The Labyrinth RP!

[Tam and Martin]

Introduction

   Once upon a time, in a land even farther away than Mossflower territory, there was a cave. Dark and deep was this cave made of solid limestone stretching several hundred miles down into the earth. It was dank and slightly wet down the stretch of tunnels but worst of all, it had a terrible odor to it. That's because there was a pool of burning sulfur down at the very bottom of the caves where no one hardly ever went. The odor was so terrible, it rose up all the way to the top of the tunnels. There were separate divisions to all the tunnels. Some where used for bunkers, prisons, kitchens, armories, torcher chambers and even a palace-like place where the ruler of the chambers sat. The biggest feature of the caves were the twisty tunnels that spiraled everywhere underground. All these features made this place worthy of it's name: The Labyrinth! A place of great wonder and mystery where it is said, if you go in, you will never come out!

    You would think this place would be a place where no one would ever want to be but in reality, there were several thousand living beings down in the tunnels. Rats, stoats, ferrets, foxes, weasels, wildcats, and more all there. Several of the creatures were pure white in fur color - albino to be specific - because they hardly ever ventured out of their domain. Very few were this way though. One thing they all had in common was that they all served the same master: Zandu the Cruel - The evil ferret warlord! He was evil, mean and cruel as his name gave away. He was never conquered by any and had defeated this cave from a band of moles a long time ago. Now he lived with all his minions in his domain, Cruel as ever, hardly ever venturing out of his lair.

    One thing that these beasts did regularly was venture out for slaves to work for them - Making them dig deeper into the caves making his kindom even larger. It is said that at the very bottom of the cave there is a hoard of treasure. This is one of the many reasons Zandu ordered his slaves to work harder - So he can may extend his glory even farther.

    This is where the story begins. Several slaves, chained and working......

[Tam and Martin]

Damien Farworth was rudely awakened by a rattling on his cell door. Still in the realm of dreams, he heard a distant voice. "Ger' up, rabbet. Time ter get ter work!" As he was awakened, he recognized the voice. Jarg, the terrible and cruel slaver and jailer. Damien slowly forced himself to get up out of his small cot he had in his prison cell. This was his life. Chained up in a cell for the night then working the whole day - every single day this happened. He slowly heard Jarg walking down the cell hallway with the other two jailers who worked with him: Acacia and Brakk.They went rattling their weapons against the cage bars to wake the others up.

Damien slowly began waking up the three others who shared a cell with him. The first was a Beech Marten by the name of Gjordon Hrelker. He was one of the first people Damien had met when he came here. The other two were both female squirrels: Arya Bushtail and Bronwyn. They were both very nice but of different personalities. None of them woke up right away so he listened to the jailers wake up the four who shared a cell in the next prison over: Valent Esperit, Marshall Scottsworth, Bai Huan, and Doogy Plumm. These eight people worked together down in the mines, digging away at the rock.

Damien heard his three cellmates wake up. He also heard the jailers open up the cell doors and he heard the clinking of the chain that tied them all together. He nodded to his friends in his cell who were fully awakened then and then he went out of the cell and allowed the jailer Jarg to tie himself to the chain. He saw all the other slaves being chained also. Damien sighed underneath his breath knowing where they were gonna be taken.

[Unimaginative]

Gjorden Hrelker woke with a start. As his eyes adjusted to the dim light in their cell, he saw Damien standing by the cell door, and Arya and Bronwyn still waking up. Gjorden snarled as he saw Jarg, the cruel jailer who was in charge of their crew of 8. The Beech Marten allowed himself to be chained without a fight, because of the nod from Damien.

[Jukka the Sling]

Bronwyn awoke suddenly. She had been dreaming again, of a half-forgotten time seasons ago when she had lived with her family. Many times since she had cursed herself for her stupidity in running away, but not anymore. There was no point in thinking of what could have been. And now, as the squirrel stood up and plodded over to the door to be chained with the others, all she could think of was the back-breaking labor that would fill the whole day. And the next. And the next. Not that she wasn't used to it. She'd spent twelve seasons like this.
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Acacia had banged on the cell doors with her spear, yelling at the slaves to wake up. Now she helped her fellow jailers chain them in a line, locking the shackles around their ankles. The vixen had only started her jailer duties a couple of weeks before, and she hoped she'd eventually get used to it.

[Cornflower MM]

OOC: Jukka, could you edit out that bit about Arya? I can RP a little bit now.

[Jukka the Sling]

OOC: Edited. Glad you're back!

[Jetthebinturong]

Sleep was a rare luxury for Bai Huan, images of what he had lost both through death and through his decision to leave plagued his subconscious and invaded his dreams. Sometimes the dreams were bittersweet, showing him memories of the good times he had back home, always with that subtle kick hovering around the back of his mind, reminding him that he could never get that back. Most of the time the dreams were gory and filled with pain, he preferred those ones, at least there was no catch. Sleep eluded him at nearly all times and so when the jailers came to rouse them, he was already awake, staring at the ceiling, thinking of what might have been. He swung out of bed and allowed himself to be chained up without a struggle, inwardly cursing himself for his idiocy.

[Tam and Martin]

Damien watched as everyone was chained to the long chain that connected them all. Then he heard some of the others jailers conversing.

"If we unchain them and then take them seperate ways to different parts of the dig site, then we can get the work done faster at each section."

"Gut idea. I'll start unchaining them."

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Jarg grabbed his keys and began unchaining each of the ankle chains that connected all of them together. "There yer go!"

He led them all down to the different parts of the dig site and set them to work.

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Damien allowed himself to be led down to the dig site. He wasn't chained to the other slaves like he normally was. 'This was strange' Damien thought.


OOC: Read OOC topic.

[Jukka the Sling]

Bronwyn was also quite surprised when she was unchained from the others and taken down to the dig site to work on a separate section. But she didn't show surprise. She rarely showed emotion any more. Instead, she grabbed a pick axe and got to work.
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Acacia stood where she could see a few of the slaves working, leaning on her spear. She really didn't like her jailer duties; she had only become a jailer because her father had wanted her to. As this thought crossed her mind, she straightened up and tried to look tough. She wasn't going to let her father - or Zandu - down. Her dad had always told her that loyalty was the best virtue a beast could have. Well, she was going to be loyal, even if she didn't like her job. And anyway, she'd probably get used to it soon.

[Unimaginative]

Gjorden was relatively surprised when they pulled him away from the others to work on his own. That surprise showed on his slightly battle-scarred features. Then he grinned cruelly,  seeing a perfect chance to escape. Usually, With most of the Jailers around, and so few creatures who had maintained their strength like him, there was no chance to escape. But with just one or two jailers, and no one slowing him down, he could probably make a bid for freedom. Gjorden started forming the plan in his head. 1: He would surprise the Jailers and knock them out or kill them. 2: He would break the chains, and use them to make a Meteor Hammer to fight with, and 3: He would find the other able bodied creatures, and especially Damien and Bai Huan, and free them.

Then they would escape.

OOC: I plan on beginning this escape shortly after Jett posts his.

[Jetthebinturong]

Bai Huan raised an eyebrow as Jarg unchained him from the others, now that was unusual, normally they all worked together in one area with all the jailers watching them. This was a perfect opportunity. The weasel began planning his escape as Jarg led him down into another part of the mine, he had no doubt he would be able to overpower the stoat, his training would see to that, but he would need a weapon to pose a significant threat, a pickaxe would do fine, but they were rather heavy and he was more used to light weapons. When they reached their destination, he set about digging, he kicked a pile of loose rocks out of the way and gasped in pain as he stood on something sharp, he looked down and saw that he had been standing on the tip of a knife. He picked it up and held it in one paw, hiding it with the pickaxe. Putting on a scared voice, he yelled out loud "Sir! Come quickly! Aaaaargh!"

[Tam and Martin]

As soon as Jarg unchained Bai Hun and Damien, he led them both down one of the many tunnels. He first placed Damien in one area then continued further down the tunnel with the slave called Bai Hun to another part of the area. He handed him his pick'axe and commented, "Now don't be a goin' gettin' ideas" and he walked off to check back on Damien.

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Damien gripped his axe sullenly, but he had hope that mabye today would be the day he might escape this dreaded realm. He started scanning his surroundings - All he saw though, was rock. Rock, Rock, and more rock. 'Wait a minute' He thought. "ROCK!" It makes a perfect weapon! Now he just needed to find a good piece to work with...

"Whatcher doin', Rabbet?"

Damien heard Jarg sneak upon him. He sttod up quickly and grabbed his axe as if he were working.

"Er, Just working sire."

Jarg shoved the butt of his spear into Damien's stomach.

"I know whatcher's was doin'."

Damien gasped for air and fell to the floor out of breath. Jarg was just about to take another blow at him when he heard a scream.

"Sir! Come quickly! Aaaaargh!"

Jarg's first thought was that a prisoner was just getting beaten for not working but then he relized the scream came from Bai Huan. Jarg clubbed Damien over the head once more and ran off to where the noise came from.

Damien hurt as he was, smiled, hoping that this might be a chance he could escape.

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Jarg walked down the tunnel. He had accidentally forgotten where he had put Bai Hun to work at. He called out "Huan? Huan, where are yer?"

[Jukka the Sling]

Bronwyn had tried several times in the past to escape, but that was when she had recently been captured and was still independent and rebellious. Ever since the last time she'd tried to make a break for freedom, and had been caught, brutally whipped, and starved for three days, she hadn't attempted it again. But now, as she worked, it slowly dawned on her that there was actually a pretty good chance this time to try again, what with her being separated from the others.

The squirrel paused in her work and quickly chanced a peek at the creatures in her general vicinity. A young vixen jailer was standing not too far away; fortunately, she wasn't looking in Bronwyn's direction. There were a few slaves working some distance away, but none of them was somebeast the squirrel shared a cell with. Bronwyn turned back to her work, trying to think of a plan. First, she'd need a weapon. She looked at the pick axe in her paw and let herself grin for once. Weapon: check. Next, she'd have to figure out the right time to escape. She'd then have to take out the jailer without alerting any of the others, and somehow break her chains. Then she'd somehow have to find her way out of the labyrinth of tunnels and get to the surface. There were a ton of seemingly insurmountable challenges in this escape plan, but hope springs eternal, and it was a better chance than any she'd had before.

[Cornflower MM]

Arya had been sleeping soundly when she was woken up. Then, as usual, she was chained to everyone else. But then, unusually, she was unchained and put with a smaller group. This was a strange morning.

[Tam and Martin]

OOC: Hey Corny, Jet was by himself when he was Stabbed. Jarg had led him and I away and now Jet is working alone in another part of the cave when he was stabbed.