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

"Wait, Relerin-" too late. Relerin was already licking his blood. "We don't know what was in those arrows," he said, raising a hand in front of Relerin. "Who knows what poison you might've just gotten?" He raised his hand and sent a pulse of healing through Relerin's body that was specifically designed to flush out any such poison. "There," he said, "that should-" he swayed, nearly falling over. Too much magic in too short a time: he couldn't keep this up for much longer.

He touched Holle's body and channeled more magic into him, sealing his wounds and purging his body of all the harmful bodies that had collected on the arrows through the years. His vision blurred, and he leaned back, breathing heavily as his sight dissolved into flashes of heat. He was still conscious, but he couldn't see and his head hurt and his vision burned.

Relerin shudders as the pulse washes over him. As the pulse exits Relerin's body a sudden and intense pressure builds in his head from Ba'al presence in the young Hylian. Tightly shutting his eyes and grabbing his head Relerin hunches over for a few seconds before opening his right eye and looking up the pentagram glowing more than usual.

Relerin sees Marcus zone out. The necromancer carefully stands up and props Marcus against a wall. "Do not worry Marcus. Mana strain can be very disorientating. I will make sure nothing happens. You rest here." Relerin grabs the bottle of water and the arrows and begins carefully cleaning each arrow of blood. The Hylian whistles while he works.

Again with the mana... Marcus leaned against the stone, his body limp and his eyes drifting shut... one of these days, he would ask Relerin what exactly he meant by that. His eyes closed, and his breathing became deep. He drifted off to an exhausted sleep.

Holle awakes, jolting bolt upright.
"Man, I feel great!"
Holle looks down at the sleeping Marcus.
"Heh. That guy must be a brilliant healer, because I feel GREAT! Honestly, I did not expect that much recovery from being shot through with arrows.
Hey, Rel?"
Holle turns to Relerin after murmuring to himself.
"D'you mind if I go and scout out some more traps that might be nearby? Thanks!"
Without waiting for a reply, Holle leaps to his feet and moves back to the traps that he and Loft were hit by.
"Hm... This one was a trap, and this one, and this... This one wasn't, and this one was..
This one I don't know about..."
Holle prods a tile gently with his foot, then gradually shifts more and more of his weight to it as the tile refuses to move. Finally, he's standing on the tile, and no visible traps have been activated.
"Well, this tile's safe. On to the next one!"
Holle begins to recall the where each triggered trap was, and starts to test out the unknown.

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((By the time Holle's finished with this, you guys would probably be doing your own awesome stuff, but knowing what you do, you probably won't follow him until he's finished, so I'll just post that bit now.))

After gently easing all of his weight onto the last tile next to the door, a miraculously unharmed Holle sighs.
"Phwoa. That was... surprisingly exhausting. At least now I know that every sixth square tile in a diagonal isn't a trap so long as there are no triangular tiles in the line, and that whenever there are triangular tiles in a line, the fifth tile away horizontally or vertically will be safe."
Turning around, Holle attempts to turn the knob on the door.
*Rattle*
"...It's locked.
Great."

[[I'll take this turn, since it's been a while and no post from Ultra5. Hey, E, something I've been wondering for a while. Why do you make new paragraphs so much?]]

Jellybeans and peanut butter went bye-bye and Loft felt sad. But he was happy to wake up! The sun was- oh, not shining, he was inside. Oh well! He remembered hurting lots and lots and he was glad that the pain bid him bye-bye. Unlike the jellybeans and peanut butter, he'd rather they stay. He looked to the side and saw Marcus sleeping soundly. Aww, he must've healed Loft! Loft felt so happy he squiggled over to Marcus and gave him a big hug. He squiggled back just as fast, cause Marcus had a habit of kicking Loft when he got too close.

Loft looked around. Holle was standing by the door, staring at it as if it were made of the most fascinating of jellies. "What is it?" He called across to him.

[[Just to explain: I've often been told that you need to seperate ideas and spoken lines by paragraphs etc.]]
[[Edit: Because, while normally I'd wait for U5, but I'll be busy soon and won't get as many chances to post, the following happens:]]
"Hey Loft! It looks like this door is locked, but if I'm right, I should be able to avoid all traps fro here on out!" Holle calls out to Loft from his position next to the door, then starts hopping his way back through the safe tiles.
"Let's see..." Holle makes his way to the next door stepping in an unusual pattern, then, almost as an afterthought, reaches out his foot and lightly taps one of the tiles.
*WHOOSH!*
An arrow shoots out from a hidden hole in the nearby wall.
"YES! Wheeeeeee...." Holle starts dancing around in an odd fashion, triggering no new arrows as he does so. "It's true for this door as well! Now, let's see if... Aha!" Upon trying the knob of the new door, Holle finds that it turns easily. He keeps the door shut, letting the knob twist back to it's previous position. "I've found the next way through!"

Relerin chuckles as Loft hugs Marcus. "If only I had someone like that. Ugh." A pressure builds in Relerin's head that the Hylian knows is from Ba'al.

Packing up the arrows in his bag and washing off his hands Relerin packs his bag back up and gently nudges Marcus. "Mr...Marcus. I think we should be moving on soon." Relerin looks to his Moblin which is beginning to rot away. "Yes...moving soon."

Loft smiled and waved across the room to Holle, who had bounced across to a different door. "Great! What's on the other side? Candies and lollipops?" He really hoped that there was lots of pretty candy because candy was awesome.

He turned and lifted an eyebrow in confusion at the necromancer. "Marcus is in beddy-bye land right now," he said. "He won't wake up for a bit. Can bag-bones there," he waved a hand at the Moblin, "play piggy-back?"

"I haven't checked that yet, but I'm fine with going ahead. Just remember that when you enter the trapped section," Holle pauses in his speech to indicate the dividing line between solid square tiles and tiles with jumbled shapes, "every sixth square tile in a diagonal isn't a trap so long as there are no triangular tiles in the line, and that whenever there are triangular tiles in a line, the fifth tile away horizontally or vertically will be safe."
Holle thinks for a moment.
You know what? When I get back from scouting, I'll guide you across. Wait there."
Holle opens the door, and sees a winged skull with a glowing blue fire surrounding it. Taking out his sling, and one of the larger stones, he slowly accelerates the rotation to near-maximum velocity, then lets fly at the point where the skull's left wing is attached to it's temple. The stone makes a loud crack as the bone splinters, sending the wing a few feet away from the fallen skull, which loses it's halo of the sapphire flames. Holle stomps on the skull and breaks it into eight near-equal pieces. Opening the next door in the room, he sees two stalfos, each grinning in that skeletal way of theirs. Quickly stepping back and closing the door, Holle rushes back to the first entryway and calls to his companions:
"There are two stalfos, and I just smashed a skull with blue fire around it. There are no traps, and I didn't notice anything else important."

[[Note: I give full permission to the other players to use my character to guide them through the traps.]]

[[Right. Well, Ultra5 said he isn't RPing anymore, so I'm just going to pretend Relerin never existed. Also, yes, you do separate paragraphs by topic, but you're doing it to an extreme.]]

Loft felt his head spin crazy-like when Holly began to ramble. It wasn't really a fun kind of rambling, not like the kind Loft liked. Loft liked rambles on stuff like candy, chocolate, and cherry-cream cakes. This was number-rambling, and that was boring. Boring as an unflavored, unfrosted, unchocolated doughnut.

"Yeah," he agreed, watching as Holly stepped through the door, "that sounds good." He waited while the other explorer ventured into the wonderland behind the door and turned to Marcus.

"You're going to make me carry you," he said, a pout stretching across his face, "aren't you?" His friend didn't respond, still snoozing away. Yep. Loft groaned, stomping his feet in protest. "I don't wanna carry you," he whined. Marcus didn't respond. "Fine," he said, sighing.

He had just gotten a good hold on his friend when Holly stepped back into the room. Loft's eyes widened. "Two Stalfos?" His left eye twitched while he sputtered. His head rolled back, and Loft whined in protest. "Are you serious?" The question was directed at the gods above, but they didn't respond. Of course not; they were probably too busy giggling at his suffering. "Two bone-men," he said, his breath sighing out in resigned acceptance, "lead the way. This'll be fun, but not for us."

Holle guided the two through the traps, and carefully opened the door once more. Upon seeing the empty room once more, he walked up to the second door and turned the knob, gently pulling it out of it's normal frame so as to prevent it from squeaking. Silently, he motioned for Loft to gently place Marcus on the floor. After a few seconds, he started swinging his sling and jerked open the door. The two stalfos rushed forwards at the sudden movement, and Holle stopped his movement, releasing the stone into the spine of the first skeleton. A sudden "CRACK" notified Holle that he had hit on target. The front stalfos fell, causing the one behind it to jump in order to retain it's momentum. Holle quickly rushed forwards, stepping to just behind where the stalfos would land. Drawing his dagger, he began to spin as the stafos' feet hit the ground, it's compatriot, having recovered from the shot, just a few steps in front of Holle.
Gathering the energy, hoping that he had timed it correctly, he continued spinning, the stalfos behind him turning around, the one in front beginning to raise his arm back for a swing. Holle released the energy, knocking the two back just as their blades were about to strike, harming them but not taking them down.
"I really hope Loft is just behind me..." Holle said as if in prayer, his eyes locked on the two stalfos beginning their assault once more.

The door shut ominously behind them, and Loft's eyes widened in fear. The two bone-men were fighting with Holle, not him, but he was still terrified. He was a thief, for goodness sakes, not a warrior! He only fought llamas and very small Octoroks, not gigantic undead skeletons! Something crushed underneath his feet, and he looked down to see that he had trod on a leering skull. Loft screamed, still holding Marcus, and dragged him as quickly as he could away from the bone-men. His scream seemed to attract the attention of one of the skeletal monstrosities, but Loft's legs were quickened by the power of fear.

"Holly," he cried, "run!" The circular room had a hallway leading off on the far side, and he made for that. One of the Stalfos tried to block his path, but he threw down a Deku Nut and dashed past. "Come on!"

Holle jumped forwards, closing his eyes at the sight of the falling Deku Nut. When the white flash passed, he maneuvered himself so as to avoid the blinded foes. Worrying not that the skeletal foes were behind him, Holle followed his companions into the corridor and out of sight of the Stalfos. Now relatively safe, Holle whispered to the shaking Loft: "I'm sorry, I should've talked with you first. Let's find a slightly safer place to rest, then wait for Marcus to wake up before continuing."
Holle looked back to check on the two Stalfos, which he saw had returned to their guarding positions.
"We should be fine to go on."

Loft mumbled something and kept dragging Marcus through the next door. They stood in a small corridor, which was populated only by a Skulltula hanging from the ceiling. Grumpy and annoyed, Loft didn't hesitate to pull out his Red Candle and set its webs ablaze. Caught in a red inferno of flames, it fell to the ground, legs skuttling as it desperately tried to protect its raw belly from the fires already eating into it. It wasn't long before it was dead.

Loft sat down and waited for Marcus to wake up so they could keep moving on.

[[You can write him waking up, within reason c: ]]

Holle watched Marcus stir, and the moment he opened his eyes, Holle turned away and began walking down the corridor.
"Marcus, directly behind us are two stalfos on guard, and while they seem to have returned to their posts, we don't know when they'll come after us."
Holle scooped up the hollow skulltula shell, and held it up like a shield.
"At the very least, we'll need to scout ahead to find a more suitable location to camp down. Got any idea as to how we can manage to find those pesky poes, and re-activate the elevator, that isn't just wander around aimlessly until we find them? Because that's the best I've come up with."

Marcus moaned a little, rubbing his forehead. Farore, his head hurt. He'd used a lot of magic recently, and even though he'd rested quite a bit, his whole body ached as if someone had pounded the living daylights out of him. He stood, wincing as his muscles protested the movement, and groaned as he tried to ignore the sounds of Loft skipping and dancing happily around him, singing about how he'd finally woken up.

"Stalfos? Poes?" He shook his head, trying to dispel the fog of grog that'd descended on his thoughts. "Uh, yeah," he said slowly, "places with a lot of energy, like this one, usually have some sort of Compass in them. They'll lead us to," he groaned, trying to think of the words, and ended up just waving his hand vaguely, "all that stuff. Finding the Poes should raise the elevator, since their stealing the fires lowered it."

Holle walked further down the corridor, pausing only when he came to a winged skull shrouded in green flames, floating in a circular hover through the air.
"You mentioned a compass. Would this compass be relatively valuable?"
As the flames winked out momentarily, Holle crushed in the forehead of the skull with the hilt of his dagger.
"Valuable enough, that one would attempt to hide it? A hiding place, that might look...."
Holle turned around to face back at Marcus, pointing his thumb at a discolored patch of wall to his left.
"Something like this?"

"Valuable?" Marcus' voice was slow, and Loft wished he had a bucket of ice to dump on his friend's head. "It's not worth selling; it won't work outside of this place because of," he groaned and pressed a hand to his forehead, and Loft seriously considered dropping a Deku Nut to wake the raven-haired healer up, "magic reasons."

Loft looked to where Holly was pointing and clapped his hands together in glee. "A secret hiding place," he said, "perfect!" He ran towards it, tapping the oddball wall with his knuckles. "Hmm," he said, his ear pressed against the stone, "there's definitely something there." He stroked his chin for a second, then snapped his fingers. "I've got it," he said happily, "hold on a sec."

He reached into his pack and pulled out a dark blue helmet, fitting it nicely onto his head. His Bunny Hood ears popped out of two convenient holes he'd carved out of the mask, and he turned to grin at the others. He could see them, but all they'd be able to see were the skull and crossbones painted onto the front. "Got this the other day," he said, tapping it. "Stand back!"

He turned back to the wall and concentrated, drawing power from within himself and pouring it into the mask. Loft pulled his arm back, curling his fingers into a fist. His transformed energy flowed from the dark helmet covering his head and into his drawn hand, filling every patch of skin and bone with burning energy. With a yell, he drove his fist into the wall.

The stone exploded with the force of a bomb, and the thin wall was blasted away by the impact. A small alcove was revealed, its edges blackened from the uncovering explosion. Loft shook his hand, which was bruised and coated in bits of black dust. "Ow," he whined, "that hurt!"

"Good job Loft."
Holle grinned. Inside the alcove was a large chest. Upon opening, the contents were revealed: A single compass, red and white needles pointing opposite directions, cased in a blue outer shell. Holle's grin faded into a look of intense concentration. He knew the compass would help, sure. But...
If the party was unable to take on two stalfoses, how in the name of Farore would they be able to take on the WORST this dungeon had to offer.
Holle shook his head, clearing his mind of the burgeoning thoughts arising in his head.
"So, Marcus....
Holle pursed his lips as if frowning, then pointed to the compass.
"How does this thing work, exactly?"

"Loft," Marcus said, "I'm not sure you should have that." He finished healing the idiot's bruised hand and stepped back, wary of the mask. He wasn't entirely comfortable with the idea of Loft having the power to blow things up just by touching them. Explosives and Loft didn't go together very well, and Marcus had a funny feeling that the deranged thief wouldn't mind the whole 'self-injury' thing.

"What?" Loft crossed his arms, and even though Marcus couldn't see his face, he knew that the boy was pouting. "Why not?"

Marcus thought fast. "Because," he said slowly, "because the world can't see you with it on." With a sudden stroke of inspiration, he said, "it's very sad."

Then Holle spoke up, and Marcus turned to let Loft stew over this for a second. "The Compass?" He looked at it and tapped the glass casing with a finger. "It's already keyed into the energies of this place," he said. "Just hold it tightly and concentrate on what you want to find. It should work."