Aporeu chronicles Issue 96: Gold Ceremony 3
Stories from the adventurers
This week
Introduction
The adventurer’s guild and their gold tier ceremonies, you’ve read about them before and it was time for another batch of adventurers to go through it.
I interviewed Ruzak, who organizes the ceremonies, just before it started. He told me that a group of six adventurers were making their way to him as we spoke. Their names were: Alyr, Bob, Effie, Kalesh, Ranra and Whiltin. Like the ones before, they would have to pass a personal test, followed by a team battle in the arena. The personal trial was a private ceremony, so I was asked to wait outside. Luckily, I was able to interview the candidates after their trial.
Gold Ceremony 3 by Kalesh
Alyr The first I was able to talk to was Alyr, who had finished first. She told me that when she went through the portal, she found herself in a tunnel that ended up in a room full of metal spikes. In the middle she saw a scared girl crying. Working up the courage, Alyr transformed into a cat and made her way through the spikes towards the girl. When she got to the girl, Alyr realized that the girl was actually a younger version of her. These trials sure do mess with the contestants' heads! As a gift for making it to the gold tier, she has been gifted a cloak that seems to make her more difficult to follow. Whiltin The next one to make it back was Whiltin with his pet weasel. “Bah! These tests are ridiculous!”, he said. “They just keep mocking me, first it took ages for me to enter the first room, my knee’s hurt, and Pop was getting unnerved in this darkness.” “If it had taken me any longer, I would’ve returned and asked if Khalesh could take me through.” Whiltin was obviously annoyed by whatever happened. “Eventually I saw light at the end of the tunnel, but the joy of finally doing my first test sunk into my shoes as I noticed the light being red and yellow; FIRE!”, he continued. “But as if that wasn’t enough, a young brat stood within the fire and threw insults at me, mocking my age!” “If only he knew what life had given me in experience and knowledge, he’d show more respect.” “He utterly angered me, as there was no conversation to begin with him.” “So, I called a storm of sleet over him, surely a fair token of my power!” “Extinguishing the fire was just a bonus at that moment, but he seemed untouched as he just nimbly danced and darted around the room.” “I noticed a door opposite of the room; so, I ignored the ignorant piece of shit, dropped my spell, and I just started walking towards the door.” “But the flames started erupting from the tiles once again, as I dodged away.” “I started dashing and I dearly hoped I had estimated the distance correctly.” “With a jump I leaped into the air, vanished in thick mist, and re-appeared just several feet above the floor and away from the door.” “I had miscalculated the momentum of my dash, and fell into the door face first”, that must’ve hurt. “Well, to make things worse, the respectless boy laughed at my pain, but to my surprise he walked towards me and acknowledged my skill.” “I ignored him and reached for the door, but it was locked!” “The brat walked up to me and just unlocked the door, saying I deserved it!” “I ignored him and quickly went through, but the next room was just another mockery!” “A grave in the middle of the room, but there lay a pearl on the floor, so I swept it up with my mage hand and ran to the exit.” Truly an interesting trial! And it goes to show that each trial is unique to the adventurer. Effie Effie came back from her portal quite excited. Wearing a cloak that looked a lot sturdier than any cloak yours truly has ever seen. She told me that in her trial, she had met a red dragon. She had to fight it in order to complete the trial, and she tells me that she almost won! Truly these adventurers are special. Bob Out of the next portal came Bob. While definitely a human, his skin color was a shade of bright blue. I asked him whether this happened on the other side, but he told me that it happened some days ago. He also asked if I could remove curses, but my only magic is that of the pen. Bob told me that he had to get into a shed in his trial, and had to chase a key, a flying key, around the room on this broom he was carrying. It is apparently a broom on which people can fly, astounding! Ranra Ever since attending this ceremony, I have been suffering the same nightmare. By now I have deduced it had something to do with Ranra's story. I will never forget that haunted look in her eyes, just the minute after she came out of that room, trembling and white as a sheet, scratching behind her ear. She didn't want to talk about it, so I let her be. But I see her in my dreams. I hope writing this will get it out of my system, so I can sleep again. I see her at first, stocky, full of confidence, striding through the darkness. She looks at home, in her element. Then, I see a big fat slimy worm, falling off the cave wall. First, the confident dwarf woman pays no heed. But then, they drop from the ceiling, crawl on the floor, fall from the walls. The woman changes, her limbs elongating and suddenly in her place is some kind of spider. Skillfully, she manages to evade some of the worms, but there are too many. Her spider legs drown in the writhing things on any surface she tries to traverse. In the end, she falls, legs up. And then I hear the voices. Low, alien, whispers. I am unable to translate at first, but then the words come to me. "Let me help you. Just a little cut behind your ear." I can feel the panic, and when she changes into a dwarf lady again, I see it in her eyes. The fear. The worms crawl all over her, they are in her clothes, biting her. Suddenly, gripping her staff, she calls out. Only a cloud of smoke, shaped like a dwarf lady, is floating around, nimbly avoiding the worms. She tries to fly away, out, out of this writhing nightmare. And the voices keep whispering. "Let me help you. Just a little cut... behind your ear." Somehow, she holds on longer than I deemed possible. But in the end, she succumbs, solidifying once again.
Trembling, crying, almost drowning in worms, she takes out a dagger and nicks herself behind her ear. Defeated. One by one, the worms start to crawl into the tiny hole, more and more. I see how her face is contorted in pain; I hear her scream. It's a scream of pure terror. Horrified, I see how all the worms crawl into the skull, until she retches, crying, and a tiny little worm comes out of her mouth, and slowly but surely enters through the cut as well. Suddenly, the cave looks normal, and a door appears. The dwarf woman is on the floor, curled up into a ball, sobbing. But then, the crying stops. She looks around with suspicion, and gets up. She feels at the place where she cut herself, but only a little scar is what’s left of that. Cautiously, she moves towards the door. When she at last wearily touches the handle, I hear a voice whisper: "Finally together." I see her freeze, then open the door, and leave.
Kalesh
Last was Kalesh, who looked a little sad. “Kalesh saw his Aurora assaulted by some monstrous fiend”, he said. I asked him what his aurora was and it is apparently the name of his sister. “Kalesh hasn’t seen Aurora for so long, but one day Kalesh will find her again and his lost Ekhira; his tribe”. He goes on to tell me that he had to use the names of his sister, himself and the creature they were fighting in order to defeat it. Arrows had no effect on the creature, as they just shattered before impact. I asked him about the creature's name, but Kalesh said that he will never utter the name of such a creature ever again. “Fiends such as that shouldn’t be strengthened by their name” he said. “It might’ve been an illusion, but it almost killed Aurora in there!” “Luckily Kalesh was able to figure it out before it was too late.” I asked Kalesh what he had gotten as a reward and he showed me that he was now wearing horseshoes on his hooves. “These should make me go much faster than before.”
Arena fight
While the new gold adventurers made their way to the arena, I rushed to my seat in the crowd. The arena was packed as expected, these ceremonies are always popular to watch. The fighting area was filled with statues of different sizes and materials. Most were made of stone and about the size of an average human. Four large iron statues stood on pedestals in the four corners. In the middle of it all sat a giant stone statue cross-legged that towered about 15 feet high. The only other objects of interest were the glass roofs about the four entrances into the arena. These were not thin sheets of glass mind you but really thick layers. A person could jump on them without having to worry whether it would shatter.
Shortly after I got a good look at the fighting area, the six adventurers entered. They came in from the southern entrance. The announcer introduced them to the crowd, the gong rang, and the fight had started! Well I say started, but the adventurers were first and didn’t seem to know which statues were the enemies. Effie, Kalesh and Ranra took up frontal positions while the others moved to a strategic ranged position; ready to take on any statues that came to life. Whiltin disappeared in a puff of smoke and reappeared on top of the giant statue in the middle. Bob used his new flying broom, and flew up about 10 feet and seemed to prepare some magic. Ranra pointed to the iron statue in the south-eastern corner, and Kalesh shot an arrow at it which burst into thorns that wrapped around it. He also shot the iron statue in the south-western corner, but both didn’t react to being shot at. Then, about 5 of the stone statues and also one of the iron statues that just a second ago seemed like just any other statues sprang to life. The stone ones advanced on the adventurers, but seemed a little sluggish still as the adventurers had no trouble avoiding their attacks. The iron statue that came to life was the same one Kalesh had shot with a thorn arrow, and it seemed to have a lot of trouble getting rid of those thorns. Seeing the target rich environment, Ranra casts a spell and the sky quickly covers with clouds. Thunder can be heard and soon after lightning hits a group of statues.
The adventurers were dealing with the statues quite well, but some strange things happened to Bob while he was using his magic. First, a beard of feathers appeared on his already blue face; then he and some of the fighting area was covered by thick fog. Yours truly was lucky enough to have a seat which view wasn’t blocked that much by the fog, but many in the crowd booed because they were now unable to see the fight.
Some more statues came to life and entered the fray. Whiltin had to move off of the giant statue, as the other statues were closing in on him. He did so again by disappearing in a puff of smoke and appearing on Kalesh’s back. The just awakened iron statue wasn’t going to make it that easy however. It pointed at Kalesh and Whiltin and the ground around them erupted. Kalesh was hit, but Whiltin noticed soon enough to avoid it.
The iron statue that was stuck in thorns finally got out, and focussed his attention on Bob who was flying above. To the crowd 's shock, the statue suddenly flew up and towards him. It got a direct hit on Bob, who fell down onto the glass roof beneath him. Alyr and Ranra were able to get him up quick enough so that he could get away from the flying statue. The others were focusing their attention on shooting it out of the sky. Arrows, lightning, acid, and other magic all hit it in close succession; causing it to crash down through the glass roof to the ground; shattering it.
Just one iron statue remained, all the others lay broken on the ground. It took all the attacks of the adventurers and just kept going. But then, out of the fog cloud on top of the giant statue in the middle; jumped Alyr. With a well-placed rock out of her sling she hit the statue square in the eye socket and its head just flew off his torso. The crowd cheered as the last statue shattered on the ground.
The adventurers did a victory lap around the fighting area, collecting any donations from the audience and made their way out of the arena for some well-deserved rest. And so, ends another gold ceremony, always a very exciting time to visit the arena. If you have the chance you should all visit dear readers. But if not, you can always read all about it in the Aporeu Chronicles.
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