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#Post#: 196--------------------------------------------------
On the Plane of Mechanus: The Law of Iron
By: slimemold4 Date: November 8, 2012, 9:05 am
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The Castle was darker than night itself, a void in the soft
sunlight shining down across the field. The basalt floors,
obsidian windows, and night stone walls cast an intimidating
force around itself. There where no insects, no birds, no
chipmunks frolicking in the grass. The plain was devoid of all
life. And in the middle sat the castle, no one knew where it
came from, or who had built it.
Inside it was even darker than outside. No light penetrated the
castle, even through the obsidian windows. Inside the air was
cold and dry, even though the heat outside was stifling. The
castle wasn't huge, composed mainly of a great hall, throne
room, and many smaller rooms such as servants quarters, a
kitchen, dungeons. It didn't need to be big. It served it's
purpose.
The purpose though, is the real mystery.
In the center of it all was the throne room. A majestic chair
made of the darkest stone arose from the ground, appearing to be
the throne of the Keeper of the Underworld himself. The throne
was like a black hole in the center of the room, devoid of all
light, as if looking into something that simply wasn't there. It
was enough to drive a man mad.
And drive men mad it did.
Only the very brave--or very stupid-- dared venture into the
castle, and those that returned where sniveling slobs, shells of
their former glory, who could not speak for fear that the Keeper
would wrench their tongue from their mouth and drown them in
their own blood. As far as anyone knew, the castle was empty,
but you could occasionally see smoke rising from the chimneys of
the kitchens.
The people around where superstitious folk, so naturally it was
the object of many stories, and no one dared to go and actually
investigate. Memories of the castle were often fuzzy at best,
and as far as anyone could tell, it had just appeared one day,
as if it had grown out of the grass, watered by the blood of the
Keeper's tortured souls. No one was old enough to have been
around when it was built, and the architecture was unknown to
them. But what they did know about the castle was that no one,
no one, who went in at night returned. Ever.
***
#Post#: 198--------------------------------------------------
Re: On the Plane of Mechanus: The Law of Iron
By: Shadowhuntress Date: November 8, 2012, 9:46 am
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Dracona's wings barely moved as she glided lazily through the
hazy midsummer air. It was so humid that tiny droplets of
moisture gathered on her scales and wings as she flew. She was a
creature of fire, so the intense heat, to her, was nothing more
than pleasantly warm. The same could not be said for her
passengers.
"Could you fly higher?" Karra asked, shading her eyes against
the three suns that currently hung in the sky. "Either that or
fly faster. We're baking back here."
With a sigh, Dracona climbed to a more comfortable elevation.
She flew through a cloud, knowing it would annoy the elf. She
was rewarded by an indignant squawk, and a stream of elvish
curses.
They flew on for several minutes, then Dracona caught site of
something strange on the landscape below. There was a blight of
dark brown that marred the picturesque beauty of the rolling
green countryside. Dracona flew lower to investigate, her keen
eyes searching for the cause of the destruction.
Finally she found it. A speck of blackest night in the center of
the dead field. When she looked at it, Dracona a sudden chill, a
chill that warned her when she was coming into the presence of
pure evil.
She circled around and landed in a nearby village. There were a
few yells of surprise from the nearest residents, but once they
saw the golden hourglass mark on her tail they lost all of their
fear and crowded around the travelers. Most of the people knew
of the draconian in these parts, for she had done the majority
of her work in the decade in a province not far from there.
The fact that the villagers were crowding around her in this
manor spelled trouble. Humans normally avoided draconinas unless
they needed help.
#Post#: 199--------------------------------------------------
Re: On the Plane of Mechanus: The Law of Iron
By: slimemold4 Date: November 8, 2012, 10:03 am
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Cyndor slid off the back of Dracona and landed gracefully on his
feet, surveying the villagers with his raptor gaze. They where
obviously distraught. "What plagues ye, good people of this
realm?" He said in his most godly, commanding voice. A few of
the villagers yelped in fear, eyes widening. He heard Karra
snicker behind him and had to suppress a chuckle.
The crowd fidgeted restlessly for a few moments until someone
decided to speak up. "The Devil's Keep, sir." a large man,
presumably the mayor of the town said.
"I'm assuming you refer to the black castle I saw out on the
field a few miles west of here?" Cyndor asked. Something about
the place had sent chills down his spine. He knew that it was
nothing natural, and there was something in the back of his mind
that made it seem familiar, but for the life of him he couldn't
remember it.
"Yes. It has cast a blight upon our lands. Our crops no longer
grow. Our livestock grow sick and die. Children have
disappeared." The man said, glancing around at the crowd. He
swallowed his fear and looked into Cyndor's eyes. "You must help
us. The Law of Iron demands it." The crowed murmured their
agreement.
Cyndor stepped through the crowd and grabbed the man's shirt
lifting him onto his toes. "Where did you hear that?" he
demanded.
The man's eyes widened in shock and fear and he sputtered "Why .
. . It . . . What do you mean?"
"The Law of Iron!" Cyndor bellowed, lifting the man entirely off
his feet. "Where did you hear that phrase?! Tell me now, or face
my wrath!"
The man gasped for breath, flailing his arms wildly and trying
to break free of Cyndor's grasp. "The woman that came here a few
moons ago!" He shouted. "She told us! She said--" And then he
coughed, foam came out of his mouth in thick streams and he
collapsed dead.
Cyndor grimaced and turned away. "I'm sure I don't have to tell
you that that was no natural death?" He asked Karra and Dracona.
#Post#: 200--------------------------------------------------
Re: On the Plane of Mechanus: The Law of Iron
By: Shadowhuntress Date: November 8, 2012, 10:28 am
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Dracona arched her long neck and tentatively sniffed the corps.
She reared back suddenly, almost crushing some villagers who
were standing too close, and let out a surprised snarl. When she
was once again on all fours, she turned to Cyndor.
"This is worse than I thought." She said, shuddering
involuntarily. "Magic of that kind can only be used by extremely
powerful demons, the dark gods, and corrupt dragons."
She paused for a moment to let that information to sink in. "I
don't know much about the affairs of the gods or demons, but I
do know that there are only three dragons that could be
responsible for this. There is one, a very old male, that lives
in the far south. He doesn't leave his territory anymore, so he
couldn't be responsible. The second is another male, but he is
currently laying siege to some major city in the east. The last
is a female. She lives in the mountains just north of here."
Dracona paused again, obviously uncomfortable with what she was
about to say. "She's probably the most maliciously evil of the
three, but not the most powerful... and she's my half-sister."
Karra was so surprised that she fell off of her perch on
Dracona's backs and landed on her back in the dirt. Dracona
ignored the elf and continued. "However, Skre'talen prefers to
directly manipulate her victims, and while I suspect that she is
responsible for this man's death; building black castles that
terrorize the surrounding countryside isn't her style."
#Post#: 201--------------------------------------------------
Re: On the Plane of Mechanus: The Law of Iron
By: slimemold4 Date: November 8, 2012, 10:46 am
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Cyndor hummed, deep in thought. "Yes, you're right." He gestured
in the general direction of the castle. "That's not her work.
It's much older than you might think, with how it suddenly
appeared some two or three generations ago. It'd been around for
much, much longer. I mean, the amount of time it would take to
gather that much night stone. . ." Cyndor shuddered. "I wouldn't
want to think of the types of creatures that place attracts,
what with all the underworld magic emanating just from the
stones.
The townsfolk had started to back away, hiding in their homes
and shops. Cyndor surveyed them as they left. "No dragon would
waste it's time with basalt and obsidian. Skre'talen killed that
man, but whoever built that castle was undoubtedly an incredibly
powerful underworld wizard, or a god who has serious alignment
issues." He shrugged.
"For all I know it could've been the Keeper of the Underworld
himself. I've never met the guy but I hear he's quite . . .
extravagant." He frowned. "But I doubt he'd go to the trouble of
building that if he wasn't going to live there. And he isn't
living there, trust me, if he was, that plain would not be
green."
#Post#: 211--------------------------------------------------
Re: On the Plane of Mechanus: The Law of Iron
By: Shadowhuntress Date: November 8, 2012, 1:18 pm
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Dracona nodded slowly. "Well, there's only one way to find out."
She gestured with a wing for them to climb back into the saddle,
and took off toward the blight once they were seated.
She landed on the border of the dead grass. She didn't know what
kind of magic was at play here, and she didn't want to take any
chances. Once Cyndor and Karra had climbed off of her back,
Dracona transformed into her draconian form.
As they stepped onto the parched ground of the blight, Dracona
felt a sudden, intense pain in the back of her head. It felt as
if someone was trying to force their way into her thoughts, but
the draconian knew how to fend off such attacks. She quickly
emptied her mind of all thoughts and emotions, shutting her eyes
in concentration.
She managed to block off her assailant, but not before his
message got through. You're mine! The voice tore through her
mind, inflicting pain with its sheer power.
Then, it was gone. Dracona cautiously allowed her thoughts to
return, prepared to raise her defensed suddenly if her attacker
returned, but nothing happened. She felt something warm and wet
trickle down her face. She reached up to see what it was, and
found that her nose was bleeding. Annoyed, she wiped her nose on
her arm.
"There's defiantly something powerful guarding this place." She
told her wide-eyed companions, then continued on toward the
black structure in the distance.
#Post#: 212--------------------------------------------------
Re: On the Plane of Mechanus: The Law of Iron
By: slimemold4 Date: November 8, 2012, 1:40 pm
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Cyndor nodded, concerned for his companion. "Yes, I do suppose
there is." He cleared his throat and spoke some words of magic,
intended to ward of threats to the mind, before continuing. They
had stopped a ways away from the "Devil's Keep" As the townsfolk
had called it. They didn't want to just land into some
dangerous, unexpected magic.
As they approached, Cyndor could feel something buzzing in the
back of his head, some sort of spell trying to fight it's way
into his mind. Finally, they reached the entrance to the castle.
It was a drawbridge with a small moat around it. The moat was
empty. "Should we cross?"
#Post#: 238--------------------------------------------------
Re: On the Plane of Mechanus: The Law of Iron
By: Shadowhuntress Date: November 9, 2012, 11:52 am
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Dracona looked at the drawbridge and the empty mote
suspiciously. She knew that there was some sort of trap, there
had to be, and she wasn't sure how to proceed without becoming a
victim of whatever magic the castle's owner had left for his
visitors.
"Well, we didn't come down here to just stair at the door."
Karra said impatiently, walking toward the bridge. "There's only
one way to find out what's going on, and that's-"
"Karra no!" Dracona shouted, lunging forward to catch the elf by
the collar of her leather armor. She was too slow.
As soon as Karra's foot touched the dark wood of the drawbridge,
a whirlwind of dark energies engulfed her. Dracona watched
helplessly as her friend was surrounded, and blocked from view.
There was a deep, evil laugh that seemed to emanate from
everywhere and nowhere at the same time, and the the darkness
disappeared, taking their companion with it.
#Post#: 240--------------------------------------------------
Re: On the Plane of Mechanus: The Law of Iron
By: slimemold4 Date: November 9, 2012, 12:07 pm
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Cyndor ground his teeth in frustration. "Idiot, idiot, govak!"
He shouted. "I know people have gotten in there before. I just
don't know how. The folks in town say that everyone who comes
out of there is insane, but how do they get it?"
He raised his hands up into the air and bellowed a cry at no one
in particular. "That stupid girl. Well we can't just leave her
in there to die. I suppose we have to save her, don't we."
Cyndor walked up to the bridge, emanating magic. He was using a
lot more power than necessary, but he wasn't going to take any
chances. As he walked he could feel the magic in the air parting
around. He gestured for Dracona to follow.
Once they where across the bridge he could no longer feel the
press of underworld magic, so he released his spell. They stood
in front of the great onyxian doors. "Ladies first?" He said,
hopefully.
#Post#: 242--------------------------------------------------
Re: On the Plane of Mechanus: The Law of Iron
By: Shadowhuntress Date: November 9, 2012, 12:20 pm
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Dracona rolled her eyes, and turned into a large dragon. This
form was extremely strong and was also impervious to most forms
of magic. With a roar, she threw herself against the great
doors. The force of the blow would have been enough to utterly
obliterate any normal structure, but the doors of the castle
merely creaked.
The great dragon let out a shriek of rage. The was infuriated at
Karra's rashness, the entity that had taken her, and the
defiance of the onyx doors. She threw herself against the doors
again, and then a third time. The creaking became more
pronounced each time she struck them, until finally, after seven
tries, they finally gave way.
"Come on Cyndor!" Dracona called, changing back into her
humanoid form, "Let's get our elf back!"
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