Westminster Abbey
Feb 10, 2010 18:52:10 GMT -5
Post by Indiana Jones on Feb 10, 2010 18:52:10 GMT -5
Indy straightened his tie and looked around the abbey with a smile. He wasn't much in to Gothic building, but this was one of the few he enjoyed.
He'd visited it more times than he can remember, more for pleasure than business. This time however, he was there on a very important lead.
See he'd been researching Italy quite a bit lately and had stumbled upon some strange information regarding a guild, a guild that he found dated back to the middle east during the crusades and even further than that. It was unclear as to what they did exactly, but members seemed to have had their histories erased almost immediately after joining.
In Italy there was a family attached to the guild that went by the name of Auditore. The same family just happened to be found in some of Leonardo Da Vinci's journals, as well as Lorenzo da Medici. It's of public record that Giovanni, his eldest son Frederico and his youngest son Petrucio were hung as traitors of Florence, his middle son Ezio was never found, thus basically ending his existence.
There is however some mention of an Ezio in later years in both Da Vinci's and Medici's journal, both linking the name to the abbey. As well as multiple drawings of a sculpture bearing Ezio's name in Da Vinci's records.
He couldn't yet be sure why two Italians would mention this man who was suppose to be missing and an English abbey; it was those coincidences that lead Indiana to the abbey today.
He headed toward Henry the eights chapel and noticed a peculiar wall, one with a very familiar symbol on it. Stepping closer he touched the edge of the detailed carving carefully. It was what resembled a hollowed out arrow head, with feather detailing near the top. Within the hollowed out center there was a skull object made from a completely different material; white marble maybe. There was something peculiar about the shape of the eye holes of the skull, like it was made as a handle.
Indy moved his hand to it and found that his first two fingers fit in the 'handle' perfectly, and the skull slid forward with hardly any pressure to it. He jerked his hand back as the skull fixture separated into three even pieces and twisted around in place before sliding down and refitting itself, upside down.
A sound made Indy step back as the panel where the carved symbol slid into the ground, revealing a passage way. Looking around, to make sure no one was around he pulled out his flashlight and clicked it on to light up the area in front of him. Taking a step in, the door closed behind him. Squinting he made his way down a long stairway, that seemed to simply last forever.
But once he got to the bottom he realized that he wasn't dressed for what he saw.
Because what he saw was impossible. Two waterfalls graced the sides of a huge lake, within the huge lake was what looked to be a giant obstacle course. Indy frowned "Well shit" he clicked off his flash light and stuck it in his bag, along with his bow tie and his jacket. He of course retrieved his hat from his bag and set it on his head. He really hadn't been expecting this, not this time at least.
Looking down he noticed a long trail of multicolored rocks, leading to the start of whatever it was. Realizing there was no way to test what the colors meant, he jumped forward on to the first one, nothing, so blue was good, then the next one, a shudder, green was bad, black was good and then, as he stepped on to the red one he felt it shudder and suddenly start falling, he should have seen that coming.
Jumping across to the others he noticed they were all falling, he wasn't getting wet if he didn't have to! Luckily with a well timed jump, he made it to the platform with less than a splash from his shoe. But what he saw ahead of him did not look very encouraging.
From where he was standing he could see the exit on the otherside, made completely of stone and looking quite solid. In between him and there there was naught but water and a series of planks and poles and very few less-than-confident-inspiring foot-holes. Taking in a good look, Indy realized that if he wanted to realize his dream of getting out of there without swimming (which would be impossible since an iron gate kept him from reaching the other side by those means anyway) he would have to jump across and walk along the most precarious pathway he had ever come across.
Even more so, Indy realized with a groan, he would have to do it within a set time if the handle next to him was any indication. Resigning himself, he grabbed the handle and pulled it upwards before pushing it down. Without hesitating (mostly so he wouldn't talk himself out of it) he made the first jump onto what amounted to a stone wall, maybe five inches wide, and ended up on his stomache supporting himself with his hands and knees.
Carefully, he made his way to his feet and rushed to the end. There, he brought out his whip which he used to swing to the next foothold. He nearly lost his balance and was forced to take a leaping step along the next three horizontal planks before he got to one that was attached along side a wall, which he leaned against earnestly. He sighed when he realized that he was only a third of the way through the course and he wasn't really making good time...
...Indiana was panting by the time he made it to a place where he could see the door again and gasped out an exasperated sigh when he realized that the door was still shut, he was running out of time, and the trigger was a leaping jump away from both the end of the plank he was currently standing on, and the shore, and there was a good twenty feet seperating him and the sharp-rock-filled shallows.
In true Indiana style, his whip in hand, he made a dash to the end of the plank towards the bar hanging on twin chains. He could hear in the distance the gears of the timer speed up, clicking and clonking, the sound reverberating off the walls as he made a mad dash to the trigger. His whip shot out and wrapped around the bar tightly, Indiana's body weight triggering the mechanism that opened the door.
He only had a milisecond to feel triumph when he realized that he was currently swinging through mid-air with no landing space on the other side, and his hands were slipping from too much sweat. He saw his last refuge and took it, expertly detangling his whip from the bar at the height of the swing and he fell, eyes wide open, into a conveniently placed hay stack which he was sure probably smelt horrible if it's been down here as long as he thought it has.
And it did. It smelt of mold, and moss, and wet hay, and god how sweet it was when he realized that the horrid smelling hay was soft enough to keep him from breaking anything. Though he doubted anyone else would see his point of view so he got out of it before it had a chance to seep into his clothes. He made a note of another trigger besides the now open pathway which was probably the ticket to his trip back, and descended down the dark corridor.
He soon came to another stone door, lit from some light beyond it, with a circular rotating mechanism decorating the front. Taking his flashlight in his teeth, Indy got to work rotating the pieces until they lined up in the same strange Arrowhead symbol that he had seen before. As soon as he took hi hands away, the extended mechanism snapped back into the door, one layer at a time, and made three full revolutions to the left, and then one to the right.
The door began to lift into the cieling, and behind it an unbelievably bright light flooded the hallway, forcing him to raise his arms less it blind him...
((Here are the floor plans for the abbey, as you can see, it's quite difficult to actually tell if there are any stairs going up on to the roof. But I'm sure there are, plus with the game were referencing here, we don't have to be TOO historically accurate.
Also, the rest of the post later.))
He'd visited it more times than he can remember, more for pleasure than business. This time however, he was there on a very important lead.
See he'd been researching Italy quite a bit lately and had stumbled upon some strange information regarding a guild, a guild that he found dated back to the middle east during the crusades and even further than that. It was unclear as to what they did exactly, but members seemed to have had their histories erased almost immediately after joining.
In Italy there was a family attached to the guild that went by the name of Auditore. The same family just happened to be found in some of Leonardo Da Vinci's journals, as well as Lorenzo da Medici. It's of public record that Giovanni, his eldest son Frederico and his youngest son Petrucio were hung as traitors of Florence, his middle son Ezio was never found, thus basically ending his existence.
There is however some mention of an Ezio in later years in both Da Vinci's and Medici's journal, both linking the name to the abbey. As well as multiple drawings of a sculpture bearing Ezio's name in Da Vinci's records.
He couldn't yet be sure why two Italians would mention this man who was suppose to be missing and an English abbey; it was those coincidences that lead Indiana to the abbey today.
He headed toward Henry the eights chapel and noticed a peculiar wall, one with a very familiar symbol on it. Stepping closer he touched the edge of the detailed carving carefully. It was what resembled a hollowed out arrow head, with feather detailing near the top. Within the hollowed out center there was a skull object made from a completely different material; white marble maybe. There was something peculiar about the shape of the eye holes of the skull, like it was made as a handle.
Indy moved his hand to it and found that his first two fingers fit in the 'handle' perfectly, and the skull slid forward with hardly any pressure to it. He jerked his hand back as the skull fixture separated into three even pieces and twisted around in place before sliding down and refitting itself, upside down.
A sound made Indy step back as the panel where the carved symbol slid into the ground, revealing a passage way. Looking around, to make sure no one was around he pulled out his flashlight and clicked it on to light up the area in front of him. Taking a step in, the door closed behind him. Squinting he made his way down a long stairway, that seemed to simply last forever.
But once he got to the bottom he realized that he wasn't dressed for what he saw.
Because what he saw was impossible. Two waterfalls graced the sides of a huge lake, within the huge lake was what looked to be a giant obstacle course. Indy frowned "Well shit" he clicked off his flash light and stuck it in his bag, along with his bow tie and his jacket. He of course retrieved his hat from his bag and set it on his head. He really hadn't been expecting this, not this time at least.
Looking down he noticed a long trail of multicolored rocks, leading to the start of whatever it was. Realizing there was no way to test what the colors meant, he jumped forward on to the first one, nothing, so blue was good, then the next one, a shudder, green was bad, black was good and then, as he stepped on to the red one he felt it shudder and suddenly start falling, he should have seen that coming.
Jumping across to the others he noticed they were all falling, he wasn't getting wet if he didn't have to! Luckily with a well timed jump, he made it to the platform with less than a splash from his shoe. But what he saw ahead of him did not look very encouraging.
From where he was standing he could see the exit on the otherside, made completely of stone and looking quite solid. In between him and there there was naught but water and a series of planks and poles and very few less-than-confident-inspiring foot-holes. Taking in a good look, Indy realized that if he wanted to realize his dream of getting out of there without swimming (which would be impossible since an iron gate kept him from reaching the other side by those means anyway) he would have to jump across and walk along the most precarious pathway he had ever come across.
Even more so, Indy realized with a groan, he would have to do it within a set time if the handle next to him was any indication. Resigning himself, he grabbed the handle and pulled it upwards before pushing it down. Without hesitating (mostly so he wouldn't talk himself out of it) he made the first jump onto what amounted to a stone wall, maybe five inches wide, and ended up on his stomache supporting himself with his hands and knees.
Carefully, he made his way to his feet and rushed to the end. There, he brought out his whip which he used to swing to the next foothold. He nearly lost his balance and was forced to take a leaping step along the next three horizontal planks before he got to one that was attached along side a wall, which he leaned against earnestly. He sighed when he realized that he was only a third of the way through the course and he wasn't really making good time...
...Indiana was panting by the time he made it to a place where he could see the door again and gasped out an exasperated sigh when he realized that the door was still shut, he was running out of time, and the trigger was a leaping jump away from both the end of the plank he was currently standing on, and the shore, and there was a good twenty feet seperating him and the sharp-rock-filled shallows.
In true Indiana style, his whip in hand, he made a dash to the end of the plank towards the bar hanging on twin chains. He could hear in the distance the gears of the timer speed up, clicking and clonking, the sound reverberating off the walls as he made a mad dash to the trigger. His whip shot out and wrapped around the bar tightly, Indiana's body weight triggering the mechanism that opened the door.
He only had a milisecond to feel triumph when he realized that he was currently swinging through mid-air with no landing space on the other side, and his hands were slipping from too much sweat. He saw his last refuge and took it, expertly detangling his whip from the bar at the height of the swing and he fell, eyes wide open, into a conveniently placed hay stack which he was sure probably smelt horrible if it's been down here as long as he thought it has.
And it did. It smelt of mold, and moss, and wet hay, and god how sweet it was when he realized that the horrid smelling hay was soft enough to keep him from breaking anything. Though he doubted anyone else would see his point of view so he got out of it before it had a chance to seep into his clothes. He made a note of another trigger besides the now open pathway which was probably the ticket to his trip back, and descended down the dark corridor.
He soon came to another stone door, lit from some light beyond it, with a circular rotating mechanism decorating the front. Taking his flashlight in his teeth, Indy got to work rotating the pieces until they lined up in the same strange Arrowhead symbol that he had seen before. As soon as he took hi hands away, the extended mechanism snapped back into the door, one layer at a time, and made three full revolutions to the left, and then one to the right.
The door began to lift into the cieling, and behind it an unbelievably bright light flooded the hallway, forcing him to raise his arms less it blind him...
((Here are the floor plans for the abbey, as you can see, it's quite difficult to actually tell if there are any stairs going up on to the roof. But I'm sure there are, plus with the game were referencing here, we don't have to be TOO historically accurate.
Also, the rest of the post later.))