Scene #2117: Names: Raw Crystal

Owner	Pose
Ainsley	Ainsley has a shopping list of hella obscure materials that she needs. Thankfully, she is a book-savvy creature who knows how to track this stuff down without too much issue. The first component was described as 'crystal pure enough to view the soul,' which, based on research, had to be crystal already grown in an arcane area with very little human intervention but a high degree of spiritual power. ---Crystalline Jungle ~ Soul Ruin--- The structure is inexplicably old. Whether the adventurers reach it by map or by getting other directions, it is essentially a large chapel-like structure built into an impossibly huge tree, with huge stone doors covered in obscure hieroglyphics. The doors are open, revealing that the floor itself is carved out of the tree, and the pews are made of some kind of granite-like material. There are runes that can be read even by those that don't know the language. They read: "SPEAK OF THE SOUL, STOKE THE SPIRIT, STRIKE THE IRON." There's an anvil sitting in the center of the room, but no tools to use it. The materials are nowhere to be seen. There are doors to side rooms or potential hallways off of the main room. And no crystals to be found here.
Kyra Hyral	Who doesn't want to help Ainsley? Kyra likes Ainsley so it isn't JUST the lure of extra credit that's drawing her to assist the lizardwoman today. She's been watching Ainsley's ongoing struggle with Aztlan and the tethers, helping when she can. Today was just yet another opportunity. Though it does seem lately that Kyra's been involved in retrieving a lot of weird materials. It's kind of fun, really, especially when the other Light Warriors are around. Kyra is a little disappointed that she couldn't get Soan to come but she'll gladly take the New Guy out instead. She's heard things about Ellard. As with all these types of quests, Kyra's come with slightly emptier bags to carry things and a bit more explosives and 'utility' items than usual. Never know when a trap would need to be disabled, right? "So I've never farmed crystals before." Kyra admits, reading the inscription on the anvil, then looking around the room for...well, anything, and turning up empty handed. "Sounds like a puzzle, though. We should probably look around the temple before messing with it."
Ellard Asha	Ellard, handsome sixteen year old with short protagonist silver hair and electric blue sparks, is geared up with a MAGIC FLASH LIGHT, a crowbar, and his customary tools of the trade. One huge steel tower shield strapped to his back. And beneath it, a seven foot wooden bundle, sealed tight. He pulls out a composition notebook marked 'Adventuring Extra Credit' and a pencil attached to it by a piece of string. He hastily draws a crude anvil, then the inscription underneath. Then he sticks it back in his breastplate. "Well! This is electric. I wonder if there's some kind of... forging ritual! And what did they forge here." He isn't GIDDY so much as just happy to be everywhere. Ellard nods firmly. "Alright," he looks closely at the doors, then slowly whirls his flashlight around before moving off to the left. "Let's start looking!"
Ainsley	Initial searching of the main room comes up with nothing but an old leather-bound book inscribed with the word 'SOUL' on it. It's just sitting there on a pew, but it blends into the pew's color without the help of a flashlight. The room on the far right is unlocked. What they find inside is a workshop with a forge and another anvil inside. There are tools all over one of the walls, meant for all kinds of blacksmithing tasks. Sitting on a table is a strange white gemstone glowing faintly in the light. It doesn't cast any light into the rest of the room, instead only an eerie glowing point in the dark. There is also an animate suit of armor ambling around in there. It's got a pair of red-hot forge tongs in one burning hand. It turns to face the adventurers and stares ominously at them, but doesn't approach. The only sound in the room is the sizzling sound of the tongs burning its hand.
Kyra Hyral	Although there's nothing here that initially looks hostile, Kyra seems pretty insistant on sticking around Ellard. More specifically, she's sticking around /behind/ Ellard and letting him lead the way into the various rooms. "Wellll if Ainsley sent us here, it must be the crystals pure enough to see the soul. That inscription's got me wondering, though." She takes a moment to pull out her mPad and take a picture of the anvil and its inscription so she can refer to it later if she has to. "Are you any good at blacksmithing, Ellard?" Though speaking of, in the first room they find substantially more things-tools, a suspicious crystal, a /moving set of armor/. Kyra freezes up at the sight of that, a minor stare-off ensuing, "...hello!" she eventually says, "You wouldn't happen to know anything about forging crystals so pure that it can see the soul, would you?"
Ellard Asha	Ellard snags the book as they move past. This is going to be easy! Read the book, strike some steel, simple enough. Ellard smiles at Kyra. "I've dabbled." A great forge sits in the Iron Desolation. Ellard stands in front of it, the twisted head of a Nightmare Golem in front of him. The night is cold, freezing, ice forming on the door as the wind blows. Ellard's father stands over the forge with another man, the head held between them in tongs, as they lower the creature's 'skull' into the crucible that Ellard stokes. Ellard strikes the anvil with the mighty Nightmare hammer, his arms tired, the wind blasting hot, scorching him as the fire roars. He brings it down along the blade, hammering the shape that will be folded and folded again, sweat pouring down his ash blackened face. He waves a hand, tilting it back and forth, "I bet I could manage if I tried." He stops at the armor, looking... somewhat uneasy, but looks aroud the room, shining the light, "We may need tools. Are there special crystal hammers?"
Ainsley	The suit of armor looks at Kyra directly. It looks like rusty medieval plate armor. The face plate is suspiciously empty of any sort of occupant. Yep, definitely haunted armor. When she decides to ask the armor directly, it turns to regard the crystal sitting on the bench over there, and looks back to Kyra wordlessly. Then it wanders across the room and starts digging around in a drawer, apparently busying itself with another task, now that it has determined they aren't about to try to stab it. The tongs just... sizzle away in its hand. It makes a pointed effort not to touch anything flammable with them. Searching the available tools doesn't reveal a special crystal hammer. In fact, ALL of the forge hammers are missing. Not a single hammer to be seen. Since Kyra was so polite, the haunted armor isn't going to get in their way, so they're free to double-check. All that's in here is the unlit forge and the strange gemstone sitting there, really. They're the only things that really stand out. Actually, the armor is holding the ONLY pair of tongs in the entire room. Huh.
Kyra Hyral	Now Kyra didn't want to be a RACIST and ASSUME that because Ellard was Odinyar that he had some kind of blacksmithing talent! She's happy to hear, however, that he indeed does have some skill with the trade which will be immensely helpful with the task at hand if they have to make a crystal themselves. But first, Kyra investigates the crystal sitting on the bench. She peers into it, hoping to see just how 'clear' it is and if it qualified as pure enough. A quick look around the room does clue Kyra into a certain missing tool. "There aren't any hammers here." she says, confused. "Now I am not a blacksmith but I'm pretty sure you need hammers." She looks thoughtful, "Maybe they keep them in the other rooms?"
Ellard Asha	Ellard shines the light on the crystal. Not that the room is that dark, considering all the forge light and the crystal itself, but it's one of those things you just do. "What do you think? I think it thinks that's a magical crystal that can be shaped to see souls." He nods, "Probably a piece to the ritual in every room, seems simple enough, you know?" He reaches out slowly, watching the golem just to be sure, as he slowly lowers a single finger down to touch the crystal. Poking random stuff is the best part of ruin diving.
Ainsley	The crystal shines lazily. It doesn't seem very clear at all, containing a milky fog that seems to cloud any attempt to look through it. Also, it is about the size of a marble, so it's definitely not big enough for what Ainsley was asking for. But the living armor indicated it earlier, so maybe it IS important. Poking it yields a cool, tingly effect. It is, otherwise, inert.
Kyra Hyral	Kyra holds still, watching the golem to make sure it doesn't fly into a rage once Ellard touches the crystal. It does not and, furthermore, the crystal does not seem large or pure enough to satisfy Ainsley's needs. "You're probably right about that, Ellard. Let's go check the other rooms, then. We'll leave these things here for now." She gives the living suit of armor a friendly wave. It's kind of /refreshing/ to not have an animate object left in a temple NOT try to kill her! "We'll be back, alright?" she tells it, leaving the room.
Ellard Asha	Ellard takes a picture of the ball. He takes a picture of the golem. Then, he puts the flashlight on the table, positioning it towards the golem. He gets as close to it as he dares, holds his pad out, and takes a selfie. He then picks up the crystal, puts it with the book, and moves to the door. He gives the armor a friendly salute, "We might be back, see you!" With that, he moves across the wall to the first door on the left, looking rather jaunty.
Ainsley	The armor looks up toward the camera. It doesn't seem to be bothered by proximity, and is even polite enough to lean away from Ellard some so he doesn't get prodded with hellish burning tongs. The crystal remains inert even when retrieved, and the armor picks out a piece of metal from the drawer, takes it over to the anvil, and starts shaping the metal with the tongs with absurd physical strength. The wrenching metal noise is VERY LOUD... until they leave the room, where they can't hear it past the doorway. Weird. The next room over is a store room. It is full of wooden crates of varying sizes, some of them open, some of them not. They're branded with blackened letters according to what they're supposed to store, which contrasts the lighter-colored wood. Heavier boxes seem to be lower to the ground, whereas lighter boxes with general knick-knacks are near the top. Another suit of armor is in here. It is mindlessly moving boxes around. It doesn't seem to notice Ellard or Kyra. It has a different armor design. If left to its own devices, it will pick up a box, move the box across the room, set it down, consider the box for a few seconds... and move it to a different spot. It seems to be stuck on a loop, not really positive where this one box should go.
Kyra Hyral	Kyra cringes with each blow of the tongs, only to be surprised when she steps past the threshold of the room and no longer hears it. "Hold on a second." she sticks her head back in the room, hearing the noise again, then slowly pulls it back out. "...huh! Well that's neat." Kyra follows Ellard, completely unsurprised by the selfie which is normal behavior in the multiverse as far as she's concerned. In fact, "Oh, I should stream this." she mentions, reaching in one of her pouches and pulling out the camera, which is a headband with a circular apature smack in the middle of the forehead. Wireless, of course, and already linked to her mPad. She slips it on her forehead, the feed starting up just as they enter the storeroom. Of course, a place with this many boxes triggers Kyra's 'open and loot them all' reflex. Except, well, there's another living suit of armor here. Since the last one didn't attack them, Kyra's ready to greet this one as well: "Hello! Are there any hammers in here?"
Ellard Asha	Ellard frowns at the strange thing. Well, that doesn't look like fun, where is it going? He shines the flashlight over, checking the box, then immediately starts looking around the room for a place it might go. It looks so distraught!
Ainsley	The box isn't labelled at all, on any of its sides. The armor doesn't stop to look at Kyra, and instead tries to set the box in another spot. It stares for a few more seconds, and then reaches down to pick up the box. All of the other boxes appear to have labels on them, burnt into the wood surface in big, clearly legible block letters. This suit of armor isn't going to be of much help here as it is now.
Kyra Hyral	Kyra is IGNORED. She's not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. But it is a differently armored golem-maybe it has different objectives? It's clearly trying to organize a box. The same box. Maybe forever? For now, Kyra avoids the golem and starts reading the labels on boxes to see what exactly is contained inside of them. Hammers would be nice. "So you know smithing, what else would we need to do it? We have the anvil, we have the tongs, I guess we have a seed crystal...we'd need a hammer and I guess heat sources?"
Ellard Asha	Ellard taps his fingers off, "Hammer, tongs, anvil, the material, a heat source, and something to quench it with." He frowns at the armor, and then the rest of the boxes. He shines the light on the label of each of the boxes, frowns harder. Then he takes out his pencil. Moving with the armor, big cheesy smile on his face, he carefully writes in big block letters: 'Crystal Shaping Hammers'
Ainsley	The armor lags when Ellard interrupts it. Then, once he has placed a proper label on it, it picks up the box and quickly finds the correct spot. It is right next to another box that might've been easy to find, labelled 'HAMMER' in big letters. He seems to organize them 'size, weight, alphabetical,' and once the order is satisfied, he steps away from his task. The armor clatters as he moves to sit in an empty corner, sprawling a bit like a cloth doll... and then the armor just goes perfectly still, and the room goes eerily quiet. Somehow, one gets the impression that this suit of armor is never going to move again.
Ellard Asha	Ellard's smile fades a little. Was that a good thing he did or a bad thing? Either way, Ellard opens the box marked 'Hammers' just to check if there are any... you know, glowing hammers.
Kyra Hyral	Straightening, Kyra watches what Ellard does. "..damn, that's genius." she acknowledges, watching as the Golem places the final box right next to a box marked HAMMER, making it much easier to find than having to search every other box. She watches the golem retire to the corner and fall still. She frowns. "...maybe it'll move if we move one of the boxes out of place." she says optimistically, moving to next to Ellard to peer into the hammer box.
Ainsley	The hammer he finds isn't glowing, but it's made out of some weird orange metal that shines when it's touched. It hums when moved. The box that Ellard labelled himself is not, in fact, a box full of hammers, but a box full of letters and other pieces of paper that had decayed over time. A very, very long time. Nothing else is really worth noting about the room. Since none of the boxes have been moved, the armor remains still.
Ellard Asha	Finally, Ellard shrugs, grabs the orange hammer, and sticks it into his armor. He taps his head, "Led us right to the hammers." Ellard goes over to the armor and pats it on the 'shoulder'. "You did great." His face breaks into a big grin at Kyra and waves towards the next door. "Come on! We are lazing around, we should have this settled in no time."
Kyra Hyral	Meanwhile, Kyra's disappeared from Ellard's side after digging through that other box and finding nothing interesting. Maybe the papers had something cool on them at one time but now they're too decomposed to recover. Kyra quickly loses interest and appears to be about to move one of the lighter boxes when Ellard makes noise about moving onwards. "-ah, right right, sheesh, you don't get to boss /me/ around!" She climbs down from the boxes and pushes ahead of Ellard as if to illustrate this, regardless of her Job. She goes for the other door/room on the left that's nearby.
Ainsley	The next door contains a fountain, a bucket, and a steel quenching pit. Pretty straight-forward. The fountain glows gently. Also there's another suit of armor in here, sitting on a bench. It looks to be the kind of armor a Samurai would wear ceremonially, with a nearly blank face plate with two empty eye sockets, the vaguest hint of a nose, and a neutral line for a mouth. It just sits and watches the fountain, until they enter, and it turns its head and looks at them for a couple seconds. Then back to the fountain. Seems these things are pretty normal. The fountain is made of wood out of the tree the chapel is built into, and there's a small elf-like figure pouring water from a jug into the basin at its feet, carved out of that same wood. The room is lit by the water in the fountain, which is reflecting sunlight shining from a hole in one of the natural wooden walls.
Ellard Asha	This seems pretty easy. He stops, letting Kyra go first, with a grin, "My fault." Though Ellard considers, "We'll have to run from room to room this way. That is very inefficient. Still." He moves over with a steady pace, grabs the bucket, and fills the bucket at the fountain, moving it over to the steel pit. He dumps it in. He repeats this until full because why not, it seems like something he should do.
Kyra Hyral	Compared to the other stuff Kyra's gotten up to in the Multiverse so far, this IS pretty easy. "Maybe, unless we can somehow bring it all into the center room where the anvil is. Those tongs held by that one golem in the other room though, they stayed heated...maybe I missed it but maybe they're enchanted that way?" Stepping into the water room, she looks around and gives the new armor a cheerful wave. She gladly lets Ellard to the heavy lifting and instead moves to the golem to inspect it more closely.
Ainsley	This suit rudely ignores Kyra, too! Gosh. Even as Ellard works, and she moves closer. The suit of armor carefully stands up from its seat, steps over to the quenching basin, which is largely a seemingly petrified wood carving in the floor, and just... pulls the basin up off the floor completely with its brute strength, which is very loud. CCCRRRACK. It then turns -- it doesn't seem to give a DAMN whether it will bowl the two of them over -- and tries to leave the room with the water to set it down near the anvil in the main room, and then return and sit down. Seems this was the simplest step.
Kyra Hyral	IGNORED BY MORE GOLEMS. "This is familiar." Kyra mutters, then adds, cynically, "Maybe if I healed something I'd draw aggro." Though much to her surprise-and delight-the golem lifts the basin and walks out into the main room with it. "Hmm, yeah, it really does look like we'd be forging out in the main room." Of course Kyra will promptly get the hell out of the way so she doesn't get trampled by a determined golem. She follows it out, in fact, watching it place the basin, then crossing the rest of the main chamber to the final room they haven't been in yet.
Ellard Asha	Ellard appears to be very pleased with himself. He doesn't have to fight anything! He doesn't have to kill anything, he doesn't have to endure anything, just using his wits. He sets the bucket down against the fountain, following the samurai out, then Kyra to the next door.. "Alright, the crystal is probably the heat source, maybe? I'm not sure. Hopefully it doesn't break as soon as I touch it with the hammer!"
Ainsley	The next room is just... a room full of suits of armor. They aren't assembled like the armor golems are, and the armor is all pretty well-preserved, not even used. There's no rust or tarnishing, it could've been made a week ago if they hadn't seen signs of these things having been here for years. Inside this room is another suit of armor, which is a stranger one of small interlocking plates that give it a more futuristic design, with a pair of large horns that curve backward atop its head like a devil. It turns to regard the pair of them with both of its empty eyes... and blinks. Click. Its face is otherwise blank, though. It doesn't talk, yet it greets them with a nod of its head. Then there's a moment where it zeroes in on the location of the book and the gem, and seems to startled upon realizing something. It steps up to Ellard and pats him on the shoulder in particular, then nods again to Kyra, and moves past them into the main chapel. The room has a writing desk with journals on it. The writing is very good, and this suit of armor appeared to have sat up from it very recently. Whatever purpose THIS golem has is much, much more advanced than the others that they've seen.
Kyra Hyral	"You think? You poked it, did it feel hot?" Kyra did notice that he didn't burn his finger when he did. But maybe this Odinyar was made of tougher stuff? "If so, then that makes it easier for us to transport. But anyway..." she pushes into the room, which seems to be some kind of Parts and Services for the golems that tend to this place, attended by a very fancy-looking golem. Another wave is given though the reaction of this particular construct is interesting. "...hmmm. I wonder." she murmurs, sitting herself down at the writing desk to look at the journals.
Ellard Asha	"Well, I'm not sure you have to get a crystal hot just to forge it. I'm not really up on how to do that." He seems mildly unnerved by the golem, only to smile again at the pat. He nods towards the desk, "Maybe he's supposed to help, yea? Get the ritual together. He seems like he's set on something. I'm going to head back." He moves towards the anvil while Kyra reads, pulling out book, crystal, and hammer.
Ainsley	The journals are mostly itemized listed, detailing what's what, in what condition, where it is. There are a few personal journal entries, and they appear to be in some form of Elven that is impossible to read due to the age of the dialect. The journals aren't going to be immediately useful, and might need to be brought back to a translator later. The 'Curator' suit stands next to the anvil with its arms crossed lazily. It turns to regard Ellard. Then it points at the hammer and the crystal and holds out its hands to accept them.
Ellard Asha	Ellard hands over the hammer, as well as the crystal. "We need a lens. To see souls with?" He looks confused, trying to think of a way to explain it in... golemspeak? He opens up the book marked 'SOUL', flipping through it. Mabye there's commands in here.
Kyra Hyral	Kyra reads up the list, then pokes through some of the other books and journals, then reads up those too. "We want to forge a crystal, pretty large, that is so pure that you could see your soul inside of it." Kyra frowns some more, then stands, backing away from the desk, "I didn't see anything useful in there. Some of them were in a language I couldn't read...anyway." She leaves, finding the Curator suit waiting there. Kyra nods encouragingly at Ellard.
Ainsley	Once the both of them are in the main room, he carefully sets the small marble-sized gem onto the anvil. Then he patiently waits, while the forge golem walks out of his room and sets the tongs down on the anvil, and returns to his room. The Curator nods to the golem as it leaves, and regards Kyra and Ellard carefully while they speak. It gestures to the book. The SOUL book appears to be instructions. First it shows an incantation, which seems readable. The book is something that apparently has translation notes in it, and a full translation is available for the incantation, or at least a phonetic one so readers can speak it clearly. Another page says: "Once the catalyst has been placed, it needs to be held still with the sungrip tongs, which will help purify it. While holding the tongs, the gem must be struck only once with the refining hammer, quenched in the life dew, struck, quenched and so on until the gem has been purified. However, during this process, another must repeat the words in this book, otherwise the gem seed will not grow at the end of the process and will instead shatter, and a new gem seed will need to be retrieved. The golems are instructed not to interfere with this process, but they will help in other ways wherever possible." "Once complete, a large raw crystal will generate from the seed, and the golems will return to their posts, if they are not already at them. You will know if you have done this correctly or not, it's hard to miss." Looks like one needs to handle the hammer and tongs, and the other needs to speak the incantation while they do that.
Kyra Hyral	Kyra crowds around the book, shoulder surfing and reading the passage on the ritual. In fact, she re-reads it twice, making sure she understands the entire ritual, pleased to learn that the heat source /was/ the tongs, further reinforced when that particular golem arrives. She also tries to see if there's something there on how often the crystal seed appears, which would given them some time to determine how long they'd have to wait for a new seed if they screw this up. "So two people are needed for the ritual. It's probably a good idea that you do the hammering since you've got forge experience." She reaches to take the book from Ellard. "I can read the incantation for you."
Ellard Asha	Ellard finishes reading. He isn't a speed reader, but he's no slouch. Trade agreements. He hands the book over and nods, looking to the Curator, "We'll need the tongs from the other golem, please." He sets the gem down carefully in the middle and grips the hammer. It shouldn't be hard. He isn't forging nightmare steel, he's not making a thousand fold sword. He's just tapping out a crystal with a hammer. Easy, right?
Kyra Hyral	Kyra gestures at the anvil, which has the tongs sitting there with the seed crystal. She steps back a respectable distance so she doesn't encounter flying sparks or other backlash that might occur when working with the mysterious crystal. "Alright." she flips the book back to the incantation. "Go ahead, I'm going to read now." With that warning, she waits a beat so Ellard is ready, then starts reading right away, reciting the incantation.
Ellard Asha	Ellard Asha lifts the hammer. Under his birth he hums, singing the forging song. Whispering the words of his ancestors. He has to steady his hand before he strikes the first time. When the world doesn't come crashing, he continues in cinfidence.
Ainsley	CLANG. Hisssss. CLANG. Hisssss. CLANG. Hisssss. CLA-- BOOM The gem seed emits a powerful blast of light that emits through the whole room, but doesn't hurt the eyes. Instead, it shows images of dozens of elven figures standing and watching the both of them. Many of them are staring in wonder, smiling, or just watching. It's a flicker that flows out from the anvil like a shockwave, and just as soon as it appeared, it was gone. And then the gem let out a loud humming noise... And expanded into a very large prism that was so translucent that one could barely tell it was there. The edges were not sharp if touched. This was what they came here for. The Curator, satisfied with their actions, pats Kyra, and then Ellard on their shoulders, and returns to his room, and everything falls silent. Except for the mystical hum of the large crystal.
Kyra Hyral	Like the sudden flash of a camera, the flash of light reveals the hidden audence the pair have garnered. Spirits, Kyra assumes, since they have not been seen or heard before that. Perhaps they were the original people of this temple? The architects of the golems? Unfortunately, it's hard to say for the viewers at home whether or not Kyra's camera picks up that. "Whoaaaah..." but their resultant crystal makes up for it, which is fully visible to the camera, though just barely due to its nature. "I can honestly say I've never seen a crystal that pure." She snaps the book closed and grins at Ellard. "It looks like this was a roaring success!" She would fistbump the Curator but the gesture likely goes unrecognized. "Ainsley will be excited." She leaves Ellard to scoop up the crystal while she goes to return the book with the incantation to the proper room.
Ellard Asha	Ellard works, not feverishly, but with the stallard repeated work that blacksmithing takes. Like Kyra, once the lens is done, he is sure to replace the tongs and hammer to each of their spots. No onehas been here, but he just feels it is respectable of those elven figures. Just to be sure. "Sparks." He says finally, lifting up the crystal lens to look through it. "Well. That was fun!" He grins, carefully holding the lens. "Relaxing, you know?"