"EQ Game Quest- Return to the Castle"
By klimino (https://pastebin.com/u/klimino)

URL: https://pastebin.com/FpNLMF5L
Created on: Sunday 28th of May 2017 05:53:40 PM CDT
Retrieved on: Sunday 25 of October 2020 03:45:39 AM UTC


Griff as waiting by the main gate, his gear on and ready for what was ahead as he looked around for Homily.

He was...apprehensive, sacred even. He didnt know what he really expected to find back in that Castle, but he felt it was his best chance to find whatever it was he was looking for.

A chance, a sign maybe, of if the path he was on was what he needed to do perhaps?

On his way to the main gate, spear in his mouth and plank on neck,Homily was having second thoughts about the whole ordeal. Sure, the place was probably cleared of whatever had been there the last time he went, but he still couldn't shake the feeling that this was a mistake on his part. Either way, he had said he'd go, and he wasn't going to go back on his word. When he finally arrived at the gate, he saw Griff was already there waiting. "Hello Griff. I'm ready to head out when you are." 

Griff nodded, giving his friend a slight smile.
“yeah, ready aswell....ahn, err, thanks fer comin.” he stretched a bit, before pointing with his head out the gate.

“Hopefully tha paths clear nuff, heh. Doubt many critter out ere though, most of em seem tah be further south.”

Homily Sermon-Today at 10:49 PM
"Hopefully luck will be on our side and we won't see anything, then. I don't remember how we got there last time, so I'll follow you."

Griff gives one last nod before leading them into the jungles.

It was already a bit later then he had meant to go out, but the day was still young enough. Humid too.
They made good progress though the thick foliage before finally the beach appeared before them.

“Well, just ah bit further now...” Griff mumbled to himself, looking back at Homily. 

IT was indeed not much further, before the ruins were seen up ahead, a sleek black streak against the pale sand of the beach.
“Well....thar she be....” Griff said, stopping a moment to take it in.

Homily's ears swiveled all about, searching for any sound that might indicate danger. "So uh, what are we here for again?" 

Griff shrugged, simply starting the walk forward. 
“were here cause ah haven't thought as clearly as ah did last time ah was ere. Maybe explorin it will help me figure some things out.”

It was then that they entered back into the familiar depths, the empty halls bringing back memories of before, the runic carvings here and there making Homily feel as if his brain was twitching.

Coming to the entrance to the old hall, Griff turned and looked into the place, blinking. Unlike before, the dining room had now completely and totally collapsed, now just a pile of rubble where it once was, un accessible to the world.

“Er....guess its ah good thing we didn't stick round too long...” he said with a slightly chuckle.


Homily rubs the side of his head with a hoof as he follows Griff through the ruins. "I suppose so. Glad it didn't collapse while we were here last. And what do you mean you think clearer here? This place just gives me a headache."

Griff raises an eyebrow at that, but then shrugs, walking further into the castle, into unknown territory.
“Yeah, those runes or whatever hurt tah look at....but this was tha last time ah felt like ah...did something worthwhile....tha last place ah felt....like ah still was human ah guess.”

He turns backwards, shrugging sadly, before walking further in.

It was then, for just a second, Homily felt like he was...somewhere else, a voice whispering “The lost seek answers no matter where they may lie...”

Homily goes full alert as he hears the voice. He looks around with wide eyes, and his ears go back-a-swivelin'. "Uh, did you hear anything just now?" 

Griff stops, both because they had come to a split, one way another hall way, one a large rotting door, another a side room.

He looks over his shoulder, shaking his head. “nope, but ahm not tha one who was seein visions before...”


Homily Sermon-Today at 11:30 PM
"That's not too reassuring..." Homily mumbles. "So, which way are we going?"
Griff Mc Beakface-Today at 11:31 PM
Griff smiles. "ahll let ya pick, hrm, though tha door might be hard tah git open...but thats why ah have ahn axe, heh."


Homily Sermon-Today at 11:33 PM
Homily points a hoof to the side room. "Traveling through hallways forever won't get us anything, and we may as well try the path of least resistance first."


“Sounds good tah me.”
upon entering the old room, it appeared to be a spacious storage area, with a half rotted door off to one side, and many piles of rotted wood and dust, though.....off to the side, there was a solid, but highly rusted, iron chest.

Griff whistled, giving Homily a slight jab with his elbow. “good thing stuffs so old it just dust now eh? Hate tah have ta smell rotten food in ah stone enclosure.”

Homily jumps at the unexpected jab, but quickly regains his composure. "Uh, right. Rather have bad smells if it meant good structural integrity myself, though." Homily carefully trots to the chest. "What do you think is in here? “

Griff shrugged, looking at some of the more intact boxes with a smile, as he pulls out his axe.
“Wanna find out?”

"Well, don't let me stop you." Homily backs away from the chest and the boxes. 

Griff nods, getting to work.
The boxes are so old its easy effort, though inside the first few is merely more dust or things so old they cannot be identified.

Finally though, as he spills open another chest, a couple of cups topple out, about eight in all.
Old but still quite intact, Griff picks one up, then blinking, holds one out to Homily with a whistle. 
“Gold ahn Silver, someone liked their wine served well ah reckon.”

Homily examines it, before putting it in his saddlebags. "We could probably sell these somewhere in town. Don't know where though, no one seems to want to buy jewelry and whatnot." 

Griff nods, getting up and helping put the others in Homilys bag, before going to the next Box.
Breaking it open, he whistles as it spills out rusted, mostly useless cutlery.
“well damn, doubt much o that can be salvaged, though thats ah lotta spoons.

Going to the last box besides the Iron chest, Griff quickly gets it open.
He blinks, turning to Homily as small, now mostly dull marbles of a multitude of colors spill out by the thousands around their feet.
“Err....watch yer step?”

[Roll for perception, d12, 5+ success]

Homily-3, fail
Griff-6, success

However as Griff was trying to step over the platitude of Marbles, he blinks, seeing something buried within the marbles staying inside the box.

Quickly reaching in, Griff pulls back his hand, whistling, as he hold the item out to Homily.

A large perfectly clear green sphere, a good 6 inches in diameter as Griff had to hold it with both hands.
Inside the center there seemed to be a small, ornate emblem somehow embedded in it somehow, its features of three kings, one Minotaur, one Bison, and one of what might be a Saddle Arabian pony all pointing a limb to a tiny, red gem in embedded in the center of the little metal emblem.

“Well damn, wonder how much THIS would sell fer eh?”

Homily looks up from collecting some of the marbles on the ground. "That... looks like something a museum would pay hundreds for." 

Griff looks it over as he brings it over to Homily, holding it infront of both of em
“yah sure? Dont see tha significance mah self, but hey,” he says, holding out to Homily, “If ya wanna try tah sell it, go fer it.”

"Gladly." Homily says as takes it, and promptly dumps it in his saddlebags "Can't hold much else in here, have to dump some of these cups if we find anything more valuable."

Griff laughs, pointing at his own. “ahll help carry some if ya need....now...” he says, turning to the chest.
“Ya ready fer that last one? Might take o bit more, ahn rust dust cant be good fer that lungs, so if yah got ah cloth or somethin...”

Homily procures a small green sack from his saddle bags. "I have this, but it's all I have cloth-wise. It'd probably fit over a beak fine. You want it?"
He offers it to Griff

“Ah, sure.” Griff says with a thanks, taking the sack and trying his best to strap it over his beak.
“ho'wp ah p'ook?” he tries to say though the thing.

Homily smiles at the sight. "You like pretty silly, but like you won't get metal dust in your lungs." 

Laughing as best he can, Griff turns and gets to work on the chest.
Indeed it puts out a lot of red dust, and takes much more work, but aged, rusted iron was simply no match for a well kept axe.

As the dust settles, Griff reaches in, digging carefully through all the muck and dust inside...until he brings out three items.

The first is some sorta amulet, the necklace made of a nice, shimmering black metal, the amulet itself a dragon wrapping some sorta sky blue gem in a hug as it slumbers.

The second item is a dagger, its blade of a similar black metal, but clearly inter folded with some sorta silver metal, making quite the beautiful pattern along the blade. The hand was still in great shape too, though both would not the bronze colored runic centerpiece to the guard was of the same sort that they couldn't look at very long, and the leather wrapping on the metal handle had long rotted off.

Homily feels himself slip away for a moment as he stares at the dagger, suddenly he is looking out at a calm, black ocean, a hand on his shoulder. 
“Someday, everything will be alright again, I promise you son. You wont have to live with our mistakes, no one will...”

suddenly back, he sees Grff holding up the last Item. “Well, now THIS one eres certainly interestin!” 

The third one was a pair of goggles, minus the leather straps, though the metal and green lenses were in great condition after Griff cleaned them off.
“Well...this stuff aint glass, ah can tell ya that much.....wanna try em on, eh?” he says with a smirk.

Homily shakes his head to clear his mind of the vision. "Oh, um, sure?" He eyes the dagger suspiciously. "And you can take that knife, I think." 

Griff shrugs, stuffing the Dagger into his belt as he holds the Goggles out for Homily.
Upon putting them over his eyes, at first little looks different, besides everything being tinted green of course....until he notices the dagger, and suddenly words appear infront for the rune on it, in English! They float as if made of magic.
They read “only when one embraces darkness, can one learn about the light.”

"That, eh, that knife is pretty ominous with these things on." Homily says, as he stares at the dagger. "Hey, you mind holding up that amulet for me to look at?" 

What, how?” Griff says, confused, but holds up the amulet. 
As Homily stares however he sees nothing odd happen with it.
“...so......what'r those do then?” Griff asks curiously.

Homily is surprised, and perhaps a little dissapointed that the amulet doesn't have any special messages. However, he can feel his headache fading as he wears the goggles. "Well, there are words that are floating above the knife. Not above the amulet though..." 

Griff raises an eyebrow, pulling out the knife and looking at it.
“Err.....ah guess tha goggles do....somethin then. They just make words appear then? Maybe if we fix tha strap and ya wear em round ya might spot somethin though, eh?”

"Maybe? Here, you give 'em a look." Homily takes off the goggles and offers them to Griff. 

Griff, holding one over his eye, looks at the dagger, seeing the same words appear.
“Well,” he says looking up, “how're bout.....oh.....wow...”
Griff points behind Homily at the wall outside the room, where a rune was scratched into the wall.
“Ahm seein words above that there rune too.....err......it says.... “ and suddenly whatever Griff said was incomprehensible, and hurt Homilys head worse then starring at the runes themselves did.

With a yelp, Homily is on the floor with hooves over his ears. "What was that?!" 

Griff jumps a bit, lowering the lens. “What was what!?” 

Homily gets back up, rubbing his forehead with a hoof. "Ugh, my head. I don't know, you mentioned the runes and then... something?" 

Griff blinks. “All ah said was what tha rune said, which was ' Protect from time, Protect from age.', whatever that is supposed tah mean.”

Griff lifts the goggle lens back to his head, pointing at it again. “see? Word for word, it says” and then it happened again.

Homily's ears fold back against his head, and his eyes shut tight, but he doesn't fall this time. "Ack, stop! Shut up!" 

Griff yelps, dropping he lens with a clack, jumping back a bit. He goes to speak, but quickly covers his beak with both claws.
After a moment, he picks the lens back up, handing to homily, and tries to say....something, with hand gestures, a worried look on his face.

Homily takes the lenses and presses them against his eyes. "I think it's just saying what the runes say, you don 't have to stop talking completely. I think, at least. Maybe take it slow?" 

Griff nods, and tests it out. “Ah....am...sorry fer whatever ah just did, tah me, nothin seemed wrong when ah was talkin.”

"It sounded... garbled? And it felt like a migraine to listen to. To me, at least. We should probably refrain from saying what the runes say, just pass these back and forth if something seems important. Speaking of..." Homily looks out from the room, at the runes along the hallway. 

Outside he spots a few close enough to read.
Most say the same message as before, 'Protect from time, Protect from age.' but two different ones catch his eye.

Above the large rotting door, that one says 'he who enters without twice knocking, strike down with lighting', and just in sight down the other hallway he reads one saying 'ah, my love, my wife, may you, in memorium here, be remembered.'

Homily passes the half-goggles back to Griff. "Seems like we made the right choice not going through the large door, and I think there may be a tomb just down the hall."

Griff takes them and takes a look down the halls, nodding slightly as he pulls back the lens and looks back at Homily.
“Ah reckon so...think these runes mostly be spells then?”
He looks around, frowning as he rubs his chin feathers.
“Well, we still got ourselves three directions tah go, wanna pick again?” he says with a smirk as he slips the Amulet around his neck.

[roll for perception, d12, 5+ pass, 9+ success, only you this time]

Homily- 11, success

As Griff slips the amulet on though, for just one, single moment, Homily sees the gem sparkle, and swears the dragon on it yawned.

"Ya, I guess-" Homily eyes shoot to the amulet for a second, before he blinks a few times and looks back up at Griff. "Uh, sorry. I guess we ought to knock on the door, right?"

“Sounds good tah me.” And with that, Griff walks over, and knocking twice, lets the sound echo across the empty castle.

“Er.....stand back...” He says, looking at Homily, as he uses his axe to push the door open....in which nothing happens, and it swings open, making some sounds as the ancient wood strains and cracks under the movement.

Inside is a large, open room, and nodding, Griff looks around.

“Ah throne room....” he mumbles as he steps in. inside sits a large, rotting but once great throne, some gold implanted bits still clinging to it. The ground I littered in dust, hooks showing where once massive, proud banners stood around the room.....

...but most importantly, was the Minotaur half rotted skeleton in the middle of the room, an exquisite, still shining sword sticking out of it, a dulled crown laying a bit further away. 

Many, much more well carved runes decorated the top of the pillars holding the room up.

“uh...” Griff simply says, stopping.

Homily follows Griff into the throne room. He begins to open his mouth to say something, but as his eyes catch the minotaur on the throne, his jaw simply hangs open a few seconds before closing again.

Griff looks back at Homily, unsure of what to do. 
“ah...think we found ourselves tha owner....”

"So, this place used to be ruled by minotaur?" Homily walks over to the skeletal corpse. "I wonder what happened here, that his body was never cleaned up..." 

Griff walks along with Homily, inspecting the sword.
“Ah....dont know, but ah reckon that fact we dont see no other signs o life mean whatever did, made people right ready tah up ahn leave...”

Gripping the swords hilt, Griff stretches, moving around a bit as he gets ready to try and pull it up and out of the stone floor its stuck into.

Homily sees a claw grip the sword while he stares at the skeleton. and looks back up at Griff. "Woah, woah! What are you doing?" 

Griff blinks, shrugging. 
“Ahm no smith, but even ah know tah stay this good ah condition aftah so long, this swords somethin special, at least in quality. “ He looks around. “Ahn ah hate tah see it just.....sit round in ere. Swords made tah be sued, not hold poor skeletons to tha ground....”

Homily eyes the sword warily. "But, what if it's cursed or something? If it was any good, I'm sure someone would have taken it when they left this place. I don't trust it."

Griff frowned, but let go of tha sword.
“hrm...ah dunno, maybe they jus didnt like tha idea o slippin it outta the king? But.....ah suppose if it seems too risky ta ya, I aint want ta cause you no worry.”

Griff, looking around, walks up to the throne, looking it over.
“This place must've been quite somethin once pon ah time.....”


"Something to truly marvel at in it's time, I'm sure." Homily stops examining the corpse and looks around the room. "You see anything interesting on the throne?"

Griff shrugs, “mostly just gold bits, but one near that tops got one of them runes on it. Might be worth looking at?” he suggests.

"Put the goggles on, then." Homily walks his way to the throne to join Griff. 

Griff nods, taking them and putting them on.
After a moment, he makes sure to lower them before turning to Homily, a sad look on his face.

“ 'Protect Family, so our lands may prosper' .....thats what it says....” he shurgs, handing them back as he looks back over at the Skeleton.

“...guess magics not somethin tah trust wit somethin like that....”

Homily winces as Griff begins reciting the rune, but when nothing happens Homily relaxes. "Guess not. You see anything else around here?" 

Griff shrugs, pointing to a door to the right.
“Ah reckon that leads wherever tha door in tha storage room lead. Probably best tah check it out fore headin deeper inta tha other hall.”

"Good idea." Homily backs off from the throne, then makes his way to door.

Pushing the old door open, it basically crumbles away, revealing a spacious, bedroom, clear by what remained of a once grand bed, poking out halfway from under the collapsed roof on that part of the room, letting in the sunlight from outside a bit.

Off to the side was a door perfectly lined up to go to the storage room, and on the opposite wall was a doorless frame leading somewhere....overgrown with plants, producing some sorta shiny, pink berries.

Otherwise the room only held a VERY sturdy looking chest at the foot of what remained of the bed, and a few bronze implants in the walls with runes on them.

Homily walks into the center of the room. "Another chest over here." Spotting the runes, he brings the goggles up to his face.

Griff nods, but inspecting the chest, frowns. 
“This ones well kept, dont know if ah can git in without ah key hrm....”

meanwhile, Homily reads the runes.
'Til Death we uphold Honor.' reads the first. 
'We prevail, until we Die.' reads the second.
'You should never have come back.' reads the third, before the floating words suddenly change to 'Til the last of our blood runs thin, we shall protect these lands.'

Homily passes the goggles to Griff. "Hey, have a look at this."

Griff takes a look at the three runes curiously, but shrugs, handing them back.
“jus seems like family quotes or some shit tah me. These guys liked tha idea o goin til they dropped apparently.” 

"I guess so." Homily shifts to face Griff. "So, you say you'd need a key for this one?" 

Griff nods.
“made outta tha black Steel or whatever, no way ahm just cuttin my way inta this one...”
He looks around the room, shrugging.
“Ahn ahm thinkin tha keys either not in ere, or under tha rubble...”

"I don't particularly feel like spending an hour clearing rubble How about we move on instead?"

“Same” Griff says with a nod, getting up.
Heading back out into the halls, Griff looks down the other, unexplored route, before heading off down it.

Not too far down, though far from the end of the hall, they come to two doors, one with the rune about the wife over it, and the other with a new one, mostly faded, carved into the door, to which was probably the reason they couldn't see it before.

“...lets save tha possible tomb fer second, agreed?” Griff says wearily. 

"Agreed. Let's take a look at what this room says before we go in, though." Homily puts on the goggles.

The rune on the door reads incomplete, just like it was, reading simply 'Protect'.

As Griff opens the door, inside is simply a long but somewhat spacious room, a few places along each wall have what clearly was once beds, and a few places still have what look to once have been wooden foot lockers.

Another, half rotted door can be seen on the other side of the room.

“....Servant quarters?” Griff guesses.

Homily puts away the goggles and enters the room. "A barracks, I think. The rune didn't give a full label like the others, but it mentioned protecting." 

Griff nods, walking over to the first of the footlockers.
Breaking it open, he nods respectfully, pulling out a set of very rusty, but possibly salvageable, chainmail armor, shirt and shoulder bits. Even more interesting, made for a pony of some kind, though too clumped together to properly get proportions. 

“Maybe yer right....” He says, looking at the other footlockers as he sets the clump of half rust down.

Homily walks over to the footlocker Gridd was at, and examines the chainmail himself. "Doesn't look like it's big enough for a minotaur. Was this place multi-racial?"

Griff smirks. “but of course Homily, clearly these were no backwards savages who couldn't see anything wrong with multiculturalism!” he says, giving a large grin to Homily.

"Haha, celestialism is a religion of peace, you know? Hey, you think these lockers all have the same stuff?" Homily wanders over to a different footlocker and opens it.

Both opening their respective lockers, Griff finds nothing but a mound of rust...and a short sword! Though its wooden handle is long gone, the blade itself looks salvageable. 

Homily finds a helmet with a whole rusted into it, but the rest seems mostly intact, aswell as another set of Chainmail, possibly salvageable, this one quite large, no way it was for a pony.

“Hrm...pretty standard issue stuff ah think, not sure worth takin back though, less ya wantin any of it fer yerself?” he says, looking over the blade.

"I don't think so. This chainmail seems a little too heavy to carry around everywhere, and I got a perfectly good helmet back at home. Probably should have brought it, actually." Homily stops looking through his locker and turns back ro Griff. "Watcha got there?"

Griff holds out the sword. 
“just ah short swords. Handles gone, but tha blades perfectly salvegable ah think, just gotts polish tha rust off ah think.”

"Neat. Shall we carry on?" Homily points a hoof to the door on the other side of the room.

“Sure.” Griff says, sliding the blade into his pack.

Down at the door, there is little, but when Griff tries to push it open, the wood breaks away...t oreveal a layer of rusty, but still strong metal under it.

Griff, however, lights up.
“Homily...ah think...if this that barracks....we found that armory!”

Homily Sermon-Today at 2:55 AM
Homily is smiling now, the prospect of a room full of weaponry and armor that might not be rusted to hell is an enticing one indeed. "You think so? How are we going to get through that metal, though?"
Griff Mc Beakface-Today at 3:00 AM
[on phone getting food so sorry if slow or mistakes] "HRM...." Griff looks back, sratching his chin. "Ah reckon gotta be a captians quarters somewhere right? That or we try our hand at lockpick in?"
Homily Sermon-Today at 3:01 AM
"Well, do you have any idea how to pick a lock? Because I sure don't. I'm a preacher, remember?"
Griff Mc Beakface-Today at 3:04 AM
Griff frowns. "Ah....might know how it's supposed ta be done wit modern locks... This old thing though?" He shakes his head, shrugging.
Homily Sermon-Today at 3:05 AM
"If you have anything to try picking it with, I don't have anything against trying. I just don't think it would work, most likely."
Griff Mc Beakface-Today at 3:09 AM
Griff shakes his head. "Nothin small nuff no....ah reckon Best bets ah key...damn keys, keeping us from Tha goods." He says with a chuckle.
Homily Sermon-Today at 3:10 AM
"Well, I guess that's it in this room. For now, at least. So uh, the tomb is up next then? Do we- do we really want to check in there?"
Griff Mc Beakface-Today at 3:12 AM
Griff shrugs. "Ah would like to...but ah promise ta not touch nothing important looking, if that'll help her nerves."
Homily Sermon-Today at 3:14 AM
"I would appreciate that, yes." With that, Homily exits the barracks, and waits next to the door to the tomb.
Griff Mc Beakface-Today at 3:17 AM
With a nod, Griff slowly opens the door, revealing a staircase down into pitch darkness. "Oh, well, not expecting this..." Griff says, looking at homily. With a shrug a fetches out a torch and a flint. "Here we go then..."
Homily Sermon-Today at 3:20 AM
"Ohhh dear..." Homily's ears fold back once again. Nothing about this situation is appealing to him.
Griff Mc Beakface-Today at 3:22 AM
Lighting up the torch, Griff leads the way down. In the depths they find a long hallway, too dark to see the end of. Going a bit deeper reveals holes in the walls leading to rooms, each with a coffin...and surrounded by chests, most likely full of the reads prized possessions, and many of those runes on the walls in each roo., Though so far they have only come across four rooms.
Homily Sermon-Today at 3:23 AM
Homily puts the goggles back on, and looks about the hallway at the runes.

All the rooms seem to read one similar rune 'Protect those who have passed.', aswell as the name of the person lying within.

Otherwise, the rest seemed random. 

'Hilda Mildheart, hands so gentle, so loving.' read the first room, followed by ' left three sons behind, may they never forget.'

the second room read ' Strong Ox, Second of his name.' and 'Died upholding honor, but much too young.' and ' Do not let the young drag the old down into youthful folly.' a warning perhaps?

The third room read 'Glitter Blossom, First Arabian princess to bless our halls.'  followed by 'May her beauty, not her wits, be remembered fondly.'

The last one they had found so far read 'You are making a mistake.' before it suddenly changed to 'Lady Lily Guild. And 'You should not be down here' before that too changed to 'A mind as wise as any elder, she sacrificed everything for those she loved.'

“Anythin interestin so far?” Griff asked as he looked over one of the stone coffins.

"I-I don't think we should be down here, some of these runes... I don't think we're alone, we need to go back up!" Homily has started breathing heavily and backing up to the staircase. 

Griff blinks, slowly going up to Homily. 
“What ya talkin bout man? Alright, just calm down, we'll go back up...Just breath man.” Griff looks worried as fuck as he leads them back up the staircase and into the hallway.

Giving Homily a moment, Griff stands, staring back down into the catacombs below.
“...What did ya see?” he asks after a moment.

"The runes were changing or something, they told us not to go down there." Homily casts quick glances down the stairwell as he talks.

"I think there were spirits down there..." 

Griff nods, and slowly closes the ancient door.
“Well....yer that preacher, ahll trust ya on that topic.” He says, before slowly looking further down the hallway.

“Guess best keep movin, let tha dead stay so....”

"Yes, please. I don't like it down there." Homily keeps the goggles on as best he can to help his headache, and follows behind Griff 

As they do further down the hallway, Homily doesn see anything of note until they come across a lone door, an aged but still decently kept bronze circle placed into a rusting door, reading 'Those that do not ask kindly to enter, shall find themselves forever lost.'

“Well, This door dont look too well, ahn if ah were tah guess, iron door means something of importance.” Griff says, lifting up his axe.

"Woah! Hold up there, this door has a warning too." Homily hooves the goggles over to Griff. 

Lowering his axe, Griff looks over the runes, nodding slowly.
“Er...right....”
Griff looks to homily, then shrugs.
“Err.....may we enter please?”
and then they hear a click, the door opening slightly.
“....huh.....it worked...Guess theres still some magic left in this place afterall...” He says, pushing the door open.

Inside is a spacious, but comparatively small room, housing a comparatively, but still rotting, large wooden desk.

Behind it sat a dull, but still seemingly intact two handed axe, and a large set of somewhat deteriorated Minotaur armor in a dusty glass case.

Homily mumbles, "What kind of anti-intruder system makes you ask politely..." Homily heads to the axe at a gait. "That looks heavy." 

Griff shrugs. “Maybe they couldn't read tha runes either, why else make them goggles. Figure if it doesn't matter, then take yer pick o systems....”

Walking over to the axe himself, he nods at the impressive instrument of war. 
“Ahm not evne sure if ah could lift that thing, Minotaurs must all be built like fukkin trucks....” he says, looking over at the ornate, full plate armor. 

“Cause, ahm not even sure if both us workin together could git that armor out if we wanted ta....”

"My back hurts just thinking about trying to carry that hunk of metal." Homily changes his attention to the desk. "Looks like whoever lived here was important to have his own room and armor plus weapon displays, think there might be anything good in this desk?"

Griff smiles “heres hopin.” 
Sure enough, digging through the drawers reveals a large key, and, surprisingly, Two scrolls.

“Well, wanna bet we know where this baby goes?” griff says with a smile, wavign the key at Homily.

Then, Gingerly, Griff takes the scrolls out, setting them down on the flattest part left of the desk. The rolled up papers were sealed with wax, one of those runes, the same as those so often on the walls outside, stamped into it.

Griff scratches his head, looking at Homily.
“Er, think we should open em? They were important nuff tah try ahn preserve....” 

"I don't see why not, might give some explanation of what happened here." 

Griff nods, and slowly peels back the wax on the first, opening it slowly.

Inside is an entire page of runes, clearly meant to actually be use as full language for once. 
“Damn, lemme see one of them lenses.” Griff asks, taking one of them.

Looking over the scroll, it reads:

'Hello again my King. I am afraid I have no good news to report. The southern kingdoms are all gone, abandoned, or worse. We have no allies left for what is coming. And to the north? I ask forgiveness, but I must laugh. The young, new ones flee into the icy north, taking everything with them. I can only guess how they hope to survive in such inhospitable an environment, but that is of no concern of ours. I must beg you once again to re consider, to flee like the others. Together, like before, we might've prevailed....but now, alone? King, I mean no disrespect, but I do not think we can hope to survive alone. For once, I beg you, do not stand firm, but let your people flee.

I say all this with utmost respect and loyalty.

- Jack Ironfist, Head Scout.'

Homily looks over the scroll with one lense. "Now I just have more questions. What's the second one say?" 

Griff nods. “Same....” before he starts to peel the second one open.

As it unrolls however, both are hit by a bright flash from its pages, knocking them backwards.

Their mind races as their head is full of visions.

They stand before a group, in a familiar throne room but one so grand and well kept it was almost unrecognizable. 

Many guards and soldiers stand around, from Arabian ponies and Minotaurs, to even two Bison. Similar mutli-racial ornately dressed nobles stand around, with one young, armored Minotaur approaching you. 

“Father, please. I only ask for enough to reach the lands across the ocean. We will supply ourselves from the Griffons....if they havent fled themselves...”

suddenly, whoever it is you are seeing from stands up, everyone in the room taking a step back. 
“You are asking me to weaken our defenses! To make it that much easier for them to take our homes from us!”

only your son stands firm.
“Father....you know we stand no chance. We stay, we die.”

“Then we die where we belong.” You say back sternly, as you stand face to face with your son.

There is fear, sadness in his eyes.
“please...dad....”

“No.” You say flatly.

Your son looks down, but a moment later looks back up, a determination in his eyes like you have never seen.

“Then I challenge you to a duel for the throne, as is my birthright.” He says sternly.

And then the vision fades, and both are back in the room.

“Ooof.....fucking hell...” Griff mumbles as he rubs his head, looking over at Homily. “Yah alright?” he asks.

Homily had fallen over during the vision. After getting back up, he replies, "Ugh, yes I think so. I wish we would get some kind of warning on these things though. I assume you saw the vision too?" 


Griff nods as he gets up himself.

“Yeah, ah saw i-” He blinks, and, slowly, points to the open scroll. 

There was a two parts, two sets of runes. The first was simple ink, but the bottom half was still glowing softly blue.

“Er....uhh.....Wh-what do we do bout that?” Griff asks, afraid moving too much might set it off again.

"Huh?" Looking at where Griff's talon was pointing, Homily too sees the glowy rune. "Um, maybe just roll it back up?" 

“Ahn risk mah touch setting it off? Yer sure bout that?” Griff asks, before looking at Homily, “Err.....we sure we DONT want tah set it off though? Answers dont come from nowhere afterall....”

"Well, I don't know. Does that rune signal what we just saw? Worst come to worst, I think we just get the same vision again." 

Griff tosses his arms up a bit.
“Like ah know. Ahll roll it up, fine.” 
He grumbles, slowly approaching the thing, before stopping however, as his goggles lens catches somethin.

“Wait....Homily....take ah look at this...that...uhh.....yeah....”

"What?" Homily looks around the ground and quickly picks up his lense from the floor from when he fell down, and then puts it back on. "Alright, what is it?"

Looking at the scrolls glowing runes with the lens reveals a simple message.

'Hello? Can you read this? Tap the paper if you can please.'

Griff elbows Homily. “You tap it.” he says.

"What? Why- whatever..." Homily gingerly taps the piece of paper. 

After a moment, the Runes change.

'Oh! Good! Im glad to see that! We have much to discuss, please, tap again when ready!'

Griff taps it this time.

'Right! Now, I know this might be asking a lot of you, but you have the sword, so I have to. Please, there is something in the catacombs....i need you to kill it. Tap when ready! Oh! And I can read lips well enough, so please, feel free to ask me things!'

"Who are you? What are you doing in a sheet of paper?" 

Griff taps it again. 

'Oh! Im not in the paper, I just cant communicate without it. Well, or some other item of similar magics. Im dead, but you know, not dead dead. My name is Prince Flaming spirit, of the Bison Kingdoms. well, not that that exists anymore. Tap when ready!'

"Why do you want us to kill something in the catacombs? We went down there already and got told to leave." Homily taps the paper. 

'Oh! You did? Yes, some others trapped here are not so willing to let others risk joining us, but what choice do we have? Its only a matter of time before that thing wakes up, and we were lucky it got injured enough to sleep in the first place!'

after a moment, the note changes without a tap.

'I want you to kill it for your own sake, but also because its presence itself is making us unable to pass on fully. Its magic holds us, feeds off of our very existence to heal it.'

"Wait, it's injured? Are you talking about that thing we fought when we first came here?" 

'Oh, no! Not at all! The sword holds him now, slowly eradicating him from both this world and history, as is its design. This beast is much older, much more primal. Still, it would take thousands more years for it to be a world ending threat again, all the more reason to kill it while its weak,no?'

Griff frowns.
“Ah dunno....Ah mean....Truth or not.....this sounds risky....”

the paper changes on its own again.

'It is, but its important, trust me! Look, do this, and I wont even have to tell the other ghosts not to bother you, because we'll all pass on! You'll have access to all the riches leftover down there and no one to stop you, that sounds great, right?'



"I'd rather live poor than die in pursuit riches, but did you say this thing was a world ending threat? How do you expect us to fight something like that?" 

Griff nods. 
“Sounds outta our league fer sure....”

the paper changes.
'it COULD be, given a few thousand years more time. Right now its only like, a village or town destroyer. And thats if it is given a fighting chance. Its injured, and asleep, and that sword in your bag was designed to kill evil. There is no more perfect a chance to finish it off then now.'

it changes once again.

'Look, you dont want riches? Im ok with that. I cant offer much, but name a price? Just please, I want to die, to REALLY die, being bound here, my only companions a few wraiths barely even sentient anymore? Im going insane, it takes everything I have to not becomes like them....'

again it changes.

'So what do you want? Hell, once you do this, you can have the castle and everything in it for all I care!'


"I don't care what you're offering us, as far as I know we could just grab it whether you give the say so or not. I want information on this monster, or whatever it is. You say it's sleeping? So, we would just have to sneak up on it and stab it before it can do anything?" 

'If you use the sword, yes, just a stab and a similar effect will happen as the last evil you faced. Its like a bear, but like, evil and shadowy. Like tar. And yeah, go ahead and try to take anything from the catacombs. Ill be seeing you in person soon if you do.'

Griff whistles. “Ah think he just threatened us.” Griff covers his beak, and talks to Homily directly. “Ah dont like this, ah got a bad feelin hes not lyin bout this beast, cause lets be honest, its our luck that parts real. But ah have ah bad feelin that there aint no reward fer us at tha end o this, not that ahm after one, but ya know, still....”


Homily puts a hoof in front of his own mouth. "Our 'reward' will be not doing to this thing when it has the surprise advantage. You heard him, it's still powerful. This sounds like... a decent chance to take it out before it can take us out. We just need to go back to town, get the sword, then come back and stab it before it even knows what's happened." Homily seems unsure of his words, however, as if he was trying to convince himself as much as he was Griff. 

Griff blinks, and slowly reaches into his bag, pulling out the handle from before.
He smiles weakly. 
“Err.....ah did mention before ah convinced Northern tah let us borrow it....right?”

Homily looks at the hilt, then back at Griff. "Oh, uh, no. You didn't. That was pretty smart, actually." 

He smiles.
“Wanted tah be prepared.....” He gets a more serious look on his face.
“Lets do this then, not fer riches, but cause we dont want this damn thing near us.”


"Right. Ok then. Actually no, I have one more question for the prince." Homily takes his hoof away from his mouth, and plants it back on the ground. "Before we do this, does the key we found alongside this paper go to the door in the barracks? And, does that door in fact lead to an armory?" 

the paper changes. 
'finally, you guys don't need to be so secretive. Yes it does, and yes it is. Sadly time has still done some damage to stuff in there, but comparatively it still has a lot intact, and a lot more then just the standard sword or spear. The Old King was a stubborn fool, but he knew to be prepared!'

"Alright, final question. How time sensitive is this? Do we have time to check out the armory first? I forgot my helmet at home, and would certainly feel better with one." 

the paper is silent for a moment, but finally changes.

'Its not very time sensitive. I really should lie, but it could be years before it gets hungry enough to venture out. Then itll slumber again, venture out for more food, sleep longer, repeat, sleep even longer. Eventually decades will pass each time, until like I said, in a few thousand year itll have gained enough power to end the world, though obviously itll be a powerful threat long before then.'

“Oh, in that case, wanna deal with this later? Maybe next week, Tuesdays always good fer these things.” Griff asks Homily, a cheeky grin on his face.

"Well, how often does it sleep? I have absolutely no problem coming back here at a later date, preferably with more people, but I think I'd rather give it a quick jab while it sleeps with the two of us than a full fledged melee match with a large group."

'Sleep like this? Not often, more importantly, never so soundly. Im not sure how or what injured it, but I have never seen it so deep in rest. It sleep often and for long periods, but usually it is easier to wake. And usually not weak enough to be easy to defeat, even with that sword. But sadly yes, if you waited, it might get stronger, more healed, but still able to defeat it. Honestly, you showed up at the best time to kill it, so I myself am suspicious of whats going on with you two.'

Homily casts a suspicious look to Griff. "Maybe we're just meant to be here. Alright then, so we make a quick stop at the armory for anything that may help, and then we go down and stab it?" 

Griff raises an eyebrow at Homilys look, but nods.
“Ah reckon thats tha best plan we got.”

Griff turns to the paper, but blinks, the thing no longer glowing.
“...oh.....goodbye then?” he says with a shrug,before tossing the key to Homily. “Lets git going then.”

Not having enough practice with catching things out of the air with hooves, and not wanting it in his mouth, Homily is hit in the face with a key. He then picks it up off the ground and puts it in his saddlebags.
"Alright."

As they walk out and to the Armor, Griff cant help but think on what the ghost said. He had felt odd that he suddenly wanted to come here, but now he couldn't help but wonder if something wasn't playing him like a fiddle.

As they came to the Armor door, Griff simply felt uneasy about the whole ordeal. What he thought might just be a good opportunity to clear his head had suddenly become an attempt to preemptively end a threat.

“Homily...” he said as he watched the Stallion opening the door. “Yer ah preacher, so ah gotta ask....how much control ya think that god o this world have over us? What tha Ghost said aint sittin right with me, hes right, it IS too much ah perfect coincidence were ere like this....makin me wonder if ah cant even trust mah own thoughts ah bit, if somethin influenced me tah git us ta come ere...”

"Well, personally, I believe that God could have control over everything on the world, but chooses not to. Restrains himself, if you will. It could honestly just be coincidence that we're here." 


Griff laughs weakly. 
“Somehow that doesn't help...”

with a click, the door swings open ,and inside is indeed an armory.

A few suits of armor sit on stands, for various races, and there are many stacked up in one corner, from the look of a broken one housing many chainmail shirts, of how usable is to be found out.

On another wall, there is literal barrels stuffed full of swords and spears, again the quality varying greatly. Another wall has shields, some having fallen apart, others looking quite well preserved. 

But further back is where the real goods appear to be, a set of bar doors, though open, separating many items behind of in glass compartments. 

Homily looks about the armory. While the weaponry and armor on this side of the room seemed decent enough, the back is what really caught his eye. He moves past the armor stand and weapon barrels to check the bar doors. 

Griff follows, and past the open bar doors is a plethora of items. 

From simply more ornate looking armors and weapons, there were other things aswell. Such as a gauntlet made for a Minotaur of incredible size even for their race, or that trident looking spear with a gem embedded on it.

Whistling, Griff looked around. Sadly time had done damage even to these grand devices, but even among those items still seemingly usable he could hardly guess what some of it was.

Wiping the dirt off of one of the glass containers, Griff eyes some sorta clockwork sphere thingy. 
“Well, ah think this stuffs tha good lot, problem is, what stuff we could actually wield, ah gotta wonder how much might require an instruction Manuel...”

"Ya, most of this stuff seems beyond me." Homily makes his way over to the trident, and begins examining it. "This one doesn't seem too bad, how complicated could a trident be?" 

Griff shrugs. “Dont know, go fer it.” He says, walking over to yet another axe much too large fer him.
“Whys all these beauties made only fer Minotaurs....” he grumbles.

[Roll a d12 for any type of item you wish to find. You have 3 rolls for items. 5+ is minimum to find an item of they type you were looking for.]

Besides the Trident, Homily spots a nice, Ornate spear off in a corner. Three green gems rest under the spear blade on the part connecting the the shaft, and despite little knowledge its clear it has some sorta magical property to it. Thankfully it seems intended for someone of pony size too.

"Ooh, that looks rather nice..." Homily says absentmindedly, as he walks to the spear. He picks up the spear with his hooves. "Yes, I think I quite like this one." 

Homily dumps his old spear on the ground, in favor of the new one. "Found anything you like, Griff?"

Griff turns around, Looking at the weapon.
“Each their own taste, not ah fan o spears much myself.” He looks back around the room, shaking his head.  “Nah, not much but....” He trails off, putting down the odd thing he was looking at as he goes up to a finely crated looking set of chainmail.

“hrm...well, not too special lookin, but better then tha half rusted stuff out in that other room.” Slipping it on over his scale, he turns to Homily, Holding up the sword hilt with a nod.

“Yah ready tah do this then?”

"Ready as I'll ever be. Lead the way, Griff." 

With a sigh, Griff nods, leading them out. IT is silent as they go back across the hall, Griff slowly opening the door, staring down into the darkness below.
“Well Homily, whatever happens...ahm glad to have met ya.” Griff says, giving the Preacher a kind nod before leading the way down into the darkness.

"Well that uh, that sounds rather final, don't you think?" Homily says as he follows behind Griff. 

“Maybe so, but felt somethin should be said...” Griff whispered as they were engulfed in darkness.
Minutes passed as Griff slowly lead them down the darkness of the catacombs, then tens of minutes. He was unsure if they were going slowly, or the place was just that long.

Or worse, both of those. Finally though, softly, barely, they heard the echoes of snoring up ahead.
Griff could see nothing....until a few steps more, the blade suddenly activated, the familiar strands of light, as if from both the sun and moon, weaving their way out of the hilt and reforming the blade.

Cursing, Griff dashed sideways into one of the rooms quickly, Dragging Homily along with him.
“Damnit.....why'd it suddenly turn on....well...fuck, didn't even think of how we were gon git it too...now ah gotta wonder if this things glows gonna give us away...” He peaks back out of the room, listening to the sounds.

“Still asleep....just gon have tah hope the light dont wake it, lest ya got ah better idea...”

Homily manages to stifle a yelp as he's dragged into a sideroom. "Maybe it detects evil or something? Anyways, I have no idea how to hide the glow. I don't have anything that's big enough to cover it."

Griff frowns, but nods.
“Then we'll have tah hope fer that best...”

"I mean, It'll be fine, right? The prince said this thing was in a deep slumber." 

"Ah just hope he wasnt jus trying tah make sure we did this...." Griff grumbled out.(edited) 

[Roll a d20, 7+ pass, 12+ success, 1- Crit fail]
[Griff has a -2 for the swords glow]

Homily- 16, success
Griff- 9, pass

As they sneak forward, slowly, they come to see their prey. IT is massive, intimidating, having carved the very tunnels bigger to fit its size. 

It indeed seemed kinda like a bear made of tar, its snoring causing goopy trails to come off of it every now and again. The wound across its back was also clear to see, a deep purple scab contrasting the otherwise near pitch blackness of its self. 

Homily was like a mouse, No sound emanating at all, but Griffs nerves made him slip, a misplaced leg nearly sending him toppling over.

Catching himself, he felt himself holding his breath, as suddenly the thing turned over, revealing its head to them, eyes still shut tight as its nostrils hit them with humid, warm air.

[Roll a d20 again, 7+ pass, 12+ success, 1- Crit fail]
[Griff has a -2 for the swords glow]

Homily- 12
Griff- 6

As they got right up to the thing however, Griff felt his foot connect with a loose rock on the ground.
Hard.

He watched in utter horror as the rock flew through the air and hit the thing.
Right. in. the forehead.

And suddenly its eyes popped open.

“Fuck.” Griff says simply.

Homily scrambles to draw his spear, and readies himself. "Stab it now!" 

Griff lunges forward, going for a stab into its head.
[d20, 7+ pass, 13+ success, 2- crit fail]
[+1 for melee skill for Griff!]

Griff- 8, pass.

The thing is quick for its size, quickly getting up to dodge the attack, but Griff was quick enough at this to get a good cut across its chest.

It roars, as the blade attempts to literally suck it in, but its strong, pulling back and deeper into the cave, cutting the connection.

It has noticeably shrunken is size however, but as it stares the two down, it still seems quite big. 

“YAR!” Griff yells, jumping at it again.
[both Griff and creature roll a D20, higher score wins.]
[Griff has a +1 for melee, Monster has a +3 for might]

Griff- 5
Monster- 18

As Griff lunges however, the beast swipes at him, and Homily watches in horror as Griff goes flying backward, bits of blood covered Leather and chain going everywhere and he rolls a good few feet.

And then the Magic Blade skids to a halt at Homilys hooves.

Homily drops the spear, and grabs the sword hilt into his mouth as quickly as possible. As soon as he has it gripped tight, he charges the beast! 

Homily- 8
Monster-8

As Homily charges forward however the beast is smart enough to turn its attention to the current threat, jumping backwards to dodge the incoming attack. 

The two foes square off, but the thing seems....apprehensive, about attacking. 

Homily is puzzled about it's hesitance to attack him, but he doesn't have time to think on it right now. He rushes in for another attack! 

[Homily d20+1 vs Monsters d20]

Homily-17
Monster-13

The beast goes to knock Homily away, but its hesitation is its own downfall. While again not a killing blow, the Creatures again shrinks significantly, now about the size of an actual, normal grizzly. 

It Growls, angry now, and starts to circle, now small enough to have room to maneuver. 

Homily starts circling as well. "Griff! Griff, are you good?!" 

Homily hears no answer. 

[Homily d20 vs Monsters 20+2]
[Griff, d20+1 to recover, 12+ pass, 16+ success]

Monster- 12
Homily-20
Griff- 19


as both Homily and the creature go in for the kill, Homily turns his head in just the right direction, and feels the blade sink deep into the things chest as he gets toppled over by its weight. 

However, as he lays under it, it whimpers, and lime a vacuum, Homily feels the last of it get sucked into the blade, before the strands of light retreat back into the handle.

The fight over, Homily hears a murmur from behind him.

“ Ulgh....uuu......oooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww......” Griff says, barely able to twitch.

Homily shakily gets up off the floor, and spits the hilt onto the ground. The adrenaline is still pumping through him, and he can feel himself spasm as he walks over to where Griff lays on the floor. "Griff? Can you talk?"

“.....I-” He twitches in pain, which only leads to more pain. “...K-Kin.....kinda.....” he grimaces out. Without the light from the blade, it was pitch black again in the catacombs.....that was, until for just a moment, they saw them.

A few, eerily green lights appeared around them ,for just a moment, before taking the shape of beings long dead. A Pony mare,a strong looking Minotaur, and a few others, before after a nod, they all dissipate. 

Griff blinks, slowly turning where he thinks Homily is as the darkness envelopes them again.
“Ah....think im dying....ah just saw some mad shit....”

"No, I saw them too. I think they're free now. Can you stand?" Although you may not be able to see Homily, concern is evident in his voice. 

“Ahm...gon have tah I reckon.” Griff clenches his beak, but as he tries to push himself up, screams in agony, nearly collapsing back down as he leans against the wall, sliding back down to a sitting position.
“Graaaaahhh....Fuck....thar shou.....should be nother torch ahn maybe some raggedy pret.....fuck this hurts....bedsheet lengths in mah bag....”

"You keep bedsheets- Nevermind, not the time. Where's your bag?" 

Griff blinks.
“Err...it was on my back....But now......”He shrugs as best he can.

"Alright, I'll find it, don't worry." Homily searches for the bag in the darkness.

As Homily searches for the Bag, He himself gets lost. Hes not sure how much time passes, but eventually he gets worried as the responses from Griff get weaker and weaker and less coherent, but luckily he finally bumps a hoof into the damned thing.

"I found it!" Homily shouts, as he dips a hoof inside to check for the torch and bedsheets 

Griff only makes happy noises as a response, as Homily lights up the dark cave, pulling out bedsheet straps clearly cut into ribbons, he can only assume to be used as bandages.

[roll for spotting, d12, 5+ success]

Homily-8, success

As the room is lit, Homily notices an ornate key just within sight down the path the monster was living in.

Strangely enough, its also the spot the ghost Minotaur had been standing for the moment he was around.

Homily drapes Griff's bag across his back. On the way to Griff, he notices the key and picks it up, before continuing along. "Hey, I found a key too!" 

“Oh neat,” Griff mumbles out, “least that means.....youll git somethin outta this....” It was then in the light the seriousness of Griffs wounds was clear, both by how deep they seemed, and the blood forming around him a bit. 

Homily's eyes go wide at the sight of the blood puddle. "Griff, you're bleeding! A lot!" He shakes Griff's bag off his back, and reaches in for the remaining cloth scraps. 

“Homily.” Griff says, drawing on what reserves of strength he had. “The skys blue. Want tah keep sayin obvious things?” He says with a smile.

Homily scrapes out all the cloth he can. "Alright, where are you bleeding? Have you been keeping pressure on the wound?"

“Like, my entire chest. “He says with a chuckle, and sure enough, his exposed chest had 3 pretty nasty gashes on it. “Dont think ah couldve kept pressure on this if ah had tried.....jus patch me up ahn lets git outta this dungeon.....Think one of them beds upstairs good nuff tah use? Thinkin ah nap might do me well....”

"Well, it's better to try than just bleeding out on the floor. What's wrong with you?" Homily grabs rope from his own bag, and tries tying the cloth on tightly to the wound.

Griff laughs as best he can.
“Tell ya a secret? Couldn't feel ma limbs fer a bit there. Scared me more then tha bleedin, though id lost one or two, heh.”

As Homily Finishes his best attempt at bandaging wounds clearly in need of more then bandages, Griff nods, Forcing himself to his feet. 

He still nearly collapses, having to lean on the wall, but this time stays upright.

“Well....lets git goin then.....” he says, clearly in immense amounts of pain.

"Not yet, give me a sec." Homily retrieves his spear, trades one of the goblets in his saddlebags with the sword hilt, and then trots back to Griff, where he picks up the Griff's back in his mouth. "'Ay, 'een o' ee"

“er...whatever ya say buddy...” he chuckles out.

It takes an agonizingly long time to make it out of the catacombs, Griff barely making it up the stairs, but as the taste the stale, night air of the castle above, Griff sighs heavily, slumping back down against the wall next to the door.

“Ah.....fuck.....FUCK....” he says, looking down at his blood soaked bandages with a frown.
“...Homily....ya remember tha last time we were here?”

"Of course I remember, what about it?"

“remember how ah said tah leave me ere last time.....ah think ah might have ta tell ya that again....” Griff says with a shrug.
“Cause, theres a lot of beach ahn jungle between us and...oof, ahn tha town....not tah mention....heh....probably gon attract some night critters out there....”

"What, and let you bleed to death in some ruined castle? Stop being an idiot. We can stay here the night if you need to, but I'm not heading back alone." 


Griff rolls his eyes.
“Think fer ah moment Homily. Ah dont need yah ta babysit me fer tha night, ah need ya to Go and git me ah DOCTOR....err... or at least somethin ta stitch me up with....”

He coughs a bit, looking around. “Ahll find ah place tah rest, but ahm not gonna be much better like this come morn, heh, probably not fer that next few morns...” He frowns, shaking his head.

“.....Honestly, ahm lucky tah have even ah shot ta live....one inch closer ahn we wouldnt be talking right now.....”

"Alright, you have a point." Homily drops off Griff's bag, as well as the key he found. "Here, go find somewhere to rest. I'll be back as soon as I can with a doctor. And keep pressure on the wounds."
Homily turns around, and gallops off. 

“Yes nurse!” Griff yells at Homily as he runs off, chuckling until the pain kicks in.


As Homily ran through the jungle, he couldn't help but note how late it had gotten, as the crisp night air cut into his fur like small nicks as he sped along, the ever encompassing jungle appearing to throw sound after sound at him even this late.

Homily continued rushing through the jungle as fast as he could, bound for town. The light having faded just some time before was discouraging, and would surely make the trek back to the ruins even slower, but it didn't matter. He had to find a doctor and make it back to Griff. 

As Homily entered the town however, it was quite empty, this being the time even the markets 24-hour section was getting much less traffic. 

The Embassys Medical Wing usually kept a few on staff at all times though, just incase.

After entering town, Homily beelines it straight to the medical wing. As soon as he's inside, he calls out, "I need a doctor, my friend is injured a ways outside town!"

After only a moment of hesitation, Two Pegasi approach Homily. “Alright sir, please be calm and explain the situation, where is your friend?” 

Homily's breathing is labored as he takes a moment to collect himself, and think of how to explain the situation. "T-there's some ruins, just north of here, along the beach. My friend and I were exploring these ruins when he... got injured. I don't think there's a lot of time, he was bleeding pretty bad when I left."

“What were yo-” she shakes he head, turning to her companion. “Cloudy, go get the guards, the jungles dangerous this time of night.” Pointing with a hoof as her companion flys off quickly, she says to Homily “Start leading the way, Cloudy Thoughts fast she'll meet us at the gate!”

Without even a moment of hesitation, the Pegasus has a bag of medical supplies on her back as she nearly pushes Homily out of the Building.

As they reach the Gate, the other Pegasi and three guards, two unicorns and one Earth, are already waiting, all looking more then prepared for the trip.

"It's this way, hurry!" *Homily yells as he rushes past those assembled at the gate. He takes off into the jungle without a second thought. * 


It takes much longer then he would've wanted to get back, despite them making good headway, the Medics and guards more then able to keep up.

Entering into the Castle, one of the guards makes the mistake of staring at a rune too long.
“Gah, why does that hurt?!” he grumbles out as Homily leads them into the ancient place. 

As Homily reaches the door to the catacombs, he realizes something both good and bad. For one, he had no idea where Griff was actually planning on going, but that didnt matter due to the droplets of blood leading off down in the direction they hadn't yet explored, meaning Griff had, for one reason or another, decided the best direction to go was further away and into unknown territory.

"Oh Griff, what on Earth are you doing..." Homily mutters under his breath. He slows down as he follows the blood trail. 


“I suppose those are his?” the first Medic, Silky Hooves, asks, as he looks forward down the hall.

Ahead they come to a split in the Hall, however one direction obviously has the blood droplets, but to Homilys note, there is an odd increase in Runes along the walls, instead of being sparse, they slowly start to cover every available inch of wall down this path.

Cloudy grimaces, shaking her head. “What is this writing? Im not sure about this....”  and then they see some soft, light blue light coming from under a door up ahead, the guards quickly getting infront of the group, ready for whatever was happening.

"I don't know, we hadn't gone this far in before I left. I have no idea why he would've gone this way." Homily does his best to 'sneak' up to the door, and carefully creaks it open.

When it opens, the group is met by an odd sight.
Griff sits in a room full head to toe of those runes, seemingly in a daze, as some sorta glowing blue, earth mare ghost pokes at his wounds.

However as the door opens, she freezes, turning to look at the group, before just dissipating and disappearing. Homily notes for just one moment he thinks he saw the gem on Griffs amulet glowing aswell, before the Griff flops over.

Quickly, the medics rush forward, the guards, apparently knowing what to do too, take a foldable Gurney off the Medics pack and set it up next to Griff, as they inspect his wounds.
“the bleedings stopped, but the wounds still pretty bad.” they quickly Stitch him up, and together get him onto the portable gurney and strapped in. 

“Let move it ponies!” Silky yells as they hardly even wait for Homily, taking the injured Griffon out with the help of the guards, more concerned with getting the paitent back alive then figuring out what is going on.

Homily freezes when he sees the ghost, but after the other ponies begin to leave he is jolted back to reality at Silky's call. He chases the group as they run back to town.

The group makes good headway back into town, able to avoid any unnecessary conflict with wildlife, as they quickly get Griff into the medwing, finishing patching him up and getting him onto a bed.

“He should be stable, but I dont know how. All rights considered, he should of been dead when we found him.” Silky says sternly, pointing a hoof at Homily, “Im not sure what you two got yourself into, but it almost cost your friend his life. Please, be more careful next time. And ill be have to be documenting this, so you should expect to be asked to report on this sooner or later.” He face softens. “...but that can be dealt with later, ill leave you to tend to your friend...” she says, before walking off.

"Thank you, doctor. I appreciate everything you've done." Homily turns his attention to Griff. "You idiot... what were you doing?" He questions, not really expecting any kind of answer. 



Griff was simply out cold, his breathing heavy, But Homily noticed him twitching, as if having a nightmare.

Homily spots Griff's bag laying at the foot of his bed, and rifles through it with a hoof until he feels the key he had left Griff with back at the ruins. After Homily placed it back into his own saddlebags, he exited the clinic, and headed back home for some well needed rest.