Forging the Verios WarHammer: Part 1

From Vescrutia, came Erik. He came here with one mission in mind, this mission was to hunt down and gather materials to forge a WarHammer fit to use in the Veritas. His journey would start in the Great Alps, inside the Cave of Awe. Firs thing was first however, and that was  ascan of the area. Using both his Gaian WarHammer and the RHS, Erik would first use the Hammer to send a pulse into the ground, when this did it was like sonar, anything natural and of use would ping back to him, anything useless like dirt, sand, gravel, stone would not. The second thing he did with the RHS was call forth a small probe, a small ball of shimmering gold light, this would be launched into the cavern to maps the thing out, it would travel with great speed and would only stop once it came to a dead end, and from there would shoot back and scan again, all until the cave was mapped best it could be. While this went on, Erik looked about the area. Admiring a land untouched by sentient hands.

The eerie man disturbing the peaceful calm in the Cavern of Awe with his invasive probe lights proved rather disdainful for some of the native life that slept in the darkness. He would be able to see a small assortment of creatures all minding their business, either sleeping or moving about through the dark of the cavern. As he had just entered the cave, he wouldn't be too deep into the 'Awe' of the Cavern... However, the creatures here were quite the sight to see. Subtle snores and growls could be heard rumbling deeper in, as though there were more of these creatures that the probe hadn't gotten to yet.

Eventually, as the probe went farther and farther, attempting to scan the cave, it would not return to Erik. In fact, he would lose signal to it altogether, as though it had been swallowed, or simply did not have a way back.

When the probe was lost, Erik simply sent out two more, one to follow right behind the other and they both to go in the same direction. As for the creatures, they would be ignored, he had no intention to harm or kill them, or any of the cave for that matter, other than any ore veins, or maybe the naga. He was peaceful towards nature, harmless to it, but people on the other hand...

There he took his first steps into the cave, heading straight in the direction the lost probe went in.

The sensors on each of the probes would go haywire, seemingly giving off readings that didn't make any sense. One sensor would be scanning the front of the cave whilst the other, further ahead, but not the same area where the first was sent. As he followed behind it, though, he would find that he was able to see the pathway clearly, as though nothing were wrong at all.

His lost probe would end up flying back to his position from behind, whilst the other two continued on forward, for some reason. For some reason, Erik would be able to detect more of the cave as he moved through it, yet when the probes went too far off, they would no longer give him the correct signal.

The grumbling snores continued to echo throughout the cave, the peace of the sleeping creatures going undisturbed by Erik's presence. They were apparently heavy sleepers, however, some were agitated by the light of the probes, as they were sensitive to it after being accustomed to the natural dark of the cave. If anything, that would be more disturbing than Erik's spelunking.

As the Probes went nuts, Erik would dispel them and rely on his HUD's Night Vision and the previous readings. Every once and a while like before, he would use the but of his hammer to lightly tap the wall of the cave, this like before sent a sonar-like ping through the earth around him allowing him to sense any valuable ores or minerals. If nothing was of value, he would continue walking.

Erik's earthen sonar would resonate through the mineral wall, gently feeding back something of worth deeper in the cavern. It seemed to be a fairly large mineral unlike the rocky wall lodged deep into it. An eerie green light could be seen emanating from deeper within the cave; a soft and inviting glow that did not seem to disturb the sleeping beasts, almost like they were accustomed to this sort of light being within the cave, for some reason.

After the light began resonating, Erik would begin walking towards it. He while walking used his HUD to keep an eye on things here scanning them every once and a while for lesser resources that might be of use.

His scanners would find as he entered the clearing in the cavern that there was very little more than what was already within the room... Yet, there seemed to be a surplus of this specific glowing green mineral. Oricalchum, raw an untempered, seemed to sprout randomly from the walls, radiating their warm glow to the rest of the dimly lit, green tinted clearing. There were a few creatures basking in the dim light that wasn't stressful nor agitating to their very sensitive eyesight, so many rested peacefully, even if not asleep. They seemed to be a docile type of creature, whatever they were.

Regardless, the Oricalchum ore that was littered about the cave was there as the only mineral reading throughout the entire room. Some were at the surface, some was deep within the very foundation of the wall, and would require a bit of digging to get to, which would probably take some time in and of itself.

As Erik looked about the room and saw the monsters, he knew that disturbing the light keeping these creatures alive and calm was bad. This he would move onto a new area, and continue to look until he found one that was creature free. Thus, he began walking deeper into the cave system.

With the choice to press on and completely ignore the Orichalcum room, Erik would find that the deeper parts of the Cavern were filled with a subtle, but extremely radiant red light. The monsters in this area could not be found, but the cave was starting to look a little different than it had been before. 

On the ground, the solid earth would eventually be pooled with very small, but noticeably puddles of water. There did not seem to be any natural water source in the area, but the walls were less jagged and more smooth wherever he was going. It was warm; very warm, and the light's energy readings were greater than that which was released by the glowing Orichalcum, though the intensity still remained relatively the same. Dim and easy on the eyes. To a certain degree, it would seem like he weren't even in the same cave anymore, the change between rooms was so drastic so quickly...

Erik would walk, look and walk some more until he found another opening. However just to be on the safe side, he decided to do another scan, to make sure he wasn't walking into the mouth of a beast or anything that could be warm, inviting and have water. There he would stop and use his Gaian WarHammer to send out another sonar-like ping through the walls and floor and ceiling and whatnot of the cave.

The sonar ping sent forth would scan only half of the room, for it would seem something about entering the cave further caused sonar such as that to become less and less effective the further he went in. However, in the case of Erik, he would find that inside of the red room, it would be filled with a certain type of mineral similar to the Orichalcum before. It jut from the walls and formed numerous stalagmites. This mineral seemed to resemble glowing rubies...

His sensors would also pick up a moving creature within, something that gnawed on these glowing red ores and broke pieces off in order to consume. It was a relatively large creature, being about the size of a large dog, though it resembled a rat of sorts. This creature, known as a Wulfrat, stood relatively close to the entrance, scraping at the walls with its claws and chewing up some of the mineral that seemed to be its source of food. Drips and drops of water fell from the ceiling every so often, and when one hit a puddle, the Wulfrat turned to see what was there, its large ears perking up at the pitter patter of each drop. It seemed to be a cautious beasts, but did not have any eyes.

The Red Ruby-like stone was of interest, initially it didn't show up on his HUD as anything but it might after a sample was taken and scanned. Thus Erik would slowly walk into the room and tap the floor to the creatures attention. Right after he did and he knew he would, he would dispel the Gaian WarHammer and hold both hands up to show he wasn't here to hurt or harm the creature.

The large rat continued to gnaw at the walls, scraping for its meal with its claws and its jagged teeth made for harvesting and crunching this mineral with ease. It heart the sound of something other than the drops of water natural to this part of the cave and immediately turned to meet Erik's face, its ears perking up high. It clearly had no eyes and was blind, possibly a mutation due to living in the dark caves, though its ears were extremely sensitive to sound because of this. Like a bat, it could use echolocation to pinpoint the target.

Unable to see that his hands were up, the Wulfrat immediately found him to be a threat, instinctively hissing at him with agitation. It unleashed a loud and powerful bark toward Erik, that which seemed to have the power to disrupt frequencies in the atmosphere, sounding like a mix of a distorted wolf's bark and a rat's chattering wrapped into a disgusting cry. The resonant sound echoed throughout the cave and caused the crystalline minerals to rattle a bit. Erik, himself, would find this powerful bark to have a disorienting effect on his head, its disruptive power able to throw his equilibrium off balance for a short time. Though this was a warning, it did not seem like the creature had any intention of letting the intruder escape.

The initial gestures made towards Erik became clear as soon as he noticed the thing didn't have eyes. He was in it's territory, and bigger than it was, it might have been scarred or worse yet a month protecting young ones further into the cave. Still unarmed, Erik would slowly bend towards the ground, pick up a shard of the ruby-like crystal and open his hand towards the creature to try and tell it, via smell and no motions that he wasn't going to harm it.

"I will not hurt you" he would say to it softly, his mind was rattled, and fighting even if he could normally probably wasn't the way to do things.

The entire time this was going on his Quantum Computing System was doing it's best to keep his mind stable, as best as it could of course.

The intent of Erik was apparent to the creature, yet it still seemed to remain rather vicious; possibly out of mistrust for him. His language was foreign to the creature's ears and it knew nothing of what he was saying, yet it did not feel any maliciousness in the tone of his voice nor his presence. Even so, the creature remained cautious.

As he thought, it harbored an acute sense of smell, as well as sensory of touch in addition to its rather perceptive hearing. It could feel the radiant energy of the ore that it consumed before all around it, as its body was sensitive to that sort of light. Regardless, because the entire part of the cavern was filled with this sort of material, it was difficult for the creature, without eyes, to actually see it. Its use of echolocation gave it the ability to form the shapes of what was before it obscurely, yet it seemed to have difficulty formulating a clear picture of the man in its head. It did notice, however, that something was in its hand.

"Hrrrggggghhhrrrmmm..." it growled, hairs standing on end as it began to circle 'round, still paying very close attention. It was a little less hostile, but in no way less cautious of Erik. It would not come close, but kept its attention on him, just to see what he would do.

After a few seconds, Erik would drop this piece of ore lightly rolling it towards the creature. As he did this, he slowly backed away from it and decided to leave this area, and sorta go around it. While backing up he faced the creature to make sure nothing disturbed it too much.

The timid, yet vicious Wulfrat remained cautious all the while Erik was around, slowly making its way to the mineral. As Erik started to back away, it would gnaw on the material just like it had been doing, now no longer concerned with him since he decided to take his leave of the area.

However, upon his leaving this section of the cave, he'd find that exiting would bring him around to a place that was unfamiliar, and even if he went back the way he came, it would not be the same pathway, for some reason. It seemed as though this cave lost consistency as he traveled deeper within, even if he tried to go back. The energy readings were off the charts, but there did not seem to be anything around... Nor any ore throughout the passageway. Though, the water that was once merely puddles would rise to coat the surface of the ground the more he walked through, almost like there were an overflowing spring wherever he was going... Though his endeavors in finding materials seemed to end up with him gaining nothing, there seemed to be fewer and fewer creatures within as he traveled deeper... Perhaps... They knew not to go much further... Or, maybe they simply had no need to.

As Erik walked he took note that the area was shifting or something, which was good because he wanted to go deeper and deeper to find the good stuff. Walking further into the resulted in water, that only got deeper.  After a few minutes of walking he came to a stop and decided it was time to turn off the scanning and tracking stuff his HUD had. After stopping and looking about, he would continue walking, deeper and deeper, looking for something, perhaps something other than Ore might be found that was of use, but for now, his goal was Metals.

The deeper the man walked into the Cavern of Aw, the more awe inspiring it would become, shifting and shaping into something completely different than when he once came in. Around him, the walls would begin to shift to a smooth texture similar to glass, rather translucent, and glittering lightly in the dark cave, lighting the way. The water reflected these sparkling glints like stars in the sky. The sound of rushing water could be heard in the distance, but the water level did not rise...

Moving farther into the cavern was proving to be good, thus Erik continued to follow the cave. Soon he heard the sound of flowing water, and this he was going to investigate. But first he would take a sample of the water to test what it was. After his sample scan he would head towards the water.

The sound of rushing water continued to grow louder and louder, rising gradually as he continued down the seemingly endless chambers of this intricate and mystical cave. When Erik decided to scan the waters below him, which shimmered as crystal clear as it could be, he would get back an interesting reading...


It rose rapidly, a tidal wave gushing from the back of the tunnel unseen to his eyes and filling up the cavern before him, harboring enough force to carry him away. Through the crystalline blood, there was a light at the end, which seemed to glow more bright and radiant than any of the other ore in the rooms prior, speckling the cave with the sparkling consistency he saw upon the walls and the water's surface before. What was this thing...?

The sound of rushing water was enough to warn Erik that something was up. Even though the scan turned out to be blood he was still determined to see the light. And to do this he had to counter the wave. Which was relatively easy. He simply used his Real Hologram System to generate steel plates in front of himself in the shape of a V so that the water hit it, was sliced and sent flowing to either side of Erik. Erik would remain behind this V formation until he waters passed by him.

The crystalline current splashed vivaciously once coming in contact with the large V block that parted it thus. Though protected from the initial sweeping force, it seemed that this sparkling blood had a mind of its own, curving back around and slamming into Erik from behind, pressing him against his shield.

The deluge that should have been drowning him instead allowed him to breathe normally, as if filling his entire lungs with air and not water (similarly to LCL). The entire chasm filled with this liquid, leaving no room for normal air. Erik would now be floating in the thick aqueous substance. He should find his movements to be slightly restrained, yet he would float and flow through it like water. If he dared get closer to the great shining light ahead, the liquid would get thicker and more difficult to maneuver through.

As the water swept over Erik he would hold his breath for a few seconds, normally his RHS produced a protective environmental barrier around him, but since he was caught off guard and was pressing against his shield to slow part the water he was unable to react in time. But matter it not, for soon he found himself breathing in the liquid. Using his Gaian Hammer, Erik would use the Gaia's power within it to manipulate the waters around him allowing him to be pushed through it as if flying through the water. There he pressed on towards the Light. Any resistance met was equalled the best he could with more energy being drawn from the hammer to help him "fly".