Part 1: Legend of the Hidden Temple

Update 1: Legend of the Hidden Temple

So you want to hear my story, do you? You're not the first person to ask me, you know. I've kept it inside for years, because I had more important things to do than talk about what I've already done. But I suppose that if I don't do something it's going to be left to the history books, and a man does have a right to defend himself. If you're willing to listen to me ramble on for hours and hours, then that's your problem. So where to start… I guess you could say that my story starts with the War, because war…no, you know better than that if you're here with me. No...



My story begins with the Vault Dweller, who supposedly saved us all more than a hundred years ago. Some people say he was named Charlie. Some people say he was named Smith. A few heretics say his name was Charlie Smith. Historians, who are heretics by definition, say that he was a composite mythical figure based off of several real people since no single person could have done all the things he supposedly did. Hell, most days I'm not even sure and I'm his great grandson. But I do know how many crazy things a single person can end up doing when they're trying to be a hero.



I should tell you a bit about myself first. I grew up in Arroyo back when it was little tribal village, before it became the city you see today. I wasn't anything too special… a bit more attentive than most of the other kids, a bit quicker, and a good bit smarter. I made friends pretty easily, and I didn't have any major childhood accidents. I spent most of my time learning medicine from the local shaman, learning how to shoot when we had spare ammunition, and trying to talk my way into the pants of any girl in the village I wasn't related to. I was terrible at all three of these things.



None of that explained why I was standing in front of the so-called Temple of Trials. That was a combination of nepotism and drought. Drought had made the Elder decide that the village Chosen One to go in search of pre-war technology to save the village, and I was her grandson so there I was. Grandma knew me pretty well, so she'd even posted a guard to keep me from leaving. I didn't have much of a choice, so I grabbed my spear and stepped inside.



I don't know the entire story behind the Temple. It was supposedly built by the Vault Dweller, although nobody's sure why. He got a little bit… funny… before he wandered off into the desert one day, leaving behind a few personal possessions that became treasured artifacts. Occasionally members of the tribe would go inside, and some of them wouldn't come out. The giant ants hanging around the foyer might have had something to do with that.



There were almost half a dozen in the first couple of hallways alone, which probably could have ended me if I hadn't been patient enough to make them come to me.



Someone had thoughtfully stored some medicine powder in a pot behind the ants, and I recognized Hakunin's handiwork. I suppose it was meant for my use, but it also started me on my path to learning the most important lesson for a hero: take anything that's not nailed down.



Another side chamber held a pair of lesser radscorpions, which we called lesser because they were only the size of a dog instead of being the size of a brahmin. They're slow, and stupid, and aggressive… enough so that if you get their attention and walked backwards, they'll keep on following you right into your spear point. I took their tails, naturally, since you can use them to make an antivenin. The scariest thing about the smaller scorpions is that their tails are just as heavy as the bigger ones.



I found more in a room full of small alcoves, along with the body of another unfortunate who'd attempted the trials before me. I remembered catching baby scorpions and handing them over to the adults in the tribe… I had an uneasy feeling that I now knew what they'd done with them.



After I finished killing all of them, I took the spear I found among the stripped bones. It wasn't like he was going to be using it.



From somewhere they'd gotten a fairly sophisticated door to separate the first section of the temple off from the rest, which someone had thoughtlessly left locked. The single large tumbler in the lock made it easy enough for even someone as incompetent as me to pick, which I suppose was the point. Whoever had designed this place wanted it to teach lessons about what you might expect on some involved quest, but having people come in to stare at a locked door for a while before going back wouldn't have accomplished anything.



The next passageway was full of pressure plates linked to spear traps in the walls. By this point I'd already gotten a bit tired of the whole thing, so I decided to take my time and disable every single one of the bloody things. Someone would have to go through and reset every trap I either sprung or disarmed, and if I had to deal with them then someone else would have to come in here after me. I could have just stayed on the right side of the path where there weren't any plates, but that wouldn't have been as satisfying.



There were more scorpions and ants wandering around at the end of the corridor, which you would think would have resulted in one of them eating the other or them wandering into the corridor and triggering one of the traps.



A few steps down the corridor I found evidence that this had actually happened a few minutes before I came through. The ichor on the floor and on the spear was still wet. I suppose I could have tried to lure them into the traps, but that would have been just unnecessarily complicated.



The extra 25 experience per trap is actually enough to push us over the edge and get us our very first level before we have to deal with the last few things in the temple.



As a basic level, this one just gets us a few more HP (I believe the formula is 3 + 1/2 EN, rounded down) and some skill points. Because we have Gifted as a character trait (more on this next update) we also get 2 x IN Skill Points. The majority of them for this level go to Speech, with the remaining three going to small guns.



To this day, I don't know exactly what some of the things that were included in the temple's design are for. There were enough spikes and weird monoliths to keep a generation of archaeologists busy. That could actually have been the Vault Dweller's intent… an intentional puzzle for future generations of researchers, with no answer since they would never admit that the answer might be "just because."



I felt about that puzzled when I discovered a block of C-4 and an improvised timer in a nearby pot. I had no way of knowing how long it had been there, how stable the chemicals were, or if the timer even worked. I took it, but I was sweating bullets for the entire five minutes I carried it.



I was actually grateful when I found a doorway that had been filled in with a stone barrier. It wasn't hard to figure out that I'd been given explosives for just this purpose. Of course, I had never used explosives...



So I set the timer, dropped it on the floor...



And ran like hell. Then I waited, with my fingers in my ears.



The results were everything I could have hoped for, although I'm pretty sure that the C4 blew much faster than the minute I set it for. I'd have been embarrassed in the afterlife if I'd managed to blow myself up, and even more embarrassed if the door had survived the blast. Going back out of the temple to explain that I was stuck because of an explosion resistant door would have been been pretty awkward.



Someone had hidden one more floor plate right behind the stone plug, along with a few more scorpions and ants. By that point I just wanted to be done with the whole business, but I made a point of finishing off each and every single one.



Someone had thought it a fine joke to hide an antidote and some healing powder in a chest nearby, where you'd have to go past the gauntlet of scorpions to get it. You might call that considerate, but I wasn't amused.



The second to last door wasn't locked, but it had an empty chest for a purpose I couldn't comprehend. Either that or they'd missed something when they stocked the place. I wouldn't have put it past some of the people I knew in the village. I opened the door to see an empty passage and walked down it to find...



Cameron. I didn't like Cameron, for a number of reasons. He was older than I was, and he was everything the people of the tribe respected: strong, tough, able to drive a spear straight through two geckos, and as thick as two short planks. I had a bad feeling about seeing him there, and talking to him didn't help… at first.



"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on a minute… I've got to fight you? Nobody said anything about that."



"Don't even finish that. I think there's a way to solve any problem without fighting. If you wanted me to solve the problems this drought is causing us by fighting I can't punch the weather and we'd be better off sending a raiding party than a single person."



Somehow, he bought it and agreed to let me pass. I don't think he actually thought I would accidentally kill him, but I'm sure he didn't want to explain to my grandmother that he'd overdone it and accidentally kicked my face through the back of my skull.



And just like that, I had completed the Trials of Arroyo. Through the door I could see my "reward" waiting for me. I only had one thought when I saw it:



I was going to look like an idiot until I could find something else to wear.