Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Spiderking50]

New Salem

For almost a century, New Salem has been the center of advanced magic technology. Ele-trains, and Manamobiles, while rare throughout the rest of the continent, are in abundance here in New Salem. Yet the city is not without its flaws. For those who can afford it, the high society life offers many perks and a wonderful care free life. For those who cannot dish out hundreds of gold a month for Grindylow caviar, find them selves drowning in the underground cesspool of of New Salem.

New Salem is split into four main residential regions by wealth. The High Towers are the wealthiest section by far. In fact, they are so rich they can afford to levitate the entire district. This section floats above the New Salem and the surrounding area. It drifts over the other region and nearby land slowly and randomly. Next richest is the Lumier District. This section is clean, well kept, and home to the well off members of New Salem. It encompasses the eastern section of New Salem. The druid park is located here as well. The next is the commercial district. This area is full of business and cheap apartments. This section of New Salem varies wildly. If you stick to the main streets you'll find nice wholesome window shopping, but stay into the back alleys and you may find less savory shops. Last there is the Crumbs. Its where everyone else lives. It composes the western section of New Salem, but is actually as large as the Commercial District and Lumier District combined. Beneath the Crumbs are the Sewers, a series of tunnels, literal sewers, and industrial buildings. Run off from magical experiments and factories runs directly into the sewers, where many of the homeless live. This is where you find yourself this evening.

Dirk the PI.
You check your address slip and attached key. This is the right place. You show up a bit earlier than average to see who else shows up. A crowd begins to form. An elf, two gnomes, a werewolf, and a catrik all walk into a bar gather awkwardly outside the door. Hushed conversation ensues, but you cant make it out over the sound of a feral slime rummaging through garbage nearby. It seems that they are there for the same reason as you, to get in on the ground floor of an up and coming criminal enterprise.

Elyi
First to arrive, as always. You examine the door, which is little more than an iron slab on a concrete wall. Other similar apartments can be seen a fair distance down the street. The flickering streetlights illuminate others as they arrive one by one. (P) You notice a dwarf loitering nearby.

Lazarus
These taller races just don't understand. Every day you swim through filth that they would simply step over. Not today however. You're finally going find the secret to immortality. All you need is a safe place to read, some money for ingredients, and maybe a few dead bodies to help speed things along. Looks like your intensive arcane training will come in very handy. (P) As you think you yourself you walk directly into an elf standing outside the door you've been directed to. You find yourself with your face at waist level and your embarrassment level at high. You open your mouth to apologize, but only manage a stammer so far. She's looking at you, what do you say? You grasp your envelope and enclosed key tight in your fist.

Moss
You never really liked cement. As an earth mage you have a way with rocks. You can understand their history, composition, and quality. As a result, you can get a rough idea of their personality. Concrete has a wretched personality. Its drab, its fake, and it crumbles quickly. It all form and no substance. However, hearing the many metals sing out from their places along the street and city is like nothing a different kind of mage will ever experience. That symphony would be enough to keep you in the city. But you have bills to pay and you want to get yourself into the record books. Each rock has a histrory that they engrave int the landscape, and you're going to do the same.


Juan
You must have the wrong address. You can smell them before you see them. There are three tiny mages loitering around your destination. They are all of the small races and none of them have ever thrown a good punch in their entire life. Yet you must approach anyway. You have a younger sibling to take care of. And if you do get serious about moving up the ranks here, it shouldn't be hard to smash past a few mini minor mages. The smells of the city overpower your sensitive nose. It has long gone dull after repeated exposure to the everyday rancid stench of this area. But you think you smell something strange. However, a gust of wind mixes the air and you lose the scent. You reach down to check the key in your pocket, you want to know that you can get off the street if need be.


Indaria
You are last to arrive, you think. You knew there would be others, but this is a sorry crowd if you ever did see. Most of the people waiting are only half your height. There is a tough looking werewolf girl though. Her body attracts your attention immediately and you know shes some sort of melee class. Perhaps there's hope for you talents here after all. You'll just have to wait and find out.


All
You have arrived at the specified location. Each of you has been invited here to gain entry into the criminal underworld and all its riches. You have little beyond your clothes, some spare change, and a key given to you by your contact. Now you and five others have met at the iron door. It is here that your adventure begins.

[ATHATH]

"Sorry, Ma'am."

Check to see if she pickpocketed me, then walk inside the building. Check how long my anti-divination wards will hold up.

[TheBiggerFish]

((PTW.))

[ATHATH]

I think you made a typo- there's a [/font] at the end of your post.

[My Name is Immaterial]

I survey the crowd, and I smile with half my mouth as I remember a joke; "A human, an elf, a gnome and a dwarf walk into a bar. The bartender says 'What is this, some kind of joke?"
At least, I thought it was funny.
I dug through my pockets, hoping to find a smoke. Nothing. Couldn't make rent on the office, had my wands stolen, and now I had run out of smokes. At least it wasn't raining, I thought to myself.
With no point in stalling any more, I dug the key out from my coat's pockets and opened the door, closing it behind me, giving only a small nod to the people hanging around in the alley.

[Lenglon]

IndariaI wait for the inevitable argument about how to door to end, and check on my claws and make sure they're still clean and sharp in the meantime. Once they're done arguing I'll go on inside.

[Spiderking50]

Lazarus
You go to unlock the door with your key, but find there is a rather unusual lock on the door. (P+Arc) You see that the padlock is actually a layover spell. There are actually six padlocks occupying the same space. As you unlock the padlock with your key, one of the layovers is dispelled and a dissolution spell destroys the unlocked padlock before it can separate from the remaining layover padlocks. You note that the system is ingenious, but moreover, uses some very complex spell chains. Your not sure how long it would take to make such a device, or even exactly how to do so. It would take weeks probably, and require a good deal of reagents.

Your anti-divination spell will last another 3 hours. However, it will limit your casting ability somewhat. A powerful spell would definitely reveal you.


Dirk
You go to unlock the door, after slipping your key inside and unlock the padlock. However as you reach to open the door you see that the padlock is still there and locked. Yet it is somehow slightly different. (P+Inv) You suspect some sort of magic is at foot here, but its beyond your paygrade. Really complex stuff.


Elyi
You realize upon closer examination that that was a figurative description of the door the door is really just a beat up iron door with a padlock and handle. (P) It has an odd shimmer, when looked at just right, though which could explain the  trick of the light.

Indaria
You check your claws. Still sharp as knives. You could easily cut through cloth and flesh. You check your key and try to enter. Same situation. You unlock the padlock. Yet there is another padlock on the door, slightly different, with a different key.

[scapheap]

Juan

The werewolf approach the door.

Why are they all just milling about? Oh, a padlock. Guess this is what the key is for.

She put her key in the lock and try to open the door

Oh, that why.

Juan try to pick up the scent that she got earlier while she waits.

[Spiderking50]

Juan
You open the padlock and even as you stare at it seems the same but, then different, yet all the time unchanged. Its rather unsettling in the way that reality is being bent so far. This lock makes you wonder what really intense mages are really capable of.

(P) You try to get the scent back, but at this point between the werewolf and the dwarf and the nearby sewer grate, you cant get a fix on anything. There's a particularly smelly garbage can nearby, it reeks of moldy paper trash, rancid meat, and rats. So basically, you got nothing.

Elyi
You put your key in the lock. Unlock it. Watch it be unlocked. You make sure that the door is definately unlocked. You never take your eyes off the unlocked lock. You try the handle. The door is locked. The padlock is closed. You never moved your eyes and it never changed. There was no moment when it was unlocked and then relocked. Its almost as if you hand't even tried. But your key doesn't fit now and it seems to be a slightly different lock. They don't call it magic for nothing.

[spfifle]

A little late,  Moss elbows his way to the front of the group.
"Don't worry folks, Moss is here to save the day. You see you insert your key, then turn it."
He demonstrates, then pushes the now unlocked door open.
Moss didn't see the earlier magic from the back, and as the last padlock owner his experience is comparatively ordinary.

[Spiderking50]

Moss
You demonstrate to these buffoons how to properly open a door. You unlock the padlock and it slips out of your hand. It hits the ground and either melts and evaporates rapidly, or sinks into the ground. You don't sense it anymore, but quickly disregard the strange lock.

All
You watch as the door shifts and changes. It becomes six different doors in sequence. An eerie purple door. A plain wooden door. A safe door. A metal gate. A complex stone and metal door. An ornate wood and gold door. Then it returns to its original shape and size and swings open. It leads to a large open room. There are tables with scrolls strewn about. There are bookshelves. There's an alchemy table. There is a fireplace and many assorted decorations and seating areas. There are several doors that lead out of the nicely decorated room. It seems to have everything aspiring thieves could need as well. However it has one thing aspiring thieves don't need: A corpse.

In the center of the room is a dead body of an elf. She is dressed in black and wears a hood. Her body shows shifting signs of a shadow magic user. But above all, its apparent that this person was murdered. They have been badly beaten and have multiple blade wounds. Scratched into the ground next to her body are magic runes. They are are dark and shift slightly.

[Lenglon]

Indaria"Well, that looks dead."
I step into the room and walk a circle around the outer edges of it, noting anything hidden in the corners, any exits, anything moving, and so on.

[My Name is Immaterial]

Dirk
Every muscle in my body was screaming, telling me to run, and run fast. Dead bodies were trouble, no matter who put them there. The thought of a big, fat, juicy paycheck was the only thing keeping me from making a break for it.
I bent down to examine the body. I was no stranger to crime scenes, but they were usually more mundane.
"Anyone recognize these runes?" I figured, with all the pointy hats in the room, someone'd have to know.

[scapheap]

Juan

Well, that bad.

She check if the smell she got earlier was a dead body.

"Check the pockets-" she told the short fellow "-May of been a robbery." She did not know that Dirk was a PI.

Is the body Juan's small time crook or someone else?

[spfifle]

Moss

I bend down to examine the runes and determine their purpose.
"If we're lucky this has nothing to do with us. I'd like to warn everyone in advance that I'm rarely lucky."