3870/Trip To The Past: Tomb Raiding!

Trip To The Past: Tomb Raiding!
Date of Scene:	19 October 2020
Location:	Ruins in the African nation of Narobia
Synopsis:	Lara and T'Challa work their way through the Narobian tomb from which the artifact came
Cast of Characters:	T'Challa, Lara Croft

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T'Challa has posed:
The jungle paths found by Lara's work with the satellites speeds the trip to the reported location of the ruins where the archeologists had found the small artifact that set off this entire trip. Eventually, T'Challa and Lara reach an area where old stone lifts out of the undergrowth of the jungle. Some immense stones are fallen over, but others stand enough to still form a structure of sorts, half buried by time and the encroaching jungle.

T'Challa looks over to Lara and nods his head. "This is where I believe, you are the expert," he comments. He walks slowly around the area, examining it. "I see a few signs here of a camp," he comments. "Though weeks old," he says after picking up a bit of soggy, burnt stick from a fire and sniffing it. "No scents of anyone recent though. Other than ourselves," he says, standing back up and smiling over to her.

Not too far away, there's a dark opening. Low to the ground, with an arch of stone over it. Likely buried with mud and earth until only enough room to crawl inside is left. But large enough one can make it inside without it being an overly tight squeeze. T'Challa breaks out a few bright flashlights.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara emerges in to the area before the cave with T'Challa, her machete being placed back upon her hip in its sheath and her eyes scanning over the area before them. "It looks like an ancient mining system." She says to him. "Though it likely turned in to something else along the way." She motions to some of the ruins and crouches down to indicate what she means. "These stones are much older and less refined than these, and there are markings here." Her bare fingers run over the rubbed-out engravings on the rock. "The newer masonry have etchings of deities." She glances up to T'Challa then as she rises up again.

Lara's right hand motions forward past the foliage to the cave. "There, a cavern portal." She tells him, stepping over toward it. "Slag rock..." She comments of a pile of worthless stone debris.

Her left hand dips behind her back and she pulls out a chemlight that she snaps on-- a bright blue --and she looks back to T'Challa then with a smile. "Eager to find out what's inside?" She asks with a coy expression on her face as she stands at the mouth of the cavern's entrance.

T'Challa has posed:
T'Challa follows behind Lara, looking at where she is on the rock. He reaches out and feels over the engraving, eyes drifting to the side as he focuses on his sense of touch. "It's a figure. Plantlike. A tree perhaps," he says. If Lara is perceptive enough she might notice the slightest tightening of a muscle or two in his face at that small revelation.

He looks back over to the opening. "I am. Though let us be cautious. The makers of these places were not shy about protecting them. Likely the years? Have probably dealt with them. If they did set such about this place. But it is best to be cautious," he says. He rests a hand on Lara's shoulder gently. "If something does happen? Shielding yourself behind me is acceptable. Encouraged. I would not see harm come to you, Lara Croft," he tells her.

T'Challa looks back to the opening then and moves over to it. "I did not really think we would make it in here without getting a little dirty," he says, patting the damp earth they'll be crawling over. He shines his light in, looking inside. "It at least goes back a distance. And opens up," he says. He checks to make sure she is ready and then crawls in first. Eventually reaching a corridor, lined with rock, though there is some damp earth and the mosses and lichens one might expect growing on it on the floor. Here and there a tree root has broken through cracks in the stone. It continues on further underground.

Lara Croft has posed:
T'Challa's kindness toward her is ever-appreciated, and the smile on Lara's face shows it. "We'll work together to ensure we're both completely safe throughout this." She replies to him as he starts to work his way in to the narrow cavern portal. She's soon to follow him, hooking her chemlight to the side of her belt against her right hip...

The two emerge from the tight space and stand together inside the old carved corridor. Lara's eyes roam over the mossy walls, then glance to T'Challa. "Remember that sound is as much a tool as our eyes and ears in places like this. Our voices can help us tell if the walls are dangerous. If the reverberation is shallow, or non-existence, it can mean the cavern walls are more prone to weaknesses. Cave-ins. If our voices bounce back at us, then the walls are stronger, safer." She smiles faintly then for him before starting forward.

Lara reaches for her phone to pull it out and record their progression, attaching it too to her belt to get a forward-facing view of what she's headed toward.

T'Challa has posed:
T'Challa rises with Lara as they reach the clear area, dusting himself off as best he can. He shines the light around as he listens to her guidance on the effects the structure's stability will have on their echoed voices. "Very interesting. I had not thought to use sound like that before," he says, raising his voice slightly at the end and turning his head to listen. "The sound is fairly strong," he says. "At least in this stretch."

He doesn't get out anything to record their progress, though does move over to the stone walls, running his bare fingertips over them. "More engravings, though so worn I cannot tell what," he says. Though as they progress further along, the wear and weathering is lessened and more become visible.

There are numerous ones, some likely decorative, but many tell stories. There are some that show what Lara might take to be village life. Dating to the time frame in the 5th century as the artifact had. Not the large city that was believed to have existed at the time though. Either depictions of other areas, or perhaps afterwards. The engravings suggest a hard life, though the further along the tunnel they go, the more that seems the case. Signs of wounded or sick being treated.

Up ahead the tunnel seems to open up into a larger space.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara always tries to keep her hands free, something T'Challa might've noticed about her by now, as her equipment is all tied to her belt, or her back, or thighs. This allows her to approach some of the various sights that they've already found and use her hands to trace over elements that she wishes to get a textile taste of. She does this to some of the markings, with her pale pink lips muttering words under her breath. Lara is an expert linguist and though the regional dialect here-in is foreign to her, she's actively trying to piece together the markings to form connections that could complete stories.

A smile is spared though, back to T'Challa. "This place is remarkable already." She tells him. "One of the largest issues, in modern Archaeology, is getting actual researchers out of their offices and in to the field to find places like this. Most really rely heavily on explorers of the past, to provide evidence for modern theories, which is... horrible irresponsible. Especially in what we're capable of doing today, as a technologically advancing society. We're able to record places like this, in such detail now, before looters, or time can destroy them any further than they already have."

"Now, really is the time /to/ explore places like this. To save the information that yet persists inside them."

A second later and she grins at him, faintly and ghostly, as is her way. "I ramble." She adds, a bit shyly, before she proceeds onward. "It opens up ahead." She notes, with a slight hand motion forward.

T'Challa has posed:
The man's dark eyes shine in a way that is not caused by just the reflections of flashlights. "I would that more people's rambling was as interesting as yours," he tells her. He looks over towards the images, which do not appear to be recorded language but instead just using the images to tell the story. "A history that has long since been lost," he comments quietly, trying to keep from his voice his concern that might be for the best. He looks further ahead, as if wondering, worrying, what else they might portray.

T'Challa follows along as they reach the spot the tunnel opens into a larger room. It isn't huge, only about 20 feet across, in an oval shape. Tree roots have broken through a number of spots, thick bits of wood that cross the floor until they found other spots to break down through stone into the earth below.

The carvings here show something more than village life. Signs of a battle. Armies near a jungle. Two distinct groups, one armed with knives and spears. Another seem armed with spears and shields, but also there are signs of things flying through the air from the second group. Not arrows. Just lines in the stone.

After enough examination, Laura might notice something. Those armies aren't facing each other. They are facing the jungle, those lines going to the trees, not to the people.T'Challa shine his light upon it, unable to stop his frown. He moves along, focused enough on the carvings. As he walks, a small section of stone he steps on depresses slightly and there's an audible *CLICK*.

Lara Croft has posed:
As they enter into the oval shaped room, Lara's eyes sweep around, then angle upward. She's stepping across the room's floor and moving in an intricate fashion that has her stepping over the roots and around certain things on the floor, but what she fails to do is tell T'Challa her own method for that... She'd /thought/ about it on their way through the cavern's entrance, but it'd slipped her mind once they'd gotten in.

Her eyes are on, and lost on, the wall of engravings telling a story of a battle. "They're fighting something in the jungles..." She says softly, "And their technology far surpasses where humankind was thought to be at this stage in history." She adds.

"Look--" She stops as she hears that click and turns around to hold her hands up to T'Challa. "Stop!" She says in a forceful tone to her British voice. "Don't move." She adds, as they're about ten feet apart from one another. "A pressure plate. It's triggered, but it hasn't gone off yet, which means its waiting for your foot to take the pressure off..."

Lara starts to look around for any sign of what the result of that might be. "If you take your foot off, this whole room might come down on top of us, or the floor out from under us..." She further warns the King.

T'Challa has posed:
T'Challa follows Lara's shouted warning, freezing where he is. He looks down at where his foot is, seeing the slight depression of the stone he's on compared to the rest of the floor. He frowns as if mentally kicking himself, and then looks around at the surrounding room.

His flashlight is shined around, looking at the room itself rather than at the engravings now. "It is a distance to the tunnel we came in, though I could leap it. I do not know about 'in time' given not knowing what might be set off," he says.

The farthest wall from the tunnel is much closer. As T'Challa's light shines over it, he pauses and turns his head. And then inhales. "There is a faint breeze coming from this wall. An even mustier smell. Is there perhaps a doorway there? It would be a much shorter jump from this spot, if so," he says.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara is continuing to look around for clues as to what will happen when T'Challa takes his foot from that pressure plate, but she doesn't see any hints, which means... anything could happen, or maybe even nothing.

When he indicates the breeze, she looks in that direction and walks toward it. She stands in front of the breeze, then exhales softly. "I see a way through." She says. Her right hand goes down to her hip, removing the Rebel Ace climber's axe from her belt. She grips it in her right hand, then raises her left to hold above her right...

It's obvious she's not going make this a delicate procedure at this point...

Lara pivots her body and slams the axe in to the wall, with a healthy grunt, followed by another as she does it again, and again, hacking away at the rock until she gets an opening about the size of her head to chest. She then reaches her hand through and shoves the rocks forward, pushing the larger stones forward until they collapse in to the space beyond...

Another few prying thrusts with her axe and Lara creates a space large enough for her to slip through before she turns around and looks to him. "Hows this?" She asks, her back to the darkness beyond, as her focus is more on him for the moment being.

T'Challa has posed:
Up ahead the tunnel seems to continue, until further on it again opens into a larger space. Along the tunnel though are stone figures now. Carved tribal warriors with spears, like the lesser group in the engravings. Their cheeks and forehead are adorned with carvings that Lara would think to be symbols from the mystic believes of that 5th century era in this part of Africa.

The walls also have more engravings. It's clear now that the two armies are not fighting something IN the jungle. They are fighting the jungle itself. The trees and vines are lashing out, ensnaring people. And somewhere within the depths of the jungle eerie figures are carved.

T'Challa meanwhile is shining the light around. "I think I can probably make that jump before anything can happen. But Lara. If it does collapses this room? We'll be trapped. You should leave now. Once you are outside I will make the leap. If it is safe, you can come back," he tells her. He makes his voice quietly firm, a bit of the monarch in his voice. But half expecting she's going to refuse.

Lara Croft has posed:
Normally... Lara would be against this plan...

If T'Challa were a 'normal person'. Which she knows he's not. He's an Avenger, and he's capable of things that a normal person simply isn't. But even with this, she still has worry on her face.

A glance is given to the space she'd created and she steps through it herself, to advance further in to the cavern and lost temple, unable to spend much time staring at the engravings there-in, what with T'Challa in peril.

"Please be careful." Lara implores of him. "Your people will... not be mad, if I return without you." She tells him, trying to add a bit of levity to this otherwise potentially dire situation.

T'Challa has posed:
T'Challa really is not surprised when she goes forward instead, into the space that he'll be in after making the leap. Sharing whatever fate he shares. And it makes his expression soften that she chooses to put herself in the same fate as he.

He doesn't try to talk her out of it, accepting she's made the choice she wishes. "Alright, here I go in three, two, one," he says, and then he leaps.

And what a leap, he shoots past Lara even, down the tunnel. Inside the room, metal spears suddenly shoot down from the ceiling, enough to skewer anything in the room at the time. Though the room, weakened by the invading jungle roots, can't seem to handle the movement of whatever devices above set those shards of metal into motion. Parts of the rough collapse into the room. It's not a total cave in. Getting out is probably possible, but might require T'Challa's strength forcing a few rocks out of the way.

T'Challa rises to his feet, dusting himself off and waving off some of the dust that resulted from the cave in. He moves towards Lara. "Are you alright?" he asks, hands going to her shoulders, his eyes full of concern for her.

That's the moment that the first statue behind him moves. Shifting slightly as it turns towards them. There are four statues in all.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara is there, poised on veritable pins and needles, as she watches T'Challa prepare for his leap. When it comes, it comes fast and she has to dip back and duck out of his way to avoid him slamming right in to her and bulling her over. She's on her backside when he does land within the next corridor, and as he comes to help her up she's bouncing right back up to her feet.

A quick gasp, a glance back and the ruins left behind in that room and she shakes her head in disbelief. "That, is not your average pitfall." She comments, turning back to him then to smile at him as he takes hold of her shoulders. "I'm fine." She assures him, showing a happiness on her visage.

Another glance is sent back the way they'd come from. She takes in the sight of it before turning back to him. "So yes, it's... good to watch one's step." She says with a grin. "Look for tiny crevices between stones, or discoloration variations in the stones themselves. Traps like... that... often had to be completely reset by adding new pressure plates, which means they're generally a newer rock than the floor, for instance."

She reaches a hand up then to softly pat the side of his face. "Glad you're a good jumper. A panther, indeed." She adds in good humor.

T'Challa has posed:
T'Challa reaches up as Lara pats his face, his hand resting on hers for a moment to hold it there against his cheek. "I only regret that my blunder put you at risk. I will be more caref-" he says, before his words are interrupted.

The statue behind him steps forward and thrusts its spear at T'Challa's back. He seems to hear the footfall, grabbing Lara so that as he turns and dodges the thrust of the stone spear, he takes her with him, out of the way of the deadly weapon.

The other statues are just starting to come to live. T'Challa immediately lashes out, kicking the stone golem but it only knocks it back a few feet. Faced with trying to protect Lara with the cave in at their back, or blocking the entrance to the next chamber ahead, T'Challa takes Lara's hand and pulls her along with him, moving her towards the open area as he turns to face what have now become four living statues. "See if there is another way out?" he asks, turning from Lara. Before her eyes, his Black Panther outfit seems to just grow across his body, so fast it might be tough to tell it came from the necklace if she didn't already know that was the source.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara hadn't seen it coming, she'd been looking at T'Challa's face and not noticed the statue moving behind the man. Again, his reflexes and abilities save him from what could be sure-peril. This is why Lara generally prefers to work alone, working with another person... it complicates so much!

As he dodges, and takes her with him, she darts back just in time to see the Statue start to pull its weapon back to gear up for more aggressive actions. "There is magic in this place. The natives were not fighting things in the Jungle, they were fighting the Jungle itself!" She shouts back to T'Challa, having apparently seen more on the walls, explaining the story of this place in part.

When he forms his suit around himself, Lara draws her handgun from her thigh holster. She ducks around behind a stone outcropping, then comes out on theo ther side to pop two shots off toward one of the statue's thinner sections, its neck...

Darting forward, Lara advances past them and tries to explore deeper. Ancient Guardians, these statues, they have to be protecting something important... a royal's tomb, or even... a treasure hoard. Anything is possible in this place, clearly!

T'Challa has posed:
The tunnel emerges in another room, larger than the first. Forty feet across, and square. Lara's light reflects on quartz crystals running through the rock in thick veins, scattering the light across the room and lighting up somewhat.

The tree roots are thick here, having broken through from above and from the walls, leaving fissures in the rock. The cut stones that make up the floor are broken in some places, revealing bare earth.

The center of the room holds a large cube, tall enough to function as a table. Sitting in the middle on top is a rock that is rounded as if carved to that shape. However it is not whole. There are cracks in it that are glowing an eerie green color. The light from within is pulsing, growing stronger and dimmer again and again.

The carvings on the walls are the most detailed. They are broken by so many roots that parts are hard to read, but they tell a compelling story. A slash in the air through which beings that are not human are stepping. One holding forth some object in its hand, and the jungle around the figures seems like the trees have flailing limbs and vines. Some hold people in their clutches. A great city can be seen in the distance, populated by the humans.

Signs of a battle, of the city being destroyed. Then signs of more humans coming over a hill. Led in the front by a man wearing a panther mask and with claws where his fingers end. The weapons of those who follow him are the shields and unusual looking spears from the earlier images.

More carvings, of the battle that resulted. And finally the panther mask'd figure standing with a foot on one of the figures, while the rest are forced back through that slash in the air.

From the hallway behind Lara, the sounds of Black Panther battling the statues can be heard.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara advances through the darkness, away from the combat that the Black Panther is now embroiled in with the temple guardians. She's not happy about leaving him to them, but she has to find a way forward and she's sure he's going to join her, once she does it. He'll see her slip through the roots too, the bright cyan-blue light that is hanging from her belt has her lit up like a winter star in the dark after all!

Lara twists her way through the roots and emerges in to the chamber beyond. She sees the alter-like cube, observes its pulsating green light with an apprehensive anticipation of what else might come next. But her eyes are averted to the walls, she starts to stagger-step her way through the debris of the natural foliage that has shoved its way in to this room, to get a better look at the murals, engravings and the tale that they're trying to tell.

She sees the man with the mask, leading the invading army. "Wakanda." Lara murmurs. She looks to the forest dwellers that seem to be under attack from then. She glances back to the cube, then back in the direction of faint combat taking place. Lara turns back to the cube altar and starts to walk closer to it, not wanting to touch it, at this stage, but she does take her camerae off her belt to start to record it and capture images and video of it.

"Heart of the jungle, so it seems..." She mutters as she takes records of this.