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Forbidden Temple of the Great Falls

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"I say old beans, I do believe this is my father's journal." Arngeirr had remembered his father telling him that this was where he recorded everything important about his life. Surely this relic was important; his father had doubtless written countless pages about these cursed items in the tome's pages. Even now he could still see his father scribbling away. His father had always been sure to put it up someplace so that the young lad never read it by accident or betrayed his better judgment and took it without asking. Putting it up someplace high... Anvindr had put this container up on the highest place he could find in the reliquary, ensuring that only a hugeman could find it without standing on top of something. Had that been intentional?

Was his father leaving his clues? A trail of breadcrumbs? Had he wanted his son to come all this way looking for him?

Or had he simply anticipated it?

Arngeirr was sure now that his father had done all of this intentionally. From that, he concluded that his father had also left this book with the items so that Arngeirr would find it straight away. Whether or not he wanted his son to follow this path, he would have left him with the resources to understand the relic, or at least understand what to with it; be it to destroy the relics, hide them, return them to their home, or make use of them in some manner.

The hugeman opened the book reverently, holding it out so that both his comrades could see it. He feared that perhaps the first page he opened to would be a warning to never wear the sashes; with a sigh of relief, the giant saw that the first pages were his father's account of how he came into possession of the items.

"I never thought this would have survived," Arngeirr read aloud, "But it is some small comfort to know what happened to it. My old friend Hachi retrieved it from the ruins of Fort Hoshino, far to the east; the sight of our final battle in the brush war." His father had never spoken to him of this. He knew Anvindr had gone east, but he had never heard of his father involved in any battles. In fact, he had never heard of any battles in the far east, or of this Fort Hoshino. Or even this man named Hachi for that matter. His stomach lurched with something other than hunger, his head swimming as he was nearly overcome with an overwhelming sense of vertigo.

"I say," he breathed, "I don't recall him telling me any of this. I should spend some time with this record. I... I do not know of this part of my father's life."

----------

The hornets are locked in mortal combat with Buzzia's blessed bees. Despite being faced with a natural predator, the bees are not without their defenses; they cannot break the carapace of the giant hornets with their stingers, nor do they have the same raw strength, but the chosen heralds of the goddess are gifted with her wiles. They cling to their attackers in groups, beating their wings furiously, building up an intense heat that cooks the hornets inside their shells. But they quickly lose ground to the huge predators; the giant hornets are capable of slaying dozens of their smaller cousins, snapping them in half with a single bite of their powerful jaws and pilling them to pieces with their legs. Coordinating the attacks is hard, and the bees stumble more often than they succeed, their numbers dwindling as more and more hornets are called to the front lines. Despite their overwhelming numbers their simply are not enough bees to hold the tide of hornets back...

..and behind the broken hive, its ruined walls seeping honey as the dying bees scramble across the ground, desperately clinging to life, something wicked stirs...
 
"Boy, move where I can see you." Valetni commanded, and despite the weakness in his voice, the boy immediately jumped to do as ordered, nearly tripping over his feet in his eagerness to please. Valetni mentally sighed, surely he had been nothing like this one as an apprentice, thirty years ago. "Here, I have something for you." He said, reaching into his robes.

Withdrawing his To-Do List, Valetni flicked over to the next page and in a trembling hand wrote for several seconds. Ripping off the piece he had written, he folded it in half.
"Listen closely boy," He said, holding out the To-Do List. "Until I'm back on my feet," He coughed. "You'll need to take care of this, any questions, don't hesitate to ask me." The boy took the To-Do List in both hands, staring at it in reverence as if he had been entrusted with the most powerful of daemonic artifacts.

"Now, here's what I want you to do." Valetni began. "First, you are to go to the Tanner, bring him here, do not come back without him, and I expect you back shortly, do you understand?" Valetni waited for the boy to nod before continuing. "Next, once you have delivered the Tanner to me, I want you to go to Brother Vernasus and give him this note, do not look at it, and if he asks you any questions, you know nothing, understood?" Another nod. "Good, Good. Once you've done that, I'll need you to go to my room, there should be some bleach on the ground and some tools out of order, if there isn't, make sure the Monkey is still there." He paused to cough several more times, each time a lance of pain from his throat to his gut.

"Finally, and make sure you do all this in order, I would like you to find Brother Wolfram, please inform him that I would like to see him at his earliest opportunity, but do no pester the man if he does not wish to speak with you, is that understood?" The boy nodded once more, swallowing. "Good, good, good." Valetni paused, the silence dragging out longer and longer. The boy fidgeted, obviously unsure as to whether he should stay or go. "You do a good job in this, boy, and I'll maybe see about taking you on as my apprentice in aspects other than cleaning." He growled. The boy's eyes grew wide, though it was difficult to tell whether he was horrified or overjoyed at the news.

"What are you still doing here?" Valetni demanded after several more seconds. "You have your task, move your lazy bones, I don't know why I ever took such a layabout on as an apprentice to begin with!" The boy jumps to, immediately, nearly colliding with another bed in the room as he made his escape. Though his words were severe, his tone had a playful undertone that may or may not have been lost on the apprentice. "If I ever let that boy near anything alchemical, he'll probably poison us all." He said as much to the apothecary as himself.
 
"seeing how he's eager to please you as close to the letter as possible, he'll make a pretty good apprentice in the art of alchemy" Blake responded back to Valetni.

and said to him "i overheard a bit about what you said to him, and i was curious as to why you have need of a tanner?" and added "if i'm not too nosy of course"
 
Korsarro nodded, smiling up at the Giant "Take yer time Arn, I've gotta get somebody to bring some paper and stuff so we can get some of this stuff written down just in case." he totters past Aly, trying not to stare at the axe she still had ready, he props his head out of the door, waving over a passing monk "You don't look busy. Do me a favour, get me... a lot of paper. And a lot of ink. And quill. One of your number was supposed to but hasn't, quick as you can if you're not too busy." he sends the guard off with a wave and turns back, picking up the pilfered cleaver and tucking it back into his sash. Being his size it helped to have a blade, even if cleavers were too unbalanced for combat with somebody who knew what they were doing.

He walked over to the chairs at one end of the room and dragged two of them over, placing them next to each other next to Arn "Here ya go big guy, since I doubt one chair'll be enough." He nodded to himself and dragged another over next to the door for himself. Sitting down contently he focused his mind on the experiments, cautiously remembering as much as he could. The memories were somewhat shameful, he had thought himself of stronger will than to be influenced by an artifact so easily. He bit his thumb as he often did when deep in thought, his brow furrowing slightly.

He jumps slightly as a knock comes against the door, far more lost in thought than he first realised. He turns to the open door and sees the red-headed apprentice of Valetni, the resident alchemist turned bio-terrorist. He groans quietly and studies the boys shaking form, his eyes fixed on the Giant. Korsarro frowns "Well boy? What is it."

"Uuhh, umm, Master Valetni... wants to see you T-tanner" the apprentice replies. Korsarro groans louder this time "It's Monk to you boy. Riley was it? Girls name anyway. I can't come. I'm busy. Go back to your master and tell him that." The apprentice looks as if he's about to say something but eyeing the huge man and the guard ready to lash out with an axe, thinks better of it, quietly slinking away.
 
"hmmm, alright i'll stop poking into your business for now" Blake said to the Alchemist understanding the need for secrecy among their own colleagues
 
The guard retrieved the cloth and covered her weapon, evidently deciding there was no further danger at the moment. Setting it against the wall she pulled up the last remaining chair and settled into it slowly, the weight of her armor making it creak. Removing the helmet exposed her damp hair and sweaty brow, Alyssa had been a little more worried than she had thought.

"Arn, did you say the sashes had been found at Hoshino? As in that fort where a fair number of your people had a settling of accounts with some tribal leader or other?"
 
His children where dying in droves all around him. Before he could call them back, he was frozen by an unholy noise that filled the air of the gardens. It almost sounded like buzzing... but tinged with a gutteral sound that somehow seemed familiar to him.

Oh gods the noise... the town, the smell, the same noise he heard as his mother was murdered in a single sickening instant... the same noise he heard now.

He snapped back to reality in time to see the beast crawling up from the earth. A demon born from the flesh of dead wasps. It stood level with him, armoured in a horrid mish-mash of black and yellow carapace that seemed to be covered in some kind of awful disgusting sludge. It's wingspan was enormous, as where the huge black needle pointed stingers that jutted out of two huge upper arms.

He stared at the creature for a moment, desperately trying to make sense of what he was seeing before it began to stalk slowly towards him.


No... this couldn't be real. Perhaps he was dreaming. He must have passed out on the grass from the ringing in his head before... it all made perfect sense.

These thoughts did little to comfort him as the creature smashed an arm into his chest, sending him flying a few feet across the garden and crashing painfully into the large tent that had housed the strange creature that had so terrified mary earlier. Suddenly he knew that this was all too real.

His garden... his safe, quiet garden. The same place he had meditated in so many times before. The same place his children called home. Brother Vernasus began to fuel himself with rage.

HIS garden. HIS safe haven. HIS children... all being destroyed before his eyes. He charged the beast, dodging it's sluggish swipes and slamming his fist hard against its chest.

The blow barely staggered the foul, demonic monstrosity. Vernasus grew angrier still at the lack of damage he had managed to inflict. He ducked as it swung its huge arm at his head, then channeled as much force as possible into his fists and attacked while it was left vulnerable. He hit it again and again, striking harder and faster with each blow. The creature let out an ungodly roar as pieces of carapace broke off from its body.

Just as he began to think that he was driving the creature back, it unleashed its wings and flew back a few feet, so quickly he could barely follow. A sudden, excruciating pain tore through his shoulder as the monsters enormous black stinger pierced his flesh. Before he could retalite, the beast flew high into the air with him attached.
 
"I say lass," Arngeirr turned to Alyssa, rubbing his huge chin with his hand in contemplation, "I can't say I've ever heard of it. You say there were a number of hugemen there? Do you know anything else about it?"

Arngeirr is about to remark on how helpful the wiseman Balder would be in this situation when something grabs his attention. Still standing beside the table, he produces the hornet locked in amber from his waistband, the key to his father's relic. The item hums with a faint buzzing sound as if the insect's wings were flapping; the giant turns the item over, seeing that the hornet is still frozen and immobile. "Good heavens," he says, "Could it be... reacting to the sashes somehow? Perhaps he had best lock this all away in the reliquary for the night and post a guard."

The giant shakes his head and turns back to the warrior. "But before then, I would like to know what you know about this elusive Hoshino, if it's not too much to ask.

----------

The savage hornet demon rose into the air to the sound of furious wings, its own children rising with it; man and beast were launched high into the air, until the demon lashed its wings and limbs out and held them in place, breaking its forward momentum and dropping the monk on the ground below. Its mouth-parts opened disgustingly wide, revealing rows of teeth and a lashing tongue, and as it screamed an undertone of something of something that might have been a human voice rang out across the gardens. Its wings began to beat again and it tucked in its limbs, presenting the huge barb of its stinger as it dive-bombed the fallen monk with every intention of running him through.
 
He landed hard on the ground with a sickening thud as fresh new pain torn through his entire body, his robes now stained with a mixture of his own blood and the remains of far too many of his dead children. The grass was now covered in tiny yellow and black corpses, and only a few hives remained.


He rose quickly to his feet and darted back swiftly, as fast as his body would allow. The creature drove itself hard into the ground and struggled to pull itself free.

He lowered his head for a moment, inhaling and exhaling rapidly as the beast howled with that ungodly, human like voice as it pulled desperately at the stinger embedded in the ground. He focused his body and in a moment his eyes snapped open, watching the children of this hellish nightmare swarming around the monster.



FISTS OF A THOUSAND STINGERS.


He unleashed all of his bottled rage and anger upon the creature. The air was filled with demonic screaming and howling as blow after blow after blow struck the foul demon's hellish hide, punching through shell and flesh alike until nothing was left but a hollow husk. The smaller creatures where next... dropping from the air in rapid succession until it was finally over.

He lay there on the grass panting heavily and dripping with sweat, as fresh blood oozed from his wound. Silence returned to the garden. For a brief moment he was finally able to take in the sight of destruction before him, with only a few hives left standing.

"My children..." He could still hear the sound of many of the blessed bees now hiding in their hives, but so many more had fallen.

The garden was filled once more with his screaming as Brother Vernasus mourned.
 
"Er, what I heard was from Arnulf and it was a fair bit of time ago, so I don't think I'm the most accurate source."

At Arngeirr's insistence she shrugs, as barely noticeable it is in the thick armor, and continues.

"From what I recall the big head honcho was interested in the Fort that had been erected by some cult of hornet worshipers. Said they were venerating the very ground their chosen lord had perished on or something. Anyways this warlord got it in his head to brush off the cultists and take the fort for himself. A group mostly consisting of hugemen drew together to make sure the warlord knocked his shit off, and the two sides ended up clashing at the Fort in proper."

She paused, collecting her thoughts momentarily. The rest of it was fuzzier than usual.

"Arnulf...was usually well into his cups at this point of the story, so I don't know how it actually ended but from what I heard both sides were decimated pretty well that it ended in a draw more or less. Which fits with the sash still being there unmolested...and that hornet."

Her eyes were lingering on the small amber trapped insect when she finished. Maybe Arnulf wasn't completely off his rocker with that tale.
 
Beneath the monk's wailing, the sound of another man's voice screaming out in agony can be heard. The hornet demon twitches, its wings torn from its carapace and its forelimbs twisted and broken. Still living hornets cling to its body, their wings beating in a frenzy as they attempt to lift their master back onto its feet. The beast convulses, curling up on itself like a dying insect before forcing itself on its shaky hind legs.

Its great black eyes stare at the monk, its mouth-parts dangling open to let its disturbingly mammalian tongue hang free. Black sludge drools from its open chest cavity, mixed with the unmistakable red tinge of blood. Beneath its chattered carapace, the ends of what appear to be human ribs are visible. Before the monk can act the demon turns and flees, surging towards the front gates, its children buzzing frantically around it.

It makes it to the edge of the Great Falls before diving off, disappearing into the mists...

----------

"Arnulf?" Arngeirr repeats, "Was he a hugeman by any chance? I say, this is a huge tale indeed. But why have I not heard of it? Surely a gathering of noble gentleman outside the temple would be something my people would speak about for generations. It is so rare for even two of us to come across each other outside of the Hugelands."

Arngeirr stops and considers their predicament for a moment. The relic, his father's shame, the entire story of Hoshino. "Unless they were... un-gentleman..." He snarls as he says the word, a title so profane. To be labeled an un-gentleman is tantamount to excommunication among his people. To willingly stray from the path of justice is the ultimate taboo. The presence of such wretched individuals would surely entail that his people never spoke of the battle - or likely never knew. "I say this is... a troubling thought. And one that I must admit is not without merit. I should... ponder this, for a time, I believe. Brother Korsarro, would you kindly escort me to the reliquary? I fell I must deposit the sashes there before the night is through."

Arngierr thumbs the amber key idly. As he makes his request, he notices with curiosity that the key has stopped its buzzing...
 
Korsarro nodded "Whatever you say big man" He said through teeth that were clenched upon his thumb. He pulled his thumb from his mouth and hopped from the chair "Whenever you're ready big guy!" He turned to Aly "Hey uhh.. thanks for being here and not chopping me to death, I appreciate it" He grinned and turned back to the Giant, ready to leave whenever he said so. It would appear the delivery of parchment and quill would have to wait.
 
Had he perhaps lost his way, Morr thought as he stumbled through the temple's corridors, pressing a bloodied rag of cloth on the wound, yet despite that measure still leaving a steady trail of blood in his wake, vision hazy, while he willed himself to keep going. This was not half as bad as that time when that warhammer had crushed his shoulder, nor that other time when a gargantuan demonic beast tore a good chunk of his chest out, after all.

He was getting old, he supposed.

Breathing heavily, against all his hopes, he yet found himself at the entrance of the hospice. Limping inside, he shouted "Brother Blake, I fear I am in need of medical aid once again." whilst unclasping the rest of his breastplate and letting himself fall onto the nearby bed, soon losing consciousness.
 
He wasn't sure how long he'd been sitting in the grass. His body felt numb, and he looked like a bloody mess.

He felt two pairs of hands grabbing him by the shoulders and trying to pick him up.

He tried to shrug them off "Leave me be." Still they persisted.

"I SAID GET YOUR DAMN HANDS OFF ME!" He turned his head, looking into the terrified face of an apprentice.

"Just go and get Master Wolfram. Tell him... tell him something terrible has happened."

He slumped back to his knees and stared at the remaining hives in a silent, numb trance.
 
"Look Mister Zato, I did it, it's cooked no-" the small girl turned around, Zato was nowhere to be seen, she was alone.

"Mister Zato?" she called quietly, "W-where are you..."

she stopped, the utensils she'd been using dropping from her hands to the floor,

Mary left the kitchen, apron trailing behind her, a worried look on her face.

she walked, little feet padding on the ground, making no noise at all,

"mister zato..." she whispered

why was she alone again, she didn't like being alone, she was alone when it happened the first time, and if it happened again she'd be alone this time, the tiny girl felt like the sole person in the temple, she couldn't hear anything, she couldn't even see anything any more.

she lies curled up by the wall of a nearby corridor, head in her hands, tears running down her cheeks...
 
Zato walked back into the kitchen with a trolley, a large leg of meat on top of it.
"Alright Mary, how's it coming?" he asked, alone in the empty room. He called her name a second time as he investigated the stove, removing the meat from the heat.
"Where are you?" he wandered out into a hallway, worried
"Mary?!"
 
"Perhaps." he answered flatly, a hint of bitterness creeping into his words. "Though as it is, I feel I've lost my one asset while regaining little of what was taken from me."

The gryphon lifted his head from the table, peering in the direction of the serving staff; a great, bassy rumble echoed from his stomach, and a steady click-click-click came from below the table as he tapped a talon impatiently on the floor. Still, one does not look a gift horse in the mouth (even if, at the moment, a horse would do a better job of sating his hunger), so rather than dwelling on his stomach he quickly shifts topics.

"And what of yourself, Brother Al? You have asked me much of my past, but said nothing of your own; if were are to grow closer, I wish to know more about you."
 
the crying girl heard a voice as if from far away,

"-ary? Mary where are you?"

"Mister Zato?" she whispered, dragging her apron as she slowly made her way towards the source of the noise.
 
She turns a corner and sees the blind monk standing a short way off.

"Why did you leave me Mister Zato?...."

"I-I didn't want to be on my own..."

tears again begin to well up in the small girl's eyes as she runs up to the monk and grabs the front of his habit.
 
"I-I was alone again, I-I didn't want the air to hurt like before, if you were there you could stop it..."
 
Well, it was only fair. He had pried a small bit of past from the gryphon. But he would have to make himself clear. "Listen well Swiftbeak. I am not trying to improve the relations between us. To me, you are a beast, a wily demon that has successfully wormed its way into our stronghold. I doubt you will ever be able to change my mind on that. And I doubt even more the thought of us becoming anything other than watchman and mark." Honestly, what else did the creature expect. Al always found ulterior motives in all of its actions and words. "If you must know, I do not really have a past other than studying the ways of the beesiah. Before I was monk, I was a street rat I suppose." It had been hard without parents; but they had not the means to care for a child. Maybe it was for the best he had grown up like-Damn it all, I must learn to control my mind. The past is a dangerous trap!- Focusing his thoughts once more, Al grumpily stared about, avoiding the gryphon.
 
Zato replied,
"Mary, listen. I won't let the anything hurt you any more. As long as me or my brothers are with you, you'll be safe. Understand?"
 
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