Fifth, Sixth, & Eleventh Stick - @Littlefeets, @BlueInferno, @katabasis, & GROUP DECIDERS
Being the shortest of the group, Julian had to step back from the others to see the jewels at the top of the giant, which seemed to gleam in the lowly lit room. He walked forward again, to the group, and looked up at Sam with a mocking grin. “I suppose you’re going up there to pry that out of its eye?”
As if to try to get the upper hand, she matched his grin and retort, “The other idea I had was to ask Aelric to help me throw you up there to get it. How does that sound?” She looked over at Aelric, who wasn’t paying attention.
“Over my dead body.”
Sam shrugged. “Could be arranged.”
Aelric whistled loudly, in amazement, which stopped their little argument. “I’m going to get one of those.” Then suddenly pulled his hand away, as if just remembering he and Dee were still holding hands. He smirked at her in his usually cockily kind way. “For me, obviously, don’t get any ideas about, you know.”
“Obviously,” she responded, blushing. “Just try to be careful, Al.”
Kathryn laughed abruptly. “Al?”
“You know me,” Aelric answered, winking at her. He then faced Kathryn. “What’s the matter, Masky? Why don’t you stop laughing long enough to put your money where your mouth is and take the risk too?” He pointed up to the giant statue.
Sam stepped forward, speaking through a laugh, “Masky, I like it. I’m not all talk, Aelric, I’ll join ya.” He nodded.
“Rich comin’ from the idiot who rang a trap bell about an hour ago,” Kathryn hurled back as the two got close to the statue’s bottom.
The statue was very smooth and would be very difficult to climb. Some rope would help with that but no such luck, they’d have to try to free-climb. Slowly and carefully, Sam and Aelric began to climb. Sam is about to grab ahold of its large ear when her foot slipped. Yoohan’s flew open in fear and she had to cover her mouth with her hand to stifle a scream. Luckily, Aelric managed to grab ahold of her arm to stop her from falling, and she was able to grip the giant earlobe and regain her footing.
Kendra noticed that the ground in front of her was scattered with wooden splitters, ones that had clearly been flung out when the person before her tried to walk between the polls. She could tell from the few droplets of blood down there too. That was why she decided to run across the top of them. Kendra pulled herself up onto the first pole and stood there confidently. Then began to stride quickly across, not wanting to stay still for too long. Unfortunately, it didn’t work. Halfway across, a shower of splinters was released. (-2 luck) They flew out in all directions and she couldn’t avoid being hit; seven splinters embedded themselves into her flesh. She let out a silent yet anguished scream and stumbled off the poles, dropping to the ground. Kendra plonks herself on the cold ground and painfully pulls each of them out. Not bothering to mop up the small amounts of blood around each wound, she got up and quickly continued on. Hearing chatter up ahead, she quickened her pace.
Kendra reached the large cavern and found a group of six challengers just metres in front of her. Four stood watching as the other two climbed up a giant idol that took up the majority of the cavern before her. She saw the pair on the idol reaching out for the right eye and thought she couldn’t let them get both jewelled eyes. Quietly, Kendra sprinted around the group of four and leapt onto the giant, clearing a good metre and gripped the surface with both hands. Her fingers slipped but still managed to hang on. Fumbling around as she tried to carefully climb the idol, trying to find handholds while also working her way away from where the other two were climbing.
As Sam was attempting to pry out the jewel in the right eye with one of her arrows, Kendra had to climb up higher to where she was next to the left eye. As she had one of her daggers in hand and started to prise it out, she saw the girl’s (Sam’s) arrow touch the right eye. Much to everyone’s surprise, it shattered on contact, releasing a jet of poisonous gas directly into her face. It seemed to have missed the boy (Aelric), who struggled to grab Sam as she passed out and bounced down the idol to the stone floor. Without time to contemplate what had happened, she heard a creaking sound from below as she touched her own jewelled eye. Looking down, she’s shocked to see the two stuffed birds taking flight. Their wings flapped in jerky movements but they are soon above her, looking set to attack.
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Aelric
Skill: 10
Stamina: 18
Luck: 10
Desiree
Skill: 9
Stamina: 20
Julian
Skill: 9
Stamina: 22
Kathryn
Skill: 11
Stamina: 19
Luck: 6
Kendra
Skill: 12
Stamina: 14
Luck: 10
Samantha
Skill: 8
Stamina: 0
Luck: 8
Yoohan
Skill: 12
Stamina: 21
Seventh and Eighth Stick - @passionfruit, @Daunt, and @Caticorn
Being the closest to the door, Emrys knew in his gut that they should just continue on but curiosity got the better of him. It wanted to know what was behind the door. In a completely deadpan way, he joked, “Do you choose to continue down the path or open door number one?” Emrys paused before answering himself. “I choose to have a peek.”
He slid the small plate open with ease and found himself peering into a room with a deep pit in the floor behind the door. On the opposite wall were two iron hooks, on one hung a coil of rope.
Crystal rolled her eyes at his comment while also smiling and shaking her head while walking closer to the door. “Let’s just go in.”
“Just what I had in mind,” Scarlet agreed with a little smirk to Crystal, putting her hand on the handle. The door swung open into the small room, but before any of them knew what was happening, Scarlet found herself falling through the air. She landed heavily at the bottom and winced in pain. (-4 stamina) Looking up at the pit walls, she could see they were roughly chiselled and had plenty of toe and finger-holds to clamber back out easily. Scarlet cursed herself and made a note to be more careful when entering rooms or opening doors. She climbed, reaching the top on the opposite side. Grabbing the rope and stuffing it in her pack before leaping back over the pit to rejoin the others. “See,” she shrugged, the smirk still on her face. “As easy as that.”
“Apart from the bit where you fell down a hole, right?”, Emrys retorted. “And the language you used when you were down there. Yeah, I heard, but don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone how tough you’re not.” He continued north, taking the lead.
Almost through gritted teeth, Scarlet whispered to Crystal, “I think I really hate him.”
Crystal tried to hold back a laugh to respond quietly, “I think he feels the same about you.” Then she followed Emrys and Scarlet followed her.
Ahead the tunnel turned sharply to the left. Emrys turned the corner with the girls close behind him and they almost bumped straight into two fierce-looking orcs who were armed with morning stars and dressed in leather. Taken by surprise, they then draw their weapons as the orcs swing their morning stars at them.
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Crystal
Skill: 11
Stamina: 20
Emyrs
Skill: 11
Stamina: 16
Scarlet
Skill: 11
Stamina: 16
Ninth Stick - @katabasis
Yeonhwa arrived at a junction in the tunnel. A new brunch leads west but the wet footprints he had been following continued north, so he keeps following them north. He then does the same at the next junction too, which tried to change to the east but he kept heading north following what has turned into over half a dozen footprints.
He had arrived at a large darker cavern that was much drier than the tunnel had been. Yeonhwa wasn’t alone. There was a large idol taking up most of the cavern’s space with a group before him. Two were on the idol and one seemed to be being attacked by a pair of bird-like creatures. Yeonhwa seemed to have caught up with some more of his challengers.
""
Yeonhwa Kim
Skill: 7
Stamina: 15
Questions:
Fifth, Sixth, & Eleventh Stick
What’s Kendra’s first move?
Does anyone else want to try to help?
How do you feel about Sam? What do you do and how do you react?
Seventh and Eighth Stick
Either you can choose a number from 1 to 6 OR I can throw a die and it can be random?
What’s your first move in the battle?
Ninth Stick
What will he do? Either he can stand and watch, try to help fight the bird things, go around the group/idol and go ahead of them, OR something else.
Group Deciders and Readers:
@Tellyg47, @anon93806337, @ChaoticDeluge, @jaytastic, @Skyler2, @unsungcheerio, @sunflower.flow, @duck, @Duckling, @celestialkitten, and @TheDancingFryer