• Closed • [Faldrass] Leader of the Pack

Tio and Nir'wei team up to deal with a pack of undead animals.

17th of Vhalar 717

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Tio Silver
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[Faldrass] Leader of the Pack

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Faldrass
17th Vhalar, 717

Although he loved his new laboratory to bits, Tio had to admit that VonDwight had gone a bit overboard on the whole 'secret doors' gimmick. It had been fun at first, but as Tio progressed further in his efforts to renovate the place and discovered more rooms hidden behind secret doors that really weren't worth the trouble to hide it started to grow tiresome. What possible reason could anyone have for hiding the larder behind a revolving bookcase that would only turn when someone pulled the lever disguised as a Videnese cookbook? Larders were not that important!

Which was why when he took down a poster displaying a diagram of the human body and discovered a small button in the wall behind it, his response was a long-suffering sigh. For a lab intended to never have any visitors in it, its creator had sure gone to a lot of trouble to make it difficult to explore. What mediocre room was awaiting him behind a cleverly disguised door this time? A rec room? A swimming pool? Whatever it was, it would be best if he explored it now so that he could get an idea of how much more time it was going to take for him to clean the place up. When he pressed the button a portion of the wall slid away, revealing a set of stairs heading upwards, and with an annoyed groan Tio began to climb up them.

About a break or so later he reached the top of the stairs, and pushed open the door waiting at the top of them to step into a dark room. Immediately the strong yet faded smell of long rotten flesh slammed into him, and his nose wrinkled in disgust as his eyes began to adjust to the much dimmer lighting. The room he was in was a pretty big one, though most of it was not accessible to him due to the enormous cage that took up most of the space. By the looks of things this cage took up almost the entirety of the room, leaving only a L shaped space wide enough to fit about two people shoulder to shoulder along its side, which he was currently standing it. This room, it seemed, was a viewing room, where Xavier could study the contents of the cage safely.

But more surprising than the strange room was what was trapped in the cage itself. The skeletons of around half a dozen animals, all of them different species, were moving around under their own power and making ghastly parodies of their original noises at him or each other. There was a monkey, a tiger, and even an elephant, all moving around as naturally as if they still had flesh and muscles on their bones. Of all the undead animals however one stood out among the rest: a horse laying down in the center of the cage that still had a full body of flesh and blood upon it. Its hair was a pale grey, as if it hadn't seen sunlight in years, and it was thin and lanky enough for the outlines of its ribs to be made out along its chest, but the rise and fall of its chest suggested that unlike the other creatures in the cage this horse was still alive!

Tio walked along the L shaped space to the point farthest from him, and found a small table with a half-filled notebook, a dried up inkwell and a dusty old book bound in black leather. When he opened the black book he soon recognized it as a text on necromancy, which described in great detail an object known as a 'Phylactory'. All of the descriptions of how it worked or how to make one involved concepts and theories way to complicated for him to even begin to understand, but as he read through it Tio was at least able to glean some understanding of what a Phylactory actually was.

Within those fractures he'd heard about it was apparently possible to mine these strange types of crystals, known as wells, which as the name suggested acted as a constant supply of ether that mages could take advantage of. They were a key component in ensorcelling and the creation of magical artifacts, and necromancers were able to implant them into their thralls in order to allow them to stay animated on their own, as well as grant them enhanced power and regenerative abilities. Yet this book claimed there was another function a well could serve in the hands of a necromancer; according to legends, if a necromancer was powerful enough they could entrap the soul of someone who died with a well, and use them to craft a frighteningly efficient class of thrall that could perform with the same amount of skill as the victim could in life. Taking this concept, there were some who believed it possible to reach immortality by transferring their own souls into a well, called a Phylactory, and then placing the well into their original body to animate it like a thrall. A being made in this way was only referred to once by name, a Lich, but the fear the writer had felt whilst writing it was palpable in the shaky handwriting. A Lich was supposed to be the unchallenged master of the undead, and more powerful than an ordinary mortal could possible imagine.

The idea seemed kind of silly to Tio, but the writing in the notebook showed that Xavier had been investigating this legend as another possible source of immortality. However whilst he wanted to live forever Xavier was apparently unwilling to risk dying himself, and was experimenting with the possibility of implanting pseudo-phylactories into already living creatures in order to grant a living body the undead's ability to regenerate and remain youthful. He'd captured types of animals in pairs, killed and entrapped the soul of one within a well, then implanted that well into the other and locked them in this cage whilst he studied them. Pretty much every experiment had ended with failure, as the host animal died soon after the pseudo-phylactory was implanted inside it, but the test subject he'd been experimenting on when he abandoning the lab had been holding on to life for a lot longer than the others had.

And that subject was a pale horse.

"Damn Xavier, you are one dark dude." Tio muttered to himself sadly as he looked up from the book and at the pale horse lying in the centre of the cage. If what this notebook said was true (and really, what reason did Xavier have to lie in his own personal journal?) this poor horse had been trapped down here in this cage for over 80 arcs, unable to die and with nothing but mindless thralls for company. He kind of wished he could let it go free at last, but the logical part of him warned that this was the untested result of a strange and dark experiment, and as such there was a chance it could prove to be seriously dangerous to people if he let it go free. The kindest thing he could do for it now was remove the pseudo-phylactory within it and let it die.

Feeling guilty for what he was about to do, Tio let out a depressed sigh and made to lean on the edge of the desk. As he put his weight on it however the edge of the desk gave way slightly with a faint clicking noise, and alarm bells went of in Tio's head as a large portion of the wall inside the cage slowly began to rumble open, letting a faint stream of sunlight in with it. Oh shit, it was another secret door! This one connected to the bottom of a cave by the looks of things! It must have been installed to allow Xavier to get creatures as big as elephants into the cage, but why on earth had he hid the switch as a corner of the desk!

The pale horse stood up immediately at the sight of sunlight, and though he could have been imagining it Tio could have sworn he saw flickers of hope and relief dancing in its eyes. With a whiny of pure joy it ran forward, its weak and spindly legs powered by nothing but sheer elation after all the years of disuse, ducked under the still-opening door and made a mad dash up the cave towards the sunlight. Strangely enough the animal thralls charged along after it, the slower ones like the monkey riding on the backs of the faster ones, and with frightening speed the skeletal procession made its way up to the surface.

"Oh dear. That's-... is that my fault?" Tio muttered to himself in horror. The secret switch had also caused some of the cage bars to swing open like a door, and Tio grabbed Xavier's notebook and ran through them and over to the cave door in time to see the undead horde disappearing out the cave mouth and into the outside world. The cave door started to close on its own, and so he ran out into the cave the animals had escaped from and left it to shut. Damn it, this wasn't good at all! He needed to take down those thralls before they could hurt anybody! But on foot he stood no chance of catching up to them!
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word count: 1598
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Tio has a masked alter ego who leads The Court of Miracles.

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Tio's voice has hypnotic properties.
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Nir'wei
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Strange, to think he'd spent so much time living in such a beautiful world, yet he'd never really sat down and appreciated it before. For a long time he'd cast thoughts like those aside; he wasn't the only one doing it after all, so it must be a normal thing. Now he knew the truth. He'd just been looking from the wrong angle. Sitting in a forest and admiring its atmosphere was pleasant, but to sit from the back of a Sohr Khal, towering above the entire island where he could see all the forests, the mountains, the hills and the city without even turning his head... was euphoric.

Traveller dipped gently, picking up a stronger air current that sent Nir'weis hair whipping wildly behind him as he crouched over the saddle, gripping with his knees and clinging for dear life as they picked up speed. They'd been flying for breaks now; Sohr Khal weren't exactly built for endurance flying, but both of them needed the experience and the time outdoors. To compensate, they'd spent most of the time riding air currents, gliding from one to the next in a meandering fashion. Admittedly, Traveller was the one doing most of the work, though Nir'wei liked to tell himself that he was gaining a feel for the air currents and how they grew faster, slower, hotter and colder as they ducked and weaved through invisible crashing waves of air, like a majestic sloop riding the eddies of the world.

Of all the islands they'd dipped between, Faldrass was proving to be the most fun by far. They'd set up camp on the outskirts of the Serenity Gardens after flying in from Darbyton and spent the last night staring up at the night sky. Today, they'd spent half the morning riding up and down the mountain range to the south, following the updrafts rising up between mountain peaks and occasionally dipping down low enough for a slow winding path between them, too. However, eventually growing bored, they'd turn their sights north and used the volcano as a catapult - every belch of hot air and acrid smoke throwing them both high into the air on its powerful updrafts. Every time, they pulled back and glided down on the colder outskirts, picking up momentum by gradually shifting from a glide to an outright dive, pulling up at the last moment and driving straight up towards the volcano at the perfect angle for the next belch to send them rocketing straight back up without any effort at all.

Greyhide was somewhere down below, scouting as per usual. Admittedly there weren't any decent forests to hunt in on this island - the Serenity Gardens hardly counted, since it was completely domesticated, and what remained had been transformed into a very pretty luxury resort that had very pretty hot springs and log cabins... but little room for any real threats to take advantage of, unfortunately. Instead, he'd also taken to the mountains, claiming he might find a cave if he looked hard enough. It didn't matter - they'd brought with them enough food to spare for a few trials. They'd have a bit of relaxation, a small measure of enjoyment in their days off, before returning to the mainland. They'd all earned the opportunity to wind down.

As they dipped lower, beginning their preparation for the next dive, something twitched in Nir'weis head. "Greyhide?" He could feel something through the spirit-bond... something strong, but he didn't know what. Spirit connections were a finicky thing at the best of times, as he already knew with Archailist.

"Something's wrong." His voice didn't sound right. He'd always been a straight-talker, but now he sounded... flat. He mentally prodded Greyhide but didn't even get a flinch in return. "Something's wrong." That twitch in his head was becoming a throb, like a headache but worse. Traveller's head swivelled back around to look at his rider, rumbling loudly in concern, but the wind whipping loudly around them both reduced it to a dull whisper. He turned and Traveller followed immediately into a steep dive, wings tucked tight to his sides. He'd seen Traveller perform a predatory dive from the ground but this was the first time he'd felt it from the saddle; it felt like his skull was being squeezed through his backside as they plummeted like a stone, pulling back out with such a jarring spread of his wings that for a moment he was sure his stomach would empty itself. "Something's wrong."

The wolf was beside him, in spirit-form once more. He looked haunted... and when Nir'wei followed where he stared without blinking, he knew why. Skeletons were running down the mountain. He was still in the air, though low enough that Traveller could brush the tops of the trees with his feet, so he saw them with little difficulty. Bleached bone without an inch of flesh, empty eyesockets, empty ribcages... but they ran as if they were as real as them all, and as they drew closer and started moving further north, he swore he could even hear whispers of unnatural noises as they passed. They just didn't sound right, lacking something key... like a real voicebox, for one. Some of the creatures he wasn't sure he even recognised. "Where did they..."

Greyhide turned back to the mountain. "One of the caves." He felt oddly torn for a moment. Did he dare visit the caves in search of the creatures origins, or chase the creatures themselves? The thought of actually trying to take down one of those... monsters immediately decided it for him. How was he supposed to kill something already dead... what difference would it make if he put an arrow in something that didn't even have a heart? "I've heard of something like this before. From my mentor." Greyhide rarely talked about the mage that had initiated him into Becoming and then left him to fend for himself once he lost his totem. "I think... I think it's Necromancy." Oh boy, he thought to himself as Traveller once again started towards the mountains, was he glad that Faith wasn't here to see what was happening here.
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[Faldrass] Leader of the Pack

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By the time Tio reached the mouth of the cave, the skeletal pack was already nothing more than a blur of shapes in the distance. It was a small blessing that the pack didn't separate across the island but instead stayed together in the group, almost as if the skeletons were protecting the pale horse, which at least would make it easier to keep track of them all. The only problem was that taking them all down in such a big group was sure to be difficult, and since all the animals were undead then poisons, starvation or other such tactics wouldn't work on them.

The necromancer in Tio was curious as to why the skeletal animals seemed to stay close to the pale horse. As they all had wells to power them and no necromancer to give them commands by all rights they should have all been acting independently, yet something about the pale horse seemed to be creating some form of bond that bound them to follow it. Was the pseudo-phylactory somehow responsible for this? Or did it have something to do with the years of imprisonment the creatures had spent together? Perhaps it was a bit of both? Were he able to recapture the creatures they could well provide some revolutionary new insight into field's of study way ahead of his current knowledge, but it would take time to set up traps, and the Yludih wasn't willing to let them run free for any longer than he had too.

He didn't have any sort of creature to ride, nor any other fast means of transport, and so Tio was left with no choice but to continue his pursuit of the undead pack on foot. Sadly although he was a pretty decent runner he didn't have much endurance, and soon found himself starting to tire. To make matters worse the clogging heat around the volcano made every breath feel so heavy that it needed to be forced in and out, and made the increase in heat that came with running stagger up to near-unbearable levels. It wasn't long before he could take it no more, and he collapsed to his knees and focused on gulping in deep, greedy breaths.

When he'd recovered enough to look up again the skeleton pack was completely out of sight, and with a grimace Tio balled his hand up into a fist and smacked in down onto the rocky ground. Damn it, why had he gone and left his horse behind at the stables?! Two-legged creatures were so slow compared to most four-legged ones, so how was one guy suppose to catch up to a horse?! He wasn't a hone-user for crying out loud!
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word count: 466
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Tio floats in the air, usually just a foot off the ground.

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Tio wears a scary looking gauntlet on his right hand that is clearly magical. It creates explosions.

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Tio has a masked alter ego who leads The Court of Miracles.

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Tio's voice has hypnotic properties.
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Nir'wei
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[Faldrass] Leader of the Pack

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Walking skeletons. He'd never seen dead walking before, but then honestly he'd never thought that he would. Magic was a thing of power-hungry maniacs selling their own bodies, minds and souls to undo the basic laws of the world and threaten all creation. Changing ones own species, warping the elements to ones own will. Of course they'd learn how to raise the dead too, of course they would. It sickened him, magic did. More so to think how avoiding it also made him vulnerable to it; at the end of the day, he was just a man with a bow and a few friends. What was that against someone who could create fire that no amount of water would be able to put out? Someone who could raise the corpse of Rynmere himself and bind it to their will? What would he do against the necromancer himself, when he found them?

"Scout. Find whoever on this mountain released those things and show me where they are, but don't reveal yourself." Greyhide slipped down into the trees below and vanished, remaining in his spirit form while he roamed.

Nir'wei remained high above, now with his shortbow drawn and his free hand hovering near his saddle-mounted quiver. He was still a terrible shot from saddleback; perhaps from the back of a horse it might be easier, but certainly not from the back of an airborne Sohr Khal, even one as surprisingly placid as Traveller. Even with the added elevation, the constant movement made a clean shot impossible... but it didn't mean he couldn't throw a few pot-shots if they swooped low enough. "I've found someone. Directly ahead, at the mouth of a cave." How he wished he could get a proper look at the guy, but just in case he knew how to throw fireballs, Nir'wei nocked an arrow as they drew closer to the mountainside, eyes roaming. Even from this distance, high above in the air with the wind blowing constantly in his face, he could feel the heat practically wringing the sweat out of him. The volcano's intensity was not something to be sniffed at.

Traveller tensed fractionally under him and Nir'wei had but a moment to brace himself and cling to the creature's borrowed saddle for dear life before a sharp swing sent them plummeting at striking speed towards the ground. Massive wings snapped up at the last moment and shunted Nir'wei against the Sohr Khal's body, and a final spine-rattling slam announced their landing. He roughly peeled himself from where he'd nearly been flattened against Traveller's upper back to find a human already dropped to his knees, looking like he was struggling with breath. Probably from the landing, he told himself; Traveller had a thing for swooping down in dives from above at insane speeds, but then, that was his nature. Greyhide the wolf materialised behind the human, cutting off his escape should he attempt it, while Nir'wei blinked away the tears still in his eyes and drew back his bow to take aim. "DON'T. MOVE. Or you get eaten."

"Not the most polite greeting," Greyhide muttered under his threatening growl.

"Who are you, what are you doing walking around on a volcano... and what do you know about walking skeletons." Stupid questions, he knew, but this guy could just be taking a morning hike. Up the side of a volcano. Weird, but Scalvoris seemed to have a habit of attracting strange people and stranger things, so he needed to account for it and be ready to move on if he was wrong. The faster the better. At the same time, if he turned out to be responsible... well, he couldn't let him walk free, could he. Damn it, he hated logic puzzles.
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Tio Silver
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[Faldrass] Leader of the Pack

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Strange occurrences were like socks; they always came in pairs. Barely a trill or two had past since Tio had sunk to his knees, despairing over the terror he had unwittingly unleashed on the residents of Faldrass, when suddenly an enormous blast of wind whacked him in the face, knocking him backwards onto his rump. A strange dragon-like creature about the size of a horse, which fit the description of those Scal Sohr Kahl the Element soldiers prized so much, had landed before him, bearing on its back a man with long uncombed hair and wolf-like eyes similar to those he'd seen on Kali and Kura. Said wolf-like eyes were glaring at him in a way that made it clear he was not at all happy with him, a point that was only reinforced when the rider drew a bow and pointed an arrow straight at him.

As if that wasn't intimidating enough, a gigantic wolf materialized out of thin air behind him, growling menacingly and cutting off any chance he had of running. While Tio had looked shocked by the sight of the Sohr Kahl, the wolf familiar had a him utterly terrified! His cynophobia kicked in, causing Tio to be one of the few people in the world to back away in fear towards a Sohr Kahl. Oh for the Immortal's sake, not another wolf! Where were all these wolf-people coming from?! And why did half of them seem determined to shoot him?!

He listened to what the wolf-man had to say, and his heart sank at the mention of the walking skeletons. Oh no, they'd been spotted already had they? From the fact that this man was riding a Scal Sohr Kalh, Tio assumed that he must be a member of the Elements. That was good in the sense that'd he'd be able to call in backup from the island's guards, but bad in the sense that he'd probably hold Tio responsible for what happened here and arrest him.

Unless, the devious part of his mind argued, he twisted the truth a little bit.

"What do I know about walking skeletons? Well I know they all make terrible self-portraits. Know why? Because their hearts are never in them! Hehehe..." Tio replied jovially, his chuckle at the end dying off quickly under the wolf-mans stern gaze. A little touch of humor, even if it was just an awful pun, never went amiss when trying to calm down a tense situation. "Get it? Because they're skeletons, and they have no hearts-... You know what never mind, I knew I should have gone with the 'skeleton walks into a tavern' joke anyway."

Slowly he got back up to his feet, mindful not to go so fast as to get an arrow to the chest. "But yes in all seriousness I've seen the skeletons. I was on my way up to Forbick's Forge when they came dashing out of that cave mouth over there. I thought they were gonna eat me alive, but they just seemed to ignore me really. All they seemed to care about was chasing after this grey horse that came running out before them. Anyway once they'd passed me I thought that just because they'd ignored me doesn't mean they'll do the same for everybody else who comes across them, so I figured I'd better go run into town and warn them. But it's hot, and I'm not exactly a prize athlete, so this is as far as I got before you showed up."

His attention turned to the Sohr Kahl, which he eyed with an approving grin. "Still, your happening here is most fortunate. You're with the Elements right? Of course you are, nobody else is allowed to ride the Sohr Kahl's. You can go warn everyone and round up some of the soldiers to take care of this! But-... erm-... I don't suppose there's room for a passenger is there?"
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word count: 685
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Noticeable quirks your character can see when threading with Tio.

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Tio floats in the air, usually just a foot off the ground.

Explodeibur

Tio wears a scary looking gauntlet on his right hand that is clearly magical. It creates explosions.

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Tio has a masked alter ego who leads The Court of Miracles.

Enchanting Voice

Tio's voice has hypnotic properties.
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Nir'wei
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[Faldrass] Leader of the Pack

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So much for logic puzzles. "I really don't think this is a time for making jokes..." he replied, trying to stop the corners of his mouth from rising at just how bad that joke had been. Although, he had to give credit where credit was due, he either had excellent self-control or was utterly mad to be cracking jokes when sandwiched between two beasts. Although, as he backed towards Traveller, the Sohr Khal's dangerous glare turned into somewhat of a more curious expression as he lowered himself down and sniffed the human inquisitively. It took a good few nudges in the side to remind the drake that they were supposed to be putting on an intimidating show of strength. It didn't work, unfortunately. Greyhide soon settled as well, though he kept a suspicious eye on Tio; then again, the wolf often seemed to watch stones as if afraid they'd come alive. There was caution, then there was paranoia.

Not at all thanks to those awful jokes, Nir'wei sighed inwardly and lowered his bow, though he kept the arrow nocked just in case. He'd never heard of... what was it, Forbicks Forge? But thinking about it, surely it'd make sense for someone to make a forge in the side of a volcano. Plus, he knew about the white horse. After a few moments of thought, he nodded confirmation to himself. "Alright, makes sense." Wait. "Err." Did he actually think that he was... "I... hmm. Well." He could lie, of course, but what good would that do? "I'm kinda just me." He rubbed the back of his neck nervously and nearly slipped backwards for his troubles as he let go of the reins just as Traveller shifted his weight a little, finding a more comfortable spot lying down before Tio with his arms crossed before him; a very bizarre human imitation that looked strangely terrifying from above, like a dog walking on two legs like a human.

"I didn't know only Elements were allowed to ride Sohr Khals... but, hey. If you want to go back to them, you're free to," he said to Traveller directly, patting him on the side of his sinuous neck. The Sohr Khal snorted - loudly. "Yeah, had a feeling you'd think that," he chuckled. "I think he's had enough military service," he explained to Tio, as if he were a stranger interrupting a perfectly ordinary conversation between a man and a drake. "Anyway. Right. Skeletons. Uhm." Boy, he'd never realised how awkward it felt being confused with a soldier. He'd never considered himself one, never even dreamed of being considered one - he lacked the courage, the combat prowess, the infallible code of honour and decency inbred within them. "There's no backup coming, but I mean, they're not going to be able to help, this is... this is like, some weird kinda magic." He might not be an Element himself but he could imagine the same issue for them as there was for him - how are you supposed to kill something that doesn't even have organs anymore?

"The only way this is being solved is by finding out what those things are and how they were made. Last I looked, they were running down and away from the volcano... I think we should head up there and find the source. Traveller!" The beast rumbled and straightened slowly, rising up and walking forward a few steps. Nir'wei reached down and offered his hand. "This saddle really isn't made for two people... so you need to hang on to me really tight, because I don't know how to catch someone falling in mid-air."
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Tio Silver
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[Faldrass] Leader of the Pack

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Thankfully his disarming commentary seemed to work wonders, as the Sohr Kahl dropped its threatening posture and started sniffing him curiously like an overgrown cat. It was actually pretty cute when it didn't look ready to eat him. It was just too bad that the wolf didn't stop glaring at him as well; he could practically feel its eyes on his back, making his blood curl in his veins like off milk. Luckily the rider seemed to have been pretty much taken off guard as well and dismounted, admitting rather hesitantly that he wasn't a member of the Elements and lowering his bow.

"Oh, you're not with the elements! Thank goodness for that!" Tio replied with a sigh of relief. "Erm, not that I'm in any trouble with them or anything! I'm one hundred and sixty percent law-abiding! Honestly! Nothing suspicious to see here!"

As Nir'wei continued talking about his plan to search for where the skeletons had come from, a feeling of alarm grew in Tio's gut. The secret door to his new lair was very well hidden, but it wasn't necessarily impossible to find if one had a good idea of where to look. Whatever happened he couldn't allow this stranger to discover his lab! There was arcs of research in there that he needed to keep safe, research a non-necromancer just wouldn't understand the value of! He couldn't risk the chance that this person, who'd already expressed a negative view on magic, might destroy VonDwight's research! Besides, the darker part of his mind added, there was more than just necromancy research in there. Somewhere among those endless piles of books was the key to finding VonDwight and learning the secret of the Phoenix Stones. And he wasn't sharing that key with anybody else!

"Woah there, hold your horses there buddy. Or hold your dragon-things I guess-... Look the fact is taking a spelunking trip while those skeletons are running loose is wasting time we don't have." He said hurriedly, taking a few steps to put himself in between Traveller and the direction of the cave leading to his lab. "I've had a run in with some undead minions before, and trust me there's really not much of a trick to them. Once you've seen one you've seen them all. All you need to do is smash them into enough pieces with a blunt weapon or take out the necromancer controlling them. There's really nothing else to learn."

He patted Traveller gently on the forearm. "Now I'm betting a tough guy like this'll have no problem flattening the skeletons, after all a mace's got nothing on him. The only thing that concerns me is that horse, but really how bad can that be? I mean it's just a horse, the lot of us should be able to handle it right? You don't want to be searching a cave for an unhelpful secret whilst those things are slaughtering people left and right in Faldrass do you? Let's take out the current problem first, and worry about where they came from later, right?"

Assuming Nir'wei had no objections to this, Tio would hop up on to Traveller's back and take a seat on the saddle behind Nir'wei.
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word count: 571
Fast Facts
Noticeable quirks your character can see when threading with Tio.

Floats

Tio floats in the air, usually just a foot off the ground.

Explodeibur

Tio wears a scary looking gauntlet on his right hand that is clearly magical. It creates explosions.

Mercury

Tio has a masked alter ego who leads The Court of Miracles.

Enchanting Voice

Tio's voice has hypnotic properties.
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Nir'wei
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[Faldrass] Leader of the Pack

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Alright, now there were some definite alarm bells starting to ring in his head. Behind Tio, Greyhide let out a low growl - apparently he felt the same way, although he'd never really had a moment where he wasn't suspicious. "Uh-huh." His story made sense; an apprentice from a smith running errands and stumbling across the same mess as Nir'wei had from above. But if that was true, why would he be happy of all things to find that there weren't, in fact, any soldiers nearby to call in help? And how would an apprentice of all things not only have experience with undead minions like these, but know of ways to stop them as well?

But the argument was sound. The longer he spent fulfilling his own idle curiosity, the further those skeletal beasts would get and the more people in the island would be endangered. First priority had to go to the people of Faldrass. "Fine, but after we deal with these monsters, I'm finding where these things came from and hunting down the necromancer responsible, whether you come or not." He leaned forward and slapped Traveller's neck, signalling for the beast to rear onto his hind-legs and spread his wings wide. Tio'd better grab onto something and hold on tight. Traveller's take-offs weren't that much better from his landings, and his landings were awful. The Sohr Khal's whole body seemed to compress for a moment as he crouched low... and suddenly he leaped, sending Nir'weis stomach into his shoes as they were both catapulted into the air.

A moment of falling. His stomach came right back up and he nearly had to swallow down his breakfast a second time before Traveller started beating his wings, climbing high into the sky. The flight was much more lurching than with only one person - it was clear that while handling two people on his back was quite possible, it wasn't going to make it a particularly comfortable experience as opposed to just himself.

As they climbed some forty feet above ground, just about low enough to leave a few birds still overhead but not by much, the roaring winds in their ears became a little more calm, a little more... controlled, though the harsh beating of Traveller's wings still meant that Nir'wei had to turn his head and raise his voice to a shout to maintain conversation, lest his words be snatched away by the wind currents. "If this necromancer's got the balls to unleash one wave of walking skeletons onto the island, there's no telling how many more he's got stacked up his sleeve... and there's no telling what he's got planned for them, either." Even if he had to jump islands and find a group of Elements to bring back, he would, but one thing was for certain; if this was the work of necromancy, he wanted in. Not because he was in any way interested, no; the exact opposite.

He wanted nothing to do with magic, but it seemed to crop up in the most unlikely of places, and he really didn't like it. The more opportunities he found to learn about it, to expose it and tell the signs of it... the more prepared he'd be when the time finally came to face it head-on.

Greyhide remained behind for a few moments, scouting around the spot where Tio had been found, before returning to his spirit form to return to Nir'wei. "I couldn't pick up his tracks, too much stone and not enough soil," he spoke directly into Nir'weis head. Damn. Perhaps he was just growing paranoid, but he really wanted to check out if Tio's story checked out. He'd just have to take his word at face value instead. Who knew, perhaps he really was telling the truth... but Nir'wei still had far too many questions unanswered to trust him unequivocally.
word count: 676
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Tio Silver
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[Faldrass] Leader of the Pack

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Thankfully Tio's arguement seemed to sway the Sohr Kahl rider, who agreed that their first priority needed to be to stop the skeletons already roaming the island. He didn't give up on the idea of finding where they came from entirely unfortunately, as he believed this to be the work of a nefarious necromancer who had another wave of minions up his sleeve, but he was distracted for now at least. With luck there would be a good chance to dissuade him from the idea later on, or otherwise send him on a goose-chase somewhere away from his lab's secret door.

Hopping up on Traveller's saddle, Tio held on for dear life as the mount gave its wings a mighty beat and launched up into the sky with startling speed. By the spirits this thing was fast! No wonder some people considered them to be the fastest winged creatures in the world! In no time at all the ground was far below them, and Tio whooped out loud at the sight of the island stretching around him for miles. Flying was so much fun! He needed to get himself a pair of wings one day!

"You know, I don't think we've properly introduced ourselves!" He shouted to Nir'wei, struggling to make himself heard over the wind rushing past them. "My name's Tio. Tio Silver. What do I call you and the big guy here?"

A cluster grey dots on the ground beneath them caught his eye, and Tio pointed towards them as they got close enough to make out that they were the skeletal pack. "Look! Over there! They're getting dangerously close to the marketplace! If we swoop down and charge them we should be able to take out a good two or three of them!"
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word count: 307
Fast Facts
Noticeable quirks your character can see when threading with Tio.

Floats

Tio floats in the air, usually just a foot off the ground.

Explodeibur

Tio wears a scary looking gauntlet on his right hand that is clearly magical. It creates explosions.

Mercury

Tio has a masked alter ego who leads The Court of Miracles.

Enchanting Voice

Tio's voice has hypnotic properties.
User avatar
Nir'wei
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Posts: 989
Joined: Mon Apr 18, 2016 6:38 am
Race: Mortal Born
Profession: Councillor of Natural Affairs
Renown: 897
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[Faldrass] Leader of the Pack

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Despite the looming threats of carnage and chaos, a small chuckle bubbled up in his throat, though the wind snatched it from his lips. Even over the dull roar he could hear the whoops and cheers behind him, and he had to agree. Flying was one of the purest form of enjoyment, certainly the best method of travel. If he got the chance, he needed to bully Faith onto the back of Traveller for a journey as well. Partially so that he could hear her scream at the top of her lungs. Now that really put a smile on his face.

"My name's Nir'wei!" he shouted back over his shoulder, tightening his grip as the Sohr Khal started to pick up speed with his descent. The volcano had provided a good deal of updraft with its heat wells, but now they were starting to breeze into colder temperatures. Better to save strength for the battles to come and settle into a steady downhill glide than struggle to keep the current altitude. "This is Traveller... and that wolf you saw back there was Greyhide." Actually, it probably wasn't the best idea to bring up the wolf again. Tio might start asking questions about why they left him behind back there... and how the wolf was going to seemingly appear out of nowhere wherever they went again.

Traveller was the first to respond to the call-out, dipping his wing and dropping down lower still, until his chest looked close enough to brush the tips of the tallest forest trees. "They might be skeletons... but they've still got all their claws and teeth." Some of them were huge, too. It was hard determining species from just mobile skeletons, but from the way one hobbled in a charge there was a bear, a tiger running full-pelt, an elephant stampeding with its trunk raised threateningly, a monkey riding the back of the pale white horse, a heavy-set goliath of a crocodile bringing up the rear with amazing speed... and most concerning of all, what could only be described as some kind of raptor-like creature that he'd never seen before, but he guessed must be an exotic specimen. Traveller was a good fighter, he'd proved that in combat before, but he didn't fancy their chances in a seven-against-one.

"If you've got any weapons, time to make use of them." About now would have been a good time to draw his bow, but he didn't trust himself to be able to hang on during the attack if he didn't have a grip on the reins. For that matter, even trying it one-handed probably wasn't the smartest thing to do. "We start with the largest." That meant the elephant. "Then the most dangerous." Those had to be the crocodile and the tiger. "You and I, if we can, focus on the horse." They were still a good height above them all, apparently unnoticed. "Down!" Traveller's wings snapped shut and they were all sent hurtling down towards the ground at amazing speed. For the second time that trial, he felt his stomach about to empty as their shadow loomed and the elephant turned just in time to see the darting drake before its wings snapped back, nearly throwing Nir'wei from the saddle. He couldn't see through the tears in his eyes, but he heard the crunch of bone as Traveller's back legs landed on the elephant's ribcage and smashed it into the ground, tearing the thrall apart and scattering its bones several feet ahead of it.

With his dexterous humanoid hands, Traveller reached out and grabbed the nearest skeletal animal in range - the bear, just as it roared with an eerie mimicry of its natural cry - catching the side of its head but not delivering enough force to rip it apart, only enough to hold it back as it reared and swiped with its massive claws. "CHARGE!" There wasn't enough room to build up much of a blow, but Traveller's weight made up for it as he rammed head-first into the skeleton-bears torso and bones scattered as it was thrown back by the sheer force.

They were in the middle of the skeleton-pack now, though. Tiger, monkey and pale horse on one side. Crocodile and strange raptor on the other. "Up!" Traveller spread his wings and fast as he could, sprung back into the air... but there was a jarring note. Nir'wei turned back over Tio's shoulder... and cursed loudly in his native tongue. The monkey, using the pale horse, had leaped up and grabbed Traveller's tail. It was more for balance and control than actual strength, they'd have to shake it off. "HARD DOWN!"

It was more ingrained training than any notable effort on Nir'weis part that brought Traveller snapping immediately towards the ground a second time, though this time, he forced his eyes open and just before they hit the ground, he pulled hard on the reins. Traveller's wings snapped open, his lower body swung out... and though the monkey had a damn tight grip for something completely devoid of muscles, it didn't matter as it was sent hurtling straight into the dirt, scattering into bones and even bone fragments by the sheer velocity of impact. The Sohr Khal landed a few moments later, grunting. "Okay." Nir'wei was out of breath already, despite barely doing anything... and gods, his eyes burned like he'd just stared at the sun for too long. "Three to go?" He'd been so focused on Traveller, he'd struggled to keep count.
word count: 957
We return to where we started, and pass onwards into history.
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