Private Tales Secrets of Gold

[Smiling One]

Willis heard Verys muttering a string of curse words that would make a sailor blush. "Seesssh Verys," Willis smirked. "You just uttered all of 12 bad words in succession. Impressive!"

It was short lived however as the runes began to glow bright and immediately the walls began to close in. Willis could hardly breathe and he darted his eyes around the area beginning to panic. He always hated closed areas, the mercenary began wondering why the fuck was he even in here?! Oh..... it was to protect Verys. Of course, two more skeletons approached them while Willis was still in a state of panic. His hands shaking, Willis reached for his Cutlass and tried to ready himself while Verys furiously examined the text on the walls.

Thankfully whatever rune Verys pushed opened a stone door next to them. Willis felt himself being pulled by Verys running through the door. He turned around and assisted the red-head in closing the door inches before the skeleton warriors were able to get to them. Willis banged his head lightly against the wall trying to catch his breath however while he hit his head a little bit of blood came from Willis' forehead and was immediately absorbed into a rune.

"BLOOD OF A WARRIOR!" The voice boomed. Willis held out his cutlass searching for the source of the voice. "Where the fuck are you?!" He yelled. "YOU HAVE SURVIVED THE FIRST TRIAL!" The voice announced ignoring Willis' question. "BUT ARE YOU READY FOR THE NEXT PHASE?"

The ground disappeared underneath the Willis and Verys. Quickly grabbing her hand, Willis and Verys began falling to the abyss below. "Shit!" he screamed.

 

[Verys Synsere]

Verys closed her eyes for a second, getting her breathing back under control -- or, at least, she was trying to, because into her attempted reverie the voice boomed again and she looked around them with those brilliant green eyes. Ooh, confirmation that the first trial had been successful, that was good, right? She turned her attention to Willis as he demanded to know where the voice was coming from, but the voice continued on with no regards…

... . and then the floor dropped out from underneath them and into the darkness they plunged, only Willis’s hand on her own as they went tumbling end over end.

“Oof!” Verys hit the ground flat on her back, the wind momentarily knocked out of her by the sudden stop -- and the fact that Willis was on top of her. Coughing to get air back into her lungs, she sort of grabbed Willis’s shoulder with one hand, pressing her hand to her abdomen with the other. Thankfully, her breath came back after several sharp inhalations, her eyes watering with the force of it.

Rolling slightly to one side, she tried to cast around them with her hand, looking for the torch she’d been holding on. There was only pitch blackness around them, so she was hoping her enchanted torch hadn’t tumbled too far, or they’d be in trouble trying to move forward.

“Torch,” she wheezed, with another soft bit of coughing.

Her words, however, seemed to trigger something, because there was a shimmering in the walls around them and a series of hieroglyphs identical to the initial set that they’d looked at lit up in a long line, spreading a pale blue glow through the narrow tunnel that they found themselves in. It was just enough to illuminate their surroundings, beckoning them deeper into the temple… Verys’s eyes flicked to the runes, then back to Willis, her big emerald eyes finding his.

“... well that’s ominous,” she observed cheerily.

 

[Smiling One]

Willis found himself landing on Verys this time his first thoughts were about Verys' safety. Willis was taller than the red-headed scholar and weighed way more. He could've crushed her ribs or even given Verys a concussion, Willis scrambled to get up and check on Verys however she got up at the same time coughing trying to untangle herself from Willis. "Wait Verys!" Wills said his tone strained as he struggled to free himself from her. While they got up Willis' hands found themselves to Verys' breasts. The young man's eyes lit up as he accidentally gave them a squeeze. 'Very firm," he muttered.

Realizing what he did, Willis immediately pulled his hands back feeling his ears redden. That wasn't professional at all, he hoped that Verys didn't notice his actions while she called for her torch. Trying to keep his mind off touching Verys' breasts, Willis was about to search for that enchanted item until the runes around the room started to illuminate again. It displayed a grassy field that was lush but was full of skeleton corpses. Willis frowned something magical was at work.

"Too ominous," Willis muttered picking up his Cutlass. There was a deafening roar that was heard from afar causing Willis to step back a bit. He felt a shiver down his spine and immediately his hands became clammy. "We stumbled in someone's stomping grounds," Willis said with his teeth clenched, "Verys this sounds like a job for a monster hunter. You do as I say."

Considering how scatterbrained the redhead was, Willis was very doubtful but she was very observant and knowledgeable. Some of the runes in the room were written in blood. That was usually a sign that a demon was summoned, especially since some of the symbols were in the demonic language. "I suspect this room was a summoning chamber," Willis said. "I need to know what we're facing."

 

[Verys Synsere]

Well, any hope that Willis might have had of Verys not noticing was rather removed when he got a solid whack on the top of the head with the end of the torch she’d just grabbed. Thankfully, it wasn’t a whack to injure, nor was she particularly strong, but it certainly was a decided statement on his wandering hands. She got to her feet, shifting her satchel back so it was comfortably hanging at her side and tucking her torch into the bag since it didn’t seem to be necessary. Her hair had come undone again, so quickly she twisted it up, re-pinning it in place with a deft motion.

“Do keep your attention on the task at hand, Mr Willis,” she said, idly, as her eyes roamed over the revealed runes. “I’d prefer not dying because your libido got you distracted.”

She wandered forward, into the large room that was revealed, taking in the grassy field and the ceiling of the cave so high above them that it was lost in the murky darkness. She dropped to her knee to draw her fingers along the blades of grass, feeling a particular tingle as she did so. The grass felt abnormally cold, and without any real source of water or light, she doubted this was grass like what she’d grown up laying in while gazing at the clouds overhead. In fact, there were lines of rock laid into the ground, runes etched into them, all leading to the central pedestal. She looked up at the sound of the roar, sort of blinking as the sound echoed around the chamber.

Glancing over her shoulder at Willis, she took in his mannerisms, then turned back towards the pedestal in front of her. He wasn’t wrong about needing information, at the very least.

“... ecto bak gamman,” she murmured, her fingers tracing along the runes as she made a slow circle around the stone structure. “... It’s a demon of … of strength. The inscription says… blades -- weapons -- of metal or wood cannot defeat it… Only -- uh. Uh, I don’t know this rune.” She crouched, hunching over the stone as she muttered furiously to herself, “bek tak? Tok? Tuhk? Tok. Bek tok, terris? Um… hand. Palm, maybe, from context. Oh. Oh, I see!”

She peeked over the top of the stone, beaming. “It can only be defeated in hand to hand combat. Hitting it with a weapon will only make it stronger. How utterly ingenious!”

Another roar came from behind her and she frowned. “... it’s right behind me, isn’t it,” she noted.

 

[Smiling One]

Willis felt a sharp pain on his head, his eyes filled with tears while he winced rubbing his rattled cranium. Okay he deserved that whack by Verys, that was pretty perverted of him though Willis just cannot help himself sometimes. He is becoming convinced that if he died it would be at a hands of wrathful woman. “Not the first my libido nearly got me killed,” he groaned. “I need to tell you time I had sex with a succubus.”


Willis vision was still blurry. Blinking Willis’ eye sight adjusted and he saw Verys wondering around the area. Willis didn’t know why but she looked even prettier compared to when he first saw her a few hours ago. “It’s probably my head being all fucked up,” he thought.


As Verys continued to decipher the runes embedded onto the ground. Willis began to observe the area in which they fell through. It was a grassy plain but there were dark red Obelisks four of them placed at each of the corners of the room. Willis heart began to beat faster. He recognized this set up.


The moment Verys mentioned that this creature was immune to melee weapons, Willis eyebrows raised up in shock. “Verys!” He shouted. “Get out of-“


A large portal with flames around it opened revealing a bipedal feline like demon with bright green eyes, yellow eyes and tiny pointed ears. It had also long, sharp claws with a belt wrapped around its waist made of flames. “Asmodeus!” Willis shouted “a demon of wrath!” The red Demon lunged at Verys its claws reached her throat. Willis pushed the red head out of the way only to have the Asmodeus sank its claws into Willis’ arm.


The mercenary cried out in pain but otherwise engaged the Asmodeus. Willis slammed his knee against its abdomen his knee singed against the flaming belt though his pant leg took the brunt of it. The Asmodeus roared in pain but jumped a considerable distance and began to growl his entire body began to irradiate with flames. Blood trickled down Willis’ arm, he winced in pain raising his arm and trying form a fist. “Verys,” Willis muttered. “This is a rare and dangerous demon stay back.”


However immediately after he said that, the red obelisks began to glow and lift up with three long flames connecting to each other trapping them. “Ah shit,” Willis muttered. “How lovely.”

 

[Verys Synsere]

Willis’s shout drew her attention to him -- but only for a second, because then there was a large portal opening up in front of her and she looked up at it with big eyes and a delighted expression. “Oh, how fascin--” she began, but then the demon was lunging forward, only to have Wills shove her out of the way. She tumbled onto her side with a squeak, her carefully pinned hair cascading around her, loose once again.

Pushing herself up, she pulled strands of crimson out of her eyes just in time to see a creature of fire and menace take form and engage Willis. The mercenary knocked him back and the creature… began to glow in flame. Oh, that couldn’t be good. She got to her feet, her satchel swinging at her side, and was just about to move further away from the demon, to give Willis plenty of room to maneuver around the demon… when instead, she was cut off by a red beam of flames, so hot that it singed the edge of her skirt as she stumbled back away from it.

“Uh, Mr Willis --” she began. “We have a … complication.”

Complication, indeed. Because already the demon was crouching, and before she could continue it’d launched itself at them both. Verys’s hand closed around the large leather bag that she’d been rummaging for inside of her satchel, jerking it out and yanking the top off of it in one smooth move. A stream of water coursed from it and splattered into the demon’s face, causing a massive hiss and a cloud of steam to shoot up from its face.

Not enough to harm the demon -- Asmodeus was already shaking off its face and its flames rekindling -- but it bought them a moment or two to move around the pedestal in the center and buy themselves some room to maneuver, maybe figure out a plan f attack or something… at least, until Verys noticed something more. She put her hand on Willis’s upper arm, pointing at the opposite corner and the line of flames there. “Look, Mr Willis!” she prompted.

The flame wall was now several inches inside of the obelisks where it’d originally spawned. The fire triangle was slowly closing, and it would push them closer and closer to the demon in front of them until it was either burn or fight… Apparently this ‘trial’ wasn’t one that would allow them time to sit and strategize.

Verys looked up at the mercenary with wide emerald eyes. “I don’t like this deadline,” she admitted. “Very much don’t like this! Try to keep it off the center area, I’ll see if I can’t read more -- maybe there’s a weakness or something else we can use to beat it.”

 

[Smiling One]

The Asmodeus is a rare and powerful demon; It is a hyper-aggressive creature who prefers a physical victory despite it being capable of magic. As far as Willis knows, there were two ways for an Asmodeus to appear either where appears in front of an opponent it seems strong and challenges it to a fight or like what was happening now summoned by magically corrupting 4 obelisks after splattering them with the blood of great warriors. It creates an area for the Asmodeus to teleport to whenever it pleases. In the Age of Tales, great warriors would willingly step inside Obelisks and fight the Asmodeus in a 1 on 1 fight: Few survive.

Willis grimaced when Verys grabbed his wounded arm and urged him to look at the flames closing in on them. “The tales didn’t say that we had a limited time fighting this thing!” Willis grumbled as the Asmodeus roared charging straight towards Willis.

“You know!” Willis said, grabbing Verys’ and pushing her out of the way making sure that she didn’t get singed by the incoming fire. “You should not have doused it with water. You just pissed him off even more!”

The Asmodeus bull-rushed but Willis sidestepped though he felt a sharp sting on his side. The Demon penetrated one of its long digits on to Willis’ hip. Willis gave a small cry of pain but otherwise made sure that Verys was unharmed. The redhead said that she would try to look for a way to defeat it, but Willis shook his head. “There are no weaknesses,” Willis said. “The only way to beat him is in a straight-up fight.”

Willis then remembered a strength potion that it was in his black bag. He went to reach for it but the Asmodeus leaped onto one of the Obelisks and jumped high off the magical item. Its entire body landed on Willis and the two of them came tumbling onto the ground the potion went flying from Willis’ bag and landed next to an Obelisk.

“Fuck!” Willis said struggling to get up. His entire body was in pain but the young man was used to it, from savage beatings by his mother to a tussle with a Giant, Willis spent his entire life enduring the pain it was just a way life for him.

Apparently, it was the Asmodeus way of life too it quickly recovered and speared Willis on to the ground, Willis felt his shoulder blades scrape painfully onto the grass and the Asmodeus raised its fist high but Willis barely blocked it.

“Verys!” Wills shouted. “You need to get the potion!”

Willis poked the Asmodeus in the eye causing the creature to retract and rub it. Willis kicked up countered with a flurry of punches and kicks but it would be no use if Willis didn’t consume that strength potion. “Hurry!” Willis shouted bringing the Asmodeus to the middle of the shrinking ring.

 

[Verys Synsere]

The redhead didn’t even bat an eye as the dark-haired man chided her for angering the demon even more, her emerald eyes on the sigils that she could see. There was -- something -- something more that she could just barely see, about the obelisk -- but before she could discern what it was she was looking at, Willis had yanked her away again…

She stumbled back several steps as the demon went flying past them both once more, the fire so hot she could feel the heat of it on her cheeks. Oh, that was… intimidating. And judging from the sound of the wind it caused as it rushed past, Verys didn’t think it’d be at all likely that she’d get back up if the demon landed even a single blow. She wasn’t even sure how WIllis did, as the demon tackled him, sending Verys tumbling off to the side, rolling and barely stopping herself before she rolled right into the flame wall, another bit of the hem of her skirt being lost to the licking flames.

“Verys, you need to get the potion!”

Potion? Oh, yes, the thing he’d been pulling out of his bag. Where had it…? She spotted it, just barely inside of the walls of fire, across from her. Pushing herself to her feet, she scrambled across the patch of dirt and too-cold grass, reaching out and grabbing the small potion just before the flames hit it, singeing her knuckles in the process. She paid it no heed, pushing herself to her feet and turning to face Willis.

“Willis!” she yelled, waiting until he had just a second, looking back at her --

-- and chucked it hard, right at him. And for a somewhat clumsy seeming young woman, she had a surprisingly good aim. It wasn’t that surprising, given her background, though he wouldn’t know of it, helping her father and brothers toss fish and other items from rocking ships to the much sturdier docks below… She’d learned early on how to aim, and aim well.

 

[Smiling One]

The Asmodeus growled just finishing rubbing its eye Willis gulped seeing the Demon leer at him with malicious intent. "I have to be careful," thought Willis. "I gotta anticipate what it's going to do."

The Asmodeus squatted then lept high into the sky performing a frontflip midair. The young man craned his head mouth agape "okay," he muttered trying to sidestep the Demon. "I did not anticipate that." Instantly the Asmodeus bolted down honing in on Willis with one foot sticking out. Willis tried to dodge as the Asmodeus hit the ground with a debilitating force.

The ground exploded with chunks of grass and dirt getting everywhere. The violent shockwave knocked Willis off his feet sending him flying on to the grass rolling next to the flames. Willis gave out a cry of pain as he felt his right shoulder singed against the white-hot flame which came closer towards him. Painfully Willis rolled out of the way struggling to get up in the process. His entire body was in pain and Willis thought he cracked a rib when he was thrown onto the ground.

Smoke filled the area where the Asmodeus landed, Willis frowned and saw the glowing silhouette of the Demon. It gave a deafening roar clearing the smoke and charged at Willis. The young man stood his ground clutching his side. "Shit," he mumbled. "It's painful to move."

“Willis!

Willis turned around and saw Verys coming at him with the potion. "Fuck yes!" Willis muttered his breath a smile forming on his lips. The young woman threw the vial with surprising accuracy from what little he knew Verys, Willis observed that she was somewhat clumsy there he goes again with making assumptions. Willis grabbed the potion, looked up to see that the Asmodeus was a foot away from him and immediately guzzled the potion.

His entire body tingled as Willis felt his stomach beginning to burn like crazy. For a brief moment, Willis was weak-kneed his legs felt like wet mud. He always had a low tolerance for potions to the point if he drank more than one he would be bed-ridden. Still, Willis' felt the potion's effects. The Asmodeus raised its fist aiming at Willis' face, with all of its strength the Demon smiled certain of victory. However, Willis grabbed the Asmodeus' fist midair shocking the Demon.

A smile on his lips, Willis then adjusted his hand to grab the Demon's wrist and gave it a tight squeeze. The Asmodeus roared in pain going down on one knee. Willis used his free hand to repeatedly punch the Asmodeus in the abdomen causing it to spit out black blood that splattered on Willis' face. Willis then lifted the creature up high and threw it towards the flames that were closing in on Willis and Verys. The Asmodeus entire body went into the flames, it roared in pain and disintegrated presumably ending its life.

The Obelisks deactivated and the flames disappeared. Willis collapsed onto the ground flushed with victory and stared at Verys. "Thank you Verys," he breathed. "If it weren't for you, I'll be ripped in half."

 

[Verys Synsere]

Verys watched as the potion coursed through the air, such a nice arch on it, and then --

-- landed in his palm. He guzzled it down and the redhead took another slight step back… and then immediately a step forward, because the fire-ring was getting smaller and smaller now, at a much faster pace. She was driven forward almost constantly now, even as Willis lunged back towards the Asmodeus, more aggressively than before… the scholar gripped her satchel tightly in both of her hands, watching with those brilliant emerald eyes of hers as Willis finally got the demon, and chucked it into the encroaching wall of flame.

The scholar held one hand up to block the blast of light from the disintegrating demon, taking in the fact that the fire wall had disappeared and the sudden dimness in the cave as they were plunged back into the semi-dark.

Verys murmured to her torch to cause it to light up again, hurrying over to him and planting the end of the torch into the ground to keep it lit up while she knelt next to him. Carefully, she checked over his wounds, pressing a bit of the edge of her skirt to one that was still bleeding more profusely than the others. Then she smiled, her hand resting on his shoulder.

“I should be thanking you. That was very brave! But the potion… those usually aren’t very good on the body, are you going to be all right?” She fished in her satchel and pulled out her water skin… but it was empty because she’d squirted all of it into the demon’s face. Hm. Unfortunate. Pursing her lips, she dug into the bag once more, then produced a smaller flask, offering it to him with a slight apologetic air. “It’s cold coffee. It may be bitter, but you can at least get the taste of blood out of your mouth.”

She glanced around them, noticing for the first time that the runes which had previously stopped glowing about halfway through the cavern now lit all the way to the far end of the room, where there was a visible doorway. She looked at it, then down at him with a bright smile.

“Good news, Mr Willis! It seems we’ve passed the second trial. Only one more to go and hopefully there will be a way out!” She grinned and pushed to her feet, offering a hand to help him up as well.

 

[Smiling One]

(OOC: Willis looks like after he consumes a potion: http://i.imgur.com/7xCQG0l.jpg?1 )

Willis groaned a bit when the cave became dim as soon as the Obelisks deactivated thankfully Verys activated the magic torch giving some light to the cave. Willis still felt off-balanced, a person's tolerance for potions varies. An example would be the famed Monster Hunter: Baldwin Aimar the third was famous for having a high threshold of enhancement potions. Being capable of consuming up to 30 potions without signs of toxicity. Willis, on the other hand, would show signs of sickness and fatigue after drinking one.

"Brave huh?" Willis smirked at Verys admiring her brilliant emerald eyes. "I never thought of if it being like that, it's my job to kill monsters who hunt the innocent."

Willis then looked at his arms, his dark skin was already pale, green veins were starting to stick out. Willis' hands were already feeling clammy and felt like throwing up. "I'm fine Verys," Willis smiled. "What matters is that you're safe."

Other than a couple of burns and disheveled hair, Verys was still good. Willis vision blurred he didn't know if it was the potion but Verys looked even more beautiful than ever. Thankfully Verys made Willis drink some cold coffee, Willis raised an eyebrow Coffee was fairly rare in Arethril, only people with money have the beverage in their homes. Still, Willis drank the Coffee, It tasted very bitter but he guzzled it down. He needed some energy and the stimulant should do the trick while rides off the symptoms.

Willis then took Verys hand and looked at runes, strange that the voice isn't talking to them now. Looking at the redhead, Willis reached for his bag and took out a long, green ribbon and applied it to her hair forming a ponytail around the ribbon. "There!" Willis said cupping Verys' cheek. "Your hair won't fall out this time!"

Staring at the area ahead, Willis sighed. "Let's go," he said. "And stick close to me."

 

[Verys Synsere]

“Just because it’s your job doesn’t mean it isn’t also brave,” Verys reasoned, her eyes taking in the state of his skin and the look on his face. She didn’t like potions, especially if they had this sort of effect… but at the same time, she couldn’t argue with the results. If that triangle had gotten too much smaller, it would have been impossible for him to fend off the demon and press the attack at the same time…

Verys helped him to his feet, not seeming at all bothered by the fact he’d finished off her coffee, tucking the flask away back into that seemingly-bottomless satchel she wore slung across her shoulder. It was any guess what other secrets and surprises that it contained… it certainly didn’t seem to carry what many people would have deemed ‘necessities’ but so far the scholar hadn’t seem to need anything other than what she’d already produced. In fact, her eyes were already on the runes, drifting towards the exit, when he dug in his own bag, producing a ribbon.

She blinked as he moved to collect her rogue crimson curls, reaching back and touching the ribbon-bound ponytail with her fingers once he was done. Bound loosely back like that, her hair reached nearly the small of her back in a tumble of scarlet spirals. She smiled brightly, delighted with what he’d done. “Thank you, Mr Willis! That is very kind of you.”

The runes beckoned them towards the far door, however, and so that was where they went. The doorway seemed to have been blocked at one point by a large slab, but at some point -- likely after Willis had defeated the demon -- it had moved aside, allowing them to enter into the next hallway. Verys held the torch out ahead of them, the flickering yellow light dulling the intensity of the glowing runes along the walls.

“Mr Willis,” she said, as they walked along a long hallway, her fingers drifting along one particular rune. “These runes… if I’m translating them right, and I very certainly am… are talking about the heart of the temple. Or the -- the treasure at the heart of the temple. But it keeps being referred to with these pronouns -- like it’s a being, not a thing.” Her emerald eyes turned to him, practically shining in excitement. “Oh! I wonder what it is. The voice we keep hearing? A necromancer stuck in his own spell? An ancient spirit? Oh... But if that’s the case I won’t be able to pay you more than I already gave you… sorry about that, I suppose.”

The end of the hallway was approaching, just a black square at the end of their vision, the runes ending abruptly before the frame and not illuminating what lay beyond…

 

[Smiling One]

Willis frowned when Verys began to translate the Runes that appeared before them. Heart of the temple? That sounded like every horror story a traumatized adventurer would tell him. Usually, when something is at the heart at the Temple it meant death to all who enter. Considering the hell Verys and he had been through he was almost certain. "It must be their God," Willis surmised feeling light-headed leaning against the wall. "Which means he's going to be heavily guarded."

Willis was deathly pale and felt like fainting nonetheless the effects of the potion still ran through him. The young man struggled to gulp feeling pain in his throat as though he swallowed a metal ball. "When I have a pretty lady to protect," Willis chuckled becoming delirious. "I tend to go all I out...."

Willis nearly stumbled and fell but maintained his balance smiling at Verys. "I'll be fine," he said coughing. "I hope you enjoy that ribbon."

He just has to endure the effects right now there's no use in having Verys worry about him. Willis lumbered next to Verys following the lighted runes that lead to the end of the hallway. The room ahead was pitch black which raised suspicion placing Verys behind him Willis entered first and as soon as his boots touched the entrance of the room the torches immediately lit up revealing a lamp in the middle of the room.

"Verys," Willis warned drawing his Cutlass it was even painful to clutch his weapon now. There were sickening cracks heard as soon as Willis gripped his weapon. "Do not touch anything unless I say so."

 

[Verys Synsere]

Verys was staring at the runes, her lips moving rapidly as her fingers traced along the strange writing that she could see, when at her side Willis stumbled. The redhead looked over at him with surprise and concern etching across her face, reaching out to steady him with her hands as he said something she didn’t fully catch, not when she was trying to take in all of the symptoms that he was displaying. Whatever had been in that potion, it certainly wasn’t doing him any favors.. Into the final room they went, with Willis pushing her behind him.

“Perhaps you should sit down, Mr Willis,” she suggested as she stepped around him, one hand on his elbow to steady him. “While I see what we’re dealing with…”

She gestured at a place near the dais, leaving him to either do as she’d suggested or keep teetering on his feet while she moved towards the lamp. It was an old oil lamp, like what someone would carry when a torch was too large or inelegant. Yet there were no soot or scorch marks on it, no sign of any use, and in fact one side seemed brighter than the other, as if it had been polished more aggressively on that side. The redhead left it alone, drifting to the far wall where there was a mural with those strange symbols again and more of the writing.

“It’s … a history. A history of this cult! Oh fascinating. Look, here, they’re discussing their deity, the … heart of the temple, as they call it.” She glanced over her shoulder at the lamp, then let her eyes sweep over the room. There no visible exits anywhere that she could see… which would insinuate, then, that they had found said ‘heart’. “I wonder, then… if this is the third trial? What’s next?” she mused to herself. She hadn’t missed the fact that they had one more challenge between them and escaping, if that disembodied voice was to be believed.

“Mr Willis, there’s some sort of boobytrap to that lamp, give me just a few minutes to read what it is, okay?” She reached out and ran her fingers along the runes on the wall in front of her… which caused the runes to light up starting in front of her and then shimmering along the walls until all of the symbols on all of the walls were lit up.

“Oh, fascinating!” the scholar gushed excitedly.

 

[Smiling One]

Willis' eyelids felt as though they were made out of concrete, all he wanted to do was to lay down and sleep but he had a job to do. "I'm fine Verys," Willis mumbled leaning on the wall the effects of the potion were still active but it was doing more damage to Willis' body than he anticipated. The herbalist must have added an extra ingredient like Parsley or Basil to add flavor to the potion. The thing about those additives is that they can have some negative side effects to a drinker's body such as the potion's effects ending sooner than anticipated. Or in Willis' case: His body unable to break down the potion due to his low tolerance.

While Verys was busy gawking at the symbols of the cult, Willis looked around the temple. It was ghost quiet compared to the other rooms they were in. The chamber was massive with a tiny lamp lying on a huge platform in the middle, Willis glared at the lamp "that lamp belongs to a Djinn Verys," Willis concluded his heart starting to beat faster. "Or a Genie they're very powerful monsters."

According to legend, Djinns were the creators of magic and used it to torment the people of Arethril. The people rebelled against the Djinns and magically sealed them inside lamps where they lay dormant. Djinns normally tempt their victim granting them three wishes if they release them. Once the Djinn is unleashed, they either kill the victim outright or they have "fun" with them by twisting their wishes. Willis recalled a poor soul wishing a Djinn for a hot girlfriend. The monster complied by summoning a young maiden being set on fire.

Willis hoped that Verys wouldn't be tempted by the Djinn however a soothing voice began to echo throughout the chamber. "Verys," the voice says. "I can sense your curiosity, come rub my lamp so you can get a better look at me."

"Verys!" Willis coughed springing out of the wall. "Don't listen to it!"