Ruin's Dawn: Lightning Gem

Praetorum, Yeva, Cail, Shl'Drei, and Natalia

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Re: Ruin's Dawn: Lightning Gem

If you want to view paradise/Simply look around and view it
As better-looking options faded into a cloud of rock dust, the group decided to go right, to brave the weird shimmer that they had seen the enormous toad exit and re-enter, behind which beckoned a realm of bright colors and weird shapes. This time, unlike previously, the party members would find that the shimmer had coalesced into a stable location, and that they could indeed pass through it. There was a subtle change in the air as they did so, but little else palpable.

Once they had crossed however, they abruptly found the chamber on the other side brought into focus, as it had that brief instance when the toad had belched at them. It seemed in general outline to be a vaulted stone chamber, much like what one might expect underground. Except that the walls were overgrown with some sort of…overgrowth. It was moist, rank, and slimly, like a thick film of algae, only it presented in a variety of colors: dark greens, bright greens, purple, bright pink and red, brown.

It seemed to cover every static surface, including the floor. It yielded and squished as the party stepped cautiously into the chamber. It was somewhat slippery, though not so much so that a normal person could not walk on it with caution, and it felt to be perhaps a finger’s breadth or so deep. The film gave the impression of being alive, though it did not, thankfully, move, at least not as far as any of the group could tell.

In the center of the chamber, upon a knee-high rise that may have been a platform sat a nest, seemingly made of some sort of clear mucous or resin, resenbling a shallow glass bowl that had started to melt. Within sat a large collection of round, roughly spherical objects, mostly transparent and with a greenish tinge. Something was inside each of them, a vague translucent form that coalesced around a small black dot, whose exact location varied slightly form sphere to sphere. The objects looked disturbingly like eyes.
Image
The ether-sensing rune that Praetorum had inscribed earlier told him that the barrier they had passed through was no fracture; however, once they were across it, he could perceive that the spheres themselves practically sizzled with ether, as if each one were its own tiny fracture. All but a few, that is. In one corner of the nest sat some objects that had taken on a dull grayish rather than green hue. The black dots in each of them had also settled towards the bottom.

The toad was there, and it hopped forward, making plopping sounds on the slime-coated floor as it did so, to interpose its awkward, bulbous form between the party and the nest.
”Do not harm my eggs,”
it said in a deep, phlegm-filled croak. The ocher colored eyes regarded them, moving separately as they did so.
”I am better prepared to defend them than before.”

Image
Despite the obvious warning, the toad did not make any sort of aggressive or combative move. It regarded them in silence for a few trills. Then it spoke again.

”You are not with them? The ones that came earlier to harm my eggs? What are your intentions? Why have you come to my Imagining?”
It regarded them a little longer, seeming to focus on Cail for some reason.

”*How* have you come to my Imagining?”
it demanded, a somewhat livelier tone somehow creeping into the toad’s moist rumbling.
”The others found it once, but have seemed unable to since. I have seen them, wandering to and fro before the entrance, as if looking for something lost. But you found me readily, as they had the first time. How is it that you mortals do this?”

Info & Rules

  • As said earlier, if any of you miss a round, there will be (not good) consequences at the end of the thread.
  • Thus far, Cail and Shl’Drei have each missed one round; Yeva has missed two and is now written out of the thread.
  • This style of event moderation - with objectives etc - was created by a wonderful moderator named Crimson. But he’ll always be Straylor Leonard to me.

Objectives

 ! Message from: Must-Do Objectives
  • Ask the toad a question.
  • Tell the toad one thing about mortals.
 ! Message from: Can-Do Objectives
  • Try to answer the toad's question.
Next modpost, Tuesday, 24 August.
At that time, Basilisk will also be posting an update to this thread. For this reason, the deadline for your next post is a bit earlier (see below)
Deadline for your next round's posts is 2359 EST on 23 August. If you haven't posted by that time, I will consider you to have missed that round.
word count: 810
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Natalia Gregorios
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Re: Ruin's Dawn: Lightning Gem

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Saun 35, Arc 721

There were a few things Natalia did want to do. She wanted to investigate the stone chamber in greater detail for clues. She wanted to see if there was another exit leading out of the room. There was even a small desire to learn more information about her companions, for any and all types of information were good things in her mind.

What she absolutely had no desire to do, however, was touch anything.

The floor beneath them was soft, and the young woman was not pleased about that. It felt bizarre and erroneous for some reason she couldn’t quite explain. That hadn’t kept her from charging ahead though, nor continuing to do so.

The floor was soft. The walls were moist. The walls were moist, and they were in a sewer trying to find Aukari with an artifact. And she had a dagger. And there was a toad. None of it made sense.

The rest had come though the barrier behind her, considering the better option had imploded before their eyes, and all seemed to be getting their bearings. At least until the point where the aforementioned toad hopped up to them and started talking.

“Oh, good. I was worried that things were going to start making sense.”
The quick and dry delivery of the softly murmured words were mostly for her own benefit, but she didn’t attempt to hide them from the others. While maybe they were used to being thrown into odd situations, Natalia was not.

From their vantage point, it was easy to see the nest on the platform. What she was less sure of, however, was the identity of the ‘orbs’. Their composition and nature were vague, at least from what she could see, although it was evident from the toad’s reaction that the ‘eggs’ were important to it.

Before? What was the toad talking about? It seemed to have a good sense of them considering he had just met them trills prior. There also seemed to be an implication that it knew they were different than the others – how could that be?

All good questions and little time for answers as the toad continued.

Apparently, there was some sort of manner or process of getting into the place it called it’s ‘imagining’. She couldn’t imagine what it was considering they had made it in rather unimpeded, but what the toad was describing was something a bit different. Perhaps those with ill-intentions were unable to enter the ‘imagining’ a second time?

Natalia’s mind whirled with possibilities, but she had no answers for the toad. All they could do, in her mind, is assure that their intention was not to cause trouble, but something the toad said captured her attention. Perhaps it was simply how the words had been put together, but it was…intriguing. To her surprise and shock, she was the first to speak.

“We are not here to hurt you, or your eggs.” Lowering down to a kneel, or as best she could manage on the soft terrain, Natalia continued. “Perhaps, we found our way in because we were looking for something instead of having lost something? We were sent here to try to find and stop people from doing bad things. Some mortals do bad things, and others, like us, try to stop them.” The young woman hoped that being lower to the ground would help her communicate with the toad more effectively and give the impression of cooperation instead of intimidation.

The toad seemed intelligent, but it was hard to tell from the brief sampling, so she kept her verbiage as simple and concise as possible. “I’m sorry we were not here sooner – the first time they came to you. I’m sorry if they hurt you or your eggs. Is there anything you can tell us about them that might help us find them – to stop them from hurting others? “
word count: 663
"A girl should be two things: who and what she wants."


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Cail Qy'Jihai
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Re: Ruin's Dawn: Lightning Gem


Cail Qy'Jihai


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Cail looked around seeing how the room was vastly different from the sewers. The ground was squishy while the walls were moist. Thankfully the smell appeared to have improved causing her stomach to settle some. Taking a deep breath, the woman stayed back some as Natalie continued going further into the room. Looking around, she tried to ignore the strange squishing that came from the floor. It was the platform in the middle of the room that got her attention. Tilting her head, the Biqaj moved closer being mindful not to lose her footing.

It was the frog talking that caused her to back up quickly looking down. A frog had never talked to her before. Yaralon was a strange place that the woman was deciding she did not want to return to any time soon. The woman looked over when Natalie made a quip under her breath about it making sense. Defend her eggs, Cail looked back up at the platform watching the little balls on it. Or eggs rather according to the frog.

“No, we are not with the others. Could they have stumbled upon this place by accident the first time?” Cail asked, “I do not know of all mortals finding this place. Can you tell us what happened when they came the first time? If there is a way for us to keep them from coming back, I want to help. I am also a healer where I am from, I could try and help you if you need it.”

Though the frog was clearly not a human, Cail would not let that stop her from helping anyway she could. The woman decided to carefully kneel down to the frog’s level so that she would not appear intimidating. From what she could see there was no initial damages to the room that they were in. But the group had not gone very far in either.



Biqaj Female

23 Arc old
Long Brown Hair and Eyes
5' 8" Tall

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Green Cloak






“Part of the healing process is sharing with other people who care.”
~ Jerry Cantrell
word count: 358
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Praetorum
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Re: Ruin's Dawn: Lightning Gem


The shimmer was… strange. Passing through it, Prae blinked as the room on the other side snapped into focus all of a sudden. Prae grimaced as, under his claws, he could feel something squish, slick and slippery, the same substance that coated the walls like moss or mould.

Despite the myriad of colors, Prae’s eyes were drawn towards the center of the room, where what looked to be some sort of bowl contained a pile of spheres, translucent and filled with… something. Something that oozed ether like a fracture.

The question of what those things were were answered when the toad spoke. Prae couldn’t say he had expected that, but after some of the things he’d seen, he was willing to simply roll with it. Its eggs, the toad had said. Harmed by mortals.

Prae’s eyes fell onto a corner of the nest, where a handful of eggs had taken on a grayish hue, extruding none of the ether the others had. Dead hatchlings, perhaps. But how had they died? The outside of the egg was still intact.

“How did they hurt your eggs?” Prae asked. “We don’t wish to hurt them unintentionally.”

The others asked their own questions, and gave their own reassurances to the toad. When they were done, Prae spoke again. “I don’t know how we found you, but it might have something to do with the shimmering we passed through earlier. There was a light, similar to the one we passed through to get here. Perhaps it allowed us to see the entrance to your imagining? Mortals have a way of stumbling into such things at times.”
word count: 277
Let's play 'What's Weird About Prae'

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  • A fiery rune shines under his right eye
  • A firey glow in the back of his mouth

Arms

  • A ring of blue runes floats over each of Prae's wrists
  • A silver shield marks the back of his right hand
  • A ring of light around his left forearm

Misc

  • His tail is about eight feet long, usually knotted around his waist
  • His body temperature is uncomfortably high

Surroundings

  • Wind gusts with every step he takes
  • The area around him is slightly more static-y than normal
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Basilisk Snek
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Re: Ruin's Dawn: Lightning Gem

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Ilaren's team had found its way into a nest guarded by a giant toad, in a strange imagining. They all agreed that Yaralon was weird, and there was really no arguing that, and that they didn't want to come back ever again, which was perhaps more arguable. They all asked questions of the toad, which looked at them all curiously before it answered. "I was able to drive off the others, and keep them from hurting the eggs. The dead ones died naturally. I am charged with their protection and I will fulfill my duty, no matter what. The others had something, a sphere, that they lost deeper in the imagining, and I drove them off before they recovered it." he said, his tone calm.

Yet, during this question and answer session, something else was happening, deep in the imaging that overlayed the Yaralon underbelly. The very sphere the toad had mentioned lay next to a massive cluster of hardened crystal, glowing brightly as it filled with ambient energy. Then, with a soft click as it filled to capacity, the sphere vanished in a rush of energy. When it did, a bell-like chime echoed throughout the underbelly and when everyone heard it, a vision filled their heads.


Three people stood on the shores of an island, though only one of them looked like a regular person. That was a tall man in polished armor with a heavy fur cape. He was a big man, tall and broad, though he gave off the appearance of being well muscled. He looked old as well, his hair and beard both a snowy white, and his face was lined with sorrow and regret. Next to him was a woman that many Idalosians would recognize. She had long dark hair, pale skin, and red eyes. She was wearing polished gold armor, though she was bare headed at the moment. Her most defining feature, however, was the long chocolate brown tail she had in place of legs. Ethelynda was almost unchanged, but she looked somehow younger and less worn, and she lacked her Fracture Scar.

The person standing across from Ethelynda and the armored man, however, was the least human of them all. It was, in fact, a Dragon. A massive, four winged beast with lightning arcing across its body and long horns that towered over both of the others. Then, the Dragon lowered one of its claws and held it out to Ethelynda, who held out her hands. Four spheres quickly transferred from the Dragons claw to her hands, where they seemed to vanish into her.

Ethelynda pulled back her hands and looked at them with a shocked, sad look. "So few?" she asked, looking up at the Dragon, which shook its head. "There were never many of us. We were fifteen, once. By the time you arrived, only ten remained. Now, there are only four. We retrieved four souls, but two have been lost, perhaps forever." the Dragon said, his voice clearly male. Then, he turned and looked at the old man. "It is done. Keep your promise." he said, before he took off, flying back towards the interior of the island.

Ethelynda looked at the man, her expression saddened. "Do you really have to do this, father?" she asked, sounding almost as if she were ready to cry. Luesco reached out and patted Ethelynda's shoulder, his face saddened. "I wish we didn't have too, but Anox and Cierel would not stop until they exterminated the last Dragons. At least this way, they'll survive until we can guarantee their safety in the world at large." he said, before turning back to his task.

With a deep sigh, Luesco raised his hands a spoke a word in a language long since lost, his tone a clear command. At his word, there was an enormous cracking sound, as if the world itself had split apart. Then the island began to rise out of the sea, and others rose alongside it. Ethelynda and Luesco were left floating above the ocean, which quickly filled the gaps the islands had left, as the Iulure Isles took their place in the skies, where they would remain for millenia to come.



When the vision passed, it was clear that only a few seconds had passed, and that even animals could have visions, for the toad was clearly trying to clear the vision from its head as well. Before they could continue the conversation, however, a loud rumbling sound could be heard throughout the entirety of Yaralon, as if something truly massive had just growled. Then, the eggs began to coalesce, several of the smaller eggs each coming together into larger egg. Then, these larger eggs began to hatch.

The creatures that emerged from them were large reptiles, with glowing chests and eyes, and long necks with horns. They were draconic looking, barring that they didn't have any wings, but the most obvious feature about them was that each of the Dragonlings had four separate heads. These hydra-like Dragonlings looked around, then roared at the four people that Ilaren had sent into Yaralon. The roar was so frightening that Shl'drei's nerve broke and he ran, fleeing the beasts.

However, the Dragonlings did not make another aggressive move towards the bunch, and instead turned and went deeper into the imagining. One of them, however, stopped and rubbed one of its heads against the toad, letting out a quiet burbling noise, evidently grateful for the toads protection of their nest. Then the toad took up a position between the three remaining Mortals and the retreating Dragonlings, clearly ready to defend them still if they tried to pursue. And of course, there were also the Aukari still wandering around somewhere.

There was one more problem, however, as Cail's shadow rose up and started to envelop her. Nothing Praetorum or Natalia could do drove the shadow away from her and she was gone in seconds, taken by her own shadow. Prae and Nat were left alone, and they still had their own problems to deal with.
Outside, however, though none in the imagining could see it, the skies above Idalos turned purple and began to crack as if it were a glass pane and every sleeping person on Idalos woke up screaming as their dreams fractured in their heads.

 ! Message from: Basilisk
Hey everyone, I'm interrupting because we're moving into the general endgame phase of the event. For those curious about the quest to stop the artifact, I'm afraid the event was never really about that, that was just the IC intention. The Ascension post will have the answers as to what happened to the Artifact.

Shl'drei, as this is your second missed post, you have been written out of the event.

Cail, you've been pulled into Ascension and will be posting there from now on. Ascension can be found here: viewtopic.php?f=414&t=27131&start=10
word count: 1168
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Natalia Gregorios
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Re: Ruin's Dawn: Lightning Gem

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Saun 35, Arc 721

Natalia listened as the toad answered their questions. Luckily, the ones that had come before them hadn’t hurt the eggs, making the young woman feel as though they were not as far behind in the situation then they had perhaps thought. While it did continue to progress in an oddly unusual manner, they seemed to be where they needed to be.

And then the chime sounded, and Natalia began to see something different.

She had no idea who any of them where, but….what that…a dragon? Apparently, things were going to continue not making sense. Perhaps it was all just a dream? A very, very weird dream, but a dream sounded like an excellent conclusion.

The people spoke, and things happened. Natalia keyed in on the relationship between the father and daughter, although she wasn’t sure why. Perhaps because it seemed so meaningful and she had never had a relationship like that with her own father, or really anyone. Relationships were a mystery to her, perhaps never to be solved.

The vision ended, and she found herself right back where she had been before the vision started. Yet before she could say anything, a loud rumbling shook below her feet. And she watched as the eggs began to coalesce together, and hatch.

Wide eye, the young woman watched as…well, she wasn’t sure what they were, but they certainly looked like...something out of legends. Steeled in place next to Praetorum, she arched an eyebrow as they roared at the group, causing the young man to bolt. Natalia thought to call after him, but they had bigger, more pressing issues, and she wasn’t sure what sudden movement would provoke the creatures to do.

The creatures began to move away from them, and the toad put himself between the group and them, clearly signaling that they weren’t welcome to follow, although Natalia wasn’t sure if she would be inclined to follow, even if they were.

And then, if that hadn’t been enough creepiness, the young woman’s shadow took her away, leaving Natalia and the Ithecal alone.

Glancing at Praetorum, she quirked her eyebrow gently. “Well, then there were two? Why am I beginning to feel like this was all a weird sort of goose chase? Is there a point to any of this?” She wasn’t upset, but if what the toad said was true, then the artifact that the Aukari had been after was out of their reach, meaning the mission the group had been sent on was complete, although it had really had nothing to do with them.

Looking around, she tried to figure out what they were supposed to do now, offer up some sort of opinion. “Perhaps we can go look for the young man, make sure he’s alright? I don’t think our continued presence here is desired.”

Glancing at the toad pensively, she waited to see what her sole remaining companion had to say.

word count: 503
"A girl should be two things: who and what she wants."


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Re: Ruin's Dawn: Lightning Gem

Make a wish and blow
Praetorum seemed stunned and dazzled by the fracture-filled eggs before him, and remained so thanks to the reverberant chime that thrummed through his skull, followed by the visions filling his mind, and then by the surge of power from the eggs as they merged and then hatched. Thus indisposed, he did respond as the dragonlings emerged.

The four-headed hatchlings, as if from an inborn instinct, no sooner emerged into the world as they started to waddle their way from the nest towards the back of the Imagining, as newborn sea turtles might make their way unprompted to the sea. Shl’drei had fled, and Cail had been taken by her own shadow. Of the two who remained, Natalia recovered her wits first, and suggested going after the fled young man.

The toad peered up at her with one ocher eye, while the other cocked towards the ithecal.
”You are welcome to leave, mortal,” it croaked: ”You are visitors to my Imagining, not captives…”
The mucusy voice trailed off, and the eye that had been trained on Praetorum swiveled abruptly to focus on something behind Natalia. A trill later, it continued:
”…but it seems you may have to contend with something else first.”
Abruptly, an unbelievably long tongue lashed out of its wide maw, extending past Natalia in the same direction its other eye had just looked. Few creatures could tongue-point more impressively than a giant toad.

Just outside the shimmering barrier moved some humanoid forms. These were vague, out of focus, much as the things in the cavern had been when the party had been on the outside looking in. And they looked washed-out and colorless, much as the sewer outside the Imagining had been before. Abruptly, one form in the middle clarified into focus, revealing it to be a red-headed man holding an open jar. It was not possible to see or otherwise tell its contents, but they evidently caused the man a good deal of distress and revulsion. He squirmed and grimaced, while another form seemed to grip him firmly by the shoulders.

A few trills later, the other forms -two of them- also resolved into view, revealing them to also be red-headed. One was a middle-aged woman, the other a perhaps slightly younger, but powerfully-built and assured-looking man, holding an enormous war dart -the shaft alone some seven feet long, fletched in large red feathers, and tipped by a foot-wide, blackly glittering broadhead. He was using the war dart to help hold the third person in place.

The man in the middle, who was being held, and who had come into focus first, was the smallest and youngest of the group. He remained hunched over, as far forward as the man with the war dart would allow him, retching, while the woman put the jar away, and then turned towards the barrier. It was obvious from her reactions that she could now see them as clearly as they could her.

She turned towards the man with the dart, saying something to him that the party could not hear, reaching out imperiously for the war dart. Reluctantly, the larger man released the smaller one. The woman repeated the gesture and command, seeming to grow irritated. Finally, the man handed her the war dart, though he seemed unhappy to do so. She pointed away from the barrier and said something else, whereupon the larger man grudgingly saluted and left in that direction.

The smaller man started to follow, but the woman clamped her free hand firmly onto his shoulder to stop him, then said something quiet while her mouth formed into a cruel smile that did not reach her eyes. Looking as glum as a condemned criminal, the younger man turned towards the barrier. After a trill, with some apparent encouragement, he shuffled forward and walked through the barrier, with the woman close at his side. The smile left her face as she scanned the chamber’s contents.

”Where are the eggs?” she demanded, her Common slightly accented.

The toad hopped forward:
”They have hatched. Your trinket vanished as they did. You are too late. There’s nothing for you here! Begone!”


From somewhere towards the back of the chamber issued an angry, warning hiss, perhaps a chorus of them. If either Nat or Prae ventured a glance away from the newcomers towards the back, they would just catch an outline in the shadows at the edge of the visible chamber, around which glistened four pairs of angry-red eyes.

The aukari woman saw them, too. ”Step aside, toad,” she demanded. She then barked some order in a language neither Nat nor Prae knew, but that the young man obviously did. He seemed almost instantly to rouse himself from his funk and straighten up. He had a curved sword. Curved. Sword. Which he now drew and raised. Two trills later, he and the woman were both wreathed in flames. The heat caused the damp goo lining the room to steam, releasing noisome smells.

”You may leave now, meddlers,” the woman said from the midst of her fiery corona. ”Step aside and let us pursue our errand, and we shall have no further quarrel with you. Hinder us, and die in this filthy place with your frog prince here.”

Nat and Prae would have just a couple trills to decide what to do next and act.

Info & Rules

  • Due to the time-sensitive nature of this, I can not hold out for people to post. If you miss a round, there will (I'm afraid) be consequences. Please Communicate with me if something comes up for the week. There will still be consequence but different. Please post by Monday September 6 by 2359 Eastern Standard Time.
  • Going forward, there is a zero-tolerance policy in place for missing rounds. Miss one, and you’re out. This only results in a change for Natalia, as Praetorum has now missed a round already, anyway
  • This style of event moderation - with objectives etc - was created by a wonderful moderator named Crimson.
Next modpost, Tuesday, 7 September
Deadline for your next round's posts is 2359 EST on 6 September. If you haven't posted by that time, you will be written out of the event.
word count: 1057
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Natalia Gregorios
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Re: Ruin's Dawn: Lightning Gem

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Saun 35, Arc 721


Well, that was not good. Glancing up at the Ithecal, Natalia wondered if she was going to have anyone left to banter with about what they should do, although the toad seemed happy to fill in.

Waving her hand in front of Praetorum’s face, she snapped her fingers. “Snap out of it!”

The toad said they could leave, which she had assumed anyways. Her point had been about not feeling particularly welcome in the ‘imagining’ - which she had almost convinced herself was just a dream and she’d wake up at any moment – but it seemed that that point was being rendered moot when the toad pointed out the new arrivals.

Sighing, the young woman – who may or may not have been dreaming – muttered at the sight. “Well, that’s unfortunate.”

She watched the antics on the other side of the barrier best she could, backing a few steps when the Aukari walked through the barrier, putting her dagger in front of her, listening to the exchange between them and the toad.

Then a hiss issued forth from behind her, and Natalia did steal a glance, seeing the eyes, her own going a bit wide. Alright then. More…friends? She couldn’t be sure, but the newborns had toddled back that direction, so she was assuming that whatever it was, was more positively inclined towards them than the redheaded persons.

As for the demands of the Aukari woman, something struck a chord deep inside the young woman, watching the situation devolve around her. Whatever the further ‘errand’ was, the group had been sent to get between the Aukari and their goals, and Natalia wasn’t about to sit around and watch them try to hurt the toad, baby…whatevers and big red eyes in the back.

“No.”

The flaming people were quite impressive – Natalia had never seen flaming people before – and if she had been with a larger group, she might have been more inclined to step back and let others handle the situation. However, the ‘others’ were leaving her little choice but to act.

Stepping away from Praetorum, who may or may not have been recovered, Natalia fixed her eyes on the Aukari woman. Scared? Oh yeah, but she refused to be petrified so far as to not take a stand, regardless of her lack of abilities in…well…anything. "I am disinclined to acquiesce to your request," speaking to the pair, arching an eyebrow gently as she spoke.

Moving next to the toad, she continued to steel herself, working up the courage to do the one thing she could do – talk.

“I've made it my business to subvert expectations in that regards. Besides, there is nothing left for you here. Why risk further delay, wasting your time with us and this place? I mean, really, is there anything less interesting then mowing down some girl that probably will accidentally end up stabbing herself with her weapon? I think not. Too pedestrian really and not a very interesting story.”

Taking a deep breath, trying not to vomit due to the smell, she continued with very little break, attempting to give the others a chance to figure out what to do, recover, run or otherwise vanish. ”Oh, I was going to ask – where did the other one go? He didn’t seem very happy. Should we be expecting him to join us?"

word count: 568
"A girl should be two things: who and what she wants."


User avatar
Praetorum
Approved Character
Posts: 1425
Joined: Sun Jan 20, 2019 11:08 am
Race: Ithecal
Profession: Mercenary
Renown: 1020
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Wealth Tier: Tier 5

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Re: Ruin's Dawn: Lightning Gem


A chime rang through the sewers, and Praetorum hissed as his sight suddenly shifted. A vision… a memory? The Noble Serpent was there, along with an old man, and…

Praetorum’s breath caught in his throat at the sight of the magnificent creature before him. He’d heard of such creatures, but no storybook tales or artists’ imaginings could ever compare to the sight of a true dragon, standing tall and proud before him.

The vision continued, and Praetorum reeled at the implications. The Shieldmaiden protected the souls of dragons gone, and four dragons still lived, or had at the time that Ethelynda’s father had raised islands into the very skies.

Were the dragons still alive? What had happened to the four dragon souls Ethelynda had been given? Just who was Ethelynda’s father?

These questions whirled about in Praetorum’s mind, stunning him for longer than he’d expected—the vision had resonated with something deep within him, and he spent a few moments in a daze, trying to absorb it all. In the end, it was Natalia who snapped him out of it, and Prae shook his head free of the fog, taking stock once more of the situation.

Cail had disappeared into her shadow, Shl’drei had run off, the hydra like creatures were going deeper into the imagining, and…

They were not alone.

Praetorum growled softly as the Aukari emerged into the imagining, trying to sort through his thoughts as quickly as possible.

The vision he would think more on later. Right now there was a threat to be dealt with. The artifact might be gone, if the toad spoke the truth, but the Aukari were clearly still hostile. Prae had himself, Nat and the toad. The creature hissing behind them was concerning, but with four pairs of eyes, Prae was willing to gamble that it was one of the hydra dragonlings.

Natalia began to speak, and Prae took the opportunity to make his preparations. Pulling his glaive from his back, Prae called upon his defiance spark, conjuring a ball of liquid before him and using it to caress his weapon, coating it in a layer of cold water.

“Take one step forwards,” he said as Natalia finished, stepping up to stand between the toad and the aukari “and I will take your head.” There was no threat to Praetorum’s words—just a quiet resolve. If either of the aukari before them moved forwards, he would charge in and fight.
word count: 416
Let's play 'What's Weird About Prae'

Head

  • A fiery rune shines under his right eye
  • A firey glow in the back of his mouth

Arms

  • A ring of blue runes floats over each of Prae's wrists
  • A silver shield marks the back of his right hand
  • A ring of light around his left forearm

Misc

  • His tail is about eight feet long, usually knotted around his waist
  • His body temperature is uncomfortably high

Surroundings

  • Wind gusts with every step he takes
  • The area around him is slightly more static-y than normal
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Jackalope
Posts: 420
Joined: Sun Feb 28, 2021 7:34 pm
Race: Human
Renown: 0
Wealth Tier: Tier 1

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Re: Ruin's Dawn: Lightning Gem

It’s a party, but without the decorations
Her features wreathed in flames, the female aukari sneered at Natalia as she spoke. ”Is that so?” she responded, her voice taking on a mockery of the other woman’s intonation. ”Given the emergence of that contingency, *I* am inclined to curtail your vitality.” The fires of the aukari’s corona, far from obscuring her contemptuous expression, somehow accentuated it. She raised the war dart and aimed its broad head in Natalia’s direction. Still visibly shaky from his earlier ordeal, yet resolute, her equally fiery companion turned to face the ithecal, his scimitar held out chest high.

A quartet of angry animal voices snarled from somewhere behind Team Toad. Were they louder than before? Closer? It would be hard for Nat or Prae to know without turning away from their adversaries to look.

The woman responded to the noise by shifting the weapon slightly, so that it pointed somewhere over Nat’s shoulder, and she seemed about to throw it.

”NO!”
cried the toad, as it hopped to interpose itself between the heroes and the aukari. It let out a loud, breathy croaking belch, and for a trill or two the flaming pair were on their heals, their coronas flaring intensely behind them. Once it stopped, the woman recovered quickly, whereas the man faltered, lowering his scimitar and falling to one knee.

Improbably, the toad rose up on its hind legs, displaying the full length of its mucusy, warty, mottled body to the aukari.
”I am a servant of the Secret Slime”
it declared,
”Wielder of the Fumes of Disgust. YOU SHALL NOT PA-”


Nobody would ever find out what the aukari shall not do, for at that moment several things happened. First, the war dart flew from the woman's hand and impaled the toad through its neck, whereupon the being crumpled instantly. Then, the colorful, odorful, wonderful Imagining around them began to heave and distort. Contours elongated fantastically, as every feature associated with the miniature realm: slime-filled chamber, nest, even the toad itself, began to stretch grotesquely towards a single vanishing point. That point seemed to be centered on the stricken aukari.

Accompanied by a strange, barely, audible rush, all the garish drained out of their surroundings, swirling towards the hapless swordsman, converging on him. As everything from the Imaging collapsed in on him, the man himself seemed to recede from them, sucked by a riotous maelstrom of color to some other realm. When it was over, the aukari woman and the two heroes faced each other once more in the sewer, its eerie monochrome dimness that much more striking after the visual vibrancy of the Imagining.

Where the man had been kneeling, there persisted a shimmer, roughly the dimensions of a standing wardrobe.

More things happened. A dry, rocky rumbling came from somewhere behind the aukari. In the light cast by her flaming aura, the pair could see that the pile of rubble that had fallen just before they had entered the Imagining was moving. A skeletal hand emerged from it, grasping and scrabbling to work itself free.

More things happened. From the tunnel directly behind the aukari came alarmed, shouting voices. Nat and Prae could not understand the language, but the woman appeared to. Her flame-wreathed face briefly took on a smug look, but then, upon listening some more, as the voices grew louder and more clear, her expression shifted to one of puzzlement and concern.

Oh, yes, at least one more thing happened. A small chorus of voices bellowed in outrage from directly behind the heroes, followed by the sounds of something heavy running. The one dragonling they had seen earlier was still on hand, it was barreling down the sewer tunnel straight for them, and it seemed rather upset.

Info & Rules

  • Due to the time-sensitive nature of this, I can not hold out for people to post. If you miss a round, there will (I'm afraid) be consequences. Please Communicate with me if something comes up for the week. There will still be consequence but different. Please post by Monday September 6 by 2359 Eastern Standard Time. The reason for this earlier deadline is that, at this stage, your actions in this thread directly affect events in the Ascension thread.
  • Going forward, there is a zero-tolerance policy in place for missing rounds. Miss one, and you’re out. This only results in a change for Natalia, as Praetorum has now missed a round already, anyway
  • This style of event moderation - with objectives etc - was created by a wonderful moderator named Crimson.
Next modpost, Tuesday, 14 September
Deadline for your next round's posts is 2359 EST on 13 September. If you haven't posted by that time, you will be written out of the event.
word count: 805
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