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Post by HungryHunter on Jun 11, 2018 2:12:20 GMT
“Yeah, thanks Ann.” Gianni lay down again to have his arm set and listened to Percival speak. When his arm was set, he choked back a scream and just rolled on the floor tearing up for a second. “Argh… thanks again, Ann.” He gingerly held his arm and Percival finished. He looked at the canteen. It looked more like a landmine from this angle. “I’m sorry for asking.” He stood to inspect the carvings, hoping that he could wait out the awkwardness of dredging up those memories. He stopped when he heard Percival’s struggles and saw his body at war with itself. He stared with horror for only a split second before his decision was clear. “Percival no!” He jumped in, trying to pull Percival’s intervening arm away to let the canteen touch his mouth. “Ann, help me!” Although his grip was unbreakable, he wasn’t sure he could overpower even one arm of a broken Percival with his strength.
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Post by othus on Jun 11, 2018 5:25:35 GMT
"Percival stop!" Ann ran to his side as Gianni called for help, the old man was strong, but in his current state he wouldnt be able to overpower both Gianni and Ann, they held onto his arm tightly, trying to stop him from killing himself. "You cannot leave us here! it's not yet your time!" Ann grabbed tightly with both hands, she pushed even harder by dropping her entire weight over his arm, it pained her to see him struggle like that, but something had to be done, his actions made her feel sad and disappointed at the same time, his desire to die was bigger than his will to continue. With her foot, Ann further pushed the grial down Percival's throat, she would make him drink it even if he didn't want.
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Post by Kuma on Jun 12, 2018 3:14:54 GMT
Percival struggled against them, and the spirits pushing his body. He had done the same thing many times, he tried to look well in the outside, but the pain he suffered here, and how much he explained about his past just reopened wounds he thought to be scars already. The Old Knight muscles felt the strain of being pushed against his will, trying desperately to lock his extremities in place, but it was to no avail. But this time around it wasn’t the souls trapped in the Grail who made him falter, but the desperate pleas of Gianni and Ann that broke his will. Finally he stopped fighting and let his hand take the Grail towards his lips. He took a long sip from it and then his arm fell to the side, limp. The Canteen lid closed up as his hand touched the ground.
For a moment nothing happened, maybe it didn’t work, his wounds were really grave and he might’ve been exaggerating about the properties of the Grail. But soon something happened. Percival started to shiver, then his body started shaking and finally he was full on convulsing. A discordant chorus of pained voices surrounded him as horrible cracking sounds came from inside his body, as if his whole skeleton was violently shifting and realigning. Light bathed his body, covering his factions as he kept moving like a ragdoll in an earthquake. Finally the radiance slowly died out, just as the convulsions, leaving Percival on the floor, looking a lot different than before.
His body lost quite a lot of bulk, but the places shown through his tattered clothing still showcased an impressive physique, even better than before. His skin was softer and he had lost every wrinkle or line. His hair was way longer, almost reaching his waist and his beard was also softer and longer. Not a white or graying hair on sight, it was completely raven black. He roughly looked like a man on his early 20’s. He finally opened his eyes, that lost a lot of the weariness he had until just moments ago. The spark of youthfulness radiating from them was almost too different from him, making him look more like a different person that just a rejuvenated version of himself.
He slowly sat down, looking at his hands and arms, touching his cheek and feeling his hair. He winced in pain, looking at some of the wounds still healing on his body, checking them with his fingers and rubbing off some of the blood from over them. With a spring to his step he stood up, he wasn’t as massive as before, but he seemed just a tad taller, maybe his posture improved. He looked away from them, his hair waving behind his head as he did, incapable of facing them. -Not this again.- He muttered to himself, looking at his hands with evident frustration. -Back to impersonating a relative then…- He continued, trying once again to avoid talking about his issues.
Immortality is quite the traumatic experience, at least for anybody who still tried to hold their humanity.
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Post by HungryHunter on Jun 12, 2018 5:21:59 GMT
Gianni shielded his eyes from the light, blinking at the new Percival a few times. It was shocking to see him this young. It felt wrong on a fundamental level, like he was no longer looking at Percival. Had they saved him at all? “I’m sorry, Percival, but I couldn’t just let you die. Maybe… we can tell them we found some unique magic that did this to you? No, they’d want to find it. We can… we can figure this out. Ann?” He ceded the floor to her, backing off. He held out a hand to the wall to steady himself and felt carvings. He couldn’t help looking back at them, distracting himself from pain and misery for a while with wondrous imagery.
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Post by othus on Jun 12, 2018 5:52:33 GMT
Ann was surprised to see Percival like that, it was almost as if they were of the same age, her wonder wouldn't last for long, as she recalled the entire episode he just made them go through. Ann stepped angrily towards him as she went for a slap at his face, she did her best to hold back her tears this time
"Don't you dare look away! So you want to die huh? what about everyone else's sacrifice?! without you we might as well be dead on this damned place! but you did not care at all! you don't fucking care if we die here with you, you big hypocritical coward!!" Ann pushed at him with all her strength, She then turned around so as not to look at him anymore, her anger was only eclipsed by her frustration, she left him there as she caught up to Gianni
"sorry if I left you alone for long Gianni, any idea as to what this place is?" she said as she tried to regain her composure, she probably would need it for the things to come.
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Post by Kuma on Jun 13, 2018 4:16:51 GMT
-I’ve done this before, I can handle looking 30 years younger.- He explained to Gianni, still avoiding their gaze. He wanted to elaborate, but Ann stood in front of him, planting her fingers across his face. Percival stood silent as he was berated by Ann, at no point he attempted to reply or look at her. He took the punishment without even wincing and staggered back, landing on one of the walls, after getting shoved by her. It was easier as he lost a lot of weight through the rejuvenation process, he might’ve been able to withstand it easily though, but he choose not to, his eyes, that even with that newfound youthful spark, reflected a sadness and emptiness nobody might even fathom. He stood there, his arms hanging limp beside his body.
While this ended with Ann storming away towards Gianni, the Arachnid Archaeologist’s curiosity might’ve been caught by the carvings. They started, like the others, from the right and looped back to the left. The main character seemed to be the well dressed man, the apprentice of the hermit, whose mummified corpse they encountered a couple of rooms back. The man dressed in courtly clothing surrounded by Jiangshi A man opposing to him using a sword and a spear. The well dressed man being defeated in combat. The well dressed man in chains being judged. The executioner failing to riddle him with arrows The executioner failing to hang him. The executioner failing to decapitate him. The executioner failing to boil him alive. The executioner failing to dismember him using horses. The well dressed man trapped inside a coffin with seals, just like his master. The coffin hidden below the feet of a statue to the hero who defeated him. The coffin in the center of a maze composed by curved hallways. Gianni’s instincts might be tingling, considering the amount of information in the room and the elaborate mechanism all around them.
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Post by HungryHunter on Jun 13, 2018 5:37:29 GMT
“That wasn’t necessary and it wasn’t okay.” Gianni responded to Ann, coming to the end of carvings. He didn’t quite glare at her from behind his glasses, just giving her the strained look of a teacher whose students wouldn’t behave. A feeling of foreboding was trickling down his spine like ice-cold water distracting him from even the most serious personal struggles. “I hate this. I hate it.” His every nerve was pulling him back the other way, back up the slide. “I hate that we have to open that door. If there was nobody else down here, I’d never risk it, but that’s not an option if somebody’s already risking freeing this person.” He looked with a special worry at the failed execution scenes.
If this sorcerer was down here, he was unkillable. Best case scenario was that a thousand years of isolation had reduced his mind to mush and he couldn’t hurt anybody. Worst case scenario… Gianni looked at the carving of the sorcerer at the head of an army of Jiangshi. Worst case scenario, it just made him mad and he does all that again. “We don’t have a signal down here, do we? Our employers need to know about a threat of this scale.” Gianni looked up at the ceiling, knowing there was no chance. Hundreds of tons of stone lay between them and the surface. The claustrophillic Gianni felt like all that weight was pressing down on him for the first time in his life.
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Post by othus on Jun 13, 2018 6:12:30 GMT
Ann had no comment on Gianni's opinion, she did it for his sake as well. If she died, she could always respawn outside on the tent, but Gianni would be stuck inside the white Jade tomb for life. Percival had to get a grip for everyone's sake, and Ann was sure he could take it. still, it stung a bit that neither understood how she felt.
Ann got closer to inspect the large rings. If the size was right then perhaps Gianni could get inside and see how the mechanism works, the way it looked the liquid had to go into the waterwheels in order to open the door, but they had to go about it carefully and with a proper plan, as Ann had no idea what the paper charms above were for.
"think you can get this thing working?" she asked Gianni, almost as if nothing had happened a minute ago
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Post by Kuma on Jun 14, 2018 3:05:40 GMT
Percival slumped against the wall, sitting down, his head hanging lifeless between his sunken shoulders, his hands resting limply over his flexed knees. He didn’t even bother trying to help with the puzzle. He just gazed for a second at the charms hanging above him, before shaking his head and locking his eyes back to the floor. Ann, studying the “rings” would easily notice that unless Gianni lost ¾ of his size he wouldn’t be able to fit through. If Gianni kept looking at the carvings he might notice something, that in the previous rooms he might’ve not noticed, thanks to better lighting in this area. All of the carvings depicting the well dressed man (The apprentice) seemed to be a bit fresher than the others, and done with a lot more care. Almost as if there was something bigger in his place, but somebody altered it. Maybe it didn’t have anything to do with the trap itself, but it was something he missed before.
The charms were still hanging from the inverted dome above them, barely moving as almost no air was moving, not even a gust of wind.
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Post by HungryHunter on Jun 14, 2018 5:31:50 GMT
"I have no idea. I'm going to check out the sphere up there." Gianni walked about halfway up the wall, stopping in the middle of a carving. He looked down (his down, not regular down) when he felt a discrepancy with his feet. Up close, the change was a lot more obvious. He gently felt the carvings, the difference between the newer and older spots very clear. The carvings of the apprentice were newer additions, by several centuries at least judging by how much less worn they were.
"It looks like this place has been accessed before, long after it was made. Maybe people were maintaining the traps and spells down here." That could be helpful. It suggested there were ways around the various traps, unless of course those who made this place simply had magic to get around those. Gianni looked at the dangling charms and set foot on the crystal sphere. He crept along the curved surface, looking down and into it. Was it just water in there? How did it relate to the waterwheels and the pipes? There must be a mechanism for it, perhaps in the charms. He walked to them and began inspecting them. "Ann, could you keep an eye on those pools and tell me if something happens? Percival... please help her." He wanted Percival near Ann so an eye could be kept on him for now. He was worried the poor man would turn his sword upon himself.
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Post by othus on Jun 15, 2018 4:18:34 GMT
"I'll see if anything changes" she replied to Gianni, perhaps tearing off the charms would release the liquid on the sphere, she didn't know a thing about ancient tombs nor magic, so her job was reduced to staring around. if Gianni meddled around with the charms something would be bound to happen, good or bad.
Ann also kept an eye on Percival, he looked nothing like his past self, his motivation was almost entirely gone, but she knew she wouldn't be able to cheer him up, that was up to the man and his internal struggle.
she then proceeded to peek inside the pools, just to see if there was anything of interest.
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Post by Kuma on Jun 16, 2018 1:56:23 GMT
Percival didn’t even listen Gianni, wallowing in a puddle of self-pity, looking down. Over him the Arachnid Archaeologist was inspecting the top of the room The liquid inside the inverted dome was, upon closer inspection, not water. It was liquid, but the crystalline surface of the dome holding it was slightly hot to touch, not burning hot, but hot enough to avoid letting your hand rest on it for long periods of time, like putting your hand above the stove. When he moved to inspect the charms he would find the same type of writing as before, each charm having a small riddle.
From above to down below, A flash of steel becoming a crescent moon, Turning read at the end of it’s journey.
The most uncomfortable garment, The most elegant scarf to visit Yama’s palace. The last piece of clothing you’ll ever need.
A flock of sharp beaked birds, Pinching and eating the flesh of the unlucky. Their feathered behinds sail over the wind.
The 4 cardinal points becoming your enemies. One would think that the sacred beasts are enraged. But is just a Kirin younger siblings.
Sealed and forgotten, incapable of dying. One who masters Death cannot be taken by him. I laugh at Yama from my Alabaster palace.
Bubbling and steaming, the last bath needed. One could wonder if what they wanted in reality. Was a new recipe for a soup.
They each hanged from small and very feeble strings, if Gianni devoted some time using his uncanny senses to detect vibrations he might realize that each string not only attached itself to the dome, but also moved through almost imperceptible holes in the walls reaching certain areas, but he wouldn’t be able to properly tell which thread went to which area. As he did this Ann was below him investigating the pools. They were empty and seemed to be capable of holding quite a lot of liquid. The wooden wheels looked weird, if she spent extra time investigating (And if she had the engineering knowledge) that something was off about them.
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Post by HungryHunter on Jun 16, 2018 5:54:35 GMT
Gianni found the warmth of the dome unsettling. Usually, ruins were pretty chilly once you got out of direct sunlight. Heating was a product of continued activity. It felt a little too much like there were living creatures down here when he came across something warm. He crouched, little pocket of warmth fully enveloping him as he read the charms. He slowly translated them out loud so Ann and Percival could hear. Did the individual inscriptions matter? Or did all the charms do the same thing? He looked back and forth between them before settling on one to test. They were all unpleasant sounding, but the very last one suggested the use of the liquid. He figured that they wanted to fill up those pools, so gently he reached out his hand and lightly tugged the last charm, the one reading: Bubbling and steaming, the last bath needed. One could wonder if what they wanted in reality. Was a new recipe for a soup.
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Post by othus on Jun 16, 2018 8:00:57 GMT
Ann inspected upon the wooden wheels, she wasn't an engineer, but she was good at building and repairing things, she could probably build a motorcycle by herself with the right equipment, so a mill shouldn't be much trouble.
she spaced out for a second as she heard Gianni's reading of the charms, it was hard to make sense out of them, but two had some kind of immediate sense to them
The most uncomfortable garment, The most elegant scarf to visit Yama’s palace. The last piece of clothing you’ll ever need.
"That one, is that referring to a mummy? Yama is the god of death, and the only uncomfortable garment I can think of that the dead would use is linen wrapping", Ann then recited on her head the other one:
*Sealed and forgotten, incapable of dying. One who masters Death cannot be taken by him. I laugh at Yama from my Alabaster palace. *
"the Alabaster palace? this place? judging by the tone of riddle it is possible that the mage is still alive!", something was wrong about the whole thing, the rest of the charms just seem to point at traps, some even reminded her of the ones they went through before, while some sounded like something completely new. Either way, all the charms were very likely to be bad news.
"Gianni, if possible avoid touching the liquid!" she shouted at him, though he had already grabbed the charm depicting that very same substance above them.
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Post by Kuma on Jun 17, 2018 3:10:39 GMT
Ann investigation would point to something very peculiar about the wooden water wheels, they didn’t seem to be able to spin. There wasn’t any kind of mechanism that would allow them to actually move when liquid poured on them or even through actual physical force. Considering all the traps before had some relations to “circles” or a Cyclical theme to them, this seemed out of place, maybe it signalled something else. While she studied the water wheel Gianni reached and softly tugged one of the charms. The thread, that seemed so thin and fragile that a strong wind might break it, didn’t snap, it remained in one piece, stretching to match the Arachnid Archaeologist pull. The letters radiated a faint red glow, that moved up the thread and into the walls, vanishing as it did.
Percival, still sitting on the floor, close to the wall, was the first to realize what was happening. At first his body felt so numb and his clothing was thick enough that he didn’t notice, but soon the heat reached his skin making him jump as he could feel the dampness. From very small orifices hidden in the crease between the wall and the floor, boiling water was rushing in. -HOT! HOT!- Percival shouted, running towards one of the pools, that were slightly elevated from ground level, standing inside it as the floor was slowly flooded by boiling water, steam rising from it. It would take a while, but if this flow didn’t stopped the room would fill up with boiling water. -Whatever you did up there, it didn’t work!- It seems that the impending death by boiling water and the sudden pain had awaken Percival from his pity party.
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Post by HungryHunter on Jun 17, 2018 5:20:46 GMT
Gianni went pale when he realized his mistake. Here he had thought filling the pools was what they wanted. It turned out that was just the trap. "No, Ann, it's a noose." He took a step back from that particular charm. It couldn't possibly improve the situations. What could though? There wasn't a charm about there being no water! He read them all again to make sure. He doubted the trick would be so easy as just pulling the charm again, although he did it anyway just in case. At the same time, he fixated on another. "Guys, get ready! I'm going to pull another! Ann, Percival, climb those waterwheels as high as you can!" They needed to get away from the boiling liquid and at least gain a few seconds for him to think. He reached for another charm, this time hopefully the right one. The others were failed executions; Gianni had just brought one upon himself by choosing poorly. But this one wrote not of attempts at death, but of the tomb and the coffin that no doubt lay behind those doors. It read: Sealed and forgotten, incapable of dying. One who masters Death cannot be taken by him. I laugh at Yama from my Alabaster palace.
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Post by othus on Jun 18, 2018 0:38:24 GMT
"holy shit!" Ann shouted as the room began to fill with the boiling water, she rushed to the same place Percival was at while she waited for Gianni to make some sort of miracle, it was obvious now each charm activated something within the room, judging by the charms there was only one that could possibly get them out of there, though the idea of going deeper into the tomb wasn't comforting either. Gianni adviced that further charms were gonna get activated, Ann thought things couldn't get much worse than this.
"Do whatever you need Gianni! just get us out of here fast!", Ann looked nervously at the water level rising, getting boiled alive was not a fun way to go.
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Post by Kuma on Jun 20, 2018 3:32:14 GMT
Percival, standing inside the elevated pool, scanned the room, as it slowly got filled with boiling water. -I didn’t even notice the holes in the ground.- He started checking the wall as quickly as he could, noticing other small, very hidden traps. -We should be careful when pulling those things!- He exclaimed turning just to gaze upon Gianni tugging another of the charms. Once again the scribblings turned red and the glow moved up the thread, that didn’t snap. The energy moved until vanishing into the wall and from several dozen slits in the wall charms started flying towards Ann and Percival, who were at ground level. The rejuvenated Knight managed to avoid a couple before getting tagged three times. The charms glued to his body and suddenly a powerful force pushed him against the wall, pinning him against it. He winced after hitting the wall hard. -There must be some kind of order!- He shouted, before another charm hit him in the face, blocking part of his mouth from moving and covering one of his eyes.
The charms would only affect Ann and Percival, Gianni was outside their range. Maybe he was missing something, the hanging riddles seemed to be connected with the wall and some references the carvings the Arachnid Archaeologist studied minutes before. There could be a connection there.
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Post by HungryHunter on Jun 20, 2018 20:39:39 GMT
Gianni's stomach churned. His friends faced death at his hands. He could feel the heat rolling off the boiling fluid even from up here. What the hell was going on? Which was he supposed to pull? How did he get it wrong? His head tilted up to the carvings below his head. It dawned on him as he moved his head over them. It wasn't which charm he pulled, it was the order! He looked at the carvings carefully as he reached for the charms. This was the order his hands move in.
A flock of sharp beaked birds, Pinching and eating the flesh of the unlucky. Their feathered behinds sail over the wind.
The most uncomfortable garment, The most elegant scarf to visit Yama’s palace. The last piece of clothing you’ll ever need.
From above to down below, A flash of steel becoming a crescent moon, Turning read at the end of it’s journey.
Bubbling and steaming, the last bath needed. One could wonder if what they wanted in reality. Was a new recipe for a soup.
The 4 cardinal points becoming your enemies. One would think that the sacred beasts are enraged. But is just a Kirin younger siblings.
Sealed and forgotten, incapable of dying. One who masters Death cannot be taken by him. I laugh at Yama from my Alabaster palace.
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Post by othus on Jun 21, 2018 0:00:51 GMT
Ann dodged some of the charms, but the space to maneuver was too small, and she ended up getting tagged as well. As Ann fought to struggle, Percival hinted Gianni on pulling the charms in order, which was still quite confusing as the text didn't really make clear sense, she hoped for the best as Gianni tried for a new combination, but time was of the essence, she tried calming herself down as the water heat began to scald her feet, it wasn't making contact yet, but the vapor was intense enough to cause pain.
"Anytime Gianni!" she said in a sarcastic tone trying not to fret about imminent doom
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