Hunt the Executioner (Sojiro)

As the four medallions would be placed into the stone door, they would sit for a second, until a loud click could be heard. The stones would rotate, seemingly unlocking the doors, as the stones would click, causing the doors to slide through the sand, opening up the chamber behind. A thick, warm breeze would escape the chamber, billowing through the hall way. As they stepped through the stone doorway, the room would come into full view.

A long rectangular hallway would open up, three stone walls and a sandy floor. The room would appear to be completely empty, just an empty sandy room, no windows or doors. However upon further inspection, you would see ten stone coffins propped up against the walls, five on the left and five on the right. Above each coffin would be a red gem, similar to the ones on the statue. illuminating the room and the coffins. On each coffin would be a name etched into its surface.

- Miyamoto Musashi

- Achille Marozzo

- Tsukahara Bokuden

- Mohamuro Stern

- Fiore Dei Liberi

- Donald McBane

- Johannes Liechtenauer

- Zabuza Momochi

- Zarek Kanda

- Momichi Stalwart

As you go to pluck the gem from its resting place, you quickly learn that this gem is stuck in the stone, built into the wall with the coffins. The red stones are unable to be plucked out. Instead you turn your attention to the actual coffin, assuming you must instead inspect the stone object.

You open up Mohamuro Stern's coffin, gently pulling the stone lid from the wall. As you peer inside, instead of seeing the contents of a coffin, you instead see a hole in the backside of the wall, a tunnel descending down into the ground. As you step through the coffin and follow the tunnel, you eventually enter a large stone room. Your feet meet the sandy floor, as you suddenly hear a large bang directly behind you, the opening you just came through now blocked off by a stone wall. You have been trapped inside this room.

You look around, red gems illuminating the room, trying to take in the scene. Thats when it sinks in, something has started pouring from the walls, a thick red substance has started to fill the room, splashing in the sand below, quickly filling up the room. Panic sits in as you try to figure out what to do next. In the center of the room you notice a stone table, with 26 stone blocks, each bearing a letter of the alphabet, A through Z. The blocks appear to be able to be connected to each other, stacking vertically to create words with each other. On each wall sits a lever, one on the left wall, one on the right wall and one on the center wall.

The handles of these levers are hollow, with enough space to place a 5 block stack, meaning a five letter word was needed to complete the handle of each of these levers. You notice each wall has words inscribed on it beneath each lever.

Center lever
"What you seek is the key to survive"

Right lever
"The one who corrupted the man who slew a nation"

Left lever
"What she stole to save his life"

The room itself was large, but was quickly filling up with this red liquid now. The room itself was ten meters by ten meters, and five meters tall. But the red substance was rising a meter a minute, quickly filling the room around you.

You quickly put the word HEART together using the blocks, and fit it into the lever. It slides in without any resistance, allowing you to pull the lever downward. As you do, the lever goes all the way down, clicking and releasing a panel hidden in the stone wall. On this panel you can see a red glass object imbedded into the wall. This glass object takes the shape of a heart, as you take out the heart you turn to notice the room has quickly started to fill with red liquid. You now contemplate what to do next.

You quickly put the word SWORD together using the blocks. As you slide them in and attempt to pull the lever, you feel resistance as the level will not budge. You pull and pull with no success, the blood continuing to rise around you. you watch as the blood continues to rise around you, now at your knees, contemplating what to do next.

Sojiro would feel stupid about choosing the word Sword over another once, especially once he considered. The man would grunt and instead try the word; Blade.

You quickly put the word BLADE together using the blocks, and fit it into the level. It slides in without any resistance, allowing you to pull the lever downward. As you do, the lever goes all the way down, clicking and releasing a panel hidden in the stone wall. On this panel you can see two indention's, two holes in the shape of an object. The hole on the left appears to take the shape of a heart, while the hole on the right took the shape of a human skull. Removing the blocks from the lever, you watch as the blood continues to rise around you, now at your knees, contemplating what to do next.

You quickly put the word DEMON together using the blocks, and fit it into the lever. It slides in without any resistance, allowing you to pull the lever downward. As you do, the lever goes all the way down, clicking and releasing a panel hidden in the stone wall. On this panel you can see a red glass object imbedded into the wall. This glass object took the shape of a skull, and was the exact same size as the hole in the center wall. Rushing it over to the wall you put the glass skull in the slot, only to hear a loud clank as both items now rest in the openings of the walls. The red liquid around you stops pouring, and then begins to drain, flowing through openings in the floor. You watch as a small opening appears under the two glass objects. As you pass through the opening a familiar scene unfolds.

You step into a small sandy room, no doors or windows, only stone walls. Before you sits another stone statue, depicting the large image of the Executioner and his blade. However this statue appears to be a bit different than the one before it. Where the eyes rest, are instead two deep concave holes, hollow and empty. At the base of the statue is another plaque with another inscription on it.

In your hands, heart and head, your final journey, to face the dead. Through the eyes once more, see your fate, time to descend through your final gate.

Sojiro let out a soft breath as he would look at the Crimsom eyes that were resting in his hand and would slowly look up at the missing slots, "Just because you say it's the final one doesn't mean I'm going to let me guard down." And with that, he would slowly approach the statue of the execution and move to put the gems from before into the eye sockets!

You climb up onto the statue, placing both of the red gems you had taken into the eye sockets. The red crystals slot in perfectly, opening up a trap door in the sandy floor beneath you. You look down from your perch on the statue to see a decent sized hole as opened up in the floor, with a metal slide type chute descending down into the hole.

Sojiro would let out a deep breath as the eyes slotted into place and there was suddenly a hole in the ground. He let out a long, low groan as he looked at the hole and would roll his shoulders, "Well, I guess its time to find out what happens now." And with that, Sojiro would drop down into the chute!

You take a giant leap of faith, literally, as you plunge downward into the dark abyss below. You continue to fall, wind rushing past your face, as the seconds grow longer and longer. You quickly realize this hole was way deeper than you expected. You would continue to fall for several seconds, your mind beginning to wonder what actually was going on.

Sojiro continued to plummet down this chute for some time, his brows starting to furrow together. He thought about all of the hints he had gotten in this time, especially in the previous room. It was possible he hadn't waited long enough for all the hints in the room to be revealed but it didn't matter, there was nothing he could do about it now. If he had to climb back up in the end, it may take some time but he wouldn't die here...

He wasn't going to reach out towards the walls because he didn't know what he could grab by accident but he would activate his Infrared Vision so that he could try and see if there was anything near him for him to grab or if the ground was getting close. He would do one of two things; IF there was a door or path that he fell by, he would go towards it. His body would spin in the air rapidly as he would summon forth the power of his Tunneling Fang. It'd take a few seconds before he was controlling his movement but it would be an easy feat.

If there was no doors on the walls as he fell, he would instead use the Tunneling Fang to travel 10 meters downward to try and land on the ground. Even if it wasn't enough to hit the ground, he would be able to stop and control his momentum by doing this.

[Infrared Vision]
[Tunneling Fang]

140 - 15 = 125 CP
196 - 10 = 186 SP

You continue to fall through the dark pit, activating your jutsu in an attempt to locate a door or an exit of some kind. The entire time you fall you fail to locate anything on the far edges of the wall, as suddenly a red glow meets your gaze. Your turn off your jutsu to see what exactly is going on, as a familiar red hue meets your eyes. The red light flickers off the surface of a pool of water, indicating you have reached the bottom. You bring your arms back and begin to spin in mid air, using a new jutsu to control the rest of your fall.

You land not on smooth solid stone, but in sand, with about a foot of water at the hole. The red glow of familiar crystals meet your gaze as you take in the scene. You are now in the base of a massive round hole. The room is illuminated by three small red gems, each stone lodged in the wall above a door, for a total of three doors. The middle door is closed, a wooden door with a sword etched into it. As you attempt to open the door you realize it is locked. You look left, then right, looking at the other two options. The left and right are not doors, but openings that lead to another tunnel. Above the left tunnel is the name Vivian Stern and above the right is the name Mohamuro Stern

Sojiro looked at the wooden door and would give it a few more shakes, "I could break you..." Sojiro spoke to the door but instead he would sigh and look at the two paths presented before him. He would cross his arms and ponder, knowing full well the tomb expected him to play along with its games. While he had been falling previously, he had been thinking about everything that had been said in this place. And as he stood at the names of the supposed star-cross'd lovers... He would head down the tunnel marked Vivian Stern. Afterall, the entrance had told him this was not the story of the man who had the blade but the woman who stole his heart.

You ultimately decide to go to the left first, walking underneath Vivian Stern's name and through the dark tunnel. After a few seconds of walking the room opens up, a square stone room illuminated by several red gems. In the center of the room lies a giant stone coffin, an inscription etched into the surface of the lid. At the back of the room, built into the wall, sits a stone table with a metal box of some kind.

You first inspect the coffin, using the dim red glow to read the words scratched into the lid.

"Here lies Vivian Stern, the woman who loved a demon. Her love brought a man back from the edge, and saved a nation. To save the soul, you must remind him of who he is"

Beneath the words, embedded into the stone surface sits a rusty metal object, what appears to be half of a key of some kind. After inspecting the coffin you inspect the back of the wall, trying to figure out the table. On the stone slab sits an odd box, and above it, in the wall a hole. This hole bears the shape of a heart, and is roughly the same size as the crystal heart from the lever room. As you take in all this information, you take a moment to decide what to do next.

As you push open the large stone coffin, the lid surprisingly moves with ease, offering little resistance. As the lid slides off, the key becomes dislodged from its surface and clanks to the floor, right at the base of the coffin. Inside the stone structure is a dusty figure wrapped in white cloth. The smell of decay and death enter the room as you lay eyes on a very frail and petite humanoid figure. The cloth is dirty and dusty, showing years and years of age. However nothing else of importance appears to be inside.

You then turn your attention to the metal box. You tinker with it for a few minutes, trying to pry it open, but nothing seems to work. Hitting it, kicking it, even using a ninja tool to pry it open all prove to be unsuccessful. The metal box seems incredibly hard to open. You glare into the empty hole on the wall, deciding what to do next.

Oh, and glare at the empty hole in the goddamn wall he did, "This is such shit..." He continued to look at it but, after fumbling with the box and nothing happening, Sojiro would have no choice but to grab the half of the key from before and sigh.

Before leaving this room, he would also grab the metal box and the metal box and bring it with him.

With that, he would leave the tunnel of the wife and head down the tunnel marked Mohamuro Stern...

You now decide to go to the left, walking underneath Mohamuro Stern's name and through the dark tunnel. After a few seconds of walking the room opens up, a square stone room illuminated by several red gems. In the center of the room lies a giant stone coffin, an inscription etched into the surface of the lid. At the back of the room, built into the wall, sits a stone table with a metal box of some kind.

You first inspect the coffin, using the dim red glow to read the words scratched into the lid.

"Here lies Mohamuro Stern, the man who became a demon. While the man lies dead, his spirit lives on. To kill the demon, you must win his heart"

Beneath the words, embedded into the stone surface sits a rusty metal object, what appears to be half of a key of some kind. After inspecting the coffin you inspect the back of the wall, trying to figure out the table. On the stone slab sits an odd box, and above it, in the wall a hole. This hole bears the shape of a skull, and is roughly the same size as the crystal skull from the lever room. As you take in all this information, you take a moment to decide what to do next.