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Post by Orcleous on Jan 20, 2017 6:37:45 GMT -6
Orcleous gave off a long sigh as the young women began to speak. So she was not a diplomat, thought Orcleous. Still he could not fault her for trying. The people of the mainland thought of Vinland as this new frontier where they could go and be free. They saw the island as there personal play ground and viewed its residence as new toys to be played with. He could not fault her people on being mad at them. At the same time however he wondered why so little of them have moved off the island. The new found connection between them offered them adventure and wealth also. They could see the world and explore all that the main land had to offer. Then again thought the mainland was a very dangerous place. There were plenty of monsters, bandits, and even Sacaens around. Not the safest place to be.
"Here you go", spoke Orcleous as the two orders came in. The champion handed his new guest one of the plates since she seemed to hesitate to touch it. "So let me get this straight then. You are here to try to bridge the gap in communication between your people and mine. However you do not have the blessing of your tribe nor the entire group of your people. Not only that but you also don't seem to have any coin, nor do you have any directions. Well little missy you seem to have gotten yourself into quite the bind", spoke the Champion as he took a swig of his drink. "Still thought, your goal is admirable. I a sure there is a lot of misunderstanding brooding between our two people and the lack of knowlage between us will only make that gap larger. What you do can affect the world."
As Orcleous spoke he cut a piece off his meal and began to eat. "However you are not going to get far without coin nor a map", spoke the champion as he placed down his fork and pulled up his bag. He then reached inside and pulled out a scroll. He then placed the scroll onto the table along with a small piece of leather and a rope. Orcleous then took out is coin purse, which was swollen from his last job. He took out a handful of gold coins, crying mentally as he placed them into the piece of leather and then wrapped it up as a bag. "Here take this little struggler", spoke Orcleous as he handed both items over to the young maiden.
After hearing her story Orcleous had decided he was going to help the young maiden. Not because he believed in her, but because the very fact that he did not believe. Orceous did not think it would work. Nobles only listened to nobles. The fact that she was not one meant that anything she said to the ruling houses meant nothing. Orcleous wanted to tell her this, but at the same time he did not want to ruin her goal. So he supported it, even if he did not believe in it. If it came true then the world would be a better place. If it failed it would be a good I told you so moment.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2017 1:42:00 GMT -6
Aurora could see the look of doubt on the champion's face. It was the same look the others had consistently been giving her. So what if it was not an easy task? So what if the others had no faith in it? She knew better! Just one person could change the tides of the future and if they all had believed in giving diplomacy a shot she would never have had to go this far for it. Her desire for a passionate justification of herself quickly passed as the food arrived and her mounting emotions vanished to ravenous hunger.
"For me? Really?" She looked upon the champion as one might a god. "Thank you!" As Orcleous spoke she set about devouring the plate of food. Her human manners left much to be desired but the speed and voracity of the feasting was impressive in its own right. Aurora offered nods to his observations and questions as a confirmation of his views and that she was in fact still listening.
Aurora was done eating by the time the coins were handed over. The look of confusion over the coins and especially the map was clear. She suddenly felt as though she were back in her lessons as a young kit. There was too much to learn of their customs and the nuances of these coins seemed so far to be the strangest of them. Then there was their writing. She had never seen it before and she groaned internally just wrapping her brain around how much she needed to understand.
She had to remind herself that this was in fact the core of her mission, understanding each others' respective ways, and for her that meant learning how they worked as much as it was teaching. "Okay, there is a lot I have to learn." She admitted. "These coins are very strange to me. We simply hunt or make trades for what we need. These pieces of metal are, strange."
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Post by Orcleous on Jan 21, 2017 13:42:33 GMT -6
"Wait what", spoke Orcleous as his mind began to make sense of what the women just said. She pretty much just told him that she did not understand how money works. this was bad, and when Orcleous said bad he meant really bad. Money was the staple of there society. If you did not know how money worked then you were pretty much screwed. As a matter of fact orcleous giving her that bag of coins was now a bad thing. She was only asking herself to get robbed and swindled. A serious expression crossed Orcleous face as he began to look at the girl. if she did not understand money then she probably did not understand that map he gave her. Essentially Orcleous could not help her with a simple hand out. She was going to need a lot of help and Orcleous did not really have the time.
"Alright let me go ahead and explain money", spoke the Champion as he took the bag from her and placed a few of the gold pieces on the table. He then pulled out some copper pieces and then some silver. "Listen up", spoke the champion as he held out a gold piece in front of her eyes. "Money, aka these coins of gold, silver, and copper, are the physical representation of labor and products. This coin represents a years work of hunting, or maybe farming. Let me give you a example. Lets say you want a sword. However your job is growing potato. The man who made the sword feels that he needs fifty pounds of potatoes to equal the amount of labor he went into making a sword. So if you want the sword you would normally have to get fifty pounds of potatoes and bring it to him for him to give you the sword. However carrying around that many potatoes are not only tedious but also unadventurous. The sword smith does not need them all at one time. Instead you give him a gold piece. That piece of gold is worth the value of the potatoes. Thus you can buy and sell items without having to carry them around. Also that smith can now buy the potatoes when he needs them or if he wants something else he does not have to try to trade them. So to put it in simple terms money is labor in physical form. Now money comes in three different currencies. The first is the copper. It is the coin of lowest value. It takes a hundred copper to equal one silver. A silver is the second grade of coin. It takes a hundred silver to equal one gold. Gold is the highest grade and the one that is most desired. Alright do you understand all of this", spoke Orcleous as he looked at the maiden.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2017 17:41:27 GMT -6
Orcleous's basic explanation on the value of coin and the currency system was quite sound and simple enough but regrettably he was dealing with Aurora. The numbers added up and that was easy for her to get, but the more she thought about a coin equaling work and fifty potatoes the more she got perplexed. "I, I don't really get it!" She admitted. She pulled on the tail ends of her hair lightly before placing her head on the table in frustration.
"Why would a coin equal to labor? Who would want fifty pounds of potatoes for just themselves, and if the coin is equal to work then who does the actual work? Are these things just magic? But if the smith is making a product and the farmer gives him gold for it, where will the smith get the potatoes? Does the farmer just make more potatoes and get the gold coin back? But then why not just trade to begin with?" The questions came a mile a minute and showed some clear over analysis on the maiden's part.
At the end of her long winded questioning she sat back up, this time panting as she had expelled all of her breath in that one long run of words. "Why is this system of metal so weird!?" She whined aloud. She proceeded to lean back in her chair before grabbing up her glass and downing it. With a satisfied gasp she recollected herself offering Orcleous her attention once more.
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Post by Orcleous on Jan 21, 2017 19:53:30 GMT -6
Oh god, thought orcleous as the maiden had a break down. He should have seen this coming. She did not understand there system so going into a in depth conversation about it was a mistake. Orcleous was going to need to make this a lot more simple. Not to mention he was probably going to have to explain the map as well. "Alright forget everything I just said and look at it this way. If you want something you have to trade for it. People like shinny coins. So you trade shinny coins for stuff. You carry around shiny coins in order to get what you need when you need it. The blacksmith gives you the sword because he thinks the number and amount of shinny coins is worth the value of the sword he made."
With that Orcleous was sure she could get it. If not then he would have to simply prey to hartmut for help. Then again Hartmut would probably curse him instead of helping. He really did not like other races much. His hatred for dragons is legendary. He wondered how he would react to ... whatever she was. Still orcleous was going to need divine intervention. The only way he could help the young lady in her quest would be to literally follow her around and explain everything. As fun as that sounded it was not on orcleous time table. He had some business to take care of here and then he was back to the main land. He would need to look into a matter with a old friend and then take that trip to Ilia like he planed. He could not spend the time to follow her around and teach her the ways of human society. Somebody else was going to need to take up that torch. He could teach her what he knew thought while he was here.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 24, 2017 9:00:08 GMT -6
"Ah, o-okay. I still think it is very strange but if one is traveling I suppose it will be super-duper handy to be able to just carry shinnies on hand and give it to others for things. Travel light right? I mean, I do not have a den to return to and store it." She would have felt a little silly had she been anyone else for only now understanding the system and its benefits, but she was Aurora, and the world operated at her pace. Or so she acted, whether she believed this or not one would have need to ask directly and frankly that seemed like a slim chance do to simply being a rude question.
"Well, now I have meals in a bag and a map was it called? I have seen a number of uh..., adventurers were they, back in my home that would use them and make markings on them. I have a pretty good idea as to what it is all for but I have no idea how to use it. You see back home we grew up there, we know the island very well, or for the most part. We tend to stay out of the ruins and such for safety or other reasons. Come to think of it I was always told never to go there,” she hmmd to herself on that one suddenly wondering and imagining what must be within the ruins. Oh man, did she make a mistake coming to the mainland, there were mysteries that she could have tried to solve! “Do you know of any ruins around here?”
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Post by Orcleous on Jan 24, 2017 10:04:41 GMT -6
Looks like I am going to have to teach her everything, thought Orcleous. If she did not know how to read a map nor did she know how money worked then Orcleous figured she did not know how to read. Taking that into account he was going to have a hard time explaining things to her. Though now it seemed that she had wondered off from there previous topics and was now focus on simply exploring. Well orcleous could not blame her. This was a new land and with new things. His people did the same thing when they came to Vinland.
"I don't know of any ruins", spoke Orcleous as he rubbed the back of his head. it was then that the Champion got a godd idea. He could mix a lesion in with her adventurous nature. "Well lets look at the map then", spoke orcleous. The champion unrolled the piece of paper and began to look at the section where the western isles was. It was then that he noted a mark on the map, a place where a ancient city was said to be. By this time however it was a complete ruin filled by no one. Or at least he thought no one.
"Here", spoke Orcleous as he pointed to a position on a map. "There is suppose to be a ghost city there. A place where people use to live long ago. Years ago some random adventure found it and brought back some old pots and stuff. Most people avoid tha place due to the legend of everyone inside dieing to disease. Shoot most people probably would not even know it existed. I only heard about it due to my friend being the adventure who came back from the place. I have never been there, but I heard it is quite spooky."
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Post by Deleted on Jan 25, 2017 13:47:36 GMT -6
Aurora was practically on top of the table as she looked at the map. So that weird squiggley muffin thing was a ruin. "Ooooooo!" She looked at other parts of the map for other sites but she just got lost in the chaos that was the various colors and symbols. Even she took a step back to focus on the ruins concept. "Okay! Then it is decided, you can show me just how all of this works byyyyyyyyy TAKING ME THERE!!!" She jumped up in excitement.
What a wonderful idea she had! She could learn to read the map AND go see one of these mainland ruins. What wonders were to be held there? The mere idea of it had her practically salivating. "Oh! I mean, you would get plenty out of it too! You can hunt for shinnies there and you get to be accompanied by ME! A very vivacious vulpine CUTEY!" She proceeded to sway where she stood impatiently waiting for the man to stand up and join her in her jubilation. When she saw he could not possibly match her enthusiasm and excitement she puffed her cheeks in disapproval.
She began to have another curious thought then. "Waiiiiiiit, waiiiiiiiit, wait, wait! If most people would not know that these ruins exist, then why do you have it on a map?" She gasped, "Do you have some super duper ultra rare map that the average person could not possibly get their hands on?" She oooood after that not really waiting for his answer.
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Post by Orcleous on Jan 25, 2017 15:10:22 GMT -6
It was like talking to a four year old, thought Orcleous as the young maiden jumped around with joy. A wave of embarrassment washed over him as everyone began to stare at the two of them. Lowering his head in shame Orcleous missed out on his cue to jump up and celebrate with her, not that he would have. Still Orcleous had to wonder what was inside of those ruins she wanted to go to. It could be filled with native wild life or maybe a hold for bandits. Or it could just simply be a big pile of bones. His friend did not say much about it, but he mentioned that it was there. From Orcleous understanding he did not go too far in it. He said the place gave him the willies. Jex instincts were usually dead on thought Orcleous. He began to wonder if it was a wise idea to go there or not. The Champion had drowned out the little fox girl for a while, but the maiden of the forest reasserted herself back into the conversation with a new jubilation of the idea of the map being special.
Oh no, thought Orcleous as eyes turned and began fixated on the duo. She had to go and say those words. If there were any two words you never said in the Western Isles it would be both Map and Special. As long as there was not in between them you were fine. However the moment they came together. In the corner of Orcleous eye he could see people asking for checks and old sailors giving them the stink eye. It was now time to go, thought Orcleous. If they did not leave soon he was sure they were going to get a shive in there backs.
"Alright lets get moving", spoke Orcloeus as he picked Xigshaw up and threw it over his shoulder. "To answer your question about the map", spoke the Champion as he made his way out the door. "Remember I added the location onto the map after I spoke with one of my friends. That is the best part about maps. If you find some place new you can mark it down yourself", spoke orcleous.
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It took them a full day to get to the ruins. Orcleous had pretty much thrown his business on the mainland in the toilet. During the days walk Orcleous attempted to teach the maiden a bit about reading. He knew that there was no way he could teach her everything. So instead he began to focus on what sounds the letters A B C D and E made. It was a simple lesson and something to pass the time while she bounced around everywhere. During the trip Orlcoeus had taken notice of a few... friends following them. That night he doubled back and took care of the problem before they made it to there destination.
"Man this place looks", spoke Orcleous as he began to look around. The best way to describe it was dead, but Orcleous did not want to say it out of his mouth. It would be bad luck. There were a few old buildings still standing. Roots and vines were growing out of them and there roofs seemed to have collapsed. However that was not the main thing that caught Orcleous eye. There was some kind of wall, that seemed to have surrounded the city. Plant life and trees had frown over and through it to the point that you could not truly see it. The only reason Orcleous knew it was there was due to the fact that its main gate was still standing. One of the great iron doors had fallen off and stuck in the ground. The plat life suggested that it had been there for ages. The other iron gate seemed to still be in tact. However that gate bent outward like something was trying to get our instead of trying to get in. Orcleous did not like the look of the place. To make matters worse the ground was lined with piles of human bones. The remnants of whatever was in this place. Jex clearly had left this part out or he had not actually found this part of the ruin. There was a possibility that he could have marked the map wrong, but there was no doubt that there was a ruin here.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 25, 2017 16:43:14 GMT -6
Why did the Crimson Man look so tense all of a sudden? It was one thing not to share in her jubilation and revelry, and another to look outright dejected. "Harumph!" She would see to it he learned to have a little bit of fun, yessireebob she would.
"Oh! So you added it in. I see, that is quite something then. How do you get the exact locations right? I don't believe I could ever do that myself." She looked genuinely impressed.
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Trouble followed Aurora wherever she went, she also had an uncanny knack for good luck. In fact if she were to rank it, it would probably be at an A+ level. Aurora was always aware of the people that were following them, her ears would twitch as they made noise and her nose could smell them on a breeze. So color her surprised when they were suddenly gone. Did the Crimson Man do something? Huh, alrighty then, guess they would not be invited to this play date.
The language lessons were actually rather simple, even by Aurora's standards. "Okay, so how does that translate to a written word?" She asked at one point showing that despite her antics and impatience she really had a vested interest in learning. At one point she even produced a small scroll she carried with her that was her equivalent of a tome. It detailed the basics of the trinity, light, and flux spells. But the writing was completely foreign to Orcleous. "I can read, just not your words..."
Once they made it to the ruins Aurora was pooped. "Oh, wow, that was so far away, it looked so close on the map though, SO DECEPTIVE!" she whined. It was then she joined Orcleous in basking in the ruins. "Oh my." It was intimidating to say the least. "Looks like something wanted out, and badly." Aurora had sidled her way behind the Crimson Man and gently urged him forward. "Right then, LEAD THE WAY!"
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Post by Orcleous on Jan 25, 2017 17:12:05 GMT -6
"We go back", spoke Orcleous suddenly as he turned around. He knew the maiden was going to complain but he spoke before she could get too far. "At the moment we are tired and by looking at that gate something big might be in there. Considering the age I doubt whatever or who ever made that is still there, but I don't want to walk into anything blind and tired. We will go back about thirty minutes of walking and set up camp. After that we will rest and hit the ruins first thing in the morning. If we are lucky we can find some cool artifacts. If we are unlucky we can find traps and whatever that was that left all of those bones", spoke the champion.
As Orcleous began to walk off he began to come up with a lesion for the day. She was a quick learner. Far faster than he thought she was. He would probably go over the rest of the sounds and then start showing her the sentience structure. Since they were speaking with each other she clearly understood most of the words. Now it was a matter of simply trying to make her understand how there letters worked on paper. This was a far easier job than he expected it would be.
"Oh right, I almost forgot", spoke Orcleous as he looked at the maiden. "We are going to need to go over some skills and abilities we have. I hope we don't run into any trouble, but my gut tells me that we will. So following that idea I should probably tell you about my weapons and personal abilities. Currently I know three skills. The first is Daunt. It is the ability to add a pressure or better described as a deep fear to people or creatures around me. It is a close range ability and works about ten years or so. The second skill I have is adept. With adept I can swing my weapon at twice the speed. This means that I can strike a opponent twice within the instant it takes for me to strike onece. My third and last skill is smite. Smite is the ability to call upon my natural energy to strengthen my limbs. I can hit a enemy with enough force to send them flying thought the air. At my current level I can send more than one person flying. The best way to think of it is a strength boost. As you can tell I am wearing plate armor, on my chest, arms, and steel toed boots. So my defense is solid in those areas. My weapon is none other than the magical weapon Xigshaw. Xigshaw is powered by a ancient magic that enhances the strength of its user. The power in the weapon goes far beyond a normal strength staff. With this baby I can hit as hard as a battering ram", spoke Orcloeus as he took the weapon from his back and swung it at a nearby palm tree. The giant five sided rob smashed thought the tree with little effort. Placing his weapon over his shoulder Orcleous turned his gaze toward his young friend. "Your turn, what can you do?"
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ As the sun rose over the horizon Orcleous began to put away his supplies. he gathered up his tent and pans and placed them into his traveling bag. The duo made there way back to the ruin where Orcleous dropped the bag and decided that he would retrieve it once they left the place. I hope you are ready", spoke Orcleous as he finished off his last boiled egg.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 27, 2017 0:41:47 GMT -6
"We turn back," The moment these words his Aurora she stopped pushing and stepped back in surprise.
"Whaaaaaaaaat?" And so he explained. She was in fact exhausted but she had little interest in admitting to that. The ruins though, they were right there. Like, RIGHT there, right there. She lightly whimpered as she was ushered away for another thirty minutes of, how she saw it as, arbitrary walking.
If she took the time to really consider his words it made sense, whatever broke apart the gate was clearly not a cornucopia of humans. It looked far more like a singular large beast. At the campsite Aurora removed her cloak for the first time revealing her large ears and tail.
"Ahhhhh! I can finally be free!" She stretched around the fire. "It's really uncomfortable keeping so still all the time, ya know?" Everything Orcleous told her he could do sounded so unreal to her, she had never imagined a human could be capable of such things. She had seen Taguel do much of the similar but never what he described. What could she do though? That was easy, she could use magic and transform, but... she really did not like transforming, and would he hate her if she did? Would he forgive her if she had to but never told him?
She looked uncomfortable with the question when it was directed at her. "We-well, I can use Trinity, Flux, and Light. So, Fire, Wind, and Thunder, with Dark, and Light. I also find that if I throw a dark and light orb together they don't get along too well and reject each other ripping apart. Its neat. I can also hear and smell well. And see in the dark." And that was all she could do, honest. She looked into the fire hesitantly, her face an open book as she prayed he did not push her further to tell him everything, even if he was owed it.
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Aurora bit on her food absently as the two sat in the morning, with the sunrise came a morning chill and so she had her tail wrapped around herself keeping warm. When they got to the ruins she had long since finished her meal. "Well, ready as I can be." She had her cloak back on just in case they met anyone. "NOW LET'S GOOOOOO!!!!!" She pushed on Orcleous to get him inside.
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Post by Orcleous on Jan 27, 2017 8:40:37 GMT -6
Man she was weird last night, thought Orcleous to himself. When they were talking about there abilities last night she mentioned her magic, but after that she kind of clammed up. Orcleous would have pushed more, but there was no point in it. If she was not going to talk about it then she was not going to use it in a fight. Not to mention that he might not actually want to know what she can do. It is like the old saying goes, curiosity killed the cat. So Orlcoeus let it go.
As they arrived at the ruins she was just as hyperactive as she was on the first day, and the place was just as ominous. Orcleous could hardly believe that she was so hyped up on getting inside. There were literally the bones of the dead all around them. Even so the maiden was pushing him inside. Her lust for knowledge overriding all logic toward survival. "Fine, fine", spoke Orcleous as he speed up his pace. The champion boot came down on a skull cracking the fragile bones in half. The very sound sent a cold shrivel up Orcleous spine, but with the dog eared maiden at his back there was no room to retreat. So he pressed on.
It was not long before the duo made it to the large gate. The metal had aged with time and a smell of old rust was in the air. The champion however did not spend long at this point. They had reached it last time and got there eye full of it. Pressing on to the inside of the gate the duo came into a court yeard. It was about a hundred years around and on each corner there seemed to be another corridor leading off to some place else. On the left was a path that seemed to lead under ground. On the right was a path that seemed to lead into some old stone building. the path down the direct center seemed to lead up a hill. It did not go instead, but rather the steepness of the climb stole the rest of the view away from orcleous eyes.
"Three choices", whispered Orcleous as he looked around. They can go down into the darkness. Yeah that was not happening. They could go to the right and in to the building. Possible. Or they can go forward and surround themselves within this place. All the options seemed bad to Orcleous, and to be honest he could not chose. So instead he did what any respectable adult did, toss the problem onto somebody else.
"Alright Aurora this is your adventure and thus your choice", chuckled Orcleous."Left, right, or center."
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Post by Deleted on Jan 28, 2017 20:13:26 GMT -6
As they got to the ruins Aurora was completely unaffected by the sight of human bones and skeletons. The way she saw it was that they are proof of the dead and death, sure, but why worry about it? The dead were not going to rise anytime soon. She had not yet met a bonewalker. As Orcleous crushed a skull beneath his boot she felt a shiver run up her spine and she clinged onto Orc from behind. "Sorry, sorry, that crunch just startled me."
She soon let go of him and walked alongside him. "I am quite interested in knowing what exactly broke through the other side of that gate though. It looks like it had to have been really big, and really solid too. Here's to hoping we get to meet it eh!?" She grinned at Orc cheekily.
As the two were presented with three choices to travel deeper into the ruins Orc had oh so graciously passed the decision making off to Aurora. "Ah... hmmm... so a building, a cave, or... deeper into the city. I have to say why not take trips to all of them!?" She practically bounced as she said this. "But, hmm, if we have to take only one of them I think a building seems boring, no knowing what is over that climb over there, annnnnnnd the cave over there is spooky enough to deter hunters of the shinies. Therefor I declare we shall venture into the deep and see what we can find there."
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Post by Orcleous on Jan 28, 2017 21:14:51 GMT -6
"So into the darkness", groaned Orcleous as he placed his travel bag down. The champion pulled out a torch from the inside. Pulling out two rocks from his bag he sparked the object into light. The fire quickly wrapped itself around the cloth and oil and illuminated the ara around it. With that done Orcleous placed his bag back onto his armor and lead the way down into the dark corridor. The entire time Orcleous was cursing to himself about coming down this way. He should have made that decision himself instead of leaving it up to her. Why did he leave it up to her. Now he was practically defenseless as Xigsahw required two hands to properly use.
As the champion stepped into the darkness the light fought back against the shadows. The blackness that clinged to the wall vanished and was replaced by aged stone work. Orcleous had no idea how old this place was but the stone work on the walls had held up. As he walked into the blackness he could see ancient letters written all over the walls and symbols and pictures from a time beyond. From what Orcleous could tell it was high dragon. The language lost to all but the smartest of men. The only reason Orcleous could tell was due to the very fact that some of the markings were on his magical weapon. He knew very little about Xigshaw, but from what that mage had told him it was a rare treasure and from a very old age.
"What do you think all of this means", spoke Orcleous as he leaned down and looked at a wall. He made sure not to touch anything out of fear of traps. However the engraving and reliefs were quite fascinating. One of them however piqued his attention. It was a man walking and then suddenly his body started to change. Then that man became a beast and that beast became a half thing. Orcleous could not tell what it was about or what it meant, but he sure wished he did. "What do you think this place is mage", whispered Orcleous. "You are the master of magical talent right. Did anything you learn in your studies mention anything about places like this. Or maybe anything about the strange words." As Orcleous whispered he heard a sound come from the darkness. The Champion turned around quickly and placed his flame in the direction of the sound.
From the darkness he could see two slanted eyes staring back at him. The light reflected off the eyes almost like a mirror. "We got trouble", shouted Orcleous as he dropped his weapon. From the darkness the beast charged with ungodly speed. Quickly as he could Orlceous attempted to pull Xigshaw from his back and into a strike. HOwever from what his eyes told him he would be too late. There was no choice. [Adept] Natural energy began to flow thought Orcleous arms and his body. In half the time it would take Orlcoeus to swing Xigshaw once the champion pulled his mighty weapon off from his back and swung it down with all of his might. The massive weapon slammed into the creatures skull at the last moment. The impact smashed its body to the ground. Orcleous felt its skull take the full brunt of Xigshaws blow, but some how. Some how the monster yet lived. Orcleous could not full tell what it was due to dropped torch. The only thing he could see was black scales and crimson blood on the floor.
Orcleous pulled back for another strike, but the beast was now angry. With a powerful swing of its arm the creature slashed against the crimson breastplate that protected Orcleous chest. The blow strong enough to send him flying backwards into the nearby wall. The impact cracked the stone and knocked the air out of his lungs. As Orcleous hit the ground he felt a sudden sharp pain in his chest and he felt a sudden wetness of his armor. The beast had slashed thought. "It must be a devil", spoke Orcleous as he stabbed Xigshaw into the ground and pulled himself back up. Whatever the creature was it was rushing thought the shadows toward him. The sound of its feet cracking the tiles under its foot alterted him to its movement.
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