Learning is Fun!

The three head over to Goma's shop to have Goma make some incendiary grenades, she manages to create exactly one. Yulia takes it and they then head over to Martin. Martin greets them.

"Hmm... I mean I definitely don't intend to leave any extra ingots behind if we move to the next floor," he answers in regards to the question of whether the ingots will carry over to the next floor.

"Hmm maybe we'll wait until we have more ingots then..." Yulia states and Martin nods.

"Seems fair," he answers.

The trio then return to the museum where Pelas greets them, "back for more?" he asks.

"Indeed. Let's see the history of the caves?" she asks and he nods and leads them to another dark area with lit up displays. The first display appears to be a map of the Deep Caves, it also includes the elevator chamber and a connected map of the goblin caves above. The map is marked and Yulia makes a note of the map. Before Pelas begins to speak.

The Map shows Aresque in the center of the caves, then the tunnel seen earlier leading away from Upper Aresque goes off to the left and the place it ends up at is called The Wild Deep and has three more paths going off from the Wild Deep listed as Aqua Regis, Air Fortis, Alveare and further past Alveare is another path going to a chamber listed as Monarch's Throne. The tunnel leading off from Middle Aresque is listed as The Miner's Path and splits into two paths very quickly, one going to a place called The Deep Mines and the other to Dwarf Hold. The Deep Mines also have an offshoot listed as Crater Under. Lastly the tunnel going from Lower Aresque is referred to as The Dream Path and leads to a winding group of tunnels, these tunnels are listed as Path of the Old Mind, Path of Riches and Path of Ascension. Path of The Old Mind ends at a chamber referred to as The Old Mind and Path of Ascension leads to an area called The Ascent. Yulia tries her best to memorize all this before Pelas starts speaking and distracts her.

"The Caves had always been there, the Drow had fled into the caves from the forest and at that time they were empty, at least as far as we knew, the goblins had not arrived yet and the creatures that did exist in the cave, kept away in the early days. It wasn't until after Liloth was **** out that we had our first encounters with the locals. Luckily for us the first species we encountered were the dwarves not the... Mind Eaters..." he says showing the same concern about voicing their true name as Nylax had earlier. He then moves onto the next display which depicts the Drow and The Dwarves interacting.

"The Dwarves taught us about the dangers of the deep, Liloth had been protecting us without our knowledge and with her gone the danger would soon come for us and we needed to be ready to defend ourselves against it. The first and greatest danger was the knocker. The Dwarves told us the name, it was called as such because it had a tendency to bother mining dwarves by knocking from the other side of tunnel walls. Dwarves dumb enough to follow the knocking were often led to mine into dangerous gas pockets or unstable areas and would often end up injured or worse. The Dwarves told us that The Knocker wanted nothing more than to cause pain and suffering, but it was relatively easy to protect against. You just needed to keep your wits about you. It was a frail weak creature and it had to rely on tricks. As long as you were smart enough to see through it's tricks and traps, it couldn't harm you." Pelas explains as he leads them forward to a group of displays, one showing The Knocker, presumably, a small wiry humanoid figure with long disjointed arms. Another display depicted creatures with tentacles hanging from their faces and large bulbous heads.

"The next biggest threat was the... Mind Eaters... That's not their proper names, but they are powerful psychic creatures and they might hear us if we use their real name, although if you want to know their real names..." he says and gestures to a dimly lit card above the display, "The Illithid," it reads, "they are extremely dangerous creatures, highly intelligent, they seek to dominate other species and turn them into thralls or... breeding cattle to be used to create more of their own kind. That being said, they are not automatically hostile and we have... a tenuous relationship with them. Offering them goods in return for useful knowledge or favours, but dealing with them is tricky as they are always intent on finding a way to subjugate you so you have to be on guard," Pelas explains, "attempts to explore deeper into their area of the deep has unanimously ended in capture and subjugation of the individual or individuals sent, so our understanding of the layout of their area of the deep comes exclusively from knowledge they were willing to give us of their home," he adds and then points to the last display. This one depicts many different bestial creatures.

"These are the final danger of the Deep... The ecology of the deep seems to breed only exceedingly dangerous and carnivorous creatures, as I said ecology is not my specialty, so if you want to know more about them, you can take the ecology tour and Reia will help you with that," he says quickly before moving on.

The next display shows the Dwarves again, "now then to talk about our friends the Dwarves, they are small creatures, often half the height or less of us Drow, but they are extremely hardy and they spend most of their time mining, they claim to be searching for something lost in the deep long ago, but refuse to tell us what. Aside from that one sticking point however, they are extremely open about their society and curious about others. They are extremely friendly and I don't think I've ever seen a dwarf mad or sad, even in the midst of battle or on their **** bed," he says with an almost reverent voice. The last display depicts the Goblins.

"Now the Goblins actually showed up after us Drow, when we lived in the forest, the upper caves were completely empty, we aren't sure when exactly the Goblins first showed up, but one day a Goblin descended from above, climbing down the walls and coming to explore. We met the Goblin and were excited and curious about this strange creature, she told us about how she and her kind had found the caves and set up there, though she didn't seem able to explain where they had come from, they were friendly and kind, though also quite lustful and we ended up working with them and the Dwarves to create an elevator which connected us to the caves and have had a friendly relationship with them ever since. When the Beast showed up and their relationship with the Elves soured we were more than happy to help them, even if partially just because we felt great joy in sticking it to our ancestrally hated cousins," Pelas explains.

That seems to end the cave history tour and Yulia and the others return to the outside for a bit before going back in and asking about the Tower Theology tour and Pelas seems excited and leads them to another area of the museum. This one is lit with spooky red lights and has a foreboding atmosphere. The first display depicts The Towers. With the normal Tower simply standing upright, above it The Tower Above is floating, also upright and beneath the Tower is the Tower Below which is upside down, it's base connected to the base of the Tower, "When the tower was created by the creator, they made the denizens and they created two other special entities, the One True God and The Abyss. The One True God went on to create the Tower Above and The Abyss went on to create The Tower Below, the reason for the creation of these two is unknown, but theories are that they exist purely for the benefit of the chosen... well 'benefit' they are intended to be a test of the chosen's morality," he says and then moves to the next display, this one depicting, presumably, the one true god as well as others, but Yulia speaks up,

"this is supposed to be the One True God?" she says looking over the dispay, "where is it? I don't see a mass of tentacles anywhere here?" she asks and Pelas swallows.

"I am... sorry to hear that you experienced the One True God in such a way..." he says weakly and then points to a creature in the display. It looks like a small androgynous doll like figure, adorable if a bit uncanny, a pair of tiny wings spreading from behind it, "this is the One True God as it is most often depicted," Pelas explains and Cherchiel gives a meek nod of agreement. Yulia stares at the figure for a bit and then turns away as Pelas continues the lecture, "The One True God created the angels, like our beautiful guest here," Pelas states and winks at cherchiel who smiles back at him, "it then went on to create two lesser gods, known as Deity and Deus," Pelas says and points out two other beings, one is a feminine figure in heavy looking armor with two pairs of glowing white wings that are curled around her body, hiding her chest and pelvis from view, she has the same visor the angels had, the other is a masculine figure with multiple arms extending from his body and a ring of eyes floating around his head, his actual face a simple blank mass, "they were created to watch over the tower and fight against the Tower Below, a chosen is unlikely to run into either unless they specifically choose to side with the Tower Above or Below," Pelas states.

"Not likely..." Yulia mutters angrily and Cherchiel looks upset by Yulia's obvious anger.

Pelas coughs and moves on, "now for the Tower Below," he says leading them to another display this one depicting the Tower Below and it's denizens, "the abyss depicted here," he says and gestures to a large black hole, multiple eyes and tendrils reaching out from it, "created the demons and 10 Archdemons; Ash Medai, demon of Lust; Belle Gore, demon of sloth; Bal'zaibul, demon of gluttony; Laifell, demon of pride; Levateinn, Demon of Envy, Mai Moon, demon of Greed, Shay Tein, Demon of Wrath, Liloth, Mother of Webs, demon of deception; Mephis Stolas, Demon of Risks and lastly the demon known only by the title, Demon of Gifts," he explains, "running into any one of these is bad news for a chosen," he adds and Cherchiel looks sad, the display depicts the various archdemons only in vague silhouettes so it's impossible to tell which one is Ash, but Cherchiel does her best to glare at the one she guesses to be him.

"Well... The demon of lust is dead... We killed him," Yulia states idly and Pelas hesitates as he looks to her, seemingly in awe before speaking.

"Is that why you're marked? That's... horrifyingly impressive," he states in a quiet, reverent whisper and Yulia sighs.

"I regret this tour? Are we done?" she asks and he nods.

"Yes... Sorry, there's no more to this tour," he says and leads them back outside.

"Deep Ecology?" Cherchiel suggests weakly and Yulia doesn't respond before sighing.

"Yeah let's get it over with..." she says and they head back inside.

Upon informing Pelas they want to take the Deep Ecology tour Pelas nods, "Reia! Come guide these women on the Ecology tour!" he yells.

A female drow appears from the darkness of the museum, she is wearing simple black leather armor over a slim, petite body, her white hair tied up in a short ponytail, "alright! Time to learn about the wonderful and dangerous world of the Deep's animal life!" she says excitedly as she guides them to another section of the museum. This section is different than the others, it appears to be similar to a biodome with actual examples of the animal life to see, the first is a massive bat creature,

"this is the Leather Wing!" she announces, "it hides in the darkness, flutters through the air and feeds on the blood of those it can ambush from the dark, it's screech is terrifying, but useful as it can help you tell where one might be relative to you," she suggests. The next creature is a large, dark green skinned lizard, "this one we call a Deep Sniper, they're amphibious creatures that like to hide in the deep's waterways and use their long sticky tongues to grab prey on the shore and drag them into the water to be devoured," she states, "any time you're near water look carefully for any small bumps on the water surface, that's probably it peeking just above the water, looking for prey," she explains and moves on.

The next is a massive angler fish like creature, "this is the Mortis Lure... It lives in deep water and will try to lure prey with it's glowing orb thing... it's discernible even from the surface and many people have jumped to their deaths in this creature's jaws believing that the light was the glint of treasure below the waves," she says before quickly moving on the next creature is a massive eel, "this one... the slitherer, moves through the deep's waterways with ease and as long as you stay out of the water you should be fine, but if you need to enter the water, be wary of this one, the others will stay away and try to lure or grab you from afar, but this thing will rush after you and try to drag you into the depths," she explains.

The next one is a massive spider, "these are called Liloth's children, they're similar to Drider, but lacking the intelligence... they like to capture creatures in their massive sticky webs and then either... eat them or... lay their eggs inside of them," she says seemingly disturbed by the idea, the next is a large white slug, "we call these things Lurker's they like to hide on the roofs of caves and then drop onto unsuspecting prey, using their considerable weight to pin their prey and then slowly absorb them" she says and then moves on to the final exhibit, it's a picture depicting a massive millipede with giant crushing mandibles and thousands of tiny spiky legs,

"this is the Monarch... The biggest, deadliest creature in the depths, there's only one of them luckily and it resides deep in the Wild Deep... if you have to interact with it, I can't give you much advice, no one has successfully survived a direct encounter with it, I guess just don't let it grab you with those mandibles..." she says weakly. She then moves forward, "that's it for fauna, now for some delightful, non-deadly Deep flora!" she says and proceeds to show off a bunch of pretty mostly glowing flowers and plants, they aren't of much interest to Yulia or Cherchiel, but Goma seems to like them. With that however the tour ends and the group are led back outside.

"Well... We've been armed with knowledge, what now?" Cherchiel asks.

(Health: 200%

Mana: 50%

Equipment: Ceramic Beaked Mask, Monastic Scapular , standard bra, Standard Panties, 3 poison gas grenades, 3 healing kits, 1 syringe of poison, 1 syringe of adrenaline, 1 syringe of poison antidote, 1 sewing kit, 1 vial of strong aerosolizing aphrodisiac, 8 days worth of rations, 3 two liter water jug, 1 half filled two liter water jug, 1 health potion, 1 mana potion, A boar mask, 3 vials of sticky white liquid, Ornate Rapier, 4 arrows, Quiver, God's Favour (Halo), 1 sack of cooking ingredients (Apples), Bone Spear, Demonic Spellbook, Ash's Quiver, 6 charm arrows, Old Oak Club, 1 pouch of alchemical ingredients, Smithing Ingredients (6 steel ingots), Incendiary grenade.

Spells known: Great Heal (Lvl 2, Mastered, Cost: 25%)

Great Cure (Lvl 2, Mastered, Cost: 15%)

Energize (Lvl 1, Mastered, Cost: 25%)

Icicle (Lvl 1, Mastered, cost: 15%)

Unlock (Lvl 1, Unmastered, Cost: 15%)

Repair (Lvl 1, Mastered, Cost: 5%-20% depending on factors)

Undermine (Lvl 1, Mastered, cost: 25%).

Fetish: Bondage Rank: 1, Masochism Rank: 1, Lesbian rank: 1

Status Effect: Permanent increase to physical attribute. Combat level raised to medium

Psychosexual Break: In order to deal with her trauma, Yulia has begun to subconsciously fetishize her experiences.

Deflowered: Virginity Lost, sexual experience changed to: Inexperienced, non-virgin.

Marked by The Abyss: Searching.

Companion: Cherchiel, Blacksmith, Goma.

Cherchiel Equipment: Ultra Durable Spear, Ultra Durable Shield, Reinforced Bodysuit.

Goma Equipment: Runed Dagger, Hunting Horn, Thick Hide Outfit.

Goma Mana: 100%

Goma spells known: Heal (Mastered, 15%)

https://forum.chyoa.com/threads/the-tower-of-voices-voting-thread.3460/ )