Mages and Monsters: Arcadia Legends

The Land of Arcadia. It's not simply a world where sword and sorcery reigns supreme, but magic is a constant force that rules this world. A phenomenon that separates the civilians from the legends are how well they can sling a spell. We tell the tale of adventurers, who begin as strangers searching for a common goal, they'll slowly grow into more. Close friends? Enemies? Maybe even lovers.

Your party stands right outside of your destination: The Abbey of the Bloody God. Said to have been the house of worship for Grimcrypt, a so called God of Vampires, the building was incredibly large with black walls. Those walls were old and withered, it's paint peeling as a pungent smell overcame it. Mucus, feces, and blood mixed in with unknown smells that no creature would want to figure out.

In it's prime, it was a sanctuary for the dark, corrupt, and outcasts. But now, it was nothing but a place of horrors that no sane man would wanna go in. The lack of dust and cobwebs means that there are, indeed, creatures that come and go inside this so-called forgotten church. But what they were, was an uncertainty. Were they undead creatures or abominations of nature?

Whatever they were were of no concern to you though, right? After all, there was loot inside there! Rumors were that there were some tasty loot inside this cursed housing: forgotten tomes, cursed artifacts, and dead bodies that surely had some jewelry to loot!

The door seems to be unlocked-or it would if it was there, as it was no longer on it's hinges. And as of yet, nothing seemed to be inside the dark building within.

edited 8th Jun '15 10:36:05 PM by HydraGem

Pastoval observes the Abbey with a lopsided grin, "Gotta say, wouldn't be too bad a place if someone lit some incense and brought some paint."

"I'd be more in favor of lit torches and a good washing, of everything," Regulus replied sullenly.

Pastoval chuckles and looks at Regulus, "Aye, that wouldn't hurt. 'Course someone's gotta clean out the... undesirables. Guess that would be us."

"To be honest I actually don't think it's all that bad.", Larius intercepted.
"Well, of course I'd prefer for the things in there to not want to tear us to pieces but I think the place has some kind of charm to it, don't you?"
Just why did most people have such a problem with old, abandoned buildings? Sure, most people weren't necromancers but surely they had to feel the mysterious aura emanating from this place too?

"Well to each their own, I guess. Doesn't really matter since we're goin' in anyway, come what may. I'll take the front. Hope you don't mind me sayin', but you boys look a bit squishy." Pastoval begins to cautiously approach the Abbey doors.

Inside the Abbey was dark with very little light. If anyone could see through the thick darkness, they'd see something moving. It hasn't noticed them yet, so it must be rather far off into the shadows as the faintest noise of creaking could be heard.

With his keen feline senses, Pastoval catches traces of the creature's movement but is unable to determine exactly where it is. He crouches down and alerts his companions in a hushed tone, "We aren't alone here. Somethin's in this room."

edited 9th Jun '15 1:19:43 PM by Elyzian

As if meaning to agree with the other feline, Mr. Muffins let out a hiss upon spotting the creature.
Larius himself, his eyes being unable to pierce the darkness, simply held his staff in front of him protectively, hoping for the monster to attack someone else first. He hated to admit it, but he certainly wasn't the most durable mage.

Grimmacing unseen in the darkness, Regulus extended his hand and began drawing on Enki's power, water slowly running in rivulets down his hand to form a spherical reservoir from which he could draw from, the only sound was the occasional drip.

He was hardier than he looked, as neither onboard a working ships of his youth nor among the docks of Lindberg harbor where any place to grow up soft, but physical confrontation was certainly not his forte; certainly, most everything in this place that wouldn't poison him would rip him to shreads if it reached him.

Regulus berated himself for not lighting his lantern be for entering the shadows.

Peace, Dusa, Enki rumbled from within him, the water spirit's ancient tounge soothing Regulus's nerves. You cannot light it now, and it would have brought this beast upon you from afar. Focus, survive, and rectify the situation later.

edited 9th Jun '15 9:13:19 PM by Sharur

A number of tiny, pulsating fires begin to orbit Pastoval's head. The flames add a small amount of light near the group, but not enough to attract any attention, "I'm going to light this room up as bright as I can. That'll probably stun whatever's in here long enough for you boys to get some hits on it. 'Less anyone's got any better ideas, of course."

With the aid of the light, the room is easier to see. There is a large room has a broken stained glass windows to the left, leading way to the surrounding broken glass on the floor, great imposing columns, a high roofbeam ceiling, a sandstone floor, and a large brazier, most likely used for lighting fires. The end of the room seems to have a door, while to the far right there is a staircase.

The small fires attract no attention from the creature, however, that doesn't stop it from detecting your presence. It turns to the group and starts charging. With the small flames, your able to see it's a large roach-roughly around the size of a full grown wolf and an ooze is sipping from it's mandibles.

Super Cockroach

A common household pest that has grown into something that lurks only in the darkest of dungeons. Unlike their ancestors, poisons and toxins have no effect on these creatures. Also, their shells are incredibly hard, swords wills snap and most blunt objects break when striking their hard shells. Be sure to aim for the head, belly, and legs.

And remember: when all else fails, kill it with fire!

edited 10th Jun '15 12:14:35 AM by HydraGem

Pastoval bites back a curse and quickly alters his spell with a thought. Rather than directing the fires to suddenly light the room he intends to contain the rapidly approaching creature. A fierce snarl directs the fires toward the cockroach. Small balls of the flames attempt form a circle around the cockroach at great speed. When the spell succeed, the cockroach will be unable to pass the circle so long as Pastoval's will holds.

The Super Cockroach squeals as it tries to back away, but it was surrounded by the fire as it squealed as it circled itself and tried to find a way out of the ring of fire, finding no way.

Pastoval grits his teeth and grins at the same time, "Right! Show it some magic! I can't hold it forever!"

edited 10th Jun '15 12:34:47 PM by Elyzian

"Can't do much!", Larius responded.
"There's nothing here to raise and I don't think disease is going to be of much help!"
Nevertheless the Necromancer was determined to at least do something, focussing to launch an energy-draining attack at their opponent.
The tip of his staff began to radiate an eerie aura as black tendrils were sent towards the hostile insect.

The Super Cockroach squeals as the life is drained from it. Helpless to stop it, it falls onto the floor and begins to stop moving before he dies.

Meanwhile, the rest of the room is empty, the bright fires showing that there was a square hole in the floor near the center of the room. Giving the party three choices of advancement: the stairs to the right, the door to the far end of the room, and the trapdoor in the middle.

Pastoval ends the spell and walks over to the drained carcass. He nudges it with a paw to confirm its death, "Nice one there, necromancer. Which way you boys think we should head next? I'm partial to clearin' the rest of this floor myself. Oh by the way, one of you think that you could get us some light? I'd do it, but I'm thinking I ought to conserve my magic."

Shrugging, Larius commented:
"Trapdoor's the only one we can't walk back from again, so I'd advise against that. Otherwise I don't really care much. We could try throwing the roach down the stairs or the trapdoor and see if anything reacts down there maybe."

Pastoval gives Larius a grin, "I like the way you think." He places his head on the corpse's side and begins to shove it toward the trapdoor opening.

Down the trap door, a series of thuds were heard as the body continued to fall, indicating some kind of stair case leading down there. But eventually, another sound was heard, as if multiple arrows had punctured the dead body of the Super Cockroach, most likely a trap.

Pastoval's ears twitch at the sound of the carcasses apparent mutilation. He turns to Larius with a grin, "Good call there, friend. What now?"

"I agree with your earlier suggestion," Regulus replied, getting his flint, steel, and lantern from his pack, and setting to work lighting the lantern.

"I should have done this earlier."

"Aye, should be helpful if there's anymore overgrown vermin," Pastoval says with a nod.

With the lighter lit, it would be easier to see down the stairs-and see the step that had the Super Cockroach's body, covered in swords that seemed to lunge down from the ceiling.

Meanwhile, it seemed that there were seats down further into the room. There were seats that seemed to have skeletons, shards of glass on the floor around them and the floor sticky and covered in some liquid. It seemed that as their skins, meat, and clothes withered to nothing. But what didn't seem to whither, were the rings they were all wearing. All with skull designs and odd black gems on them. Could be worth something...if not cursed.