Miroslaw was forced to halt his sprint following the slice to the leg. He did not enjoy the jerk off the blade and his palm would pay for it. At that moment he knew an edge was not the best choice for this opponent. Metal did not slice like flesh and he knew he needed to alter his attacks. However, it damaged the spider out of sheer force. It was seemingly enough to cripple it.
He then sighted another of the mechanical arachnid that posed a much higher that. He turned his focus, and readied himself for the charging spider. He pulled the hilt of the his claymore to the right of his abdomen, ready to thrust it forward. He waited, very patiently, as the spider closed the distance. His base was wide, with a strong footing to push against the impending impact. Just as he heard the cry from the old man, the spider was in range. With a forceful grunt, he thrust forward for the spider's head, aiming directly for that wretched gem. He stiffened on impact, hoping to stop the in its tracks.
Death is no more than turning us over from time to eternity. Whether that eternity is damnation or salvation is determined in the time we have.
Miroslaws's patience paid off and his blade found its mark as it slammed into the red orb. With the warrior's brace and the spider's force, it was enough to crack the glowing red eye. The creature reeled back and imitated what made it look like it were in pain from the attack. The light of the eye blinked repeatedly and the legs moved about frantically as the spider tried to make sense of what just happened.
With a piece of flint in his hand, Gargamel had made a few sparks that ignited in his hands into a ball of fire. With adrenaline pumping through his aged body, the scholar shot forth a small fireball at the sentinel that pushed it back a bit, but not enough to impede its advance on the old man. Taking only a moment to recover, the creature continued onward and pounced on Gargamel, pushing its weight on the old man as it brought him down.
"Gah!" he cried out as he hit the ground hard and looked up to see the metal clamps snap in his face.
The spider that Miroslaw had crippled earlier was now at the base of the large crystal and trying to climb up the alter.
Miroslaw was satisfied by the results of his strike on the gem. He noted the gem as a weak spot. As the spider reared back from his thrust, Miroslaw lunges forward into another thrust at the spiders metal abdomen. He hoped to force it on its back. He thought that these creatures may have trouble standing up while on their backs.
Just as he struck the spider, he heard the howl from the old man. He promptly pivoted and sprinted in the direction of the old man, leaving the spider, seemingly addled in agony, to its own devices. He completely ignored the spider he previously crippled and went straight for the old man. Seeing the spider on top of the old man, his face grew distressed and he blared with fear in his voice, "Old man!". That old man is his pay, and his guide out of this hell hole! His first thought was to make a swing at its legs. He quickly purged himself of that idea as he noticed the throbbing in the palm of his right hand.
Instead, he continues his charge forward, ending in a thrust into the spiders side. He hoped the force would be enough to pry the spider from the old man, or at least catch its attention. If it did not dislodge the spider, he would frantically drop his sword and grab the spiders legs and attempt to swing it into a throw with his might. If the strike did catch the metal beings attention he would aggressively strike, with no regard to the pain in his palm, at the spider with a combination of swift slashes and thrusts. The aim for every strike were joints in the legs or the head of the creature. It would be an attempt to retain its attention while simultaneously pushing it back from the old man. The old man's protection was his exclusive goal at this point.
Death is no more than turning us over from time to eternity. Whether that eternity is damnation or salvation is determined in the time we have.
Well, as Miroslaw mercilessly beats the nuts out of that spider...
The one he ignored entirely, the crippled sentinel from earlier, climbed up the alter of the giant crystal. Barely hanging off to the side, its scarlet orb stared up at the massive rock and an ear splitting whine began to emit from it. Soon the volume reached its ceiling and a sudden crack of energy exploded from the orb of the mechanical monster. Its now lifeless body fell haphazardly to the ground with a loud crash.
During that time, Miroslaw's sword caught against the side of the arachnid pinning Gargamel. Looking to its side it tried to catch the warrior in his attack, but was too slow to stop the aggressive attack. With each swing of his sword, Miroslaw snapped the joints of the creature forcing it closer to the ground.
Seeing his opportunity to escape, Gargamel crawled out from the under and quickly stood up to catch his frantic breath. It was then that he heard the sound coming from the other labyrinth guardian. Looking up while covering his ears, he saw that the crystal had been shot at with some sort of magic or energy that now coursed through its shell. Within moments the dim glow grew brighter and its light filled more of the room.
The spider Miroslaw was attacking stopped moving and focused entirely on the alter, even while the place began to tremor.
A hum could be heard reverberating around the room, coming from the massive crystal as it seemed to be coming to life before the adventurers' eyes. With a final flash of light, the chambr became fully lit and its enormity could be appreciated.
"Well now, it looks like I'm not quite dead."
The disembodied, feminine voice echoed across the white room with no evident owner to be seen. Soon enough it was made clear.
A ceiling panel gave way, sliding to the side, and a giant metal claw fell through. Another accompanied it soon after and both limbs quickly snatched up the adventurers. Gargamel looked as if he didn't know whether to be fascinated or terrified.
Hanging in the air, now, the adventurers were brought face to face with the crystal the scholar had been intimately studying.
"So, which one of you touched my buttons?"
Gargamel raised his hand.
"You're not a very smart, squishy thing are you?"
The old man looked like he honestly didn't know the answer to that.
Last Edit: Dec 29, 2013 17:14:12 GMT -5 by Serenity
Miroslaw was stunned by the shriek of the creature. He pulled back to stand near the old man, defensively holding his ground. The spiders no longer seemed aggressive and other strange things were taking place. He did not feel the need to continue attacking. Instead he cautiously observed what was happening.
As the place began to shake, Miroslaw thought it was time to leave. He was about to voice his opinion to the old man right as the lights came on. He remained quiet and alert, sword held at his side. He was strangely fascinated by what was taking place and extremely terrified at the same time. That's when he heard the voice. The next thing he knew, he was snatched up by claws. There was very little use fighting against it. They were fast.
Then, he and the old man were brought face to face with the crystal that seemed to, now, be alive. Miroslaw was scared out of his wits. Whatever magic this was, he had seen nothing like it before. As he realized the crystal was alive he could only mutter, "Have mercy." The words and face were drenched in terror.
As the gem threatened the old man, Miroslaw felt the need speak, for the old man's sake. Panic began to set in, but he tried to keep his mind calm. He attempted to talk to the rock, asking a simple question, "What are you? Why are you hostile towards us?" Fear was obvious in his words, despite his attempts to calm his mind. As he spoke, he slowly positioned his claymore to pry the claw open if the situation should turn worse. He tried not to draw attention to his actions, though he was not sure where the... eyes were.
Last Edit: Dec 30, 2013 14:05:20 GMT -5 by Miroslaw
Death is no more than turning us over from time to eternity. Whether that eternity is damnation or salvation is determined in the time we have.
The perception and expression of the entity before them was difficult to comprehend from where they currently hung. It appeared as if the crystal had an all knowing eye around this chamber, at least, given that it had hidden limbs hiding in the ceiling and who knows where else.
Gargamel had asked more audibly what Miroslaw just did, but before they could get an answer that same, massive skittering of legs rumbled all around the room. The spider sentinels in the room, which were a bit more numerous since Miroslaw got hung (hah!), darted around with what could be confused with nervousness.
"Oh dear, you pushed something you weren't supposed to, huh? Now you gone and released an unspeakable evil I was safeguarding."
The voice was almost monotone, with ever a hint of acute sarcasm/narcissism.
"While I'd enjoy nothing more than to see all of flesh kind get eaten alive by horrible bug things created by perverse magics and science, I can't let that happen so says the program I follow which was given to me by my creators-oh, sorry, I have a habit of giving away exposition. Anywho, I'm still a little out of it from last time. I hope that woman fell into a ditch somewhere or is experiencing horrible pain from trees, but the latter seems most unlikely. One can dream."
Gargamel appeared stupefied, not sure what more to say before the claw holding him brought him 'face-to-face' with his captor.
"Since you're the only here with thumbs, and intelligent enough to something, although mostly stupid, you're going to fix me. If you don't I'll kill you." she shook Gargamel up a bit.
"Deal?" "D-deal." the old man stammered.
"As for you," she said at Miroslaw who was also brought closer to the crystal, "I haven't run an experiment in a while, but at the moment I'm not in a position to do any tests. What a shame, you would have been a decent subject for testing. Say hi to Chuckles for me."
And with that, a pit opened below Miroslaw and he was let go by the mechanical claw. It was not a straight fall down, but rather a bumpy one filled with angled shafts that took him even deeper into the dungeon than he would have wanted.
After what seemed like an eternity of rolling and tumbling, Miroslaw finally fell through the ceiling of another room and crashed to the floor. At least, he would have, but the warrior hit some sort of ooze that stained the ground beneath him and he was thrown back against a green lit wall, slamming hard at his back.
When he came to, the warrior would find that he was in a room dimly lit by arcane sconces and filled with the stench of death. Corpse piles were littered around the room, not specifically made up of humans but of all sorts of creatures.
Then he got hit by his food bag that followed.
_______
(Before you ask, this is indeed inspired by Portal, but unlike the previous GM I'm trying to be less copycat about it.)
(Never played portal, so its all new for me. hehe. I almost live under a rock.)
Miroslaw managed to take a few deep breaths and began calming down as he sat in the claw. It was completely ruined when the horrendous noise of the army of skittering creatures returned. He hated the noise and it spiked his fear right back up. He couldn't get a break.
He listened to the female voice very closely trying to figure out where it was coming from, but it was no use. This crystal became increasingly strange the more it talked. A part of it seemed scary and another, not so much. He wasn't sure what to make of it. One minute its guarding an evil another it wants to see flesh things dead.
To make things worse, the more it talked the more questions Miroslaw had. What is this "evil" was that the voice was talking about? What woman did it speak of? Who were the creators? So many questions and no answers because Miroslaw felt inclined to remain silent. As the thing pulled the old man closer, Miroslaw almost made his move. Something stopped him. It may have been the fear he was soaked in. Then, He was relieved by what the voice said. Gargamel could surely fix whatever he did! At least, Miroslaw hoped he could.
Then a jerk of the claw caused his positioning to become flawed. He fumbled around, trying to get it back to pry it open. He stopped as he came face to face with the gem. It was awe inspiring, and fear inducing at the same time. He swallowed hard at the word "experiment". This was followed by a brief moment of relief before it was brought back as the claw moved.
As the floor opened up, Miroslaw sheathed his sword and readied himself to attempt to maneuver his way out of what he thought to be certain death. The claw released and he tried to grip the floor on his way through the hole, but it was smooth and lacked any traction. In that second, he saw himself splatting onto the ground. To his surprise, he fell and tumbled all the way down some sort of shoot. Through this process, he acquired many bruises and scrapes, as he grunted with each thump.
The final clash with the wall must have knocked him out for a moment. It must not have been for more than a moment because his food back smacked him to top off everything else. He imagined the voice threw it in right after him.
He looked around, taking in the grim sight. The smell was putrid, almost bad enough to expel his stomach contents, except he had an iron stomach. There was not much to expel anyways. He sat there for a few moments, breathing deeply, trying to find peace. The tumble did a toll on him. He ached all over his body. He knew his senses would not be dulled to the rotting corpses. He knew all to well that rotting flesh had a lasting appeal. He devoured some jerky and cheese while chuckling lightly to himself at his misfortune. He was very hungry, and a couple corpses wouldn't stop him from satisfying that. At that thought, horrible images of the corpses coming to life came to his mind. He shook his head at the thought.
As he ate, he looked up to the hole, wondering if he could climb back up. That seemed an unlikely exit. He touched to green goop to get a sense of what it was, but it was a strange substance that he did not know. Just like everything else in this wretched place. He examined the corpse piles from where he sat. He wondered if they had died down here of starvation, like he may? He questioned out loud, "But why would the food have been sent to me then?" It was a puzzling situation.
He pulls out his holy book and begins reading silently. The words usually had a calming effect on him. He continued to sit where he was, resting his aching body. As he finally seemed relatively safe, save risk of starvation, he was in no rush to leave.
Last Edit: Dec 31, 2013 1:02:46 GMT -5 by Miroslaw
Death is no more than turning us over from time to eternity. Whether that eternity is damnation or salvation is determined in the time we have.
It was as quiet as a crypt was supposed to be, where the dead shared no secrets except among themselves. As Miroslaw sat there and read from his book, the mortal sense of time dawned on him, his body trying to calculate how much time he had left on this mortal coil. How much longer til he joined those corpse piles.....who did that by the way?
As he continued to read, a noise caught his attention. It was so quiet, yet because of the lack thereof in the room it was quite easy to catch. The noise, along with whoever was making it, inched closer to Miroslaw from the darkness. Soon it was made clear it was the sound of someone sniffing, like a dog.
"Y-yes...it is!" the voice hissed, "It is cheese! Oh long it's been since we had it!"
From the darkness, a cloaked rat jumped up to the warrior. The clothes on it were tattered and worn, nothing more than scraps waiting to be made. Its fang was rot and yellow with disease and eyes wildly yellow.
A skinny claw reached out to nab at whatever cheese was left.
Miroslaw was intrigued by the talking rat. He was happy to see something still alive down here. It did not seem dangerous, so he happily have it done cheese. He pushed his hand forward with offering a fairly large wedge. As he did he said, "here you go little guy." He put his holy book away and observed the rat. It was talking... and wearing clothes. He thought that, Maybe, he could get information from it. He offered more cheese of the rat wanted it, attempting to befriend it.
Death is no more than turning us over from time to eternity. Whether that eternity is damnation or salvation is determined in the time we have.
(I should have mentioned that the rat was kid sized. My bad.)
The rat happily took the cheese, and was going to anyway whether Miroslaw liked it or not, but overall seemed thankful for the lesser trouble. The creature took at the cheese like a ravenous lion on a hog, if the hog were cheese sized. It barely gave Miroslaw much more thought as it ate.
There were no obvious signs of escape from this room in particular, not any which the warrior could discern from where he sat anyhow. Yet with the rat otherwise alive, and none of the corpses chewed on, it must have lived through this somehow.
"More cheese? Cheese!" the rat shouted in glee as the warrior freely offered it more of his food. It chewed on the hunk happily as it began its odd form of speech again.
"This one is kind, and not annoying like the one before it. Yes, we should help it mayhap!" "No! No! Let it die so we can take more of its food!" "But this one not mean like funny man, help it we should. Maybe he help us save pretty lady." "No! No! Maybe...no! Grrrrrrrrrr.....yes."
With that final reluctance from the rat's lesser half, its beady eyes looked up cheerfully at Miroslaw, "You want freedom, yes? Safety from lady voice?"
Miroslaw was not too surprised by how hungry it was. There was no telling how long it has been down here. Being a rat, it surely loved cheese too. He watched as it ate the cheese faster than even he could have. It was quite impressive. It was still genuinely unusual that this rat was so large and could talk. However, he thought it was fascinating.
After it devoured the second portion of cheese, it began talking to its self, which only made the situation more odd. On the bright side, some good information could be acquired from the rats conversation. First, there seemed to be hope of an escape from this hole. The rat may know the way. Second, there is a fair maiden that needs saving. Third, there was another person down here before him that the rat did not like. All in all, an enlightening speech when he considers it came from a talking rat.
As the rat turned to him asking if he wanted freedom, Miroslaw was glad the pleasant side of the rat won the argument. He responded, "That would be nice. Perhaps I can get you out of here and get some more cheese for you too! How does that sound?" He said with a happy tone. As he spoke, he searched through his bag of food. Not much food remained. Another few pieces of jerky and only more piece of cheese. He seemed to have ate all the nuts without even realizing it. His face twisted to a small frown, but he pulled his last piece of cheese and offered it to the rat. He would inform the rat, “This is the last piece I have with me.”
Death is no more than turning us over from time to eternity. Whether that eternity is damnation or salvation is determined in the time we have.
It reluctantly stuffed the last piece of cheese in its pocket, probably thinking it might be the last piece it'll have for a while still despite what Miroslaw promised.
"Come, come! We show you our sneaky spot!" he said before scurrying away.
Going toward a pile of bodies that was stacked against the wall, Rogelio pushed aside one of the corpses like the poor sod was a door, and revealed a hole. The space looked cramped but otherwise wide enough of the warrior to squeeze through. There didn't seem to be any other way out.
"Come, you follow! We take you to pretty lady."
The corpse that was acting like a cover for the escape route out of the room wore discolored jester's clothes. Not really important, but the giant crystal did mention a Chuckles. Guess she didn't find his jokes funny.
The tunnel was dark and the floor cold, were it not for his new guide Miroslaw would have probably gotten lost along the twists and turns. Eventually, after crawling for longer than any human would want to, Miroslaw would find himself in a rundown hallway that seemed in an even more ancient part of the ruin. Yet some life still lingered as arcane sconces lined the walls to cast a ghastly green on the rubble.
Miroslaw took note of the rats name. As the rat revealed the "sneaky spot", a grin formed on Miroslaw's face. The rat did seem to know his way around, or at least to this “pretty lady” he spoke of. He dragged himself to his feet and quickly followed the rat. He hated cramped places, but he saw no other way. He squeezed himself into the tunnel. He was careful to keep a close eye on Rogelio. If he missed a turn, he would surely be lost in the darkness. He was very pleased to be retreating from the horrendous smell of the rotting corpses. His nose could finally get a rest. As they crawled through the tunnel he whispered to his new ally, “Who is this pretty lady anyways?”
As they finally moved out of the tunnel, it was not a minute too soon. Miroslaw was about to have a panic attack from being in a cramped space too long. He calmed himself and took in the view. It did not appear as if he was free of this miserable place yet, but he felt closer to that goal. The new area felt very eerie with the green luminescence. It made him uneasy and his mind flashed back to the spider-like machines. Surely, they were not far off. He stayed very quiet and continued following Rogelio.
Death is no more than turning us over from time to eternity. Whether that eternity is damnation or salvation is determined in the time we have.
"She is pretty lady!" Rogelio said as if Miroslaw should have known her by now. "She never give me name so I just call her pretty because she is!"
The rat stayed relatively close to the warrior after they exited the tunnel, but seemed ready to spring off at any moment as he sprinted on all fours when investigating several corners of the hall.
"Come, come! We go now before spikey legs show!"
As they continued down the ruble littered hallway, something of an eerie blue light could be seen coming from a room at the very end. It was accompanied by what first seemed like a soft hum before exploding into a whine, much like what that sentinel did to awake the monitor that threw Miroslaw down here. Rogelio was going straight to this room.
Upon entering, the warrior would find a large capsule standing vertically in the middle of the room, filled with a bright blue liquid. It was glowing, hence the light he saw earlier. Tubes and wires messily connected to the top of the pod which snaked into the ceiling.
Along the walls were more strange panels much like those that were on the alter of the giant crystal, though looking more worst for wear.
Within a moment of getting familiar with this room, a low hum followed by the familiar whine sounded as electrical energy shot through the capsule. The liquid inside boiled and sent forth something through the tubing.
"She used to scream whenever it did that." Rogelio suddenly said.
It was clear he was talking about the capsule, but Miroslaw couldn't see anyone inside it, even upon looking closer. Perhaps the rat was more insane than it let on.
Miroslaw did not expect much of an explanation to his question, though he had hoped for a little more. He gave up on asking any more questions and merely followed the rat silently. He was curious why the rat was checking the corners... but he refrained from questioning him.
As the familiar sound of the screeching reached Miroslaw, goose bumps rose all over his body and a shiver ran down his spine. He continued to follow either way, into the glowing blue room. He stood and took in the room. It was again a fairly foreign environment. He had no idea what all these wires and contraptions were for. The similarities of the room with the one that had him thrown into this pit made him uneasy.
The rat spoke after the strange hum, but Miroslaw did not know what the rat meant. He saw no one in capsule. He questioned, "Who?" His gaze remained fixated on the capsule, expecting a figure to magically appear.
Death is no more than turning us over from time to eternity. Whether that eternity is damnation or salvation is determined in the time we have.