Character Sheet
The Mysterious Orphan

Name: Lotte, daughter of Henrik and Anelie
Sexuality: Pansexual
Age: 18
Species: Lamia, Central Lands Human Culture
Level: 3
Class: Hunter
Weapons: Bow, Knife

XP: 2/18

Description: A tall lamia, with short blond hair, and blue eyes, dressed in a protective vest and a noble's hunting shirt. They are muscular, well-formed and handsome, and have slightly yellowish eyes and a forked tongue. Their snake-half is in a forest pattern that helps for blending in, except for the occasional splash of Tyrian purple.

Traits:

Just Devotions (Racial--Human, Central, Cultural)(Level 0): Humans in some parts of the world worship the Gods, vast and sometimes unknowable beings that do grant blessings to those that believe in them, magical blessings. But even the lowliest of the pious knows how to pray to them, how to do the right supplications, how to act in the proper ways. This knowledge can sometimes be put to good use, though the Gods rarely turn their eyes to every little prayer.

Wholesome Farm Looks (Human, Central, Physical, Level 1): Though most of the people of the Central lands, that mass of Kingdoms, Princedoms, Dukedoms, Duchess States, and more, are of course quite poor, they are a hardy, hard-working people, and sometimes this life less beats a person down and more hones them. They have reasonably good looks, and even more importantly, look trustworthy, clean-cut, and otherwise like the kind of person who'd never lied a day in their life or slacked off a single hour, either. This remains even after becoming a lamia, though it is... tempered, obviously.

Snake Eyes (Level 1, Physical, Lamia): You can see in the dark pretty well. It isn't perfect, but the night is not nearly so dark and full of dangers as you expected it would be, for whatever reason.


Forest Wanderer (0, Pre-Class): The forest is a fascinating place for a child, as long as they don't go too far. As one gets used to it, one learns more about its ins and outs, and while some of it only applies to the forest that such a child lived in at first, much of it is quite helpful later.

Forest Eyes (Level 1. Class): As one could have eyes that pick out every tiny detail of the tundra, so can one be used to seeing in the dark forest tracks, possibilities, old growth, traps, and anything else, especially when one knows how to use your ears and nose to aid it. It is remarkable how much you can see, when you see what is actually there.

Hunter's Mettle (Level 1, Class): To hunt, one needs a bow, an arrow, and perhaps a knife for self-defense. Having some skill at them is inevitable, having solid skill at them is admirable, and quite useful.

Steady Arm (Level 2, Class): You have a strong, consistent aim. You're not a superlative archer, at least by the standards of adventurers, but you don't have off moments, and you don't waver from being able to hit your target, even if you're not doing the fancier tricks.

Leave Few Traces (Level 2, Class): The experience of being on one side of the hunt makes you wonder how you'd hide your tracks if you were being hunted, or tracked by hostile enemies, as sometimes does happen in adventures. You've begun to practice how not to be followed in the woods, and perhaps elsewhere.


Mending Knowledge, Basic (Level 0, Pre-Class, Healing Priest): You know how to apply poultrices, and you know the basic ingredients of a number of potions that cure headaches, deal with common pains, put someone into a gentle sleep, and other minor things. You can also bandage someone properly. You are not very good at this, merely adequate... but that's more than what most people are.


Whitlin' Ways (Level 1, Common): A man or woman who knows how to whittle will never want for whistles, or spoons, or any number of goods. It's a useful, solid sort of skill, and one that could be made into a trade. It also makes a pretty decent way to pass the time, and the person who whittles never lacks for a knife in sticky situations.

Penny Pincher (Level 1, General): You know the value of a Pfin, and how to keep from wasting all of your money, even if you're far from a merchant. Money is something you're familiar with.

Steel Nerves (General, Level 3): You've seen enough strange places and done enough fantastic things that you are less likely to panic in terrible situations, and more likely to think things through, however difficult. This doesn't mean you can't panic at all, but you have a grip on those nerves. In battle and danger only, this unfortunately doesn't help at all with social anxiety.


Divine Sense (Level 0, Divine): You can sense when someone is a Demigod, and there's at least the potential ability--though you have not figured it out yet--to try to track people through their divine 'scent.' A person's 'scent' gets stronger as they get more magically and divinely powerful... but on the other hand, you now have a 'scent' of your own, that will allow other demigods to know you for what you are, increasingly as you grow more powerful yourself.

Captivating Eyes (Level 2, Divine): You can sometimes 'catch' people with your eyes. If you're concentrating, they'll find it slightly more difficult to look away, though any sense of threat or danger breaks it immediately, and they'll hear your words clearly, actually listening… or at least hearing them. There's no requirement to listen to them, nor does it seem as if anyone's mind is being altered in any way, but it's an interesting, if bizarre, power, and certainly is a new take on 'lost in their eyes.'

Slithering Shadows (Level 3, Divine): You can blend into the shadows better than you should be able to. At night, and in darker areas, you can seem to shift away from sight. It doesn't work well in a wide-open space, but that little bit of extra secrecy can be very useful as a hunter, and as someone who might need to sneak through various areas.
 
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Ah, yes. Because the notion of late teens meeting people and going 'oh no they're hot' is so abnormal that the cause must literally be supernatural, instead.

It's one thing to think someone is hot, it's quite another to be immediately attracted to someone to the point it influences your decision making. Especially considering previous attitude.
 
It's one thing to think someone is hot, it's quite another to be immediately attracted to someone to the point it influences your decision making. Especially considering previous attitude.

Lotte's naive, and if I check my notes, I don't actually think it's uncommon for teen boys, especially, to get crushes and try and impress them, or so on.

But we are very close to an update, and I think this particular worry will be muted a bit by it.
 
Even without newupdate, I would figure theres also a difference when the attractive person is being aggressively into you as opposed to just there.
 
3:5
3:5

The group made its way towards the tower. "After all, it's the highest place in the building, so it's probably the most important," Naja had reasoned.

Aisling had looked at her as if, perhaps, she was very simple indeed, but hadn't said anything. Lotte thought it made as much sense as anything else, and also thought that the point about two parts of a whole might apply to more than just East and West. It'd make sense, right? That's a thing that intelligent people did, make entire dungeons or castles that referenced some strange philosophical point.

Lotte, of course, would have just put the gems behind a big door with magic on it, if she really wanted people not to get to it. But maybe they did want people to find it, and it was just a test? If it was, then it was apparently a very good test. Lotte had never had a test she hadn't failed, of course, the priest frowning over her answers and dismissing her with a wave of his arm and a muttering about lack of promise.

The odd thing was the lack of spiders, and in fact anyone at all. They made their way around the center keep, and then towards where the stairwell to the tower should be, and saw no signs of life or even its memories. There were no skeletons lying around, at least not yet. There were no bloody handprints on the wall. There was nothing, just long stretches of winding, curving hallways.

Lotte almost wished there was something she could hear, or something she could do. It was like walking through a forest and hearing nothing: the absence was large, and honestly scary, it had its own presence, like that prickle on the back of your neck when you were being stalked by some foul monster. She'd never seen monsters, but she knew they existed, often far more dangerous than a Mocker.

Lotte was surprised the place wasn't crawling with monsters. Perhaps the ritual to get in was too specific? It wasn't something some random beast could manage on accident, even one as cunning as monsters always seemed to be in stories.

Finally, they reached a set of stairs, and began to walk up them. Lotte had to take point by then, because there wasn't room for all three of them to walk around. Naja followed up closely behind her, and Aisling took the rear.

"I admit, this is a little… more unnerving than I thought it'd be," Naja said.

"Of course it was. You've been in a ruin before, you said." Aisling sounded carefully blank.

"Well, I was telling the truth, but it was one of those picked over ruins, with nothing left in it," Naja confessed, quietly.

"Naja! Why, I wouldn't believe that you'd lied to me and exaggerated your skill just to convince me to work with you rather than your more experienced brother," Aisling said, voice dripping sarcasm so thickl that Lotte had to wince.

"He's not… yes, he has a little more experience, but he lacks my esprit! So buck up. We're almost…"

"There," Lotte said, as the stairs leveled out, into a room that had four pillars centered around what looked like a table with a book fixed to it. The room itself was circular, and Lotte stepped towards the book, glancing at the writing.

It was in Sepult, and so Lotte couldn't understand it. Or, at least she figured that the big, blocky letters were Sepult. There was also the fact that the desk itself was rather short, so that Naja had to bend down to read.

"All time flows each way, in a world without sense, where blood is green and the night is purple, and the Enemy watches our every step. First it was noon, then it was sunrise, then the last hours of Ghosts, and then back to the hour of the Beloved, before going forward three days hence. Finally, we consider the hour in which the coward takes his last breath, and the moment where the royal midnight is crowned," Naja read, slowly but surely. "Huh."

"What does literally any of that mean?" Aisling asked.

"I… think I have an idea, but let me look around." Lotte held a torch as Naja examined each of the pillars. "There's a green stripe on this one, a purple on this one, a black on that, and a white on that." She pointed from the 'top left' pillar, to the top right, then bottom left to right as she named the colors. "And look at the circle it's all in. It looks a little like an ancient Sepult invention."

"What invention?" Lotte asked.

"They had these clocks that began at midnight and ran for twelve hours, then twelve more hours, powered by… I'm not sure; there's magical and technical ideas behind it, but what mattered was--"

"Midnight? Why would the day begin at midnight?" Aisling demanded.

"I have no idea," Naja said. "But if this is a clock, and it looks a little like one, then they're giving us times to turn to, somehow." She looked around, and then walked over to the desk and looked under it. "Aha!"

She pressed something, and with a rumbling noise part of the wall opened up to reveal what looked like a wheel.

"Should I turn it?" Lotte asked, frowning. She'd already forgotten half of what Naja had read aloud, though she assumed that each was a different time.

"Not yet, I'd like to figure out what it does, and what the clues are. Blood is green, the night is purple, and the time isn't necessarily… linear. So it doesn't just go one way," Naja said, tapping her chin. First noon, then sunrise, then the 'last hour of ghosts', the 'hour of the beloved' and then… the same time but three days later? And then something about royalty and cowards? It could have to do with the purple, since it's a royal color? I'm not sure," Naja admitted, as she began to pace. "Noon is twelve, but when is sunrise? What hour?"

"What are hours?" Lotte asked. "How long are they?"

"I don't know either, Lotte," Aisling said.

"Well, if noon is twelve, then halfway between noon and midnight is sunrise, right?"

"Often less than halfway," Lotte pointed out. "It'd depend on whether it was summer, or winter, or somewhere in between."

"Well, I'm pretty sure that this test is probably just using an approximation," Naja said, with an annoyed sigh. "So noon. Then back to six, or maybe five. But what's the last hour of ghosts?"

"Well, what are ghosts?" Aisling asked.

"You've never heard of ghosts?" Naja asked.

"Of course I have. But people tell different stories."

"These are Sepult, so could it mean ancestors?"

"Not this early, that was… very recent. This whole palace seems like it was abandoned around the time of the Empire's collapse, or earlier," Naja said. "Still, you're right. Ancestors exist first and foremost in the minds of others because… oh. I get it."

"What?" Lotte asked, still not really following along.

"They're in brains because the skull is dark. Light drives them away. So the last hour of the ghost would be whatever hour comes before sunrise," Naja said, snapping her fingers and looking very pleased with herself. "But, hour of the beloved?"

"Marriage, perhaps?"

Lotte frowned and did nothing at all, just waited for them to figure it out. She had no idea whether there was some traditional time to marry that'd be the same as with the Sepult.

It is actually ten minutes of standing around before Naja finally concludes that it's sunset, whenever that is, because they marry then, and then spend the whole night together, as per old traditions she'd vaguely remembered in a book. But this didn't give them a time, not really.

"I think we should start," Aisling said. "If we get this wrong, there's probably a penalty, but we can't spend too long standing around. We should be able to figure out the first part."

"Alright, so, Lotte, you watch out for any attacks. Aisling, you turn the wheel, while I'll stand in the middle and tell you when to stop," Naja said, sounding authoritative.

Aisling walked over and pulled on the wheel, and then frowned. "Oh, this is actually… what if I keep watch for dangers, and Lotte turns the wheel."

"Is it that hard to turn?" Naja asked. "Sepult need to have been able to do it."

"Or maybe there was magic that made it easier and it wore off?" Aisling guessed, frowning. "Lotte, can you turn this?"

Lotte walked over, and tugged at it. It was heavy, and moved very slowly, but she could. Her muscles strained as she did so, then turned back. It seemed as if the central circle had moved, rather than the pillars, shifting around a fraction. "Yes."

"Alright, first, we start out… ah, there's the line. I need you to push it upwards until I say stop."

Lotte got down to it, and noticed something. Despite being a wheel, the spokes weren't actually attached. What was that about--

There was a click, as if something was settling into place.

"Stop! Now, down until I say stop."

"Stop!"

Lotte's arms were aching a little, but she did so as soon as she was told to. "Wait," Lotte said. "I need to try something."

"What? Okay, sure," Naja said. "As long as it doesn't mess everything up."

She turned at the spokes of the wheel, and heard a grinding sound as she pushed.

"Oh shit," Aisling said, and when Lotte looked back, the four pillars were now forming a sort of diamond, northwest, northeast, southwest, and southeast. "So, we've figured out what to do with the colors."

"I think we have," Naja said. "Now, next we need you to…"

Lotte kept on following the orders, even as her arms started to ache. She really could use a meal, since she'd broken her night's fast some hours ago. They were all walking, but now she was the one straining desperately as they went through it.

"Okay, when does a coward die?" Naja asked, a dozen or so minutes later. After each step, there was a click, and Naja waited a little while, trying to think it through no doubt.

Finally, Aisling said, "What about… if they only go in corners, and it's twelve degrees, then the only options are twelve, um, three? Six? Nine? And then times right in between them. Why would a coward die at nine? Or twelve? Or six?"

"But why three, if that's the option?" Naja asked.

"Three in the afternoon? I don't… know," Aisling admitted. "What if it's something about how a coward dies before the day is out? If marriage is at sunset, and ghosts disappear at sunrise, then maybe it's something about disrespect?" She shrugged her shoulders.

Neither of them were sweating, as Lotte was. Lotte leaned against the wall, glad that neither of them had noticed how tired she was, and how much her muscles ached. Yes, pity might have been nice, but she was useless except for providing her muscles. So, she was glad that they just kept on giving her orders.

The puzzle involving the colors involved moving both the pillars and the clock at the same time, so that they all added up. Cowards, apparently, were white with fear, so white and purple were needed, while green and black (the other two pillars) were just distractions. After the last movement, Lotte slumped as the wall opened up near her. It rumbled as it did, but she saw no mechanism for it. It was magic, of course. But she wished she understood more.

"Wow, that was hungry mind-work," Naja said, wiping her brow as if she'd been sweating. "Well, no time to be laying around, Aisling. You just watched."

Aisling shrugged and said, "So, onto the next floor?"

The 'good' news was that there was even less she could do on the next floor. It was this baffling test in which there were five rows of five pots, with colored or marked out lids, and a long set of instructions that said things like, 'When you've found the third red, its neighbor is poison, unless it is drank with the essence of water." Apparently the key was that you had to open certain pots in order, and if you didn't…

Halfway through, Naja made a mistake, and a greenish gas poured from the vase. Naja left back, but she did so while coughing, and Aisling dragged her over to a corner and made her throw up, rather violently, rather than letting anything stay in her after the gas had been there. It could have done something, but as it was, the gas eventually stopped pouring from the pot, and they were able to get a lid on it.

Lotte, meanwhile, wondered whether she should have volunteered to be the one who opened the pots. But Aisling took over for that, while Lotte stood near Naja. "Are you okay?"

"Yes. Yes, I'm fine. A leader must sacrifice for her expedition," Naja said.

"I could have opened it," Lotte protested.

"And then what? If it hurt someone, which of us is easier to carry, all things considered?" Naja asked with a raised eyebrow, as if Lotte had missed something obvious.

Eventually, they passed the test. Lotte took the lead again, as they climbed upwards until it felt as if the tower would never end. Finally, they found themselves in a room with moonlight. There was what looked to be a sort of shaft in the ceiling up above, about the size of a window, but angled slightly oddly. Where the moonlight hit, there was a wooden chair, upon which was a piece of paper. Just slightly off to the side of the moonlight was… something on a stand. It looked almost like the horn of some great beast, but it was made out of metal, and rested on a set of three legs that balanced the strange metal thing carefully.

Lotte stepped forward, towards the strange device, reaching for her bow as she did.

"Wait, let me read this note, first…" Naja said, picking it up. "It's in Central Lands script, actually. It says 'This challenge was difficult, but I ultimately prevailed. I decided to make it easy for those who come after by placing this invention, my Monocular, in this area. It is based on the principles of glass, and the virtues of bifocal lenses. With it, this challenge will involve about half as much bleeding from the eyes.' Bleeding from the eyes?! Are they joking? It goes on to say, 'Look through the monocular and look around at the sky.'"

"I am sure that it is no problem at all," Aisling said, with a shrug. "Isn't it usual to risk your life in such places? That said, you first, Naja."

"No, I believe that your elvish eyes would--"

"I'll do it," Lotte said. "I have sharp eyes too." She stepped forward, and the others backed up.

"Fine," Naja said. "But if you feel your eyes start to bleed, then please step away."

"I will," Lotte said, and she walked over and knelt so that she could line up one of her eyes with the 'horn' of the device, which seemed to end in a flat glass surface, like a window. She looked up from there, and saw the stars. They were strange, a little different than expected, and the night sky had a slight pinkish cast, as if someone had been bleeding a little bit in a large pool of water. She couldn't recognize the stars, but they did not seem to have any noticeable new pattern, nor was there anything else odd as she, after a bit of trial and error, figured out that she could move and swivel the "monocular" to look all around the sky.

She found very little, and finally admitted, "I'm not seeing anything, sorry. Maybe Aisling should try?" Lotte stepped away, reaching a hand out to feel at her eye.

She wasn't bleeding, at least.

"What are you seeing?" Naja asked.

"A purple-pink night sky, and stars that aren't the same as the ones I'm used to," Lotte said. "But nothing else."

"I will try it, then," Aisling said, stepping over and poking at the device. "Ah, there's a wheel here. I bet it adjusts the view, somehow. But first…"

She knelt down, put her right eye up to the glass, and gasped. "What," she muttered, and began fiddling with the device, panning it one way and the other. Her other eye was closed, but she seemed to stiffen, her ears pointed straight up and twitching as she shuddered. "What?" Then she began to mutter in Elvish, or some language Lotte didn't understand. Her whispers grew almost into shouts, and then she broke down sobbing.

Aisling pulled away, and crawled over towards the corner. She wasn't weeping blood, but she kept on muttering.

Naja and Lotte had each watched, shocked, unable quite to act. Naja ran over to her the moment she pulled away from the Monocular. "Aisling! What happened?"

Aisling responded in Elvish.

"What?" Naja asked. "Something tried to…"

Aisling responded, sounding rather angry, and then continued in Central Lands. "Thousands of eyes, with something blinking behind it. And the sky, it went from pink to red and began to bleed. But I saw something. A gem. A red gem. Or I thought I saw it. That's what we're after. I just… I was too afraid. I wasn't expecting it at all, after what Lotte told us."

"I didn't see any of that," Lotte protested.

"Right…" Aisling said, eyes narrowed. Then she turned and threw up on the ground, gasping and choking.

Naja stood up, some minutes of whispering later, and strode right over to the Monocular. She knelt, and began looking, using the wheel and turning it carefully. Even as her hands began to shake, she didn't make a sound, just kept on looking. Lotte watched her, her heart thudding, wondering whether Naja would be okay.

Finally, after what seemed an eternity, Naja held out her hand and plucked, seemingly from the air, a red gem about as long as a finger-nail, and roughly that size. She pulled back, blinking, turning over towards Aisling, who had finally sat up.

She was crying blood, and shaking, but she stalked forward. "Something is hunting us," Naja declared in a hollowed out voice, and then she fell to the ground and dry-heaved.

"What?" Lotte asked.

"I'm not sure. But I think that if we can open whatever is in that fireplace, it'll be the discovery of the decade," Naja said, rallying quickly, as if all that she'd apparently suffered, and even the still-dripping bloody tears--impossible and yet that's what they looked like--were just signs that things were going to go right.

"Right, yes," Aisling said. "You're bleeding from your eyes."

"It happens," Naja said breezily, though it felt like a thin cover over a lot of worry. "So, the Tower is… Mind, or Spirit. Does that mean the dungeon is body?"

"Could be," Aisling said. "Can you stand?"

"I… can. But Lotte, could you keep close to me, to make sure I don't fall?"

She didn't even sound like she was flirting. Lotte walked over to her and grabbed her by her shoulder, and the three of them headed down the stairs.

Behind them, the shadows flickered, as if something large had passed overhead in the moonlit room.

Where to next?

[] East Wing. It must be the opposite, and yet in some sort of paired dynamic, with the West Wing. But what?
[] West Wing. It must be the opposite, and yet in some sort of paired dynamic, with the East Wing. But what?
[] Dungeon. Perhaps this means body, perhaps this means flesh? If it's the opposite of the Tower… of course, none of them are necessarily in the best position if the challenges are physical.

******

A/N: And there we go!
 
[X] Dungeon. Perhaps this means body, perhaps this means flesh? If it's the opposite of the Tower… of course, none of them are necessarily in the best position if the challenges are physical.

On the basis that 1: it may be necessary to do west and east simultaneously. And 2: if we're being hunted, then perhaps each challenge grows more difficult, in which case I definitely don't want to leave the dungeon for last.
 
[X] Dungeon. Perhaps this means body, perhaps this means flesh? If it's the opposite of the Tower… of course, none of them are necessarily in the best position if the challenges are physical.
 
[X] Dungeon. Perhaps this means body, perhaps this means flesh? If it's the opposite of the Tower… of course, none of them are necessarily in the best position if the challenges are physical.

As above, so below.

Huh.
Lotte is resistant to magic whichever fuckery that Sepults considered proper security measures. It's like those people didn't live here.
 
Lotte had never had a test she hadn't failed, of course, the priest frowning over her answers and dismissing her with a wave of his arm and a muttering about lack of promise.

At this point I'm honestly interested: was the priest just a dick who refused to consider unorthodox answers or was Lotte really that bad with book knowledge?
 
At this point I'm honestly interested: was the priest just a dick who refused to consider unorthodox answers or was Lotte really that bad with book knowledge?

Maybe Lotte has a hidden perk that lets her to use her ignorance offensively and to protect herself from magics, and she didn't want to lose that.

By offensively, I mean that little episode when the ghost thought about using Lotte for a merger, then promptly refused, sounding frightened. :V
 
[X] Dungeon. Perhaps this means body, perhaps this means flesh? If it's the opposite of the Tower… of course, none of them are necessarily in the best position if the challenges are physical.

It feels odd- Lotte isn't being affected by stuff that's going on here, but it feels like it goes both ways- He can't see beneficial stuff like the runes but there's also harmful stuff like whatever that was that seems to have passed him over
 
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[X] Dungeon. Perhaps this means body, perhaps this means flesh? If it's the opposite of the Tower… of course, none of them are necessarily in the best position if the challenges are physical.
 
[X] Dungeon. Perhaps this means body, perhaps this means flesh? If it's the opposite of the Tower… of course, none of them are necessarily in the best position if the challenges are physical.
 
[X] Dungeon. Perhaps this means body, perhaps this means flesh? If it's the opposite of the Tower… of course, none of them are necessarily in the best position if the challenges are physical.
 
Well, hm. Seems you're determined to finding out the trick with the wings last, I suppose?

Works for me, though!
Adhoc vote count started by NemoMarx on Nov 3, 2019 at 9:19 PM, finished with 9 posts and 7 votes.
 
[X] West Wing. It must be the opposite, and yet in some sort of paired dynamic, with the East Wing. But what?
 
Honestly, does it matter which order? And even if it does, there's not enough info for anything but guessing imo.
 
3:6
3:6

They at least ate before they went down. Naja wiped her face with a cloth, and looked almost normal again. But neither of them seemed as if they'd escaped from whatever it was without marks being left. Not on their body, but on… their brains? Or something? Lotte wasn't an expert in anatomy, and didn't know whether souls could even be marked like that by something scary. Well, scary wasn't the word.

It was apparently worse than scary, though Lotte couldn't be sure what that felt like. She'd been afraid before, but she'd never been so terrified she was out of her senses, the way Aisling had been. There was a part of her, like a hunter prowling through the dark recesses of her head--which she imagined must be rather empty and dark anyways--that never panicked. She worried, she got carried away by rage, but she didn't gibber.

But she knew it was nothing to do with her, not really. Aisling could speak two languages, and was wry and clearly very intelligent, and so she doubted she had much of an advantage over the other woman.

So Lotte sat and watched the others, nibbling on the bread and dried meat they'd brought. It wasn't much, but she didn't want to eat too much if she was going to be running around as part of some sort of physical test.

Naja spoke again only after they'd eaten. "This is a lot, but I feel as if we are getting close to some real sort of discovery, something that will make our reputations. If we turn back now, we've gained nothing, and if the note is to be believed, we don't even get to keep the gem to try again with next time."

Aisling frowned. "But, we almost... "

She trailed off, not having the right words, and then finally after an awkward minute said, "Went mad."

"But we didn't," Naja said. "I'm sorry that I didn't go first."

"Why?" Aisling asked.

"Because I hate seeing you in pain more than--" Naja said. Then she blinked, looking like a cow that'd been felled by a blow, stunned and confused by her own words. "Too much. Besides, if you died, what sort of expedition leader would I be?"

"Then we should go back," Aisling said. "What do we gain? What is even being hidden that is worth that much. If you truly want to continue, why not leave and return with a dozen people?"

"What will that get any of us? A dozen ways, even a fortune would not be worth much, and any discovery--"

"What discovery? Do you really think there's anything here that the Sepult wanted getting out?"

Lotte cleared her throat. "I… feel as if after all we've risked, we might as well continue. But I know I'm not the one who was doing most of the work."

"Fine," Aisling said. "But if the next challenge almost kills us, then I told you so," Aisling said.

*******

They went for the dungeons, or at least tried to. It was a lot of walking to descend the towers and then they had to go down hall after hall looking for how to get down into the dungeons. Finally, after almost an hour, they looped around enough that they could see stairs downward.

Down at the bottom, the walls were a little wetter, and there were cells, to the left and right, each of them empty, with nothing in there worth seeing other than chains. Lotte felt a creeping sort of fear ebb and flow through her in a way she couldn't understand. It was as if she felt something close, and then far off. But the other two didn't seem troubled by it, and Lotte knew she had no room to complain.

They moved from cell to cell, looking around for the trial, and finding nothing… until they found what looked to be a hatch in the ground.

"Aha!" Naja said, tugging at it. Then she seemed to realize that the odds of her being able to actually lift it were low, though in her defense it did move upwards a little before she gave up. "Oh, um, Lotte?"

Lotte walked over and pulled it up with a heave, though by this point she suspected her arms would ache all night when or if they finally bedded down. There was a ladder down, and against all the centuries it must have been there… it seemed to be in perfectly good shape.

"I will go first," Aisling said. "Cover the hole, Lotte."

Lotte nodded, pulling her bow off her back, though not drawing the string back to prepare to loose, as Aisling went down into the darkness. It was two-dozen seconds later when they heard Aisling curse.

"By the blood of the fucking Fae! There's dead bodies down here. Or… are they dead? Someone bring a torch, I can't see that much, even with my eyes," Aisling said. Her voice seemed far less cool and in control than it had been earlier, and Lotte was the next down, while Naja held a torch out, to illuminate below.

When Lotte reached the bottom she saw that they were in a large room, longer than it was wide, and that there were indeed bodies laying, motionless, on the ground. But Lotte could not see any obvious wounds, and each of the people were mostly naked. Men and women were mixed indiscriminately, and a few were Elves or Sepult, there was one Orime, and, bizarrely, a dead Lamia.

Everyone, regardless of their sex or race, was equally intact and equally unmoving. Nearby there were weapons, and in one corner Lotte saw a vast pile of what looked like discarded clothing.

Naja was climbing down one-handed, gasping every so often as she looked on all that…

"I increasingly suspect that the Sepult never actually lived here, at least not in the way an ordinary castle's staff would," Aisling began, "Can you imagine anyone surviving when they have to solve a riddle to go to the toilet?"

Naja laughed at that, though it was a high-pitched, hysterical sort of laugh. "It does seem rather impractical."

"Yes," Lotte said. "Are they… dead?"

"They're not breathing, so yes. But their skin almost looks like it was carefully nurtured," Aisling said. "Like they were all Princelings, rather than, from the looks of some of them, rough mercenaries."

The Orime, especially, was a rather impressive sort of man, tall, broad-shouldered, and well-muscled. It was odd to see such a body sprawled out like some broken straw doll.

All three of the explorers huddled together, clearly not wanting to step forward. Lotte, finally, moved closer to one of the bodies and lightly kicked it in the leg. it didn't move at all.

"Lotte, be careful," Naja said.

Lotte said. "They're not moving. But whatever did that might get back. If it killed them without harming their body, was it some sort of miasma?"

"It could be," Naja said. "The effluence of these bodies, and the clothes in the corner, might be creating just the circumstances to spread disease."

"The… what?" Lotte asked.

"The smell. The miasma, like you said. Rotten ground breeds rotten illness," Aisling said. "Though, the bodies, they don't smell."

Lotte wasn't that stupid, she was not going to get close to smell them, not when they might have died of some poison or something that could effect her if they did.

"Huh," Naja said. "They look as if they'd be perfectly alive, if they only were breathing."

This was not a comforting thought, and Lotte grabbed an arrow, ready to aim and loose her shot at any moment.

They began to move forward, staying as far away from any of the bodies as they could. There were a dozen, just within the first part they could see, and beyond them the hall widened. Its walls were as square and polished as anywhere else, but the ground itself was bumpy at places. At the back of the room was a statue.

It looked like a woman with four arms, one wielding a knife, another outstretched to hold a flower, and one of the remaining hands over her mouth, while another rested in her lap, for the statue was cross-legged.

"Pillagers," a voice whispered, seeming to come from around them. "Pillagers without the nonclav. Sinners, in need of eternity."

"Who are you, and what do you want?" Naja von Siebert asked, her tone haughty and arrogant, nose almost up in the air. It almost hid the tremble of her body as she said it. "I am a noble explorer, no pillager at all."

"I am a bit of a piece of a goddess, and you shall soon be saved."

Lotte stared at one of the men, a thin, hairy man. He was slowly but surely standing up, though his eyes barely seemed to be looking at any of them as he stepped forward.

One by one, almost a dozen of the bodies got up, moving as if they were shaking off sleep. But other than that, there was nothing different. Except that they didn't speak, and except for one of them who reached down to grab a sword off the ground, they didn't dress or arm themselves.

Lotte's arrow struck him--it--in his chest, the arrow's wound half-hidden by the forest of hair. He pulled the arrow out, and began to bleed even more before collapsing.

Well. This wasn't going to be as hard as she thought. Aisling was keeping close to Naja, lashing out with her spear, which was enough to just barely keep the unarmed hordes away. Not all of the bodies had 'awoken' but even the ones that were there were enough to distract everyone.

So it wasn't Lotte's fault that she almost missed the man she shot standing up less than a minute later--after she'd gone through another four arrows, downing four more of the attackers--with not a wound on him. There was blood where he'd been hit, but the wound was entirely closed and he charged right at her.

Lotte shoved him back. For all that he was big, and a man, she had muscles too, tired and sore though they were, and he stumbled. Lotte wished she'd trained herself in fighting with her hands, as she glanced around at the arrows. One of them had been broken off, while the others could be reused, but eventually she'd run out of arrows long before she ran out of enemies if they wouldn't just go down.

"Why. Won't. They. Die?" Aisling asked, a cry from the heart.

"I shall heal them," the strange woman's voice said. "Again and again. I will protect this place from those who would defile it. Those who would--"

"Shut up," Naja said, as she recoiled from the Lamia hissing as she went towards them. The Orime and the Lamia seemed like the largest threats there, since Lotte had the feeling that that long tail wasn't for show. "We need to get to that statue!"

Lotte could easily see that this wasn't possible. The Lamia woman was silent as she blocked the way, and combined with all of the others, even a run for it would probably end badly. None of the bodies were slow, for all that only one of them wielded a weapon, rather than trying to pummel the three of them with their fists.

The Lamia leapt, and Lotte couldn't quite dodge out of the way in time as she toppled over, the tail wrapping around her, dark red in the dim light. It squeezed at her as the Lamia leaned in.

Lotte punched it (for it wasn't a person anymore, that much was clear) in the nose, and it recoiled, its broken nose already forcing itself back into shape as it did. Lotte drew a knife and stabbed at its bellow, right above where… where the rest of it was, below the belt. She wasn't exactly looking, it not being relevant since the beings were clearly unthinking and, in any meaningful sense, dead.

Of course, Lotte's thoughts were more: oh no, come on, come on, as she stabbed and slashed at the lamia until at last its grasp loosened and she could step away, grabbing her bow from the ground. She notched another arrow and hit the Lamia in chest. It was still healing, every wound going away, so she had to keep it up. She ran over and pulled the arrow out and drew another and fired it, the arrow plunging into the--

The truth was, the whole fight was gruesome work. Blood was everywhere, and Aisling was being pressed back. Naja was waving around her little sword as if she had no idea how to use it, and they were going to run out of room soon enough unless Lotte did something. But what could she do?

It was somewhere between frustrating and terrifying, having to keep putting down foes that would not die.

Lotte might have kept on doing it until she ran out of arrows, except Aisling shouted. "Look!"

One of the figures was down, a spear through through her, grotesquely torn apart… and she was healing slowly. Lotte could watch the strange process of the flesh starting to knit, but creepingly, inch by inch. Lotte tackled another one of the bodies and tried to force her way through. What if the statue was running out of power? But more of them were crowding around her, five or six just trying to drag her down. She hauled off, wincing at the feeling in her fist as she punched yet another one of them.

"Naja! You need to get to the statue," Aisling said. "We're too busy trying to fight these things."

Lotte was already tired, and had no idea how she was supposed to keep on fighting forever.

When she fell, and died, would she soon become just another body here? Just another tool for whatever strange being was--

"Not if I can help it," that woman's voice whispered, and as Naja began to run towards the statue, the other figures moved to get in her way. Lotte was running low on arrows, but she nocked another one and the arrow went into the stomach of a man right in Naja's way. As dark as the room was, the press of bodies made it hard to miss, even if it was hard to really aim.

Naja almost slipped on the blood, and the torch went skittering, falling into the blood which…

Which briefly lit on fire, as if there was a little bit of oil in the blood. It didn't last, but it burned, and the being thrashed as it tried to heal and escape. For a moment the way was clear, and Naja didn't slip again as she reached the statue and grabbed at its arms as if it were going to fall apart at the touch.

But something did happen. There was a brief flash, and suddenly all but four of the figures collapsed, healing of their wounds but not moving. The four were the human woman with the sword, the female Lamia, the male Orime and the male Sepult, beard down to his knees, who had been biting and clawing at anyone in reach.

"This is not over. I simply need to focus on a few pieces…" the statue said, its voice echoing, even as Naja held on for dear life and tried to budge or shift the statue. But it wasn't working. Aisling stabbed at the woman with the sword, while Lotte shifted out of reach of the Orime's arms, trying to draw and loose an arrow in a matter of moments. The shot didn't quite go wide, but it hit the Orime in the shoulder, and he didn't even bother taking it out as he pressed in closer.

It was luck that nobody had been badly injured yet, but it was luck that was unlikely to hold. "What kind of challenge is this?" Lotte asked, panting, as she was backed up against the walls.

"One meant for more than three people," Aisling snapped. Oddly none of the four fighters were headed towards Naja, as if they knew there was little she could do.

Lotte was down to her second to last arrow as one went into the Orime's chest. But he didn't go down this time, for all that his healing was still a little slower than it had been before.

"Stop this!" Lotte said, furious and confused. "Why do you abuse the dead like this?"

"It is their bodies, not their souls, there is nothing left, just my healing light to fill them and make them move," the statue hissed, as it began to tip slightly. Naja was straining as hard as she could to move it.

Lotte glanced at the creatures, the monsters, and ran towards Naja. There was no point in fighting them. She reached the statue and grabbed.

"What, what are you doing? That's not how you pass the test."

The statue began to glow, and the woman sounded increasingly desperate as Lotte tugged.

"You shouldn't, there's not, you're supposed to defeat them, not this, don't, please don't, I can't, if you, I--"

The statue was almost toppled over when it spoke, "You… you win."

The bodies fell to the ground, healing slowly and not getting up.

"I can't do it. How many times must I fail to protect this place, and this world, from things like you," the voice said, quiet and soft. But what startled Lotte was that the head of the statue had twisted to look right at her. "I've succeeded, and I've failed. All those times. If you all swear upon your lives to take the key and never return, this fight is over."

"What?" Naja asked.

"You will all die, or you will not, and there will be others. But if you destroy me, then I can save no other lives. I am an avatar, a piece of something greater."

Lotte was staring.

The hand over the statue's mouth moved, until a stony hand was presenting an old looking iron key. Lotte reached out.

"No, not you. This girl that is with you," the statue said.

Hand trembling, Naja grabbed the key.

"Please. Leave. Before I change my mind."

Lotte, arms aching even worse, grabbed a few arrows on her way out. But no more than that.

******

Lotte was sure that they'd turn back, after all of that. All of them were so tired they almost didn't feel sleepy. At least, Lotte was, and the others looked just the same.

Naja led them back to the central area, looking at the fireplace accusingly.

They stood there for a while, blank and tired, until at last Naja whispered, in a hoarse voice, "We can leave if you want, Aisling."

Aisling had been very quiet, frowning the whole way. "No. I feel as if there is something we've missed, and that if we don't do something we'll regret it for a long time. I'm… not convinced whether we should still go on, but I would like to sleep on it? And pray on it."

"Pray on it?" Lotte asked, liking the sound of that.

"Yes," Aisling said.

"We can do that. And sleep in shifts, to keep watch for an attack," Naja said.

Lotte slept poorly, and woke up sore, but better off for having had at least some rest. She'd prayed at night, but everything had felt a little far away, and she'd hesitated to call out to the Nachtmater, now that she'd met the Goddess in person. It felt as if it would be a mistake, though of course she didn't know why. But she trusted her instincts, and felt rotten for it. There was no sun that rose, so it was dark even by the time it'd been hours and hours.

The next 'morning', they all woke slowly, rubbing their eyes and moving as if they were still dreaming. Lotte ate mechanically, wishing she had a fire, or more to eat. Naja kept on muttering to herself, and took out a pack to continue to write. Aisling, meanwhile, was silent the entire time until at last she spoke. "Let's continue."

"Are you sure?" Naja asked, rubbing her eyes.

"No, not at all. But I'm not going to be any more sure than I am now."

And that was that, it seemed.

******

A/N: So, no vote this time. Might not update as fast this time.
 
Ok, honest response, no... But.

There is definitely an expectation this building has for those within it, and this has been ongoing a really long time. We are threatening to break things but I don't think we have yet, and I think the party is disposed towards learning and negotiation if we get the chance.

I'm fascinated by the hint that Lotte's (semi?) immunity to flavors of weirdness (which really had mysterious origins written all over it even before the adoption was confirmed) seems to have a counterpart, where he was affected but they were not.
 
I duno. Someone who attacks without warning does not get to provide input on who's the bad guy.
 
Something doesn't quite add up to my mind with this though.

Like, some stuff here is beneficial to the others / doesnt feel right to lotte, and yet with the telescope lotte was fine but the others got fucked up by it.
Which doesnt seem that consistent- you'd think if it was just stuff not liking lotte he'd have been the one who saw terrible eye things, so I'm not sure why he was the only one who didn't
 
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