Profile for Murder He Wrote

Field	Value
Displayed name	Murder He Wrote
Member number	3320
Title	Lifecrafter
Postcount	935
Homepage
Registered	Friday, August 8 2003 07:00

---

Recent posts

Pages

Author	Recent posts
The Mountain of Shadows RP in General
Murder He Wrote Lifecrafter Member # 3320	written Thursday, January 19 2006 20:21 Profile #492 OOC: I'm going to start up Edith's rebellion to Orloki's imprisonment. It may take a few posts though. I want to keep it slow and not do all of it at once. I also don't want to do much talking for Orloki. I worry about messing things up. Big surprise in this post. Hehehe. IC:After screaming at the top of her lungs for help for a few minutes and pounding on the walls with no result, Edith breaks down and starts crying. She sinks down on the floor in a huddled heap and agonizes over her plight for a few minutes. Accepting her fate, she stops feeling sorry for herself and soon quits sobbing. Seeing the candle again, she settles her mind on taking the time to survey her surroundings to pass time in the hopes of finding a way out. Upon examining the desk and chair, she finds just what she expected to find. A desk of old, possibly ancient manufacture, of a particular style she has never seen before and a chair of similar construction. Turning around, she investigates the room itself. It’s at least 15 feet square and lined with granite blocks concreted together by some of the black ice she had seen earlier. The floor also appears to be made of granite blocks. In the corner opposite of the desk lies a crude bed of the same style as the desk and chair. Before she decides to inspect it, she turns her scrutiny to the ceiling. Edith is immediately struck by the fact that all she can see is blackness. On a hunch, she holds the candle up and waves it slowly from left to right carefully watching where the light falls along the walls. She soon finds that the walls end at a certain point about 25 feet up. Then she sees it. A cloud of black and gray smoke swirling around where the ceiling should be. It doesn’t take her long to recognize it for what it is. “A portal for a ceiling… why would Orloki… of course! This isn’t a sealed room, but a holding pit! Orloki must have constructed this to monitor the souls he has trapped until they either fade away or somehow make it back to their bodies. (Shivers) I really don’t like the sound of fading away into oblivion. Especially if this cell happens to be in the Netherworld.” Stepping on a piece of splintered wood that cracks loudly brings her attention back to the bed. She soon notices that a post has been broken off and so she goes over to the bed to examine it more closely. She quickly finds signs of it having been used before, which doesn’t surprise her. Then she hears a faint noise from under it, like the sound of scraping. She gets down on her hands and knees to look under it. No sooner does she get her head to the floor, when she is struck in the face by a blunt object. Recoiling in terror and pain, she backs away to the desk, grasping her face. “You stay away from me, Orloki! I know that’s you in Edith’s body! You can’t fool me that easily. Keep back or else!!” Crawling out from under the bed, Edith sees who it is and her eyes grow wide in horror and shock. The form is unmistakable, yet looks pale and sickly. He holds a club and has numerous wounds all over his body. “Cain!!!” -------------------------------------------------- Back in the group… Orloki watches through Edith’s eyes as Cain laughs at his last statement. “Laugh all you want, Cain. But I still have the upper hand. Edith isn’t alone in that cell in the Netherworld where I put her. Someone very close to you is already there and has been for a long time now. Well, at least since the cavern ceiling collapsed.” Cain quickly stops laughing. “What do you speak of, Demon?” Orloki laughs again. “You received a part of me when you opened that crystal and it changed you mentally and physically. I’m amused to know that I received a part of you in the exchange as well…” Cain becomes speechless and it’s Lisha that breaks the tension. “You have part of his mortal soul, don’t you, Demon?” Orloki laughs menacingly and smiles. -------------------- "Keep your wits about you, the game is afoot!!" - Sherlock Holmes Gay Christian Network The Polaris Board Posts: 935 | Registered: Friday, August 8 2003 07:00
The Mountain of Shadows RP in General
Murder He Wrote Lifecrafter Member # 3320	written Wednesday, January 18 2006 13:03 Profile #490 I think my next post will be one of my shortest. And Nazgul, I DID try to shorten the length of my last post. Thralni pretty much destroyed my herbs, so I had to find a way to compensate. The best I could come up with was to have Orloki take advantage of Edith's mental collapse and possess her as a result. Ephesos was right when he said that some of the characters haven't taken enough damage this far into the RP. Since Edith was one of them, I had to do something about it. Being unable to speak or make potions, she was doomed to become fairly useless to the group. At least now with the possession she has her voice back and the potential to being able to use her spell book in the future. [ Thursday, January 19, 2006 16:17: Message edited by: Sir Sherlock Holmes ] -------------------- "Keep your wits about you, the game is afoot!!" - Sherlock Holmes Gay Christian Network The Polaris Board Posts: 935 | Registered: Friday, August 8 2003 07:00
The Mountain of Shadows RP in General
Murder He Wrote Lifecrafter Member # 3320	written Friday, January 6 2006 18:51 Profile #479 OOC: One major correction that needs to be made. Tuulentekija DOES NOT have his mask at this point. It was knocked off is face when the shockwave from the collapsing cavern roof hit him and knocked him unconscious. I'll correct other minor things in my post. Frozen Feet explained the thoughts between the joining of the other group and the battle so well that I think I'll start around the beginning of the battle. Also, when did Cain come across the stairs? He was climbing along the outside of the mountain and shouldn’t have encountered them. He would have encountered the end of the tunnel everyone is in that led to the outside of the mountain. My post will reflect that. Pardon me for the length of this post. I need to catch up desperately. I was waiting on Frozen Feet to post. My post will add a twist to the story. I felt Ephesos was right. Edith has hardly taken any damage up to this point. So I figured that a mental breakdown coupled with the evil influence of the mountain might prove interesting. -------------------------------------------------------------- IC: From the moment that Edith hears of the Library, she is walking in a daze of wonder. She had heard during her training of a myth surrounding a special library of unparalleled knowledge. No one knew where it was located, nor what all it contained. It was believed to be a storehouse of knowledge put together by ancient races. It was also said to most likely be guarded by a creature of immense power. Could that creature possibly be Orloki? Before she can reason any further, there is a sudden commotion in the group that brings her out of her thoughts. From what she can gather, something is making its way towards the group from down the tunnel behind them. “I must find a spell to protect us.” Her mental comment seems to go unnoticed among the group as she takes off her knapsacks. Setting immediately to work, Edith pulls out her spell book and looks through it for a defense spell of some sort. However, before she can find the right spell, something blinds her temporarily. A flash of light, most likely conjured by Sequoia, has exposed exactly what was following them… Filbert, flanked by three demonic creatures. “Oh dear, this can’t be good.” Edith immediately throws her spell book aside and starts digging through her herbs. Pulling a bunch of vials and canisters out, she starts preparing a special potion with a disguised odor to make it seem insignificant. Looking up for a moment, she notices one of the demonic creatures heading right for her. It makes a bold swipe at her, at which point she performs a forward crouched flip to get out of the way. The creature stops for an instant to marvel at her fast reaction to its attack, more than it would have given her credit for, and then it turns to attack someone else. Checking to be sure she is safe, Edith crawls quickly back to her herbs and continues to prepare her potion. Just when Edith thinks luck is finally on her side, Filbert catches a whiff of her potion. Not willing to let anyone get the upper hand on him or his creatures with any sort of potion, he moves to attack her before she can finish. Feeling the sensation that someone is scrutinizing her movements, she looks around to see Filbert making his way through the group towards her. Edith instantaneously calls out for help in the minds of the others. “For the love of Heaven, somebody STOP HIM!!! I need TIME to finish my potion!!!!” It seems as if the whole group freezes at the loud shouting in their minds. Tuulentekija instantly understands and alerts the others. “It’s Edith!!! Her vocal chords were damaged earlier… she can only communicate using telepathy!!” When the group comprehends the revelation, they each one by one move to try to stop Filbert. However, having received the message too late, they each one by one fail. As he brings his sword down upon Edith, she tumbles out of the way just in time. As she revels in the feeling that she has successfully dodged his attack, she hears a sickening sound that turns her stomach. Spinning around, she finds that all of the herbs she had set out for the potion have been completely destroyed in a magical explosion from the sword. “NO!!!” Edith screams in her mind as she looks at the broken vials and canisters. Ignoring all danger, she frantically crawls back over to the destroyed herbs in total apprehension. Among the herbs she had set out for her potion was an extremely rare one in a vial with a red-banded cork. The others could be replaced, but that one had taken her years to find and was priceless. Taking bits of shattered vials and canisters ones into her hands, she starts looking through them in a frenzy. NO!!!! IT CAN’T BE DESTROYED!!! NOT MY BLOODROOT!!! To any onlooker, it might have seemed to them that she was trying to make another potion in sheer desperation. But nothing could be further from the truth. As she looks crazily through the destroyed ingredients, she begins to tune out all that is going on around her, including the yells of Sequoia, the deaths of the demonic creatures, and all other conversations. Her eyes rest on the red-banded cork of a crushed vial as a bright green light flashes through the tunnel. Her sanity at last starts to break as she comes to the realization that her most precious ingredient, the rare bloodroot, has in fact been destroyed by Filbert’s magical sword. Edith falls into almost a dead faint against the passage wall and everything around her becomes shrouded by a gray fog. It is at that moment that she becomes aware of Filbert looking at her again. Opening her eyes and looking up at him, she can hear him speak, though the words sound as if they are traveling through water. “Edith, you are useless without the herbs I destroyed.” He then goes on to strike Tuulentekija in the shoulder and then makes some comment to Melora. Then Edith catches a glimpse of Lisha coming out of the shadows. It happens so fast that at first, she thinks it is a hallucination. But when she sees Filbert raise his sword and gasp at the moment that Lisha’s dagger digs in, she is sure it is actually happening. Filbert falls to the ground in slow motion to Edith’s mind. She then feels a hand on her shoulder, and looking up, she can see Tuulentekija staring down at her, shoulder bleeding from Filbert’s attack. The instant that his eyes meet hers, however, he becomes quickly aware of something different in her. He sees a slight red twinge of anger in her normally ice blue eyes and a blank expression through the mask that shows that something has happened to her in that short space of time during the battle. He helps her to her feet and tries to determine what has changed in her without her noticing too strongly. His attempts to hide his scrutiny were superfluous at any rate, because Edith’s blank expression and stare never once changed during the ten minutes he was looking at her. A movement from Filbert causes him to turn his attention away from her at that point. Someone yells in horror about the time not being up, and once again, the voice comes to her as if through water. Despite Filbert’s movements, she ignores him completely and starts wandering around in her mental fog. Even after noticing that one of her knapsacks has been virtually torn to shreds by one of the demonic creatures and the herbs contained in it ruined, she continues to show no response. However, at the sight of Sequoia’s ravaged body, Edith’s sanity returns to her temporarily. She instantly wonders what happened to him as he collapses. Lisha runs to catch him and then instructs Tuulentekija and Edith to take care of him while she follows Filbert with Melora. Edith falls back into the instinctive role of alchemist, but without her herbs, she feels that she is quite useless in being able to help him. Not wanting to leave Sequoia behind, they carry him down the tunnel to the opening leading to the outside of the mountain. They soon find themselves staring down at Cain being attacked by Filbert. At the sight of him, they nearly drop Sequoia. It doesn’t take Cain long to completely demoralize, let alone defeat, Filbert. Heading up the path and into the tunnel, he passes between Edith and Tuulentekija, who follow with Sequoia and put him down just a short ways behind Cain. Edith sees him stop next to her one ravaged knapsack and pick out his pouch of spores. From that point Edith realizes that she did have a way to heal Sequoia, but in all her misery, she had forgotten. In a feeling of utter uselessness and despair, Edith’s sanity begins to crack again. She tries her hardest to grasp at what is left of her mind. Kneeling down next to Sequoia, she looks him over to assess his injuries and notices that he is awakening after passing out from the pain caused by the healing spores. It’s then that Edith feels it upon touching him. A dark presence starts entering her mind. She immediately tries to push it out, but to no avail. It grows stronger and stronger the more she tries to fight it. Slowly she feels her mind and soul being wrenched from her body as the presence takes her place. The last thing Edith consciously sees is Sequoia opening his eyes and looking at her. That image pulls away until there is nothing. Soon she sees nothing but darkness… darkness all around her. Edith frantically gropes around her in the blackness, but encounters no resistance. Then a light shines on a desk just in front of her in the corner of a room with no windows or doors. Edith looks and sees a candle perched in front of an old parchment. Running to the table and seating herself in an ancient wooden chair, she picks it up and reads it. “I’ve finally GOT YOU, my dear. I’ve finally GOT YOU. There is no escape. Your friends will soon join you.” Putting it down, she finally comes to the realization that Orloki has taken over her mind and body and she is trapped and at his mercy. She looks around her in pure anguish for a means of escape, but finds nothing to aid her. Edith screams at the top of her lungs for help, but the brick and mortar walls absorb her cries. ---------------------------------------------------------- Meanwhile, Sequoia stares into Edith’s eyes and for a moment, he detects something amiss. Her eyes appear to have gone black, but an instant later, they return to normal. Except now there is a brighter luster to the blueness and a slight glow that he could have sworn wasn’t there before. Almost as if by a reflex of someone staring at her, she looks up at Lisha. “He’s conscious.” Looking down into her eyes, Lisha becomes immediately aware of something… wrong in them. She detects the same unnatural luster and glow in them, but is careful to not show signs of her scrutiny. Could the possession have passed into Edith? Standing up, Edith speaks to her. “Lisha.” “Yes?” “We must hurry.” Why must we hurry I wonder? Lisha talks to the others and then fixes her gaze back on Edith. I must keep my eyes on this one. Something has changed in her. “Edith, can you use my aid?” Edith gives a malicious smile and the glow in her eyes seems to pulse for an instant. “Yes.” I definitely need to keep my eye on her. There is definitely something amiss in that one. She turns her attention back to the others. “Then let Cain lead the way. Watch him, elf. Don't allow us to be lead astray. And if you find that simple-minded fool, do not let him run off again. Orloki will see what we make of his servants.” And those among us whom he chooses to control for better or for worse. Edith collects her spilled items with renewed energy in her intact knapsack and follows the others towards Cain. OOC: At this point, Edith has become possessed by Orloki and the only people who have any hint of it are Sequoia and Lisha. I wanted to come up with a way to bring her voice back so she could cast spells, but I couldn’t come up with anything. This route might lead Orloki to heal it for her and bring about a new twist in the story. Up to this point, Edith hasn’t been injured beyond her voice being destroyed. So I figured the best way to handicap her movements further would be to make her lose control of them. I hope this isn’t an outrageous idea. I figured Orloki might be willing to take advantage of Edith’s mental state. She has been completely demoralized at the loss of her herbs and on the brink of a mental breakdown. What better time for Orloki to act on her. Like Filbert said, she is now useless without them unless she is able to speak again. [ Sunday, January 08, 2006 00:51: Message edited by: Sir Sherlock Holmes ] -------------------- "Keep your wits about you, the game is afoot!!" - Sherlock Holmes Gay Christian Network The Polaris Board Posts: 935 | Registered: Friday, August 8 2003 07:00
The Mountain of Shadows RP in General
Murder He Wrote Lifecrafter Member # 3320	written Monday, December 26 2005 09:02 Profile #442 OOC: Sorry for taking so long to post. Filbert may have some trouble following Edith and Tuulentekija. Their exit tunnel was forcibly blocked by Orloki and the second tunnel they entered that lead to the stairs was sealed behind them as well. So, unless Orloki opens it for Filbert, he'll come across a dead end. I'm going to make an attempt to have Edith and Tuulentekija encounter the other group at last. IC: Upon going around a turn, Edith comes up against a blank wall with a single symbol on it. She briefly inspects it and turns to speak to Tuulentekija about it. Its then that she finds he is not behind her as she thought. "What’s taking you so long? Come on!" After a moment or two she hears an audible "Yes, ma'am" a distance down the stairs and soon he rejoins her. "Take a look at this. Does it strike a chord in your memory?" He looks it over and gives a visible start. "It’s the same as the one that was on the hidden door!" Edith smiles. "Exactly!! I’m willing to bet that this is another sealed door. And as we already know, what can be sealed can also be opened. Give me a few minutes to whip up another acid potion." Tuulentekija sits down on the stairs behind Edith and takes out the black pearl to look at it again. Suddenly she interrupts his thoughts with a surprising comment. "Was Melody a lost love of yours?" He whips around to face her as she sits mixing her potion. "H-How did you know about her? You’re not a clairvoyant as well, are you?" Edith shakes her head. "No. No, I’m not. I forgot to tell you that my telepathy potion has the unfortunate side effect of allowing me to hear the thoughts of those who are near me." Tuulentekija turns back to the pearl and questions her nervously. "So you heard everything I was thinking?" Edith stops working on the potion for a moment. "No." Tuulentekija turns back to her again and notices that she has stopped working on her potion and now has her eyes fixed on his. "But you just said that you could read my thoughts." Edith grins at him and rolls her eyes. "No... I said I could hear the thoughts of those near me. That in no way means that I can hear everything a person thinks. What I can hear is mostly whispers... bits and pieces in other words. I only caught some of your thoughts here and there. I did my best to ignore most of what I did hear, because it’s none of my business. Still, some things just stuck out in my mind." He turns back to look at the pearl and she goes back to making her potion. "So, just what all did you hear?" Edith responds with deliberate words while trying carefully not to ruin her potion. "I only took in a few things. Melody... someone named Ashar... the Pearl you found... something about Death Hawks... and the ice sealing the opening to the tunnel being metal. I’m not going to ask you about any of them because, like I said, it’s none of my business. So if you don’t wish to tell me anything about them, I’ll understand. And now my potion is done, so let’s see about removing this door." Edith backs up a few steps to a safe distance and prepares to throw the flask. At the last moment, she stops and makes a quick comment. "Oh, and by the way, I am not an Easterling. I merely studied Easterling spells from other master alchemists and managed to obtain some rare ingredients while at the kingdom's Castle. If they seemed familiar to you, than I congratulate you on your supreme sense of taste. Such ingredients and spells, let alone those who can recognize them, are hard to come by these days." With that, she throws the flask at the wall. It shatters violently and coats much of rock with the corrosive liquid. Within 20 seconds, the liquid starts to bubble and hiss as it begins to melt its way through. After a minute or two, the wall starts to crack and crumble. Without warning, a blast of hot, steamy air demolishes the wall and throws bits of it down the stairs at them. They shield themselves from the debris for a few seconds and then turn back to the opening to inspect it. Pointing her ring through the opening, Edith and Tuulentekija can’t believe their eyes. Before them in the glow from the ring, they see the three adventurers they had met earlier standing before them in a tunnel that's perpendicular to the one they are in. They have their weapons up and ready to attack, but upon seeing who has just emerged from the wall, they put them down. Edith can’t help but grin maliciously. "My, my. I think our lonely luck has just changed." [ Monday, December 26, 2005 21:32: Message edited by: Sir Sherlock Holmes ] -------------------- "Keep your wits about you, the game is afoot!!" - Sherlock Holmes Gay Christian Network The Polaris Board Posts: 935 | Registered: Friday, August 8 2003 07:00
The Mountain of Shadows RP in General
Murder He Wrote Lifecrafter Member # 3320	written Thursday, December 15 2005 22:07 Profile #434 OOC: Sorry for the delay. I was beginning to assume that the RP was doomed. I've been busy preparing to move... my apartment was supposed to be inspected by Section 8 Housing today. IC: Edith nods her head in agreement. "That sounds like a great idea to me. I'm absolutely exhausted. What should we block the entrance with? I see nothing in here worth using." Tuulentekija looks around for a moment, and getting an idea, moves up beside Edith and peers out of the entrance to the tunnel. Well, there are plenty of loose boulders around. Maybe we can find one that isn't frozen to the mountain very well and pry it loose." Just as they prepare to crawl out of the tunnel onto the mountain, the air suddenly gets colder and the wind starts blowing at gale force. It forces Edith and Tuulentekija to recoil down into the tunnel to escape the freezing temperatures and the stinging ice. The tunnel suddenly begins to grow darker, and looking up, they see the entrance freezing itself shut before their very eyes. Within a matter of seconds, the entrance to the tunnel is completely blocked with a thick layer of ice. Using her ring, Edith crawls up to ice and inspects it. An astonished voice appears in Tuulentekija's head. "Well, that's certainly different. Come here an have a look at this." He does as she says and crawls up beside her. "Does that look like normal ice to you, Tuulentekija?" He looks it over closely and runs his fingernails over it. No sooner do his fingers come in contact with it when he withdrawals them as if burned. "ACK!!! Damn that's cold!!! Devilishly cold! I've never felt ice THAT cold before... not since... well, it's not important right now. But anyway, in answer to your question, other than the horrific deep cold, I can see nothing to distinguish it from other ice." Edith puts her ring closer to the ice and speaks is his mind once more, this time in an inquisitive manner. "Is that all that you observe? Look a bit closer..." Tuulentekija examines the ice with more scrutiny and soon sees what she saw. "Now I see what you mean. This ice doesn't reflect the light of your ring at all. On top of that, it's black... not white or clear as you would expect from an ice storm." "Precisely! This ice isn't normal at all. I'm willing to bet it's Orloki's doing. But what his objective could be in sealing us in here is beyond me at the moment. However, I'm willing to bet we'll find out shortly... YES!!! Listen to that!" As Edith ceases to speak, the familiar sound of stone grinding on stone reverberates up the tunnel from below. Silence soon follows after. For a moment or two, they look at each other and then down into the darkness. Tuulentekija breaks the stillness with a spooked voice. "I thought you said that these lesser used tunnels weren't likely to shift!? Please tell me that we aren't trapped..." Edith stumbles in her mental speech. "I... I don't know. I didn't think they'd be likely to... apparently, I was wrong. No... NO!!! I refuse to believe it! We CAN'T be trapped!!" Edith then surprises Tuulentekija by taking off down the tunnel in a frenzy of energy. He grabs his pack and chases after her. Bounding down around a curve, he nearly plows into her as she stands staring at something. "GEEZ WOMAN!! Give me some sort of warning before I come around a corner blindly into you like I almost did." Edith puts up a finger to his mouth to silence him and then turns his head with her hand. In the light of her ring, he sees the opening of a new passageway where one had not been earlier. Her voice then appears again in his mind. “It wasn't a section of the tunnel blocking us from below; it was a section opening up from the side. We aren't trapped after all." With excitement, Edith makes her way into the new tunnel and disappears around a corner. Tuulentekija sighs with relief and follows her. He soon hears her make a puzzled exclamation, and coming around the curve in the tunnel, sees what she is staring at. Before them, they see a section of stairs leading up at least 75 feet in front of them. At the top, it seems to curve off into another direction where more stairs may possibly lie ahead of them. "What the blazes is this doing here, Edith? A staircase this far up in the mountain? It doesn't seem possible." Suddenly they once again hear the sound of rock grinding against rock behind them. Edith bounds around the curve to see what's happening. Tuulentekija remains behind in the darkness and notices that the stairwell is lit up with colonies of glowing mosses. Edith soon returns with the news that he already was sure he knew. "Let me guess, the tunnel shifted behind us and we have no choice but to move forward up the stairs." She frowns at his statement, but nods in agreement. He turns around and looks up at the stairs. “Well, at least we can be sure of one thing. This must be a more prominent tunnel. I saw large amounts of glowing mosses covering the walls and steps when you left with your light. That must mean it leads somewhere important.” "Glowing moss or not… we're still rats, you know." Tuulentekija turns around and looks at her with bewilderment written on his face. "What? What about rats?" Edith looks at him and then up at the stairs. "We're rats... rats in Orloki's twisted maze of death. He's herding us where he wants us to go. Why else would we be put through all this rigmarole? He is pushing up towards the peak of the mountain. No doubt, he is doing the same to the others. I’m sure we’ll all meet in the same place, mark my words." He turns around and looks back up the stairs and comments with a sneer. "Well, if we must be ?herded’, couldn't we at least take this time to rest? We're both exhausted." Edith shakes her head. "No. We can't afford to do that. If he has control over the entire mountain, then he'll force us to keep moving one way or another anyway. However, there is something we can do to combat our fatigue without resting. I'll mix us up a batch of strong energy potions to lessen our weariness and increase our stamina. Just give me a few minutes to prepare them." Edith digs through her knapsacks and pulls out a mortar and pestle, two flasks, and a bunch of ingredients. In ten minutes time, she has her brews made and puts her supplies away. She hands one of the flasks to Tuulentekija and they both drink down the contents. After some noticeable wincing of their features from the bitterness and putting the flasks back into one of Edith's knapsacks, they slowly start making their way up the stairs. -------------------- "Keep your wits about you, the game is afoot!!" - Sherlock Holmes Gay Christian Network The Polaris Board Posts: 935 | Registered: Friday, August 8 2003 07:00
The Mountain of Shadows RP in General
Murder He Wrote Lifecrafter Member # 3320	written Monday, November 21 2005 10:31 Profile #420 OOC: My fault... my fault... I'm so sorry about that. I knew I was supposed to post but I kept forgetting about it. I was too busy. IC: Edith ponders over which way to go and seems to be in complete indecision. She soon makes up her mind though. "I think we should try heading in the direction of the wolves, but just to be safe, I think we should be prepared in case we are attacked. Nevertheless, while you may be convinced that it might lead to the outside, I am NOT so convinced. I personally believe that this tunnel may lead further up into the mountain, which is what worries me somewhat." "What worries you about it?" Asks Tuulentekija as he checks his weapon. "Well, if this tunnel has wolves in it, then WHY are they located further up in the mountain instead of closer to the outside? Could this possibly be another one of those shifted tunnels like we experienced back there in the icy tunnel? And if so, what might lie ahead of us? I suggest that before we try this tunnel, we leave a marker of some sort here at the fork just in case we happen to get lost somehow." Tuulentekija nods. "Good idea. What should we use?" Edith digs through her pack and pulls out a flask of glowing liquid. "I think now would be a good time to use this. I've been saving it up for just such an occasion." She uncorks it, and soaking a small sponge with a little of it, she draws an "X" on the ground in front of the fork. Tuulentekija marvels at it. "Oh neat. A glowing dye. I remember seeing something like that before in my travels. I take it that you distilled it from various glowing herbs and mosses?" Edith smiles at him through the mask. "Exactly. This should make it easy for us to mark our way through the tunnels ahead. And now, let's see where this wolf-scented tunnel leads us." She corks the flask, sticks it in her pocket, and leads the way once again with her glowing ring, weapon at the ready. -------------------- "Keep your wits about you, the game is afoot!!" - Sherlock Holmes Gay Christian Network The Polaris Board Posts: 935 | Registered: Friday, August 8 2003 07:00
The Mountain of Shadows RP in General
Murder He Wrote Lifecrafter Member # 3320	written Monday, November 14 2005 00:51 Profile #415 OOC: Frozen Feet, I really need you to post after this one. I am grasping at straws trying to come up with something. IC: As they head up the sloping passage, the walls, ceiling, and floor begin to get icy and the air gets perceptibly colder. Slowly, bit-by-bit, Edith and Tuulentekija start seeing the ice formations getting thicker and thicker. Eventually they have to resort to walking carefully and using their grappling hooks on the walls to keep them from sliding around on the ice. Luckily for them, the tunnel isn’t ascending steeply, but it curves and twists ahead of them, making it impossible to foresee what’s ahead of them. Which is why the sudden echoing sound of stone grinding against stone a distance ahead of them forces them to stop and wait for a few minutes to be sure it isn’t a cave-in. The collapsing of the ceiling in the large cavern earlier could possibly have compromised other tunnels in the mountain, so they didn’t want to take any chances of being caught in a collapsing passage. Upon hearing no further noises after a few minutes, they decide that it’s safe to proceed. After advancing around the sharp curve in front of them, they come face to face with a gallery of stalactites and stalagmites, which seriously narrow the path and present a dangerous impediment to their progress. Cautiously, they proceed through them, being careful not to injure themselves on the sharp edges. Eventually they reach the last group of obstacles and overcome them. However, upon clearing them, they come face to face with a dead end in the tunnel. A worried, yet agitated voice enters Tuulentekija’s mind as Edith speaks to him. “What the hell?!! This shouldn’t be here! This was definitely a passage to the exterior of the mountain. I felt the fresh air!! You felt it didn’t you?!!” She turns a face to him that expresses concern and confirmation that she isn’t going crazy. He answers her right away. “Yes! Yes, I felt it too. This was definitely a direct passage to the outside. Yet, now it ends with a dead end. What could it mean?” Edith feels up the wall and strikes it with her grappling hook several times before answering. “I…I don’t know. I have to admit that I am bewildered and terrified. I…It’s almost like the entire mountain is alive. Like the tunnels can open and close themselves at will. I’ve never seen or heard of anything like it before.” She looks at the wall and then back down the tunnel that they had just come through. A horrific thought crosses her mind and she realizes that they could possibly be sealed into the tunnel at both ends. “My god!!! Back down the tunnel! We must get out of here before its too late!” They hurriedly start heading back through the gallery in hopes of making it out in time. However, while trying to get a grip with her grappling hook between two stalagmites, Edith breaks through a sheet of ice and gets her hook and hand caught. She practically screams in Tuulentekija’s mind. “OW!!! DAMN!!! I’m stuck!! I can’t get free!! HELP!!!” He stops and starts hacking at the ice around her hand, being careful not to hurt her. At first, the ice barely yields at all to his efforts. But soon shockwaves produced by the hacking cause the two stalagmites on either side of them to start to crack and shift slightly. This makes Edith fear that the ceiling is about to cave-in on them. Her fears are realized when one of them suddenly collapses, causing the ice her hand is caught in to shatter. Though she is freed, the collapse causes a chain reaction in which she has no time to react. Everything goes black as the other stalagmite gives way and triggers some of the ice from the ceiling to collapse onto them. After everything settles, Edith finds herself face down in a pile of ice with a large amount of weight on her back. She surmises that Tuulentekija is lying on top of her and that they are both trapped under a cave-in of ice and rock. Opening her eyes, all Edith can see is darkness, meaning her ring has ceased to glow. She then tries to move around in an attempt to free herself. To her surprise, she finds that the space out in front of her is open and not solid rock or ice as before. Upon trying to crawl into the open area, she finds that she is completely immobile from the chest down because of the weight lying on top of her. She starts speaking loudly into Tuulentekija’s mind, hoping to wake him up. It doesn’t take long before she hears him mumbling incoherently. The incoherence soon dissipates, however, and it becomes apparent that he is once again, awake. “Are you alright? Are you hurt?” “No, Miss Edith, I’m not hurt. What’s with the darkness? Has you’re ring stopped functioning?” Edith grunts slightly while trying to move and then answers him. “Yes. Repeat the spell word again so I can see this niche we have landed in.” He complies and soon the ring starts to glow again. Unfortunately, all Edith can see is the beginning of a tunnel that slopes sharply upwards. “Can you move at all? You have me pinned down. My body is almost completely stationary.” Tuulentekija feels around and finds a grip on the rock walls on either side of him. Pushing himself forward, he climbs out from under the ice lying on top of him, crawls off of her back, and up into the niche. Fortunately, the ice stays where it is and doesn’t cave-in on her. She tries to move again and finds herself now free. Turning herself over onto her back, she points her ring up and inspects the tunnel. This tunnel, unlike the other, is free of ice and traces of moss are visible. However it has clearly been unused and there is no telling where it might lead. Tuulentekija looks up the rocky tunnel and then back down at Edith. “Well, should we see where it leads? I see no point in going back the way we came.” Edith looks at the ice blocking the entrance and then back at him. “Yes, we might as well abandon the other direction. Besides, we want to get as close to the peak as we can. I trust that this tunnel won’t shift on us. It doesn’t look like it was ever used. Well, I’ll go first to provide the light.” Edith grabs her grappling hook from the ground and climbs up beside Tuulentekija. She then proceeds to climb up the strange passage in front of him. -------------------- "Keep your wits about you, the game is afoot!!" - Sherlock Holmes Gay Christian Network The Polaris Board Posts: 935 | Registered: Friday, August 8 2003 07:00
The Mountain of Shadows RP in General
Murder He Wrote Lifecrafter Member # 3320	written Thursday, November 3 2005 13:31 Profile #409 OOC: I think its time for Aran, Wiseman, and Frozen Feet to post. I refuse to post again until at least Aran and Frozen Feet post again. Wiseman, it would be nice if you rejoined us. -------------------- "Keep your wits about you, the game is afoot!!" - Sherlock Holmes Gay Christian Network The Polaris Board Posts: 935 | Registered: Friday, August 8 2003 07:00
The Mountain of Shadows RP in General
Murder He Wrote Lifecrafter Member # 3320	written Thursday, October 27 2005 22:41 Profile #402 OOC: Well, I'm going to make an attempt to post. I'm am kind of nervous about creating a fight post of any sorts because I'm not the best at that. And this post will be long, but hopefully adequate. Sorry to hear about your grandfather, Ephesos. IC: At this point, Edith is on the verge of complete terror and indecision. She can easily see that Orloki, or some other spirit that she is not yet aware of, has possessed Filbert. Moreover, the imps standing on either side of him don’t look weak, but malicious and deadly. She also realizes that in her present state, her spell book is completely useless to her because she can’t recite any of the spells orally. With Tuulentekija still leaning on her, she nudges him and points to the darkness behind them, where the shockwave from the collapse of the ceiling has covered up most of the glowing moss with a thick layer of dust. “Back up slowly while I try to think. If we are in the darkness, they won’t be able to target us as easily as they would out here among all this glowing moss.” He follows her instructions and starts backing up. As darkness starts to envelope them, she spies Tuulentekija’s mask lying against a rock on the ground in front of them. She suddenly stops backing up and whispers in her mind to him. “Hold onto the wall for support. I found your mask. I’m going to try to get it for you.” Tuulentekija grabs her arm and reprimands her. “No!!! It isn’t worth the risk!! Leave it be and let’s run!!” Edith looks up at the slowly advancing Filbert and imps and then back down at the mask. She makes a split-second decision to take his advice and, taking his arm, they plunge into the darkness and make their way down the passage as quickly as possible. Filbert calls to them smugly. “You can’t run from me! My imps will find you in the darkness wherever you go! ATTACK THEM!!!” With that, the imps take off into the air and fly down the tunnel after them. When Edith and Tuulentekija reach the area of tunnel where the doorway is supposed to be, they find that it is blocked with debris from the cave-in. Turning around, she looks back into the darkness and anticipates where the imps might be. She feels around for a few moments and realizes grimly that they are trapped. While feeling around in the rubble for a possible escape route, an idea hits Edith. In the middle of trying to climb up the debris pile, Tuulentekija finds himself being forced to the ground by her and he hears the sound of a weapon being unsheathed. He frantically looks around trying to see in the dark, but fails to discern anything in the inky blackness. He then surmises that Edith has unsheathed her long dagger and plans to fight off the imps herself. He opens his mouth to yell something to her, but stops when he hears a familiar gurgling sound and hears Edith grunting and whimpering in pain. The next series of events are almost a complete blur to him, as they all happen so quickly. He hears a simple series of hoarse, strained words coming from Edith as she musters all her strength into them. “Lucis…ex…inferis…” With the last word, a blinding white light shoots down the tunnel from the ruby ring on her extended hand. The imps, being less than ten feet from her at the time, are instantly blinded. Filbert, too, is caught off guard by the sudden burst of light and it causes him to trip and fall backwards. Seeing how close the imps are, Edith throws herself on her face to avoid a collision. The imps fly straight into the wall of rubble with a loud crash, and squeal like mad as part of it caves in on them. Getting to her feet, she helps Tuulentekija up and they run down the tunnel towards Filbert as fast as they can, hoping to pass him before either he or the imps can regain their sight again. Filbert, unfortunately, recovers quickly and stops them before they can pass him. “That was a fancy trick, but I am smarter than you and faster than you. Soon my minions will be at your heals. However, I’m afraid that I must withdrawal my promise of a swift and painless death. I feel now that you should suffer and suffer terribly!” Edith whispers something mentally to Tuulentekija. “Keep him busy for a few seconds. I know how we can get past him.” Edith steps back into the darkness and starts digging through her one knapsack. Tuulentekija steps forward at the same time towards Filbert. “Do you think you really scare us? You and your master WILL be defeated and I will watch you both be destroyed.” Filbert laughs and answers back through an evil grin. “Foolish mortals. Gods cannot be killed. My master will take great pleasure in claiming your souls and making you serve him ?til the end of time. And I will enjoy watching him as he does it. I can hear my minions heading towards you now. Any last words, mortals?” Edith pops her face back into the light of the glowing fungus with an evil grin of her own and responds loudly in Filbert’s mind. “Yes…have a nice sleep...” With that she puts something to her mouth, and in the next instant, there is the sound of a faint rush of air. “Ack!” Filbert winces as something strikes him in the neck. Grabbing at something, he pulls it out in front of him so he can examine it. Tuulentekija recognizes the object in his hand as one of the pins that Edith had removed from her hair earlier. Edith grabs his arm and, pushing Filbert aside, they run down the tunnel towards the stairs. Filbert tries to strike one of them with his sword, but as he does so, he gets light-headed and his vision goes blurry. He turns towards them and starts to run after them, but he soon begins getting drowsy. Then, to make all else worse, the imps fly into him from behind, knocking him down. Filbert soon passes out with his imps standing over him. Meanwhile, Edith and Tuulentekija make it down the stairs and into the forge, where they take the time to catch their breath. “What did you do to him?” Tuulentekija asks Edith. “Well, I forgot to mention that I carry a blowpipe. I keep my darts in my hair to make them easier to transport. Not only does it prevent me from poking myself through a knapsack, but they also look nice when sticking out of a bun.” This last statement causes him to smile a little. “Did you kill him?” Edith looks at him when he asks it and shakes her head in response. “No. I didn’t want to kill an innocent. Orloki is using Filbert against us, but his soul is still trapped somewhere in his body. We must figure out a way to help him later. But for now, we must avoid him at all costs. The poison I used will not kill him. It will merely put him to sleep for a while and make him weak for a tad. However, it will only last for a short time. In the meantime, I want to clean up your head wound and bandage it before we look to see where the others went. They had to of come this way before us.” She goes and gathers some water from the hot spring and comes back to Tuulentekija. She finds him facing away from her into the darkness. When she tries to get him to turn his head towards the light of the foundry, he attempts hide his face with his hands. Edith instantly suspects that he doesn’t want her to see his face now that the mask is gone. Knowing he can’t win against Edith’s persistence, he relents and allows her to pulls his hands away from his face. After turning it towards her, she finds she is still unable to see much through the blood with the brighter light of the foundry. After washing the blood off of his face, treating his head wound, and bandaging it, she steps back and looks his face over again. Tuulentekija looks at the ground as she scrutinizes his features. She can clearly see horrible scars running up and down his cheeks from ear to chin on both sides and over his forehead, leading into his hairline. One scar in particular catches her attention. It runs from his forehead above his left eyebrow and down across the middle of his eye and meets one of the scars in the center of his cheek. For a few seconds, she just stares at him. Then Tuulentekija looks back up at her and sees, through the mask, a tear leave both of her eyes. He hears a sad voice in his head. “So much pain. So much suffering you must have endured. I am really sorry.” Tuulentekija looks at the ground again. “Are you going to pity me and look down on me like so many others have?” Looking up, he sees Edith still staring at him and shaking her head. “Looks mean nothing compared with what a person has inside their soul. And truthfully, I see a handsome man with a beautiful soul standing before me.” Tuulentekija sheds a tear and smiles. “I haven’t heard anyone say anything like that for a long, long time. I thought I would never hear it again. Thank you.” Edith smiles at him and then shivers suddenly. “Brrrrr. Where’s the cold air coming from? This room was all steamy earlier.” “Yeah, I just noticed that too. Could you produce a light for us to see? Perhaps something like you produced up there in that tunnel, only not as bright. By the way, how did you do that?” Edith smiles again and shows him her ring. “I cast a rare spell that came from this ring. It was a gift left to me from my mother. This ring is for creating light where light is usually unable to be created. Like in a cursed crypt where light cannot penetrate the evil aurora around it. It can also be used in times of emergency when a bright blinding light is needed to stun enemies. The spell is appropriately named ?Light from Hell.’ Ugh. My throat feels terrible from my exertion up there, so I will need you to recite the weak light spell for me. Just say the word, “Lucis” out loud.” Tuulentekija follows her instructions and upon speaking the word, the ring gives a semi-bright glow, providing them with adequate light to search their surroundings. It doesn’t take them long to see an opening in the rock wall where there previously had not been one. Edith speaks up first. “I don’t remember that doorway being there when we first came in here.” “Neither do I. Well, as we can’t go back outside or back up the stairs, I suggest we go that way. Lead the way Miss Edith.” Edith resheathes her sword and leads the way with her glowing ring. [ Thursday, October 27, 2005 22:42: Message edited by: Sir Sherlock Holmes ] -------------------- "Keep your wits about you, the game is afoot!!" - Sherlock Holmes Gay Christian Network The Polaris Board Posts: 935 | Registered: Friday, August 8 2003 07:00
The Mountain of Shadows RP in General
Murder He Wrote Lifecrafter Member # 3320	written Wednesday, October 26 2005 09:04 Profile #400 OOC: Well, it seems I have no choice but to be stuck in with Tuulentekija and Filbert. I had originally written my post in the anticipation of being with Sequoia and Lisha. Now I am stumped as to what I should write to continue. And then there's the problem with Mung. I do prefer to stay neutral, but I can't help but comment. It's WAY too late for someone to be joining the RP. I already know what repercussions that can have. I killed one RP and nearly destroyed another when I first started RPing here. And I'll be dashed if I can understand how there can be a pirate ship in a mountain. [ Thursday, October 27, 2005 17:17: Message edited by: Sir Sherlock Holmes ] -------------------- "Keep your wits about you, the game is afoot!!" - Sherlock Holmes Gay Christian Network The Polaris Board Posts: 935 | Registered: Friday, August 8 2003 07:00
The Mountain of Shadows RP in General
Murder He Wrote Lifecrafter Member # 3320	written Thursday, October 20 2005 13:58 Profile #383 OOC: You know, I never said that it HAD to be Cain. I was actually planning for it to be something else entirely. -------------------- "Keep your wits about you, the game is afoot!!" - Sherlock Holmes Gay Christian Network The Polaris Board Posts: 935 | Registered: Friday, August 8 2003 07:00
The Mountain of Shadows RP in General
Murder He Wrote Lifecrafter Member # 3320	written Monday, October 17 2005 20:41 Profile #376 OOC: Oh dear. Sorry about that. Tomorrow lasted a few days. My cousin, Wandie came for a visit this past weekend. And she is the definition of "intense stress inducer" in every sense of the word. She messed me up for the weekend with her craziness. I'll try to make my IC now. IC: As Edith takes in everything around her, she becomes confused to say the least. First, she witnesses Cain becoming possessed by some part of Orloki when he falls into a strange crystal case. Then one of the undead she had seen at the village reappears, mutates into a more mortal-shaped being, and starts going crazy. After which the reviving spirit of Orloki seriously compromises the ceiling above them, causing it to crack and shower down stalactites everywhere. Then suddenly Cain and the undead warrior start fighting each other. It was around this point that she hears Tuulentekija yell something, but she doesn't pay any attention to it because her eyes become fixed on Cain. Something about Cain’s manner just isn't right. It is obvious that he has been possessed, but there seems to be something "artificial" about his movements. Then when the undead warrior strikes him down with unusual ease, Edith becomes certain that something is amiss. At the instant that a blow is struck on Cain, he explodes into a cloud of dust. In her entire life, Edith has only ever heard of such a thing once. It had been when she was training to become a great alchemist. A group of miners had come across a crypt and had come across a hostile-looking spirit. The kingdom’s best mages were summoned to dispel the vengeful shade before it could leave the mine and Edith had the fortune to be brought along to provide healing to anyone who was hurt. When the mages attacked the spirit, they found it to be unusually simple. On the first spell, it exploded into a black cloud of dust. She learned from them that the spirit was nothing more than an illusion. It had apparently been a clever projection created to scare all people off. A search of the crypt showed them that it was made for a demonic cult and it's followers. They all soon left confident that the trouble was past. To their shock, the miners were all found to be missing a week later, causing the crypt to be searched again. It was then discovered that a real vengeful spirit had been awakened by the triggering of the illusion and exacted its revenge on the helpless miners who were massacred in the mine. The mages dealt with the spirit swiftly and mercilessly and soon dispatched it. It then occurs to Edith that maybe the Cain she had seen fighting was just an illusion caused by Orloki to fool them. A puzzle piece fits into an empty slot in her mind and she sees a clearer part of the picture. Such a person as Cain would be invaluable to Orloki. So what better way to disguise his real purpose than to make it appear that Cain was dead, thus leaving him free to do with him as he pleased. Edith snaps sharply back to reality when a stalactite comes down just a foot or two in front of her. Looking around she can see that she is now alone in the cave with the undead warrior, who is now eyeing her in a way that makes her profoundly uncomfortable. Looking back over into the corner where Cain had been tossed when he was on fire, she swears she sees a figure retreating into a small, newly opened crevice in the wall. As Edith moves forward to try and make her way over to the crack, another stalactite comes down just behind her, causing her to be thrown on her face. Getting up quickly, she decides to beat a hasty retreat and heads back through the enchanted doors just as the ceiling makes a deafening crack and totally collapses. With a thunderous boom, the ceiling meets the cave floor and sends a shockwave down the tunnel. When it hits Edith, she is again thrown on her face and is knocked out for a about a minute. When she recovers, she finds that she is covered in fine rock dust and sees a bright light emanating from the tunnel in front of her. Getting up, she makes her way towards it. -------------------- "Keep your wits about you, the game is afoot!!" - Sherlock Holmes Gay Christian Network The Polaris Board Posts: 935 | Registered: Friday, August 8 2003 07:00
The Mountain of Shadows RP in General
Murder He Wrote Lifecrafter Member # 3320	written Friday, October 14 2005 15:39 Profile #361 IC Tomorrow -------------------- "Keep your wits about you, the game is afoot!!" - Sherlock Holmes Gay Christian Network The Polaris Board Posts: 935 | Registered: Friday, August 8 2003 07:00
The Mountain of Shadows RP in General
Murder He Wrote Lifecrafter Member # 3320	written Friday, October 14 2005 14:46 Profile #360 OOC: I am SOOOOO sorry that I have been too busy to get to the site and read the RP. In a way, I am glad that I didn't post anything new because now I can decide on my own course of action from the recent happenings of the RP. And it’s also a good thing that no one posted as to the whereabouts of my character, because I had my own plans for my character from the cave-in point of the story. As for my opinions, on some things I shall remain silent or lenient. I have changed my ways on this site and would prefer to NOT cause an argument. So, for the sake of remaining neutral, I will say the following. Zephyr should STAY, only as long as he is more careful in his writing, cleans up his own tangles, and tries to keep things quieter and simpler. Cain SHOULD RETURN to the RP ASAP. I know he wanted to drop out, but there is A LOT of potential behind his character and without it, I don't feel the RP is destined to finish. I had ideas for my character interacting with his that have been ruined because of him dying off. Wise Man and the others left back at Verwey should also get back into the story as well. Their loss is going to contribute to the death of the RP as well. I don't care if they come up the ramp tunnel or pop out of a secret door somewhere as long as they RETURN. As for me, I refuse to see such an interesting RP degrade into everyone leaving one by one just because they are too weak to tough it out through thick and thin. If anyone here is a REAL RPer, you will grit your teeth and bare it through the low points of this RP in order to see it come to a proper and successful conclusion. I REFUSE to leave this RP until I either see it expire completely or see it reach its desired conclusion. My IC will follow this post. -------------------- "Keep your wits about you, the game is afoot!!" - Sherlock Holmes Gay Christian Network The Polaris Board Posts: 935 | Registered: Friday, August 8 2003 07:00
The Mountain of Shadows RP in General
Murder He Wrote Lifecrafter Member # 3320	written Monday, October 3 2005 15:02 Profile #299 OOC: Just for future reference, Edith is unable unable to speak vocally. She is now mute from the injuries to her throat. She has to speak through telepathy. So there's no way she could have been muttering a spell. She won't be able to cast anything vocally for a while, unless someone reads the spell for her. So let's please reflect that in the posts. If anything, the others should be startled by her when she speaks through telepathy. Also, she is wearing a gold mask on her face, so please remember that as well in your posts. -------------------- "Keep your wits about you, the game is afoot!!" - Sherlock Holmes Gay Christian Network The Polaris Board Posts: 935 | Registered: Friday, August 8 2003 07:00
Yahoo 360° & Hi5 in General
Murder He Wrote Lifecrafter Member # 3320	written Saturday, October 1 2005 20:21 Profile #0 Does anyone here use Yahoo 360° or Hi5? I find Yahoo 360° to be quite interesting. The profile is easy to set up and searching for groups is easy. Not to mention there are endless numbers of groups to look through and join. The whole interface is simple to understand and the profiles can be quite neat. Hi5, on the other hand, seem to be rather dull and awkward to use. The groups are oraganized very badly, profiles are rather dull, groups are rather limited in both design and types available, searches are very difficult to perform, and everything is like Stone Age in comparison to Yahoo 360°. Anyone else agree? -------------------- "Keep your wits about you, the game is afoot!!" - Sherlock Holmes Gay Christian Network The Polaris Board Posts: 935 | Registered: Friday, August 8 2003 07:00
The Mountain of Shadows RP in General
Murder He Wrote Lifecrafter Member # 3320	written Saturday, October 1 2005 20:08 Profile #296 OOC: Well, someone has to breathe some life back into it. IC: After sitting for a while outside the gate doors, Tuulentekija starts getting impatient. He stands up and starts to pace up and down the passage. "Are you absolutely sure that there is positively NO WAY that you can get these doors open? I mean, come on. I saw what that corrosive acid did to the stone door down there in the foundry room. Can't you try using on it these doors?" Edith shakes her head and conveys her thoughts to him. "No. This door is completely immune to my acid potions. I'd prefer to not waste my spell energy on trying to produce a deadly acid potion only to have it prove useless." Tuulentekija blinks at her. "What's a deadly acid potion? You mean you can create an acid potion that's stronger than the one that you already did?" Edith stands up and shuffles around uncomfortably. "Well, yes. A deadly acid potion is the strongest form of acid spray that I can conjure up using my herbs and spell book. It will normally eat through just about anything. However, it does have its limits. And this door meets the criteria of most of the limits." Tuulentekija starts pacing more impatiently. "What's taking them so long? They must have been sidetracked by something. This suspense is driving me crazy. I mean, it's bad enough that we are stuck out here. Yet, on top of that, we have no idea what is going on in there. I can't even hear anything through these damn doors." Edith stops shuffling around and goes rigid. She then swings around suddenly and runs to the door with the look of someone who has just thought of something important. "But of COURSE!! Why didn't I think of it before?! You may have just hit on something." Tuulentekija stops pacing and runs up to join her. "What?!! What did I hit on?!" Edith smiles and starts looking at the doors carefully. "You said that you couldn't hear through the doors." He looks at her skeptically. "Yeah, so what." Edith rolls her eyes and tries to convey her thoughts clearly. "Don't you see? Not only are these doors impermeable to acid, but they are also soundproof. And yet, they are made of metal. Surely you would hear SOMETHING from the other side as metal is a perfect conductor or sound. What kind of metal absorbs both sound and magic? None that I've ever come across. That means that this wasn't meant to be a regular door of entry, but a door of protection." Tuulentekija gets a baffled look. "I'm sorry, but I still don't follow." Edith starts getting annoyed. "Let me try to explain in a different way. Suppose you were King Albert. Now try to think about the lengths you would go to to try and safeguard your treasure vaults and whatever other valuables you had in a manmade fortress hewn out of the rock. Surely, you would want specially constructed doors at strategic points in the tunnels to provide an impenetrable defense against looters and invading armies. This MUST be one of those sets of doors." Tuulentekija thinks it over for a moment or two and then counters. "But if that is true, then how is it opened from this side if it’s impossible to convey your presence to the people on the other side?" Edith sighs. "Well, that's one of the problems. But I am coming to the belief that this door was once a non-magical one. See those two hinges midway up on both doors, and the dents in the metal below them? I bet there was once a set of steel knockers on the doors used to send signals to the people on the other side to let them know they should open the doors." "Where are the knockers now? I don't see any signs of them on the ground anywhere. They didn’t fall off from old age." Edith investigates the ground in front of the doors. "Hmmm. They must have been removed by someone or something to render the doors impassible from this side. The addition of the defense spells to make them indestructible further backs up that theory. Maybe they were no longer to be used from this side and only in an emergency would they be used from the other side. At any rate, as far as we are concerned, there is nothing we can do to open them. But that is the least of our troubles at the moment." Tuulentekija gives Edith a questioning glance. "What do you mean the least of our troubles?" Edith gets a worried look on her face. "Well, I didn't want to bring it up, but I don't think those doors opened up on their own to convey a vision from the past. I believe someone, or worse, some THING opened those doors because they knew we were coming. In which case, Cain and Filbert are trapped in there with it. Fortunately, I do feel there is something we can do." He gives her a slightly excited look. "And that is?" Edith turns around and looks down the tunnel from which they had come. "If Cain and Filbert are indisposed and unable to open the door, there is a possible way for us to get to them. We could try going back to the foundry room and giving the ramp a try again. While I was scanning for structures, I noticed a tunnel descending from the inside of the temple. The tunnel was large and curved and I'm positive that it and the ramp are one in the same." Tuulentekija gives her a slightly fearful look. "I... uh... am not sure if we should, uh... you know, take that ramp after coming across those creatures. Could be too dangerous." "What do you mean? You told me they were harmless as I was running away. I feel I am a successful enough mage to give us at least some protection on the journey up the ramp. Why should we be worried about them?" Tuulentekija shifts around nervously. "Well, most of the creatures were harmless. However, there was one that I sensed as being unlike the others. Much bigger, more aggressive, and far more lethal. I was so unnerved by it that I ran out of the tunnel and straight into one of the boiling-hot springs. As you can see my foot is rather scalded and I can assure you that it IS painful. That creature had me VERY distracted." Edith then spaces out and seems to be thinking to herself. Tuulentekija strains to try and tune in on her thoughts, but he doesn't get through. Giving up, he surveys the doors closely for a minute. Turning around to ask Edith a question, he finds her to be nowhere in sight. "Miss Edith? Where did you go? DAMN!! Crazy woman!! She must have gone back through the tunnels towards the ramp! I have to stop her before she gets herself killed!!!" -------------------- "Keep your wits about you, the game is afoot!!" - Sherlock Holmes Gay Christian Network The Polaris Board Posts: 935 | Registered: Friday, August 8 2003 07:00
The Mountain of Shadows RP in General
Murder He Wrote Lifecrafter Member # 3320	written Saturday, September 24 2005 16:19 Profile #290 OOC: I don't mean to protest, but after such an experience, I wouldn't expect to find Edith running around and pounding on the gate doors. She'd be too weak. I'm going to change things a little. IC: Edith opens her eyes at the sudden noise in the cave around her. She looks around and sees what looks like many soldiers running past the area where she is. She tries to yell in alarm, but finds that a hand has been placed over her mouth. Looking up she can see that it's Tuulentekija’s. Then as the soldiers disappear down the tunnel, Cain jumps up and runs after them. "Quick! Let's go!" "Cain! Are you mad!?" Tuulentekija shouts. Filbert follows Cain and, letting go of Edith, Tuulentekija chases after them. Edith sits up and watches as the doors close behind Cain and Filbert. Tuulentekija pounds on the doors and shouts to them. He receives no answer and starts pounding on the doors again. When he hears scraping and shuffling on the ground behind him, he turns around to see Edith slowly crawling along the ground towards him, wincing with pain as she goes. Rushing back to her, he helps her to her feet, and putting his arm over her shoulder, helps her to the gate doors. He sits her down on a boulder close to the doors and checks her wounds. "Do you feel ok Miss Edith? Are you in much pain?" Edith opens her mouth to speak, but when she tries, all that emits is a gurgled expulsion of air. Edith grabs her throat and winces from some obvious pain. She then whimpers softly and begins to cry. "Oh no, your voice is gone!! Your necklace must have damaged your vocal cords when it burned into you. Cain healed your wound with some magical spores he had, but it mustn't have healed you internally. Is there anything I can do to help you?" Edith looks at him sorrowfully for a few moments and then her face brightens. She takes off her pack and gets out her spell book. She pages through it and then hands it to Tuulentekija, who looks at her with confusion. "What is it that you want? Do you want me to read this?" She nods with a smile. Tuulentekija starts reading while Edith rummages through her knapsacks gathering ingredients. She then starts making a potion. A few minutes later, Tuulentekija finishes reading the spell indicated. He then puts it down and takes notice of Edith's movements. She finishes making the potion and sits it down beside her. Next, she turns her attention to her hair. She removes the pins and sits all 10 of them gently down beside her. She then pulls her hair out of its bun and allows it to hang loosely around her head. Tuulentekija notes to himself how truly beautiful Edith is, but tries to not let it show on his face. For a minute, he starts daydreaming. He tries to guess her age, but can’t come up with a conclusive number. He then thinks of a girl he once knew, but then shakes off the memory and comes back to reality. Edith starts unbuttoning her hood in the back, and in one swift movement, she wrenches it off. Unsheathing her dagger, Edith carefully cuts the leather mask off the hood with clear precision. Once it's free, she sets it down on a rock and to Tuulentekija's surprise, it makes a metallic clink on contact. Edith tosses her black hood on the ground and turns back to the mask. Picking it up again, she starts ripping off the stitches that hold the mask together with her dagger and soon, it starts to fall apart. But instead of turning to useless shreds, the black-dyed leather falls off to reveal a golden mask underneath. Tuulentekija stares in awe at the shiny item Edith holds in her hands. She then removes her onyx ring and pries the stone loose from its setting. Then she pushes it into a recessed slot on the front of the mask, and it clicks into place. With that, Edith starts putting the mask on and Tuulentekija remarks to himself how much it makes her look like a sacred warrior of some sort. She adjusts the mask and it soon covers her entire face, leaving slots for her nose, eyes, and mouth. It was obviously designed specifically to fit her face perfectly and the ornate carvings on the mask give her a definitive wild look. Edith then carefully bends down, picks up the pins, takes out a pouch, puts the pins in it, and puts it back in the one knapsack. Edith turns her attention back to Tuulentekija and points to the spell book, motioning for him to recite the spell she had shown him. He picks it up and seems to hesitate. "I hope I do this correctly. Here's goes." He starts reciting the spell and at first, absolutely nothing happens. However, as he nears the end, a cobalt blue light starts to glow from the onyx stone set in the mask. The light spreads from the stone to the entire mask and soon Edith's entire head is enveloped in a blue aurora. Her throat starts to glow with a yellow light, which soon travels towards the onyx stone. When they make contact with each other, Tuulentekija speaks the last word of the spell. A bright flash of white light shoots from onyx stone and blinds Tuulentekija, causing him to shield his eyes. As the light returns to normal, he hears Edith's voice. "Well, someone obviously has a drop of magic in his veins somewhere. You handled that like a pro." Tuulentekija blinks his eyes and looks at Edith. "You're probably wondering how it is that I can be talking to you without moving my lips. You just cast a telepathy spell on me, allowing me to talk with my mind instead of my vocal cords. This mask I am wearing is something I put aside in case I should ever lose the ability to speak, which has happened in the past. If it's removed at any time, I will lose the ability to speak telepathically again until the spell is recast. So don’t touch the mask. As for this potion…” Edith bends down and grabs the potion she had prepared a few minutes before. She uncorks it and drinks the contents. She grimaces slightly while swallowing, but soon is rewarded with a gentle yellow glow enveloping her body. Tuulentekija soon realizes it’s an energy potion and Edith is using it to recuperate more quickly. So he doesn’t even bother asking her about it. Edith packs up the flask and puts her knapsacks back on. Then, sheathing her dagger, she turns her attention to the gate doors. “Hmmm. I had better assess our chances of getting these things open. They look unusually strong.” A few minutes of investigating the doors satisfies Edith. “Yep. We’re stuck on this side. These doors are magically protected. No spell or potion of mine is strong enough to get them open. There must be a counter-weight on the other side somewhere. I hope they can find it.” Tuulentekija sits down on a boulder and stares up at Edith. “Great. That means we’re stranded. Cain better be able to get them open for all the haste he made at getting into that room. And where do you suppose all those men came from?" Edith turns to Tuulentekija and shakes her head. "I have no clue whatsoever. But what I really don't understand is HOW they got in here to begin with. Their armor didn't look familiar to me. It looked kind of ancient. If you ask me, we've either encountered another illusion, or just had a vision of something that once took place here." [ Saturday, September 24, 2005 21:43: Message edited by: Sir Sherlock Holmes ] -------------------- "Keep your wits about you, the game is afoot!!" - Sherlock Holmes Gay Christian Network The Polaris Board Posts: 935 | Registered: Friday, August 8 2003 07:00
The Mountain of Shadows RP in General
Murder He Wrote Lifecrafter Member # 3320	written Wednesday, September 14 2005 17:05 Profile #280 "Well, yes. I do know both of those spells. But you'll have to give me a few minutes to go through my herbs. I need to make a potion." Says Edith confidently. "A potion? What for? Can't you just cast a spell or something?" Asks Cain with a hint of irritation in his voice. Tuulentekija whispers to Cain. "Believe me when I say that you may find her way of doing things to be much more interesting." Edith smiles at Tuulentekija. "Oh, why thank you. Glad you liked the rock-eating acid potion. Now, I just need to check my spell book quickly to be sure of the measured amounts." Edith takes out her spell book, and after a few moments, she shuts it and puts it away satisfied. "While a simple spell would suffice for most situations, it won't in this case. I can't risk any possible demons pinpointing our location based on an aurora of magic radiating from me during the spell casting. In this case, a potion must be used. Potion spells and scroll spells are much less detectable to nether creatures." Filbert grins. "Sounds interesting. Can I try making one?" They all look at him with annoyed faces and respond in unison in a loud whisper. "No!!" Edith rolls her eyes and looks at Filbert mischievously. "I don't suppose you are trained in alchemy and magic?" "No. Not really." Filbert answers. Edith gets a malicious grin on her face. "Well, just to let you know, it takes a person with lots of training and skill to do what I am doing. And I have all the necessary of both. I am not lying when I say that I have seen people blow themselves up accidentally from preparing a potion or scroll incorrectly. Not to mention the people who have accidentally melted their legs, arms, hands, and feet. And those that have done irreparable damage to their faces I have a lot of sympathy for. Especially since they have to wear masks for life and eat through a straw to get nourishment. You still want to have a go?" "No thank you." Filbert answers nervously. "I didn't think so. Now, back to my potion. I just need to add the precise amounts of a few of my herbs to this flask and mix them together." Edith sets about measuring herbs from her knapsacks and putting them in an amber-colored flask. She then puts a cork stopper in it and shakes the mixture vigorously. After a few moments of shaking, she uncorks the bottle and smells it. "Ah, it's done." "So what are you going to do with the potion? Drink it?" Asks Cain. "Well, hardly that. If I tried drinking this, I'd probably be dead inside of two minutes. No, it's used like this." Edith turns the flask upside-down and pours the contents on the ground. The dark liquid forms a pool and does nothing worth noting. Edith chants a few words and it suddenly evaporates before their eyes. Tuulentekija stares at the ground wide-eyed. "Whoa! Where did it go?!" Edith grins again. "Into the air in front of you. It has turned into an invisible gas. A mist that's odorless, colorless, and undetectable by nether magic. And without further adieu..." She makes a forward throwing motion with her right arm and stares down the passage. The sound of moving air fills the tunnel ahead of them. Then she brings both arms down and juts her hands around in front of her like she is peering into a crystal ball. "Well, do you see anything yet?! Come on, tell us!" Cain questions excitedly. "Not yet. So far, I only detect rock and light. The light appears to be coming from a phosphorus substance that's covering the rocks. There is an enormous cavern ahead of us, with tunnels leading away from it in every direction. Some of them lead further up into the mountain. That clearly means that the cavern ahead can’t the end of the line. I’ll search it now for life forms & structures. Hmmm. I detect no solid life forms. But I am getting a strange reading on traces of life. They seem to be all over the place and are definitely not coming from the moss. I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s as if the air itself is alive. I’ll search for structures now. Hmmm. I detect several primitive structures. They appear to be altars, huts, and such. Wait, what is that!!" Edith hunches over as if she's trying to get a closer view of something. "What?!! What do you see?!!" Asks Filbert nervously. "Yes, what do you see?" Says Cain. "Either my eyes are deceiving me, or there is a large stone structure in the middle of the cavern. It looks like a temple of some sort. It doesn't appear to be an illusion. I could be wrong though. That last illusion tricked us. Hmmm. That’s odd. I am suddenly picking up some force radiating from within it. It appears to be..." Edith suddenly stops speaking in mid sentence and starts making a choking noise. The others look at her and notice that the silver necklace around her neck has turned to brass and is glowing a dark orange color. Not only that, but the gold key attached to it has turned black and now pulses with a blood red light. Edith grasps her throat with her hands and tries to breathe. Tuulentekija realizes at once what is happening. "Oh my god!!! Her boon has become cursed by the evil aurora of the mountain!! We must cut it off of her at once or it will asphyxiate her!!!" Cain takes out a pair of scissors from his pack and tries to cut the necklace off. But instead of cutting it, the blades begin to melt and they suddenly break off. "What the hell?!!" Cain looks at the broken scissors in shock. "How about taking the necklace off over her head?!" Asks Filbert. Tuulentekija shakes his heads. "No, there isn't enough slack to do that. Perhaps we could unlatch the clasp in the back." When Tuulentekija touches the clasp, his fingers are burnt. "OW!!!! The damn thing's red hot to the touch!!" Filbert starts to panic. "What do we do now?!!!" Edith starts turning blue and passes out. The others stand over her trying to figure out a way to get the necklace off of her. [ Wednesday, September 14, 2005 19:30: Message edited by: Sir Sherlock Holmes ] -------------------- "Keep your wits about you, the game is afoot!!" - Sherlock Holmes Gay Christian Network The Polaris Board Posts: 935 | Registered: Friday, August 8 2003 07:00
vg music in General
Murder He Wrote Lifecrafter Member # 3320	written Wednesday, September 14 2005 16:42 Profile #4 Finally, a topic I can relate to. :D I love video game music. I am currently collecting music from some of the games I grew up with. Mostly Sega Genesis, NES, and Nintendo 64 games. I think the music from games can be neat and a lot of fun to listen to while doing work on the computer or whatever. -------------------- "Keep your wits about you, the game is afoot!!" - Sherlock Holmes Gay Christian Network The Polaris Board Posts: 935 | Registered: Friday, August 8 2003 07:00
The Mountain of Shadows RP in General
Murder He Wrote Lifecrafter Member # 3320	written Thursday, September 8 2005 17:07 Profile #268 OoC: I'd come up with more IC, but I've quite literally wracked my brain working on an IC that took me nearly 12 hours to write. (And I am not exaggerating when I say that.) It's someone else's turn to develop the plot for our party for a little while. Also, I want to remind the members of my party and those of the other parties that the key around Edith's neck is NOT to be used as some sort of ancient artifact. Nor is it to be used in such a manor as... "Someone notices that it looks like it would open the golden doors of King Albert's Treasure Vault." I in no way want to repeat what idiotic thing I did in my Valley of Thunder RP. Looking back now I realize that finding a staff and a head-piece purely by "accident" was putting too much power in my character's hands. I have subtle plans to take the golden key from being a blessed item giving Edith good luck to an item slowly being cursed by the evil aurora surrounding the mountain. [ Thursday, September 08, 2005 17:19: Message edited by: Sir Sherlock Holmes ] -------------------- "Keep your wits about you, the game is afoot!!" - Sherlock Holmes Gay Christian Network The Polaris Board Posts: 935 | Registered: Friday, August 8 2003 07:00
The Mountain of Shadows RP in General
Murder He Wrote Lifecrafter Member # 3320	written Tuesday, September 6 2005 11:38 Profile #250 IC: As the others head up the spiral staircase, Edith decides to stay behind and have another look around the room alone. Flower light in hand, she proceeds to reexamine the room closely while thinking to herself. Something about this room just does not tally up with the diary that Cain was reading. According to the parchment, there should be dead bodies in here of the people who died in the attack. Yet, there are no traces of any of them. Even the statues are missing from the exit tunnel. And what exactly attacked them? It’s clear that they weren’t attacked by the basilisk until after they entered the exit tunnel. And from whence did the attackers come? If they came from the necromancy chamber, then the group was followed and ambushed from there. Yet, it seems hard to believe that they could be ambushed from a flight of stairs. Is it possible that they came from a different source? Perhaps if I look hard enough, I can find that source. After a few minutes of fruitless searching, she turns her attention back to the symbol engraved on the wall. Hmmm. There is something about this symbol being here on this wall of all places that bothers me. For a sword to just fall off the wall and reveal this as we are passing through is more than just coincidence. It could be a sign that something important lies beyond this wall. And yet… It’s then that she notices something that she would have otherwise missed had she not been looking for it. She sees two straight parallel crevices, almost invisible to the naked eye, that run from the floor to the ceiling on either side of the symbol. They are about four feet apart and upon closer inspection, they turn out to be the sealed sides of a door. Hmmm. A sealed door. That’s a dash bit odd. It appears to have been magically sealed right into the bedrock. There’s no way I could open that with my magic. Unless… Edith gets an idea and takes off one of her knapsacks. She takes out a few herbs, a mortar and pestle, and a small flask. Sitting down on a large anvil, she starts making a potion. -------------------------------------------------- Meanwhile, Edith’s absence is noticed by the group. Filbert is the first to voice it. "Hey, where did Edith go? I thought she was right behind us." Tuulentekija stops, as does Cain at the revelation. Cain starts getting impatient. "She isn't behind us? Hmmph. This woman grows more mysterious by the minute. Well, someone had better go check up on her to be sure she isn't in trouble. Tell you what, you two go back and look for her. I’ll hold the fort here in the meantime and wait for you. You can yell if you need any help." Tuulentekija hesitates for a moment at Cain's sudden command, but then reluctantly turns around and heads back down the stairs with Filbert, lantern in hand. Cain gives a slight smirk when they are out of sight, and commences to climb the steps without them. -------------------------------------------------- As Edith is finishing her potion, Filbert and Tuulentekija reappear in the room from the stairwell. When he sees she isn't in trouble and appears to be fidgeting with her herbs, Tuulentekija walks up to her and questions her. "Miss Edith, what are you doing? You are holding us up." Edith gets a slight smirk on her face as she replies. "Well, my dear sir, I am investigating a discovery I have just made." Filbert runs up next to Tuulentekija at hearing this. "A discovery? What sort of discovery?" "I have just discovered a secret door." Says Edith with a grin. Tuulentekija is taken aback by this. "What do you mean a secret door? This room is solid stone. I didn’t see any signs of one earlier." "Well, you really didn’t know to look for one then either. Cain’s parchment, which you didn’t read because you were too busy with that rune-engraved pearl, alerted me to the fact that this room might possess one. I did some searching and determined that it’s right there where that strange symbol is engraved on the wall. That sword fell off the wall for a reason. Someone or something wanted to draw our attention to that wall for more than just the symbol. And now that my potion is done, we can try to open it, for better or for worse." Edith stands up with mounting excitement and walks over to the wall where the engraving is. "There was once a working door here made of the bedrock and was probably set on a pair of strong hinges on the other side. It was sealed magically by something that melted the door right into the bedrock. With a little “push”, I’m sure that I can encourage it to open. Though it will never function as a door ever again as you will see. And with that said, here goes nothing!" She backs up a few feet and throws the flask at the wall with some violence. It shatters on contact and coats the wall with a black tarry substance. At first, it appears to do nothing. Then smoke starts to emit from the wall and the substance starts to bubble and eat into the rock. Within a minute, it eats several holes through the door, which soon promptly crumbles and falls away. Instantly, Edith becomes aware of cold misty air wafting into the room from the opening, bringing a smell of decay and sickness in with it. "That’s odd, I was expecting a more stale and musky smell when I opened it. This scent is more like that of a tomb. I don’t like the looks of it. We better put on our masks and keep alert. I can smell disease and death in the air." They all cover their noses and mouths with cloths and Edith leads the way cautiously through the opening into a tunnel about six feet wide and seven feet tall. She makes her way along the tunnel to an area that opens out into a vast cavern-like tunnel. When she almost walks off a ledge, she gets startled. "Oh my goodness!! Watch your step as you come out of that tunnel! There is a ledge here along what looks like a cliff." The others come out of the tunnel and stand on either side of her. "I’m afraid that I can’t see much. Our lights aren’t bright enough to penetrate this strange darkness. Could you produce a brighter light for us by any chance?" Says Tuulentekija. "I think I can. Hold on." Edith answers as she digs into her other knapsack. She pulls out a spell book and flips through the pages for a minute. "Ah, here it is." She mutters a series of words and her flower changes into a ball of fire. She then throws it out into the darkness and it stops 50 feet out in front of them and then hovers in the air. She mutters a few more words and the cavern suddenly gets nearly as bright as day. "Oh wow!!" She cries in surprise. Before them, they can see a large spiral ramp winding along the edges of a huge man-made cavern like a metal spring. Part of it ascends above them out of sight into the thick darkness. The other part of it descends down into a deep abyssal darkness that the light also can’t penetrate (Think of the spiral ramp in the Caverns level of Goldeneye). The cavern must be at least 100 feet across and of undeterminable height and depth. Edith looks around her in amazement trying to find an explanation for what she is seeing. It then dawns on her what it is that they have found. "The treasure ramp!!" Filbert and Tuulentekija stare at her in bewilderment. They both question her in unison. "The what?" Edith groans in disbelief at their ignorance. "Don’t you see? There are some mysteries surrounding the legend of King Albert’s treasure. One of the mysteries is that if such a wealth of treasure exists in the mountain, then his forces must have had a special way of transporting it with ease to the treasure vault believed to be located at the peak. Carrying it outside along the face of the mountain would be time-consuming and very hazardous. So, what would be one of the easiest ways of getting the treasure to the vault with the least amount of hazard? Two things come to mind for me. Magic and--" Filbert jumps in. "Ah, I see it now!! A large ramp constructed inside of the mountain!" Edith snaps back with a positive compliment in her voice. "Exactly!! This ramp has to be the way it was done!" Tuulentekija chimes in with some excitement. "So this ramp brings us one step closer to proving that the legend is in fact, true?" Edith goes to reply excitedly, but all of the sudden she becomes aware of a decidedly eerie feeling around her in the cavern. When she does reply, the excitement is no longer evident in her voice. "Uh, yes. Exactly." "Then what are we waiting for?! Let’s go get Cain and show him the ramp." Says Filbert eagerly as he turns around to run back to the forge. Edith grabs his arm suddenly as he turns and stops him. "No! I don’t think that is wise. We should leave this place at once and get away from it." Tuulentekija looks at her with utter confusion on his face. "But you just said that it may lead us to the treasure. Why did you suddenly change your mind?" Edith begins to look pale as she eyes the abyss below her and her voice sounds terrribly grim. "Because I get the distinct feeling that I shouldn’t have opened that door and that we are quite possibly not alone in here. Aren’t either of you concerned with the fact that my light cannot penetrate the darkness above us or below us more than fifty feet? I am very troubled by that. The secret door obviously was once a normal door used to access the forge from the ramp and vice versa. But it was sealed up magically and hidden for some strong reason. A reason we are not yet aware of. On top of that, the ramp is dangerous. See how the protective wall along the ledge has crumbled into ruin? One false step and it would mean death. And have you noticed that the smell of decay has started growing stronger since we have been standing here? Until I know what is down there below us in that darkness, I want nothing to do with this tunnel." With that, Edith chants again, and with a downward motion of her hands, the ball of fire travels down into the abyss below them. As the fireball descends into the darkness, it lights up the spiraling ledge around it bit by bit. The group suddenly becomes aware of movement along the ramp about 100 or so feet down. Writhing creatures lit up by the descending fireball, hiss and growl at it as it passes by. "Dear god!!! I don't want to know what those things are! I think now would be a good time to RUN!!!" [ Tuesday, September 06, 2005 23:33: Message edited by: Sir Sherlock Holmes ] -------------------- "Keep your wits about you, the game is afoot!!" - Sherlock Holmes Gay Christian Network The Polaris Board Posts: 935 | Registered: Friday, August 8 2003 07:00
The Mountain of Shadows RP in General
Murder He Wrote Lifecrafter Member # 3320	written Tuesday, September 6 2005 11:35 Profile #249 OOC: I'm still around. I just have writer's block at the moment. I'm just trying to come up with something interesting. The basilisk part took off much better than I thought it would. -------------------- "Keep your wits about you, the game is afoot!!" - Sherlock Holmes Gay Christian Network The Polaris Board Posts: 935 | Registered: Friday, August 8 2003 07:00
The Mountain of Shadows RP in General
Murder He Wrote Lifecrafter Member # 3320	written Tuesday, August 30 2005 10:31 Profile #218 Edith stands alone along the path watching as the others walk away. She looks up at the mountain, sizing it up and thinking to herself as the snow starts to come down faster and clump to her hair. Why haven't we been tested yet? What are you waiting for, Orloki? You have to know we are here by now. I can’t stand this suspense. She looks up into the sky at the falling snow and then in the direction of the peak of the mountain. What in the world could that be?! Edith spots a manmade-looking object protruding from the snow and ice about 100 feet up. She dons her climbing gear and climbs up through the ice and boulders to find out what it is. Once she reaches it, she finds the object is encrusted in a layer of ice and snow and seems to be sticking out of the mountain. After removing the snow and ice from the object with an ice pick and a hammer, she is shocked by what she sees. Before her is an incredibly life-like statue of a man with a look of utter terror and surprise on his face. He wears the garb of the Kingdom of Aram. The statue looks like it has been frozen here for at least 20-some years. She looks down the mountain, hoping to see the rest of her party so she can call to them about her discovery. Instead, she notices another statue, lying on its side in pieces a few feet away. Looking around her in all directions, she can see dozens upon dozens of statues sticking up out of the ice and snow. Some are more buried than others and some look like they are hundreds of years old. Some wear similar Aram-type garb and others wear that of the nearby Eastern Land Kingdom. Oddly enough, she sees only two statues that are clearly wearing that of the land she is currently in, the Kingdom of Truth. Then suddenly and without warning, Edith’s spine tingles and she shivers. I recognize that feeling. Someone or something is watching me. The feeling goes away as suddenly as it came and leaves a sort of residue of evil behind it. She looks all around her in the hopes of finding out who or what was watching her. Look as she may, however, the whiteness of the snow and ice is too blinding for her to see much against the gray and black mountain. Nevertheless, her scanning pays off when she spots something that she hadn’t noticed before. She sees a cave 50 feet off in the direction of her party with no snow or ice around it that has what looks like steam venting from it. What’s more, it appears to be in the center of the myriad of statues around it. That's curious. Edith cautiously makes her way over to it and examines it closely. She finds old bones, trinkets, bits of fur, and reptilian scales lying all around just inside the entrance. A smell of decay and sulfurous gas emits from the cave, making her wince. It’s then that she notices the footprints in the snow. Crouching down she examines them. These are definitely reptilian and fresh as well. Edith looks up to see where they lead. When she realizes that they head down the mountain in the same direction that her party is going, she becomes terribly panic-stricken. "Dear god, if this creature is what I think it is, then my party is going to walk right into it! I must get to them and warn them at once!!" Edith quickly makes her way down the mountain to the path as fast as she can. From there, she practically sprints towards her party, hoping to make up for the lost distance between them. [ Tuesday, August 30, 2005 16:34: Message edited by: Sir Sherlock Holmes ] -------------------- "Keep your wits about you, the game is afoot!!" - Sherlock Holmes Gay Christian Network The Polaris Board Posts: 935 | Registered: Friday, August 8 2003 07:00
The Mountain of Shadows RP in General
Murder He Wrote Lifecrafter Member # 3320	written Monday, August 22 2005 20:33 Profile #187 "Well, well, well. I knew that this fellow had some hidden talent in him." Edith compliments him in front of the others. And almost as if by clairvoyance, she adds more. "And no, Cain, I did not cast a bless spell on him." "Uh..." is all that Cain can get out as he is dumbfounded by her sudden revelation. Looking at her again, he sees she is smirking at him. "I can see that you think I'm a psychic now as well as a woman of mystery. I can assure you that I am just as normal as the three of you. Well... in most ways. I noticed the look you gave me after you saw Filbert knife the blademaster. It was so clear that you thought I had helped him in some way as you were sure he didn't have it in him to do that." "Well... yeah. That’s exactly right. So… Since you brought it up, what were you doing?" Cain asks with a malicious grin. Edith walks a foot or two towards Filbert and stops just beside the dead man. Holding up her fist, she knocks against something in front of her. It suddenly becomes apparent to the rest of them that there is a transparent wall of ice ten feet wide and 8 feet high in front of her. Tuulentekija scratches his chin, or at least tries to, but doesn't get past the mask. "Now, tell me, exactly what is THAT for?" He gives her a wry and skeptical look. Or at least she thinks he does behind the mask. She can't tell. She shifts her left foot up onto a medium-sized rock and answers with a smug face. "Well, to be frank, I was trying to build an ice wall cage around the blademaster to slow him down. Unfortunately, I did manage to finish my spell after he was distracted." Cain gets a puzzled look. "What do you mean 'unfortunately'?" Edith starts to chuckle. "You see, Filbert didn't move out of the way like I thought he would. Now he is boxed in with the dead man." The others examine the area around Filbert and the dean man. Only then do they take notice of the 10-foot by 8-foot ice wall box around the two. When Filbert realizes he is boxed in by ice, he starts to panic. He begins pounding on the walls with his fists, and when that fails, he then tries using his sword to break it down. "Help!!! Get me out of here!!! I'll smother!!" Yells Filbert. Now totally laughing, Edith replies. "No... No, you aren't going to asphyxiate. There is no ceiling to the ice walls. Give the spell a minute or two to wear off and the ice will melt itself. You'll be fine." [ Monday, August 22, 2005 21:29: Message edited by: Sir Sherlock Holmes ] -------------------- "Keep your wits about you, the game is afoot!!" - Sherlock Holmes Gay Christian Network The Polaris Board Posts: 935 | Registered: Friday, August 8 2003 07:00

Pages