Author's Headnote: Glad to see people like my fanwork. And the Traffic graph works again, so yay! As it appears, we've reached the end of the Volume 2 mark. So that means it's intermission time. Don't worry, we're going back to Ruby after the intermission. I just want to use this intermission to cover what JNPR's been doing during all of this non sense, so here's this!
RWBY: Festival of Blood: Intermission: Excavations with Oobleck
Jaune Arc:
Aura Status: 100%
Semblance: Unknown
Grades:
- Grimm Studies: C
- History: C -
- Dust Studies: C -
- Combat Practice: C
- Mathematics: A
- Diplomacy: C +
- Tactics: B
- Training Missions: C
Team Activity: Done.
Team Relations:
-Nora Valkyrie: Same ol' Nora.
-Pyrrha Nikos: She's becoming more distant lately.
-Lie Ren: Same ol' Ren.
End of character status report.
Ancient Temple, 6:00 PM, Monday, Main room
Jaune let Nora pick the mission and she literally picked the one on the top of the list... and now. JNPR is exploring an ancient temple with Oobleck of all people. Oobleck said he wanted to do this, so he had the third-year student cover for him in the other task. Jaune feels sorry for the team who shadows a student for their mission, along with the student himself.
The temple was somewhere desolate out of nowhere, near an abandoned ancient town... all the structures are made of stone... and are still standing to this very day. Although they are covered in moss, and most of buildings save for the temple are in a fragile condition. From the looks of it, this was an old town. Jaune doubts the structural stability of the buildings, including the Temple he's in. So far, there's no grimm. But chances are there will be some encounters along the way.
"How interesting!" Oobleck shouted, as he was trying to read the wall.
"Did you find out what the writings say?" Jaune asked.
"No! Infact, I have never seen this writing every before in my life!"
"And that's a good thing?" Nora asked.
"Precisely! It means we may be on the approach of discovering a lost civilization right here in Vale!" Oobleck stated in excitement.
"Wow. Now when I can fight grimm?"
"Remember Nora, you picked this mission." Jaune said.
Nora just groaned in boredom whilst Oobleck was just fascinated by the temple's writing.
"Hold on... I think some of the characters look familiar." Oobleck stated.
Jaune was more so uninterested and went downstairs to hopefully found something interesting. Nora went and followed. Ren was aiding Oobleck, whilst Pyrrha was outside, she said she could be on guard duty. Not sure what she'd be guarding an abandoned town from though.
He continued to go downstairs when he tripped down on a step and fell down. And landed on his land and became unconscious for awhile.
Character Change: Jaune Arc - Nora Valkyrie
Ancient Temple, 6:10 PM, Monday, Under-temple entrance
Nora saw that Jaune tripped and fell down the stairs when he should have slid down the railings. Like Nora just did. She poored some water on Jaune's face to wake him up.
"Err... where am I?" Jaune asked.
"You're under an ancient and boring temple." Nora answered.
"Oh ya."
"So, let's go explore the temple and do something not cool."
"That sounds like a good Idea. I just want to make sure I don't trip under stairs again."
Ancient Temple, 6:12 PM, Monday, Under-temple
The two of them opened the door in the temple and have found another room. Quite similar to the one on the base floor. Except it was empty and there were two pathways. Nora took the left path without hesitation.
From what the path brings is of course more writing on walls. Boring! So, Nora decides to try and play with the statues. Eventually after playing with a statue containing both a man and a woman, one of the heads twists and a doorway opens. Although Nora was bored, she's seen enough movies to know what would happen if she goes alone. And she really can't text Ren or Pyrrha because there's no service in this temple.
Although it doesn't look like she has much of a choice anymore... since a bunch of grimm showed up from the new doorway. They were beowulves. Simple enemies. Oobleck made it clear to not cause any damage, and this is graded, she really can't use Magnhild's grenade launcher and has to stick with the sledgehammer, but Nora's fine with that. Although many would call it a warhammer. But Nora learned that a warhammer is actually just a really long crab opener basically, even has the handle and everything. So, it's actually more akin to a sledgehammer. Since it doesn't have the stabby part at the end of the hammer. And it's a two-handed weapon, where as Warhammers are one-handed. It's not that commonly known though.
But back on point, Nora uses her sledgehammer to whack the beowulf's skull open. And swings the other one across the room. Beowulves are more easy compared to other enemies. Nora's gotten strong enough to take them out in one hit. So, she prefers to train with Ursai instead of beowulves. Although she does admit that beowulves are more challenging in numbers, but there was only two of them. Nora than skinned the pelts off of the beowulves so she can sell them later. Wow, this sounds like a dream she had awhile back. obviously, they are still alive, otherwise they would have disintegrated, although them still being alive won't last long, as grimm tend to decay quickly without their outer-pelt.
She went inside the doorway and had Magnhild out and ready for anymore grimm inside the temple. Hopefully Jaune is as prepared, don't want the leader of the team to die. But this beats excavation and Oobleck's hypothesis about the place. Oooh, maybe there's treasure at the other side.
Character Change: Nora Valkyrie - Jaune Arc
Ancient Temple, 6:15 PM, Monday, Under-temple.
Jaune saw Nora taking the left path without hesitation, so he just walked to the right one. Well, the one on the right, who knows the one on the right may be the wrong one. But he just has to figure that out for himself. Hopefully he doesn't run into a deathstalker again.
He walks into a library. And the books look intact. Jaune grabs a book and attempts to read it... it's in a text that's ineligible. Of course, an Ancient temple won't have anything in modern Vytalean. So maybe it's like one of those secret door openings. So, he just pulls out books until he finds a lever. He pulled out every book and all he got was an empty bookshelf. And than he sighed and pressed his head against the bookshelf, slightly pushing it. After the slight push, it pulls itself out and reveals a doorway. Huh, guess that's an odd twist to an old cliché. No matter Jaune went inside.
What he sees is a corridor, it's slightly dark... but at least he can barely see. Jaune continued to venture forth into the under-temple, hopefully not to stumble onto yet another darkstalker lair. Although he does find images... of what appears to be humans... covered in fur hides? Jaune guesses that must be the people who once inhabited the place. Being that this was a place of worship, there's likely some sort of idea of what deity they've actually worshipped here.
These temples usually don't have an under complex like this. Although there was an obvious path of slayed grimm, although not literally present because grimm like to fade away, but because Magnhild's pressings on Beowulves can be seen on the temple walls. From the looks of it, she went right, so Jaune went left... and it's just a room with a statue. Or would have had a statue, Jaune believes whatever the statue was, it was of whoever was actually worshipped here. Guess it appears the followers of this god were killed and the undertemple ransacked.
After looking at this room for a minute Jaune decided to follow the beowulf trail to find Nora. Not sure why she's going to collect Beowulf hide in the first place though. Now Jaune has to look at whatever disgusting insides of a beowulf. But he progresses forward into the under-temple no less. Wonder what Ren and Oobleck are doing. Likely analyzing the insides of the temple, would be awhile before they decide to search down here though.
And than as it continues... he's been seeing statues... of a woman. Specifically, one in formal attire. This is clearly the god or deity that was once worshipped here. Although none of the statues have a face anymore. Most have likely been worn out.
But this matters little, Jaune needs to catch up with Nora. The trail ends here... at a hole. Guess Nora found down. Jaune decided to look for another way down... but he tripped and fell into the hole.
Ancient Temple, 6;50 PM, Monday, Cave
Jaune fell down into a pile of beowulf hides. The hides broke his fall. Guess that's something Nora should be thankful for.
"Oh, hey Jaune." Nora said excitingly.
"Nora, why did you collect Beowulf hides?" Jaune asked.
"I wanted to sell them, but I figured using them as a landing pad would do."
"Did you know there was a hole in the floor?"
"Nope."
"Well..."
"Do you know where we are?"
"This looks like a cave."
"We're IN a cave."
"Under a temple?"
"Yep."
"Great, all we need now is to run from a boulder and we're done with all of this."
"This also implies treasure."
"Nora. You know you won't be allowed to keep it, right?"
"Wait, what? Awww..."
"Ya, the point of this mission is for excavation and exploration of ancient ruins, anything we bring back will be brought to the museum."
"Oh ya, we're shadowing Oobleck. Forgot for a bit."
"Do you think they're worried about us?"
"Nah, we'll be fine."
The two of them got away from the hide pile and went to explore the cave. It looks like any other cave. Hopefully Jaune does not find a deathstalker in here. Although he does see something glowing... but Jaune looks away.
Oh no! Fool me once, Shame on you!
Fool me twice, shame on me!
Jaune went away from the glowing light, assuming it's another deathstalker lure. Nora followed Jaune. The two of them went on to explore this cave. Hopefully to find an exit. They spent a whole hour wondering the caves. Until they found... nothing. They're just deeper inside the caves.
"We should go back!" Nora complained.
"No, that was likely a deathstalker!" Jaune yelled.
"But I'm hungry!"
"Well, tough!"
They continue to go on in the cave. Although they did kill grimm, people keep saying grimm meat is not edible, and even than, it'll just fade away after five seconds. So no food. Although they did eventually find a small Idol.
"This is beginning to look like one of those movies." Jaune said.
"So... do we or do we not pick it up?" Nora asked.
"Depends, do you want a boulder chasing us!?"
"Uhh..."
"The answer better be no!"
"Fiiine."
The two of them ignore the idol and went down the obvious exit path.
The exit was downhill and they continued to go down the path when all of the sudden...
THUD!
Jaune looked behind and... there was a giant boulder rolling down towards him and Nora! Guess one can't avoid these things after all by not falling for obvious traps. Jaune starting running and Nora did so too after hearing the boulder. The boulder has been catching up to Jaune and Nora... and the two of them have been sprinting as hard as they can... Ruby's semblance would be useful here! Wait... why are they being chased by a boulder in the first place? Nora grabed Magnhild and went to slam the boulder... which pushed it back... but than it came rolling back... so Nora swang it again... and kept swinging it... after ten minutes... the boulder cracked apart.
After Nora was playing with the boulder, the two of them continued to head back toward what appears to be an opening to the outside... when all of the sudden.
THUD!
A SECOND boulder pops down! So, the two of them continued to sprint down to the outside. Also, how much boulders did these guys make? It doesn't matter the two of them went out running toward the exit and Jumped out.
Valean Sanus, 8:09 PM, Monday, Unknown Temple Exterior
The two of ended up outside, with the cave they came from being blocked by the boulder. Thank goodness they got out.
Jaune sighed and caught up with his breath. Nora did as well.
"Wow, that was very... cliché." Nora said.
"Tell me about it." Jaune stated.
"Gah! Where did you two come from!?" Pyrrha yelled.
"Gah! Where did you come from, Pyrrha?" Jaune asked.
"I was patrolling the temple grounds. Not sure how you two showed up."
"We came from the cave behind us."
"The one covered by a rock?"
Jaune looked behind him. "Yes, that one." Jaune said.
"How?" Pyrrha asked.
"The Boulder was chasing us to the end of the cave, and now it's blocking the caveway." Nora said.
"Did Oobleck tell you to explore the cave?"
"Nope. We did it on our own."
"Did you learn anything?"
"Nope!"
"I see..."
"Don't look at me, you were the one who suggested that Nora would pick the mission, Pyrrha." Jaune complained.
"Why don't you two just head back to Oobleck?" Pyrrha suggested.
"Ya, go back to the doctor, good idea."
The two of them went back to Oobleck and camped on the temple grounds, and woke up continuing the excavation. Jaune hopes Ruby and Blake have found any info on the dust capacitor though. And chances are Jaune and the rest of his team is going to be here for the rest of the week.
Author's Footnote: So there's the intermission for ya, sorry I can't exactly get exactly into the chapter yet, still brainstorming. So, I wrote this! If you don't like the intermissions, I'll simply stop writing them. If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, criticisms, etc. Leave them in the reviews and see ya when I finally make the next chapter, if you don't count intermissions. Otherwise, see ya next chapter!