Tail Cave [CJ+Guy]

Leaning against the statue keyhole to to the Tail Cave, the Tail Key clenched inbetween his teeth as he strummed on his lute aimlessly. He stopped to tune it, then started playing a simple song, nothing special, just a basic tune he had learned over the years. Belneth was currently waiting for the person he had been arranged to meet here to clear out this dungeon.

After a while of playing his lute, he got bored and spit the key out of his mouth, and got up to stretch and wander around the area. He hoped that his soon-to-be ally would hurry up, getting frustrated he had to wait for some stranger. He hadn't even met the other person he would work with, and already had a bad idea about how they were lazy and never on time.

Of course, Belneth didn't know he had heard the wrong time, and was actually much too early. All he had to do was relax and just wait, and enjoy the calm air around him before diving headfirst into a monster-infested lair.

Re: Tail Cove [CJ+Guy]

A neigh echoed softly from the distance. It heralded a pristine and finely-built black mare, whom trotted out from the nearby into the alcove of Tail Cave's entrance, steadily approaching the bard. Upon her back was a Hylian lass, her Hyrulean Soldier's armor glowing beneath the afternoon's hot rays.

The horse came to a stop near the statue keyhole upon which the bard was leaning. As her rider stepped off, she remarked in a complimentary fashion, "You're rather early!" The maiden plopped down from the mount, her metallic boots hitting the tile with a heavy clack. Her left hand moved to rest upon the hilt of her longsword, as it was accustomed to doing. With a warm smile, she looked into the man's eyes, "I presume you are Belneth? I'm Ruby, the one who is to clear out the cave of monsters."

"Mm..." Her head tilted to one side as she bit her lip, eyes going up and down the man's form. "I must admin, I was expecting the Guard to pair me with someone a little bit more... robust." Her brow furrowed slightly as she noticed something dire missing from the man's attire, "I mean no offense, buddy, but do you genuinely expect to go in there without any armor, or even a buckler...?"

Re: Tail Cove [CJ+Guy]

Belneth had to blink a few times until he was sure this wasn't a trick of the light. A woman stood before him, a soilder at that. All his previous notions of a fat, lazy, useless Hylian man disappeared. Greeting the lady with a graceful bow and tipping his hat, Belneth merely chuckled at her comments.

"Don't concern your self fair lady, I am an experienced traveller and swordsman extraordinaire. You'll have no fear with me around, for every foul evil that crosses our path will taste the bitter sting of my blade. Belneth Finder, at your service." An exaggeration of his skill and lots of useless words that were ment to woo and misguide, all delivered with a keen and charming smile. While he had confidence they would be fine, he hoped the fights ahead would not be too challenging, as he had no wish to embaress himself infront of the fair lady Ruby.

"Whenever your are ready, my dear, and we will go at your command," he told her, twirling the key inbetween his fingers.

(I have three main responses to that inquiry:

1. You created this forum and posted an unfinished thread describing Classic Dungeons more than ten days ago, and that thread still holds less practical information than your actual original suggestion.

2. I never waited for someone's approval on the Eagle Labyrinth thread, either.

3. Consider this thread us rebelling against the man, man. )


Ruby stared quietly, raising an eyebrow at him for a moment. As her gaze trailed down over the thin blade which was to delivered these so-called 'bitter stings,' she became all the more uncertain of this man's competence in combat. His manner of speech did not help either.

However, she then recalled that, in the past, she has unexpectedly been bested by those she was sure were inferior. Not only that, but this Belneth fellow was supposedly assigned to her specifically by the Guard. Considering such factors, decided to give him the benefit of the doubt, and simultaneously gave a carefree little shrug.

She turned towards Emerald for a moment, "Just let me tie her down for a moment, and we can head inside." Ruby reached a hand into a pouch held on the side of her mare's saddle, before pulling out a hemp rope. With one end, she deftly tied a firm knot to the very statue which held the keyhole, and affixed the other end to Emerald. Intentionally, she was given enough room to graze or defend herself from feral creatures if need be.

After giving her steed another warm stroke of its mane, Ruby turned towards her ally with a determined gaze. "I am ready." With that said, her hand shifted from merely resting on the hilt of her longsword, to gripping it.

"As you wish, my lady," Belneth said with another bow before turning to the keyhole. He twirled the key a few times before sticking it in and turning it with a hefty clunk. The gate blocking the entrace creaked and lifted, the sound of which echoing many times in the area, like chimes being hit in succession quickly. Florishing his blade with a deft twist of his wrist, he held his blade at his side as he moved to the entrance.

Marching inside, Belneth stayed on guard as he looked around, he found the look of the entranceway very strange compared to Hylian architecture. The floor was a dark blue cobbled tile, the walls a dark, nearly black, red color and green cyclops statues near the center. "How repulsive, whoever designed this place had no taste."

"We have two choices it seems, left or forward. Thoughts?" Belneth asked to his companion, curious about how miss Ruby wished to conduct this mission. Would she want to lead, follow, work as a team, run at the sight of danger, or any other possible scenarios that may or may not happen.

As her sword remained sheathed, if only for the moment, Ruby's eyes constantly seemed to be in motion. They shifted to every corner of the room, searching for any sign of a monster in hiding. They moved to the left entryway, then to the right, and over to Belneth... and then back outside. The sun rays shining in flickered shadows across everything, filling an otherwise barren and dark corridor with bright illumination.

"Before advancing further, I think it would be best if we ensured we had some form of light source..." With that said, Ruby turned and move towards one of the corners, squatting down to inspect something which her companion could not see from that angle. Abruptly, she moved over to the opposite corner and repeated the process--aha... I knew at least one of these must have had a few embers still burning.

She stood and looked to Belneth. The hand not glued to the hilt of her sword extended up and forward slightly, inquiring, "Do you, or did you see outside, any kind of dried wood? Something we could use as a torch?"

"Trees, I saw tons of trees. I'll go look for something suitable, you just wait here and watch yourself my lady." Bowing deeply, Belneth quickly made his way back outside and searched the surrounding trees for suitable torch-like wood. He stumbled around the trees for a good few minutes until he found a handful of large branches, sure that one of them would serve the lady Ruby well.

Coming back into the dungeon, he held his arms out with the branches to allow her to select a suitable branch. "Will we both be carrying torches, or should I so that you have a free hand for a shield or whatever soilders use in their other hand? Speaking of which, how did a pretty thing like you get into the soilder business anyways?

(As it stands, doing a classic dungeon is essentially doing a role-play without any sort of reward--although I'm counting on you to make that change--so I don't see what you're worried about. If anything out-of-line does actually happen, I would hope you could count on me to intervene.)


She glanced at Belneth quizzically, then extended an arm to direct him to the tiny bits of flame hidden she discovered in the ash-filled pot to the corner. "I believe it would better that you carry it, as you seem to fight with only one hand, while I prefer using both." In truth, she was hoping that having a torch would make him less eager to engage in combat. Despite how she was struggling to convince herself otherwise, Ruby still couldn't shake the feeling that she needed to protect this individual rather than rely upon him.

As she expected him to move towards the torch, her eyes once again resumed dutifully scanning the room for any sign of danger. "To make a long story short, I followed in my father's footsteps... Like him, I believe in honor, duty, and protecting my countrymen from those who wish to do them harm." She quickly interjected, trying not to get lose in thoughts of the past, "For your earlier question, I suggest we go left. I would assume it is something of a side-corridor, and if we are to clear out this cave of all its monsters, we're going to have to thoroughly search all of its side-rooms..." She claimed and believed that, but still knew monsters would eventually return here regardless. The thought came with a bit of a sigh.

Regardless, she began carefully marching towards the door in question--the left hand on her hilt was replaced by the right, intent on drawing it soon. Abruptly, however, her dutiful steps stopped, and she turned back towards Belneth, "But as long as we're asking these questions of each other, I cannot help but wonder: what is it that you do for a living, and why exactly did you decide to clear out this dungeon with me?"

"Good point, best play to everyones stength," Belneth grinned, lighting one of the makeshift torches in the embers. Once the branch had caught fire, he lifted it up high to get a better look of the room. "Light does not do this place justice," he chuckled to himself. Moving towards the hallway on the left, Belneth took the lead as he held the torch infront of him, lighting the way.

Walking into the next room, it seemed like a big and empty room, and the light from the torch barely lit the room. Moving forward, Belneth could make out a large iron door at the other end of the room. As he started to move around the room casually, lighting the torches as he went to brighten up the room.

"As for your question, miss Ruby, I spend my time travelling the land, singing tales of great battles and pretty girls, and sing songs of romance and battle. I am a Bard, and a darn good one at that if I do say so. As for the second part, I do this because adventure makes for both good stories and good living, sometimes you just can't make enough by playing in taverns, and anything to help my countrymen and women."

As he lit the last torch, loud creaking could be heard as bones on the ground lifted up and formed two humanoid-like monsters, their bones a slightly yellowish color and each with a sword and shield in each hand. The Stalfos howled at the pair, which Belneth responded by florishing his blade infront of him, standing infront of the pair.

"Nothing is ever easy it seems."

Why are these monsters so obnoxiously common, Ruby couldn't help but wonder to herself. Just as the thought ran through her mind, her longsword was brandished with a metallic cry as it tore out from her sheath and found itself firm in her right hand.

The pair of skeletal beasts at first both rushed Belneth, as he had so foolishly--in Ruby's opinion--pushed himself out front. Lunging in from the right, the fully-armored lass smashed her bucker into the rightmost Stalfos' side, the unexpectedly blunt blow forcing it to tip over and fall behind.

Hoping Belneth could handle himself against the leftmost one, Ruby attempted to lunge onto the rightmost Stalfos as it fell to the ground, aiming to smash her heel right into its skull. However, the surprisingly-deft creature abruptly shifted to the side, forcing her heel to meet only solid ground. It then rolled over, bringing its shoulder to push up against her calf and trip her, bringing her falling down backwards.

Cursing underbreath, she managed to catch herself on the floor with an open palm, at the cost of dropping her longsword in the process, and immediately hopped up to her feet. Both Ruby and her Stalfos foe managed to stand upright simultaneously, only now... one of them was missing a proper weapon. The knightly maiden glared furiously at the monster, knowing it had full intent of striking the moment she reached down for her sword...

With a quick glance, she tried to see if Belneth could assist--or at the very least if he was holding his own--but the exact moment her eyes shifted, the beast lunged upon her with a full-bodied and reckless thrust. Parrying the blow to one side with her buckler, Ruby stepped forward towards her opponent and smashed into the side of its face with vicious steel-knuckled punch, forcing the creature to groan and reel back in pain. It was just the moment she needed to scoop up her sword and advance further. Removing her left palm from the buckler and taking both hands onto her hilt, she stepped into a horizontal slash to the Stalfos' shield-less side, only to have the attack unexpectedly caught against its blade.

Ruby's leather boot locked into the ground as she pressed viciously, anxious to overpower it as their blades caught onto each other's hilts. With one hand helplessly glued to his shield, the Stalfos was forced to drop it to the ground in order to match her strength--he was quickly managing to overpower her, as one might expect. The beast begin to cackle malevolently as she was continuously pushed back...

At what seemed like the last moment, the lass smirked arrogantly and completely dropped her sword, weaving to the side. The Stalfos' excess of momentum sent it stumbling forward, its side now completely unguarded as Ruby once again cleanly smashed her fist into the opponent's side--now shattering the ribs she had only cracked before--and once again shoved the monster to the ground.

She would not make the same mistake as before, however. Noting how its nothing-but-bone body must be incredibly light, the lass lunged down, snatching hold of the beast's ankle. With reckless abandon, she pulled the creature, dragging him across the ground, before she began spinning around and around, the momentum bringing the beast into the air. Finally, she loosed the lightweight monstrosity, sending it flinging across the room before smashing into the far wall, breaking further bones and stunning it.

Scooping up her sword in mid-stride, Ruby rushed over to the creature while it was struggling to recompose itself. At the end of her sprint, the lass took both hands to her hilt and swung the full force of her strength and momentum to slice the monster's head clean off, its neck audibly cracking...

With sword-in-hand, Ruby's gaze shot over to Belneth, praying he had already taken care of his own mark.


(...That is certainly longer than I originally intended.)

Belneth was already preparing to fight off both Stalfos on his own, but Ruby had quickly jumped into action and distracted one of the Stalfos, making it solo matches. She was an impressive fighter it seemed, how quickly and smoothly she leapt into combat and took control of her foes movement to reposition it.

"Well, since she seems to have it covered, I say to you sir, En Garde!" Belneth cried out to the Stalfos who had already charged him while he spoke. Stepping back twice in quick succession and waving his blade infront of him, he lunged at the creature to force it to stop its charge. With the charge stopped, Belneth took another quick step and pushed his attack forward, but was met by the creature's shield.

The Stalfos tried to lunge now, but Belneth stepped back and swung downward, meeting the creature's shield once more. Growing annoyed that this fight hadn't ended yet, Belneth increased the frequency of attack, moving away from lunges and using slashes instead. Once the Stalfos picked up on this, he kept his shield up high and tried for horizontal slashes from under his shield, but it ended up still stalemating the two. Fed up once more with this strangely clothed Hylian, the Stalfos charged forward with his shield ready to smash into Belneth.

Sidestepping quickly to his right, Belneth dropped his sword and grabbed the edge of the shield and pulling as he turned, forcing the two back-to-back. While the Stalfos stumbled about and turned to face his foe, Belneth quickly spun and thrust forward with his left arm, shoving his torch into the creature's face. As it stumbled back in shock, Belneth quickly moved forward and scooped up his sword, spinning in place again as he swung, slicing the creature's dazed head off. Turning away from the creature as it's head rolled by, he lifted his foot and crushed the skull under his heel while lifting his blade across his heart.

"We shouldn't have any problem in this place," Belneth smiled as chimes rang and the iron door lifted revealing the next room.

Seeing as how her companion was handling his own, Ruby sheathed her blade, then immediately scurried over to the nearest torch Belneth had lit upon entering the room. Though the torch in question was too tall and heavy to carry--like a tower, almost--it was not too much for Ruby to drag across the ground if both hands were used. Once a few yards had been covered, she kicked over the torch in the general direction of the Stalfos' disembodied skull. The torch hid the ground with a loud thud, its flames spreading across the creature's skill. Steadily, the fire managed to turn the bones to ash... and with that, the foe she decapitated was finished off for good.

"Always destroy the heads of Stalfos." The words were recited, as if from a book or an instructor, rather than an actual recommendation. With a sigh of relief, Ruby turned to Belneth. "You seemed to be aware of what you were doing over there, so I'm sure you know some of those things can reform if their head is intact... You did, after all, crush its skull."

Now that her hands were once again free, the maiden's longsword was once again freed from its sheath. With steady and careful advancement, she moved towards the door, expecting Belneth to follow. Immediately the pair had made it past the iron door, it abruptly shot back down with an echoing 'thud!'

Ruby glanced back for only a split second, figuring this to be some kind of trap. Looking back into the room, it was made all the more concerning by the fact this room seemed to have no proper exit on any of its other two walls. It was strangely triangular in shape, and the floor... was nothing but tan sand, like the sort one might expect to find in the desert.

"...Well--" Ruby began to sheathe her sword, but immediately stopped as she noticed some of the sand shifting. With blade still in hand, she pointed the weapon towards the spot, silently directing Belneth's attention there.

As the maiden took but one more step deeper into the sand, a roar split the air as a fearsome worm shot out from the shifting sand and lunged its entire body towards her. Ruby instinctively leaped back, quickly swinging her sword horizontally in an attempt to slash the creature.

As the worm shot back down, drops of its black blood sprayed against her leather boots. "What... the hell was that..." It seemed almost like some sort of centipede without legs, its body made up of four large black spheres, the head large at the front with two freakishly-beady eyes, and each sphere after that becoming progressively smaller. That one surely hadn't already been killed, and to make matters worse, there seemed to be at least three different spots of shifting sand in the room. The spots moved steadily across the floor... as if planning their next strike.

Belneth had to admire this person, she was both well schooled in dealing with monsters and very skilled. Dusting off his boot of ground Stalfos skull, Belneth moved forward, following Ruby into the next room. The slamming door made him jump, and he hoped Ruby didn't notice as he calmed himself again, not that it would last long as he jumped again at the strange monster leaping from the sand.

"Quick reflexes you have there," Belneth complimented as he took up a defensive stance against the wall, holding his sword pointed close to the ground and the torch out against the wall. "Oh, a bracket, our luck is looking up," Belneth said, trying to sound cheerful as he slipped the torch into the bracket and resumed watching the moving sand spots.

With a roaring hiss, another one of the worm creatures leapt out and dove at him, so he dove to his left and rolled into the corner. As the worm hit the wall and slithered back into the sand, a second worm leapt out towards Belneth as he tried to stand up, crying out as it dove at him.

"Oh son of a --!"

"Thank you," Ruby gave a slight nod towards the praise of her reflexes, though her eyes remained affixed upon the shifting sand. Under normal circumstances, she may have elaborated more on the matter, but at the moment she could only spare the smallest courtesy as she tried to remain focused... she did not know how to escape this room, but nonetheless knew this threat would have to be dealt with first.

To her right, she heard another roar, and although she started towards Belneth, the creature had already missed and slammed into a wall by the time she at his side. From this vantage point, however, she saw a shifting spot beelining straight towards Belneth from the room's center. In a split-second preparation, she took both hands to her hilt and brought it down to her side...

As the creature cried out and lunged towards her companion through the air, Ruby took all of her strength and brought her blade skyward in a devastating upwards arc which tore clean through the creature. The uppercut flung the relatively small beast high into the air, and back towards the room's center a slight distance, which gave Ruby just the second she needed to concentrate all her energy into her blade. After giving a glance to make sure Belneth was still grounded next to her and not about to be beheaded, the warrior maiden unleashed her sword through the air with a shout and a full round-about spin. While her sword itself could not connect to the beast from this range, the shockwave that extended outwards tore into the creature, drawing further blood that sprayed onto the sands.

Only then did the monster finally plop onto the ground, writhing for several seconds before coming to a full stop. Ruby noticed a relatively shallow cut near its head--yes, it was the one she had struck earlier. Even so, there were two shifting sand spots... still two left... strangely, the two of them leaped out almost simultaneously where the fallen one laid--strangely, not letting out a screech of any kind--before diving back into the sand.

Keeping her sword ready in both hands in front of her, Ruby whispered to Belneth, "...They can't see while underground. I'm assuming they only know where prey might be by the sound it makes when impacting with the sand surface, and don't know what it is until they leap out." Her eyes shifted around the mostly-barren room, "In other words, we can prevent further attacks by remaining completely still... or bait them by moving around."

Belneth blinked multiple times, watching it what seemed like slow motion as Ruby cleaved the creature mere seconds before it would of snacked on his face. He was about to scramble to his feet, but luckily his stopped as Ruby spun, a ripple of energy flying off her blade. Belneth blinked again, remembering the fabled Spin Attack the stronger soilders of the Hyrule Guard were able to perform. She was an impressive fighter, and Belneth was starting to think that his charade wouldn't work too well on her anymore.

Slowly and carefully pushing himself back to his feet, trying hard not to make to much movement, and held his sword forward. "So, if that's the case, perhaps one of us should make a lot of movement while the other one stands back ready to attack. I volunteer for such a dangerous job."

Brushing some sand off his pants, Belneth waited for the girl's response. If she goes for it, Belneth would then jump closer to the center of the room then duck and roll so Ruby could cleave another creature that leaps for him. If she didn't like his plan, then he would merely follow her commands, as she is probably a better stratigest anyways.

Either way, he was ready to go.

Making sure to keep completely still, Ruby pondered upon Belneth's suggestion for a moment. Her eyes trailed off to the right... perhaps it would be better if the one doing the baiting was the same one attacking? In some ways it seemed that way to her, but with this method sneak attacks seemed less likely. Her green gaze moved back towards her companion, and she gave a slight smile with a single nod, "Yes, that seems to be a good course of action, Belneth"

Gripping her buckler in her left hand and longsword in the right, Ruby gently reached behind her with the sword-bearing hand to make sure the wall was within reach. The worse thing to happen right now, or so she believed, was to have one of them sneak up behind her instead of him. "Try to stay near me, alright?" Her focus shifted down towards the sand, "Whenever you're ready."

Belneth nodded to Ruby, ready to go. With his sword held out infront of him, he bent his legs then leapt forward, landing with a muffled thud in the sand, shouting out, "here we go!" As the words barely left his lips one of the sand creatures leapt from the ground, and Belneth dove to his side and rolled as the creature missed his head, knocking his fine feathered hat off his head.

Belneth wasn't able to see what happen next, as he kept rolling as the second worm burst from the ground directly under where he had been rolling seconds ago. As the creature flew into the air and arced downwards towards him, he looked up and thrust his blade upwards, impaling the creature with it's own body weight. As the dead and bloody creature collasped on him, he pushed it off as he scrambled to his feet, blade still at the ready, both it and himself covered in the creature's blood.

Belneth noticed a small rip on his left shoulder, exhaling with relief when he found it hadn't drawn blood, and turned to Ruby to see how she had faired. Hopefully their plan had worked, but just in case Belneth kept his blade at the ready.

As the first worm shot up from the sands, Ruby drew back her buckler launched forward a step, before smashing the steel shield down into the side of the creature's face. It plummeted hard into the sand's surface with a gut-wrenching crack, landing awkwardly. As the creature squirmed in pain, the guard stomped one foot down onto its tail to keep it in place while taking her longsword in both hands and drawing it high, before smashing its tip deep into what she assumed to be the creature's head. The blade thrust clean through, before Ruby whipped it back out.

With that one handled, she whipped around to see if Belneth was still alright--thankfully so, he managed to take care of the final monster without her help. She smiled. Just to be sure, though, Ruby's eyes turned towards the room... no... none of the sand was shifting now. Taking only a moment, the swordsman bent down to wipe her blade clean of the creatures' blood upon the sand... although that ended with a few bits of the sand sticking to it, but she nonetheless sheathed the weapon. "Thankfully, that's three more down. I can't help but wonder how many more we must slay here, however."

Standing back up, she turned towards the door, expecting it to open--that's usually how these things worked, after all. Except, as the seconds passed, it didn't budge. Rather, there was a sudden sound coming from beneath them... At first, Ruby feared it was another creature, but she quickly realized it was more... mechanical. She turned back towards the room's center, only to discover the entire floor's worth of sand was now shifting, twisting, spiraling like a whirlpool, and accelerating at a shocking rate.

She glanced towards Belneth in desperation, hoping he had some sort of idea. Before she could even get a word out, she found herself sucked down into the sand... gasping, struggling to breathe, her head falling beneath the surface... It felt like everything was dark... everything was falling... the sand was too heavy to move...

Until all of a sudden, she found herself in open air, plopping down into a huge pile of sand, filling a colossal circular room. Quickly realizing what was happening, she leaped out of the way before the sand from above came crashing down upon her as well. She had no time to examine her surroundings, and was instead focused on the sand which poured out of the ceiling--she expected Belneth to pop out in seconds, and hopefully he would have the same sense she did to leap out of the way before getting buried beneath the sand. If he did not, Ruby realized she would have to drag him out of there quite quickly, given the rate at which it was coming down.

Belneth picked up his hat and brushed it off, placing it back on his head as he turned to the door to leave. When the door didn't open, Belneth sheathed his blade and went to get a closer look, but a sudden rumbling sound shook through his body as the sand in the room started to drain in a whirlpool. As Ruby sank into the sand, Belneth leapt forward, trying to keep off the sand as long as possible. Reaching out to grab the wall bracket, he landed too deep into the sinking sand and was quickly consumed. Spewing out into air again, Belneth landed on the pile of sand and bounced, tumbling off the pile and rolling clear of the falling sand trap.

"I managed to save the torch," he sputtered out, holding the torch up while his face was pressed against stone. Spitting sand out of his mouth, he wiped his tounge as clean as possible of the gritty taste and looked at Ruby.

"Well, I doubt up is an option now," he stated the obvious before drawing his blade, "so I guess we should look around."

"Yes, you're quite right..." With a slight sigh of relief, Ruby's stance relaxed somewhat at the safety of her companion. All too suddenly, however, it regained its air of danger as her right hand moved to her hilt. There could in all probability be more monsters in this room.

But as her eyes scanned the walls and the sand climbing at their feet, that seemed to not be the case. After scanning everything in sight, she turned towards the one item which stood out. "Over there," she gave Belneth a quick nod towards a latter leading up eight feet or so from the sand's current level to a metallic open-swinging door. However, as she waded through the sand--which had by now stopped rising--there came a sudden noise from the ceiling.

Her eyes shot upwards as she simultaneously realized her error of not checking the ceiling. She struggled to raise her buckler at the last moment, but it was too late. The massive skulltulla pounced down atop her, pinning her beneath its legs and drawing its fanged, drooling mandibles right towards her face...