RP:The Hand That Beats (The Drum) Pt 2
This is a Bard's Guild RP.
Part of the I Write Songs Not Tragedies Arc
Summary: Brennia and Alan discover a hidden temple under the floating city.
The Fountain of Wishes
A marble fountain takes up the majority of Schezerade’s central square. In its centre, a ring of golden fish peek their heads out of the water, spewing streams of water from their mouths. Stacked on top of that ring lies a platform with a ring of majestic eagles, wings outstretched, chests puffed out proudly as jets of water shoot out of their beaks, into the sky. In the very centre of this beautiful fountain, placed on yet another platform above the eagles and fish stands a marble statue of Schezerade’s founder, a beautiful avian woman sporting a metallic arm. Passersby's stop to watch the living fish swimming in the fountain and the statue of the powerful woman with wonder. Some can even be seen tossing coins into the fountain as well, in hopes that their wishes will be granted.
Alan waits patiently while his mind was racing on what exactly he was supposed to be doing here and what she expected him to do about it. His right hand tenses and he shoved it into his pocket so he didn’t have to think about it, nervous tick. Looking up at the crescent shaped moons and taking a deep breath while feeling at ease with it for some reason. While in wait he takes a seat upon the edge of of the marble fountain.
Brennia arrives on foot, covered in her wings as if a cloak and under that she was dressed in simple black leggings with a long sleeved black shirt. Her hair was tied up into a high ponytail and her feet were adorned in soft leather boots that nearly made no sound while she walked. Addressing Alan, “thank you so much for coming.” Unseen were the daggers sheathed between her back and wings and a small crossbow with a package of steel quills strapped to her hip, but the saucer sized black drum in her one hand could be spotted. She didn’t know what this riddle will have in store for them and wanted to be prepared. She looked up at they were about a minute away from midnight now, “you probably want to stand back here with me.” Once he moved off the fountain and next to her she would start a steady melodic beat which rang out in the abandoned square.
Alan looked a little surprised at Brennia’s cloak and dagger appearance which causes him to look down at his rather basic attire. Suddenly feeling very unprepared when she greeted him all he could do was nod once in her direction while thinking to himself, ‘of course I’m going to help, you let me mooch off you.’ He was not about to be saying that as she looked like she meant business and wasted no time in getting away from the fountain as if it were to explode or something. Somehow the rhythm of the drum was relaxing to him or was it just because it was midnight and he’s usually retiring to bed if he can help it. He waits vigilantly in case the fountain did spew off into shattered pieces.
Brennia had closed her eyes in concentration as she was feeling the drum in it’s sort of communication with her and suddenly the skin of the drum warmed as if alive, but this did not defer the Avian from continuing. There was a tingle of magic in the air and if you listened between the beats there was a soft hum emitting off the fountain, but it doesn’t last too long as the moons were directly above the fountain in the dark skies now bringing an activation to the fountain. A long scraping moan off the marble as if it has been centuries since this door was opened and then a mechanical clicking followed which worried Brennia, but as soon as she stopped playing and opened her eyes she witness why. There was a swirling staircase unfolding to a chasm below and her wings sort of hug closer to her as she croaked out, “I guess… We have to go below.”
Alan has made it this far unscathed and when he got close to inspect the changing fountain for himself he figures he doesn’t really have anything to lose. Looking back and up at Brennia he notices the shifting of her wings and the hesitation in her voice, but he quickly understood that someone akin to birds probably do not like to be trapped under any sort of ground. “I’ll go first,” his smirk came easy and he really didn’t know what came over him to which he felt the impulse to say such a thing. He was never the adventurer that Adrik was and it was as if his brother was speaking/acting through him when those booted feet clicked their way over to the start of the stairs. “I’ll give a shout if something bites me,” he could see how the last bit of water was emptying down into the chasm and down, down, down he went. When he finally reached the bottom his boots hit a grated floor to which the water obviously drained into. “All clear!” A shout on up to Brennia and he waits for her to descend.
Brennia was eternally grateful for Alan’s newfound bravery and didn’t say much on it until he shouted up to her that it was safe to make her way down. She wanted this over and done with already, underground, really? A deep breath and a glance down before she neglected the stairs all together in order to drop down the length of the spiral staircase. A soft landing next to Alan upon her knee and when she stance once more she looks around to take in the marble sort of cave they have found themselves in. Of course it isn’t as glamorous as the carved out city above, but it’s something and once Brennia started walking into the room the lamps shined as if by magic through motion. Blue eyes were busy looking out for any traps as the tip of her boot catches on some sort of mechanism set into the floor.
Location Discovered: Temple in the Sky
Alan watched the Avian shoot on down, “the stairs not enough for you?” A slightly chuckle in trying to lighten the mood a bit because this place is a bit creepy. When the lights come on he squints until his eyes adjust while following Brennia’s lead. Something was off about the floor where she was about to step, but it didn’t look like a natural raise. There was some sort of carving or decoration on the small slab and he was too late to warn the woman. He was a bit quicker and helped her to sort of trip backward just in case she did set off a trap ahead, but there was nothing.
Brennia caught her footing after Alan pulled her back and away from the mechanism… For a moment she waited in trying to listen for traps being set off so she hesitantly placed her foot with some pressure on the plate. Immediately perking up she asked, “did you hear that, Alan?” She let her foot off the plate and did it again until she got some sort of recognition that he can hear the mechanism trying to work on some pulleys in the distance.
Alan was looking all around at the walls sort of analytically, but was reeled back in to listen for sounds in the distance and he probably heard it on her second attempt. “Yeah… Let’s press on ahead and see if there is some sort of door it is trying to open.” He had been through a few of these rooms before with his brother Adrik and learned that trick from him because you don’t want to go around activating doors to things that could possibly kill you.
Brennia smirked, “ah… I see. Smart,” this time she gently feels along the wall closest to her while looking down for any more of these trick plates or any other traps. Down the narrow corridor they go until a large room was revealed which looked to be at least three stories high with some gear looking stones set into two opposite walls of this area. Quickly those blue eyes dart all around the room looking for any clues as to what to do and she can follow chains being connected by marble stone rods that all lead to one door before them. Two problems here, the gears do not look like they would move and the stairway to the closed door beyond is broken to pieces. Brennia spots two more pressure plates set into the floor just like the one she tripped over and she stands on one which liberates one side of the gears, “Alan… Stand over there” She points to the pressure plate down the way.
Alan followed at a safe distance while looking out for traps, too. The room and it’s trial is revealed and something in his gut didn’t like this already. His own gaze following the pulley system connected to the large looking gears on the side walls and ‘what? You want me to stand where? Whatever, I’m going to die here.’ With a sigh he stands on the pressure plate on the other side of the walkway and sort of glanced down over the edge, but he should NOT have done that because it drops down to the land below from there! His feet were planted on the plate, firmly, and he watched as it did the same thing as the other, but to the wall on his side.
Brennia waits a long moment while watching the door in the distance, but it doesn’t open. She was quiet in her thoughts as she thinks back on the first plate she tripped over and she is waiting for the gears to start spinning since the obstructions are out of the way now, but they will not move. “The third plate! It’s back there,” she motions to the narrow corridor they just came from which his now between them.
Alan sighs, “you mean we need a third person?” Then it dawns on him, that if they even activate at the levers at once who is to say they won't start to close up once they try and make it across the broken stairway. He did not like this, not one bit, “Brennia… You realize there is no floor in this place other than the ledge we've been standing on so, how do you expect -me- to get across to that door?”
Brennia shrugs, “I’ll fly you over, of course.” Yes, like that is no big deal. She was thinking and once she stepped off her pressure plate the gear was blocked once more, “we need something weighty to take our place on the tiles so we can make it to the door without any mishap.” She starts looking around and noticed there is a second ledge that was behind them and Alan was the lucky one who had a hefty looking metal crate on his ledge, “see if that crate will weigh your side down.” Looking up now she noticed there was something quite similar seeming to the crate like Alan’s dangling from the ceiling. She set her drum down and pulled out the hand crossbow at her hip, but her first shot missed causing bats to swarm down on them and then out which forces Brennia to duck and cover. Once they scurry out she rights herself to take another shot and ‘CLANK!’ the crate fell on her corner for her to slide over on her lever.
Alan climbed on up the second ledge in order to scoot the crate over it onto the first ledge he was on, but something in it moved a little which put his actions to a stop. “Uh… These are not just crates, Brennia.” He was staring at some sort of animal or creature that had been locked up in a sort of cage, “they are cages.” A scowl forms on his lips, but he pushed through - literally and the second crate clammers to the ledge below just as Brennia shot at bats which causes him to take cover in a corner of his second ledge. After hopping down and pushing his cage over the lever he sees the gears are now free to work without their own weight. “You didn’t happen to find a third crate up there?”
Brennia sort of shivered at the thought of something being kept in the ‘crate’ she was just muscling around, “ugh… What is this place?” She glanced up right when he asked if there were more, “not any that I can easily get.” She pressed on back through the narrow corridor, “we will figure something out.” Once they came back to nearly the entrance something caught her eye, they were little square marble blocks that are just under a foot all around. “Grab one or two of these with me, Alan.” She starts to carry one block and sort of kick the other to the pressure plate.
Alan nods and gets to work, able to just heave two blocks under his arms and place them down next to the others. Once the last one was placed on the plate he could now hear the door opening due to the mechanisms they just used…. Impressive these older Avians.
Brennia’s eyes widen as she hears the clicking again, but this time it’s a constant and not cut off or blocked. She trots back to the main room just in time to see the gears turning and the chains pulling open the door ahead just as a, “wow…” emits from her.