Trial of the Quick: The Mask of Mirrors

[Therin]

The eastern coast of the continent which now claims Norwind as its capitol has long been shrouded in mystery. Malignant energies, emanating ceaselessly from the western entrance to the ancient Labyrinth, have twisted the flora and fauna into violent reflections of what they once were. Nearly every living thing is poisonous, and each venom is more potent than the last. Few things live for long in these lands.

Through this territory, in continuous migration from north to south and back again, move the Bonji, their name meaning literally "To run" in their language. They stop only for the rarest of circumstances. When one must sleep, that person is picked up and carried on a stretcher until he or she reawakens. To stop outside of the holy grounds is to die.

The Bonji forest, jungle-like in its southern extremes and piney in the north, is chokingly close the entirety of its run from the southern beaches to the northern cliffs of the east coast. In the center of this huge forest, staring up at the sky like a huge, withered eyeball, lie the holy lands, a perfect circle of parched desert, totally devoid of all life. Cracks radiate from the huge structure in the center, a massive, pyramidal construct of stone upon stone. Twice a year, every equinox, the two tribes of the Bonji meet, and their combative ritual begins. Every strong male of each tribe is put forth, to do battle. Each tribe fights to climb to the stair-like sides of the temple, to the small trap door at the very top. When one succeeds, from either tribe, the battle is over, and both tribes sit back to wait. The specifics of what lie inside that temple are unknown, but the last time a Bonji warrior succeeded in returning from the inside of that temple, he brought the mask of Mirrors with him, and dropped it, with care and reverence, into a small recepticle at the southeast corner of the temple. He now rules both tribes; every man since has died in the temple. Whichever one of you makes the entrance to that place, do so with all of your wits about you, as rest assured, you will need them.

----

The trees are ancient here, looming overhead like age-old monuments. The canopy completely blocks out the sun, and the forest floor is always in shadow. Pale eyes flicker from tree to tree, and the few perceivable shapes are jagged, and unnatural. The very air seems poisonous. Watch your step, travelers, for as the trees seem to slide together behind you, you are entering a land that thrives on death.

[Ultrawolf]

Huh.
"Before we leave, I need to hit up the armory...gather some supplies and equipment I'll need. Rations, Munitions, tools. Whatever we'll need."
Ultrawolf eyed Jaim.
"We can't let him know where it is...."

[Dantrel Rayne]

"Your boyish follies are nothing to be envied."

Rayne immediately turned to Ultrawolf; he was going to have a hard time not killing this boy.

"I need to pick up some antidotes that some of my research has said to be a must while travelling through that coast, so I'll bring the boy with me when we're in town."

[Therin]

OOC: That has all been done already. You have just entered the poisonous forests of the Bonji.

Jaim stepped lightly off the board and held up his hand to retrieve it as it floated up and reformed. He held it over his head. The blade split down the middle, the two halves opening to the sides like wings, and a skinny metallic proboscis telescoped upward. Suddenly, bright light burst from the tip, shattering the darkness of the forest. Jaim led the way farther in, stepping carefully over everything that wasn't solid ground.

[Dantrel Rayne]

ooc: awh, you're no fun.

bic:
Rayne raised his forearm at the light, casting a shadow across his eyes and face. He dropped his arm after a moment, the shadow in a rough shape of a section of his forearm remained on his face, covering his eyes from the light.

"Turn that light out, boy. You will draw every creature in this entire forest to us."

[Ultrawolf]

Ultrawolf followed behind not saying a word about Jaim's ignorance.
"Where are we going...?"

[Therin]

Jaim grinned over his shoulder at Rayne. "Maybe, but at least now we'll be able to see 'em!" With that, he sauntered east, deeper into the jungle, not waiting for the other two to follow.

According to the beliefs of the Bonji, to stop moving was to die. As everyone has found at some point or another, there are very few stories or beliefs that do not have facts at their roots. Almost unnoticeably, lithe vines had been making their slow, silent way around the footwear of the two who continued to stand in one place. Like almost everything in this damned place, the plant whose vines these were made use of poison. In this case, it was a contact poison, excreted through the soft skin of the vines, which, when it touched bare skin, soon found its way to the bloodstream and from there to the heart of the victim, which would suddenly stop. This having been accomplished, the plant would draw its vines back up to the canopy and begin the slow process of feeding.

[Ultrawolf]

Ultrawolf didnt notice the vines at first until they reached very close to his shoes. He began to follow Jaim while keeping an eye on the vines.
"Rayne!"
Ultrawolf pulled his knife from his side, with his free hand he removed a small black globe. He'd come prepared, he fully intended to use the globe on anything plant like that came too close.
"We need to move. If you can...switch to Azurel and fly above the ground."

[Dantrel Rayne]

Rayne raised an eyebrow, Ultra should have known better. Stepping forward, both faces out of eachother's view, he addressed Ultra. The vines creeped away, they were dangerous but they didn't like to be stepped on.

"Watch who you order and gain some sense. If he flew up, we would lose both you and the boy to the canopy of this wretched forest. My magic nor his senses could find you."

Rayne looked up as he walked. Branches, leaves, vines, and flowers swayed, letting rare spots of light through. Rayne couldn't tell if the movement was due to wind or the forest's own accord. He found his face forward, body following the shaded light of the boy's device. A rare thing he did, Rayne, sending his magic out into the shadows of the forest, thanking it and treating it to a dish of his own power for blocking out the sun.

[Therin]

It wasn't so bad, really, Jaim thought, looking around in the cold light of his sword-cum-torch. Once you got past the fact that everything that moved, and most things that didn't, were deadly. Mottled green moss covered the ground, broken intermittently by huge roots that thrust out of the earth almost like fins. The roots were every shade from gray to blood red, some smooth, some rough as sandpaper, some with fur, or thorns. Jaim took care to give these a wide birth as he walked. What little light made it down through the canopy high overhead looked almost like fireflies, flitting back and forth from treetrunk to ground and back again as the huge trees swayed in the wind. Various small bits of plantlife lined the forest floor, from harmless-seeming berries to what looked like a single wooden spike, whose roots spiralled outward for a few feet in every direction. He almost tripped on one before he figured out that that was the idea.

Jaim stopped abruptly, his light winking out and receding back into the base of the sword, whose blades once again folded together. There, the forest ended, like it had been sheared off with a knife. The trees simply were growing in one place, and three feet later, the moss was clean and unbroken, a field verdancy fairly glowing beneath the midday sun. Jaim looked across the clearing to where the forest resumed, way off in the distance, squinted up at the sky from beneath the shade of the huge trees, stepped into the clearing, and dissappeared. There was a thump, accompanied by a flash of light, and the sunlit ground moved slowly back and forth once before regaining stillness, whereupon it became apparent that Jaim had stepped onto a treetop. Where he had been, there was now nothing but a hole in the moss, beneath which could be seen broken branches...and darkness.

Jaim picked himself up, mostly unhurt, from the new ground, squinting up at the tiny point of brightness high above. Save for that, he was in blackness. After calling a warning for the other two not to come out from under the trees, Jaim knelt and began groping around for his sword. Finding it, he held it high in one hand, and flipped the appropriate button. Nothing happened. He did what anyone would do: lowered it, and smacked the base heavily with the palm of his hand. The blade snapped open, and the tiny light projector wheeled out, and, finally, he could see again. Behind him was a craggy wall of gray stone. Before him was the forest. This was the real forest. Down here, no light reached. There was no moss on the ground. Nothing sprouted from the dirt except roots and tree trunks. Some of the tree trunks were so large, Jaim thought he could fit his entire dormitory room inside with room to spare. Shrugging, he strolled off into the shadows, his light seeming insignifigant in the cavernous space.