The slight chill of an early afternoon breeze was quite refreshing as
Sylvia took in a breathe of fresh air. She had not known how long she had
been traversing through those caverns but the change of scenery was more
then welcomed. She glanced around her new surroundings, seeing only the
faded walls of old buildings and assorted rubbish which consisted of
battered barrels and boxes and others, all of which was obscured by layers
of webbing. She looked upward and caught sight of the peaks of several
buildings and realized that she was in some sort of back alley.
She began to march down the weathered road, though keeping a wary eye on the mass of web, she wasn't very fond of spiders. Slowly she walked, both her flanks covered by tall old buildings, while bits of sunlight descended into the narrow alley from above. She continued on, quite curious as to where exactly was her location and soon enough felt a slight tingle run through the gamut of her body. She stopped, quandary of the odd feeling that ran through her now taking precedence. She touched her face slightly, and patted around her torso and back, there were no wounds, she had noticed no peculiar silhouettes or shadows slinking around the rooftops of the aged buildings either. It would have been impossible for someone to sneak past her in this one way route.
Her paranoia continued for a few moments, but was subsided when she found no harm had been done to her. She chalked it up to anxiety, the eerily quietness of the area she was in was making her uneasy. Sylvia grunted at her lack of professionalism, she was no rookie, well not a total rookie anyway. At the ripe age of 20 this was her third mission for the Divine Order of Deus' Knights. And although her other missions had been much smaller in scale, she was more then prepared for this. She had already had a kill of 20 Hellspawn and 10 full blooded demons on our list before even receiving any sort of briefing for this latest assignment. Thanks in part to her constant training under a rather strict and ruthless instructor by the name of Vaskier. She remembered all those nights of excessive torture..eh training, and how many wounds she had to tend to in the wee hours of the morning. She dove deeper into her reminiscing mode and grimaced as scenes of her experience with silver came into view. "Pain is weakness leaving the body! Remember that and you might live through the night!" His odd attempts at motivation were hardly encouraging, Sylvia wasn't a fan of tough love, since it always resulted in her lying on a bed of sharpened spokes of silver in just her undergarments or some other outlandish form of training. It was to build character, he said, I hate you. To strengthen her endurance against weaknesses that many of her enemies would exploit, he said, I still hate you. To make her more of a warrior and less of a whimpering fool, he said, I hate you even more now. "You really did suck old man."
Sylvia shook her head to relieve herself of her state of reverie and return to the present. She was nearing the end of the dreary walkway and would soon find out where it leads too. She wasn't expecting the vast amount of sunlight and shielded her eyes as a flood of the orange rays swept over her. After her impairment had left, going as quickly as it came, the trenchcoat wearing woman was struck with a sense of awe. Victorian Era buildings stood proudly and with nary a sign of wear though such architecture had gone out of style long ago. Either someone had recreated this as a homage or it really was that old. She began to ponder at what exactly kept these structures in such perfect condition. Though she was no scholar on demonic physics, she was aware of such spells and concoctions that could keep a structure in perfect integrity. The sandy colored bricks that composed the building seem to spill out an aura of wisdom, who knows what they had seen for all these years? Sylvia took note of the arches and detailed engravings of an elegant pattern, the parapets that stood atop the building, along with the sloped roof. She took one good look at a corner turret and was half expecting some half eccentric queen to come out with her loyal entourage. She chuckled at this and with final fawning look, she was on her way. She began to walk down a pathway that was just as well kept as the buildings, she decided it'd be best to leave her mind occupied with where she was headed rather then what spell it was that kept everything here in such beautiful shape.
The ambiguous ramblings of a stone gargoyle playing sprung up at her, "The key to this door lies within the serpent's belly". Not surprisingly enough, after the riddle had been spoken, an architectural wonder appeared out of thin air. A 15 foot tall stone head of a serpent with a foreboding gaping mouth and smoothed pointed fangs too. She stared into the depths of the serpent's mouth and decided that the only way to go was down. And after labyrinth like caves and almost getting ambushed several times by Sk'arris, (thanks to their dim wits and love of battle they usually announced their arrival with more gusto then necessary. "One growl is enough, thank you." BLAM!) here she now was.
Sylvia blew a lock of her hair out of her eyes, I'm sorry that wasn't vague enough would you like to try again? Completely and utterly vexed about the rather vague clue, her mental tirade continued without a stitch. She had passed through the "serpent's belly", that was obvious but what now? Did someone actually intend for her to actually check every single one of these houses? Every nook and cranny? Oh whoever was sick enough to make such an irritating puzzle deserved to be dragged out back and shot. Sylvia groaned as she reached for a doorknob only to find the handle shift into the door. What? She stepped back and ran over to another door, resulting in a similar outcome. These buildings aren't letting me in! Sylvia headed over to yet another building and tried to break the glass only to feel the panes of glass were nothing more then bricks and stones.
"This is making no sense." She said aloud, having no success despite her thirteen extra tries. One of these doors must be the real one, but this is a big city! Lots of ground to cover. She came around another bend and was able to see the city stretched on for a few miles. Scratch that, this city is friggin' huge! It appeared luck was feeling very fickle today. "Now what?" She muttered to herself scaling through the recesses of her mind for some sort of solution. The loud acoustics of a church bell caused her to look up in sudden realization. "A church.a key to a serpent's belly...prayer? Maybe .." She began to follow the canorous sounds of the church bell, knowing that they were only leads.
She began to march down the weathered road, though keeping a wary eye on the mass of web, she wasn't very fond of spiders. Slowly she walked, both her flanks covered by tall old buildings, while bits of sunlight descended into the narrow alley from above. She continued on, quite curious as to where exactly was her location and soon enough felt a slight tingle run through the gamut of her body. She stopped, quandary of the odd feeling that ran through her now taking precedence. She touched her face slightly, and patted around her torso and back, there were no wounds, she had noticed no peculiar silhouettes or shadows slinking around the rooftops of the aged buildings either. It would have been impossible for someone to sneak past her in this one way route.
Her paranoia continued for a few moments, but was subsided when she found no harm had been done to her. She chalked it up to anxiety, the eerily quietness of the area she was in was making her uneasy. Sylvia grunted at her lack of professionalism, she was no rookie, well not a total rookie anyway. At the ripe age of 20 this was her third mission for the Divine Order of Deus' Knights. And although her other missions had been much smaller in scale, she was more then prepared for this. She had already had a kill of 20 Hellspawn and 10 full blooded demons on our list before even receiving any sort of briefing for this latest assignment. Thanks in part to her constant training under a rather strict and ruthless instructor by the name of Vaskier. She remembered all those nights of excessive torture..eh training, and how many wounds she had to tend to in the wee hours of the morning. She dove deeper into her reminiscing mode and grimaced as scenes of her experience with silver came into view. "Pain is weakness leaving the body! Remember that and you might live through the night!" His odd attempts at motivation were hardly encouraging, Sylvia wasn't a fan of tough love, since it always resulted in her lying on a bed of sharpened spokes of silver in just her undergarments or some other outlandish form of training. It was to build character, he said, I hate you. To strengthen her endurance against weaknesses that many of her enemies would exploit, he said, I still hate you. To make her more of a warrior and less of a whimpering fool, he said, I hate you even more now. "You really did suck old man."
Sylvia shook her head to relieve herself of her state of reverie and return to the present. She was nearing the end of the dreary walkway and would soon find out where it leads too. She wasn't expecting the vast amount of sunlight and shielded her eyes as a flood of the orange rays swept over her. After her impairment had left, going as quickly as it came, the trenchcoat wearing woman was struck with a sense of awe. Victorian Era buildings stood proudly and with nary a sign of wear though such architecture had gone out of style long ago. Either someone had recreated this as a homage or it really was that old. She began to ponder at what exactly kept these structures in such perfect condition. Though she was no scholar on demonic physics, she was aware of such spells and concoctions that could keep a structure in perfect integrity. The sandy colored bricks that composed the building seem to spill out an aura of wisdom, who knows what they had seen for all these years? Sylvia took note of the arches and detailed engravings of an elegant pattern, the parapets that stood atop the building, along with the sloped roof. She took one good look at a corner turret and was half expecting some half eccentric queen to come out with her loyal entourage. She chuckled at this and with final fawning look, she was on her way. She began to walk down a pathway that was just as well kept as the buildings, she decided it'd be best to leave her mind occupied with where she was headed rather then what spell it was that kept everything here in such beautiful shape.
The ambiguous ramblings of a stone gargoyle playing sprung up at her, "The key to this door lies within the serpent's belly". Not surprisingly enough, after the riddle had been spoken, an architectural wonder appeared out of thin air. A 15 foot tall stone head of a serpent with a foreboding gaping mouth and smoothed pointed fangs too. She stared into the depths of the serpent's mouth and decided that the only way to go was down. And after labyrinth like caves and almost getting ambushed several times by Sk'arris, (thanks to their dim wits and love of battle they usually announced their arrival with more gusto then necessary. "One growl is enough, thank you." BLAM!) here she now was.
Sylvia blew a lock of her hair out of her eyes, I'm sorry that wasn't vague enough would you like to try again? Completely and utterly vexed about the rather vague clue, her mental tirade continued without a stitch. She had passed through the "serpent's belly", that was obvious but what now? Did someone actually intend for her to actually check every single one of these houses? Every nook and cranny? Oh whoever was sick enough to make such an irritating puzzle deserved to be dragged out back and shot. Sylvia groaned as she reached for a doorknob only to find the handle shift into the door. What? She stepped back and ran over to another door, resulting in a similar outcome. These buildings aren't letting me in! Sylvia headed over to yet another building and tried to break the glass only to feel the panes of glass were nothing more then bricks and stones.
"This is making no sense." She said aloud, having no success despite her thirteen extra tries. One of these doors must be the real one, but this is a big city! Lots of ground to cover. She came around another bend and was able to see the city stretched on for a few miles. Scratch that, this city is friggin' huge! It appeared luck was feeling very fickle today. "Now what?" She muttered to herself scaling through the recesses of her mind for some sort of solution. The loud acoustics of a church bell caused her to look up in sudden realization. "A church.a key to a serpent's belly...prayer? Maybe .." She began to follow the canorous sounds of the church bell, knowing that they were only leads.