RP:Hind's Lost Temple

Part of the The God of Undeath Arc

Summary: Kailani, Magikrios, and Penelope embark on a very important search to find a relic that will is supposed part of an elaborate puzzle to save the lands.

Ancient Runes

Kailani is perhaps not the best person to have tasked with leading and organizing any quest to find an item. Some might have thought to make arrangements for those they have asked to help, but not Kai. Part of the reason is the druid is quite accustomed to camping outside to begin with. It is probably best that Penelope and Magikrios are left to fend for themselves in that regard. The woman does not even send notes or explanations about why they are gathered in a conventional way. It has been abundantly stressed that she needs to take precautions with who and how she shares the purpose of this quest with. The blue-haired half-elf relies on nature itself to protect this secret and deliver the message in a discrete fashion. Her message is whispered to the wind, which carries Kai’s words to only the intended recipients. It’s a bit odd that they can only hear this message and no one else in their company, but it is probably just some quirky druid thing. Still, Kai has aged enough to understand that especially with magic, everyone has their ways. Neither Penelope nor Magikrios will get the full story when they hear this strange whispering wind. ‘Kailani would like your help. Travel to Vhys and locate the temple. Be there when Vaalane next turns whole.’ Dang druid could not even give a proper date and time. She’s speaking in moons. Great.

Kailani actually arrived in Vhys the day prior, giving her enough time to set up her own temporary campsite and to try and poke around the area a bit. The campsite has not been placed too close to the temple, the druid has noticed the cursed and blighted earth. She was not sure of what might befall her were she to rest too close to the now fallen temple. Meaning that neither Penelope or Magikrios would be able to find Kailani right at the site of the fallen temple. Her makeshift camp was a short distance away. During the daylight, it would be harder to spot. Kai would probably notice them before they noticed her. However, if they caught onto the implications in her message hinting that they should meet in the early evening, then they would easily be able to see the glow of her fire just within the forest near the temple. You know, healthy looking forest. Not that tainted earth found immediately surrounding the temple. Or she will find them. Or maybe the griffin will. Or maybe the baby dragon. One way or another, they will be meeting.

Penelope felt the whispering wind reach her ear days ago at Kailani’s request. Never had Penelope gotten such a message delivered by nature’s windy touch. The message left the learning druid in awe, but quickly she is able to sort herself out for the journey ahead. There was no description on why she was really being called, as the message was very discreet. Vaalane. Moons. Oh boy, well, this meant some depth research with the cycles of the moon phases. Days passed, and Penelope set sail across the seas to Rynvale where she trekked her way to a foreign portion of the lands. Had she ever been to Vhys? Of course Vhys was known in Lithrydel, but Penelope had normally avoided the islands. The evening is setting, and the Ardelian walks with a large-strapped pack on her back and a map in her hands for direction. She is dressed in brown leather–protective gear as she travels so far into a strange part of Lithrydel she has never been to. She would have used the earth to guide her, but… for a place she had no idea about? Well, back to square one. In the distance the temple is visible and the dead plantlife is eerie next to the lush rest of the forest nearby. Above the forest is a small whirl of smoke over the treeline. Curiosity struck the healer, and she decides to go forth into the forest where a faint glow sits afar, and she moves forward to see if she would coincidentally find the blue-haired druid that was so vague.

Magikrios spends a few days bugging Meri about that whisper in the wind for a couple reasons. Mainly, what a neat way to communicate secret messages. The other reason? Why? Why him? Duty calling and such. On the early evening of the full Vaalane Magikrios gives Meri nothing to worry about. At all. Nope. Just running off into the night like any other time. Given their positions in a certain organization that definitely doesn't exist, it's actually quite normal for the newlyweds. Magikrios gathers his blackest of black clothing, his trusty bow, and his infinitely spaced backpack and heads off. He starts off the journey by taking the stairs out of his treehouse in Sage and then stops. The elf shakes his head as he realizes he could have just taken to the skies as soon as he stepped out of the treehouse. After the shake of his head his body is surrounded by that familiar black smoke and he's out of there like a bat out of hell heading northeast. Magik wouldn't get lost in his thoughts on the way to Vhys though. No. He'll flirt with his wife and make dinner plans for when he comes back from this mysterious adventure. Hot tub, sushi, whiskey, beer. Fleur can hang out with Mirshann for the evening. With plans finalized, the Guardian of Sage finally arrives in Vhys. The black smoke cloud floats above Kailani's campsite for a short moment as Magik scopes out the area. Without warning, he quickly descends and finds his footing in the middle of camp. Before even trying to look around he calls out, "Kailani?" In his head he's actually thinking, "What's a Kailani? Is it a death call? Name?" He holds his bow tightly in his hand as he waits for a response.

Kailani would greet Penelope with a smile, the blue-haired woman has always had a soft spot for the younger druid. Nel would also be greeted by a baby blue dragon, though it should be noted that even as a baby this dragon has started to get a bit of size to him. He is about the size of a large dog, or a small horse. Either way, he seems to at least be aware that he is a bigger than Nel in weight and he’s learned to be quite gentle despite his growing size. “It is good to see you again, Penelope.” Kailani barely has a chance to finish her greeting when a dark mass of black smoke swirls above her campsite. She’s not familiar enough with Magikrios to be fully aware of his powers, the presence of this smoke has Kailani frowning while she observes it. Aspen though? He’s a bit more bold with his response and actually takes to the offensive, shooting a ball of ice up at the smoke. Luckily for Magikrios, the baby dragon is still learning and the fear-response attack is pretty pitiful right now. Shhh. He’ll grow up and get there. When this mass descends into the camp and calls out her name, Kai looks toward Penelope. Was Kailani a death call? What a strange man. “Kailani is a who,” she gestures to herself. “And this is a Penelope.” A pause. “You must be a Magikrios.” Yeah, Kai is sort of not acknowledging that Aspen just shot a ball of ice at Magik.

Kailani :: Shortly after everyone gathers, when it is easier to make sure that everyone has some amount of ward or protection to keep their conversation safe from prying ears, Kai will finally expand upon their purpose for today. As she does, she pulls a book out of a bag that she packed full of supplies and provisions. This book is a pale shade of green and has darker green embellishments of vines and leaves along its spine and edges. There is no title, only a symbol on the cover. A symbol of a tree. “I don’t know if the both of you want the long story or the short story. I think by now news is abound over the being named Alithyk Caluss. In the end, he is the mastermind behind the attack on the trees. The reason that all magic very nearly ended. He was not without help of course, but that is not relevant for today. What is relevant…is that we have something to find.” Kai does not fully expand on why they are looking for, but she does at least get into what. Sort of. Both Nel and Magik may be left to read between the lines a bit. “This book was written a very long time ago, before Ryenna became the lichqueen of Vhys. When this place still thrived. It is a journal that belonged to an acolyte who once served Hind in one of his temples. His journal also makes it obvious that wherever this temple was, it was not on the mainland. Which is what brought my search here. I could be wrong, but I have wandered this island for the last two weeks and this is the only place that it could be.” Kai takes a moment to point to the tree on the cover of her book, then she moves away from Magikrios and Penelope toward a nearby chunk of ruins where she points to a matching symbol carved into the stone, though it has faded with age. “And in this book he writes of a Triskelion blessed by Hind, which makes it an object of great power. That’s what we are looking for.” Somewhere around here, in ruins that have been ransacked and pillaged for treasure numerous times. Surely something in that book must have made Kailani believe this place was worth searching despite that, she just has not been able to part with that information yet. If she will.

Penelope felt a wave of relief as she came beyond the trees to Kailani’s campsite. “Thank gosh it’s you, Kai. I have -never- been here.” Straight truth. The blunt healer looks at the blue dragon that is the size of a dog. “Oh, who is this?” Her face brightens at the blue dragon, but the Ardelian is cut off by the large smoky cloud. Although she knew Magikrios, she was still learning new things about him, so when he appears, her eyes grow a little wide. “What the heck,” she then looks between Kailani and Magik. What a pair! What was even happening right now? “I know a Magikrios,” she mimics the both of them out of the habit of their responses to one another before she shakes her head at her dialect. “I mean, hey, Magik Man.” Her brow quirks because why was he here in the first place. And why was she here, too? Kailani pulls out the foreign book and Penelope squints as she takes a couple steps forward to look over the nameless text. Just the tree. Green eyes, however, flick up sternly as Kailani mentions the name Alithyk Caluss. Penelope did not think she would be wrapped up in this again, so she looked to the side in her own internal conflict. The good side in her stirs because Kailani would not have pulled the Ardelian on this mission if the blue-haired druid did not trust, nor need her. A light sigh escapes and she nods before analyzing the old ruin that was lodged within the earth. The matching tree–faded, but there, all the same. “So this Triskelion might be able to stop Caluss? That giant insect thing that tried to disrupt us during the healing of Xalious Tree?”

Magikrios eyed the dragon that had a poor attempt at intimidation. Maybe the dragon's dad would think it was cute, but not Magik, "We going to have an issue, little one?" Magik smirks and offers an open hand to Aspen. Magik looks away from Aspen which may or may not have been a mistake and eyes Kailani up and down, "Have we met, Kailani?" And then there was a Nel. Magikrios smiles at his friend and nods to her, "Doctor." The elven male then holds his hands behind his back as Kailani explains the situation. He was only three quarters paying attention to the blue haired woman. The other quarter remaining was being fascinated with her blue hair. There was a time, long ago, before Magik went all spoopy with dark hair and dark eyes, where he actually looked like a common elf. White hair, blue eyes. What about the blue? You know how teenagers go through various stages? Magik had longer white hair with...blue tips. It was the thing back in the day. It's fine. After getting his thoughts back in order, he takes a simple step towards the book she was holding and tilts his head. Ryeanna was a familiar name, but her being the lichqueen around these parts? That was news to him. As Kailani and Penelope further discuess the mission, he starts looking over the environment while still listening in to the two ladies.

Kailani did not stay stationary after explaining, at least to some small extent, why they were here. There was so much more that Kailani could say, but then they would spend all night standing and talking. “This is Aspen,” Kai first says to Nel, answering the question of who. Now that Kailani seems fine with her companions, Aspen has also grown more at ease with their company and has taken to following Kai around the ruins. It was obvious the druid was searching for some sort of hint to a passage somewhere. “That is the hope, but we still have to be smart, we still have to be careful. This is not the only piece of the puzzle. It’s not easy what we are trying to do, but we must do it. Caluss threatens the balance of everything.” While searching and between answering questions, Kai exclaims, “Hey! That symbol in the stone? That is not the only one. I found another. Maybe there are more?” Indeed there were. All they had to go was work together to locate them and if they did, they would notice that they form a path. If they follow these tree-symbols, the decay and death of the earth only intensifies if they follow these hints. It will lead right up to a rotten door that is covering a hole in the ground. They would all have to work to remove the decaying wooden boards, but if they did they would find that they are standing before one very deep and dark hole. It’s not entirely clear how far of a drop down into the hole it is for there is nothing but darkness beneath them. Maybe ten feet? Maybe twenty? Maybe more? While they work to make these discoveries and progress past these minor obstacles, Kai answers Magikrios, “There will be no problem with Aspen.” Not unless Magikrios wants problems with Kailani too, but the druid is too polite to speak threats. “We have not introduced each other but you were at a Warrior’s Guild meeting once. You were at the Mage’s Guild meeting too. It was a gamble, but I felt you were someone I perhaps could trust with this. Based on how passionately you spoke about Xicotl at the Warrior’s Guild meeting.” Anyway. Tree hints. Path. Boards. Deep dark hole they need to get into without dying.

Penelope would take Kailani’s word for it regarding the puzzle to the situation at hand. ‘Caluss threatens the balance of everything’ of course he does. Penelope was just over here trying to catch her breath from the last incident, but with the underlying fixer within her, she knew she just needed to nod and follow the druid. The Ardelian auto-pilotly follows behind Kailani before the next stone is noticed. Was this a pattern? Kailani is busy defending Aspen with Magik that she takes her time looking. The girl does not want to waste time anymore, as she splits off from Magik and Kailani a short distance to see if she can find any more ruins with the same imprint on the stone. “Wait… both of you, I found another one.” She goes ahead to see if the rest of them find more, including herself, if they continue on. Each step, the earth around them is weaker and dying. Sunken and black before the rotten door is there on the ground. There was an eeriness at the thought of pulling the boards, so she stood back to possibly let Magik and Kailani take this one. Maybe she was slightly fearful, but once the hole remains, she looks between the two. “So… are we really gonna go down this hole or…” Someone obviously today is a follower in this unknown experience. Dark holes. Dead earth. Not Penelope’s element, that was for sure, but she would follow whoever took the first step forward. “Nose goes.” Whoever is last goes first, in her mind. She places a fingertip on her nose. Not like Kailani or Magik would not take the initiative or even play the ‘nose goes’ game. Two brave individuals they normally were.

Magikrios blinks at the suddenly obvious path of matching symbols. It was a long flight, alright? He takes off his backpack long enough to drop his bow into it and then he's off wandering, trying to find more symbols that will probably lead him to his death or something worse. As Penelope rushes forward, hot on the trail of symbols, Magik smiles to no one besides himself. Look at Nel go. She's growing up so quickly. There's a quiet chuckle just before Kailani mentions the common spaces they have shared together. The Lyastri feels bad for a slight moment. He looks over to her, "Those guild meetings can be quite chaotic. I'm sorry for not introducing myself." Kai's comments about his speech at the Warrior's Guild meeting is met with a solid response from the elf as they follow Penelope through the ruins, "You weren't wrong to seek me out. There's just something about false gods wanting to ruin the world that I live in that just doesn't sit well with me." There was another smirk until the group stumbled upon the end of the trail. Magikrios does in fact tear up the boards to reveal that possibly deep but definitely dark hole. Magikrios looks at the two ladies and kicks a couple chunks of earth into the hole. "Nose goes?" He looks to Nel and whatever game she is playing then to Kailani. He shrugs his shoulders then looks back into the pit of depair. Or rainbows. Probably despair though. Magik holds a hand out and above the hole in the ground and a white fireball appears. He drops it and looks to Penelope, "After you, Nel." Before she can have a complete heartattack, Magik jumps in after the fireball and quickly descends to the bottom. Or does he?

Nose goes? Everyone would be able to immediately tell by Kailani’s expression that she had no understanding of what the rules of this game were. Or that it was even a game. Yet she was able to interpret that Nel was at least saying she did not want to be the first one in. That’s fine. Magik appeared would be the brave soul to figure out if there was a monster lurking in the darkness beneath. If there was, it would not make itself immediately known. Magik would instead be faced with a cavern that is almost entirely dark save for the light that was pouring in above. If he embraced the darkness and ventured down the path far enough to escape the traces of light, he might notice that once in total darkness a glow is emitted. It is green in hue, and appears to be produced by some sort of stone. Emeralds, for those who could identify. Weird that emeralds glow though. Then again, Magik could overlook this glow entirely. The most logical thing for a person to do when in a dark cave is to light a fire? And Magik does love his fire, doesn’t he? What’s a boy to do.

Magik is just going to have to ponder that.

Meanwhile, up at the surface, Kai is busy pondering just how she is going to get Nel into that hole and it’s not really something that Kai is interested for pondering for long. “Nose goes?” she parrots back at Penelope, but it is rhetorical. The woman looks right to the griffin and dragon only to say the words, “Let’s go.” After this phrase is uttered, Kai shifts her gaze from her flying friends, to Nel, and then back again. It was some wordless cue that the two of them were in charge of getting Nel down into the hole. It’s a team effort. In Kai goes, followed by the griffin, who is trailed by is much younger baby dragon companion. The dragon gives Nel a firm bump, right into that hole! Except the griffin will be there to “catch” the healer as she falls, trying to help make sure she has a relatively soft landing. Relatively.

Anyway, is everyone here? Standing in the dark? Yes? Great. It is now time to navigate the currently very dark tunnels. Tunnels that smell like musty, like earth that has not been touched by fresh air for years. There is currently one main path but that path will lead to a room that will have several tunnel branches to pick from. How will they know which to travel? Are they just going to search this potentially extensive cave system tunnel by tunnel? Don’t people get lost that way? To make the situation slightly more eerie, even if they do manage to light a torch, the further into the tunnels the team progress, the more obvious it becomes that they might not be alone. It will start will a feeling of being watched, but what was that sound behind them? Or was it in front? It was so hard to tell…

Penelope can feel the prickles on the back of her neck. A swarm of heat envelopes her face when the fireball is lit, and it really puts emphasis on her stubbornness of not wanting to go. Magik dives in first with a quirky exit. The man disappears into the dark-ish hole as he chases that ball of flame. Green eyes are wide like a deer in the headlights. That internal instinct. Go after Magik? Wait for Kailani? Too many thoughts were at once as her heart raced before Kailani took the plunge. “Kai–” then, the healer is bumped by a dragon and one could swear that they hear a… swear… echoing in the pit from the Ardelian’s mouth. She is then caught with an oomph by the dragon before she falls and hits the bottom. As the girl touches land, she is a little shaken before she notices emeralds before the waft of must hits her. Her eyes look around before snapping her fingers for a small flame to glow on her face, although she assumes the fireball from Magik still glows if they decide to descend. She looks down the cavern… this felt unnerving.

Magik lands at the bottom of the pit with a single knee on the ground and a fist into the ground below (superhero landing). The elf quietly groans as he stands up to dust himself off. Something about that only looks cool in plays and in fairytales. The white fireball remains at the pit's bottom for the two ladies behind him. What a guy. The elf decides to conjure a few more fireballs to drop onto the ground to mark his trail he takes into the cavern. After just a handful of trail markers, Magik ventures far enough to get consumed by the darkness. As his eyes begin to adjust to the darkness, he starts to see that green glow in the distance. Does he yell back to the party behind him? Hide and jump out when they finally catch up, or does he simply conjure another flame and wait patiently? None of the above. He readies his bow in front of his body and pulls at the air between the two curves of his bow. A fiery string forms against his fingers as he gives it a little tug to emit just enough light to see a few feet infront of him. Then he waits for the party to catch up. Once everyone catches up, Magik points with his bow, "There. That glow.." With or without protest from everyone else, he starts walking carefully and quietly into the tunnel, scanning the tunnel walls to look for any type of wire or contraption that may lead into them springing a trap.

The start of this vast cave system seemed dark, damp, and dank but as the wandering trio move deeper into the cave system, it becomes teeming with life. The signs of life begin small with insects, lizards, and arachnids are the first to be visibly present. Further exploration of the tunnel system will that even small mammals seem to manage to survive here but the scurry away from even the slightest signs of light. Soon narrow tunnels will open up to a vast cavern filled with water. This underground lake must be the key to how everything living in this long forgotten cave must be surviving. Mushrooms line the banks of this freshwater lake, which seems to glow due to the gems that sparkle deep beneath the surface and call attention to the shadowed forms of the numerous fish swimming in the waters. This underground wonder conveniently limits the path that the travelers can take, their only real option unless they want to test the depths of the water would be to push forward south into what is clearly a building. How strange, intentional construction down in a place such as this. What purpose could it serve? What was this entire place meant to be? It did not even seem that the blue haired druid had any clear insights as to where they were. Kai was always on the quiet side, but at this moment she also looked utterly astounded.

With limited choices, Kailani opts to proceed and leads the group straight toward this mysterious structure. As they get closer, they might notice that this building was painstakingly built by hand from clay, handprints evident in several spots on the wall. It has been built around a very large tree but it seems that it has been long abandoned as beaded curtains that separate its three rooms are rotten and disintegrate upon the touch and roots have grown up from the ground rendering two of the rooms almost useless. This space has been reclaimed by nature. The tree has etchings upon its trunk that match the book that Kailani found in a place forgotten to the memory of those who went. These symbols are also identical to the ones that lead them down into this cave system to begin with. Certainly this place must be what they are looking for? Is it a sacred place? Kailani stands in silence with her comrades, staring, studying, looking for any sort of clues as to what they might need. She retrieves the book she had shown to Penelope and Magikrios prior to even starting on this adventure and begins to flip through its worn pages with the hope she might find something she overlooked. It was no matter though, the woman had to spend a painstaking amount of time trying to translate the ancient dialect of elven. No answers would readily make themselves known.

While she is doing this, movement can be seen from the very top of the tree. It is perhaps two and a half feet in size and blends almost perfectly in with the rough bark. It is an oversized cave squirrel perhaps? As it circles down the trunk of the tree part way, this strange creature becomes more easily identifiable. It is some sort of fae, a wood sprite for those that are in the know. This sentient and intelligent creature studies the trio from above. The book Kailani holds does not escape its notice, but neither does the fact that all three have some sort of connection to the elements. Such things are not easily sensed by most but the wood sprite does have a unique connection to nature. It can sense that these beings are friends to nature and continues to descend the tree, eventually coming to a stop at Kailani’s feet. She is holding the book after all. It stares up at her and then extends both arms up, fingers extended like it wanted to be picked up…but before Kailani can do any such thing a Triskelion manifests right in the tiny beings hands. Kailani takes the offering and looks toward her friends but before she has a chance to look back, the sprite is climbing its way back up the tree. Was this what they came for? Kailani could not know for certain but the object she now held within the grip of one hand did seem to radiate a powerful aura.

Kailani murmurs to her companions, “We should go back out the way we came. We can explore this place further later.”