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"Have I told you the story about the time one of our young adventurers, Lilia Ratort, braved one of the Beenu Great Halls alongside the Guild of Explorers? No? Well, listen closely, then. You'll definitely enjoy this adventure."
If you're one of the curious readers sitting by the fireside, consider taking part in the last remaining adventure Silas plans to retell if it's still there. If you can't or don't have any interest in joining, then enjoy the read!
https://forum.roblox.com/Forum/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=219751532
THE CHARACTERS:
LILIA RATORT, the Elven Theurgist
Appearance: Pretty much what her race has explained, though it is unknown what a teenage elf's height is. She is a beautiful young woman with fair skin, sparkling emerald eyes, bright orange hair with braids on either side, and some freckles. She mainly wears a white robe with a rope tied around her waist and also carries a backpack for her items. Also, she wears a pair of glasses.
Backstory: Born from a prestigious family of elves that specializes in the arcane arts, Lilia was the youngest of the 18 children, and to the extent, the least skilled. She wanted to be the best theurgist the world ever has, but most of the time, her summoned minions would go hostile on her and cannot tell friend from foe. Some of her siblings looked dwn on her, but most others cheers her up, even her family.
By the age of 16, Lilia joins the Horizon in order to improve her summoning skills and at the same time make various friends. Unfortunately for her, no one likes her due to her lack of skill, some opt to bully her for that. She would then take on a mission, unbeknownst of the high risk she will be taking. Can her lack of summoning skills save her from the perils of the once great hall? That's for you to decide.
Companion:
Draeya Argovich, the Gnomish Magician
"She used to be a teacher at a prestigious school for mages until she chose to be an adventurer instead. People were admired for her talent in magic and her intelligence, especially Lilia, whom she considers her as her idol. Eventually, Draeya, who sensed potential within Lilia, decided to train her in the magical arts. She would then play a major role in Lilia's life."
Character Inventory, Companion, & Abilities: /a/zbIVH
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You've heard of the Guild of Explorers before, haven't you? They're a group founded with the purpose of, as you might have guessed, discovering long-lost civilizations and finding ancient, mysterious artifacts. From the Scrolls of the Sandbold to the halls of Zelfatar, the guild's achievements number greatly.
This time, the Guild of Explorers has sent a group of intrepid, mostly experienced explorers to explore and fully map out one of the rare and ancient Beenu Great Halls located on a map owned by Karl Landers, a highly regarded member of the guild who was part of the successful Zelfatar expedition. You are currently travelling to this very hall in order to rendezvous with the guild and provide aid in the exploration of the Beenu Hall.
While you are well aware of the dangers that this kind of adventure will inevitably have, neither you nor your companion are aware of what lies within the hall, and you almost certainly haven't heard of the fates of some of the people who have ventured to similar places in the past. You were somewhat optimistic that the expedition would be safe and interesting, but how safe or interesting it would be was a fact that wouldn't be revealed until the journey got started.
Now, it is time for the expedition to begin. |
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(Man, trying to stick with Roblox links is tough when finding music. Hope this cuts it somewhat.)
https://www.roblox.com/library/188687159/Ancient-Temple
It was midday when Lilia and Draeya arrived at the small camp situated some distance away from the ancient stone walls of the Beenu Great Hall.
Even through the thick trees and underbrush, you could get a good look at the collapsed stone pillars and even a little bit of gilded clockwork jutting from the walls. Despite being flush with overgrowth, the hall was quite a magnificent sight to behold.
As for the camp, it looked simple enough. A couple plain tents fashioned from various animal leathers (from what you could tell, the leather consisted of blood snakes, cowfrogs, and clockodiles) and a small firepit with nothing but smoking embers. Based on what the two casters were told back at the Horizon, they were fairly certain that this was where they would be meeting the Guild of Explorers.
Sitting by the firepit were two adventurers, a male, heavily bearded Dvergr Dvergr (a dwarven race recognizable by their appearance of cracked rock skin and lots of hair) in a gray runecoat and a female, two-foot tall Keen gnome wearing some kind of red swordsman outfit. Upon noticing the new arrivals, the Keen stands up and approaches to greet them.
"You must be the two Horizon fellows sent to join us on this expedition," the Keen begins. "The name's Gynster Creed, and that's Anrin over there."
Gynster extends her arm to shake hands with Draeya. And possibly Lilia too, if she crouches a little. |
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"Nice to meet you, Gynster and Anrin." Draeya says in enthusiasm as she happily shakes Gynster's hand. The same goes with Lilia, but she crouches a bit to get at least to the dwarf's height. "Um...nice to meet you two." She shyly says as she takes the dwarf's hand and shakes it. |
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"We're still waiting for the fifth member to arrive," Gynster said. "I believe he's a kobold, aspiring to be as good as the deadeye shot himself."
Lilia had briefly heard about Karl Landers back at the Horizon. He was a Kobold ranger who gained much renown in the Guild of Explorers due to his feats in battle. It was said that his archery feats alone ended a hostile dispute against a large group of Porcs before anyone else could react. Even the Dwarves held some respect for him.
"He's also notorious for gambling away all his earnings after an expedition," the Keen added, "but someones people only pay attention to the things that amaze them. He'll probably ignore me if I try to bring it up."
"I don't think we need anyone else on this expedition, if you asked me me," Anrin piped up. "I wouldn't mind having the deadeye himself join us, but I think we're better off without a kobold playing pretend on a mission like this this."
The Dvergr turned to Lilia, looking her over. "We were told you were an apprentice of the gnome gnome, but I was personally hoping we would have someone more fully-fledged fledged, especially for the exploration of a Beenu Hall Hall. Doesn't even look like you've reached adulthood yet. Have you even got any spells worth casting casting?"
(Have Lilia cast a spell she knows, or shoot her wand at something to cast a completely random spell, of which there are over 700 in existence. There are plenty of trees in the area if targets are required.) |
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Lilia felt a bit hesitant, or A LOT hesitant, knowing that in her current state, she has yet to master her magical abilities. "Um...okay, I'll try..." She nervously says and then she turns to a tree. She waves her wand in the air before firing a ray of ice (Ice Ray) at the said tree, though a small part is what the spell is able to freeze.
"Lilia is still novice, but I have sensed a lot of potential in her." Draeya says, assuring Dvergr and Anrin about the capabilities Lilia can do. |
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(Everytime you perform an action or something significant, a D20 will be rolled to determine the success of the spell. Let's see what happens here:)
A ray of ice shoots out from Lilia's wand, aimed at the tree. The ray barely misses, sailing right past the tree and then dissipating, leaving a fading trail of frost behind. The only person to notice this is Anrin, but he decides not to mention that.
"That's a pretty decent spell spell," Anrin says. "That'll definitely be helpful during our journey journey." As he says the last word of the sentence, he raises his own wand, which glows and fires an identical ice ray at the same tree. That ray also misses, and the only person to notice this is Lilia. Anrin looks her in the eyes and mouths to keep quiet about it.
"You know what?" the Dvergr decides. "I guess it wouldn't be all that bad bringing a kobold along along." |
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Lilia was surprised, but for Draeya, she didn't seemed to care. "So, how long we will wait until he arrives?" The gnomish magician asks, getting bored at this moment. |
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As if on cue, a figure could be seen sprinting towards the camp. Lilia and Draeya both take a look at him: a young, light brown Kobold (about as young as Lilia, if not younger) in a dark green sleeveless tunic and pants, and a red scarf. As he gets closer, you can also see he's carrying a bow that's almost as long as him.
"You're late again, Clay," Gynster scolds as the Kobold finally arrives at the camp, stopping to catch his breath.
"Relax, Gyn," Clay responded, seemingly unconcerned about ever being on time. "A few minutes isn't going to be the end of the expedition."
"Over thirty minutes late, late," Anrin corrected. "Next time, we'll start before sunrise so we can actually make some progress. Anyway, it looks like we're ready to get things started, so go ahead and get everything together and we'll see what this Great Hall's all about about."
Once Lilia and Draeya are ready, the adventure will begin and the party will start heading towards the entrance of the hall. |
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Lilia is getting nervous and worried of what perils would lie as they head into the once great hall of a forgotten race, but Draeya reassures her that everything will be fine as long as they're together. |
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"Alright, if everyone's ready to move" Gynster says, "let's not waste any more time sitting around here and start moving."
Once everyone is finished preparing for the journey ahead, the party begins to move towards the Beenu Hall at a steady pace. From the half hour spent walking, Lilia learned a couple things about the Beenu: they were said to be an extinct race that was alive since The Hatching (the creation of the Realms), along with the Elves and High Bears. The world that existed at that time was basically a sort of utopia lacking in death of pain. After the Birth of Magic, the Beenu were unable to sustain themselves and died off quickly. (Perhaps Lilia knew some of this already if her parents or friends of parents were willing to teach her a little history.)
Eventually, the party arrives at the clearing in front of the entrance of the hall, which appeared to have a few ruined statues and other stone structures at the front of it. From their concealed position in the trees, the adventurers also noticed several figures poking about the ruins.
"Those are elven Paladins sent by the Grand Paladin Order," Gynster noted. "And, by the looks of it, they've brought a few dwarven mercenaries as well."
Lilia and Draeya could get a decent look at them from here. There were six of them in all, half of them being the paladins and the other three being the warriors who were clearly hired to keep the entrance secure. Perhaps, Draeya thought, they were also there to keep curious explorers like themselves away. While the Horizon was well-regarded, the Guild of Explorers didn't exactly have a squeaky-clean reputation, especially on the inside.
"I was hoping we wouldn't have to start fighting this early, but this is the only way inside the Great Hall," the Keen continued. "We could try to convince them to let us in, but I really think we'll need to try something different if we want to get past them. Anyone have any better ideas for this one?" |
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Lilia was a bit surprised by this revelation. No one, not even her parents, have told her any of that history as they were more focused in magic. Draeya on the other hand have been observing the statues to find a way to get through. Maybe a clue to find out the solution? |
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While Draeya was observing the ruined statues, Anrin walked next to her, seeing what her plan was.
"That's a good idea idea," he said. "Let me see if I can help find anything anything."
The Dvergr pulls out a rather strange looking arcane glove (indicating to Draeya he was a Seeker, a unique spellcaster who knows a variety of spells) and crouches low, putting his gloved hand to the ground. For a brief moment, the glove glows purple, but Anrin immediately stands up, unsatisfied with the results.
"There doesn't seem to be anything hidden in this clearing clearing," he says. "No traps and no real secrets, from what I can tell tell. Though it might have been because the Great Hall itself overwhelmed this glove with what it had inside inside."
"Sounds like that plan's a bust, then," Clay responded. "We could try to sneak around, or pretend to be tourists or paladins, and maybe that would work. Problem is, we don't look like either, so that would be a tough one to pull off. That's the best I've got for now, though." |
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Draeya nodded and say "I'll agree on the sneaking part, that way we won't get detected by these behemoths. Though, is there any clearing that we might take?"
Lilia is unsure about Draeya's suggestion. However, she is rather confused as the statues are alive or not. |
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"The problem with that," Gynster pointed out, "is there's nothing but clearing between us and the entrance. There's almost no cover in that area. We'd be relying on luck to get inside undetected."
"But that means we can still pull it off, right?" Clay asked.
"Yes, but it's more than likely we'll just end up having to fight those guys anyway. I liked your idea of pretending to be paladins though," Gyn admitted. "The Paladin Order accepts all races just like our guild does. But once again, there's another problem in that I don't think any of us have any Paladin-related skills to fool them with, because without them we'll clearly look like outsiders.
"If it was up to Anrin and I, we'd be fighting them. But I'll let the others weigh in on this."
"I'm still down for sneaking," Clay says. "It'll be quite the story for us to tell - five explorers sneaking past a bunch of oblivious paladins. But I'm fine either way. I want to see what the Horizon fellows think."
And so the decision ultimately falls on Lilia and Draeya. What are they most interested in trying? |
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"I'm still agreeing on the whole sneak up thing, but let's have Lilia do the best decision." Draeya says to the group and smugly turns to Lilia, who is puzzled over the decisions.
"B-But why me? I have no idea what to think." The elf would say in a shy tone before taking a long time thinking over the choices. Be it sneak, pretend, or straight up fight, Lilia had no idea what to choose. Eventually, she finally made up this decision; have one of them be the bait, while the others sneak their way through the statues. |
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"That could work," Gynster considered. "But I don't want to risk leaving anyone behind if the bait plan doesn't work out too well. We need to choose someone who is the most likely to make it past the paladins so we don't have to be one member short during this journey, or we're going to be fighting them for sure."
"D'you think we can do both of them at once?" Clay asks. "One of us pretends to be a paladin while the rest sneak in. Who's going to do it, though?"
While the two are discussing, Lilia suddenly feels her sense of fear and trepidation fading from her. It seems while the others had their attention focused on the paladins ahead of them and the plan to sneak past them, Anrin took the opportunity to rest his wand on Lilia's back and cast a spell on her, soothing her spirits. The action was subtle enough that no one noticed it happen, not even Lilia herself. But what she did notice was her newfound lack of fear.
"I think we should send Lilia over there there," Anrin pipes up. "She seems to know a thing or two about Paladin spells, from what I can tell." He waves his wand around as if it was the source of his information. |
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"Hold on..." Draeya says "Are you sure? I mean, I have complete faith in her skills, but how can she be able to stand up against these humongous beasts? It appears that she is worried, but then Lilia came up to her.
"Draeya, its okay, I'll take care of this. Besides, everything you've taught me would right now be useful. Just relax and I'll do the honors." She says and then she would go up to the statues.
Draeya let out a sigh as she turns to the others and ask "So, how's the sneaking going to work?" |
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"Wait," Clay mumbles to himself, "why are they talking about the god damn statues?"
Gynster gestured towards the clearing, using hand motions to help lay out the plan as she spoke. "It's going to be pretty simple. Once Lilia starts talking to the elves and dwarves, we'll start moving along the treeline until we're right up against the Great Hall, and we'll make a silent dash for the entrance while their attention is diverted. Hopefully she's able to convince the paladins to let her in."
The party prepares to move as Lilia steps out into the open and heads over to the ruined statues.
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It isn't until Lilia manages to walk almost within touching distance of one of the statues that one of the elven paladins (perhaps the leader, based on his heavy armor and Sunsword insignias) takes notice of her. He motions for the other two paladins to stay at his flank as he walks towards the young spellcaster. The three dwarven warriors simply stop what they're doing and watch in mild interest.
"Greetings," the fresh-faced Sunsword begins, tipping his head in a respectful bow. "Here to gaze at the magnificent statues of the ancient Beenu race?"
The statues were in awful condition, but based on the stone wing fragments and robes, they definitely resembled the Beenu in some respect. Not that Lilia had seen anything remotely related to the Beenu before. |
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"Yes, I'm just taking the sights here in this magnificent place." Lilia slyly says to the paladins, hope she doesn't blow this off. "Tell me, have you been guarding this place for quite some time or longer?" She asks. |
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"We arrived just an hour ago," the Sunsword answered. "We've had a few rather adventurous squires join our order as of late, and one of them decided it would be helpful to tell us about this place.
"We've already tried to go into the hall ourselves, but just like the ones I've heard of before this place is littered with traps. While we await the arrival of a higher-ranking paladin or one with some expertise at disarming traps, we've been tasked with making sure only members of the Grand Paladin Order may enter this hall." |
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"Oh, well good timing." Lilia happily says "As a matter a fact, I was sent here by the Order to, well, be the one to disarm the traps for you troops, as well as make observations about this hall and to ensure that no threat is going to harm us. So what would you say?" |
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(I'm going to roll to see how good of a liar you are... ok, yep. That's a 20.)
"Ah, that's right!" the Sunsword exclaimed. "You're the trap master, aren't you? I just realized we've never met face-to-face before. I haven't introduced myself, have I? The name's Arich Sunsword." He extends his hand to shake yours.
The dwarves, upon hearing about the arrival of the 'trap master', strode over to have a look at her, and while everyone's attention was diverted, the other four members of the party decided to casually walk over to the entrance of the hall in order to avoid the risk of making any mistakes sneaking. They were far enough from the others that they had no chance of being heard.
After Lilia saw this out of the corner of her eye, she realized the paladins would most likely be following her inside the hall as well. She was fairly confident that in ability to deceive these elves at this point, though. |
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It seems that the plan has been paid off, but yet there are things that are need to be in motion. Lilia takes the hand and shakes it, saying "Lilia Ratort, at your service. So, shall we?" |
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Arich gestures towards the entrance. "After you, Lilia." He quickly orders the dwarves to stay outside and guard the area, to which they reluctantly agree.
As Lilia and the three paladins approach the Great Hall, Draeya and the Guild of Explorers have already become quite familiar with the initial room, which was small and empty with a few protruding walls, pillars, and a staircase at the end of the room, which seemed to lead downwards. Based on the golden plaques and vignettes on the walls, it was clear this place was designed to introduce visitors to the hall when they first came in.
There wasn't much time to observe the plaques, however, as the paladins were nearly at the entrance. |
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Lilia made a confident strut upon entering the halls, something that is off of her original personality ever since Anrin casts his spell onto her. She would then make careful steps and observations for the traps.
Meanwhile, Draeya begins to hear footsteps, and in her assumptions, she thinks that the paladins must have let her in. "Quick, hide!" She quietly tells the group. |
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