< Chasms Beneath The Earth | Ex Pulp Preludes | The Butterfly Attacks!? >
ST After determining that it is impossible to close the chasm by pulling it shut by the silken thread which spans it, Myrrh is left with only a few choices. He can't go around, since the chasm is apparently endless. He doesn't think that even the gutmonkey can jump across the chasm, his Charms are useless. And as far as he can tell, the gutmonkey has no Charms.
ST And his only guide is the fact that there is a silken thread leading from one end of the chasm to the other, secured by strong-looking stone pillars. And, far in the distance across the chasm, a glint of gold.
Myrrh figures he might as well see if this place is as insane as he thinks it is. He tenatively balances on the thread.
ST Though it requires the use of three of his six limbs, Myrrh finds that his borrowed body is quite able to move across the silk without problems. The silk itself, nearly thick around as a normal SPIDER, is able to support his weight without problems.
Myrrh quickly monkey's his way to the other side, glad the place is as crazy as he thought...
ST The other side becomes something else. Instead of the rest of a giant cavern there is a vast hallway leading to a larger room. The glint of gold is still in the distance.
ST Looking behind himself, Myrrh sees no sign of the chasm or the cavern. Just an apparently infinite expanse of white stone hallway lit evenly by the same invisible light as the rest of the Manse
Myrrh snorts and looks around, then tenatively moves forward down the hall.
ST The hallway stretches before him, giving him nothing but white stones in the walls and ceiling and the highly reflective, highly polished black stones of the floor. Myrrh gets to spend a good while looking at the gut monkey he's wearing.
Myrrh stares at his new self from the many reflections surrounding him, the better to get a full view of himself. At the same time he tries to understand what exactly he's..."In" at the moment.
ST Myrrh finally puts together the physical clues and remembers that, while he's never seen one of these creatures until now, he's read about them. Indisima, the Gut Monkey. He got that part right without prompting. These creatures are demon-related, but not demons themselves. Able to live inside other creatures for extended periods of time...
ST He remembers that the Indisimi have a reputation for eating fire, supernatural balance, strength and stamina. And he's fairly sure that the one he's borrowing from right now is a male, meaning it's not one of the ones that eats people. At least not when it isn't mating with them.
ST They have a taste for exotic plants and enjoy the heat.
ST They can stay inside their hosts for nearly infinite time periods as long as the host eats enough for both of them. In general, the Indisima are found in Malfeas, since they are a race of demon-blooded created long ago from Blood Apes and Wyld Mutants
Myrrh continues down the long distant hallway since going back would proably lead him back around to himself.
ST Having gathered all this knowledge from the reflections and his memory, Myrrh finds himself standing at the edge of a round, dome-shaped room maybe 100 feet across. At the center of the room there is a circular golden platform with nothing on it. A foot from the edge of the platform, a ring of gold is set into the floor.
Myrrh slowly approaches the center of the room.
ST Nothing happens.
Myrrh slowly puts a finger across the barrier.
ST The ring bursts into flames, with brilliant red fire jumping up. Just in time Myrrh's borrowed reflexes send him flying backwards and easily avoiding the burns that otherwise would have resulted. In the space of a gasp, the fire has roared its way up, forming a burning barrier from floor to ceiling, totally encasing the platform
Myrrh tenatively attempts to breath in some of the deadly fire!
Myrrh looks around his surroundings before charing his lungs, thinking that maybe it's another trap.
ST There is no sign of other gold trimmings or anything but white stone and black floor. The platform hidden behind the red flames and the ring of gold in the floor. No rubies...
Myrrh frowns, backs up, and then with a slight moments hesitation, leaps through the fire onto the platform!
ST The leap is painful but the speed of it keeps that down. Even better, only a few patches of the Gut Ape's fur catch on fire. Myrrh emerges on the other side of the flaming barrier singed, but not in too much pain. As his new feet touch the ground, the flames go out. And he finds himself falling.
ST The platform has disappeared and now Myrrh is falling in a perfectly round, perfectly smooth golden tunnel.
Myrrh tries patting out the fires as he plummets!
ST Myrrh is successful in that, though he is still singed. He comes to rest on a vast pile of silken cushions with barely a thump.
Myrrh grunts for a moment and looks around...cusions? Hopefuly this isn't some bizzare first age ape harem.
Myrrh gets up and looks around his new environment.
ST It doesnt seem to be. Instead, Myrrh looks around and finds himself laying on the "bed" of a well-appointed apartment. A vast circular room with the bed at the center, a small kitchen off to one side, several closets, everything one needs to live in luxury. And a niche set directly across from him. A niche with a large, stone vase covered in Old Realm binding spells.
Myrrh examines the vase, trying to make out what they could be binding...
ST It doesnt take long to realize they bind the soul and body of the former Solar who called this place home.
ST Despite having found the stone vase which contains the remains of a long-dead Solar, Myrrh is no closer to what brought him here: finding information on how to break into HIS Tomb back on Luxury. And a Jade Daiklave.
Myrrh looks inside the vase, why would they bother binding a ghost? It's not like they have any of their powers they had in life!
ST The vase is sealed shut, its lid so well fastened to the rest of it that it seems to have become a single piece of stone.
Myrrh grunts and examines the sealings more.
ST Some sort of magic was applied to merge the stone lid to the stone vase. For all intents and purposes, this item is a single piece of large, heavy and probably magically reinforced stone.
Myrrh frowns and puts it back, he doubts he could leave with him. He looks for an exit.
Myrrh feeling sorry for anyone stuck in a vase for all of eternity he tries to crack it open on it's pedastl like a coconut.
ST The vase shatters like an egg, or a coconut, sending shards of itself flying in all directions. Myrrh blinks a few times to clear dust from his eyes. And he finds that from the vase something unexpected has emerged. A fully intact skeleton of bleached-white bones laid to rest wrapped in fine gold silk from head to toe. Stuck in the skeleton's chest is the blade of an ornate daiklave carved from Black Jade.
Myrrh blinks, staring at the suddenly arriving skeleton.
Myrrh examines the skeleton and it's weapon.
ST The skeleton appears to have been dead for some considerable time, though the silk wrapping makes it impossible to tell much more then it was male at one time. The sword is finely crafted, beyond any Jade weapon Myrrh has seen before and certainly more perfect this his own experimental weapon. The sword's name, laid into the hilt in gold, is Brilliant Reflections
Myrrh stares at the sword for a moment before uttering a few prayers in monkey to the ghost of the departed Solar, then he attempts to touch the sword.
ST A chill sensation, like plunging his hands into ice water, runs up Myrrh's arm as he touches the sword.
Myrrh draws back his monkey arms and sighs. You'd think he would be more grateful to someone who just saved him from an eternity trapped in the mortal coil!
Myrrh frowns at the defiled corpse and gets up his borrowed strength to yank it free!
Myrrh thinking better of his actions he decides to look for another exit. He can come back and get the sword later if he really has to. Atleast now the poor guy is out of his urn!
ST Myrrh searches the various rooms of the apartment and has a fairly easy time locating what seems to be an exit. At least, it's a door. Currently closed. The other parts of the apartment have minor relics of the First Age like self-cleaning dishes and eternally preserved food. Nothing much interesting. This Solar wasn't burried very well.
Myrrh "Hmph. That's a bit insulting!" Tries opening the door.
ST The door opens, revealing another white stone hallway.
Myrrh starts down the hallway with a glance back at the skeleton.
Myrrh comes back and thinks...if it's hard to handle with his hands maybe...the silk! He tries to wrap the sheets around the hilt and starts tuging!
ST With the silk insulating him from feeling the icy cold tingle of the sword, Myrrh pulls the blade free from the corpse! It comes free with a strange grating noise as the Jade scrapes against something hard and metal. But aside from the noise and a faint feeling of foreboding, nothing happens except now Myrrh has a sword
Myrrh tries to position the corpse with a bit more dignity on the bed and then after a prayer once more for the poor dead man he heads down the corridor, silken sword in..hand.
ST The hallway extends for a great distance. Idly Myrrh wonders if these hallways really are that long or if they're using some enchantment to make them SEEM long. Because if they are that long, where will he come up? Regardless, Myrrh jogs along through the hallway. When he comes to the end, even his Gut Ape body is panting and sweaty. He has reached....another Ruby
Myrrh "Hello."
Ruby "State Purpose."
Myrrh "I seek to leave the tomb."
Ruby "Have you passed the challenges?"
Myrrh "Flameing barrier, climbed along the string, met a corpse...i'd say so!"
Ruby "Your business within the tomb is complete?"
Myrrh "Yes, I just have to get back to my body."
Myrrh "But first...is there a library in this place?"
Ruby "No."
Myrrh "Well I need to find out how to open other tombs. One in particular." Relays the problem to the ruby, maybe they're some giant hive mind.
Ruby makes no response.
Myrrh "Well then i'm not done. I have to figure out how to open the tomb."
Ruby "Return when you are finished."
Myrrh "Alright then..." Starts looking for another hallway, taking his sword with him!
Myrrh figuring there's bound to be something that the solars didn't want the D Bs? to know in the manse, he heads back into the appartment, maybe it's near the heart.
Myrrh starts searching through the appartment, tapping the walls looking for any hollowed out areas for artifice. Secret passages and whatnot. Why he remembers the one he installed back in the house, involved carefuly positioning scrolls in the stands until the wall swang back! Maybe they had something similar involving the dishes.
Ruby Despite Myrrh's best efforts, he is unable to locate any signs of a secret compartment or item anywhere near himself...
Myrrh finds the idea that there was a metal grinding noise as he pulled the sword a bit odd and goes to investigate where the skeleton used to lie.
Myrrh feeling a little bad about his hunch he tries replacing the sword where it once was in the poor corpses chest. Maybe it's some complex key?
Ruby As the sword goes back into the skeleton's chest, it again makes a noise as if grating against metal. Nothing happens though. Nothing...visible.
Myrrh tries inspecting the room again, maybe it's part of the sorcery of this place? He checks the door again.
Ruby It comes to Myrrh that he might have to show the Tomb he's a Solar to get it to reveal any secrets it was hiding from the Dragon-Blooded. And so, flaring his Anima so that the golden light cascades around him, he starts searching again. This time, the golden light illuminates a block of the floor that shines back at him brightly, the edges around it glowing with light from below.
ST Or that's what WOULD have happened if Myrrh was wearing his own body. Saddly, he is not. Instead it takes him a much longer time to find the hidden passage under the stone. And that he only finds by the old trick of pouring things on the floor and letting the liquid outline any cracks.
Myrrh lifts up the block and goes down the passage! He can come back for the sword later.
ST It isnt much of a passage. Just three steps and a sort of hole. More like the start of a passage or just a place to store a few small things. In fact, there is only one thing. A small chest made from bone, carved all over with protective spells and wards. It looks even better defended then the ashes were.
Myrrh carefuly lifts it up out of the hold and examines it!
ST It's a chest! About two feet long and one foot wide. Maybe 18 inches tall.
ST Upon reading the wards and spells, they appear to all say variants of "Do Not Open"
Myrrh frowns and thinks for a moment, he's not going to find a better lead at this point...he's just going to have to risk it! He backs up and tries opening it with the sword from a goodly distance away. He may be a fool but he isn't THAT foolish...
ST The chest does not open.
ST It is locked shut rather securely.
Myrrh "Hmph. Never make it easy." He tries to fiddle with the lock, is there a key?
ST There doesn't APPEAR to be..
ST In fact, there doesn't appear to be a visible keyhole.
Myrrh frowns. "Open up!"
ST The chest does not respond.
Myrrh sets the chest down. "You'd think he would leave a note." He glances back at the impaled corpse and then checks around the "passage" a bit longer.
ST Nothing else down here!
Myrrh returns to the chest. It's a bad idea to just force it...it's clearly got some sort of puzzle to it. He examines the spells and runes, looking for maybe some sort of code or placement.
ST Myrrh can't puzzle out any obvious way to open the box.
Myrrh thinks he should ask Rivers when he gets back then. Maybe after a good nights sleep...when he wasn't a monkey. He takes the chest and heads back to the exit. he could come back after all!
Myrrh also takes the sword. Since it was the whole reason he came into the ass end of the east.
ST This time, when Myrrh talks to the Ruby, he is allowed to pass beyond the Ruby.
ST He finds himself standing back in the underground cave where he met the FIRST Ruby, before he was even allowed inside the Manse at all. His own human body lays on the ground at his feet, sleeping. The great stone wall that hides the manse's entrance is back in place and the broken staircase leading up to the surface is only a few yards away.
Myrrh "oook." Sets his precious booty down and tries to figure out how he's going to get back into his body...
ST The only way Myrrh can think is to re-enter his body the same way he left it
Myrrh seing as he's larger as a ape than he is as a person he sudders to think the metaphysics of it all. he tries to climb back in his mouth.
ST Somehow, not really asking himself how, Myrrh manages to squeeze the husky, four-armed, 7-foot Gut Ape into his human body's mouth and down it's throat and into it's belly. The process appears to involve the Gut Ape's natural ability to transform itself, bit by bit, into a sort of furry sludge that flows into the body. Once back inside himself, Myrrh becomes aware of the slumbering intellect of the Gut Ape itself
Myrrh "Urgl."
ST Slowly, the intellect starts to wake up and Myrrh realizes that he's back in his own body for real this time. He can move his own hands, only two, and his own feet. And he doesn't have a tail OR fur. After considering for a second, he realizes that he still has the Indisima inside him though.
ST Whatever else Myrrh can say about this adventure, it had some...interesting experiences!
Myrrh hefts his treasures and starts the long trek outside!
< Chasms Beneath The Earth | Ex Pulp Preludes | The Butterfly Attacks!? >
Stryck Wiki