The Temple (Creature Culling 6)

The Temple (Creature Culling 6)
Date	7/27/25
Storyteller	Tire
Tier	Expert
Player Characters	Arumi, Hogo Pok'sharr, Rinazomi, Uravas - "Cap'n Stardust"
Rewards	Breath Blaster (Rathian), 500 GP, 250 XP
Result	success
Author	johnnysupernova
Downtime	16 days

In which Arumi slays a dragon.

Log

Dramatis Personae

Uravus - Cap’n Stardust - Honorable Pirate, Leader of the Jongleur Three

Arumi - Expert Wizard, Member of the Jongleur Three

Goldship - Clever Prankster, Member of the Jongleur Three

Hogo Pok’sharr - Imposing Gunslinger with a Giant Gun

Rinazomi - A warrior soaked in blood

Astute historians will no doubt be aware of the many dragon attacks that had happened around the time of these going ons. You may then, we expect, be wondering the question: “Has Cap’n Stardust ever come across a dragon?” We can assure you, reader, that wherever there were dragons, the Jongleur Three were not far behind.

It was on one such occasion that an isolated village had sought out the help of the Associates, a group the Jongleur Three also shared membership with. The village of Valera was isolated, partly because of its location nestled in the mountain range outside of Onadbyr, and partly because, we the author, have deemed it fit to be labeled as such. In any case, the archaeologists of Valera sought assistance with slaying a dragon, and the Jongluer Three were more than happy to oblige, though they did not yet know they were to be set against a dragon.

Cap’n Stardust and Arumi, and Arumi’s horse companion, Goldship, were the last to arrive. Uravus had recently learned the power of measuring time via magic, and ever since, his punctuality skills had only gotten worse.

The now assembled traveled to the site of their mission. The representatives of the Jongleur Three were, of course, the good Cap’n Stardust and his sister, Arumi, and everyone's favorite horse companion, Gold Ship. Rounding out the party was Hogo Pok’sharr, who keen readers will no doubt remember from earlier chapters in this fine collection of tales. A newcomer to this tale, Rinazomi was the last of the group. Cap’n Stardust believed in kindness, as all pirates should, but it would be remiss of us to not disclose the cool disposition he felt to the one who had harassed his sister not more than a month before this. Despite this coolness, Uravus did not let it get in the way of his good spirits, and the journey to the archaeology site belonging to the village of Valera went with little trouble.

The group arrived at the archaeology site, in the Lost Valley. The Lost Valley belonged to the same isolated valley the village of Valera sat in. We forgive any potential confusion, as the Lost Valley was very much found, for how could our brave adventurers travel to it? Regardless, the name was deemed so fitting that it stuck, regardless of its status no longer being lost and very much being discovered.

When the group arrived, they were greeted by Ricter. Ricter carried a small weapon with him, but not out of aggression. He feared the next attack from the predators in the jungle, and thus, sought out the means to protect himself.

“Thank you for coming.” Ricter began, as he led the group into the Archaeology camp. “To reiterate our posting, a monster has been nesting in the area, and we need help removing it. It’s a Rathian, a beast that is somewhat like a wyvern.”

Uravus held his tongue at this. He knew the semantic debate between what is a wyvern and what is a dragon was a heated one, with much controversy on either side. He suspected that Ricter had misspoken, and meant a Dragon and not a Wyvern, for everyone knew Dragons had two wings attached to two arms, and Wyverns had four arms and separate wings. Despite this humorous mistake, we will strive to quote the words exactly as they were spoken, errors and all.

The Rathian, as Ricter described, was a fearsome creature. Normally green, this one sported purple coloring, and an incredibly aggressive disposition. Moreover, Ricter told them of the spikes they found lodged in the ground. It would seem the great dragon was able to launch spikes from its mighty tail as some sort of projectile weapon.

Still, the dragon was a living creature, and all creatures need sleep. Upon realizing this simple fact, Uravus was struck by an idea.

“Perhaps we wait for it to sleep…” He began, as he formulated the plan in his head. “Then we trap it with a giant net.”

To this, Ricter could only raise an eyebrow of confusion.

“Don’t worry, he’s not serious.” Arumi said, flatly. The lie hurt Uravus, for he was deadly serious, but he knew that this was one of her code phrases to gently let Uravus know his plan was simply too clever for the situation.

“I like this idea. We trap it with a net, then we carve it up, and eat it.” Rina added.

“You would need a very big net for this Rathian. I’m not sure we have one big enough.” Ricter said.

Uravus shrugged. “Well, I’ve always wanted to slay a dragon.”

“I’ve always wanted to eat a dragon.” Rina added.

“Yes. We should eat it.” Hogo agreed.

“Someone made me a dragon omelet… They are intelligent creatures.” Arumi stressed, with horror at the conversation. This, coupled with Rina’s eagerness to devour the dragon, gave Uravus second thoughts on his plan for a giant net, and thus, he had completely abandoned it at this point, and in fact, decided he would now become a vegetarian.

The target of the hunt, the mighty Rathian, had made its nest close to a temple in the jungle of the Lost Valley. The temple had recently been found, and moreover, it had been discovered that it was protected by a magic barrier. Ricter also asked them to look into the barrier while they were there, and thus, the group set out into the jungle of the Valley that was found but was still known as Lost.

On the way to the temple, Cap’n Stardust’s eagle eyes spotted something lodged into the ground. The object looked to be a large spike, and he announced this to the group by shouting, “Arumi! Look! I see a spike!”

“Interesting.” The peerless wizard said, before spending several minutes testing various elemental spells against the spike. As she performed these tests, Hogo examined the spike with the keen eye only a marksman possessed, and deduced that while the spike was incredibly deadly, it would seem the dragon could only fling it from a relatively close distance.

At the end of Arumi’s experimentations, she had surmised that the dragon was susceptible to lightning and completely immune to fire. This caused great concern to Uravus, whose magic of choice was fiery in nature. That is to say, his favorite spell was one that produced flames.

“Ah, perhaps we camp and come back with renewed magic. For you see, it will take me time to prepare magic that will affect the dragon.” Uravus said.

Arumi said nothing at this, as she was focusing on changing the spells in her arsenal. A task that only took her twenty minutes. At this display, Uravus sheepishly said, “You don’t need to show off like that.”

“I’ve told you before, you need to study more.” Arumi said flatly.

“Ah, but how can I study when I am on adventures and flipping through the streets!” Uravus cried out, aghast.

“If it means a better chance of our survival, I am fine with us camping.” Hogo stated, then gestured to the spike in the ground. “But maybe not in the Rathian’s hunting ground.”

And so the group headed back to the archaeology camp. Arumi used her magic to conjure a cabin that was quite cozy for the group to spend the night in. In the cabin’s library, she personally tutored Uravus, and helped him learn new magics that might harm the dragon. Cap’n Stardust wondered that night, what would be the point of studying when he had such a wise tutor to help him learn.

The next night, they ventured into the jungle, again, with renewed vigor and specialized spellbooks. Cap’n Stardust led the expedition, for a Good Captain always leads his crew when traveling into danger. The temple was hidden away in a clearing in the ancient old growth of the jungle. As they surveyed the temple grounds, they found several spikes in the ground, and the tracks of what was clearly a dragon. They had also found the barrier that was protecting the Temple. Rina examined the barrier, and then struck it with her greatsword. A loud clanging noise echoed in the night air.

“I suppose we’ve woken it up.” Arumi said with a resigned sigh, as she enchants the group’s weaponry to conduct electricity. Realizing battle was at hand, Hogo transformed into a sentinel lit by starlight, and Rina grew five sizes larger.

To illustrate Arumi’s point, the Rathian let out a mighty roar. Uravus could tell it was incredibly close by, and he channeled his own magic to quicken his movements. It was well timed, for just as he cast this spell, the Rathian emerged from the trees.

The dragon charged into the biggest figures it could see, which happened to be the two onis, Hogo and Rina. Uravus held his sword in his hand, and prepared to charge into it, but was stopped by Arumi saying, “Please don't run into it and get killed. I have something to help.” She then cast a spell on the dragon. Uravus wasn’t sure which spell it was, for Arumi knew ten thousand spells and he only knew ten, but he had the feeling that her magic had muddled the dragon enough to stop it from reacting to his own spellcasting.

And so he charged into the beast. He channeled a spell into his blade and struck true. Lightning arced from the enchantment Arumi gave his blade, and then further exploded into the dragon’s hide from his own casting of lightning magic.

Rina moved into a position allowing her and Uravus to flank the dragon, and struck it with her mighty greatsword. So powerful was the strike that it left the dragon reeling. The dragon let out a mighty roar but our brave heroes were unshakeable. Realizing the dragon was no match for Uravus, it turned tail and ran. As it moved away from the Good Captain, it lashed out with its now turned tail, but the Good Captain was simply too quick for it, and effortlessly parried the massive tail.

Lightning charged bullets exploded from Hogo’s massive gun and rained down on the Rathian. It responded in kind by unleashing an explosion of fire from its maw, coating the ground around Hogo and Rina in flames. It then lumbered into the flames and took a bite out of Hogo. Fortunately, defensive magic cast by Arumi reinforced his skin.

Uravus strode towards the dragon, then stepped through reality. He appeared in a more favorable location behind the dragon, and struck him again with his lightning charged blade. Realizing he stood betwixt the dragon and his sister, he cast defensive magic on himself, causing his visage to become blurry to all around him.

Rina stepped out of the flames, and swung her greatsword at the dragon with another mighty blow. The dragon swung back at her, and fortunately for her, Arumi cast more defensive magic to protect her. Still, the dragon drew blood on the Oni warrior. This elicited a magic curse from her onto the dragon.

The dragon, who we must stress, was a dragon and not a wyvern, for it had two arms attached to wings and not four arms disparate from wings, stumbled away, a frightened and bloody mess, before shaking off its wounds and letting adrenaline take over. It leapt into the air, and flung a barrage of spikes at Hogo and Rina. As the spikes impacted into the ground, a vile, purple poison seeped out and into the air around them.

It then swooped to the ground, eager to take advantage of the poisonous cloud it had dispersed. Fortunately, Arumi grew tired of this battle, and evoked her most powerful magic yet. A barrage of forceful magic flew from her fingers and into the dragon, swatting it out of the air and felling the great beast.

For you see, dear reader, this was not the story of how the Good Captain Stardust fought a dragon. It was, instead, the tale of how Arumi, Wizard with no Equal, slayed a mighty dragon, near singlehandedly. So impressive was this feat, that Captain Stardust could do nothing else but applaud for his sister.

“We still need to check out the barrier on that temple.” Hogo stated, as the group mended themselves from their wounds.

“Well, I know a little bit of magic.” Uravus said, before striding to the barrier. He fished out his magnifying glass, and surveyed the barrier. “Hrm. It would appear there is in fact a temple behind the barrier.” He said, with a nod.

“Uravus, we already knew that.” Arumi said, as the rest of the group made their way to the temple.

“Ah, but did you know the barrier is as old as the temple itself?” Uravus asked, with a smile. He was sure Arumi would have figured that out faster than he had, but he was happy to have made the discovery first, even if it happened while she was healing the rest of their group.

Arumi studied the barrier. She flipped through her spellbook for a moment. “It appears to be divine in nature… But I believe I can dispel it.” She found the page she was looking for, and with help from Rina, channeled out a spell that disrupted the barrier around the temple.

“Perhaps we should go inside.” Hogo suggested.

“Ah, there might be some sort of man made of pillar in there…” Uravus stated, with a level of caution that was uncharacteristic of himself. “Like a… Pillar man.”

“I wish to fight this Pillar man.” Rina said, eager to spill more blood.

“I’ve never heard of such a thing.” Arumi stated plainly. This eased the Captain’s caution, for if Arumi had never heard of it, it had probably never existed.

The temple was built of massive stone slabs, and ordained with ancient carvings of a text the group could not understand. Arumi surveyed the wall, then cast a translation spell to read the text. It was an ancient variation of the Mwangi language, and spoke in many archaic metaphors and religious scripture. It was hard to parse, but eventually, Arumi realized the temple belonged to Balumbdar, the God of All Things Massive and Mighty.

“Rina, it would seem we have found a new God for you to worship.” Arumi suggested, helpfully to the Oni.

“Perhaps I will look into Balumbdar after the Man Slayer is slayed.” Rina stated.

And on that hopeful note, the group returned to the archaeology camp site to deliver the good news. The archaeology team of Valera were well versed in studying great beasts and not letting their parts go to waste. Before the group left to return to Onadbyr, Ricter presented them a massive weapon fashioned from the bones of the Rathian.

Uravus kindly thanked Ricter, and passed on the weapon, for it was not becoming of a pirate.

“What do you mean? Pirates use blunderbusses all the time.” Hogo asked, helpfully.

“Ah, my friend, I am not that sort of pirate. I am more of a sword pirate. I believe that weapon is destined for you!” He said, with a smile, for the Rathian Rifle as big as the weapon Hogo carried upon his back.

And thus, the group returned home, and though the sky was still sundered, Uravus was certain that Arumi would fix it before long. For what difficulty would a hole in the sky pose to one who could pull dragons out of the sky?