there is only one way to find out."
Taleyn's eyes widen as she watches the chute blossom. "That's amazing," she breathes.
"That's a parachute," Beatrice explains, perhaps mainly for Miranda, "and highly visible from the building's lookout windows, I expect."
Brand gets closer, and more visible, and then drifts to the ground like he belongs there. He is wearing sturdy explorer boots!
Miranda appears mildly puzzled by this, but she nods, saying, "And from nearly anywhere else nearby, I should say. Ought we to go and greet his Highness?"
Brand doesn't land too far off.
Taleyn chuckles. "Looks like we'll be changing our stratagem, then." She grins and nods to Beatrice. "Lets!" she says, as Brand lands. "Hello, Highness Archduke! And congratulations!"
Beatrice is, conveniently, on her feet, and offers a half-bow. "Your Highness."
Brand says, "Thank you. Thank you. Can't stay long. Have we found Benedict's temple yet?"
Beatrice says, "Not definitively," she nods at the one they are overlooking, "Possibly this, but it's doubtful. We're here to scout."
Taleyn grins at Brand. "Would you like to join us, Your Highness?"
Brand says, "As long as I don't get killed. Lucretia would be quite put out."
Taleyn ponders the potential wrath of a put-out Lucretia on postpartum hormones. "Mmmmmm. We shall do our utmost to ensure your health and well-being, Highness!"
Beatrice asks, "Luctretia's doing well, I trust?" She turns her attention back to the temple, and her binocs.
Brand says, "Yes. Mandrakes are amazing."
Taleyn sighs nearly inaudibly.
Just then, an arrow whizzes past Beatrice's ear. Then another-- and another. The denizens of the temple are firing upon the party!
Brand says, "Oh, bother."
Brand sensibly takes cover, and begins to assemble a crossbow out of bits and piueces he pulls from his sleeves and boots.
Taleyn drops down, taking out a bow of her own. "Well-- a full frontal it is, then!" She takes careful aim before releasing an arrow at one of the sentries.
Brand remembers to take out a little whistle and blow a shrill note. Then finishes assembling the crossbow.
Taleyn cocks an eyebrow at Brand. "Does that call the wyvern?" She nocks another arrow.
Brand says, "Wyvern?"
The pterodactyl returns, dive bombing the guardians with a shriek.
Beatrice repeats, softly, "It's not a wyvern." She has managed not to get hit by any arrows. "Ah, excellent," she says, noting the dive-bombing. "I think if we flank to the right and go around we'll be behind them -- they may not realize, if we hurry."
Brand looks ready to follow.
Taleyn stares at the scene, wide-eyed. "Never mind." She flanks!
Beatrice leads the way, having studied it all from the obs post. Dodge! Run! Avoid the snakes -- look, there's an extra one in a tree!
Brand mutters, "It's a good think I have the antivenin."
Taleyn replaces her bow and draws a machete. Her motto seems to be "No Extra Snakes!!!" and she lives by it! She seems to be taking extra care to defend Miranda as well as get herself through the jungle in one piece.
Brand decides to follow in Taleyn's half snake ridden wake.
"I don't suppose," Beatrice asks Brand as she ducks something sharp to her right *and* manages to avoid another snake to the left, "Anyone gave you an antitode to the war-frenzy drug the Cibolan godlings like to jack up their henchmen on?"
Brand says, "No... but if we can get a sample, I might be able to arrange it."
Brand says, cheerfully, "I have narcotics!"
Oright!!! A Prince of Amber!!! Taleyn defends him too!!! Despite his being clearly more able to defend himself than she is. "War-frenzy drug? Is that why the warriors here are always beyond reason?" She seems to make a mental note of it. "Lovely how-- er." Brand's cheery mention of narcotics seems to have thrown her a bit. She kicks a snake in the head.
"Not *all*" Beatrice allows, as the dash-run slows a bit. They are in the shadows near the temple entrance -- and it's unguarded? This seems unlikely. "We met a few who weren't who started singing to us when we killed their leaders and lay down arms and became our guides. Though they did try demanding that we give them Wmubu here for lunch." Wmubu hears his name spoken and gives a brilliant-toothed smile of helpfulness, then speaks a few low words of warning in a click-uh-click sort of language that largely (by his gesturing) seems to bea reminder that they are walking *into* a temple.
Brand applies something glistening to the tip of a crossbow bolt.
Taleyn takes a moment to punch out a giant anaconda. "How odd," she remarks. Then she asks Beatrice, "Should one of us try to draw them out while the others snipe them?" She picks up a rock, as if hefting it for a throw.
Beatrice says, "Well, let us consider a moment. We seem to have a moment of relative -- Taleyn, I don't think it's quite unconscious yet," she brandishes her machete at the anaconda. "Do you sense any particular... dead? death? around here?"
Brand produces an alarmingly long knife from his sleeve.
Taleyn threatens the anaconda with the rock, shaking it in her fist. She pauses a moment to let her eyes go grey and misty. The temperature around her drops a few degrees, to a blissfully cool 98F. "Ummm... my goodness!" Another pause. "There's death all around us, but... also a profoundly powerful spiritual force associated with this temple. I... I think there's a god here. Not YOU," she announces to the anaconda.
Brand decides to stab the anaconda in the brain.
"Oh, there's one more!" Taleyn announces cheerfully.
Beatrice whirls and gets the one more with her machete. It is now in three pieces. "Curious. You can sense the distinctly divine?"
Brand says, "An actual God?"
Taleyn tilts her head at Beatrice, a spectral wind lifting her hair. "It depends. If there's death in the god's divine purview, I seem to be much more likely to sense its presence. I would think this god, then, has-- well, I'm getting redundant." She smiles at Brand. "Well, a *Cibolan* god."
Brand says, "Is that different from a God God?"
Beatrice explains to Brand, "They may just be a super-class of beings somewhat below proper godhood. We met one the other day -- fifteen feet tall with the head of a great cat. My prince had it down in a few minutes."
Brand looks disappointed.
Taleyn shrugs. "I'm not properly sure what the difference is, myself. Only that I've met gods who were afraid of Feldane blades, so they can't be VERY goddy, can they."
Brand says, "The ones that can trap your soul for all eternity?"
Taleyn nods blankly. "Those are the ones."
Beatrice admits, "I'm far from an expert in such affairs. Except," she nods, "I think our would-be assailants are still out trying to sort out where we went. However, they are between us and anywhere except In."
Brand says, "Well, they ARE pretty scary. I made Addison promise to send me to the other side and not bind me into anything."
Taleyn still has the air of one who has seen Feldane Blades used to decorate Great Grandma's parlor alongside the lace doilies her entire life and cannot see them as anything but extremely spooky Hummel Figurines. She nods. "I will certainly try my best to see that he does, Highness." She beams. "A restful death for the deserving is our greatest pleasure!" She addresses Beatrice. "So, what is our mission objective, here, exactly?"
Beatrice suggests, "Get out alive?" And adds, "And ascertain whether this *might* be my prince's temple. We need to find its name."
Brand says, "Does anyone read Cibolan?"
"I read more or less everything," Beatrice points out in a murmur. At the word 'Cibolan', Wmubu again offers a helpful smile.
Taleyn whistles. "The problem with reading Cibolan is that there are literally hundreds of languages, dialects, and regionalisms, each having their own written symbology-- or worse, they use the same symbology as another dialect, only with their own unique spin-- Oh, wait, we have a Chantris!" She grins at Beatrice. "Or, rather, a Solaris."
Brand points at some golden symbols, right there on the wall.
Beatrice considers the writing. Her electric torch doesn't work, of course, but there's always the old-fashioned kind, and she she strikes a well-hidden little lamp and directs the light on the writing alone.
Beatrice murmurs, "Can you two buy me some time? I see the writing extends all the way down the hallway... I'll have to study it a few."
Taleyn squints at the golden symbols. "Trail shape lady popular hard full... right, I'm useless here! I'll stab snakes!" She beams.
Brand produces the little silver whistle again.
Just then, a cry ululates from the surrounding jungle-- the sentries have spotted them! Spears whizz through the trees to thunk with surprising force into the trunks of nearby trees. The jungle suddenly comes alive with guardians of the temple-- only these are the *special* guardians. Half-man and half titanic constrictor snakes, they slithe forward from the ground... AND from the trees!
Brand mutters an unpleasant sounding Pathian curse, and blows the whistle.
Brand takes aim at a guardian and fires, as his pterodactyl swoops.
Brand plants his crossbow bolt between the eyes of a snake guardian, with a satisfied smirk.
Taleyn's sword flashes out of its sheath, its silver blade gleaming dully in the jungle half-light. "SNAKE men! WHY did it have to be snake men???" She slices through air as the first one dodges, lightning-fast, around her blade. She carries through the strike, though, by kicking the first in the gut and using him as a springboard to change her direction, landing the blow in another serpent-man's throat. His face nearly turns inside-out as his jaws show fangs and spit out a spray of poison at Taleyn's face. She tries to twist out of the way, but the greenish ichor catches her arm.
Taleyn says, "ICK!!!""
Brand looks impressed Even the pterodactyl looks impressed. Brand applies goo to another bolt.
Taleyn takes a moment to rip the sizzling sleeve off her shirt before the poison soaks her skin. She evades the next attacks, then buries her blade in the belly of another snake-guardian.
From deep inside the temple, there is some soft discussion in the Click-uh-click-i-i language Beatrice is murmuring with the guide. Eventually the senior knight some striding back up the tunnel, on time to see Taleyn ripping her sleeve. A quick tactically-savvy sweeping gaze tells her immediate danger has been dealt with. "There's something here about death, but it does not seem to be a place of the dead."
Taleyn falls through a sudden opening in the jungle floor-- a pit-trap!!! Only this one, instead of leading to a simple pit, seems to have opened a chute which has plunged her into some sublevel of the Temple! Cool air rushes out of it as it opens, and strange smells issue forth.