Taking down the cult (mission)

by **Aberham** Thu Mar 12, 2015 11:44 pm

Aberham wrote:Mission Name: Taking down the cult
Mission Rank: Experienced.
Location: The woods of winter
Description: A cult of men has been making ritual sacrifises of animals in an abandoned church to the three goddesses. Kill them all before they graduate to human sacrifice.
Requirements: Kill every cult member.
Player Count:
Reward: 200k rupees, 500 experience.
Word Count: 2500, one post.
Mission Boss: N/A

Aberham loved the snow.

He stomped through the woods of winter during it's most icy days. His two pairs of armor kept him nice and toasty, navigating the forests was a challenge, but at this time of the year it was suppose to be the easiest time to navigate. Snow was falling heavily all around him, he had been traveling for three days and he had never seen it get this bad. He wore a black cloak over his armor to shield him from the snow, he clutched an old map in a tight fist to keep it from flying away. He wished he could bring his horse but with no grass at all and no ability to carry pounds upon pounds of hey meant that the horse would surly perish in this winter death storm.

He paused to look at the map, the old church would be at the very top of a cliff, he had been walking uphill since dawn this morning. It was very hard to make out any details even though he had paid top dollar for it. He took a compass out of his bag and checked the direction he was facing. He would have to alter his path. For if he kept this up he would not have the shelter of the tree's once he left the bulk of the forest for the side of the cliff. He would have to trek through miles and miles of nightmarish snow before he would reach the very top.

The church used to be an excellent monument to the three goddesses. With three pillars that went high into the sky it hanged off the side of the cliff with powerful supports holding it up. This was a church that pilgrims would pilgrimage to to become closer to the gods. There was no other church that was closer to the heavens for hundreds of miles. It would truly be a beautiful sight. If he made it there. He knew that the trip would not be the hardest part, cultists like these were usually proficient in curses and other magic. It would not be a simple mater of killing deranged old men when he got there.

This entire trip had been one big fat obstical from the gods. For the first night he could not find any firewood at all, he slept in the cold with a fire made out of expensive books on magic he had been studying. Magic, he wondered if he would ever be a caster. He had been practicing so hard for so long and he could not even do basic magic, truly he had a new appreciation for his sister who had been studying it for a very large part of her life. Perhaps she could teach him something. One thing was for sure, he would need to make a very large investment financially if he wanted to commit to using his magic for battle. His pathetic ax and shield spell could not carry him much farther. Aberham was practically a legend, and after he brought this place down he would be.

The second day had been absolutely pleuged by monsters. His sword kept him busy until midnight cutting through wolves, stalfos, and any other sort of beast that could take this cold. It was a true test of his willpower, strength, endurance, and resolve. He left a bloody trail for an entire day as he ripped and tore his way up to get to this part. Truly the goddesses were testing him. Perhaps when he had burned the books it was a test from the goddess of wisdom, perhaps when he had fought for fourteen hours with very little break in between he was being tested by Din, the goddess of power. But he knew what the true challenge ahead of him would be, the challenge of courage to keep going no matter how lost he felt or how weak he grew. It looked so easy to go down, almost like it would be a comfortable walk. But he had to press on, for he would not be known as the man who quit when things got tough!

It was absolutely frigged and Aberham caught himself shivering as he put the map back up. As soon as it was away before he could take a single other step he heard a groaning, what was that? His battle trained reflexes shot his head to look at a tree that towered high into the sky. It was covered in to much snow, it was falling down, and it was almost aimed directly at Aberham! He trudged his way forward as fast as he could through eight inches of snow in his armor, the tree was old and it was great, he knew he could roll out of the way if he went backwards but he refused to let his footprints show that he was a coward! He heard it violently snap and he kept shuffling forward. He closed his eyes, grit his teeth and moved as fast as he could forward, was loosing his life really worth continuing to move forward? This doubt filled his very soul as he marched on three more steps and refused to allow the thoughts to slow his feet down, but still he thought that he could still make it if he did a roll backwards, but with unrelenting courage he cried out into the cold winter snow and jumped forward. The tree picked up speed as it fell.... right where he had been standing! The only thing that got trapped under it's huge size was a small part of his cape which he tugged loose. He stood up and beat his chest for even thinking that he might not make it.

But then he heard a much more violent sound coming ahead from him, it was like the entire forest was falling down. That is when he realized that the mighty tree had finally fallen and breathed it's last that the sound and force had shook the cliff. It was an avalanche, he squinted and through all the snow that was falling he could see that a massive wave of ice was building up and hurtling down the mountain faster than any horse could gallop, it was such a big avalanche that he doubted that any bird could even dive bomb fast enough to get away from it. His reflexes hit him again and his head darted each way to look for cover. Could he take refuge cowering behind one of the many standing tree's that were thick and wide? No, he knew of at least three that he could get to even fast enough to have a couple seconds of buffer to prepare for the worst that the mountain could offer him. But the roots propped up the tree and he would not be able to brace himself, he knew for certain that he would be swept up and carried miles down the cliff until he hit a tree and broke his neck. This was not cowardice it was wisdom. Should he simply burry himself in the existing snow and try to take cover from the falling ice? No, he would be swept up or completely and hopelessly buried. Shit! Where would he take shelter, he was running out of time to choose!

Thats when the idea hit him like an out of control chariot led by a dozen stallions, his head pivoted around so fast it almost gave him whiplash. He sprinted back breaking his personal vow to not take a step backwards. He would certainly die if he just kept walking forward. He ran back much faster than he could have walked forward and when he hit the fallen tree he took one step on the wood and leapt forward doing a front flip in the air. He landed right on the other side of the tree, took his shield in both hands and held it over his head. He cried out in effort as he forced his shield spell to appear over his head. He used his great strength to supplement the basic shield. That is when he felt the snow finally hit him, it slid over the tree and began to hit the top of his shield and spell. He felt it slide over it felt like he was holding three people up on the top of his shield it was so heavy, he knew that if he wavered for a fraction of a second then it would overwhelm him and kill him. He felt the tree behind him waver, oh gods. Could it have been to loose on the ground? Had he miscalculated it's weight or strength? If it shifted back then it would be all over, he would either be crushed by thousands of pounds of timber or he would be overcome by a sea of snow. He yelled out in effort as he felt more and more weight be added to his shield. The sound grew softer and softer as he blacked out.

When he came back into full consciousness he was freezing cold and it was pitch black. He was sore all over and for a few seconds he contemplated if he was dead but then he felt his lungs inside him cry out for breath and he realized he was alive. He gasped and opened his eyes terrified, because he could see just as much with his eyes closed as he could with it open. He swallowed and took stock of his options. His strength and his spell had given him a pocket of air, his courage had given him a chance. But soon he realized that he would run out of oxygen. His entire life flashed before his eyes. Everything wrong he had ever done, how much he deserved this deep down in his heart. How he would never see his sister, or his parents ever again. He would never see how his sister turned out after highschool, he would never learn the fate of his brother who was shipped off to a secret prison for his own crimes. The way he saw it he had two options. He could wait down here and pass peacefully, waiting for his heart to give out. Or he could try to dig his way out. Who knew how much snow was in between him and the top. Maby he should just wait here, it was nice, chilly, but he was numb anyways. He sighed....

Jack the jackrabbit had been having a dreadful winter.

He had been separated from his family a while ago. He had found a few serviceable safe havens as he tried to find his way back to his family. One thing that he could not find however was food. If he dug in certain spots he was able to find enough food to get by on, but soon the predators would come out, they were nothing like the nightmarish predator populations if you went farther down the cliff, but he had lost many a friend to a hungry fox. What was that? he thought, his right ear bending. He heard the footsteps of something. There had been an avalanche here recently. He would wager it was about twenty minutes ago, give or take a few minutes. He could tell because there were no roots on these tree's they simply started with the truck. This snow would have to be about twenty four feet deep, no other tree's were this short in the entire forest. He peered around one of these tree's and saw a fox on the prowl. The rabbit hid behind the tree, there was no use running. A fox could easily catch a rabbit if it ran out in the snow. Mostly they hunted mice who were hibernating in the snow. This fox did not look to bright, he could not tell that there had been an avalanche here recently. He dared to look again and saw a twitch in the foxes ear, had he been heard? No, the fox was looking at the ground. Had it found something that it thought was a mouse? He must have because it jumped in the air and pounced on something in the ground, biting it hard with it's strong jaws.

This was it.

Aberham gave up, he had crawled out as far as he possibly could. His lips were about to turn blue from a lack of air, the darkness was suffocating. The goddesses had buried him under an unending pile of snow and he was about to die. Well at least he had given it his best try. Even if it was a worse death than if he had gave up ten minutes ago. He closed his eyes and considered preying to the three goddesses. He could not bring his hands together, his right hand was outstretched to the surface but felt no closer to it. But just before he was about to say a single word, he bit his lip and moaned. Something had bit him! He growled for a second before he realized. Something bit me? SOMETHING BIT ME! There is something out there! his fingers closed around the neck of the thing that bit him, the finger that got bit was protected with his armor. Filled with renewed hope he squirmed trying to work himself up as whatever bit him tried to pull out of his grip. I never begged you for anything! I'll...... Never..... Beg...........

Jack heard the crunch of something metallic right after the fox lunged for something in the snow he thought to be a mouse. He heard it whine as it's head got caught down there and he saw the rest of him fight to try and pull the head out. Then he saw something really unexpected. A man, something he had never seen before who was covered in armor. Painstakingly pulled itself out of the deep snow. He took a few deep breaths and strait up strangled the wriggling fox in his mighty hands. He tossed the now dead crushed body of the animal into the snow and started marching off higher up the cliff. Welp, that was weird. Oh hey, it was another jackrabbit! He hopped right past the man and saw an old friend. Jim! Jim I found you! Where are the others!?

Aberham stumbled out of the hole into the fleeting daylight, it would be sunset in a few short hours. He had to make haste up to the church, he lost his bag in the avalanche. He had no food and no way of starting a fire. He needed help, even if it would not come for hours. So he yelled the magic words to summon a dragon that he had befriended. "DRACUL! He continued to march up, the only things he had with him was his sword and shield. It would be enough.

The doors to the church opened, creaking and groaning in protest. It interrupted a very delicate blood sacrifice to the dark god Kaliel. Three men who were carving up a sheep turned their heads to the door and a dozen men in robes holding candles also turned to see a monstrous man, he stood much over six feet tall, his armor was huge and ice was creeping up on the very edges of every single part of it. He held a sword in his hand and took a mighty step inside, it could be heard all the way on the other side of the stone building. They were on an alter beneath the statue of the goddess Din. The eldest and most powerful of them dropped the sacrificial dagger he was using to remove the heart of the sheep and started muttering an incantation for some of the most powerful curses known to man. The only incantation the man needed was "DRACUL! Then a shadow appeared behind the great stained glass windows apeared, it grew larger and larger until a dragon broke through the windows and roared. It picked up the three who were carving up the sheep in it's feet and took them for a fly all the way to the ceiling of the massive Gothic building. It dropped them and their body's crunched on the floor below dead.

The dragon and the man were an unstoppable force now that the three best casters had been taken out. The dragon roasted them alive with flamethrowers and the man cut down any coward who tried to run with his icy sword. In under two minutes only the dragon and the man were standing. Aberham was just about to hop on his friends back for a ride home when he noticed many, many of the most valuable rupees on an offering plate for Din. Those stones were not there when he last checked, they actually glowed with magical light. He walked forward and placed them in a bag while looking into the eyes of Din. Just as he was on the Drake's back and was about to fly away the torches of the church magically lit themselves. Aberham had completed one of the most difficult pilgrimages any human could attempt, and he would be known for it. They flew out of the stained glass windows into the sunset. It was a long flight to Hyrule.