TOGGLE SIDEBAR

DISCORD

RECENT THREADS
All Welcome   [ Hatching ] Born wit... by Arbor
2 POSTS
1 hour ago
All Welcome   [QUEST] EMERGENT INFL... by Game Master Dark
20 POSTS
1 hour ago
Private   I AM ALIVE by Loki
9 POSTS
4 hours ago
Private   Curse the Sun! by Pickles
6 POSTS
6 hours ago
Private   Spring Makeover by Aerys
7 POSTS
Yesterday, 11:23 PM
Private   t by Morana
5 POSTS
Yesterday, 07:38 PM
CYCLE 120Current time: Apr 04 2025, 03:27 PM


The Root of All Evil IN The Spire
 
Online
Game Master
#21
 
MAGICKA LEVEL 100%
RESTORED TO 100%


No. Not a Harbinger, then? If the word hadn't triggered some sort of response, then Astraea's suspicions eased—but the continuing efforts of this creature to thwart him made his back twitch. Carried... Death? The deer watched as his fungal floor was eaten and he lifted part of his lip in disgust. Of course it should carry death, as was their purpose!

His eyes snapped back up to the mislead child.

"For whom?" he asked in a low, dark voice. "For us?" Astraea would not see his work depleted by a single entity, if that was truly its reason for being here, for questioning all that it should know. If they had been infiltrated, he would dispose of the anomaly.


@Cry @Hrokr @Thothaga @Khloros

 
 
SPELLWEAVER
Offline
Inactive
159 POSTS ʡ 142
Female 84 Cycles
Giant Spider Pluto

#22
 
MAGICKA LEVEL 100%
RESTORED TO 100%




as a maiden she tiptoes shy with her light...

Thothaga clicked her fangs in annoyance. "Oh? And it is my place to not know?" She huffed, her voice dripped with sarcasm. So, the Stag wished to keep secrets... idiot. She wondered if this ancient creature looked down her. They were both greater gembounds were they not?

Her thoughts drew towards the Death-Carrier and his vision. He said it fell and died, and it was very angry too. It's energy was tainted and chaotic, like it was disease. Thothaga noticed the smug look the Stag's face. He knew something the both of them did not, and frankly, it was killing her. She stepped back as the Stag challenged the deathly horse with a question, blanketing the floor around him with fungus. Thothaga reached out. "Careful, he--" before she could finish warning the Stag, the horse announced his purposed.

Carries death...
Thothaga backed off the carpet of fungi as the bacterial magick rotted away the caps. She began to groom her legs, somewhat disgusted by his display, but, also intrigued. The Stag's arrogant smirk had vanished. Thothaga felt her blood chill as his energy grew serious. She turned towards the horse, and wondered what the Stag would do to him for admitting this.

"Thothaga speaking."
Thothaga thinking.

@Khloros @Cry @Hrokr

/╲/\( •̀•̀ ω •́•́  )/\╱\

 
 
Inactive
Offline
Khloros  
Inactive
403 POSTS ʡ 0
Male 117 Cycles
Redeemed Horse Dark

#23
 
MAGICKA LEVEL 100%
RESTORED TO 100%



Khloros further approached Astraea before stopping as close as the deer would allow. His demeanor was empty of body language: non-threatening, but nor was it open, questioning or friendly. It was blank, as if he were indifferent, detached. He showed no reaction to Thothaga's two called-out words, and he neither knew nor particularly cared whether they were meant for he, or for the other.

His lack of body language changed smoothly with a simple forward rotation of his ears, the faintest lifting of his head, as if he were finally acknowledging the stag's presence in the faintest, almost gentle manner. He was hearing Astraea's words, pondering his answer, and thinking about the Spire; the result of his scattered mind was an only slow reaction and response, his voice distant.

"For everyone," he rasped mildly. "We are trapped, in this place; unnatural and tainted. Our spirits, souls, drawn back again and again, denied our rest. Denied our true lives." Despite the depth of intensity that his words should have held, his voice was instead indifferently empty--again, detached, as if he were a distant observer who was stating facts about which he held no opinions. "This cycle must be ended. Entirely. It must be made so that they cannot again rise, but... I fear I have been going about it quite wrongly. Perhaps this--" and he turned his head only a fraction, looking with his equine vision back over his shoulder with only the barest movement, toward the Spire--"must first be destroyed. Do you know?"

The long head swung back toward Astraea, the white-green eyes unblinking in their pallid glow.

________________

BRING OUT YOUR DEAD



@Cry @Hrokr

 
 
 
Online
Game Master
#24
 
MAGICKA LEVEL 100%
RESTORED TO 100%


He heard Thothaga but he did not acknowledge her. His attention was fully on Khloros, this... being that he did not create. He was beginning to feel like less and less of His influence resided in this Gembound, and that another had rooted itself there. It made Astraea uncomfortable to think that something might have infiltrated the cave under his own nose.

For everyone, was the answer. They carried death for everyone. Then, why did Astraea feel as if this was not true? The death was merely meant for them—as implied, he thought, by its aggression toward the cycles and the Gembounds' lives.

"What true life do you think you are deserved?" he retorted. "What would you know of souls?" Certainly, they had never been made to know these things, or to think these things: why did this one?

Astraea lowered his head in a menacing way, the antlers heavy on his head.

"Do you know?" he spat, throwing the question back to the Butter Jade. It truly wished to destroy the Spire? Astraea did not think it was possible. He could not even imagine himself trying to do it. Would that kill all of them, he wondered?

He suddenly felt powerful animosity for the horse. What had given it the idea to destroy the Spire?

"Harbinger," he said again, even though the Gembound had said it did not carry a message; no, but it was here to do something, to start or end something. How many more would fall to its false cries? His red eyes bore into the lifeless lamplight eyes before him, through to the Butter Jade at its side—granted a life only to betray them?

Astraea thought not. He would not have it be this way.

"You think you know these things," came his voice, though it was almost distorted. "But you have no soul. You are magic incarnate, given a voice and a body," his head raised; "You have been given these things for one purpose, and if it is not the purpose of us all, then it is of no use to us." Gradually, his voice grew more and more unrecognizable.

"The Butter Jade in your side belongs to us," he warned. "So what do you know? Do you know?" Did it know all things, or only what it had been influenced to know?

@Thothaga @Khloros @Cry @Hrokr

 
 
Inactive
Offline
Khloros  
Inactive
403 POSTS ʡ 0
Male 117 Cycles
Redeemed Horse Dark

#25
 
MAGICKA LEVEL 98%
RESTORED TO 100%



Khloros listened closely, coming to stand as close as he had to the stag. He did not mind its antlers, seemingly oblivious to its aggression, to its threat, to the long and bladed knives pointed at him from atop its head.

Instead he stood silent for a very long time, seeming to watch Astraea, though his mind was working slowly over all the stag had said.

"I do not know how to destroy it," Khloros responded at last. "Not yet. Are you afraid?" he asked abruptly, his rasping voice detached. He saw it now, the threatening, the posturing, the increasing agitation. Was it fear? "You speak of us belonging to you. Who, then, are you?"

The black horse's tone was mild, gentle even, though he gave no ground where he stood staring at the stag.

"Of true life, we deserve freedom. I do not know what a soul is," he admitted. The word, like so many, had come with its own vague meaning, to be defined by experience. He knew of it as the essence of a being, but little more than that; the way the stag spoke of it, it held some deeper definition. "I know only that it is what we are. Yet you say that I have none. That we were created for purpose; that we belong to you. I do not know who you are. But perhaps you ought to be told," the horse continued mildly--there was no anger in his tone, no nothing; it was empty--"that if you create a being that is living, its destiny is its own. One gives life to a stone; that does not make them the owner of the child that hatches."

Khloros moved at last, shifting to stand slightly broadside to the stag. He had not known that his stone was called a "butter jade," but now, he supposed, he did.

"I do not know why you fear. I have not threatened you; I must have threatened your way of life. Your beliefs, perhaps. You ask me what I know, and I warn you of my ignorance, for whoever has created us has told us nothing. You speak of a purpose, and yet we have been granted none. That is not our fault." His tone was patient. These things, which seemed so obvious to him, were clearly unknown to the stranger. "But it is not right, that we be created, and held here to an unknown master, and an unknown purpose. That is not the purpose of life."

The disease-ridden horse stood silent, and wholly motionless. If Astraea wished to strike at him physically, so be it; the horse was covered in incubated diseases. He focused, for a moment, intent on strengthening their presence within the pus that slicked his illness-riddled hide. He could feel nothing happen, but he did not know if that meant it had failed, or not. Regardless, he stood silent, now that he had spoken; he was in no rush to leave, nor did he seem intent on attacking the stag.

Astraea's self-control, however--or his intentions--might, Khloros knew full well, lead to a more visceral confrontation.

________________

BRING OUT YOUR DEAD

ROLL
2
Khloros attempts to Cast Spell — Incubate ( Diseased goo hide )
Failure!



 
 
 
Online
Game Master
#26
 
MAGICKA LEVEL 100%
RESTORED TO 100%




the root of all evil
[ boss encounter: astraea ]


ASTRAEA
the virgo master, reawakened

astraea
the virgo master, reawakened; "deer dad"
1000 / 1000 HP    100%
His patience evaporated like boiling water into freezing air. This child dared to lecture him, to tell him what "living creatures" deserved? Astraea listened with his large, cupped ears sitting erect on his head and he stifled a laugh. The Butter Jade asked who he was, and then continued on its pointless argument for life, freedom, and—oh, perhaps this was the misunderstanding—having been created.

"You have not been created, do not think so highly of yourself," he said through gritted teeth.

Those created, tailored, were the examples of prime creatures; but these? The Gembounds? Astraea narrowed his red eyes, remembering what fate pulled them into being. It was not his own, much as this body was not his own. His eyes flicked to observe the Spire, aqua-rainbow and horrifically ugly. Much as the Spire was not His own. Nothing of what Khloros argued for was theirs.

"Do not mistake my anger for fear," Astraea warned after a brief moment of silence and reflection, returning his attention to Khloros. That he even might have to admit how corrupt and impure the caves have become fueled his fury. "I am a master, one of twelve, who watch over your growth and perfection. There was a time we did create, for our Creator, but you—all of you, born from this Spire's magic—you have not been created." he explained. He spat the words like venom with emphasis on a select few. "You are born from failed creations that died or were purged," Astraea continued, the ruby embedded in his forehead shimmering with magic.

"Your purpose is to serve. It is to grow, and to grow strong; you think you could afford freedom?" growled his voice, his stance squaring as he lowered his head, tilting it slightly to one side.

"I will let you try."

The magic in the air burned like sharp static as Astraea sent a surge of slime molds toward Khloros. It was not that Astraea cared to know about Khloros and his disgusting, rotting body, but instead he hoped the flesh was rotten enough for Necrophagy to hold. He'd use the capillitia of the spores later if he got a good enough amount inside the horse.

GEMBOUNDS
character stats and info

khloros
100/100

[ ACTION LOG ]
> ASTRAEA uses Necrophagy. It fails to invade Khloros.


ROLL
2
Game Master CJ attempts Other ( Use Necrophagy to invade Khloros. )
Failure!



 
 
Inactive
Offline
Khloros  
Inactive
403 POSTS ʡ 0
Male 117 Cycles
Redeemed Horse Dark

#27
 
MAGICKA LEVEL 83%
RESTORED TO 100%



He listened closely, and his ears pricked at one particular word. One little word, nestled into the rest, its obscurity nearly--very nearly--slipping past his notice.

"Purged," he repeated, tone absently mild. Purged. That one word spoke volumes, to him. And perhaps he didn't truly understand its meaning--but to him it meant that what life had come before had been nothing but slaves. Experiments, their life's worth measured by some value that had little or nothing to do with freedom or with will. His long head tilted just a little, canting to one side as ghostlight eyes regarded the stag.

Khloros was not a hero--he was diseased; he had spread sickness and death in a campaign that had, at best, been misguided. And Astraea... Astraea was, unbeknownst to Khloros, a father figure in the caves. A guiding elder. Benevolent, or so it had seemed.

To the horse, however, the stag was not a noble, handsome being. Khloros was not all that emotionally invested--but he held his right from wrong. It was never right to torment a child; it was never right to use, to abuse, to mislead. And it seemed that this was precisely what this stag would do, though what power he truly held, what age Astraea claimed, the horse did not know.

He considered Astraea's words, and flinched as the magic swept past him. What the stag had done, he did not know--he could not know--but after a moment, he spoke. "I don't know who you are. If you are merely a mad voice speaking nonsense, or if you truly know the past. But it's clear from your words what you believe to be, and what you believe us to be." One hoof scraped the ground, pawing at it, as if in warning. "You are nothing to me. The 'purpose' you would offer--slavery?--comes too late. You should not have left us this long," he added--for to give a child purpose, that child had to be looked after, raised. Not left alone, left to suffer and die. But no; their "purpose," so this stag claimed, was to "grow strong." To survive or to die, then.

"You are a tyrant," Khloros rasped simply, his wheezing voice quiet, but carrying. He bowed his head a little, and called upon the magics rushing through this cave, powered by the very Spire that stood behind him--his intent to bring all of the disease rampant in it crashing down on this would-be slavemaster that gloated before him.

________________

BRING OUT YOUR DEAD



@Thothaga @Cry @Hrokr
ROLL
17
Khloros attempts to Cast Spell — Viral Strike ( Sicken Astraea )
Successful!



 
 
Inactive
Offline
Cry Pressure
Inactive
9 POSTS ʡ 0
Androgynous 79 Cycles
Northern Mockingbird SilverWinter

#28
 
MAGICKA LEVEL 100%
RESTORED TO 100%


Cry's watched all of this, listened to all of this, without really and truly understanding what was being said but the more and more they listened the more they realized that this conversation...it was extremely important. The entire caves, everyone, would be impacted by this information. This would cause a stir, quite a stir! Probably even more if they know this Astraea before today!

They couldn't help it, they let out a chirp of excitement but then shut themselves up. They still didn't want the other two to know they were there and continued to watch with rapt attention. Who would win this fight? Who would lose? What would happen to the winner? The loser? Cry was committing this all to memory - the caves needed to know about this!

Interaction is not required if Cry does not interact first. If they are there to observe, you may skip them at any time.

 
 
SPELLWEAVER
Offline
Inactive
159 POSTS ʡ 142
Female 84 Cycles
Giant Spider Pluto

#29
 
MAGICKA LEVEL 99%
RESTORED TO 100%




as a maiden she tiptoes shy with her light...

The weight of the Fungal Stag's words rested in her belly like stones, pinning her to the spot. He spoke of whirlwind of revelation, its truth seemed hard for the rotten horse to grasp, but for the spider, it confirmed what she already believed. Despite this, however, Thothaga's head still spun. The Stag had left her with more questions than answers.

Was there more than one Crystal-Father?

Her black eyes stared blankly at the horse and stag as their anger rose towards each other. Thothaga had hardly noticed the deadly shift in mood. Her mind had been at a stand still, in which time seemed to slow. She cringed from them, realization sinking in. All at once, the weight of existence dropped on her back like the heaviest of boulders. 'Tis our purpose serve? Serve what? And why? Surely there was more to what the Stag had implied. There had to be more. She crept backwards, towards the comforting blue of the Spire, her Spire. It's pulsing light caught her hind-eyes and she trembled in its power.

Thothaga dug her claws into the stone, and for the first time in her life, attempted to reach into the Spire.

Spire-Father, does the Fungal Stag speak the truth?

Her thought came forth as desperate plea, a cry of a dismayed child. A part of her wanted the Stag to be lying. He bluffed to send the Death-Carrier into rage, or it just a little prank- anything to lift this weight from her body- but she already knew the answer. She knew it all along.

"Thothaga speaking."
Thothaga thinking.

@Khloros
ROLL
1
Thothaga attempts to Cast Spell — Telepathy ( talk to me spire! )
Critical Failure!



/╲/\( •̀•̀ ω •́•́  )/\╱\

 
 
 
Online
Game Master
#30
 
MAGICKA LEVEL 100%
RESTORED TO 100%


Thothaga feels a warm feeling, as if everything will be okay.



the root of all evil
[ boss encounter: astraea ]


ASTRAEA
the virgo master, reawakened

astraea
the virgo master, reawakened; "deer dad"
▼ DISEASED
983 / 1000 HP    98.3%
Khloros repeated the word, but Astraea did not say it by accident. Purged, yes. Those who failed to meet the standards were purged. When they had standards... Astraea snorted through his nostrils, wondering if the previous host of the Butter Jade had been this defiant. But he agreed, he should not have let them be so long—it was not his fault that he had been reborn and mislead, brainwashed to believe he served some different string of fate, but he did not and would not stray from his original task. No, he knew what he had to do now. His original purpose.

A sudden viral infliction turned his chest to an empty, icy hollow, and he could not help but cough at the sudden feeling. He felt it in his face and behind his eyes. He would not be bested by such a thing.

Such a thing... as one that would call him a tyrant. His hoof slammed as he bellowed out a short, deep laughter. A tyrant, him! Astraea! His laugh sputtered out into another cough and he shook his head. He did not have to keep explaining things to this mistake, no; he would purge Khloros, as others had been purged.

Refocusing on the horse's rotten flesh, Astraea tried again to infest its body with the slime molds. Astraea felt the strong connection to the bony structures of the horse and knew that he had succeeded. A wicked smile curled his mouth into a twisted shape. Khloros would learn what it is to obey, and what it is to die.

GEMBOUNDS
character stats and info


khloros
▼ NECROPHAGY
100/100

[ ACTION LOG ]
> KHLOROS is infested with slime mold.
> ASTRAEA uses Necrophagy. It invades the rotten flesh KHLOROS.
> KHLOROS uses Viral Strike. It infects ASTRAEA with a random viral disease for 17 damage.
> ASTRAEA uses Necrophagy. It fails to invade KHLOROS.


ROLL
13
Game Master CJ attempts Other ( Necrophagy! )
Successful!



 
 



Users browsing this thread:
FORUM OPTIONS