RP:He Who Brings Death

This is a Mage's Guild RP.

Summary: Odhranos asks for Pilar's assistance in investigating the potential site of another strange magic crystal. When they arrive, they find something far stranger and darker than they had imagined.

The Slippery Eel

Odhranos sipped from the small earthenware mug of tea that he had bought as he perused the map spread out on the table before him. Three small silver pins had been placed in the map, one in the center of the Eternal Forest in Larket, one in the southern fringes of Rynvale's Fog Forest and now another in the Dead Forest of Venturil. The mage rubbed his thumb and forefinger down his stubbly jaw before taking another swig of piping hot tea.

Pilar entered the tavern, hair in disarray and scrubs dirty. She had been on the way home from the clinic when she decided to check the public board for news. Nothing had changed, it seemed. The notice about the epidemic was still there. At least some people had taken heed, and a number of them were wearing masks over their noses and mouths. Pilar was not among them. As a vampire, she seemed immune to the illness, despite its seemingly magical origin. She turned to leave the tavern, only to spot Odhranos at his table. “Odhranos!” She hurried over to him, but kept her distance. She was covered in disease after all. “What are you doing here? Have you not heard the news?”

Odhranos looked up from his work and his eyes widened. "Pilar? I haven't, although the streets did seem somewhat empty on my way here. What's the problem?" The mage asked, about to offer her a seat until he noticed the distance she was keeping. "I was looking for a guide to help me through the Dead Forest, but it seems there is worse afoot, what is wrong?"

Pilar said to you, "There's sickness spreading all through town. It's taking all we have to slow it down, but it's still getting worse."

Odhranos' face grew concerned. "What kind of sickness? How do it's symptoms present themselves?" the mage asked, as he lifted a lump of black stone from his pocket and held it to his face. The stone molded itself about his face, until his jaw and nose were plated in a smooth stone face piece. "I presume that is the reason why Chartsend in as quiet as it is. How much do you know about the disease?"

Pilar would have liked to sit down with Odhranos, but even with that face mask, she was taking no chances. “We're not sure. It causes fevers, coughing, chills, even unconsciousness. We think it might be caused by dark magic somehow, but it's only a theory. I and the other members of the Healer's Guild haven't made any progress.”

Odhranos unpinned the map from where is was on the table and held it out to Pilar to take from him. "How long ago did this disease first arrive? I've been investigating a series of... ritual sites, as a comrade referred to them as. One is located near here, and from what I can tell, it has been radiating a significant amount of dark magic. Necromantic magic to be precise." The mage explained in a muffled voice through his mask as an eyebrow quirked upwards. "It could be entirely unrelated to your issue, but at the same time, I have seen the sort of effects that surround these.... "sites" before. It's worth a look." The mage steepled his fingers as his breath hissed heavily through the purifying stone of the mask, a rather hard to find compound he had discovered in the forests of Enchantment. "Has the disease proven fatal? What are the first signs and how long does it take for the disease to progress fully?"

Pilar took the map and looked it over. “About a week or two ago? We've had four deaths now, including a child. If we catch it early enough we' re able to slow it down, but...” Pilar's eyes returned to Odhranos. “Are you going to find one of these places? Please, let me come with you. If it's causing this illness, it must be stopped.”

Odhranos' brows furrowed. "Only two weeks? Hmm... it's unlikely, but then again, it may only have been activated recently after all this time." The mage muttered, although whether to himself or Pilar was up for debate. Odhranos' eyes met Pilar's and whatever emotion was hidden in his mask was conveyed in his slate-grey eyes. "I have been to two of these sites, both nearly cost me my life. I can't guarantee your safety, but if you will join me, then I will appreciate the help." Odhranos' mental voice broke through quietly, almost unintentionally <"I have no wish to put you in further harm, especially if you are needed here. But if it helps to prevent this disease, I will do what I can">

Pilar nodded. “Just let me go home, clean up, and get my things. I'll meet you back here in an hour. See you soon.” Pilar returned the map to him, and left for her house. Nearly an hour later, she reappeared, dressed in her adventuring clothes; a beige tunic, black pants, brown boots, a belt with several pouches, and a satchel. Her hair was clean and combed, and tied back with a white ribbon.

Odhranos, in the meantime had been working on an improvised hazmat suit. When Pilar returned, she would find the mage standing near his previous seat, his grey robes folded neatly over the back of a chair while he stood in his normally hidden casual clothes. Sturdy black boots under simple brown trousers and a plain white tunic could be seen, but on top of which, the mage appeared to be building a complicated layering system of different earth and stone compounds. "Oh, Pilar, hello again. I'll be ready in a moment." Odhranos stated upon noticing her arrival, his voice even more muffled and alien sounding now that he had done some fiddling and optimizing of his face mask's filter. Bit by bit, segmented plates of smooth black rock were locked in place over three layers of cushioning sand, before finally, the suit was sealed, leaving only a stone faceplate lying on the table, which the mage left off for the time being. "Right, let's be off, before night falls." He announced, packing his robes away into a small satchel and slinging it alongside the ever-present artifact of S'erok's sandstorm cage.

Pilar watched Odhranos create his earthen armor. She wondered if one day she'd have that level of mastery over any form of magic. She followed Odhranos out of the tavern and to the west, towards the Dead Forest.

In The Dead Forest

Odhranos wrinkled his nose behind his mask, he was glad that he wasn't able to smell anything but he could see enough to turn his stomach. The mage's eye's narrowed behind the mica glass eyeholes in his full-head stone helmet and he turned to Pilar, seeming like some strange cross between black-carapaced bug and man. <"What do you make of this?"> the mage asked through their mental bond, as he had been forced to tighten the purification mesh of his mask to filter out the most of the toxic gunge in the air. All around them, as far as the eye could see, dead bodies in various states of decomposition, dismemberment and disembowelment lay in piles upon the ground, while the path that the pair strode on seemed to have been cleared by a voracious tornado, which had quite viscerally chewed through anything in it's path, leading through the decimated carpet of corpses.

Pilar thought the Dead Forest certainly lived up to its name. She clapped a hand over her nose and mouth and gagged. ~Gods... it's awful,~ she replied. ~Disease or no, this can't be allowed to continue.~

Odhranos trudged onwards in silence, as his stone boots crunched across the bare stony earth. Up ahead, a strange magical signature could be sensed, emanating from the foggy gloom beyond the bare white trees. The mage's pace quickened, as did his heartbeat as they approached what seemed to be a short stone pedestal. <"Same as before, the white stone pedestal but... where... it's gone!?"> Odhranos' mental voice seemed to bubble with confusion. <"But... if it's gone, then how... how did this happen?">

Pilar kept pace with Odhranos as they hurried into the heart of the magical phenomena. She looked at the pedestal, then to her companion. ~What's gone? What was supposed to be here?~

Odhranos conveyed a series of mental images to the vampire, of a perfectly clear crystal on a pristine white pedestal, absorbing a beam of pure light. The light seemed to curl and fill the crystal's heart with an unearthly vibrance, before dispersing outward through the walls of the crystal, which were encrusted with countless tiny runes, glowing with immense power. The next image was of another crystal, this one marginally larger, upon which two calloused hands were placed. From the points of contact between hand and crystal, vibrant purple streamers of what could only be pure magic energy seeped into the crystal, before they were dispersed into the net of runes just like the first. The final image was of both previous crystals, the first now shattered into multiple pieces, while the other remained intact, both sitting on the desk of Odhranos' office back in the Mage's Tower. <"I've been researching these crystals ever since I encountered the first one in the Eternal Forest almost two years ago. These crystals hold immense magic potential but they also hold the potential for great destruction if used for harm. The evidence of this we can see around us."> The mage gestured to the chaotic mess that surrounded the pillar. <"I only found out about the possibility of a third crystal a number of days ago, when I found an old letter, buried in the Guild's library, which mentioned the crystals in passing. I had hoped to recover it before... well before this happened.">

Pilar closed her eyes, so as to focus on the visions. The fact that such a powerful artifact had gone missing was... troubling, to say the least. ~There's got to be a way to find it... Maybe one of these... people... has it on them?~ Not that she particularly wanted to go digging through corpses. Ew.

Odhranos nodded at Pilar's suggestion. <"There is still that strong magic signature present, although it seems to be fading..."> the mage walks around the pillar and glanced off into the distance. <"Can you sense anything still living out there?"> Odhranos asked, as he strode forwards, the earth rising slowly before him to part the mounds of dead and leaving a clear path. As he strode onwards, he honed slowly in on the magic signal. When he approached the source, the dead began thinning out until only one body was left lying on the ground before Odhranos. "Oh no... they couldn't let you rest?" The mage whispered quietly as he crouched before the body.

Pilar shook her head. ~No... All I can sense is death.~ She shuddered as the corpses were pushed aside by the roiling earth. ~Who were all these people...?~ she wondered. When they found the body from which the magical signature was emanating, she reached out to pull Odhranos back. She had a bad, BAD feeling, and her gut was telling her to give it space.

Odhranos turned to look at Pilar, following her line of sight. <"Judging from the attire, these bodies have been here for a long time. Probably as old as the forest. But they've been unearthed."> The mage frowned behind his helmet, before turning back to the sole corpse before them. <"I've met this man before. While he lived. And when he died. Kai Xelion. He was a rogue necromancer, who was obsessed with the crystals. He was killed by his own creations in Rynvale. Now someone has brought him here. Like some sort of twisted sense of an inescapable fate."> the mage crouched down before the body and bowed his head in respect.

Pilar looked for movement, listened for any sign that someone was here. The bad feeling in her stomach hadn't gone away. ~Be careful, Odhranos. Whoever did all this might still be here...~

Odhranos was about to turn back to face Pilar when a rasping breath echoed through the air behind him. Turning back to face the body, Odhranos flinched backwards as it sat upright, milky sightless eyes reflecting the mage's face back at him. "Deaaaaathbringeeeeerrrrrr" the dessicated voice rattled out, as the body of Kai Xelion slowly clambered to rotten feet before the pair. "Deathbringer? What? What is Deathbringer?" The mage asked as he back away from the body. The zombie repeated the word again as ir shambled forwards, and as it passed another body, it too rose, taking up the eerie chant and following in the dead necromancer's footsteps.

Pilar gasped as the first body rose. She gripped Odhranos's shoulders as another, and another, followed suit. "What... What killed them? Could that be...?" She felt something grab her leg, and saw that the top of a corpse had crawled up to her. Corpses all around them were rising, trapping them. Pilar yanked her foot free and kicked the offending zombie away. "Odhranos...!"

Odhranos cast about frantically, looking for a way out, but the narrow channel they had arrived by was quickly becoming blocked by the shambling corpses of the not-so-recently deceased. "Sven blast it, run!" The mage cried, grabbing Pilar's hand as he turned and sprinted for the rapidly shrinking gap between the risen dead. Rotten and putrefying hands grasped at his stony armour as they ran, but the mage just kept going, shedding pieces where their grip was too strong to shake off. His free hand rose and a wave of threshing blades speared out of the earth, chewing through the horde and clearing the path for the two mages to sprint free. All around them, the eerie chant slipped like ooze from slack jaws and hissed from torn windpipes. "Deathbringer, Deathbringer.... DEATHBRINGER...!"

Pilar could run much faster than Odhranos, but she has no plans to leave him behind. "What do we do? What if they follow us into town?" She looked over her shoulder at the horde. Deathbringer... Who or what was that?

Odhranos glanced over his shoulder, his eyes widening behind his quartz lenses as he realised the scale of the undead army following them as they rose unsteadily from the ground. "We... can't let them." He panted, his eyes narrowing as he spun around to face the horde, backpedaling furiously as he raised his hands towards the massive congregation of entropy. "We can't let them leave this forest."

Pilar stopped and turned to face the horde. She took a deep breath and let it out, then drew her dagger. It was filled to burst with magical energy. Cryomancy was the name of the game today. Fire or lightning would burn the whole forest down. Feeling the magic surging through her weapon, she called upon it ro cast her spell. Swinging it in an arc, magic flew from the blade, freezing the first row of oncoming corpses.

Odhranos gritted his teeth, it felt wrong to have to desecrate what once were the bodies of honest working people, but they had already been desecrated when they were disinterred by whatever force brought them here. "Xalious bless your souls." Odhranos whispered, before threshing mandibles of stone erupted from the ground at the zombies' feet. Stone blades spun wildly through the air, cutting through flesh and bone like it wasn't even there, the wave of violent earth roared angrily as it decimated the front ranks of undead, but more just kept coming, clambering over their dismembered comrades, like a wave of flesh, breaking over any obstacle.

Pilar held her dagger out in front of her willing the mana inside to do her bidding. A mist began to fall over the zombies, and their movements became more sluggish as their limbs froze. Pilar felt as badly as Odhranos did, but these people were already dead. The two of them were still alive. (Well, half-alive in her case).

Odhranos continued to retreat, almost tripping over exposed roots and stones as he back away from the ever encroaching horde. Soon, the treeline began to thin out as they reached the boundary of the Forest and Venturil's wasteland. "Curse it, there are too many of them!!" The mage cried out, his armour now in tatters and falling piecemeal from his skin.

Pilar looked to Odhranos. "What do they want???"

Odhranos looked back with panic in his eyes. "I don't know. Deathbringer... I've never heard that before." The mage looked back towards the growing wave of undead as it slumped towards them. "If only the crystal was there, it must have something to do with that, but it's gone. It doesn't make sense." All the while, the terramancer flung more and more of his magic at the horde, but due to their sheer numbers, they just absorbed anything he could throw at them. "Pilar, go warn Venturil, warn them of what is coming, I will slow them down as much as possible."

Pilar frowned at Odhranos. "I can't just leave you!"

Odhranos grimaced. "You may have to. Venturil will be at severe risk if it is caught off guard by a force this big." Backing up further, the pair broke through the treeline, now no longer within the Dead Forest. Shambling after them, Kai Xelion's corpse stumbled on, until suddenly, as one foot stepped beyond the boundary of the last trees, the undead necromancer collapsed to the ground, utterly lifeless. Like dominos behind him, the rest of the horde followed suit, until within a few seconds, silence enveloped the scene, as the wall of human flesh settled and stilled. Eyes wide with disbelief, Odhranos slowly approached the wall, hesitantly moving one step at a time. Was this just a trick?

Pilar stayed close to Odhranos, just in case.

Odhranos paused, before gently placing his hands on the ground a few feet away from the corpses. Two slender shards of stone slid out of the earth with a gentle movement so different from the raw destruction the terramancer had wrought earlier. Once they reached the corpse of Kai Xelion, they wrapped like snakes about the cadaver's limbs, binding it tightly before sliding it along the ground to Odhranos, who hesitantly reached out to the body. Laying his hand on the corpse's forehead, Odhranos slowly let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding when nothing happened. "Dead. Properly dead this time."

Pilar knelt by Odhranos and the body. "I don't mean to state the obvious, but it seems whatever brought them back is limited to the forest..." She looked at Kai. "And whatever it is must be inside him. They all collapsed when he left."

Odhranos nodded, it did seem to be that way. "There doesn't seem to be anything off about this body, though. It's not letting off any sort of magic energy. It's just... dead." He frowned as he reached out and turned out the dead man's pockets, it felt wrong to be doing such a thing, especially after he had known the man in life. Most of the various pockets yielded nothing, except for a small crumpled piece of paper in the breast pocket, which Odhranos drew out and unfolded with care. It was completely mundane, simply a small sheet of paper, seemingly torn out of a journal, but the writing on the page was very familiar. "I've seen this writing, it's Xelion's, and it must have been taken from his journal. I have it back at the Guild, Lanlan retrieved it from his body in Rynvale, and there were a number of pages missing. This is one of them. But... we still can't explain what happened here."

Pilar frowned deeply. "I wish I had an idea... But I've got nothing." She looked at Kai's body again. "Should we... burn him? Or take him back to be looked over?"

Odhranos looked down at the necromancer's body. "I think I'll bring him back to the Guild. We clearly made a mistake by leaving for Rynvale's Guard last time, he deserves a proper burial this time." He sighed and reached out to close the sightless eyes of the once revered necromancer. "I'll research what I can in his notes when I return, perhaps I might be able to determine what happened here."

Pilar nodded. "Do you want my help moving him?"

Odhranos shook his head, as he reached down and lifted the thin layer of earth the body rested on, levitating it like an earthen stretcher. "I've taken you away from Chartsend for too long as it is, I should get you back. They need your help." He smiled somewhat ruefully. "I do appreciate you accompanying me though. If I find out more, you'll be the first to know."

Pilar slid her dagger back into its sheath and nodded. "It's no trouble. I'll see you soon, I hope. Goodbye, Odhranos." She turned and headed back to Chartsend, hoping to get some well-needed shuteye before another shift at the clinic.