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 Posted: Fri May 26, 2006 12:55 pm
These temples have been hidden deep in the swampland for as long as anyone has known. Their origin is a mystery and their interior is filled with deadly traps. Anyone who dares enter this place should proceed with caution. Only the best of the best have ever found their way out again alive.
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Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2007 11:02 am
Shumaruka pulled Oroi down to the mouth of the temple. Landing gracefully on the dragon. Shumaruka dismoutned Oroi and signaled him to fly above and wait for Ayoka, and when she neard, to slow her down. Then Shumaruka slid out Two of his Samurai swords, the black blades gleemed in the light, after taking a few steps, Shumaruka noticed a trap, it was a brick, that if stepped on would release all peril. Shumaruka's blades melted into shadows and surrounded him, he turned into a shadow slithering over the trap without putting any weight on it. Then he stood up the blades back to normal.
Shumaruka stood trigering a trap, many Shuriken flew at him. Shumaruka spun around using the Samurai swords to block the Shuriken, after all of the Shuriken had hit the ground, Shumaruka's blades melted back into Shadows, pulling the Shuriken into mid air behind him. This would slow down Ayoka. Shumaruka saw the chamber that help the Mindbender's Sheath, and headed to it.
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Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2007 3:34 pm
Shumaruka enterd the temple seeing his goal, but it `twas surrounded by vaious pooisens as blades. His Shadow blades surronded him once more, he became a Shadow and slid around the mindbender's sheath. Turning it into a Shadow as he headed out of the temple, and to the Dojo once more. Oro1 followed over him, so noone could see that he was a shadow, and Oroi was also a shadow.
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Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2007 3:40 pm
Ayako raced along the swamplands, ducking out of the way of sinkholes and dangerous limbs of trees as she headed for the entrance of the temples. She slowed as she approached, her every sense extended to search for danger. At first there was nothing...just the sound of the wind blowing across the stagnant insect infested waters, and the feel of her kimono flapping at the sleeves. But then her eyes narrowed as a loud ear-splitting screech resounded from the air above.
Before she had much time to register the attack, Ayako's body was already moving, vaulting itself backwards and out of the way as a large dragon plummeted towards her from the skies above. It hit the swamp water with a loud splash, sending broken debris through the air as it twisted it's serpentine head to look at her. Ayako landed on a floating log, poised on it's surface as she withdrew her pipe and filled it calmly. It would seem Shumaruka had more at his disposal than she had anticipated. No matter. The dragon lunged forward, and Ayako bent back out of the way, drawing a sword. Sparks flew as it gnashed its teeth at her, aiming for her body. She blocked a swip from it's claws as it circled around her churning the waters. With a grunt she leapt up, twisting in the air to avoid a swipe from its wings. Landing on its spine, she raced up the scales deftly and swung her blade.
But the dragon slyly jerked it's head out of the way and used its wings to beat her back. Her hand was smacked, nearly making her drop her sword. And that's when Ayako began to lose patience.
"Stupid beast, I have no time for games." Lighting her pipe, she sprang forward, landing on its arm, and then leaping to one wing joint. With a deft kick, she spring boarded back onto its neck and sheathed her sword. Her sword play wasn't her only weapon...with fluid grace she was stradling its head, thighs locked around just behind its cranium as it twisted this way and that. The dragon roared again, trying to dislodge her as she rode it. But it didn't realize it's danger until Ayko blew a thick puff of her pipe's smoke directly into it's eyes. The strange purple smoke blinded it, and made it jerk this way and that as it breathed it in. Then, with a jerk of its body, it slowly began to sway.
Leaping off of its back, to land in the waters some feet away, Shumaruka's dragon rolled it's eyes upward as its tongue lolled from between its jaws. With a rumbling splash it bellied up in the water, unconcious in a dreamless sleep. With distaste, Ayko brushed the splatter of filthy water off of the front of her short kimono top.
"Hmph. Enough of this." She headed for the entrance of the temples and halted. Shumaruka had obviously gotten here before her, having the benefit of a dragon for a steed. Thankfully, he wouldn't be using that dragon to get back. Not for awhile anyway.
Still, Shumaruka wasn't one to be lax, there must be traps set nearby...
Cautiously she moved slowly forward, her front foot barely skimming the ground as she searched for hidden triggers. As her sandled foot nudged a panel, her eyes widened as a hovering spray of shuriken appeared in the air, floating like a wall in teh entrance of the tombs. There was no space to pass around them...or under or through...and as she neared, the seemed to glow with a strange black sheen. Twitching at her arrival, was it her imagination, or did they seem to quiver a bit with anticipation as she drew close? These were no longer ordinary shuriken...this was shadow work...
Frowning a bit, Ayako drew her blades and withdren a small vial from her sleeve. Pouring the oily substance across the steel the blades began to hiss and steam with a corrosive fluidity. Weapons readied, she took a breath and the began spinning them in a complex pattern before her, running towards the shuriken.
The shuriken feeling her approach, all shot toward her en masse
aiming to turn her flesh into a pin cushion. But as they came close, Ayako's spinning blades caught them with a ringing clang of steal.
As each shuriken touched the poisoned steel of her twin blades, they mealted and twisted into lumps of metal, dripping to the floor in little splashes as she charged ahead. Striking this way and that, the corroded projectiles finally fell away, leaving the way ahead clear. A quick swipe of her blades removed the excess debris off of her swords.
With eyes moving about in the darkness Ayako moved ahead, intent on getting to the Mindbender's Sheath before Shumaruka found it...
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Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2007 4:05 pm
ARMAGEDDON12 Shumaruka enterd the temple seeing his goal, but it `twas surrounded by vaious pooisens as blades. His Shadow blades surronded him once more, he became a Shadow and slid around the mindbender's sheath. Turning it into a Shadow as he headed out of the temple, and to the Dojo once more. Oroi followed over him, so noone could see that he was a shadow, and Oroi was also a shadow.
(( Oroi was a Shadow before you killed him, and I already have the sheath... Did you read the post above yours??))
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Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2007 4:35 pm
ARMAGEDDON12 ARMAGEDDON12 Shumaruka enterd the temple seeing his goal, but it `twas surrounded by vaious pooisens as blades. His Shadow blades surronded him once more, he became a Shadow and slid around the mindbender's sheath. Turning it into a Shadow as he headed out of the temple, and to the Dojo once more. Oroi followed over him, so noone could see that he was a shadow, and Oroi was also a shadow.
(( Oroi was a Shadow before you killed him, and I already have the sheath... Did you read the post above yours??)) ((I did. But your whole post was confusing as hell. Example: "Shumaruka dismoutned Oroi and signaled him to fly above and wait for Ayoka, and when she neard, to slow her down." I take that to mean that dragon was in the air...waiting for Ayako...to slow her down. XD And if YOU had read, I didn't kill him. I PUT HIM TO SLEEP. You posted RIGHT before me, so I didn't see your post. Check the times. Thanks bro.))
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Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2007 4:47 pm
Ayako heard a twang in the darkness, as she sidled around a corner, and felt a rush of wind past her ear. Arrows began firing from hidden slots in the wall, as she ducked and rolled under them to avoid them. One hissed by her leg, cutting her under her knee and making her wince. Using a free hand to feel for the wall, Ayako slashed with one of her swords in her other hand. Broken arrows began littering the ground, until at last the trap had expended itself. Breathing a sigh of relief, she pushed onward, taking extra time out to feel for strings and small buttons on the floor and walls.
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Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2007 5:29 pm
LadyPrincePyro ARMAGEDDON12 ARMAGEDDON12 Shumaruka enterd the temple seeing his goal, but it `twas surrounded by vaious pooisens as blades. His Shadow blades surronded him once more, he became a Shadow and slid around the mindbender's sheath. Turning it into a Shadow as he headed out of the temple, and to the Dojo once more. Oroi followed over him, so noone could see that he was a shadow, and Oroi was also a shadow.
(( Oroi was a Shadow before you killed him, and I already have the sheath... Did you read the post above yours??)) ((I did. But your whole post was confusing as hell. Example: "Shumaruka dismoutned Oroi and signaled him to fly above and wait for Ayoka, and when she neard, to slow her down." I take that to mean that dragon was in the air...waiting for Ayako...to slow her down. XD And if YOU had read, I didn't kill him. I PUT HIM TO SLEEP. You posted RIGHT before me, so I didn't see your post. Check the times. Thanks bro.)) It's a cunfusing frenzy! I thought you killed him, beacuse of the use of poisen... Agh!
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Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2007 12:24 pm
Taking another bend, after traveling through a maze of corridors and hallways, Ayako was begining to get lost. She could feel the air getting colder, and the ground softly sloping under her feet as she went deeper and deeper underground. Just how far did these temples go? The stone walls were rough and worn with age, marred by cuts and scrapes...as if others had battled here before...
Odd for a temple...
If she were to admit it, she was feeling ill at ease. The whole place gave her the creeps, and there was a constant feeling of being watched that made her neckhairs stand on end. The air tasted stale too...there was just something wrong with this place.
Using her pipe to carefull poke the way ahead, she disabled another concealed spike trap, that had been hiding in the floor. It was the sixth one she had run across. Master Azrael hadn't been joking...this place was deadly. Finally though her luck seemed to be turning. She found a concealed panel along the edge of the wall. It rested beneath some strange glyphs that might have once been writing, but she could tell what it said anymore...
Convinced she had at last found the chamber that held the mindbender sheath, she hurriedly ducked inside the small doorway that opened inside the wall. As she raised her body back up, she found herself in a chamber filled with suits of armor and tapestries. It was dark, lit only by a couple of large torches that burned along the walls. She stepped forward to take a look around, when she felt a loud crunch under her foot. Slowly looking down, Ayako breathed in a gasp. The floor.....was littered in decaying old corpses. Unsheathing her swords again, and holding her pipe between her teeth, she moved silently forward. Shuffling her feet to avoid stepping on anymore bones. When she was near the center of the room, the door behind her slid down again, sealing her inside.
Whirling about, eyes wide with the beginings of fear, Ayako heard things shuffling in the darkness. Feeling a tug on her ankle, Ayako looked down to see bony hand gripping her foot and a wide toothy skull twisting to try and bite her toes. Letting out a startled cry, she slashed down, dislodging the hand, and taking several steps back. Her jerking glances about the room confirmed her fear:
The 'bodies' that had been littering the floor...were starting to stand up...Ayako was trapped in a chamber full of zombies.
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Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2007 3:50 pm
Swearing to herself violently, Ayako whirled and slashed as the first lumbering form headed her way. The head dropped from the body and bounced away somewhere. But the bodies still kept moving toward her. She slashed another across the waist, with the same results. The chamber about her began to fill with the moans of the dead. As her blade stuck again and again in the dank large room, corpse air flew in bloody arcs threw the air and bodies spazmed as blows rained down on them.
But still they came...
Ayako was sweating now, hair coming out of her tight bun to plaster along the side of her face. Her muscles were aching as exhaustion began to creep slowly through the white hot sinews and tendons of her arms and legs. She was losing...
Backed into a corner, a host of the fiends surrounding her, She glanced over her shoulder at the torch on the wall. If only she could...
She suddenly cried out in pain, as a teeth clamped down onto her shoulder. Grappling with a zombie with a torn kimono, Ayako screamed again as two more latched onto her legs. She whiped and twisted, moving like a gaffed eel to get the dead off of her. She was being eaten alive! Fingernails raked bloody trails across her scalp as one female corpse tried to snatch her by her hair. Ayako was desperate and wild with a panic she had not known since she was a child. Kicking and punching, her swords lost to her, Ayako hit the wall as the full weight of her many attackers toppled her over. She could feel teeth gnashing at her arms and legs, her left wrist caught in a vice-like grip.
With blind instinct, she grabbed for the stem of the stone torch decoration that hung on the wall. The old lichen covered ornament broke off, and a flood of burning oil poured down from above. The zombies caught alight instantly, their dead figures twisting in silent agony as the purification of the flame took them hungrily. Ayako had managed to duck out of the way of most of it, but her sleeve was on fire as well, and she hastened to put it out.
Finally free of her swarm of her attackers, she ducked and rolled out of them moving mob before the reamaing ones could regroup. There were still too many to deal with. She needed a plan of escape. But how?
Running into the darkness, clumsily tripping over a bone now and then, she made it to the center of the chamber and scanned about. Nothing...she could see nothing to give her a hint on how to get out...but as she was sidestepping a shambling pair of rotted legs, she saw something flicker on the ground 20 paces ahead of her. There was something on the floor. Giving a kick behind her, she knocked a sneaky zomnbie into a group of others and ran ahead. Skidding to a halt, she fell to her knees and began digging in the bones and clothing. Underneath a one ribcage was an odd square indention on the floor. It looked like a small pedastool, ornate symbols and glyphs carved all across its surface. It had a small statuette on it, that was shapped like a winged skull. It's jeweled eyes glowed a dull green. Feeling movement behind her as the zombies converged onto her new position, Ayako gave no further thought to her actions and simply took the statuette and twisted it.
The winged skull turned rustily on its base so that it faced in the opposite direction. The sound of gears and cranks echoed from beneath her feet and Ayako saw a doorway open down the hall. Springing up, and springboarding off of the back of a leaning zombie, Ayako painfully stumbled to where her swords lay and picked them up. She ran for the door way, which was already begining to lower once more. As the stone doorway slid closed, the Poison Tooth gave a slide on her side and rolled underneath it. With a jarring of stone on stone, the portal closed once more behind her, trapping the zombies back in their resting place.
Gasping for breath, still lying on her back and covered in blood and bruises, Ayako shook as she realized she was still alive...somehow...
She tried to stand, but fell back again, her strength depleted. But after a couple of tries she managed to use her swords as a sort of brace and get herself back on her feet. There ahead down the long stretch of black corridor ahead of her, where there were no torches...no light...she thought she could see a faint glowing aura. Was it her imagination? Was the fire from the other room still leaving spots in her eyes? Deciding to go onward since she couldn't go back, Ayako walked with echoing steps down the tunnel...
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Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2007 4:26 pm
As she walked down the tunnel, the stone changed from rough uncute stones to perfectly laid tiles of white and black marble. The walls shifted too, to mozaics and carved pictures of death gods and wizards of old. Animals like the wolf ran through fields across the surfaces, and ravens and crows flew through the air with serpents in their beak. Ayako gazed at the pictures with a tired appreciation. Despite the dark theme, the art itself was fascinating. As she neared the end of the hall, it twisted to the right and opened to a large doorway lined with columns like a torii gate. The aura she had seen from a distance before, was now a bright purple light pouring from within.
Stepping through, her aches easing a bit as she caught her wind, Ayako cautiously scouted as she had before. But strangely there were no traps...no wires...no secret doors... Feeling suspicious, she had been so busy looking for something, that she almost didn't see what was right in front of her face until she stood before it. With a gasp she lifted her head.
The source of the light, was a small dais, upon which sat...a sword sheath. There was no sword...but the sheath glowed with an oily sheen. As Ayako tried to get a better look at it, she began to feel a bit dizzy as her eyes unfocused and shifted with the nonsensical symbols and glyphs that seemed to flow like liquid beneath its lacquer finish. Masaging her temple and giving her head a shake, Ayako the Poison Tooth realized this was it. This was the Mindbender's Sheath.
A massive ebony statue of a burly wolf-headed man, towered above the sheath and its resting place. It had three pairs of wings sprouting from its waist, shoulders, and the sides of its head, and a pair of serpents twined in the likeness of a tail. As Ayako reached for the sheath, it's eyes sprang to life with purple fire. Though its mouth never moved, a deep voice resonated in the cavern.
You who would take this Sheath, stand and hold. Your worthiness must first be decided be tested...
Ayako drew herself upright. So far the thing hadn't sprang to life on her or taken chunks out of her body. Things were begining to look up. Clearing her throat after a couple of hoarse tries, Ayako responded.
"T-Then test me, my lord *cough*. I am ready."
The statue was silent for a moment as if considering. Then it spoke again, it's voice making Ayako wince for the loud ringing it brought to her ears.
"You bear the mark of the Twin Dragon." Indeed Ayako wore the tattoo on her forearm as many of the disciples of the dojo did. "But strength of arm will not serve you here...a payment must be made for the Sheath. A bit of your very mind..."
A bit of her mind? Ayako brought up her swords defensively at that, feeling herself begin to temble slightly. What did that mean?
"Pay the price with your most precious memories...give unto me that which you cherish most, and then offer make an offering of blood at the altar. Then...the Sheath is yours..."
Ayako considered, frowning. Her mission was to get the sheath...but...but this was nearly too much. She would lose her most precious memories? Was this why it was called the Mindbender? The swordswoman felt torn, between self-presevation and duty... But in the end, loyalty won out. She would bring the sheath to her master, as ordered...
Putting away a sword, Ayako looked up at the statue.
"Do you accept the price?"
There was only a small tremble in her voice as Ayako steely answered. "Yes."
A rumbling laugh echoed around her. "Then stand on the circle...and remember the thing most precious to you..."
Ayako moved on heavy steps to the circular tiles that was before the altar on which the sheath rested. The glowing light flowed around her like water as she took her place. Taking a breath and closing her eyes, Ayako forced herself to remember...
Images of her little brother and sister raced through her mind, replaced by memories of her childhood sweetheart. Memories of kisses behind the tofu stall...watching the cherry blossoms during festival, walking side by side on the leaf strewn paths of her home village...memories of the scent of his hair, and the touch of his robe his name, his--
Suddenly a lance of pain shot through her head bring her to her knees, Shrieking again and again as fast as she could draw breath, Ayako's eyes rolled up in her head. It felt as if a red hot claw was reaching down into her psyche and ripping out a piece of her mind!
But as quickly as it came, it was over. No pain...no screaming...just her silent wide-eyed trembling and the echoes of her ragged breaths echoing off the walls. What had...what had it taken? Ayako felt as though...she had lost something important, but for the life of her she couldn't recall at all. Not even a faint niggling thought...The voice of the statue shook her from her musings.
"Make your offering, and take the Sheath. The payment has been made."
Standing up once more, Ayako walked wearily to the base of the sword sheath. there was a small groove in the stone. Sheathing her other sword, Ayako lifted up a fresh wound that had been made by a zombie earlier. Squeezing her arm to get the blood worked out, a trickle of red dropped down onto the groove, and rolled down inside the stone altar. There was another rumbling and clanking of gears in the ground beneath her feet. A new doorway opened to reveal a long flight of stairs. Looking down at teh sheath, she watched as the bright purple glow faded until it look like an ordinary sword sheath. The statue too had become mere stone. Picking up the sheath in her clean hand, she wrapped it carefully in a section of her soiled kimono and headed up the stairs.
As she walked up the long flight, she heard the door rumble closed behind her, sealing off the tomb once more. At last after a minute of climbing, the swordswoman found herself back up on the main floor of the temple, facing a corridor that led to the exit. Hastening, in case anything else tried to bar her way, Ayako began to clumsily run until she was out in the swampland's sun again. She didn't stop running, not even as she plunged into the murky waters and began treading the slippery stones.
Onward she ran...back towards the Twin Dragon dojo, and her waiting master.
((Temple area completed. Heading back to Dojo))
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Posted: Fri Sep 07, 2007 6:45 pm
Odins demon feels weakness his evil partner. He stops his training to "visit" his "friend". Oni (the demon) changes his form into pure darkness and dissappears into the night.
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Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2007 3:45 pm
As Oni reenters the temple he begins to chant a spell known only by the most powerful magical beings.
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Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2007 8:19 pm
As Oni finishes the spell the Temples begin to shake and from the very lowest of the caverns a portal from the demon realm opens and from there a creature of horrendous strength appears. It slowly accends to the entrance halls where it sees Oni.
"It's been a long time. I was begining to think you have been devoured by the demons of that realm.
"I could say the same about you Oni. You have been in this realm way too long. Are you almost finished here or what?"
"That is why I have called you here. There is one very strong in this land. He could stop me. You have to help me. He has many friends here. They could be called in to assisst in my fight.
"Ok. I got it. You just need an assassin. Thats fine. You know where to find me."
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Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2007 10:56 pm
*Azrael rushed to the shrine, hiding in the shadows of the trees nearby. He listened to the demonic conversation intently.
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