BZPRPG: Po-Wahi

IC: (Ayna)

"...is that it?"

IC: Kultax

"I like it already."

--IC: Gairu--

Before them loomed the temple.

It was obvious that in its heyday, it was a thing of beauty.  Intricately carved stone pillars, some of which had split or crumbled, lined the worn brick path leading to the thick stone doors.  Careful brickwork formed the temple's bulk; each brick was etched with a different scene.  Most of the scenes were weathered away now, however.  An inscription was carved into the frame above the doors, its meaning unknown.

"It's beautiful," Gairu said quietly.

--OOC:--

That a good enough temple description for you?

OOC: Yeah sorry for giving you a hard time but since you'll be running this encounter I wanted to see if yer up to snuff. Also leaving for 3 days.

IC: Konihi

I took a moment to drink in the temple's looks. I never saw anything like this at my homeland, at yet something about it's ancient affluence annoyed me. How could something like this just be abandoned.

"So who built this."

--IC: Gairu--

Gairu looked down at the map.  "I don't know, exactly.  Maybe there's a clue as to who built this inside.  The key word being maybe."

He opened his backpack and grabbed his rope and Fire-Crystal Lantern.

--OOC:--

Of course I'm up to snuff.  I'm a writer, by golly.

And have fun, wherever you're going, Invisible Noob.

OOC: mobile

IC: Toa Rebraz

Rebraz was astonished by the temple looming over them, it was absolutely beatiful. Rebraz hardly ever travelled, but the sight of this temple made him glad he did.

"I wonder how a temple like this in the middle of the desert could be left undiscovered." he thought.

He turned to follow the others inside.

IC:

 

His least favorite way to spend time is when he's not being amazingly clever, so he wants to build a time machine?

 

I laughed a little at that. Is he some kind of inventor or something? Maybe just a simple craftsman. I scratched the back of my head, a bit taken aback by the sudden onslaught of information. His scope eye seemed to be probing me for answers, assessing my every movement. I exhaled a puff of smoke and watched it dissipate in the light breeze. 

 

"A time-traveling device would certainly come in handy." I agreed. "As far as ambitions go though, I've gotta say I'm not exactly your guy. I find it easier to take things day by day, ya know?" I slid down the wall and took a seat on the warm sand. 

 

"So you like building stuff, huh? Any new projects you're trying tackle? Other than your time-machine, of course." 

IC: Farzan (Farzan's Workshop)

"More than I can count on all of my fingers, or yours if I stole them and used those" I replied, throwing but a brief glance in the direction of his hands before looking away.

I leaned back against the wall, studying the smoke trails from his cigar. In my earlier days I had swiped quite a few cigarettes throughout my "scavenger hunts" (yeah, we'll go with that). In fact, I had tried them a few times out of curiosity, but the way the made my head spin didn't provide any amazing results, so I didn't particularly endear myself to them.

A small chirp made me look to my side, where Kreff was reaching out to me with a straw hat clenched in one of his claws, my one visible eye lit up at the sight and snatched it gleefully from his claw.

I tipped the hat on my head, covered my face in the shade of the brim, and sat back.

"What brings you to these here parts, pardner? That ol' hubburd curiosity get the better of ya?" I drawled.

IC:

"You could say that," I said, a slight smirk tickling my lips.

I was already beginning to like the guy. There was a spark to his eye that burned with energy and creativity, and I could tell he was observant as well as astute by the way that yellow orb darted about. 

The ussal crab surprised me with its shrill chirps, and caused me to jump slightly and use Artakha's name in an inappropriate way. I honestly had no idea it had been lurking in the shade behind the doorframe until now. "Who's your little friend there?" I asked with a sheepish smile. 

I must still be on edge from when that kid tried to mug me this morning.

Anyone who knows me knows how much I hate being snuck up on. Call it reflexes, PTSD, or whatever the you want, just don't ever do it. 

IC: Konihi

Deciding to let Gairu lead with his light lantern, I took my time outside for a moment to memorize my surroundings. Depending on what happened here today, I could make some real progress towards achieving power.

Satisfied I stepped into the darkness of the temple.

--IC: Gairu--

Gairu stopped at the doors, examining them for a few moments to discern if there was any special way to get them open.  When there were none that he could ascertain, he pressed his hands to the doors and pushed.

A groan sounded through the air as the doors swung open on ancient hinges, revealing a long, dark hallway lined with even more pillars.  Gairu lifted his Fire-Crystal Lantern and slowly stepped inside, paying careful attention to any potential traps that might have been laid.

IC: Toa Rebraz

"Woah," he said, staring into the darkness ahead. A stern expression developed on his face. "Is it clear to cross?" he asked Gairu who was slowly stepping inside the temple.

--IC: Gairu--

"I think so," said Gairu, who was examining the floor.  Strange glyphs were carved into the stonework, one glyph per brick.  "Just step carefully; one of these bricks could trigger something."

IC: Konihi

Eye's trained to see in the darkest of jungles, and ears that could listen in on the quietest of rahi, strained themselves for the slightest sound from within the temple. Carefully I made each step with my digitigrade leg's listening in for any telltale sounds of an oncoming trap. I have survived far worse than anything this island can throw at me, this temple will not catch me off guard.

"Do any of you recognize the glyphs?"

Train Heist

IC: Interesting thing about Kualsi jumps. You can't really hold elemental effect while doing them. Even if one possessed sufficient skill to both activate that mask and concentrate on their element at the same time, there is an infinitesimally small amount of time where the mask user for all intents and purposes does not exist. Without a constant flow of energy and direction the elemental effect will start to dissipate and vanish.

So when Kynaera teleported the increased gravitational effects on the warhammer wielding Toa of Stone vanished. Returning him to full combat capacity as he turned towards the signature pop of a Kualsi user teleporting. The haft of his weapon swept across his body as he continued turning, deflecting the blades from their intended target and giving him an opening to fire a shotgun blast of stone shards from his other. In the extremely close confines the two were fighting in chances of dodging were slim.

The impact vision was indeed a surprise. One that slammed the Calix wearing martial artist into one of the nearby seats. Gritting her teeth in pain, the young Sentinel got back on her feet and started watching the back of her fellow guardsman. As much as she wanted to jump back into the fight her endless hours of training had impressed into her the value of teamwork. It was much easier to fix a train car than it was to bring a person back to life.

The Crystaline Toa that Dylan fired at had been expecting just such a move. Ducking out of the way of such a hurried shot was a simple affair. Before the bandit could launch a second shot two of the prisms launched forward from where they hovered. One from straight on, the other swooping in from the open isle. If they hit the would begin expanding across Dylan until all but her head was encased in a shell of refractive crystal.

The Po Toa with the machete did likewise. It seemed that the conjoined Skakdi twins were being fairly effectively ganged up on by the other passengers. Entering that fight would simply confuse things more and increase the chances of friendly fire. And he did not want to get in the way of the crystals his friend was sending at the one with the bow.

OOC: I can't find Dylan's profile. is it even in the character topic? Also I'm sorry if I've missed anybody. If I have please tell me and I'll add a reply.

IC:

 

"You could say that," I said, a slight smirk tickling my lips.

 

I was already beginning to like the guy. There was a spark to his eye that burned with energy and creativity, and I could tell he was observant as well as astute by the way that yellow orb darted about. 

 

The ussal crab surprised me with its shrill chirps, and caused me to jump slightly and use Artakha's name in an inappropriate way. I honestly had no idea it had been lurking in the shade behind the doorframe until now. "Who's your little friend there?" I asked with a sheepish smile. 

 

I must still be on edge from when that kid tried to mug me this morning.

 

Anyone who knows me knows how much I hate being snuck up on. Call it reflexes, PTSD, or whatever the ###### you want, just don't ever do it. 

IC: Farzan (Farzan's Workshop)

"This here's my partner, assistant and buddy." I replied, looking over at the Ussal Crab with a knowing expression.

"Kreff, go ahead and say hi to the nice man, why dontcha?"

Kreff chirped eagerly in response, and scuttled over towards the Toa with his claws raised, snapping them frenetically as if he was trying to say something, and also waving them alarmingly close to his hands.

IC:

"Whoa there, boy!"

I raised my hands defensively, a bit taken aback by his excitement. I had spent enough time in Onu-Koro to know where ussal crabs liked to be pet though. I tentatively ran my palm along his carapace, and gave him a friendly rub between the eyes, careful to avoid his pincers. Ussal weren't exactly known for being the most cuddly of rahi, but he certainly was cute in his own way, and he had the energy of a muaka cub. 

I put my cigarette out in the sand. By the way his claws were snapping about, it seemed he was trying to communicate with me.

"Sorry buddy, I wish I had a Rau on hand." I gestured to my Omnus and made a sad face, hoping he would understand. 

I suddenly remembered something, and reached into my pocket to withdraw a small pouch. I untied it and pulled out a handful of bula berries. I wasn't exactly sure if he would like them, but I used to feed them to the ussal in Onu-Koro and figured it would be worth a shot. I myself was quite fond of them, and often carried them in order to keep my strength up while traveling. 

I displayed the berries in front of him gingerly, so as not to startle him. His hexagonal pupils regarded me curiously. 

IC: Kaigal

"Excuse me!" 

From a few meters away, I watched the pair receptively veer their attention to my approach. Even the crab looked. Unslinging my diskette rifle, I rested its stock end against the ground and gave the Matoran a curt smile.

"Sorry to interrupt but Farzan, right?" I asked, pointing a finger his way. "Would you mind looking at my rifle when you have a sec? I think there might be something wrong with the firing mechanism."

IC: (Datrox)

 

​"Get the guy with the hat."

​Oh.

That's me.

​Datrox looked around to see if any other beings had rose to attack, and saw a Skakdi leveling some sort of weapon at that him and Sorox, that suddenly unleashed a soundwave that prompted the Toa of Fire to cover his audio receptors. He turned to Cyramar.

​"M-maybe now's a good time to actually do something, Patchwork!"

IC: Cyramar

The third member of the trio, a quiet mass of parts that didn't belong with one another, had been ignored by this enemy. And, the Skakdi that was now attacking Datrox and Sorox was focusing on them, not him.

Of course, Datrox had decided to blow his element of surprise out of the water.

In one motion, Cyramar stood up fully, drawing his...plasma gun, he supposed, pointing it at the Skakdi's waist and loosing two quick shots. A painful distraction, at the very least. It could burn through stone, after all.

 

OOC: Mebeh not, Taranis/Tenjin

IC Sorox

 

By the time they decided to get up, Sorox had decided to do so as well. He had drawn his sword and-

 

Suddenly the machine the Skakdi held blasted him with sound. Datrox would be mostly protected from the blast, as Sorox wasn't exactly spindly, but it wasn't a great job, being a meat shield. The Skakdi needed to learn a lesson, however, in underestimating opponents. He activated his mask and slammed towards the Skakdi at high speed, hoping that the walls of the train were more than capable of stopping him.

OOC: I totally forgot that Cyramar was even there at the time of that post. My bad.

IC: Taranis and Tenjin - The Iron Mahi (Passenger Car)

Catching a sudden flash of movement with his peripheral vision, Taranis barely had time to register the existence of their third opponent before shoving his sibling into a nearby seat in an effort to dodge the resulting gunfire. Because of this, the barrage of sound waves unintentionally started to veer off-course, briefly intensifying as they angled their way up above the Ta-Toa and his ally... towards the roof of the train, which then began to shower the duo with various chunks of debris as the ensuing vibrations caused it to start tearing itself apart.

In execution, the action didn't exactly work out as expected. While he did succeed in managing to avoid the first shot, letting it impact the floor some distance behind him as it likely began to burn its way through the metal, the second still managed to graze him, searing through parts of his armor and his outermost layer of skin as it too ended up following a vaguely similar path. Despite gritting his teeth as he mumbled a string of various curses, however, he was still perfectly capable of recognising the wound for what it was, and though it was definitely going to sting a bit every time he moved, it was still something he could effectively power through if he had to.

The Vo-Skakdi, meanwhile, had just managed to regain enough of his vision to spot the Ga-Toa's blur of an aerial charge, which in hindsight, his relatively simple mind found extremely perplexing. First of all, they had previously positioned themselves in the aisle, facing one of the doors and with their backs turned towards the other, so if the goal here was to slam them into something such as one of the walls, he was going to be sorely disappointed. Then one had to factor in their current location, a fairly cramped passenger car in this case, which was chalk full of railings, compartments, and a wide assortment of other objects he could've crashed into and ended up wiping himself out with before he had managed to even reach his intended destination. Finally, there was their difference in size; in the event that he did somehow manage to ram them after all that, they still had the fortune of being two extremely muscular Skakdi, so even with the sudden burst of speed provided to him by his mask, the chances of him causing them to stumble any more than a few steps backwards upon impact was relatively slim to none.

But since he considered violence to be one of his strong suits, Tenjin wasn't planning on even letting him get that far.

From his current position crouched up against the side of the bench, he quickly took advantage of the fact that it was currently obscuring his arm, using the opportunity to electrify his Lightning Gauntlet as he waited for the Toa to inevitably barrel towards them. Then, at the last possible second, he forced his brother back onto his own side of the train, rising up to his full height and delivering a viciously brutal uppercut towards the underside of his jaw, the force of which causing him to momentarily launch himself into the air. Unfortunately, though, this was only half of the potential problem; provided that it actually made contact, aside from the shock and the initial impact, the Kadin-user would've also likely found his cranium to now be on a collision course with the ceiling as well. Seeing as to how the attack was purposely aimed from below just as he passed over it, and well outside his field of vision, however, it would've been an absolute miracle if it didn't end up connecting.

To make maters even worse, the De-Skakdi, upon realising that they now held the tactical advantage, as the Toa's allies would probably be less inclined to make a move of their own if it meant risking their friend being caught up in the crossfire, proceeded to channel his brief flash of anger into a blast of Laser Vision aimed directly at the Lesterin's trigger hand in retaliation. Whether he merely lost the weapon in the ensuing chaos, or the appendage was entirely severed from the rest of his body, he didn't particularly care. Either way, he was going to make one thing perfectly clear; if the trio continued to butt in on matters that didn't concern them, then they were certainly going to end up paying the price for their interference.

IC Sorox

Here we find our valiant hero in another perplexing problem.

As he flew at great speed towards the duo, they changed position and the one on the right sent a violent punch aimed towards his... Chest? Sorox wasn't sure if that was the sole intent of the punch, but that's where it landed. Maybe this foe didn't think about how fast he was going...

Either way, he got a massive, head-sized fist (or that's how it appeared) with electrical charge to boot, straight into the strongest portion of his body, and even with the expected retaliation, it hurt. Not to mention the electrical part. Instead of catching both Skakdi in the neck and possibly breaking one, he slammed into the muscular forearm of... One of the pair, he couldn't really tell which at the moment, and fell onto the carpeted floor.

He dropped his sword when he slammed into the pair, and it was now sideways next to one of their feet, pointing to the other end of the car. This is going to be a fun day.

IC: (Datrox)

Well, didn't he just feel irrelevant?
'Ol Sor and Patchwork getting attacked left and right, and what does he get? Some collateral damage on the train that took nothing more than a little sidestep. As the one Skakdi's laser vision headed towards Cyramar he sighed and lifted his blade in front of his ally, hoping it would deflect it.

IC: Kaigal

 

"Excuse me!" 

 

From a few meters away, I watched the pair receptively veer their attention to my approach. Even the crab looked. Unslinging my diskette rifle, I rested its stock end against the ground and gave the Matoran a curt smile.

 

"Sorry to interrupt but Farzan, right?" I asked, pointing a finger his way. "Would you mind looking at my rifle when you have a sec? I think there might be something wrong with the firing mechanism."

IC: Farzan (Farzan's Workshop)

I pivoted my head around to see a wall of bricks slinging nothing less than a make of unrivaled craftsmanship from his back to dangle in front of my hands, although not for long.

Almost as soon as the Toa had asked me to fix his diskette rifle, I grabbed it, and cast my studious glance upon it, already engaged in a process of detecting the problem.

"Won't be a moment, Sir" I muttered.

OOC: Hey there, train folks. Silvan wants me to introduce you guys to a little new guard friend.

Well, not new, but you might remember him from things like a Mark Bearer attack on a wedding.

IC:

The carriage roof continued to clatter, shaking in tandem with the rapid motion of the train and the damage dealt to it by the fight below. It was an expected sound; after all, a vehicle like a train was a constant source of noise, and when you've got folks beating each other up, it would have been surprising if there was no noise whatsoever. The tracks continued to rattle, steel continued to clash against steel, and all made sense. This was the noise of things that were happening.

That was why it was so strange there was no noise for the entrance of another being into the carriage.

A transparent and indistinct figure, nearly invisible, silently dropped through the shattered window, landing on the glass-covered floor of the carriage with absolutely no sound. No evidence of its arrival except for the small shadow its form cast over the ground. It rapidly rose to its feet, turning its eyes upon the back of the conjoined Skakdi that it had made its way behind. And it decided immediately that it would take action and land a strike.

Transparent and utterly silent was the swinging of the hard edge of a shield towards the Skakdi.

IC: ...

Well, it's hot, right?

...

...

...

...This isn't Ta.

IC: Kaigal

"Do you know what the problem is?"

IC: Farzan (Farzan's Workshop)

It took me a few brief moments to locate the source of the problem, apparently the firing mechanism had jammed, and needed to be righted again.

"Gimme a moment, thing's busted" I said somewhat unhelpfully as I grabbed a screwdriver from my toolbelt that I had totally been wearing this whole time (yes I had, shut up) and opened the casing. Inside, I found a wayward spring that had jimmied itself out of alignment due to what looked like a recursive switchback-loop in the central feeding chamber's core rail-line technobabble technobabble technobabble.

After a moment of careful fingering and caressing, with a dose of healthy optimism and some vaunted prayers, I fixed the spring back into place, re-attached the casing, and fired one celebratory shot into the air to demonstrate my success.

The metal diskette whirred into the sky, whistling into a small speck before it lost traction and landed in the sand somewhere outside the city limits.

"Here you go, good sir. One diskette rifle fixed and ready" I said as I handed it back to the brick wall.

OOC: Running multiple quests at once, how fun. In any case, Temple Run guys this is for you. Still working out all the rewards and traps so please bear with me. This is all being done on rather short notice so some of the stuff might be lacking in originality.

Temple Run

Po-wahi Desert- Abandoned Temple

IC: On a closer look at the glyphs underfoot it became clear that they were in fact highly stylized versions of the basic Matoran alphabet. Coglike spokes jutted from the exterior of the circles while the lines and dots of the interior were joined by pictures.

There seemed to be no clear theme to the pictures. They ranged from a foot stepping on a pillar to a bellowing Kane-Ra. Sometimes a string of letters with the same pictures in them could be found but without closer inspection it was anybody's guess what that meant.

OOC: I hope everyone on the temple run is still here.

IC: Konihi

After several more seconds of odd silence I took note of the seemingly nonsensical patterns in the floor tiles.

"... so do any of you see a pattern in this?"

IC: (Ayna)

She turned to Kultax.
"What do you think? You seem like the kinda person who's dealt with something like this before."

IC:

I was still sitting there with a handful of bula berries, only now I was also slack-jawed in astonishment. 

All I could say was "That's one ###### of a piece you got there."

In actuality however, I was more awestruck by the fact that Mr. Time Machine had fixed the guy's rifle so fast. It had been a mere matter of seconds. Clearly I was a bit out of the loop here. He was certainly a more esteemed handyman than I had previously suspected...

That's when a sudden realization hit me. This Matoran had to be none other than Farzan, arguably the most well-known inventor and tech extraordinaire on the face of Mata Nui. Most people, especially those in my line of work, had heard of this kid. He was most famous for inventing the diskette launcher itself, along with the wrist-mounted Volo Lutu. In other words, if there was anyone on this ###### island that could help me get my hands on a new firearm, it was Farzan. It had been several months since my erm... incident... and well, I was feeling more than a bit naked without my signature fire stick on my hip. 

I have a feeling that I'll be sticking around here for longer than I thought. 

Train Heist

 

IC: Interesting thing about Kualsi jumps. You can't really hold elemental effect while doing them.

 

[...]

 

So when Kynaera teleported the increased gravitational effects on the warhammer wielding Toa of Stone vanished. Returning him to full combat capacity as he turned towards the signature pop of a Kualsi user teleporting. The haft of his weapon swept across his body as he continued turning, deflecting the blades from their intended target and giving him an opening to fire a shotgun blast of stone shards from his other. In the extremely close confines the two were fighting in chances of dodging were slim.

OOC:

The following post was written with two assumptions in mind.

Assumption 1: the Po-Toa fired an actual shotgun (which isn't very relevant to the post itself but to my interpretation of your post). ('Twas clarified that the Po-Toa DIDN'T have an actual shotgun.)

Assumption 2: the Po-Toa's shotgun is not powerful enough to cripple a Toa wearing armor after only one shot.

If either of these assumptions is wrong, please let me know.

IC (Kynaera, train):

Kynaera barely noticed the loss of control over the Po-Toa's local gravity, so as he swung his hammer to knock away one end of her staff, her reactions were slow.

Bang!

A sharp pain flooded the right side of Kynaera's face and multiplied in constellations down her right side. Her reflexes, honed by years of experience, activated her Kualsi and flung her behind the Po-Toa, back on the other side of the doorway. She stumbled, righted herself quickly, and turned around. The battle-noises of the train car behind her and the darkness in her right field of vision combined in a disorienting manner. Her side burned like fifty heated needles had been jammed through her armor and into her skin.

It took her a split-second to realize her right eye had been blinded.

In the same split-second, she jabbed at the Po-Toa's side.

IC: Kultax

"There's always a meaning to everything..."

I squat down to get better look a the symbols.

"And this one is lost to me. I feel like I've seen one or two of these before, but this pattern.. makes no sense to me."

IC: Konihi, Temple

So there really was no obvious theme in the tiling? Hmm ...

"Then watch your step, some of these must be pressure plates obscured by the randomness of the floor"

Train Heist

IC: Dalyn tried to dive out of the way of the incoming prisms. Unfortunately for her the enclosed space of the train car did not provide much space to dodge in. The prisms corrected for what little movement she managed even as she made it and impacted against her armor.

Clear purple crystal quickly spread out from the impact points and within seconds the outlaw Toa was almost entirely encased in the solid material. She could breath but not much more than that.

On the other side of the car Kynaera also found herself in a rather difficult position. The Calix wearing martial artist had been waiting for just such a move. As Kynaera moved to stab her polearm into the side of her opponent she found a gaunleted fist wrapped around the rear end of her weapon.

Alerted to the rogue Toa's new position both through the sound of air being pushed out of the fact that she was well...a Kualsi user, it's what they did, the hammer wielding Po-Toa brought his weapon around for a side ways blow at Kynaera's spine.

In the less than open spaces of the train var the blow was robbed of its normal bone crushing force. Nevertheless it would not be pleasant if it connected.

OOC: Haha! Fifteen minutes to spare.

Temple Run guys. I'll get a post up for you when you make a move. Also one of you made a mistaken assumption.

OOC: Yeah I wanted to wait to see who else in the group was still here.

IC: Konihi

"Let's get moving"

Regardless of what danger was ahead we had to press on. I proceeded ahead towards the next room. If there was a trap in this corridor I would have to use my finely tuned instincts to avoid it.

Po-wahi- Temple Run

IC: The moment Konihi rested his foot on one of the tiles (The roaring face of a Kane-Ra within the dots and dashes of an S) it dropped out from under him. Through luck or skill he managed to pull back before anything drastic happened.

While hardly dim, the only thing that their light would reveal if shone through the small hole left behind would be a seemingly bottomless chasm.

IC: (Ayna)

"You alright?"
This was getting precarious.
 

IC: Konihi

Taking no heed to the Matoran behind me, I crouched over the hole and pulled out my lightstone. There was nothing but blackness below, but that mattered little, now I knew the nature of this rooms danger and fortunately I had been watching what tiles I had been walking on.

"That tile had a Kane Ra within a dotted s ... do any of you have anything expendable and heavy?"

IC (Kynaera, train):

Kynaera felt a tug on her weapon and reacted quickly, jabbing the weapon backward with a sharp thrust and turning around, using the Calix-wearer's grip like a fulcrum to pivot herself out of range of the Po-Toa's hammer.

IC: (Ayna)

"If only we had Biotron--he fits that description pretty well."

IC: Rebraz

"Or maybe a random rock would suffice." Rebraz suggested.