How does this relic look? I was also thinking of adding the ability to shoot web, but I decided to ask first
Staff of the Spider King: Made from the claws, fangs, and bones of the ancient creature known as the Spider King. Through magic and perhaps the spirit of the creature itself, when the staff manages to cut skin it releases the same type of venom the Spider King possessed, one that is not lethal but instead paralyzes the enemy and fills them with a sensation of hopelessness. There exist rumors about the relic being just part of the original relic, with its other half hidden when the first user became possessed by the creature the relic was made or the many tales about the users of the staff hearing a voice that is not theirs or dreaming they are trapped in a web. Since no evidence of another part of the relic has been found the story remains a myth, mostly associated to new and idealistic adventurers. Finally, the staff can make itself smaller to make it easier to carry.
Looks interesting, I'm in. Just two questions, How did we enter arcadia? Did we wake up there, entered some magic portal on our way to school/work, depends on the individual? And will we pick a relic from a list or we will create one in our Cs?
"After All... you do realize you were trying to take an innocent little girl under your wing for a spicy curry challenge, yeah?"
”Well I do admit that I hadn't thought farther than just inviting you two, my love for curry and money blinded me…...” with a remorseful tone while scratching the back of his head “I approached you and Ceri because I recognized both of you, and I wanted to see if you would want to go, but it seems like I scared her” Eric started to feel guilty for what he did, since it seemed to him that Ceri was enjoying the festival before he asked her to participate. Not doing anything would leave a bad impression of him to Matt and Ceri, so at least he had to apologize. The problem was that he didn't had a clue on where she was, she ran pretty fast for those few seconds of smoke so he turned to Matt and asked him ”Do you have the slightest idea of where she went?”
"Very well. We accept your challenge... Eric Vasquez."
Eric didn't expect that Matt would be the one to respond and even less that he would accept the challenge. His acceptance meant that Matt could convince Ceri to participate if Eric won, but on the other hand Eric would competing against the Lizard king himself and even if it wasn't a mage duel between the two of them , the fact his money and the chance to win the prize was on the line made him feel like it. Eric nervously grabbed the dart pistol at the same time Matt grabbed his, and began thinking about how he could win, not listening to Ceri who was trying to catch their attention.
Suddenly the whole area was covered in smoke and Eric's thoughts were interrupted as smoke covered his vision. Fearing it was a dark guild attack Eric was a moment away from transforming into Mantis when the smoke cleared up; and when he noticed that only thing was missing from the scene, Eric knew what had happened Maybe…. I put too much pressure on her.... Eric said to Matt. He couldn't believe what had happened, one of the members he needed was gone, did he scare her into escaping? Eric felt a little bad since Ceri was originally with Matt and he made her run away, Eric made a mental note to search for her to apologize to her but first needed to see if Matt was going to search for her or continue with the contest.
On his days a merchant with his parents Eric learned that if a customer said “I don't know” most of the times it was no and in this situation it probably mean that, but Eric really wanted the prize and even if he didn't inherit his dad's natural charisma for convincing customers he had to try. From the looks of things the girl was clearly shy so she probably didn't want the attention of being in a contest. Eric took a moment to contemplate what to say, looking into his more than ten years of living with two experienced merchants, they had to deal with a shy customer at one point?. After a few seconds Eric spoke. “How about I challenge to a duel here miss? Taking advantage of the shooting range, If I shoot more targets than you, you accompany me to the contest, if I lose I leave you two alone and will pay you 200 jewels next time I meet you”
Ten years of living with merchants seemed to have gone out of the window once he said that. To Eric spending money on the shooting range and not using it bothered him more than to think of a way to convince the girl to participate in the contest despite her shyness. So Eric decided to use the shooting range as a way of solving both problems, clearly not thinking things through. To add fuel to the fire, Eric had said that with the most “confident salesman” smile he could do, completely oblivious that the smile looked fake and sort of mocking.
Age and date of birth:: 18 years old, born on March 6th
Guild:: Harpy's Wing with his Mark being on the palm of his left hand
Rank:: B
Personal Information
Personality:: Eric is an outgoing person, a trait he acquired from his childhood as a travelling merchant with his parents, with him also adquiring the trait of being a little cheap with his money and trying to barter with anyone that sells usually resulting in failure. Eric takes his responsability as a member of the guild very seriously and is prepared to do anything to ensure that another Dark guild cant hurt anybody without going trough him first.
The dark guild attack, apart from giving him the resolution to protect the village also gave him some mental scars of his own. Eric cant use his Take Over magic without the help of his belt, the belt doesnt do anything more than make some sounds and glow for a short time, but it acts as a placebo effect for him to innitate his transformation, with the curious side effect that he know yells transform everytime he is going to use his magic. Another side effect of this is that Eric can only do a full body Take Over, leaving him unable to use partial transformations. The belt has become such a part of his life that if he isnt wearing it for long periods of time Eric feels useless and doesnt want to do anything and is adamant in using it despite all the evidence pointing out it doesnt do anything to help him to use his magic.
While it's not know if it is the remnant magic of the mage who attacked him or a mental trauma that Eric developed on the aftermath of the attack, Eric had the word “Useless” whispered into his mind multiple times a day and while now with the help of the belt this has no longer happened, hearing the someone call him or someone close to him useless fill him with rage.
Once he transforms into one of the insect souls Eric enters sort of a trance into what could be said to be a soldier: following orders to the letter and not delivering any mercy to those he considers enemies. Unlike his use of the belt this is something Eric has been trying to change as he feels that he could be easily fooled into attacking his teammates but progress has been slow.
History::
Born to a pair of traveling merchants named Marco and Eli, Eric didn't have many friends since they were always on the go, instead his free time was spent exploring the multiple forests they traveled during their journeys and looking for insects to trap and add to his collections, which he had to hide from his parents if he didn't want them to release them.
His interest on insects would lead to his magic awakening when they were on Luna Crescente, Eric could do a partial transformation on his arms and legs with little effort, surprising a local mage who told Marco and Eli that if Eric stayed with the guild and trained with them he could achieve a full body transformation in about 2 years and achieve great things with the help of the guild. Marco decided to extend his stay for a few more days to think about the offer.
Luna Crescente was a popular place for merchants and they visited here at least once a year so it's not that they would never see him again and Eric needed to meet new people to befriend apart from shopkeepers and other merchants, they had a few friends who could take care of Eric, there was also the opportunity to settle down in a place. And so as the days passed, reasons for and against were made but in the end both of them decided on leaving the final say to Eric, saying to him that it was his future and that they would accept his decision.
Eric who was 13 at the time, didn't give much thought into it; he liked the idea of being a guild member but he felt he was still too young and it's not like his magic would disappear so he could join when he felt like it. So he continued to travel with his parents, practicing his magic every now and then. He would return many times over the next year selling different materials to the shops with his family, unfortunately on one of his visits to the city they arrived just in the eve of the dark guild attack.
Caught in surprise on the attack, Eric and his family tried escape the city, hoping that the dark guild didn't notice. From the center of the city they managed to avoid being attacked by the dark guild right until they were on the outskirts of the city. There was only one man in front of them, covered head to toe in a black robe with a completely white mask with no nose nor mouth, only two completely black eyes. The man make no move on them only standing still but an aura of unease could be felt, Eric new it was to fight or die so he used his take over to transform his arm into the one of a beetle, closed his eyes and with all his might he ran towards him prepared to dealt a blow in the chest.
After Eric didn't feel the punch connecting, he opened the eyes to reveal that in fact he had never moved, with his fist extended in the direction of the man; Eric found himself unable to move and with a feeling of intense dread that only grew as the man got closer to him. By the time the man was extremely close to Eric, the feeling of dread had combined with one of hopelessness and desperation, the air had become cold, breathing became difficult and the surroundings became dark as his vision concentrated on one thing: The man in black robes. The man leaned over to Eric's ear and whispered two simple words Useless magician.
Eric would wake up days later on a hospital bed, looking around the other people sleeping on their beds with each one of them having an uncomfortable faces as if they were a bad dream. Eric tried to stand up from his bed but as soon as he tried to stand up the word “useless” flashed upon his mind, paralysing him and making it difficult to breath, Eric gritted his teeth and began moving, barely managing to exit the room and catch the attention of a mage nearby before collapsing.
Now waking up with a couple mages in front of him one of them proceeded to explain to him what happened: Eric and his family had encountered with one of the dark guild strongest mages; Phobos the godslayer of fear capable of instilling enough fear to leave people in long comas without even touching them and Eric was one of the few people that was attacked by him and was part of an even fewer number of people who had managed to wake up with a part of the fear magic of Phobos used still lingering on him.
Within a few weeks Eric was able to normally walk and move, the effects of the magic had diminished enough that he could move normally but it still affected him in other areas; for example his partial transformation was simply unusable, wherever this was the result of Phobos' magic or he is subconsciously blocking it Eric doesn't know. Another thing was the sudden whispering of the word “Useless” it didn't happen many times but often enough to get on his nerves.
To get money while waiting for his parents to wake up, Eric started working up on a Magic shop of a friend of his parents who had taken him in his care until they woke up. On his free time he tried to use his partial transformation to no avail. Eric needed a way to use his magic again if he wanted to take revenge on Phobos and he would find his chance once special day one year after the attack on Luna Crescente. Eric was in charge of the store when the new batch of magic items arrived, paying the merchant and beginning to unpackage the items to put them in a shelf, Eric found something that caught his attention. It was a “Magic man transforming belt” a toy of a popular mage, upon looking at the toy a light went on inside Eric's head.
Opening the container of one of the belts and putting it on, Eric closed his eyes and began to breathe slowly, he began visualizing that he was just Mage man; a hero that needed to transform before using his powers, a protector of the innocents and someone without mercy for their enemies. With his eyes still closed he slowly pressed the buttons on the sides of the belt, while faintly saying “transform”. At first Eric began to hear the sounds that the belt made but immediately after he began to feel heavier, opening his eyes he saw his blue arms the same ones that he had when he did a partial take over with the the blue armor all over his body now.
Thinking “Untransform” on his mind made him return back to normal. Eric couldn't believe what happened, tears ran down his face as he realized he could wake up his parents now. Eric would enter Harpy's Wing at 15 and with training for 3 with the guild Eric has managed to obtain the Grasshoper and Ladybug souls.
increases his reflexes and speed, at the cost of making him really fragile, it also comes with pincers on one of his hands to use as a stabbing weapon.
Gives Eric a full armor surrounding him, capable of taking a good amount of damage before cracking, as a result of the durability of the armor, it increases Eric's weight by x5 of his normal weight and makes it very difficult if not impossible to run with it.
Sprouts wings from his back and two big antennas from his head which can be used to hear things from 3 miles far. Lastly he can secrete an odor that while not fatal, sufficient exposure to it can make someone pass out
Other
Relatives:: Father: Marco Vasquez , Mother: Eli Hamilton. Currently on a magical coma, as a consequence of being attacked by a dark guild mage.
Possesions::
A belt that its main use was a toy for kids, but Eric currently uses it as a "tool" to access his magic, when Eric wants to transform he presses the two buttons at the sides of the belt which makes the belt make a few techno sounds and to make the center of the belt glow for a few seconds. The toy is waterproof and doesnt come with lacrima.
Festivals meant two things, lots of food for one to eat and as a consequence of that lots of money spent and Eric being the cheap person that he was determined to spent the smallest amount of money. His plan was perfect in hindsight, for special events Eric had amassed an impressive collection enough so that if his calculations were right he would be able to eat to his heart's content and just have to pay 50 jewels. What he did not expect was that the owners would adapt to his plan, as he entered one if the restaurants a waiter stopped him and pointed to a sign that said ”Coupons and old discounts won't be accepted today, please pay in cash” “Hope you didn't try to pull the same stunt that you did last Christmas, if you have any money please enter, if not you already know the exit” the waiter remarked in a rather harsh tone.
Eric was a little bummed out but quickly returned to normal, there were more than one restaurant on Luna's crescente and it's not like every restaurant in the city didn't accept any kind of discounts just for today. Again his expectations were blown as in a cruel twist of fate, every restaurant or food stand he entered had a similar sign to the one he saw, some mentioning him directly and others had a crude drawing of him.
How much of a threat was he considered to their business? Eric wondered as he wandered around the city, looking for something to eat that either costed 50 jewels or accepted his coupons. His answer came in the form of a poster on a wall which said “Do you think you and your friends are strong enough to challenge the MIGHTY DRAGON curry, said to be too hot even for dragon slayers and survive? Find out here!, If you and two friends manage to eat the dragon curry in under one hour the meal is free!!!!and the three of you gain a prize of 20,000 jewels and a 50% discount on every meal for a month!!, try it now at the Red slayer buffet".
Eric's eyes lighted up like a moth looking at a lamp, he just needed to find someone who wanted to eat with him, someone with an appetite big enough to help him win the prize. Looking around Eric saw a group of mages, they appear to be quarreling and dangerously close to start fighting, but Eric overheard a someone said date, were they having a lovers quarrel? or one was just jealous of the other? either way he didn't want to meddle in unless they started fighting so he continued to look for people.
Looking around he saw Matt carrying a small girl over his shoulders who he took more time to recognize, while not being friends with him, he looked up to Matt since he was a pretty powerful magician with his mastery of take over magic, and unlike Eric he did not require a something to use his powers. On the other hand he barely recognized the girl, but he recognized her by her attire, thought his name eluded him at the moment. Matt looked as the perfect candidate for the test and even if he couldn't know how the girl would fare, Eric felt they were a better option than the bickering mages so he approached them.
Since they were on their way on their shooting stall, Eric speed up his pace to arrive before them, and started shooting on the range, there were other three spots so the chance that the range filled was slim. Once Matt and the girl came to the range, Eric waited a few moments before asking Matt “Hey not sure if you know me, I'm part of Harpy's Wing too; but regardless of that I would like to ask you and your companion to help in a contest with a prize of 20,000 jewels for each winner, since the contest requires three people I cannot compete on my own so I ask you if you can help me out”
