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Adventure Awaits! - Prompt Voting CYOA (Always Open)

@Jonisca Welcome! Thanks for joining us!

Adventure Awaits! - Prompt Voting CYOA (Always Open)

The unnamed woman's character sheet has been updated! Gee whoever could have guessed what her name would be wowwwww *sparkle sparkle*

Adventure Awaits! - Prompt Voting CYOA (Always Open)

> "Are you Aika?" <

---

You watched as this woman briskly kept herself moving back and forth, still energized from the fight-or-flight adrenaline pumping events of the last minutes. She seemed more frustrated at the situation itself as she kept looking back towards the hallway, as if she would take off towards the lower level of the temple again. Your hand raised slowly, an effort to ground her and draw her attention away from the spiders. "Hold for a moment," you urged her to caution. Her antsy nature paused, and in the dim light you could see her wrist flick again to give you both a small magical light to converse under. She released a long huff as her arms crossed in front of her, and the mixed feelings of her gaze locked with your eyes. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but you must be, Aika Lennone?"

Her expression faltered, widening of her eyes a show of surprise as you spoke her name. Confusion and then suspicion pursed her lips, her hand falling less than subtly to the handle of her sword. "How do you know my name?" She spoke more flatly than before, a controlled and lower tone in her voice.

"Your master tasked me to find you. You had not sent word in quite some time, he feared for your safety and directed me here." Your explanation seemed to calm her down; Aika's posture relaxed, her fingers letting go of the sword as she let out a breath of relief. "Ah, I see," she shrugged and looked out towards the exit, the gleaming white mountaintops outside against the midnight blue sky. "It's quite hard to send a letter from atop a mountain, isn't it?" She gave a small and closed-lipped "hmm," as she mused to herself the notion, before looking back to you. "I must thank you for saving me, by the way. The floor in that hallway gave out when I tripped over something- I don't know what- but the fall was more than enough to leave me for dead. Luckily, I hadn't broken my right arm, so I was able to keep those giant spiders at bay with my magic. But then..." she shared with you a look of mutual understanding.

"My arrival must have stirred them again."

"Mhm, but either way I would have been a goner, spider-food eventually either dead or alive. Getting swarmed like that is a different beast than scaring them away before they get too close. So... thanks."

You accepted her thanks with a nod, and your curiosity pulled your own attention back down the hall. "If you don't mind me asking, what are you doing up here anyway, and by yourself no less?"

Your question poked at a spot she didn't readily seem willing to disclose to someone she just met, and she shook her head slightly. "It's... research, for my master. As you know since you seem to have met him, he's quite old. He's taught me invaluable lessons about magic but he simply can't hike up here like we can." Aika shrugged as she continued. "I'm his only student, so here I am doing his field-work. Not really my place to say what it is, though, wizards with their secrets and all," she cracked a smile as she lowered her arms again. "So, you know my name, what's yours?"

---

• Introduce yourself.
[Write in: choose a name, gender and race.]

• Withhold your name.

Adventure Awaits! - Prompt Voting CYOA (Always Open)

Today's post will be later in the evening. Friends made some plans and sprung them on me last minute ahah!

Probably going to actually cover a bit more than just asking the woman who she is in this post, to help move things along a bit more.

Adventure Awaits! - Prompt Voting CYOA (Always Open)

> Try convincing the woman to leave with you, back the way you came. <

---

The ear-wrenching squeals of your foes engulfed the air, both in their battle cries and their death throes. As the space available for you and the woman to stand in continued to shrink around you though, you felt your back press against hers. Before you could look over your shoulder, your attention was reclaimed by the large spider in front of you, lifting its two front legs and lunging them toward you. A quick duck to the side avoided the brunt of the attack, and your ally behind you broke away to hack through another wave of smaller foes before her. As the spider in front of you stumbled from its miss with a low thud, you turned to fit in a quick cut on its front limb. It pulled the leg back, hissing at you as you threw a glance over your shoulder.

"We need to get out of here," you urged your new companion. "There's too many of them!" She met your eyes with hers for a moment, opening her mouth to respond but quickly being distracted by an attacker of her own. She sliced through the foe with a resounding "Hyahh!" before replying to you. "We're fine! I'm not afraid of these-" she tried to justify, at least until one of the larger spiders planted itself right in front of her. Her attention turned to it, her free hand glowing with energy once again. She ran her hand over her sword, and the glowing white-blue magic focused onto the blade, which began to jitter and spark in front of her. "Get outta my way!" she yelled, lunging forward and slashing clean though the giant spider with a flash of lightning. As quickly as her spell crashed through her foe, the spark faded and her sword returned to an inert state. Her posture staggered for a moment, her breath catching up to her.

Two down, and two remained among the massive eight-legged foes. A seemingly endless swarm of their offspring began to fill in the space your partner cleared, and you rushed to her side to avoid getting left behind. "That-" you began, turning to lift your dagger against the smaller spiders that relentlessly jumped at you. "Unless you've got more of that, I still think we need to get to safety," you suggested. You could slash away at these things for only so long, and the look on her face was reluctant to agree but without any real argument against it. She looked past you and you followed her gaze, to the army that was pushing you into the corner near the staircase. The two remaining giant spiders were rapidly approaching, and even the walls were darkened by movement. As the glow of her floating orb began to dwindle, you turned back to her in time to see her nod at you. "Fine," she grunted in frustration. It took another moment of carving to make your way to the stairs, but luckily the opening was far too small for the more threatening monsters to reach inside.

The climb back up towards the entrance of the temple was much more hasty than then descent, and in the cramped corners of the stairwell there wasn't space for much more than stomping or kicking away the spiderlings that nipped at your boots. Atop the stairwell though, the sprint through the trapped hallway and into the foyer once again seemed too far for the hive to follow, the stragglers that tagged along this far were easily dispatched without the entire swarm backing them up.

Finally, you leaned against the wall and drew in a long breath as the sounds of scuttling faded into the depths below, and the woman you found along the way seemed equally tense as she sheathed her sword into the scabbard at her side. The moonlight and frigid breeze from outside once again found you both, not truly illuminating the room but giving enough light for you to see her silhouette against it as she paced with pent up frustration in front of you.

"Gods- Gods damnit!" She threw her hands down at her side. "This whole damn trip was a waste!"

---

• "Are you Aika?"

• "What do you mean 'a waste'? Why did you come here?"

Adventure Awaits! - Prompt Voting CYOA (Always Open)

Aika Lennone

Face

Race
Humanoid - Human (Gelish)
Age
Aika looks to be in her early adulthood.
Appearance
With long flowing silvery hair draped over a long dark blue cape, Aika stands somewhere between five and five-and-a-half feet tall. Dressed like an adventurer, she sports studded leather armor, complete with lightly plated gloves and boots over simple slacks and a tunic. Her lithe form and short stature make her look unassuming at a glance, but her bright blue eyes shine with a determination of something greater.

Skills and Abilities
Swordplay
Aika seems to know her way around a sword, capable enough to fend off a gang of thugs in blade-to-blade combat.
Magic
Aika has shown the ability to cast arcane magic, so far manipulating light and electricity for purposes of utility and combat.

Personality
Aika is a vibrant and airy voice in any room. Daring and full of wanderlust, she is as likely to leap headlong into danger as she is to grab her best friend's wrists on the way down. She seems well-learned in matters of arcane study, and her curiosity and ingenuity have been boons in unlocking the secret of the Temple of Zorkuth.
Biography
Aika claims to be the student of a wizard, learning magic from him and performing more physical errands on his behalf. She was tasked with performing some kind of research within the Temple of Zorkuth, claiming that she needs the dragon's heart.

Adventure Awaits! - Prompt Voting CYOA (Always Open)

> Approach her and give her one of your healing potions. <

---

As if her call for help wasn't enough, the sounds of danger rapidly approaching put some urgency in your movements as you tried to rush toward her side. Quickly drawing one of the vials from your bandolier, you knelt down and held the small potion out to her, which she took and promptly shot down. The magic of the healing potion took its effects nearly instantly, the woman's chest heaved a strong and purging breath, a gasp for air finally satisfied as she rolled forward enough to dislodge her left arm and push herself up. She reached for her sword, lifting it into her left hand before springing into a full stand, and looked to you with a smirk. "Thanks" she nodded, lifting her blade forward towards the noise. "I thought I was gunna rot away down here." With a bit of a wince, you pushed with your legs to rise and meet her posture as the light from your torch illuminated the first of your foes.

Peering back at you from the edge of darkness were eight beady eyes, glossy and reflective of your torch's flickering dance as a grotesques arachnoid visage came into view. From the size head of this spider alone, hovering at eye-level with you, the stature of it hidden beyond the edge of light seemed daunting. Your new ally looked fearless, a renewed zeal to survive in her eye as she rose her blade and shouted to taunt the beast. "Come back for more, huh? Well- you couldn't take me when I was down, now you've definitely got no chance!" Her free hand rose before her as well, and she murmured to herself in a language you didn't recognize. As her palm turned to face upward, a gleaming white light formed between her fingers, flooding the chamber with much more light than your torch could provide. The clear colorless glow of her spell flushed away the orange tinge of flame, revealing her cape to be a deeper midnight blue rather than the black it previously appeared to be. As she finished her incantation, the orb floated further upward, posturing itself several feet into the air and revealing the swarm of spiders in all directions. Needless to say, the torch was no longer needed, a thankful notion as your hands would serve better reaching for your weapon.

Beyond the mess of creepy crawlies, the rest of the room appeared to be a large auditorium of some kind. The closer wall to your right ended in a stairwell that sat in the corner with the far right wall opposite where you had entered from, not unlike the stairs you descended. To the left, the room extended much further, culminating in a stage or platform of some kind against the far left wall, raised enough to warrant steps to reach. Beyond it, a mural that spanned the entire far wall all the way up to the ceiling, where you could see the slit where the hallway you traversed through sat, directly above where you found the woman. At the base of the mural, as well as along the other walls, several doors and archways led out of sight into what you presumed to be more rooms and halls, all except for the far right wall which contained a cave-in the mouth of which was coated in webbing. Near this web, you saw the body of a fourth, larger spider, laying limp by the mouth with what seemed to be a sizable hole burned into its abdomen.

If the light was bright enough to make your dark-adjusted eyes squint, you could only imagine how annoying it must have been for the spiders that live here. Squealing and hissing was their response, and as the larger ones- of which you could now count at three- bared their fangs and rose their front limbs, the smaller ones began their march towards you two.

Their onslaught was met with the swinging and stabbing of blades, as they drew too close too quickly to fire at them with your bow. You and your ally fended them off as best as you could with her sword and a dagger you carried with you for close-quarters just like this. Unfortunately, the larger spiders would not simply wait for you to kill off all of their children, and the stomping of their movements meant you and her had to act fast.

---

• Try convincing the woman to leave with you, back the way you came.

• Stand your ground and fend off the large spiders.

• Stand your ground and focus on clearing out the smaller spiders.

• Try a different tactic.
[Write in: briefly describe an action to take]

Adventure Awaits! - Prompt Voting CYOA (Always Open)

> Make your way down the hallway. <

---

With a long breath of determination, you set forth into the darkness before you. In only a few short steps, the moonlight pouring behind you into the foyer of the temple was swallowed by the shroud of black that encroached on your meager torch, leaving you all alone in this cramped and narrowing passage. The echoes of your footsteps and the sifting of your cloths and leathers were the only stimuli to distract you from your thoughts, as you pondered where this could lead, where your target was, and if she was all right. Your inquiry about the first of these things would come to light- the light of your torch, that is- after not too long. The mountaintop upon which the temple rested within didn't seem terribly wide at this altitude, somewhat restricting a possible internal floorplan within. As you then expected, the hall came to an end, as a small circular stairwell sat snug against it. The ceiling, walls and floors of this place were starting to look more and more like they were chiseled from the mountain itself, with barely enough room to squeeze by as you followed the uneven and crudely carved steps down.

Soon, the frigid and flowing winter air of the outside world was replaced by a stagnant, stuffy, and uncomfortably warm stillness. The spiraling descent seemed to have no end, no landings or doors broke up the repetitive and cyclical journey down, until you came to the very bottom of the flight.

An opening that barely passed as a doorway without a door led you into a chamber wide enough to once again separate the walls from your torch's allowance. To both your left and right, the walls and floor extended beyond your view, though the right angle at which they met by this stairwell gave away that you were at least in some kind of corner. Looking up yielded little, the ceiling far above your light was instead replaced by a formless black. However, it was when you case your gaze forward that you finally noticed something of merit, not by sight, but a sound most critical.

"H-hello? Who's there?" A feminine voice called out from the darkness, shackled and gritty with fatigue and pain. You rushed, fighting the sting of your own legs as you briskly followed the groans until your torch illuminated a body on the floor before you. Laying partially on her left side was a woman whose appearance matched the description your client gave you. Clad in adventuring gear not dissimilar from your own, her lighter studded leather, full-slacks and front-plated boots were adorned with a long and dark-colored cape that covered much of her torso and back, contrasted by the almost-as-long silvery hair that flowed from her head. It was hard to tell how tall she was exactly as she was slightly curled in her posture, but she seemed on the shorter side for a human. Bright blue eyes stared up at you from a pale and lithe face, blemished by dirt, scratches and bruising. Just behind her but beyond her reach, near the edge of your bubble of orange light, a sword laid flat on the floor.

With one arm pinned under her side, the other struggled to lift her hand up toward you. "I fell," she explained succinctly. Her voice was desperate, willing to put her trust in whoever you were. "Can't move much. Help me- please..."

Unfortunately, before you could react, another sound began to fill both your ears and hers. A skittering, chattering-like series of taps and clicks, followed by a raspy hissing that sought to close in around you. You were familiar with these sounds, and the dangers that the swarm of giant spiders making them posed.

---

• "Are you Aika Lenonne?"

• Approach her and give her one of your healing potions.
[Spend 1 of 3 health potions: return the woman to a healthy condition]

• Run back to the entrance of the temple.

• Drop the torch and draw your bow.

Adventure Awaits! - Prompt Voting CYOA (Always Open)

I'm sorry, things turned out quite different than I thought they would today. I will write the post tomorrow (Monday) instead. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Adventure Awaits! - Prompt Voting CYOA (Always Open)

<Snipped quote by Kassarock>

I'll break the tie and vote for this!

@The Muse

Well that makes things easier. I'll write something up today for sure. Just taking care of other irl errands first.