Complete - Loreseeker

If not for the lingering chill in the air, Ashiore would almost have forgotten that it was still winter. The trees this deep in Astorea's woodlands grew so close together, branches straining for the light that the view to the sky was totally blocked. Barely anything grew on the ground below, nothing green at the very least. The verdancy that she had come to expect from Astorea's forests was nowhere to be found here.

Perched on her shoulder, Prometheus hissed. Probably amused, and mildly annoyed, that Ashiore was wandering around some dead-looking place, where there was no food to be found for ages. Well, aside from herself, of course. Though she hoped that she had managed to train the vulture out of trying to sneak a bite of her fingers, at least for the time being.

Well, regardless, Ashiore had a reason for coming here. There was a temple, supposedly, deeper into the woods than she had ventured before. Not much in the way of treasure--all the offerings and valuables had been plundered long before, by opportunistic adventurers who had gotten there first. But gold and gems weren't the only things to be found. There were rumors that the temple was also an ancient library and center of magical study, but nobody has been able to find where the vast majority of the hundreds of scrolls the temple would have had to store. A few had cropped up over the years, but there was still a vast hoard to discover.

What she could do with all that magical knowledge... Her hands involuntarily clenched into fists. Perhaps there would be secret spells hidden there, maybe even healing ones, more potent and more effective than anything she could achieve now. If she had access to that before...

Prometheus crowed again, fluttering his wings impatiently. The light slap of wing against her face brought her out of her reverie. Right. She wasn't here to sulk. And she wasn't here alone, either.

She turned to look at her adventuring companion. "So, the temple should be further this way. From what everyone was saying, it's not that much further so we should be able to get there before night." She glanced up at the sky, forgetting that there wasn't anything to be seen aside from branches and leaves. "Well, before it gets too dark, anyway. Ready to move on?"

 

"Born ready."

So, I agreed to come along because having some old magic to move my research along would be great, but I really hope this other adventurer can hold their own in case, like... I don't know... some kind of damn Turbo Dragon with wheels for legs shows up? I guess they've got that vulture though, so that's pretty cool.

"So, just so we're all straight on everything. If we do find some tomes or scrolls or whatever, you're probably not going to need any dark magic ones, right? I mean, I'm sure when you took a look at me you were probably thinking, 'welp, she's not healing shit', right? HAHAHE! I wouldn't blame you! Look at me! I'm THE Oblivion Witch! I've got a witch hat and I'm riding a broomstick right now! HAHAHE, HEAL! PFFFFT!"

Laughing, Agatha wiped a tear from her eye, let out a sigh, then looked down at her broom.

"Oh, in case you were wondering, it doesn't fly. I move it around with aeromancy, but I have to keep it lower to the ground. I guess like a hoverboard that can go a bit higher so my feet don't drag on the ground. All in all, even though it can't fly, it's pretty awesome not walking. No offense."

What was I saying before that?"

"Oh so back to the main thing. I figured if we run into any healing spells, they're all yours, and maybe if we run into some forbidden black magic or something like that, those can be mine. Not that I'm going to go blow up a town or anything with said black magic. HAHAHE! It's not like I'm crazy or anything! All's I'm saying is that I don't think there's such a thing as "bad knowledge". Anyway, I figured we can just split anything else evenly unless there's stuff you just straight up don't want."

The Oblivion Witch stretched her arms and back.

"I also figure this whole adventurer is going to be pretty straightforward, right? Go in, wreck everything in our way. Get the goods and bolt. Hahaheh... EASY PEEZY!"

 

So. You know. She wasn't very discerning when she was looking for someone to go along with, eager to get going quickly. "Right," she said warily, eyeing the taller woman. "Sure, anything you find about black magic can be yours. I don't have any interest in that."

Ashiore still wasn't sure what to make of her other companion. She was leery of black magic, remembering her... less than pleasant encounters with some other practitioners in the past. But for the time being, Agatha seemed more the grandstanding type, as opposed to the 'world domination and rule the remains with an iron fist' type.

The broom was neat, though. Ashiore listened raptly as Agatha explained how it worked. She offered a small smile. "That's really cool. I don't have much else in the way of magic, only all this plant stuff." She made a vague gesture at the air around her, without actually demonstrating any spells. "And, uh, no offense taken?"

Amenable to the distribution of the scrolls, should they find any, Ashiore began heading off deeper into the forest. If the other adventurers she had spoken to were to be believed, then the next clearing would house the old stone and wood temple in all its ruined glory. It was maybe half an hour of walking before they came across said clearing, and sure enough, there it was.

The temple was large, but not tall enough to pierce through the trees. Some worn steps led up to an archway, but there was also a section of the outer walls that had crumbled over the years that could also be an entry point. But it was facing a dark and tangled section of the forest; who knew what kind of monsters would have wandered in that way, seeking shelter from the cold winds?

She turned to Agatha. "So, do you want to go in through the main entrance? But it might be quicker to head in through that corner over there, where the wall's collapsed a bit. That would probably take us to the back where there's a higher chance that we could find something that's been undisturbed."

 

"Hmm... so this is it huh? Well, it looks about right for an old decrepit temple. Whatever, if I'm going to have to get all dirty it might as well be looking for loot."

Agatha cringed as she examined the temple. She hadn't imagined it was going to be so... dirty looking. But then it was an aged decrepit temple, so what did she expect?

This place better be worth it... and if it's crawling with spiders...

Oblivion Witch Agatha eyed the two possible entrances.

"Well, you know more about this place than I do so I'll trust you with the directions. I agree with that corner though. If this place has been mostly picked clean by all of those other garbaging eating, trash vultures..."

The Oblivion Witch looked towards the bird on Ashiore Evretto's shoulder.

"No offense, bird."

...And returned her gaze to the building.

"... yeah, then the side entrance is probably best. At the very least, maybe it's a shortcut? I'll clear out some of the rubble to make the way. Normally, I'd just blast a hole through the wall and be done with it, but I don't want the whole damn building collapsing on us either. Well, time to get to work."

Agatha rode towards the temple's corner and dismounted. The broom straightened and floated close behind her. Now, close enough to get a good look at the corner, Agatha applied weight to various stones to make sure they would hold.

Yeah, definitely a bad idea to blow a hole through this. Damn... that would have been really cool looking though... always next time.

The Oblivion Witch held out her hand. The broomstick quickly floated into it. She held the broomstick's bristles towards the building.

”Broomstick Control!”

As she poured magic into the broom, the bristles began to grow long and form into bristle-tendrils.

"Be careful, Broom. I don't want to this thing collapsing on me later."

The tendrils extended from the broom, some wrapping around large pieces of rubble to move them while others brushed rubble aside. Within minutes, the corner had been cleared into an entrance.

Jesus, this broom is the best thing ever.

Agatha turned back to @Ashiore Evretto

"Alright, the way's clear. I'm still pretty iffy on the structural integrity though. You said you could do plant things right? Could you grow... I don't know, a tree or something to help support the entrance? I've got this whole thing where I feel like being buried alive wouldn't be as fun as everyone makes it out to be."

 

Prometheus gave another hiss at @Oblivion Witch Agatha's comment. Prideful as always. Ashiore put her hand over his foot to prevent him from flying off and harassing her.

"Okay, side entrance it is. I'm not actually sure on the layout on the inside, but it seems promising as a shortcut." Ashiore followed behind Agatha as she worked her magic, clearing out the rubble with remarkable efficiency. "That's very helpful," she said, impressed. "It must take a lot of control to be able to make the bristles all move independently."

At the question about growing something to support their makeshift entrance, she frowned, wandering closer. "I can grow things but it's not permanent. As soon as I stop giving them energy, they wither and disappear. But maybe..."

She crouched down low to examine the ground. Now up close, she could see that there were little seedlings that were just barely starting to poke out of the ground. Maybe squirrels got to hiding them, or maybe they were blown in by the wind. Regardless, they would do nicely.

Concentrating, she brought out her ritual dagger to serve as her focus. Holding it over the sapling, she muttered the brief incantation that would speed up its growth. Pouring energy into it, she watched as the tendril grew upwards, its growth playing out in seconds as opposed to months.

Not wanting to get too carried away, she stopped it early, and repeated the process with another seed she found on the other side. Sweating lightly from the energy expenditure, she took a step back to examine the structure. Two young trees now grew around the caved in section, their branches intertwined with the stones above to support them.

"I think that should do it," she said, looking back to Agatha. "I'll go ahead, then?"

Shifting lightly so that Prometheus knew now to perch at her arm, she bent down a bit and stepped into the darkness of the temple, senses alert for anything that was lurking in the corridors within.

 

"Yeah, it's not the easiest thing to do with Broom, but I'm pretty great so... you know."

Agatha examined the plants now holding up the entrance way.

"So that's how it works, huh? You can grow plants from nothing temporarily, but if the plants already there you can make it grow bigger and faster? Interesting. I don't know much about plantmancy, never really interested me, still kinda doesn't, but it's interesting. More into super-weapon magics myself. Wipe kingdoms off the map, vaporize mountains, that kind of thing. No reason to really use them unless you're trying to take down some giant scumbag turbo dragon, or some other world-ending demon beast. Though, I will admit that Inventing and stockpiling them is sort of my hobby. Also, you know, it's nice being feared and all that. Doorway seems stable though, lead the way.

Agatha followed @Ashiore Evretto into the darkness of the temple.

 

Ashiore paused in her movement as she heard Agatha's explanation of what she was more interested in. "Uh. Right..." Well, hopefully it was all bluster? And if it wasn't, maybe such things weren't to be found here? Because if there was, Ashiore would feel kind of bad for contributing even indirectly to giving anyone possession of kingdom-destroying weapons.

"I guess?" she added at the comment about being feared. There were some people who liked it, probably, but she never understood the mindset. "I mean, I'd like to have people like me, but go for the fear thing if that's what you want?"

The air inside the temple was only slightly musty. That was probably due to the hole in the wall that was letting in fresh air. For the time being, she saw nothing. Prometheus didn't give any indication that there was something there either. But, she couldn't help but feel as if there was something observing her. The creepy feeling of being stared at was very apparent, despite having no discernible source.

Perhaps she was just getting paranoid because of the atmosphere. Delving into empty abandoned places was just something that she was never going to get used to, she supposed. "Um. We could search the back, or maybe try to find a way into the basement?" she offered, turning back to Agatha. "There are lots of tunnels running through Astorea so maybe one of them is connected to this temple. There are lots of secret tunnels throughout the whole region, and if one of them leads here that's probably why nobody's managed to find anything."

 

"Like you, huh? Well, whatever works I guess."

Agatha stepped carefully through the temple. The air smelled old.

"You know in those horror movies where the explorers go visit the tomb and all the scarabs come out and eat them. This is a lot like that ain't it? Smells like mummy ass in here..."

The Oblivion Witch thought she heard something scamper in the darkness and turned quickly only to see nothing. Everything had once again gone quiet.

"Haha... not to jinx us or anything. What was that about tunnels? Huh. I didn't know that? Why are there so many tunnels? There a map or something? By the way, you seem to know a lot about the world. You..."

Agatha turned slowly to make sure their backs were covered.

"Do a lot of exploring or something? Well, you said earlier that this place had been mostly ransacked. Judging by the mess in here, I believe that, but if that's the case then anything we find is going to either really well-hidden or under lock and key. Thankfully, I'm an excellent locksmith."

Looking down, Agatha noticed some shards of broken pottery. Picking up a large shard, Agatha saw that at some point it had been painted. The crude description showed humanoid figures as well as something that looked like a creature of some sort.

Hmm... some sort of ancient myth? What the hell was this temple used for? And tunnels... hehheh... that's something I didn't know. If I could get a map of the tunnel system, that would be one hell of a find....

Agatha handed to shard to Ashiore.

"What do you make of this? Looks like it depicts a myth or something to me? I'm not all that knowledgeable about stuff like this. More into inventing things, forward rather than backward."

@Ashiore Evretto

 

"Erp." Now that Agatha mentioned it, yeah, this temple really did give out those horror movie vibes. That slightly darker patch of shadow could be a hole filled with centipedes all sorts of carnivorous creepy crawlies waiting for a hapless adventurer to stumble into it. The limp vines reaching down from the rafters were entrails ripped out from poor explorers or past inhabitants. The feeling that she was being watched was real-

"Y-yeah," she just said in response. The topic shift to the tunnels was welcome, since it gave her a chance to focus on something else. "Ah, I did go down a few of the tunnels, a long time ago. Those were the ones that connected to the castle, and they led out into the mountains. So I'd guess that they run under the whole region, at the very least."

Ashiore glanced around curiously as they continued to proceed further in. Nothing so far. She agreed with Agatha's statement that anything worthwhile--if there even was something to find, the pessimistic side of her thought--would be well-hidden.

She studied at the pottery shard, taking it from the other woman. "Huh. I don't know..." It was a bit difficult to make out, but yes there definitely looked to be some deer-like creature featured on the shard. "Ah- wait a moment."

Along the sides of it, she could see a brief inscription, cut off from the jagged edge where the piece of pottery broke off from whatever it was a part of. She almost missed it, but the shape of the rounded strokes was familiar: it was the same runes that most of her nature magic spells were transcribed in. Squinting, she brought it to her face to try and see if she could figure it out.

"It looks like it's a ritual? To summon this creature...?" Incomplete as the shard was, she couldn't make out anything else.

Before she could look around for more of those shards, though, Prometheus gave a louder hiss and fluttered off her arm. He landed on the ground, beak nosing at something in the floor. Eyebrows raised, Ashiore went over to where he was, wondering what had caught his attention.

Hidden amidst a pile of rubble on the floor was a tiny rusty circle. It looked attached to something, but with all the rocks in the way, Ashiore couldn't quite get a glimpse of what it was. She tried pushing a few aside, then getting down on her knees to try and peek under what little space there was. No, it was still too dark- Ah! Wait, was that another hint of metal there? Longer, in a rectangular shape- It looked like a hinge of some sort!

"Agatha! I think there's a trapdoor under here!" she said, looking back. "Can you help me move this pile out of the way? I think this could lead to the tunnels!"

@Oblivion Witch Agatha

 

"Creature summoning, huh? It say what kind? Kind of looked like a dear to me, but gotta be careful. The person who drew that might have meant for it too look like a dragon and was just a terrible artist. Dragons are harder to deal with then dears, so I hear. Regardless, I don't know much about that either. Summoning I mean. Or deer. Or really dragons. Apparently, it seems like I don't know shit about anything unless it concerns blowing something up. By the way, I think your bird is 'wildin' out' over there."

Agatha watched as Ashiore scrambled down to see what the bird had found.

"He... she... that bird find something? Trapdoor?! Haha! Now we're getting somewhere! This was beginning to get boring. Okay, stand aside!"

Smiling, Agatha reached out her hand and her broomstick leaped into it.

"Broom..."

The broomstick's bristles grew large.

"Sweep!"

Winding up like a golf swing, Agatha swung in a downwards arc making contact with the rocks and sending them flying!

"Haha! Hole in one! Now let's get at that treasure!"

 

Eyes on the door, Agatha rubbed her hands together as she prepped herself to yank at the large metal handle. Unfortunately, while making her way to the door, she failed to notice an uneven section of the floor. Catching the tip of her shoe on the uneven section, Agatha fell landing hard on the ground.

"Owwwww..."

slowly picking herself up, Agatha rubbed her knee.

"I think I got a booboo..."

Inspecting her knee, Agatha's eyes went wide.

"Uh oh..."

Her knee looked as if someone had thrown a rock at a window, cracking the glass. As Agatha watched, the cracks from her surrealistically cracked knee began to spread all over her body. In the cracks, a glossy black glass-like substance could be seen. As Agatha watched grimacing, pieces of her arm, legs, and stomach broke off, hit the ground, shattered, and then quickly evaporated. Fragments, then pieces, then chunks began felling to the ground until with a poof, Agatha was no more and In her place stood a much younger, sillier-looking, witch girl with bright pink hair.

"Well... I guess the jig is up."

Taking a deep breath, the girl dusted herself off carefully, took a deep breath, and struck a pose.

"Hehehe! It seems like my facade has broken! There was never an Oblivion Witch Agatha! It was always me! Grand Witch Majolica! Hahaha! No one even noticed that I was gone!"

With that last sentence, Majolica had accidentally done some self-inflicted damage to her feelings.

"An-anyway, I'm still good at magic and blowing things up! So, let's go get their treasure!"

Trying not to make eye contact, Majolica went to the basement door and begun tugging. This endeavor would have been much easier if she simply would have used her broomstick to lift the door, but apparently, she had forgotten that her broomstick was floating just behind her.

 

Now they were talking. Excited at the prospect of being able to find something, she went over to the handle to pull it open with Agatha. She was trying to figure out how to get a hold on the handle when a loud thud sounded nearby. Spinning around, she looked over in concern at Agatha, who had tripped.

"Are you-" As she was about to ask whether the other woman was all right, though, her eyes widened at the sight before her. Jagged cracks ran up and down Agatha's entire body, revealing something black and glossy beneath. Stumbling backwards in shock, Ashiore pulled out her ritual knife, wondering if this was some sort of monster that had taken the form of a person.

But, before she could decide to cast any sort of spell so that she could get away, the 'outer covering' of Agatha shattered, revealing another person right there. She blinked, and before she could even begin to think of a way to respond, the person... who was disguising themselves as Agatha... launched into a short speech.

When Ashiore found her voice again, all she could say was, "Uh. N-nice to meet you?" She'd never met this pink-haired girl before, but... it didn't seem like this Majolica was all that different from Agatha. In terms of personality, anyway.

"R-right." Still rather stunned at the whole situation, Ashiore went over next to Majolica to pull on the door as well. After a lot of effort, they managed to pry it open. It'd be a tight squeeze, but they could probably all make it through.

"Prometheus, do you see anything down there?" she asked the bird, shuffling to make space for him to examine the darkness beneath. It all seemed still down there, but Ashiore still couldn't shake the feeling that there was... something within this temple, just watching.

 

"We already met... hehe..."

Majolica hoped that her illusion spell failing wouldn't be brought up in any great detail. Afterall, having your spell fail that spectacularly was incredibly embarrassing and very unbecoming of a grand witch.

Having opened the door with Ashiore's help, Majolica, along with her companion, and the bird looked into the darkness. Though her eyes thought they could make out shapes, the atmosphere coupled with the shadows could have been imaginary. Majolica scratched her chin, then had a flash of inspiration.

"I've got an idea!"

Majolica took a step back.

"Optometrist Halloween over Optometrist Witchy times Never Witchy equals Never Halloween!"

At once, there were two Majolicas. As original Majolica watched, the new Majolica, an amalgamation of illusion, black, and ice magics began walking down the stairs.

"This way, if there's a monster they'll attack the fake instead of the real! Hehehe!"

Learning to use illusion magic clones was a lesson hard learned for Majolica who usually opted for going in head first. Typically forgetting she could even make clones, Majolica would often find herself in dire situations wishing she would have used the clone after the fact. Eventually, through trial and error, Majolica had become decently proficient with clone use, even going so far as to mix her magics to make clones that we not just images but had weight... and also exploded violently when attacked.

As clone Majolica walked out of view the stillness was palpable. Then, fwoosh! A sound like an arrow firing came from inside the basement. Then another. Then many, many more as if a volley was shooting down the hallway. A few moments after the firing stopped there was a sound like cracking, then a burst like exploding glass. Majolica looked towards Ashiore with a thumbs up.

"Hehehe... trap averted!"

 

"I suppose we have." Ashiore laughed a bit at that, trying to diffuse the awkwardness. Probably a futile effort, though.

So, nobody could see anything down there. Still, it didn't mean it was safe. As Ashiore silently mulled over the best way to proceed, Majolica's exclamation that she knew what to do caught her attention. She watched as the other mage demonstrated more of her illusion abilities, conjuring up a clone of herself. Impressed, Ashiore watched as the clone dropped down the trapdoor.

Minutes passed in silence and then- one quick whooshing sound, quickly followed by another, and then what sounded like an entire quiver of arrows being emptied in a handful of seconds.

She looked back up to Majolica, and smiled. "That was great! I guess it's safe to head down now."

She squeezed herself through the trapdoor slowly, dropping onto rough ground. Prometheus followed, judging from the sound of his wings, but she couldn't tell where he was until she felt a soft presence by her ankles. Hmm. They wouldn't be able to get anywhere like this. Luckily, she knew just the trick!

Placing a hand on the rocky wall, she channeled energy and began casting a spell. Slowly, patches of bioluminescent mushrooms began growing, causing an eerie green glow to fill the tunnel. The silhouettes of bolts and arrows littered the ground ahead, where Majolica's clone must have met its demise.

"I've made some light down here!" she called up, letting Majolica know it was safe to head down. "It's temporary, but I can repeat it whenever we need to move ahead."

If there were traps that direction, then there must have been something worth hiding in there. "We should be really close!"

 

As Majolica dropped down into the darkness her eyes went wide as she saw the glowing mushrooms. As anyone who may have been following Majolica's misadventures may have known, Majolica had a real taste for mushrooms. She had been the recipient of a gift bag of mushrooms on her first day in Terrasphere and due to her thinking they were a "witchy" sort of food, they had become a staple of her diet (along with candy). Thus, as one might expect, Majolica's excitement was palpable as she saw the mushrooms rapidly grow to fruition.

I forgot that plant magic can make mushrooms!

Leaping without looking, Majolica grabbed a mushroom and shoved it in her mouth. Her lips and mouth began glowing a bit. With her mouth full, Majolica turned to Ashiore.

"Not bad, I've had better though. These glow though, so I guess it evens out. Don't worry I'm immune to poison and cavities since I'm a witch."

Whether she was actually immune to these things was yet to be seen. Poison was definitely an issue in Terrasphere, but cavities? And would they really affect someone with black magic? Majolica would probably, eventually, find out.

Majolica shot Ashireore an A-Okay sign with her hand and kept munching as she followed her companion through the darkness.

"You know, I totally forgot naturemancers can make mushrooms. Almost makes me want to take them, but then I would think everyone's always coming up to you asking you to heal this or heal that. You can't fix everyone so they get angry with you because they think you're hoarding your healing abilities or something. That's why I don't really bother with it. Too much trouble, you know? Hehehe."

As the pair continued forward and Majolica rambled on, finally they came upon a promising looking room.

"Hehehe! Looks like we've finally reached something! Look, look!"

@Ashiore Evretto