Quest Loot Runners #3 The Wind and the Willow

[Myrcella Bochanan]

ISLAND 3: PANDARANN/WILLOW

Myrcella found it odd that therewas no mention of where to take the item. "Maybe it's a portal stone?" Given the high number of portal stones being discovered lately, that wasn't an entirely bad assumption to make.

She held onto Richard Henry the Eighth as the wind threatened to topple them over, hiding her face into his neck until they were clear. Once she felt safer, she looked up to him again. "Alright. When the time comes, we'll figure it out..." The two were just winging it during this entire venture, never really planning ahead so much as reacting to what was happening to them at any given moment. Hopefully their luck wuld turn for the better soon.

 

[Richard Henry the Eighth]

ISLAND 3: PANDARANN/WILLOW

Richard nodded as he kissed Myrcella Bochanan ’s forehead. “Indeed we will,” he smiled at her. They’ve through a lot in just a few days, if there’s one thing that can be counted on, it was their resolve.

“But I’m not sure,” Richard said as he continued to get closer towards the Temple. “Portal Stones are very rare! It took thousands of years for the first portal stone to be-“

The Bard Knight felt a violent rumble causing him to nearly drop Myrcella. “Oh no,”Richard felt a sudden chill go down his spine as he slowly turned around to see the stone bridge beginning to collapse. The destruction was heading right towards them.

“we gotta run!” Richard said sprinting towards the temple at a breakneck pace.

 

[Kikwi]

Island 3: Panarann/Willow
Smiling One

Kikwi wasn't quite sure what he was looking at. The Pandarann had been furious with them and had even begun some sort of magical attack. The venom from the centipede had only momentarily stunned the second beast, and he and Willis were dangerously outsized.

Kikwi had never known his friend to shy from a fight. Indeed, he often seemed to seek them out. This time, however, he did something very strange. His body jerked into an unusual shape that seemed to give the Pandarann some pause.

Did the symbol for peace work? Kikwi looked at Willis, then to the Pandarann, then back to Willis. Not knowing what else to do, he awkwardly adopted the pose himself.

 

[Myrcella Bochanan]

ISLAND 3: PANDARANN/WILLOW

Myrcella wasn't so sure that portal stones were so rare. Bith herself and Richard Henry the Eighth had found two of them within the past week.

Yet just as she was about to say as much, Richard interrupted himself. The sounds of cracking stones caused a chill to go down her spine and her body froze. She gasped as he turned, seeing the bridge begin to crumble and fall in the distance. And it was getting closer.

Not bothering to correct him as she couldn't run at all, Myrcella held onto him tightly as he ran in an attempt to outrun the destruction. With his gait she was bounced up and down, so her vision wasn't clear as she tried to see if they could make it. Finally she shut her eyes. She didn't want to see them fall.

 

[Richard Henry the Eighth]

ISLAND 3: PANDARANN/WILLOW

"Hang on Myrcella!" Richard said as more of the stone bridge began to collapse behind them. For a brief moment Richard realized that Myrcella Bochanan couldn't run even though he just told to do so. A small smile formed on his lips as he continued to rush towards the Temple they were almost there.....

However the floor began to crumble beneath Richard's feet causing him to sink. "Damn!" They were inches away from the entrance. Thinking quickly, Richard tossed Mrycella on to the soft grass he began to fall into the abyss below.

 

[Myrcella Bochanan]

ISLAND 3: PANDARANN/WILLOW

Hang on. That was all that she could do. Myrcella did just that, holding onto Richard Henry the Eighth with all her might.

But then she felt it as the bridge gave way. That sinking feeling as they dropped a few inches caused her to shriek. Her grip loosened as Richard shifted her around and it wasn't until she was thrown onto the grass that she realized what was happening....

Myrcella rolled with the momentum, her broken ankle slamming to the ground, sending sharp pains up her leg that felt like lightening. And as she stopped she looked up, hoping to see her betrothed next to her. But he wasn't there...

"RICHAAAAARD!!"

She rolled over onto her stomach and dragged herself along the grass to the edge, tears streaming down as she searched for signs of him. Yet all that she could see was mist....

...A rolling mist that swallowed him up like a hungry beast.

"RICHAAAAAAAARD!!!" Her voice didn't even echo, for it too was swallowed up.

Tears clouded her vision as she lay there, looking and listening for any sign of him.

 

[Richard Henry the Eighth]

ISLAND 3: PANDARANN/WILLOW

Just then, two lumbering Pandaarans came out from the temple hearing Myrcella Bochanan's screaming. Their shoulders, knees and chest were covered in thick oaken armor and each of them wielding spears. The saw the young girl looking down at the cliff. The two Panaarans stared at the collapsed bridge in shock of what just happened:

命运之桥！

Clenching their weapons, the two Pandas slowly approached the blond girl:

你对这座桥做了什么?!

One of them shouted in their native tongue

回答！

 

[Myrcella Bochanan]

ISLAND 3: PANDARANN/WILLOW

The sounds of the foreign language caught her attention first. Myrcella turned to look and gasped at the two armoured Pandaraans moving towards her. They looked angry, but it wasn't as though she could tell the difference.

They toward over her and it was in that moment that she felt small and insignificant. And so she couldn't find her voice. Only squeaks of sound managed to come out. Instead she merely pointed down into the mist and tried to act out the ordeal with her hands and arms as she sat up, her eyes pleading with them for help. But whether or not they could understand her or just wanted to eat her, she didn't know.

Myrcella's life could be over, just as it appeared that Richard Henry the Eighth 's seemed to be. And the sad part was that no one would ever know.

 

[Richard Henry the Eighth]

ISLAND 3: PANDARANN/WILLOW

When Myrcella Bochanan was trying to plead the Pandaraans for help it looked rather strange to the two of them to see a squeaking blond girl acting out their situation. To them it looked like she was performing hand signs for a ritual. Many monks from the Temples were infamous for causing tsunami's and earthquakes during their war against the Pandaraans.

Both of them began to roar with one of them beating his chest with his fist:

包将摆脱我们的热渴通过你的血液，恶魔！

The two of them began to approach the woman with their spears pointed.

 

[Myrcella Bochanan]

ISLAND 3: PANDARANN/WILLOW

Myrcella covered her ears as the roar came. It was loud and gutteral. And still she had no idea of what they were shouting at her.

Watching them approach approach with their spears directed at her, she just imagined them stabbing her to death. How would that feel? Worse than her broken ankle? Or would it all happen so suddenly that she'd blink out of existence?

Myrcella moved slowly as she got to her feet, wincing as she put a little pressure on the injured one. Her tattered dress fluttered in the wind as though it had a life of it's own. She wanted to step back and fall, to be swallowed by the mist like Richard Henry the Eighth was. But her fear as they got closer to her froze her in place. Her eyes cast downwards as tears freely fell on her cheeks.

"I just wanted us to go home..."

 

[Richard Henry the Eighth]

ISLAND 3: PANDARANN/WILLOW

杀死女巫！

The Pandaarans were getting closer to the girl with one leg, their spears flashing. They were cautious around the woman for they felt that she had the power of an Elemental Monk.

这座桥有几千年的历史!

你毁了它！

There were other ways off this mountain but the bridge of destiny was built by the Pandaarans thousands of years ago. It acted as the main link between the ancient sword and the other mountains, years of their ancestors work crumbled into dust. The Pandaraans got close to the girl and stood over her.

死亡！

One of the Pandaarans raised his paw at the girl.

 

[Myrcella Bochanan]

ISLAND 3: PANDARANN/WILLOW

Again the shouted, speaking words that she didn't understand. Yet they didn't seem to understand her either.

As the Pandarann's moved closer, Myrcella's heart pounded in her chest, almost feeling as though it was rising to her throat. Her eyes were drawn to the spears and she wished that she could run or for Richard Henry the Eighth to whisk her away to safety. But he was gone...

The Pandarann took a swing with his massive paw and out of instinct Myrcella had ducked. Yet the sudden shift caused her to lose her balance as she was too close to the edge. She screamed as she fell, her arms reaching upwards while the Pandaranns and the cliff edge moved further and further out of reach until the mist swallowed her too.

Then all that she saw was whiteness, all that she felt was a sudden drop in temperature, and then she lost consciousness.....


***************************************

The Pandaranns watched the girl fall to her doom, disappearing in the mist. After a moment they turned and headed back inside of the Temple.

*****************************************


The mist surrounding the islands was more than it seemed. The wizards of the ages deemed it to be so. It protected the islands and their secrets, yet it had a consciousness of it's own too, as well as certain abilities.

Richard and Myrcella were indeed swallowed by the mists, but it wasn't to hide their deaths from view. It was to hide them from death that surely awaited them at the hands of the Pandaranns. The mist had used it's own water vapours to seep into the cracks of the stone bridge. Then it turned it to ice, expanding the vapour to widen the cracks and weaken the bridge. The mortar was unable to support the heavy stonework and so it collapsed. Of course the mist didn't expect Richard to throw Myrcella into the Pandarann's path, but that desperate act only justified it's actions all the more.

Manipulating the air currents and it's vapours more, the mist created a vortex of snow that caught the two and held them suspended in the air. After a bit of time and redirection of it's energies, the mist rose, bringing the two humans along with it, the vortex within hiding them from view within itself. It rose up over the Temple and deposited them on it's roof, before continuing it's trek down the other side.

In magic, it is said that through sacrifice one gains a reward. To sacrifice one's own self for the sake of another deserves the greatest reward; a second chance.

With the mist cleared, the sun shone brightly on the pairs' bodies, warming them up so that they could awaken....

 

[Richard Henry the Eighth]

ISLAND 3: PANDARANN/WILLOW

Richard Henry slowly woke up half expecting his bones to be broken but he immediately shot up looked around. It looked like he was in an unfamiliar room, was he in the afterlife? Did the Gods send him favor? After all his last act was saving his love Myrcella Bochanan hopefully she found a way out. Except Richard saw the unfamiliar symbols that he and Myrcella passed by and there looked to be a gong along with statues of the same people in different fighting stances.

The Bard Knight then found Myrcella sprawled out in the middle of the floor. "Myrcella!" Richard ran towards the young girl who was sleeping soundly and gently shook her shoulders. "Myrcella!" Richard said. "Are you okay?! Myrcella!"

 

[Smiling One]

ISLAND 3: PANDARANN/WILLOW

Now Kikwi was joining in on the dabbing ritual, the more the merrier Willis guessed. The two of them continued the dabbing ritual. The two Pandaraans were dumbfounded in what there are seeing. One of them motioned for the other to just kill them, while the other smirked. "I think it's working Kikwi!" Willis said continuing to dab. "Keep dabbing."

让他们继续成为傻瓜。然后，我们将解散他们，一旦他们完成。

The Pandarann seemed to be amused if anything. Willis wished he knew what they were talking about, but he had a good feeling that they were getting the message.

 

[Myrcella Bochanan]

ISLAND 3: PANDARANN/WILLOW

Home.

Myrcella drempt of being home. She was in her bed, propped up against the softest of pillows and surrounded by the most comfortable down duvets imaginable. Trays of decident treats sat on a cart. A secondary one held teas and hot cocoa. It was bliss!

And then there was Richard Henry the Eighth . He approached her and stared into her eyes, taking hold of her shoulders and--

Shook her awake? No! Her bed, all that food, everything disappeared. Reality kicked in, memories of their tragic falls, the Pandarann's, their spears.

"Richard!!" Myrcella wrapped her arms around him tightly, pressing her lips to his in a deep kiss. Then she lay back, looking into his eyes with relief. "Don't you know that knights wake the damsels with a kiss?" Well usually that was princesses, but she wasn't one of those.

 

[Richard Henry the Eighth]

ISLAND 3: PANDARANN/WILLOW

A huge smile formed on Richard's lips, it was wonderful to see Myrcella Bochanan's face again. When he fell down a part of him lamented that he would never see her face again. But here she was hugging and kissing him. "Well next time I'll remember to do that," Richard chuckled kissing her passionately. "I thought I died but by some miracle it seems that we're In the temple.

The Bard Knight slowly got up and looked around. "Maybe the power of love saved us," he shrugged. "I don't know. But one thing I'm certain of we've teleported here."

 

[Myrcella Bochanan]

ISLAND 3: PANDARANN/WILLOW

After Richard Henry the Eighth kissed her, she sat herself up and looked around. Strange statues, a gong and that weird writing. Oh yes, they were inside of a temple alright.

"Teleported? How?" She didn't know any magic, so it wasn't as though she could have done it.

Chewing the inside of her cheek, Myrcella peered around for the sword. But the statues carried them too. "Let's find what we're looking for. Maybe it'll teleport us out of here."

 

[Richard Henry the Eighth]

ISLAND 3: PANDARANN/WILLOW

Richard shrugged staring at Myrcella Bochanan "maybe it's the mountain," he said. "This place does have a strange sense of magic," Richard was basing it off of the kind of magic that the Easterlings allegedly use like the Ki. They should've been dead but it seemed that the Gods didn't want them to die just yet.

Picking up Myrcella and putting her in a bridal carry, Richard began to look around for the sword. "There is a lot of people here," he said. "Possibly honoring their achievements I mean look at the statues and look at the symbols below them. Back home when we did it, it was to honor them. Perhaps these people did a many great things that we didn't know about."

 

[Rizzo Bouchard]

ISLAND 3: WILLOW​

"No! No, no! No-no-no-no-no!"

Rizzo rushed forward, but it was already too late. The fire had overtaken the door, turning what was once wood into writhing and curling flames. Aaaahh! Now what was she supposed to do? She couldn't go through that! That wasn't fair! Yeah, that wasn't fair at all! She ought to go and complain to Grangomelle. Yeah! That's right! And she'd say that the funny-hat-man was impolite too!

Rizzo scrunched her lips to one side and rubbed her chin, tapped her foot as she stood before the fire-door. Hm. That probably wouldn't work. Funny-hat-man probably wouldn't have done it if he knew she could go and tell-tell on him to Grangomelle. Well played, funny-hat-man! If only she had some water. Water, water, way down there below the big ol' rocks and none up here! She was going to have to wait it out! Boo! But everything was gonna be alllll~~--

She heard some heavy footsteps behind her in the room. Like someone had just come up from the stairs. Her eyes popped open wide, her smile didn't falter, but she didn't turn around. Not yet.

Wow! A visitor! Who could it be?

 

[Myrcella Bochanan]

ISLAND 3: PANDARANN/WILLOW

Myrcella held onto Richard Henry the Eighth as he picked her up, looking to the many statues. "So...it's got to be around here somewhere. Or perhaps in another room."

She kept an eye out for the Pandaranns, not wanting to face another encounter with them and risk dying. There was no guarantee that they'd be saved again.

"Do you know what this sword looks like? Or do we just...guess?" Whatever it looked like, hopefully it wouldn't be too heavy.

 

[Richard Henry the Eighth]

ISLAND 3: PANDARANN/WILLOW

The hall way was small giving it a cramped feel, as navigated through the statues Richard was careful with Myrcella Bochanan this time around. He nearly lost her once and he didn't want to lose her again. "I don't think a sword of the caliber that the wizard was describing is in here," he said careful to sidestep a statue. "Perhaps it could be in the upper floors."

There were stairs ahead stairs up ahead near the porch overlooking the many tall mountains that surrounding the temple. This was fine architecture, if Richard wasn't fighting for his life along with Myrcella he would definitely explore more. "That's the thing Myrcella," Richard sighed. "The mage didn't even specify what the bloody thing looks like."

 

[Flint]

Crossing the bridge felt like it took an age compared to the last one, and this one was about half the length. The painfully loud planks creaked beneath the barber's boots, and as his shaky hands gripped the bridge's handles, all Flint could think about was the terrible fall that was waiting for him below. Yet, as he kept moving, Flint found his confidence building once more. He was nearing the far end of the bridge now, and he could see the tower room that awaited them on the other side. Similar to the one they'd left, but seemingly a little more bare. Looking over his shoulder, Flint grinned to his partner.
"Not to worry! Seems like the coast is-"
He heard a terrible crack beneath him, and his grip was torn from the handles. Flint plummeted for a moment as a plank gave way beneath him, barely managing to grip the next plank down before he was left hurtling towards the ground. Screaming a number of obscenities, his knuckles whitened as he held on for dear life. He didn't fancy breaking any legs today.
"Erm... ORIVAL?!". He called out to his friend as he dangled from the bridge, wondering how they'd pull themselves out of this one.
Orival Theodric

 

[Orival Theodric]

Island 3: Pandarann/Willow

Orival looked through the flames at the shape of Rizzo Bouchard. Though they couldn't see each other clearly he still wanted to make sure she had no tricks up her sleeve to prevent his magic from holding. Granted, it wouldn't last that long anyways. This just ensured they kept their minor lead. He was almost too enamored with his small victory to hear the snap that happened to his back, but he did hear it.

He turned swiftly to see his ally dangling helplessly from the planks of this horridly rotted bridge. He moved quick, as they had no time to lose. A foe behind and death in front. This day never seemed to slow for the mage and the rogue. He gripped his bo staff tight with both hands and aimed it towards Flint as he gripped with all his might.

It was risky. If he didn't get a good grip then Flint would fall regardless. If they didn't hurry the woman behind them would take the charge in front. Orival was growing increasingly exhausted.

 

[Myrcella Bochanan]

ISLAND 3: PANDARANN/WILLOW

Myrcella chewed the inside of her cheek a little in thought as she listened to Richard Henry the Eighth while he carried her. Yet she studied the statues as well. All of them looked different and portrayed a different kind of action. And they were all well crafted.

As they neared the balcony, she gripped onto him a little tighter, not wanting to be thrown or to fall again. "What if...we collect all the swords we can find? Odds are that one of them HAS to be it, right?" Just how many swords laying around were there? Probably not much.

 

[Richard Henry the Eighth]

ISLAND 3: PANDARANN/WILLOW

Richard began to turn away from the balcony heading upstairs, the Bard Knight can feel Myrcella Bochanan holding on to linen clothing, tightly. He wondered how did Myrcella ended up in the Temple with him. What happened to her after Richard threw her on to the grassy plains before he fell? Maybe it was the mist that surrounded her? It happened to Richard while he was falling, the last thing he remembered was a mist obscuring his vision and then he blacked out.

He decided not to ask her though, she's been through too much already. "Well," Richard said holding Myrcella closely. "We have yet to find a single sword perhaps it's upstairs."

As they got up top, Richard turned around to see a golden statue of a smiling man holding a longsword. "Could that be it?" he asked Myrcella getting closer to the artifact.