[IC] Dark god Darko welcomes challangers

[Thantos]

Sits on the throne waiting for a mortal to challenge him, his scythe in hand as he waits in his dark palace in the depths of the underworld, his minions covered his world and the world above, souls ripe for the taking, he pondered and wondered who would be brave enough to cone to the underworld to face him. He looked up at the pool of blood and watched and waited for a mortal to attept the journey to him. And to the winner a gift he shall bestow upon them. Immortality. Or weapon of their choosing or servator of their choosing.

[Starfall]

Klick-clak went the rickety wooden wheels as they rolled down the uneven path, overlapping the idle hum of the APC’s engine. Some genius in the R&D team had opted to disguise the vehicle as a massive carriage for this operation, as though the sight of a motor vehicle would cause the peasants of this world to riot in terror. It was a good disguise too; lacquered red panels gilded gold covered every inch of heavy armor and oversized wheels rolled beside reluctant tires. A seat had been affixed to the front of the APC so a faux-driver could hold the point and a team of eight extremely unhappy horses had been given the task of pulling it along.

It had been a quiet trip so far but Satori was beginning to have doubts…

Not in the hunt, Satori loved a challenge and today promised to be quite the hurdle, but in forming an alliance with non-Shin-Ra agents. A dark god was plaguing these lands this world needed saving before his fell touch consumed the entire world and it had been Satori herself who had proposed an alliance between those disjointed heroes who had arrived, but that didn’t mean she liked it, she just didn’t want to be greedy especially when they weren’t the first ones on the scene. Even a hunter followed a code of honor, but that didn’t mean she had to like it.

Satori was a tall girl in her late teens with a lean predatory body and skin as pale as the moon itself. She was riding shotgun in front of the carriage with her knee-length coat tucked underneath her bottom, it was a gentle shade of white-pink that stood out against the dreary background that had been hemmed in black and dyed crimson along the inside, sleeves currently folded up at the elbow. Beneath that she wore simple functional black clothing including a pair of teethed boots and a pair of clawed gauntlets. She was far from unarmored but in a more traditional manner than one might expect for a military commander with a large blade hanging off of her left hip, a modestly sized warhammer strapped to her back, and an ornate handgun on her left. Over that coat she wore a white furred cloak as though she needed to protect herself from the cold and her black hair had been tucked in a wide-brimmed hat colored the same soft pink as her coat.

Shin-Ra Industries had opted to send their two most occult-savvy agents to deal with the dark god gone wild. Satori herself was something more than human as evidenced by the eerie glow in her gaze and the chattering shadows that crowded around her. Her pretty face frozen in mid-puberty for all of eternity. A glamorous monster with enough vanity to more than make up for Nergal, the newly hired dark knight who was even now preparing himself with a dark ritual in the back of the APC, and likely causing undue distress to the other occupants. The driver wore a dapper black suit but beneath that was a hollow suit of metal moving with a mind of name, once code-named Katana the mountainous black automaton was an empty headed bodyguard assigned to protect those with Shinra blood pumping through their veins, but not particularly inclined towards self-preservation.

Before them stood the Plague Forest. Well the locals weren’t exactly the most creative people but one couldn’t fault their honesty. An endless stretch of dead forest that eventually led to a vicious mountain range where their quarry supposedly lay in wait. With a twist she called back into the faux-carriage, “Well gentlemen, if any of you are having doubts I suggest you voice them now. From here there’s no turning back.”

[Thantos]

There was a scream that echoed out of the forest causing horses to scatter in terror and knock off riders and what animals that were in the dark twisted forest fled as well, some died as their hearts were weak. The fallen animals were quickly covered by roots of the dead trees and were pulled under the trunks slowly and drained of their flesh till bone and skin remained. A shadow was walking from around the forest and snarls could be heard, evil screeches and more waited in the vast forest. Who knows what could be lurking in there. But it was the first step through the dreaded journey.

Watching from the underworld was darko. The dark lord of the underworld, he smiled and tapped the pool and thunder crashed with green lightening streaked the sky and rain started to pour on the travelers. He was expecting their arrival and the horrors that could cross their paths were limitless

[Mikellh Dejax]

Eubeal walked up the pathway just behind the Shinra's carriage. He wore a black duster coat over his usual black suit and slacks, as well as some leather gloves for the occasion. On his head, covering his full-face chrome mask was a large rimmed hat. The hat and coat to keep the locals at bay, though he didn't radiate an aura of absolute aggression, he just had to be sure.

He spotted the carriage staying stationary near the forest. "Hello," comes his voice, it was that of a nondescript male. "I do hope I'm not late." This, addressed to the personal on the carriage. The name 'Shinra' was almost familiar, but he couldn't be sure what it was from, as he didn't have the strange communication he had at the back of his head when he fought a Godmodder, but if he was correct in his estimation, the being he was about to fight would be only a bit less powerful than a GM, as it possibly lacked the causal paradox imposing abilities of the GM, but still quite powerful as, if he was not overestimating, the entity had absolute control over death and fear. Unsure if this entity was more powerful than Zhaus, he doubted it, but he shouldn't be arrogant.

A scream echoed from the forest which lead dozens of animals streaming from out of the forest, as well as panicking the horses on the carriage. Eubeal turned to the source of the scream and back at the carriage. He took hold of his hat and coat and took both of them off in a quick motion. He folded his coat and lay it on the ground near a tree, as he put his hat on top of his folded coat. He also took off both leather gloves and both caught white-hot fire as they came off and disintegrated almost as instantly, despite the rain. Eubeal lead himself to a pebble on the ground, and picked it up. Assessing and estimating its weight.

[Drifting Pollen]

This was no wagon. Nor was it a cart, carriage, caravan or chariot, or even a simple automobile or Animated Transport Unit. Eleanor couldn't feel any of the right vibrations as the rumbled its rickety way down the rambling roads, and the faint sound of its engine was definitely not something so simple as the puffing, clattering mechanisms she was used to. What was it, then? After some consideration, she decided that she couldn't possibly tell. Unlike her stuffy elder brother, Eleanor had no room in her head for all those clicky, sparky, infinitely complicated machines, all the excess toil and knowledge required for an inefficient means of manipulating the deeper energies of the universe.

Its confounding complexity aside, however, the disguised box-on-wheels did make for a very smooth ride. Eleanor sat quietly inside, hands on her lap, silently staring off into space while trying to ignore the man in black armor and his strange doings. So steady was the journey and so absentminded the girl that she barely noticed when the former finally came to an end, the woods a barrier blocking the ways forwards. It took her a moment to register the sudden end of motion, but after that she was quick to step out, into cold air thick with the scent of blood and dark magic.

She quickly shied away from the others, careful not to get in their way. A small, bony waif of a young woman, Eleanor certainly looked frail enough to be knocked down by an accidental collision. A large pair of dark goggles covered her eyes completely, making an already long face look almost otherworldly. Her clothes were a mix of leather and cloth and burlap, dull brown and clinging tight to her slim form, the sort of simple but elegant getup that might have accentuated her curves, if she'd had any. Gloves, boots, a thick belt holding up several pouches, dark hair tied back in a messy ponytail- all fairly common features, things might find on any peasant girl who so happened to live near this desolate land. The only particularly strange characteristics about her were the gold pocketwatch she clutched tightly in one hand, and the clearly visible scar that ran all the way around her neck in a neat circle, a mark left over from when her head had been sown back on.

"It's cold."

Her voice was quiet and airy, nervous as the reclusive chimney sweep declaring her love for a handsome prince. A faint rasp in it, as well. "And this place doesn't like us."

The words were soon proven true, as rain began to pour and screams rang out, animals died and dark things crept about. Eleanor shivered, and glanced at Satori. "That... and it smells bad. Thank you for the opportunity, Miss, I have no further worries." With that, she stepped forwards, heading into the woods. "Off we go..."

[Doc Doctor]

In this world, not every foul thing danced to the Dark King's flute. A wise and respected man once said that the oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.

Something blacker than whatever had stirred within the fever dreams of Bosch crept through Plague Forest, as much an enemy to the challengers as to Darko. Pure evil is a commonly used to describe every diaper sagging vagrant and howling entity that so much as makes a ripple in someone's private pond. Pure evil this, pure evil that.

The real deal bothered not with poetic fancies or the reasoning of man. It watched the caravan with eyes that saw nothing, as still and as cold as a corpse within the nebulous shadows of the forest.

@Drifting Pollen@Mikellh Dejax@Starfall

*Unlike in the movies, no faint lighting conveniently gave away the contours of the forest. It truly dark. Because of this it would be high on impossible to miss the blazing twin foglamps which would flare up a dozen yards to the caravan's right. Before they materialised out of the gloom, the adventurers would be able to feel it. A sixth sense screaming a vague warning, like a psychic lighthouse on a rocky shore. It would be a brief warning, though, and then they appeared. Will O' the Wisps they were not, but eyes. Eyes almost human save for their freakish size, radiating a spectral blue which coated the forest in a surreal glaze of icy illumination.
The light had an almost physical presence that could be felt on the skin, like the crawling of insects. Those that however briefly met the stare of the thing that waited would feel the bugs inside of them, and something else. Something with long, dripping phalanges reaching in deep, withering claw tips feeling over their very essence in a way similar to how an abusive uncle feels his young nephew.*

[Thantos]

A ghoul slumped out from behind a tree 6 yards out and it turned and looked at them its eyes glowing and flesh peeling it was a wonder how this thing stayed intact. It shambled over and stopped and let out a howl before rushing the group snarling and growling as it still rained and thundered as it rushed oved and it spat out bile and the bile coated one of the boots Eubea was wearing and the bile was hard to clean off as the ghoul charged them still snarling and growling.

[Mikellh Dejax]

"Agh! My shoe." Eubeal exclaims. The pebble in his hand is tossed aside. He then stares the ghoul straight into its eyes, though his own face is beneath the chrome mask. He chooses a point near the ghouls shoulders and suddenly super-heats it, producing white-hot flames, and a small explosion that quickly fizzles out from the rain. He then chooses the ghoul's neck, and does the same, a small, white-hot explosion in proximity of the neck, hoping to tear flesh, and melt bone. Lastly, he decreases the distance of whatever remains of the ghoul from the sky, spatially displacing the creature high above the canopy of the trees and letting it fall to the ground, to be hopefully impaled on the trees.

He picks up the pebble he cast aside and throws it toward the trees, where the two wisps of light were, increasing the pebble's mass, but not volume, to that of a hill. Taking care not to accidentally hit any of his new comrades.

[Starfall]

“Suit yourself, m’lady.” Satori finished with a tip of her hat and a derisive laugh like a knife through the air.

There was at least one other champion beyond Eleanor and Nergal within the APC but he had chosen to remain silent, if he was even there at all, he was a tricky one after all and for all she knew the dashing devil Corban could have assumed a guard position not unlike Eubeal. The APCs provided to the members of the Knights were spacious unlike a typical military vehicle but this was because most members of the division required some sort of pre-battle ritual whether it was Meteor’s love of building models or Nergal’s archaic blood rituals. Provided that their guests were willing to ignore his chanting they were in for a pleasant ride.

Not so for those on the outside.

A howl split through the mists and all eight horses jerked back in terror. Before they could Satori’s head whipped around and the air darkened around her while her eyes flashed crimson, a visual representation of her increasing fearful aura, barring the horses path with invisible fingers cold as death itself. Between the Princess of Darkness and the shambling ghouls the horses had no choice but to amble further into the forest, relying on Eubeal to defend them for the time being, well save one horse who passed out then and there. The big male stud was still strapped into his harness so the vines were unable to tug him away, creating a very awkward scene where he was simply dragged along while a dozen wooden tentacles groped his body, a few seconds later the beast would shamble back to its feet ever so awkwardly with bits of foamy phlegm still flecking its mouth.

“I wouldn’t recommend that, the beast is here for the same reason we are, I imagine.” Satori spoke towards Eubeal. While she was happy to let the reality bender deal with the ghouls she wasn’t intent on starting a fight with fear itself. Yes, she could feel its presence and recognized all the signs of the monster that had battled Nergal to a bloody draw, the Primeval was amongst them. “Best we remain on the same page until the beast turns on us. Besides, we’ve been unable to successfully reproduce the monster from the samples we recovered, and I’m eager to see it in action. If you’re really that interested in it we’ve managed to brew a wicked wine from its blood though, it has a high chance of ending your life but the burn is unlike anything you’ve ever tasted I guarantee you.”

[Mikellh Dejax]

"The projectile's been cast, but I won't follow up with any more engagements. I see your point, but I believe eliminating the beast would decrease our chances of losing one of ours to it. Regardless I won't engage further unless it become an immediate threat" Beyond the thrown pebble, Eubeal continued on with the pace of the carriage. Satori then commented about wine made from the blood of the creature. He turns his head to her. "I'm not sure if I can get drunk, but I'd rather remain sober for the remainder of this expedition. I also would dislike dying, especially from self-inflicted poison." He cracks the joints in his neck. "No offense." He states.

[Doc Doctor]

@Mikellh Dejax@Starfall

The eyes vanished as the pebble flew past where they had been. As Satori was familiar with the monster, she'd know well that it was going to be following them every step of the way, keeping just out of sight. Whatever it had planned, it couldn't be good, but at least for the moment it wasn't attacking.

[Drifting Pollen]

"Oh look, it's a zomb-"

Eleanor never got a chance to finish her sentence, as the approaching ghoul was quickly blown up and flung hundreds of feet in the air. She craned her head upwards, watching it fall. Messy, but technically effective, if one had that much energy to waste. Overkill aside, however, she suspected that any of the members of their party could easily handle such simple beasts, at least in small numbers. If they were going to thoroughly trounce any poor undead that happened to get in their way, they might as well leave the task to one who could do so flashily, and without exerting himself much.

She waved upwards. "Farewell, little corpse."

Humming quietly, she strode on ahead, maintaining a brisk pace beside the remaining horses. A brief glance was spared in the direction of the strange glow and the thrown pebble, which shook the ground as it landed, but she quickly turned her masked eyes back to the way forwards, watching for unexpected tree trunks she might accidentally run into. The thumb of her left hand gently pressed one of three tiny knobs on her pocketwatch, producing a small click.

"Dying isn't so bad." She wasn't looking at Eubeal, but her words came right after his statement concerning poison. "Worth doing at least once, if only for the sake of the experience. Besides, within a few hours that monster out there or the dark lord awaiting us will likely have killed you regardless, so you may as well try out a new flavor before the end, no?"

[Thantos]

There was the sound of distant snarls and growls then one ghoul appeared out of the mist, then another, and more eventually a whole horde of these corpses started to come out of the mist. Thousand of them collected over time by the Death God, all of them smelling the bile stench from the crushed ghoul. Like sharks drawn to blood they snarled and charged the group teeth showing and claws sharp, they charged the group of travelers hungry for the flesh on their bones. Then there was a loud trumpeting roar as a large monstrous two headed ghoul lumbered out of the mist holding a tree in one hand and a half eaten deer in the other. And its eye made eye contact with the group and snarled.

[Mikellh Dejax]

"Oh, dear lady, believe me, I've done dying numerous times, though I can't say it's pleasant, nor is it horrible. Though for certain, it is immensely irritating." The scream of countless ghouls echoes through the forest. "Like these creatures." With a shift of his head, Eubeal displaced multiple ghouls from the front to high-up the sky, not a care where he placed them as long as it was not overhead the caravan, some even far above the cloud cover, now unseen to fall onto the ground.

With that taken care of, he shifts his sights to the lumbering, two-headed, undead giant. It makes the dead deer in its hands thrice the deer's original size whilst also increasing the mass of the dear, easily covering the giant in fresh blood and a very heavy and cumbersome carcass. Eubeal's masked head scans the surroundings and see that there are still much ghouls left. "Anyone want to take some shots at these creatures? I know some of you are fond of battle, and I am not a selfish man." There was a laugh in his voice as he uttered that last line.

[Doc Doctor]

Whilst attention was focused on the giant, a large rock shot out from the woods like a cannonball, set to obliterate the front left wheel of the caravan. No doubt thrown by the creature that had allowed the adventurers to glimpse its eyes.

It wanted them to walk the rest of the way, not ride.

[Starfall]

“That’s the spirit,” Satori said with another more honest laugh and even Katana deigned to grind her black iron plates together with amusement. “Fortune favors the bold.”

In the distance there was snarling, there was growling, and the steady pound of charging feet getting closer and closer. For Satori the stampede was not so sudden, her dark vision was near perfect, enough that she had been able to make out the wretched form of the Primeval in the distance obfuscated only by the creatures desire to hide itself. The ghouls however were different. She saw them rise in their thousands such that they made the sweeping forest appear cramped. Then with a nod of her head Katana swept her bladed fingers low and cut the terrified horses.

“I hope you don’t mind if I show off now.” Satori jibed. “You're good, but you lack style...”

It wasn’t uncommon for members of the Knights Division to be overlooked by their enemies. After all the majority of them were men and women, ones who had made great sacrifices for great power, but at their core still very much human. Before monsters who could rearrange the stars and sing songs that brought the death of universes they appeared very small indeed and yet they survived every encounter to die another day. But sometimes being clever wasn’t enough, sometimes it was important to let the world know just how dangerous you were, and for Satori the answer was clear. The night was her domain and it was everywhere in these dreary woods and with a click of her tongue it came alive. Grasping hands appeared from every crack in the ground and foliage, every bend of the tree, every hovering cloud that darkened the earth below, even in the wake of the falling raindrops. They swept out in hundreds to catch ghouls by their stray limbs and sent them tumbling back, which in turn send them rolling along the floor and into their fellows, turning the stampede into something of an avalanche of bodies with broken limbs.

The automaton was busy swinging itself into the front seat of the APC and pressing its metal to the pedal. With a start the engine revved and the metal box leapt forward, leaving a shower of red panel in its wake as it went, straight towards the two-headed ghoul. Already burdened by the overgrown deer head a mass of tangling hands had snatched its ankles and were looking to toss it onto its back. Just in time for the all-terrain vehicle to drive its treads into the flesh of its head and climb mount ghoul with all the ease of a sand dune.

Of course the ghouls were still around, she hadn’t done a damn thing about that, they were just doing their best three stooges act at the moment and it was about to get better. Along the way Satori reached behind her back and grabbed the child sized warhammer hanging over her back and swept it around, its head was a single solid block of metal and the runes carved along the flat were in an alien language not yet known to Guild Space, while she leaned out of her seat and grasped at the railing to intercept the large rock with her hammer. The Solar Hammer was not the real deal but it was more than enough to shatter the stone and generate enough momentum to begin channeling Quaking Fire, which promptly fed its way into the shadows beneath the APC and traveled through them, out there in the forest a thousand shadows spat liquid fire that in itself traveled through the natural heat-generating reactions of the ghouls, and in an instant the Plague Forest went up in flames. Those ghouls that were directly affected by the tumble would likely be reduced to ash by the trailing liquid fire while the rest of them were to be set alight by proximity alone. Even the weight of the rain was not enough to stop the rampaging fire.

It was not a stretch to say that, in an instant this dark and dreary night was suddenly a very muggy and blindingly bright day. Of course ghouls were ghouls, even if hundreds of them died there were still thousands with their flesh melting off, using the last moments of their life to charge forward before their limbs snapped and their muscles melted away. But they would have to catch up with the APC now moving along at a solid fifty miles per hour and rolling right over everything in its path. And then there was Satori who, slithered away from her seat and now standing on top of the transport with her hammer sheathed and her arms folded.

“You’ll have to try harder than that to get one up on me, Primeval!” She roared into the darkness, well aware that she was now picking the same fight she had asked Eubeal not to.

[Mikellh Dejax]

As the APC sheds its carriage disguise, it revs its wheels and runs quickly, running over several ghouls in front of it, as it drives. Eubeal notices and shifts himself, decreasing the distance between him and the roof of the APC, placing himself on it. His head turns to his only other companion on the roof, "quite rude, taking off without me." comes his voice, and then a chuckle. He turns behind the APC. "Anyone still on land, I suggest you grab-hold of the transport, lest I need to retrieve you myself."

[Doc Doctor]

A fireball burst into view behind the APC, rolling across the path behind the adventurers as they took off at full throttle. The fireball rose up. Flames literally dripped off of the Magna Pater as it produced another layer of thick mucous to shed the fire on its body, as if it were sweating magma. It was fireproof.

It streaked after the machine, its snakelike tail plowing through the earth. The fire had ruined its darkness, torched away its shelter. It hated the light, and hated even more the ones that had made it. It raked its way through any ghouls in the way as if they were made of old sponge, tearing through them as easily as a vegan tears lettuce and somehow maintaining enough momentum to gain on the APC. Its physical power was outrageous, and unfair. Unfair that something so strong could move so fast.
The ghouls up ahead even began to flee into the burning forest to escape, favoring the flames over the riled elder horror's flabby mouth and oozing claws.

[Drifting Pollen]

"Oh look, it's an army of zombies."

The seething sea of screaming specters rushed forth, grasping hands and gnashing teeth reaching out for flesh. Their numbers were great enough to actually pose a threat, if one wasn't careful- so Eleanor promptly vanished, fading away into thin air as if she'd never been there in the first place. A moment later, the ghouls washed over her previous location en masse, finding not a scrap of the meat they sought.

It took her a few seconds to show up again. When she did, she was standing on the side of the APC, jutting out at a right angle without any visible support. Crouching sideways just above the wheels, she turned to face the rear, both hands working to open one of her small pouches and draw forth a long, thin contraption that was far too large to have possibly fit.

With the ghoul army being set on fire and the two-headed giant under attack, Eleanor had decided that it would be best for her to focus on the creature pursuing them. She pointed her weapon (which looked suspiciously similar to a sniper rifle, albeit one the color of brass) at the beast, sticking her pocketwatch between her teeth and using both hands to aim.

Then she fired. One, twice, three times, loud bangs mixing in with the already horrendous cacophony. Three projectiles rushed through the air, too fast to see- and splattered into the mud, well in front of the Pater. At the last second, her aim had gone wild, and her shots had hit the ground at seemingly random points between the monster and the caravan.

"Gosh darn it!" She proclaimed loudly, tossing the weapon up toward the roof. Her sudden speech propelled the pocketwatch out from between her teeth, and she caught it deftly with one hand. "Someone else try!"

[Thantos]

The large two headed ghoul ate its way out of the half eaten carcuss and roared at the group of travelers and one of the heads sprayed bubbling blood on the ground and melted away and the other head roared spraying acidic bile on the trees and caused them to fall toward the group. Its roar woke up the familiers to the dark god amd glowing red eyes appeared in the mist and the ghouls started to fall back retreating into the mist and the eyes took form of black horses and when they moved a trail of black mist followed and they ran out of the mist and the mist opened for the travelers. But who knows what other dangers lurked in the mists of the Damned.