Tales of Magik: Imus ad Infernum circle 3
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xp_logsThe party has to solve a puzzle to continue their quest. Who built these things?
A breakfast of chocolate bars was not as pleasant in reality as it is in theory. At least not after a night sleeping on the cold ground in a cave in Hell. But it was that or starve, which was the less attractive option.
The party headed out in silence after breaking down camp. Illyana led the way through the barren wasteland and Miles followed close behind. In time, they came upon what looked like ancient ruins. Several pillars that may have once supported a temple or other structure rose from the ground. At the far end they could see a long bridge of ice or glass or something, wide enough to fit at least two people side by side, that stretched over a chasm to the cliff at the other end. A perilous cross, but that seemed par for the course with this place.
The ground shook as they approached and the bridge shattered, stranding them.
Miles frowned. "Mierda."
Warren wasn't perturbed. Since the day before, he'd taken to fashioning his jacket into a sling, and carrying his things around like that. It was easier to be shirtless when you might have to fly at any time. This way, if more zombies arrived, he could hover out of arm's reach. Unless there were zombie birds...but he didn't want to think about this. Looking around, he noted that the ice bridge didn't seem that far away -- close enough that a few good pumps would get him to the other side. Then, he'd be able to look around for a mechanism, or something to make the bridge go all the way. Obviously, something must've gotten stuck, although he had to say, someone should have been fired for this design. There were no switches, nothing on their side to help restart the bridge.
"I suppose it's up to me to save the day again," Warren decreed, clearing his throat. Handing his makeshift bag to Miles, he stretched his wings out. He already had visions of the team cheering, jumping up and down, thrilled that Warren was there.
Instead, he felt a crack on his nose, and a jolt to his nuts. It took a few moments for him to realize that not only was he not on the other side, but that he'd basically flown straight into a very, very hard barrier. Was his nose broken? And why was everything moving so fast? And was he ..falling? The chasm was ending pretty fast, causing him to panic. A partly well-timed roll later, his shoulder was scraped and bruised, blood was gushing out his nose, and he realized that there really was no way to the other side. The bottom of the chasm was also blocked by this magical barrier. Slowly making his way up, he looked at his teammate's shocked faces. Except for one.
"Gabriel. You get one comment."
"Look, don't beat yourself up." Gabriel couldn't suppress his smirk. "Every bird flies into a window eventually." Everything about that crash had been incredibly satisfying, and tired and hungry as he was, it was good to know that Hell came with an upside. "You're probably gonna wanna ice that beak."
There was no satisfaction in Amadeus's face. If he took any sort of pleasure from Warren's distress, he didn't show it. He walked to the barrier and knocked, the barrier sounded back, sounding metallic, like a sheet pan being wobbled. He frowned. Normally, in a situation like this, the resident genius would mumble "Strange," or "Fascinating" and then quirk an eyebrow or stroke his chin. Instead, this strange, new version of Amadeus, this... Otherdeus, just said nothing. The coldness radiating off him.
Illyana, keeping well away from the edge, crossed her arms. "I don't think you can fly across," she observed helpfully, squinting across the chasm.
"I don't know maybe he should try again," Topaz added. "Twice. Third time's a charm, right?"
"That's not funny. You OK, Warren?" Miles walked over to the edge and looked around, hoping to find success where Warren did not. When his search came back just as fruitless, he sighed and leaned back against one of the columns. "If Bobby was here, he could fix thaaaaa-Ay!" He nearly fell over when the column slid out from behind him, and he ended up in a contorted mess to stay on his feet.
The column was pushed back a few feet, sliding like a curling stone until it came to a stop against a small mound of rocks. A sparkling purple sphere set into a hole in the base glowed, and the ice bridge extended a couple feet. "That's . . . a thing," Miles muttered as he untwisted himself. "This is not good architecture if they just move around."
Rahne had flinched back at Miles' yelp, half expecting something nasty and terrifying to come running at her. When she saw that it was just a moving column, as weird as that was, she relaxed slightly. "Like ... Harry Potter?" she asked. She reached out and poked the column slightly with a large paw - she was still stuck in the mid-way form but calmer now - and it shifted again, though not as far as when Miles had leaned on it.
The sphere sparkled again. "Harry Potter, only the worst."
"Harry Potter and the Trip to Hell. I'd read that," Topaz said, approaching the edge carefully and looking around area. "I'd read that. So. Can't walk, can't fly, probably can't teleport, not that Illyana has the energy anyways, sitting down and eating enough chocolate to kill ourselves before the zombies or something else gets us isn't an option, and now we have moving pillars. Thoughts from the class?"
"It's a puzzle," The Otherdeus said quietly.
"Huh. Very genre appropriate." Miles set down his sword and Warren's bag, and walked over to another column. He pushed but it did not budge. "It doesn't have the glowy thing the other one does. S'got a hole for it, though, see? There's got to be another one around here somewhere."
Eyeing Miles dubiously, Illyana crouched next to Rahne to investigate the first recess, checking for any overtly demonic runes. Or possibly just for teeth. "I don't get it," she said, looking over her shoulder at the other columns. "Demons don't usually do puzzles. I mean, traps, obviously, but . . . "
"Maybe the invisible force field was the trap?" Gabriel shrugged as he looked between where Miles stood and where Illyana and Rahne were hovered. Puzzles weren't his particular forte; he didn't usually have the patience.
But he never got anywhere in life by just standing around. "Maybe we just have to move the one thing to the other thing?" He zoomed over to the purple sphere, appearing suddenly near Rahne and Illyana. "Worth a shot, right?" Before anyone could caution him otherwise, he impulsively pulled the orb out of its socket.
The move was punctuated by a loud shattering noise as the newest portion of the ice bridge shattered, its shards falling into the chasm below.
"Whoops." Gabriel had the decency to at least look slightly ashamed. "Okay, okay, sorry. Never mind. Let's just..." He slammed the orb back into place, taking a few cautious steps back as the ice bridge reoccupied the space it had filled.
“Rule one of magic,” Topaz recited as if she had said it a thousand times. “Don’t touch the thing. At least not until you know what the thing does. That thing apparently breaks the bridge.”
"Touch that bad," Rahne said, pointing but clearly not touching the sphere. Then she pointed at the column. "But nay that." Ignoring the column that Miles had tried to move with no success, she reached out and very gently shoved the original column, moving it easily until it came to a gentle stop several feet from where she started. "Anything?" she asked, cringing slightly in fear that something bad was going to happen despite it not earlier.
Otherdeus said nothing, but he reached out to the only other column that contained a sphere, and, using his shoulder, began shoving it along a groove. The grinding of stone on stone echoed in the early morning, until it settled into place with a neat ker-Chunk. Then as the party watched, another part of the ice bridge knitted itself back into place.
Miles nodded approvingly as Amadeus's move, but it did not solve the problem of needing more of those spheres to power the columns. And if Miles knew his fantasy puzzles, then the spheres would be around here but hidden, and probably need some backtracking to reveal. He glanced back at the first column he had shunted into place, and noticed a bush on the other side. Like a crystalline tumbleweed.
"Let's try this," he offered, and before anyone could object, he pushed the column out of place. The whole bridge shattered, but when the column slid down the path and stopped at the bush, and gave himself a little cheer. An alcove in the ruins illuminated, and the light coalesced and solidified. A third key sphere. "Knew it. Take that and put it there," he instructed no one in particular, pointing at another column.
Illyana took the glowing orb delicately, holding it in front of her like she thought it might explode. This was very far out of her experience in Limbo, and she wasn't sure it wasn't just a trap, but there really wasn't another way across, unless they had another four or five days' worth of chocolate bars hidden somewhere. She hesitated for a second before shrugging and placing the orb carefully in the alcove.
Holding his nose to staunch the blood, Warren had only a vague idea of what was happening. All he knew was he was in pain and there were no drugs that he knew of in this stupid hell dimension. Actually, with his luck, there were drugs ... like melatonin or something innocuous like that. And on top of all this, he needed to spit, but he was far too well-groomed to do that. Instead, he had to literally swallow his pride, and be useful or something.
This truly was a horrible place.
Tentatively flying up, he looked around. "Well, that's one of like five. It seems there's more columns to do and I'm not risking my nose again for the sake of the group. I think though, if need be, I can get some of the far to reach orbs...or give direction from up here. I'm good at giving orders."
"Oh, well, this is just stupid." Gabriel crossed his arms. He was tired and hangry, and he had no patience for puzzles. "As the dumbest among us, at least where shit like this is concerned, I know my place. Rain Man, Hermione and Power Glove, you've got this covered. Just tell me what to do."
Topaz was happy to stand back and watch as well. Anything that wouldn't fuck it up and collapse the whole bridge. She'd almost taken out her phone to start playing a game until she remembered there was no Wifi in Hell. "Yeah, you all seem to have this. Don't suppose anyone has a flask they've been hiding?" It'd been a whole day since she'd had a drink. A crime.
Great, this was going to be just like doing a group project at school. Couple kids do the work while everyone else lays about laughing and farting. Miles rolled his eyes as he continued. Fine, he would save their lives without gratitude. Just another Spider-Man day. He moved the column back to where it came from, which rebuilt the portion of the bridge even longer now that they had another key sphere. Slowly but surely, they made progress. The air chilled as the ice grew, but Miles tried his best to ignore it, instead moving the columns back and forth like a sliding tiles puzzle. This one here so another could takes it place, then a third to fill in the gap, and then the first into the new empty space, and so on.
When the bridge finally reached their end, the air shimmered and cracked as the force field vanished. Miles shivered and rubbed his hands together for warmth. "Okay, now let's get the hell out of here," he said, his breath condensing in front of him as he spoke.
A sudden, very human shriek echoed from behind the group and as everyone turned to look, a pale, small flash could be seen diving behind a large rock. "Clothes, I need my clothes!" Rahne shrieked. Okay, okay, that was - she wasn't in werewolf form anymore, she thought, flapping her hands in panic but she was now naked in a hellscape. Which was, okay, an improvement. And as someone kindly threw the pile of clothes she'd been carting around with them, she couldn't help but grin.
She didn't know why she'd changed back but she'd been feeling pretty relaxed and okay with things. That was a plus. Now to avoid putting her butt on anything demon-y while she tried to wiggle into her pants.
So - no longer a giant monster; no one had been eaten yet; and she was about to not be naked soon. Things were looking up.
Illyana had reacted to Rahne's shriek by pulling out the Soulsword; she somewhat sheepishly let it flicker away, then eyed the bridge dubiously. "I guess we should go before it disappears," she said. "I'm glad you're not a naked werewolf anymore, Rahne."
A breakfast of chocolate bars was not as pleasant in reality as it is in theory. At least not after a night sleeping on the cold ground in a cave in Hell. But it was that or starve, which was the less attractive option.
The party headed out in silence after breaking down camp. Illyana led the way through the barren wasteland and Miles followed close behind. In time, they came upon what looked like ancient ruins. Several pillars that may have once supported a temple or other structure rose from the ground. At the far end they could see a long bridge of ice or glass or something, wide enough to fit at least two people side by side, that stretched over a chasm to the cliff at the other end. A perilous cross, but that seemed par for the course with this place.
The ground shook as they approached and the bridge shattered, stranding them.
Miles frowned. "Mierda."
Warren wasn't perturbed. Since the day before, he'd taken to fashioning his jacket into a sling, and carrying his things around like that. It was easier to be shirtless when you might have to fly at any time. This way, if more zombies arrived, he could hover out of arm's reach. Unless there were zombie birds...but he didn't want to think about this. Looking around, he noted that the ice bridge didn't seem that far away -- close enough that a few good pumps would get him to the other side. Then, he'd be able to look around for a mechanism, or something to make the bridge go all the way. Obviously, something must've gotten stuck, although he had to say, someone should have been fired for this design. There were no switches, nothing on their side to help restart the bridge.
"I suppose it's up to me to save the day again," Warren decreed, clearing his throat. Handing his makeshift bag to Miles, he stretched his wings out. He already had visions of the team cheering, jumping up and down, thrilled that Warren was there.
Instead, he felt a crack on his nose, and a jolt to his nuts. It took a few moments for him to realize that not only was he not on the other side, but that he'd basically flown straight into a very, very hard barrier. Was his nose broken? And why was everything moving so fast? And was he ..falling? The chasm was ending pretty fast, causing him to panic. A partly well-timed roll later, his shoulder was scraped and bruised, blood was gushing out his nose, and he realized that there really was no way to the other side. The bottom of the chasm was also blocked by this magical barrier. Slowly making his way up, he looked at his teammate's shocked faces. Except for one.
"Gabriel. You get one comment."
"Look, don't beat yourself up." Gabriel couldn't suppress his smirk. "Every bird flies into a window eventually." Everything about that crash had been incredibly satisfying, and tired and hungry as he was, it was good to know that Hell came with an upside. "You're probably gonna wanna ice that beak."
There was no satisfaction in Amadeus's face. If he took any sort of pleasure from Warren's distress, he didn't show it. He walked to the barrier and knocked, the barrier sounded back, sounding metallic, like a sheet pan being wobbled. He frowned. Normally, in a situation like this, the resident genius would mumble "Strange," or "Fascinating" and then quirk an eyebrow or stroke his chin. Instead, this strange, new version of Amadeus, this... Otherdeus, just said nothing. The coldness radiating off him.
Illyana, keeping well away from the edge, crossed her arms. "I don't think you can fly across," she observed helpfully, squinting across the chasm.
"I don't know maybe he should try again," Topaz added. "Twice. Third time's a charm, right?"
"That's not funny. You OK, Warren?" Miles walked over to the edge and looked around, hoping to find success where Warren did not. When his search came back just as fruitless, he sighed and leaned back against one of the columns. "If Bobby was here, he could fix thaaaaa-Ay!" He nearly fell over when the column slid out from behind him, and he ended up in a contorted mess to stay on his feet.
The column was pushed back a few feet, sliding like a curling stone until it came to a stop against a small mound of rocks. A sparkling purple sphere set into a hole in the base glowed, and the ice bridge extended a couple feet. "That's . . . a thing," Miles muttered as he untwisted himself. "This is not good architecture if they just move around."
Rahne had flinched back at Miles' yelp, half expecting something nasty and terrifying to come running at her. When she saw that it was just a moving column, as weird as that was, she relaxed slightly. "Like ... Harry Potter?" she asked. She reached out and poked the column slightly with a large paw - she was still stuck in the mid-way form but calmer now - and it shifted again, though not as far as when Miles had leaned on it.
The sphere sparkled again. "Harry Potter, only the worst."
"Harry Potter and the Trip to Hell. I'd read that," Topaz said, approaching the edge carefully and looking around area. "I'd read that. So. Can't walk, can't fly, probably can't teleport, not that Illyana has the energy anyways, sitting down and eating enough chocolate to kill ourselves before the zombies or something else gets us isn't an option, and now we have moving pillars. Thoughts from the class?"
"It's a puzzle," The Otherdeus said quietly.
"Huh. Very genre appropriate." Miles set down his sword and Warren's bag, and walked over to another column. He pushed but it did not budge. "It doesn't have the glowy thing the other one does. S'got a hole for it, though, see? There's got to be another one around here somewhere."
Eyeing Miles dubiously, Illyana crouched next to Rahne to investigate the first recess, checking for any overtly demonic runes. Or possibly just for teeth. "I don't get it," she said, looking over her shoulder at the other columns. "Demons don't usually do puzzles. I mean, traps, obviously, but . . . "
"Maybe the invisible force field was the trap?" Gabriel shrugged as he looked between where Miles stood and where Illyana and Rahne were hovered. Puzzles weren't his particular forte; he didn't usually have the patience.
But he never got anywhere in life by just standing around. "Maybe we just have to move the one thing to the other thing?" He zoomed over to the purple sphere, appearing suddenly near Rahne and Illyana. "Worth a shot, right?" Before anyone could caution him otherwise, he impulsively pulled the orb out of its socket.
The move was punctuated by a loud shattering noise as the newest portion of the ice bridge shattered, its shards falling into the chasm below.
"Whoops." Gabriel had the decency to at least look slightly ashamed. "Okay, okay, sorry. Never mind. Let's just..." He slammed the orb back into place, taking a few cautious steps back as the ice bridge reoccupied the space it had filled.
“Rule one of magic,” Topaz recited as if she had said it a thousand times. “Don’t touch the thing. At least not until you know what the thing does. That thing apparently breaks the bridge.”
"Touch that bad," Rahne said, pointing but clearly not touching the sphere. Then she pointed at the column. "But nay that." Ignoring the column that Miles had tried to move with no success, she reached out and very gently shoved the original column, moving it easily until it came to a gentle stop several feet from where she started. "Anything?" she asked, cringing slightly in fear that something bad was going to happen despite it not earlier.
Otherdeus said nothing, but he reached out to the only other column that contained a sphere, and, using his shoulder, began shoving it along a groove. The grinding of stone on stone echoed in the early morning, until it settled into place with a neat ker-Chunk. Then as the party watched, another part of the ice bridge knitted itself back into place.
Miles nodded approvingly as Amadeus's move, but it did not solve the problem of needing more of those spheres to power the columns. And if Miles knew his fantasy puzzles, then the spheres would be around here but hidden, and probably need some backtracking to reveal. He glanced back at the first column he had shunted into place, and noticed a bush on the other side. Like a crystalline tumbleweed.
"Let's try this," he offered, and before anyone could object, he pushed the column out of place. The whole bridge shattered, but when the column slid down the path and stopped at the bush, and gave himself a little cheer. An alcove in the ruins illuminated, and the light coalesced and solidified. A third key sphere. "Knew it. Take that and put it there," he instructed no one in particular, pointing at another column.
Illyana took the glowing orb delicately, holding it in front of her like she thought it might explode. This was very far out of her experience in Limbo, and she wasn't sure it wasn't just a trap, but there really wasn't another way across, unless they had another four or five days' worth of chocolate bars hidden somewhere. She hesitated for a second before shrugging and placing the orb carefully in the alcove.
Holding his nose to staunch the blood, Warren had only a vague idea of what was happening. All he knew was he was in pain and there were no drugs that he knew of in this stupid hell dimension. Actually, with his luck, there were drugs ... like melatonin or something innocuous like that. And on top of all this, he needed to spit, but he was far too well-groomed to do that. Instead, he had to literally swallow his pride, and be useful or something.
This truly was a horrible place.
Tentatively flying up, he looked around. "Well, that's one of like five. It seems there's more columns to do and I'm not risking my nose again for the sake of the group. I think though, if need be, I can get some of the far to reach orbs...or give direction from up here. I'm good at giving orders."
"Oh, well, this is just stupid." Gabriel crossed his arms. He was tired and hangry, and he had no patience for puzzles. "As the dumbest among us, at least where shit like this is concerned, I know my place. Rain Man, Hermione and Power Glove, you've got this covered. Just tell me what to do."
Topaz was happy to stand back and watch as well. Anything that wouldn't fuck it up and collapse the whole bridge. She'd almost taken out her phone to start playing a game until she remembered there was no Wifi in Hell. "Yeah, you all seem to have this. Don't suppose anyone has a flask they've been hiding?" It'd been a whole day since she'd had a drink. A crime.
Great, this was going to be just like doing a group project at school. Couple kids do the work while everyone else lays about laughing and farting. Miles rolled his eyes as he continued. Fine, he would save their lives without gratitude. Just another Spider-Man day. He moved the column back to where it came from, which rebuilt the portion of the bridge even longer now that they had another key sphere. Slowly but surely, they made progress. The air chilled as the ice grew, but Miles tried his best to ignore it, instead moving the columns back and forth like a sliding tiles puzzle. This one here so another could takes it place, then a third to fill in the gap, and then the first into the new empty space, and so on.
When the bridge finally reached their end, the air shimmered and cracked as the force field vanished. Miles shivered and rubbed his hands together for warmth. "Okay, now let's get the hell out of here," he said, his breath condensing in front of him as he spoke.
A sudden, very human shriek echoed from behind the group and as everyone turned to look, a pale, small flash could be seen diving behind a large rock. "Clothes, I need my clothes!" Rahne shrieked. Okay, okay, that was - she wasn't in werewolf form anymore, she thought, flapping her hands in panic but she was now naked in a hellscape. Which was, okay, an improvement. And as someone kindly threw the pile of clothes she'd been carting around with them, she couldn't help but grin.
She didn't know why she'd changed back but she'd been feeling pretty relaxed and okay with things. That was a plus. Now to avoid putting her butt on anything demon-y while she tried to wiggle into her pants.
So - no longer a giant monster; no one had been eaten yet; and she was about to not be naked soon. Things were looking up.
Illyana had reacted to Rahne's shriek by pulling out the Soulsword; she somewhat sheepishly let it flicker away, then eyed the bridge dubiously. "I guess we should go before it disappears," she said. "I'm glad you're not a naked werewolf anymore, Rahne."
