Being an archive page of Four Temples.

The Four Temples of Dothaven are a tribute to the elemnts. Air, earth, fire, and firstly, water. Despite their tranquil names, their innards are gauntlets of traps and trick passages. A network of tunnels runs throughout the, massive, mazelike passages designed especially for the Malufel.

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Four Temples

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A string of emotions that can only be called profane crash through the death dancer's mind as her steps slow as she approaches the temple...water. She isn't familiar with this one. Sighs, finally stops to put her boots on, much to the delight of her slightly pummeled feet.

A breathless Momo finally catches up to her, panting heavily. "Why did you... huff... run? Jeesh, are you stupid? What about that monster?" She looks around, at the marble aqueduct that they call a temple. "Pretty," she observes.

Skye also arrives out of breath. He looks around. "This is nice... but why are we here? Your light is blinding me, dancer. What happened?"

Hadone glares at Momo a moment before glancing to Skye, gesturing to her lack of a mask as though it should be obvious and then to the water and the occasional nymph below.

Momo blinks. "Well. Excuse me for giving a damn." She looks down into the water. "Stupid fish."

Skye gives a sigh. "They took your mask. I know. But aren't we supposed to stay away from this place?"

The death dancer shakes her head...reconsiders this. No, they're not forbidden from entering. But neither is Malufel. And the traps aren't friendly, either. She finishes fastening her sword belt and cloak and then waves the other two off. It is potentially dangerous, no need to get them involved.

Momo blinks. "Horse shit. If you think that I'm going to let you go by yourself, you're crazier than you look."

"And I'm not staying out here, either," Skye puts in. "What if that thing shows up again? Which reminds me... it doesn't have any light. Or at least, not as much as a normal living thing does. It just has traces. I'm not sure what that means."

Hadone just shrugs...mostly to Skye's question of Malufel's "light," whatever that means, but to both of them. She looks up at the temple and, motioning that they be watchful...steps cautiously inside.

Skye follows, muttering a quick prayer under his breath, hand held steady over the hilt of his sword - should he need it.

The innards of the water temple are simplistic. Bridges of glass and marble span from gazebo-esque island to island, and there are many points where the path forks. The temple itself has an impossibly high ceiling, sky-like in a way, and is suspended by some invisible force a few feet above the water. The sounds of splashing is fairly common below, as nymphs and various mer-creatures play, fight, and flee as the situation demands. 

Momo follows along with the two of them, thinking about all this. "Do you suppose we can get out this way?"

Hadone nods, pauses...shrugs a little. Probably, yes. But nothing is certain in these places. The people in general steer clear of them for a reason.

Abruptly, the path ends. A hundred yards in front of them, far out over the water, there is another gazebo, but the bridge to it was plainly never there. Momo blinks. "I wish we could find the people who designed these places and shoot them." 

At their feet, there are four tiles labelled with elemental signatures, one for each of the four. Aside from that, there is nothing special about this particular gazebo. In the water just in front of them, sitting pleasantly on a stone, a mermaid is singing quietly.

Skye is gaping. Apparently he's never seen a mermaid before.

Momo just snorts. "Men. What's so special about her? Someday I'll have boobs too, you know."

The mermaid, for her part, continues her singing, though she looks at them now and raises her voice. The song is in Common, oddly enough, and seems to be about a whale, or perhaps a sea serpent. That is until the verse:

When the river runs dry
And the krakens emerge,
Then Skye under sky,
I will sing for your dirge.

Momo blinks. "Sky under sky? Is that like... clouds?"

Skye blinks as well. "What's a dirge? I mean, I know what a kraken is... it's a huge squid, right?"

Momo nods, gazing down at the mermaid. "I think so. And a dirge is a sad song, like a funeral song." She glances up to Skye. "Want me to shoot her?"

"What's that?" Skye asks, snapping out of his daze. The mermaid's song is quite... enchanting. "Why would you shoot her? She has light, you know." Then, quite suddenly, "Why would she sing a funeral song? Who's going to die?" He looks to Hadone, as though she would answer.

Momo shrugs. Damn boobs, taking his attention away.

Hadone shrugs a little. She's still thinking over the song. Sky under sky? What is that supposed to mean?

As though seeing some other kind of light, Skye puts a hand on Momo's shoulder. "Is she singing about me?"

"Well," Momo thinks about that one. "It would make sense. But it doesn't matter what she's singing about if we're stuck here. Lookie," she points across the water, "the next island is over there. There has to be some way to get over there. Look for a boat or something."

Hadone nods, but proceeds with caution. Never know what you're going to find in this places.

The mermaid looks at them again, as if puzzled, and sings another verse.

"Red, blue, green, clear,
The way to the wind, so close, so near,
Where earth would be, if earth were here."

The death dancer pauses at that, far-too-pale face turned to the mermaid a few moments, then retreats the few steps to the gazebo and rexamines the tiles. Mermaids are experts at confusion, it's what they do. Still, no sense in not being surer.

Skye looks, too. "So we've got to choose one of these?" He frowns a bit. "Strange symbols..." He's only ever seen something like one of them, on a pyramid in the desert. He points it out. "I think that one stands for fire. But I could be wrong."

About this time, a very familiar nymph shoots up from the water, wearing Hadone's mask, and giggling. The mermaid watches her with amused, maternal interest, and goes back to her soft singing.

Hadone glances at him. She's not positive of course, but some simple logic suggests... she takes a few drops of water on her hand--it's not exactly hard to come by in here--and sprinkles them on the blue tile, scrapes a bit of dust onto the green one with the toe of her boot, sets a candle she's carrying for some reason on the red one, and leaves the glassy one blank. Looks back at Skye and gestures over them.

"Something for each element..." he mutters. At this point he's trying very hard to black the mermaid's song out of his mind and concentrate on the task at hand: getting the dancer's mask back.

The mermaid sighs, and slaps her shining tail on the water four times. "Gods! Have you no eyes in your heads, nor ears? Red, blue, green, clear. Push the tiles in that order. Gods, no wonder humans get stuck in this place," and so on, and so on, gripes the mermaid as she dives down into the water.

Momo tilts her head. "I think we just got punked out."

Skye shrugs. "What does she expect, singing in riddles?" He reaches down and pushes the tiles in the indicated order, muttering something under his breath that sounds suspiciously like "women..."

Momo hops away from the far rail as the gazebo begins to shake. The rail retracts just as an arching walkway emerges from the water beneath, roaring with a stone-on-glass grind until it connects the two gazebos cleanly. 

Moments after it connects, a growling gurgle that should still be familiar rises from behind. Momo turns to looks, shrieking at the sight of the Malufel walking down the glass bridgeways about a thousand feet away.

Once again, Skye sees only traces of light. Not the beast's own. "So, we're going to run?"

Hadone quietly picks up her candle, makes a "shoo-ing" motion at the other two. If they're frightened, they should go. 

The beast picks up its pace. It it is now within five hundred feet of them, and Momo decides to take the initiative. She turns and bolts across the new bridge, not looking back to see to the other two until she reaches the other side.

Skye hesitates a moment, hand quivering over the hilt of his sword. "Xsa..." he says before turning to follow Momo.

The death dancer watches them go...turns the candle over thoughtfully in her hand before striking a spark to light it. It has a pleasant scent to it...one the monster had enjoyed in the past. She doesn't know why she'd kept it with her all this time, but she's certainly glad now that she had. She looks up and watches the invincible Malufel thunder towards her.

The beast's protective flaps pop open, searching the area, but its rumbling slows. It can feel a familiar sort of heat that reminds it of someone in particular, and it lumbers towards that heat. 

Momo simply stares. "She's out of her fucking head."

Malufel crouches in front of Hadone, no more than five feet from her. Rumbles curiously.

The death dancer smiles softly, and holds out the candle. Yes. Hello to you, too.

"I think she knows what she's doing," says Skye. "Her light seems calmer than it was a while ago."

The beast reaches out, as if reaching for the candle, with a hand that could envelope Hadone's... actually, could envelop a good part of her upper torso. It has calmed noticeably.

Momo gasps when it reaches out. "It's going to take her," she cries, and before she can stop herself, she dashes out onto the walkway. Her little hand tears the pistol from her belt, and she sets to fire. "Die! Leave her alone!" 

Three staccato bursts split the misty air. The bullets that rip across the water slam into the Malufel's shoulders and chest, drawing a shrill scream of pure feral rage from within its torso.  The monster shoves Hadone aside. Momo fires again, but before she can properly take aim the beast is upon her. Her shrieks rise up over the beast's gurgling, but are cut off when six insectoid legs shoot out from within the Malufel's chest and grab onto her. She's still struggling when she begins to disappear, inch by inch, as she's dragged into the black rift that burns within the Malufel's chest.

The monster stands to full height, its deed done, and bellows.

Skye stands some distance away, shocked at what he has just seen. "It... ate her." He starts to build up his light to project it out, but then realizes it won't do any good. Even as he gives up this plan, he notices that the traces of light on the Malufel have changed. Some of Momo's light is there, still bright. "Xsa... dancer, get away from that thing!" he calls, hoping he won't have to watch the same thing happen to her.

Hadone clenches her teeth and fist alike from where she lays on the ground...slams the fist into the stones. Momo...damn you, you noble little fool. You impetuous fool...damnit.... Needless to say, she's not so keen on the Malufel at the moment, either...doesn't blame it, in a way, she knows its nature. But is too aware of that nature at the moment.

Either way, she is what she is, and a low note hums from the death dancer's throat, building slowly towards true voice.

The Malufel turns towards her, shaking back and forth. It reaches down, snagging Momo's gun carefully, and hands the weapon to the death dancer. It shakes again, almost as if to say 'no' as best it can without a head. Growling quietly, it sets the gun down and walks away, back the way it had come. 

The mermaid's voice can be heard clearly from down below. "One down. You cannot tarry. He who hesitates is lost."

Hadone's voice fades again, eyes somewhat narrow, but more perplexed. She shivers in her still-soaked garments and stands up, subdued, Momo's gun in hand. She glances down at her hand...candle's still burning. She takes a few steps after the Malufel, kneels to set it there...and turns to walk after Skye.

He opens his mouth and starts to ask if she thinks Momo's alright, but then seems to remember that she won't answer him, and promptly halts the question. He keeps one hand on the hilt of his sword and continues to stare at the Malufel, still in horrified awe.

Hadone walks about to where he is, looks down. They aren't that high above the water...maybe two feet. Now where's her damned mask? A superficial concern compared to what's happened, yes, but...a nicely distracting one in its way. Her eyes glance over the nymphs that come and go...it's fairly obvious what she's doing.

"Yeah... we'll get your mask back," says Skye. "And then, I'm going to get Momo back. I don't know how, but I will."

The nymphs, though, are all dancing about unmasked. The path continues on past where they are, down a few more gazebos and into a shrine that, despite what logic would dictate, seems to stretch down beneath the water.

Standing in the door of that shrine is a very curious-looking lizard-man, wearing an awfully familiar mask.

Hadone had nodded to Skye's promise to Momo...stops as they approach the lizard-man, eyes on her mask. She clearly isn't sure how to approach the situation.

Skye pulls his sword a fraction of the way out, keeping his eye on the mask. He hopes the thing doesn't attack, but he's ready in case it does. He looks to the dancer.

The lizard squeals, and takes off down the hall, into the belly of the shrine.

Hadone smacks herself in the head. Yeah, that's how most people react to drawn swords. She takes off running. Watchful as possible for traps, but...damnit, she wants her mask back!

Skye runs after her, not exactly as cautious. He's not exactly pleased at how this is all turning out.

The lizard disappears down the tunnel, running at no particular speed but somehow turning to run along the walls and ceiling as it goes. In this tunnel there are very distinct patterns of colored tiles along the floor; the lizard had avoided them by running along the walls. There are obvious notches in the ceiling as well, which gleam from inside.

Skye skids to a stop, looking down at the tiles.

Hadone stops as well, eyes travelling over the tiles. Are they the same colors as the ones before?

The colors are the same as the other tile puzzle. Each tile is about two square feet in size; plenty of room to stand upon. The lizard man's footsteps can be heard pittering down the tunnel ahead.

Red, blue, green, clear. Or was it Red, clear, green, blue...? It's far too fearless a thing to do, really, but...Hadone steps out onto a red tile.

Skye watches with baited breath, hesitant to follow. Surely there was a reason - other than for decorative purposes - that the tiles in this hall were the same as the ones they pushed to make the bridge appear?

When Hadone touches the red tile, sparkling shards of ice fire downward from the ceiling, raining in a cascade of frozen daggers upon every tile that isn't red.

Skye jumps forward, startled. A shard of ice catches and rips his sleeve, exposing the black mark on his shoulder. He momentarily loses his balance, but then manages to catch himself by grabbing Hadone around the waist.

The death dancer's eyes snap open at that. she tries to grab her balance. A foot shoots out to do that...now she's touching both clear and red.

When she touches the clear tile, a sound very much like a buzzer roars out of the entire water temple. A hail of twinkling ice shards hurtle towards them from the end of the hall as the holes in the ceiling freeze over.

"Hit the deck!"

Wide-eyed, the dancer follows the advice...goes over backwards, though, not forwards, off the tiles.

Skye has the misfortune of being behind her as she falls and has to move quickly as not to end up as Hadone's cusion. He mutters something unintelligible and props himself up a little on his elbows to look around for whoever called out the warning. "Are you alright, dancer?" he asks.

Behind them, Mi'ehna pushes up from her belly and dusts herself off. A simple shortsword occupies her left hand, a buckler her right, but her expression is more belligerent than both. "Are you two alright?"

Momentarily blinded by the pink light, Skye turns his focus away from her and nods. "We're fine. But Momo..." he doesn't finish the sentence.

Mi'ehna stops behind them, eyes grim, lips set. "Forget about her, then. Do not trouble yourself with impossibility." She reaches a hand down to each of them, after sheathing the shortsword.

Hadone takes the hand with her non-dominant left, trying to call as little attention as possible to the crystal sticking in the back of her right arm as possible as she gets to her feet, glancing at Mi'ehna and then out over the field of tiles.

Skye gets up on his own. Damn that blinding pinkness. "Something took her mask," he says, gesturing to Hadone. "We were trying to get it back."

"Then you should have let it go," the village leader growls, all the innocence implied by her appearance broken away with that. "You are fools to test this place. And..." she looks at Skye, "what the devil is wrong with you? Why are you squinting?"

Skye continues to avoid her eyes. "Your light is blinding me, woman..." He fingers the rip at his sleeve, hoping she doesn't know what the mark is for. Last thing he needs is questions about it. "And you want us to forget about Momo, too? And what of the dancer's mask? She doesn't speak, but I can tell it's important to her."

"More important than your lives?" Mi'ehna closes her eyes, bites her lip. "Listen. I apologize for sounding so unfriendly just now. But the mask can be replaced. Momo cannot." She looks at Skye, sighs softly, and steps back. The silken pink locks, her eyes, and her 'light' fade into a dark, midnight violet all at once, as if she had willed them to do so herself.  "Better?"

Skye meets her eyes at last, surprised. "How...?" He takes his hand away from his sleeve at last. He looks down at the floor again. The color reminds him of something he doesn't want to think about. "How will we get Momo back? Can we get her back?"

"My body was infused with sorcery long ago. Twice, actually, and each resulted in a different color for my life force. As for Momo... if I were you, I would forget that she ever existed. But I am not, so, I will tell you that about a third of us believe that the Malufel's inner light is a portal to another place... possibly a holding cell, or even another oubliette. The only thing we know for certain is that no one who has been taken in by the beast has ever returned to us."

Skye is silent for a long moment. It would be easier to just walk away from the temple, pretend Momo had never been there, and perhaps try to find a way out of the oubiette. But then, he wasn't one for doing things the easy way. He grinned. "Then I guess I'm going to have to let that thing take me and find out."

Mi looks at Skye as if he's just sprouted a nipple on his forehead. "You must be suicidal. It is just a theory, held by a few of us, Skye. There is just as good a chance that Momo was vaporized as transported somewhere. And what if it decides not to take you into its inner light, and simply breaks your bones?"

He shrugs. "Well, then I die, right?" He tried to sound as though it didn't frighten him, but there was a certain drop in his tone that indicated otherwise. "And the dancer here can sing a song for me."

Normally Hadone would have acknowledged that in some reasonably positive way, but she's a little caught up in what's happened, too...not to mention a bit peeved, unable to blame everything on herself in this case.

"Madness," Mi'ehna answers, shaking her head. "I will not be party to such a ridiculous plan of action. Please, do not misunderstand me master Skye. But I will break my knuckles over your face before I allow you to feed yourself to that devil. That goes for you too, dancer."

Hadone glares at Mi'ehna a moment before looking back out over the tiles. She certainly hadn't been considering it. At least not right now, and not for the purpose of getting Momo back.

Skye opens his mouth, closes it, then takes a deep breath. "Hit me if you want, but I've made up my mind."

Mi'ehna turns her head, her expression clearly one of regret, and without any particular warning swings a perfectly professional left side uppercut at Skye's chin.

Skye, surprised, prepares to launch his light, but then drops the attack, takes the hit and falls to the ground.

Hadone looks down at him. Don't say she didn't warn you.

Skye takes a moment to breathe, then stands up again, hand on the hilt of his sword. He flashes Mi'ehna a smile. "So what do I have to do to get him to eat me? Just get him mad?"

Mi'ehna doesn't even crack a smile, or a scowl. "It will not eat you. Not if you want it to, Skye. Its only lives to prevent escape from this place." She sighs softly, looks at the tiles. "Do you two want me to accompany you a little ways into the temple, so that you might actually survive? And so that I may have a chance to hit you again?"

"You can hit me again if you like, but I might try to blind you." He takes his hand off the hilt of his sword. "You'll lead me to the monster, then?"

She looks at him again, though her expression this time is one of utter confusion laced with a bit of misery. "Why do you want to die so badly?" She shakes her head. "The monster will find you, rest assured. I am pleading with you. Either turn back, or press on, but forget about the monster. Please." Her fist is shaking, though, and it is quite clear that she would not hesitate to take another swing at him if she thought it might help.

Skye sighs. "Look. I don't care how hard you hit me, I'm going to let it find me." He closes his eyes for a moment. "I'm scared, you know. But if there's a way to get Momo back, I'm going to try."

The death dancer quietly jerks the ice shard out of the back of her arm and bandages the wound as they talk, calling as little attention to herself as possible.

"Dancer," Mi'ehna calls to Hadone, without taking her eyes off Skye, "I brought a medical kit. Do you want it?" It's actually just coincidence... Mi'ehna didn't see Hadone's injury. She just doesn't know how to reply to Skye just yet. "Skye," she begins, thinking hard about the words that are forming in her mouth, "fine. If you really want to let the monster find you, come back to town. The opposite hallway... has some sort of alarm system that calls the beast when someone enters." She steps away from them, eyes misty, as her light, hair, and eyes fade back into pink. "But I will not let you through willingly." She turns, and begins to walk back the way they came.

Skye follows. "Will you be able to replace your mask?" he asks Hadone. He feels partly responsible for her losing it, anyway.

Hadone shakes her head to Mi'ehna's offer--she's just finishing up--and then shrugs to Skye. If they get out of Dothaven...yes. If not...unlikely.

The way back seems more or less clear... it's as if every trick and trap has undone itself the moment they turned back towards the town. Even the mermaid is singing happy songs about fish and bad oysters.