Stone Tower Temple [The Horde]

Stone Tower Temple
Horus Falconer, the Ikanan Refugee (3/2/4 Hylian) [Blonde Panther] Reward: +10 Rupees.
Luna, the Ice Princess (2/4/3 Hylian) [Blonde Panther] Reward: Ice, +7 Rupees.
Eria Talevev (4/1/3 Gerudo) [Fcgfyv] Reward: Bomb Bag, -10 Rupees.
Corin Parvis, (1/3/2 Deku) [Fcgfyv] Reward: +20 Rupees.
Darukara, (5/1/2 Goron) [Double_r111] Reward: Bomb Bag, +10.
Fiorella di Stiello, Thorny Desert Flower (5/2/1 Gerudo) [Unnamed Dude] Reward: Mirror Shield, +5 Rupees.

The path to the Stone Towers was still largely intact, and two sets of hooves were very clearly audible on its pavement. They belonged to two horses... or rather, skeletons of horses, galloping over the tiles by the grace of the same uncanny magic that animated the Stalfos inhabiting the land. Riding them, however, were no Stalfoses.

"His Majesty was extraordinarily generous," Luna said, from her position on the back of her skeletal steed, which she rode with both legs on one side. She was uncannily stable, considering that as far as Horus knew, she had never ridden a horse before. He knew she was talking about the horses, that King Igos had provided them.

"He could have given us saddles though." Horus grimaced. "We have nerves and feel pain." The horse's spine pressed into his buttocks painfully, which was the reason they had gone into a gallop rather than a trot. Unlike Luna, he had ridden before- once, long ago, his father had taught him how it worked.

In an unusual twist of events, King Igos had requested their presence in the castle. Once there, he had asked them to go investigate the Stone Towers, as he had sensed something ominous coming from them and his men were prevented from entering on account of not having the muscle and sinew required to climb up to the door. Bertrand and Frederick had been out at the time, so Horus and Luna had taken two of the horses the king had had ready and had taken off.

"I like how His Majesty thinks we're capable of great things," Horus said, crossing his arms since there were no reins to hold on to anyway. It was Luna's incredibly powerful mind that was controlling the horses. "How do we know we're even going to survive this mess?"

"It'll be fine," Luna said, looking at him and smiling. "You're here after all. I don't doubt for a second that we can put the king's concerns to rest together." She must not have been aware of how laden her words were, for she looked confused rather than amused when Horus turned red in the face. She'd been getting more talkative recently- at least, to him. Strangers were still a problem, as were even Bertrand and Frederick. And somehow, she found exactly the words that embarrassed him.

"Here it is." As they reached a large stone pillar engraved with the roman numeral I, Luna reached out with her mind to bring both horses to a full stop. Horus was unprepared for the sudden brakes and fell forward, landing on the ground. Luna, herself, gently slid herself off the spine and patted the ribcage of her steed.

"His Majesty said we can just leave them here," Horus said, drawing his sword. "They'll find their way back, themselves."

"Let's not waste any more time, then," the mage said, "I'd like to be home for dinner."

Fiorella di Stiello shook herself to rid herself of the disorientation that seemed to have an iron grip on her. One moment she was alone, attempting to prepare a stew, the next, she was borne in the air and now, after much flying and spinning and maneuvers to make a Rito jealous she was here. Little was here. Were it only a lack of greenery, she would be less bewildered; the desert, too, held barren spots. But here, there was not even the familiarity of the shifting sands to comfort her. And all this because she had seized the wrong ingredients. She made a mental note to harshly punish whoever had thought it was a good idea to leave Gale Seeds lying around like that...

With this place, the only visible landmark was the imposing, craggy tower on the horizon. It looked the furthest thing from comforting or civilized, but it was her best bet. She set it as her way-point and began to walk. As she did so, she began to wonder about where she had ended up. Her clothes seemed somewhat impractical for this new biome, as it was nowhere near as blistering as the desert. What she would give for a cloak...

As she drew nearer to the tower, she sighted some other figures around or approaching it. She raised a single arm to hail them.

Eria drew in a deep breath of air and shoved her arm upward. She grabbed yet another rock, and hoisted herself a little higher. Just a little bit more until she got to the top of the ridge. Some rocks crumbled a little ways under her, and she looked down to watch them tumble and jump down the side of the cliff. She didn't remember much past the fact that she had a drive to reach whatever was on the other side of this cliff, and the path around was blocked to her. She wiped the first few drops of sweat off of her brow as he made her final push to the top. Eria stood on the ridge and looked at the scenery before her. It was a hot day, which was not unusual in the desert, and the sun was still high in the sky. Luckily for her, a light breeze blew that was previously obstructed by the cliff, allowing herself to be cooled off while pushing her ponytail back along its waves.

Not too far above her was a structure that she could not distinguish, but Corin had a good time seeing fifty vertical feet above her. He had seen the shape of the tower earlier this morning on his way toward a town that he had never noticed before. He had enough time to go explore anyway, so he decided to take a little detour to see what he could salvage. Where he was now, he had a very good view at how old the edifice was. There were bits and pieces of the walls that looked to fall off or looked like they should've fallen off years or even centuries ago. There was no color beyond various shades of brown except for a bright red, decorative ornament above the entrance... or what should've been the entrance were it not blocked off by a large stone wall.

Eria caught the sight of what appeared to be a Deku Scrub flying over to whatever she saw above her. She couldn't believe what she was seeing, so she rubbed her eyes and hoped the desert heat hadn't gotten to her already. When she opened her eyes, it was gone, and Eria began to question her sanity. A quick look almost directly below her , however, revealed couple of figures dismounting their skeleton horses. There was a long way up the path from what little of it she saw, but nothing answered why these Stalfos were interested in wherever she was going, and also why there were only two. Besides almost slipping and falling to death earlier, she was a little relieved to know that there would at least be a little action to warm her up. She drew her dual swords, and started to slide down the much smoother side of the cliff as if she were surfing down it. Close to the bottom, it became too steep for her to continue sliding, so she jumped off and landed not very far away from what didn't look like Stalfos anymore.

Darukara rode his carriage through the desert that was Ikana. He released a defeated sigh. He'd been lost within it for days. He had plenty of rocks for food, and he managed to scrounge enough prey for Jake, but they were still lost, hungry or not. Their only guidance was a massive tower that came into view yesterday. It towered over the horizon, and was larger than any natural landmark in the area. The fact that something so monolithic could even exist out in the middle of nowhere blew Darukara's mind. Still, he had decided, where there's buildings, there's people.

Suddenly , Jake stopped and tensed up. "What's wrong buddy?" Darukara asked. And then he saw them. People. Two Humanoid figures, maybe Hylians stood at the base of the tower, and there were other figures further from them nearby. Darukara reassured Jake and began moving again, approaching the group.

"Hello!" Darukara called out to them as he approached.

The horses gave no reaction, but Luna jumped about a mile when people started approaching all of a sudden, and she used Horus for cover as he turned around to face them, sword drawn. "What is it with people thinking Ikana is some sort of tourist attraction these days?!" he exclaimed, "Stay where you are! If any of you so much as touch us, we will defend ourselves!" Two women, a walking mound of stone and a monster... this didn't look good. Luna's ice magic would probably be able to hold the mound of stone and his monster at bay, as they didn't look like they could handle cold temperatures, but then there would still be the women to worry about, and Horus could only keep an eye on so many things at once.

Luna had put her hands together and concentrated on her magic, ready to unleash a spell at a moment's notice if any of these people were to attack them. While not as aggressive as Horus, she was equally suspicious; what were all those people doing here? They certainly hadn't been sent by King Igos like the two of them- entry to the castle was prohibited unless specifically requested by the king, and the Stalfos had closed up the entry by means of the well ever since she, Horus, and the Light Priestess Phiorra had snuck in that way.

Either they were unfortunate victims of some sort of magic, or they had come here for them or for some sort of treasure, in which case the two of them were in the way. At any rate, the odds of them being hostile were good, and she had to be ready to support her red-haired friend.

"You can put that away, little one," Fio said quietly, with a hint of exasperation. The one who spoke was actually as tall as she was, but she felt the barking told her more about his maturity than his size. She shook her head. "I'm in no position to be fighting, anyway. If you haven't noticed, none of those ones are with me."

She left out the dizziness that still lingered with her, though, and angled her posture so that her scimitar was visible. She was a stranger here; given that this was her first contact with any living being it was entirely possible everything here would want her dead on sight, but any intelligent creatures, at least, would grow more weary to attack an armed and alert adventurer.

"Besides that, if you don't want to make enemies, it might be best not to immediately point a weapon at them... hmm?" The girl, meanwhile, had made no overt gestures but the intense focus made it obvious she was up to something... She said nothing though understanding dawned on her. She had read enough and worked with Hylians enough to at least sense magic, though she had little of it herself. A small, wry smile graced her lips. "I like your friend, though. She has the right idea; quiet, ready to strike, but not making a target of herself."

Being the closest to the boy and the girl, and on the other side with another Gerudo she didn't recognize and a... Goron? And some creature beside it... Ugh, Eria couldn't believe she wasn't dreaming. At least the Goron and Gerudo didn't have their weapons drawn, but the latter was apparently armed. The situation begged for her to sheathe her weapons and hope the two Hylians did the same. She did so. "I guess we're all after the same thing, huh?"

After some examination of the area, the door to the tower looked tricky to open. It seemed that about four switches on one side of the tower made portions of the tower lower as a bridge... or at least it was what Corin logically assumed. And hopefully, the switches would not need to be continually held down afterward, since Corin could not find or carry any rock heavy enough to weigh down any of the switches. He heard a noise from far down below, and looked down to a band of people who appeared to be preparing to ascend the path to the tower. This must've been his lucky day. Since he had already gone out of his way to get here, and a great treasure had to be inside of the tower, he might as well wait for them to ascend and help him get in.

Darukara was a tad taken aback by the reactions of the two Hylians. He hadn't expected such hostile reception from them. Jake became more defensive, growling at the strangers, but Darukara didn't unsheathe his sword. If possible, the he wanted to avoid any fighting.

He stepped out of his carriage and put a hand over Jake's back, calming the monster a bit. "Peace" he said, turning towards the two Hylians. "I am not your enemy. Simply lost in the desert, and hoping to get help from someone. I came to this tower because I sought aid."

Jake let out a low sound and a puff of smoke was released from the Dodongo's mouth. Aside from Gorons, the lizard was slow to trust people, especially ones who would be so swift to draw a weapon. Darukara ignored it however, continuing as if nothing happened. He had learned long ago that it was pointless to fight the thing.

If the tanned woman thought he was going to put away his sword because she told him to, then she had bigger issues than he did. Just because they weren't together didn't mean they couldn't BAND together... besides, there wasn't really any proof that they weren't in cahoots, was there? No, Horus' best bet was to keep his sword out. The reptile growling at him didn't help either, and was probably the biggest reason Luna hadn't lowered her hands yet either.

The other woman did sheathe her weapons, and Horus turned his attention to her. "What's that? Our heads? Some sort of fabulous treasure that's said to rest at the top of the Stone Towers?" He rolled his eyes. "I don't know who set up a Land of the Dead Tourist Center, but they're idiots. There's nothing here, only death if you don't know what you're doing." Which these people clearly didn't if they expected him to come up to total, mostly armed strangers and tackle them in a bearhug, waiting for them to kill him. "I'm going to ask only once. Why are you here?"

Luna, meanwhile, kept an eye on the Dodongo. If it attacked them, she was pretty sure that her magic was the best way to go about taking it out. That skin seemed pretty resistent to Horus' sword... well, maybe unless she enchanted it...

"And why, pray tell, would anyone do that?" Fio said tonelessly. "You point a weapon at total strangers, when you're the only one showing any intent to use it. You demand explanations without giving any. You seek out targets when all have offered parley. You hurl abusive language at us when we are surrounded, as you say, by death in all directions. If anyone acts like a brigand, it's you."

She shifted her weight, being careful not to display any overt aggression, and kept talking. She wasn't going to offer such an obviously hostile individual any information, even the precious little she had, before she could scope out his true intentions (even if she had to taunt them out of him). The gerudo had no compunctions against fighting or killing, but she was hesitant to do so when such things could be avoided. If she was going to get home she'd need to conserve her strength.

"At any rate. Try sheathing your weapon and asking nicely, then we'll talk. For now, you'll simply have to content yourself with the rather unimpressive explanation that the 'why' of my presence here has nothing to do with you, nor this tower." The truth. Or rather, it was a truth, but only fragmentary; still, it would have to suffice for now.

Eria decided that there wasn't much she could contribute to the conversation, so she decided to kick back and let the chips fall where they may. The way things were now, either the Hylians would attack, which would spark a battle until one group was left standing, or they would all join up and travel the path together. Either way, as much as Eria wanted the former to happen, knew that she should stay alive in the end. As the Hylians, the Goron, and the other Gerudo tried to talk things out, Eria leaned against the cliff she recently slid down and waited for some action.

"The Gerudo is right" Darukara said, looking at the two still hostile Hylians. "Clearly nobody here is looking for a fight. However, if it is any consolation to you, I will be more open about my reasons for being here than she has been." He smiled, hoping to show the two that he meant no harm. He also put a hand over Jake in order to restrain the Dodongo in case he tried anything. The two were obviously on edge, and he didn't need the lizard acting up now and potentially starting a fight.

"You see, as I mentioned before, I found myself lost in the deserts of Ikana. The situation could have been much worse had I not been a Goron, but it was still a situation I would have liked to avoid. I wondered the valley for days until a massive stone tower came into view. Now a tower like this must have been constructed by people, right? I decided to head towards the tower in an attempt to find somebody who would be able to help. So I head to the tower, and the next thing you know I had found you guys. "

He motioned for them to put their weapons away with his hands. "There. You have my story, so could you please lower your weapons now?"

The heap of stone, who identified itself as a Goron, was the only one willing to explain its presence. Horus knew there was something south of Ikana- his father had intended to flee in that direction before they had learned that the Stalfos weren't hostile. So, it made sense that the Goron and its scaly companion were lost... what was more, the Goron stuck out its hand to create a barrier between the beast and the two Ikanans, which probably meant he didn't want the beast to attack them. Horus redivided his attention between the two women instead, as neither of them seemed to be anywhere near as docile--

Luna let out a cry of surprise when the ground shook heavily enough to knock her off-balance, sending her magic spiraling away from her. It was harmless, but Horus had to turn around to catch her, immediately crouching low with her so they'd keep their balance. The ground shaking was one thing- the roar that came from the direction of the Stone Towers was another.

It didn't sound like the roar of anything Horus had ever heard. And he'd heard a lot of roars when he'd been running from Ganon's troops. It sounded shrill and deep at the same time, deafening, and he didn't question for a second that whatever had produced it was the same thing that caused the ground to shake. When the shaking died down and the roar itself dissipated, he felt Luna's hand clutching around his arm. "We don't have time for this," she said. "Whatever is in the Towers, it's stirring. If we wait any longer, it could attack!"

Horus swore loudly, checked to see if he was still holding his sword, and grabbed Luna's wrist to take off towards the tower. "Damnable tourists..."

Fiorella did not bother waiting for the hylians to deliberate, nor did she intend to brook any more dissension. The earth and heavens had rumbled with force to make the greatest legion tremble, and if it wasn't obvious enough, the smaller girl's tone and clinging made it unmistakable that whatever it was could not be good.

So, the towers were the source, were they? It was good they had all already been making their way there. "Tourist or not, as you call us, I'm not letting you go in there to be killed. You will not leave me behind." By her reckoning, the odds of finding a way back were higher with someone who had legitimately wandered here anyway rather than aimlessly wandering the wastes. Undoubtedly the little angry one was preparing a rebuttal, so she continued.

"I don't claim to know what's in there, but it's pretty clear our best bet is to stop it at the source rather than wait for it to come out and try to eat us. No complaints, I trust?" She eyed the redhead, a gaze that could was sharp enough to pierce armor.

Jumping back into a state of action, Eria knew that it was time to go. But then again... however she got here, there must've been something for her to retrieve here. And whatever that thing happened to be, she could impress the people back at the camp with whatever it is. "I'm up for going right now. Anyone who wants to leave, do it now. Everyone else, follow me."

Corin heard the roar of a monster and looked toward the top of the tower. He had no fear of whatever it was, but if he were to have felt any curiosity, he would have observed it in much the same way as he did. A large creature lived in that tower, which means that it had to be fed in some way, which possibly meant that there may be people in the tower. But regardless, people did or do live there, and that means that there are some things to obtain from there. But he just needed to get in still. He looked down to see a Gerudo run ahead of the rest of the group from earlier, while the rest for a second were still recovering from fear or whatnot after the roar. Excellent, he would be entering sooner than he thought.

Horus didn't even wait for the others to take off, he just grabbed Luna's wrist and turned around, making a beeline for the engraved tower. Upon reaching it however, he saw why no one had entered it up until now- there appeared to not be any form of entrance. He turned to Luna. "Now what?" He knew well that Luna hated it when people assumed she knew everything there was to know about Ikana, but the fact remained that she was smarter than him and was usually clever enough to figure out things like this.

Luna, herself, rummaged in her pack and pulled out a small pendant. King Igos had given it to her prior to her leaving the castle, telling her it would provide entrance to the temple. However, the Stalfos King had neglected to inform her of HOW it would provide said entrance... Unsure of what to do, she simply raised the trinket above her head, immediately feeling a small portion of her magic be drained from her body and projected upon the stone wall. A certain section of the wall, right under the numeral I, fell away, turning into a doorway through which Horus could see the inside of the Stone Tower.

"It appears the towers will have to be climbed from inside," Luna said, dropping what remained of the pendant. Apparently, opening the tower had caused the trinket to crumble to dust, itself. She was right, Horus realized. There were no footholds or stairs around the outside of the tower, but he saw what appeared to be a large room with an altar on the inside, with a doorway behind the altar. He was willing to bet the doorway led to a large staircase that led to the top.

Fio rushed in after them. This place was dangerous. As much as she hated doing this, she couldn't bring herself to leave them to die in there. She'd seen enough death.

The gerudo found herself watching as the tower slowly opened up. It was, despite the terrible situation, quite a spectacle. For such an intimidating structure, it was only now that she began to realize the other air about, one of... ancient, unrelenting majesty. Here had been something grand, and now, the tower alone remained.

She entered, heedless. Mayhap that the past loomed greater than the present, but the present was what they had. She'd simply have to carve out a place herself.

The chamber within did indeed have a curling staircase, an endless collection of steps moving into oblivion, but the stairs showed signs of time's passage, broken and weathered as they were. Occasionally the staircase broke off entirely, leaving gaps where there ought not be. Thankfully, there were many, many doorways to the side of the stairs, so if they ever ran across a gap, they could just enter a door and come out of another on the other side... at least, that was the hope.

The other woman had entered the temple ahead of them, without seemingly looking around for traps or threats. Horus knew better than to be reckless, so he took his first few steps inside carefully, examining the ceiling to ensure no Rock Keese would fall onto his head (Luna assured him there was no such thing as Rock Keese, but one could never be too careful) and the floor to ensure he wouldn't step onto a raised tile that would set off a fiery doom.

Luna, in the meanwhile, turned a full 360 degrees as she slowly walked forward, taking in the entire structure. It was immense. Climbing it without the assistance of magic would take an eternity. She took Horus' hand, leading him to the staircase as soon as they were both assured that this first room wasn't trapped. The two carefully moved over a few gaps, but finally encountered an outright pit in the middle of the stairwell. Luna might have been able to shimmy across on the very edge, but it was iffy and Horus was both too large and too heavy to copy that feat. With nothing to attach his grappling hook to, and the ceiling too low to jump across with the Roc's Feather, the redhead decided there was only one thing to do.

He opened to door to his left, looking at the woman. "If we're going to have to go through this place together, we might as well have each other's names. I'm Horus, and this is Luna. We're natives." Or as close to native as a living got, anyway.

"And I am Fiorella. As you may have guessed, I am not a native, as you put it." As the Gerudo introduced herself, she drew her scimitar. The tower exuded an air of danger, and she was not going to be caught off-guard by...whatever might inhabit it. "Don't worry, this isn't for you," she murmured, having taken note from their first encounter.

"Back home isn't quite this place, but it is no cakewalk. I know how to fight," she said shortly before entering the next room. She eyed everything in it suspiciously; for a roar like that to have escaped, it made no sense for the place to peaceful. The room was lined with statues, though some had fallen over, their armor shattered. Fio frowned. That was... an injustice. A disgrace to them. One statue stood alone in the midst of the giant room, larger and odder than the rest. A great, oddly-proportioned thing it was, kneeling in the middle of the chamber as though praying. Fiorella inched around it. This... gave her a bad feeling. She tried to avoid coming too close to it and checked the door that led back outwards. Closed...? Had it been so when they'd ventured in here?

"Good," Horus said as Fiorella entered the room with her sword drawn. "I already have ONE charge to look after, I don't need another one." He followed her into the room, looking around with Luna entering behind him. While Horus' eyes lingered on the walls, ceiling, and floor, Luna's attention was immediately drawn to the statues. They stood out, and not just because of their posing. She felt something uncanny radiating off of them. She couldn't say whether it was outright hostile or not, just that it felt... strange.

As they stepped further into the room, Luna heard a dull thud behind her and registered a blur of black and red from the corner of her eye. Horus had spun around as the door had suddenly closed behind them, falling into a lock of sorts. Horus tried the door normally at first, but to his frustration it didn't open. "Let it rest," Luna said, "We can't go back that way anyway..."

"It's about the IDEA, Luns. We can't let this place walk all over us." With those surprisingly calm words, Horus stepped back, raised one leg and stomped down on the wooden, decorated door. By all means it should have given in, but it was completely unscathed and all the redhead achieved was that he had to bounce back to avoid breaking his leg upon impact. "The fuck?" He said, jumping up and turning mid-jump, using what little magic he had to enchant the power of his kick to the max.

Foot and wood collided with a deafening clap that forced Luna to cover her ears and squint her eyes shut. By the time she could look again, she saw that this kick, too, had had no effect, and Horus was sitting on one knee, hand on the foot that he had enhanced. "Stupid door!" He exclaimed, shaking his fist at it as he got up.

"Did you do something wrong?" Luna asked. She'd never had full faith in Horus' magical capabilities.
"No, I did it right," he said. "Bloody door just won't come down. If THAT kick didn't tear it down, then NOTHING will."
"So... basically you just wasted all of your magic on something pointless."
"And this surprises you exactly WHY?"

Luna shook her head, raising one hand pre-emptively as she walked in the direction of the statue to join Fiorella in her search for another door.