Empour

Undiscovery

Hey @Horrid, how do you like the sound of having Captain Baldrich here meet up with Enrique? He could serve as a "Guide" of sorts, while all these other characters are off being attacked by monstrous monsters. Perhaps we could bring them to Rockvale, and have the Pirate, the Smugglers, and the Creepy Old Dude all be friends.

Undiscovery

A return of Voldoa, mmm? I'd like to see how this turns out.

Undiscovery

In Collaboration Between Empour and SepticGentleman

Stone Pit

When Piper woke, something wasn’t right.

First of all, the rain was over, and she liked the rain. Maybe she’d summon some more later.

Second of all, rapidly looking around, she was in somewhere entirely different from where she had fallen asleep. What had once been an open cliffside with a view of the forest below had become a rocky crevice, surrounded by unscalable tall rocks. Had what the master warned would happen happened? Had mysterious men stolen her away while she was sleeping under the rain clouds, and made her go sleep somewhere weird? Granted, sleeping on a rock in the middle of a rainstorm is pretty weird to begin with, but it was still very alarming that she was waking up somewhere completely different.

She could see holes in the rocks, but they were deep and had no light at the ends of them. Just where was she? Had the ground collapsed, or did the earth rise up around her while she was sleeping?

Near one of the caves, she could see a person, someone in some sort of robe and a large hat. Beyond that, she couldn’t make out any details. He was sitting on what looked like a large, mossy rock. While this was a little odd, she really couldn't say much about it. She had, after all, just woken up from sleeping on one herself. Shortly after she spotted the man, he waved at her in a friendly way.

Behind him, there was a cave of a familiar shape. It looked almost exactly like the alcove she'd left Chumi in last night, but it was deeper, somehow. Did that cave have an older brother?

Evidently, it was actually the same cave, but it had grown up. Really fast. Chumi walked out from it, yawning and looking around. He spotted her, and began to walk over. He was stopped, however, by the man she'd seen earlier.

The man said something to him, and beckoned for her to come over as well. Not wanting to leave her teammate to deal with the man on his own, she hurried over as quickly as she could.

"Come in, come in!" The man called out, "It's fine, I assure you!"

"Just who are you," Piper asked, slightly out of breath, "Are you the person who brought us here?"

"Oh, no." The man replied, smiling, "Afraid that's the land's doing. Happens more often than you think." He folded his hands together and continued, "Today's looking to be a busy day. Four newcomers in such a record time."

The land? Was there some sort of mischievous deity responsible for her sudden relocation to this ravine with a kindly man within? She didn't ask.

"Four? You mean the dragon and the orange lady?" said Chumi. Evidently all that he'd seen of Theresa was her hair.

"Ben and Theresa, the saurian and the red-haired woman, yes." He replied, nodding. "Came through here and I told them all about the place. Suppose I should do the same for you two. But, how about we start with names before it slips my mind again? I'm Julian."

Piper smiled. She liked this man much more than she had a moment ago, because he had just given them the chance to introduce themselves the proper way.

"I'm Piper, the Storm part of Team Thunderstorm," she started,

"I'm Chumi, the Thunder part of Team Thunderstorm," Chumi continued,

"Together, we're going to explore the world!" Piper finished. Good. That felt good. It felt horribly awkward having to stop in the middle of it while she was introducing herself to Ben and Theresa.

"Ha! I love it!" Julian replied, clapping, "Such enthusiasm! But, but..." He paused for a moment, searching for the right way to say his next piece. "Exploring the world's your goal... afraid you've come to the wrong place."

The wrong place? What was he talking about? This was the best place to explore, it was the only properly uncharted territory in the world. It was called the Blank lands for a reason.

"What do you mean, the wrong place?" Chumi said, reading Piper's mind. "This is the only unexplored land in the world. It's obviously the best place to go about exploring,"

"Ah..." Julian replied, folding his hands again, "You two best sit for a moment and let me tell you about these... "Blank Lands". I'll take your questions when I'm done. And... keep calm minds. This may dishearten you."

And he told them all that he told Ben and Theresa beforehand.

...

"... and that's all of it." Julian finished the tale, sitting on a rock once again, eyeing Piper and Chumi with obvious concern for their reactions.

Piper, for her part, was taking the news better than Chumi was. He looked absolutely devastated. Piper, however, was not. Mostly because she knew several points to Julian's monologue were wrong.

Magic, despite what savage, uneducated peasants thought, was far from all-powerful. There was no magic in the world strong enough to destroy an entire continent, or make one for that matter. No... Known magic, anyway. Wait, if the continent was created by and for the purpose of storing destroyed things lost to time, then it would possibly be possible that the very magic that had created it was magic stored by itself. Her head hurt just trying to figure out how that would work. Suddenly, another thought occurred to her.

"If the Blank lands work as you say, then what's to stop it from surviving constantly, despite things being told about it? Things are lost or forgotten all the time," she said.

"The Blank Lands' curse works in... well, ways I'll admit I'm not entirely versed in." Julian replied, "The land itself, the names you give it, those are harmless to speak of. But the inhabitants, they're the ones whose lives are at stake. That's why the Vigils work so hard to mark newcomers and... actually, I should ask, have you two been marked yet?"

"Vigils?" Chumi spoke up, "What are Vigils?"

"Tall men. Blue skin, rags, seashells for heads. Tentacles come out and whip their mark on all foreigners. Brands them with the curse that prevents them from leaving."

Chumi looked at Piper. They knew exactly what Julian was talking about, but weren't sure if they should let on about that. If this curse he spoke of was anything like the curses that were told about in hushed whispers back at Orb Arcane, it would be a very good idea to avoid it if at all possible. Both of them understood that.

Piper decided to immediately change the subject.

"Pardon me for asking, but, we're foreigners ourselves. We've seen things and people here, yourself included, so... Why are you still alive, if this curse is so dangerous to the natives?" she said.

"Because I am native." Julian replied, "I'm already tied to this place. Can't leave even though I'm not marked. And you haven't left yet, so you're no threat to anyone in that sense. Which brings me back to my previous question - are you marked?"

Piper looked at Chumi again, defeated. It looked like there was no way around his question.

"The night before last," Chumi said, "Our camp was assaulted by two terrifying monsters. They more or less fit the description you gave of the vigils. Piper was sent deep into a pool of water by them, and I was chased around the nearby forest until they caught up with me and hit me,"

Chumi stood on one foot and pulled his boot off again. The disgusting sore could be seen there, in clear view.

"I'm not sure what happened to you, Piper. Did you get cursed too, after you went into the pool?"

Piper looked around. She really didn't want to get cursed, and the way the conversation was leading, she suspected the man might demand that she would. Still, though, there didn't seem to be any way around it.

"I don't think so. I looked over myself last night while everyone was sleeping, I didn't have any sort of gross sores like that," she said. A lie, obviously, but she'd have known if there was a festering wound like that on her body.

"Oh..." Julian said, looking a little disheartened, "No good, that. Vigils'll send more after you if you stay that way. May even send a Fishmonger, ugly things..." He paused for a moment, turning his head away, looking over something in the distance. "Piper..." He began, "The Vigils... at least, their leader, isn't a complete monster. Wharfinger Vorris, he's an old friend of mine. I think... I think it would be in the interest of your wellbeing to... willfully accept the mark."

Well, at least he wasn't outright demanding it. He seemed genuinely concerned for her well being. He almost reminded her of someone, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

Still, though, seeing that thing on Chumi's ankle completely and utterly overrode any desire she had to go along with what the man had said. Willingly put something like that on her body? Who on earth would willingly curse themselves in such a hideous fashion? She wanted to stay an attractive witch, not a wicked one.

"Is there any way I can... Just promise I won't leave or anything?" she said, a little weakly. Despite her internal indignation, she couldn't bring herself to actually act on that with Julian. He was too, well, friendly and grandfatherly, despite being the bringer of bad news.

"I'm afraid the Vigils don't take much stock in words." He said, turning his head again and pointing to a cave covered in withered coral and barnacles. "That cave... over there, it leads to their Wharf. They make their home within it. If you go there, if you ask to see Wharfinger Vorris, tell them I sent you... it would be seen as quite the polite gesture." He paused for a moment before continuing, "I won't force you to go, of course. But ultimately, it is the smarter decision."

So this wasn't really an option. Despite his kind words, Piper could tell, there was no way around this. Either they'd be hunted by something apparently even worse than the monsters that had attacked before and ultimately be given a disgusting blemish in somewhere probably rather unfortunate, or go to this "wharf" and hope that this big boss would allow for her to choose where it went.

She considered where she'd prefer for it to be. She could get one on the ankle that Chumi didn't have his on and match like that, that could work. She'd never be able to wear sandals again, but that was a small price to pay for not having to either be chased by a creature from barnacle hell or have her face forever tarnished.

Wait. Why did she have to get it in the first place? Surely if she could just destroy the curse that would kill all these people if they were spoken of, there would be no need for a gross blemish.

She didn't say that to Julian. He'd probably object for some reason. Instead, she simply asked,

"I... I think I need some time to think about this. Is there somewhere I could rest, get myself and Chumi into some proper clothes?" she asked. She'd use whatever time he gave her to get ready to embark on this quest.

Julian directed his finger to the same alcove full of living spaces he told Ben and Theresa of. "Up there." He said, "It's a bit of the Junction I carved out for travelers to rest in." He paused for a moment before he smirked and said, "You could call it... a cave-inn."

Chumi was suddenly out of view, and hysterical laughter could be heard from his general direction. Piper tried her best to keep herself composed after his pun, but wasn't able to keep herself from smiling.

"Thank you very much," she said, voice shaking a little with restrained laughter. She liked Julian. All the more reason to liberate him from this curse that threatened his very being.
She reached over to Chumi, pulling him off of the floor. She began walking towards the steps to the pun-hole, but was stopped by Julian's hand. It was old, weathered and wrinkled.

"Hold on, almost forgot..." He said, pulling out two keys from his coat. "Take these keys. If you have them on hand, the Junction's doors are always open to you."

Piper accepted them, putting them into her hat. They sounded handy. She'd have Chumi take a look at them later.

"Thank you, Julian," she said, smiling. She bowed slightly to him, and continued walking to the cave-inn.

Undiscovery

Stormy Forest

After Piper had apologized and dried off the fur blanket, she excused herself to go sit outside and calm her burning face. She’d run out of things to say, and wanted some time to think about what had happened. She sat atop a large rock, watching the flood of “water” creep across the clearings below. She could tell where it had flooded by the strange, multicolored tree-tops.

She’d managed to find some(more or less) allies soon after being separated from Chumi, but she still missed him. It was like missing half of herself.

Theresa was nice, and seemed genuinely kind and caring, but she wasn’t Chumi. It was very clear from the dragon’s response that he felt just as much animosity towards her as she did towards him, which, all things considered, was fairly typical of dragons. Probably humanoid ones too. Not only that, but he’d apparently also killed one of the hell-monsters that attacked them last night. Scary. Hopefully she wouldn’t have to deal with him forever if she wanted to be with Theresa.

She wondered, for a moment, just where she was. She had no idea where she’d been taken by her underground waterslide, but her map would. More or less, anyway. The map had measures built in to ensure that the positions of objects on it were correctly placed, no matter what the user saw. This was to prevent things like optical illusions or sleeping in a carriage from turning it into a piece of abstract art.

She pulled the map out. The rain which would have hit it shied away in a manner that suggested an invisible dome over the map. When unrolled, the map quickly got to work filling out a section on the map a few inches east from where it had marked the place they had made camp. A few inches, unfortunately, actually meant a very long way, since the map was large enough to show off the entirety of the continent in magically-possible detail. It would take her weeks to reach where she’d been, and she doubted Chumi could survive for that long without her cooking. That meant that she’d have to use one of the emergency methods to bring him over.

She sighed, and reached into Hatty. She pulled out a glimmering green orb, ready for usage. She didn’t want to use this, as it was an expensive spell, but it looked like there was no other option. Teleportation is powerful, but it’s one of the few varieties of magic that will always shatter an orb on use. That meant there was no easy recharge, and a new raw orb, which is very expensive if you weren’t an explorer who’d stumbled upon the motherlode of them, would be required to make another. Worth it, though, in cases like these.

Piper stood, and shook the orb. It made a quiet, tinkling sound, and immediately shattered, the pieces breaking up into little more than glittering green dust. Behind her, a much, much louder thunder-bell sound reverberated, and she turned to see Chumi. She nearly ran forward to hug him, but stopped when she saw his condition.

Chumi was also in his bedclothes, but they were in even worse condition than hers. He might as well not have been wearing a shirt at all, given how much of it was destroyed. He looked utterly exhausted, and had many small cuts across his arms. She was suddenly glad she’d gotten away the way she had.

Chumi sat down on the ground almost immediately, letting out a long sigh.

“Thank you. I thought I was going to be lost in there forever,” he said, finally.

“Lost? What? What happened?” Piper asked.

“I used the recall orb, but that wasn’t enough to throw them off. I grabbed a couple of the orbs we’d left back at the mine, and ran off into the woods. I hoped to get away, but they found me, somehow. I still can’t figure out how,” he explained. They found him? How was he not dead?

“Um, if they found you, how are you still alive?” she questioned, hoping that he wasn’t a zombie now. Zombies were gross.

“That’s the thing, they didn’t want to eat me, they didn’t even want to kill me. They just wanted to... Touch me or something,” he said, removing his left boot.

“Here’s where they hit me,” he said, pointing to an absolutely disgusting sore on his ankle.

“They had, well, I’m not sure, but some sort of tentacle hair or something. It was dark and hard to see. When they caught up with me, one of them whipped my ankle and left this mark. After that, they stopped chasing me and just left. Didn’t stop me from running, though,” he finished.

“You should... Probably get to sleep or something. I’ll explain what happened on my side once you’ve rested and don’t look like a werewolf the morning after a full moon,” Piper said, “I met a couple of travelers, they found a little cave for shelter,”

“Speaking of,” Chumi said, as they walked towards the cave, “I eventually wound up back at the camp, but I couldn’t find you there. I packed up our stuff and went to look, and got lost,”

“Oh good, I thought I was going to be stuck without another change of clothes until we made our way back,” Piper said, relieved.

“Ah, we’re here” she said, looking inside. Theresa was asleep on her newly-dried bed, and Ben was sleeping curled up like, well, a dragon. It didn’t look healthy. Or comfortable, for that matter. Still, she wasn’t a dragon. Chumi looked over her shoulder.

“An Azygos Dragon? Seriously, you made friends with an Azygos Dragon?” he said, nearly a whisper.

“I wouldn’t call him a friend, really,” she replied.

“This is perfect, though! Azydras are some of the best laborers in the world. He’d be perfect for the orb facility,” he said.

“I don’t think that’s a very good idea,” she said, “I’m pretty sure he’s either exiled or free, and he tried to steal my wand earlier,”

“He tried to steal your wand? I’m surprised he’s still alive,” Chumi remarked.

“He’s a dragon, Chumi. I can’t slay a dragon on my own. Besides, he sort of saved me, even though he tried to steal my wand,”

“Anyway,” she said, before he could reply, “There’s some space in there. Go ahead and set out your blankets and get some rest, I’ll sleep outside,”

“Okay. Goodnight, Piper,” he said, as she dried him off.

“Goodnight, Chumi,” she said, walking back to that rock she found earlier. She rarely told anyone, but she much preferred sleeping under a stormy sky when she could. The various permanent enhancements made to her body by her master made the rain feel like an endless warm shower in a bathtub. She usually didn’t, though, because it tended to bring about some awkward questions as to why that girl was sleeping sopping wet in the rain while there was a perfectly good tent or inn nearby. Charity, no matter how well-intentioned, tended to be terribly embarrassing.

Piper slowly drifted off under the wonderful smell, sound, and feel of the rain blanketing her.

Undiscovery

I'd like for Enrique to join up with another player immediately, which means picking someone willing for that. Ben and Theresa aren't options. This means joining up with Team-Richards-Currently-Fighting-Komodo-Dragon-Vampire, Team-On-A-Quest-For-Crystals, Team-Chewie-and-Han, Team-Investigating-Sacrificial-Happy-Town, or one of the characters that as of yet have not been introduced. Whoever's willing, please let me know.

Undiscovery

<Snipped quote by Azereiah>
You don't say.

<Snipped quote by Empour>

Nope. Ever play Dark Souls?

@SepticGentleman

Nah. Never really been interested in that kind of punishment from games.

Undiscovery

Is that his name?

Undiscovery

<Snipped quote by Cuccoruler>

We're getting there. @luclovers has got things under control.

Anyway, I dug up some old and (mostly) hand-drawn art pieces of mine for characters/creatures that may/will be making an appearance later. Guess which ones, if you like.

The peanut gallery

@SepticGentleman

The T face on that last one looks like a total bro.

Undiscovery

Nothing, save for my own arrogance? You people are doing wonders for my ego. Anyway, new character. Minimal description, as I want everyone to learn about him as time goes on. He's below Team Thunderstorm in my character post.

Will get to writing now.

Undiscovery

Hey you people, come point out my writing flaws so I can improve and slow the spread of arrogance.