Hyrule Adventures 2

OOC: omigod it worked how did that work im the morpheous of hyrule

IC: Saber's heart nearly leapt out of his chest when he heard the explosion; the only thing stopping it was how weak it was. Thankfully, the familiar lights descend upon him, and several wounds began to stitch up. He was in the clear; the youth felt more than confident in his legs now, and as long as he didn't run into trouble, he was homefree. He just needed to find a safe place.

"The prisoner's escaped!"

He REALLY needed to find a safe place. Furrowing his worn brow, Sabertache lowered his head, doubling his speed in a furious [Sprint]. There had to be somewhere safe in this town. There must be other people. He just needed to find them...he could have sworn there were some by that boarded up house. If only he hadn't acted autonomously. Delusions of grandeur seemed to be his hubris.

Still, he just needed to find something that would benefit him in this situation; thankfully, there was a lot to look at in this town. [Nomadic Awareness L2]

HP: 22/44
SPL: 9/14
Will: 0/9

OOC: I'm really glad field skills are useful in this topic. I love this topic. The things I spent TP on are actually useful.

OOC: *applauds* Go Saber go!

IC:
Alpha glanced about the new floor of the building, decidedly underwhelmed by the 'new' surroundings. Just a hallway and a few doors; nothing really of note seemed to stand out to him. 'Then again . . .' he suddenly thought, recalling one very simple fact: there really shouldn't be anything too special about this building in particular. It was the one next door they were trying to get to, and this house had only been entered because it appeared to have a viable access point to that other house.

Perhaps it was the Mayor's house, the Sheikah considered -- the diary they'd found indicated that this house was next door to the Mayor's home, so there was a fifty percent chance of that being the case. More than fifty, actually, once he thought about it. Who else would have reason to barricade his home like that? Surely, if anyone, the mayor of Saria had things that would need special protection, such as the sophisticated locks and magic wards placed on the house's doors and windows.

With that and their original goal now firmly returned to the forefront of his mind, the Sheikah cast a glance around. The supposed-Mayor's house had been east of this one, right? He looked to that direction, eyes immediately falling on the door Leth had decided to skip over.

Leth wrote:"I have a feeling the far eastern door may lead somewhere important, but I wanna check out the other places first."

That was all fine and well, but Alpha didn't feel like wasting time by pointlessly searching rooms (of course, given how much searching had already provided them in this house, 'pointlessly' was a questionable choice of adverbs). Leth could do what he felt was best; Alpha would do the same. He walked right up to the doorway and reached down to turn the handle, hoping that it would lead somewhere worthwhile.

To any people still outside, namely Saber, there would have seen a cleric patrolling the street that the boarded up house was on. He looked young, with shaggy dark hair and stunning features. He didn't wear the robes, only Farore's insignia around his neck in the form of a pendant, along side a necklace made from garland. He was clothed in a loose tunic whose slightly puffy sleeves blew around in the soft refreshing breeze. He was on his way through town, but he wondered how there was so little presence here. Saria was one of the greatest towns of the South.

Derek, as that was his name, knew that Saria was heavily populated, and not only that, he hadn't spotted anybody other than Hylian Knights in any small outposts he came across. All the civilians were gone. There was no way everybody could have been killed off by the servants of the warlords. It was impossible, there would still be remnants and the resistance guerrilla tactics would have left evidence making it evident that civilians remained here. Then again, it had been flooding a lot as of late down here, maybe the evidence had washed away with the last deluge.

Then he heard a cry come from a distance.

"The prisoner's escaped."

He looked around carefully, trying to race the source of the sound or perhaps even better, find this so-called prisoner. After all, the cry sounded like it came from a beast more than a man, which would mean that maybe that man was here to help just like he himself was [Awareness Check].

OOC:

Derek
Race: Human
Class: Cleric
TP to spend 29

Talents Bought
Resurrection L2 – 7
Temple Service – 2
Exceptional Health L2 – 4
Divine Drain L2 - 3
Slingshot L1 – 1
Cane L1 -1
Fire L1 -2
Elemental Burst L2 - 4
Exceptional Spell L1 – 1
Zora Spirit L2 – 2
Hylian Intelligence L2 -2

Stats
STR: base (1)
DEF: base (2) + Racial (3) = 5
AGI: base (1)
INT: base (3) + Hylian Intelligence L2 (2) = 5
SPI: base (3) + Zora Spirit L2 (2)+ Garlund Amulet (3) = 8
HP: base (20) +Exceptional Spell L2 (30) + SPI (8 ) = 58
SPL: base (3) x level (13) + SPI (8 ) + Exceptional Spell L1 (10) = 57

Defense Rating: DEF (5) + AGI (1) + Tunic (10) = 16

Equipment Includes:
Slingshot
Assorted Scrolls
2H Deku Staff
Tunic
Gerudo Training Gloves (+1 damage with ranged weapons)
Garlund Amulet (+3 to SPI)
Ammo Bag
Ember Seed

Leth's scan of the Play Room reveals very little in the way of information; in fact, nothing really seems out of place at all - and perhaps he can glean some knowledge from that. There are no dents in the walls from impacts, no footprints on the floor - in fact, the layer of dust covering everything indicates no one has been in here for quite some time - no toys placed anywhere worth noting. Also, no blood anywhere to be found. It looks like the scattered toys probably are that way simply because of standard play, and maybe a frantic dash right before the evacuation to grab some of their favorite items.

Even with one arm, Dogura manages to climb the rope easily (10+4+9 [Roll+STR+INT] vs. 12 Pass). That leaves only Alpha with something left to uncover...and unlike his companions, his efforts are brought to a halt almost instantly. The door is locked tight; as Leth surmised, there may well be something behind it worthwhile. But for now, it's doesn't look like it will open without a key. Or a Fire spell, but Horren's abrupt clearing of his throat from behind them reminds the group how he feels about that.

* * *

As monsters converge upon the house that had once held Saber, one might think the nomad to be caught in their web - but none had realized how swiftly the boy could run. His Sprint carries him safely away, nearly two blocks away before he starts wearing down again. Very impressive, especially considering that just minutes before he was unconscious and close to death.

Saber finds himself startlingly close to the river that which bisects Saria Town, splitting it between northern and southern areas. He was still on the shore of the South End, yet was also surprisingly close to the outer edge of the city - quite a distance from his original starting point near the building that the others are looking into. Perhaps he'd been knocked out a little longer than he'd initially surmised.

Regardless, a town is still a town, and that means plenty of places to eat. True, most of the prepared food of stores and restaurants has probably gone bad since Saria was evacuated, but that's not all there is in this desolate region (16+4+3 [Roll+INT+Nomadic Awareness L2] vs. 15 Pass). As Saber finds himself slowing down, his long run starting to catch up with him, his eyes fall on a worn-down building out just past the edge of town: it looks like...a barn. There's no way he can be sure, of course, but still, farms often have healthy food just waiting to be picked from trees or the ground. It's certainly worth checking out.

* * *

Derek's Awareness Check, unfortunately, fails (1+5 [Roll+INT] vs. 15 Fail). He is able to pick up the general direction that the shout had come from, but sees nothing of this 'prisoner' (not surprising seeing how swiftly Saber had fled the scene) or even the monsters that were yelling it out. At least, not yet, and if he's all alone then perhaps he had best try to avoid that latter group - else he may find himself taking Saber's place.

Just as he had figured, there was nothing special about this room. He took a peek out the door he just entered. Alpha appeared to have discovered that the door Leth had passed over was locked.

"Nothin special in here," Leth updated them. "Moving on to the next room; there's a door leading west on the south end."

True to his word, Leth proceeded to the southern door of the rec room, pausing only a moment as he recognized a few toys he used to play with as a kid. He reached out towards the door handle, with the intent of turning it...

Dogura checked his immediate surroundings when he reached the top of the ladder. [Awareness Check]

The window that led to the other house had to be up here somewhere. It would only take a swift kick to bust the glass out, and make it to the other house- there were survivors there; The samurai was almost sure of it.

Derek sighed. If he waited around any longer, he knew those beasts searching for the prisoner would no doubt find him as well. How was he supposed to help out a would be resistance fighter if he himself was imprisoned. Nay, unfortunately for the prisoner, they would have no aid coming to them, except for perhaps a few words of encouragement. Derek spoke a soft prayer to the goddesses, asking them to help the fugitive on the run, before he too had to get on the move.

That's when he noticed the house. A boarded up large house, almost manor like. He was about to launch a spell at the wooden boards himself, but realizing something very important. Magical residue. Others had tried to break the barriers themselves. If magic couldn't do the job, he knew physical attacks would have no prowess here either. He sighed again. This was the only house in all of Saria Town that he had noticed to take such precautions in defending itself.

This arose a slew of possibilities as to the nature of the house. Survivors could be holed up inside of the protection, hopefully still alive, though it would seem the house had been boarded up for sometime. Perhaps information then, could there perhaps be knowledge hidden deep within the house that told the full story of what occurred here. Maybe some intelligence work as well, as to the nature of these Warlords and their exact plan of action. Lastly, inside the house there could have been jewels, gold, or other grand riches, but if there was one thing he knew, it was the fact that people usually always tried to bring there monetary gains with them, thinking it could either buy them out of trouble or serve as a bargaining chip. Yet, what Derek knew was that even if there was some underground civilian survival groups active in the South, all their economy would be based around bartering.

Derek then noticed something. He might not be able to get into the manner, but that magic residue from earlier seemed almost fresh. Or at least like another beside him who was learned in the magical arts had been around here recently. Derek then looked around the house, and the houses next to it, wondering where this person or people could have gone. After all, the ground, where there wasn't puddles was still damp, and footprints would be unavoidable, or perhaps this person was making some sort of sound in their movement that he hadn't been paying attention for sooner. Either way, there was at least one person around here other than the long gone fugitive, and Derek planned to find out who it was [Awareness Check].

I haven't felt this young in ages.

Had Sabertache been capable of using his breath for anything but running at that moment, he would have started to laugh; the wind whipped through his hair as he darted through the town. It was a good thing Saria was deserted; otherwise, he probably would have trampled several children to death.

The adrenaline...the freedom...I guess it takes a near death experience to make life seem fresh and new again...everyone should try this.

All the endurance training the mercenary had gone through now seemed worth it; what he lacked in fighting, he made up for in running away.

Unfortunately, I still need somewhere to run to...

His feet finally slowed their madcap pace as he approached the riverbank. The young man tumbled to the ground and sprawled on the grass, chuckling to himself. Saber took in two deep breaths--the grass, pollen, air--and sat up. His eyes drifted slowly across the landscape, stopping on the one building that seemed to stand out from the rest. A barn? That could be useful. If he needed anywhere to hide and rest, that would be it.

I really need to figure out what I'm going to do after this...yes, I escaped, but what have I really accomplished?

All of his allies were still somewhere in the town; was he really going to just run around while they actually did...something?

What if there's noone left? Wait--no, I can't think that. I need to just get to a safe place, rest, and figure out my plan of action.

Upon standing, he truly began to feel the soreness that came from such a long run--a bed of hay was sounding extremely nice. He walked gingerly towards the barn, hoping that it wasn't just another bed of creatures. [Nomadic Awareness L2]

HP: 22/44
SPL: 9/14
Will: 0/9

The door was locked? Well . . . that was certainly interesting. They hadn't encountered any locked doors yet (unintentionally hidden ones, sure, but not locked!), so Alpha stepped back and gave it a second glance. As he had previously noted, this house shouldn't have anything truly special about it; it was just the house next door to the mayor's. Why, in the haste of an evacuation, would the family have bothered to lock this doorway and no others?

Assuming that none of the other doors in this hall area were locked as well, of course. He might want to check that . . . but, first things first. He couldn't get his mind off this door in particular. Was it really just a door to another room, or could it hold something special, or lead somewhere important? He glanced to the others, noting Leth's decision to move on and Dogura's appearance at the top of their rope 'ladder' as well; it didn't seem either of them, as of yet, had anything to say about the locked doorway. The Sheikah took another second, then a thought struck him once more.

What was their goal? To get into the other house. How did they plan to do this? Through a window. But . . . hm, where exactly had that window been on this building? Center of the wall, off to one side, first floor, second story . . . He decided to dig through his memories, searching for an answer to this question: where had the window been in relation to where they were standing now?

[[Insight Check]]

OOC:

Saber wrote:OOC: I'm really glad field skills are useful in this topic. I love this topic. The things I spent TP on are actually useful.

I was going to address this in my last post, but I kinda forgot. Just wanted to say that the Silent City topics were designed to make use of those kinds of abilities. You guys may well be able to skip entire portions of the topics by making use of such things. For example, had anyone with Jump entered the house, they could have simply leapt up to the second story from the very start.

With Jump L2, you could've skipped straight to the Mayor's house from the start... Technically you still could, but I wouldn't recommend you guys spending TP for it now. You're close enough to reaching it on your own.


IC: Leth opens the doorway within the Play Room, and walks into the next room. There is another doorway on the north side, and judging by the size of the chamber that door is likely the other southern door in the main hall.

____| |____
|--------------|
|--------------|
|------------------------------------------|
|------------------------------------------|
|------------------------------------------|
|------------------------------------------_
|____________________________|

This room holds several more toys, as well as a pair of dressers and a bunk bed -- if one recalled the words of the diary, they might recall a mentioning of the family having two kids. It seems most likely that this was the Children's Room.

Back in the Hallway, Dogura's glancing about yield surprising results: specifically, none. Nothing about the place seems to jump out at him, other than the doors on each side of the hall (1+9 vs. 15 Fail). Alpha, on the other hand, is able to successfully recall the details he seeks (15+5 vs 15 Pass). The window was most assuredly located on the eastern side of the house -- but as he compares his mental picture of the building's exterior to his mapping of the interior, a sudden realization comes over him: they aren't high enough yet. The window was several feet higher than the ceiling of the second story is; there must be a third level, an Attic space of some sort... That's where the window is.

This might be as simple a task as finding another set of stairs or something.

* * *

Derek's musings about another group of people nearby come to fruition (14+5 vs. 15 Pass). As he's suspected there are several groups of footprints surrounding this magically shielded building, and on further inspection most of them lead towards the house next door. The door of that house has collapsed inside -- certainly not the most friendly of appearances, but even as he sees more wet footprints leading inside a noise reaches his ears. Some sort of movement has been detected on one of the higher floors of that building. It may well be worth checking out.

Not, there's also another set of footprints leading away from the house and towards an alley in the distance...but who could those have belonged to...?

* * *

Saber's quick scan of the area shows no sign of any beasts being present (15+4+3 vs. 15 Pass), but they've certainly passed this way before. Tracks litter the ground, easily identified by a Nomad like himself, but they appear several days old and shouldn't be taken as an indication of nearby trouble. Indeed, the entire region seems as deserted as any other part of the city.

The barn is only on the outskirts of the farmland, Saber realizes as he draws closer. Several fields of crops -- most of them ransacked or overgrown after months of disuse -- border the red structure. A farm house can be seen off in the distance, built right on the edge of the river to accommodate the waterwheel on its side. The river itself runs pretty close to the fields and barn, but the barn is far enough away that it doesn't look like it's been affected too heavily by the flooding of the area.

Who knows, there might even be some dry straw inside -- if not on the main floor, then perhaps in the loft...which, come to think of it, would be a pretty good place to use as a lookout point.

Dogura decided to go ahead and go through one of the doors. Certainly it'd be more useful than standing around all day. He was a bit leery of walking around haphazardly though, after seeing what had happened to the Goron. He silently and carefully made his way towards the doorway on the far end of the hall, and gripped the doorknob. He carefully pulled the door open and peered inside. [Awareness Check]

Delightful.

Everything seemed clear; the crops seemed not only lonely, but battered, left to rot in Saria for who knows how long. While there were no enemies around, he was still out in the open, and a cozy building was much welcomed at this point. As he walked the rest of the way to the door, he whispered a small prayer, hoping the Goddesses would bless him just a bit more. [Favor of the Goddesses]

While waiting for an answer, the mercenary reached the barn, opened the door, and peered inside. Hopefully, there would be nothing but good things awaiting him. However, knowing his recent luck, there was no way to be sure. [Nomadic Awareness L2]

HP: 22/44
SPL: 9/14
Will: 0/9

Alpha slowly nodded as the memory came to him: they needed to go higher still to reach that window. That meant another floor, which meant stairs or a ladder would be found somewhere, most likely on this level. One of the other rooms might have it, or it might be behind this locked door; no way to know for certain until they found it.

The Sheikah glanced about; several of the others had taken to exploring the other rooms, leaving this door behind. Might as well let them worry about those places, and he could concentrate his efforts here. Just to be safe, though . . . "Be on the lookout for a ladder, or a stairwell," he called out to the others, loud enough that even Leth ought to have no trouble hearing him. "That window was a bit too high for it to be on this floor; there must be an attic or something."

He cast a glare at Horren. 'If we could just use a Fire spell this would be so much simpler . . .' Just burn a hole through the roof and use that rope from before to climb up it. Something along those lines. It'd sure beat this random searching they were doing.

But hypothetical situations like that were of no use to him now. Instead he fell back on the senses that he had honed and depended on for years of his life just to survive. He knew they would not fail him here. With a deep breath, he crouched down and started intensely studying the doorway and its frame, looking for some weakness to its construction or some clue as to what it hid beyond. [[Awareness Check]]

Leth hoped for something a little more exciting than the previous room as he felt the doorknob turn in his hand. Maybe a study or something? Anything that might reveal some important information. Leth felt a small twinge of disappointment as the door opened to reveal what looked like the children's bedroom. It certainly didn't look like it held anything more important than the last one.

Leth was suddenly hit by a strange thought. It felt very odd to be scouring the house of a family he didn't know - for all they knew, this family was still alive in some refugee camp hidden somewhere close by. And yet they were here, analyzing the life of this unknown family. Leth felt like some sort of weird creeper looking around the kid's room.

Let's make this fast. He thought as he scanned the room, knowing that he should check it out in detail before passing it over. Who knows? Perhaps there is something interesting in this room after all... but he doubted it.

Awareness check

Derek deduced that the second spacing of foot prints belonged to another individual who decided to separate from the main party. Judging by the beast cry of 'The Prisoner Has Escaped,' he figured it could be possible these prints belonged to the prisoner before he was captured. Derek realized that following this path would just lead to capture himself. Maybe once he joined up with the people in the other house, he might to get the others to aid their possible comrade once they finish what they were looking for. Derek himself was still unsure, but if they had tried to seek access to the fortified house right before coming to the new manner, they probably came here to seek for new passage to the fortified place.

He ventured into the second manner, the one housing the other transient adventures. He noticed the rope hanging by the destroyed staircase, and how he could climb it to reach the second floor, where he could obviously now detect the noises coming from the home invaders. Though clearly, this decaying place stopped being a home months ago, possibly years. He reached out for the rope, and began to climb [Innate Check for Rope Climb].

OOC: I just figure that it's not actually a a rope climb check, but a test of theoretically innate skill such as strength and dexterity, plus knowledge and former experiences with handling ropes. So, it's really a branch of an innate check, I should think.