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Post by blackghoulmon on Dec 7, 2016 13:25:57 GMT -5
((OK Flutter, let's get going.))
The Lost Desert was always a hot, dry, desolate place, even in the rainy season. And there was no shortage of weird occurrences to deal with. That was where Urasina and her family came in.
Urasina and her sister Pyoga were trekking across the sand dunes. Due to the Peophin not being as adapted to the harsh conditions, the Uni was projecting a dome of Light magic from her horn. Beneath the dome it was a bit darker, somewhat cooler, and more humid than outside. The dome itself was mostly transparent, and thus not interfering with the siblings' abilities to see, hear, and react to their surroundings. Neither mare was talking, both of them thinking about what they had been tasked with doing. Supernatural issues were nothing new to Urasina, but Pyoga, who had insisted on coming along, was feeling a bit worried.
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Post by Flutter (Frosty) on Dec 7, 2016 14:07:07 GMT -5
The leader of a rather unusual trio squinted. Using her wings wouldn't do any good to make the glare of the sun any less difficult to deal with, and it suddenly occurred to Aerlliin that there was a reason her princess friend and the young mare's father wore khol. "Huh." "Something on your mind, Liin? Please don't say magic. I'm still nursing a headache from last night. Jariev couldn't have been more insistent on this stupid mission." The tallest and eldest of the group plodded through the sand with a Peophin on her back. Simitra had given up walking through the deep sand once she'd gotten mired for the second time and Doe was the only one strong enough to physically carry someone else. "It's just silly. Thinking of light reflecting off the sand and-" "I'm already bored," she jested. "But yeah, some eye makeup probably would have helped. At least for you two." The light didn't bother the Uni as much, for reasons she didn't care to think much on. Simi felt the need, at this point, to interject. "What, exactly, are we doing? Jari sort of went into a tizzy and then ignored me all night and I can't understand this any better than Doe can." The young mare adjusted a pink ribbon tied to her leg, a sheathe for a scimitar that was and was not there. Only she knew its true form, and did not care to speak of it.
"There." A small village appeared on the horizon. Considering it was the only one in the area for miles and they hadn't passed anything more than a tiny oasis or two (and Doe refused to let anyone drink the water as it had a high sulfur content) it was a pretty good bet this was the only village. "And I have no idea what we're dealing with." The other two equines looked at her with concern and dismay, respectively.
"Crap," they said simultaneously.
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Post by blackghoulmon on Dec 7, 2016 14:13:26 GMT -5
"So what did Kouren have to say?" Pyoga asked at length as their objective, a small, remote village, came into view. "She was pretty cryptic," Urasina replied. "All she told me was that there's something spooky going on in that village, and they could use some help sorting it out." "Must be pretty serious if she came to you," the Peophin responded. "Hopefully it's nothing too serious, but we'll see," the Uni commented. "If anything, this will be a good test of my new powers as an immortal."
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Post by Flutter (Frosty) on Dec 7, 2016 14:21:49 GMT -5
"Do you think they'll have ale? Or mead?" Simitra wiggled on Doe's back. The Uni bucked slightly, throwing the cotton candy colored mare off balance. "Not on my watch, peach pit." Doe's ears flicked back. "I'll put you on lockdown like Brightvale Prison if I see you even try to order it. We're on a job, not vacation." To prove her point, she used her mercurial metal to create 'shackles' to keep Simi in line- and on her back. "We're going to trot the rest of the way. This pace is murder." "Not too fast, Doe. Not all of us have your energy. Even flying, this heat is awful." She kept pace with Doe, anyhow, and soon they hit the village line. To say the odd trio garnered much attention was an understatement, even from here. "Time for the weird stuff," Liin said under her breath.
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Post by blackghoulmon on Dec 7, 2016 14:27:18 GMT -5
Upon reaching the village, Urasina dropped her dome barrier. "Well, nothing SEEMS out of the ordinary," Pyoga remarked. "Other than the villagers seeming to be on high alert." Urasina, though, hardly heard what her sister had to say. "Weird, I'm picking up multiple entities that I can't see..." she said quietly, "But I can SENSE them through my magic. They're... they're..." Hardly a second later, the Uni fired off a blistering barrage of solar rays in all directions. "They're everywhere." The nearby villagers had dove for cover when Urasina attacked, but once the Light beams stopped flying, they quickly got up and gathered around the two mares. "What's going on here?" Urasina asked them.
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Post by Flutter (Frosty) on Dec 7, 2016 14:36:48 GMT -5
Getting closer to the village, the two magically inclined mares felt as though their very nerves were being set alight. The barrage of magic from the other side of the village didn't help at all. Despite Simi's protests, Doe and Aerlliin took off towards the energy barrage. "This is how everyone dies in those horror novels your mother-in-law likes so much, Liin. They go towards the creepy things and get dead." Were her feet not bound, she would have found a place to hide. But the rays did stop bouncing, and for a moment, the Uni and the faerie Peophin seemed to relax. "I'm still... ugh. It feels slimy, the air does. But that light magic felt almost celestial." Finally, they were close enough to hear the villagers pleading with two equine mares that could not possibly be villagers- they just didn't look scared enough. A villager was pleading with the taller of the two.
"Please, m'lady. We're at our wits end here and there's only so much more we can do. We contacted a sorceress and she sent her apprentice, but I don't think an apprentice is going to be enough." Liin snorted derisively.
"I'M the apprentice." She didn't say it with much heat. Much.
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Post by blackghoulmon on Dec 7, 2016 14:43:34 GMT -5
"I can certainly sense SOMETHING ominous going on here," Urasina responded to the villager. "What exactly is going on?" "It's those blasted wraiths," the villager answered. "Some of our people went exploring and came back with some relics. The next day, we were being assaulted by creatures we couldn't see." The sudden arrival of the other three mares drew everyone's attention. "Hello there," Urasina was the first to react, waving one gigantic wing at the newcomers. "You're the ones they called to investigate this situation?"
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Post by Flutter (Frosty) on Dec 7, 2016 14:54:08 GMT -5
Liin righted herself after the slight given to her by the villager. She knew no harm was meant by it- to those not gifted in magic, she was just an extra-shiny Peophin. "Yes- my mentor, a wood sprite by the name of Jariev, felt a... disturbance. She couldn't tell me any more than that, but she said it was serious and teleported us a few miles away from the village. My name is Aerlliin, and these are my friends, Doe and Simitra."
Doe took a small bow after grinning mischievously, which sent the Peophin atop her hurtling towards the ground. Simitra rolled in a rather undignified fashion into the dirt, but landed upright. She was pretty certain the old mare had planned it, and the way some of the villagers giggled at the sight affirmed it. Doe spoke slowly and calmly. "We're here to help, in any way we can. What sort of relics are these, exactly?"
The villager that was at first displeased with an apprentice, rather than the eternal wood sprite herself (or at least her daughter, who sends apprentices to do the work of a master, honestly?) spoke, side-stepping the Peophin that was sent asunder. "A number of ancient jewels, pots, statues..." As he went on, Aerlliin knew that any one of these could have unleashed untold horrors. She could feel her pulse rising with every little thing he listed.
"Oh, and these necklaces that we pulled off a wall." Liin's eye began to twitch.
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Post by blackghoulmon on Dec 7, 2016 15:01:02 GMT -5
"The name's Urasina," Urasina responded to Doe and Liin's greeting. "This is my sister Pyoga." Pyoga bowed slightly, but she looked worried. The Uni turned her focus back to the villager, who had finished rattling off the list of items they had taken. "Where are they being kept?" she asked. "Aside from the necklaces; I can see all of you are wearing them." "The necklaces let us see the wraiths, but we still can't fight them off," the villager answered. "Rakt, our top treasure hunter, is keeping the relics until we figure out what's going on. He'll be happy that there's help now. His house is the one with the blue door, just around the corner." Urasina nodded and turned to head that way, Pyoga scrambling to keep up with the larger mare.
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Post by Flutter (Frosty) on Dec 7, 2016 15:08:45 GMT -5
Even Simitra's ears perked at the use of the word 'wraiths.' "Wait, are these faerie wraiths or..." Doe barked with laughter and began following the other two mares. "Peach pit, these are not going to be your regular faerie wraiths. Desert wraiths are... something different." Her ear flicked to Liin, who was muttering under her breath. "Who goes into a ruin and thinks, 'Oh, these things are magical and glowy, let's take them off the wall?' 'Oh, this urn can't possibly have a dead thing inside it that'll bite me in the ass later.'" She was muttering it all under her breath, but Doe heard every word. "Sugarcube, not everyone gets your level of training in a reliquary. They don't look like they can afford much and were probably down there looking for things to sell. Also, watch your mouth, there are children present." They stopped at a very, very blue door. To Urasina, the mare spoke. "They weren't kidding when they said it was blue, were they?" She almost chuckled at how out of place it was.
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Post by blackghoulmon on Dec 7, 2016 15:17:17 GMT -5
"No, they certainly weren't," Urasina responded with a grin. She pushed it open with her muzzle and headed indoors. It was one large room inside, with all sorts of treasure scattered around. A Scorchio, apparently Rakt, was cowering in the corner, swatting at something only he could see. "Can you sense-" Pyoga began, but Urasina had already fire a few solar rays towards whatever Rakt was trying to scare off. The Scorchio looked greatly relieved and pulled himself off the floor to hurry over to the five mares. "Oh thank Fyora! These wraiths are tormenting us all!" "Which of these relics might have unleashed the wraiths?" Urasina asked tersely. "It could be any of those in that pile there," Rakt replied, gesturing to a pile of random items on the floor. Urasina and Pyoga began sorting through the pile, the Uni nosing at everything she saw and the Peophin using her telekinesis to levitate things and line them up in an orderly fashion. But when Pyoga levitated a pretty jeweled urn, Urasina tensed. "Put that down," she hissed. "THAT'S the relic we're looking for. I can sense the dark magic flowing from it." Pyoga jumped and quickly set the urn down before scooting backwards, away from it.
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Post by Flutter (Frosty) on Dec 7, 2016 15:26:29 GMT -5
Simi winced as she felt Dreamsever, the blade that was and was not, gain more weight at her leg. She could feel its thirst. "Well, at least now I've got a way to sense them. I've never felt Dreamsever this... hungry before." Doe couldn't really stand to look at it. "I'd almost forgotten about that thing. It's almost as interesting as that urn." She watched as the jewels caught Aerlliin's light, and swore she saw something staring back at her from one of the lapis lazuli. "Well, slap my rump and call me a plow horse." "Nobody is going to do that, Doe. Can... can you coat that thing? It's more unsettling than Simi's... whatever it is. But we need to get it back, I think." Rakt barked with laughter, sending himself into a coughing fit. Liin could almost see the tomb sickness on his breath, and she gave him a wide berth. Most would call it a mummy's curse, but really, opening dozens of tombs filled with rot and decay and millenia-dead diseases often unleashed fungus spores instead of curses. She extended her healing aura to him, and he thanked her before continuing.
"You think it'll just be that easy? Do you know the trouble I went through to get that urn?"
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Post by blackghoulmon on Dec 7, 2016 15:34:11 GMT -5
"Regardless of what kind of trouble it was, it has to be returned," Urasina said sharply. "I don't know the exact nature of this thing, but given what I'm sensing from it, I'd bet this was a key of some kind. And YOU removing it broke some kind of ancient seal." "It WAS one of two such urns," Rakt admitted. "But the other one was all worn out and falling apart." Urasina looked angry. "Let me guess," she said, voice dripping venom. "Two urns on an altar aligned in just such a way that they created a barrier. You took this one, and now the barrier is open and the wraiths are out to get you." Rakt seemed worried, and his guilty posture answered Urasina's accusation just fine. The Uni snorted in annoyance and began to nose through the pile again. "More necklaces," she said after a minute as Pyoga nervously approached the urn. "But only two." "Hey, those are mine," Rakt cut in. "They're not doing YOU any good," Urasina snapped. "If we're to get this urn back to where it belongs, we need to be able to see the wraiths." Rakt grumbled, but seemed to understand.
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Post by Flutter (Frosty) on Dec 7, 2016 15:43:56 GMT -5
Liin immediately felt a sort of kinship with Urasina after the mare's outburst- she was always happy to see people who didn't put up with willful ignorance. "My vote is that they go to the two that can't sense them," she offered. "Simi needs to be able to see them, even if Dreamsever isn't attached to her. And then we can go see what sort of bloody portal was opened and try to seal it. Again." She took a deep breath, and began deeply considering what to do next on a personal level. "If we're even able to reseal it. My knowledge of runes is... patchy at best and you don't know how to rune anything unless you're healing someone. And considering Simi's just really good at slicing things..." "Hey!" "I'll ward the entrance of the ruin against any more wraiths coming out. A few more solar blasts of Urasina's and it should be enough to prevent further... uh. Infestation while we're down there. What a mess, seriously."
Rakt winced again, reeling from the effects of what appeared to be two professional-relic-hunter shamers. "What would you have done, if it were your village?" He glared as Simitra tossed the amulet onto her neck.
"I'd have found something else. And... oh, purple bunnies. Guys, these are..." She ducked as a wraith aimed for her head. Dreamsever, acting of its own accord, split the ghastly wraith in two. She shook the resulting ash from her mane. "I'm pretty certain these wraiths are really, really mad." She ducked as another tried going for the blade, and was unsurprised when the wraith visibly caught on fire.
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Post by blackghoulmon on Dec 7, 2016 15:51:19 GMT -5
"Pyoga, you take that other necklace," Urasina said, nudging it towards her sister. "I want to be sure you can see anything that might go after you." Pyoga did just that, only to jump a good two feet off the ground in fright before whipping her morning-star off her back and swinging it wildly. "These things are everywhere!" she squeaked in fear. Urasina responded by firing off yet another volley, and once it had subsided, Pyoga looked relieved. "Someone's going to have to carry the relic," the Uni went on. "My magic is no good at levitating/carrying things." "I'll do it," Pyoga said, lifting it off the ground and floating it above her back. "Where's the tomb you took these from?" Urasina asked Rakt, anger in her tone once more. "Due west about a mile," he stammered, looking both scared at being taken to task for his relic raiding and relieved that the problem was going to be solved. "Be careful though. The tomb WAS just a single room full of treasure, but when we took that relic, it began to twist and distort into something out of a nightmare." "UGH," Urasina spat. "It's NEVER easy, is it?"
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Post by Flutter (Frosty) on Dec 7, 2016 15:57:04 GMT -5
Doe quickly coated the urn in her mercurial substance. "Let's make sure nobody gets tainted, yeah? This'll prevent it from being broken and unleashing something worse." She narrowed her eyes at the worst treasure hunter in the world. "We'll be back. But we're going to need supplies- Liin's mentor just sort of dropped us off in the middle of the desert. I should know better than to point at a map when dealing with that crazy old bat," she said to the room at large. "Well. Nightmares, twisting rooms, labyrinths and ancient ungodly relics from forgotten eras. Jariev did tell us to have fun, didn't she?"
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Post by blackghoulmon on Dec 7, 2016 16:04:18 GMT -5
Urasina giggled at Doe's remarks. "I think we'll get along juuuuust fine," she said in a half-teasing manner before heading out the door, casting one last angry glare at Rakt as she left. The villagers outside ran like scared Miamice at the sight of the relic Pyoga was levitating. "Must be the right one," she said, voice quivering, shuffling her hooves in the sand. Urasina reached over to nuzzle her younger sister. "There there, sis, I'll keep you safe," she cooed to the smaller mare. Hardly a second later, the Uni jumped back as the Peophin began swinging her morning-star again. "They're converging on us!" Pyoga squealed. "Not today they're not," Urasina quipped, raising another dome over the five mares. While she couldn't see them, she could sense the wraiths smashing into the dome and being vaporized. "The more of these we clear out, the easier our progress will be," she said to the group at large. "I don't know what kinds of magic you three are best at, but if you're not sure, you can stay under here for protection."
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Post by Flutter (Frosty) on Dec 7, 2016 16:15:11 GMT -5
Liin extended her own aura again, feeling the dark magic surrounding her. They clawed and she could nearly hear them letting out a mewling whine if she closed her eyes and she concentrated. These things were 100% undead. "Save your energy for those three. I'm OK on my own, but can't repel the wraiths and keep them safe at the same time." She wasn't afraid to admit when she was unable to do something. Doe grinned at the sisterly affection. "Probably not my place, but if the urn starts talking to you or something, I can take over hauling the urn. My back is pretty well-guarded from evil influences." Simi snorted. "To be fair, it takes a lot more evil influence to even give her a headache. I'm not sure you've noticed, but our friend Doe here is gigantic."
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Post by blackghoulmon on Dec 7, 2016 16:20:15 GMT -5
"Gigantic? You haven't seen gigantic until you've met my stallion," Urasina grinned. "He's probably twice Doe's size, give or take." The little group had been moving towards the west exit of the village, and soon they were ready to head out. "You mentioned supplies," Urasina went on. "What exactly do you girls think we'll need? I have... connections... and I can get us pretty much anything, dropped right at my hooves. It's why I don't carry much with me, even on long expeditions." She paused to think. "Water and food are the big ones. Are you three vegetarians like us? Neither Pyoga or I eat meat."
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Post by Flutter (Frosty) on Dec 7, 2016 16:32:53 GMT -5
Liin nodded. "I did have a packet of dried seaweed with me, but I think Jari filched it at some point last night. I'm guessing your connections aren't like my mother-in-law's. Hers are a little harder to explain. And describe." Doe chuckled. "That mare's 'connection' is a demon bird from another realm that speaks of itself in third person. It realm jumps, to boot. There- explained." Doe let out a cheesy grin, which turned into a genuine smile when the villagers actually arrived with exactly what they needed. "Well, that's handy." One of the teenagers- a Korbat girl- offered an explanation.
"Honestly, m'am, it's you and the pastel mare's sword that are making us uneasy. And the wraiths. And the urn. We'd really rather all of this be over, and quickly." She eyed all of them warily, eyes almost locking onto the sword of the nevermind. "Please." Liin nodded in agreement. "We'll get this done as quickly as possible, but if the tomb has become a labyrinth as Doe predicts, it might be a few days." Doe and Simi groaned at the prospect. "But I swear to you- we'll get to the bottom of this."
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