When Sound Falters

The lands past the gates of Yaralon Proper. This vast area includes The Spines, The Cut, The Crags, Maiden's Refuge, Bastard's Grove, Heaven Fall and small villages.

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Aylune
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When Sound Falters

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Ymiden 8th, 717

Clap. The sound rang out through misty woods but didn’t echo though Echo’ed ear listened to absolute silence in that endarkened, scorned wilderland. “There is not a thing out there,” muttered solemn words from a soft voice, almost sad. “For all I listen to them, they stray further. The Fracture beckons, but it does not reach.” The woods were quiet, but they were too quiet, as if nothing at all could be heard except for what was close to him. He could hear the wind overhead, but not far away.

This labyrinth of moon-lit woods had within its thickets a bleeding magical force. As North breathed the cool air, his nose was greeted with the indescribable scent of Ether on the wind, almost fruity yet fresh like air, but spicy and so many other qualities. Sometimes it even smelled like a rose.

”North,” called a worried voice. ”Don’t go. What if there is a Grendel? What if there never will be nor ever was a Grendel, but then we’re all Grendels? Anything can and cannot happen there in the copse of unreal real.”

Tugging a foreign apple from a branch, North looked over the Ether-soaked fruit, admiring how it glowed a soft blue light. It was so easy to spot, even in the thick brush of these woods. ”I’ll be fine,” North thought to his Familiar through that telepathic line. ”At the first sight of a monster, I’ll run. The fire and the wind will protect me, and maybe I can get the earth to budge a little. I’m confident. What’s the matter, scaredy-wolf?”

“I’m not a - I’m not a ‘scaredy-wolf’!” the creature growled.

”Relax,” North said, bringing the fruit to his lips. He almost took a bite, but then the thought it might be tainted crossed his mind, and he tossed it overhand ahead of himself in the wood, watching the blue orb soar through the trees. When nothing stirred, he began to walk, the Totem of the Wolf guiding his ears with the Echo of its fantastic hearing.

That was when he came across a blue fire, flickering in the distance. There was a campsite around, and a sleeping man. North hovered nearby, watching silently. ”I smell a trap,” North said.

”I do too. A camp site, in a fracture? Who would do such a thing?”

Reaching out with his palm, North could feel the fire. He encouraged the blue flame to bend towards him, just to prove that he could in case the situation evolved poorly. More confident, he strode forward into the camp, his shadow upon Balthazar’s tent.

Little did they know Balthazar had been stuck here for four Trials, unable to escape the Endless Woods of Silence where sound only traveled a scant few feet. The place was remarkably peaceful at least, for now...

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word count: 488
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Balthazar Black
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Re: When Sound Falters


8 Ymiden 717
It had never been Balthazar intention to remain within Emea for as long as he had but there was little he could do about it now. It felt like Emea was seeping into his body, the energy, the ether. His spark felt like it was growing and shriveling at the same time in some cautious fear of the extra-planar world around it. He'd ventured into one of the many open fractures littering the land that was Yaralon with nothing more than his quarterstaff, a bag for whatever he thought worth keeping, and enough rations to last him about a week. It just so happened he was unfortunate enough to find the fracture dropping him twenty feet to the ground... into a silent forest. A literally silent forest. Any sound produced would be snuffed out within three yards of where it began. Balthazar was discomforted by the forest immediately and tried to jump but the fracture was just beyond his reach. He was not a fool who would use his magic while in Emea physically. Not again.

But Balthazar was no fool. He took with him a sharp rock which he used to etch an arrow into the trees along his path so that in a case of emergency he could flee back to the fracture and through it using his magic. Oh how he longed for the ability to fly which he'd heard some Defiers achieved... it would have made the escape far easier. Balthazar wandered the forest in a straight line- or what her perceived to be a straight line, for what felt like breaks before he turned and followed the arrows back to the fracture floating in the sky. He hadn't brought anything with him to camp out because he'd not expected to find himself so stuck, and as a result he had to tent to sleep in the first night. He slept on the cold earth which even then seemed to soften for him... though he hoped it was merely an effect of the Emean soil and not his spark. He did not sleep well the first night.

When he managed to doze off he didn't dream- or if he did he couldn't remember it. When he woke the only image left in his mind was one of himself laying against the tree. He spent his second trial trapped in Emea working to build himself a shelter and it was no easy task. Without his magic to aid him Balthazar found the task of assembling a tent far more difficult. He walked around his fracture, collecting sticks to be used as firewood first, then larger branches that he thought might make a good frame for a tent. Along the way he was frequently reminded of where he was by the presence of raw wells he didn't bother to collect. He made a note of where they were in his head so that he could come back for them later- something he'd be glad he did when it came to actually collecting them.

He brought the sticks and branches back to his fracture- which still floated roughly twenty feet above him. Balthazar leaned the larger sticks against the tree to create a small space he could crawl into for some shelter. He put the smaller sticks in a circle and pulled up some of the forest grass which made a soft, crying noise as he pulled it that made Balthazar feel horrible. He sprinkled the grass over the sticks as he had once seen Xanax do in preparation of starting a fire. The grass was supposed to help but Balthazar hadn't quite figured out why. He began turning the largest and driest of the sticks between his hands in his effort to create enough friction that a fire started. He turned the stick for breaks and the only warmth it brought him was the warm feeling in his hands and arms from the constant motion... which all and all felt nice comparatively to if he'd just been sitting there waiting.

Part of Balthazar begged him just to conjure a small flame to get them started but he didn't do it. He resisted the temptation to take the easy way out because he knew that doing so would bring him more trouble than comfort. Balthazar went to sleep that night without a fire and slept about as successfully as the night before... though in hindsight it could have been the middle of the day. Balthazar tried to gauge the time of day by how much light was spilling into the forest through the fracture he'd built his campsite beneath. He slept when the light was at it's lowest and woke when it was at it's highest. That was the only way to really navigate the forest without becoming lost.

On the third trial, while Balthazar was out collecting some raw wells that he'd seen the trial prior in the forest, he discovered that he was not alone in the forest.

He'd been making his normal rounds about the forest in search of a fracture that was lower to the ground when it crossed his line of sight. He would never have heard it and it never would have heard him in the forest that ate up all sound before it could travel far, but Balthazar caught it moving through the corner of his eye and quickly hid behind a tree. He stood there, frozen and trying to listen for the beasts steps but no sound reached him. Realizing he could not stand behind the tree forever, Balthazar turned slowly and peeked his head out from his hiding spot.

Not more than thirty feet away from Balthazar, a creature the size of a wagon stood on all fours. It had a snout and fur like a wolf but it was far too large and had three eyes, two where you'd expect and one on it's forehead. Furthermore the creature had white plates of what looked like bone armor jutting out from its black fur along the majority of it's body. Balthazar had no time to assess for claws or fangs before the creature's head snapped towards him and Balthazar went back behind the tree. He gripped his quarterstaff firmly and held his breath until the most terrifying thing happened.

Balthazar heard the beasts steps drawing nearer to him. He heard two feet softly touch down and he could hear the beast's sharp inhales but nothing else. The tree he was hiding behind did not collapse, the beast did not lunge for him. Seemingly satisfied that there was nothing there, the beast turned and ran off into the forest again. Balthazar breathed out a deep sigh of relief and he made his way slowly back to his camp where he set down the number of raw wells he'd collected and returned to his attempt to start a fire- only this night, he managed to start a small blaze.

After breaks of rubbing the two sticks together Balthazar finally managed to produce a soft blue spark that caught on some of the grass he'd sprinkled over the wood and began a blue blazing flame. The fire warmed him like any other fire. It just also happened to speak to him in an unfamiliar voice. If Balthazar had to gender fire, the normal fire was female and this blue fire was male. Balthazar resolved to himself that he would not let the fire die. He could not. If he did he would never be able to get it going again. After surrounding the fire with some stones to stop it spreading he tried to lay down and rest.

He did not sleep that night. Every time he closed his eyes he saw the beast and it woke him. He could not take the chance.

He spent the fourth trial trapped in Emea working to maintain the blue flame he'd birthed the trial before. Like a child he fed it new sticks to keep it from whimpering out of existence. Part of him worried the beast would see the smoke above the trees but when he reminded himself that the beast hadn't seen him hiding behind what couldn't have been an impressive tree he assumed sight was not the three-eye'd bastard's strong suit. So why did it have three eyes? Balthazar never went far from his camp the third day and so he only scrounged up the raw wells nearest to him. He was glad that he'd spent so much time remembering where they were during his stick collecting the first day because it made the task considerably easier and before Balthazar knew it, night had descended on his camp again.

On the dawn of his fifth trial in Emea, Balthazar was stirred from his rest when he began to feel his campfire stirring. He sat up and quickly grabbed his quarterstaff- thinking the beast had found him and took a defensive position beside his campfire after scudding out of his tent. He was shocked and relieved to find another humanoid standing before him but all of that turned to terror when he saw the man defying the blue flames from the campfire.

"Stop the magic! Stop!" Balthazar's cried rang out but it was too late. The ground around them began to trembled and shake as a loud roar broke over the trees sending hundreds of hidden Emeyan bird flying from their nests. Balthazar's eyes widened in horror- a noise they could perceive so clearly in the silent forest would have deafened them on Idalos. "Run!" Balthazar grabbed his bag of raw wells and threw it around his body before looking up to the fracture twenty feet in the air. There was no turning back now that North had used his magic so cavalierly. Balthazar stomped both his feet, coaxing the earth to soften before bending his knees and driving his quarterstaff up into the air. As he did a pillar of earth broke loose from the ground and shot up towards the fracture- the pillar only making it ten feet before exhausting Balthazar's ether entirely. Yet as the pillar reached the peak of it's journey Balthazar extended his legs, leaping the rest of the distance through the fracture.

He was spit out in an unfamiliar portion of Bastard's Grove and he turned back to the fracture with his quarterstaff at the ready, but nothing followed him through. Balthazar went to take a step towards the fracture and his legs, entirely numb, buckled under him. He'd pushed his spark too hard and his body was suffering the consequences. Using his quarterstaff as a crutch, Balthazar managed to rise but not much else. He'd be stuck in Bastard's Grove for a trial or so before he could walk back to the city but that was fine... he'd have a hell of a story to tell.
word count: 1853

Visible Mutations/ Marks

Mutations
Defiance: Skin always glows faintly and he is warm to the touch. His is also the center of a field of static electricity so people get shocked touching him on occasion.
Rupturing: Orange etheric cracks spider-web up his arms to his elbows. His eyes and the glowing cracks going down his cheeks glow dark blue.
Transmutation: He has a series of emerald, glowing cracks on his right pectoral.
Marks
Bellinos: His fingernails are always black. The color fades into his fingers.
Celarion: A dim glowing ring surrounds his left forearm.
Palenon: A silver lightning shaped mark about the size of a hand stretching up towards his torso.

Scars

  • Oops, Oops, Ouch: Balthazar Black has twenty scars across his back from a lashing as well as scars on his hands and arms from jagged rocks on Faldrass. There are two scars on the sides of his abdomen from being stabbed and a slash across his back which blends in with the whip scars.
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Octopie
Prophet of Old
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Re: When Sound Falters




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Comments

It would have been interesting to see how the two of you actually played this out. All the same you did a wonderful job of fully wrapping this up and going on an adventure. There was a suspension of reality in your writing that brought out the dangers of where Balthazar was without being overly descriptive, and that was an interesting use of magic but probably helpful if he thought of it beforehand. Enjoy your rewards!

Points

15

5 can be used for magic (It was the brief and not really the point of the thread)

Can be use for magic? Yes or No

Knowledge

Skill
Defiance - Enhancing your jump with a rising stone
Stealth - Hiding from an Emeyan being that looks like a wolf
Detection - Spotting a moving figure in an Emeyan forest
Detection - Finding raw wells in a dark Emean forest
Discipline - Not using your magic in Emea, even though it would make things easier
Discipline - Functioning off a few breaks of sleep
Strength - A high jump
Strength - Working out the arms with repetitive stick grinding

Non
NA

Loot

Wealth

NA

Renown

+5 for sleeping in the Emea

Injuries

Since it's a memory thread, all it would have warranted was overstepping. I've added that below but it is only relevant if you make another memory thread near this time frame as well.
  • For up to three trials after, Balthazar will find the Earth will be intent on tripping him and ignoring any requests or demands he makes of it.

North

  • 15 points, may not be used for magic
  • If you come back and would like your lores, just drop me a line!
word count: 304
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