Private Tales Into The Wilds

[Jorg]

"Ah." Jorg said suddenly, dropping himself down onto the ground and crinkling his nose slightly.

He could smell the scent of burnt oil, but there was more underneath the steps still. Lips thinned for a moment, and he glanced over at Gabrielle. A shrug rolled over his shoulders.

"This is your Arena." He said quietly. "I'm not exactly one for puzzles."

Nor magic. Everything that was going on around them seemed to be in her wheelhouse, not his own. It was a fact that visibly frustrated him, his teeth gritting slightly as he looked up the staircase. "I could try to run it."

He suggested quietly.

 

[Gabrielle Selana]

Gabby shook her head. "You'd never make it. And even if you somehow managed it, that wouldn't help me any." It was highly unlikely that there was just an off switch at the top of the staircase. There had to be someway to make it up the stairs.

Sitting down the engineer opened her pack, then rummaged through for a moment or so until she pulled free her pair of goggles and slipped them over her face. With a few adjustments along the ocular lenses she proceeded to inspect both the walls and the floor of the staircase both extremely carefully, and painstakingly slow.

What she was looking for was differences in the height between the stones that made up the stairs and the walls. Indentations or concaves in the work might indicate where pressure plates lifted ever so slightly from the natural makeup of the stone, or where potential openings might be in which the eruption of flames might trigger.

With the goggles able to magnify her eyesight substantially, she spotted a few areas in the stonework that seemed out of place. With a very gentle motion of her hand, felt the differences in height.

"Gotcha." With great care she stepped onto the staircase to the right, avoiding the switch. "Follow me, and be very careful or we're as good as dead."

 

[Jorg]

"Okay." Jorg said, frowning slightly at the odd contraption that she'd pulled over her face. He had absolutely no idea what it was, but he decided that now probably wasn't a very good time to ask about it either.

As she moved onto the first step Jorg waited behind her, watching where she placed her feet carefully. When she took another step he followed behind her, carefully moving in the exact same position she did.

This was how they ascended the staircase. It was painfully, agonizingly slow. Fifteen minutes passed, then twenty as they slowly made their way up the staircase. Each time Gabby moved Jorg stepped up behind her, and each time he took careful measure to set exactly where she did.

It was only after nearly half an hour that they reached a massive open platform, what Jorg assumed to be the first floor of the tower. "The scent of oil is gone."

He commented quietly, though that hardly meant the traps were gone.

 

[Gabrielle Selana]

Gabrielle pulled free the goggles from her face, allowing them to rest atop her head for now. Her index finger and thumb pinched her nose and rubbed between her eyes for a moment, exhaling a sigh of relief. It would have been so much easier had she been able to cast magic here. It was still very unsettling to her that she couldn't so much as feel her abilities. It was as if she was missing a part of her soul.

This corridor was similar to the one below, long, though each door had a torch assigned to it. Each torch was already lit, making the expanse of hallway visible throughout. Six doors on the left, six on the right. At the far end of the corridor where Gabby expected to find another staircase leading up she instead found nothing but a wall.

"It makes no sense. This spire is enormous. There has to be a way further up."

She looked to the doors, each one looked similar to the other, though she was hesitant to simply swing one open to find out what was behind them. Quietly she suggested to Jorg, "As you said, you're a werewolf. So you have better hearing, right? Put your ears up against one of these doors and tell me if you hear anything inside."

 

[Jorg]

Jorg blinked for a second, wondering what the hell that would accomplish, but he decided to simply follow the directions. "Alright."

There was something decidedly uncomfortable about all of this. He didn't really understand places like this. He didn't have the base of knowledge to even try to figure them out. It made him...weary, and as he walked towards the first door he couldn't help but frown.

When he placed his ears against it, he heard nothing.

The same went for the next three.

It was only on the fourth that he heard something, and he quickly called Gabby over. "There's...clicking."

He frowned, not quiet sure how to put it into words.

"Like metal rubbing against itself, and then slowly locking into place before continuing on." Jorg did not know how else to describe it, but the rhythmic clanking and whirring of metal was more than obvious to him.

 

[Gabrielle Selana]

As Jorg moved along the corridor and pressed his body against each of the doors to listen for any noise coming from within Gabby remained watching both the stairs they had come from as well as the other doors just in case any other surprises were to come greet them.

Thankfully no such thing happened and Jorg finally heard something from within one of the rooms that might give them a way out. It was likely the other rooms were in some way trapped, similar to how the stairs had been. Gabby wasn't keen on discovering if that intuition was accurate however, if what Jorg had heard proved to be a way up.

She nodded, and then waited for him to open the door. As he did it was less of a room and more of an access point. What looked to be an iron cage, bars along all sides and an opening to step through. A lift. She smiled,

"Nice work." She said, stepping inside. "It'll take us up."

 

[Jorg]

Jorg blinked at the strange contraption. He watched wearily as she moved into it without so much as a thought, her confidence clearly worrying him.

This place had already tried to kill them more than once, not to mention it was likely the reason there was a horde of undead on the outside that likely also came from here. After a moment he frowned, stepping in after her with his fingers tightening slightly.

He could almost feel the Wolf flattening it's ears in his head.

"I've got a bad feeling about this." Jorg said quietly.

Just as he said the words the door to the 'lift' suddenly closed automatically in front of him. Jorg practically jumped back, half reaching for his sword as he expected something to jump out at them.

 

[Gabrielle Selana]

Gabby had built a lift or two for the overly wealthy back in Elbion. Those were the folks who had more coin than they could spend in a lifetime and just wanted frivolous things simply for the right to claim having them. It was an expenditure race game the wealthy played.

It was apparent Jorg had never seen one before, based on his fear of it. Though the puzzling aspect was that the doors closed by themselves. This was not something typical, though, none of this place was typical in any sort of way. She simply accepted it as some sort of magic, given the circumstances.

Still, Jorg was right. This place was a death trap, and they were climbing deeper and deeper into it.

"Yeah." She replied. There was no denying it.

The gears clicked and clattered as the lift rose what she estimated to be about thirty feet before coming to a stop. The levers locked into place and the door itself opened into a large, open room that smelled of death itself. All around were those same green torches that dimly lit the surroundings. Against one wall was a large expanse of shelves covered in ancient texts, some so rotted that they could no longer be legible. Across the way were a number of benches, some for alchemy, some stored a vast quantity of vials all of varying colors and substance.

Others....looked to be for torture.

At the center of the room was a throne made entirely out of bone. What kind of bone though was difficult to discern, and frankly irrelevant given the statement it sent.

More importantly was what sat in the throne. A skeletal being with sunken, glowing yellow eyes.

 

[Jorg]

The ring of Jorg's sword was almost instant as soon as he saw the Skeletal being in the throne.

Every hair on his body stood up, goosebumps spread across his flesh, and a low growl crept from his throat as the wolf in the back of his head snarled at whatever sat in the middle of the room. Fingers grasped the hilt of his Elven sword tightly. "See?"

He said quietly.

"Bad feeling." A lich? Jorg had seen one before, though it had taken the entire Band to kill the damned thing.

He hoped that wouldn't be the case here, hoped that the corpse would just be a pupped leftover to run some sort of magic. It did not move as Jorg and Gabby stood in place, never shifting from the throne nor turning to peer a them.

The Wolf in his head was screaming, raging. It did not like this. "Lich?"

Would she even know?

 

[Gabrielle Selana]

Gabby peered towards the sitting abomination from the lift. It hadn't moved since the doors opened. Hadn't made a sound. The eyes stared forward, unyielding, paying them no heed. The redhead reached forward and placed her hand on Jorg's sword, lightly pushing it downwards.

She had never seen a Lich before, heard of them sure, but they were terrible, frightening things by all accounts of what she was told. She presumed if that were the case here it would have eagerly welcomed them to their death, or something akin to that.

"I....Don't think so." She said in a hushed whisper. "I don't think it's alive." For lack of a better term. given their environment. "But I don't think we're safe either." This was too conveniently laid out to simply be a deterrent. The vials looked recent, not dusty, nor were the contents dried up. This ancient place was in use, but by what?

"This is most assuredly another trap. Be very careful moving about."

Gabrielle stepped out of the lift, hazel eyes cautiously watching the skeleton for any sign of change. Along the wall she noticed engravings that spanned the room, written in a language she could neither read nor identify. Without touching anything she pointed and quietly gestured to Jorg. "Do you recognize any of this?"

 

[Jorg]

Jorg lowered the sword, though he outright refused to sheath it. The Skeleton might not have been moving at the moment, but that didn't mean it wasn't about to hop up and start attacking whatever the hell was nearby.

Right now that was Jorg and Gabrielle. "I..."

For the first time the mercenary dragged his gaze away from the Skeleton and towards some of the other things in the room. It was very clearly a laboratory of some sort. Dozens of vials and papers were scattered everywhere, and it was clear someone had created all of this.

"It looks like a wizards lab." There was one in the Keep at Mallian, though it was less...grand than this. "The Language is foreign to me."

He motioned to the Runes. "Though that."

Jorg motioned towards a table situated a few dozen paces behind the throne. "Looks very much like a sacrificial altar."

 

[Gabrielle Selana]

Gabrielle felt her throat close somewhat upon hearing the words sacrificial altar.

Turning towards where Jorg motioned she caught sight of the table, complete with inscriptions. She wondered if they were better off fighting the undead outside than whatever this was they had gotten themselves into.

Slowly she took several steps into the room as the entryway opened into the much larger room proper. Kneeling on one leg she looked closer at the skeleton. It seemed as though it hadn't been touched in ages. Dust accumulated on and around it and the throne. The eyes, though bright as the sun, made no movements, instead staring straight ahead.

Carefully she turned, tracing the gaze of the skeleton towards the wall it was looking at. What she saw was a circular engraving, with multiple pointed lines angled toward the center. To get a closer look she stood and walked to the wall. Gabby looked toward Jorg, placing her hand against the center of the inscription while she spoke.

"It's strange that this room seems both completely abandoned while also recently made use of."

 

[Jorg]

"I really wouldn't touch anything in here." Jorg said softly, watching as Gabby reached out and placed her hand in the center of an inscription.

To him it seemed like this whole place was somehow still active and alive.

She was entirely right in her assumption that someone seemed to have been here, and after a moment of hefting the sword in his hand Jorg considered for a moment. "There might be..."

Lips shut, and instead he closed his eyes and he smelled the air.

There was a scent in the air. His own, Gabby's, the Skeletons, and then...then something else. His eyes snapped open. "There's someone else here."

Or something.

 

[Gabrielle Selana]

She hadn't even noticed that her hand was against the wall. It just went there, almost instinctively, or perhaps compelled. There was something about that skeleton, the way it looked so fixated on the inscription. When Jorg mentioned it she quickly blinked and pulled her hand away, looking back towards the skeleton once more before focusing her attention on what Jorg was saying.

"Someone else?" She asked skeptically, eyes glancing around the room. "Other than our friend here?"

She saw nobody. There wasn't exactly anywhere for someone to hide either. Eyes danced from the altar to the benches, to the bookshelves, throne, and walls. Other than some torn tapestries it didn't look like there was anything they missed.

"Are you sure?"

 

[Jorg]

Jorg looked around in paranoia, his gaze flickering from place to place as he tried to pinpoint just where the damned thing was. Yellow began to bleed into his eyes as his focus drifted from place to place, frustration growing.

"I can smell it." He said quietly, taking a step backwards and moving a little bit closer to her.

His head whipped around slowly, the scent growing a little bit stronger as he came closer to Gabrielle. Then suddenly he whirled around and grabbed her, shoving her to the side. Just as he did something within the air seemed to flicker.

It was an odd sort of camoflauge, something that bent the air. It broke as it suddenly lashed out, long claws, pale skin, and sharp teeth revealing themselves from nothingness.

 

[Gabrielle Selana]

You can sme?--Right...Werewolf.

For a while she had forgotten him as such. There were more immediate problems to deal with than that. Before Gabby had an opportunity to respond she was suddenly pushed away from the wall, stumbling a few steps from the force of the sudden momentum before regaining composure.

Looking back Jorg was right, from almost out of nowhere a heinous looking creature appeared, human like, but incredibly old, as pale as the dust that collected on the skeleton. Its face was filled with malice, its appearance unkempt. It moved with a sense of hunger in its eyes.

"What is that thing!?" She shouted.

Instinctively her hand rose in a bid to cast a spell. The sapphire glow of Gabby's gauntlet sprang to life, a small burst of hope surged through her, though only for a moment before once again being snuffed out. She cursed, reaching for the small blade at her side, though for all the good it might do her...

 

[Jorg]

"THING?"​

The creatures voice boomed out in the central hall, Jorg immediately took a step back, raising his sword into a guarded position and placing himself between Gabby and the creature.

"YOU TRAVEL WITH THIS BEAST AND CALL ME A THING?!"​

Jorg could feel the wolf inside of his head go mad with rage. It grasped it's claws around the gilded cage in his skull, shaking it violently and screeching in his head. The sound was grating, piercing. It made him want to puke.

Fingers tightened on his sword even as more yellow suddenly bled into his eyes. Whatever this thing was it was clear the Wolf didn't like it. A deep seeded hatred pouring from the beast.

"You should not be here. They should have stopped you."​

The monster growled, lashing one of it's claws in an accusatory point.

 

[Gabrielle Selana]

Gabby recoiled a bit from the thunderous boom that was this creature's voice. Though to be fair, it wasn't exactly wrong in her mind. Jorg had confessed to being a werewolf, calling himself a monster no less. But right now, Jorg wasn't the one running her through a gauntlet of death traps, so points went to him there.

In hindsight, they shouldn't have come here, but the idea that this creature might let them just stroll out without a fight was likely rather slim, given the condition of their skeleton friend sitting on the throne just a few paces away.

Standing behind Jorg of course she couldn't see the change beginning to happen in his eyes. She also could not cast a lick of magic. This put her in a really uncomfortable position, one that she hoped there was some way out of.

Perhaps it could be reasoned with? Unlikely, but words were all she had at the moment. And perhaps that could delay the creature enough for her to come up with some kind of plan.

"I'm an artifact researcher. I had only intended to study what appeared to be ruins here. It was not my intention to disturb ---" She gestured around herself, "whatever this is."

Would this thing even care?

 

[Jorg]

The creature seemed to snap it's head, turning slightly as if it didn't quite see where Gabby was speaking from.

A frown touched Jorg's face, though he didn't quite understand it. The monster seemed to stalk to the left, wandering in slow steps as it's head cocked from side to side, listening to the Engineers words like a predator trying to find it's prey.

"This place is MINE!"​

The voice boomed out again.

"YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE COME HERE!"​

As it screamed the monster suddenly rushed forward. It moved faster than anything Jorg had ever seen, dashing the distance between the two of them in a single heartbeat. His sword barely came up in time as it slashed it's claws, clearly aiming for Gabby and not for Jorg.

Blood still flickered from his arm as the creatures claws made it passed his blade. Yellow shot through his eyes, and then Jorg noticed it's teeth. "VAMPIRE!"

He shouted at Gabby, pushing the creature back and glancing at her for a moment.

"Stay back!" The words came as his skin began to rip from his flesh, and a howl echoed from his throat.

 

[Gabrielle Selana]

It moved faster than she could imagine. Stories told to children to frighten them did this creature no justice. Before her eyes could flicker in a fraction of a second to blink the vampire had already moved and lashed out. When Gabby had adjusted to the sight and came to focus she saw the trickle of blood running down Jorg's arm.

So talking isn't an option.

She grit her teeth and backed away behind Jorg's cover. What could she do here? This thing was faster than her, it was stronger, older. It had every advantage to its name. She had a small dagger and no magic to call on to help Jorg. What were Vampires vulnerable to? Were those stories just myth? An herb? Stakes to the heart? Fire? Daylight? Iron? Steel?

The redhead looked around the room. There wasn't much, but there were vials on one of the tables. Perhaps something in one of them could help. Trouble was if she made a break for it would it be more interested in her or Jorg?

There was little time to decide. Gabrielle grabbed broke into a sprint towards the glowing vials, hoping Jorg could in some way keep the creature's attention long enough for her to make it.

 

[Jorg]

The Vampire's claws clashed against his sword, it's strength throwing the blade from Jorg's hand and sending it whirling into the nearby wall.

Jorg tore at his own skin, the blade forgotten as the Wolf came forth.

As the howl tore through the massive room the Vampire seemed to hesitate for a second, it's head whirling about as if it could not quite see where the noise was coming from. The crack of bones breaking and reassembling rang out, the sickening sounds of Jorg's transformation permeating the room.

Flesh was ripped off, and fur was revealed beneath as the Wolf tore into reality.

A low growl escaped his throat, the Vampire letting out a screech as it jumped forward.

The two monsters clashed in the air, claws cutting, teeth biting. They fell into one of the nearby tables, smashing through the ornate stone and sending splinters of glass flying in all direction. Utter and complete chaos erupted as the two monsters fought.

 

[Gabrielle Selana]

Gabby heard the clatter of blade and claws from behind, though she did not look back as she ran. The sound of beast against beast was terrifying, like a nightmare from her childhood. Would, could Jorg even differentiate between her and the vampire once he had lost all connection to his human self? Was she now in twice the danger as before?

If one killed the other, was she still doomed?

The question burned in her mind as she reached the workbench, fingers tracing along the vials of vibrant blues, yellows, reds, and greens. Were these effective on contact? Did they need to be consumed? Were they poisonous or acidic or enhancing agents? Were they magical by nature or touched by magic? Were they simply based on chemistry?

She had no answers and no time to research or test such things.

No time at all.

The engineer grabbed two of the yellow looking vials and hurled them together with all of the force and might she could muster at the vampire's back. There was no telling what might happen if she hit one, or both of them.

 

[Jorg]

The Wolf was losing the fight.

It had never fought a foe like the Vampire before, never even come close. The thing was strong, fast, and seemed to weave around the slower lumbering movements of the Wolf like it held no bones at all. Every swipe of a claw was dodged, every snap of the jaw was left behind.

The Wolf simply couldn't keep up, flailing, thrashing, and then Gabrielle threw the vials.

An odd plume erupted, for a few seconds, bursting into a cloud before there was a sudden snap and then an hiss of acid striking skin.

The Vampire seemed to straighten, a screech bursting from it's maw as it reached back and did it's best to pull some of the liquid from it's back. The Wolf saw this, and then took it's opportunity.

With a powerful leap Jorg jumped forward, claw grasping at the Vampire and hurling it to the ground.

 

[Gabrielle Selana]

Gabrielle watched as the liquid took its effect, splashing onto the ancient flesh of the vampire before eating away at it. Clearly it was not happy with the effects if any indication was to be made by the sound of its ear piercing screech.

She kept her distance from the two while she considered what to do next, back against the bench behind her. The engineer knew she was outmatched in every way and if Jorg turned on her when approaching there was little she could do to protect herself. It was impossible for Gabrielle to tell where Jorg the human resided and Jorg the monster began. He was more beast than man now, and whether or not he retained any measure of humanity inside him was something she could hardly speculate.

The only weapons she had were those vials, and she still had no idea what the other colors did.

There also weren't a great many left.

Cautiously watching both Jorg and the Vampire Gabrielle drew her blade and slowly began to approach, keen on making an attempt to stab it through the heart.

 

[Jorg]

Jorg slashed, bit, and tore at the monster on the ground. He could feel flesh strip away, brackish blood between his teeth.

The Wolf was raging, bashing grasping, taking whatever it could from the monster that lay on the ground in front of him. His claws dug deep into the beast, rushing through and splattering black blood on the floor before the Vampire got it's bearings.

"NO! I WILL NOT DIE!"​

It's voice carried through the room like a thunderous boom. A protest of cowardice, of fear truly made manifest as it suddenly dug in it's heels and pressed against the Werewolf atop it. The Vampire Lord sent Jorg flying, throwing the Werewolf and tossing him into one of the stone walls.

As soon as Jorg was free the vampire crawled to it's feet. Black blood coated it's entire body, wounds scouring it's flesh as it turned towards the stunned Wolf and directly away from Gabrielle.

"YOU SHALL DIE, BEAST!"​

The monster shouted as it stalked towards Jorg, back still turned to Gabby.