SC1 :: The Peaks :: [Quest/C]

[Ziva]

We rise and fall to those that we have kept
A call to the high wind, I hear the sounds of steps
But in the end that blood to wash away is forever felt

Screaming, moaning, whistling wind whipped through the snowy frame of the building, the ancient pillars of the mansion rising from the mountain's clear cut size. It was midday : the adventurers had gotten there in good time. That was a good start, to say the least : now the ruins, looking desolate and lonely, was the sight that they would see. But they knew better then that : several Zora folk had warned them of the cold nights and the monsters : many were unhappy when the guide explained their purpose. Human settlements near the cold were also quite unhappy, but that happened a lot. It was a mission : a quest. Their interviewer had a weird way to talk : sometimes understandable, other things not so much. But their guide had been quite silent. A quick footed guide, with the light and grace of a Hylian. That didn't matter, as his quiet voice explained a few tricks to survive. Then without further ado, he took his leave.

That left the two adventurers all alone at the door of the entrance. The eerie and still quietness was only shattered by the wind's sound : almost like a banshee's call. It was odd to say the least, but it was still there : that presence, that need, that call of adventure. But something was hidden, that was for sure. The door was beautiful, and yet closed. If the handle was tried, it was locked, without thoughts of escape. Now that was unusual : but the guide had told them of a secondary way : via the window of course. Or they could circle around to the ruins : either way, no matter their decision, a scream shattered the relative silence, going above the wind. That scream sounded highly feminine.

What would the darling adventurers do?

Now that was the challenge, wasn't it.

[adela]

Adela stood outside of the door, glad to have worn her thick winter coat. Her feathers were fluffed up to protect against the cold and though she had her glasses with her they were currently resting up against her forehead for the time being. She took a step forward and tried the door only to find it locked. "That was to be expected. It would not be fitting of an adventure to start out easy."

She took a step back and examined the window that they might enter through. Adela was about to ask if that was the way that her partner wanted to go when she heard the scream. She jumped and started for the window. It was likely that whoever was screaming was inside and needed help. Adela first tried to open the window and, should that not work, she would use her bow to break through it and climb inside.

[ALISTAIR LUOR]

Alistair adjusted the hood on his cloak as it was blown every which way by the wind. Eventually he gave up and just pulled the hood down all together. He felt strange, but disregarded it for the time being. "You know, we could-" He was mid sentence when the scream cut him off. He had to hurry to catch up to Adela, lightly grabbing her arm.

"Whoa now, calm down. I want to find the source of that scream as much as you do, but we need to be practical. For all we know, it could be a trap." He fought the urge to do what his partner had started and just break the window. There could be a perfectly fitting maiden in there! But he had to be serious. As much as he loved having fun, he needed to be serious. After all, the one time he truly focused was when he was questing, because it was usually a matter of life or death.

[Ziva]

We rise and fall to those that we have kept
A call to the high wind, I hear the sounds of steps
But in the end that blood to wash away is forever felt

To foster and wait, to gather their wits. It wasn't something that anyone could do : minutes after the first scream, a second echo, closer this time. It was now possible to identify the voice : definitely female, and full of terror. Yet there was an underlying tone, almost dangerous, like a pulse. But it was still a scream of terror. And even still, time was getting shorter and shorter : a small twinkling sound revealed that something dangerous was approaching. A pack of 90 white boe, all melding with the snow, was approaching. The townsfolk weren't kidding when they said it was dangerous here : neither was the guide nor the quest giver. The pack was blood thirsty : breaking the window to get in might give a quick escape, but surely these creatures could possibly climb threw that window. And the screams picked up again, as if a figure was running. For a brief moment, if either of them were looking through the window, they would see a whirl of colors, and then something off white. Scenes and things flashing, a pressing need to make a decision : time was nothing to waste here, as the game just became a bit more interesting, as the adventurers needed to come through and fast.

Another scream echoed, as now a loud monster howl was audible too.

[adela]

Adela slipped her bow out of its holder and brought an arrow back into position before tipping her glasses down into place and looking at the wall. It was difficult to see through all of the snow but she thought she could see something moving around inside. "I think there's somebody in there!" She yelled to her partner as she started for the window again.

"Even if it is a trap there are monsters out here and if we get inside it will give us some defenses against them." Or if nothing else it would give her a place to shoot from with enough of a vantage point to cover him without having to try and fly in this mess.

Adela turned to the window once more and her way through it, either through breaking or through forcing it open.

[ALISTAIR LUOR]

Alistair had no choice but to cover Adela while she made her way through the window. Boe weren't exactly difficult foes to defeat, but the numbers were massive when compared to other Boe swarms. He drew his sword, slashing and stomping about, white puffs of dust rising up left and right. Once his partner made her way through the broken window, he quickly turned and ran for it, barely managing to vault in before the Boe caught up. unfortunately, he nicked his hand on a shard of glass, cutting through his glove and leaving a small gash on his hand. It wasn't debilitating in the least, just a minor inconvenience.

He took a moment to look out the window, the group of enemies making their way towards them. "We need to block this up, fast. Then we can focus on whatever beasts reside in here." He said sternly, looking around for something to barricade the newly made entrance. There. He quickly ran to a large dresser, pushing it along the wall with his back until it was in front of the window. "Boe might be vicious, but they're not all that strong. If they can manage to break through this, it'll take some time."

[Ziva]

We rise and fall to those that we have kept
A call to the high wind, I hear the sounds of steps
But in the end that blood to wash away is forever felt

Good, good : the first challenge, barely one if that, was passed without difficulty. A forced entry, but that had been the decision all along. Now that they had entered, something felt off : the sounds of screaming had stopped. It was quiet in the mansion, ruined by years of being unkept. The wind whistling and bemoaned it's way through, but still : those screams had been quite loud and clear, and now they had faded. If the duo cared to observed, they would notice broken passways : but the first thing that made it obvious was that they were in some sort of closet. Massive closet, but still one of those closets that could be confusing, even when empty. It was strange, that the sounds stopped : although they would feel puny in the closet, they would see something on the ground : a trail of red, almost exactly where the woman had seen the thing inside. Was it friend or foe's blood? The townsfolk warning about creatures that hunted just for sport could easily come to mind now. The two adventurers had little to do, but figure the way out of the closet : which was no simple task either.

Four symbols were drawn on the door : a sun, the moon, stars and finally a circle. Each of the designs looked easy to push : however, a plaque rested beside the symbols. Unreadable to either explorer, it seemed to indicate one of the rafters : perhaps their journey would start by looking at the symbols, since clearly, an easily push button door could be a trap. But it was up to the duo to figure something out : after all, they were searching for answers, weren't they. And treasure.

Oh this amusement is already getting quite situated.

[adela]

Adela threw her weight against the dresser in order to get it into place faster. Though she noticed that his hand was injured it did not seem to be hurt badly enough to warrant stopping to look at just yet. Once the thing was in place she looked over to him and nodded. "And anything in large enough numbers can be a problem."

Her attention was drawn downwards by the blood on the floor and she pointed it out to Alistair. "Whoever I saw in here has moved on but they're hurt." It was an obvious enough observation but it made her feel better to reason through things out loud. As she followed the blood she took note of the odd symbols on the door. Leaning in closely, she pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose and examined them, trying to see if she could make out what each of them did by looking through them.

[ALISTAIR LUOR]

Alistair listened to Adela and nodded before examining the room for himself. He carefully looked at the plaque. He couldn't make out what it said of course, but maybe if his partner saw him examine it she wouldn't protest what he was about to do.

"This seems simple enough." He slowly pressed the circle, then the sun, then the stars, then the moon in that order. In his mind, it seemed like the right thing to do, seeing as how he had a theory about why to pick such an order. Then again, he could just have spawned some horrible monster that would rip them to shreds. Well, it's not like they had the time to debate such things, right?

[Ziva]

We rise and fall to those that we have kept
A call to the high wind, I hear the sounds of steps
But in the end that blood to wash away is forever felt

The two seemed to not want to go explore : what a boring choice. The male would click buttons, as the girl would just finally be able to observe something : there was a mechanism, complex in nature. As the male pushed the buttons, several clicks were heard. With a heavy thunk, a melody started playing : a beautiful, if not eerie music box, the sounds echoing beautiful. However, there was one thing wrong with it : the tune started to crackle and go out of whack, as if something had screwed it's function. The sound was torturous, rising a note and pitch higher, starting to screech. With an angry hiss, another click was heard : the sound of something moving was imminent. If the girl were to look around, she would see the blades aiming to come out of the ground and wall, aiming to slice them to pieces. The music box would continue it's screech and then halt, a dark laugh echoing in the area.

This left little options, as the sound of furious Boe were trying to knock down the dresser. And soon enough, a howl or three joined them : after all, it was rumored that White Wolfos enjoyed being around White Boes. The sense of panic was back on, as the arrow still remained towards the higher rafter, as if trying to tell them something.

As if it wasn't obvious enough, non?

[adela]

Adela held her hands over her ears with a grimace as she tried to block out the sound of the music box, wondering to herself why Alistair had decided that it would be a good idea to start pushing buttons before he knew what they did. She would have reached out to punch him if she hadn't noticed the blades getting ready to slice through.

"Watch out!" Adela wrapped her arms around his chest and flapped her wings a few times dragging the two of them up into the air. "The place is booby-trapped" Once she made it to the rafters, she deposited Alistair there (assuming he allowed her to carry him) and came in for a landing herself, struggling to catch her breath.

[ALISTAIR LUOR]

All of the events happening at once was a nice rush for Alistair. He couldn't help but laugh as he was hoisted upwards. When they landed, he spoke up. "Well, a few traps here and there would be obvious, so at least I got one out of the way, right~?" He began making his way carefully, motioning to Adela.

"You look a little worn out, so I'll head out in front." He tried to avoid mentioning all of the noises that circulated in the air around them, for bringing them up without also offering a possible answer as to what they could be would be rather useless.

[Ziva]

We rise and fall to those that we have kept
A call to the high wind, I hear the sounds of steps
But in the end that blood to wash away is forever felt

Finally to the rafters they went! It was about time : sometimes they were just a little bit slow in actually following that hand that pushed them. Although the ladder would have given them the easy way, they choose to do things all over. Tch. What a sloppy job : oh well, it was what they deserved. The blades were successfully dodged : but having failed to follow the ladder, a light click was heard once again, volleys of arrows coming out this time. The sound of something cracking and finally breaking, as a white Wolfos dashed into the room, Boes pouring after it. Mixing and blending into the snow. Many things were going at once, as the sounds of footsteps was also echoing, as a figure dashed out from a place, the wolfos seeing it. With a snarl, it chased after the strange thing, looking to devour it obviously, as it might distract the two upstairs too. The rafters were each marked differently : symbols scattered all over. Most of them held arrows : some of them held symbols. The volley of arrows as on the symbol of an arrows : an easy connection to make. There was a puzzle here : continuing without direction might just cause more problems.

Then again, it was more amusing this way.