RP - Age of Darkness

[Whiskyjakk]

Krolk reached into his pack and pulled out a pair of ear plugs. Lost souls could cry, moan or drag ghostly chains within 10 metres of him and he wouldn't hear anything with these babies. However, it could leave him in a sticky situation if anything ambushed them, pretty likely in a dark forest. While he was musing on the possibilities Rhino started talking again.

"Thought of another of your multifarious flaws. You can't think more than ten minutes ahead. Most sane people would see an Ettin, what with the size and the psychoticness, and resolve not to steal anything from .."

This decided the matter. Imminent death by ambush would at least be quick. Being talked to death by a schizophrenic cow and scared to death by ghosts would be slow and tedious. The Gnoll plugged his ears and everything was muffled into a blissfull silence.

 

[Limos]

Hubbin and Stubbin plod along behind the group, their longer legs meaning the pace was nearly a crawl for them. Hubbin sorts through his pilfered weapons while Stubbin gazes off into the forest. "You know brother, ectoplasm makes such wonderful spell material." He peers into the gloom, "I do hope we run into a ghost."

Hubbin grunts nocommittedly and continues rifling through his sack. He looks over at Stubbin, "Oi, it's gettin' dark, do yer magic vision thing."

Stubbin sighs, "It's not a 'magic vision thing' brother. It's called Nighteye, very well." He mutters a cantrip and both sets of eyes flash once before settling into the infared spectrum with the telltale red glow of infravision.

The first thing Stubbin notices upon completing his spell is that the woods look much more interesting in infravision. The second thing is that a dozen cold spots roughly shaped like bipeds are pacing the party through the woods. "Shades!" Stubbin bellows. He begins to mutter an incantation and finger his spell components.

Spoiler: Shade info

Shade- Relatively weak undead enemy, intangible and mostly transparent. Attacks with cold. Can be disrupted by attacks to a degree. Fire and magic work well to drive them away.

I thought they would fit the scenery and be a nice change from the purely physical goblins earlier.

I tried to think of something that wouldn't be too skewed towards any character. So while Authoros won't be able to hurt them with his sword very much as an undead he is immune to their attacks. Stubbin can attack with magic, but Hubbin can barely do anything. Thekt has magic, Kris and Krolk I'm not too sure about.

 

[El Chicken]

Spoiler: Immunity

By immune do you mean totally immune, or partially immune? It would make quite a difference if i could attract the attention of the shades and let them try to kill me, or if i were just partially immune.

 

[curlycrouton]

"Very well, I'll lead us" Thekt said. "But first to deal with these bloody shades. Hubbin, Stubbin, act as our spotters, and we'll fire spells to the best of our abilities. I suggest spells that cover a large area, by the way. Oh and Stubbin, feel free to use whatever magic you possess while you're spotting for us."

With that, Thekt muttered an ancient Orc incantation (one of few, as most Orcs distrust magic). A huge stone obelisk pierced the ground and began to glow bright red.

"Shade, North-West of us! Near the forest border!" yelled Stubbin. Thekt focused all his energy onto that spot, as the red light from the obelisk appeared to flow back and forth through Thekt and the obelisk. Suddenly Thekt's eyes flashed a bright red, and a magical explosion of red light erupted where the Ettin had pointed. A chorus of ethereal screams could be heard, as puffs of grey smoke appeared where a few Shades had been destroyed.
"I can't do this all on my own you know!" yelled Thekt.

 

[Whiskyjakk]

Since Thekt had, unsurprisingly, not included Krolk in his battle plan the Gnoll was left to his own devices. He kicked his spurs into Rhino's flanks to steer towards the rear of the group.

"Ouch" said one of the cow's heads. "Bloody idiot" the other agreed.

With his comrades shielding him from the Shades he pulled out a flint and started trying to set fire to the end of his broom. The sparks stubbornly refused to light the straw broom head and he feverishly struck the flint against the timber, as a Shade ducked under Authoros' guard and quickly covered the distance towards the mounted Gnoll.

 

[Darth Marsden]

As the Shade made for Krolk and his stead, Kris swung his sword ineffectually through the creature. 'Damn!' he cursed, spinning so as to strike again at the creature with the staff in the other hand. As the wooden pole touched the shadowy creature, it screamed and collapsed in a puff of smoke.

Kris and Krolk looked at each other, a surprised look on their faces. Presumably the staff had some sort of magical enchantment placed on it. Had there been more time, Kris would have investigated further, but instead he spun back round and covered Krolk. 'If you have a plan, then enact it fast,' he screamed. 'I cannot hold these things off you for long.'

Spoiler: ...

...and with that, I make my 100th post. Go me!

 

[Limos]

Stubbin nods to Thekt and finishes his incantation. With a stinging invective and a puff of spell ingredients he sends a flurry of magic missiles spinning into the forest. The stinging attacks smash into two shades and disperse them into diffuse fog.

Hubbin smashes a nearby shade with his club but it just passes through ineffectually and hits the ground. The Shade rushes toward him and phases through his arm, numbing it to the shoulder with biting cold. He sweeps his club through their bodies to keep them at bay while Stubbin prepares another spell.

Spoiler: immunity

The Shades will try to attack you anyway, but they won't be able to hurt you at all. They'll try of course.

Since Authoros is dead already his body would not require homeostasis. Which would mean that his body temperature is unimportant. The Shades attacks aren't strong enough to actually freeze his body solid so all it would do is make him slightly colder. While this could be eventually fatal for the living as a walking corpse Authoros should be able to shrug it off.

Also if you're sword is enchanted in any way it should be able to kill shades.

 

[El Chicken]

Authoros turned round to kris as he yelled these words, and then he knew what he must do.. With a furious battlecry, he charged at the oncoming shades with his sword held aloft and as he came closer they turned their insatiable hatred of the living upon him. Even though he was half undead, they loathed his half demon heritage and they lashed their ghostly claws over him in the hopes to cause him pain and eventually death. He resisted these weak but relatively cold attacks, and he swung his sword wildy at them in the hopes to attract their attention away from kris and the other spellcasters, even though the creatures had an immunity to nonmagical blades such as his.

Spoiler

Thanks and yes the sword is not magical, but thats not to say its ineffective. The sword he wields is better than most, though nonmagical its craft allows it to be very effective against most creatures. So i'll try and get an enchantment when we pop into civilation ^^. Damn! Im really trying to get my punctuation right, but i suck at it and its starting to annoy me i'll try to get it right though.

 

[curlycrouton]

Suddenly, silence erupted from the wood. The Shades had been vanquished.
"They've gone!" he yelled. "They've bloody gone!".
He pulled out his map and studied it for a while. Finally he came to a conclusion.
"We've got to go....that way" He said, pointing to the West. "Be wary, though, for it is the area known as Carrion's Swamp, so called because, well, it's full of zombies."
And so they journeyed, heading West, towards hope.

Spoiler

Do you mind if I say when we get to Carrion's Swamp? It's just that I've got a specific enemy type in mind. Cheers.

 

[Darth Marsden]

Spoiler: k.

I don't mind. I'm letting you guys steer the journey, remember? Did seem a rather abrupt end to the fight though. Just sayin'.

The group marched onward. As they did so, Kris was studying the staff, trying to figure out what enchantment was placed upon it. He wasn't at all skilled in the art of magic - he had simply memorised the incantations for a few healing spells - so it was a challenge, but after a while, he suddenly realised what it was and burst out laughing. The others froze and looked at him.

'It's a healing spell!' Kris managed to calm himself, though he couldn't stop himself from ginning like a lunatic. 'It heals people every time you whack them with it! Typically goblin!'

The others chuckled to themselves and the party continued on.

 

[curlycrouton]

Spoiler

Yeah, sorry. In retrospect it does look rather abrupt. But I intended the fights in the woods to be a series of short skirmishes.

 

[TJ rock 101]

hey, is it too late for me to join in?
EDIT: it look like this one has stopped for now...

 

[curlycrouton]

Spoiler

hey, is it too late for me to join in?

Uhh, I suppose not. You've gotta have a half-decent reason for popping up in the middle of a haunted wood, but yeah I can't see any problems.

As they journeyed on, Thekt noticed he could smell a disgusting repugnant smell. It seemed to be coming from a large mound in the distance. They ventured towards it, the smell growing ever stronger. As they neared it, a sign stood in their path. It read:

"Here lie the dead from the Reaping of Willhollow, who paid no heed to the Great Esinder."

Suddenly Thekt saw what truly lay before them. It was a pile of bodies, a matter of weeks old. Vacant eyes stared in a gruesome imitation of life. Shrivelled skin hung from lifeless facades, limp hands hung down, touching the air. There also were bodies suspended by hooks from wooden crosses, and speared on pikes all around. The stench was unbearable. All Thekt could do was stand and stare at the grisly spectacle, despite wanting nothing more than to look away, and never to see again what had just blighted his eyes....

 

[Whiskyjakk]

Krolk was annoyed that he hadn't had a chance to employ his cunning plan to defend himself from the Shades with a burning broom but couldn't complain since he'd come out of the encounter unscathed. However, this made up for it entirely.

The other members of the party watched horrified as the Gnoll took one of the less unsavoury looking corpses and diced it into bite sized pieces with his knife. As he stuffed the meat into his bag he looked around at the appalled faces:

"Gnolls gotta eat, you know."

 

[Limos]

Stubbin bouces the small bag of ectoplasm on his palm, "With this I'll be able to cast that vampiric touch spell I told you about." He puts the sack in his pocket. "Just need to remember where I put that scroll and take the time to memorize it.

Hubbin plods along glumly, so far this trip had been completely unprofitible for him. Undead had little in the way of loot and were not very satisfying to smash.

Spoiler: New Guy

It might be better if you wait until we get out of the forst and then join us at the next town. If you can't think of a reason you're character would be wandering around a haunted wood then you could join us now I guess.

 

[Darth Marsden]

Spoiler: TJrock 101, read me please!

If you'd like to join in, feel free to create a character and have us stumble upon him or something, but as Limos suggested, it might be worth waiting a bit until we reach Ravendale. Your choice - we'll find a way of letting you join up either way.

Not sharing Krolk's choice of meal, Kris spoke up. 'If it's all the same to you Krolk, we'd prefer our meals somewhat more... fresh. If we can find an area far enough away from here to camp for the night, I'll volunteer to go out and catch something more appealing for the rest of us.'

The others were quick to take him up on his offer, and the group swiftly moved on, not waiting for Krolk to finish up.

 

[El Chicken]

Authoros stared at the pile. What he saw was gruesome, but if the corpses were in better shape and not festering he would happily devour them. It is common for beasts such as demons to eat the corpses of their enemies after battle, though some tasting better than others of course.

As he looked away he caught a flash of movement in the corner of his eye. He turned his head around so he could see if it was a threat, but it seemed his eyes had decieved him.. It was probably just an animal anyway. He followed the rest of the group as they continued their grim march westbound.

 

[curlycrouton]

Thekt trudged further on still, the image of the corpses seared in his mind. He knew they would reach Carrion's swamp soon, and was apprehensive.

As he walked, his foot fell upon something, and it made a sharp crunching sound. As he looked down, he realised it was a skull, now shattered into pieces. This meant they were at the borders of Carrion's Swamp. Further along there was another skull, stuck to a pike. A sign next to it read:

"Keep your eyes peeled and keep also your head,
As you must always...b​eware​ the undead.

Darkness falls here, across the land,
A chilling cold, you fear, is close at hand.

They'll take your blood and make you weak,
And turn this lonely world cold and bleak.

When you get that overwhelmi​ng​ sense of dread,
You have so been warned...b​eware​ the undead!"

Without warning, moans and cries of despair erupted all around them. shambling cadavers appeared on the edge of their vision, blood staining their tattered rags. as they drew closer, the group readied their weapons.

Spoiler

These are zombies, remember, so basically a severe blow to the head will kill them (magic, i'm afraid is harmless, UNLESS you've got a specific spell for killing the undead, which is quite possible). Conventional zombies really, as in they can't sprint 28 days later style or anything like that. They attack by trying to bite you, and a bite will turn you into a zombie over time unless healed by a specific spell, know by Elves only.. Remember there's a horde, so there's quite a lot of them, and as such you can just go crazy on them. Happy zombie bashing!

 

[El Chicken]

Spoiler: Whoa,whoa hang on a sec..

Okay zombies thats cool, but the zombies usually used in rp such as this you dont have heads to smash the brains in. This isnt a severe virus or whatever, the case is usually that a necromancer has raised the undead to battle you, or they were raised because of the evil forces at work in the forest. Either way, you shouldnt have to smash their heads in to kill them, just beat them up badly and the zombie will eventually be unable to fight back and die because you battered him. The only thing zombies are immune to are: Death magic (unless its undeath to death spells), Sneak attacks (no vulnerable areas and battered nerves), Critical hits (same). Oh yeah and your right, they cant run they are very slow.

 

[curlycrouton]

Spoiler

I'm using the zombies in zombie movies, e.g. Dawn of the Dead, I think they're much cooler. Smashing heads it remains.