Forums » Fantasy Roleplay » The Land of Imbrium

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)

He let his sleeve fall and shielded his face from the onslaught Celestina unleashed. He wasn't going to leave. He wasn't in pain. He just... Wasn't healing. Ignoring Celestina trying to get rid of him, he instead continued through the room until a shield was put up or he was able to find refuge underneath something. Leaning against a wall he tried to assess his situation. Clearly the God's power was diminished in this pocket dimension, but not entirely gone. He felt stirrings inside him, but nothing was acting. He relaxed on the wall and when he opened his eyes he swore that stone was moving again. He watched it now; but it either disappeared or stopped when he blinked.

"One of those stones is..." He didn't get to finish his sentence because the moving stone had jumped to the wall he was currently leaning on. Arm-like protrusions wrapped around him, covering his mouth and binding him to the wall.

((That's as creative as I can be atm... Do what you will with that trap ))

Oh, now he was Sir Sitta. Typical human - now that he had shown he was willing to leave them, Celestina was being all respectful and meek again.

Disgusting, all of the-

The elf froze when he heard Dadj speak, and immediately realized he had probably done something stupid. He turned too see the ranger bound. Yup, something stupid alright.

If his doctrine allowed him to express emotion, he would be facepalming by then.

His muffled cursing could only just be heard around the stone hands over his mouth. It was obvious that he was trying to struggle against the wall, but each time his body thrashed the arms would tighten. He caught on to this once his bones felt like they were creaking and he tried to stay still; his body was stuck in an awkward position now which he was unable to relax from. His eyes, fraught with anger burned toward his companions.

Then the arms started to recede into the wall, Ranger and all.

Celestina gasped. "Dadj!" That was bad. She rushed towards the wall and slammed both hands on it. Water shot out from her hands, coursing through the cracks in the rock towards the protrusions that held onto Dadj. She just needed it to break. The water pulsed through the rock, seething through the cracks and aiming to break it apart before it could get her traveling companion into the wall itself.

"Everyone be careful!"

64
Sam crouched and spun as she grabbed one corner of her cape and swept it around her, knocking the darts that came from her right side away. On her left, most bounced off of Mort's thick hide harmlessly, but a few found purchase. He appeared not to notice or care.

She recovered, noticed Dadj's predicament, and rushed over to help. She soon figured out what Celestina was trying to do, and raised a hand towards the point where the fissures caused by her water magic looked the deepest.

"Cover your eyes!"

With a flick of her wrist, she cast one of her magic blue balls of force at point blank range in to the rock.

Without Celestina eroding the arms, nothing would have happened. But with both of their powers combined, it just... might... work.

Of course it might also go overboard and violently shatter the stone, horribly wounding all three of them with high velocity shrapnel. WHO KNOWS?? (Dadj knows)

((The Shadow knows!))


The rock was certainly weakening with Celestina's water pulsing through it, finding its minuscule cracks and widening them. However, with the edition of Sam's bolt, the living rock was forced apart much faster. The rock was pushing outward at first by the force; only bulging out. The Ranger's eyes moved from his companions to what he could see of the wall, then he closed them tightly in anticipation of what was to come. The bulging stone built up enough force behind it to now burst outward, sending that violent shrapnel out from the wall. Dadj was freed, bruised where the arms were, but freed. He felt a pull in his side and looked to find a stone had embedded itself there. Sighing, he looked to his companions.

Celestina smiled thankfully at Sam, then called for Owaja to make a shield around them. She quickly went to Dadj's side, having easily seen that piece of shrapnel. "H-here, let me help." she said quietly. There was a look in her eyes. She was upset. Sure, it was one thing to go travelling with people with the intent to fight. But when others got injured, she....she wanted to take it all on by herself.

She knew she wouldn't have a chance, but she didn't want others to suffer this battle. "We need a plan.."

Dadj reluctantly leaned to the side for Celestina to inspect the wound. This dizzying feeling of having mortal attributes after so long was irking him. He didn't feel the pain still, but he knew that he was bleeding enough to hinder a normal person almost to incapacitation. Since the Ranger would never actually thank her, he nodded his acknowledgment of her help when she assessed the opening.

Owaja had shielded herself from the shrapnel and was comforting Sunflower who was clinging to her dreadlocks in terror from the sound of crumbling rock. When she finally felt he had calmed down enough, she turned her attention to Celestina.

"Perhaps we should split off into groups?"