Cylus 10th 718, Late
Location: Somewhere between Ne'haer and Etzos territories...
It had been an incredibly long and increasingly daunting search out here, and the more time they'd spent scouring ruins in this place... the more it began to felt like they were chasing a myth. Crowley had worked twice as hard to decipher more of the texts Pat had found in the ancient crypt over an Arc ago. Meanwhile Pat himself had been determined to try and keep the moral of his group in better standing, even if he started to feel like this whole venture had been a wild goose chase. Cylus had been far too cold for his liking and quite often he found himself ready to quit, pack his bags and just determine Orimar a fable at best.
However with the moons high in the sky and the endless night looming over them, he knew it had to be either now or never for them to locate the ruins... because the chalice itself had taken on an eerie if not mysterious luminescence ever since Cylus began. So the proof was there... all that remained was for Crowley to crack the code while they combed the southern ruins, and tried to remain out of Raimeus's reach since his own goons were further up north. Thankfully Crowley had managed to compile an assortment of notes that pointed something out, something that implied the Orimatsu had put together a series of trials to undergo.
What these trials were remained to be seen, however their first step was to locate the Guardian of the Gate somehow. Even weirder the texts seemed to translate an unusually sound riddle, one that wouldn't make any sense to the crew in general unless Pat could figure out it's meaning.
Come and seek us, the faithful, hidden within our bastion
search for the Guardian who hides our entrance,
And look to the sky to light the way beyond,
for only the light shall reveal our way home
While they didn't have any clues about what this 'Guardian' was, their search on this particular night brought them to an amazing discovery. One that Patrick himself believed to be no mere coincidence...
Within a somewhat mountainous landscape they came across a valley, the group in general present as they came to inspect the surrounding area. To the greater side of the mountains where there were more cliffs, an incredibly large and weathered statue seemed to reside in a man made alcove. The statue appeared to be that of a three faced human being with six arms, each stretched out and in possession of peculiar items Patrick didn't know of. One he recognized to be the chalice of course and the other a dagger, but... the rest were too worn and weathered to determine what exactly. However out of all six items being held, four of them seemed to be of a crystalline structure instead of stone; chalice and dagger included.
This had to be it! As they stood at the base of the statue looking for an entrance however, there didn't seem to be any signs of a hidden door anywhere close by. Frustrated with the search effort Patrick had to take a Bit to cool off and think over it, and several yards later he'd come across something rather interesting... a carved platform had almost been buried in the snow.
"Found somethin, over here!" He called as he kicked and brushed snow off it's surface with his feet. It appeared to be a stone slab of a sort, with carved rings delicately outlined all the way to the center.
"What is it?" Crowley asked as he walked among the others that gathered near the slab.
"Some kind of... tablet of a sort, looks like they might've used this for rituals." Patrick guessed as he inspected the designs more closely, and discovered at the center of it all a triangle shaped hole... a shape that much resembled the dagger he'd brought along for this journey. "Or maybe..." He muttered as he pulled the object out from behind his belt, the three bladed piece felt cold and heavy in his hand. He held it above the hole at the center briefly, and then injected the key into the slab beneath them as the metal scraped against the stone. Once he pushed the dagger all the way in, everyone would hear a loud click as something tapped beneath the slab. Something large.
With a slow twist of the dagger in a counterclockwise motion, a few more loud and heavy clicks rattled underneath their feet. Until finally on the fifth and last click to come, the slab itself seemed to pop loudly as something pushed it from the ground. Then the elaborate rings started to rise together, each one stopping at a point until the centerpiece itself rose to a height. Now the dagger seemed to be rested within a pedestal instead, as more loud and unusual knocks were felt beneath their feet. The terrain felt as though it shifted a little, as four new landmarks started to rise from within the ground itself.
Towers.
Four stone towers and all rested in a particular compass direction, while the statue they were at earlier remained unchanged entirely.
Their first trial had begun.
OOC Notes
So first and foremost, sorry for the incredibly long and elaborate intro to this; had to make up for the account of reducing too many group threads with this plot. Our first trial in this plot has started, and we'll get underway once everyone grouped with Patrick has posted. I've brought it up as a discussion before but for sake of record keeping, here's the lowdown of what everyone's seeing as of right now:
[img]/gallery/image ... e_id=12974[/img]
At the center of this map there are two things to note, the first being that unusual symbol and the second the ? you see near it. The ? is the statue considered the Guardian of Orimar's entrance, and will only reveal the way once this trial is complete. The other points of interest (A, B, C, D) are the towers that just rose from the landscape, they're a good fifty feet height so they're quite noticeable.
The towers are however located on a terrain that's difficult to navigate without some skill in climbing, so bear in mind if you're determined to choose a tower to inspect then you'll have a bit of arm/legwork to do in order to reach them. Tower A is the highest and most difficult to reach, while B and C vary between mildly and somewhat difficult, and of course Tower D is the easiest to reach as it's down an incline at ground level (where we are basically)
It is points A-D we have to activate in order to complete the first step in this puzzle, which will be explained and underway once everyone has chimed in with their post about the discovery of the statue and the appearance of the towers.