Player Plot: The Crystal Temple's Secret

[princeandscholar]

Who: Characters signed up for this quest
When: 12th
Where: The Crystal Temple in Sen Devadatta
What: The Heroes of Light vs. Bahamut's Temple
Warnings/Notes: None


IC | Arrival

After a long flight to the Empire, a visit to Parasraya, and a meetup at the capital, the expedition members are loaded onto vehicles and delivered to their destination: the magnificent Crystal Temple. Alas, there is no time for a leisurely tour as the company gathers outside with caving gear and weaponry.

Once all party members are assembled, Orcelito addresses everyone:
"Thank you for coming. I know it was a long flight and there was a lot of preparation. Your presence here is appreciated, and we will be underway shortly.”

He gestures towards the Crystal Temple. “Two teams will be escorted into the basement of the temple. The rest will travel into the forest to look for a way in through the network of caverns. We have leads on where to start searching, so we can make the most of our time.

“As mentioned in the letter, the ruins have deteriorated over the years. Bahamut’s Temple is ancient, and parts of it are no longer standing. I’ve been told that some areas may be flooded or unstable.”

Orcelito pauses, scanning the group. He lowers his tone as he adds, "If you find evidence to suggest someone has tampered with the ruins recently, let me know. As well, please refrain from disturbing the ruins more than necessary. We are here on the Empire's good grace, after all."

And one more thing. "I understand it will be inconvenient, but the order not to use the Mognet is especially imperative while we're here. If you need to send a message to another team, ask one of the Moogles. They are here to help."

From where she hovers by his shoulder, Marigold waves the free paw that’s not clutching a lantern. Those traveling with their Moogle companions will notice they've been given similar lights.

Finally, he smiles; Orcelito may not know everyone here, but he's committed to leading each of them out safely. “Don’t take unnecessary risks. Look after each other.”

Once the orientation is complete, the parties are split. Orcelito turns to lead the way into the temple where a researcher stands ready to guide them to the basement. The other group will find a vehicle waiting to carry them to the forest nearby.


Team Thread Links
Team A thread: Orcelito, Tidus, Rutile, Naoto, Snow White
Team B thread : Ashelia, Castor, Terra, Klonoa, Frisk, Madhuri
Team C thread: Finn, Regis, Adrien, Sephiroth, Ursula, Papyrus, Kanji
Conclusion

Comments

[neverbeamemory]

Sephiroth continues to lag behind the majority of the group somewhat even as it becomes obvious they are pressing forward into a more man-made section. His left hand seldom leaves its position, just millimeters from the pommel of his short-katana as he continues to be the over-vigilant one; surveying their surroundings again and again just in case of any slight notion they might be being watched -or stalked by something that inhabits the cave.

As they come across the doorway and others inspect it, similarly Sephiroth stands back and observes, though he seems secure enough for the time being to eventually pull his arms into being crossed over his chest.

"I trust this is what we came looking for-?" He questions to anyone and himself, eyeing what he can make out of the statue cresting the aged metal doorway. It seems entirely all too convenient for him, but then pretty much all the adventures he's been on this month so far have been one trap or another.

[regisrex]

"I think if we knew what exactly we came looking for, others would already have found it. But is we seek information about the Eidolon whose temple is above that is not easy to discern, what lies beyond the door might be... enlightening, at least. Or not."

He eyes the door again. Had he his original powers, he would be able to provide a more even coating of ice than balls of it to shoot at the door.

"I think the fire and ice combination should be sufficient to make the metal more fragile. Unless someone has lock-picking as an ability and is willing to try?"

He does have to at least ask, before they destroy something that might need later.

Actually.

"Let me take some images of it first, in case something important turns out to be part of its shape." Losing the door might be all right. Losing potential information...

Regis will just use his slate to take pictures, as detailed as he can. In case.

[modelcivilian]

Hanging back, Adrien didn't have much in way to contribute when it came to opening the door or investigating. Pulling out his iMog slate, he began to tap away at it while Regis took photos and...

... looked at his asterisks.

Oh... oh right.

"... Uh, I can actually make the door open. We don't need to break it."

Ya’ll do have to pick just one to try first!

[princeandscholar]

While ancient, the locking mechanism inside seems standard in design. It may respond to the Knock skill, should Adrien try. Of course, magic and physical power could potentially be used to wrench the door open; it appears the immediate area already came under stress in a rockslide, and the wall is stable enough if the group localizes their efforts on the doorway.

[beariot]

"Well... Let's try Adrien's idea, first. If we can keep everything intact the way we found it, all the better," Ursula hummed. She'd forgotten some of the things these asterisks could do...

[modelcivilian]

Nodding (and still not making eye contact with anyone), Adrien taps his slate a few times to change his asterisk. Where his sword was before, it's replaced by an instrument - the hybrid between guitar and keyboard. His armor as well ends up changing just a little; more to suit a performer with a feathered hat topping it all off.

"Be ready. If there's anything around here that might hear me cast this, they'll definitely hear the door unlock."

But both approaches had the potential to be noisy anyway. Shifting the keytar into hand, performing Knock is simple enough. He plays a brief melody that magically begins working the lock on the door, encouraging it to come undone and grant them passage.

[regisrex]

"Ready we shall be."

And, great though the temptation is to examine both the instrument and the boy's use of it, Regis does grip his staff a little tighter and, taking as much cover as is available, focus on the door and what might come from beyond it.

[einspine]

Nodding, Papyrus takes on a defensive stance. For now, he'll make Cool Scientist his active asterisk, just in case they need to stun a surprise foe. Blue bones do have their perks, after all.

Should it turn out they need more force to open the door, he'll gladly switch back to Magitek for a little added ice.

For now, he stays silent- he knows his voice is loud, and the last thing they need is further reason for surprise attacks. Still, he does offer Adrien a quick thumbs up.

[princeandscholar]

Though the door is unmagical in nature, it has been inert for a long, long time. But steadily, at the notes take hold, the party can hear a low grinding starting from within. Warped and bent though it is, the large bolt retreats. The door trembles, shaking off centuries of dust and gravel, and a deep, reverberating boom echoes in the cavern… as one might expect from knocking at a metal door. With a grace that defies its state, the door cracks free of its frame. (The party will have to finish pulling it open, which can be done by anyone with a physical power stat of B or higher, but the hard part is past!)

From inside comes a cold gust of stale air. It's still pitch-back, but shining a light within rewards the team with the sight of cultivated stonework. This floor is in significantly better condition! The flagstones are covered in dust, but they are mostly intact. Empty wall sconces line an otherwise plain corridor ahead.

Finn's Gunslinger job has physical power at B!

[hatejakku]

After the echoing has finally come to a stop, Finn pauses and listens to the other side. The only sound that hits him is the rush of cold air, though. While the crack is too small for anyone in their party (save maybe for the Moogles) to fit through, he puts a hand on one side and tries to give a hard push.

And with luck! The door gives slightly, so he braces himself, grabs with both hands, and puts his back into it. "See anything?" he grunts after the door has given a little more.

[beariot]

Ursula sent out a series of small flames to light up the chamber, having to put a bit more mana into them to keep them burining in spite of the cold. This room hadn't decayed nearly as much, and even had some lovely architecture to behold. But Ursula couldn't help noticing...

"It looks like this place was cleared out. All of the sconces are empty, had there been anything there previously. The people maintaining the shrine may have taken everything with them when it was abandoned."

[einspine]

"WELL, THAT'S INCONVENIENT." Sighing, Papyrus follows along. Sadly, he lacks much in the way of illumination skills, lest he switch to something like Magitek Knight. For now, he'll led Ursula take the lead, along with any others more gifted in that particular brand of spellcasting.

"STILL, THERE COULD BE MORE HIDDEN FURTHER WITHIN! PERHAPS SOMETHING THEY OVERLOOKED. A SECRET CORRIDOR, PERHAPS? I THINK IT'S TOO EARLY TO GIVE UP..."

After all, they just got here! Who knows what lies in this mysterious ruin? Perhaps an engaging puzzle? He'd take that over a fight.

[neverbeamemory]

It had been during one of his long, sweeping looks around the area before the door that the reverberating boom of the door signaled that finally, the door had opened. Immediately Sephiroth snapped his attention back to the door and those that were nearest it, taking a few steps closer; he might even have stepped in to force the door further open himself, but thankfully he hadn't needed to intervene.

It seemed almost too easy, but that was starting to become something of a recurring trend.

Jennifer fluttered up behind Sephiroth, lantern at the ready for when the group chooses to advance into the corridor. His intention to keep somewhere in the middle-back of the group as they pressed onward.

[princeandscholar]

Overall, this section of the temple has survived in fair condition; the decay has not been so severe as other areas. Unfortunately, there is still an abundance of cave-ins, and the group will be unable to enter some of the rooms. An entire section to the left has collapsed into rubble, forcing them to explore to the right.

For the most part, the halls are quiet save for the party’s voices and footsteps. But if they are silent for a moment and listen carefully, there is what sounds like an erratic grinding and scraping of stone. It's faint, carried only by echoes in the buried stone halls, and far off… for now.

Ursula's observation is correct at first glance: the area is cleared of anything valuable. What contents there are have long fallen to time: collapsed furniture, a scrap of leather that may have bound paper once, the metal wall sconces without wood or candles, and so on.

Entering a room off a main hallway, the group will have to step with care so as not to trip over a rusted sword in the doorway. Weaponry and armor languish here, edges long dulled and too brittle for further adventures. A few tables still stand, some clearly on their last legs. Shining a light higher shows mostly bare walls… and a map of the world of Vaikuntha.

Brushing aside the grime, the party can see their current location at the northern end of the western continent. But it is not the Crystal Temple – it is marked as The Temple of Bahamut. Glancing down to where the Great McGard Library was built, the Temple of Alexander is in its place. Where Mad'ni Shrine is, the Temple of Phoenix is written. Farther to the east is the Temple of Asura where the I.B. Magitek Tower currently stands. Finally, a studied map reader may find an island that is on none of the modern maps, with the label of The Temple of Zodiark. It is in the general area where Cloud City is today.

[modelcivilian]

Moving his keytar back onto his back, Adrien took up towards the back of the group, allowing the light they provided to fill the room first. The left portion of the room might be gone, but at least they had some of it still to the right.

That grinding... he doesn't think it's still from Knock...

Though momentarily distracted by the old weaponry and armor around, a hard thwap from Blanc made him look at the wall. He'll raise a hand to clear it off, and then blink. "... Huh, this is Vaikuntha, but the Temples marked..." There's certainly an advantage to working in the library - time to look over books when he had the time, but it does take him a moment to consider the weird islands that aren't on most of the maps in Lavode. "... This is... Cloud City should be right here."

[regisrex]

"Or close to it, at any rate." Regis's attention is on the map, easily. He will focus on the weapons... eventually, but this is a source of information that probably will be very important.

"'tis information that will need to be shared, for information is likely to be learned at each location." Taking. Pictures. With. His slate. Because even the unknown island's map might cold clues.

"It might be possible that what used to be an island was elevated later to what is now Cloud City. Has anyone spent much time there, this far?"

Bahamut is the only name among these that Regis knows from Eos. But he also knows a little of Alexander from Hope, while the youth was with them, too. The others he only knows from the child poem that was shared a while back.

[hatejakku]

Finn is captivated by the map, trying to memorize it as well as he can. There was no telling how old this thing was.

"I spent some time there when I first arrived," he admits, squinting at the Temple of Zodiark. "There's not much there except a few guilds and the observatory... but I don't know how it floats. And I've never bothered to look under it." Now that was an idea. But maybe this is why it floats, because of an Eidolon.

"We need to check all of these out."

[beariot]

Ursula also started to record the map, not just on her Slate but on an actual piece of parchment she'd brought with her, duplicating the entire image, or as much as her flames could highlight of it.

"Cloud City is where the Astrologian's guild is. I'm still a neophyte, but I could ask around and see if they know anything at all about Zodiark's Temple, or where it might be these days."

[neverbeamemory]

Sephiroth stepped carefully over the rusted sword in the doorway and off to the side; not to obstruct but at the same time so that he can take one of his usual long sweeping looks over the entire room before focusing in on any one detail.

What had been the function of his room, he wondered, some sort of an armory? He wasn't sure that there was nearly enough in terms of remnants of weapons or equipment for that theory to lend much weight though; that said much of this section that they've walked through had essentially been cleaned out for the most part before it had been sealed shut.

The map on that wall, however...perhaps some sort of command room? The presence of a map in such a way, mounted on a wall, suggested some sort of purpose here at least. Sephiroth strode closer then, lingering behind the group still but positioning himself so he could at least see overheads or between others. Quickly but carefully running his attention from one marked temple to the next. He didn't yet know so much about all the different locations on Vaikuntha, but the features are pretty much exactly matching what one could easily pull up on their Slate. Aside from Asura and Zodiark, he knew these other names well enough.

He offered a curt nod in Ursula's direction.

"I might also be able to ask at the Illusionist Guild. Levitation is one of the primary skills." Sephiroth slowly swept his head to one side, just to shift a few strands of his silver hair that had ended up in his vision once more.

"What about these other locations, for Asura and Alexander? Is anyone familiar?"

In the meantime, it was Sephiroth's turn to also take out his Slate and try to attempt to take a few photos in the lantern light.

[modelcivilian]

Adrien would snap a photo, but he thinks Blanc was doing that... or just not giving him his slate again. Looks like he might be stuck as Spellbinder for a bit...

"Huh? Oh yeah... The Temple of Asura is where the I.B. Magitek Tower is now. And the Temple of Alexander is... right, that should be the Grand McGard Library." Which was interesting because if he remembered right, another Eidolon was actually in the Library. Sounded like some real disconnect between the Eidolons and the Legendary ones... weird.

"... What if Zodiark's Temple isn't in Cloud City at all, but in the water now?" And if it was raised up in Cloud City, why wasn't it mentioned anywhere?

[einspine]

Papyrus, like the others, keeps his attention on the map. He's even pulled out a clipboard to take notes. As he writes, however, he nods at the others' remarks. This is all very valid.

"PERHAPS WE COULD INVESTIGATE BOTH CLOUD CITY AND THE SEA? THOUGH WE'D NEED ADEQUATE EQUIPMENT. A SUBMARINE, PERHAPS?"

Hmm. Something worth checking into, at least.

"THE MAGITEK TOWER, THOUGH... I DO WONDER HOW WE'D SWAY THEM TO LET US ACCESS IT. IT'S SUCH A CRUCIAL LOCATION..."

But surely their cause is worth it, right?

[princeandscholar]

Should the party examine the weapons and pieces of armor, they are nothing particularly special in make or design. Antiques, certainly, but age has rendered the durability so low they would break in a single hit. (Alas, Team B has all the fun.)

The faint grating sounds continue to reverberate through the chambers, no closer and no further. It seems to be originating from deeper in where the party has yet to travel.

[beariot]

Ursula finished up her notes quickly enough, but she couldn't ignore that noise coming from the deeper parts of the temple. What the hell was that? It sounded like a mechanism of some sort...

"Does anyone else hear that noise?"

[regisrex]

"Aye." Putting his tablet away, Regis turned away from the map, peering into the dimness beyond the current chamber. "It seems our journey is not over, yet. Shall we?"

[einspine]

"YES! LET'S CONTINUE FORTH!!! WE CAN ALWAYS SPECULATE ON THESE TEMPLES FURTHER... PERHAPS OVER THE MOGNET?"

But for now, he turns toward the direction of the sound, eager to continue. Of course, he'll wait until the others are ready before proceeding. It's only fair!