Hunt the Executioner (Ryojin)

Your finger slides through the course stone opening in the door until you feel the hole stop. The tip of your finger gently brushes the backside of the stone door as you patiently wait for what is to come. An eerie silence befalls the area, your breath quickens, a bead of sweat drops from your forehead, and finally, something happens. The eyes of the skull begin to glow a deep red, as if by magic. The door shakes for a brief second as a demonic voice billows forth from the door.

"The Demon has found you worthy"

Then in an instant, without warning, a cold piece of steel slides across the opening of the hole, the very hole your finger is currently in. It happens so fast, you barely have time to react before the pain sets in, warm red blood pooling around the opening of the hole. The steel slides back, releasing your finger, only to reveal that it is no longer there. Blood begins to pour from the cleanly cut wound as the stone door shakes even more violently this time, sliding sideways into the earth revealing a dark hole boring its way into the earth.

A warm, dry and musty smell meets your nose as you slowly make your way into the tunnel. Its dark, all around you a stone corridor descends deeper and deeper into the earth, but you push forward. After a few moments the tunnel levels out, only to open up into a small stone room. It is incredibly dark, however a few beams of light can be seen from the ceiling, tiny cracks in the stone and ground allow for slivers of sun light to enter, giving you just enough light to help you see. The room is made of stone for the most part, and is a perfect square, twenty meters by twenty meters. You look around the room taking notice of the fact that it seems to be barren. Until your eyes see it, and stop.

Directly across the room from where you entered, against the wall is a massive stone statue. It depicts an evil looking man, his face covered and his eyes staring intently at you. In his hands, a stone depiction of the very blade you came here to find, The Executioner blade. On either side of this statue is a door, one on the right side and one on the left, shrouded in darkness. As you take in the awe of the statue, you notice a stone plaque at its base, with words etched into it. You close in on the statue to get a closer look, seeing that these words appear to be scratched into the stone.

"Here, the final resting place of a man with no name. Feared through out history, only to meet his demise by an emotion no one knew he possessed. Thousands of men slaughtered, cities cleaved, and nations shaken, only to be conquered by love. This is not the story of the Executioner, but the story of the woman who finally tamed him. For this tomb belongs to three souls, The Executioner, his wife, Vivian Stern, and the sword that coated this land in blood. Those who stumble upon this grave, take this as your warning, turn back, leave this cursed place alone. For the man who holds the blade is not the demon you must fear."

The words linger on your mind, unsure of what to make of what you just read. You take a moment to gather yourself, you now have one of three choices to make. Do you take head of the stones warning, turn back and leave the tomb? Or do you venture deeper, taking either the left or right tunnel, both that without a doubt take you on a surprising and unexpected journey.

"Th-That's it.." Ryojin pulled his hand still dripping blood. He took the bandages that had been wrapped around his arm and instead used them to stop the bleeding from his open wound. He didn't shout or fret. He simply continued on. When he reached the two pathways, and he read the words scratched into stone, he stopped to think a moment.

He chose to head down the left path and began his trek. He awaited the power that was hiding behind these closed doors and he was stubborn enough to continue his way. He needed to close the distance between him and the blade that awaited.

You turn to the left, eyeing the left tunnel, that is the path you choose to take. As you make your way down the left tunnel, it gets harder and harder to see, as the light from the previous room slowly starts to fade away. Eventually you are engulfed in pure darkness, unable to see a single thing around you. You place your good hand against the tunnel wall, using it to guide you along, until the wall is no longer there.

Even though you can not see, you can feel the room open up, the air circulating around you. It is warm, dank and dry, however you can feel a light breeze coming from the other side of this darkened room, signaling an exit of some kind. You stand at the end of this tunnel, staring blankly into a pitch black room. You do not know its size, or what lies beyond, only that to venture further you must cross this room.

Ryojin would first fully extend his bo. Next, he would give one good tap against the ground with the metal instrument in an attempt to get a better feel for the size of the room. After that, he would gently sweep his bo in front of him after touching it to the ground as he pressed on in order to make sure there were no holes in the floor ahead of him. With this, he would begin to trek toward the breeze he felt.

The bo staff would sweep across the stone floor, clanking and tapping as each touch met with solid stone, until it didn't anymore. About five meters into the room, the steel staff of Ryojin's would be met with no resistance as it continued to tap. The weapon would reveal that in the center of the room was a hole, of some size and shape. With the room being as dark as it was, it was nearly impossible to tell just how large this hole was, but it was indeed there. Ryojin would suddenly stop as the realization set it that the floor before him was no longer there.

Ryojin would at this point widen the sweeps of his bo, fully from left to right attempting to find if and where the path continued. If it did not continue he would at this point stop to consider the options. Jump. Definitely one of them even with not being able to see the end of the hole. The second being to back track and try to instead move along a wall in the room

As Ryojin moved his staff back and forth, with each sweep it met empty hole, indicating this hole ran the full length of the room. He was left with very little options, as the hole was seemingly very large. He could risk it, and attempt to jump, not knowing the full length of the hole, or give up and turn back.

At this point, Ryojin would would jump. The hope was that he would blindly land on a surface, but if he didn't, he supposed it just wasn't meant for him to obtain the power beyond. It had either been that or to turn back, but he couldn't see anyway.

With a giant leap, Ryojin managed to clear the hole that was in the ground. he flew through the air just barely landing on the other side of the hole, his feet meeting solid stone. A light breeze could be felt blowing through the tunnel, the boy now standing at the opening of yet another room. Taking a few steps forward, Ryojin would see nothing once again, as this room was just as a dark, if not darker than the room before. Yet again, the man was faced with a dark room, not knowing its contents or its size.

This time, Ryojin had come up with a semi-solid plan. He needed to at least try to get an idea of what the room looked like. Going blind just wasn't doing it for him. He attached an exploding note to one of his kunai and threw it as far off toward the left center as he could before making a hand sign to set it off. The hope was that this was enough to at least give him an idea as to what this room looked like before the light from the explosion totally faded away.

Ryojin would see that the room was incredibly barren. However, much like the previous room, the floor had more to offer. The stones were lined up in a grid pattern, with every other stone being marked with red paint, creating a checker board design. After scanning the floor, the mans eyes would shift towards the back wall, where three identical wooden doors rest, planted into the stone wall. The doors would be shut, and separated by a meter of space between the three.

Ryojin would begin his trek into the next room. He would carefully step onto the closest red tile to him in order to begin his way toward the three doors. Providing that nothing crazy happened when he stepped onto the red tile, he would continue to make his way across stepping on red tiles. He would make his way to the three doors and choose to go with the door on the far left as that was the door he had entered through to begin with anyway.

Ryojin would begin to navigate the room, Leaping from one red stone to another. However, what he did not realize was that each red stone was actually a pressure plate, and would be depressed as he stepped on them. As the stone block slide into the ground, Ryojin would here a loud scrapping sound as dirt and sand fell from he ceiling, the sound of stone grinding stone would fill the chamber, the ceiling now lowering itself down towards the floor. Ryojin would quickly move, running to the three doors, and flinging open the left door first, only to be meet with a solid stone wall directly behind the door. The ceiling continued to move downwards as he quickly realized he had chosen the wrong door.

The next door Ryojin had chosen would be the right door. He would quickly bound out and open the door in the center instead hoping he had a little bit more luck this time and cursing himself for not having made the correct decision in the first place. A few muttered curses and a bit of a sigh as he hoped he would manage to do right this time.

Ryojin would throw open the right door as quickly as he could, feeling the ceiling closing in on him. There, behind the door, was a small closest sized room, with a hole in the floor. Quickly rushing through the door the boy would leap into the hole, falling below.

He would drop into a smaller, more dry room, sand at his feet this time. As he stood, Ryojin would notice that he could suddenly see, a deep red glow filling the room around him. The room was a small five meter by five meter room, with no doors to be seen on any surface. What he did see however was another statue, almost identical to the one he saw in the first room. It was a large stone statue that depicted the executioner holding a stone version of his famed sword, another plaque at its base. As he approached the statue he would notice that the red glow was coming from the statues eyes, two red crystals implanted into the eye sockets. On the plaque read:

"Through the eyes of a demon, ambition was sought. Through the blade of a man, battles were fought, but by the heart of a woman, it was all for naught. To conquer the demon, you must destroy what conquered the man. "

Ryojin would carefully observe the statue. What had conquered the man? Was it the blade itself? The very blade he held? Was it those eyes of his peering into the future and pushing him forward toward it? Was it the woman..? Ryojin would attempt to make his way to the red eyes and pluck them out if at all possible. This was the first step right? Through the eyes of a demon, ambition was sought? He could feel his heart beginning to race.

Ryojin would look around the room, inspecting the statue to see if there was any hidden doors of any kind. Towards the back of the statue, pressed against the wall, would be a very tiny slit, with a minor amount of wind pushing through it. There was indeed a hole behind the statue, but the stone depiction of the man and his blade was just so heavy and to massive to move on its own. Something in this room had to be the key.

The man would then climb the stone structure and reach the head, attempting to remove the red stones from the eye sockets. It took a few moments, but the crystals eventually popped out, landing in Ryojins hands. As he held the stones he would notice that they continued to give off light even when not attached, like two little red beacons that could guide his way. However nothing else seemed to happen with the stones being removed, as the statue was still in place.

Ryojin at this point would try to peer around the room through the red crystals he had plucked from the eye sockets to check if anything changed through his eyes. Was he missing something even still? This kind of puzzle thing was possibly not his strong suit.

Ryojin would peer through the stones, looking over the entire room, trying to see if he could gleam anything from the room. As he would glance over the statue, everything would look normal, smooth gray stone, until he would glance over the chest, where the heart would rest. As his eyes looked through the stone, the chest of the statue would glow a soft red, pulsating where the hearth should have been.

"I see.. forgive me." Ryojin at this point would peg a second kunai wrapped in an explosive note directly at the chest of the statue. He formed his hand seal and set off the note in order to destroy it. He almost felt bad.

As the mans strike was jabbed into the stone chest of the statue, it actually gave way, a chunk of stone being pushed inward as if it was a loose pressure plate. A hidden button built into the statue where the heart would have been, now sliding inwards, only to click, releasing a contraption of sorts. The statue would shake and rumble, sliding side ways in the sand until it finally stopped, revealing a hole in the wall. Ryojin would step through, only to be met with an oh so familiar sight, complete darkness. From the feel of it, this room was massive, and had the familiar cool breeze blowing through it. It was hard to tell the shape and size of this room, but it was the largest one so far that the man had entered.

Ryojin would push forward with the stones in his hands, entering the hole in the wall to reveal the next room. It opened up into a large hallway with smaller hallways branching off from both sides. The main hallway extended straight down towards a solid stone wall. The wall had a slit in it, implying it was a door and could somehow be opened. On the surface of the stone door were four circular indents, where something like a coin or medallion could be placed. On either side of this main hallway, were two more hallways, making four extra passage ways in this area. The passage ways were not very long, but ended at dead ends as well. From the dim red glow Ryojin could make out what appeared to be tables at the end of each hallway. A number marking each path on the stone walls.

Ryojin would make his way through the much bigger room. He noted the four holes above the door first. Next, he would walk down the path marked with a one first. He would continue to use these eye rocks to guide his way. He would make his way down the first path to what appeared to be a table and let the red light cast it's glow.

He would take in a shallow and slow breath observing carefully around him hoping to find more clues on where to go from here. Four holes, four paths, this seemed straight forward enough to him, but maybe he was wrong.

Ryojin would make his way down the hallway marked with the number one, using the red stones to light his way. The tunnel was creepy, made of dark stone, with etchings of history across its surface. The walls appeared to tell a story, with various different depictions of war and battle. he eventually would make it to the end of the hall way to see a wooden table built into the wall. On this table rested four round tokens, like giant coins, and looked like they could have slotted into the holes on the wall back in the main chamber.

On the table would be an inscription that read:

"The lowliest of creatures, living beneath our floor boards, the final splinter in the board of death."

Beneath the writing would rest four tokens, each one being made out of a different material and would bear a different picture. There was:

-A wooden token bearing the picture of a rat
-A golden token bearing the picture of a snake
-A copper token bearing the picture of a hawk
-A silver token bearing the picture of a skull

Ryojin would reach for the Rat coin. He would attempt to pull forth the coin from the carved table if it would allow. He planned on pocketing this coin for the time being. It looked like it would fit in the slot. He noted that it was also room one, so the order of the coins no doubt mattered. He would make his way from hall one on to hall two from here providing that nothing went horribly wrong. The lowliest of creatures.. the final splinter in the board of death.. was it the rat? Beneath our floor boards. It had to be.. that was what he hoped.

Ryojin would make his way down the hallway marked with the number two, still using the red stones to light his way. The tunnel was creepy, made of dark stone, with etchings of history across its surface. The walls appeared to tell a story, with various different depictions of war and battle. Hee eventually would make it to the end of the hall way to see a wooden table built into the wall. On this table rested four round tokens, like giant coins, and looked like they could have slotted into the holes on the wall back in the main chamber.

On the table would be an inscription that read:

"A winding brass road, deadly with each turn, the lowest of three, but a king of his realm."

Beneath the writing would rest four tokens, each one being made out of a different material and would bear a different picture. There was:

-A wooden token bearing the picture of a hawk
-A golden token bearing the picture of a rat
-A copper token bearing the picture of a snake
-A silver token bearing the picture of a skull