St. Francis' Folly

Lara was standing in a medium-sized hall with the ceiling reaching about fifteen feet high. It was being held in place by six Doric-style columns (the simplest of Greek column designs), with three being on either side of the hall and standing at equal distances from each other to distribute the weight of stone above in an evenly manner. Behind the four closest small pillars on both sides of the hall were raised ledges where Lara guessed decorations such as pottery and ceramics were probably kept at one time before the Romans raided the entire place. Lara could also see that the wall was carved away with intricate three-dimensional Doric column designs, which made it look as though every wall was being supported by structures that were built inside of them. Everything inside the grand entrance was in remarkable shape, considering how old everything in the building was.

Just beyond the grand entrance, Lara could see the larger and taller main room. The most prominent features are the eight larger Doric-style columns that lined in rows of two that were lined up along a small carved path leading up to a large mini building structure with the famous triangular-shaped roof that is prevalent in most ancient Greek architecture that was sitting on top of a raised landing. Like the grand entryway, the temple structure inside the main room was being supported by four Doric columns, two on either side of a closed greyish wooden door which certainly lead into another room as far as Lara could tell. The eight larger columns in the middle of the room were in poor condition, six of which were missing huge sections out of their upper sections. The two that were closest to the grand entrance had been reduced to small stumps. The next set of columns were in better condition, with the right one reaching about halfway up the room and the left retaining its entire original form. The third set of columns were in fair condition with the right one reaching only about a third of the way up the room and the left reaching about two-thirds of the way up. The farthest set of large columns from where Lara stood were in the best condition. Just like the left column in the second set, the left one of the fourth set was one of the two large columns that was still touching the ceiling where it has not yet collapsed. The right column reached about two thirds of the way up the room, though it was slightly shorter than its left rival in the third set. Looking around at the walls, Lara could see more intricate architecture which almost gave the impression that she was in a much larger area.

"This is amazing!" Lara said. "I wish all of my trips started out like this!"

Looking up, Lara looked through the open holes in the ceiling and saw the pink morning clouds in the blue sky above. The reflected light from the clouds gave the inside of the St. Francis' Folly a somewhat magenta-hued appearance, which would later fade into a brownish-orange cast as the sun makes its way higher into the sky. On either side of the large room, Lara noticed platforms protruding from the higher portions of the walls. On the left, there were two nearby platforms that were not supported by columns. Further down were two thicker platforms that were both supported by two small Doric pillars. On the right side of the room, Lara only saw one small platform which had a doorway leading into a dark room. The next thing Lara noticed about the main room was the platform right above her as she exited the grand entrance. Looking back and up above the platform, she saw another closed wooden door.

"I wonder where that leads." Lara said. "Looks like I walked right into a puzzle!"

At that moment, Lara's stomach dropped as she heard growling sounds coming from behind the large columns. They were not dogs as far as Lara could tell, but sounded more feline than anything else. Then, the culprits revealed themselves. Trotting in front of Lara were two golden lions, one male and one female, both of which were staring Lara down as they decided what they would eat first. Lara pulled her pistols from their holsters and started firing as the lions started charging and swiping at her with their large paws. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! After firing a few echoing shots, Lara breathed a sigh of relief when the lions finally fell dead to the ground.

"Lions?!" Lara said. "The place really is a folly!"

"I suppose you're more of a dog person." said a deep French-accented voice from behind one of the large columns. Lara turned around and pointed one of her pistols in the general direction of the voice. There was no one there, but Lara knew Pierre was in the room with her.

"I thought you'd be in the Tomb of Tihocan by now, Pierre!" Lara said as she continued walking between the large columns. "What's taking you so long?"

"I was waiting for you to get here, mademoiselle." Pierre said, his voice echoing throughout the room. "Natla told me about what you did to Larson back in Peru and I was ordered to halt my efforts in retrieving my piece of the Scion so that I could take you down myself. She figured that you would end up here. Besides, I figured we could have a racing competition, just like we did last year in Rome. Don't you remember? Those were good times!"

"Right…" Lara said sarcastically. "That might prove to be a major downfall for you later."

"I don't see how." Pierre replied. "But it looks like you and Natla are off to a rough start, are you not?"

"Yes, and I can tell you why!" Lara said. "When she hired me to find Qualopec's Tomb, she told me she would fund any of my future trips, when in the end she hired Larson to kill me so that he could bring back the Scion himself. Even before all of this nonsense happened, I knew that something wasn't right about her." She paused. "Natla doesn't honour her contracts, Pierre. I'd move on if I were you!"

"No, mademoiselle. Natla and I understand each other." Pierre said. "I find things for her and she rewards me handsomely. But you seek the very thing she does. That is why you are not trusted."

"I trust my instincts!" Lara replied.

"And that's why you're in second place. I am a professional, mademoiselle; I focus on the job, and I get paid." Pierre's voice was now coming from behind Lara. She turned around, but was still unable to see him.

"There's more to life than money, Pierre."

"This isn't life, mademoiselle. It's business!" Pierre said, his voice now exhibiting a somewhat irritated tone. "Your compulsion prevents you from seeing the difference!"

"It hasn't prevented me from getting a piece of the Scion." Lara sneered. "So, Pierre. How's business for you?"

Pierre, who was standing behind one of the large columns, lowered the magnums in his hands and put them back in the inside pockets of his jacket.

"Touché." he said. "So then, why don't we see whose compulsion gets them the next piece?"

Pierre started running towards the entrance of St. Francis' Folly. Lara turned around and aimed with her pistols to shoot him, but Pierre was already outside before she had the chance to get to him.

"Damn!" Lara said under her own breath. "Oh, well. At least he won't be bothering me for a while…I think. Running away isn't going to get him very far anyway."

Resuming where she had left off, Lara focussed where attention on something peculiar on the right side of the room, relative to the entryway from Lara entered. There was a rectangular groove in the floor with a large stone block nestled almost perfectly in the centre of it. On either side of the block, there was a large cream-coloured tile with a mahogany border around each of them. Both of them had the Greek letter omega (Ω) carved in the middle. Standing on the one closest to the entryway, Lara could feel the tile sink into the ground. It was a pressure pad.

"Well, twenty minutes into this adventure and I've been attacked by a couple of lions, had a 'nice' conversation with Pierre, and now I've already found my first puzzle." Lara said. "This place must be riddled with puzzles! This one, however, doesn't look too hard, not like the ones I've seen on Myst. That game drove me crazy!"

Moving to the left side of the block, Lara began using her strength to push the large chunk of stone onto the first omega symbol. When the pressure pad sunk, Lara heard a click come from somewhere high in the room, but nothing seemed to happen.

"That's odd." Lara said. "Let's see what the other one does, if anything."

Lara moved to the other side of the stone and started pushing it the other way. With the last bit of "instant strength" she had, Lara pushed it onto the other pressure pad and heard the sound of a door opening from the far end of the room. Lara walked over to the temple structure and saw that the wooden door was opened and it lead into a medium-sized area with two staircases leading up somewhere. Lara climbed onto the tall landing and entered through the doorway cautiously.

Lara is now inside St. Francis' Folly and has already run into trouble. The first thing that surprises Lara are the two lions that seemingly came out of nowhere. Then, she hears Pierre's voice echoing through the main hall and they engage in a conversation that is, for the most part, based on what happens in Tomb Raider: Anniversary. The geometry, much like everywhere else Lara has explored so far, is based off of the original game, though I do plan on implementing some of the puzzles from Anniversary later on. The classic 'push-the-block' puzzle that was featured at the very beginning of the St. Francis' Folly of the original Tomb Raider is also present.

I'm still not quite sure how many chapters this level will take up, but I know it'll be longer than the Tomb of Qualopec. Stay tuned for some more Tomb Raider action! There's bound to be plenty more in the coming chapters :)

saturn95