From the start, you had been unable to find the value in these so called 'Testaments' that Irue kept so close, and as you forged listlessly deeper into the mines, you felt only a roiling twist in your gut at the thought of Ari. Her refusal to cooperate was what had sparked those events, what had led to the collapse. If she had died... If she had died, would you feel anything but satisfaction?

You rubbed at your wrist absently. There was no weight there, no sentiment of displeasure from the monstrous human who had forced their life on you. They had been silent since the cave in, and you had too little knowledge to venture a guess as to why. The respite was welcoming anyway, as that mindless berserker who had thrust you into this mess was just another thing you resented. They had spoken grandly about teaching you why they couldn't give up, and through your own blood, sweat and tears, with an aching body and racing heart, you had held the fates and lives of those peasants in your hands. You had fought beside them, worked to earn their respect, awkwardly shouldered the burden of their hopeful eyes.

...For what? You can't even say they had ripped it from you on purpose. There was no thought involved in that violence. It was the same selfish, thoughtless monster which had bound you in the first place. Stolen your nature from you, and left you to muddle through these confusing feelings and trials. If Ari had died, good riddance. If that monster despaired over it, then at least then they would feel the same wrenching pain of loss and failure that you did over your knights.

Your Knights. Not Irue's. Irue never looked them in the eye, never gave them an order. They were yours.

....They 'were'.

You are a Doppleganger, born of fear and insecurities. You were never meant to lead a human life, or truly experience the emotions that bore you. You were a reflection of someone else.

The seething resentment in your veins which drove you forward was something you were never supposed to learn the taste of.

Were you even a Doppleganger anymore?

What were you?

...You shake your head, gritting your teeth as you stare down one of the skittering Atlach Nacha. Introspective contemplations could wait, you still had things to do.

If you continued to go down, you'd probably find that underground spring you had come for in the first place. It was just a matter of following the slope and moisture to its conclusion. On the other hand, it seemed like the Atlach Nacha's territory was gradually beginning to diverge from that destination. The Undine was known for being territorial, but also closely associated with secrets; If you actually forged deeper into their nest, you would definitely get a fight... But what if they had been guarding something lost in this mineshaft?

And what about getting out? Only a handful of your knights had actually followed you down into this cesspit. With the majority still waiting for your return on the surface, wasn't your responsibility to try and make it back to them? Even if the way you came in had caved in, these numerous twisting passages may conceal another exit somewhere - If you didn't become lost, first.

>Continue to the spring.
>Investigate the Atlach Nacha's nest.
>Delve into the side passages to try and find the surface.
>Other? (write-in)

>>43643610
>>Investigate the Atlach Nacha's nest.
might as well get this over with.

>>43643610
>>Investigate the Atlach Nacha's nest.

>>43643610

>Delve into the side passages to try and find the surface
We aren't equipped to handle...well, anything at this point. Best idea is to get the hell out

Previous Threads:
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?searchall=valen+quest

Where things are said:
https://twitter.com/Riz_QM

Pastebin Stuff:
Kara's Day Out - http://pastebin.com/8ZbiSKLs
Adventures with Asche - http://pastebin.com/RNviCBJu

Misc notes:Dying is easy, continuing is hard.

I've actually got a few notes/questions to go through here.

1. It was suggested that the players might like a kind of 'ability list' for what Irue is capable of, since some may not be aware of the extent of their capacity. I'm not sure how I'd handle it, but would anyone be interested in it?

2. A write-up hasn't happened in a while. Pick from the following!

A. A Cousin's Struggle
B. Royal Troubles
C. The Reclaimed Doll

3. Is there some material or reference that you, as a player, wish you had access to?

-----

>>43643635
>>43643757
Into the Darkness.

>>43643810
Up to the surface.

Writing!

>>43643843
Oh man, these options for the write up.
>Option C

Sounds most interesting to me.

>>43643843
1 yes
2. B
3.Yes how magic works.

>>43643843
1. A reminder for things might be nice, now that Irue has things like shadow powers.

2. C

3. A bit late now, but just for a record, I'm curious about the things we have and haven't
>forgotten

You paused in your descent, glancing towards the more heavily webbed passages. The sound of dripping water mixing with the more ubiquitous skittering of spiders far larger than even the bear-ish Knight Captain Dullem. While you were nominally trapped down here, you found yourself dealing with a mix of feelings towards the multi-faceted spiders.

Resentment was an ever present feeling lately, it seemed. They had devoured several of your knights in front of you already, you would be lying at this point if you said that didn't bother you. However, you had to admit you were curious about just what was down here in the first place. If there was something hidden down here, something considered secret enough to warrant the presence of an Undine apparition, then you wanted to know what it was.

And if, in the process, you happened to work out your bitter frustrations on them and get revenge for your dead knights... That couldn't be helped, now could it?

These thoughts swirled in your head as your path deviated towards one of the warily watching Atlach Nacha spawn. You took deliberate effort to make it clear your intent, ripping down a watery web irrevently as you advanced on it. Perhaps it was the display of that monster in your shadow which instilled the fear in them, or maybe the cave in had spooked them, but with each step forward you took - The passage filling arachnid would retreat with a hiss of warning. Always retreat, while holding its posture up threateningly...

In the end, it was just posturing. No matter how you reacted, it refused to attack.

If you had taken the time to really study how that berserker had attacked them, you could have perhaps divined some weakness you could exploit right now. However, right now you had very little in way of advantages if an actual fight were to break out.

In other words, you were relying on that instilled fear to remain prominent.

You were loathe to admit it, but if Irue remained silent, you weren't sure how well you could handle these things if, or when, that hesitation to approach you was finally overcome... Yet, if you did wake up that monster, you had no way of controlling its rampage - And the phantom weight around your wrist was enough to cause second guesses.

>Continue advancing, as long as it remains afraid, it won't bother you.
>Spend time trying to wake up Irue, you need some kind of weapon.
>You're a Shade Apparition, meditate, and try to grasp your own power.
>Other? (write-in)

>>43644213
>You're a Shade Apparition, meditate, and try to grasp your own power.

>>43643954
How magic works...

When you say magic, what exactly are you asking for? The Mana? How the Mana work? Apparitions? It's a broad topic, so I'm not sure what you want specifically.

>>43644010
>Things we have and haven't forgotten.
Do you mean a list of all forgettings, followed by "you got this" and "you missed this"?

Or a list of all Forgettings followed by the answer to the ones you missed?

The second one would be incomplete, because several of the answers remain relevant still.

>>43644261
When you say magic, what exactly are you asking for? The Mana? How the Mana work? Apparitions? It's a broad topic, so I'm not sure what you want specifically
all of it, or the basic at least.

>>43644213
>>You're a Shade Apparition, meditate, and try to grasp your own power.

>>43644261
A list revealing all of them would be nice, but probably too much to ask for, huh?

I actually just meant it for things we missed and the context around them. Might help in the future for figuring out later ones.

>>43644356
>>43644233
Pride in your origins!

Writing.

No. Waking up Irue was the last thing on your list of things you wanted to do, especially right now. This precious freedom you have right now was the only silver lining to everything that had happened, and you'd be damned if you let it end just because you had to rely on that monster to get things done again. In the first place, you were an apparition of Shade - A manifestation of a Mana, in some capacity. Your current state aside, it was principally offending that you had to go begging scraps of power from that monster, when that power was intrinsically yours in the first place!

In another place, meditation may have come harder for you... But within these pitch black shafts, with the weight already heavy in your heart, summoning up the insecurities and fears necessary for attuning to Shade was as simple as closing your eyes.

The world shifted slightly. A sense of balance that you couldn't quite place had been changed. It wasn't even remotely approaching the clarity of being and purpose you remember achieving before, but you held a tenuous grasp onto your nature. It was strained, an ephemeral sense of nostalgia that 'this is how things should be'. Your hand rose, pale skin mottled by streamers of black that shifted and writhed like smoke within a bottle.

With this, your awareness expanded beyond human means. An inherent understanding of the darkness around you and what inhabited it.

Your clenched your fingers, feeling the stubbornly human form refuse to change to your will. Digits could elongate, gaunt and blackened limbs with an empty face and wine red eyes; stubbornly long hair twisting together into a single braided 'tail' which whipped agitatedly back and forth as worthless, vestigial wings stretched in vain along your shoulder blades.

If anyone saw you now, there would be no mistake that you were a monster. Something that lurked within the night, preying on the fearful.

Even still, this was the extent of your change. What once was malleable, now steadfastly refused to abandon this vaguely humanoid form.

You push the bubbling feeling of resentment out of your mind, as it threatened to fray your tenuous grasp on your Shade nature. As monstrous as you had become, the memory of Irue's genocide of these Atlach Nacha remained fresh in your mind. The complete, careless abandon of human form; A raw and primal existence.

For now, you had to let it go. You had to focus on what kept you attuned now, something for the nature of Shade to feed upon.

And so, you willingly dove into the Regret of leading your knights into this place.

Those distended, claw like fingers reached out and slashed through the watery webs without resistance, and you trained your eyes on the hesitating Atlach Nacha spawn before you.

>Use it to test your power.
>Scare it, then hunt it back to its nest.
>Dismiss it; There's nothing to be gained from bullying children.
>Other? (write-in)

>>43644785
>>Scare it, then hunt it back to its nest.

>>43644819
Being mean to children.

Writing!

You brandish your elongated claws at the spawn, shifting yourself forward in as threatening a manner as possible. A normal person would have likely been scared off by your appearance alone, but this was an apparition; Its mind was something else entirely. It is perhaps your saving grace that it was, ultimately, still an immature creature. When confronted with something like you, if fighting wasn't an option, then of course it would turn and run.

That cowardly behaviour was exactly what you were after, and you breathed a quiet sigh of relief as it did just that and turned tail to retreat. You moved after it, being forced to pick up the pace as it scurried with far more agility than you would have expected from a giant spider in a narrow shaft. It wasn't long before you had been forced to break out into an all out sprint just to keep up with the multi-legged thing, and the twisting pathways through the mine shafts began to blur past you indiscernibly.

In your haste to keep up, a small part of you realized that you'd likely not be able to find your way back to where you had started from. At this point, it was an all or nothing dive after your unfortunate 'guide' before they managed to shake you for good. Webs it would slip through like second nature were torn to shreds in your wake, a persistent pursuit that steadily carved a trail of wreckage deeper into the nest of the spider.

This pursuit was brought to an abrupt halt as you dug your feet into the watery ground and slid to a stop as the spawn you had been chasing seemed to simply vanish in front of you.

It took you a moment, but what you had mistaken for a vanishing act was more easily explained by the gaping hole which spread out before you, nearly obscured by the layer upon layer of aquatic webbing which covered it. Where the shafts had been narrow corridors, this hole alone seemed to stretch out wide enough for an entire bear to simply fall through, with more than enough room to spare on all sides.

Across the hole, it seemed that the shafts continued winding through the earth - wooden supports being consumed and covered by some kind of ice like sheets which brought a crisp chill to the already heavily moist, earthen air.

As you glanced down the hole however, it seemed like it dropped into an abyss. Straight down, making full use of a spider's ability to crawl and climb as it wanted, you could barely make out the descending walls studded with countless azure gem-like growths.

>Try to climb over the hole and progress deeper.
>Follow your guide, down the hole!
>Other? (write-in)

>>43645472
>>Try to climb over the hole and progress deeper.
Use our claws to mark were we've been.

>>43645472
>>Try to climb over the hole and progress deeper.
Let's not be hasty. And hopefully the "trail of wreckage" we left was a good enough path marker, should we need it.

>>43645503
>>43645530
Oh, I started writing this a little bit ago, then forgot I never said I was writing.

Writing continues!

You swallow tightly, testing the edges around the hole with your weight. The webs which acted as a cover for the drop were certainly sturdy, perhaps sturdy enough to walk over, but you found yourself understandably unwilling to walk yourself out into the middle of a spider's web - Especially suspended over such a drop. The memory of your canary being ensnared in those same webs and ripped out of sight was still fresh enough to cause concern.

Still, you knew where the spider had gone, and you could likely find a hole this large again as long as you didn't want too far. The trail behind you was also a suitable way of backtracking... To an extent. While you had been chasing that one spider, you had little doubt there were more of its ilk hiding somewhere within these twisting passages, which meant that torn webs would probably become mended or replaced in time.

How much time did you have...? Well, it wasn't as if you had any exit back that way in the first place.

You took a moment to catch your breath, straining to force your clawed digits into the wall for a proper handhold. Gripping the wood supports were one thing, but the wall itself proved treacherous and unreliable. Some patches would allow your fingers to sink in without a problem, sometimes burying your hand up to the knuckle in unexpectedly soft earth; Other sections of the wall remained as hard as a rock, requiring a dedicated effort to garner even a modicum of purchase.

Between the two, you're not sure which you preferred. You could barely grip the rocks, but you knew they won't going anywhere. While you may have a firm hand on the other, wasn't it like holding onto mud? Something like that threatened to rip free the moment you became too active.

It was like this that you gradually began to edge yourself over the hole.

Halfway across the pit, your foot had slipped. It wasn't a particularly problematic moment, as your grip had been pretty secure at the time, but it had unfortunately dislodged a rock which tumbled down through the aquatic webbing and into the pit. Seeing as you, yourself, hadn't fallen, you had focused on finishing your progress across.

It was only after you had finally made it across several minutes later, and were brushing yourself off, did you finally hear the tell-tale sound of something splashing echo up from the pit behind you.

You now had a rough idea of how deep the pit was! Unfortunately, the estimated depth coincided with 'too deep' in your head, rather than actual numbers. It would be one hell of a fall if you had simply jumped down there after the spawn you had been following. You turned your attention back to the chilled air ahead of you, the skin prickling cold created by the sheets of membrane like ice which had long since spread across the various joints and lengths of the wooden support shafts. Much like the more malleable wooden webs from before, it seemed that the further down this tunnel you went, the more heavily frozen the webs became.

No, to even call these things 'webs' was beginning to border on disbelief. They more resembled heavy globs of termite-like salve which had been lathered carelessly on the tunnel, and as you swivelled wine red eyes towards the vain darkness enshrouding the tunnel ahead, you realized that what lay ahead was progressively beginning to resemble less of a man-made mine, and more like a tunnel burrowed through solid ice.

Idly you scrape a marking along the wall, noting that the tunnel of ice was far wider than the previous mine shafts had been... But this ice wasn't natural. It was something that had grown on a pre-existing structure... Unless whatever had done this had burrowed clean through a wall at some point, and abandoned the shafts proper.

>Go back to the pit and descend.
>Advance down the icy tunnel.
>Wake up Irue
>Try and collapse something. (The ice tunnel? The ceiling over the pit?)
>Other? (write-in)

>>43645995
>>Wake up Irue

>>43645995
>>Other? (write-in)
Is it just a straight tunnel as far as can be seen up ahead?

Do we know anything about what could have caused this? I don't think there was a mana for ice

>>43646005
I don't think we should wake Irue yet, just in case. Dopplerue still has a handle on things, wouldn't want to lose that.

>>43646088
It is straight, in so much as there are no branching passages that you can see. The actual path twists a bit.

Also, ice is a form of water. This still falls within Undine's territory.

>>43646118
Was thinking more that unnatural cold was out of Undine's territory, but if that's wrong,
>Advance down the icy tunnel.

Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>43646005
1. Wake up Irue.

>>43646101
2. Don't wake up Irue.

>>43646150
Down the tunnel we go.

writing.

With an pit presumably leading to an abyss behind you, and this freakish ice tunnel ahead of you, you find yourself unable to make a move. There were too many things you didn't know right now, and the prickling feeling down your spine that you were mere moments away from something lashing out at you was as present as ever within this twisted spider's nest.

You comb through the memories of Irue Valen, dredging up what you could recall about Undine. While ice wasn't terribly far removed from water, the distinct difference between the watery webs and this frozen tunnel was disconcerting to say the least. No matter how you looked at it though, the memories available to you yielded nothing to help you understand what you were seeing... Or perhaps, it was simply that you didn't know what to remember to figure it out in the first place. These weren't your memories, weren't your experiences, so it was the same as a book with little context to you.

Which meant... If you wanted a better chance at understanding, you would have to wake up that monster masquerading as your shadow. You knew, the moment they woke up, that the precious freedom you had gained would be forfeit. Even as you hesitated at the cusp of the chilled tunnel, elongated fingers wrapped nervously around the wrist you could nearly feel that phantom weight threatening to reassert itself on.

Relying on Irue... After what they had done last time, after what it had led to, even the thought of going back to that status quo left a bitter taste on your tongue.

But, in this case, you needed that information. You were in too deep right now to make a mistake!

You nudged through the mental connection between you, trying to sift through your own muddled thoughts to find Irue Valen. If your current face could make expressions, you imagine you would have appeared rather consternated as you tried to rouse that sleeping monster.

What you found wasn't Irue Valen. Not the Irue Valen you remembered, specifically... It was certainly Irue, but the fundamental nature underneath it was different. The time spent as your shadow seemed as if it had taken its own toll on Irue, much as living as a human had on you.

You swallowed the blistering resentment at having your own nature appropriated in exchange for this experience you never wanted to go through, and finally shook Irue back to the waking world.

Ah..!

No, no, no that's not-

Even as Irue began to drearily reawaken, you felt your own powers beginning to slip from your grasp. Whether it was the deeply seated resentment that disrupted your attunement, or the gradually strengthening presence in your shadow, if this kept up then you'd lose it entirely!

>Continue, you need that information.
>Leave Irue to sleep, you can handle this yourself!
>Other? (write-in)

>>43646660
Keep going and hold on that resentment maybe you can trade places back again. If it fails we can at least learn, then put her back to sleep.

>>43646660
>Continue, you need that information.
Shade attunement or no, information is the best tool we can use here, especially with the stark shift between terrains. Might be something here that keeps the Atlach Nacha in check that we don't want to run into.

>>43646704
>>43646814
Keep going.

Writing.

You held onto that resentment. Or rather, it was impossible to let it go with what you were doing. Even if it meant sacrificing the fleeting fragments of clarity you had managed to grasp in your hands, you needed insight into what was going on. If this ice represented something keeping the Atlach Nacha at bay, then you definitely didn't want to walk headlong into it.

What happened...?

A familiar voice grumbled from the back of your mind, its pitch distorted as if speaking alongside itself. You bite down the urge to snap back as you feel the changes slipping away from your body, leaving you normal once more. You take a moment to give Irue a summary of what had occurred so far, leading you up to where you stood now.

What happened to Ari?

Ari? Who cares what happened to Ari? What about your knights? What about Dullem and his men!?

Ari can't be replaced.

...

They accepted the risk of dying when they chose to follow me. It isn't as if they should be thrown away, but in the end, my goal was preventing a war, and passing this Rite. If they die, it won't cause a war; If Ari dies, I can't pass the Rite.

"That's all?" Your shoulders sag dully. "That's all you're going to say about this? What about the reason you couldn't give up? You're just going to write that off as 'replaceable'?"

...

"My knights aren't replaceable!" you slam your fist into the icy wall, the outraged shout reverberating through the shafts furiously. It takes several seconds after that for the silence to finally return, accompanied by several instances of distant skittering. You breathe in heavily, sucking in the gut churning smell of muddied earth as your lungs burn from the cold air, and wait for a response. Some kind of response.

Your knights?

"Yes, my knights!" You hiss, "You forced this life on me. I made the decisions, I lead them, I earned their respect, I gave them orders, I cared about them! They were my responsibility! The one you dumped in my lap back then, talking as if I was so naive that I didn't even understand what it meant!"

You didn't understand at the time, though. you understood now, after you lost it.

"Don't you dare tell me they're replaceable! I swear I'll make you regret those words!"

You hadn't meant to wake up Irue just to start a shouting match with... Well, yourself. Especially not in the middle of the Atlach Nacha's nest, but the moment that infuriating voice had spoken up, you found yourself rapidly losing composure. You grit your teeth as the weight of a bracelet pressed against your wrist, and forced yourself to ignore the jerk reaction that came along with it.

The knights aside. What is this place? Atlach Nacha are water spiders, there shouldn't be any ice here.

You growl at the eventual dismissal of the previous topic, but accept the change of topic for what it is. You needed this information anyway, not to yell at the voice in your head.

Ice is water in its own way, but its not pure. It's similar to how magma is technically earth, but its... not.

You narrow your eyes at the frozen tunnel ahead of you. So if it was and wasn't water, then what the hell was it? What did it have to do with the Atlach Nacha?

Maybe nothing, but I doubt that's the case. It's too unusual to have an Undine apparition so close to something like this, and be unrelated... If all you've encountered so far has been spawn, then perhaps something corrupted the Undine nature of the progenitor?

You stared down the silent, frozen tunnel warily. Assuming that was correct, what was that hole back there?

A spawning pit, most likely.

>Down the tunnel, time to investigate the progenitor.
>Down the pit, you had been trying to find their nest anyway.
>Nope. Fuck this. You're leaving. Where's that underground spring?
>Other? (write-in)

>>43647558
>Down the tunnel, time to investigate the progenitor.

>>43647558
>Nope. Fuck this. You're leaving. Where's that underground spring?

>>43647558
>Nope. Fuck this. You're leaving. Where's that underground spring?
There is absolutely no way we can take on anything big enough to create the Atlach Nacha in numbers. Not to mention that this has nothing to do with what we came here for.

>>43647558
>>Down the tunnel, time to investigate the progenitor.

>>43647649
The Atlach Nacha don't seem hostile right now, though - much more, the offspring themselves aren't ice. Something is off.

>>43647558
>Nope. Fuck this. You're leaving. Where's that underground spring?
I don't want to see what's turning this place into a popsicle. Might be big and scary

>>43647558
>>Down the tunnel, time to investigate the progenitor.

>>43647773
way to waste a trip.

>>43647589
>>43647678
Down the tunnel.

>>43647619
>>43647649
>>43647773
Nope. Time to leave.

You guys sure came a long way to leave.
Unfortunately, finding your way back is a problem of its own.

Writing.

>>43647843
... er.

Dammit.

Do you guys want to talk this out, or should I roll for it?

>>43647862
roll it

Rolled 1 (1d2)

1. Down the tunnel

2. Time to leave.

And thus, our fate is decided by the dicegods.

You came this far, returning now would be a waste. Both of your time, and effort... And beyond that, you're not certain you can even find your way back easily. Which meant that, given a choice between a spawning pit that was Luna only knows how deep, and a frozen tunnel presumably leading to the progenitor of all of the Atlach Nacha you had been encountering down here, you opted to take the path which you could actually retreat from if something went wrong.

Maybe if you had still had your claws, you'd be more willing to try and descend that steep pit... But with only these hands, you seriously doubted your ability to climb up that thing. For that matter, you had needed your claws to climb OVER the pit in the first place.

You were kind of stuck on this side, unless you wanted to risk traversing the edge of the pit barehanded, or walk across the webbing itself. As neither of those options were particularly intriguing to you, that left the frozen tunnel. You wrapped your arms around you, the chill finally seeping into your skin since the transformation from your power had fled, and set your foot steadily on the ice as you wandered down the tunnel. It crunched lightly under the sole of your shoes, providing you the bare minimum traction necessary to forge ahead slowly without slipping and falling.

Progress was slow, and the cold remained a skin-biting constant as you followed the twisting, curving passage. It was purely due to your unique night vision that you were initially capable of vaguely noticing passages behind the ice which had perhaps once been part of the shafts, before they were sealed off entirely by this singular ice bound tunnel. You were tempted to investigate them, but the ice sealing them off had been so thick that it would have taken far more effort, tools and muscle than you had on you to make any progress. Maybe if you had retained your claws...

Well, the price of knowledge. At least you knew what you were walking into, now.

What felt like hours later, you had been continuously descending the curved passage. No sound, nothing to bother you, not even the ever watchful presence of the Atlach Nacha spawn remained. In that time, you had slowly begun to realize that what you had initially taken to be a random twist was something of disturbing deliberateness. The curve of the tunnel had remained constant, long after you had left what used to be the shafts, and no matter how far you went, even the decline remained almost clinically uniform.

The tunnel itself, while initially wider than the mine shafts, had begun to expand with a steady graduality as you descended. As it was now, you couldn't even reach the ceiling if you jumped - To say nothing about one wall to the other.

Your legs were tired, though. You had been walking, and walking, and walking. The air was so cold that it hurt just to breathe, and you could feel the chill permeating into your bones with each step.

It's a spiral.

The unwelcome voice piped up as you walked, explaining the curvature and distance. You were descending this entire time, yes, but you had also been constantly turning in a single direction. You had been walking down a huge subterranean spiral that was only growing larger. How deep underground was this? Your sense of direction is heavily muddled from being underground for so long, but Carona had to be nearby, right? What happened to that underground spring? Were people just inherently aware that something like this was under their feet? Did the Shrine know about this?

You had a lot of questions, and most of them were framed through bitter grumblings.

You found the underground spring.

More specifically, you had grown so exhausted that you had leaned against a wall and had the misfortune of realizing that the sound of your shoulder bumping against the ice around you was off. It had taken some inspection, considering there was literally no light to discern, but in the end you had managed it.

This spiral wound through the spring, at some point. Like frozen tendrils reaching up through the abyss. You had long since left the shafts, and the only things around you now were frigid black waters, held concealed deep under the earth, expanding who knew how far in any given direction.

The ice had been growing steadily more... Aggressive, as you descended. Standing still in any one place for too long would result in a creeping frost which began to try and entomb you into the floor or walls themselves. It was mostly an annoyance, shattering with little effort as you pulled away, but if you fell asleep down here...

In the distance, far beneath you, the single most promising sign of this impromptu expedition coming to an end made themselves known:

Lights.

In the dark, subterranean waters, those eight blue lights, strong enough to glimmer through the frozen icy tunnel, meant the end was finally in sight. Those lights, which began to illuminate the tunnel itself as you descended ever further, ever further, and then further still.

When you finally reached the end of the tunnel, there was nothing you could say. You arrived at a cavern composed entirely of woven icy threads, spun around and around with painstaking efforts, concealing within the near arctic wonderland-esque structure of spires and staircases. A shadow passed overhead, drawing your gaze far up to the ceiling above, of a shadowy arch which wrapped around the entirety of the frozen orb containing this small underwater stronghold.

You realized now.

Those hadn't been lights.

They were eyes.

A spider far larger than even a town clutched this orb gingerly between its legs, its aquatic figure barely noticeable within the underground spring. The Atlach Nacha - not its spawn, not a child, but the apparition itself. The progenitor.

And within that monumentally large glacial orb which you stood in now, this long abandoned structure of ice before you.

An Atelier.

The sanctuary created by an Aeon to immerse themselves in eternal refinement.

There are always guardians... But we seem to have come undetected so far. Use this time wisely.

>Enter the frozen palace
>Investigate courtyards
>Ask Irue a question (what?)
>Other? (write-in)

>>43648793
>Enter the frozen palace

>>43648793
>Ask Irue a question (what?)
"What the hell is an Atelier?"

>>43648793
>>Investigate courtyards

>>43648793
>>Ask Irue a question (what?)
Could the Atlach Nacha itself be an Aeon, or has it just recently inhabited this?

>>43648793
>Investigate courtyards
I don't feel too comfortable walking right into the palace just yet.

>>43648839
Enter the palace.

>>43648951
>>43648971
Investigate courtyards.

>>43648900
>>43648951
questions!

Writing.

"Remind me what an Atelier is?" You mumble, walking gingerly across the frozen icetop that led to the courtyard. Sconces lined the walls, holding small sculptures of ice shaped into flames. They were completely useless for light of any sort. This annoying thematical detail nearly distracts you from Irue's explanation.

Atelier were the sanctuaries of an Aeon. What that meant in context varied almost as much as one dream to another, but their origin was simply 'A domain which encompasses the Aeon'. Though their actual design varied, each and every one of them held certain qualities in common. Ateliers were where an Aeon would seal themself away from the outside world in pursuit of transcendence. In pursuit of further understanding and attunement with their chosen Mana. They were a place of solace, as well as a place of study. Homes, labs, Shrine.

To an Aeon, one who had achieved such favor with Mana that they could warp the world around them in such a ridiculous way, all of these things became one and the same to them in the end. They sought to seclude and refine themselves ever further.

"Then this Atelier... The Aeon was favored by Undine?"
It would seem that way.

To pursue attunement with Undine, the Mana of water, this Aeon had built a world of water far away from prying eyes. This was their legacy.

"Then the Aeon is still here?" You cautiously move through the courtyard, seeing intricately shaped gardens of flowers - sculptures of flowers. Much like the sconces before, they were terribly realistic to their form, but also completely useless for their purpose.

Though I can't say for certain, I don't think so. Most Atelier are only discovered long, long after their creators passed on. in a way, they're priceless finds for the Shrine... Living legacies of people fit to be legends.

You sniffed miserably. There was nothing living in this courtyard. It was nothing but ice.

"What's with the Atlach Nacha, then?" You hazard a glance to the ceiling far above you, noting uncomfortably that the legs which encircled this frozen globe were so massive that the spider itself was likely large enough to simply walk over Carona's walls. "You said ice wasn't natural, and you're not even trying to kill it."

You pause briefly, snapping your mouth shut as you realize what you just said.

"Don't attack it." You issue forth a moment later, hurridely trying to disabuse the notion.

You say that as if I want to attack something like that.
You can almost feel Irue frowning at the thought, but you hold your tongue about just how accurate that statement is.
That Atlach Nacha was bound here. It's...
Irue trailed off, groaning silently in the back of your mind.
It's been contaminated by something. It's Undine, but it's not... I think the Aeon did something to it. I can't understand it.

...You swallow once, looking up at the absently floating shadow of the mammoth spider.

"Could it BE the Aeon?"

As you look around the courtyard some more, your question goes concerningly unanswered. You strain your senses to avoid being surprised by those so called 'guardians' Irue mentioned earlier, finding yourself wholely unimpressed with the lengths that this Aeon had gone to emulate normalcy in this frozen land.

"If this Aeon was favored by Undine, why so much ice? Shouldn't it be water?" You grumble, picking your way through the courtyard to the grand doors of the palace itself. A sheet of frost covered the building, rendering the ice opaque. One door was already ajar, a frigid draft blowing out of it persistently. You narrow your eyes at the strangely persistent wind, beginning to feel a little reluctant about investigating the palace at all.

An Atelier is a reflection of the Aeon. If it's like this, then there must be a reason.

>Enter the palace
>Ask Irue a question (what?)
>Break something.
>Other? (write-in)

>>43649546
>>Other? (write-in)
You know what else is cold? Dark places. Maybe we can meditate for a moment and see if there's any shade influence on this place?

>>43649563
>>43649613

>>43649563
>>Enter the palace

>>43649563
>>43649613
Not a bad idea, and as long as we aren't trying to summon up any major Shade mojo, we shouldn't be noticed by anything. I think.

>>43649563
>Ask Irue a question (what?)
The Atelier is shaped like a castle and courtyard, so I doubt it'd be made by a spider... Do we know anything about the La'fiel royalty concerning mana, particularly Undine?

>>43649613
>>43649682
>>43649708
Turning on the Shade-dar.

>>43649697
Entering the palace.

>>43649709
Questions!

Writing.

The only true 'light' in this place came from the glowing orbs of the spider outside the orb. Aside from that soft, azure glow which cast most of the frozen palace in an ethereal light, this place was dark. Dark, cold, and honestly a little disconcerting. "Well the Atlach Nacha didn't make this place so detailed..." You mumble, turning your attention away from the door briefly as you inspect the courtyard once more.

Though ultimately useless, the detail taken in recreating even the most minor leaf and petal was exquisite. Each frozen flame stood proudly even if they were worthless for shedding actual light and warmth. Everything, from the details along the walls to the craftsmanship of chairs and tables within the courtyard, were breathtakingly intricate. "Could they have been a noble?" You murmur to yourself, thoughts turning to the Aeon who had created this ill-placed winter wonderland. "...Do you know anything about nobility or royalty who were favored by Undine?"

Vaguely.
You frown at the non-answer.
I remember a few noteworthy ones, but my knowledge of recent events and lineages is.... sketchy, at best.

"Then what about the ones you do know?"
Most became part of the Shrine, or continued their duties. If you are suggesting that one of them had gone on to create this place, then...
"Impossible?"
No, it's not. However, there's nothing in this courtyard that I could use to identify them.

You close your eyes, trying to get a feel for the place around you. While it was cold here, it wasn't.... Particularly uncomfortable. Rather, there was something just at the edge of your sense that almost felt familiar. As a being born of insecurity, you were acutely aware of lingering sentiments like those, but...

This was more like something you knew. It tasted similar, but wasn't. A degree of separation that muddled a familiar taste with something alien.

The air tasted like regret. Or something close. The tinge of melancholy you normally associated with Regret was missing, replaced with something bittersweet. You almost wanted to wash your mouth of the taste, as it started to elicit feelings inside you that weren't your own.

...Hey, focus. You can't afford to lose yourself right now.
Your eyes snapped open as the phantom weight of a bracelet locked remorselessly around your wrist, shocking you out of the reverie.
Don't forget that you're an apparition, yourself. If you let yourself get carried away, it'll start to change you.

... You frown, rubbing at your wrist as the weight of an accessory you didn't wear began to ease away. Wasn't that something they should have thought of before doing this to you? If it was a matter of feeling things, then you've already been changed beyond recognition in these past few months.

...Maybe that was why you had so many issues reconnecting with your Shade nature.

Nostalgia. That's what you were feeling.
Irue cut into your darkening thoughts.
The desire to go back to something, but with a sad smile rather than despair? It's longing. Longing and nostalgia, for something you left behind.

Ah... So that's what it was.

Looking around the courtyard, you could pick it out of the air now. It tinged every curve and lovingly crafted detail of the gardens.

"...But why ice?"

>Enter the palace
>Ask Irue a question
>Break something
>Other? (write-in)

>>43650158

>Enter the palace

>>43650158
>>Enter the palace

>>43650158
>Enter the palace
Here goes... something?

>>43650158
>>Enter the palace
Time to find out if the interior decorating is as fun as the outside.

>>43650183
>>43650243
>>43650258
>>43650288
writing.

You finally feel satisfied with what you learned outside and turn your attention back to partially opened front door. Cold air blew out from within, almost as if it was rejecting your entrance even though the door was held open. It was barely a breeze however, enough to ruffle the stubbornly long blonde hair behind you as you slipped through the opening.

The sound of your feet tapping along the polished ice floor echoed within extravagant halls. You crane your neck back to behold the foyer of the grand entry hall, twin sets of staircases leading up to a massive window of artistically frosted ice. The cool blue glimmer of the Atlach Nacha's eyes illuminated the interior through that window, casting the shadow of a woman's silhouette onto the hall floor, a perfect replica of the frosted 'portrait' painted across that window.

Just as outside, the walls were lined with worthless frozen candles. A grand chandelier of literal crystal hung from the ceiling, occasionally issuing a resonant tinkling as the wind knocked hanging fragments against each other. Even the guard railings of the stares were composed entirely of smooth, polished ice.

You paused in awe, briefly.

"Welcome back, Master."

And then promptly twisted your body at mach speeds of jump-scares towards the humanoid ice sculpture of a butler which stood partially bent beside you.

"...I'm sorry?" You respond carefully, eyes riveted to the sculpture...

But in the end, it's a sculpture. Like the fires outside, a mere replica of what it represented, down to the unnervingly realistic wrinkles on their face. You gather your wits, keeping a close eye on the sculpture as you stand up straight once more and calm your breathing. It provides you no movement, nor any additional input.

>Go upstairs
>Look around the ground floor
>Break the sculpture
>Close the door behind you
>Other? (write-in)

>>43650460
>Look around the ground floor

>>43650460
>"I need to go to the surface"
>Look around the ground floor

>>43650460
>Look around the ground floor

>>43650460
>Look around the ground floor
Time look for escape routes/ clues about this place's peculiar properties

>>43650482
>>43650487
>>43650544
>>43650572
ground floor.

>>43650487
talking to butlers.

Writing.

So, uh, I sped-binged this so not totally sure I'm a qualified voter in such a "read between the lines" heavy quest, but holy moly Riz this world is cool and I have no idea what I'm forgetting.

>>43650760
No one knows what they're forgetting.
Welcome to the quest, though! I'm glad to have you.

"...I need to get back to the surface." Butlers were supposed to be helpful, right? "I want to leave. I got trapped down here, and I have to go back."

...

It's a sculpture. Had you hallucinated it speaking in the first place? No, definitely not... But no matter what you said, it wasn't reacting. Frozen in place, the same expression, the same unmoving posture. You sigh, leaving it behind as you warily step away from the sculpture and begin to explore more of the ground floor. Your eyes shift back to it from time to time, remaining vigilant for some trick, or maybe to catch it moving, but it remains complacent as you move about the foyer.

You slide through another open door, letting yourself into a side hall as you slip inside and keep an eye on the sculpture.

After several uneventful moments, you turn back to the new hall. While impressive in its own right, these were the kind of places you remember living in all your life. Undoubtedly of high quality, with workmanship that could put many crafters out of a job from sheer envy, this kind of thing would have impressed a peasant... But for you, it was just another house.

Take a left here.

Irue's voice cuts in as abruptly as ever, stopping you in your tracks as you turn towards the inconspicuous door beside you. Unlike the other doors, this one remained shut firmly - A fact you became aware of as you tried to open it. You quickly realized that the important defining feature of this place was 'sculpture'. That is to say, form over function seemed to be a philosophy held dear to the heart of the Aeon who made this place.

Because this wasn't a door.

It was a sculpture.

Of a door.

It was a solid wall that just happened to resemble a damn door.

"I really don't like this place." You grumble, pulling and pushing at the sculpture of a door in vain.

"Why did you want me to go in there, anyway?"
An experiment. Some of the architecture seems familiar, and if I was right, there would be a study behind this door.
"It's not even a door." You grumble, finally letting go of the handle. "Is there somewhere else I should go, then?"
At the end of this hall, there should be a spiral staircase to the next floor.

You rubbed your hands together to ward off the cold from the useless door handle and glance behind you. Having suffered one jump-scare, you were in an ill-mood to suffer another. Luckily, there was nothing behind you to cause alarm. You shook your head, hurrying down through the hall to the appointed staircase.

"Hahaha! Oh, you cad!" A woman's voice slips out from inside a room you pass, and you catch a glimpse of a garishly 'dressed' sculpture reclining against a lounge chair of solid ice as you pass. Almost instinctively you pause, jerking back to look into the room more thoroughly.

Another sculpture of a roguish man smiled disarmingly at the first, his hands frozen in the act of withdrawing something from the solid-ice body that is his pocket. They sat across from each other, separated by a table covered in frosted glasses and platters of false hors d'oeuvres.

"...Shade take this place, what the hell is going on?" You mutter, quickly glancing over the room before backing away from the partially open door leading to it. You pulled away, quickly resuming your pace towards the spiral staircase. It was there, as you had hoped it would be. "Found the staircase. Where to now?"

I don't know. It's good the staircase is here, but I'm not certain the building is the same yet, nor where you should be going.

You glance back down the hall, unsure of what to do from here.

"Where would I go to find out who made this place?" You muttered.

This house has some lineage behind it... If you can find a coat of arms, it might help.

>Up the spiral staircase, Irue seemed familiar with it.
>Check out the other side of the ground floor, there might be another open room.
>Go up the main stairs in the entry hall, that window was pretty auspicious.
>Other? (Write-in)

>>43650894

>>43650904
>Check out the other side of the ground floor, there might be another open room.

>>43650904
>>Go up the main stairs in the entry hall, that window was pretty auspicious.

>>43650969
1. otherside!

>>43650978
2. window!

>>43650926
...Hi!

Rolled 1 (1d2)

forgot to dice.

Retreating back through the hall, you pass the now silent room containing two sculptures and re-enter the foyer with the butler sculpture. You had held reasonable suspicion that it was going to be gone when you came back, but it remained as immobile and unmoved as when you had entered the house.

You didn't waste any time crossing the foyer and entering the opposite hall, quickly scanning the walls for a break in the surface. If doors weren't actually doors, then you would just be wasting your time trying to get into places that weren't already open. As expected however, there were a couple open doors in this hall as well. You didn't so much as flinch when voices drifted out of them as you approached, frown only deepening as you finally arrived to stare into a room of ornately placed ice sculptures.

Nothing. Through snippets of overheard conversation, you gathered little more than every day slices of whatever life these things meant to be representing. More notably, there was a spiral staircase on this side as well... Though the door seemed to be lodged against something. It was left ajar, but not so much that you could bring yourself to squeeze through it. If you tried, you could probably ram the door open far enough to slip through, but there was also a good chance that this was just sculpture design.

The other rooms along the way had contained, in order, a rotund man laughing about some news from the east that the infuriating snippets didn't bother to extrapolate on, and a concerned woman who had called out from her room as if she wanted to speak with you.

Naturally she was a sculpture. No amount of talking to her actually elicited a response from those artificial eyes.

Through it all, you gained nothing, you learned nothing, and this infuriating draft had been picking up around you-

You froze. Metaphorically speaking, considering that such a thing could literally happen in this frozen palace.

It wasn't as if you could 'watch' the wind, but you could certainly feel it moving through the halls. Whispering against your skin, blowing at your sides as you investigated the sculpture filled rooms. Part of you considered trying to talk to it, but if the sculptures didn't have anything to say to you, why would the wind?

This draft didn't follow you, but it blew out from every open door, tracing its path back to the foyer, back to the front door which had been pushed open. Rather than rejecting your entry, it seemed like any open passage was a result of the wind itself leaving. It left you no closer to understanding what was going on, or finding a coat of arms, but maybe it gave you another piece of the puzzle to this place?

>Ram open that door. There's wind coming out, so there's got to be something down there too.
>Return to the foyer and check out the second floor.
>Take the spiral staircase to the third floor.
>Other? (write-in)

>>43651226
>>Return to the foyer and check out the second floor.

>>43651226
>>Take the spiral staircase to the third floor.

>>43651226
>Return to the foyer and check out the second floor.

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1023 KB GIF

>>43651240
>>43651401
Second floor!

>>43651375
Third floor!

Unfortunately we're stopping here for the night, since I keep falling out at the keyboard.
-----

http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?tags=Valen+Quest

And we are archived.

I'll lurk the thread for a bit to try and answer some questions if I can.

Apologies to all anons who participated in Valen Quest but died at their keyboards wondering when QM would finally stop.

To those who did not make it to the end, we will never forget your sacrifice.

Notes of things I need to get done...
1. Write up (C)
2. A list of Forgettings
3. Some basic information on magic
4. An ability reference sheet for Irue.

If nothing goes wrong, I hope to have that done before next thread. I hope everyone had fun!

Getting concerned that we're probably not going to see the surface for a long while. We have shit to do. We came here to kick a shrine attendant's ass and reclaim testaments

And we're all out of testaments :(

>>43651454
This was admittedly an unexpected direction, however provided you manage to resolve this section favorably, the surface isn't as far as you think!

That will require some mystery solving on your end though, so I hope you're ready for that.