[IC] The Narrow Path

[Gardevoiran]

Upon feeling the metal spike pierce your skin, the gate opens as your blood trickles down the spike and into a basin. That was the right way.

Gobbo lifts up the book and hands it to you in a gleeful manner as Hikado walks into the room, his freakishly large arm using a large claw to cut some of his barky skin, allowing for some magical sap to trickle out. At least, it looks magical in some way. You may just be high right now for no reason.

"The sap heals wounds! You'll be okay!"

(OOC - You could've totally used your metal arm and not had blood trickle down the spike.)

[Skinner35]

"Thank you Gobbo. Thank you Hikado." He says calmly as he retrieves the book and uses the sap. Then he walks through the open gate into a well lite room.

[Gardevoiran]

The next room, seemingly just a well-gardened hallway, has an open door on the other end of it, leading into a larger room beyond. The ground is well covered with flora and other sorts of foliage, somehow growing despite the lack of any sunlight. It's a bit worrisome, but you dont fret as you move on into the next room ahead. This was just a hallway after all.

The next room, what you can only assume to be a final room, holds the tome you were hired to obtain on a pedestal lying before what seems to be an old dusty carcass, sitting on a throne, a rather characteristic blade resting on the lap of the skeleton ahead of you. He's clearly dead, but you can feel some kind of special energy flowing from something in the room. Something restless and powerful, from what you can assume. Common writing is engraved on the throne before you and your ragtag group.

BLESSETH, YE WHO COME IN SEARCH OF POWER

FROM THIS LAP THY DO NOT GLOWER

THINE TOME WHICH LIE TITHER

OBTAIN SAID KNOWLEDGE TO MAKE OTHERS WITHER

Gobbo clearly looks distressed as he runs to the corner and begins to knock on the only door in the room, a large wooden door clearly meant to hold something beyond it. Maybe it is of interest to you after you inspect this tome?

[Skinner35]

Once he feels the energy, he immediately draws his machete, and his arm glows with heat. "Gobbo, my friend, calm your heart." He said calmly, scanning the room, moving towards the tome. "Time to retrieve our goal." He spoke, sheathing his machete and cautiously grabbing the tome, eyeing the sword greedily. He instantly felt an odd energy coarse through him, obviously coming from the tome.

[Gardevoiran]

You lift the tome up, only to find that it's not in your hands anymore.

You also notice that you aren't exactly in the same room as before. You're not even in a room, it's more or less an empty desert.

What you can see though, is a cloaked figure sitting at the end of a table, hands made from bone extending out just barely beyond the cloak's reach. The figure's fingers tap each of the opposite pair as a raspy voice echoes into your ear. "Ah. Tobias Skinner. You had been in my cards for quite some time." The voice is more masculine, so you assume that it's a male speaking. "Do you know who I am?"

[Skinner35]

"Not one of these again." He yells as he launches a white burning fire ball at the cloaked figure. "I'M NOT DEALING WITH THIS AGAIN."

[Gardevoiran]

The fire ball disappeared into a golden mist at the wave of the figure's hand. He stands up from the table, only to reveal the table had never been there at all. There was no table in this place, nor were there matching chairs. Odd.

"Calm yourself. It is not your time... yet," the figure crows, walking towards you with a book floating beside him. You see the side of the book read "Demonic Scythe", so you can only guess it's a spell tome, made for casting spells to no end, however, it seems like it's only beside this figure in case you attempt to assault him. "You are one of only three people to ever arrive here to speak with me, and as such, I congratulate you. Most go crazy when they so much as hold the tome which your physical hands touch."

[Skinner35]

"Look, I'm only getting this to deliver it to someone. Talk to them about going crazy, not me." He said, looking at the cloaked figure, trying to think about what this thing was.

[Gardevoiran]

"The purpose for your arrival matters not, Tobias," the figure started, the tome floating beside him closing shut.

"By picking up this book, you have set a series of unstoppable events in motion. The wizard Yashar who has sent you on this quest is seeking the power to take control of Brock Sinclair, the old necromancer of legend, and use his mastery to control the world. By returning that tome to him, you will spell the disaster for every living being on your planet, and more importantly, task me with far too much overtime." The figure chuckled with his raspy voice before continuing his explanation.

"When you return to the land of the living, you will be greeted by a new face. What you choose to do is entirely dependent upon your choice. The cards have faith in you, so I trust you to make the right choice."

"Do you have any questions you would like to ask before you return to the land of the living?" The figure asked, turning to you and revealing a skeletal jaw underneath his large hood.

[Skinner35]

"I don't understand. What shall I do with the tome if not giving it to Yashar? Do you want me to guard it? Who will I be meeting? Why does Yashar want to destroy all life?" He says quickly, confused and anxious.

[Gardevoiran]

"I shall answer three of your questions," The figure said calmly, a large purple scythe appearing at his side. "You will be guarding the tome for the time being until your true destiny with that book is resolved. Yashar does not want to destroy the world, but thousands will die under his rule. As for who you'll be meeting, well, let's just say he's quite the bonehead."

The figure prepares his scythe for a swing as he speaks another sentence to you. "If you die, I will have your back at least once. Don't take this for granted."

You feel a sharp pain as you are sent back to the land of the living, fallen over onto the ground and incredibly dizzy. A rather bony figure stands over the corpse of Hikado, the pumpkin child reduced to mush in front of you, and Gobbo (who was hiding behind the throne as he watched what just happened). The tome you were sent to retrieve is on the ground beside you, sealed by an ancient wooden crest.

A male voice booms from the figure in front of you. "Believers. Better dead than possessing my life's work."

[Skinner35]

"Gobbo! Are you okay friend?" He said in a groggy fright. "What happened to Hikado?" He said, seeing the mush. Retrieving the tome, he stands and sees the bony figure. "Oh boy. Are you the bonehead?" He said, trying to make sense of anything at this point.

[Gardevoiran]

"He was a damn Believer, that's what he was."

The new figure turns to you and points his sword at your chest, his skull locking sight on your head. Behind him, the corpse of Hikado explodes into a cloud of dust, revealing a small children's book in it's place. "The Pumpkin Boy", it was titled. How quaint.

The figure speaks again, his voice in a clearly peeved tone. "I am Brock Sinclair. Why have you claimed my work?"

Gobbo stands behind you, silent and quivering. The goblin opens his mouth to speak, but all that comes out is a soft noise. Like a screech but more... catlike. Like he wanted to say something but quickly decided against it, leaving an awkward noise in the air.

[Skinner35]

"YOU DEMON! YOU KILLED HIKADO!" He screamed at the skeleton as he swung a heated metal arm towards its skull in rage. Stopping his fist right in front of his face, instantly calmung down. "Wait, you're Brock? This is yours?" He said, holding the tome.

[Gardevoiran]

Before your hand could even make it halfway to Brock's head, a large vine shot out of the ceiling and smashed into it's path, blocking the strike and sending your arm into a heavy vibration, shaking it all around and causing it to falter temporarily. It was an easy fix, but it was still quite uncomfortable.

"No. The talking skeleton in front of you is definitely not the all-powerful necromancer who could destroy the world -- YES IT IS MINE!" Brock shouts as he lifts the book from behind him in a rather uncaring way. "And this 'Hikado' you speak of? Never existed. He was a Believer... book person, if you want to be crude."

[Skinner35]

His arm vibrates to the point where his bones literally shake, and he winces from the odd feeling. "Well, apologies for the inconvenience, but I can't give it to you." He says, looking at the skeleton. "Some devil dude said that I have to protect it." He continued, turning to bend down and look at Gobbo. "Go back to the entrance and rest. I will be out soon."

[Gardevoiran]

"Y-Yesh Tobiash!" Gobbo says as he runs off towards the entrance, carefully stepping to make sure he doesn't trip and bust his lip on any spare stones.

Brock sighs as he sheathes his blade, reaching under his shirt and pulling a very old bottle from under it. "Protecting that book won't bring anything but trouble. It was my greatest creation and my worst nightmare together," Brock explained, uncapping his bottle and looking at you again. "You ask me, that damn tome should've been thrown into the next plane a century ago." Brock tips the bottle over his open jaw, pouring out some odd brown liquid onto his jaw as if he was drinking it. He tips the bottle back down and looks back at you.

"... you're alive, though. Guess Death's cards were right for once."

[Skinner35]

"Well, if it is such a burden, I wouldn't mind the company on my journey." He said, extending a hand, hoping that this obviously skilled skeleton would accept the offer. He needed all of the allies that he could get.

[Gardevoiran]

"I've got nothing better to do. Besides, that book was obtained by you, and I was sworn by Death to protect it. I'd probably come with to protect it anyways," Brock bluntly says as he walks over to the locked door in his throne room, stabbing his sword into it and revealing what's behind it.

A dark green tome, not sealed unlike the necromantic tome you are holding. Brock lifts it up as he goes through the rest of his things, mainly consisting of really old liquor and a series of ordinary swords. A lot of swords.

Brock returns to your side, extending his hand at you. "I'm carrying that tome, too. I don't want you messing with shit you don't know."

[Skinner35]

Shaking his hand briefly, and letting go. "Fair enough. It is yours, and you know the most about it." He said, walking towards the entrance. "Let's hope that the world will change because of this."