2684/Bernhard Castle: First Challenger

Bernhard Castle: First Challenger
Date of Scene:	26 July 2015
Location:	Forest of Eternal Night <FEN>
Synopsis:	The first Elite challenger to Bernhard Castle since unification!
Cast of Characters:	726, 829

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Walter Bernhard (726) has posed:
    The moment that Marisa flies into the skies over the Forest of Eternal Night, regardless of the hour beyond the pall of darkness that seems to shroud the area, it becomes full night time -- just as the name of the forest implies. The moon, tinged crimson, is the only source of illumination, with the forest below swollen with darkness so thick its more like a light-smothering vapor than anything. It's a forest from which sounds occasionally waft up into the airy reaches... Sounds of beastial monsters, of struggles, of thrashing in the underbrush, of unearthly moans, and at other times total silence like any native life is afraid to even breath.

    Eventually, the magician's approach to the towering castle of Walter Bernhard, with its many towers and parapets, high walls, hundreds of stories, and so on, ends with a ravine gouged out of the terrain surrounding it, and the draw bridge pulled up to block the front gate on the other side. After a few moments, the draw bridge begins to lower seemingly all on its own, spanning the gap between the winding path up a hill from that dark, monster-infested forest, to the even more dangerous castle. She could fly over the waterless moat, of course, but now the front doors are actually available to open instead of sealed up behind thick layers of hardened, ebony wood.

    It seems that she is being welcomed to enter. Though whether as a guest or not remains to be seen.

    If she passes through the front doors, she finds herself in a broad entry area...

    Prelude to the Dark Abyss

    This area is mostly open ground, with a pair of stairs on the opposite side of the room from the front doors. These stairs wind up onto an elevated balcony-like area, with five unusual statues built into the wall the balcony rests atop of. A door in the wall behind the balcony has a glowing circle of powerful warding magic hovering almost imperceptibly in front of the portal, though it becomes brigter if someone approaches. To the left is a door leading into a hallway and various other rooms, though it appears to be locked behind some sort of bladed barrier. To the right is another door with another hallway, and more rooms, though it is not locked.

    Torch stands are located around the main room, alongside doors or simply standing free in circles on the floor.

Marisa Kirisame (829) has posed:
    This isn't the first time Marisa Kirisame has had to approach a vampire's castle, nor is it the first time that she's had to deal with the ~ETERNAL DARKNESS~ that tends to surround these sorts of things. Marisa soars over the forest astride her trusty bamboo broom, a hooded, iron lantern clattering at the front end of its shaft. She's come significantly more ready than usual, having wrapped herself in a heavy cloak festooned with all manner of useful tools.

As usual, her Hakkero stands ready.

    As she arrives at the massive Castle Bernhard, however, she finds it slightly more... welcoming than she had anticipated. Not even a single gargoyle or fairy intercepts her on her way in, and they even let the front door down for her arrival! How hospitable. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Marisa sails right on over the drawbridge and through the main archway, before hopping off her broom to enter the castle's foyer.

    What she finds is... Pretty interesting, actually. One door she definitely won't be going through, one door that's utterly defenseless, and a third that's been... warded somehow. "Huh," Marisa murmurs, making her way closer to the magic circle, to see about maybe deciphering its purpose before moving on. "What's this then?"

Walter Bernhard (726) has posed:
    When Marisa examines the glowing circle up-close, a message is magically transmitted directly to her mind. It's not any sort of psychic assault or intrusion. More like how someone who understands how to read derives meaning from symbols and squiggles on paper that would be gibberish to someone illiterate. In this case, the meaning is being magically translated automati<span class=" bold_fg_c bg_n ++ ally.

    chc">In order to procede, five Orbs must be obtained from five Gate Keepers.</span>

    Those statues down below seemed to have spheres on top of them, each of a different color... Perhaps they signify something about these Orbs.

Marisa Kirisame (829) has posed:
    "Huuuuh, so if I'm guessin' right," Marisa murmurs at the SUDDEN MIND-TALK. "This way's where the landowner's at." She takes a step back to look towards the statuary. If pattern recognition stands, then she probably needs to find one orb of each of those colors. But they're in the hands of these Gate Keeper things, so...

    "No use sittin' around here then," she mutters, scratching at the nape of her neck. There's only one other way to go from here- down toward the unlocked door and the hallway beyond.

Walter Bernhard (726) has posed:
    The hall beyond is dark except for candle stands along one of the walls. A bright-blue door is set in the southern wall, with some sort of symbols etched into it. An examination reveals a small chapel-like room, lit with a gentle blue glow, pouring through a stained glass window set in the wall above some sort of angellic-looking statue. Not the sort of thing one would expect to find in a vampire's castle. Or the shimmering orb of mercury-like substance floating in the air in front of the statue. Touching it renews any expended enregy and heals any wounds, and seems to take a sort of 'imprint' of Marisa's reflection somehow, before flying up into the air and vanishing. If not touched, that property likely will not be discovered.

    At the end of the hall is another door, which leads into a large room with a circular platform at the center. An ephemeral light shines down from above, pale like the moon outside, through some sort of opening in the ceiling. Five circles lie atop the platform, each of which seems to tremble after several seconds of standing on it, and lift up into the air. If that doesn't freak her out too much, then once she steps onto one, she happens to find the one that sends her hurtling straight up through that opening in the ceiling, and wind up transported to one of the levels of the castle above.

    Anti-Soul Mysteries Lab

    This new area is darker than the areas below, despite the furnaces burning in the walls. Somehow it just feels noticeably more awful. Like very bad things have happened here. The walls smell like charred flesh. A door lies in both the western wall and the eastern. Neither seems to stand out more than the other. Both lead into L-shaped hallways that take a turn towards the south, and into more rooms. But the halls are populated by animated skeletons wielding large bones for clubs, and hound-like monsters with burned flesh that bleeds shadow onto the stone floor.

    They attack as soon as any intruder is noticed.

Marisa Kirisame (829) has posed:
    If something does not want to be touched, it should try make itself look less interesting! Marisa does in fact poke the mercury-like orb, marvelling briefly at the fact that she's not only feeling FRESH AND ENERGIZED, but that it somehow seems to have... Preserved her image. Somehow.

Weird.

Wonder what that does?

    But cool chapels and regenerative mercury baths aren't at all why she's come all this way. Her destination lies deeper within the castle, up an elevator shaft and into a place that, quite frankly, is more than just a little bit unnerving. The very air in this new place stinks of unholy experiments and the use of very questionable magical and scientific arts. Marisa blanches slightly as she enters the ominously named ANTI-SOUL MYSTERIES LAB.

The aroma reminds her of some very uncomfortable encounters back home, and old fairy tales...

But she can't let herself be distracted. Marisa has a goal in mind for this place.

    The witch advances down the hallways, only to find some very unfriendly looking monsters waiting for her. "That's more like it," she grins in response, her broom drawing her up, closer to the hallway's celing, "Wouldn't be a vampire castle without monsters!"

    She gestures with an empty hand. Magical circles etch themselves into the air in front of her, before disgorging scything rays of multicolored light into the monster swarm! Hopefully, keeping airborne will help dodge the worst of their counterattacks.

Walter Bernhard (726) has posed:
    In the broad hall, there's plenty of room to maneuver aerially. Though the skeletons don't seem to have any ranged attacks, they can perform a jumping boneclub swing attack that might be tricky to deal with if left to their own devices. And the Hellhounds are apparently able to breathe out a flamethrower-like stream from their fanged maws. But with beams of light shooting out to pummel them, the skeletons are broken up fairly quickly, and the Hellhounds are eventually defeated after them. The skeletons scatter into bones fragments that vanish into motes of darkness while the Hellhounds dissolve into puddles of blood and shadow on the floor.

    After entering the next room, at the end of the hall, a bladed barrier clanks shoots up behind Marisa to block her exit, leaving her in an ashen room with magic circles appearing on the floor, summoning monsters to attack her! Ghost Knights, the top half of a suit of armor + helmet, armed with a sword, levitating in the air, are among these monsters. But corpses somehow crawl out of solid stone flooring without damaging it. Dead bodies burning constantly, their features concealed by the flams that eternally lick at their charred flesh. They get to their feet and start staggering towards her, arms outstretched, even as the Ghost Knights hover around in arc and circles, looking for an opportunity to fly in and slash with their scimitars.

Marisa Kirisame (829) has posed:
    Compared to dodging Danmaku and dozens of overly-aggressive fairies and familiars, a few hopping skeletons and a couple streams of flame aren't too much trouble at all. Marisa whirls through through the air, weaving between their assault while reciprocating with YET MORE LASERS. The hellhounds almost seem to catch her with a set of converging fire-breaths, but it almost seems as though the witch were taunting them by getting as close to their breath as possible without setting herself alight.

In any case, Marisa emerges from that little tussle without too much difficulty. ON TO THE NEXT CHALLENGE.

    ...The next challenge is apparently flying suits of armor and a gaggle of burning corpses. "Tch. Zombies and puppets," Marisa mutters, gathering her magical energies into another spell. She continues to stay as far from the ground as she can possibly manage- it's not hard to guess what'd happen if those cadavers manage to swarm her. A quartet of crystalline orbs suddenly materialize in the air around her, just in time for one of the Armors to sweep in with a furious slash. The witch winces as a fresh wound blossoms over one arm- but it's still nothing worse than a grazing hit.

But it could easily be much worse if she lets them overwhelm her.

Instead, SHE intends to overwhelm THEM.

WITH FIREPOWER.

    "ORRERIES," Marisa growls, the orbs orbiting her blaze with cerulean light as she strafes across the periphery of the room. Columns of light blaze out from each of the spheres as they revolve around her, carving into the monstrous horde!

She prioritizes the armors, however. Gotta eliminate those mobile ones first!

Walter Bernhard (726) has posed:
    There aren't a huge number of monsters in the room. Maybe a half-dozen at a time. But the problem is that those summoning circles seem to call in MORE of them automatically as the previous ones are slain, ensuring a constant population of guardians. It's a rather clever system, and probably requires a great deal of skill and power, to say nothing of arcane knowledge. To be able to so effortlessly and repeatedly summon monsters from who-knows-where without even needing to personally do the deed, simply as part of a defense system set up centuries in advance, says that the vampire in charge here probably has a lot of experience with dark magic. Hopefully running into him won't happen any time soon.

    However, it seems the summoning circles only trigger a fixed number of times before going dormant. At which point, the bladed gates on both exists from the room drop back down into the floor, leaving the door to the north, that Marisa came in through, and the door to the south that has yet to be tried. Also, when she zapped through the candles and torches scattered around the room with her lasers, some items popped out. Coins of various denominations, mostly.

    The floor of this room has some sort of artwork on the stones. Of some unidentifiable... Something. Maybe a person, maybe a monster. It's unclear. There's a tapestry of some kind of demonic entity on the wall, a hanging brazier near the southern door, and a fireplace off to one side. To the south, is yet another hallway, this one having a door to the west at the corner of where it turns east and to another door at the end of it. More Flame Zombis slither out of the floor in this hall, upon Marisa's intrusion, though they're only encountered if she takes the eastern route at the corner.

    If she heads through the western door instead, she enters into a VERY spacious room with a mix of marble and wooden flooring, and a large, stylized sun-like design on it. There's a second level to the room, though no visible way of getting up there. There are also bookshelves along the walls, both flat and curved, as well as more torch stands, another bladed gate that closes after entering... And a mix of both Flame Zombies and a new type of zombies. These once with ice hanging heavy from their forms, and a freezing mist trailing from them and their water-crystal-covered rags.

    Creating new types of zombies by raising them from different types of deaths is probably at work here. Victims who died from being burned to death, and victims who froze to death. To have such a ready supply... A small example of what kind of experiments may have been performed here. Intentionally roasting people alive and then bringing them back... And freezing people to death and then reanimating their bodies. Rather vile. But up above, there's line shining down... And what appear to be many, many, many, many floors of balconies and book shelves. There might be hidden staircases somewhere, but Marisa can fly. That might be a more direct path to where she is trying to go, if she is seeking knowledge.

Marisa Kirisame (829) has posed:
    COINS. Marisa dashes over as the glimmering tokens clatter against the floor to scoop them up into a rather spacious knapsack. Loot is loot, after all! And she can use this to pay off her debt.

    The witch takes a somewhat circuitous, meandering path through the Mysteries Lab, likely in search of A) Loot and B) KNOWLEDGE. Besides, she sort of wants to see more of those summoning circles in action. The more she can observe them, the better grasp she can get on how exactly they work, which can itself be a very rewarding exercise!

    Eventually, after blasting a few dozen more zombies with even more lasers, Marisa comes upon a room with... Very odd new forms of undead. It's like someone took it upon themselves to infuse walking corpses with weird elemental magic. The witch purses her lips as she examines the newest, shambling swarm, and elects to...

Go check out what's on that upper floor instead! Silly zombies, let's see you try to stumble at a witch in flight!

It seems that this was, in fact, a very good decision indeed!

Why?

    Because BOOKS. BOOKS ALL THE WAY DOWN. Marisa squelches a high-pitched squeal of delight as she soars up into the stacks of books. It's time to put together a real nice haul! What kind of books do they even have up here, anyway?

Walter Bernhard (726) has posed:
    An area only accessible to flyers... Is probably also going to have lots of enemies suited to dealing with such. For example, Skeleton Archers, who draw blue-flame tipped arrows, pull back, and let them fly at Marisa as she passes! It seems that every single one of these balconies and ledges is packed full of enemies, though there also seem to be dark passages beyond the balconies and ranks of foes.

    There's a sound of crumbling stone from somewhere above, and then a gargoyle with a large, dragon-like head comes diving down at Marisa even as she has to deal with the skeletal attackers. There's no end in sight to the vertical passage of balconies above. Should she pick one of these floors and try to fight past the defenders to see what lies down one of those passages, or just go as high as she can to try to find an area that's less of a killbox for her?

Marisa Kirisame (829) has posed:
Marisa's answer?

None of the above.

    Also Marisa's Answer: LASERS. Lasers seem to be Marisa's answer to a lot of problems- but then, does a problem exist that can't be solved by the application of a sufficient amount of laser? No. There are no such problems in this world.

    Marisa soars through the rain of burning, glowing arrows like she were some sort of projectile-dodging pro. The dragon-gargoyle-thing explodes out from one of the balconies even further up, adding tooth and claw to the veritable storm of arrows. Things are getting a little bit tight up in here.

Which is about when Marisa breaks out the Superior Firepower.

    A fifth sphere joins the other four in their orbit around her. Marisa's fingertips blaze with magic that leaps to each of the surrounding spheres. Each one begins glowing with bright, colorful light before blasting long, cutting columns of magical energy out across the balconies and ledges. The blasts seem to consume the arrows as they fly in, turning their shafts to ash and their heads to slag as she twists and turns around the Gargoyle's powerful limbs.

A single lucky blow sends her spinning off into a nearby wall, but a blast of magic corrects her course- though her side is now sporting a rather considerable bruise-- and possibly a few broken ribs.

    But she's not down yet. Her Orreries continue to spin, blasting the surrounding environment with her NON-DIRECTIONAL LASER. As she dives between the Gargoyle's strikes, some of those beams would rake across its great, stony form as well!

Walter Bernhard (726) has posed:
    While the vertical passage is not quite infinite, there's still lots of enemies. Giant eyeballs with chains dangling from them coast out into the open air to return fire with lasers of their own. More gargolyes and more skeletons replace those destroyed by Marisa's projectiles. Ghost Knights are joined by Rune Spirits, animal skulls levitating via a magical circle around them that changes direction to propel them dynamically... Even swords with faces in them, seething with some evil energy, which fly through the air without wielders, trying to carve flesh and drink blood.

    Marisa is doing an excellent job of wiping out monsters with her constant barrage of attacks, but this looks like a pretty hectic path to where she's trying to go. If she continues to ascend, she'll eventually reach a room with a definite ceiling -- a glass canopy with a steel framework, and the light of the moon shining down through it, along with a large room with very tall bookshelves along each and every wall, and hard-wood floors, with tables and chairs to sit on.

    By the time she gets there, however, she may be somewhat tattered. Which will make the sight of another of those blue doors in one of the walls a likely welcome discovery. There's even a piece of treasure of some kind sitting before it. It almost looks like the stub of a train ticket or something. It floats in the air, glowing. And if it is picked up, knowledge of its function is mystically bestowed.

    Memorial Ticket

    If you use it, you will be able to return to the last Sanctuary you accessed.

    Of course, if Marisa enters the sanctuary and touches the mercury blob thing, she'll also be fully healed. And if she decides to get out of here... She has a quick way to return in the future.

    Though getting out of here might be complicated if there isn't one of these things for vacating the premises too.

Marisa Kirisame (829) has posed:
    Well, nothing can be literally infinite. Even Patchouli's library, with its weird folded-space nonsense, isn't something that goes on forever. Still, there are a lot of monsters up this way. Between Marisa's lasers, her magic missiles and her SWEET BROOM SKILLS, she somehow manages to make it to the top, but not without taking more than a few shots, herself. By the time she clears out the last of the flying eyeballs, her outfit's singed in a dozen places, and there's very clearly a few splotches of red blossoming on the whiter parts of her clothes.

    She's pretty thankful overall that whatever achitect designed this place decided to put one of those sanctuary places right at the very top of this crazy gauntlet. The witch stumbles in, and tiredly pokes at the great, quicksilver sphere. Her energy returns almost immediately, causing her to shiver slightly at the sensation. It's not a bad feeling, though, and there's some VERY OBVIOUS LOOT right there, too. She snatches it up and...

Huh.

Teleportation paper. Nnnneat.

    Between that and the glass ceiling, there's no reason why she can't call it a night here. She could very easily just hop away now and get the hell back to safety, maybe come again another day.

...Or she could steal a few dozen books first.

Marisa has her priorities.

    Assuming nobody actually bothers stopping her (or that whatever does try can be easily dispatched by judicious application of laser beam), Marisa takes a little while to scout the upper levels for fresh new literature! Books on alchemy and magic in general are of particular interest-- as are any books relating to how to deal with any of these crazy monsters in the future. Can't ever prepare too much, after all!

    If she's allowed to claim her bounty unmolested, Marisa then goes about the task of vacating the castle before anyone can notice she's taken anything. She does this by shooting magic missiles at the window overhead like some kind of VANDAL. Once that's done, it's a little matter of taking off like a bolt once the glass has fallen away.

SHE SHALL RETURN, HOWEVER. That library's way too good to just leave unread.