Fire Emblem: Curse of the Goddess [IC / Conditional Acceptance / PG-16]

[Cheshire Toon 139]

Rohns noticed Catriona first. He stopped pouncing to taste the air, then started looking at something that was apparently behind Link. The soldier turned to see what it was and found himself face-to-face Princess Catriona. 

"Here, eat," she said, unexpectedly offering him some trail rations. Link blinked a few times, stunned, but gathered himself enough to take the food. “Did you find anything on your patrol?”

“Thanks,” he murmured. He was actually surprisingly hungry. Perhaps his renewed appetite was somehow tied to his restored physique? It would make sense. “Nothing to report. I encountered that badger that I’m sure was a human, but nothing else, Your Majesty.” What a world. Reporting to a superior--especially such a high-ranking one--that he had seen a badger in a forested area. Bah; magic made everything weird.

Rohns tore at his boot cuff and whined. “...” Link unwrapped his rations and tossed him a strip of dried up jerky. The wolf tore into it with gusto. Upon closer inspection, the princess had actually purchased rations of a higher quality than his own; dried jerky, a piece of hardtack, as well as a handful of nuts that he wasn’t able to identify. He tossed one in his mouth and was pleasantly surprised to find that they tasted good. “... Not to overstep, Your Majesty, but have you remembered to eat?”
 

Edited November 5, 2019 by Cheshire Toon

[Saikazo 241]

"I'm freeeee! Woooohoooo!" Indeed, they had freed the troublesome archer. "thaaaanks guys! Man, I thought I was going to be stuck under there forever." Suddenly the human went over and hugged Shiro. As in touched him with her human hands, wrapping them around the frog man, constricting his movements, making him unable to flee. This wasn't good, not good at all. He could feel something rising up in his body he hadn't felt in a long time: pure, unadulterated panic. He began to try to wiggle out of her grasp, just to try to get away from her...

Thankfully, she let go of him, a blessing in an otherwise cruel moment. He took a minute to back away from the group, trying to carefully catch his breath without the others noticing. He quickly collected himself as he forced the feeling back down deep inside. He had to remain calm and rational, especially with the fox nearby.

"Hey, hey, hey guys. Come look."

"A trap door... Good find, Tsetseg." The two females were gathered around a trapdoor of some sort with a ladder heading downwards. They didn't seem to be heading in though, so Shiro took the initiative. Squeezing pass them, he climbed down the ladder, descending into the darkness below. It took a little bit, but he got to the bottom. It was darker than night in this tunnel. In his frog form, he could probably see even in this darkness, but as he felt around the tunnel, it seemed barely tall enough for him, let alone his frog form.

"It's a tunnel!" He called up to the group above. "I can't tell where it heads to or even where it ends... I'm going to check it out!" With that, the frog walked deeper into the tunnel, his guard up in case anything bad happened.

Edited November 5, 2019 by Are You Okay?

[Sethera 290]

Licorice glanced at Cora for a second. She looks like she has something to say, but she's not saying anything. Still, it was not as if the Protean could afford to waste her time with small talk. She had to--

"Um... Licorice, are you alright? I didn't drop anything on your head again right? Or did I miss something regarding this place that you wanted to tell me?"

"Hmm?" the fox turned her head, a pleasant smile on her face. "No, nothing's wrong, I just..." she hesitated. Should I tell her? She shook her head. "I just don't think we should linger here in this village, for very long."

--

“Nothing to report. I encountered that badger that I’m sure was a human, but nothing else, Your Majesty.”

Catriona nodded. "If it was the same badger that we encountered before, then it is most likely human." She couldn't tell badgers apart, though, so perhaps it was a different badger. Well, it's a badger anyway. And it's probably human. That's enough for me. She glanced around. The beaver was still there, though it looked distracted, glancing back at the town hall every so often. Next to her, Link was eating his rations, tossing a strip of jerky to Rohns as well.

“... Not to overstep, Your Majesty, but have you remembered to eat?” the mercenary asked.

Catriona nodded. "I did." She opened up her sack and resumed eating. "We found some things of note here on the first floor. Some letters carved into various surfaces, a piece of parchment with more letters, and..." she paused, "...something about a ritual." She hadn't gotten to look at the papers herself, though she had overheard some of Alois and Edrick's conversation. "The others are either upstairs or downstairs. You go through," she pointed, "that doorway there. It leads into a hall where there's a locked door, but the others managed to unlock it." She shook her head, "Most of them are down there now, but there are still a couple people upstairs. In fact..." she glanced up, "I think I'll go upstairs myself. They might be hungry as well."

The white-haired woman approached the stairwell and began to ascend, though her pace quickened when she heard a noise like something breaking. Actually, it sounded quite similar to an axe cutting into wood. Is something wrong? Did they get into trouble?

However, the situation was...remarkably peaceful upstairs. Rather than a fight, Alois was crouched in front of a broken crate looking through papers, while Adelaide stood off to the side.

The lord let loose a sigh. So they did not get into a fight. Alois was merely opening the crate. "I brought food for you two. Here," she offered it to Adelaide first, as the other person seemed to be busy. "Did you find anything of note?" she asked as she turned to him. She wasn't able to read the papers from this angle, though they looked to be letters of some sort.

And indeed they were. The parchment was yellowed with age, torn in places, and wrinkled. The writing was faded and blotchy in places, and the handwriting itself was atrocious, but surprisingly readable nonetheless.

--

Meanwhile, the badger had reached the end of the hallway. It paused when it saw the door swinging wide open, but began its descent down the stairs anyway.

In the basement, with the stone block, that was actually a trapdoor, as shown by the bottom being made of wood, out of the way, it was plain to see that there was a hole in the floor. Where that hole led to was anybody's guess, though as Sienna lifted her hand filled with fire, she'd be able to see that the ladder went down a ways. If a person were to stand on the bottom, they still wouldn't be able to reach the trapdoor from their height.

In fact, that's exactly what Shiro did. Standing at the bottom, there was still a little bit of distance between the top of his head and the ceiling, but not much. Still, without the ladder, it would be pretty difficult to climb back up. Thankfully, the ladder looked well secured into the ground.

To the side, the rat listened to Penelope and Citron and cocked its head, before ignoring them to enter the smaller room and approach the hole in the floor. Scurrying down, it followed after Shiro fearlessly.

---

OOC

Spoiler

Licorice isn't very talkative, and seems to want to gtfo.

Catriona is giving food to the people upstairs now. She is now the food fairy. I also included a link to the google doc in the map as well.

Mysterious holes in the floor are mysterious.

Edited November 6, 2019 by Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd

[Tiamat's Circus 116]

Rubbing at her chin, Citron listened as the others left or prepared to leave down the trapdoor that they had found; talking amongst themselves quite audibly. She even heard Penelope, from a bit away, asking if anyone had found some sort of key; something she herself rather obviously hadn’t done. She hadn’t done much of anything, really, and so while she could have simply followed the others down their hole, and even felt like that was likely the best course of action… Well, she rather felt that she had been yet to pull her own weight, and didn’t see herself doing that by following a bunch of people who knew what they were doing. “...Alright,” she’d rub at her neck, turning on her heels. The hardest part was arguably, convincing herself that there was anything important to begin with. After all, so far this was just... A mayor's house. But everyone else seemed so determined that there were clues to be found, so the least she could do was go along with it. “Something important. Something, important…” She’d glance at the rest of the side of the room she was on, eyes moving past the array of hams to hone in on the lone crate in the corner of the room. “...That’s… Probably kinda suspicious, right?" She murmured to herself, rubbing her hands together.

Approaching the crate, Citron kneeled down to nudge it, testing it’s weight. And in doing so, found that was… Quite light, actually. While it wouldn’t open, being bolted shut, she found it was light enough to pick up, rattling around a bit as she examined the strange crate. Putting her ear to it, she heard what sounded like a bunch of smaller, in comparison to the crate, items bouncing around subtly; with something else rattling around inside. “Without a doubt, mysterious…” She trailed off, fumbling around with the crate a bit. Grabbing at the top, she quickly re-found out that it was, very much locked tightly together. “C’mon, open… I’ve gotta do SOMETHING…” Furrowing her brow, she began to pace in circles as she continually tried to open the crate, tugging harder and harder…

...Until her foot caught on the stone flooring, and she instinctively found herself flinging her arms outward to stabilize herself as she stumbled forwards; hurling the crate against the ground in the process.  Wincing, Citron watched in what felt like slow-motion as it smashed into the ground, a resounding crash of metal on metal from the lid echoing out… And two bolts came flying out from the mechanism keeping the lid shut. Kneeling down, she slowly raised the lid, only to feel her heart come crashing back down. Not only had she caused more property damage, the lid now opening without any locks stopping her… But it hadn’t even been for anything worthwhile. No, inside, there were a few extra empty bottles of wine; with insulation having been the only reason they hadn’t shattered with the bolts. “No, no, no…” She trailed off, grabbing one of the bottles. “That… Can’t be right. Why would it have been locked if it was just for some-- Some stupid bottles?” She wondered aloud, shaking the first bottle, only to hear nothing. With empty dark glass, and a lack of a cork, it was easy to see that they were empty, but… “There’s gotta be something…” She trailed off, setting the first bottle aside as she scanned it for any sort of details, an engraving that seemed out of place, a label, something… before moving onto the next.

It wasn’t until she was at the bottom of the crate, that her heart skipped a beat. Buried beneath the others, wrapped in insulation, was one last bottle. She wouldn’t have even thought to check it, if she hadn’t accidentally unraveled it; causing the bottle to fall against the bottom of the crate. Yet even as it unraveled, and fell into the crate, a quiet, yet ultimately substantial ‘tink’ of metal on glass grabbed her attention, bringing a smile to her face. “...Yes, yes, yes-” she grabbed at the bottle, her smile turning to a grin. “I, I did it, I found something! I think, at least,” she found herself quickly getting up, peering inside the bottle as if she herself was surprised. Looking inside the glass, she found what appeared to be some sort of… Metal, silver object. “Is-- Miss Penelope, are you still over there? Because I think I found something small and metal that, may or may not be a key? I’m not sure yet,” she explained, rattling the bottle around as she tried to orient whatever was in there correctly so that it would fall out into her hand.

It was always so difficult to get something simultaneously small yet long out of a narrow bottle... 

[LordCowCow 839]

Cora let out a small gasp as the girl's horse rammed into the town hall door. Now that was just uncalled for! She was going to tell her such but the girl returned, seemingly frustrated at the lack of success, and asked the oddly fox-like girl if she was alright.

Much like with her the black haired woman didn't have much to say. Cora wondered if perhaps there was something wrong with her stomach. She remembered when her dad ate some bad meat he didn't feel like talking for a while.

"I just don't think we should linger here in this village, for very long."

Did that imply they wanted to abandon them to this curse? Cora thought that rather rude but, thinking on it, understandable. The village wasn't so good with strangers to begin with. "If you all want to go then you should go. I don't wanna force anyone to do anything for us. We'll, uh, figure it out...somehow."

She didn't know how but it was the thought that counted right?

Oh, right, she almost forgot. She looked to the other girl, Ciela, with what she hoped was a stern expression. "Please refrain from damaging our town hall please."

---

Penelope inched forward to peek into the room. As she hadn't gotten a response from them about the key. What she saw was several of the group heading into a tunnel. "Oh....do be careful!" Penelope called out. She wasn't sure she liked the idea of them heading down there but she figured that the proteans and tsetseg were rather good options for scouting.

Meanwhile Edrick was....trying to stuff a rather bulky net into his bag. "Um..." she considered telling him that it might not be so easy but decided to let him do as he wished. "Good luck with that."

“Is-- Miss Penelope, are you still over there? Because I think I found something small and metal that, may or may not be a key? I’m not sure yet,”

The princess giggled quietly at the 'Miss Penelope'. Funnily enough while Citron was trying to be polite she was actually underselling the level of politeness she'd need. If Penelope were one to mind such things that is.

The girl made her way over to find a smashed up box and the girl holding a bottle. Smiling, she asked to see it and, after some twists and turns, the key slid out of the bottle.

It was small. Smaller than what she remembered from the lock on the town hall. So perhaps... "I believe this should work. If you'd like to see for yourself you may follow me." And with that she took the key over to the chest.

And lo and behold the key worked!

Inside the chest was not gold but instead...another key! A key for a key. How quaint. The key rested on a cushion and was much larger than the one that had opened the chest. And more than that it was much older appearing. Perhaps as old as the town hall? A smirk appeared on Penelope's face. "Aha, this might be just what we needed...Yet still there's the mystery of all those letters."

She thought a moment and then grabbed the key. "A key hidden in a chest. Locked with a key that was hidden in another box. So many steps just to protect a single key. Very interesting."

---

Gunther, not really having much of an idea what else to do, followed the badger. The cheese in hand. He had already checked the upstairs and the other two were finishing with that. Plus if no one was on this floor it meant they likely had searched it all. Which meant that there wasn't much else to check beyond the basement anyway.

"Excuse me but, to be sure, do you have some sort of storage down here?" It would be rather silly bringing the cheese down the stairs if not.

The badger nodded in response to which Gunther let out a relieved sigh. He was glad that he could finally get this dumb cheese off his mind. He noticed the badger waddling down the steps with some difficulty. The determination in his stubby legs impressive. "Er, sir?" Gunther said, unsure how to address the badger, "do you need assistance?"

He got a grunt in response. With Gunther's great skill in reading animal behavior...he couldn't tell if that was a yes or no. However the badger continued to go on. "Right..." Gunther said, uncertain, and just followed along behind him. Watching to be sure the animal didn't tumble.

[Saikazo 241]

Shiro followed the small tunnel further and further into the underground, his only company a rat that insisted on following him. He had no clue where this was going, nor how long it would go on for. It soon became dark, so dark that even his eyes couldn't see what was right in front of him. He had to slow down his walk and keep a hand on the wall at all times, just to make sure he would trip, or fall down a sudden hole.

Finally though, he came to the end, which he only realized because he ran into the wall. Well... it wasn't a wall per say. He wasn't sure what the wall was made of, but he could tell what he hit was made of wood. Feeling around, he could feel a handle of sort. A wooden door? Looked like they were getting somewhere. He began to tug and push at the door, but sadly, it was no use. The door was stuck tight. However...

He turned around to head back, this time moving faster. For once, that fox princess would be useful, he just needed to get to her. The door was made of wood, and wood burned. Not only that, but Sienna could make fire. This was too perfect.

[Asriel Dreemurr 38]

Edrick had, in fact, been trying to get the bulky, heavy mess of a net that they had just managed to free Tsegtseg from into his bag. After all, it would do them more good than it would sitting here in the house that it had been previously functioning as a trap. Unfortunately though, while he was a good strong young man, Edrick just couldn't wrangle the thing in. He had the space to carry it, he knew that much, but try as he might he just couldn't lift the thing off the ground enough to actually get it into his bag.

"Um... good luck with that." And Penelope's commentary on his attempts wasn't helping anyways. In fact he nearly ended up tearing part of the net in frustration as he tried to prove that he could actually hoist the thing. Finally giving up, he rounded on the younger of the two sisters.

"Well excuse me, Princess, but-" whatever else he was about to say was cut off as he noticed what Tsegtseg had found. "Oh. Okay that's something." A cursory glance over the edge, down to where Shiro had so eagerly jumped, made it obvious that it was dark enough that they wouldn't be able to see. "H-hey, let's not do too much down there without everyone else! Or torches!" He was at least practical enough to figure that out. He also knew that he needed to do something else, and so he left the net where it was and ran over to the stairs leading up. Cupping his hands to his face, he tilted his head back and shouted up into the house.

"Catriona! We've found something! You should come see- oh, and light some of the torches if you have them!"

[Skaia 578]

As Tsetseg had looked down the hole, she quickly made way for Shiro as he passed by her. After that, the girl made her own way down the ladder beginning to look around in awe. There was one thing that was made very apparent to the young huntresses eyes as she began to follow after the protean before her. It was dark in here. Putting her hand to the wall, the girl began to feel around it in order to help guide her path, until she had to press against the wall in order to avoid the man as he began making his way back. Curious herself, the Tsetseg began to make her way further down the tunnel, until she felt her hand press against something. 

It had felt as though her hand had hit a wooden panel, different from the rest of the wall. Pressing her fingers against it, the girl felt the wood sink further in with a clicking noise, briefly prompting her to jump away from it in shock. Looking each way, the girl seemed alert and ready for something to drop on her yet again, but such thing never happened. Still wary, the girl continued forward until she rammed into the same road block that Shiro had. Knocking into the wall, the girl was mete with yet another wooden road block, though this time it was actually a door. Well, she thought it was a door. It was a wooden wall with something she could pull on to, presumably, open it. However good Tsetseg was with door, though, she was not good enough to open a locked one through she force of will. 

So, scurrying back behind Shiro, the girl called back up, "hey, hey guys! Heeeyyy! There's a door down here! Like, a closed one, not moving and stuff!" 

Alois was quiet as he sifted his way through the letters. His face seemed more concerned the more he read, and once he finished, the boy couldn't help but just let out a sigh. The boy was realizing why the two things he had thought of earlier, the boy and Erimax, seemed to be related. More than that, though, Alois couldn't help but think on something. It was clear here that the outside was dangerous, and fittingly enough more so when dealing with Galtean nobles. Of course, Alois had already known this. If there was anything his short time had made readily abundant to him, it was this single fact. As such, beyond the initial shock of what he read, the boy couldn't help but feel his anger begin to rise even more.

Once Cat had come up, though, he calmed as the princess had stepped in and asked about what was going on. Grabbing the rations that she offered, the boy simply waved the papers at the princess saying, "not much. Just a little history I guess." The boy kept the papers presented to the princess, though if she didn't feel like reading them he would simply go put them back where he found it. "So, how're things on your end? Find any more suspicious letters or incriminating evidence?" 

[Wind Rider 10]

Before Sienna could get a chance to head down the trap door, Shiro hopped down, with Tsetseg close behind. How anyone could jump into a mysterious hole without any caution whatsoever was beyond her but she shrugged it off. She steeled herself and proceeded to climb down the ladder, making it to the bottom of the hole a minute later. She created a small flame, that sat in her hand, and looked around.

Tsetseg and Shiro seemed to have already been far ahead of her, despite having no immediate light source. She watched her step and walked down the dank passageway before she heard Tsetseg.

"hey, hey guys! Heeeyyy! There's a door down here! Like, a closed one, not moving and stuff!"

Now Sienna was curious, she wandered further ahead, finally catching up with the frog and archer. She found the door they were referring to and examined it. "Hm... I don't suppose you found another key?" She asked Tsetseg. If it came to it, Sienna would burn it down, but she'd rather not destroy someone's property.

Edited November 12, 2019 by Wind Rider

[Cheshire Toon 139]

Catriona departed for the upper floor. Link shook his head and slumped into one of the seats at the table; he would never understand her. Sometimes, she seemed to forget that she was the next-in-line to Galtea. The younger princess wasn’t far behind her either. Penelope smacked of a noble upbringing but he hadn’t seen her hesitate to pitch in when pitching or breaking camp. Was it really right to be surprised by any of that? He wondered. They weren’t just some snooty nobles, they were the children of the Winter King, and ten years at the border had more than beat an impression of the king’s legacy into his head. 

 

Link propped his head up with his good hand and resisted the urge to sigh. The ache hadn’t gone away. It was easy to shrug off a cut or bruise, but a broken arm? Pain radiated through his entire body if he shifted the wrong way. At least Rohns wasn’t having any trouble—the wolf cub had already found himself a corner, curled up into a ball and fallen asleep. 

 

"Catriona! We've found something! You should come see- oh, and light some of the torches if you have them!" Edrick shouted from below. Link jolted in his seat.

 

What had they found? Enemies? Catriona was upstairs and probably hadn’t heard them. Pushing down the aches and pains, Link made his way downstairs, good hand resting on the hilt of his sword. If anyone heard him coming and swung around the corner too quickly, they would find themselves greeted with a Rough Blade pressed to their throat. 

Edited November 12, 2019 by Cheshire Toon

[Sethera 290]

It appeared that Alois hadn't found much up here, though Catriona wasn't quite sure what he meant by "history." Were there historical tomes up here? If so, then that could be useful for their quest of finding the Great Dragon. Taking the papers from his hands curiously, the woman perused the letters, face growing grim as she reached the end. Lord Lucati...so the plot behind his execution goes deeper than I thought. She sighed. Only my father and his closest aides know the entire truth, however. If she had asked, she might have learned as well, but she had never felt curious enough to confront the man on the matter. Now, she could only regret, especially as she was traveling with a member of that very House. "These letters...I do not believe they are pertinent to our goal of solving the mystery of this village. However, they are still enlightening."

"So, how're things on your end? Find any more suspicious letters or incriminating evidence?" Alois asked.

Catriona thought for a bit. "Actually, yes. Penelope found a letter in the fireplace. Oddly enough, it just says 'K.'" She shook her head. "As to what that could mean, I have no idea, unfortunately." She glanced at Adelaide and held the letters out for her to take if she wanted to read them as well.

--

Licorice looked relieved at Cora's agreement. "Yes, I think so. In fact," she turned around, facing the mayor's house. "I think we should leave right now."

--

As the badger steadily but surely climbed down, it ended up nose to foot with Edrick as he hollered in the direction of the upstairs. Snorting, it brushed past the lancer to reach the barrels and crates in the corner. The still air and cooler temperature of the basement made it ideal for storing foodstuffs. Nosing at an empty crate, the badger turned toward the smaller room, where it could see that the door was open.

In the tunnel, as Sienna approached the others, flame in hand, the area would be lit up enough that the three would be able to make out not only the wooden door in front of them, blocking their way, but also the fact it had no keyhole. On the wall to the right of the door were five small, squared off holes in the wall, underneath which were wooden plaques. Each engraved with the letter "A."

---

OOC

Spoiler

If you're curious where things or people are, don't forget to check the maps linked in the Discord chat.

The only people not on the maps right now would be:

Ciela, who is outside the town hall.
Licorice, who is with her.
Cora, who is there as well.

Shiro, who is in the tunnel.
Tsetseg, who followed him.
Sienna, who went down with some lighting.

[LordCowCow 839]

"Catriona! We've found something! You should come see- oh, and light some of the torches if you have them!"

Gunther was taken aback by Edrick suddenly shouting up at him. He wasn't sure if the Pontic was talking to him or not. Either way he didn't have any torches. Though he was curious as to what they found.

The badger didn't seem to take much heed of the boy and so Gunther, with a silent nod, awkwardly made his way around the boy to ground level. The air was cool and Gunther knew immediately that this was the best place to store food. It may not be as good as storage in the castle but for a village such as this it was quite handy.

On his way down he saw Penelope. She looked to have a pleased expression which Gunther took to mean she found something she deemed important. While it was likely something he had to also learn he couldn't get the cheese out of his head. He had decided to take care of this likely pointless task and he'd see it through.

"Ah, Penelope, good. This, er..." He gestured towards the badger. "This is the mayor. I think."

With that, rather odd, introduction out of the way Gunther went in search of an empty crate. Once he found one that was suitable he placed the cheese inside with a satisfied smile. "Now, with that done..." What had Edrick said? They found something?

He looked around until he noticed where several of the others had gone down. A basement's basement, was it? He wasn't sure he wanted to squeeze his way down there, though, it sounded like several others had already went down.

So he decided to hang back and wait for the others to come back up.

---

Penelope watched as Gunther made his way downstairs with another animal in tow. Or was it the animal came down with Gunther in tow? Either way, the two of them came down at the same time and Penelope made her way over. According to Gunther the badger was the very mayor of this town whose house they were ransacking, in the most professional way of course, which suited her just fine.

She made sure to keep the key in clear view. Wanting to see how the badger reacted without drawing attention to it. "Hello, my name is Penelope. Was it you who left all those markings around your house?"

She got her confirmation in the form of a nod. The badger did in fact notice the key. He seemed surprised that Penelope had found it, which pleased her, but wasn't upset, which was interesting. While it was something he thought well hidden and protected he clearly didn't mind them having it. Which made her think that he did want them using it somewhere.

"Well, I think we've just about figured that out, but I must ask." She held the key out. "Is this for the town hall?"

Yet another confirmation. She had figured it would be the case. But it was good to know for sure. After they gathered their information they would have to set out for the town hall it seemed.

Penelope gave a smile and, keeping the smile the whole time, casually said, "thank you for the information...Oh, before I forget, once we lift this curse you're going to have a lot to explain."

She got a snort in return. The mayor wasn't the most talkative it seemed but she was glad to have gotten something out of him. He wouldn't be able to hide anything from her once this was done. The daughter of the Winter King was not one to let such a thing fade away.

Moving back towards the tunnel, noticing Gunther standing there, she called out "Whenever you're done down there, let us meet back upstairs, to share our information."

With that she made her way back up the stairs and right into a blade.

The blade's owner was Link. Her initial reaction was to step back, her next reaction was suspicion, but all this happened in only a few instants and the young man seemed to recover quickly. Backing down when he saw who it was. "Well, that's one way to get someone's attention. But I must say you should be more careful, imagine if it was Tsetseg, that girl might've ran right into the sword." She smiled, trying to avoid a scolding tone, and continued on past him.

Once past she let her expression shift to one of relief. For a moment, she thought...

The princess decided to set up at the table in the middle of the room. As people came by she would let them know she wished to gather everyone here. There had been enough time to search this house so now it was time to crack this "code".

How exciting!

[Skaia 578]

"Well, happy to help then, I guess," Alois remarked as the princess told him the news was enlightening. Without paying much mind to the other woman in the room, Alois began to make his way out of the room and down the staircase. Looking back to the princess he said, "well, lucky for me I found another letter myself. Right over there," the boy pointed towards the wardrobe. "So, I guess we got a bit of a riddle to solve here then." Making his way downstairs the boy looked to see the other princess had already been there. Pulling a chair up, opposite the side of her, saying, "there sure are a lot of weird mysteries that need solving in Histia."

Tsetseg looked around her surroundings, now that they were lit up and she could see properly. Letting out an obligatory, "oooh," the girl looked to see that the door she had slammed into was not one the kind that she was good with. Frowning a bit at the sight of the locked door, wondering how to get through it, the girl then looked at the wooden panel she had pressed not a few moments earlier. Examining it, the girl saw that there was some kind of pattern in it, but still couldn't make much sense of it. So, without much to do down here herself, the girl made her way up the ladder. 

Once at the top, she saw a familiar face of the armored big man. Giving him a bright smile she said, "hi hi there, Gunther. Guess what, guess what! We found a door down there, and it's all stuck and stuff. It's a bit sad but  - oh, yeah, yeah. I also found this panel thing, and someone really liked to draw triangles in it. But, whoever was drawing them is really bad at drawing triangles. I think they should practice more." The girl nodded to herself. 

[The Last Occultist 16]

Ciela Celestinia

On 11/7/2019 at 10:08 AM, LordCowCow said:

"Please refrain from damaging our town hall please." 

"Hey, don't you know of any secret passages to enter this place? And I mean, property damage should be alright when the entire place's fate lies on us, right?" Ciela said that, but her attention was instead being taken by what Licorice said, which she somehow only realized the weight on now.

On 11/6/2019 at 5:46 AM, Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd said:

"I just don't think we should linger here in this village, for very long."

"..E-eh? If you think about something like that, wouldn't it be best if we tell Catriona immediately?" Ciela was surprised. Licorice, being someone who had more experience in, well, everything really, probably had a good reason why she would even feel at unease here. But... no, more importantly was the actual reasoning itself. Whether it was a hunch... or if she actually was hiding something.

"But before that, why are you feeling that we should leave this village?"

Licorice glanced around. "This place, no this village, is cursed. It is best for us not to get involved with such things."

"Well, yeah, what with the humans turning into animals and vice versa and all that stuff found in the mayor's house. But if you want to convince Cat to leave, we can't just go with just that as an argument, right?"

Well, Ciela herself was skeptical that there would be anything that could convince Cat that they should be better off leaving. Cat was too stubborn for her own good when she decided on a goal. Actually, that was the one thing that Ciela couldn't criticize about her. But more importantly, she was also curious on what would Licorice have to say in this situation.

The fox shook her head. "If she desires to stay then she is a fool. It would be smarter to leave this place behind."

"The issue is here, the fate of this continent rests upon that fool's shoulders. So I'd rather not leave her behind to see her turn into a ferret or something. Although, I admit that would be quite adorable in some ways." Actually yeah, that would be quite adorable. Ciela put a mental note to herself.

"But I rest my case. The group is good at getting themselves into stupid situations, but most of the time those stupid situations chase after us directly. What would really convince everyone that the curse here will just stay and not follow us? So, please, if you have more things to say about this situation, tell me, and I'll try to convince everyone to leave. Otherwise, help me with breaking into this place with your strength."

Licorice said nothing for a while, before finally speaking, "This type of curse...it is restricted to this village. I noticed the signs as soon as we entered." Her ears flattened. "Whoever cast it was powerful, and we risk inviting their wrath if we attempt to break it."

"Is it related to the rites that the others mentioned earlier?"

"What rites?" the fox cocked her head to the side.

"There seems to be a quite active cult of Inera in this village, at least that was what the others seem to find out from the Mayor's house. Something about an Ordination? Edrick believed that Inera cursed this village for an act of heresy, but this feels more like the doing of a witch, personally speaking."

The Protean looked disgusted. "I should've known." She shook her head. "In that case, we have even less reason to remain here."

Ciela wanted to debate her further, but ultimately, Licorice was right. There was little that she could do here, and there was nowhere for her to enter, either. This had been a fruitless diversion. She was a little angry at herself for it.

On 11/13/2019 at 4:49 AM, Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd said:

"I think we should leave right now."

"...Yeah, I guess."

But, Ciela decided to go around one last time. Maybe her luck would show her something this time. She gestured to Licorice and Cora that she would go around the building one more time, and so she did.

As expected, there was no signs of any secret entrances, however, this time she noticed something that she had missed before. Traces of scorch were visible all around the front entrance. It was clearly recent-ish, so they clearly belonged to whoever locked this building in the first place. With fidning it, she was satisfied, and joined the others as they left the scene to return back to the house.

---

Adelheid

"All I found are business notices regarding this town's specialty for alcohol. Something interesting is in it, but compared to what the rest found, I don't think it is really worth much."

Adelaide accepted the ration that Cat gave her and began eating it. hoping that it would help her to calm herself down and focus on the situation. However, as she did so, she saw that Cat was holding a letter to her, asking as if she wanted to read it. Instead, Adel shook her head in response.

"No, I don't think that doing it like this would be good. I would rather leave the solving of this mystery to others." Adel paused for a moment before continuing. "Although, I do think that what Alois said really had merit. This was clearly, unintentionally, a puzzle for us to solve. In which case, shouldn't we be gathering everyone's clues and try connecting them with each other? At least, once we are confident that we managed to get most of what we needed."

 

[Tiamat's Circus 116]

After handing the key over to Penelope, Citron was left with a few more questions than she had been given answers, at least initially. There was a Key, inside the box, that they had used a key to get into, which was in a bottle, which was in another box, that would have required yet another key to get into had Citron not smashed it against the ground. All a… Lot, a lot of work for a key. Which, Penelope would promptly say out-loud. Before Citron herself had a chance to grab the key, Penelope had done that as well; something that Citron didn’t all that much mind, considering the fact that she honestly assumed that she herself would drop it had it came into her possession. “Guess we should show the others, then, huh?” She asked laughing a bit, as she followed behind Penelope as they began their way to the stairs. “Oh, and uh, I hope you don’t mind if I follow you. Since we found the key together, I’d sorta like to see what becomes of it first hand.” She explained as they walked.

And, along the way, they would meet the pleasantly nice armored-man, and another furry companion of his; the badger of the household. Jumping right to the point, Armor-Guy introduced the Badger as the mayor, to which Citron’s heart sunk. Initially she expected him to get angry over the key that Penelope was clearly holding, yet… He didn’t. She couldn’t really tell what he was thinking, but he didn’t like, try to gnaw it out of her hands, so… He wasn’t angry, something that was even more confusing. Even after Penelope confirmed with the badger what the key was for, it still didn’t quite satisfy her. 

Following a bit behind Penelope as she walked up the stairs, Citron stumbled backwards and nearly back down the rest of the stairs, as she caught a glimpse of what Penelope was stepping back from, being the blade of the guardsman who had helped escort them on their way here. “Hey, don’t, why are you-” Citron caught herself, stopping her stammer as the young man had calmed himself, and as Penelope seemed to brush it off with what sounded like a joke. “I-I have to agree with Miss Penelope- Imagine if someone had tripped and…” Citron trailed off, eyes trained on the blade. 

However, as the woman before her was set to move on, so was she. Following her to the table, Citron wouldn’t sit down quite yet, pacing a little bit as Penelope let the others now that she wished for them to gather. “Um, Miss Penelope…” Citron trailed off, before stopping. “Do you have any idea why a key to the town hall, might be so tightly guarded? I mean, they need to get in there fairly often, right? Since that would be the Mayor’s place of work…?” She reasoned aloud, letting out a quiet sigh. “Wouldn’t it be awful inconvenient to have to find where you left a key, so you could use it to open a crate, so you could grab a bottle from the crate, so you could wiggle the key out, and then finally open another crate to get the key to your job?”

Edited November 18, 2019 by Feral Pistol
it was a badger, and very much not a beaver.

[Saikazo 241]

"hey, hey guys! Heeeyyy! There's a door down here! Like, a closed one, not moving and stuff!"  So it seemed that the archer had followed him down there. It showed how dark it was, seeing as he had absolutely no clue she was there. He was lucky it was her and not some sort of assassin. He'd be a dead man otherwise.

"Hm... I don't suppose you found another key?"

"I rather you burn it down. Obviously a door this well hidden and locked isn't here because of good intentions," Shiro pointed out. Still, he'd play it their way if he had to. The archer seemed to have found something, although he had no clue what it was supposed to be. Some sort of panel with five As on it. "What's with all these letters?" Shiro muttered. "Some sort of message? Or maybe how the occupant organized his keys?" If he had even more hidden areas, then it might have made sense that they used a letter system to help remember what key went where.

[Cheshire Toon 139]

A fool. That’s what he was; the most foolish fool to ever walk the land of Mysia. Princess Penelope wasn’t somebody to brandish a sword at. She would fully be within her rights to execute him for it. 

Penelope seemed to brush it off. She swept past him to head up the stairs with a passing word of caution, but he was glued to the steps. Moron. Idiot. What was the word Marianne had used? Ignoramus? Bet I’m one of those too. Grandpa would be so proud. Lincoln Harkinian, Grandson of Rusl Harkinian, last of their line, executed for drawing a sword on the princess when she frightened him. GAH! Link violently thrust the roughed up Slag Blade into the scabbard on his hip. Calm down. Breathe. Walk it off. Just put one foot in front of the other. 

The soldier made it down the stairs a step at a time. The basement was… a basement. A large one, really. He could hear the sound of creatures rustling around. A quick sweep of the room revealed the badger was down there (still very dismissive-looking), as well as Edrick, which made sense as the shouting Pontic boy had been what brought him down in the first place. 

Wait—what was that on the table? … A sword. Link gravitated toward the gear before he fully realized where his feet were carrying him. It was iron; forged well, standard issue, sturdy and reliable; the sort of weapon you issued to a guard or a foot soldier. 

“Hmph,” Link picked the sword up with some strain (it was awkward to wield a weapon with his off-hand). It was extremely light compared to his own Slag Blade, but the weight was distributed properly and it was a lot easier to wield than his own beast, which had been looking rather battered recently. Perhaps it was a good time to look into getting another sword? Maybe the town would let him purchase the weapon, if they were able to reverse whatever spell had caused the mess. The worst they could do was tell him to leave it, so for now, he spun it and shoved it into his belt (as he was lacking a scabbard). 

“....” Link supposed he should feel guilty for snooping through someone’s house, but somewhere inside him, he felt like he was used to it. Weird. “Edrick. What were you shouting about?” he asked, turning to face the boy and changing the subject.
 

Edited November 20, 2019 by Cheshire Toon

[Wind Rider 10]

"I rather you burn it down. Obviously a door this well hidden and locked isn't here because of good intentions,"

That's what Sienna was afraid of, looking at the door again it seemed like that it didn't even have a keyhole. How would someone open it then? A button? A lever? Maybe a pressure plate or other mechanism? Either way, this was as far as they were getting in the tunnel until they actually found a way to open it up.

"What's with all these letters?" Shiro muttered. "Some sort of message? Or maybe how the occupant organized his keys?"

Sienna turned to see what Shiro was referring to, and sure enough, there were a few cubby holes in the wall, each with a wooden plaque with the letter A labeled on it. "Weird..." Is all Sienna could say as she looked at it for a moment before turning to the door. As much as she didn't want to do it, they needed to see where this tunnel lead. "Um... Stand back a bit..." She conjured up a small fireball before hurling it at the door.

[Asriel Dreemurr 38]

Edrick had been waiting at the base of the stairs for Catriona to come down so that he could explain the situation, and had given Link a wave when he came down while looking for the older princess. As such, he had been something of an accessory to the Soldier's reaction to the Younger Princess when she came around the corner too quick. He gave the older man a curious look, asking with his eyes if he was alright, but ultimately turned away and followed the younger princess further into the basement. She seemed to be gathering everyone together anyways.

That gathering also meant that the lancer was right where he could listen to everything that they had found, and do that most difficult of things: actually think out the solution to a problem which had been designed to be confusing. There was a locked door down the trap door in the basement, which...honestly spoke to a level of paranoia that meant there had to be something down there. Apparently they had found several keys scattered around the place as well, which had been thoroughly hidden throughout it. One of which opened the town hall. This was quite the problem, and all he could really think of was that they had something hidden in the old chapel as we-

"Edrick. What were you shouting about?" His attempts at figuring things out were interrupted by Link's question, and he looked over at the older man to see him walking away from a table with a sword on it. He'd thought about trying to learn to use a sword once, and almost cut his thumbs off the one time he tried. Yeah...he'd just be leaving that where it was.

"Right, so," he started, "the others found that room," he gestured to where they had all previously been gathered, "and when Tsegtseg went in she activated a net trap. After we got her out of that, she found a trap door leading down into a hallway under the basement. And apparently they found a door down there as well. Basically, it sounds like this house has as many hidden rooms and passages as the library back in Ithome. Maybe just as many secrets too."

[Sethera 290]

It appeared that they had found everything of interest on the upper floor. There were these letters, an actual letter underneath the bed, and business notices for the town's alcohol sales. Alois had already headed downstairs with a few parting words, but Catriona and Adelaide lingered a while longer.

The Pegasus knight declined to read the letters. "No, I don't think that doing it like this would be good. I would rather leave the solving of this mystery to others." Adel paused for a moment before continuing. "Although, I do think that what Alois said really had merit. This was clearly, unintentionally, a puzzle for us to solve. In which case, shouldn't we be gathering everyone's clues and try connecting them with each other? At least, once we are confident that we managed to get most of what we needed."

"Yes, that is a worthwhile idea," Catriona mused. "And I believe enough time has passed for us to investigate this house." She nodded and began to walk down the stairs to the first floor. "I will go and gather everybody. We should meet downstairs, perhaps at the table there."

However, it appeared that Penelope had already had this exact same thought, and had been a little quicker on enacting it. The girl already had gathered a couple of their number around the center table. Alois, Citron, and Edrick, though the lancer had started to wander off partway through the conversation, heading back down the basement. She should probably follow him and make sure everybody knew to head back to the table. Before doing that though, she noted some movement and then the front door opening, Ciela and Licorice entering.

"You have returned," Catriona addressed the two of them. "Did you find anything?"

Licorice shook her head. "No, but I believe that we should stop this investigation and move on. It does none of us any good lingering in a cursed place such as this."

The lord's expression grew a little stern. "Cursed or not, if this place holds any clues as to the--" she bit back her next words, "as to our goal, then we must help them." While she had not seen any hints on the whereabouts of the Great Dragon here, they had not entirely explored the village either. Not to mention, if they reverted the villagers to their human selves, they might be able to help them. While Edrick's talk of a possible "Ordination" of sorts sounded troubling, they did not know for sure that that was what was going on either.

The Protean became visibly agitated. "You do not understand!" She took a breath. "I have seen such magics before. The caster would have to be quite powerful to--"

"It matters not who or what stands in our way," Catriona replied. "The goal remains the same." She frowned. There was something about what the fox had said...but no matter. "Do you agree with her then?" she asked, glancing at Ciela. Whatever her reply, the lord would remain stubborn on the matter. Eventually, she glanced at the doorway to the hall. "I'm going to head downstairs. I'll let the others know to meet up here." With that, the woman entered the side hallway and descended the stairs to the basement, where she saw Gunther, Edrick, Link, and Tsetseg, as well as the badger from before. "Penelope is holding a meeting. Meet back upstairs," she stated, glancing around. "Where are Sienna and Shiro?" she asked. At being told the answer, she approached the trapdoor opening and shouted down, "Sienna, Shiro, you are needed upstairs."

--

Unbeknownst to the two Proteans in the deep basement, the rat from before had been standing right in front of the door. With a squeak of dismay, it scurried out of blasting range, disappearing somewhere into the dark tunnel behind them.

Oddly enough, the fireball appeared to have no effect on the door, bursting apart in a shower of sparks as it hit the wood. As the firelight died, it became even more obvious that the door had not caught aflame at all.

---

OOC

Spoiler

Reunion time! Catriona is going around telling everybody to meet back up on the first floor where Penelope is. For the purpose of not taking forever to reunite, no matter where your character is you can have them back up at the first floor talking with the others within a single post. You don't have to break it up or anything.

Check the map if you don't know where people are. Though I only reliably update it when I post once a week, so if you're unsure, make sure you read others' posts as well so you know where everybody is.

At the moment going by floors:

Deep B1F: Sienna, Shiro, Rat

B1F: Catriona, Gunther, Edrick, Link, Tsetseg, Badger

1F: Alois, Penelope, Ciela, Citron, Licorice

2F: Adelheid (unless she also went downstairs)

Outside: Beaver, Cora

Edited November 22, 2019 by Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd

[LordCowCow 839]

"hi hi there, Gunther. Guess what, guess what! We found a door down there, and it's all stuck and stuff. It's a bit sad but  - oh, yeah, yeah. I also found this panel thing, and someone really liked to draw triangles in it. But, whoever was drawing them is really bad at drawing triangles. I think they should practice more."

Gunther smiled back at the girl. Perhaps he should have grabbed the bear earlier. He had a strong urge to pat her head but restrained himself. "Triangles you say? Well, perhaps its some sort of clue. I can't say I'm all too skilled at figuring out clues so perhaps we should go tell Penelope."

He noticed the badger nearby. Gunther glanced over to the trapdoor. Perhaps he was worried about something he keeps down there? It brought to mind to the Knight again that they really were moving around this person's house.

"Penelope is holding a meeting. Meet back upstairs,"

Gunther felt himself stand straighter as Catriona gave the order. Whatever his concerns he had to listen to what the princess said. Before going he said to the badger, "I'm sure they won't damage anything, they're good folk...I think."

"Come on Tsetseg, let's go." Gunther said as he went out and up the stairs.

Reaching the first floor he glanced over towards where he had taken the cheese from and felt a small sense of relief knowing everything should be in their place now.

He went to the table where some of the others were. It was only as he stood by the table with the rest that he realized how little he actually had discovered about all this.

Whoops.

---

"there sure are a lot of weird mysteries that need solving in Histia.

"I know...isn't it great?" Penelope couldn't help but show her excitement. There was something strange about all this. In that she didn't actually know what to make of it. There were stories of such things, of course, but nothing that were rooted in fact as far as she knew. This didn't mean the books were wrong but she had to wonder if perhaps she had been interpreting the stories incorrectly.

“Do you have any idea why a key to the town hall, might be so tightly guarded? I mean, they need to get in there fairly often, right? Since that would be the Mayor’s place of work…?”

"I had the same thought." Penelope said. This girl was more observant than she had gave her credit for. How interesting. And suspicious, in its own way, she supposed. Yet she couldn't feel all too concerned. If it turned out to be the worst case then she would deal with it then.

"I suppose it depends. It could only be a copy. Or perhaps the town hall is not usually locked. In such a small community which, from what we've heard, is rather isolated it's possible they saw no reason to keep it locked most of the time. Whatever the case we will certainly have to check it out after this."

"You do not understand! I have seen such magics before. The caster would have to be quite powerful to--"

Penelope raised an eyebrow as she watched the brief argument. Watching someone try to disagree with Catriona was rather interesting. As expected her sister shot Licorice down quite quickly.

"It matters not who or what stands in our way. The goal remains the same."

She had to agree with Catriona on this. Though it might've been better to be a tad more diplomatic about it. "No one here is required to stay. Any of you can leave if you so wish. I plan on staying and figuring this out, however, regardless of where it leads."

She smiled at Licorice. "I am fairly confident I can handle any magic they may possess. Though I suppose it would be helpful to know where you've seen this before."

"Here and there. This is not the first time I have left the village. I have come across all sorts of magics in my travels."

Was that a bit of nerves she detected? "Well, then perhaps you can give some more insight on the matter. Where it comes from. The extent of the magic. How its stopped. What kind of person we might be dealing with?"

Licorice seemed reluctant to speak further. Penelope wondered what it could be that was holding her back. Between Link and Citron and now this Penelope was starting to wonder what kind of group she had found herself in. While she should be concerned she couldn't help but feel a bit of excitement. Navigating this would truly test her skill. And prove that she could inherit the title of Grandmaster from her teacher.

"This magic is referred to as ritual magic, and while it has unimaginable power, it is limited to a specific location. Such as this village." Licorice's face looked grim. "It can only be broken by destroying one of the magical anchors of the ritual. As for the person, it would be a highly capable magic-user, one we should not try to fight."

Penelope cupped her chin as she thought. "I see." Her eyes flicked back and forth as she got her thoughts in order. What would a powerful magic user be doing here? It seemed unusual for one so powerful to need help. There were several possibilities that came to mind but in the end, there was only one real answer.

"Well, then I suppose we must find this anchor and break it. And if the magic-user appears." She looked to Catriona and smiled. "I think you'll find we're not so easy to best."

Catriona was one of the strongest warriors she knew. She would not be bested by many foes. And Penelope herself had researched magic so much that she thought she should be able to handle any that came her way. No, the king's daughters would not be stopped by some dark mage.

"So, does anyone have anything they found that they want to share?"

---

"The issue is here, the fate of this continent rests upon that fool's shoulders."

What? Wait. No, you can't just say something like that so casually. Weren't they just a mercenary group or something similar?

No. Now that she thought about it that really didn't make any sense. So who were they? And why the continent? Was there something going on that they didn't know about? She hadn't heard of any major war or anything.

Cora stayed silent as her thoughts swam. Trying to piece together what all this could mean. And why in the world these people were so casual about stuff like this.

Only this Licorice girl seemed to not be absolutely bonkers and she was the one with the animal parts!

"There seems to be a quite active cult of Inera in this village "

There it was again! "Like I told that one boy, we do NOT worship the Goddess here and I'd like you to stop acting like we do. It's quite rude you know. The Goddess, ugh, just imagining that gives me chills."

After this they went back to the house, thankfully, and Cora found the first floor filled with people.

She stayed back, near the wall, as the animal girl argued with the leader girl. There was some kind of authority from the leader that Cora couldn't help but listen to. She supposed she should be thankful that they would continue to help.

Cora wasn't surprised that the animal girl had experienced this before. After all, she DID have a tail. Maybe she was worried she'd become even more an animal if she stayed.

Was she going to become an animal soon? Cora wondered what kind she might become.

"So, does anyone have anything they found that they want to share?"

Ah. Right. Cora stepped away from the wall a bit and pointed to the table itself. "So, I didn't mention before, but there was a letter under there....just thought you should know."

She wasn't sure at first but, given how adamant they seemed about helping, Cora felt that she should give whatever little help she could as well.

[Skaia 578]

Alois sat back and listened as Penelope and Citron described their findings on the mayor's key to the town hall. As Penelope mentioned the locked town hall and whether or not it made sense for it to always be locked in their community, the boy simply stated, "well, he's certainly not above keeping secrets from his loyal subjects," the last word with clear mocking in his tone. It was then that the point Alois raised an eyebrow at Licorice's sudden outburst, both in warning them yet again about how dangerous this was as well as indicating it from past experience. As Penelope seemed game to continue exploring the town and solving the problem, Alois suddenly wondered about what it was they were looking for. And more importantly, if they would even find anything in this town at all. All the same, he didn't have any sort of objections to the princess's plans, if anything he was feeling more to the contrary of just leaving everything to stay the same, and so he looked over to Licorice. Shrugging he said, "and that's just how things are. So, got any ideas what a "magic anchor" of sorts looks like?" 

As the topic shifted to discussing their findings, Alois looked to Cora as she shared her findings. Looking under the table he was sitting at, he as well found the letter R there. Though the boy had certainly found a lot, he sat there mulling over it for a bit before looking back to Penelope. "Well, we confirmed that the mayor pissed off a hag by telling her to leave when she wanted to stay here, and she's probably what cursed the town. Aside from that, I also found a letter "O" in the old man's dresser."

"Oh! Oh! Me! Me next!" Tsetseg, making her presence next to Gunther very well known as she shot her hand up, looking to everyone expectantly. She took the groan of dismay from Alois as a sign to continue, before saying, "well, see, I found lots too! Well, Sienna and Shiro and I all found lots! Like in one wall we found a lot of these really weird and badly drawn triangles." The girl counted on her fingers for everyone to see the number five, before saying, "five of them! Oh, wait. Six! There was a bigger one on another wall!" The girl seemed content with her explanation. 

Alois, meanwhile, curious and oddly skeptical about what the girl was describing said, "badly drawn triangles?" 

The girl nodded. "Yeah, yeah. See they were like," the girl then proceeded to draw lines in the air with her fingers to show what she meant. "See, whoever drew it put the bottom way too high. Maybe they never learned their shapes." The girl thought on it for a moment. 

Humorlessly, Alois informed the girl, "that's the letter A." 

The archer, shocked by this revelation, recoiled back by it before looking at the boy and then back to Penelope. "Alois knows how to read?!" The girl, clearly more shocked by this then the actual identity of the triangle. The boy simply put his palm to his face. 

Edited November 26, 2019 by Skaia

[Wind Rider 10]

Sienna was astonished to see that her fireball seemed to not even put a dent in the door, literally. The door showed no sign of burning, not even a single scorch mark. "Uh... Well... That didn't quite work..." She said, glancing at Shiro. Could the door be enchanted somehow, a means of keeping anyone but the owner from opening it without the required key? This whole situation just kept getting curiouser and curiouser.

"Sienna, Shiro, you are needed upstairs."

But before she could think anymore on the matter, Sienna's ears perked up to the sound of Catriona calling her and Shiro. She looked a t Shiro one last time and gave a defeated shrug and made her way back through the tunnel. A bit later she could be seen popping her head out from the trap door before lifting herself fully out of the whole. She dusted herself off and made her way to regroup with the others, overhearing a bit from the others on what they discovered.

"Well, we confirmed that the mayor pissed off a hag by telling her to leave when she wanted to stay here, and she's probably what cursed the town. Aside from that, I also found a letter "O" in the old man's dresser."

"well, see, I found lots too! Well, Sienna and Shiro and I all found lots! Like in one wall we found a lot of these really weird and badly drawn triangles." The girl counted on her fingers for everyone to see the number five, before saying, "five of them! Oh, wait. Six! There was a bigger one on another wall!" The girl seemed content with her explanation.

More letters... It's as if someone was slowly but surely leaving behind a message. Maybe if they found the rest of these letters they could make something out on what truly went wrong in the village. Speaking of which. "Uh... We also discovered a door down in that secret tunnel... From the looks of things there was no way to open it, it didn't even have a keyhole... And I'm just guessing but I think it's enchanted too, I tried to uh... Break it down, but my fire didn't even leave a mark on it."

[Tiamat's Circus 116]

Citron squirmed a bit under the initial, watchful gaze of Penelope, even as she answered her question. Something about being stared at by that woman was more terrifying than anything else she could think of; well, almost. It was like when her Mom looked at her, knowing she had done something bad, but in all reality she hadn’t actually done anything wrong. That anxiety filled moment of ‘what if I actually did something wrong’ kinda feel… That faded when Penelope gave a much, much longer answer. “...I mean, I guess that makes sense? But it feels like a pretty hollow answer. If it’s a copy, where’s the main key and why haven’t we  found it? And if it’s not locked often, why is it locked now, of all times? Are you telling me they locked it as pint-sized, creepy, furry creatures?” She asked, tilting her head to the side in confusion.

Confusion that only grew as the fox-tailed woman spoke up, asserting that they HAVE to leave, and that she’s seen ‘such magics before’. “Wait, you’ve seen-- Is that where your animal-like-aesthetics come from?” Citron recoiled, moving a hand to cover her mouth as soon as her surprised words had left it. “E-er… Sorry to be rude, Miss.” Citron replied, her voice muffled both by embarrassment and by her hands, as she did her best to return to merely listening to the conversations at hand. And a serious conversation it turned out to be, as the Boss-lady of the group commented on the fact that they would continue investigating, no matter what. “I-I mean, I kinda feel like I have to stay, to make it up to whoever’s stall I totally wrecked, y’know…?” Citron laughed, taking a moment to look between Licorice and Penelope as they continued on, with a discussion that was very much a back and forth.

A discussion that would have a resolution that only served to confuse Citron more. “Um…” The merchant-girl began, still glancing between Licorice and Penelope. “...Why do you both keep acting like we’ll have to fight whoever’s responsible?” Her voice was one of concern, as she posed the question. “If they really are as powerful as you keep saying,” she gave a quick nod towards Licorice. “Shouldn’t they also be smart…? Isn’t that part of the magicky stuff? Being super smart and all?” Citron continued, scratching her chin. “And… Aren't smart people generally the kinda people that can be reasoned with…?” She trailed off, scratching at her head. “I mean, I’ve never fought anyone, so… I sure hope whoever is responsible can be reasoned with.” She laughed, scratching at her neck as she glanced away; and as Penelope, and everyone else, seemed to move on, as Penelope asked what all everyone had found...

... And it seemed like everyone had something to present, as everyone who had spoken up so far, came back with a variety of information. Alois began by mentioning that they had confirmed the motive, that some 'hag' as he put it had been 'pissed off', and that was the cause; along with some letters. Letters that a few of the others, including the rude-girl who appeared to be unable to read, would confirm; mentioning that she had seen 'upside-down badly-drawn triangles'... Or, the letter A. And even then, there was still the matter of the door or passageway or… Whatever it was that the others in the basement found, with another door behind it that that was apparently immune to fire. All of this was clearly shaping up for a lot of information that she wasn't sure what to do with herself, so... Why not add something else to the list? “Um, if you haven't shown it or brought it up yet, and,” Citron paused, looking towards Penelope. “if everyone’s here, do you wanna show ‘em the key we found?” She grinned, clearly proud of her contribution and actually-being-of-use-ness.

Edited November 25, 2019 by Feral Pistol

[Saikazo 241]

Much to Shiro's surprise, the wooden door didn't burn at all. In fact, it seemed rather fire resistant. Well that wasn't suspicious at all.

"Uh... Well... That didn't quite work..."

"Indeed," Shiro muttered.

"Sienna, Shiro, you are needed upstairs." Well, it seemed the call to return had been given, so they didn't have time to stick around here. As they turned to leave, Shiro looked at the door one more time. What secrets could it be holding? It bothered him so much. But it also worried him. If they found a key, then he would have to enter the room first, to make sure no traps went off. He couldn't let anyone else do that... Soon, the whole group was gathered.

"Well, we confirmed that the mayor pissed off a hag by telling her to leave when she wanted to stay here, and she's probably what cursed the town. Aside from that, I also found a letter "O" in the old man's dresser." Alois explained.

"well, see, I found lots too! Well, Sienna and Shiro and I all found lots! Like in one wall we found a lot of these really weird and badly drawn triangles." Tsetseg explained. "five of them! Oh, wait. Six! There was a bigger one on another wall!"

"Badly drawn triangles?" 

 "Yeah, yeah. See they were like," the girl then began to pose with her fingers. "See, whoever drew it didn't put the bottom way too high. Maybe they never learned their shapes."

"That's the letter A." Alois commented with the exact amount of humor that Shiro was feeling at the second.

"Alois knows how to read?!"

"I think I'm beginning to understand why the Pelinna Patrol was so willing to part with you," Shiro muttered to himself.

 “Um, if you haven't shown it or brought it up yet, and,” the merchant spoke up “if everyone’s here, do you wanna show ‘em the key we found?”

"Well, if you found a key, we found a wooden door, one that doesn't burn. Perhaps the key goes to that door?" Shiro commented. He hoped to god it did.