Saber waved back to Eximius with a broad smile on his own face. That guy. He was really something, wasn't he? Just the most contagious grin in the world. "Yes, his figure didn't strike me as being very memorable. Otherwise I'm sure I would have at least some recollection of him." He paused, a look of discovery flashing across his face faster than a mercenary skidding down a rocky cliff. And he knew how fast a mercenary could skid down a rocky cliff. Still had the scraped thighs to prove it. What was the point of this analogy? Oh, right. "Weren't you the one who got chased by the dog?" He chuckled a bit, turning away without waiting for an answer.

And as he turned oh flaming dekus that was a bright light. Shutting his eyes to the penetrating shine of the...shining's...source, Saber felt an explosive headache ache explosively in his head. After several seconds of begging for merciful death in his mind, he got over himself and opened his eyes again, seeing a lot of gold and silver. That's odd, where did the sand--oh sweet Jabu my eyes.

Once the mercenary was no longer subjected to the impatient Deku's facial beating, he remedied his tardiness by dashing madly into the building. Once inside, he stopped on a dime, turned to face the dunes he had just left, and made one of the intelligent observations he was known for. "I do not know why I am going in here."

Taint's eyes gleamed with appreciation towards Celine, as he graciously took the cold water. After he polished off the bottle, he wiped his mouth, and stood up slowly. "Thanks a million! You probably saved my life!" He smiled a big smile, and pondered on hugging the stranger, but reflecting on his previous encounters with girls, he decided against it. It was only after his insides got a hose-down that he noticed what was going on around him. The ground started to shake, tremble, and turbulate underneath him. "EARTH QUAKE!" He screamed, ducking to the ground.

After a moment or two of violent quaking, the ground calmed to it's original state of existence. All was quiet; that is until the Zora piped up. "Is... Is it over?" He lifted his arms from their protective position over his head to glance cautiously around. On his feet immediatly, he scoped the temple-like structure that tempted his eyes, and dared him to blink for even an instant. One word ran through his head- two actually. Infinite riches... The building was old, and that went without saying. But the main idea that coursed through the Zora's mind was that it was long lost, and possibly extremely valuable to the missing pieces of Hyrule's ancient history.

He watched the doors open slowly to reveal an entire spectrum of lights. While other voyagers shielded their precious retine, the nearly entranced aquatic being couldn't take his eyes away from the light show that casted it's finale before him. Blinded for a split second, he regained his vision to see the shining interior of the building. Taint suddenly realized that his jaw had been hanging open through the entire spectacle, and that he'd possibly drooled a bit. He didn't wait for his cue, and he certainly didn't have to be hurried along by anyone. "I SAW IT FIRST!!" He screamed, darting into the building. It wouldn't take him long to realize that the strongest around would claim the credit. Given time, and some thought, Taint would calm down.

The sand was itself a problem, causing the boy both momentary blindness as well as general pain. By the time he was able to see again, was when the door opened to reveal its glorious shaft of light.

As anyone would know, a Sheikah, being more accustomed and at home in the shadows, are not gifted with the ability to handle light as most other races could. In fact, it could even prove fatal if this light had been somehow powered.

However, this was normal light at the moment, so all Worru had to worry about was even more blindness and pain. "Alright, I'm just going to walk in there with my eyes closed. Is that alright with everyone else?" asked the hybrid, covering his eyes as he slowly walked inside, thankfully not falling over anything and anyone on his way inside.

It couldn't be that surprising that Rosen was not the biggest fan of spectacles and could not be counted as that enamored with the show of earth splitting and obelisk rising fashion. He simply yawned at the whole thing, the sounds of his voice parading underneath the boisterous sounds of sand racing across dunes to lift up what simply looked like a gilded stone, dropped by a boy skipping pebbles from the otherside of the sea.

Without too much enthusiasm, the gait of his steps uprooted the goron from the accumulated sand that had covered his feet and buried his toes in small mounds, the callouses of his skin collecting pockets of the fine grain. But that was of no importance, he found himself lazily walking towards the more than obnoxious light and found himself tapering his eyes more than usual as he could barely see even in the desert sun let alone the golden pale of the building.

Needless to say it was a wonder as to how he found himself inside the building as his eyes became nostalgic of the wrinkles that slit his face into many streams of sweat and anxiety but all in all, he smiled, grinned against the background of so many similar carved lines of his face as he entered the chamber, hoping that the light might be subdued sooner rather than later.

Phillip had gotten quite comfortable laying there on the ground, oblivious to the thousands of small sand ticks that were secretly forming colonies up and down his backside. When the ground began to shake most triumphantly, he was roused from his laziness and heaved himself quickly into the air. The parasite armies scattered from his cloak and fell to the sand to wait for a new host.

The boy had jumped directly up into some sort of sandstorm, as within moments his face was covered and his mouth filling with millions of grains of sand as he coughed and gasped for precious air. As the sand cleared and the earth tremors ceased, the cloaked Apostle gave a piteous “uuugh …” and fell back into his hard, sandy bed. He moved a hand through his hair in a shallow attempt at brushing the dust and dirt out.

Heaving violently, he stood and joined the others, not having any desire for a face full of cane. It had been a rotten enough day to begin with. Smiling vaguely to the bard, the grunt shook his head and muttered a dazed and bewildered observation to his uncloaked compatriot.

“It’s no wonder you people are never around…”

Spotting Tayro for the first time, Phillip gave a respectful nod, but said nothing. The junior mage was seen in the Apostle hideaway as little as his clumsy musician friend. He wondered if the Adventurer-Apostles even remembered all of their comrades.

(((OOC: I'm later than Blank. That's never happened before........ Oh god. )))

~After he had arrived at the impromptu gathering, some rather unnecessary polite conversation was traded. But the strange deku seemed impatient to start, and rather suddenly had jumped into action. The next few minutes were one big sensory overload, the last thing the ranger had expected in the desert.

Pyralin stood watching the deku curiously as he scrambled up the rock, holding his rather menacing looking cane. He could probably seriously injure misbehaving school boys with it. But that is beside the point. The deku stuck the cane right in the rock, and that's when all hell broke loose.

First the ground started shaking, and Pyre was knocked to his knees. He was not ready for this, and a brief cry was torn from his mouth. Unfortunately, the sand was suddenly whipped into a frenzy, and its never good to have your mouth open when large quantities of silicon is flying through the air. When the very brief catastrophe ended, the hylian was left spitting out sand rather violently, and thus was one of the last to notice the most obvious change in the desert scene: a huge building had appeared.

Now this is what he had been waiting for.

Giant sketchy dungeon in the middle of the desert buried under the sand? It could only be filled with a variety of foul foes, and tricky traps, and rich rewards. Just the way Pyre liked it. Without further ado, he walked in after the rest of the party, wondering what wonderous wonders awaited.~

Orpheous nodded in agreement with the bard, hoping his was right. Luckily, others showed up after him, and with that, he let out a sigh. Orpheous watched in marvel. He took his cloak, using the hood to shield his eyes from the cloud of sand, as well as the bright light.

However, after the flash, he blinked a handful of times, them rubbed off his face, getting the sand he missed off. After coughing once, clearing his mouth out of the sand. He then dusted off his now sand covered cloak. He stood there, and observed some of the others entering. Then, he himself walked in, very precariously.

OOC:

STATS
HP: 53
STR: 3
DEF(DEF rating): 16
AGI: 1
INT: 5
SPI: 3
SPL : 42

DMG
Deku Staff: 12
Magic: 21
Deku Boomerang: 8
Bomb: 8

CURRENT
HP: 53/53
SPL: 42/42
Will: 9/9

OOC: Tayro has to be god-modded in because his internet doesn't work or some such excuse. JEEZ.

IC: Eyes adjust en masse as the group enters the building, with the bouncing light reduced to simple illumination. The inside isn't too different from the exterior, save for the lack of sand. The walls are gold and silver, columns decorate them, etc. It is all rather impressive, except for the room's lack of... well, anything.

It is empty. Large, and empty. Oh, well, there is a desk, above which hangs a sign, on which is written "LIBRARIAN," in Ancient Hylian. The Deku from before scrambles toward the desk and situates himself behind it, plopping down comfortably in an ornate chair. He produces a quill from somewhere, and begins to write in a ledger. Really, all he is doing is checking off names: Victor, Eximius, Celine, Phillip, Orpheous, Rosen, Pyralin, Hiro, Darilan, Aria, Saber, Taint, Tayro, and Worru. As he made his way down the list he spoke, accentuated by the quick flicks of his pen.

"You will proceed into the Library as a group from now on. Please do not touch things any more than you have to. Have a nice day."

Victor, Eximius, and Celine stood staring at him awkwardly for a while, before Celine gave a polite cough. The Deku did not look up.

"Still here? What are you waiting for? Get."

Celine was trying hard to remain cordial.

"Well, sir, you see... we're not exactly sure what we're here for, and we'd like you to explain."

The Deku's pen dropped angrily, and he sighed heavily. He removed his glasses and stared daggers at Celine.

"Fine, young lady, if you must know. This is the Grand Library of the Goddess Nayru; originally the Grand Temple of the Goddess Nayru, it was filled with books throughout the ages as a tribute to the Goddess of Wisdom. Unfortunately, certain forces of evil forced it underground long ago. I am its proprietor, Kunskap, but you may call me Master Kunskap. I am the Librarian, and the Sage or Oracle or what have you who keeps the temple. I have been waiting your little Bard friend there for a very long time."

He whipped his cane out, and pointed it at Victor.

"So get moving already. As far as I'm concerned you've already wasted years of my time. The least you could do is hurry up, now."

With that, he removed himself from his post and found his way behind Victor, promptly beginning to whack him with his cane. The Bard yelped, and ran for the back of the room, followed by the rest of the group.

OOC: Yes, some god-modding. Deal with it.

IC: The back of the room is surprisingly devoid of any and all books, tomes, scrolls, or any other media, for a library anyways. What it does have is a single sandstone door on the opposite wall. Since there's nothing better to do, Victor happens to walk over to said portal to check it out. But he would never really get the chance, for as soon as he neared it, the door really did become a portal. Sliding to the side without any warning, the door revealed a swirling mass of light, which was quick to suck each and every adventurer into its depths. After what seemed like an eternity of floating and spinning and other nauseating acrobatics, the group dropped into actual sand.


<center>-------
ADVENTURE SECTION - Ikana Johnny and the Tomb of Unhappiness by Jorge Lukaz</center>

They were in a canyon, which is to say they were surrounded completely by flat rock surfaces. This might have been daunting except for the existence of a large facade, carved out of the stone. It was a tomb, they could probably deduce. Simple in design yet breathtaking, it was the only thing around, and the open door seemed like a welcome escape from the suddenly very noticeable heat. Wow, it was hot. Oh man. Get in there quick.

Victor, Eximius, and Celine hurried in, kicking up sand as they rushed into the cool darkness of the tomb. What felt like a wall of coolness washed over each adventurer as the group entered. It was dark, despite a few flickering torches along the crumbling sandstone walls, and the passage was extremely narrow. Anyone who was claustrophobic would be panicky, probably, but Victor was surprisingly unaffected.

Anyways, the Bard started to move forward into the passage when Eximius stuck out a hand to stop him. Or rather, punched him in the chest. Victor exhaled quickly, tumbled backwards, and when he found his breath again, sucked in a lungfull of age-old dust. As he hacked and splattered all over the floor, the Vassal spoke with caution.

"Watch yourselves here, friends. This passage is littered with traps..."

And indeed it was, as Ex's checking would reveal to him. But as a Vassal, he could do nothing about it. It would take a Ranger or a Thief to disarm the traps... with the correct training of course. But wait...

"I think... I think we may be able to brave the passage if we are careful. It would juts take the right amount of cunning and flexibility. I will try first..."

OOC: OK this is how it will work guys. Remember the Shooting Gallery? It will be a similar mechanic. Rolls will determine whether you step on the wrong tile or not. If you don't, you'll get hit by a dart and take damage. There are five rows of tiles, so post five rows of five numbers using only 1 and 2. I'll post with the results soon after. For testing's sake, here's Eximius's run...
12112 - YYYNN PASS
12212 - YYYYY PASS
21112 - NYNNY FAIL -5 HP
21212 - YNYNY PASS
22112 - NYYYY PASS

IC: Eximius deftly avoids the trap tiles in the first two rows, but missteps on the third. Thanks to his error, a dart shoots out of a hole in the wall, decorated as an angry mouth. The Vassal grunts with pain and takes 5 DMG. But he continues onwards, and manages to make it across without another incident. From the other end of the hallway, he beckons for the others to follow.

OOC: So, post your rows, and I'll check against the dice. Good luck everyone! By the way, you can all post at once, I'll just GM it accordingly. Oh, and if you do know Disarm Trap, you can try it on each row - but if your check fails, you have to go through the dice rolls anyways. The good news is that, once you disable a trap, it's disabled for everyone after you. Just post five Disarm Checks as well as five rows of numbers. I'll take care of it. Sorry for the long post, again...

Eximius:
HP: 66/71
SPL: 10/10
WILL: 9/9

Hiro looked at the trap-laden path that lay before him. Traps... Not my strong point... Had it been a patrol of guards this would be simple. Well, here goes nothing.

Hiro began to traverse the passage, utilizing an impressive arsenal of flips, handstands, and rolls to avoid the dangers that littered the room.

11222
22111
21122
22212
11112

Strange to stranger. What the hell was happening? First off, they walked into ancient ruins, that turned out to be a library of the Goddesses Nayru. That was buried, underground, but undisclosed evil forces. Oh, and the librarian/proprieter who ran the operation happened to be the Deku from earlier, who was apparently named Kunskap, but he wanted them to call him Master Kunskap. Orpheous promptly followed Victor to the end of the room, himself not needing to be told to get out of the way.

However, the bard's curiosity discovered a door, that turned out to be a portal, which led them into the middle of a canyon. Luckily, there was a tunnel, leading into apparent tomb. They soon came up to narrow tunnel littered with traps. Fun stuff. Watching the Vassal go through, and then the Thief, he decided to try his own luck.

Creeping through. Orpheous tried to make each and every step as flawlessly as possible. However, that wouldn't prevent him from stepping on any wrong tiles.

12212
21121
11212
22121
11221

OOC:

STATS
HP: 53
STR: 3
DEF(DEF rating): 16
AGI: 1
INT: 5
SPI: 3
SPL : 42

DMG
Deku Staff: 12
Magic: 21
Deku Boomerang: 8
Bomb: 8

CURRENT
HP: 53/53
SPL: 42/42
Will: 9/9

Maybe he should have waited for someone to disarm the traps, but Darilan was feeling lucky. Besides, what harm could a little dart do to him. He ran through the passage, taking guesses at which tiles he should step on. Though he was moving fast, the effects of the mushrooms made it feel as though he were running on ice and taking a long time to get to where he wanted.

12212
22112
12212
22212
11122

It was enough with the sand from before, but after landing face first into the tiny grains, the boy wished he had brought water with him. After shaking his head and spitting out what he could, the young hybrid followed the group into the, as he quickly learned, booby-trapped room. "Well... At least I can be somewhat useful." said Worru, looking at the tiles and cracking his knuckles. It was finally becoming time for the youngest ranger to show off the training that he had gone through.

OOC: Seriously. This is the first time he has ever used this skill, and the second time he's ever used his training. I need to get into more stat stuff, really.


[Disarm Trap x5]

12112
12212
12221
21212
22112

HP, SP, WILL : Same as before. Seriously, folks, no damage yet. I'm good.

Despite his arsenal of flashy flips, Hiro was not quite so lucky. He avoided the first two traps just fine, but the Thief suffered the wrath of... whoever built this place on the last three rows. However, the darts released were not quite enough of a match for his HUMAN INGENUITY - he only took three damage from each, instead of the usual five, ending up with 9 less HP.

Unfortunately for Orpheous, his run was very similar. The Scribe's careful steps did not spare him from taking another three darts to the side, but again, his origins proved that you didn't have to be a Hylian to get a little help from the Goddesses every once and a while. The Human walked away with only 9 less HP.

It wasn't quite Darilan's lucky day, but he did manage to avoid three traps before being hit by two - unfortunately, being a Sheikah did not have its benefits in this situation. The Scribe took five damage each, which, because of his low endurance, meant that he was severely hurting by the end of the hallway with 10 less health.

But FINALLY, a Ranger enters the fray, and a useful one at that. Though he is young, Worru proves his worth by noticing the trick tile on three of the five traps - the first, third, and fifth ones to be exact. Meanwhile, he manages to avoid the wrong tile for the second and fourth rows, exiting without a scratch.

Perhaps it would have been wise for the others to wait for Worru, but, too late. At least the rest of the group would have an easier time.

Upon entering the building, the Zora's hopes were dashed when his eyes picked up not a single treasure. "Not one... single... doubloon." He closed his eyes, and cursed his luck. Before he could do much else, Victor darted past him with an agressive Deku hot on his tail. "Whoa!" Taint cried, chasing after the two. He made a few attempts to grab the tiny enraged one, but failed to help the unfourtunate bard. As they neared the back of the room, however, he realized that there was something familiar about the place. He hadn't been paying any attention to anyone earlier, and was finally piecing it together in his head. "This must be an old library!" He called out, feeling rather high of himself to have noticed before anyone else. "See all the empty shelves? The books must've-GWAHHHH!" He was sucked into bright light before he could manage another word.

When he awoke, he threw up some of his earlier meal, and held his stomach. When he opened his eyes, he realized he was outside. He slowly, and awkwardly stood up, and spit out sand. "What the hell..." He stated, still spitting out sand. He could feel the tiny grains between his teeth when he clenched them, and no amount of spitting would rid him of it. Suddenly, his nose picked up a delicious scent. It took him only a few more seconds to realize that it was the smell of his skin starting to burn. With a panicked yelp, he darted for the only structure in sight: a tomb. Not one of his favorite places. Cemeteries, Tombs, Crypts, Dungeons... Not high on his list of places he'd prefer to be. When he was inside, the air was much cooler. A relief; but now he had other problems. It was dark. Dark and scary, with scary torches lining the scary walls down the scary hall. Staring down the hallway, he decided to look away from it. He was always scared that a pair of blood-red eyes would open up to stare back at him, or that a monster would fly at him from the darkness.

"Ummm..." He muttered, looking around to see the other adventurers. He felt comfort in numbers, but not too much comfort. He listened carefully to what Eximus had to say, and watched the adventurers attempt to make it past the traps. The Nomad gulped, and his muscles tensed. "Screw that, man!" Taint said quite loudly, as he watched some of the tomb raiders get sniped from unseen forces. However, when watching one of the warriors disarm a few of the traps, he changed his mind. After Worru crossed, Taint offered a thankyou to the boy, and carefully attempted to tip-toe across the remaining two traps.

22121
11212

Damn... Three traps. If I can't get past such a simple obstacle without nearly killing myself, how am I supposed to find Dokumaru? More training. A lot more training.

Hiro watched intently as the Ranger disarmed three of the traps, but strangely could not discern the process by which it was done. I will have to teach myself then.

Only now fully realizing the toll those traps took on his body, Hiro scanned the room for something to heal him, or at least soothe the pain. [Awareness Check]

HP-22/SPL-15