Forums » Fantasy Roleplay » The Land of Imbrium

Celestina didn't bother correcting Owaja. She moved forward so she was beside the woman. "I knew I'd felt that tingling before. Stop moving, quickly. If we get too close it will recognize you before me, and the result won't be pretty."

She stepped forward, murmuring a few foreign words. She looked around at what appeared to be just an endless expanse of land. "Show yourself." she whispered. Suddenly a wall throbbed into view, a foggy yet clear wall that was just a couple yards ahead of them. Celestina shivered. "That was close." After a few moments, she gave a glance back at the ranger and spoke bitterly. "It's a shame. We should have had him leading."

Yeah, she wasn't going to forgive him until he apologized. When he did so, so would she. But since he was being stubborn...well, so would she. "Alright," she said, turning her attention back to Owaja. "Please stay here for a moment." She stepped out of their shield, running towards the barrier so that she would not suffer too much rain. Still, it hit and sizzled on her skin, making concentration difficult. She pressed her hands against the wall, steeling herself against the burning rain that fell down on her.

"Come on.." she murmured, focusing against the barrier. "Accept me already, this hurts." The section she was touching suddenly melted into a large, passable hole. She waved the others towards her. "In, hurry!" She had to keep her hand on the wall to keep their passage open.

Once they would reach the other side, they would find that there was no more rain. The land was lavish and beautiful, a large courtyard it seemed with flowers and fruits and trees abound. In the center of it all was a very tall stone tower. Not a soul was in sight so far.

Celestina could be mad at the man for the rest of her life. It was not likely he was ever going to utter words close to an apology within that time anyhow. He followed in silence and entirely ignored Celestina's jab. He was the last to walk through the hole.

He stood a long moment in front of it when everyone else had gone through, even Owaja and her bubble. The acidic rain pelted him now, but he was ignorant to its hissing. He took a deep breath after contemplating the dimensional ramifications and stepped through. It was like moving through jello for him, while it had been so easy for the others. Little static shocks harmed his being but he pushed through anyhow. Once he was free of the wall, he pitched forward to his knees, dripping with rain and sweat, singed and smoking.

When Sitta passed through the hole in the barrier, the air around him seemed to stir for a second, and the hole started slightly (yet erratically) changing shapes. But once he was in the other side, it stopped. Had the Sibling felt fear at the possibility of the barrier closing in on him? No one would ever know.

"Let us make haste."

Sam had passed through with no ill effects of any kind, save for her magic Lite Brite sword going crazy, but it was sheathed anyway. She'd pulled back her hood and was enjoying the fresh air, and sunlight. She had also dismounted - Mort was investigating the area. With his nose to the ground, his wagging tail, and his peculiar bouncing gait, he resembled a large, purple dog.

At Sitta's suggestion, she nodded in his direction. "Yeah, we shouldn't stay long. But, there's something I must do before we go any further."

She turned to address Celestina. She took a deep breath, sighed, and squared her shoulders. "Sorry about this, but it has to be done." She then looked up and around, as if taking in her surroundings for the first time, and asked, "What... what is this place?"

He pulled himself back to his feet and ignored the fact that he was steaming. He took in his surroundings uneasily, as he still felt he'd be ejected from this place any moment. He quickly dusted himself off, less for vanity and more for the reassurance that he was corporal. He glanced uneasily to his companions, a look he didn't often make.

"Yes, Celestina; what is this place? And where do we go from here?"

Celestina was not expecting the others to have such strange effects, though really she'd never brought anyone else to this area. Dadj was the worst, so she went right to him. "Are you okay?" Yeah, she was mad at him, but he was hurt! He was smoking! "Let me see if I can help.." She opened the small pouch at her waist that held clean water, since it was rare to get any with the rain now. Unless Dadj stopped her, she would move the water with her hands and move it over Dadj's wounds to soothe them.

At the questions, she gave a sheepish smile. "Nowhere. It's literally nowhere. It's a place that is all it's own. But yet right here in our world. It's comlicated, I can't really explain it." She sighed and looked at the tower. "We made it, he and I. So that people would be safe from us."

Calling off her spell, Owaja let the magical barrier dissipate as she took in the word around her. She had never seen anything like it! Turning on a dime to face Celestia, her mouth spread into a wide smile she couldn't control.

"YOU MADE this place?!?!"

Dadj let her apply the water, despite the fact that it was unnecessary. He waited for her to be done before standing towards the back of the group. He eyed Celestina when she claimed to have helped make this place. Then Owaja when she exclaimed about Celestina claiming to make this place.

Celestina blushed brightly. "Y-yes. I helped, at least..." She bit her lip, kind of embarrassed and shy about the attention she was getting due to that fact. "So be careful. I'm sure he knows we're here by now... and I'm not sure what kind of a welcome to expect."

But it was nice, being back in that place that used to be a safehaven. Too bad it could now possibly be her demise.

In response to her mention of being careful, Sam made a sort of clucking sound in Mort's direction, and the dino came bouncing happily along in her direction. She turned to Celestina with her hands on her hips.

"Okay, now that we've come too far to turn back, I think it's only fair you tell us what we've gotten ourselves in to here. Who's this guy you keep mysteriously mentioning, what's the story behind this tower, and just what exactly is going on here?"

She leaned on Mort with one leg crossed in front of the other and her arms crossed as well, prepared to take in some meaty exposition. Mort continued to sniff at the ground, oblivious to everything as usual.

"Need we discuss this now? All I need to know about this man is how to strike him down."

The Sibling was getting very fed up with all the talking, and his eyes were lying on Samatha. The possible imminence of 'meaty exposition' only made it worse. No wonder his hand was lying on the hilt of his sword - he was not only expecting an attack, but also eager for one. Perhaps that'd make the rest of the group realize they were in peril. As was everyone in Imbrium.

In few words, no time for chit-chat.

"Uh, let's not be too hasty. Surely, we can find a way to resolve this problem without immediately resorting to violence and bloodshed like a bunch of animals."

"I mean, we don't know anything about the one causing this. What if we just, I don't know, asked him nicely to please stop raining acid on everything?"

Celestina smiled hesitantly. She did not quite wish to impart her knowledge of the area upon the people. "Er...well, you see...his ah, his name is Jarod. He's a powerful magician. Wizard, warlock, whatever you wish to call him. When we were younger and our abilities were more out of control than they are now, we worked together to build this secret place, to protect others from any accidents we might have had while training."

She looked down at the ground, shuffling a little. Sitta unnerved her. But he had a point. "The tower is his home. Something happened between us, we almost killed each other, and when I left he locked himself away. It sounds dramatic, but we were sworn enemies from then on. I don't know how to kill him. He must have advanced greatly since then."

She shook her head slightly. "Nonetheless, we have to get to the top room of the tower and make him stop the rain!"

Sam tilted her head in confusion. "Wait, so why did he start making it rain in the first place. I mean, he has to get his food from somewhere, right? What's he going to do when there are no more farms left, or people left to work them?" She gestured with one hand around her in a vague manner. "I mean, this place is nice, but I don't see a whole lot of rows of vegetables or anything." She sighed. "Freakin' wizards. As wise and powerful as they all act, you'd think they'd have a little longer view of the future than one week from now."

"Er... no offense." She looked at both Celestina and Owaja, scratching the back of her neck awkwardly. "Let's... let's just get going. I'm sure Mort can get Jarod to tell us why he's being such a big rainy magical raining rainypants. Isn't that right? Yes."

Mort had started demanding her attention by looking up and back at her while leaning heavily in to her halfway through her dialogue, and she'd been forced to switch audiences in mid-sentence. In case that wasn't obvious.

((We kind of died here, so here's a whee bump post!))

Dadj had been listening to the exchange, but only peripherally. His main attention was on their surroundings. His chest was tight here; it was hard to breathe in this little dimension he was not used to. He felt like he was slowly being constricted.

"Can we talk while walking?"

"Can we not talk?"

And after he asked that question, he turned his back on the group. He could see their goal now, the tower - the others were just slowing him down. He started slowly walking, but just to ensure the annoying crew wouldn't follow him, he would start by flash-stepping one, getting a pretty decent 25 meter head start, after which he resumed his merry stroll.

If they tried to follow, he would repeat the process, making it clear he wasn't fond of the idea of having them around.

Celestina shook her head slightly. "He is sadistic. I think he either wishes to completely wipe the land clean of any life and start it anew as his own, or he wishes to drive the population to the edge and then come and make himself appear the hero, so that they will make him exalted." She sighed. "He has a large ego. And as for food, he has no problem with that. This dimension, this area, it does not just lead to Imbrium. It leads to other lands, lands that do not have the rain, so he can get his food from there."

She looked at Dadj and then nodded. "Yes, of course." She started walking, letting Sitta be on his own. Why did he even come if he hated them so much? Oh well. She walked towards the tower with a growing feeling of apprehension. She opened the door to the tower and stepped into a large, empty stone room. "Be careful. Things are never as they seem here."

As the Ranger walked deeper into the Tower, he was beginning to feel weirder and weirder. Spots on his skin started to hurt very randomly, yet he ignored them. He was only half listening to Celestina, as usual, but now it was because he was preoccupied with these sensations. He was beginning to understand how things might not be what they seem when he could have sworn on of the stone had just changed shape; or was it his eyesight going in and out? He cleared his throat and tried not to let on that he was having some sort of issue. His hands rested on the blades at his hips and his jaw clenched.

The burning feeling on spots of his skin was feeling somewhat more intense now. He pushed up his sleeve to expose his forearm. The rain spots weren't going away.

Sam had to stop for a few seconds, stunned by Sitta's display. Where she had come from, teleportation was a spell of legendary power - so much so that she had never actually seen it performed in person, even at W.I.T.

However, she examined the others for cues, and saw that none of them seemed particularly perturbed by, or even interested in, Sitta's ability. She shrugged and chalked it up to her own ignorance. Different worlds, different rules.

She followed behind the others while leading Mort along. They jogged a little to catch up, and she nodded as Celestina explained things to her.

"I get it. I've dealt with situations... well, similar to this, before. Still, I hope we'll at least try to make him see reason. I just don't see any need to go a-murdering straight out, you know?"

It wasn't really clear whether she was trying to persuade Celestina, or asking her for reassurance.

Celestina was quiet, which probably did nothing to comfort Samantha about her 'a-murdering' comment. "Sir Sitta, please stay back with us now. This is dangerous, so I'll go first." Before she could take a step, however, she noticed Dadj. She walked over to him. "Take Owaja and go out. The barrier will let you." It was obvious it must have been the dimension taking it's toll on him. Yeah, she didn't really like him, but he was in pain and she wasn't going to just ignore it.

She took a few steps into the room. On the far corner was a staircase. "Keep alert." she once again warned. She inched towards the staircase bit by bit. However, a breeze moved against them. A breeze that shouldn't have been possible.

The trap was sprung. Searing rain fell from the ceiling, small darts shot out of the walls with the intent to knock-out anyone who got hit. "Get down!!" No doubt Owaja would spring to life and save them from the rain...but the other traps that were to come would be a different story completely.

(Feel free to spring a few traps yourselves, guys. This is where my creativity lacks. xD)