Roleplayer Guild - Roleplay Forum

Amelia walked past the wood cutter, having swiped a piece of wood from his cart; she now listened from a short distance away as she carved it.
The wood was soft, easy to cut and shape, she smiled at her little piece of art, then her smile dropped as she realised she hadn’t heard a word of what the two men had been talking about. The woman frowned then shrugged and continued carving, just managing to chop half the head off of her sculpture, with a sigh she dropped the thing that to her mind had looked like a sheep, to others it may have been nearing a very skinny dog, had any detail be added (e.g. the legs, the tail, yes it was just a piece of messed up wood), but she wasn’t one to complain.

A dog began barking at her a little later, she frowned at it but as it was tied up she continued walking. The golden dog must have broken the rope that had kept it tied as it was soon sniffing at the pocket which contained the other apple, rolling her eyes she was about to take it out when a bird came and snatched the hair pin from her hair.
Amelia glared at the bird then took out her knife and threw it, skewering the bird before it got past the roof. The hair pin dropped into her hand and Amelia smiled at the bird then looked at the dog.

Time later found Amelia in the nearby inn, a cooked bird on her plate; she stuck her fork into it and cut it with the knife, putting it into her mouth she smiled at the taste.
It was then that the sounds of chewing became evident next to her, pausing in her meal, Amelia looked down at the gorgeous golden furred dog next to her chair.
Feathers covered the floor around him; the bird he was chewing on was clearly no chicken like what Amelia was eating, but there was a distinctive stab wound through its chest.

Walking out of the inn, a scroll caught her eye, it was the word ‘Reward’ that really caught her eye, but she went over to read it none the less.
Reading it, her mouth twisted in all sorts of strange positions, her mind thinking of all the things to steal, the shiny stuff that could be found, her eyes widened as she realised something.
There would be other people! Who knew what they would bring? Her fingers began twiddling with a lock of her hair as she made her way to the town hall, her pace was quick as she wanted to get going as soon as possible.
The dog was still following her.

__________________

Village - Town Hall:

A small gathering of people were already busying themselves with shouting, complaining and elbowing each other as they made way in through the open, double doors of the town hall. Apparently, a lot of the town's more litterarte and educated people had become slightly interested in the posters and flyers that were all over town. Of course, who wouldn't have been? The promise of rewards was enough to make any lazy, half-baked slouch move about a little and at least give it a try. Especially if the task was something simple like just walking a few miles and then coming back, stating nothing but falsehood. How treacherous some humans were...

The Elder, a man with a balding scalp and bushy, white eyebrows, stood at the far end of the town hall, elevated on a small podium of withered and aged design. He had a pipe sticking out from the corner of his mouth and his curled moustache and pointy beard, which were also white, gave the man a typical 'elderly' appearance. He puffed a few times, then coughed loudly and uncomfortably, while the people who had gathered sat down on the sturdy, splinter-covered chairs that stood in rows.

"My dear, dear fellows." The Elder started, while people were still entering. Obviously the old coot had such bad eyesight that he couldn't see that everyone had not yet gathered and sat down. Or perhaps he was just impatient? "It's no secret that those ghosts and spirits have become more active lately. Cows have been painted, furniture has been misplaced, sheep have been sheared and food has been eaten!" The old shouted, with his raspy and hoarse, old and wheezing voice. "We need to find out why these restless souls are causing so much problems for us now! They've always left us alone before, but now they're becomng a real pain in the romp!" The elder said, a few murmurs of agreement broke out among the gathered.

"That's why we, the Elders, have decided that those who think themselves brave enough, should take on the task of explorers! We all know that the heart of this island is shrouded in fog, and that nobody in our history has ever willingly entered that place. We have no records of that mist-covered patch, and it remains a mystery." A few nods and ayes resonated before the old man continued. "That's why we believe that the source of the problem comes from there! From within that uncharted patch of grayness. We want you, the brave explorers, to march into the mist and find out what's causing the troubles, what's at the heart of the island's heart! We wan-" But the old man was cut short.

"... So basically you want to send us all off to look for ghosts, which we can't defend ourselves against, in a place we know nothing about?" A gentleman with fine, luxurious clothes said. The Elder did not answer in words, he only nodded in a very brief moment. The man sighed.
"And what compensation do we earn for this task? What great reward do you promise us that we may consider enough of a treat for us to undertake such a dangerous task?"
"But of course! The reward is everlasting fame, being added to the records and annals of history as the savior of our town! ... And a small bag of coins."
"A small bag of coins?"
"Well, we can't be sure what the people who return say is true, so we can't pay everyone a large lump sum just for travelling out of town and being gone for a week..."
"So, you don't trust us enough to actually pay a sum reasonable for the risks involved?"
"Err... well..."

At this point, many people lost interest and rose from their seats, heding back out throug the door. The elder, it seemed, had made the mistake of being just a little too honest with his audience.

The Wall of Mist at the Island's Heart:

The swirling, slowly floating and never-evaporating fog lay thick as usual, as a barrier of light, tightly packed gray and white. It was almost too unreal in the first place, for this fog had not been here for days or weeks or months, but years! Years on end, without ever fading or easing up. No matter the weather, no matter the season, it was as thick and lasting no matter what happened. Truly a mysterious fog. But then again, this was an Island full of the spirits and undead, so it wasn't that hard to understand that something supernatural like a wall of fog and mist could exist.

The voice that had been calling to the ghosts and spirits of the Island seemed to grow stronger when an ethereal came close to the outskirts of the wall however. The voice picked up again though it had once vanished. But it didn't say anything new or interesting, it just repeated what it had said before, with the added line of 'Enter! Come! Find that which is Hidden!' at the end of it's sale's pitch. Again, the voice didn't actually have a voice, or a sound, it was just words, echoey words that rang inside the head of those undead who had heard it the first time. Though if they were closer to the wall, it was even clearer and more noticeable than before. Like a memory that resurfaced and chased away all other thoughts and feelings, taking the spotlight as if to drag the ones it had gathered into the Fog.

__________________

James leaned against the rock, sustaining himself against it. He stayed there in a pensive state, as he had many times before, for minutes until hours and hours upon hours. The supreme mystery rattled around in his head so to speak. He of course didn't have a "head" in the traditional sense of bones and muscles but he did produce the image of a head. Not having the physical portions to the thinking process did nothing to stop him from pondering over why this was happening, and had happened for as long as he could remember.

It was the wall. Yes the wall, the very same wall that everyone knew about. The abominable thing had stood around the center of the island for multiple decades, and even decades before that. James had tried to reach the center many times, but even the logic he held that this thing must be circular seemed to be disproven time and time again. He had walked around it, not a problem, stepped into it and back out, not a problem, but walking directly through the thing was damnable at best, at least to his knowledge.

The many times he had stepped into it and not directly gone back out, had all ended the same. James walked, continuously for about an hour, and he had never once come out anywhere except where he had entered. He figured that this thing must have been some sort of eternal spell that had killed at least ten high wizards to manifest. It either had to be that or something so elegantly simple that it would go overlooked for the rest of time. That is to say until the brain cell count of the current population's descendants reached to the appropriate level. That would probably take an excess of two thousand years to comeplete though. He actually did a mathematical study once, and he came up with the number two thousand and nine, as to when the general population's base brain cell count was lowered to what could be considered an extreme level.

That is to say that the population in those times would be very numerous to say the least, and those that did have a normal or above average count would be considered rocket scientists, while they innovated on ways to decrease the counts of the remaining populous. This was just his math though, for all official counts it could've been completely wrong. James lifted himself from the rock, and turned around to begin his stroll towards the town, it was time to sneak back in for a little bit of information.

The walk back to the town was pleasant, the smaller animals ran as usual, and the larger ones merely sat, stared, and growled. This routine of his rarely changed and occured often. Though he did wander to pick flowers along the way, he still followed the same fresh path, it was fresh only because actual feet had only trod through the area very few times. As his feet emerged from the forest he looked upon the edge of the town in a dull glare. It hadn't changed. He neared ever closer to the edges though, and noticed a small group of people running down the streets, some with pieces of parchment ripped from walls, towards the center of the general area of the town. As he stopped in puzzlement, the ghoul could not help but sit down in an alley to wonder what was going on.

__________________

Spoiler

RP's I'm In, Check 'Em:
The Five Deaths - David Thermopolis
NE:ON (ReduX) - Ashur Kallingrad

She was getting hungry now, having floated along toward the center of the island for at least six hours now. To Amira, her only sense of direction was gut instinct, no pun intended, and that seemingly pre-recorded voice that was slowly to grate on even this certain nonchalant jovial ghost's nerves. The little ghost gripped her spectral stomach as it growled, the soul's floating pace quickened as the annoying voice began to increase in volume, the vocalization that had once started as a vague whisper in the wind, a meaningless and incoherent droning, was now an endlessly looping annoyance of outright yelling.

With a discomforting face, Amira soldiered on and into the mist, the thick walls and complete lack of vision like nothing she had ever seen before in the hundreds of years of her life. Needless to say, the wall of fog was rather scary; aside from the ground beneath her being vaguely visible the density and lack of visibility was like a blinding gray hell. Very discomforting indeed.

Amira sneezed and rubbed her nose, somehow feeling cold despite the fact that, as a ghost, she had no feeling at all. The girl let out a tiny whimper and muttered something along the lines of 'hungry' and picked up her pace even more. One couldn't really tell how fast she was going, just floating at a running speed. The girl was used to having a meal at least every three hours, now she was regretting having taken the trip. But, she supposed, maybe the voice would go away at least, and maybe there'd be lots of food at the end of whatever this is. Ah food, Amira let out a whimper again, "Uuuu~ So hungry!"

It wasn't long however, until her quickened floating pace, unhindered by the weight of flesh or the incompetent restrictions that came with running with legs, led her to the the other side of the wall of mist. Beforehand, the mist had began to subside, bits of sunlight and a much brighter shade of gray raised the little ghost's spirits, once again no pun intended. Next, there were signs of life, albeit in the form of birds gawking and crowing at random meaningless things. Soon after as Amira broke free of the enormously large and annoying wall of mist she stopped, staring with some confusion and some bits of wonderment at the manor that seemingly appeared out of nowhere, nestled at the dead center of the wall, the only thing she could say was, "Woaaah..."

With high hopes of similar company to her own and maybe even a small feast, which to most would be a King's Feast, the cherry-blonde ghost, of whom stopped to stare at the mansion, began to float at a walking pace toward the large building. It seemed that it was inhabited, a well maintained garden and a smidgen of cleaning was rather apparent as she inched closer to the residence. She wondered with all her apparition body what kind of people lived in such a manor, surely someone that was either both incredibly magically inclined and wonderful or someone that really just liked to be alone, maybe a group of people? Oh, the wonderment made Amira hungrier, her non-existent stomach growling.

(Sorry, it's short :x)

__________________

The middle aged lumber jack had made it to town hall with more then just a little struggle. It seemed like every living man, woman and child on the island had come to stop him from reaching it. Wagons and mules had been blocking him at almost every corner of every street. Children had run just before, on more then one occasion almost tripping Selleus. A woman had been pestering him about some money and he had done his best to curiously remove her from his path to no avail until he just walked passed her giving the woman a little shove. Finally having reached the middle of the town there had been rows of curious men waiting to be led into the building. Here and there small riots had started and Selleus fought the urge to simply join in just for old times sake. Finally the door to the hall opened and every one was greeted by the old sod that they called an Elder.

Selleus almost fell asleep to the sound of the Elder’s monotone voice. It just sounded so… aged, so aged in fact that a beer would flee from it just so it could stay awake. No wonder god didn’t hear their prayers, this man had dozed him of into an endless sleep. Selleus thought as did his best to keep his eyes open and focus on the meaning of the words that did their best to do the opposite. Finally the Elder shut up as another man stood up and woke those who had in fact fallen asleep themselves. From where was seated Selleus could see at least one man who was drooling, it made a little smile toy on his lips.

After most people had left because of their disappointment about some reward or another Selleus stood up. “You weak hearted bunch of fools. What's the matter with you lot?! Can’t stand a little adventure in your boring lives? Doing the same thing day after day after day. Well, I'm signing up, and i for one will claim no reward at all!” Well, maybe that was a little lie. Money could always come in handy when the roof needed fixing or your stomach needed to be fed. None the less Selleus signed himself in. He was the only one it seemed so far though.

__________________

You've seen the movies, but it's different when you're the one getting hit in the crossfire.
You know you should stop the bleeding, you just don't know how.

Lethrio's feet were begining to hurt. He'd been walking for... well he couldn't remember how long. The center of the island. It was so very far away. And besides that, it was getting quite dark, and the forest was getting frightening. The trees were looking more and more malicious. The fog was getting thicker. The sounds of the forest were more evil.

He was starting to wonder why in the world he had taken this job. He could be back at the village, fishing and drinking away the day. As he always had. This was ridiculous. Why was he doing this? He head was filling full of doubts so fast it was a wonder he didn't turn around and march right back to the village.

Lethario couldn't turn around. He had made a promise. He would not return shamed again. His feet kept moving forward, though his eyes remained fixated on his boots, refusing to look around at, what he was sure, was the evils that surrounded him. Lethario was convinced that if he even looked up once, spirits would consume his soul and use his bones as a chair. He was positive of it.

Just keep moving your feet. Don't look up. You'll reach the manor soon. It's got to be soon. It's just got to be...

Heart of the Island, Garden of the Manor:

A sudden tingling sensation ran through the two spiritual beings who stood amidst the flowers and shrubbery, idly exchanging words at random only to fall into large gaps of silent and unspoken periods of time. The Librarian cocked her head, sideways, away from her book, as if looking past it in order to see what was going on. The Gardener, who had burried her hands and face in a small, flower-covered bush, also popped her head up in order to take a glance over in the same direction as her peer.

"An intruder."
"My, my, my! A visitor, how rare~"

The two ghosts commented, one after the other. It was rare for visitors to come to the Mansion, mostly because nobody usually wanted to enter the fog, but even more rare because the fog, as many expected, had a slightly magical touch to it. Usually, the fog would blind and confuse those who entered it, throwing their sense of direction off completely and have them exit the very same way, or close by, from where they entered. But, for whatever reason in the world, the enchantment at this point in time did not seem to be functioning as it should. A troublesome revelation to the Librarian.

While the bookworm of the household quickly retreated towards the large, dark, dual doors of the archaic manor, the Gardener rose from her seat at the flowers and started making way towards the intruding and uninvited guest. It was a young lady, it seemed, obviously a ghost (For ghosts can tell whetever others are alive or not) who had blundered into this little sphere of secrecy. The gardener had a friendly smile on her face and looked blissfully glad as she approached - and stopped a few feet ahead of - the uninvited guest.

"Why hello there, stranger." She started off in a melodic voice, rotating her parasol leisurely between her fingers as she spoke. "It's rare we get guests, of any sort, around these parts. What might bring you here, I wonder~?" The woman asked. The gardener's golden-orange her fluttered gently in the the slight breeze caused by her spinning parasol and her red, pleated skirt did the same. She kept looking at the ghostly girl with the mostly brown clothes before her, never looking away, not even once.

Inside the manor, the Librarian was quick to call for the aide and appearance of a certain lady and her guardian...

On the bright side, Amira could no longer hear the strange, echoey voice!

Human village:

The Elder was happy about the man who signed up and promised to do the work and task for no reward at all! Truly, not all people in the village were obsessed with making their lives comfortable and enjoyable, it was good that old, hard-working people who were willing to risk their own safety for nothing more than a gentle pat on the back were still around. The old fool nearly shed a tear, but if he had his wrinkly old body would likely have become severly dehydrated, so he did not.

Meanwhile, the stream of people that had left the Town Hall were already busying themselves with talking and gossiping about the mad goose chase and the dangers associated with just wandering on out into the wilderness without even knowing what was out there. They talked about how the risk didn't even correspond to the reward and how the elders were just trying to push these trials onto those who shouldn't have to deal with problems like this. Yes, the elders and their silly and irresponsible ideas! Surely they needed a new ruling body! Then again, those old coots were all on the verge of kicking the bucket anyway, so they could just wait until then.

__________________

Throughout the corridors and passages of the manor, the wall torches suddenly burned blue. And then bright red. And then began flickering back and forth, with blatant disregard for any potential epileptic fits which might have occurred as a result. Accompanying the light show was a deep bonging sound, as of a very large bell, although the manor didn't actually have a bell tower.

Mina looked up from the floor she was sleeping, glanced at the torches, turned to Lisa, and asked, "Is it just me, or is the Alarm a little...a little..."
"Ostentatious? You should have heard the old one," interjected Lisa. She stopped sweeping, and leaned forward a bit, using her broom for balance, although this was simply out of habit, since she was floating anyway. "Still," she continued, "We should get ready in any case."

Mina nodded, brushed a few strands of errant brown hair away from her face, and turned to face the enormous oak doors, saying, "Well, this is convenient. We're already at our post." Lisa nodded, and added, "I had wondered why Minerva came tearing through here and upset all the cleaning. Must have seen an intruder while she was outside." She looked around, at the piles of dust and ectoplasm which covered the floor of the entrance hall, and said, with no small amount of distaste, "Ectoplasm everywhere. It's disgusting."
"It could have been on the carpet, Lisa."
"Very true."
Both shuddered at the thought of ectoplasm on the carpet, and resumed watching the doors.

"Yes, thank you, Minerva. You can go."
As the librarian fled to ensure the safety of her books, Sylvie sighed. What part of secret, mist-shrouded ghost manor does this intruder not get? It's hardly secret if you come bumbling along. Aloud, Sylvie muttered, "Let's see...raised the alarm, now...ah, yes." She turned around, ready to say something, stopped, and sighed again. "Lady Cynthia, where are you? There's an intruder here. Lady Cynthia?"

A faint giggle was the only reply she received.

Sylvie mumbled, under her breath, "I hate it when she does this," brushed a few specks of nonexistent dust from her lilac dress, and set off to find the lady of the manor.

__________________

By the time Amelia had reached the hall, the girl had already taken six different items from three different people; one of them had a really nice little box with an even nicer ring inside it inside their pocket.
It was Amelia’s now and so was the purse...and the couple of other items, but no one knew she had stolen it, she hoped no one would care either. While fiddling with the apple and deciding whether to eat it or not, she was also watching the elder and deciding whether or not there was anything on him worth stealing.

It was only the middle aged guy shouting something that woke her from her day dreaming and allowed her to listen to mutterings and find out what had been said. She frowned and shrugged then looked at the lumberjack, she smiled then, recognising him and thinking that he was very likely to have something to steal.
She followed him, thinking to see if he had anything she might want, it was half way to the table that she realised he was going to sign up and now it looked like she would.

Amelia sighed, wondering if she really would find something, she blinked then and woke up, on course she would find something! Grinning she signed up then walked out and raised an eyebrow at the canine who was waiting for her at the door.

The dog grumbled as Amelia walked away from it, clearly not liking to be ignored, the dog pushed Amelia’s leg with his shoulder, causing her to stumble a few times. He continued this till she patted him, and then allowed her to keep walking, finally leaving when he saw a chicken which had escaped from its pen.

__________________

You there, yes, you! Listen to me! Don't be alarmed, my voice in your head means no harm! You can hear me, right? Why am I asking? I know you can!

Umbra murmured an expletive, snatching for the amulet around his neck and cracking his eyes open groggily.

"No more pranks."

If the amulet had a face, it would have looked very surprised, but it obviously decided a tantrum would suffice.

"IT'S NOT ME!!" it screamed, convincing some birds in a nearby tree to fly away. Umbra squinted at the small golden item before him, his ears ringing.

"The--"


Listen up! You should head towards the center of the Island. You've already felt yourself wanting to go there, right? Follow that instinct, it'll guide you through the mist and to where you need to go. I'll be waiting.

Umbra went dead silent, and to his surprise, so did the amulet. The center of the Island? He could feel a force very carefully nudging him towards it, but what WAS at the center? Water? He was going with that.

Oh, one last thing. Don't ask questions or try and speak to me. While you can hear me it's not the same for you, I can make my voice heard by you, but you cannot make me hear yours. But trust me, what you want most of all waits for you at the heart of the island!

"Of course, there's always a catch," the amulet said, it's tone irritated. "You know, I'm gonna stay here."

"And how would you achieve that?" Umbra snapped back.

With that, the amulet went silent, and they began to move towards the thick mist in the center of the island.

__________________