Mokley

The Helium Frightful

Shall we discuss the method of deciding whose adventure we go on first? :D

I was thinkin that maybe everyone pick a number 1-20 and I'll roll a d20 ... unless there's a more fun method? Or there's one volunteer? Or everyone nominates someone else?

The night is dark and... full of bears?!? (The Night Wardens)

Personally I'm not much for fight-based RP, but this concept is awesome and I'm interested to see where this goes! :D

Lantern

The water twisted and frothed; bubbles hissed in Anise's ears as her surroundings turned in the vortex of her own creation. Soon her vision was filled with spinning eyes and turning chomping teeth, struggling against the current toward her, bubbles and froth and torn turning leaves of kelp.

The beast opened its jaws again, and a deep impenetrable darkness grew deep in its throat; a ball of something powerful and something foul. The turning eyes flashed bright red, and the serpent grinned.

The water grew colder.

Rapidly, as tendrils of darkness reached out of the serpent's throat and quenched what little moonlight filtered down, the surface of the water froze over and ice thickened. The water around Anise was deathly frigid -- and above her, the ceiling of dark-tainted ice grew swiftly closer.

The serpent took advantage of the distraction to launch a strike, many rows of teeth wide to receive her -- but her jettison of water sent it spiraling back again, still seething the many vines of darkness that fed the ice.

She had her moment with the casket -- but getting out would prove far more difficult.

With a touch of Anise's glowing hand against the gold emblem on the casket, the lid would unlock with a low sound and a hiss of bubbles.

The Lady of Light lay still, her pale mouth and white eyes open -- breathless and sightless. She wore a tattered dress not unlike Anise's own, and her feet were bare and cold. Translucent hair floated around her.

In both hands she gripped a sword to her chest. The source of the light was a bright stone embedded in the hilt, that glowed like the sun.

Dragon's Mask

@drewccapp Welp, maybe we can help? How do you want to see Arthur develop? What sort of plot might push him toward that goal?

Lantern

@c3p-0h@drewccapp

Ok I need some voting here. Even if there's just one person left, should we wrap this up anyway?

Dragon's Mask

I dunno about this one you guys -- anyone still in? Otherwise I'll have to say thanks for the crazy ride and see you in the next one! xD

Mote

Ok a general FYI I'm still gonna post once that clock hits 7 days ago, so anyone planning a post plz doso! ;)

The Helium Frightful

A fragrant breeze played with the beads that swung delicately from The Witnessed Day's antlers, while 'birds' spoke in gentle tones. Such was the lullaby for Whisper and Lucky, while the clouds drifted lazy overhead. A thin shadow crossed over them, cast by Stone's moving dark obelisk as she navigated the maze of crumbled walls. The waddling-thing panted quietly in the shadow of a leaning pillar, its eyes on a dangling carrot, while the bobblings chittered with barely a whisper.

The pillar shifted slightly, a threat that it may soon fall upon the waddling-thing and its passengers.

Whisper would feel the low rumble, a slight tremble, of the broken rock upon which he lay.

Somewhere among the broken ruins, something squeaked and snapped and cracked against metal.

The 'birds' had stopped making sound.

For a few strained moments, silence hung waiting over the ruins.

A low sound rumbled beneath their feet.

"What happened to the radio?"

Golby stood poised atop a high angle between a severed mech-arm and a collapsed wall. He was cloaked and armored in rust-colored weatherproof traveling-clothes, high boots and a tall hat, pointed sunglasses glinting. A bulging sack of doughnuts was slung over a shoulder, while the other hand held a H.O.B.O. bright with a hologram display of the surrounding landscape.

The ruins shuddered.

"PUT IT BACK!" Golby screeched in a high panic as he broke into a scurrying shuffle down the angled wall. "Turn it on, turn it up, put it back, quickly now, put it back put it back put it --"

The sound roared again, thundering in their skulls.

The pillar crashed to the ground, narrowly missing the waddling-thing that had leaped away in time. All around them, broken things were tipping and cracking and dropping precariously close to where they stood or lay.

Around the perimeter of the ruins, something flickered.

Out of empty air, like the static of an ancient television, flashes of fur and scale and bone fizzled into existence -- until, within moments, a massive, gray-white monstrosity was revealed out of its invisible slumber.

It roiled and raised its bony spines -- each as tall as a building -- growling low and horrible. Quick as a skyscraper-sized cobra, the beast launched into the air and struck the highest point of the ruins with a hammering blow of its long muzzle, raining rock and broken metal down upon the travelers. Its shadow cast dark upon them as it snarled and snaked through the air, angrily striking down again and again in a magnificent determination to pulverize every scrap of stone or machine still standing.

Whistlehowl Star {always open!}

Hey whoa a post? What? No way! Impossible.

(You guys still kickin'?)

Whistlehowl Star {always open!}

The old man spun around immediately at the echo of another voice at the edge of the lantern-light -- and he held up the flame to get a better, squinting look at the big-hatted man and his strange birdlike companion. Instinctively he stepped to the side, shielding the young and timid Laphi from anything this new potential threat could conjure.

"An exit!" he huffed, his long beard waggling. His wild dark eyes gleamed in the light. "The very worst error you could make in these caves is to search for what you want -- because when you find it, you'll never know if it's real." He peered into Edric's eyes, and saw there a telltale gleam. "So you already know."

He looked up, above Edric's head, at a glinting in the distant darkness. Sunny's voice echoed on the walls, but her words were impossible to make out -- if it was her speaking at all.

The air was beginning to thicken with the faint musky smell of woodsmoke and copper. Somewhere, chains clinked. A woman sobbed. A metal door slammed shut with the click of a lock. The griffin screeched.

"I hate you," a faint, child's voice whispered all around.

The darkness thickened, encroached upon the edges of the light, pressed closer and darker as if it intended to swallow them all whole.

"Blast your nightmares," the old man breathed, watching around him carefully. The fears and horrors of those gathered were slowly manifesting, reverberating in the rough stone walls, trembling in the haunting mosaics of civilizations swallowed by dreams.

The cavern, long deprived, was hungry.

"Come, keep moving. The only way out is --" The old man strode forward, resolute on his bony legs, but skidded to a halt as his light revealed the iron gleam of a cage wall. He lifted the lantern, explored to each side -- but in the darkness they had been quietly imprisoned, a cage that had materialized around them while they had discussed the nature of nightmares.

The old man growled. "Which of you is responsible for this?" he demanded, accusing.

The cage walls slowly, silently moved inward -- trapped them, forced them to move closer together, threatened to eventually crush them between the bars. The darkness loomed just behind it, to snuff out their light and to suffocate them in its black nothingness.

"Destroy it, damn you!" the old man hollered, stumbling backward into Edric to avoid the encroaching iron bars.