[Syliras Quest] The Lost Necklace (Grandfathered)

[Mella]

A flash of blinding light startled her. Jumping at the sudden shock, Mella almost transformed…almost. She was in more control of herself than she usually would be. The presence of the two men reminded her of that need. She ignored the men’s inquiries for the most part not wasting her breath on idle words. Her focus was concentrated on the scraps of paper that lay uselessly at their feet. She did not believe this was the end of the mischief, but she had a hard time figuring out the purpose of the scraps as they laid listlessly on the ground only stirring for a slight breeze. That was until they moved of their accord forming a long straggling line to a cave not far off that was several feet off the ground.

She moved to the spot quickly afraid of any disturbance of the trail by nature or two bumbling males. Reaching the spot in front of the entrance, Mella stared at it contemplating the climb. If she transformed, the jump would be nothing as panthers could skillfully leap up to 3 meters vertically. However, she did not want to give her advantage away yet especially not when she was unsure of how the men would react to it. The dark man, who introduced himself as Gintoki, spoke to Conor breaking her concentration on the stone cliff before her. She took this time to answer both the men’s questions. “I am neither against you nor allied with you. But, I will join you for now till our paths may again diverge. You may call me Mella,” she said plainly using little formality.

As soon as that was said, she got right down to business, “While that plan is all well and good, it would be best if one of you gave me a lift up first. The tunnel is just wide enough for you men to fit through, but I am thinner and it will be easier for me to maneuver through it. Plus, I’ll be able to see better than both of you combined allowing for better navigation.” She finished leaving out the reason of why her sight was better than theirs. She moved towards the wall placing her hand against the surface as if sizing up the structure and waited blinking at the men. She fully expected them to cooperate as she spoke logic, and she did believe there was a saying of something about ‘ladies first?’ which she was sure they would have heard before seeing as it was spoken several times during her stay in the city. All she could do was wait till they finally snapped too and lifted her up.

[Gintoki]

Gintoki smiled as the woman introduced herself while stating that she wouldn't be allied with them but she wouldn't mind taking advantage of them for the time being either, in her own words ofcourse.

Gintoki didn't bother to respond to her plea of lifting her up. For all he knew " the time being for separation " could just aswell be the second she set foot on the hard soil of the corridor. Instead he just placed his hands high up on the wall, touching and grabbing the spots where he can put his weight on. He checked the area of the wall in front of him and the area above him as to see if the placements for his hands and feet were available all the way to the top.

He decided on a possibly good route and started to climb, putting both his hands on 2 separate high-placed spots and lifting himself up whilst stepping on a lower, outgrowing spot of the wall. He repeated this process 'till he almost reached the top where he almost made a fall because of a piece of rock that broke off the wall, fortunately he managed to hold on with 1 arm and found another spot for his hand fast enough.

When he finally stood at the entrance of the hallway his nose filled up with what reaked of batdroppings, he glanced around but couldn't really see much further than a yard away from him, but he wasn't that worried about it, he was more worried about the constricted space in the corridor, he'd have a hard time to wield his scythe if a battle occured inside the hallway, the only valid option he knew to counter such a space was to leave his scythe for what it was 'till he reached a more spacious area and 'till then, take out his shortbow and quiver of arrows.

He readied an arrow on the bow and started walking. To his surprise nothing happend, no traps or animals came his way, but he faced a dilemma when he reached the spot where the cave separated itself into 3 different corridors.

[Conor]

The sudden flash that was induced by the disintegrating scrolls startled Conor. He was preoccupied in his thoughts even while Gintoki was talking to him. He had no need to talk to the Benshiran right now, first he needed to devise a plan to retrieve the necklace. It was the strange yet attractive young woman that finally returned him from the realms of his dreams back to life. She had introduced herself as Mella, and she had lectured the both of them about her loyalties. So she was neither friend nor enemy. Conor could live with that, soon, the woman would learn that cooperation was always the profitable. The woman asked a lift, but the Benshiran was to impolite or cautious to give her one. The young adventurer decided to give her one, in order to gain a bit of favor. He still didn’t trust her, but he knew that he had no choice but to help her. He walked up to her, and helped, carefully not to grab or touch her in the wrong places. He didn’t want to take advantage by looking at her bottom or touching her there – or anywhere else – whilst he was helping her. No doubt that the view was great and her skin soft, but he wasn’t that kind of guy.

When she had climbed the first part, Conor tried himself. At first, his attempt were futile, but finally he got a good foothold and he managed to pull himself up. His splintmail restricted his movement a little bit, but it would probably prove useful later on. Now that he had finally rejoined the other two adventurers, Conor looked around, only to see three separate paths. Conor chuckled, that Benshiran was pretty useless now. His weapon of choice, the great scythe, was useless in such small corridors. Conor’s sword fighting would already be restricted, but such a weapon was utterly ineffective inside those caves. The Benshiran recognized the problem and took a short bow to protect himself. Hopefully he was skilled in its use, but Conor doubted that a little. He seemed to prefer melee over ranged combat.

“I don’t think splitting up is the best option… But I wonder if sticking together is as well.” The three different passages were all equally small, and that meant that only one person was able to walk in there at the same time. “If somebody here has special abilities like morphing, now is the time to use them,” he said, thinking back of Rai. She had been capable of changing into an eagle, so perhaps someone here was able to do the same? A mouse or a rat could easily infiltrate the cavern, followed by a good warrior. Or maybe a more ferocious animal would be helpful, like a wolf or a dog. Chances were high that no one was a shift shaper here, so they would probably have to split up. “If we split up and we encounter danger, we are all pretty much screwed in these tight caverns…” Conor thought aloud. Maybe that Mella was a shape shifter all along, like he had suspected in the begin. But odds were it was just his imagination playing tricks on his optimistic mind.

[Hunter]

Not Totally Necessary OOCTwo things. First, I'm not going to post again until you decide on a course of action. I see no need to after all. Second of all... A little something that brightened my day: "No doubt that the view was great and her skin soft, but he wasn’t that kind of guy." Good work Conor, I lol'ed

[Benacer]

While walking on the streets of Syliras, Benacer stumbled upon a small turmoil on his path. The people were agitated, conversing about a mysterious sorcerer-like woman who was "spreading magical scrolls throughout the city", or so they said. Benacer knew that such people frequently made a big fuss over things that they did not well understand, so he paid little attention to it at first, that until he saw one of the mentioned scrolls with his own eyes.

At first glance it seemed a poster like any other, until his eyes spotted the glyphing symbols at the end of the message. Benacer knew little about magic other than flux, but he could see that those people were probably right about the woman being a sorceress of sorts. Nonetheless, he was rather interested on the prize mentioned on the poster. Coming from a magician, could it be a valuable magical artifact? Or perhaps just a few mizas? She could have at least mentioned what she was offering for the one willing to bring her piece of jewelry back. Either way, the task seemed simple enough, and Benacer certainly needed a few coins to get his pouch a little heavier after all.

After taking the poster from the wall, he was approached by an old man who felt like warning him about the possibilities of magical curses and the whole quest being simply a trap. Benacer did not care much about what the old man had to say, that until he mentioned three other adventurers that had left to the caves carrying similar scrolls a few chimes prior. It meant that Benacer was already late, there was competition! He would have to rush if he wanted to get this reward.

He quickly found his path towards the Aylasa caves, only to find several pieces of shredded scroll spread around the region. He was somewhat confused about it, but it was probably a signal that the other ones had already been there. With no hesitation, Benacer spoke the words written on his scroll, and within a flash the whole scroll was disintegrated, shredded into several small pieces, and those along with the other tiny pieces that were already lying on the floor formed what seemed like a trail. From the entrance of the Aylasa caves, Benacer's eyes followed the trail, stopping on a somewhat distant cave. From his distance he could spot some sort of movement going on in its entrance - or was it just his imagination? It was too far to really know. All he knew is that he probably would have to rush if he wanted to get to the necklace before the other ones.

Benacer began following the path, thinking on what sort of cave it would be. It seemed that the woman who spread the scrolls truly was a magician. What would one such as her be doing in a cave like that? Was there something special about the cave? Or perhaps the old man was right when he said that it was just a trap? Benacer was glad that he had brought his waraxe with him. Overly confident on his abilities, he truly believed that he would be capable of defeating any kind of danger that could be awaiting for him in that place.

After following the trail, Benacer noticed that the entrance was a couple meters above the ground. He would have to climb a wall of stone if he were to continue on this quest. Obviously it would take him more than such a simple obstacle to have him give up on earning a few mizas, or whatever the reward really was. He was to proceed and climb the wall. He slowly examined the stone structure with his hands as to find a flaw which he could grasp to make his way up to the stone corridor. He found a couple of small holes, which were used as a support for him to lift his body some feet up. He managed to find a small support for his right leg as well, but his left leg was left scratching the surface of the stone, as if trying to catch a rock to be used as a support. He finally managed to step over a protruding stone with that leg, but the rock could not withstand the weight and ended up breaking and falling on the floor, making quite a loud noise.

After a few seconds, he finally found another stone to step on with his left leg, and then managed to lift his head a bit higher, as to take a little peek on what was inside the cave. He then managed to see the silhouette of three people inside. He was not much surprised, they likely were the adventurers he was warned about, of course. The entrance was very small, so it would be impossible for him to get into the cave unnoticed.

[Mella]

Mella scowled as the dark man ignored her and began his climb. How rude! She glared at him willing for him to fall. It would serve him right. At least she had been honest, which was more than she could say for what some others might do. She could have lied and then betrayed them, but she guessed honesty wasn’t as prized as it used to be. When he slipped, a surprised expression overtook her face before it once again turned to neutral as he regained his hold. For a moment, she had actually believed her will was going to make him fall. Unfortunately nothing of the sort happened, and the dark man entered the cavern unharmed.

The approach of the other man broke her train of thought and he politely gave her a lift remaining courteous as she climbed her way into the cavern---something that earned him a bit of respect in her eyes.

It was worse than she thought. The cave was cramped. It barely fit one person let alone three. Fighting was going to be troublesome. Anything besides perhaps a dagger or bare hands was impractical and they were basically sitting ducks just waiting for something to take them down one by one. It was also dark, though not a problem for her it would most definitely hinder the men.

Her eyes glowed an eerie gold in the low light, and for once Mella lowered her hood knowing that it would not hide them when they shone. The man, Conor, spoke of shapeshifting and Mella scowled in irritation for he must have been tipped off by her eyes. It was easy to tell she was Kelvic in these types of situations, which bothered her.

His almost arrogant statement annoyed her as he ‘suggested’ that she morph. How could he say that when he did not even know what animal she was? What if she had been an elephant and had morphed because she was one who followed orders blindly, well then where would they be? Dead, most likely. She hated humans who assumed they understood other races. “Did you perhaps think that now would not be beneficial for a person to shapeshift especially since as of now we are crammed into a tiny space?” she snapped not hiding her irritation—the close quarters were putting her ill at ease. Continuing with a calmer voice, “I don’t see any reason not to split up. There seems to be equal advantages and disadvantages to each choice, but if we split up we have a greater chance of finding the necklace.”

A disturbance of falling rubble caught her attention and she turned her head in the direction of the entrance. Sniffing the air, she caught the scent of another human…male. “We have another visitor,” she said quietly in the direction of the two men already in the cave with her before calling out to the man outside hanging on the ledge, “Be you friend or foe?”

[Conor]

The elegant woman that had been lifted by Conor seemed to be offended by Conor’s simple remark that shapeshifting could be a solution. He raised his eyebrow when she said that it was not beneficial. Was she really a Kelvic? Conor was surprised by his own instinct and yet put off by her harsh comment. He was just proposing something, he didn’t mean to offend her. But clearly she had taken it as one. “I don’t see any reason not to split up. There seems to be equal advantages and disadvantages to each choice, but if we split up we have a greater chance of finding the necklace.” Conor shrugged, in his book splitting up had more disadvantages, but then again, she was right. “Look,” he said. “I’m sorry if I offended you, but honestly, I’m thrilled to meet another Kelvic. Your race’s morphing skills make me jealous, even if I don’t fully comprehend them – or your race as a whole.”

Conor changed his attention to the task ahead, there were tree entrances and there were equal disadvantages as there were benefits to splitting up or sticking together. If they chose to split, some of them may forfeit their reward, making his share either larger – up to the whole reward – or lower, up to nothing. Everything depended on the situation ahead, did all three entrances lead to the same antechamber? Or did they guide to different fates, of which death could be one? “I’d rather stick together, but if you say not to,” he shrugged. And then , the sound of falling debris and rocks changed the whole situation. Another man appeared... “Great,” Conor sighed. “Friend or foe?” the woman asked.

“Well this changes the situation,” Conor said. “Someone is going to have to share his entrance with someone else,” he stated. Personally, he preferred to have the Kelvic on his side. Morphing was a huge advantage and somehow, she seemed to generate an aura that made Conor like her. Or perhaps that was her looks? Or her manner of speech? Either way, Conor wanted someone to watch his back, and the Gintoki fellow was useless with his scythe. He didn’t look to proficient with his short bow and his ranged expertise was probably severely limited. “It might sound strange, but I’d like to follow you ,” he said to the girl. “You seem trustworthy enough and my first impression of you is... good. And being a Kelvic, you could make for very good company, I’m very interested in your kind.” He made sure it didn’t sound offensive this time. He didn’t want to spook her or make her hostile. If she refused, then Conor would rather progress on his own. If his back wasn’t watched by someone trustworthy, then it might as well not be watched at all.

Secret :

Will the XP reward for people change if they team up and follow the same route, I mean as in, would it shrink?

[Gintoki]

Gintoki ignored the snappy retort of the woman towards Conor, all he wanted to do was to get out of this cold, dark and eery place. But before that would be possible, he had to find the necklace. He wasn't going to let a mere annoyance about the surroundings take away his adventure, and if lucky, his prize.

He decided to go with the left hall and hoped it would end up in a wider area. If worst came to worst and he was stuck with sneaking through this enclosed cave-alley there wouldn't be much problem hitting his target with the shortbow since it wouldn't have room for manoeuvering either.

" I'm going with the left route, pick whichever way you want to go. "

And to the woman specifically Gintoki said:

" I hope you won't hold a large grudge against me for not trusting a stranger who didn't agree to form an alliance uncoditionally. "

[Hunter]

(Please continue to keep this thread alive... I'm waiting for you guys to choose a course of action before I post, but just because it's grandfathered doesn't mean we can't continue it. In fact (and I just gotta make sure of this) I plan to keep this thread going for longer than most grandfathered ones. If your afraid of getting behind time-wise then tell me. I can try to speed it up a little, but I really want to finish this adventure. It is my first afterall...)

[Mella]

[[Sorry for the delay, I was waiting to see if Benacer would post]]

Mella waited patiently for the answer of the man hanging to the side of the rock wall, yet none came. Perplexed she continued to stall wondering if the man was hurt or perhaps mute. Several more moments passed and the man remained in his position clinging to the cliff face. Blowing out a gust of air in impatience, she shrugged and wrote off the man as being deaf.

Mella turned back to Conor and listened to his request with skeptical disbelief written over her face. It amazed her that he actually wanted to follow her. She knew that in her human form she did not look impressive. To others it would appear as if she had little to contribute in the way of battle, and her cold attitude would have turned anyone else away. He was most likely a man who liked challenges she thought, her head tilting slightly as she analyzed him, or else he probably would not have even accepted the poster’s mission in the first place. In his eyes, she could just be another challenge for him—the distant Kelvic with a tongue as sharp as her teeth. Well, she did not mind being a challenge. She did however mind if he thought that she would follow orders blindly like some of the younger Kelvics who bonded early. She despised arrogance, especially in males, and so though he displayed none at the moment she watched carefully.

When he expressed interest in her kind, she laughed lightly the sound low—a purr. So, he was interested in her kind, was he? Well, she knew several ‘interested’ slave dealers in Ravok, but that did not make her any more inclined to like them. Conor seemed sincere, though, and that sincerity was what had earned him the light laugh. She could feel herself warming up to his personality---or at least tolerating it. He seemed as if he wanted her to trust him. However, it was always a long stretch before Mella trusted anyone and so he had quite a wait ahead of him.

Yet, that small tolerance was what was leading her to consider his plea and so she answered, “I am not opposed to the idea, and you may follow as you asked. However, any tricks and you will find yourself short of a body part. Is my meaning clear?” she warned her eyes flashing for a moment before her severe expression relaxed as she chanced a half smile in acknowledgement his way.

Her mind reverting to the task at hand, she quickly ran through her appearance. She was wearing her dark green, hooded cloak, her loose, long-sleeved, brown dress, and her fur-lined, soft-leather moccasin boots. Her kukri was also on her attached to her dress in a fashion as to which a belt was not necessary. Pursing her lips slightly in disapproval, she realized that there was no way she could continue dressed as such. It would be almost impossible for her to shift in a moment’s notice with the extra clothing, so with a light sigh she undid her cloak and slipped off her boots. Folding the material, she placed both in a niche in the cave wall hoping that both would still be there when she was done. She then remained in just her dress with the attached kukri. It was designed specifically so that it would slip off when she wriggled just so in case she had to morph quickly. Satisfied, she turned towards the intersection of passages and was going to announce which one she was determined to enter, when Gintoki spoke. She kept her voice level as she responded, “I keep no grudges, yet I do not forget.”

Getting back to business, she said, “I am going to travel down the center passage. Conor you are welcome to follow, but if you choose the right I will not hold it against you.” With that said she started towards the center passageway and assumed that he would follow, but looked back to check just to make sure.

She traveled along the passageway her heightened eye-sight seeing everything as clearly as if it was day, and she wondered what surprises this path would entertain.