~Darkness Becomes~ STORY

[DoctorEW]

Wind Harpies do not taste very good. Bysir had learned this when he spent YEARS (literally) working out a method to isolate a Harpy. The trick was, you see, to set a rudimentary trap for the "bait" Harpy. The following group of Harpies would then converge on the location of the distressed Harpy due to a pheromone release, all but two that is. One Harpy would circle the group and approach from the other direction, searching for other would be attackers. The final Harpy would loiter back, guarding the rear. The trick was to make your way in between the attacking group, and the rear guard, approach from the attack site and overtake the Harpy before it could call for help. Bysir set his trap, made his way to where he believed the attacking group would come from and hope that none of the Harpies had wised up to his trickery...

[(Hexamin)]

@Kiba and Pyrrhus

The Storyteller encourages interaction between the two.  Now that Pyrrhus has money... the supplies can be paid for easily.

Kiba noticed Pyrrhus entered the tent behind him.


@Bysir
Harpies retained their tactics.  Bysir's bait worked and was now faced with one isolated and alarmed harpy.  Luckily for Bysir, harpies were proud creatures and would not run from a fight.  The harpy began charging Bysir, claws outfront and ready to rend his flesh.

[Trainer Zydragon]

Kiba

"Pyhrrus was it? I believe you need supplies for this hunt too?" Kiba motioned towards Pyhrrus. "You may serve my companion first, I'll browse for now."

Kiba eyed the good the shop had for sale, and noticed some small bladed shuriken, each with five points, and a selection of elemental grenades, which would explode with the element imbued inside it.

[DoctorEW]

Bysir normally took Harpies by surprise, but no matter this had happened before. Bysir timed his attack pefectly, the Harpy was not more than a few meters away when Bysir rolled right, shot against a tree, rebounded and caught the Harpy on it's back with a long slash from his blade. Bysir landed across from the Harpy, turned around and prepared for the next encounter.

[Subsonic_Noise]

Vael didn't know why he said that. It wasn't what he intended to say, and it now seemed completely insane to him. He knew he probably had no chance even if Zenith helped him, and now he rejected his help? He turned around to explain this to Zenith, but he was already gone.
As Vael looked down in thoughts, he saw a few small flames dancing around his hands. Confused, he put them out and sat down on his bed.

[Diokatsu]

All Pyrrhus wanted was a mage's sword, something imbibed with elemental power. He took note of swords of differing lengths, each with their own benefits, but too care to not be drawn into things too lengthy and too thick. He chose a balanced sword of wind, something of his own element.

"Can I take that one?"

"Yes, but didn't you say you needed supplies for a mission?" The quartermaster said so with a slight grin. Pyrrhus had gotten caugfht up in his own lust again.

"Then could I get..." Pyrrhus listed a number of foods, potions, a tent, firestarting kits and other such things until he thought it was sufficient. nothing special. He saved a bit for Kiba though, in case he wanted any special supplies and still had enough to furnish himself for a month with prime restaurant food.

"So then I'll be taking that sword..." The quartermaster gladly handed over the sword to Pyrrhus and accepted the payment. Pyrrhus gave a glance to Kiba and swapped places with him, letting Kiba pick out any necessary supplies he had forgotten.

[Trainer Zydragon]

Kiba

Kiba graciously accepted the hadfull of coins that Pyhrrus offered him, and stood infront of the counter. "All I require are a set of those shuriken, two water grenades, a fire grenade, and some simple health poultices." Kiba exchanged some of the coins for the goods, and pocketed the rest. "Come on Pyhrrus, we need to get back to Mary. Where did you get those coins from anyway?"

With that, they left the shop and made their way back to camp.

[WhiteRose]

Chris wasn't going to cry. She knew this would happen, and had mentally prepared herself. But she hadn't expected it to happen so fast. Before she could even get a clear look at Scott's killer, he was gone.
"G'bye, mate,' she said softly, looking at her friend's body one last time. With grim determination, she left the market square, leaving the guards to deal with the body. It was time to find the Thieves Guild. Recalling what Scott had told her about its location, she set off, habitually staying to the shadows.

[C.C. rOyAl]

The task was complete, Scott was dead, and Aseras had gotten away with ease. Another day another life taken, he lived by this, accepting it as his destiny.

While on his way back to the Sanctuary, darkness falls over the sky above, and Aseras decides to set up camp. It was a simple campsite, with just a small fire and a cloth to sleep on. Aseras stared into the stary sky above, thinking of his life as he always does, when he heard something rustling in the bushes near him.

[(Hexamin)]

Day 5:Destiny Reveals

Character Locations: ShowHide

Fendmoore began its reconstruction.  Fishermen quickly constructed small boats to continue their professions.  Unfortunately the town was setback.  The supplies it needed to fully reconstruct the docks and ships wouldn't come cheap.  Someone had to go find help and resources.  Seles decided to be this person.  She had realized that something had changed in the world and she couldn't sit idly by, not if she was going to be able to protect her town if the creature ever respawned.  The day prior, she had set out on her journey to Unificus, to plea with Prince Wensil in an attempt to gain his support and supplies.

In the Spire, Pyrrhus, Mary, and Kiba had set up camp the night before.  Today they would seek out the Phoenix and slay it, bringing Prince Capsol's army one step closer to beginning their advance on Unificus.

Bysir had acquired the other two ingredients for the Shifting Blade he desired, and now made his way through the familiar mountains, quickly, to arrive at Yisra later that day.

Chris had rummaged through Scott's house for clues to the Thieves Guild, and had been successful.  Unfortunately, the guild's headquarters were not located in Unificus like she'd hoped and expected.  The Guild resided in Yimne, and she had to decide just what she was going to do.  A life in the Guild would be exciting, but non-stop.

Vael awoke early that morning to get to the docks before sunrise.  Zenith followed closely behind, but allowed Vael his space.  How would this young man defend against a monstrosity, so ancient?

Aseras was returning to the Brotherhood of Blood to accept his reward for completing the task.  Afterwards he would continue on passing time until the next assignment was issued.  To him, the world went on all the same.

A ship turned west on the seas; a dark cloud continued to follow it.  The girl on board looked out to sea questioning her own humanity, as a darkness grew in her heart.

*Aseras leveled up!*
*Bysir leveled up!*


Rumor of the Day
A bard sang his song in a tavern near Yimne.
"A shadow visited this world we knew,
In evil hearts, the shadow grew.
Better men saw this and fled,
As the world's future they had read.
The mountain men, they would be known,
And the would reside until it shown.
The darkness, that is, that's with us now.
Even though, no one knows how.
Perhaps the mountain will know.
Perhaps these better men will show,
The path we need to hold onto,
The path they know is pure and true."

The tavern's patrons booed the bard off the stage.


Significant Events
-Unificus has significantly increased its defensive parameters
-Prince Capsol's army continued blockading Darson
-Fendmoore and Port Brenan began reconstruction of their ports

[C.C. rOyAl]

*LEVEL UP!*
-Strength: 1
-Endurance: 3
-Dexterity: 3 (+)
-Intelligence: 1 (+)
-Willpower: 4 (+)
-Luck: 1
Aseras increased is Psychic Wind ability, he can now summon more wind blades and can keep them present longer.

A little rabbit jumped out, Aseras calmed down, and decided to go to sleep. He will travel back to Castle Terna first thing in the morning. When Aseras awoke he discovered something was poking around in his food from the previous night. It was a...

[Subsonic_Noise]

In the moment he arrived at Shishra, Vael noticed that there was something unusual about this place... there was no wind at all, and there was not a single wave on the water. Was this related to the darkness he was supposed to fight? Vael shuddered. This might be even more dangerous than he thought.
What if his theory wasn't right? This decision might as well have been his doom, a punishment for being this ignorant, to think that somebody like him could defeat an ancient darkness, a darkness that could steal the color of the reds...
But now it was too late to run away. All he could do was to hope his theory would be proven soon.

[Trainer Zydragon]

Kiba

Kiba awoke to the sound of troops sparring outside his tent. Today was the day they hunted the legendary bird, Phoenix. Obviously Mary and Pyhrrus had not woken him up, so there should be some time left.

Kiba had spent hours meditating the previous night, and felt the need to train his body instead. Inside his rather spacious tent he started to stretch, and then to work out various muscles with push-ups and stretches of various kinds, occasionally swinging Azrael to loosen up.

[(Hexamin)]

@Aseras
Aseras woke to the sound of his belongings being rummaged through.  When he stepped out of his tent he was surrounded by goblins.  The one rummaging through his belongings looked at him, then continued rummaging.

"Hellos Human!"  A goblin, slightly larger than the rest stepped forward.  He examined Aseras up and down.  "Sleeps a little too close to these mountains, don't you think?"  The goblin stepped closer, and 3 more goblins surrounded the assassin with him.  "Now thens... what's a humans with nos weapon and nos belongings gonna do beings surrounded by goblins?"  Aseras quickly went for Stinger.  It was gone, along with everything else he had.  A goblin in the back laughed and held up a sack, while another goblin joined in laughter and swung the assassin's sword around, accidentally striking another goblin in the arm.

The goblin who's arm was struck let out a whine, then smacked the one wielding the sword in the face.  "Yous dummy!  What are you thinkin- woah"  Before the sword-wielder could say anything in response, the poisoned goblin fell down, dead.

The big goblin looked at the situation and then back at Aseras.  "Looks like yous gots some poison in that sword of yours!  Brilliant!"  Even though one goblin dropped dead, the assassin looked around... there were dozens of them, swarming the area.  "Now thens... what do you have to say for yourselfs... human?"


@Vael
The wind had stopped.  The waters were calm.  A dark man approached Vael from behind.  Vael turned around at his presence, the man was directly behind him.  He had not made a sound approaching the young firemaster.  Zenith watched from a distant, trying to read the man's thoughts.  He couldn't understand a single thought.  This is no good, the lord of Shishra thought to himself.  He watched the situation very carefully.

The man's eyes were nearly nonexistant, a void filled them, "dark" could not describe these eyes for they were darker than dark... an abyss.  The man flashed out of existence in a cloud of darkness, quickly reappearing on the other side of Vael.  He began walking towards the nearby docks.


@Kiba
Mary woke at the sound of Kiba's morning exercises.  She watched the paladin effortlessly swinging the large blade around, then saw the distinct blue hilt.  It sent a shiver up her spine just looking at it.

"Quite a blade you have there."  She stated, walking up to Kiba after he noticed her and lowered Azrael.  "It's so large, yet you wield it as if it were a feather."

[DoctorEW]

REVER UP!!!!

Strength:2+
Endurance:1
Dexterity:5+
Intelligence:1
Willpower:1
Luck:3
Bysir increased his Darkness abilities to the point that he may now linger in the darkness realm as long as he wishes. His ability to sense color and skill has been fine tuned and His Darkness aura now spreads a bit farther during meditation and takes less time to reach distance.

Bysir stopped for a break near the peak of one of the smaller mountains in the ridge. He opened "The Darkness Becomes" and began reading. After a couple of hours Bysir fully understood the technique to control Darkness ripples, this was great news! Bysir now only had to tailor this command of Darkness to fit Kiba's need and the young paladin would be saved from a life spent serving the Darkness, and would hopefully server Bysir in facilitating Prince Wensil's death. Bysir had already arranged a contingency in case Kiba refused to help him, which was seeming more and more likely. Bysir closed his book, meditated a while to ensure he grasped the Darkness and then set out to Yisra, which he was now making his way to by following the smoke trail he assumed was Yisra. All the while Bysir swore there were eyes upon him, he even got a similar feeling to that of the Elkfolk, a happy feeling, yet at the same time he sensed immense danger and the presence of the Spectrum somewhere in these mountains. The Others had mentioned an enemy of the Darkness in these ranges, but Bysir had never been curious or stupid enough to go looking. Bysir just hoped that whatever it was would either not detect him fully, or choose to leave him alone....

[(Hexamin)]

@Bysir
The dark paladin's presence was well known in the part of the mountains he was passing through.

Fredrick Moonfire watched the man closely, though not through conventional means.  A young man entered Fredrick's tent.  "Archtemplar Moonfire, there's a disturbance in the area."

Fredrick exited his meditative trance and opened his eyes.  "I know.  And you should know that we are fully aware."

The young man was humbled.  "He's reeks of darkness, Archtemplar."  Anxiously, the young man waited for Fredrick's response.

"This is not the darkness we are waiting for."  Fredrick rose to hit feet.  He was tall, 6'4", and his long red hair flowed past his shoulders, down his robe.

The young man knelt, "Archtemplar... I could easily dispose of him."

"No."  The young man was taken aback by the quick response.  "If you feel it necessary, you may continue observing him, but this man is not to be touched.  Do not make your presence known."  The young man stood and exited the tent.

Bysir was moving quickly through the mountains, Yisra was nearing, a few more peaks and the dark paladin would arrive at his destination.  The presence Bysir had previously felt left him, although the thought remained in his mind.  They were watching me.  Not good.  Bysir thought to himself.  The members of the Dark Circle stayed away from these parts of the mountains because of the local inhabitants.  Some had resided in the mountains since before the Dark Paladins had made their pact with the darkness, and the Dark Circle's history was known by these templars.  Much knowledge was held in the mountains, and with recent events unfolding, a time to act was coming fast.

[Subsonic_Noise]

Vael hesitated, following the dark man, who was now slowly walking to the nearby docks, with his eyes. How was he supposed to stop him? He just dissapeared in front of his eyes, and reappeared somewhere else... how could Vaels attacks even harm him? But he had no other choice now.
Frightened, Vael started to follow him.

[(Hexamin)]

@Vael
The man shrouded in darkness ignored his follower.  He arrived at the docks, then said something in some dark unknown language that sounded like gargling and frothing of the mouth.  Just then a transformation began, the dark man had disappeared and was replaced by a hulking shadow.  The shadow turned around towards Vael who wasn't far behind.  The dark red eyes pierced Vael and a power could be felt surging in the young firemaster.

[C.C. rOyAl]

   "This should be fun", Aseras thought, "its like an early birthday present..." Aseras smirked, the goblins were unorganized and now cocky because they had Stinger, little did they know Aseras was summoning up two massive wind blades to come up and swipe them from behind. He needed to distact them while he did this however... He dropped to his knees, pretending to surrender.

  The large goblin moved in on Aseras, Stinger in his hand. "Are you surrendering human?"

  Aseras lowered his head, showing the goblin his life was in his hands. Then a huge gust knocked the goblin onto one knee, he quickly got up so the human didn't do anything, Aseras was still on his knees however. One thing had changed, he was now looking up, it was nothing significant, except there was one thing, he was smiling again.

  "Why are you smiling human??" the goblin exclaimed, "What is so joyous about your death?!"

  Aseras said only one thing, it was all he needed to say... "Turn around..."

  The goblin did so but moved behind Aseras so he didn't try to overwhelm the goblin. As he shifted his sight towards where his companions stood, all he saw were the remains of the savages, their blood soaking the fertile soil they once stood on.

  "What the hell are you? What did you do to my men??" The goblin questioned, now pointing the blade at Aseras' throat.

  "Me? I didn't do anything, you were watching me this whole time."

  The human was right, someone or something had killed his followers, however, and the only other living threat was the traveler... "Either way human, your life ends now!"

   There was a loud, animalistic groan that spread across the valley, the sound hadn't come from Aseras' though, it was the large goblin who owned the noise. Just as the goblin had lifted his arm equipped with Stinger, Aseras had unsheathed his hidden weapon he kept under his forearm in his gauntlet, and struck him right in the throat. The goblin released a massive amount of blood, soaking Aseras' head, and fell to the ground. Aseras sheathed his hidden blade, and picked up Stinger. He checked the poison in the blade, it was almost out, Aseras needed to prepare more posions. He decided he would collect herbs so he could practice preparing poisons when he got back to the Sanctuary, so Aseras packed up his belongings, and went off to collect herbs.

 

[(Hexamin)]

@Aseras
Luckily for goblins, they were regenerative creatures.  Although the attack seemingly "killed" the goblins, none of them, save for the large one, were dead.  Aseras had severely underestimated the goblins.  As soon as Aseras had made the killing blow on the large goblin, two goblins grabbed him from behind, immediately restraining him and removing his remaining weapons.  Shit, Aseras thought to himself.  He had been cocky and overlooked the goblins true powers.  Even though many goblins had been knocked down by his gust of wind, the goblins behind Aseras's tent immediately responded, and now the assassin was completely defenseless.

Goblins were fully accustomed to death among themselves.  That's why when the large goblin was slain, and the goblin before him poisoned, none of the goblins were surprised or even reacted really.  They quickly adapted the situation.  Another goblin stepped forward.  He looked older, almost wise in his age.

"I am Glek'ol the Wise," he paced calmly before the assassin.  "It seems as if you are quite hasty, a quality I can admire, being a goblin."  The way this goblin spoke was sophisticate, almost human-like.  "Unfortunately, we can't very well allow you the liberty of movement, and will thus, remain restrained for the time being.  You seem to have some skill, this power you summoned is intriguing, especially to us goblins."  Aseras was defeated and now at the goblin's mercy.  Glek'ol motioned to some goblins by the tent.  They in return torched the tent, while the two goblins restraining Aseras moved him towards Glek'ol.  The old goblin spoke again, "I'm taking you to the Big Boss in the mountains.  We'll see if he can find some use for you."  With that, Glek'ol and the rest of the goblins began moving Aseras into the mountains.  Aseras looked at the bloody goblins as their wounds began healing.  The attack was seemingly impressive, although goblin's had thin skin and were easily wounded.  The attack wouldn't of done as much on greater beasts, or even humans for that matter.  His skills were still weak.  Aseras contimplated his situation while being roughly moved into the treacherous mountains... goblin territory.