EPISODE ELEVEN: A mysterious underground tunnel

 After falling through a hole in the ground in the last episode, the party finds themselves in a 20-foot deep pit. There doesn't appear to be anything on the sides of this pit to climb up on. To the left and the right, there are long, dark tunnels big enough for a person to walk through. On the wall ahead, there appears to be some words carved in stone in some ancient, forgotten language.

Anri (to TRITHAL): "Ok, mister 'I-know-a-little-something-about-everything-in-the-whole-Land-of-Fantasy Macha genius', where the hell are we?"

TRITHAL: "We appear to be in a hole, miss 'high-and-mighty-I-have-an-ice-shard-up-my-tight-ass Ice Wizard'."

Anri (confused): "I don't have an ice shard up my ass..."

TRITHAL: "Then allow me to fix that for you!"

TRITHAL reaches into his kimono for an ice scroll and begins to approach Anri when THRAX, who stands a few inches taller than TRITHAL, steps between them with a scour on his face.

THRAX: "Give me that scroll, Trithal."

TRITHAL hands THRAX the ice scroll...... then in a sudden move, THRAX activates it and produces a large ice shard, and motions as if he is going to sodomize Anri with it, to which she responds with a loud yelp as she jumps back.

Anri: "Hey! What the fuck, Thrax?!"

The other three get a laugh over the scene. Under her breath, Anri says "Assholes!"

Danika: "What do these markings on the wall over here mean?"

Curious, TRITHAL walks over to the wall with the markings and attempts to study it. To shed some more light, TRITHAL produces an orb of blue energy with his left hand.

THRAX: "Careful, Trithal. Remember what happened last time you did that?"

TRITHAL: "What? Do you mean when I accidentally melted that catwalk support cable and started the sequence of events that kept the storyline of Volume 1 going?"

THRAX: "Yeah. That very same sequence of events landed Axem in jail. Remember?"

TRITHAL: "Oh yeah. But, Axem bailed on us... so we have nothing to worry about then."

THRAX: "Oh yeah! Ok, then. So, what does it say?"

TRITHAL continues to study the markings, then after a few seconds says "I haven't seen this language in so long, I can't remember when the last time was. At least 500 years ago. Anyway, it looks like it says 'the Temple of Mori-Kami, or Forest God.' This must be the ruins from some civilization that existed here before Morgura Prefecture was established."

Danika: "Interesting... So what's down these two tunnels?"

TRITHAL closes his eyes and slightly bows his head for a few seconds, and says "Nothing alive, that's for sure."

THRAX: "Hey Trithal! Let's do that one thing we did back in the Ogre's Labyrinth."

TRITHAL: "Good idea." (to girls) "You girls be as quiet as you can until we say so."

Anri: "Uh, ok..."

TRITHAL: "Damn it, I said be quiet! Now, watch this..."

TRITHAL turns to the left, and THRAX turns to the right, and with almost perfect sync, the two opened their mouths and through their voices emitted a long, continuous tone down the two tunnels. After about 35 seconds, the two stopped then turned an ear to their tunnels. After about 10 seconds of listening, the two faced each other with a puzzled 'what the fuck?' expression.

THRAX (puzzled): "What the fuck?"

TRITHAL: "How bizarre is that?"

Danika: "How bizarre is what?"

TRITHAL: "It would seem that both of these tunnels end in the same place, because we just heard each other's SONIC VOICE."

THRAX: "Yeah.. and wherever these tunnels end up is pretty huge."

Anri: "Sounds like this is worth investigating."

TRITHAL (to Anri): "Did I say you could talk yet?"

Anri: (whines) "Why are you guys so mean to me?"

TRITHAL: "You wanted to be the new 'Wet Blanket', didn't you?"

Anri: "Uh, NO!"

TRITHAL: "Well it's too late now!"

TRITHAL, THRAX and Danika (chanting in unison): "Anri's the new Chris! Anri's the new Chris!"

ghost of Chris: "HA! YOU'RE the new ME!"

THRAX: "Shut up, Chris's ghost!"

Danika: "So which way do we go?"

THRAX: "How about we split up and go both ways?"

TRITHAL: "That's a good idea." (to THRAX) "Me and Danika will go this way, and you and Anri can go that way."

Danika: "Let's use another save point in case something happens."

TRITHAL: "I don't think we should. If we get GAME OVER'd, I'd rather re-materialize outside of this pit."

Danika: "Good point."

And so, TRITHAL and Danika ventured to the left, and THRAX and Anri ventured to the right. TRITHAL and Danika were able to see the path ahead thanks to TRITHAL's energy orb over his left hand. THRAX withdrew a fluorescent lantern and used it to light the way ahead of him and Anri.

After about 5 meters in TRITHAL's tunnel, the walkway took a sharp 90-degree turn to the right and began descending down a set of stairs. In THRAX's tunnel, he encountered the same, only a turn to the left. The two staircases descended about 2 meters, then turned inward toward each other and descended another 2 or 3 meters. Soon the two pairs of adventurers met each other at the point where the two sets of stairs meet. From that point, another set of stairs led the group to the floor level of the huge, seemingly-empty chamber.

Inside the huge chamber, there was very little light coming from a few holes in the ceiling ten stories overhead. There were tree roots growing through the ceiling and thru the upper-part of the walls. The floor was covered in dirt and scattered forest debris. Along the walls were various stone warrior-type statues lined up and standing at attention. On a huge throne against the wall opposite the staircase, there sat a huge statue of some kind of native deity, likewise made of stone.

THRAX: "This kinda looks like something out of an 'Indiana Jones' movie or something."

Danika: "What is this place?"

TRITHAL: "I don't have any idea. I've never seen anything like this in this part of the Land of Fantasy before. This place must've been here for thousands of years."

Anri: "Hey guys! Look at this."

The group goes to where Anri stood, by an alter placed in front of the huge deity statue. On the alter was more writing in the same ancient language as before. TRITHAL approached the alter and tried to decipher what it said:

TRITHAL: "All-hail Mori-Kami. Approach this alter to offer your sacrifices in good faith, so that Mori-Kami shall remain appeased. Those who disturb this temple with ill-intent will themselves be sacrificed."

Anri: "What does that mean?"

Danika: "That means don't touch anything and get the fuck outta here before we wake something up!"

THRAX: "Sounds good to me... but which way's out?"

TRITHAL: "Probably the way we came in..."

The party turns toward the entrance, to find it had been sealed shut.

the party (in unison): "Oh shit!!"

Not even a second later, the chamber filled with a loud rumbling sound, then the soldiers along the wall began to move, and close in on the party. From the deity statue, a thunderous voice erupts in a language unknown to the party.

THRAX (to TRITHAL): "What's he saying?"

TRITHAL: "I don't know! I never heard that language before!"

Suddenly, in English, the statue says, "Who has disturbed my temple?"

THRAX: "Uh, pardon us.... we kinda fell in here by accident.... and we were just looking for the exit. We'll be on our way now--"

Mori-Kami: "Not so fast... Those who enter here must offer a sacrifice if they wish to leave alive. What have you to offer?"

TRITHAL: "Here, you can have Anri!"

Anri: "Fuck you, Trithal!!"

The statue proceeds to stand up from the throne. The statue stands nearly as tall as the ceiling of the chamber.

Mori-Kami (points at party): (angry) "You have defiled my temple! Prepare to die!"

The chamber is suddenly flooded with light from some source that the party doesn't have time to determine, because the now-animated soldiers have taken formation in front of the party and are prepared for battle.

... to be continued ...