The Skyward Tower

[Swix]

The Krkrln would have sighed or made some similar gesture at Ballari's prodding, then at her apparently trying to pick the obviously too heavy key.
"I will help carry that" Endorpine said to the female human, coiling several vine like tendrils around the key and adding his strength to lifting it, slowly pulling it off the ground. He certainly did not want to linger on a lower floor any longer if he didn't have to, and so he began to move towards the door.

[Coolpikaaa]

Coolpikaaa was kind of disappointed actually.

All you had to do was press the key button? That really defeated the point of the whole "puzzle" thing.

Probably not going to be much help carrying the key, CP moved over to Rogan, the only one who seemed not so occupied at the moment.

"So what's new?"

-coolpikaaa

[3kul]

Ballari and Endorphine would be able to carry the key to the door without any trouble, and upon reaching it, they will find that it fits perfectly into the keyhole (as any good key should). Turning it will cause the door to click loudly and open, but behind the door is nothing but a dark void. Two stone faces on the backs of the doors speak to both Ballari and Endorphine, repeating the same message over and over again in all of the languages written on the walls.

The moment one enters the door, all are forced to advance, and this floor will be destroyed.

Remember this, it is a valuable escape tactic for when things are bad.

Do not forget this, or you may advance before everybody is ready to leave.

----

"Ah, sure, it's all yours." Rogan replied to the polite elemental creature, not sure if he should feel honoured or embarassed to be referred to as 'young sprout' (though he was more leaning towards honoured). "I couldn't lift it if I tried." He added, laughing a little. Yet another reason why he didn't quite fit in here...

"So what's new?"

"Wh-wh-what's... What's new?" Rogan repeated, dumbstruck by the suddenness of Coolpikaaa's question. The problem wasn't the question of course, but the person asking it - Rogan did not have any experience in speaking to such a celebrity. Did they always address people so casually? If that was the case then casual conversation would most likely be the best, maybe with a slight hint towards wanting to hear about Coolpikaaa's many adventures, but Rogan would be sure to keep it subtle. He probably had people asking him about them all the time after all, and most likely wouldn't appreciate having a story forced out of him.

Well, recently I've been studying the types of nature magic required to grow a watermelon in a desert, but I imagine that you've been up to far more interesting things, Mr. Coolpikaaa. Actually, just yesterday I was reading an old copy of Dojo Heroes monthly and found a rather interesting article on one of your hobbies... Is the kind of conversation he had hoped to start, but Rogan's tongue quickly tied itself and his words came out as something like "Arulglblounolulugurlurulrul?" Realizing this and feeling incredibly embarassed to be babbling such nonsense in front of one of the saviours of the Dojo he stumbled backwards, desperate to escape this conversation now, but one of his feet slipped out from beneath him and he smacking his head into the button with the bloody screaming human on it.

"Huh? What?" He realized that he'd hit something, and a trap door above Rogan suddenly opened. Something fell from the trapdoor, smacking the teen in the head and causing blood to come gushing out. "AHHHHH! AHHHHH!" He began to scream, terrified that something had just stabbed him in the brain and not even realizing that he wasn't in any sort of pain. Anybody who looks closely enough will probably notice the remains of water balloon on his head.

((Oh floor one, you jokester you ))

[Coolpikaaa]

"Ackk! "

The blood filled water balloon threw Coolpikaaa way off track, as he jumped to the left in order to dodge a spray of red.

For one thing, where had a temple that apparently no one has ever entered before have gotten blood? Had the other traps just been practical jokes too? Would pressing the skull and crossbones make a skeleton puppet do a jig?

Then he realized the hilarity in the teen's predicament and had to cover his mouth to avoid outright laughing at the boy.

"Well uh...Shall we pretend this never happened and join the others near the door?

[drlupinmario]

Chitzkoi runs over to rogan and sniffs him, and upon relising that it is indeed blood he licks it off of Rogan. Volkov, on the other hand, Just points and laughs before discarding his empty bottle of Pure-Russian Vodka on the floor.
"Ah yes, The old gag of filling up a small, Latex balloon with Pigs blood and dropping it upon a Disliked Rival" Volkov announces before whiping a streak of the blood with his index finger "Although whatever Boneheads have done this appear to have done it wrong, For this does not seem to be pigs blood..."

[Taxim]

(( Any preferences when I put in the description? ASAP or when people have moved into the room like the first? ))

The Paladin frowned as the balloon landed on the head of the person who seemed to know most about this place. The spray had not reached her, but there were a few flicks of the substance on the floor which was studied carefully. "Odd how such a place had such a trap. Where would one get the blood..?" Arianwen mumbles her thoughts aloud before sighing and moving towards the door, swinging her mace idly as if she were bored. "Very well... for one I'd rather not tempt fate after being shown such a simple puzzle. I would like to investigate." Once again, the Paladin moved through the people, clinking her way into the next room and through the darkness. The room held a simple spiralling stone stair-case that reached up into further gloom and darkness.*

The metal guards over her feet clinked as she ascended, causing the echoing to fall back down to those still in the first room. Occasionally a small scraping sound of boot on stone would imply a small slip before a complaining grumble would be heard about the shoddy craftsmanship of such a stair-case.

*(( Is this all right 3Kul? Do I control how they get up to the room also? >.>; ))

[Cirrial]

(( This thread moves like a speeding bullet! Sorry for not posting sooner. ))

Serakree stands in silent, wary but curious observation of those around her, noting everything the plant creature spoke in particular. It couldn't be related to the creatures she'd heard of, yet something about it continued to itch in the back of her mind. She also keeps a close eye on the yellow... thing she remembers very little about, trying to recall a little more of why it seems so familiar to her.

As soon as she spots the key button being pressed by the shining-armour-clad paladin, she braces herself and watches the ceiling with unease, tongue flicking about in the air anxiously.

The term "paladin" meant little to her, but humans equipped in such a manner had been... obstacles in her plans in the past. Almost fatal obstacles. She stands still, silently hoping the button is a trap, just to avoid any unwanted potential confrontation.

When the key falls to the ground, she visibly flinches. She creeps forward as do others to examine the key, curiosity winning over general suspicion and paranoia.

"May I see that key, young sprout? I haven't seen my own language for a long time, and I can help carry it to the door"

Serakree hisses gently under her breath, her normally closed gills opening and closing momentarily. "Don't trust it. It is too quick to assume leadership and dictate commands." It is not clear if Serakree is directing these mutterings to anyone in particular or if she's merely voicing her own thoughts.

Either way, these words are ignored, and Serakree makes no attempt to intervene as Endorphine and Ballari drag the key to the door, opening the door. Her long ears rise slightly as she hears the two faces speak in a host of languages, and stares wide-eyed when she hears not simply one but three areeni languages she can recognise. "Who made this place? What is happening-"

She cuts herself off when she catches Rogan out of the corner of her eye, stumbling into a button and being splattered with a balloon filled with blood. Missing the balloon, she initially leaps to the same conclusion that Rogan had, misinterpreting the screams of shock as screams of pain. She throws herself to the ground, expecting more traps or something worse to happen.

Once the casual reactions of both Coolpikaaa and Volkov make it clear this is not the case, she picks herself off of the stone floor, brushing dirt and dust off of her brown scales. She wanders slowly towards to Rogan, silently, staring intently at him, tongue still waving in the air. "Any injuries beyond your pride, human? That trap did not seem particularly damaging."

Her Blackstar Common is perfectly fine, save for an increasingly shaky delivery, with stresses on the wrong syllables most of the time. Given her mouth structure, it seems impossible that she should even be capable of making the correct sounds.

She doesn't even notice Arianwen stroll through the empty door, having assumed everyone else was distracted by the trap's deployment.

[LordPsycho]

Blackfoot was surprised at the suddenness of the solution, as well as it's simplicity, but he wasn't about to question a stroke of luck. He didn't have to transform, which means that paladin didn't have a reason to go Psycho ((heh, wordplay)) on him just yet.

Psycho fell back behind the paladin on the stairs, not wanting the potential threat to go too far out of his site. Unlike the metal clad warrior, Blackfoot seemed to have no problems with shoddy craftsmanship.

"So, what brings you to the tower?" Blackfoot asks, hoping that the Paladin didn't have any multitasking abilities

[3kul]

"Well uh...Shall we pretend this never happened and join the others near the door?"

"It'd be nice if we could..." Rogan mumbled as he wiped the blood from his eyes whilst trying to ignore the dog licking him and the Russian laughing at him. True, the dog was making it a little easier for him to get the blood off, but it was merely a trade for dog drool, which wasn't exactly much better than blood.

"Odd how such a place had such a trap. Where would one get the blood..?"

"It's not that strange if you think about it," Rogan said to Arianwen, spitting out some of the blood that he'd swallowed. "Considering that the room is made from somebody's dream."

"Any injuries beyond your pride, human? That trap did not seem particularly damaging."

"No, it was just a bit of a shock, that's all... Thanks for asking though." Rogan replied to Serakree. "Of course, my problem is that I'm now covered in and smell strongly of blood. I hope that doesn't cause too much of a problem for future floors... Get off, please." He tried to push Chitzkoi off of him, but found the dog to be surprisingly strong and persistant.

Rogan was about to search through his pockets for something that might distract the dog from the blood for a moment or two, and maybe something to eat so that he could get the taste of blood out of his mouth. Before he got the chance to however, he noticed the room had begun to spin about him. Had the blood been poisonous or hallucinogenic? Or was he just feeling faint from the mere sight of it? Not knowing which it was, Rogan closed his eyes and slowed his breathing pattern for a while, hoping that this might be a good way to calm down.

Rogan was incorrect in his assumptions however, and he would not be the only one to notice that the room was beginning to spin. Those who had entered the stairs would be in for a mostly pleasant and short trip to the next floor, but those who hadn't would be forcefully dragged away from the room that was about to collapse on itself...

((Goodbye floor 1, I'll miss you

[Swix]

Endorphine let go of the key after having helped drag it to the door, letting it down slowly so as not to cause any damage to Ballari, whilst the heads talked in tongues, Common was first and translated then eventually got to his own language, whilst the rest of them came across as static or nonsensical gibberish. If the Krkrlns translator had picked up what Serakree had been muttering about, he would've felt a little insulted as well as confused as to how 'may I' and 'I can help' translated into 'assume leadership' and 'dictate commands', so would've taken something of a disliking to her. As it was though, at the time he was too far away and her words were too quiet for his machine to pick up.

Then both the Pa La Din, whatever that was, along with the teacher strode past and through the door. The Krkrln heard the last trap come down, and turned to see the sprout covered in what appeared to be blood whilst he screamed... though the reactions from the mouse, the man with the strange manner of talking, the canid and the other alien soon showed it wasn't serious.

Endorphine was anxious to get on with it, so he followed the teacher and armoured humanoid through. Climbing the spiral staircase was a little uncomfortable for the alien, but with his amount of limbs shoddy workmanship wasn't all that much of a problem.

[Taxim]

The Paladin turned her head slightly, almost missing a step entirely as she did. It was hard to walk up such a narrow staircase in this armour... "I am investigating this building to see if it or the keeper holds any malicious intent. If so, I will remove the threat." The Paladin spoke as if it were simply manner of fact, there was no possible way she could fail. As Arianwen and Blackfoot reached the top of the staircase, there was a simple stone door in front of them. Without thinking, the Paladin pushed open and moved into the... sunlight..?

Somehow, for some reason, it seemed the second floor had dropped them onto an abandoned island. The island was tiny, it was only the size of the first room though in the shape of a teardrop and there was nothing nearby except clear cool ocean. Near the bottom of the island from the door, there was a small pier that leads to a strange hole in the water that was roughly a metre in diameter. Water was not pouring into the hole, it simply seemed as though someone had removed a deep cylinder of water without the water knowing it had gone. There were numerous green Coconut trees settled around the island, each bearing five coconuts a tree - though when one was picked it would be found that another immediately grew in it's place. In the center of the island was a large brown treasure-chest, though when tested for weight one would find that it is quite light, perhaps nothing is inside.

The people coming up the stairs would find that Arianwen had disappeared. But in her place, was a woman that looked exactly like her, but dressed as a make-shift pirate. The armour had disappeared and was replaced by a leather coverall jacket and worn trousers. The only piratey thing about her was the parrot on her shoulder, the cutlass at her side and the tri-corner hat on her head,. When Blackfoot and Endorphin moved up the stairs and into the sunlight, the Pirate/Paladin would wave before addressing them.

"Welcome to me island! Don't look so confused yeh' soppy bunch, s'not as bad as the other stuff you'll find up here. I apologise for usin' this here lady as me guide, but she was the firs' one up 'ere and I didn' know how many of ye' th'were. I'm 'ere to help you to the next level, though me memory is failin' slightly..." The Pirate/Paladin grinned and sat on the waist-high chest, watching the door and waiting for everyone to pile in. "Jus' how many of ye' are there?" Her accent had not changed, it was just the pronounciation that had butchered itself horribly. Since the island held no obvious door such as the first room had, it became obvious that the visitors would have to find the door.

(( There's a map here of the island, I hope it's some help. I found a puzzle like this a while ago, it'l be good to see how people figure it out. ))

[3kul]

((Oooh, looks like you've got something interesting planned for us, Taxim ))

When Rogan opened his eyes he saw that he was no longer on floor one, but on an island in the middle of the ocean. He quickly concluded that this must be the second floor, but before looking around to see what kind of challenge awaited them here he rushed over to the clear saltwater that surrounded them.

Rogan hadn't expected that it would come so soon, but this would be the perfect opportunity to wash the blood off of his face and jacket. He didn't even stop to think whether or not touching the water was dangerous, as moments earlier he'd been imagining the next floor as a labyrinth full of wolves or something that would easily smell a bloodsoaked boy like himself.

Splashing the water on his face and the shoulders of his jacket, Rogan began to scrub the blood off as best as he could.

((Ah, if there's a trick to the water or something that's yet to be mentioned that would prevent Rogan from doing this, please let me know.))

[Taxim]

(( Nope, the water is clear sea-water, nothing special about it. <3 ))

[Swix]

After Endorphine had gotten tn the top of the stairs behind the first two the Krkrln was confused first by the Pa La Dins change of dress then by the speech that his translator was trying to keep up with, due mostly to lack of ends and starts of words. Even so, he could just about make out what was being said. "There are many in the tower" Endorphine answered the apparently possessed Arianwen, though as the sprout showed up she- or it, would know soon enough "who might you be?"

[Coolpikaaa]

KER-SPLASH!


A sopping wet Coolpikaaa emerged from the water, spitting a stream of salty ocean from his mouth. It was obvious he wasn't to happy about the new choice of scenery.

The washed out electric mouse pulled himself to shore and shook dry. He realized that perhaps he might want to take the stairs next time.

"So.... where are we?" He said to no one in particular, wandering up the beach before resting against the treasure chest. The Paladin had inexplicably become a Pirate for some reason, and the inside of a tower now held a whole ocean and land mass.

Couldn't we just have a normal day for once?

Oh well, he thought to himself. Coolpikaaa had seemed to find the main article of interest already, and reasoned perhaps a direct approach would be useful as in the first room.

So, after dusting himself and leaning to one side in case something were to jump out, he pulled on the lid of the chest.

-coolpikaaa