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 Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 10:37 pm
MazdamundaOverview: Once the great kingdom of the Lizardmen, now the Lizardmen are all but extinct. The ruins of their temples and cities are all that is left of their culture, and even those are quickly being devoured by the jungle. Still many treasure hunters come here, hoping to strike it rich even though this is one of the least explored and most dangerous places in the world. Map Location/Picture:
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Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 8:09 pm
Vhaidra was in her room eating some cookies from her goody bag when she felt them landing. She stopped using the red stone for a moment and a dull ache came back. She was use to growing pains but she was very glad to have something that seemed to get the pain to lessen. She would have to thank Tira again. Grabbing her swords she didn't see a use for a gun jsut yet considering they werne;t going to find that much trouble right? How could they? It was in the middle of no where and Vhaidra wans't going to be lugging guns around everywhere that was Zarks job. "Please don't let it be digging." She mumbled as she left her room.
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Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 8:24 pm
Balthier's voice sounded over the comm system in the ship. "Everyone please meet me at the exit ramp please."
Balthier was the first one there of course. He had both of his pistol's at his side and he was inspecting his shotgun. Tira came next with her ringblade, although she likely had some hidden weapons as well. Zark was last. He had his heavy machine gun on his back, a sawed off shotgun on each hip, his sword on his back, and 3 bandoleers: one for shotgun ammo, one for machine gun ammo, and one with grenades. "Alright, so here is the plan. If my contact is right then the temple is about one and a half miles away. Zark, Vhaidra, and I will go and trek through the jungle to it. Tira, I want you to guard the ship if that is alright. I figure you are the best suited for the job since you can talk with trees and there are plenty of those around."
"Aye captain," she said happily.
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Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 8:30 pm
Vhaidra smiled she knew Zark too well. The tree's were everywhere which meant many things could hide and it would be hard for her to scout ahead in the skies. Either way she didn't like changing often when she wasn't at home. Only in certian times or situations would she do so willingly. If it was for safety of the group though she had no problem.
Vhaidra smiled,"You going to tan while we are gone?"
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Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 8:46 pm
"Probably."
Balthier sighed, "just please be clothed by the time we get back...."
"No promises," she winked and then grabbed a beach chair and went out into the clearing where the ship had landed and set it up.
"Ok, let's go find us some treasure."
"That is what I like to here," Zark exclaimed, clearly eager to get paid. It had been awhile since they had received a good paycheck.
***
Zark led the way, hacking down branches and undergrowth with his large sword. He worked hard and showed no signs of tiring anytime soon. He was an Orc, and as such was used to hot temperatures and hard manual labor. Balthier was second in line, looking at a crude map he had been given, Vhaidra was in back on look out duty.
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Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2009 8:51 pm
Vhaidra just followed behind casually. She wans't that worried about anything getting them. She saw foxes and rabbits scamper away at the noise. Of course after a while of the noise the animals were scarce. Nothing really seemed intrested in what it was making it. Vhaidra didn't like the humidity that much though she couldn't see how Zark could stand it either.
As much as Vhaidra found ehr job at this point of time boring she couldn't wait to get thier hands on some money. She needed more of it. What dragon didn't?
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Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 7:27 am
The trip took far longer because of how much underbrush was in the way, but after about an hour they finally reached a stone step pyramid. It was about 3 stories high but even then it was still completely concealed into the jungle. "I think this is it," Balthier said sarcastically, since clearly this was it. They walked around the base of the pyramid till they came to a large stone door that was sealed shut. It had some lizardmen hieroglyphs and pictographs on it but none of them knew what they said. The images showed many lizardmen, being chased by beams of light, or was it fire, then they were constructing the temple around some spherical looking object, then there were lizardmen priests marching around the temple, likely casting some sort of spell.
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Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 2:41 pm
Vhaidra came in with her sarcastic comment,"Isn't thier art always so nice of what lies ahead? Why can't there be a nice muscular man sitting on a bunch of riches with an arrow to the door of where to get it?"
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Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 7:13 am
"Because that would be too easy," Balthier said. He stood back for a moment, considering what to do. "Zark, blow it up."
"Yes sir," he said happily. He began setting up dynamite around the door. When he was finished he lit a fuse and they all ran away for cover. A few moments later the door exploded, sending rock flying everywhere, but they were safe and had not been hit.
Balthier looked up to make sure everything was alright, then said, "ok, lets go." It was clear he was trying really hard to contain his excitement. They entered into the destroyed entrance to find a set of stairs that went down underground, there was no light. They made some torches, lit them, and then continued. The walls of the passageway were smooth but undecorated with art or inscriptions. They walked for a long ways, going deep underground until they finally came to a large room. It was a large, dome shaped, circular room, and there was a hole in the middle of the stone floor. Above the hole, just out of reach, were dozens of rubies, cut geometrically in different shapes. They were suspended in the air, likely by magic. They carefully walked over to the hole and Balthier tossed his torch inside to see how far it went down. They watched the torch fall for a long time until it finally went out of sight, a few moments later they heard it hit the bottom.
***
Tira was sunning herself and on the verge of napping when her Elf ears heard something out of place in a jungle. She opened her eyes and looked around to see in the distance a squadron of Imperial Republic Warships. Quickly she got up and began talking to the trees, they complied almost immediately and used their arms to conceal Red Dawn from their prying eyes. Robbing archaeological sites was a serious offense in the Empire and if they were caught it could be real bad. She ran inside the ship, not sure what she should do, go warn her friends or stay with the ship. In the end she decided to warm up the engines, her friends would be fine, but they would need a fast getaway when they finally got back.
***
No one on the warships noticed the small red airship sitting on the ground since it was too well concealed by underbrush. Spotters looked all around for an easy place to allow troops to get off, but they saw none. So the Admiral gave the order to lower the ship and the docking pole to the ground so that they could deposit troops that way. There mission was simple, the Emperor had ordered them to find a small, recently discovered tomb, and recover whatever treasures were there. Zalatel didn't ask why, that wasn't his job. "Marcus, take some marines and go to the temple. It should be here," he pointed to a location on a map. "And be careful, the Lizardmen had a fondness for boobytraps."
***
In his quarters Julian sat on a couch with Cassandra looking outside. He was drawing a picture of the landscape. He had been to Mazdamunda before, but it had been awhile. Still he found it as boring as the last time since he was required to stay on board.
(Karas' expertise will only be required should they actually recover the treasure in the tomb and since he is so powerful I figured we shouldn't send him out on this one right away.)
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Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 4:09 pm
Looking on the ruins brought a strange sadness to the eye's of the royal adviser. " You know Admiral I once knew a lizard man. We had tea in the middle of a bandit ridden woods. It was an interesting night." With out waiting for a reply from the admiral Karas left the room. Going to his quarters and the kitchens he found some things he was looking for.
Opening the door to the open air observation deck he pulled a cloak from a small bag. Even now it radiated a warmth even without a will to operate the enchantment. It had taken him by surprise to find his own work on sale in a pawn shop. Tying the cloak to a bottle of brandy he had taken from the kitchen he mumbled a prayer under his breath.
Hurling the bottle and cloak into the air and summoning lighting to ignite them at the same time. He wiped an errant tear from his eyes. "Rest well my friend. Your home at last" Tuning his back on the forest he retreated to his room
The flaming cloak landed not but a few feet from the hidden Pirate air ship. Not totally consumed by the fire the magic warming cloak began to repair itself.
(My way of saying good by to my first companion on an adventure. If someone wants to clam the cloak that's ok. I think the merch would like the idea of that old thing still kicking around. )
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Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 7:17 pm
Vhaidra looked at the rubies."Alright where are the traps? Are these things suppose to throw light at us like in the picture?" She looked down the hole though and smirked. "You want me to go down there real quick?"
Marcus saluted,"Will do sir." and took some of his personally favored soldiers. He by passed Janet quickly and didn't even bother to look at her.
Janet chuckled knowing she had gotten to hm and she had known that he wouldn't bring her along it was not work for her anyways. What little girl would be carrying out treasures? She hoped Marcus got caught in a booby trap.
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Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 10:35 pm
(Yeah, I miss Merch sad and everyone else who has left the guild)
"I don't know," Balthier said. From the sound of his voice it was apparent he was thinking hard on the matter, very suspicious about everything. Their arms were not long enough to reach the rubies, Vhaidra could fly and grab them, but he was trying to think of another solution. "Zark, have your gun out, just in case something goes awry." Zark complied, lifting the heavy machine gun off his back, he looked around the room, making sure nothing was there that hadn't been before. "Vhaidra, all I can think of is you flying and grabbing them all at once in a bag, do you have any better ideas?"
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Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 11:17 pm
Vhaidra looked at the rubies and grabbed up a bag. "I don't have any others. I'll be careful promise." She changed and smiled. Fluttering up she opened the bag and put it around the first ruby. She waited for something to happen.
Marcus and the others went down and landed near the temple a bit away because it was the only clearing avaliable. They would have to make a path but it wouldn't take that long.
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Posted: Sat Jul 25, 2009 10:07 am
Nothing happened as the first Ruby entered into the bag.
(When one Ruby is touched they all start to fall... so could you grab them all quickly, my current ideas for what is at the bottom of the pit are not too fun....)
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Posted: Sat Jul 25, 2009 6:03 pm
Vhaidra smiled and grabbed all the rubies like it was a game before any of them touched the ground. SHe missed one but it only clattered once before she grabbed it up. "Easy peasy." She said smiling. Holding the bag with ease,"Hope theres are more easy treasure like this."
She stayed change even though she felt self consious around Balthier and Zark. She didn't really feel comfrotable around anyone but her mother and other drgaons and even then she felt out of place. The joy of flyng was all that took her to change, if it weren't for that she never would.
"Where next?"
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