The Princess and the Tower

[sorcerous]

WHO Anyone who wants to rescue Sansa! Also Loki and Sansa.
WHAT Rescuing Sansa from the Ice Tower
WHERE Upstream on the river.
WHEN This IC day/the next IC day
NOTES I'll be setting up subthreads for the ice maze, the guardians outside the tower, and the stairs inside the tower. The group will start out all together in the ice maze and then be separated into two, I believe. The groups are (correct me if I'm wrong) Cho, Sif and Faolan, and Giles, Helios, Kay and Bakura. It's not too late to participate! If you would like to, hit up the plurk linked in the below paragraph.

The general sequence of events can pretty much be assumed to be: they get through the ice maze, they get through the guardians, they get up the stairs. If anyone would in particular like your group to be the winner, that's cool with me, go ahead and jump in here, otherwise it'll just be whoever manages to RP to that part first.

Comments

THE ICE MAZE

[sorcerous]

When the heroes get near to the ice tower, they find a vast field frozen before them. The ice is made into jagged, knifelike walls, twisting and turning over the sluggish river water and over flooded and destroyed crops. It is deathly cold inside.

Best of luck getting through the maze, heroes. Especially since the walls keep changing.

Team Cursed!

[warewolf]

There was a giant wolf sniffing around near the edges of the maze. ...well, maybe "giant" wasn't the right word, since the wolf only looked like it would be about eight feet tall on its hind legs. Still, it was too big for a normal wolf. Its front legs were too bulky, too, and its face wasn't shaped quite right.

Kay'd figured his wolf form would be more useful for tracking a missing girl, but he wasn't ready to come out of the kennel to everyone in this weird fantasy land. He hadn't told anyone he would be there, and Faolan was the only one who knew (as far as Kay was aware, at least) that he was a werewolf. He hoped he could keep the disguise up.

[shiromadoushi]

Bakura blinked a few times at the wolf -- if you could even call it that-- in wonder. There was just the one werewolf, wasn't there? And that kid was no where near this size...

Well. No matter.

"...trying to sniff her out...?" he asked, tone more curious than wary.

[folklorist]

The werewolf is a new addition to this little venture, but Helios doesn't seem too put off by him. Helios is looking around curiously and carefully as they move forward.

"That's...n-not a bad idea actually. If-if I only had something of hers I could use a tracking spell." He frowns looking behind him and then to the side. This was certainly a mess wasn't it?

Jumps order to get this jump started again

[shiromadoushi]

"Would there be something in her room at the castle, maybe?" Bakura suggested.

Re: THE ICE MAZE

[greatsquirrelhunter]

Faolan held himself very still as he sat in Cho's bag. He was very tempted by the food she had packed, but that would clue people in that he was there. And that was a bad idea. So he just looked at it.

He wanted to help, but Sif said he was too little. He'd show them. He was little, but he was crafty! He could follow along with everyone! He would help! He wanted to find Alayne too! And play with Loki!

[tenuefarfalla]

They began the ice maze together, all of them, one huge and determined group. And then a wall of ice had formed out of nowhere, cutting between Cho and Bakura as neat as a windowshade. She frowned at it, knocking on the cold surface. "Guys? Can you hear me?" But she got no reply. Well, that was that. Just her and Sif.

With one last reluctant look at the new wall, Cho hugged her cloak tighter around herself and pressed her lips into a thin line. "I guess we keep going. If there is magic here that wants to keep us apart, we'd waste our time fighting it." And, all in all, she could do worse for a partner through the maze.

[greatsquirrelhunter]

Faolan poked his head out. Of the bag. They had stopped. Were they there already?

[tenuefarfalla]

The extra weight hadn't really caught her attention. After the last venture, Cho had set about expanding the interior of a leather satchel, adding lightening spells and stabilizing spells and a whole host of other magical protection and benefit. One little animal didn't really factor into anything. But the furry nose peeking out, that caught her attention.

"What the--" She pushed back the flap, exposing Faolan sitting on top of a folded up tent. "Faolan? How long have you been in there?"

THE GUARDIANS

[sorcerous]

Two statues of ice stand outside the tower's base. They are still and implacable, and will not move unless someone makes a move to enter the huge archway of ice, the passage into the tower.

TEAM... WOMEN AND CHILDREN? IDK

[tenuefarfalla]

Cho's cautious as she approaches the guardians, her shield now back in place, her side and ribs aching. It can't be this easy. Not after all that bullshit they just went through. Her heart sounds too loud in her ears, or maybe the air around them is just too still. "I don't like this..."

[greatsquirrelhunter]

Faolan trots along at her side, whining up at her in concern. If Cho is not okay, what will he do? He's just a little puppy. He can't carry her. And Sif can't carry her AND do the fighting. Even if he goes back to human form, there isn't much he can do if Cho is badly hurt.

He keeps sniffing around for danger and stays close to Cho.

[brosif]

Separating from Cho, Sif walks with her sword out. If the first obstacle was one based in logic (that, granted, they found more practical to smash through with magic) then whatever lies ahead will be molded to a slightly different skill set. This would hold true regardless of the identity of the designer. Diversifying one's defenses is only sensible. Perhaps the only sensible thing that this day has offered.

"This is enough," she says, approaching the entry way. Anger tinges her words, but there is one child and one injured to her back. She does not rush in, sword out, as she might on her own.

But she does step closer -- a few paces away from Cho and Faolan, with the intent of moving further still.

"We have done away with your maze, played your game. What is the point to all of this?"

[sorcerous]

There is no response.

But the guardians move, ponderously and slow, but with great force. One strike will hurt them very badly, but if they dodge, they can destroy the guardians first.

STAIRS

[sorcerous]

The thin structure of the Tower is filled with a tight spiral staircase, with steep and sloped steps. Watch your step; the ice is slippery, and some of the stairs have traps.

(Please leave room in your tags for traps to spring on your characters. If you need help on the mathematical sequence of stairs that are trapped where your character would be able to figure it out ICly, let me know!)

UP IN THE TOWER

[sorcerous]

(For Loki and Sansa.)

Loki watches, out the thin slits of the window.

"They have come for you," he tells the Princess. "See? A wolf, and a handful of others." He is pleased. "They will begin the maze." He glances to her. "Will you watch?"

[isinganyway]

Sansa sits in a small, simple chair near the light, a small book held in her hands. Guilt eats at her, and uncertainty too. She does not look up.

"If my lord wishes."

[sorcerous]

"Not a wish, nor a command, just a question."

He turns away from the window, and moves to her shoulder, quiet as a shadow. "You are troubled," he says. "Must I reassure you again? They will fight for their lives, but not to their deaths. They will know what it is to be in danger. Battle is the best place to train a warrior's merit, but the jaws of battle -- true battle -- are ravenous, and devour man and beast alike. This way, they will know what to do. This way, they will survive, the next time, when the danger is true."

He crouches before her, placing himself below her. Testing her reactions to that. "Tell me," he says, "would you have come, if not for the ice flower?" It is a different question, a change of subject.

[isinganyway]

A lie, told to appease her. There is no true danger if their lives are not imperiled. Accidents happen - like a broken jousting lance embedded in a young knight's throat. Safety is an illusion he gives her to keep her complacent, and meek she is, a lamb.

She does not flinch when he settles before her; her breath hardly stutters. As if the ice of the tower has seeped through her skin into her bones. If Sansa has one skill, it is telling men what they wish to hear. The problem here: that she does not know what Loki wishes to hear. "Yes," she answers. Assent is always safest. "I would have come."

[sorcerous]

"I think you lie." The words are soft, weighing, not particularly offended or upset. "But I know not to whom." Does she lie to herself, or to him? What is it going on beyond those eyes?

He moves back to his feet. "Sif has come," he tells her. "As I thought she would. Good. She will know to guide them best."

[brosif]

The stairs are another ordeal, and for a time Sif’s anger at whomever has placed them in this situation -- be it the suspected culprit, or a new threat entirely -- is set aside. There is a pattern to configure, which Cho is able find and solve. But not before setting off a series of traps. Steps compacted into slides, limbs encased in ice, the appearance of stairs where only thin air exists.

From the stairway, she walks into the main room of the tower. Sword out, as it has been. Faolan and Cho to her back. From here, the sorcerer seems to be radiating cold. Sif is not sure what that means, but it is not a condition that inspires optimism.

[sorcerous]

Loki turns.

"Congratulations." Is it imagination, or is there something truly exhausted in Loki's voice...? "You've been found." This last is to Sansa, evidently, not to the heroes. "For once in, perhaps, a lifetime, you can have an ending like a song."

His palm braces against the window. "I suggest you remove her quickly," he tells Sif. "Thanks to your clumsiness, most of my efforts now are exclusively towards keeping the tower standing."

[warewolf]

Kay had taken the stairs at leaps and bounds; if he had set off one of the traps he just kept running, beginning again if he had to, skipping the problem step next time. He wasn't thinking at all, not calculating, not planning, a mountain of barely-guided aching muscle and panting breath. If Kay was aware of anything outside himself, it was each crack of the tower's structure, each groan of overburdened ice.

He burst through the door only seconds after Sif, carelessly pushing aside anyone in his way -- yes, even Faolan. It was easy to pick out the culprit and the victim. "You're lucky I don't have time for you," he said to Loki, not even looking at him. Instead, he came up to Sansa on all fours. "Come on. Let's go." He crouched down, jerking his head, obviously offering a ride down on his back.

[greatsquirrelhunter]

Faolan has attempted to help both Cho and Sif while climbing stairs that were not made for a puppy's legs. He is quite worn out by the time they reach the top, and decides that it's time to guard the door. He does this by lying down in it, turned in such a way that he can watch both inside and outside depending on how he turns his head.

[brosif]

She looks around the room -- to Cho, so wounded. To Faolan, who has made a journey meant for one decades older and complained through none of it.

Her eyes do not meet Sansa's.

She walks up to Loki, shoulders tight. This was his doing. All along, while she pleaded. While Cho rend herself asunder. He watched from above, with the human here that Sif held dearest.

"If you were not holding this tower up, I would tear you down myself. This was all a game, then?"