Tharen slammed his fist against the stone door, cursing his fate that had presented itself to him in this world. He crossed his arms across his chest and paced. He had just logged into this game, this "Terrasphere", for the very first time. His spawn point appeared to be a cave of some kind, but there was a locked door with no way to open it blocking his way out! He spat on the ground. When he had approached the door, a flash had appeared in the corner of his vision, and when he focused on it, he saw he had received a quest. "Wait for assistance from someone with the "rogue" master? What the fuck kind of quest is that?!" he shouted, which was what had led him to punching the door. Games like this liked to make players feel involved, he figured. So soon, someone should receive a quest to investigate this door. As soon as that happened, he would be free. Tharen sighed heavily. He hated waiting. But he supposed that was all he had left to do. Tharen decided to inspect himself, as best as he could, in the reflection of his blade. He had modeled his appearance after a vampire blackguard from some old books he'd loved. Even his powers, to a limited extent, were modeled after that character. He had been a powerful character, and Tharen planned on being powerful. @Ortix Farlin
Ortix wandered the forest while following the underside of a cliff hoping to happen upon something to do like another dungeon. He was slowly dying of boredom, in fact he would have sworn to you he could even feel his cells deteriorating. Just then, as if the gods were listening, his prayers were answered. A notification box appeared on his HUD like a lightning strike. "Urgent Quest: Break into a cave hidden in the ridge-line and liberate the 'payload'. Requirements: Rogue Mastery." Though the quotes around "payload" in the quest description gave him a bad feeling, he was too excited to pass this up. "Oh sweet, his must be one of those location specific hidden quests! Hang on loot, daddy's on his way!" Ortix picked up his pace as his eyes widened to enhance his intense gaze. With every step he took, he thoroughly scrutinized roughly 20 square feet of cliff. His pupils darted around wildly, some might say they had taken the shape of dollar signs. Then he spotted it, a heavy looking black metal door built into the cliff. A single ray of light broke through the forest canopy above causing it to glisten in Ortix's eye. The door truly looked like a gift from up above. A lone tear rolled down his cheek. "Finally, this game has recognized my glory!" He paraded over to the door. The handle was hot to the touch and refused to budge even an inch. Ortix pressed downwards harder and harder all for naught. "Aghh, it's locked... I guess the quest didn't require the rogue mastery for nothing." Ortix knelt down in front of the door and removed one of the pins from his hair. He slid it into the lock focusing fiercely now and began to twist it around in all sorts of manners until he heard a satisfying but quiet "clunk". He had successfully turned the locking mechanism leaving nothing but the rotation of a handle between him and what he assumed to be a mysterious treasure. Ortix struck a noble pose, lifting his chin up, crossing his legs, placing one hand on his hip, and pressing the handle with only his right hand index finger. As the door crept open, light slowly filled the room. The suspense was eating away at his mind, so he gave the door a harder push. It flung open with a loud "Dong" which signaled the world of his accomplishment and the beginning of a temporary heart-break. On the other side of the door was no treasure, inside was a human with a less-than-excited look on his face. "Uhhhhh, sorry? Wrong cave hahaha..." Ortix tried to laugh it off as an attempt to fight reality, but reality went in for the kill. The quest box popped up once more congratulating him for completing his quest. However, Ortix felt more punished than rewarded. At one last attempt to deny his fate he Ortix spoke up: "Actually, you wouldn't have happened to see a treasure in here right? Because I just did a quest asking me to, and I quote, 'liberate the payload'. So if you saw something that needed liberating, I would greatly appreciate it!" @Tharen Crow
Tharen turned toward the door as he heard strange noises coming from it. It sounded as if someone on the other side of it was tampering with the lock mechanism. Well, that certainly hadn't taken that long at all. He sheathed his weapon and crossed his arms, staring impatiently at the door. When it finally opened, Tharen couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at his rescuer. The man seemed.... flamboyant, but in a negative way. Likewise, the man seemed to be half cat. Why would any self respecting man choose to be half cat? Cats lacked the raw strength needed to over power their foes and crush them into oblivion, instead relying on cheap tricks and agility to do what they couldn't through strength. They were pathetic creatures. Before Tharen could reply to the man's stupid question about having seen any treasure (if he had, would he really share it?), his notification update, and so would Ortix's. "Investigate the secret passage (Rogue and Malefimancy needed)," the notification read. "Secret passage?" Tharen asked aloud. "What bloody secret passage?" As if to answer his question, the back portion of the wall in the cave seemed to shake and quiver, after a moment revealing an opening that appeared just large enough for a full grown man in armor to push through. Tharen frowned. "I don't have any rogue skills, but I assume you do, since you just got that door open," Tharen said. "I prefer to just beat my way against obstacles. But, if you're looking for treasure, I imagine any that would be in here will be in that secret passage." Tharen walked toward the opening and looked through it. "It looks like there's some kind of crypt on the other side," he called out. "I see bones and spider webs everywhere." He stepped back. "So, what do you say? Grave robbing your type of thing?" He asked. (@Ortix Farlin Think the Skyrim tombs for appearance, but all the flesh has been fully stripped away, leaving just bones)
Right when Ortix thought he was free, another notification popped up on his HUD. It told him to "Investigate the secret passage (Rogue and Malefimancy needed)." The man in front of him grunted out a question and Ortix sighed as he realized what was going on. "Well, I suppose you've got Malefimancy then." The back wall of the cave slowly slid open to reveal a catacomb on the other side. Ortix found it looked stale inside, between the crusted bones and spider webs. Tharen spoke up again, this time about grave robbing. "You had me at robbing, and besides, what good is loot gonna do for the dead anyways?" Ortix followed the man into the cavern. @Tharen Crow
As Tharen pushed his way into the catacomb, he gasped. Not at any sight, but rather the raw power that flowed through the place. It was a wicked and dark power, and he could have sworn he heard subtle whispered in the air around him, though not clearly enough to discern what they were saying, or even if they were a language he understood. "Yes, I took the Malefimancy mastery. Anything that promises me power, I will hear what it has to say." Perhaps the strangest thing about the catacombs was the fact that not every skeleton in the room was lodged in a burial slot. In fact, there were many that were in piles on the floor, as if they had died in that place and never been moved. Likewise, the occasional pile of ash was scattered throughout the tomb. Directly in the center of the room was a large circle where the entire floor was covered in ash and bones. "I am not a man particularly inclined toward making guesses about things I know nothing about. But I would wager that there was a battle in this catacomb. A fight between two forces, desperate for the power contained within this place. I wonder who won, and what the sides were," Tharen said as he walked forward, trampling in the ash and the bones, holding no apparent respect for the dead. He stopped when he stood in the exact center of the room. "This is interesting..." he said. "Rogue, come over here. Do you see how the bones seem to all be facing the west? Imagine they were still men. When they died, I mean, they would have been facing the west. Which means they were either protecting or coming from the east side of this room. There are almost more piles of bones on the east. Likewise, the ash seems to mostly be on the west side as well, which means I would reckon that whatever the ash is the remains of, that they were fighting on the side of the west." The whispers seemed to grow louder. If Ortix could not hear them before, now he would be able to as well. For Tharen, however, with his attunement to malefimancy, they would be even louder still. "Yes... There is something behind that wall there," Tharen pointed toward the wall opposite they entered. "And these two sides fought for something they each believed the other had to get in. We should split up, search the remains, see if we find anything." What Tharen did not know was that they would be looking for two objects - two keys, one buried in a pile of ash, the other in a pile of bone. The whispers would grow louder as one approached either hiding place of a key. (I might be trying to do too much with this DX If that's the case, let me know.)
Ortix followed the man into the crypt, brushing cobwebs out of his way and tip-toeing around bones. His ears picked up on something weird, his acquaintance seemed to notice it also. Strange whispers grew louder and louder as the dynamic duo walked further inside. There were stacks of bones and heaps of ashes around every corner. "I don't suppose a Pyromancy camp was being hosted down here?" Ortix chuckled, but Tharen had something much more realistic sounding in mind. He suggested there was a battle in the crypt. Upon a closer inspection as they walked, the suggestion became more and more viable. Most of the bones had visible cuts in them, but where could the ashes have come from? When they had reached the center of the room, the Malefimancer spoke up again. He made a very intuitive guess about what the layout of the bones in the room meant. Ortix agreed with him as it seemed reasonable. He theorized that whoever the bones belonged to were fighting whatever used to be the ashes. Ortix cleared his throat of all the ash and dust he had inhaled since his entry before saying "I have two guesses: It was a battle between Pyromancers and another force, or It was a battle between an unnamed force and Demons. I know in books when demons die, they turn to ash, and Pyromancy, for obvious reasons, also leaves behind ash. Whaddya think, sound reasonable? I Just can't put my finger on why some of the corpses in the walls look like they've been dragged out." "I'll take the ashes side." Ortix said. He wasn't sure how the man knew there was another hidden entrance, but he figured which ever side was the attacking must have come in from somewhere. He also agreed there must be something that lets them in. Ortix took the ashes side for one reason in particular. It would be easy for him, incredibly easy for him. With a short chant, a breeze began to formulate from his hand, blowing the ashes aside with ease. "You might wanna cover you mouth and nose until this settles by the way." Ortix said lifting his own shirt above his nose. He walked forwards while systematically blowing the ash from side to side. The sound crescendoed as he got closer to one side of the room. His magic ceased as it had finally yielded some results. An iron key stuck out straight up while halfway in a pile of ash. He plucked the key from the ash disrupting the mounds structural integrity and causing it to topple over. The key seemed to be the source of the whispers and Ortix studied it thoroughly before looking over to the Malefimancer who now had a key of his own.
Tharen shook his head at the man's suggestion, or hope, of a battle with pryomancers. "If there were pyromancers, then some of the bones would be burnt and charred. Using their power at such an intensity so as to turn even the bones to ash would be a waste of energy in a fight. No, this was a battle between demons and some other force. If I were to guess, I would offer the undead. See how many of the tombs seem to be empty, yet the dust lies lighter in the shape of a body? The bodies were moved from the tombs and used to fight. Demons versus the undead. Two evil forces fighting for whatever lies deeper in this cavern. Tharen didn't cover his mouth to block the dust, but even as it swirled around him he didn't appear to mind too badly. If it was the remains of demons, he would certainly need to get used to dealing with them. He did cough once, though, evidencing he could not quite manage it yet. The whispers grew louder as he neared one specific pile of bones. There, between it's ribs, as if it had been his heart, lay an obsidian black key. Tharen picked it up gently and turned toward Ortix. "So there were two of them. Fascinating." Tharen marched toward the wall opposite the way they entered. As he approached it, a strange sigil appeared on the wall, glowing a malefic purple. Two key holes were revealed, one with an iron keyhole and the other an obsidian keyhole, each on the side where their key was found. "Shall we put them in together?" Tharen asked. He held his key near the hole, but waiting until Ortix answered to do anything beyond that.
