The Phantasmic Shrine Visit

The trip to Japan wasn't a skip through the park to say the least. Buying a plane ticket wasn't exactly the easiest thing to do when one was on the lamb from their family that had eyes and ears in the most unexpected of places., and those damned Sumerian gods weren't any help either. No spell that Rowan held in his repository could help him get across the world quickly, even those wings were of no use as a boy flying across China would more than likely be shot down by anti-air artillery or whatever they were calling it these days. Anyhow, he did manage to scrounge up the money to buy a ticket from San Francisco to Japan- mainly through a ploy involving the use of his Charm spell. Yes it was morally wrong, but the greater good was at stake! What if the world ended because he couldn't get to Japan? What would he say? "Sorry I didn't have the money?" Of course not!

Well at least that's what he would like to believe. If Karma existed, Rowan was sure that it would forgive him for scamming a few people to help someone else. It would equal out in the end wouldn't it? Of course it would. Or at least that's how the whole Karma thing worked if he understood it correctly.

Anyways, even if he had a moral conflict over buying a plane ticker with money that he shouldn't have, it was of little use now. The plane had landed, he had gotten off, and was now reminiscing over whether or not it was a good idea while he was halfway up the stairs to this Shrine. With hands stuffed in the grey hoodie that had the words "Beast" printed across the front, Rowan approached the building and stopped at what he perceived to be the entrance. He had left his parent's side by the time they decided to travel through Japan, so he had no idea of Japanese customs. He supposed it was much like Chinese customs, however he didn't want to jump to conclusions since there was quite a bit of hostility between China and Japan. So instead of trampling into a Shrine uninvited, Rowan remained outside and stamped out the mud on his boots, and the longer he was out there, the more thankful he was that he remembered to pack thermal pants and underwear, both of which he was wearing at the moment.

The letter had come in the mail nearly a fortnight before. Seemed like they were asking for the wrong person when he was reading it at first. People disappearing underground and they call for a known sorceror to go in and retrieve them instead of perhaps calling in the local authorities. Also why send in only priests first? Surely they could have used some people who were actual experts at exploring instead. Would have been a much safer option. As he read more of the letter he discovered that indeed it was mean't to be addressed to him. They were asking for those with great knowledge of the Occult to which Ailill Hale did indeed possess. It was perhaps just another somewhat ignorant person not knowing how to handle a situation and panicking enough to think that something was paranormal in nature simply because they are freaked out enough. He was prone to think that way of everything initially that is until doing some further necessary research into the mentioned location. As it turns out this place did present some lore about it. Maybe even be worth the trip.

Ailill got on the phone and called up to schedule a plane flight to Japan to arrive two days before the two weeks mark indicated by the letter. Over the next week and a half he packed up everything he thought he might need and a few other things just for the sake of having them rather than not. Most of which was kept in his small bag which carried a lot more than it looked like it could. The flight itself was rather mundane but long. A first class trip that had not one but two layovers. First he went from Chicago's O'hare airport to Los Angeles's own LAX which lasted just over four hours. From there he went to Hawaii's Honolulu international in about five hours and finally onto to Japan's Narita airport for almost nine hours. Finally after such a long and tiring flight he was here in Tokyo. In two days time he was to be at this shrine.

Two days came quickly while he waited in a nearby hotel. The time had come. He had pre-ordered a cab to come pick him up and sure enough it was awaiting him upon leaving the hotel. He got in and the drive began. Ailill conversed with the driver throughout a portion of the ride about nonchalant things. The driver actually spoke english which made it so that he would not have to speak nihongo. They arrived at the shrine where he paid the driver and then made his way up the path towards the temple. He arrived at the temple and he saw five people were already gathered. By the looks of things they had just arrived themselves. He slipped off his shoes and entered inside. As he did so he recognized one of them. Oh my, did he ever recognize one of them. It was of all people his own cousin Aaron. Now what could he be doing here? It seems that he was not the only Hale family member invited to this here shrine. "Well, did not expect to see you here cousin." he said to him, his voice full of the surprise with a small taste of glee in it. He walked up and joined the others. None of which he knew. He turned to the Priestess Shizuka and greeted her in fluent nihongo. "Greetings Priestess. I am Ailill Hale and I have come as your letter requested." he spoke and he bowed his head slightly.

((OOC: Sorry for the long wait, everyone, with finals and work, I was forced to take another break, but now that they are over, I am going to post more often, almost as a birthday wish to myself.))

Kirby instantly became nervous of all of the people who had shown up in the short amount of time that Suzuka was gone, luckily, she was not gone long. As they came in, he tried to introduce himself, but he ended up bowing awkwardly and saying things such as, "Uh... Hey there," or, "H-h-hello." Of course, it was Pipkin that did all of the talking, which only made it worse for Kirby, he had no idea how they would react to a half-phantom, but I guess they had to figure it out. "Hey there everyone! The names Pipkin, I'm this guys soul over there," he said, floating towards Kirby. "His name's Kirby, but some people call him Geist, I don't know why they call him that, but whatever. He's kind of shy, so don't worry if he doesn't talk much. He's what you call "introverted." Kirby's face grew bright red and he wanted to yell at Pipkin, like he normally does, but was too embarrassed to do so.

Lucky for him, it was at that point when Suzuka walked into the room. She came in with a set for tea and was shocked at all of the people who had showed up. "Wow," she began in English, "I am so happy that you all came to the shrine." She bowed to the newcomers. They introduced themselves in Japanese to her, which made her even happier, not many foreigners spoke Japanese, but for all of them to know some Japanese, it made her very happy. "To have so many people who can speak Japanese, this is great! I hope you all like tea, because I need to explain a little more before I lead you into the underground shrine." She set her tea set down and invited everyone to join.

Kirby, in embarrassment, went over to the tea set and quickly knelt down at the mat for tea. He probably should start speaking Japanese. He knew the language and so did everyone else, it seems, so he figured that he should.

So... no shoes... ? With a shrug Rowan kicked off his hiking boots and arranged them neatly at the front of the door as he continued inwards with his black socks. He waved at the people gathered, but he doubted any of them cared a bit about who he was or why he was there. They all had their reasons for coming he supposed. As he drew closer to the convened people, he sneezed, there was powerful magic within these individuals, Rowan noted, rather interesting. Even more interesting was the so called soul that greeted the company in place of its master, the mere existence of such a thing intrigued Rowan to no end. True he had seen other marvelous things before, but if this... phantasm's claims were true, then it was the manifestation of its owner, and that was something to be in awe of.

There seemed to be no time to study it though, as their hostess had appeared with a set of tea, for them perhaps. She mentioned how humbled she was that everyone spoke Japanese- Rowan figured that she meant the majority of the people gathered. He spoke not a lick of the language and though he understood some Chinese, he doubted that Eastern Asian languages carried over, but a language barrier would not stop him from being polite. Rowan joined his host and mimicked "Geist" by kneeling rather than sitting lotus style as he was about to do.

It was at that moment that a thought occurred to him. He had not introduced himself! What foolishness! But now would be ill time to do it, as their host had already spoken and had invited everyone to tea already. That meant that she was about to talk about why they were all gathered, which also meant that it would be rude to suddenly blurt out his name as though it were something important. And because of that, he kept a cheerful face and hoped that no one would find it odd that there was one member of the group who had no name.

So it seemed he was no the only one of his family here at this strange shrine visit,his cousin also choosing to come along on this venture. The male known as Geist had a sort of awkwardness that seemed familiar in a way and the strange one known as Pipkin a stark contrast to that attitude. They were in essence opposites but he didn't really see the point in thinking further upon the subject and let the thought pass. “Its a pleasure to meet all of you. My names Aaron Hale but you can just call me Aaron.” he sat down with the rest of the people,choosing to sit next to Kirby and wait for tea to be served if any were to be. ”So what is it you need to tell us?”

One of the others could not speak for himself it seems. Instead what appeared to be his spiritual companion wound up doing it for him. Those with such companions tend to be shy anyways. The priestess welcomed them all in and greeted them. Ailill sat down out of respect and awaited the soon to come information about the shrine that the priestess was sure to soon tell them all. He steadily grabbed a cup of tea and took a sip of it. The tea was freshly made tasted alright. He was not that big a fan of such a drink anyways so it mattered to him very little. He looked around real quick at all the others for a brief moment before turning back to the priestess to listen to what she had to say.

((OOC: Sorry for the post delay, all.))

The priestess made sure that they were all settled in before explaining her story, she was rather excited for the turn up, but also worried that those who had gathered might not be able to do it. She worried about their safety. She was responsible for their lives, but she knew that they were all competent, so she did not worry as much as she did when she sent the priests down.

"So how do I begin with my shrines problem," she said to herself in English. "For the longest time, there was a section of the shrine that we could not open. It was odd to us, no sutras, prayers, or tools we had in the shrine could open the trap door leading into the new section. We were thinking of bringing heavier tools in to do the job, but we were worried that they would desecrate the shrine, so we decided against it. Recently, the trap door was opened on its own. We had no idea how to explain it. I went down the ladder and looked around for a minute or two, but then I sent a few lower priests to explore the whole thing. They never returned. I'm afraid that I do not have the magical and supernatural abilities that you all possess, so it would be too dangerous for me to go down there with you all. All I know about it is that the air is odd, I shouldn't have been so quick to sent others down there. It feels odd, spiritually that is. When you are all ready, I shall lead you down there, hopefully you can deal with this problem, I don't know what the cause is, but it terrifies me every night."

Kirby noticed that the priestess looked distressed. He made sure to look into his bag for all of his materials that would be needed for the mission. He has about five bottles of his cocktails, which would be useful, a scroll of holding, and his ring was on his hand. He could feel that Pipkin was ready to go as well, so he looked towards Suzuka and said only one word, Ready.

Odd door that would not open for anybody and suddenly opened by itself one day? Rowan and his parents had seen such before; usually it was because rust or moss had grown over the cracks to the door and sealed it shut, and it opened because plunderers were clever enough to use destructive tools to force their way in to loot. It wasn't that Rowan doubted the "spirtualness" of all of this, it was simply that he had seen his fair share of the magical and hoaxes and magical hoaxes to learn that not everything odd could be attributed to the mystical arts. Of course he wasn't going to say this in front of a priestess and these gathered people who must revere the magical arts to highly. He turned an eye to the man who stood up and began to speak.

Rowan instinctively got off of his knees and sat on his behind, since he wasn't all too used to kneeling for extended amounts of time. This man, whose features he could not recall, was offering a plan. It was a good plan too, up until the point that he offered the split up. Rowan objected to that plan, but not vocally. Didn't this man know that when people split up, they're weaker? Strength in numbers, he was always told... then again, was that simply a ploy by his parents to get him to stick around while they were trekking through lost cultures and forgotten temples? Rowan also wanted to point out that he didn't -have- a watch, but he doubted that it was important, since there was little chance that the plan would follow through.

A curious thought entered his mind. He knew what he was capable of, but what about the gathered individuals? What could they do? Did they have any nifty staves? Any powerful trinkets? Any gods that they called upon? This was dire and pressing question for those who were about to entrust their lives to one another, but Zamini strike him if he was the one that was going to ask. Experience taught him that people were prone to yell at those who they did not agree with, and Rowan did not like to be yelled at.