Print

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

[GiglameshDespair]

Ok, let's start. Cheesecake, dwarmin, sjm9876, and guninanrunin, you're in.


-----

With a crack you hear in your mind, rather than your ears, you snap into focus. Become real.

A curvy woman with jet-black eyes - tattoos of creatures curl around her skin like a shroud. Her eyes reflect a clever nature.

AWAKEN.

A fierce-looking man, dressed in dull clothing.

YOU HAVE BEEN CHOSEN.

A redheaded warrior, posture straight and unbroken, hewn from muscle.

HEAR THE WEEPING OF THE WORLD.

A young man, eyes glinting with mischief.

THE KINGDOM IS DYING, AND MUST BE SAVED. THUS IS MY PURPOSE. THUS IS YOURS.

The cave is damp and still, the only motion drips of water from the jagged teeth of milky stone that project from the cave roof. The air is musty, unmoved for millennia, The flickering lights that dance along the Archestone are dimmer now, or perhaps your eyes are more acclimatised to the dark.

I HAVE PLANTED A FRAGMENT OF MY ESSENCE WITHIN EACH OF YOU. IT SHALL GUIDE YOU. THIS LAND WILL BE STRANGE TO YOU, AND GREAT EVIL HAS TORN IT ASUNDER. OF THE GREAT HEROES THAT ONCE WALKED THIS LAND, THE LIBRARIAN MAY YET REMAIN UNCORRUPTED. SEEK HER OUT. FIND A CURE FOR THE SICKNESS OF THIS WORLD.

The Archestone dims further. Behind the sculpted monolith, you can spy a narrow tunnel, leading away from the cavern you are in.

Spoiler: Characters (click to show/hide)

Sučana Maja
- Nothing of note

Karia the Stained
- Nothing of note

Slope
- Nothing of note

Essel
- Nothing of note

[Dwarmin]

Sučana felt she had to rise. She wasn't quite sure how she had got here...but the imperative in her mind was impossible to misunderstand. If she wanted to get through this (whatever this was), she had a job to do.

She saw others, as well-perhaps understanding the same shred of power in her was also in them, she thought they were allies. A dangerous looking red haired woman, who was her mirror in some vital way. A fierce-looking young man with the air of a mercenary. And a younger man-a thief, by the look of him. Clever fingers, that one, she thought.

She rose and tried to speak to the others.

"...Siapakah anda semua?" She heard herself say in her native tongue. She wondered if the others heard her language, or their own.

((Btw, is there a concrete backstory to why we are here? Like, is there anything important in our memories? I'm not sure if we died or were teleported here...or if we didn't exist at all until the archestone wanted us to, lol. Is it supposed to be deliberately vague, up to how we decide to play it?

Only asking for RP purposes!))

[Cheesecake]

(Dammit, ninja'd.)

Slope was feeling a whole whirlwind of emotions right now. Mostly confusion. Chosen? For what? He can hear the reasons being spoken in his mind, muddling his voice with the one invading his thoughts, but still he didn't know why he was chosen.

The three around him. They must be in the same boat as he was, he thought. Confused and alone. They were all older, though. And bigger. And they'd probably throttle him if they could. Better make friends.

"I'm Slope, who the hell are all you?"

One girl was speaking gibberish. The one with tattoos. "Can you understand me, miss?"

[GiglameshDespair]

((You existed in whatever world you lived in before this. You know the language of the Kingdom as a side effect of the Archestone shard implanted within you. Perhaps you died, perhaps you tried to travel between worlds. But death is the most likely reason you entered the Eternal Kingdom. But really, it's up to you. ))

[ATHATH]

According to the OP, mages are better at dodging than rogues, and rogues are better at magic than mages.

[Dwarmin]

Sučana searched her mind, piercing together the meanings of the boys words to match her own. She found she understood them...another strange feeling of that power, imparting a 'gift'. Sucana was a rationalist. She understood what they would have to do. There was no confusion in her mind. An amazing power had taken them and placed them here for it's own purposes. She was not entirely sure if this presence cared if they survived or not.

Her mind flashed back to how she had gotten here. The battle. This hadn't been what her sister had been trying to achieve when she pitched the unforgivable word at her, she was sure...but it might amount to the same result, anyway. She wondered what had happened to her sister...but, only idly. Time to think of those things later.

...

"My name is Sučana Maja. I understand you, boy. No need to shout." She said, nodding to him.

"...I guess you all hear that voice too, right? The Archestone? We're 'All in the same boat', as you fellows like to say...drafted into some sort of war." she said to Slope-he looked like a citizen of the Far Eastern Empire, she thought.

The silence spun for a second. She wanted a measure of her team before they got into anything serious...

"Me. I have my own idea why I'm here...what about the rest of you?" She said, sitting down. "We're going to be in this together, we should start with the proper introductions. I somehow don't think we can just ask to be politely let off. Let's leave the hypothetical questions for later-why, how, who? Pointless, at the moment."

[Parsely]

Essel was dazed, his eyes glassy. He repeated the words he heard.

"Elpalz"... "Kîteque"...?

His head snapped up and he blinked, suddenly noticing where he was and the people arranged around him. His hand drifted instinctively towards his sword but then he reconsidered. His expressive features were contorted with honest confusion and he remained in a relatively open stance.

What happened?

He balked at hearing the unfamiliar language tumble from his mouth. Were his ears deceiving him? He tried again, curious.

My name is Essel-

He touched his face with both hands and couldn't help but smile, feeling a bit giddy, then he suppressed it, placing his hands back at his sides, and reverted to his normal, serious expression, tainted inexorably as it was with a wide-eyed awareness that he hoped didn't make him appear too vulnerable.

"...I guess you all hear that voice too, right? The Archestone? We're 'All in the same boat', as you fellows like to say...drafted into some sort of war." she said to Slope-he looked like a citizen of the Far Eastern Empire, she thought.

Who fellows? He eyed the two redheads and Sučana's strange tattoos in turn. I've never met anyone quite like any of you three and I consider myself a worldly person, or used to at any rate.

"Me. I have my own idea why I'm here...what about the rest of you?" She said, sitting down. "We're going to be in this together, we should start with the proper introductions. I somehow don't think we can just ask to be politely let off. Let's leave the hypothetical questions for later-why, how, who? Pointless, at the moment."

I was sleeping on my bedroll, then I had what seemed to be a most terrifying dream. I rose and it was still night, except it was different, somehow. I didn't realize it then but it occurs to me now that it was darker. I felt I wasn't in control of my body; I left my pack and weapons where they lie and walked deeper into the forest until I came upon a grove. I don't know how I didn't see it sooner because it was bathed in the most brilliant moonlight I had ever seen. I strode into the middle of the grove and looked up. The sky was packed with pinpricks of light! I could see forever, the entire world seemed to be afire it was so magnificent! I had a sudden feeling as if I were submerged in water and when I looked down I was a hundred feet in the air. I turned my head up again and saw a small bluish-green marble hurtling towards me, getting bigger and bigger. I thought I was going to fall into it. The ground rushed up towards me faster then I could see and just before my feet touched the ground- I woke up. Except I wasn't lying on my bedroll, I was here.

[sjm9876]

Karia's eyes focused on those of another woman, eyes black as coal. She spoke a few words, foreign ones, and yet they passed straight through her ears to her mind like water in a stream. She spoke of introductions, but they were not of any regard yet. First must come answers.

'We are chosen? Why should we do as you please?'

She felt mildly ridiculous, standing in a damp, dreary cave, shouting at a great rock. Then again, she had felt ridiculous quite a lot recently. She was still wearing the absurd dress she had chosen to make her way past the more innocent guards. It was a plain affair, scarlet as her hair and carefully cut not to restrict movement. It's back lay bare to reveal a number of raised weals. She had dropped her knife as she fell - the small of her back still ached.

She blinked, and a thin smile - or possibly a grimace - crossed her lips. This hadn't quite been the plan. An old cave, a different world, lost and confused in a room full of strangers. Did that happen to everyone? A burst of panic made it's way up her spine before it was quickly suppressed - was she to be judged?

Then she would let them judge her, and give her price without qualm.

Her attention returned to the others at this, and she spoke in response to the warrior woman's question.

'My name is Karia.'

She dipped her head - it couldn't hurt to be respectful to those that may be your escorts beyond death.

[Dwarmin]

Karia's eyes focused on those of another woman, eyes black as coal. She spoke a few words, foreign ones, and yet they passed straight through her ears to her mind like water in a stream. She spoke of introductions, but they were not of any regard yet. First must come answers.

'We are chosen? Why should we do as you please?'

For a moment, Sučana's gaze turns smoldering, her face set into a regal pose you usually see carved onto statues.

"I am...well..."

Then she relaxes.

"...Well, why not? Unless you want to tell the Archestone that you really don't wish to do what it says? Otherwise, we will have to work together-and we must know each other, if we are to be effective. I'd rather we not waste time debating the illusion of free will.

You see an enemy in front of you, you kill him-you find yourself with a task, you see to it's end. You don't question if you should or shouldn't be there." She said with grim finality.

--
She does respond to Essel more clearly.

"Intriguing tale. Mine had...similarities...let me share my story."

She thought a moment had to phrase this.

"...I am the Queen of a great nation, I am-or I was-royalty. I had been...involved in some political troubles with my dear sister, over who should take the throne following the passage of our mother-that we shared, through our fathers were different. I mean to say, it was something of a war. It had gone on...far too long. I resolved to end it it with a single, decisive strike-to kill my sister. There was really no alternative."

Sučana falls silent for a moment, her face set in a memory of grim determination. It's an intimidating look on her.

"My best men silenced her guards through...stealth. We penetrated her defenses, slaying as we went. It was a terrible battle. I simplify things, of course...we had to move quickly, to strike and end the battle-and the war-before she could summon reinforcements. Spared no one who raised a blade against us...I found my sister in her mock throne, dressed and crowned, as if she was ready for a coronation...

My sister was always skilled in magic, far more than myself...and there are some magics no one should ever know. As I went to order her surrender, I tell you the truth in this-and, she spoke a single word. One of the Unforgivable Words. Magic that we had long forbidden, because it could undo the very weave of reality. She very well might have destroyed my entire realm in a single moment of pique..."

She pauses to clench a fist, tamping down her visible anger at this thought.

"I felt too, as if I was being drawn into the air-I could see the stars...and then I fell apart. It was painful beyond imagining.

...I heard a terrible screaming, as if something was being torn apart slowly, or perhaps they were my own screams...as if a vital thing was being lost...I floated, feeling nothing and being nothing. It was worse than the pain.

At last, I felt myself coming...back. From wherever I was. Perhaps I was dead, or merely lost somewhere. Either way the Archestone found me, apparently. And brought me back. I for one...cannot help but be thankful it released me from that nothingness I was in. Surely, it chose me for a reason."

[Parsely]

Essel grimaced at Sučana's tale. I'm sorry about your kingdom. I never really had a people to call my own, it makes me happy to know you valued it as much as I know I would. He didn't know one way or another if he really meant those words.

None of that matters now, though. This Archestone took away everything we had so we could help it, without promise of reward or return to our homes. Where I come from there was a vast ocean that the Kings had yet to cross, but this is different somehow. My dream tells me that wherever I am now, it's farther away than just a land across the ocean. We're separated from everything we once knew and trapped in a dying world. Living here would be impossible and without the help of the Archestone there's no possible hope of return. We haven't a choice, we need to find the Librarian and save this place, then maybe we can take advantage of it's powers to be sent back to our homes. In Sučana's case we might be able to reverse the damage done by her sister.

[Dwarmin]

"It was my duty. It didn't really matter if I enjoyed it or not...

You do speak the truth, however. We must face reality."

She realized at that moment Karia had actually been talking to the Archestone itself, earlier.

"...Forgive my error, I did not think of the Archestone as being something you could just speak to in a physical fashion like that. I assumed you were speaking to me. My point stands undebated, however."

[sjm9876]

Karia listened, a bemused smile playing over her otherwise impassive face.

'Haven't a choice? Why, there is always a choice, even if the other option is.... unpalatable.'

The last word stretches out, hanging in the air for a moment.

'Besides, even the oldest of foundations can lie - stone or otherwise.'

Then, at Sučana's apology, she laughs. It is a simple sound - and far from a beautiful noise. It grates against the eardrums, speaking of too much experience with too little humour.

'Yes, undebated. Clearly the choice of doing so is an illusion. I will not argue with you, but to say that I find reasons as important as the tasks they pertain to.

But let us not bicker. Caves tend not to have multiple ways out, and I'd hate to walk in sour company.'

She takes a few steps to illustrate this, before frowning. Her stride clearly shows that she is unaccustomed to the ball shoes she is wearing, and she must know too, for she kicks them off.

[GiglameshDespair]

The voices of the four within the cave echo oddly in the cavern, as if the sounds are half-sinking into the Archestone, but the monolith makes no reply.

The floor feels gritty and hard beneath Karia's feet, the hint of moisture on the stone.

[Dwarmin]

"When you choose to die, that's not making a choice-it's just giving up. I don't give up, personally...until we have more information, we should use what we know. Which is little and less.

Anyway, let's make our way onwards. Unless you want to talk to the stone some more. He doesn't seem very talkative, in any case." She added tartly, rising to her feet.

There really was no way out, but forward.

Action: Lead the way out!

[sjm9876]

'Perhaps I won't have a choice about sour company.'

The woman both amused and intrigued Karia. It might be the case that she had some real steel in her. More likely, she spoke harder than she hit, as was so often the case. But regardless, without the input of the stone - not exactly expected anyway - there was little to do but accompany her.

That said, there was other company. She turned to them as they walked.

'Do either of you object so strongly to my views, or might I be in easier company here?'

Follow