He smiles. "It's not random. It's all planned out. We're just looking for information, and they threaten us when we don't ask nicely. So we defend ourselves, that's all." He sighs. "Do you know why I have to hide you away? Why you can't leave the cave without me? The world is a dangerous place now. Monsters are everywhere. It's the only way to protect you."
Steph’s aim was true, and she grinned as her cryostasis bolt struck the harpy’s wing, blowing it clean off. The creature fell from the sky, wounded, but not killed…
Guess these bolts don’t have enough juice to affect an entire creature in one shot… Steph reflected. This would be more difficult than she’d first thought, but she was up for the challenge.
Her determination was put to the test a moment later, when her hyperaware senses detected a flash of light. She dropped to the floor less than a second before a beam of bluish energy shot through the space she had just been occupying.
Holy crap! That was close!
Quickly regaining her bearings, Steph utilized her superhuman perceptive abilities to locate the source of the beam. Not wasting a moment, she snapped off another shot, this time, aiming for the creature’s head…
Half of Jub Jub's head exploded leaving one eye and a flapping jaw. She stumbled into the room through the window, her body jerking and staggering, splashing black and blue phosphorescent blood all over the walls. After a moment her body stopped convulsing and fell to the ground at the Stephanie's feet, her chest deflated with a gargling hiss of escaping air. Jub Jub was dead, and her reign of terror on the people of the land was over....
*******
The roars and banging of the Lizard-bears against the doors, windows, and walls was deafening; almost loud enough to drown out the crying of the innocent people hiding in the corner. Minoc, the Gnome Wizard, was bravely standing at guard, the twenty or so inhabitants of the building huddled behind him, he held the Sword of Stone before him threateningly. He had somehow managed to get the magic sword to shoot a stone spike into one of the monsters, but he had no idea how it happened. He felt some strange pulse run through his body and then Boom! a giant spike of mountain impaled one of the beasts through the door. Frustratingly, this only seemed to rile up the monsters and now it seemed there were more of them than before.
"Be calm my people," he said, trying to be reassuring, "I will protect you.. somehow." The monsters beat at the failing wood, it wouldn't be long before they broke through, and Minoc didn't know what he would do then.
From his thrown room Draygon's head suddenly snapped towards the direction of Tinkertown. His lieutenants were all linked to him, he had given them power and in turn he owned a part of their life force, when that life force became extinguished, he knew. "Servant," he called in his deep, threatening voice, "send a Raven to Jabberwocky to return to me," from the edge of the light a spindly entity bowed into the shadows to do as its master bid.
*******
"I understand Dadda, I know," Ruby said, beaming at Jabberwocky, "I love you Dadda, always." Her smile was wide and innocent. Suddenly, A little blue light began to flash on one of the cave walls and emitted an electronic burp. "Oh," she said, "Someone's up above, in the outside." Draygon's Raven had arrived at Jabberwocky's home on the mainland.
Jub Jub is dead, Draygon sent a Raven to Jabber's home, it took 2 hours to fly from Draygon's castle to Jabber's home, I've now added Jabber's home to the map. Please use this information as a baseline to determine the time it takes to travel by air from one place to another as well as the time of events relative to each other. That means that Draygon's Raven at Jabber's house exists 2 hours ahead of where Stephanie is right now, please keep that in mind when you post- This is the first time we are all being brought together, fingers crossed XD
He smiles, and kisses her head. He then rubs her back. "Go to bed now. Stay there until I come back, ok Ruby?" He gently puts her to bed, then shuts the hidden door to her room. He turns to the raven, all business. "Jub Jub has fallen? By who?" He growls softly. While Jub Jub wasn't a exactly a friend, she was a good worker/fighter. "Is Bander still alive? He hasn't fallen yet I trust?"
The Raven cocks its head inquisitively and squawks. When it arrived all it had attached to its foot was a ribbon of paper that said Jub Jub has fallen, return to Draygon.
He nods, and he changes back into his monster form, spreading his massive wings, and taking off, flying out, and over to Draygons castle, the animals and humans scattering like mice before the scythe. He flies in though a window, and kneels before Draygon, head bowed. "You summoned me Master?"
@Shadow Dragon@Ponn *Right now, Jabberwocky is 4 hours ahead of Sarah and Ayaan, so he will not be getting any more posts in his story line until Sarah catches up, Ayaan is timid to post so we will see how she does, but we will not put pressure her to move and we will not wait for her to post to move forward ourselves.
In the meantime, Jabberwocky will get to play a small side quest. He will be playing Sir Breakfast, Captain of the Guard and noble knight of the Kingdom of Solace. We find him talking to his King and preparing...
The Castle of Solace
The king stood nobly at the parapet of his castle looking to the south, his mind wondering. Tornel, the fire mage stood beside him, cradling the Sword of Fire in his arms. Behind them both stood the brave man, the volunteer, Sir Breakfast.
"You are sure Tornel," The King said regally, "you received a message that Bandersnatch was headed this way?"
"Yes my Lord," Tornel replied huffily, "our lookout in the mountains by the sea have reported seeing his ship dock. He travels slower than Draygon's other rabble because he cannot fly, but he is most assuredly on his way."
"A fearful day," the King said heavily, "but as a blessing this Noble Paladin has volunteered to defend our Kingdom against this terrible monster." The King turned and inclined his head in the attitude of superiority common to all aristocrats. Sir Breakfast took a knee before the king, pledging his life and his sword to the fight. The King presented his royal hand to be kissed.
"Go my Heroic Paladin," the King said, "Take the Sword of Fire and face this putrid beast, and bring me back his head." Tornel handed Sir Breakfast the Sword of Fire as the knight arose, then he snapped a turn, and marched to the stairs leading to his horse.
Sir Breakfast
*********
Bandersnatch could see the speckle of the white castle far to the north of his position. He had brought a regiment of twenty of his master's shadow servants to help, but he felt strong enough to do some damage. Draygon had given him an extra, special gift, one they would not be counting on, and one that damn fool wizard would not be prepared for.
Bander strolled into the field in his human form, taking each step as if claiming ownership of the ground and daring anyone who wants to to fight him for it. He pulled his great sword from its sheath and pointed it towards the glittering castle, "March!" He growled, and his shadow army began to march forward.
Sir Breakfast draws his flaming blade, and mounts his horse, riding out to battle. He stares out of the visor slits in his helmet, and charges toward the vast army in his path, eyes fixed on the one called Bander. He pulls his steed to a stop, glaring out of his helm. "Bandersnatch! Fight me in a knight's duel, one on one!"
Bandersnatch got off his horse and walked up to the challenger. "I accept Fool!" he said, "Prepare to die!" The Shadow Servants formed a circle around the fighters, giving them plenty of room to maneuver. Bander didn't hesitate, he walked forward and swung his sword his heavy sword in an arch over his head, aiming to crush his opponent's skull in one blow.
As she walks deeper and deeper into the catacombs, Sarah feels the miasma thicken around her. Her lungs burn even as they develop some tolerance for the substance, seeing becomes difficult as she has a hard time telling what's real from what isn't. The only thing keeping her fevered mind going is the growing certainty that the sword is nearby, that there's an end to this maze. She pauses to cough, her coughing dry and chest-wracking, her lungs protesting the foul mist filling the cave. She has to find it soon, she thinks.
It doesn't take her long to realize the growing gut feeling inside her, the sense that's she's arrived somehow. If she hadn't been following said sense to lead her to the sword, she would say she's hallucinating. Instead, she lifts her head, and looks around.
Sure enough, there on a dais, is a sword embedded hilt-deep. She's almost tempted to call this a hallucination too, if she isn't so glad to finally get here after all the trouble in the cave. She takes a moment to check her surroundings, to be sure that this is indeed where she needs to be. She can feel the stone dais, the strangely warm metal of the sword, and the pulls her finger when she feels a spark of its Thunder affinity. She looks at Pip, and realizes he's curiously sniffing the stone dais, then barks at her as to confirm it. She takes a deep breath before casting aside the used and broken claw she was carrying around as a makeshift weapon.
"Here goes," she says, grasping the hilt with both hands and pulls as hard as she can, trying to gather all her strength to try and get the sword out. She grunts and hisses at the effort. "Come on..."
Suddenly, she jolts backwards as the sword seems to free itself from its prison, and she feels a surge of electricity surge through her body. This sensation is strangely warm and good, filling her being with confidence and calm amidst her weariness. It feels as if the very sword itself was reaching into her with its power, filling her with newfound resolve. She feels its power washing over her, reaching deep into her mind and heart, as though to awaken something sleeping within.
When she opens her eyes again, the hallucination seem to have receded. She still sees things vibrating, the shadows shifting and twitching, and faint echos that aren't there, but her mind is no longer trap in feverish visions and fearsome illusions. She could see and feel more clearly, and the miasma isn't affecting her as strongly. Is this the power of the sword, or did it merely heal her of the worst of the effects. Either way, she's going to need her wits to get out of this place.
She takes a couple of practice swings with the sword, feeling it in her hands. It feels balanced, the grip natural, as though it had been forged just for her. She grips it tightly to reassure herself, feeling as though she could take on the world.
"Come on, Pip," she calls to the dog, "we need to get out of here and back to Master Thunderfist."
Pip barks eagerly, pleased to see New Master snapping out of whatever fear had been controlling her.
"Sarah.." a familiar, singsong voice chimes into existence, "Sarah, are you there?" An image of Asra appears in Sarah's peripheral vision. "I'm back, oh good, I'm back!" The Fairy giggled in happiness.
"You must've found the sword then, good, that is so good. I was worried the Wizards had failed. There is so much to tell you, so many things have happened. Where do I start? From the beginning I suppose. I'm going to run out of time, so I'll tell you everything I can before my power runs out, you had better sit down."
"A long time ago, long before you existed, there was a great man, a scientist, named Drake Logan. Dr. Logan had discovered something no one ever knew before, the use of Biogenic energy. It is the energy of life force, but it is so much more. It is the equal sign of Einstein's formula, Energy = mass times the speed of light squared. Of course, you don't know what that is, I'm sorry, I will focus on what's most important."
"Dr. Logan's research allowed him to understand how the energy within living things worked with the energy in the matter all around you. He discovered a method for channeling that energy into circuits and through doing so create or rearrange physical matter. It was the potential within his discovery which led to all the people of the world laying down their weapons for the sake of peace and scientific progress. It was the beginning of the evolution of the species..."
"What you don't know, this was hundreds of years ago. The people allowed a single entity to carry the weapons of the world, it is called the Harbinger, for it was supposed to warn of consequences. It was programmed to keep people in line, but never to kill. It's weapon systems were primarily those of weather using Dr. Logan's science. For some reason it... for some reason it destroyed the world..." Asra paused for a moment.
"Before I went offline I was part of a protocol knows as the Oracle program. You see, for Dr. Logan's science to work perfectly the human body needed to be perfected, just like having a clean circuit within a computer. Oh, you don't know what a computer is, well, that's okay, believe me when I tell you, human's have bodies full of dirtiness. You, however, you were made perfect, in the image of a god. You were grown to channel Biogenic energy through your body without resistance, so what you channel is pure."
"You need the circuits to aid you, until you learn for yourself. The circuits are the Swords. They were designed to link to your body and allow you to channel your internal life energy into matter. This sword will allow you to channel your energy into lightning, as you can already feel. Every sword has two boosters that you can find, a battery which will double the amount of power you can focus into the weapon, and a bracelet, which will allow you to pull from Harbinger itself and release destruction 100 fold of what you could normally. Your kind alone are made to be trusted with this power.
"I've run out of time, find others like yourself Sarah, find others, and find more of the swords. Learn to use their power. The wizards will help you, they...." *SCHZITZ* "...an evil has reached out to Harbinger..." *S@CT!$ZCH*... "deeper in the caves you will find... "!SK$#ZTCH@%$. . ...
As suddenly as she appeared, Asra was gone, and Sarah was once again left alone in the caves with her companion Pip.
*********
Urgrapth waited and waited, but none of her babies returned. The visitor must be strong, the visitor must be terrible. Urgrapth would fight, for herself and her babies, Urgrapth would suvive.
She rolled up the morsel in her front legs and brought it to her mouth, it smelt like flowers. She bit into the soft flesh tightly woven in the wiry threads of her webbing and began to suck, suck, suck the life from it. She could feel her strength grow as warmth spread through her body.
Sarah has learned about the history of the Oracles and the swords. Now she has an understanding of how to use the sword and why it works. She also has a hint as to the fact that she was created in the pod to be a perfect, god-like creature. Also, Our lady spider is chomping down on some poor towns person, I recommend you hurry, you may be able to save the little person from their death, maybe. Good luck!!
Steph exhaled in relief after the harpy’s partially decapitated body crashed to the floor in front of her.
Welp, I guess that takes care of that… Now I just have to deal with those creatures out there…
Moving to a better position, Steph saw that several of the beasts were gathered around a centrally located building, attempting to get inside. She only had three, perhaps four, shots left, so she needed to make each one count. Taking careful aim on the first creature’s head, she squeezed the trigger, snapping off a quick shot, before moving on to the next.
One.
Two.
Three…
Four.
A quartet of corpses now lay upon the ground surrounding the building, but there were still six of the creatures left, and Steph’s rifle was now completely out of energy. She needed a new plan… Thinking fast, she instructed her nanites to reassemble her rifle into a sword. Although she was reluctant to engage the creatures in close combat, she knew her enhanced body was fully capable of doing so.
She took a deep breath.
Okay… Here goes nothing!
Leaping from her balcony, Steph used the momentum she had generated to bring her blade down hard upon her first target’s neck. This, coupled with her superhuman strength, allowed her weapon to slice clean through, neatly decapitating the creature. Wasting no time, she swiftly jumped over to the next beast and repeated the process. She kept this up until the area around the central structure was completely free of the beasts. This didn’t mean Steph was about to let down her guard, though. She had been keeping count, and she was well aware that there were a few beasts still unaccounted for. Not wishing to hunt them down, and potentially be caught unawares, she opted to take up a defensive position in front of the structure’s entrance and wait for them to come to her…
Sir Breakfast bends backwards, letting the sword bury itself in the earth, and leaps away from the earth shattering blow, sweating his blazing sword at his opponent, slicing away a chunk of his armor, and slashing his massive sword into two white hot slabs. He then rears back his horse, letting it strike a devestating blow to Banders breastplate.
Just as she turns to leave, Sarah is aware of something... happening. She pauses, looking around, but then it happens...
"Sarah.." a familiar, singsong voice chimes into existence, "Sarah, are you there?" An image of Asra appears in Sarah's peripheral vision. "I'm back, oh good, I'm back!" The Fairy giggled in happiness.
Sarah is half-tempted to consider this yet another miasma-induced mirage, but at this point she's just glad to get some extra information about who and what she is... and why did she wake up in a capsule in a cave?
"You must've found the sword then, good, that is so good. I was worried the Wizards had failed. There is so much to tell you, so many things have happened. Where do I start? From the beginning I suppose. I'm going to run out of time, so I'll tell you everything I can before my power runs out, you had better sit down."
Sarah pauses, but takes a seat, if only to rest her legs. She didn't have much time either, but she supposes a few answers would be worth it.
What followed was a long, confusing tale about a lost civilization, a Dr. Drake Logan, and the keys to uplifting and advancing a civilization, only for it to collapse when the very key to its salvation became the instrument of its doom - Harbinger. Seems like whatever ancestors she had, they had chosen... poorly.
"Before I went offline I was part of a protocol knows as the Oracle program. You see, for Dr. Logan's science to work perfectly the human body needed to be perfected, just like having a clean circuit within a computer. Oh, you don't know what a computer is, well, that's okay, believe me when I tell you, human's have bodies full of dirtiness. You, however, you were made perfect, in the image of a god. You were grown to channel Biogenic energy through your body without resistance, so what you channel is pure."
"You need the circuits to aid you, until you learn for yourself. The circuits are the Swords. They were designed to link to your body and allow you to channel your internal life energy into matter. This sword will allow you to channel your energy into lightning, as you can already feel. Every sword has two boosters that you can find, a battery which will double the amount of power you can focus into the weapon, and a bracelet, which will allow you to pull from Harbinger itself and release destruction 100 fold of what you could normally. Your kind alone are made to be trusted with this power.
She was... created...? Created to be perfect? Was she just some craftsman's creation, made to fulfill a purpose? The possibilities left Sarah a little uneasy, and she almost missed the bits about the biogenic energy within herself and the use of the sword as a... focus? Yes, focus seems like the best term for it.
It still feels weird for Sarah to have a fully developed vocabulary without the lifetime experience of developing and improving it.
Still, the idea of having woken up with only a name, no memory of herself, and now a destiny to fulfill was a tad intimidating for the girl. She certainly didn't feel like some perfect being. If anything, she imagined this is what a scared little girl would feel.
Though she felt it was unnecessary for Asra to insult her creators by calling the humans 'dirty'. For if Sarah is supposed to be some pure, biogenic-channeling superhuman, what did that make her creators, one who could not channel that energy nearly so well? Sarah wanted to have words with them, but somehow Asra unintentionally insulting them was mildly amusing.
"I've run out of time, find others like yourself Sarah, find others, and find more of the swords. Learn to use their power. The wizards will help you, they...." *SCHZITZ* "...an evil has reached out to Harbinger..." *S@CT!$ZCH*... "deeper in the caves you will find... "!SK$#ZTCH@%$. . ...
As suddenly as she appeared, Asra was gone, and Sarah was once again left alone in the caves with her companion Pip.
Sarah has learned about the history of the Oracles and the swords. Now she has an understanding of how to use the sword and why it works. She also has a hint as to the fact that she was created in the pod to be a perfect, god-like creature. Also, Our lady spider is chomping down on some poor towns person, I recommend you hurry, you may be able to save the little person from their death, maybe. Good luck!!
Sarah wants to call out to Asra, to tell her to keep explaining more. However, Asra had made it clear her time was short, so Sarah glumly accepts the fairy's hurried farewell, and hopes to see her again so she could ask more questions.
For now, she has to get out of the cave, and figure out what this Harbinger business is.
"Come along, Pip," she tells her companion. "We need to get going. The sooner we leave this cave, the better. And we need to warn Master Thunderfist about these creatures..."
Pip barks in agreement, and hurries along besides her, wagging his tail. It's good to see New Master in good spirits like this.
However, Sarah quickly realizes that while going into the cave was easy with the sense of the sword leading the way, going out was going to rely on memory and careful backtracking. To her chagrin, she had misread a path and found herself someplace... unpleasant. It looks and feels unpleasant, like a home for all those creepy little spiderlings she ran into earlier.
It's then she hears something, like something biting down, and a weak struggle and moan. She feels a shiver down her spine, but something was telling her to hurry, to find the source of the sound. It wasn't going to be pleasant, but she needs to be there.
Pip looks up at Sarah and whines anxious. He can smell... many things. He can smell the spiderlings, thicker on the ground and more in number. He can smell their foul nest, the home where there'll be much more of them. He can smell something even worse, like a bigger and meaner version of them. But then he realizes he can smell... the villagers! He sniffs the ground a few times to make sure. Yes! It's faint, but he's sure. The villagers were here! Maybe the spiderlings took them? He looks up at Sarah and barks, then looks in the direction of the nest, alternatively growling in apprehension and whining uncertainly.
Sarah, coughing on the miasma, notes Pip's behavior; he seems both anxious to go ahead and afraid of something. Part of her is afraid of what she'll find there, but Pip wants to go, or part of him does, anyways. She grips her sword, and feels the biogenic energy flow from her into it. She is at least better armed this time. Better to move ahead with caution.
What she finds horrifies her; people suspended in thick, sticky webs, dazed and moaning when they can be heard, or limp and apparently lifeless. Were these the people from the village? Did the spiderlings do this? And if so, why? Or was there something else in here? She reaches out to feel a hand to make sure it's not another hallucination - and to her surprise, it isn't. The people are out cold, but not dead.
She goes in deeper, motioning to Pip to stop growling as they hurry along, trying to find where this cavern of horrors ends...
...and then she sees something that could be described as a nightmare made flesh...
The horse's shins broke when it's hooves landed their blow on Bandersnatch's breastpLate, forcing him to take a step back. The horse whinnied in pain and threw its rider before crashing to the ground itself. Bandersnatch bent over to pick up the broken half of his sword, so he had the hilt with is severed blade in one hand and the broken end in the other gauntleted fist. Bandersnatch smiled, "That's a fine sword you've got there," he grumbled, " Thank you for holding it for me." Quickly he threw the broken piece of sword at the knight who is still half dazed and trying to get up, and as the knight reacted Bandersnatch moved to punch The other half of the sword into the smaller knight's visor slit.
He flies from his dead steed, and lands with a crunch, something inside him breaking. He screams in pain, and forces himself to his feet, raising his sword, the grass smoldering under the power of the magical blaze. He leans back, and the broken sword slashes out his left eye. A blood curdling scream splits the air, and he slumps over, dead.
He flies from his dead steed, and lands with a crunch, something inside him breaking. He screams in pain, and forces himself to his feet, raising his sword, the grass smoldering under the power of the magical blaze. He leans back, and the broken sword slashes out his left eye. A blood curdling scream splits the air, and he slumps over, dead.
Bandersnatch walks up to the heavily armored knight and places his heavy boot upon his head, he then proceeds to crush it like a tin can, blood and gore ooze out of the visor like chunky, strawberry pudding. He picks up the Sword of Fire and feels the energy surge through his body. He begins to chuckle and the Sword alights in flame. He begins to laugh and points the sword to the Heavens. He begins to howl as he shoots a brilliant flame into the sky! It's roar could be heard for miles.
Steph exhaled in relief after the harpy’s partially decapitated body crashed to the floor in front of her.
Welp, I guess that takes care of that… Now I just have to deal with those creatures out there…
Moving to a better position, Steph saw that several of the beasts were gathered around a centrally located building, attempting to get inside. She only had three, perhaps four, shots left, so she needed to make each one count. Taking careful aim on the first creature’s head, she squeezed the trigger, snapping off a quick shot, before moving on to the next.
One.
Two.
Three…
Four.
A quartet of corpses now lay upon the ground surrounding the building, but there were still six of the creatures left, and Steph’s rifle was now completely out of energy. She needed a new plan… Thinking fast, she instructed her nanites to reassemble her rifle into a sword. Although she was reluctant to engage the creatures in close combat, she knew her enhanced body was fully capable of doing so.
She took a deep breath.
Okay… Here goes nothing!
Leaping from her balcony, Steph used the momentum she had generated to bring her blade down hard upon her first target’s neck. This, coupled with her superhuman strength, allowed her weapon to slice clean through, neatly decapitating the creature. Wasting no time, she swiftly jumped over to the next beast and repeated the process. She kept this up until the area around the central structure was completely free of the beasts. This didn’t mean Steph was about to let down her guard, though. She had been keeping count, and she was well aware that there were a few beasts still unaccounted for. Not wishing to hunt them down, and potentially be caught unawares, she opted to take up a defensive position in front of the structure’s entrance and wait for them to come to her…
Tinkertown
Stephanie and Ayaan
There was just one lizard-bear left, and it was pregnant. She shrunk back into the corner, away from the bloody gore of the others, shivering, frightened. She would fight, if she had too, but mostly she wanted down and to protect her baby, she wanted down so badly. She could see the small human with the sharp claw that had rent through the others easier than she herself could tear through a fish, the human had its eye on her, and that eye spoke of murder. She hissed and laid down, trying to make herself smaller.
Suddenly a giant bear wearing a satchel and rope jumped onto the balcony! Roaring and swiping defensively it put itself between the lizard-bear and Stephanie, the human simply watched, waiting to see if the bear might attack. The bear backed a couple of steps, not taking it's eyes off the human. When it got to the lizard-bear it turned and grumbled a bunch of odd noises and whines, the lizard-bear rumbled back as if they were talking. Then the lizard-bear started slowly walking towards one of the suspension bridges and the bear followed close behind, keeping one eye turned towards the threatening human just in case she decided to attack again.
There were no longer any threats and so Stephanie was allowed to relax. Behind her came a hesitant knock on the wood that used to be a door. "It may be strange to knock since you are outside and I am inside," came a timid voice, "But I'd rather you not kill me if it pleases you." A small head with big ears, a pointy hat, and circular, wire-rim glasses poked its head around the corner. "Oh my," he said, looking at all the gore of the dead lizard-bears and the tiny speck of a girl who didn't even appear to be sweating.
Minoc's House
Minoc sipped his tea and nibbled his cake, he watched the young girl, Ste-fah-nee she said was her name... most peculiar. "First of all, allow me to thank you for saving us," he said in his elfish voice, fumbling a little over his words. "I... er.. I... don't know where to start." He put down his tea, "I've imagined this for so long you see. Ever since I was a lad, and my dad looked after you, and even before then when I saw my Grandad look after you. I always wondered if you woke up... well, never mind all that. You have woken up, and you're no where near as fragile as I suspected." He tried to smile assuredly as he refilled his tea from the teapot on the table. "I don't suppose you realize the creature you just killed do you?" he looked at her inquisitively, "No, I guess you wouldn't. Her name was Jub Jub, she's one of many nightmares in our world and her death will be no loss of happiness to the bunch of us here, I'll tell you." He nervously chuckled a little.
He sighed and settled himself down, "You must be asking yourself who we are, and what's going on," he said pointedly. "Well, I'll tell you all that I know. I am a member of a secret society of wizards, alchemists, and archeologists who have discovered you all in the pods you woke up in. The pod that used to be over in that corner, as a matter of fact," he pointed to the far wall, "You turned that into a sword you say? Remarkable, absolutely remarkable." He paused to sip his tea and appreciate the enormity of the moment. "I am an archeologist," he continued, "I have been digging into the mountain with these good folks researching whatever mecha from the ancients we could find and put to use. I've never heard of this nano-tech, but we have found books and manuals detailing the magic of biogenic tech. Fascinating stuff really, just absolutely fascinating. Some of our more... imaginative members of our sect have been able to translate these secrets into the manipulation of, of Lightning, Fire, Wind!" He became more animated as he got more excited, spilling tea with his punctuations. "It's really quite amazing and gives us another step up on the enemy," he was sputtering a bit now.
He settled himself again, "That would be Lord Draygon, or Lord Dragon as we generally call him, or it, whatever he is, the monster." He went to drink more tea but found his glass empty and motioned to the little girl near the back of the room to get him more. "Lord Dragon has in his employ others whom he has made monsters like him, creatures who can shoot bizarre beams of light from their eyes which can melt stone, change their form to become a person or a beast, and reports say there is one who can even phase through walls. It's all terrible, terrible stuff, but we have the advantage you see, we have the works of the ancients which give us strength, and now, well girl, for some reason we have you." He sat back, the little girl brought him some more tea and he took a sip. "If we can trust you that is."
"You've proven that you capable of incredible violence, and I understand that sometimes that is necessary, but in this town we eschew such application, even if it seems our last option," he sipped his tea and licked his lips. "I want to trust you, but I am not the leader or our cult and so it is not for me to determine. You will need to go to the Castle of Solace, far, far to the north and west of here. I.. uh.. don't suppose you can turn that sword into a back pack can you?" He asked while pointing. "Oh that's good, then, you'll.. uh... you'll also be needing this." He handed her a tightly woven bundle of cloth that was about a meter long and about 25 cm wide, it must've weighed 12 kilograms. "When you arrive at Solace you must speak to Tornell, the wisest and strongest of us all. Present him with this package I give you and tell him who you are, he will be waiting for you."
Minoc smiled warmly as the meeting concluded, "Now your transport, I bet that's what's on your mind, huh?" he sniggered like a kid with a secret, "You're in luck! We have a special, underground transport that was left to us by the ancient ones. Oh yes, you'll see! It is a sub-way, as the sacred texts call it, and there are not many in existence but it has been my project for many years and I am proud to say that we have the only working rail travel device in existence!" He was bouncing in his seat at this point. "But you mustn't go alone, oh for sure you will not! You will take my apprentice. Peter!" He yelled, "Come!"
A young, pleasant looking boy came running up, carrying his backpack and ready for travel. "Peter my boy! You will take this young lady into the mountain and there is no time to waste! Young Stephanie, before you go do you have any questions for me?"
Animals- gone. You have tea with Minoc and he tells you many things. If you have any questions now is a good time to ask them.
You are to go to the Castle of Solace using an underground Rail with Peter, and NPC you may play as you like, however, when you get to the train like carriage he should tell you that they have used a device to move the train that neutralizes inertia, so you can travel at very high speeds and stop very quickly without being killed.
Detail the play as you like, if you unwrap the sword and touch it it will trigger another event.
Just as she turns to leave, Sarah is aware of something... happening. She pauses, looking around, but then it happens... <Snipped quote> Sarah is half-tempted to consider this yet another miasma-induced mirage, but at this point she's just glad to get some extra information about who and what she is... and why did she wake up in a capsule in a cave? <Snipped quote> Sarah pauses, but takes a seat, if only to rest her legs. She didn't have much time either, but she supposes a few answers would be worth it.
What followed was a long, confusing tale about a lost civilization, a Dr. Drake Logan, and the keys to uplifting and advancing a civilization, only for it to collapse when the very key to its salvation became the instrument of its doom - Harbinger. Seems like whatever ancestors she had, they had chosen... poorly. <Snipped quote> She was... created...? Created to be perfect? Was she just some craftsman's creation, made to fulfill a purpose? The possibilities left Sarah a little uneasy, and she almost missed the bits about the biogenic energy within herself and the use of the sword as a... focus? Yes, focus seems like the best term for it.
It still feels weird for Sarah to have a fully developed vocabulary without the lifetime experience of developing and improving it.
Still, the idea of having woken up with only a name, no memory of herself, and now a destiny to fulfill was a tad intimidating for the girl. She certainly didn't feel like some perfect being. If anything, she imagined this is what a scared little girl would feel.
Though she felt it was unnecessary for Asra to insult her creators by calling the humans 'dirty'. For if Sarah is supposed to be some pure, biogenic-channeling superhuman, what did that make her creators, one who could not channel that energy nearly so well? Sarah wanted to have words with them, but somehow Asra unintentionally insulting them was mildly amusing. <Snipped quote by Maglar> Sarah wants to call out to Asra, to tell her to keep explaining more. However, Asra had made it clear her time was short, so Sarah glumly accepts the fairy's hurried farewell, and hopes to see her again so she could ask more questions.
For now, she has to get out of the cave, and figure out what this Harbinger business is.
"Come along, Pip," she tells her companion. "We need to get going. The sooner we leave this cave, the better. And we need to warn Master Thunderfist about these creatures..."
Pip barks in agreement, and hurries along besides her, wagging his tail. It's good to see New Master in good spirits like this.
However, Sarah quickly realizes that while going into the cave was easy with the sense of the sword leading the way, going out was going to rely on memory and careful backtracking. To her chagrin, she had misread a path and found herself someplace... unpleasant. It looks and feels unpleasant, like a home for all those creepy little spiderlings she ran into earlier.
It's then she hears something, like something biting down, and a weak struggle and moan. She feels a shiver down her spine, but something was telling her to hurry, to find the source of the sound. It wasn't going to be pleasant, but she needs to be there.
Pip looks up at Sarah and whines anxious. He can smell... many things. He can smell the spiderlings, thicker on the ground and more in number. He can smell their foul nest, the home where there'll be much more of them. He can smell something even worse, like a bigger and meaner version of them. But then he realizes he can smell... the villagers! He sniffs the ground a few times to make sure. Yes! It's faint, but he's sure. The villagers were here! Maybe the spiderlings took them? He looks up at Sarah and barks, then looks in the direction of the nest, alternatively growling in apprehension and whining uncertainly.
Sarah, coughing on the miasma, notes Pip's behavior; he seems both anxious to go ahead and afraid of something. Part of her is afraid of what she'll find there, but Pip wants to go, or part of him does, anyways. She grips her sword, and feels the biogenic energy flow from her into it. She is at least better armed this time. Better to move ahead with caution.
What she finds horrifies her; people suspended in thick, sticky webs, dazed and moaning when they can be heard, or limp and apparently lifeless. Were these the people from the village? Did the spiderlings do this? And if so, why? Or was there something else in here? She reaches out to feel a hand to make sure it's not another hallucination - and to her surprise, it isn't. The people are out cold, but not dead.
She goes in deeper, motioning to Pip to stop growling as they hurry along, trying to find where this cavern of horrors ends...
...and then she sees something that could be described as a nightmare made flesh...
Cave on Kensu's Island
Sarah
Urgrapth looked up from her meal before she had finished killing her prey. There was a person there, with pink hair! The Intruder!! Urgrapth hissed from her position and jumped from her web onto the wall, a wave of her spiderlings began to cascade down the cave wall near to where the pink haired intruder was to get her.
He nods, and he changes back into his monster form, spreading his massive wings, and taking off, flying out, and over to Draygons castle, the animals and humans scattering like mice before the scythe. He flies in though a window, and kneels before Draygon, head bowed. "You summoned me Master?"
Draygon's Castle
"I summoned you because Jub Jub Bird has been killed. She was one of your crew, was she not?" Jabberwocky did not move, Draygon continued speaking, "Go to Tinkertown in the mountains south from here. Investigate her death, report to me what you find. Destroy any that threaten us. If they are hiding one of the podlings, bring it to me." The air was cold and ominous, "Now, GO!!"
