The Skyward Tower

[3kul]

((Floor 5 is all yours Laur.))

A large tile beneath one of Ballari's feet clicks as she steps on it, and the few torches weakly lighting up the dim stone room that everybody was crowded into suddenly flared up with renewed intensity.

With the torches now burning so brightly everything in the room was much easier to see. The room was a large square one made of stone, with two short corridors leading out of it - one to the north and the other to the south. The one to the south is one that anybody entering the tower has travelled through, as it ends with the entrance/exit. The one to the north is the one that Ballari is currently standing in, and it ends with a carved stone door with a large keyhole in it. Six panels on the east and west walls slide away to reveal six buttons, three on each wall.

Those who observe the buttons closely will notice that they each have different pictures on them. From north to south along the west wall, the buttons depict a key, then a door and then a chest. From north to south along the east wall the buttons depict a skull-and-crossbones, a screaming humanoid covered in blood and a swarm of insects.

Before anybody can attempt to push these buttons, the room begins to rumble. Silt and dirt fall from the ceiling as the large number one slides away, and those standing on the large number one on the floor will be quick to get off of it as it also slides away.

When the rumbling stopped and the big '1's had slid out of sight, what they had been hiding was quite easy to see. From the ceiling now dangled a large bronze key stuck on the end of a chain, and in the shallow one-shaped cavity in the ground there was more writing to be read. It is the same message written over and over again in all of the languages depicted on the walls:

Five are traps, only one releases the key

Rogan picked himself up from the ground, where he'd fallen to in a rather ungraceful manner when the room began to quake, and brushed the dust off of his clothes. The young nature mage noticed that he was now standing next to a large button with a bloody person on it. Feeling a little wary of what appeared to be a very dangerous button, he took a few steps away from it, then addressed the many folk who'd entered the room shortly before the minor tremor.

"Is everybody okay?"

((For anybody feeling confused, here's my best rendition of a floor map in MSPaint. It's not great, but at least this way you'll know exactly where everything is.))

[Cirrial]

The increasing influx of new arrivals did little to calm the uneasy Serakree, trying her best to hide in plain sight as the chameleonic fluid coating her attempted to do its best to disguise her as nothing more than an oddly shimmering figure in the dim light of the room.

She looks at Coolpikaaa with interest, recalling vague memories of her violent introduction to the world of the Dojo, crashing into the roof of a laboratory inexplicably in the middle of nowhere.

Suddenly, the room begins to tremor. Looking down at the 1-shaped panel in the floor, it seems to be moving. She deftly leaps to more solid footing as it slides away, glancing around in alarm. The added brightness of the room only makes her presence increasingly obvious, as the chameleonic film, slow to adapt to sudden light changes, displays the same surroundings as dark as before. The effect of this is to cause Serakree to look like an areeni-shaped walking shadow, also casting a shadow from each light source.

She briefly glances over herself to make sure the camouflaging film is still present, and notices how useless it has suddenly become with the abrupt change in lighting conditions. She groans and starts wiping the chameleonic fluid off of her, somehow shaping the goopy liquid into a gelatinous ball. She speaks in passable Blackstar Common, but with the occasional odd inflection and altered phoneme. "Useless. Absolutely useless. Why I continue to use such a tool, I do not know. Yes, human, I am present and I am fine." She drops the gelatinous ball on the floor, where it bounces gently, very quickly turning an opaque lime-green on contact with the cool stone floor.

Looking towards the floor, she stares wide-eyed at what seems to be etchings in one of many areeni writing systems. Before, she'd simply read the same Blackstar Common inscription as everyone else, but this time she could see the new message in a language she'd never expected nor desired to come across. She scans the room briefly, noticing a total of five buttons on the wall, and looks up towards the key. She hisses in alarm. "No-one must press any of the buttons! They are traps!"

She backs away from the centre of the room towards the corner, uncomfortably close to the button with the bug swarm depicted on it. The one button directly behind her that she hadn't noticed.

She looks behind, inches away from the button, and freezes on the spot. Six buttons? That makes more sense, at least. It doesn't seem a wise idea to press this particular button, however, and so she takes a few steps back from it, deciding to let someone else press the first button.

[Taxim]

(( Hello everyone, we're using Arianwen. She's on our profile there. We're using a quick description just if people don't want to read it all. ))

"Why does the Light work in such confusing ways..." Hissed a growl from behind the door. A clinking sound had slowly been moving closer and closer towards the tower before a gauntlet rested on the door and pushed it open, climbing through as thick metal greaves rattled quietly with each step she took. Anyone looking at her who had played or watched any movie of the sort would recognise her instantly as a stereotypical paladin - thick, heavy gold armour, crimson torn cloak and a two-handed mace upon her back. Her plate mail covered every inch of her body except in two places; her sides and her left shoulder, the right shoulder held a thick silver pauldron with various runes written all over it. Everything was there with some extra additions; cuisse, cannons, a slightly longer fauld and tasset to act as a plate-skirt, breastplate, besagew, sabaton and poleyn. The only things missing where the helmet and bevor, meaning she had no head-protection. All of these were gold, silver or some other bright colour along this scheme, white perhaps and a little copper.

The white-haired woman would take a few steps into the building, clinking quietly as she did, letting her eyes become adjusted to the change of light before she opened her mouth. "Hmm." Would be the only sound as her eyes darted around the room. This was an interesting place...

"Now, good evening, have I mi-" The woman visibly twitched as the door slammed shut behind he, what some might call "a jump" when something surprises you. She blinks her emerald-coloured eyes before sighing and carrying on. "Good evening, have I missed anything important?" She asks, gazing from person to person. These people were odd… Humans, a Chthulhu-like alien, something spikey, robot-men and... a strange creature. Hmm. Introductions would not be in order, she was simply here to investigate and purge anything if it should not be here. The heavy weight of her mace on her back suddenly felt quite comfortable as the Sister's thoughts slid to fighting. The only other noise she made was a "Mmm..." as she looked around the room, investigating by walking towards the buttons and staring at the symbols. Nobody had filler her in on what was going on, but she was a learn-by-doing person and the desire to push one became almost overwhelming. "What do these do?"

[LordPsycho]

Blackfoot didn't startle at the sudden change of environment. One thing about learning under his master is that you get used to that kind of thing. But the puzzle - puzzles were never his strong suit. The obvious thing was to press the key button. The second most obvious thing was to transform, fly up, and grab the key himself. But something told him that neither would end very well.

"Welcome...paladin. We are not sure what they do yet, but please, push one and satisfy our curiosity." Blackfoot did not like this person immediately. He had known more than a few - and all of them had turned on him once they found out what he really was. He was on his guard the moment she stepped in.

"Please, try the skull and crossbones first." He said, suddenly having an idea...

[Coolpikaaa]

"Wait guys!" Coolpikaaa shouted, after somewhat piecing together everything that was going on. "One sec..."

He looked around and noticed the button with a key on it. Defiantly not the right one.

"Ok...not to add to anyone's fear or anything, but we don't actually know what the buttons could do." Coolpikaaa stopped, then realized he had probably been just stating the obvious. "What I mean is, if we press a trap button, it could affect all of us, not just the one who pressed it."

He left this statement with a glare at Blackfoot.

-coolpikaaa

[3kul]

((Dang, Coolpikaaa posted before I could get my lengthy post in... Time for some changes.))

"But..." Rogan was about to say virtually the same thing as a certain yellow rodent had, but was just a few moments too late. Hang on a minute, is that... No way, it is! Rogan's eyes widened as he recognized Coolpikaaa, unable to believe that the owner of the same heroic yellow mug that graced so many magazine covers and newspaper articles could be standing here in the same room as him. I should totally get his autograph, oh but I don't have any of the magizines or articles on me! Damn, if only I'd... I'd...

Looking around at the various people here, Rogan noticed many people who, like Coolpikaaa, seemed to be very well suited to exploring this tower. Along with the Dojo's favourite electric mouse and Blackfoot, there was the large mess of green vines that was no doubt a powerful elemental of some variety, the beautiful yet intimidating paladin who looked a bit older and a lot stronger than himself, the female beastmaster who was standing atop a depressed button (Rogan immediately fell under the false impression that she'd intended to press the button, and felt sure that she was an experienced explorer) alongside her massive feline, the scarily well-armed soldier who Rogan felt certain had been trained for all sorts of situations, the strange alien creature who up until a moment ago had been perfectly invisible and probably had all sorts of tricks up her sleeve...

Thinking about it, Rogan realized that he was probably the most useless one here. These people had all most likely entered the tower for really serious reasons, but he'd just come to see the tower because he thought it might be interesting. Ugh, Rogan mentally groaned, disgusted with his own childishness. If this was the group ascending the tower he'd almost certainly hold them back.

There appeared to be another youngster with them, but she seemed to have a bit of an angry look on her face so Rogan decided that he shouldn't go making friends with her just yet. For now he decided to keep quiet and leave everything up to the professionals.

((As is no doubt obvious I've decided to make a slight change to my character, and rather than be resentful or jealous of those obviously more skilled than he is Rogan now suffers from an inferiority complex . I tried going with my original design for him but this one is more interesting imo.

I think Rogan managed to cover just about every character in the tower at the moment, but apologies in advance if I missed anybody (except for Shaon, your character doesn't seem very intimidating or impressive to Rogan just yet ).

Also, it feels weird going from characters who'd like nothing better than to have Coolpikaaa's head stuffed and mounted on a wall to a character who thinks of him as one of the greatest beings to ever set foot on Blackstar ))

[drlupinmario]

A bald Russian man with a Ushanka and a cybernetic eyepatch accomponied by a Siberian husky carrying a backpack with its teeth enter. The dog suddenly drops the backpack and angrly runs over to Not-A-K, Snarling and foaming at the mouth, and upon getting to her two tesla cannons pop out from the Husky's back.

Volkov meanwhile grabs a bottle of Vodka from the backpack, opening it with his teeth. "Heel Chitzkoi,We dont want to cause a bad impression, No?" The dog, Chitzkoi, lowers his weapons but continues to snarl at the women. Volkov snaps his fingers holding out his bottle of Pure Russian Vodka and pours a little bit into a cup. Chitzkoi runs over to drink from the cup. "Do not mind my dog, Comrads. He gets angry amongst Capitalists such as yourself. " He pauses to take a drink before murmering "As do I, pigs..."

Volkov inspects the contesnts of his backpack. "Pleese, Dont mind us. We are looking for some tresure rumord to be at the top of this tower."

Volkov yells somthing to his dog who sniffs around while he finishes sipping the rest of his vodka.

[GBE]

((You are very all encompassing 3kul.. ))

As the room began to shake and change, both Ballari and Daijiro protected themselves with their forcefields in case something unfortunate happened. As the floor moved and changed because of the pressure stone she'd on, she had to try and balance herself. With the final shudder, she'd almost fallen into one of the buttons, but managed to stop herself in time.

Ballari turned and looked at the others in their various forms and shapes. There wasn't a lot about them in appearance, not at least to her. Daijiro after giving the air a few good sniffs told her all she needed to know for now. Suddenly a plate clad female enters the room and appears to demand something from the others. Shortly followed by another, a man and a dog this time. She immediately knew the dog was cyborgnetic, she could just feel its energy. Both her and Daijiro had immediate dislike for it.

Feeling a little bit safer, Ballari took a good look at all of the six buttons, and then up at the key. Daijiro followed her gaze, temporarily removing her fixed star from the dog that had entered. Carefully minding her step, the felin-esque animal moves towards each of the buttons and sniffs each one thoroughly, to see if she could pick anything up from any of them.

[3kul]

Aside from the pictures on the faces of them, there is nothing different in the appearance or smell of the buttons. They are all the same size, all made of the same stone and all appeared to be totally untouched. The smells between them vary slightly, but only because of who was standing close to the buttons at the time that they appeared. For the most part, they smell like stone and dust.

If the words on the wall are to be believed, the group currently in the Skyward Tower are the first ones to ever set foot in it, and as such there will be no signs of the buttons having ever been touched before. There are no clues to be found from examining the buttons closely in any manner, and Ballari and Daijrio (as well as anybody else paying close attention to the buttons) will most likely arrive at the same conclusion that the maker's intention is to force adventurers decide which buttons to press based solely on the images depicted on them.

[Swix]

The sentient plant had reached out a tendril to touch the writing he recognised, he was probably the only one in here that couldn't read Blackstar Common. He mostly got around and learned of places whereabouts by overhearing conversations because of that particular lack of ability, so he had no idea that the large panels on the wall and floor were numbers.

The rumbling was extremely noticeable and all the more disturbing for him simply because of what he was. The Krkrln didn't fall over more than he sank in the sea of his own vine tendrils until the tremors stopped, then rose back up to his accustomed height. The plant creature turned to look at how the room had completely changed, his face expressionless due only to the lack of features bar his eyes.

The conversation, thankfully for his translator all in Common, trickled through to him in his own language.

"Is everybody okay?" from the young sprout who appeared to have been one of the first, "Useless. Absolutely useless. Why I continue to use such a tool, I do not know. Yes, human, I am present and I am fine." from the possibly another alien, before she jumped away from one of the buttons hissing and then "No-one must press any of the buttons! They are traps!". If Serakree hadn't stood in front of the button with the insect swarm and blocked his view, Endorphine would probably have had his mind taken back to the fight he'd once had with a creature called Hollow Eyes.

'More animals' Endorphine thought, as his attention was turned to the door once more by a human dressed in some sort of heavy armour that reminded him of the Utopians, the mineral-based aliens the Krkrln shared their home system with-though 'shared' was a lot more generous than what he remembered had been going on at the time of his banishment.

"Now, good evening, have I mi-" came the newcomers translated sentence, before she made an involuntary movement that cut her off and started again "Good evening, have I missed anything important?" 'Ah, finally' the plant thought, but the new female alien then walked over to the button and asked another question "What do these do?"

Next to speak was the teacher to the metal covered newcomer "Welcome...Pa La Din. We are not sure what they do yet, but please, push one and satisfy our curiosity." Endorphines eyes would have widened at this particular sentence, but his kind didn't really put much stock in facial expressions. With talking the way they did, using their own tendrils to create the sounds, their language was communication and emotional expression all rolled into one. "Please, try the skull and cross bones first." Skull and cross bones? What was a cross bone? He knew bones and skulls were the things that held a lot of animals together but the significance of them was completely lost on him. A withered stem, vine or leaf would have been the equivalent.

"Wait guys!" this one was from the smaller, brightly coloured animal "One sec... Ok...not to add to anyone's fear or anything, but we don't actually know what the buttons could do... What I mean is, if we press a trap button, it could affect all of us, not just the one who pressed it." the small creature finished his sentence with a meaningful glare at the teacher, which even the alien could see was meaningful.

"But..." the sprout began to say, then stopped and went deathly silent though the Krkrln was awaiting the rest of the translated sentence, it never came.

Then came another of the humans, a male with a canid creature that after watching it revealed a pair of primitive guns attached to it's back. Upon closer inspection the man who had come in with the thing also had a primitive implant in his eye. The translation for him came over in a rather strange way " "Heel Chi tz koi, we dont want to cause a bad impression, No?" why he added 'no' at the end of the sentence, gave the Krkrln the impression that he actually did want to create a bad impression and so the plant kept it in his mind not to have any close dealings with this character "Do not mind my dog, Com rads!" Why was he talking about communication and radiation after talking about his pet? "He gets angry amongst Capital Ists such as yourself" This last one was even more confusing, he was pretty sure that a capital meant an important city, but he wasn't sure what an Ist was or why it was in the same sentence. The human must have an accent for another language interfering with his translator. "Please, Don't mind us. We are looking for some treasure rumored to be at the top of this tower."

Well, as he'd expressly asked for it, Endorphine paid them no mind and completely ignored them, confusing way of talking or not.

"One of us must push a button" the Krkrln finally spoke, his translator turning this clicks and rustles into Common "or leave. There is no reason to stay if nothing is to be done for the sake of personal safety. I choose to stay" Endorphine had his reasons for wanting to get to the top, he knew just exactly what wish he'd want.

The plant alien turned to the paladin now, the only one so far to show any hint of courtesy "Good evening" the translator said shortly after he'd begun to 'speak' "you have missed only the floor shaking and panels in the room moving to show us those buttons, that key and the message on the floor which says 'all but one are traps'"

[3kul]

"One of us must push a button... or leave. There is no reason to stay if nothing is to be done for the sake of personal safety. I choose to stay."

"Not it!" Rogan instinctively shouted, displaying a level of maturity appropriate for the schoolyard. He immediately realized his error, and felt all the more foolish for it. This was not a suggestion to run laps around the training dojo or a request to clean dishes, this was a serious, perhaps even a life-or-death situation.

Fortunately for Rogan he had a decent head on his shoulders, and rather than shut his mouth and leave everybody with a terrible impression of himself he attempted to make things right. "I'm... I'm sorry about that, I'm just a bit nervous at the moment. I don't imagine anybody wants to push the first button if it's going to be dangerous..." This was a nice sentiment, but Rogan knew that it did not solve their current predicament. "Shall we hold a vote or something? You know, to decide who's going to push the first button, or what button we want to try pushing first?" This wasn't a spectacular idea, but in Rogan's experience such a pure form of democracy was rarely unpopular.

[Taxim]

"Ha, that one will be second. For now let us eliminate them one by one." Arianwen smiled at Blackfoot, flashing him a sarcastic expression before letting her gaze roam over to the alien as it began to click and tap in a strange dialect. The Paladin had merely stared at the alien with a confused expression as it clicked away, though the look was dropped as understandable sentences seem to come from somewhere within the mass of tentacles and flesh. "Ah. We need to press a button?" She asks, looking around at the faces with emerald eyes before sighing. "Very well, if nobody wants to do such then I shall do it. There is no sense in waiting around for someone else to take the risk if everyone is too scared to do so."

The Paladin looked around before walking towards the button with a key above it. She unstrapped the heavy weapon on her back, resting on her cape and pulled it as it came free. The weapon was a gold and silver Flanged Mace. While it looked brand new, there were some marks of wear-and-tear that showed it had been used to great efficiency - slight notches taken out of the spikes while the gold looked slightly worn. Despite the look of her weapons and armour, it was the overlay that was a simple gold while the centre was strengthened steel mixed with the precious Axioni rocks found in the mines near the Brotherhood. "Right, here goes." She sighed, sounding as if it were simply another day in the office before extending a hand blanketed in metal and pushes the button with the picture of a key.

(( Just pressed the button with the key above it! ))

[3kul]

A loud sound of metal clashing against metal is heard from above, and the chain with the key on the end suddenly falls. Both the chain and key are fairly large, and they land in the '1' shaped pit with a resounding crash. The end of the chain has been rather crudely severed, and anybody looking up will see that two axes are now resting their blades against one another, for having cut through the chain their only job is now complete.

Rogan finds it a little difficult to believe that this room's puzzle could be solved so easily, and moves closer to get a better look at the key. "It's got writing on it as well..." He thinks aloud, and so it did. The key is engraved in multiple languages as the floor and walls were (though some may have to turn it over to find words that they can understand), and reads as follows:

Well done on passing this, the first challenge of many.

Know that your courage to go against the odds will serve you well.

The key and the remaining chain links attached to it are heavy, weighing in at close to 30kg or so ((a fraction over 66 pounds for those of you not used to metric)). It might be awkward for one person to carry (or physically impossible for somebody like Rogan to carry alone), but it shouldn't pose any trouble for most of the people present, and even if it does it's big enough for two people to carry it.

((An exceedingly easy challenge for the first floor! Sorry about that, I didn't think that it'd be over so quickly . Anybody feeling an overwhelming urge to press the other buttons will find that they are still able to do so (the buttons haven't disappeared or anything), or we can all just go on to the next floor.))

[Swix]

Endorphine had to admit to himself that he was surprised, this world lend itself to easy, obvious puzzles very well. He had been in the process of taking up the standard Krkrln defensive position- that of having all his tendrils facing outwards at varying heights and angles with his thorns out- until he realised just what had happened. Whth the plant equivalent of an adrenaline rush accompanying a start the alien realised just how much he'd gotten used to this place. Vegetables and tins falling out of the sky were an everyday occurrence but a button with a key on it having something to do with the real key was unheard of.

"May I see that key, young sprout" the aliens translated question came over his translator as Endorphine moved over to Rogan "I haven't seen my own language for a long time, and I can help carry it to the door"

[GBE]

Ballari had had little experience with the languages she was hearin being spoken by all of these people. Their languages was unknown to her, and Blackstar common had very few similar words to her own, so it was a struggle for her to understand what the others were saying. She panicked for a few moments as the plate wearing woman pushed one of the buttons. Thankfully only a key fell down.

She assumed that the dual language plant was referring to the key. Ballari takes a few steps towards the key and has a look. She again can see her own language, but she can't read the whole phrase as it seems to run to the underside of the key. She removes from her hip what appears to be a very short and thick staff, with thick rounded nodules on either side. Holding it in the center, she points either side of it towards the ground and ceiling and it extends into a full length staff as tall as her.

Cautiously, she gently taps the key in various places to make sure that it isn't a booby trapped or something. Hearing the solid thunk as she does so, she feels a bit calmer about it. Just as easily as the staff extended it shrinks and she slots back into a hip holster. Bending down to touch herself, much to the dismay of Daijiro, Ballari attempts to lift the key. She manages to get one side of the floor and reads the rest of the message written in her own language. However, it is obvious that she isn't going to be lifting it up on her own.