[RP] The Adventure Continues

CHARACTER
Name: Arkh Seryn
Age: 25
Race: Half Elf
Class: Cleric of Naele
Profession: Chef
Domain: Sun, Moon

=====================================================
Act 4: Sounds of Thunder

It has been 5 days since the events in Bacrind. I spent my days in the library reading and recouperating while Erien had some of the surviving adventurers go on a search for an Element or some sort. She says that since we can't control the Formstaff, the next best thing is to find and enlist the help of the Elements themselves.

I received a call later, to meet in the meeting hall. Apparently, the adventurers have returned. When I arrived, I see the other members gathering as well. Roem Timus the Tinker, Merri Weather, George, Kaede, Asuna Akamatsu the Geisha and Sigmend Freid the Hexblade were all sitting around the table. The Half-Orc Paladin of Lenellia whom I found out is called Kai Sunreaver as well as the eastern rogue is nowhere to be seen.

Erien arrived as I take my seat but Roem is still tinkering with his crossbow. Suddenly a shuriken flew from the shadows and landed in front of Roem, mildly gaining his attention to the start of the meeting, surprisingly. Well, at least the eastern rogue is here. Kai must be in his room somewhere, writing religious text and runes on the walls with his blood or something.

It was then that I noticed a small midget or a child hovering around Kaede. That was when I was first introduced to the Element of Air. It's a little hard for me to imagine a midget like that is an Element. He also mentioned something about being the wisest of all the 6 main elements and that Kaede is a wielder of his power.

The Element of Air, whom we know as Artemis mentioned that the Element of Lightning is possibly in the Thunder Plains while the Element of Water is most likely in the hands of the Drow as it's location is in the Underdark. He is unsure of the other Elements' whereabouts when we press him further. The Underdark, the lair of the Drows and other monstrous creatures really put us off since we don't feel that we are strong enough to tackle the dangers there as of yet. Which leaves us with one other option...

The Thunder Plains, so called due to the fact that storm clouds constantly brew in this area. Lightning strikes are extremely common every few seconds in this area. We would be pretty lucky to get away without being electrocuted.

Erien knows the place a little and teleports us to the town of Larynx, just outside the Thunder Plains. When we arrived, I saw an old man on the ground, with a tankard of ale lying next to him and a fallen chair beside him. He had his mouth open and pointing at us. It must have been quite a sight for him to see people suddenly materialized from thin air.

I tried to calm the stuttering old man when a dark figure appeared behind him, grapples him and puts a knife near his neck. I walked forward to get the eastern rogue to release the old man but he threw a shuriken at my feet instead. He knocked the hysteric old man unconcious and walked to the nearby inn. There are many strange people in this world...
I placed the old man under a nearby tree as comfortably as I can and joined the rest in the inn.

This town isn't very big. In fact, I wouldn't consider 2 houses and an inn a town at all. It's more like a half-way point for travellers to rest. But how many travellers, I wonder, would want to enter the Thunder Plains? We talked to the lady bar tender and found out that a certain Clarence Qearly lives in a tower in the Thunder Plains with his wife.

It was as good a place to start as any considering Clarence was one of the Elemental wielders. We bought some Rubian Boots from the bar tender when she said that it will protect us from the random lightning strikes and journeyed to the tower. Our trek was long yet fortunately uneventful. We did catch sight of some strange dancing balls of electricity along the way though. We later found out that they are lightning bugs. Pretty docile but you wouldn't want to touch one unless you are greeted with its shocking personality.

We walked up the stairs to the tower. The doors open easily. We are greeted with a square room and 3 other doors on each wall. In the center of the room is a small pillar with something written on it.

" One, two, and three,
Three doors to welcome thee,
Seek in the truth and you'll find me,
Seek in me and you'll find the key."

goes the rhyme.

The next few hours has each of us walking through the doors but each time, we enter a square room with no visible exit and a sign on the floor that says "Step Here". When we step on the sign, we are returned to the starting room.

Finally, Artemis decided to give it a shot. He says "I am Artemis, I seek for Clarence!" in front of a door and another door appears and he walked through it. All of us, except for Asuna, Sigmend and the eastern rogue, said our name and that we seek for Clarence and walked through the door that appeared.

I find myself in a hallway and a sign in the wall in front of me. All that is written on it is, "Ah, you are very smart! Welcome to the lab of Clarence". At the end of the hallway, is a large staircase that goes winding up to the top of the tower. Roem sends his hawk companion up to scout the place but it didn't come back. So, we started our own climb.

After walking up 30 floors, we found a button next to the railing. Kaede pused it and suddenly, a large platform that covers the whole floor crystalizes in front of us. Kaede and Artemis stepped on it and he disappeared, along with the platform. I pressed the button and stepped on the platform as well. I felt myself being teleported and when I open my eyes, I was with Kaede in a room with several doors somewhere in the tower.

As we are trying the doors, the Merri, Roem, Kai and George arrived. Roem apparently managed to find his hawk. After trying several doors, we found a room with a large mirror and the body of a human female on a bed. We shook her and felt her pulse but she didn't move. She didn't appear dead to me but her life signs are very shallow. It's almost as if the same thing had happen to her as well as the other wielders.

While we were checking on the woman, Kaede inspected the mirror. As he touched it, he disappeard(again). I followed after him and found that we were teleported into a lab. There are many potions and viles in the cupboards but they are protected by some kind of barrier, as Roem found out. He DID, however, find a journal of Clarence's.

The journal tells us many things regarding Clarence. The most interesting ones are:

- The door puzzle, which was actually supposed to be filled with monsters but Emily (we suspect the woman in the room) scolded him for having such monsters in their home.

- The first floor has a teleport button too... after Clarence got scolded by Emily for having a teleport button on the 30th floor only.

- He likes teleportations.