Lady Seraphina

Mark of the Demons - A World Turned to Hell

You're telling us we should make up our own stuff? None of us have the knowledge of this world that you do. To what lengths are we allowed to go to create things? Are we allowed to make towns? NPCs? Encounters with demons? I suspect we've congregated around you because we can't really interact otherwise, and we don't know what we can do on our own.

Also, you have neither commented on or added to the 'codex' any of the new demons I've made.

@Lugubrious

Sorry this is still a work in progress. I'm in the middle of creating an 'atlas' for lack of a better word on the original post of all the towns and regions in Valeria and a rough description of what they're like past that I don't have a problem with people adding their own spin to places in the world. As long as nothing is too out their making up you're own stuff should be alright.

The Codex is there precisely so that you can create you're own encounters without me having to dictate the actions and behaviours of all the demons. Though if anyone wants me to do that for an encounter I'd be more than happy to.

With regards to your demons a couple need to be modified and one or two scrapped altogether and I haven't had the time to go through them all as of yet. I'll get around to it just give me time.

Mark of the Demons - A World Turned to Hell

@Eodwyn Aether@kkbird123@Tojin

If you still wish to join you are welcome to do so but I do need a know if you are still interested and if so how your CSs are progressing. If any of you are having trouble please let me know. I'd be happy to bounce some ideas back and forth.

@Melkor You haven't been here since first voicing interest when the initial thread went up. If you could let me know what's going on and if you plan to join us that would be greatly appreciated.

Mark of the Demons - A World Turned to Hell

Not that anyone should change anything but you guys know that not everyone has to be where I put my character right? This is a pretty vast world and while our characters should be interacting the probability of 6/8 ending up in the same bar seems rather low especially considering we all carry the mark of the demons and those that actually survived Veiron were maybe two hundred of a city that housed almost a hundred fifty thousand.

Not saying anyone should change anything but we don't all have to stay together all of the time.

Fae Courtis: The Wylde Hunt

And I have a bad feeling we're waiting on the Spring Queen again.

@Natsu If you're only able to be here once in awhile (which admittedly some people are and there's nothing wrong with that) then you shouldn't take a character so integral to moving the plot forward.

Usually a decently structured RPs time of crisis is between IC posts 100 and 150 so I pray this doesn't fall.

Mark of the Demons - A World Turned to Hell

Susanna Grace - Vi'Zur Tavern

A pure primal instinct inside Susannna told her to draw her knife and slit the idiot's throat, let his blood replenish her. Even though Susanna knew those impulses were not her own she was so tempted it almost hurt to keep her arm at her side. She was just about ready to punch the man when they were interrupted by a woman in full battle armour with fiery red hair. She berated the Stormbringers for their actions and from all appearances seemed to be a superior to them. She was clearly of a much higher caliber of warrior than they were.

She grabbed the hand the Stormbringer held his money in, compressing it to a painful degree. Susanna could feel Lilith's glee at the look of pain that crossed the man's face. His arm fell away from Susanna's back which she was more than grateful for. The other Stormbringers looked hesitant to get involved now that their was someone (at least in outward appearance) more equipped to defend herself against advances. They averted their eyes from the scene in the middle of the bar and continued to sip the drink that had just been delivered.

Susanna rolled her eyes at the events taking place around her. A moment before all she'd wanted to do was escape but now she didn't feel anything remotely close to fear of these people. The Stormbringer colors on their tunics had given her a fright when she'd first seen them but that was before she realized what incorrigible idiots they were. The girl with the flaming hair might pose her some problems but at the very least Susanna could escape from her. She leaned back against the bar and watched, her sense of urgency gone.

"Pathetic isn't it. You know in the first days of our siege on Veiron we actually feared these 'Stormbringers'. They were a force to be reckoned with. Now, they're just a bunch of fools with an over inflated sense of pride because they killed a couple of Imps. You could take all of them without breaking a sweet."

Susanna remembered the siege Lilith spoke of and the Stormbringers who'd fought their in more detail than she ever wished. For almost a week she'd channeled thunder and lightning, called down snow and hail on the humans of Veiron and been covered in their blood as she slaughtered them. It had taken days for the gore to fully wash from her body after leaving the cursed city and sometime Susanna though she still felt it on her skin.

"My my, doesn't he looks mighty imposing." Susanna could feel the smile attached to that last statement but she could see nothing funny about the man that Lilith was indicating as he entered the bar. He wore a full set of black armour, it seemed to be designed to inspire fear in his opponents as she could liken it to a number of demon hides she had seen the days when Lilith commanded her body. When he sat down and had water poured into his flash the whole bar watched as it turned into a bright blue liquid. A high whistle pierced the air, one that Susanna knew only she could hear.

"That's old magic. I haven't seen a Rejuvenation Flask since a hundred years before the Great Deal was struck. Whoever he is that knight has some secrets." Despite his appearance this knight seemed to run with the sorry excuses for Stormbringers that sauntered over to him and started talking loudly about their most recent battle. Clearly they were trying to impress the girl with the flaming hair by claiming they fought with the man wearing demon armour. It was pathetic, made even more so by the way the armoured man spoke. His words sounded naive and idealistic. He might have been scary to look at and a decent fighter but clearly his brains weren't all their.

It was pretty clear to the flaming haired girl as well the kind of people these were as she started to rant about how insufficient they were to bear the Stormbringer name. It was clear she'd make a good drill sergeant but her words were severly out of place for someone sitting at a bar who was still sober.

"Can't you feel it?"

"What?" Susanna asked under her breath, so low no one could hear her.

"Them, all of them, look at them closely."

Susanna did so instinctively knowing that the demon was referring to the girl with the flaming hair and the man in the demon armour. Her eyes were drawn up to the girl's hair and to the man's eyes which with a shock she realized glowed with a soft light.

"You mean?"

"Indeed, they are all marked. They were at Veiron the same as you and they're not the only ones." Susanna's attention was drawn to a man in the corner who wore a mask, something drew her eyes to his leg which he held stiffly. Then she glanced at the blacksmith at the bar. Her mark was far more visible. "Tell me, how many of them have you already met? How many of them lost family and friend at your hand? How much of the blood we cleansed ourselves with was of their houses? How many still remember my name?"

"Shut up!" Susanna shouted, wanting the demon to stop. Her words carried with them images of bodies and gore and atrocities done with her own hands while her features smiled like a child at market.

Susanna became instantly aware that most of the pub including the Stormbringers were looking at her. She quickly turned the sentence around. It was something she was used to having to do when Lilith drove her to breaking point in crowded areas. Susanna turned to look at the female Stormbringer as though the comment had been directed towards her. "Just shut up already. Everyone knows the real Stormbringers watch the old city from Servant's Hill. This pathetic rabble probably hasn't been within a thousand leagues of the city since the fall. And if you're desperate enough to try to recruit them you can't be much of a Stormbringer yourself."

The sound of clapping echoed inside Susanna's head. "My how cruel. I didn't think you had that in you." Susanna didn't answer the demon. She knew the best way to distract someone was to make them angry and as one of the marked this woman would clearly take her role as a demon slayer seriously. Call that into question and everyone in the pub would quickly forget her out of place outburst in favor of seeing how the girl would react.

Mark of the Demons - A World Turned to Hell

A little confused. Is it morning or night right now?

@Awesomoman64

Midday. Give or take, somewhere between 11:00AM and 2:00PM

Mark of the Demons - A World Turned to Hell

I should probably have made this clearer but Vi'Zur is the town their in, it's on the map across one of the forests from Veiron. The Tavern isn't explicitly called the Vi'Zur Tavern it just happens to be the only pub in the town.

Mark of the Demons - A World Turned to Hell

Hence the "peasant girl".

@Laue

I had yet to read it when I posted.

Also no need to change anything since Alicia might not have noticed yet but Susanna has the sword of a Royal Guardsman strapped to her back, partially concealed by her cloak. It was her father's. I figure Alicia might be interested.

Mark of the Demons - A World Turned to Hell

And so it begins. Since I don't have a clear direction yet, I hope you have nothing against Alicia stumbling upon your character.

@Laue

The situation I wrote was more or less an invitation to the Stormbringer affiliates. Just remember nothing about her initially says "demon".

Mark of the Demons - A World Turned to Hell

Since the Fall of Veiron the Kingdom of Valeria has not been a hospitable place to call home. The infernal hordes roam free. Some seeking mindless destruction, others plotting and planning the increase of their own power and some just enjoying the world crashing down all around them. Dangers are everywhere, demons walk the earth and even when distanced from them travelers still fear their servants, the orcs. These tribal creatures do the bidding of the Abyss and are often as dangerous as their masters simply by numbers alone. Then the people of Valeria are a hardy folk. They refuse to be driven from their lands by anything least of all the minions of The First. These are times of strife and suffering but despite that some still manage to eek out a pleasant existence. For some however that's not possible, for some peace isn't something they can ever hope to have again because they were there that day. They were at Veiron the day of the fall and they paid dearly for it. For some it is something to hide from, for others it fuels the fires within and pushes them to fight but for most they do everything they can to forget it ever happened. They are those marked by the demons.

Susanna Grace - Vi'Zur Tavern

Susanna starred straight ahead focusing on one point in space. Her vision tunneled till all she could see was that speck of light. Susanna let everything fall away from her, sights and sounds and smells and simply was... For about ten seconds.

"You cannot think that meditation can rid you of me?" the demon inside her asked, a laugh echoing inside Susanna's head.

Susanna's concentration broke and the sounds of the bar she was sitting in came rushing back. She was at a corner booth, securely away from anyone watching her. She sighed "Do I look stupid?" she asked covering her mouth with her hand so as not to attract attention. "I thought maybe you might leave me alone with my thoughts for a few minutes."

"Why would I do that? Who else do I have to entertain me?" Lilith paused for a fraction of a second. Susanna had lived with the demon a long time and while it might not have facial features or a voice at the moment Susanna knew enough about it to know when it was going to do something nasty. "Then again he's cute." Susanna could almost feel the smile that accompanied the words.

Susanna glanced up, instinctively knowing where Lilith was pointing her towards. At the bar sat a man, a large physique with black scraggly hair and a three fingers missing from his right hand. Susanna's breath caught in her throat. She recognized him. An image flashed into her mind: a knife held meticulously between her thumb and forefingers, blood staining the front of her shirt, a man chained to a table as Lilith almost lovingly sliced the knife slow and sure through his flesh. Susanna gave a gasp of fright and the memory died. She was looking in horror at the man with his fingers missing. Then he turned to order another beer and Susanna saw his face. It wasn't him, it wasn't the same man.

"You are too easy Susan. Try to lighten up some, I think the blonde boy by the window is glancing this way." Lilith spoke, her voice slinking through Susanna's mind.

"Fuck you." Susanna whispered into her hand.

"Why waste it on me? He looks willing enough, but then when did we ever need consent."

Susanna could feel the smug edge to her words as they pulled up so many painful memories. At that point Susanna might have been willing to down a gallon of holy water just to get Lilith to shut up, though that wasn't exactly an uncommon thought to cross her mind she was prevented from acting on it by what happened next.

A rowdy group entered the bar. Four uproarious men with swords at their sides, perhaps come from a fresh kill or else another bar, whatever the case they were more than excited. The crest on their tunics proclaimed their identities well enough.

"Stormbringers." Lilith hissed. "Leave. Now." No matter how much Lilith might have loved torturing Susanna with her words and wished desperately for her freedom the demon didn't want to end up dead and since neither of them knew what would happen to Lilith if Susanna perished they were both set on one thing: Self preservation.

Susanna got up discretely, placed a few gold pieces on the counter to pay for the drink she hadn't touched (it was cider, she didn't drink anymore) and she started to walk towards the door, her footsteps even and unassuming. Unfortunately for Susanna the same thing that had drawn Lilith to possess her all those years ago at Veiron also drew the Stormbringers attention. Susanna was very beautiful, even with her hood pulled up casting her features in shadow her face turned heads.

"Hey girl." said one of the demon slayers, taking in her full figure. "Why don't you let one of us warriors buy you a drink? What do you say sweetheart?"

As he said this the Stormbringer sidled up to her and put his arm on her shoulder intent on guiding her to the bar. A surge of intense annoyance flashed through Susanna. Who was this fool? Just cause he could use a sword with some skill didn't make him God's gift. How'd he expect any self respecting woman to talk to him if he treated her like that? Her hand twitched towards the knife at her belt. Half of her wanted to grab the weapon and slice his hand off her body. What stopped her was the thought that she didn't know how much of that near outburst was actually her and how much came from the demon within.

The Stormbringer held a gold piece in front of Susanna's face. "How 'bout it girl? You and me could have some good times."

Susanna hesitated. She didn't want to be anywhere near this man or for that matter any of his friends but she was very scared that if she rejected him as he was, half drunk, he might get and angry and if he did Susanna might call on Lilith's powers of of instinct. It was like having tornado inside her. When her emotions ran wild the storm burst out of her in waves. And they called themselves Stormbringers.

The warrior took Susanna's hesitation as a yes and slammed the gold piece down on the counter. "Another round for my friends and my beautiful girl here!" He shouted to the entire bar.

Susanna was so close to slapping the Stormbringer and walking out but the fear that she might let Lilith's powers out, that they might find out what she was kept her rooted to the spot. She needed a way out of this and quickly or one of the two of them was going to end up dead.