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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Sooooo
That's semiofficial now
Lot is on outs with gods
Not all of them, it looks like
Maybe they ganged up on him in the previous life, but some of them ( Nachtmater ) feel sorry now, after they stuck him in a mortal female body
Alternatively, if there's no reincarnation, Lotte was just a very quarrelsome and loud baby, and the weeks before someone left him to be adopted were very interesting
Either/or
 
The Gods are not the Christian God, so who even knows what qualifies as blasphemy. :V

I mean, etymologically, blasphemy is contemptuous irreverence expressed towards the god ( saintly figure, etc. ) in question, and find it kinda hilarious to imagine the small baby Lotte flipping the whole pantheon off before learning how to walk, even.
 
3:7
3:7

They went to the east wing next. They were a dispirited bunch, still exhausted, with their supplies good for another week but their hearts and minds good for no more than another day or two of exploration at most.

Lotte knew that she should be panicking more than she was. But at the moment she was trying to focus on the task ahead of her. The light didn't change in this dark place, so it might not have even technically been morning. There were always stories about time moving as oddly as space when it came to Sepult ruins, though you could usually tell when it was. Or at least, there were fewer stories of people stepping into a ruin and stepping out decades later than Lotte might have feared. Usually it was a matter of hours flying a little too fast, or a day or two at most. Even the scariest stories were careful not to promise too much dread. Lotte had, of course, listened to every story of adventure she could.

She followed them through the arch to the east, and then felt something odd. It was a sort of pressure on her chest, as if a hand was trying to push her back. But she kept on walking, keeping close to the other two.

Nobody talked much, not in the shape they were in. They had their own thoughts, though Lotte's were more niggling worries. She wished she'd prayed more, but she had very little to sacrifice, and very little to ask that wouldn't be arrogant.

They reached another archway, and Aisling walked through first, and then Lotte stepped forward to go next.

But she saw blue shimmers in front of her as she tried to do so, like something out of a story, and when she tried to step through it was as if she'd run into a wall, the shimmering blue light holding her back.

"What?" Naja asked, incredulously.

"Can you break through?" Aisling asked.

Lotte pulled her arm back, and then thought better of it… and backed up to have a running start first.

"Whoa whoa whoa, dear Gods no!" Naja yelped, right as Lotte ran fist-first into the barrier, which didn't even budge.

Ow.

Ow ow ow.

"What did you think would happen?" Naja asked.

"Well, it was worth a shot," Aisling said, smirking.

"Aisling, did you think that'd happen?" Naja asked.

Aisling shrugged. "Well, it was magic."

"Maybe I should try it again?" Lotte suggested. Yes, her hand hurt quite a bit, but perhaps if she tried to shoulder past it?

"You… want to try running into a wall again?" Naja asked, staring at Lotte as if she were some rare but particularly ugly flower.

"Just once more, to see whether I can't make it through," Lotte said. "I am pretty strong."

"I refuse. I really, really refuse," Naja said, waving her hands, and then saying. "Let's see if I can make it through. Maybe it's one person only? Aisling, can you get back through?"

Aisling shrugged and walked through the archway without even a hint of the blue sparkling light. Then she walked back, equally untouched. Naja frowned and stepped through, and then looked back at Lotte.

"Oh, well. Maybe only two people can come? But then, wouldn't you have been able to go in? Maybe it has something to do with age? Or perhaps… do you think you'd be okay here?" Naja looked extremely dubious. "On your own? You know that there's something here, something after us, right?"

"I will be fine. I hope you two will be as well," Lotte said, not wanting to be a burden again.

"Please, stay safe," Naja said, her eyes wide.

"I'll try."

******

Despite that, Lotte was more worried about them. There was a feeling like she was being watched, but she saw nothing, not even any odd shadows. It was simply a long, boring wait. She couldn't allow herself to relax, or miss anything. As far as she knew, she didn't, and eventually, Aisling and Naja came through the archway again.

Naja was limping. "Hurt my foot in a trap," she muttered, when Lotte stepped forward. Aisling looked a little tired, and she smelled faintly of sweat as if there'd been running or fighting involved. But neither of them looked nearly as bad as Lotte had feared.

"What happened?"

"There was a maze, and there were traps in it," Aisling said. "Along the way there seemed to be plaques, and drawings, telling the stories of ancient heroes. Half of them were destroyed, but we saw one for the Sepult heroine Claudina, and another for Vespasia, and a few others whose names were defaced. Naja stopped to translate them."

"It was… important information," Naja said, continuing to limp forward. "And we got the blue jewel." She held out her hand, and in it was yet another small gem. They had three of them now, and Lotte hadn't been attacked. "Did anything happen?"

"No, it was quiet," Lotte said.

"You were bored?" Aisling asked.

Lotte said. "No, of course not."

"We'll try to bring a few more monsters for you to fight next time." Aisling waved her hand. "So that's one down. Who's willing to make a bet whether the west wing has a force-field too?"

"I'll bet you a white Pfin they don't," Naja said. "Yes, they're creating pairs, but how are they even supposed to divide us up. Could it be by age? Or species?"

Aisling pursed her lips, looking at Lotte as if trying to see into the depth of her soul. "I'm not sure."

*******

"Guess what you owe me?" Aisling asked, standing in front of a red barrier. "A blood barrier?" She reached out and touched it. Just like the other one, the sparkling light seemed to congregate where she was touching it.

"A White Pfin," Naja muttered to herself.

"What was that? I didn't hear you."

"I owe you a White Pfin," Naja said, with a sigh.

Lotte frowned. So, were none of them able to get through?

"Alright, now you try, Naja."

Naja stepped forward, and the process repeated.

Then Lotte stepped forward and… nothing. She walked straight through the archway. On the other side was a hallway ending in a door.

"Oh, well. Go on ahead, Lotte?" Naja looked nervous. "It just doesn't make sense. What's Lotte have that we don't? What do we have that Lotte doesn't?" Naja's hands rubbed together, as if she were trying to light a fire.

"I have no clue," Aisling said, though her ears were stiff, and twitchy.

"I'll try to get back here as fast as I can," Lotte said. "Please, be safe."

"We should be the ones telling you that. There's two of us, but only one of you," Aisling said. "Just get in and out as fast as you can, but take no unnecessary risks. If you're hurt, there's not going to be anyone to pull you back out of there."

On that uncertain note, Lotte left.

*******

Through the door, things immediately stopped making sense. There were two ways to go, one to the left and one to the right, and Lotte suspected that this was the start of the maze. Except that the wall in front of her had been knocked down. No, torn down, brick by brick, the runes on the wall around the area broken. Lotte, frowning, ducked through it, and found herself in a straight path. She walked forward, and when she turned a corner stopped again.

The wall to the left was covered in arrows, so thick that there was no free space left. Lotte, looking at the pattern of the arrows, decided she'd have to run for it. She sprinted across the area with the arrows only to hear--

Clicks. Clicks, like a crossbow without a bolt.

"What is going on?" Lotte muttered to herself.

A pitfall trap was filled in with dirt, another trap marked with lines where the stone would give way to trap her ankle. Where there were the plaques, or what looked like the start of drawings, someone had spent a good deal of time carving it up until it was unrecognizable, not that Lotte could have read it anyways. The path to wherever she was going was entirely clear, without any maze to navigate at all, since anywhere there was a choice, there was a door knocked through a wall.

At last, she reached what looks like where the gem should be. There was a stone table, and on it an odd looking red pillow. But Lotte's eyes were drawn to the wall to the right, where it looks as if someone had knocked it down and then begun to dig out, going downwards.

Lotte, watching the opening, walked over to the table and noticed… there was nothing on the pillow.

"Hehehe," a ragged voice said. It wasn't Lotte's.

Lotte whipped around, ready to draw and loose an arrow, her heart racing.

"Someone finally arrived. All these years waiting, and finally a man arrives," the voice said.It sounded like a man's voice.

"Who is this?" Lotte asked. "My name is Lotte, and I am a huntswoman."

The voice giggled, hoarse and unhinged, and said, "Sure you are, sonny. And I'm a godling. One second, let me see you with my eyes." There was shuffling, and then a figure stepped out of the darkness of the wall.

He was dressed in rags, with golden hair so dirty and matted it was blond only in places, with a beard that swallowed his face. His bushy hair almost hid how thin he was, but his hands showed it. The man wasn't skeletal, but he did look as if he had been eating just enough to keep going for years and years. Lotte had seen farmers who looked like that, or beggers passing through. The rags themselves stank. Lotte had gotten used to the smell of poop (you had to be on a farm), but the man smelled like rot and death itself. His bright, mad blue eyes took Lotte in. "What a drink of water you are. Tall, blond, and heroic looking. Here to slay the… no, no, I bet that's not it at all."

"Who are you?"

"You can call me Waiz."

"Orphan?" Lotte asked, frowning.

"Well, I am one, sonny. Lotte. I'm also the boy with the gem you need."

He didn't look like a boy. If Lotte was to guess, she'd guess that he was somewhere in his thirties, or perhaps even forties. "What do you want for it?"

"Want? I want to talk with you, brave fool. I've been here this whole time, and if you kill me for it… then you'll have to get back the hard way. My Daddy figured it out, if you die or leave the dungeon, then everything you did is undone, at least unless you do some crazy magic shit. And maybe even then? I'm not sure. It depends. But kill me and things get harder for you."

"I wouldn't kill you!" Lotte said.

"Well, then, so you're here to break down the doors of the prison, are you? As my Father and I were, all those… what year is it?"

"I don't know," Lotte admitted. She knew there were schemes to number all the years, but she didn't see the point. Wasn't it more important to know how many years a Duke had reigned than to combine them all into a number that didn't matter?

"I was ten winters old when I came in here," the man said.

Lotte stared. Decades. He'd been here for decades. "I'm sorry."

"Sorry? There are worse places to live. There's water, and I can grow mushrooms and other delicacies in the soil. By the only God that matters, I am quite blessed. And I get to meet you, you strange… what are you, again, sonny?"

Lotte considered protesting again that she was in fact a girl, but it wasn't as if his insistence would hurt anything. She'd just let him think whatever he liked. That's why she didn't say anything, of course.

"A person," Lotte said, a little baffled. "I don't know what you're talking about?"

"You don't?" Waiz asked, looking at her as if it shocked him. Then he began to creep forward, a grin on his face. "Well then, that's the first step. I need to see just who I have before me." The man moved as if he wasn't used to moving around other people, straight forward and yet slightly cringing. He stared, and reached a filthy hand out to hold Lotte's.

She didn't know what to do. If she attacked him, what would happen? But she didn't want to attack someone who hadn't--

He pulled out a knife, and she shifted away as he slashed her palm. She winced at the bite of the rusty knife, and punched him in a single, smooth motion. He went down, holding the knife above his head, as if he were trying to keep it as far away as possible.

"Fuck, that's an arm," Waiz muttered. Then, louder, he said, "I wasn't going to hurt you, sonny!"

"You slashed me!" Lotte protested, staring at this strange, loathsome and lonely man.

The man frowned. "Yes, but it didn't hurt that much, did it? Big tough guy like you, whining about a lil' ol' cut."

Lotte flushed, unable quite to find anything to say to that.

"This is a test. You'll see in a little bit, what happens…"

Waiz stood up and stumbled over towards the walls, which he had not defaced. At least, he hadn't defaced what was left when the walls had been knocked down at one place. Then carefully, he smeared the dripping knife over the wall.

The runes began to glow, and the glow began to spread, rune by rune, shimmering and seeming to leap like fire from one rune to the next. Lotte stared as the dark room, lit only by a guttering torch in one corner, began to grow brighter than day as it spread.

"Wow," Waiz muttered, staring at him with tears in his eyes. "You did it."

"I… what?" Lotte asked, baffled.

"I can't deny you the gem, not after that." Waiz tossed the knife aside and began digging in his rags. "I had more tests, I had more questions, but what's the point of it?" He giggled a little. "Best get out of your way before I'm run over like a boy jousting with a cart."

Lotte stared at him. "What?"

"You really are confused." He pulled out the red gem, which was almost pink, and walked over to Lotte, holding out his hand. Lotte took it, gripping it tight.

"Yes, I am."

"It is the will of the Gods, if you are confused. I am simply a messenger."

"You should come back with us," Lotte said. "What is there for you, here?"

"Duty. Peace and quiet. I haven't seen another human in fifteen years, and only the one, hehe, little son," Waiz gave a grin that showed off his broken, rotting teeth. "You should run along before nightfall."

Lotte took a step back. "Nightfall?"

"Isn't that what sons--"

Suns?

"Are afraid of?"

"I don't know," Lotte said, her heart beating rapidly. Something about the man's tone unnerved her, and so did the runes in a way they hadn't before they started glowing. The light seemed like it was dancing, and Lotte could no more understand them now than she could before.

"You are afraid."

Lotte admitted, "Yes. I'm just not sure what."

"Good. Be afraid of everyone. And everything," Waiz said. "It'd make sense."

"I'm going to leave now," Lotte said, her voice trembling. She needed to get out of here.

His mad, giggling laughter followed her as she ran back.

******

The glowing ended some dozen feet from the archway, so there was no way that either of the other two saw it. Lotte had no idea what any of this meant, and she preferred not to think of it as she stepped through.

"Oh! You're hurt!" Naja said, rushing over, eyes glued to her hand.

"That was fast. Did you get it, or did something stop you?" Aisling asked.

Lotte opened her uninjured hand as Naja began tutting over the wound.

The gem gleamed.

"A h-aon, a dha, a tri, a ceithir," Aisling counted out, aloud, with a satisfied smile. "We have gotten it. Was it difficult?"

"I…"

What could Lotte say? That she had somehow made the walls glow? That there was some madman who'd helped him through the maze?

"Not that difficult," Lotte muttered.

Aisling looked at her with worried suspicion, but Naja was too busy fussing, as they made their way up to the fireplace.

It took a few minutes to bandage Lotte's hand up as well as Naja wanted, and then they stood in front of the fireplace.

"The only question now is… what order do we put in what we've found?"

Lotte felt as if that was far from the only question.

But What Do They Do?

[] Aisling believes that it might be a journey. Thus, they should put it in order in which they gained it. It was clear that the dungeon itself was in some way watching… or it feels like it. But at the same time, how is that balanced?
[] Naja has two ideas, the first of which is to place the top and bottom at the same time, then the left and right at the same time. After all, each is a balanced, co-equal pair, so they should all connect.
[] Ooor, Naja thinks, it could have to do with all four in balance, in which case she and someone else should put all of them at once.
[] Write-in.

******

A/N: There is a right and wrong and very wrong answer.
 
This pretty much solves it.

"'I believe that the key is balance. The East and the West are two halves of what the Sepult viewed as a single harmonious whole. I can go down neither pathway, nor can any single being go down both, at least I believe so. They were narrow-minded fools, but the Sepult believed in balance. Each half of the three (or is it four) has a parallel. Imbalance leads to ruin, ash, and fire. Imbalance will kill--No more from lack of space. If I find something else to write on, I will conclude.'"

[X] Naja has two ideas, the first of which is to place the top and bottom at the same time, then the left and right at the same time. After all, each is a balanced, co-equal pair, so they should all connect.

A little fallen sun?
A dawn star plucked from the sky.
This doesn't make any sense.

Oh, look, a haiku. Edit: lol, I don't know how to count.
Now it's a haiku.

Well. That would explain why the angry stars didn't hurt Lotte, since he's one of them.
 
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I'm leaning toward the second as well. It could maybe be the third, if it's Lotte and one of the girls, but I'm not sure. Definitely not the first though.

Maybe we should write in to tell them about the man and how he warned Lotte to be gone by nightfall?
 
[X] Naja has two ideas, the first of which is to place the top and bottom at the same time, then the left and right at the same time. After all, each is a balanced, co-equal pair, so they should all connect.
 
I feel like stones in order is the wrong way, as we could have done it in any order.

As for the balance part, we could try both?

Lotte puts the stones in from red barrier and telescope room, as those were the ones that didn't hurt him, Naja puts in the other stones from the rooms that accepted her, and do it in the way of balanced pairs so Top+bot / E+W together.
 
[X] Ooor, Naja thinks, it could have to do with all four in balance, in which case she and someone else should put all of them at once.

Seems to me one pair must be done by a woman, one pair by a man, and to balance both must happen together(sex metaphor? :p)
 
Huh
East and West probably did discriminate by gender

Which means the writer of the notes was non-binary, I guess?
 
I feel like stones in order is the wrong way, as we could have done it in any order.

As for the balance part, we could try both?

Lotte puts the stones in from red barrier and telescope room, as those were the ones that didn't hurt him, Naja puts in the other stones from the rooms that accepted her, and do it in the way of balanced pairs so Top+bot / E+W together.

I will say that Aisling's response to that would be that this dungeon is clearly alive, and might well have been noting in some mystical way the order they were going.

In fact, if the dungeon is in some way aware of their actions, then what they did and how they did it matters as much to the solution as anything else.
 
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[X] Ooor, Naja thinks, it could have to do with all four in balance, in which case she and someone else should put all of them at once.
 
[X] Naja has two ideas, the first of which is to place the top and bottom at the same time, then the left and right at the same time. After all, each is a balanced, co-equal pair, so they should all connect.

Unless someone can really point towards 3.
 
Oh? Penny for your thoughts?

East and West represent male and female beginnings.
Top and Bottom represent sexual positions mind and body respectively.
Each has an antithesis, two halves of a harmonious whole, and together these four elements represent the world, I guess.

Ah, fuck.
[X] Ooor, Naja thinks, it could have to do with all four in balance, in which case she and someone else should put all of them at once.

There will be some connotations about male and body and female and mind halves, won't there.
Or something.
Lotte solved the dungeon puzzle by the threat of violence, while the top puzzle could be only solved by Aisling and Naja's application of mind and willpower.

Eh, if it blows up, I guess I am mistaken.

Cookie if anyone gets the reference and why it's relevant, except for Laur.

Venus.
 
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The journey vote is obviously terrible, but I can see arguments for both of the other options. I guess I'll just pick one and hope for the best!

[X] Naja has two ideas, the first of which is to place the top and bottom at the same time, then the left and right at the same time. After all, each is a balanced, co-equal pair, so they should all connect.
 
The journey vote is obviously terrible, but I can see arguments for both of the other options. I guess I'll just pick one and hope for the best!

[X] Naja has two ideas, the first of which is to place the top and bottom at the same time, then the left and right at the same time. After all, each is a balanced, co-equal pair, so they should all connect.

Oh? Why? I was actually trying to make all three pretty plausible options.
 
It's completely unlike the other two votes. Both of Naja's suggestions are somewhat related to the question of balance, whereas Aisling's idea tosses it out the window.

Well, that is true. Her idea of, in the following order, Top, Bottom, East, and then West does throw out the idea of balance in favor of the "Something is fucking watching us" concept.
 
Well, that is true. Her idea of, in the following order, Top, Bottom, East, and then West does throw out the idea of balance in favor of the "Something is fucking watching us" concept.

Of course something is watching them.

Duh, they've met a statue with a god shard locked in it. The whole palace could be alive or under the god's watchful eye or something.

Doesn't mean what's watching them wants them to succeed or indeed follow any specific path that doesn't end in them dying horribly.

"Imbalance will lead to ruin, ash and fire" is a strong motivator to try and achieve balance tho.
 
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