Forest Temple {Ultra5, Quill, Eternis} (OOT)

"Dunno," Loft said, leaning back against the stairs. "Maybe that Moblin ate his jell-O. I'd sure be upset if that was me." He made his best thinking face and propped his head up on his elbow. "Fortifying sounds boring and long, and so does camping. I say rush in." Holle dropped the beetle on the ground, and Loft fervently agreed. "So huge," he gushed, putting his face as close to it as possible. "I want one!"

"Very well, then," he heard Marcus say. Loft looked up eagerly at the sound of his companion's voice. "And, please, call me Marcus. I'm only sixteen, after all. If your life's been so miserable, have you considered exorcism, or maybe magically binding his consciousness to make things more bearable?"

Loft jumped up and tackled Marcus to the ground. "Well?" He asked anxiously. "Did you get your jell-O back?"

"Jell-O?" Marcus asked. He sounded confused; it was probably a plot to hide his jell-O's existence from that other guy. "I don't have any Jell-O; what are you talking about?"

"Oh, I see," Loft said, glancing meaningfully up at Relerin and winking back at Marcus, "it's a secret, huh? Well," he said, jumping back up and helping Marcus to his feet, "I won't tell a soul!" He spun Marcus around and pointed a dramatic finger at the Forest Temple's steps. "Now, onwards! The Temple awaits!"

"Hold on a minute, Loft!"
Holle jumps up from where he was seated.
"We can't just leap in, with no plan! Look, we're going into the temple, yes? Inside that temple, we know that there is a malicious force. We know it's mean, and we know that it's been here for a few weeks. We also know that it has recruited a bunch of moblins. What's to stop it setting traps?"
Holle turns to Relerin.
"I think we should send in that weirdo moblin of yours ahead of us. You okay with that?, Rel?"

"Well Mist...Marcus...a full exorcism will kill me. Believe me I had thought of that. On top of that it is extremely painful. I rather dislike pain." Relerin turns his head to Holle. "That is what I was planning to do Mr...I do not know your last name Mr. Holle. Moblin! Forward!" Relerin points his staff forward the crystal pointing into the temple.

The Moblin nods and takes the lead into the temple. It sniffs the air a bit and looks around the dark entry hallway. It starts growling a bit leveling it's spear at an unseen entity apparently in the air by the way the Moblin was pointing it's spear. Relerin steps forward carefully scanning the area above the Moblin's spear. "Poe." Relerin says barely noticing the lantern floating in the air above the Moblin's spear.

The lantern lights up as the Poe's form appears. Short black arms extending from a tattered and torn aqua blue piece of cloth that appears to have once been a hooded tunic of some kind. Under the hood lies the normal black face of most Poes with two squinty red eyes peering out from the tattered hood. "Who ARE you?!" The Poe hisses in a hostile voice. The Moblin jumps and slices the Poe as it speaks. The arm holding the lantern is cut off as the body disappears as the lantern crashes on the ground cracking open releasing the Poe's Soul.

Relerin's eyes widen. This is his chance to get a Poe for study. The Hylian flings off his bag and frantically digs through it looking for something to put the now fading away Poe's Soul in. Relerin finally fishes an empty bottle out of his bag and scoops the remains of the soul into the bottle. Relerin corks the bottle smiling. The bottle glows a light blue as the soul swirls around the bottle. "Excellent. A Poe will really help my studies."

"S-studies?" Relerin cocks his head back a little in shock as the Poe speaks again this time sounding scared and somehow younger than the first time.


(Relerin's reward for this dungeon will be a Unique Companion.
Starting with:
+1: Intelligence: Possesses sentient (character-like) intelligence. It gains +1 Wisdom.
+0.5: Speech: Capable of speaking the hylian language, or is capable of communicating with most characters on a similar level. This modifier does not apply if the companion can only speak with the character via a a treasure, like Language of Fauna or Jabber Nut.
+1.5: Wise: Companion gains +2 Wisdom. (Requires Intelligence.)

This gives the Companion a score of 3 costing Relerin 50 rupees. 40 from the dungeon and 10 from Relerin's wallet.)

Loft groaned, his foot thumping against the stone. "Yeesh, you sound like Marcus," he grumbled. Relerin turned his pet Moblin that was dead-but-not-dead (Loft was still working that one out) towards the Forest Temple, and Loft threw his head back as he dragged his feet along to follow the others. "Fine," he moaned, "do things the safe way."

The minutes passed. "Well, that was depressingly easy," Loft said, staring down at the poe's fading soul. He looked at Marcus, unsure. "Are we done?" He asked hesitantly. "Was that it?"

"I don't know," Marcus said truthfully. They had defeated the poe they had been searching for... for all intents and purposes their task was complete. Yet something did not feel right in the Forest Temple's innards. Perhaps it was only his mind playing tricks, seeing what it wished to see, but the air felt abnormally heavy, pressing down upon his head as if the molecules themselves were weighted beyond the norm. The sunlight from the world outside did not penetrate the shadows as far as they should, shrouding most of the entryway in darkness. His breath misted out in white crystalline puffs, and he shivered. "Something's still here," he said. He looked at Relerin, the party's only other mage, for confirmation of his suspicions. "I can feel it; something's not right." Call it a feeling, call it a Hylian's innate sixth sense, call it a mage's intuition, but Marcus knew in his core that all was not right in the Forest Temple. He had ventured through enough forgotten ruins to feel the traces of evil upon a building's foundations, and the poe was certainly not the source of this temple's plague.

Holle pauses for a moment, shocked by the suddenness of it all.
"That was surprisingly easy. Relerin, before you start your studies on it, would you mind if we interrogated the Poe for a bit? I'm kinda curious as to why a Poe would suddenly appear in an uninhabited dungeon."
Holle taps on the glass of the bottle.
"So, Poe, why are you here?"
"I'm taking back the temple from that meanie ghost!"
Holle pauses for a moment.
"So… you aren't the ghost that's been attacking people and driving them away?"
"Well… I did that… but only so that they wouldn't distract me from beating the meanie ghost!"
Holle pinches the bridge of his nose.
"Who and where is this meanie ghost?"
"He's a phantom of that meanie-poo Ganon, and he's in the centre of the temple! If you'd just let me out-"
"We'll deal with him. You just guide us there."

Relerin looks to Holle. "My studies will need to wait until I can acquire another lantern to house this Poe's Soul. Do not worry...miss...mister...um...Poe. What I call studies are more of...how to put it...hm...at any rate..." Relerin looks into the bottle trying to find a face to talk to. "I am terribly sorry. You have already lost much of your soul. If I release you from this bottle you may very well disappear completely. I am sure you would rather that not happen and I am quite sure I do not want that to happen. Rest assured we will be taking care of the...Phantom Ganon, but I shall not be releasing you on this day. Or any day soon." Relerin holds the bottled Poe and points the Moblin forward. The Moblin snorts and continues down the hallway.

Following his raised Moblin Relerin reaches a large chamber with the center holding what looks like an elevator and four torches of Red, Blue, Green, and Purple fire. Ghostly cackling sounds through the room as the four fires disappear from their torches and appear on hand torches held by four new Poes, one of each color. With more cackling the four spirits disappear leaving the room very dark and retracting the elevator. "Those did not look like what I have heard and read Ganon to look like. Servants maybe?"

(Eternis is there anything else specific about the Poe Relerin has that I have to add? Like Gender and specific age or anything? If not then I will make my own answers to these questions. I will try to keep as close as I can to what you have already set about the Poe.)

"Couldn't you just take one of their lanterns?" Loft said to Relerin, pointing at the vanishing Poes. "Or are Poes too picky?"

Relerin's studies sounded interesting; Marcus was curious about what exactly he was planning to do with the Poe. That would make for a good, academic conversation. But that could wait. The four torches' flames were stolen by Poes that were either hostile or mischievous, and as Marcus watched the elevator sink into the depths of the ground, he knew that they would have to hunt down each Poe and reclaim their flames in order to reach the Phantom.

"Perhaps they are," Marcus said to Relerin, "but even if they aren't, they're certainly not friendly." He paused for a beat. "I hate to suggest it," Marcus said, "but... should we split up? It's more dangerous, certainly, but we'd be able to cover so much more ground." There were eight doors in this polygonal room, and even if half of them only lead to the 'end' of other doors' paths, that was a lot of exploring for one group.

"That sounds like a good plan. We should go in pairs, however. You never know when there'll be something that only one of us won't be able to deal with."
Holle looks at the Poe inside the bottle.
"We need to decide who goes with the Poe, too. She's probably left some traps in wait, and we'll need to be able to avoid some of them.
I think that the Poe should go with someone other than me or Loft, as we're the ones most likely to be able to get past the traps on our own, and Relerin has his weird moblin buddy to spring them ahead of time."
Holle pauses, thinking on his previous statement.
"That sounds like the Poe should go with Marcus. Now, no offence meant Loft, but you're somewhat... chaotic, and the only one who can really control that is Marcus. So, Relerin!"
Holle claps Relerin on the shoulder.
"Looks like you're with me, buddy! Can you hand that Poe over to Marcus for a little while? He's probably going to need it."

Relerin flinches at Holle's touch. He tries to wriggle out of Holle's touch before clearing his throat. "I am sorry Mr. Holle, but I would rather the Poe..."

"I have a name meanie!" Relerin looks down into the bottle again.

"Oh...I am terribly sorry. I never did ask your name. If I may what is your name and gender? Well your gender in life."

"My name is Sarah. I was...am...er...girl."

Relerin nods and makes a mental note.
Name: Sarah
Gender in life: Female

"As I was going to say. I am sorry Mr. Holle, and no offense to Marcus, but I would rather the P...Sarah stay with me. If it will help I can send the Moblin with Marcus, but Sarah stays with me...if at all possible that is." The Moblin perks up and looks to Relerin as it registers it being summoned. The pig creature walks over to Relerin and kneels again bowing it's head. "But I have noticed that either way one group is going to have one person who can fight and, again no offense meant to Marcus, one person who can not. My raised creatures are my only means of defense that isn't more threatening to me than to what I am fighting. It is just a suggestion, but maybe the two fighters could go as a group because they can handle themselves while Marcus and I go under the protection of the Moblin. That way I could also keep Sarah with me as well because you yourself said that Mr. Loft and yourself would be the ones most likely to be able to get past the traps on your own. That is just a suggestion though."

"I'm fine with that, Relerin," Marcus said. Honestly, if it meant a break from Loft, he was all on board. It wasn't even that much more risky than the alternative; he wasn't very confident in Holle's fighting abilities. He had gotten himself knocked out in the Temple's entryway, after all. He wouldn't have felt very safe paired with him. On the other hand, he knew (read: didn't care) that Loft could take care of himself. "I don't really think who goes with who will make much of a difference, really. We should just get going."

He gestured to Relerin and pointed at the nearest door. "Want to start there?"

Loft was bored. Chitter chatter tweety twat- what were they, squirreled birds? All this talking was driving him cucco! He darted forward and used his awesome thief skills to snatch the Poe from the weak mage's grasp. Cackling madly, he raced off for a random door. "Come and catch me!"

Holle races after Loft.
"Loft, wait! You don't know whether there are any-"
Click.
"... Ow."
Holle looks down, and sees an arrow in his shoulder, then points at it.
"Loft? This is the sort of thing that happens when you don't pay attention to your surroundings."
Holle pulls the arrow out, wincing as the barbs tear some of the skin around the wound.
"You get an arrow in your-"
Click.
An arrow shoots behind Holle's head.
"Loft, you're extremely lucky. Now PLEASE STOP!"



...Click.

"Yes. Moblin! Rise!" The Moblin rises from it's kneeling as Relerin points his staff towards the door that Marcus had pointed to. The Moblin nods and walks towards the door.Relerin follows as he pulls his notebook out of his robe pocket and flips to a clean page. Taking a pen out of another pocket Relerin scribbles down the information he had already gathered on the Poe.

Name: Sarah
Gender in life: Female
Race: Hylian? Kokiri? Seem most likely

Need get lantern
Possibly make full form again
Remember ask about death, rebirth, anything else
Make full profile like for Stalfos

Relerin flips to a page detailing an encounter with a non hostile Stalfos. Relerin taps the pen against his mouth a few times before flipping to a page with hastily scribbled notes that are near unreadable. "Hm. Mr. Marcus...er...sorry. Marcus, do you have any previous contact with Poes or any other undead? If I may ask." Relerin looks to Marcus curiously as the pentagram in his eye pluses slightly in it's glowing.

"Yes, I do," Marcus replied easily, walking comfortably across the marble floor to the door. "I spent some time in Ikana, the Canyon of the Dead, I (you'll like this, Relerin) observed the differences between what we might call the 'mindless undead' (ReDeads, Gibdos; things that're little more than reanimated corpse-flesh) and the 'civilized undead' (which're just as intelligent and self-sentient as we are), I talked with the King of the Dead in his ruined castle... oh, and I spent some time in an ancient ruin who's bottom floor resembled that of the traditional underworld. Nothing with Poes yet, though," he said, "and I'm looking forward to learning more about them. So far, it seems that (at least this one) is essentially the soul of a departed girl, stuck here on the mortal plane. I've heard rumors that Poes are little more than hatred personified, and it makes me wonder whether the rumors are wrong or there is more than one type of Poe. What do you think, Relerin?"

---

So many clicks! It sounded like a ladies' high-profile snobbish fancy-pantsy party, all the useless high-heels clickity-clackity against the shiny floor. Loft laughed, then stopped as he realized only Holly was chasing him. "Relly," he called gleefully, stretching out the vowels to a ridiculous amount, "don't you want the little girl you trapped in a bottle to 'examine' at your leisure?" He held the bottle high over his head and shook it slightly, grinning over at Relerin.

Pain exploded in his side, and Loft nearly dropped the bottle. Hunched over, he barely registered the other arrows flying all about him, trying desperately to rip out the-

It was like someone had set off a chain reaction of bomb powder'd Deku Nuts. Fire exploded all along his body- his shoulder, his leg, his side- and the bottle clattered to the ground, its glossy sheen undamaged as it rolled back towards the others.

The ladies stopped dancing. Hot wine poured from the kegs and it was nap-time again.

Holle stops dead in his tracks as Loft, bleeding heavily from his side, falls to the ground, a continuous hail of arrows clattering above Loft's now prone form.
"Oh Din oh Din oh Din... MARCUS! LOFT NEEDS HEALING!"
Nearly hyperventilating, Holle attempts to stay perfectly still as he calls out to Marcus, his fists clenching and unclenching as he assesses the situation carefully, attempting to come up with an idea that might allow him to stop Loft from bleeding to death WITHOUT causing lethal injury to himself or fellow members of the party.
He starts talking to himself, focusing all resources he has onto solving this problem.
"Alright, now what can we do...
First choice, use the moblin, but things MIGHT go wrong, and he's too slow anyway. Can't use him.
Second choice, I jump in and hope that I'm lucky enough to NOT die.
Third choice, I chuck a sling stone at each of the traps and lodge their firing mechanisms... No. Too much time."
Running that tingling feeling back into his limbs, Holle leaps forwards, keeping low along the ground, using his hands and feet to bound like a dog. His speed is enough to avoid the arrows behind him, but as he reaches Loft and grabs him, three arrows hit him along his sides, hitting his previously uninjured shoulder, scratching the bone of his fifth rib on his left side and jabbing into his hip.
Gritting his teeth through the pain, he starts back, now burdened with the weight of the unconscious Loft that he's dragging behind him. Another three arrows hit Holle on his way, spearing both his buttocks and jamming into the middle of his left thigh, soliciting a yelp of pain for their trouble. Pushing through the pain, Holle manages to reach a spot seemingly without traps.
Holle lies back, pain spreading through the rest of his body as it becomes too great for his brain to accept.
"...Damn Loft..." he murmurs as blood seeps into his cloak, his vision beginning to darken...

Marcus turned round, the world sharpening into a crystal-clarity as the adrenaline hit and his body went into overdrive. His brain took barely a second to assess the situation: Loft, unconscious and bleeding heavily, and Holle, also bleeding heavily, his life fading fast. The storm of arrows ceased when the two left the trapped area, and Marcus hurried quickly to their side as fast as his non-athletic form would permit.

He knelt by their sides. They were both bleeding heavily, and Marcus' gaze darted helplessly between the two of them. They were both dying right in front of him, but- but- there were so many arrows! They littered the two bodies, sticking out of the strangest of places- Marcus knew he couldn't heal them until the arrows had all been removed, but the life was leaving them so quickly, great rivers flowing together and pooling into a lake of red that spread steadily across the white sand. His hands darted between them, unsure- he needed more time, he needed time, the life was leaving them he needed time he needed more time there wasn't enough he needed needed there blood wasn't enough-

"Time!" Magic flooded from Marcus' hands, pouring into the two bodies at his knees. His magic responded to his need, springing forth unbid and filling the two Hylians with light. It coursed through their veins, reaching the heart, the lungs, the intestines, the brain- every vital piece of the body. It was as if they took the hands of time and slowed their passage thrice-fold. Loft and Holle were sent into a magical hibernation, their systems almost stopped. The blood still flowed, but the rivers were weakened to tiny brooks of red water.

Marcus did not stop to marvel at his magic. He had arrows to remove. Loft had four, and Holle had six. None of the arrows had completely penetrated the body. Marcus knew he had two options. First, he could cut a hole around each arrowhead and dig every arrow out that way; second, he could push each arrow all the way through. Judging from the location of each arrow, surgery was a better option. He would have to trust to his healing magic to take care of the rest. He understood that the hibernation magic he had used would fade in an hour; hopefully that would be enough time.

[[Eternis, Marcus will be sleeping when Holle wakes up. Pretend Relerin doesn't exist. 25r for Loft, 25r for Marcus. 20 of Marcus' rupees go to Hibernation, leaving 5r over.]]

Hibernation (open) Hibernation (close)

[[Ya ain't gettin' rid o' me that easily.]]

Relerin listens intently to what Marcus tells him. An undead kingdom?! Of self aware and sentient undead? I must see this kingdom. Relerin snaps out of his thoughts as Loft yells to him about the Poe. "Mr. Loft I assure you that...how did you get that out of my hands?" Before Relerin could get any kind of answer Loft went up in a series of explosions. "What the...?!"

The bottle housing Sarah rolls over to Relerin as Loft lays on the floor bleeding badly. Next Holle goes down with arrows in him. Relerin runs over to Marcus in a panic. "Marcus! What happened!? Is there any way I may assist you?" Relerin looks very concerned looking over the wounds of the two. The Raised Moblin watches the hallway behind the four not having any more orders.

[[Holle's unconscious, E, so there's not much you can do. If you mind us posting back and forth until he wakes up, just let me know and I'll delete this post so you can do something.]]

"Yes," Marcus said. He pointed with his knife at the bodies of Holle and Loft. "They each have multiple arrows protruding from their bodies. We are going to dig the arrows out. I have slowed their bodily processes to give us time, but the magic will not last forever." He cut around one arrow on Loft's shoulder, making a hole that he could dig the arrow out from. "See?" He reached into Loft's pack, the bottom of which was by now soaked with blood, and pulled out another dagger. "There," he said, holding out the hilt to Relerin. "Don't worry about germs, I'll be taking care of that. When you dig out an arrow, let me know so I can heal the wound."

Relerin holds his hand out and draws his own dagger. The dagger is rather plain except for some faintly glowing runes in it. The necromancer sighs a bit before using his dagger to dig around a few arrows in Holle. Carefully Relerin tries to remove the arrows as intact as possible.

After removing a few arrows from Holle Relerin pulls out a rag from his bag and wipes the blood off an arrow. "Marcus. I have removed some arrows from Mr. Holle." After cleaning the arrow Relerin inspects it closely. "Hm. Seems like it was made to be pretty hard to remove. With the teeth like jagged edges on the head. If removed without cutting would tear flesh and cause more damage. Commonly used in traps and to hunt large powerful game such as Wyverns." Ba'al laughs a little through Relerin after the Hylian finishes speaking. Relerin then goes back to digging more arrows out of Holle adding to his new collection. With each blood covered arrow he removes Relerin's Hemoglobin Addiction pangs within him. "No. Fight it Relly. Fight it."

Marcus withdrew the offered dagger, putting it back into Loft's pack. They set to work, and it wasn't long before Relerin was calling him over. "Right," he said, laying his hand on Holle's body and sending healing energy through it. He was careful to keep the energy concentrated on the arrow-less wounds; they didn't need their bodies sealing up around arrowheads. Relerin was muttering to himself, but Marcus didn't give it much thought. People acted strangely with a body on the table, after all, and he had work to do. Loft only had four arrows, but it still took a while to surgically remove them all. If it weren't for the Hibernation magic, Loft would surely have died. As it was, there was more than enough time between the incisions and the healing magic to keep him alive.

"Loft's done," he said, leaning back with a sigh. "How's Holle doing?"

Relerin smiles as he only has one more left to go. Relerin digs into Holle with the dagger the blade soaked in blood and gore. Relerin, although doing a good job, is not entirely focusing on removing the arrows. He is also fighting back his Hemoglobin Addiction and taking notes of the body that he is technically vivisecting. Relerin feels pangs of regret for cutting deeper and more than needed to remove the arrows for his studies, but Marcus was healing them back and the cuts needed to be made anyways.

Relerin finally removes the last arrow and adds it to the collecting of arrows now numbering about ten or so. Relerin fidgets and shakes a bit cleaning the blood off of his dagger very carefully using a bottle of water from his bag. "Marcus. I am finished. But please excuse me for doing this. Being around all this blood...I can not help it." The dagger digs into Relerin's left palm as blood flows around the blade. Relerin removes the blade and starts to lick up the blood. Both shame and a calming feeling wash over Relerin as he tastes his blood.