eswareinmal | The Princess and the Tower

Entry tags:

The Princess and the Tower

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Calling it now. The floor's going to change. It'll disappear, or it'll show up somewhere we haven't been. Something's fucking around with us in here -- whatever made the wall grow after I jumped it." Kay took off again at a slower pace, slumping from his shoulders, marking the ground every ten meters or so.

He was paying close attention to the direction that the scent of people (and another dog? Maybe?) was coming from. Whenever possible, he would head that way.

He could follow the scent, though not exactly, and not without running into a few solid walls along the way. But slowly, bit by bit, they work their way closer to the tower in the center of the maze.

Up to them, now, to figure out that there actually is no maze exit at this end.

"Mmm.. it does seem pretty likely..." Bakura reasoned, peering up at the sky to try and catch sight of the tower. "This would be a lot easier if someone knew how to fly..." he mused before pausing, mid step. "I wonder if that would..."

He looked over at the wall, head tilting just slightly before putting his hand on it and closing his eyes in concentration. If this maze was magical... if he reached out through that magic like he would when healing, maybe he could find out something more about it... It was pretty unlikely that he'd get a map or even a clear image like he did with his healing magic, even if it was magic, a maze was a maze, and unless it was alive, he wouldn't be able to see anything. But magic was different... magic gave things life and was born of someone's life energy, so even if he just could get a map of where the magic was within the walls... he should be at least able to tell if they were getting anywhere!

He can quite clearly see the layout of the maze (as it currently stands).

He can also, more notably, see that there's no actual way through the ice and to the tower.

That... couldn't be right...

He pulled back, eyes blinking open to stare at the wall as he slowly returned to himself. While practice had allowed him to return swiftly when just healing, his consciousness spidering though a maze was quiet a different story, leaving him highly disoriented for a longer time.

"That's not a very good game..." It was almost a pout. Puzzles were supposed to be solvable...!

"The hell are you muttering about?" Kay asked, already walking in the direction he thought was best.

"There's no exit..." Bakura pointed out, drifting after, still a little out of it. "It's just dead ends and false exits... you can't get there from here."

Seriously? Kay thought, pulling a face. "How the hell did you find that out? Magic?"

But when he considered it a moment longer, it made sense. It was almost respectable, in a way -- Kay could appreciate someone who didn't play by the expected rules, exploiting dramatic convention.

It was fighting dirty, but fighting smart.

He bared his teeth in a facsimile of a grin. "No exit? We'll see about that. Get me as close as you can to the tower. Do it!" His tone brooked no delay -- it was more growl than words.

"Eh? Aaa--" Bakura faltered before trying to pull up that image-- no, that feeling of the layout. Where..

Frowning, he put his hand on the wall again hand glowing softly as he retraced the lines. There. That way should...

He nodded, pulling away and taking a deep breath, trying to refocus on the world. "Down that way, it goes like..." He traced the trail in the air, trying to burn the path in his mind so he wouldn't have to put his mind into the maze again.

Kay watched Bakura's hand closely, nodding. Then, he took off down the maze at a trot, careful to detect hidden walls by scent.

When he reached the final wall, he scratched at it with a paw, sniffing again. "If there's no exit," he said, backing away a few feet, "we'll make one." With that, he sprang at the wall, claws out. Kay's front legs were muscular, grotesquely so, and his claws were also disproportionately large. And, well, let's put it this way: Kay had broken down steel doors before as a human. He threw his full weight into the assault, intending to weaken the ice wall with his claws and then break it with a body-slam.

The ice wall regenerates as he hits it, growing back -- but it can't grow back fast enough. A second hit will break through, leaving them on the short, desolate space before the Tower itself.

Two guardians, statues made of ice, stand by the tall arched entrance to the tower.

Bakura reflex shields against the splintering ice, darting through the hole the moment the wall is down and Kay is clear, not wanting it to close up again.

He eyed the guardians warily, calling his staff to him. It wasn't anything he could fight with, but having it seemed to help his powers focus better.... As long as he could power up and protect Kay, they could pass them... right?

Kay scrambles through, pausing for a moment to shake the ice from his coat. He ignored the soreness in his limbs -- he'd be very surprised if he woke up the next day without bruises -- and turned to face the ice guardians instead. Probably just decoration, he thought. Whoever was behind this was seriously over the top.

He walked forward, toward the tower entrance, on all fours.

As he approaches, the guardians grind into motion. Spears held at the ready, crossed over the open doorway.

If Kay comes close enough, they will attack, moving to sink the spears into his flesh.

"Look out!" Bakura throws a hand out, casting a shield around Kay as the statues move.

"Shit!" Kay barks. He tries to dodge, but being a big wolf has its drawbacks. Like being a big target. If Bakura's shield offers complete protection, he'll escape unscathed. If not, he'll take a long cut of damage across one shoulder. Either way, Kay scrambles back, growling.

"Wasn't expecting that."

The guardians fight ponderously and slow, but with great power. This strike misses, but the spear slams into the ground, creating a crack through the ice. The sound of running water is audible below.

Kay and Bakura will have to find a way to break the guardians before he can pass through.

The shield is strong and practiced, though Bakura winces just a touch at the impact before feeding more power to it. "If the whole place is a trap, I think we need to expect everything to do the unexpected!" he exclaimed, looking up at the statutes. His magic isn't offensive, how on Earth could he...?

Wait.

"Will you let me power you up? My magic doesn't have anything that can blast, but if I raise your attributes enough, you should be able to take them out!"

Power me up? Raise my what? What the hell is this, one of Steven's animes? Kay can't help thinking. "God, this place is nerdy," he complained under his breath. He also wondered if it was a good idea to let Bakura use magic on him without understanding exactly what it would do. He remembered Gallowglass, and the strings attached to his magic.

But right now, Kay didn't feel he had a choice. If one of those things got him, he felt like it could cut him in half. He was strong, but he wasn't fast. It only took him a long beat to reach the decision. "Okay. Do it."

Bakura nodded, closing his eyes in concentration, pulling his magic together. If it sounded nerdy it was because Bakura was thinking in TRPG terms, linking together 3 basic attribute raising spells; strength, defense, dexterity, and feeding them into each other to create a single spell.

"ENHANCE!" he yelled reaching out to wrap Kay in the magic before letting it sink into him.

It is a clever solution, and the magic works. Kay is made stronger, quicker, better.

That? That feels awesome. Kay decided to skip the sarcastic commentary on the implications of 'enhance' and just focus on beating the crap out of those guardians.

Speed was what he needed most. Kay was a powerhouse, but he wasn't good at dodging. Right now, though, he felt lighter on his feet than he ever had before, and - man, he had this crazy idea. In a flash, Kay darted around behind one of the guardians, then leapt up -- and up -- and up. If the guardian was too tall for him to do this in one leap, he'd just sink his claws into its back and spring up the rest of the way. Where he wanted to be was hanging from the guardian's shoulders by his front paws -- so he could close his jaws around the ice statue's throat.

The guardians weren't so large; the leap took him exactly where he meant to be. Ice crunched between his jaws, and as soon as it was broken once, it all began to shatter. Cracks webbing out from the point of the bite, jagged shards melting dull, and the guardian then comes completely apart, falling into a pile of bits of ice.

Flushed with his victory, Kay whirled around to attack the second guardian. Not even pausing to shake the ice from his fur, Kay took hold of the second guardian's ankle with his mouth, and yanked it off its feet. If he could, he'd swing it around so that it hit the wall of the tower or the maze, whichever was closest. Kay was fight-mad now, not even paying attention to the fact that if he hit the tower wall he could damage it -- and the princess -- inside.

He'd also left himself open to a counterattack from the guardian while he had it by the ankle.

Oddly, the expected counterattack doesn't come. There isn't a strike, even though the guardian clearly had time for it.

Instead, the unbalancing from being held at the ankle makes the guardian tip over and, ponderously, slam into the tower wall.

The ice beneath them groans, and the wall shivers with spiderweb-cracks.

The Princess and the Tower

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