[IC] Rings of Fate

[Letter Bee]

Krunk Fortress

_{Taking a break...}

Alexander left Eleanor for now, returning back to Zerraf and Jenso.

[tex]

Krunk Fortress

_{Lights out}

Krink didn't respond. Instead, his ball-like body rolled backward until he was bobbing back and forth on his back like a stranded turtle. The remaining soldier all backed away and began retreating into the fortress across the pathway separated by the two shallow pools. As they approached the large set of double doors in the distance, they opened up- almost as if by magic, allowing the small squadron entrance.

[Jensoman]

Krunk Fortress

_{We win...but there's not much time!}

"Yeah! We win!" Jenso cheered as Krink was lying on his back. It didn't look like he had any more fight left in him. He saw that the double doors opened in the distance. "Guys, quick! We gotta move!" He shouted to everyone, and dashed after the squadron of Krunklets, hoping to enter before the doors closed.

[Letter Bee]

Krunk Fortress

_Charge!

Alexander sheathed his Jian, and ran alongside Jenso, prepared to fight the Dark Lord!

[Whimsley]

Krunk Fortress

_{Sleepless giant}

The shrieking reached a maximum volume as the handle of a rapier collided with Zerraf's left, open palm. Fully intact, the blade appeared not to have just been blown to pieces. It was made of mettle for sure (PUNS). The wind mage tapped Krink with the tip of his shoe, rolling the turtle about for a moment, before retracting his foot. A low grumble came from his mask as he trudged away towards the Krunk mobile, stomping, effort in each step. He held his rapier as one may a great club, resting on his shoulder in a laze fashion. Swinging side to side, Zerraf reached his pillow. It was intact yet, 1200-thread and goose down. He sheathed his rapier and picked up the pillow. He coddled the floof with his cheek, closing his eyes, his grumbling becoming a hum. Before he turned, he noticed a trail of blood leading away. Turning his head, curious, he followed.

Zerraf reached an open crate, and inside was the woman from earlier. Who was she? So familiar. A sparkle in Zerraf's eyes. He place the pillow down and clenched his left fist, pulling towards him. The blood in her stained clothes and underneath her became part of a cyclone that made it's way out of the box, and in a grassy area about ten feet out. Once there was little blood left, Zerraf tapped her shoulder forward, and the pillow floated in-between the space of her back and the hard wood. With that, Zerraf turned back, a sparkle in his eye fading as his boots tread over an incapacitated Krink. A low grumbling could be heard coming from his mask as he entered the gates.

[Lady Athena]

Krunk Fortress

_{W-what hap-...!}

Eleanor awoke from her morphine dose, and groans. She takes a few steps before collapsing again."What happened to me? Last thing I remember I wa... She looks at her poorly dressed body and pieces things together. Eleanor gets to her feet, she was in pain but she didn't care at all. She had some business to settle with a certain person... They will wish they had never met Eleanor.

[tex]

Krunk Fortress, Lobby

_{And What a Lobby it is!}

Upon stumbling into the fortress, both doors shut behind the crew and were sealed tightly. Given their size and thickness, blasting through them wasn't about to become a reality any time in the near future. Had they just walked into a trap? Who fuckin' knew.

The Lobby area was massive, nearly 3000 square feet in a perfect square, with a massive arched doorway at the far end opposite to where the party entered from. On either side of the arch-way, there were two smaller, rectangular doors on the same wall, and 4 more doors on the west and east walls of the room's layout, giving the party a total of 11 options for exploration! Golly gee!

Well, 10, actually. As soon as the fleeing krunklets and krunklites exited through the main archway, it slammed shut, blocked off by a set of close-set bars, disallowing access to what appeared to be an open court-yard. It was obscured by the long tunnel that the archway initially allowed entrance to, only letting the party see a large fountain at the edge of a long brick pathway through the bars.

Looks like they were trapped in this domain!

...Well, everyone except Eleanor, who was trapped outside the fortress walls now.

[Jensoman]

Krunk Fortress, Lobby

_{Wow, this place is huge!}

Jenso overlooked the giant lobby and looked at the ten doors that they could enter. "Well...looks like we have plenty of doors to check.." He muttered, looking at Zerraf and Ainra. "Where should we go first? Oh...uh, my name is Jenso, by the way. Nice to meet you!" Jenso told Zerraf. Jenso didn't exactly know where to start. He could start randomly checking doors, but it could take a lot of time depending on how big the fortress really was.

[Whimsley]

Krunk Fortress, Lobby

_{Where is it?}

He yawned, scratching the bags beneath his eyes and nodding as Jenso spoke. "Eyo, Jenso-man. Zerraf." He waved with his left hand. Zerraf went to cradle his arm for a short nap, and it was gone. He looked about him, and it was gone. The wind mage began mumbling incoherently, checking the soles of his boots and the cracks of the floor. Within a blink Zerraf rushed to the door, as if there was no distance between. He punched the door and an echo permeated the lobby. His knuckles bled and blended into his red cloak. Did he leave it on the grass? No, he remembered picking it up. Someone had taken it.

Zerraf turned, neck cracking, to eye each door with a glazed look. Hell had no fury. "You can't hide the pillow from me. I'll take this whole place down." Zerraf strode with surprising energy behind Jenso, unsheathing his rapier and pointing it over his shoulder as Jenso opened each door. "Stand still," Zerraf breathed.

[Hatman1801]

Krunk Fortress, Lobby

_{Big doors for little people.}

Ainra was...pretty annoyed. Jenso had been standing right there and just let them roll away from him back into the big fortress. And now they were gone, and they were stuck in a big room with too many doors and it was all quite frustrating. To top it all off, now there was this new guy, who seemed to be too tired to care.

"Uuuugh. I just wanted to beat the shit out of these guys, and now we're stuck in their big fuckoff fortress and have no idea where to go. ...We should start by looking for the kitchen though, just a suggestion--" Ainra was cut off with speechlessness as their newest comrade suddenly punched a door and drew his weapon. His distress and murderous intent silenced her casual sarcasm in an instant.

"Wait, what? Hey, uh, your name was Zerraf? What's the big deal about this pillow?"

[Whimsley]

Krunk Fortress, Lobby

_{There were many like it, but that one was mine}

Zerraf turned his neck, back turned to Ainra. The rapier remained hovering over Jenso's shoulder as the door was opening. His wide brim hat cast a shadow over his eyes. Below the shadow was his red mask, expanding upon a rush of wind from Zerraf's mouth. "It was comfy. I could dream," Zerraf said. Ainra felt a draft had entered the room.

He rounded his left shoulder and faced forward once again. "Where we start doesn't matter to me," said Zerraf to the door.

[Jensoman]

Krunk Fortress, Lobby

_{What's behind door number one?}

As the door opened, Jenso got in a combat stance as he peeked inside the room. He kept his guard up in case something decided to jump at him, appreciating that Zerraf and Ainra backed him up. "Hey, I don't mind searching this whole place!" Jenso shouted, enjoying the mystery of what would be behind all the doors.

[Lady Athena]

Krunk Fortress

_{What you deserve?!}

Eleanor watches as everyone goes into the fortress and she heads towards the door... She tries to blow a hole in the door but all it does is reflect back and hit her. She glares at the door and shuts her eyes. 'Let me in... I have business with someone.' She falls through the wall and collapses on the ground with a loud thud.

Krunk Fortress, Lobby

Eleanor groans and gets back on her feet again. She grabs Alex by the mouth and drags him away into a corner. She whispers into Alex's ear "Y-you stripped me?.... I dont care, if you healed me or not. Y-y-y-you must die." She smirks and she pushes a dark ball through Alex's chest, leaving a gaping hole in his chest. Eleanor collapses onto the ground, once again from exhaustion

[tex]

Krunk Fortress, Lobby

_{Lord Krunk speaks!}

"YOU'LL KICK MY ASS, EHHH!?"

Lord Krunk's hoarse, raspy voice resounded through the room, coming from one of the high-up darkened corners from what appeared to be a very small speaker of some sort. It looks like this crummy old castle was actually quite-well equipped with modern technology! What a bothersome sound.

[color=darkgray]"How dare you trespass in my fortress!!!"[color]

As Krunk spoke, Jenso poked his head into one of the west-most doors, finding himself peering into none-other than the kitchen itself! It was lined with what appeared to be krunklets... Except they had no spikes, no markings on their armor to signify that they were soldiers, and they all seemed terrified when they turned to him.

"I'll make an example out of you pesky little pests myself! _{Spike, could you rally the other two generals} Come face me head on, of you dare, you blithering idiots! _{Could you also tell Lala that my coffee is getting cold, I need a refill} Venture forth, if you dare! Bwah-Hah-Hah-Hah!!!"

With an electronic buzz, the speakers fell silent.

[Whimsley]

Krunk Fortress, Lobby

_{Murder is fine}

The door opened to reveal more rolling ball men. They must be pretty small to fit in those suits. Zerraf wondered why they wore such an inconvenient uniform. Musing to himself, the wind mage spun his rapier about and pointed at various workers in the kitchen. "Eh-yo, you, or you, or you..." Zerraf continued until he had pointed at each individual. "Where do you keep treasures? You stole something of mine," Zerraf said. He licked the inside of his cheek. "And some ale would be nice..." A disruption of air from the corner caught Zerraf's attention. He yawned and trudged over, hunched, rapier lowered.

The girl from earlier lied next to Alexander, the man Zerraf suspected to be a rolling ball man. The situation confirmed two beliefs: he was still aligned with this bronchitis leader guy, and Alexander wasn't very good in a fight. Zerraf sheathed his rapier and leaned over (more than he already was) to offer his left hand to Eleanor. At the moment, his eyes still had that layer of gloss covering them, and black bags underneath. "Nice shot," Zerraf said.

[Jensoman]

Krunk Fortress, Lobby

_{THERE HE IS!}

Jenso had not noticed Alexander's death due to everything that was going on. He turned towards the voice that spoke, looking up at the darkened corner of the room where the speaker was. "AHA! THERE YOU ARE!!" Jenso roared, launching a fireball at the speaker from his left hand. As the speaker exploded into pieces, Jenso blinked. "...Oh." He blurted out, and headed into the kitchen. "Don't worry guys! We won't hurt you, as long as you don't try to...yknow. Kill us." He said to the krunklets. "Can you tell us how we can raise the bars at the main archway?" He asked in a calm tone. Despite that they didn't appear like soldiers, he was still cautious despite trying not to appear too hostile.

[Lady Athena]

Krunk Fortress, Lobby

_{Trust issues}

Eleanor groaned as she looked up towards Zerraf's hand. She weakly gets to her feet and ignores the hand "N-nice shot.... Nice shot?! THERE WAS NOTHING NICE ABOUT MY SHOT!!!"She sighs as she walks weakly towards the rest of the party. She looks at Jenso screaming at a speaker. 'Wait?... Aren't speakers one way?'

[tex]

Krunk Fortress, Lobby

_{Right Away Boss!}

The army of kitchen-Krunklets heeded everything they heard, rushing over one another in fear towards a row of fridges near the back of the room. These little guys weren't trained for combat, and certainly weren't looking to pick a fight. In a few moments, a little round man walked up to Zerraf, holding a bottle of premium Winshter-Shefter Ale. Looking up innocently, he handed the bottle to him. Aw, it was kind of cute, in a weird-contorted-ball-man sort of way...

Another chef approached Jenso and nodded, as if he were about to reveal the secret to Lord Krunk's fortress..

"NO SIR. I CANNOT TELL YOU THIS INFORMATION SIR. PLEASE DON'T KILL ME SIR," It cried, dropping to its knees, which just made it look like its legs had disappeared.

[Jensoman]

Krunk Fortress, Lobby

_WELP

Jenso turned to Eleanor as she spoke to him. "Oh, uhh...I thought Lord Krunk was in the corner over there...my bad! Um..who are you? You were fighting the krunklets earlier too, right? I'm Jenso." Jenso said to Eleanor.

He turned back to the Krunklets and smiled as they did as Zerraf requested, and a krunklet walked over to him. His smile vanished immediately afterwards however, as the krunklet claimed that it couldn't tell him how to raise the bars. Which meant it simply didn't know how to raise the bars, or it simply refused too tell him out of fear or loyalty for Lord Krunk. As it pleaded to not be killed, Jenso didn't know what to say right away, only speaking up after a short pause. "Um...don't worry, I'm not going to kill you! But we gotta get out of here, we need to defeat Lord Krunk." He said. After doing this, he headed for the fridges. After finding a delicious chocolate pie, he began to munch on it. "Mmm...delicious!!" He shrieked.

[Whimsley]

Krunk Fortress, Lobby

_Alcohol!

Zerraf shrugged as Eleanor walked away, repocketing his open hand. He trudged slowly behind, feet dragging. Eventually the wind mage joined back with the group as a bottle of ale was placed into his left hand. Zerraf lightly raised the bottle as a toast, and momentarily dropped the bottle before catching it again at its neck, just below the cap. He unscrewed the cap with a powerful flick of his thumb and pointer finger. Finally open, Zerraf took a long swig. He leaned, arcing his back as a bridge and unleashing a gust of sighs.

"Um...don't worry, I'm not going to kill you! But we gotta get out of here, we need to defeat Lord Krunk."

The wind mage spun the bottle so that the ale became a temporary whirlpool before allowing it to settle again. "I might," Zerraf chimed in. He didn't break eye contact with the bottle as he took another drink.

Seeing as his pillow wasn't here, door number two seemed the better option. Too much interrogating and talking. Too much time and effort. A sway in his step began to develop as he sauntered towards the nearest door. Zerraf leaned back and then propelled himself forward with one leg, the other rising into the door, just below the handle. Some alcohol spilled onto his left hand and on the floor as he soared.