Man, it was hot in this place. And sandy. And wouldn't you know it, Saber's shoes had open toes. That was just unfortunate, now the little grains were sliding in under his toes and oh that just feels nasty. Better empty them out.

Stepping through the door into the dusty passageway, the mercenary removed one shoe at a time, turning each sidewise to let all that irritating--yet exfoliating--sand slide out of the footwear, and onto the head of that guy on the ground. What did Eximius say his name was? Vinny, or something of the like. Well, that's what he gets for being on the ground. Really, how is he expecting to help anyone there?

Hey, what's everyone doing? Stepping through a hallway full of traps? Well then, guess Saber had better tag along. Oh, what's this? Worru got rid of three of the traps? Well that was kind of him! Oh, poor Darilan got a boo-boo or two, though, and he could really only take a few boo-boos being the frail Scholar he was. Well, that's okay, Saber would help him out. So, bracing himself and trying to put into effect that old Nomad endurance, he charged through the passage while praying for Darilan's health. [Favor of the Goddesses on Darilan]

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

OOC:

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Rosen wasn't in any hurry to get his feet sore or be the bucket for where cavernous walls could spew whatever daggers churned within their bowls like pointy daggers and sharp things that lodged themselves from the sides. It was a mystery as to why floors always had to be connected to things that came from walls when it'd be far more appropriate if the floor shot things out instead. A kill two birds with one tile kind of scenario.

But in any case, Rosen decided that it was best that he did wait for Worru sure did an awful lot to disarm those traps. In fact, it was practically a hop and a skip away.

It was just too bad that gorons were never trained in the art of hop-scotch and nor was the belligerent weight that hung from his belly as it waddled side to side, courting the alabaster gray of his beard that glittered yellow from the uproar of sand a few minutes earlier.

With that in mind, Rosen readied himself for the hops of his life.
"A one- a two- a three!"

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Phillip had no idea that Worru was a ranger. He couldn't be blamed for this, of course. He had never met the young half-Gerudo, nor had he met most of the other people who had assembled to help Victor in whatever it was he was questing towards. By the sounds of things, neither Eximius nor Celine nor Victor himself had any sort of clue what they were doing here.

The Calatian, who, it should be noted, was born with similar features as the humans present, was not as courageous as the Incineran king who had been the first to charge into the trap-ridden corridor. Had the young man known of the royal blood that flowed through the foreign crusader's veins, he would not have been so quick to brand Hiro a quick-thinking, egotistical maniac. What Phillip truly lacked was insight into the workings of someone who was truly braver than the average man.

Now then, being the not-so-courageous type, Phillip was obliged to wait until he was one of the last persons at the beginning of the trap series before he made his not-so-gallant dash into madness. With any luck, all of the ancient library's darts would have been exhausted by this point. It had to run out sometime, right?

Phillip was never quite so lucky.

Summoning up whatever bravado he could, the Apostle took a cautious, pathetic step forward into certain doom. He let his toes settle delicately on the first tile, an then gave a mad and anti-heroic sprint towards the end, bellowing a shout of despair as he braced himself, eyes sealed tightly shut, for the impending possibility of much dart-based misfortune.

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OOC: Crap, so much for waiting for Pabru.

Not a word, KP.

IC:
With all the weird going ons since entering the building, this library, Aria was starting to wish she had gone back to the village to give a report. But it was too late now. Nothing to it now but to get across the traps.

It was not a very entertaining thought. But at least three of them had been shown for what they really were. The Gerudic ranger wished she could jump all of the tiles, but she just wasn't Matilda. So she carefully chose her steps, making sure to step on the three tiles she knew were safe.

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HP: 42/42
SPL: 15/15
Will: 8/8

OoC:

--spot reserved for posting tomorrow--

Just so that I won't halt the story too much. I'll edit it first thing tomorrow when I manage to log on.

OOC: Well, Tayro gave me his numbers, so I'm ready to move on! Pabru will just have to suffer the consequences of his actions.

IC: Tiptoeing seems to be the secret to this puzzle, as Taint is the first to cross without triggering any of the remaining traps! Of course, the fact that there were only two left probably had something to do with it, too...

Saber is also somewhat lucky, as he manages the hallway with no pain to speak of. However, his Favor of the Goddesses fails, and Darilan goes without a healing. Perhaps if the Mercenary had not been so busy DUMPING SAND ON INNOCENT BARDS, the Goddesses might have smiled on his prayer.

Rosen's heavy hops are incapable of propelling him to safety, as he falls on the wrong tiles each time, taking 10 damage. Looks like the Goron will have to lose some weight before trying other tile traps any time soon.

Phillip was indeed not so lucky, as the trap still had at least one dart left for him - the one attached to the second set he crossed, to be exact. He takes 5 damage; perhaps he should have kept his eyes open.

Aria was no Matilda, whoever that was, but her careful steps are good enough to get her across safely without damage.

Tayro is not quite as lucky, managing to avoid tripping one of the traps but took 5 damage from the other.

After watching almost everyone cross, Celine gains the courage to follow as well. With a deep breath, she sprints through the tile, hoping that perhaps she'd only hit the trip tiles lightly, if at all. But it doesn't quite work, as she triggers the second set and takes 5 damage. She hisses at the sting of the dart, but continues to the end.

So Victor's the only one left, now.

Well, and Pyre.

The Bard is still writhing on the floor thanks to Ex's punch, and spitting out Saber's footsand. But eventually he spits out the last grain of sand and coughs out the last speck of tomb dust, and is on his feet, staring down the tunnel. He would survive it, yet. But there was still the matter of Pyralin to take care of.

Victor was somewhat angry at this point, so he didn't really care much about the Ranger's feelings. He simply grabbed Pyre's sleeve and pulled, dragging him through the corridor. The Bard wasn't being too careful, as he just wanted to get it over with, but he managed to... what? He really managed to make it through without triggering the traps.

Wow.

Of course, Pyralin is being dragged, and therefore has no control over his movements, so he has less luck. In fact, he triggers both traps, taking 10 damage. But finally, the whole group was on the other side of the hallway...

<center>-----</center>


After besting the Hallway of Pointy Flying Things, the group of adventurers finds themselves in a cavernous hall of epic proportions. The existence of a ceiling would be questionable, if not for the lack of sunlight or heat. Speaking of which, it is very, very dark in this room. Two torches from the end of the previous hall serve as the only lighting, and even then they only project a bit into the hall before their light is swallowed by the shadows.

Victor ignores this fact, however, and ventures into the darkness without a second thought. This is very brave! Except that, a few steps into the darkness, he stubs his toe on something and is soon curled up into a ball of pain. Thankfully, no one can see him in this position, they can only hear him groaning in pain. It would be best to find a way to light this whole place up...

OOC: OK guys, now it's time for CLASSIC DUNGEON MAYHEM. You know the drill, checks and such. Use your skills if they seem applicable. And be creative! I'll reward it, if it's good, and sometimes it will even lead to the easiest solution, or some extra help. You never know....

Oh, and the room is square, so imagine a 3 x 3 grid. You want to move to spaces on the grid. So GO!

The young hybrid was happy to be of use to the group, and incredibly thankful that his first time really using his Ranger abilities was fruitful. Upon entering the dark room, his happiness was dampened, now frightened even with his better eyesight in the shadowy place. It was enough for him to see their leader-of-sorts, Victor, on the ground, apparently in pain. Worru sighed at the sight, bending down beside the bard and holding out his hands, trying to calm the man down. [Calm Beast LV1]

When that was done, the boy began to look around, suddenly finding another use for his skills about to come into play. While it was true that they had yet to find an enemy, the building was still a temple of sorts, and so he would expect that others might've come through here before. [Track LV1]

OOC: HP/SP/WILL: Yes, same as before.

Hiro had been trained to be able to see clearly in areas with an extremely low amount of light, but it seemed that the room was completely dark, without even the meager amount that he required to see.

Hiro returned to the previous room and studied the torches, trying to find a way to move them or otherwise bring their warm glow further into the tomb. [Insight Check]

Well, that wasn't so bad, Aria thought.

In the next room, her line of thinking went more towards This could be bad. She ignored Victor, as she decided to follow Hiro back to the previous room, guessing that he was going back to get a torch or two. She examined a torch of her own to see if it could be removed from the wall. [Insight Check]

HP: 42/42
SPL: 15/15
Will: 8/8

The darts served as a reminder to Darilan that he better not be too careless. Trying to be more cautious this time, he stepped into the room, just far enough to mask himself in the darkness, then stopped. Something had knocked the bard down, and he didn't have anything to shed light on the situation. He did what he thought was the next best thing, he closed his eyes and listened, attempting to detect the movement of any beings that might be in the room with them [Awareness Check].

HP: 13/23
SPL: 27/27
WILL: 9/9

Saber's Adonis-like body, still completely unscathed, emerged into the dimly lit--well, actually more like completely UNlit cavern.

Even his highly trained eyes--wait, no, his eyes were pretty normal.

Well then, his acute hearing lent him by his pointy ears--well, no, his hearing was actually a bit worse than normal, as anyone who knew him intimately would tell you. His ears also weren't very pointy. In fact, they were more of an oval. It was really quite irritating, he felt all ashamed with the big goofy ears that weren't quite Hylian. He just dismissed it as a birth defect and spent long desert nights in vain, trying to mold them into a sharper shape with his hands and occasionally a sword. Well, no, he wasn't brave enough to actually bring his blade to himself.

Wait, where had his train of thought been going before it derailed? Oh right.

Bodily organs aside, perhaps his sixth sense--er, no, his inner demon--no, no, no...

Well, he was just out of luck, wasn't he? All around him were Rangers and such. They'd have things figured out in no time. But standing around was boring. Maybe he'd beat them to the punch and find the door or whatever it was first. In the dark. Yeah, that would learn 'em.

So off he marched, straight ahead from the door. And down he went, his foot hitting something curled up on the ground. He crumpled on top of the figure, fearing an attack and thrashing about in an attempt to beat back whatever was trying to eat him--wait, was that a string? His finger wiggled a bit more. Yes, those were strings. Pretty sound, too. Like an instrument of some kind. Flute? No, flutes didn't have strings. Hmm, well, that could be decided later--

Wait, flute? Flute...fruit...mmm....he hadn't realized how hungry he was. Pushing off of whatever was beneath him, the mercenary immediately began to crawl around the place, sniffing like mad and waving his arms about in search of something edible. [Find Sustenance L1]

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

He's made it across safely, and was doing a little jig in celebration of staying safe. "Thank you Great Nayru." He said loudly, clasping his hands together. After waiting for the less fortunate members of the group, they proceeded forward. The Zora had hoped that the adventurers would have noticed that after praying to Nayru, Taint had emerged completely unharmed. He wasn't exactly a preachy kind of person, or else he might have pointed it out. As they continued down the cavern, he looked around, noticing nothing but darkness. They emerged into what would seem to be the next room, and the only things visible were two torches on the other side of the room.

Looking around the room, the Zora was indeed uncomfortable with all of the darkness around him. It was times like these that he wishes he was of Sheikah descent. Taint walked slowly across the large room, keeping his eyes open for anything that might leap out of the darkness to munch on his brains. When he made it to the two torches, he pulled out a Deku Stick from the bundle he was keeping in hammer space. He lit one of them on the torch, and made his way carefully back to the group. Holding out his makeshift lanturn, he looked around carefully for anything that might be missed.

OOC: Hooray for my giant inventory.

IC: Orpheous walked away from the darts with a few scratches, but no major injuries. Sure did sting though. He continued forward, following the group into the large chamber. Where his vision too was also hindered by the darkness in much of the room.

He used his strong intelligence to try to gain some insight into how to best illuminate the room. Their were torches back in the tunnel perhaps there were more unlit torches elsewhere or perhaps those torches could be moved. Or maybe they didn't even need torches to illuminate the room [insight check].

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: 44/53
SPL: 42/42
Will: 9/9

Worru's improved eyesight, thanks to his hybrid status, may have been enough to pick out the quivering form of a pain-stricken Bard, but the darkness may still have been too much for him; not only did his attempt to calm Victor fail (likely because the latter was not a beast at all), but he was not able to track anything in the room, either. Meanwhile the room, save for its entrance hallway, is still too dark for him to see much.

Hiro makes a venerable attempt to remove the mounted torches, but fails miserably. It seems he is on the right track, however, because Aria is indeed able to make out a way to slip the torch off the wall. She could probably use it to see in the darker portions of the room, if only revealing a small area.

Darilan uses his head, or rather his ears, and his giving up on trying to see anything in the darkness pays off. However, he is only able to hear two distinct sounds - the crackling of fire from the torches, and a sharp clink of falling silver from the darkness.

Saber's hunger wasn't going anywhere, as he is unable to find any sustenance around him. Pfft. Useless nomad.

Taint proves that he is prepared, however, as his lighted Deku stick could probably serve to illuminate parts of the room... That is, if he had carried it with him into the shadows. For now, its light doesn't reach much further than that of the torches at the end of the hallway, revealing nothing new.

But it's not all good luck; Orpheous continues a trend of failures as his intelligence fails him, revealing nothing. It's beginning to look like light is the right way to go, here.

One of the sounds that Darilan picked up, the torches, didn't catch his attention. It was the sound that came from the unknown that made him perk up. He couldn't figure out what it was though. Suddenly, it occurred to him that he shouldn't be standing in the doorway with light on his side but not on the other side. It would make him an easy target for any monster hiding in the darkness. He stepped to the side, out of sight.

Then he realized that it had been a while since they heard anything from Victor in the room. In a quiet voice, he called into the dark room, "Sir, are you alright? Is there anything in the room with you?" He hoped that if there were any unfriendly beings in that room that they didn't speak common.

HP: 13/23
SPL: 27/27
WILL: 9/9