Hidden Temple

In her quest to become a more powerful demon, Violet wanders the land seeking knowledge and technique. She was a succubus, but craved to be something higher than the average lust demon. Violet had heard rumors of the temple and now searched for the temple with hopes of honing her abilities.

Walking along the mountain path, she now had her disguise on with an outfit that made her look like a kunoichi. All of her demonic traits were hidden away by her disguising magic.

She zipped and zoomed, doing her second favorite thing in the world... flying on her broom. A gust had the broom bucking, her skirt flying up and her hat almost toppling from her head, but she reached up to grip it back to her head. She squinted, and when she saw the temple come into view, she made her way down, dismounting from her broom and landing with aplomb.

The young witch took a deep breath of the fresh air and immediately coughed at the scent of dust and... settlement. Huh. That was interesting. Or maybe it wasn't. Maybe it was concerning instead? Yes, possibly concerning. She frowned, then, and snapped her fingers. A book floated into existence, and one hand holding her broom beside her much like a walking stick, she began to flip through the pages.

It was then that she heard the approach of others and rolled her eyes. Another snap of her fingers and the book disappeared. "I thought the locals said this place was very far away, no one went there, so on and so forth." She gestured with a flip of her hand to make her words have a little more umph, her voice directed at the knight and the... ninja.

That morning had been rather peaceful for Master Fuxi, who had spent it sat beneath his favourite tree and painting the sun rising into the sky. For a man such as him, the greatest pleasures were the simple things - the beauty of nature, a song, a nice cup of tea or a good book he could sit and read atop the mountain. Company was rarely sought and never expected, so it came as quite a shock to him when he descended the stone steps towards the lower temple house that not one, or two, but three individuals he had never met before in his life now seemed to be standing beneath the red gate stock.

With his hands crossed around the back of his waist, the pale, silver-haired man calmly made his way down towards them. "You will be disappointed if you have come here for the temple's treasures, as they have long since been looted," he told them all, with no eye-contact being made on account of the fact that his eyes were closed and there was no attempt to open them.

She gave a short wave to Violet and wrinkled her nose in distaste at Hansel. One of thooose types, then.

The Master descended and spoke of treasure. Wendy scoffed. "Not unless dust and decay is..." her sentence trailed off, aware she was being rude. She coughed into her fist, and Hansel took over. He was better at this stuff than she was.

"I'm here for something completely different," Wendy spoke up to the temple guardian. "Would you be at all interested in some clean-up or spell work? It's part of my community service to become a Sister of the Order of the Five Pointed Star."

"Oh, certainly not gold, no. There are things more valuable in life; both literally and figuratively for one can earn and keep gold with skills and knowledge, and he can find what some like to refer to as... true worth?" he said, looking to the man to see if he agreed. Hans was certainly very materialistic, but only because with money one can easily get a hold of the abstract. Perhaps if one did as he thought should be done one would just keep their money to their deaths and do nothing with it, but better safe than sorry it is said. 

"A profession is wise, but I already have a trade. I perform tasks martial and clerical, is there anything of value to be shared on those matters?" Hansel said quickly cursing himself under his breath realising that at mention of the clerical there would now be much more philosophy involved. On the other hand, he wasn't busy and perhaps it would be good to get another point of view? 

"You think far too much," the man replied to Hansel, a slight tilt of his head accompanying the amusement showing on his lips. "If you are asking for my advice on your profession, then I would give these lessons: first, try not to get hit; second, empty your mind. The work of a cleric is to be a guide, but you cannot guide others if you cannot first guide yourself."

At this point, Fuxi turned to the others to see what they had to say, only to find Violet being rather forward with her goal. "There are many ways to improve yourself. Have you considered other options?"

"They say things often come in groups," Fuxi replied, keeping his back straight. "Good things, bad things, interesting events; when they happen, they seem to come in close proximity to each other, with large gaps of calm between them. Either that or we do not pay attention to the things that do happen in the calm, which is a bit more likely."

He looked from Violet, to Hansel, then back to Wendy. "It has been over a year since my last visitor here and far longer since someone came to ask to be my disciple. It's been even longer than that since I've taken one," he explained with a short laugh of 'ha!' added to the end, an outburst betraying how amusing he found the situation. "And now, all of a sudden, I have four individuals here for likely that very reason! All at once, no less!"

However only three of them were standing in sight. He offered no explanation for this.

"I should expect more then, should I not?"

A blind swordsman made his way to the Hidden Temple of Master Fuxi . He carried a ninjato and a wakizashi on his back.  The ninjato belonged to his father, and his father before him, and so on.  Once before it was lined with five gems, which imbued it with the power of the Five Elements: Fire, Earth, Wind, Water, and Heaven.  But the sword was stolen, shattered, and its gems divided between the attackers.  Kenji was cursed with blindness and thrown from his castle, left to die.

But he was rescued by an old man, who nursed him back to good health.  He trained Kenji to fight without his eyesight, and how to unlock his psionic potential.  His final test was to reconstruct his ninjato using his powers.  His Sensei urged him to scour the world in search of those who wronged him, if not to reclaim the gems then to avenge his wife, father, and clan.

And so it was that his search brought him to the Hidden Temple...

Fuxi smiled at the three, but still did not open his eyes. From the moment he had descended the temple steps to meet them, he had never once looked upon them! "I will not accept any of you as students, for I only teach those who are ready to learn. Yet despite this, I will allow all of you to stay here - to use the time at this temple to better yourselves, to gain strength, speed and balance. Perhaps, if in these things you show promise, I will consider teaching you how to actually fight."

With that, the master turned towards the lower temple house and gestured to it with his hand. "That is where students from the past would sleep, though I do believe it is in a state of disrepair. Still, that is where custom dictates will be the quarters of any who wish to learn the secrets of this place."

He made his way towards the doors, then with one hand slid them open to reveal an old, dusty room with several simple bedrolls that looked only a little more comfortable than the floor. Besides each one was a set of drawers for personal effects and at one side of the room, a table with chairs for the occupants to sit and converse with each other. Other than this, a second door led out to a small balcony that overlooked a cliff face carved into the side of a nearby mountain; the drop to the bottom was hundreds of meters, with a small pool of water from which a stream ran down to form a river in the lower valleys.

"If you plan to stay, I would highly suggest cleaning this place."

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Kenji's travels up the mountain to the temple would be unhindered, leaving him free to join the others if he wished to do so.