Click This

The Epic of Beginnings - Fragments of a weathered scroll

Narkissa Langdon

@Rune_Alchemist


“Without saying too much, huh,” Narkissa mused aloud. If that wasn’t a giant billboard with flashing arrows and lights saying ‘I clearly know a lot more than this topic than I want to say’, that was it. Still, it was a strange reward from an even stranger god. Maybe she would try to pry some information from Lazhira later. “Well, I don’t intend to lose it,” she quipped, before she tucked both the teardrop and core into the safety of her clothes’ inner pockets. Taking a moment to pick her weapon back up, she continued to peer down the hole with the younger girl for a moment.

Narkissa was still contemplating her options when Lazhira made the decision for her, jumping down the pit with a whee, of all things. She sighed and shook her head. Once more unto the breach, it seemed.

She took a far more pragmatic way of doing that, though. If that dungeon ended up being a big fat dead end, they’d be trapped in the pit forever. Being the smart little cookie that she wanted to be, she searched for some masonry to loop the remaining rope around as an anchor before dropping the sword down the pit (hopefully without bonking Lazhira) and shimmying down the rope to the bottom of the bit.

Or, her pathetic attempts at shimmying down a rope. She’d never done such a thing before, so although Lazhira’s landing wasn’t the most graceful, there was still an agonizing moment where she had to witness Narkissa awkwardly fumbling and swaying down the rope until she was on the ground next to her. Maybe she should have cannonballed down the hole with a whee as well.

With an immensely awkward expression on her face, she looked around, frowning at the tar at the bottom of the pit as she grabbed her weapon again. “Tar? Made from petroleum, maybe?” she wondered aloud. It was definitely a strange, if nasty substance. “Could be worth bringing back, actually…” She didn’t have any jars, though, so she didn’t press the topic.

She peered down the sole opening that the pit opened up into, a hallway of some kind. “Well, I suppose Leannah and that man went down that ways,” she shrugged, heading in that direction. She looked back at Lazhira. Now was a better time than ever to ask her just what those powers she displayed earlier.

“Say, Lazhira, what were those abilities you displayed earlier? Your secrets are safe with me, you have my word, but I can’t help but to be curious why you went to such lengths to hide your ability to fight earlier.” She recalled her having to be rescued by Leannah, but paradoxically also letting on that she was able to fend against the birds in that incident. Clearly, there was more between Lazhira and just a simple curiosity over this temple.

The Epic of Beginnings - Fragments of a weathered scroll

Narkissa Langdon

@Rune_Alchemist

Despite the slime’s weakened state, it was still giving Narkissa more trouble than she had expected. Through its damaged, eviscerated form, it still fought for every inch of its life –and literally—as she reached for its core deep inside of its gelatinous body. But she eventually grasped it. From its determined shrieking, she knew that this was its lifeline. Without remorse, she pulled, and pulled, until she yanked it fully out of its body, awkwardly falling backwards from the sudden loss of resistance.

Panting, she watched from the ground as the creature continued to gurgle and shriek, until it finally dissolved into a watery mess on the temple floor. Still catching her breath, she kept her grip on the strangely cool core, looking down at it, she couldn’t help but to laugh. She’d done it. Perhaps she’d been a little too bold with that, but it seemed to work out alright.

She was still recovering from her exertion when she jerked up, looking up at the temple ceiling as she heard the voice of the goddess once more. The voice was perhaps not quite so welcome as it had been after her brief ordeal, but Narkissa wasn’t going to ignore it, either.

Furrowing her eyebrows at the fight being referred to as a tutorial, she watched as a familiar drop of water fell from the sky. For a moment, she almost cringed, expecting it to be a ‘reward’ that brought yet another gauntlet of monsters, but it stopped and hovered in front of her. She looked at it apprehensively, but after a few moments, she reached out and took the floating raindrop-like gem.

With a frown, she turned it over in her fingers, wondering what it was for. Not finding an immediate answer from the goddess or from observation, she sighed and pocketed the reward as Lazhira bounded over to her, clearly having taken the lesser slimes to task already. As far as rewards went, she felt it was a strange one, but perhaps the greater reward was the newfound –if now somewhat subdued—feeling of magical power within her body.

“Ah? I’m not sure, actually…” For a moment, she thought about hiding the gem from Lazhira, considering its strange origin, but she’d helped her in the fight, and it was only fair to at least show her. “Well, I’ve got the big slime core, if that’s actually worth anything… and this gem that seems to have fallen from the heavens,” she replied, holding out the two objects in each hand. Once she’d had her fill, she pocketed both items again and stood up, dusting herself off. Feeling some pain in her arm, she frowned at the welts and scratches on her skin from her little bit of bravery. “Perhaps I overdid it a bit,” she grimaced, before peering back down into the hole.

“So, hmm. Is Leannah and that other man still down there? Should we… look for them down there?” Really though, Narkissa wanted to just go back to the village at this point and rest. Now that the issues up here were dealt with, however, she remained worried for her fellow dimension traveling companion. The other guy… well, not so much. As far as she was concerned, he was just a random stranger that abandoned her in a time of need.

The Epic of Beginnings - Fragments of a weathered scroll

Narkissa Langdon

@Rune_Alchemist

For all of Lazhira’s cute behavior and strange quirks, she wasn’t half bad at fighting. Whatever she was doing with that odd magic of hers, she was getting the smaller blobs’ attention and keeping them away from Narkissa, letting her focus on the big bad blob that remained the primary threat… and if the goddess was to be believed, her own little personal trial after praying to her. Either way, once she dealt with it, she could help out her villager friend.

Thankfully, her magical creativity seemed to be working. However, she wanted to shape her magic, nature and her spells seemed to bend to her will effortlessly. Doing her best to barrage the beast to prevent it from properly reforming, her bullet of water acted like an exploding shell once it entered its body, rupturing its blob structure as the superheated steam forced itself away from its body. It created a surprisingly gory mess, but it was one heck of a timely attack, as its counter lashed out but fell short of Narkissa, prompting her to jump back regardless.

With such a huge eruption of slime, she thought the fight was over, but despite all the damage, the bloody thing still seemed to be trying to recover!

“Damn! Why won't you die already!” Yelling out in frustration, she could see its blue stone core still active within the constituted parts of its clear body. It was almost dead, but still trying to claw itself to life, but not if Narkissa had anything to say about it.

Feeling emboldened by her new abilities and apparent martial skill, she charged the oversized gelatinous stain and blasted it again with another destructive water spell, just to keep it from regenerating. Then, sword in one hand, and the other outstretched, she slashed at the beast’s remaining jelly flesh, and then with the other hand, grasped for its crystalline core to rip it out of its worthless, evil body.

The Epic of Beginnings - Fragments of a weathered scroll

Narkissa Langdon

@Rune_Alchemist

Narkissa winced as the bone spear just barely glanced off her blade. Slightly overextending her reach to parry the shot, she stumbled backward awkwardly, feeling the strain on her body as much of the force of the blow was still transferred to her. Certainly, this wasn’t a thing that she could fight by constantly blocking.

Thankfully, her follow up was far more effective. Although she began to have her doubts fighting the liquid-like creatures with liquid-based magic, anything sufficiently pressurized was a potent weapon.

For a moment, she thought she had killed the creature completely through the way it took the hit, and was immediately caught out by the misassumption. “Oh shi—” Still screeching about Novak, she took the full force of the sudden attack and was smacked to the ground.

Lucky to not have cracked her head against the ground, she sputtered, her breath knocked out of her lungs by the blow. Surprisingly, however, it didn’t feel like anything was broken, and after a few gulps, she was able to hastily scramble back onto her feet with the help of her sword.

“Blegh… I’m okay... I think.” Distinctly remembering Lazhira having stuck around by her shout of concern, Narkissa took the risk and glanced over to the young girl, chuckling wryly when she did.
“I had a feeling you were hiding something,” she grinned. “B your secret’s safe with me. I’m just glad you have my back.” The strange silvery magic and appearance of her eyes wasn’t any sort of magic she’d seen so far, but it was useful enough. Narkissa wasn’t quite sure if she had attacked the giant slime or caused its attack to recoil in on itself, but it didn’t matter as long as it was injured further.

“Got it. We’ll talk after!” Unwilling to give up the initiative gained by Lazhira’s spell, she followed up her attack with another blade of super-pressurized water. Knowing that it wasn’t enough to finish the job, however, she tried to chain more spells on the end of it, intending to give it no reprieve. The best defense was the best offense, of course.

She reasoned that if Leannah had almost killed them all earlier in Lazhira’s house, then she could probably do better with the goddess’s ‘blessing.’ If she could instantly superheat that smallbolt of water as it broke the monster’s slimy flesh, turning it to steam while it was inside its body, then with no room for it to expand, wouldn’t it sort of… explode? Narkissa gave it a try.

The Epic of Beginnings - Fragments of a weathered scroll

Narkissa Langdon

@Rune_Alchemist @Crusader Lord @Crimson Paladin

To Narkissa’s stunned surprise, she found time slowing down to a near stop a moment after her prayer. Although the chaos of the flames and the slowly approaching slimes filled her vision, she couldn’t help to be affixed to a single point in the air, as a single, almost crystal-like drop of water descended from the sky. While she found it strange, the significance was lost on her as she simultaneously felt… something change.

She was suddenly ultra-aware of her surroundings. She could feel and see the flames engulfing the temple, licking and scorching the stonework. The slimes continued to inch forward, and she was acutely aware of Novak at the edge of the pit, where she could Leannah shouting from below. And to her greatest surprise, her magic was flawless. Forming a sphere of water, and releasing it as a wave towards the fire and the enemy slimes, which seemed to hold them at bay for a moment. As she summoned up some more water, she realized that it felt almost like second-nature to her, as if this was something she could always have done.

Narkissa wasn’t sure if she had natural affinity after all, or her prayer had worked. Her joy was short-lived, however, as her attention was taken by the one slime that had been touched by the falling water. Something was very strange about it as the water seemed to permeate through its body… transforming and mutating its already repulsive slime body. She immediately sensed the danger, and raised her sword just in time to deflect the bone spear that had shot towards her.

As she cursed like a sailor, she was stunned to hear the familiar voice that filled the temple. The Goddess had answered her prayer… but from the tone and monstrosity before her, in the form of a trial.

Filled with many mixed emotions, she grimaced as Lazhira panicked behind her. So, it seemed fleeing was not much of an option. It flew in the face of her pragmatic attitude, but there was the Goddess’s wrath, and Lazhira behind her… at the very least, it seemed her magic was alright.

"Shit, shit... Lazhira, and you, whoever your name is, I hope you two can fight!"

Raising her sword arm in a guard position, she tried probing the massive slime, while keeping her peripherals on the remaining slimes. Conjuring more water, she imagined a water jet, liquid compressed together by such force that it shot out like a blade or bolt in its own right, and directed it towards the roiling slime monstrosity. As she did so, she backed up towards Lazhira and Novak… only to see him peace out down the pit.

“You… coward!” she cursed, her situation getting worse by the moment.

The Epic of Beginnings - Fragments of a weathered scroll

Narkissa Langdon

@Rune_Alchemist @Crusader Lord @Crimson Paladin

“Hm. Hmmm…” Lazhira’s answer to her question made Narkissa even more suspicious about the nature of this temple. Although she had her mild suspicions about what Lazhira was omitting herself, even she herself outright admitted that something was up about this place. In the meantime, Novak had found some sort of mask and put it on. Narkissa was going to ask about it, but she had specifically been sticking close to Lazhira for a reason, and that was the fear of activating something bad around the idol when the stone was placed into the slot.

A fear that, as she quickly found out, was very well founded when the entire damn idol dropped from the floor like a nuclear core melting down into the ground. Perhaps that could have been okay, but her foolish companion of a catgirl was still on the actual thing, and fell through the floor with it. Perhaps that could have been easy enough to process, but the same time, strange, hostile blob-like things descended from the ceiling… and to make matters even worse on top of all that, the temple was also on fire for some reason!

It was just about the worst case in a worst-case scenario they could get, beyond the entire roof coming down on top of them, and Narkissa wasn’t sure if that wasn’t yet to come considering the fire.

Thankfully, she was very wise indeed to stick close to Lazhira, although it wasn’t much of a consolation considering the mounting chaos.

“Dammit man, we need to think about ourselves for now! Fire! Blobs! I don’t think those things are going to be friendly!” She shouted after Novak, who was simply gawking into the void where the idol was. From what Lazhira was also blurting out, she was more than a little apprehensive about what the blobs represented. She didn’t like them at all… not even compared to those birds from earlier. Something told her that trying to beat them with a sword probably wouldn’t be the most effective. Their priority should be escaping, although Leannah, if she was still alive, was down in that pit…

Then, she had a wild thought. Fire. And, slimes. Weren’t slimes supposed to be weak against magic? At least, that was what the trope was supposed to be. Maybe. She’d also always had an affinity for water, naturally as a nature of her previous profession. Could she try to use water magic to solve all the problems here? Probably not, considering she’d never even tried to cast water magic during the little training session yesterday, but she had to try.

She prayed. Not to the Illuminator, or any other god that she’d learned about the past few days –they were all so very suspicious—but to the goddess that had given her a second chance at life. Because, right now, it looked like she and the rest of them would really need some help with that second chance.

“Better bloody hope this works, or I’m just going to be standing here like an idiot too,” she muttered under her breath when her brief prayer was done. Trying to take the scraps of Lazhira’s lessons into mind, she tried to summon water. And if she did, direct them towards the fire, and the evil slimes.

The Epic of Beginnings - Fragments of a weathered scroll

When Lazhira spoke about her background and her relationship with the temple, Narkissa didn’t really buy it, and she was sure her fellow worldly companions from earth didn’t, either. She felt that Lazhira clearly had reasons to hide her ability to fight, or her ability to safely navigate the region around the temple. Whether or not that meant she had ulterior motives that were harmful to her guests remained to be seen, but Narkissa was of the option that a young girl this cute and innocent surely couldn’t be harmful, especially after housing and feeding her and her group for a night, and now, aiding Leannah with an injury.

Whatever it was, though, she was very knowledgeable about… the god of knowledge, and Narkissa was able to easily absorb the details and scenes in the temple after her explanation. She did find it strange that he could revoke the knowledge of papermaking from people. After all, if paper still existed, it wouldn’t be too hard to figure out what it was made of and reconstitute a method after trial and error. If she didn’t know better about the strange laws and beings that governed this world, she would have immediately discarded those words as exaggerated legend… but she wasn’t quite so sure.

Was it simply a case of knowledge lost over time due to societal collapse, or perhaps a far more violent end to a relationship with a vengeful god? Did the curse that Lazhira mentioned have to do with it? And how recent was that event, if it were true? Considering that many of the things in the temple would have deteriorated after a few mere years without care, Narkissa couldn’t help but to feel a faint form of dread building up in the back of her head that something might have gone terribly wrong in this temple… and more recently than what things would immediately suggest, if her hypothesis proved correct.

Like Novak, she pondered over the meaning of the murals, and then at the idol, the Illuminator, the Kyrinth… the fact that the answers cascaded into more questions was unnerving, and Narkissa couldn’t shake the ominous feeling that was pervading through her body.

On the other hand, she was absolutely giddy over one of the books she found. She immediately recognized the tome as a book on maritime architecture based on the diagrams and sketches within the book—cross sections of hulls, planking, and various other ship-related material. While Narkissa did know some actual methods of timber shipbuilding –she’d been involved in that experimental archaeology effort in launching the replica of that Revolutionary War-era French frigate a few years back—actually having a book like this on hand would be fascinating to decipher and see how the natives here built their wooden oceangoing vessels compared to how people on earth did, and what sort of differences there were.

She had to try very, very hard to not sit down right there in the temple and engross herself in the book. Instead, after flipping a few more pages, she reluctantly closed it and glanced at what her companions were doing, keeping the tome very close to her chest all the while.

And well, she looked up just in time to see them engaging in some very reckless and dangerous acts.

“My god, are you sure you two know what you’re doing?” Between trying to force that orb into the slot and potentially activating whatever dangerous or strange function there was to this temple, and Leannah jumping about the failing masonry, she really didn’t want to be standing in the wrong place.

Deciding that wherever Lazhira was standing was probably the safer place, she made it her business to be near her.

“So, Lazhira. How long has this temple been abandoned for, anyway?”

The Epic of Beginnings - Fragments of a weathered scroll

Narkissa Langdon

@Rune_Alchemist @Crusader Lord @Crimson Paladin

To Narkissa’s surprise, the giant birds were not the mortal foes that she had expected. Her pittance of a plan worked flawlessly, and as she side-stepped the bird’s attack, the cutting edge of her sword sent the creature crashing to the ground. And it was over, just like that. The two other birds seemed to come to a mutual understanding that the fight wasn’t worth it, and to her relief, they beat a swift retreat.

“Bloody hell Lazhira, you call those nuisances?” Narkissa didn’t know whether or not to laugh or to cry. She shot a glance over at Lazhira, who’d been thrown back behind them some, with a bit of a peculiar look. The girl was completely unfazed; the fact that she referred to them as a nuisance and even suggested them as a food pairing reconfirmed her belief that there was more to this girl… or at the very least, she was hiding her strength in some way. How else would a defenseless girl walk around in this sort of place with those clawed birds around?

It took a bit for her adrenaline rush to die down before she followed Lazhira. Not before she looked back to see Leannah sperging out over something, though. Slightly weirded out, she gave the catgirl a stare before continuing.

Indeed, it wasn’t before long that they came across the temple. It was a masterwork of masonry, and definitely looked weathered from centuries of neglect, to Narkissa’s eyes. There were some strange symbols about the structure, which was particularly eye-catching since it appeared Lazhira had a matching tattoo.

Quite a curious coincidence.

Once inside, she was suitably impressed by the carvings and interior stonework. All about her were curious imagery; the large idol in the centerpiece was awe inspiring indeed. From an archaeological standpoint, considering the condition of the building, she was quite surprised to see relatively intact fragments of artifacts inside the temple. The cloth robes and old ropes, though worthless, particularly stood out since she thought they would have rotted away. Seeing books, she was drawn once again to the curious tomes, and she searched for interesting volumes despite the unfamiliar writing. She gave up after a while, but not before deciding to pick the best looking one to bring back, pending permission from Lazhira.

That done, she gave more attention to the large statue, and strange indentation of a stone. If she was good at guessing, she’d have thought it was a crystal of some sort that powered something in the temple. Huge buried alien space ship, maybe?

She was going to ask Lazhira about it, but the others beat her to it. Instead, she asked about the walls. “Lazhira, along similar lines… do you know what the significance of the scenes on the wall are?”

The Epic of Beginnings - Fragments of a weathered scroll

Narkissa Langdon

@Rune_Alchemist @Crusader Lord @Crimson Paladin

“Hmm,” was just about most of her reactions to the font of knowledge that Lazhira poured out. She was a bit disappointed about being outshined, literally, by the others’ light spheres, but the wisdom coming from their host’s mouth was far too important to not focus on. Leannah had asked some important, and fruitful questions. A fellow named Novak who accompanied them did as well.

She had seen him around with most of the other ‘earth group’ people, but at least to her, his presence was so diminutive that she embarrassingly hadn’t paid much attention to him until now. She would have to engage with him later to see what his demeanor and intentions were like.

Nonetheless, the mythology that Lazhira spoke of sounded important, almost Greek, if she put her head to it. Narkissa couldn’t put a thumb on it, but there was a dimension of her storytelling that made her feel there was a little more to Lazhira than met the eye.

When she got her answer to her own questions, she was disappointed. It seemed like if there was a trading fleet, the bulk of it wasn’t near the village, nor were there any exceptionally elaborate ships to inspect. The fact that there weren’t many major oceangoing vessels was an important insight, though. Given the chance, she could likely blow whatever shipmaking secrets those Mountain Folk had out of the water.

Narkissa was about to ask more about Lady Mie when a strange noise interrupted the flow of the conversation. She immediately put her guard up. It was good that she did so; a moment later, they were attacked by a group of strange feathered beasts.

“Shit!”

While Narkissa didn’t think to make an elaborate prayer to the goddess like Leannah had, she certainly did make a brief entreaty as she pulled out her own sword. Leannah had moved in to protect Lazhira –Although Narkissa has a suspicion that she could very well protect herself— and Novak took the initiative with a counterattack.

She herself wasn’t exactly a swordswomen, but she hoped that a sword in the hands of an amateur could deal with a dumb beast. Dropping into what she felt like was a good combat stance, she warily approached the creature leaping towards her. Staying in a guard stance, she would attempt to dodge and then slash out at the creature as it passed.

The Epic of Beginnings - Fragments of a weathered scroll

Narkissa Langdon

@Rune_Alchemist @Crusader Lord

Although Narkissa had voiced her desire to stay and watch the market proceedings, the tide of activity moved against her, and Lazhira ruined her dreams by informing her that they did not, in fact, have the luxury to do both activities. Despite the fact, however, she had gotten some useful information, just from Lazhira. As surmised, the people were from some vaguely oriental culture from far off, but interestingly, they were from some mine-abundant archipelago. While that didn’t really square with how her limited understanding of geology went, the fact that there was an overseas trading route was very intriguing. Very intriguing indeed.

Narkissa also found it hard to disagree that foxes and fluffy things were cute.

Waffling for several moments on whether she wanted to stay or not, she decided to accompany Lazhira and Leannah to the temple. It was a difficult decision—she sorely wanted to probe how business was conducted and their trade, but Lazhira and Leannah were the two people she found herself the most comfortable with at the moment. Although they had spent some time together, mistrust begets mistrust, and Misaki had hardly been open… and the strangeness and potential danger from an apparently female Nobunaga was another. Certainly, she enjoyed the company of the catgirl and villager far more at the moment.

Maybe she would try prying information from them about their market trip when they returned to the village.

Parting from the market didn’t stop her from asking Lazhira about it, though. She had plenty of time to, after all. It really was a long walk. “Lazhira, about earlier… So, they sailed from those islands to your village? What sort of ships do they sail, junks? They don’t happen to be staying for longer than a day, would they?” She plied the girl with a few more questions along this line, such as where they were docked, and what boats the village itself liked to use.

Eventually though, they were at their destination, and Narkissa could feel the environment beginning to change. A thick fog had formed around them, giving off an almost oppressive aura mixed with an unsettling feeling that she really couldn’t care for. She didn’t say it aloud, but she decided it was better to err on the side of caution and stick to Leannah and Lazhira both. Happily lapping up the new magic tip, she gladly obliged, trying to form the same light source in her hand.