Fetzen

~ Winds Of Fate - A Thief's Adventure ~ (1.0)

I'm still here.

The Prophecy

I can see your concerns with regard to the craving and will adjust it according to your suggestion. Thinking over it I concur that the possibility to shift focus might be very benificial on the long run. Also, as a spontaneous idea, a general craving for knowledge could also include a certain greed for items that are said to hold knowledge or at least to be a great mystery whose solution would be some kind of feat. This could add more concrete targets to Athanar's repertoire as, as far as I understood it, Rheniam certainly doesn't lack artifacts and magical items of great value with associated rumors and stories.

Actually I think that Newton's second law doesn't need to be a disadvantage in all circumstances. When I designed the spell I also thought about potential applications such as boosting the height of a leap by giving the ground a blast of this ability directed downwards, propelling Athanar upwards like the brief ignition of a virtual rocket engine. This wouldn't be possible without Newton's second law. But still it primarily serves as a limiter to the scope of this ability since I thought it might be too powerful otherwise. And it gives potential to grow, quite literally, since any increase in Athanar's size and weight only increases the threshold that will blast himself off his feet or overburden him.

A Journey for the Ages [1x1 SporkoBug and Fetzen]

Vadym dared to clear his throat somewhat artificially in order to get the shop owner's attention. "Erm... excuse me ? I have something for you..." The mage was quite straightforward: He simply put the piece of parchment he had found onto the counter and tapped onto it with his index finger in order to indicate what he was referring to. "Did you write this or is this merely the intended rendezvous point ?"

Silently, but no less scorchingly hot something came to Vadym's mind: What if this was just a fake ? Some more or less bad joke intended to annoy the shop owner by luring random people to his place in large numbers. Or maybe even an attempt of sabotage ? Vadym now expected pretty much anything between 'I don't know anything.' to a full scale rant and tried to prepare himself mentally. At the same time he, of course, tried to get a good view at the shop owner. If he was the author if this parchment indeed Vadym wanted to know who was about to hire him... not every contractor was trustworthy after all...

---

The enormous shadow that had separated itself from Port Vale's church now was almost invisible against the already dark sky. Despite its size it hardly made any noise as it tried to glide as much as possible instead of flapping its wings, also it flew at high altitude. It would take until later in the night for the creature to come down and wander. Too many people were still roaming around on the streets that could spot it and become afraid or, even worse, call to arms.

The Prophecy

So I have tried to find some other character sheets in order to get an idea of the form used here and subsequently stitched something together. I hope it's halfway up to the quality standards of this RP!

Please note that this is to be considered a draft that is not yet complete as annotated.

Athanar

Athanar

Basics
Name: Athanar
Gender: Male
Age: 32
Race: Demonspawn


Appearance
At first glance Athanar is not exactly impressive as he occupies no more than very average-ish five feet and 10 inches of height from the bottom of his feet to the top of his head. However upon touching him one can notice that his bodily constitution, flappantly speaking, is that of a solid brick: He is extremely muscular all around and it is safe to assume that his bones are at least equally densily packed.

His face still resembles that of a human, but certain features clearly betray his true nature. He has like small fangs growing from his lower jaw and his ears are very much enlarged. With their pointy ends and solid rims they almost seem to be a persiflage of elvish ears. Also his skin has become darker and with a very leathery touch, its complexion now only encompassing variations of grey. Two different pairs of horns grow out of his forehead, the first one being very massive and reaching up to about seven feet of height measured from the ground. The second one is much smaller and more linear. Hair no longer is to be found anywhere near his forehead, but it grows all the more richely on the back of it. It too has lost its color and now is an impressive mane in white almost reaching down to his knees. Just like with any demonspawn his eyes lack any pupil or iris, but instead have the appearance of curved, black mirrors.

The demonic influence doesn't stop around his hands or feet. All twenty nails have mutated from their ordinary state to small tools of destruction. They are not exactly razor-sharp, but with enough force still are perfectly suitable to dig into flesh and rip through weaker materials alike.

As it is common with demonspawn these features are not static, but are bound to develop as the infernal influence consumes more and more of his soul. It is safe to assume that Athanar is bound to grow noticeably larger, to pick up very considerable amounts of weight and to experience more changes over time and in dependency of the frequency with which he uses his demonic power.


Personality
For a demonspawn Athanar is surprisingly sociable. At least so far he has neither eaten any of his victims for dinner nor did he claim many victims in the first place. His general stance can be described as reactive-aggressive, meaning that he will respond to any offense with violent ferocity but will rather seldomly be the one to initiate this level of aggressive behavior. That is... unless his is convinced that doing so will serve his purpose, his craving.

Aside from this parts of his humanity still remain. He is capable of experiencing compassion, but no longer love. He can value loyalty and distinguish it from betrayal that is to be disdained, also he still knows the meaning of friendship. The issue he most often is confronted with is that this is not reciprocated by other people, resulting in frequent frustration that can stack up to fits of rage.


Demonic power
People have presumably been looking up into the sky for as long as people have been in existence, but each time they do the pressure on their feet reminds them of the fact that they are all stuck at the very bottom of this seemingly endless ocean of air. From all things worth mentioning the invisible force that never tires and neither alters direction nor strength at any moment probably is the most constant one. Something that makes your sword-hand tired, your ship sink and the weight of your growing gut an actual issue doesn't have many friends, but still difficulties are bound to occur should it ever become less reliable.

Since no scholar so far had a chance of scrutinizing Athanar in-depth there is no description of this inherent ability to be found in any book, but for the outstanding observer it can best be described as some kind of telekinetic influence. However unlike telekinesis this magic doesn't make you feel its force in addition to gravity, but it replaces it to a more or less considerable degree. Secondly it is not necessarily unidirectional and thus only capable of moving objects, but Athanar is capable of creating gradients and even seemingly chaotic fields filling a certain area. The effects, in principle, are exactly the same as with a celestial body coming too close to another one: The object experiences mechanical stress and can even be torn apart as a result of it.

The fact of this skill being a demonic power makes it infinitely energy efficient compared to other magic, but there is one important drawback: It doesn't protect its wielder from Newton's second law. Rendering a person weightless will result in his or her weight acting upon Athanar, trying to push an object away will also try to push Athanar away to the same degree and any distortion will find its inverse twin around Athanar himself. Similarly concentrating a limited amount of force onto an infinitely small space would not only result in a nearly infinite density of force at the destination, but also inside himself. His own ability to sustain these effects is the limit to what he can unleash. Of course this very fact makes it even more tempting to use it often, simply because Athanar can already foresee where his further demonic development might go.


Demonic craving
According to Himyth's words the world as it is is suffering from a piece blatant assimetry that the inhabitants of Reniam know as The Divide. Why does such thing exist between Reniam and the Underworld, but not between the mortal plane and Heaven ? Any why can mere mortals pull demons through the devide while demons hardly can move through it themselves ? It could simply be a random occurrence that has come out of the myst of creation just like everything else, but it could also be an artificial thing. As such it could be analyzed, weaknesses identified and the whole thing ultimately be disabled. The Underworld is not a playground for over-enthusiastic or simply foolish human mages to abduct its inhabitants by summoning and dispose of them at their will, but it is time to turn the tables. Also Heaven is an enemy who has been enjoying the advantage of The Divide for far too long.

Himyth's offsprings have the unique advantage of roaming around freely in the mortal plane. They can probe the Devide from the other side, something that demons normally can't. The task of investigating the Divide in order to find a way to damage it is excessively abstract and has unknown chances of success, but still Athanar will happily kill for any knowledge and greedily steal whatever item promises to be helpful. It is not unlikely that other demonspawn share this craving.


History
to be done


Posessions

• Armor made out of steel chainmail with leather and woolen padding underneath that covers his body from shoulders down to his lower limbs. It is not of very high quality since it is actually stitched together from several pieces. It isn't like he, as a demonspawn, could easily buy new stuff. Also he has noticed that he keeps getting bigger slowly but surely and whatever he wears has to be replaced sooner or later anyway.
• An iron flail
• A riding horse capable of carrying him around, at least so far.
• Dried food and water for a few days to come.

~ Winds Of Fate - A Thief's Adventure ~ (1.0)

Vodilic

Interesting... was a not even remotely adequate judgement for the situation at hand, at least not in Vodilic's thoughts as he was guided into the very throne room of not only this great but miserable city, but the entiry continent so to speak. Since when exactly was it common practice to take a bunch of seemingly random prisoners from the dungeons and to allow their dirty feet to touch the noble ground here ? Normally the first and last time those saw the king was when the latter wanted to surveil the proceeding of his executioners or when he wanted to demonstrate something to those he ruled over. Weren't things supposed to be that way ?

The very feeling of the cold stone beneath his still naked feet gave Vodilic a weird impression. Yes, the stone in the dungeons was cold as well, but the ground here wasn't wet. It was a comfortable, refreshing coolness that this building emitted -- probably caused by its sheer size and massivity. One successful heist in any of those rooms here probably could end any thief's career, simply because there was no need to steal anymore if one already had anything. To make things even more weird it did not slip the man's attention that a set of tables with an obscene amount of food on them had been arranged for them and that exactly the same guards that usually would have been all to happy to use their halberds now apparently had been temporarily demoted to humble servants having to get some chairs...

Still, as the king started speaking, the first thing that came to Vodilic's mind was to pick up the equipment that had been laid out so neatly for him. Even the amount of cleaning that obviously had taken place could not cover up the fact that the leather had seen its best days already, but without it Vodilic simply felt somewhat naked. Even in the most desperate of situations it could make a difference he simply thought, so Vodilic was quick to put it on no matter what. And now to the grand meal...

The chair groaned in protest as a giant's amount of weight was put onto it, but at least it didn't break in front of everyone's eyes as Vodilic sat down and arranged himself properly. He reached for the wine, but the moment the fluid had almost reached the point of no return into the bottle Vodilic abruptly stopped his movements.

What if this is some sick kind of test for a new kind of poison they've cooked up recently ? I could be dead, lying on the floor with cramps with everyone watching with a sadistic grin...

The thought lastest for a mere few seconds. If this was some kind of test intended to result in their death it was pretty much unavoidable anyway. And speaking of theirs... As Vodilic continued to pour the contents of the bottle into the goblet he turned his head to take a look at those who had come with him. Just a few minutes ago he hardly could have cared less about those others who had been condemned to rot in the same dungeon, but now it seemed they were bound to form some kind of bond. For a reason unknown to them that was, at least so far...

Starting to chew away at the hen, Vodilic greedily waited for more information to come. That king better started to continue talking soon... And that woman with the green scarf next to him hopefully would start keeping her loose mouth shut before she'd completely screw up. He really was no friend of their 'host', but she talked as if she was the landlady here.

"Get your feet off... Now!" Vodilic had taken the time to swallow before speaking so his words would be as clear as possible -- and slightly threatening. Yes, he would probably not admit it, but while internally criticizing her for her behavior he too was on the verge of drifting into the very habits that had got him here in the first place.

Into The Dark: Tales of Maroleth

At this point An-Hasst couldn't help but let go of a subtle smirk. Speak that big guy's language ? Well that was a task that could be achieved. The remainder of the party, unless knowing the giant's tongue to at least a similar degree as the Skayleigh did, would not be able to understand the strange words their half-giant member was speaking out now:

"I do not intend to join a wolf pack while not being a wolf, so the only way your parable can be applied to the current situation is by interpreting it in a way that it's only about the intrusion of the wolf pack's territory. While this is undeniably true for my case I still would like to interject something: The clever wolf pack, those whose members are capable of higher level thinking instead of being purely dependent on more or less primal instincts, could see the improved efficiency of a single dog trying to extract one of his own kind out of their territory instead of the whole pack doing the job itself."

It was by far not perfect, but should be more than sufficient in terms of grammar and wording for the stone giant to understand properly. Having said this, An-Hasst quickly jumped onto an elevated position from which he could see more of the area that laid ahead of the party.

"And you are a clever individual, aren't you ?" The question did not lack that certain indication that it meant merely rhethorically, but still it was a bit of a challenge. One whose outcome the Skayleigh obviously was not willing to await as he jumped off the rock at breakneck speed. After all he also was half elf and felt that degree of compassion for his colleague who had quite possibly maneuvered himself into so much trouble by now...

An-Hasst started to follow the maze of rocks, periodically calling out for Calanon's name.

@The Fated Fallen@POOHEAD189@BCTheEntity@Gardevoiran@IcePezz@Mortarion

The Five Senses

Týfurkh

"Alright..." Týfurkh replied. Just by carefully listening to his words one could already get the impression that his attention was already being gathered elsewhere. "I hope I don't need to tell anyone that you need to protect us while I am delivering this message. Just in case..." He made a few steps back away from the edge of the platform, as far as the presence of the huge bells allowed. Adding one or two meters to the few kilometers the message would have to travel would hardly make a difference, but being seen from downside or not very well could.

The tower's height proved to be perfect for their plan. The city walls were no match for its height, any signal intended to reach out far enough could travel over them unhindered. Also there were no other buildings visible that could get anyone else in its way, so it also was pretty safe to assume that nobody else could be eavesdropping. Though, honestly, trying to eavesdrop from this near would have made one's ears burst in blood probably. In order to overcome several kilometers of atmospheric damping Týfurkh had to shout very, very loud.

"Hear thee not, the sweet whispers of Kaspar, ..."

None of Týfurkh's companions would be able to hear anything, and neither would any of the cultists that had managed to follow them undetected.

"... lest you take his place when Samiel, ..."

One could see sweat burst out not only along Týfurkh's forehead and cheeks, but also among the major part of his upper body. As he continued with the last part of the messages he also started to turn rather pale.

"... the Black Huntsman comes to collect him."

Done! The giant man stumbled backwards and hit one of the bells. It nearly was moved enough to make the clapper hit the inner walls, but luckily it remained silent.

"Give me a few moments please. This was quite... exhausting." and he continued to breathe heavily, having no idea that their enemies were approaching as he was speaking. Týfurkh started to reattach the straps of his armor he had undone previously with slightly shaking hands as he was leaning against the bell. He could see the entrace of the narrow stairwell they had come through, but nobody was to be seen yet. "Now that our primary objective has been achieved I'm wondering if we should to return with stealth as well or if we should just try to make a run for it as fast as possible. I'm open to both strategies, to be honest..."

Into The Dark: Tales of Maroleth

Well first of all, just remember that you can definitely die for doing stupid things, @Fetzen.

Second, it occurs to me as I prepare my post this round that Stormflyx didn't post at all in the last round, and that she hasn't actually been online in the last 13 days. I hope she's alright, is basically it.

@BCTheEntity

Well like said, non-seriously. I am fully aware of the leeroy-ness of provocative answers :

And the same thing occurred to me as well... :/

Into The Dark: Tales of Maroleth

I'm non-seriously wondering what the most inadequate answer of An-Hasst could be in order to heat up the situation. What do you think about the following:

"Okay, so let me tell you something:. I might be a mongrel of the noble race of wood elves and living giants. You however, I'm afraid, are merely a mongrel of minerals. Aeons old, shattered, rearranged and aggregated by the tides of water and geology again and again. You are an impure, polycristalline, partly maybe even amorphous pile of rubble that happens to have a considerable size as of now, but one that can only diminish as the time you are forced to witness goes by. I, however, am monolithic. Grown according to a delicate plan, not assembled out of pure randomness."

A Journey for the Ages [1x1 SporkoBug and Fetzen]

Vadym had a not so comfortable time trying to evade the almost ubiquitous amount of dirt that was lying on the streets, rotting and waiting to be dilitued and washed into the sea with the next rain. That dress of him had not been that cheap after all, but never was it in so much danger than in a town like this. The mage almost considered using some kind of spell to alleviate the task, but what would the people around him say ? According to his experience by far not every commoner was open-minded with regard to such things, especially in regions where education was a more rare thing to be seen.

Still Vadym made it, only his shoes had turned into a pile of mud. Carefully and with eyes wide open he knocked against the door, hoping that someone was still there to respond.

---

In the meantime some strange happened near Port Vale's only church... Just like with many other sacred buildings people had not been hesitant to attach weird looking statues to them. Grotesque creatures of fantasy that looked horrifying, but actually were meant to demoralize and scare away evil spirits. Those arts of work were meant to cling to the walls forever, but unknown to most people very few of them didn't. Now the night was coming and one of them separated itself from the high spire it once had been mounted on. A hulking beast that didn't come crashing down since it unfolded giant wings, now gliding through the dark skies with almost disturbing silence. It would try to roam around the streets this night, trying to find out more about its environment.