illusions in the mist. [Now open thanks to ninja subthreading.]

[immortal-lion.livejournal.com]

Characters: Rishfee, Vincent Valentine, General Rughadjeen, Eiko (You are stowing along, right?) Auron (I believe. Lemme know if Ive been informed wrongly.)
Progress: Ongoing.
Summary: Caedarva Mire exploration / Azouph isle staging point discovery / boss fight / aftermath. Luzaf's UNEXPECTED TURNING UP IN FINE FORM AT THE WORST TIME EVER will be included in another log, we already have quite a lot to get through.
Location: Caedarva Mire.
Date: 02/02
Warnings: A few. Epic Quest! Creepiness, lamia, preserved genocide aftermath, soulflayer, (really bad descriptions of) gore / mental defect, NO POSTING ORDER YAY, mindgoboom, tentacles, blue mages gone wild. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD YOU N00B, DON'T MELEE THE SOULFLAYER. Possible/Probable big fluffy sheep murder, Oh, and coffee. Yes, coffee.





The mire was dark, and it was foreboding. The stench of death, already prevailant even in the outskirts of the forsaken wasteland known as Caedarva was unbearable once within the black shroud which made up the territory. It was barely possible to even see 10 feet in front thanks to the heavy, thick, stinking fog-- and barely possible to know what brushed past your leg thanks to a reluctance to turn your nose to what appeared to be the source of the stench.

...Maybe it was a treant, a small, bulb-like creature that with life of its own that often amused itself by stalking unsuspecting passers by. Maybe, more worryingly, it was a chigoe- a filthy ball of an insect with a venomous bite. Or maybe it was a protruding, hard substance entwined with the grasses of the mire... a twig... or the rotting arm of one who had sunk into the swamp - still outstretched. Still begging for assistance, though the owner had long since been forsaken of anything of the sort.

With Rishfee, it was the latter. Silently, he moved his own arm down to brush the skeletal claw aside and continued walking. Light, careful steps. He raised his head quickly as a faint giggle travelled through the air. A Lamia... perhaps two. But they were far. Turning his head, he breathed the smallest amount of guidance to those that travelled with him. "Do not set foot in the tall grass. And follow me. If you hear an Imp.... stop immediately. Kill it immediately. It doesn't matter what kind of invisibility spell you use. They will see you... and they will summon the others..."

His words were interuppted. Voices. Spectral and distant, yet brimming with anger. Malice. The worst kind of rage. deep-sated, voracious, sofilled with hate, they would quite simply burst with their malice. Yet they were pained. So pained...
Yet the pain only added to their anger.

Whereever they were... They wanted to come. They wanted to engulf the group which set foot inside the mire, simply because of two members. Yet they wanted to rip them all asunder.

Imperials...

Those who serve... the accursed emperor... Lapdogs...
That smell...so familiar... Cannot bear this anger...
Vile emperor...
You... You!!

The voices seemed to all join together to create a deafening cry; and then they were gone. Immediately -- replaced with nothing but the sound of the trees as they moved alike the little treants, eyes forever fixed upon the mire. If one listened closely, they could hear more giggles, from more Lamia.. and the distinct sound of the Merrow's harps in the distance.

Comments

[unsentmonk.livejournal.com]

Auron, when Eiko held his hand, gripped it tight. He feared that she would run off suddenly and without warning for whatever reason it may be. But at this moment, he had his sword on both hands, ready to rush enemies and slice up foes to protect the child and the rest of those with him. He continued to step deftly and with precision, allowing for sufficient movement and speed to follow up with a quick attack. Auron prepared to cast Guard upon Eiko if anything got too wild.

[lastsummoner.livejournal.com]

With everyone jumping in to deal with the imp, Eiko pulled out one of her flutes, trilling it as she called up quick casts of Protect followed by Shell. The most elemental of protective magics, but until she knew just what they were dealing with, it was important to keep everyone safe. If it didn't drop quickly, she had every intention of using Eidolons to wipe it out. The sooner they could leave this creepy place the better.

[chaos-vessel.livejournal.com]

Vincent's automatic reaction, when he first spotted the imp, was to reach for his gun. By that point, however, Rishfee was already moving to headbutt it. So, instead of drawing the gun as was still his first reaction, he took the bow, and fired it at the creature, remaining toward the back of the group.

[immortal-lion.livejournal.com]

The imp was quite a mess by the time Auron, himself, and Vincent had finished with it, and it dropped to the ground with the ghost of a cackle. He glanced to Vincent; a silent thanks- and moved his foot deftly to kick the horn that the imp tried to sound away. One might consider the act a little excessive- but if one was to look at the corpse of the imp, they should see the hand still animate, actually scrabbling for it -- even though the body- thanks to Vincent's arrow- was pinned by it to the ground.

Imps were not just monsters. They were servants. They watched the Mire and more specifically the Corsair's Graveyard within- alerting any and all other servants to an intruder's presence. Death ment nothing to them. They were servants, even in death. Even completely and utterly destroyed- they would continue to serve.

He left his scimitar unsheathed, and wordlessly carried on ahead of the group. Probably best he stayed a few paces away from them he thought -- that way he could survey the landscape and see what exactly was out and about. He beckoned the others into a small cave -- a natural tunnel of land that carried on for a while. All was silent, save for his almost unnoticable footsteps and the squishing sound of odd creatures, spherical, and eyeless leeches pottering around the tunnel's damp floor.

Finally, they came out to an enormous body of water with lilypads actually forming a path through it. It was the source of all of the stinking fog so prevailant in the Mire, and the fog rose from it in a heavy, continuous flow. surrounding the lilypads were Jnuns, the creatures the Immortal had spoke of before. Enormous lumps of rotting flesh -- with no eyes, no limbs, merely what passed for a head. (Though more accurately, a lump of flesh upon the bigger lump that formed their bodies) The smell of the creatures and the marsh was almost unbearable, but their lack of movement suggested they were sleeping.

Not waking them was the highest priority.

Finally he spoke, voice little more than a whisper. The look in his eyes suggested to the others, should they choose to respond, to do so in the same manner.

" This is the Deadmist Marsh. We need to cross the lilypads to get to the other side. The staging point should be a short walk from the bank. Do not fear. The pads can easily hold our combined weight. They will not drift, and they will not sink. But.."

Well, they wouldn't drift for a reason. He didn't want Eiko to see that reason.

"Eiko." he asked, moving to one knee and looking at the girl. "...It would feel safer if I carried you.." One reason was behind that. The marsh was full of preserved bodies from two hundred years past. She was doing her best to be brave, but something told him she probably wouldn't be... Not when she saw the corpses of the Empire's soldiers staring up at her - and of course the Ephramadian citizens which the Empire's soldiers had slain as they'd ran from them back then. Some of the bodies in there were of children even younger than her.

[rughadjeen.livejournal.com]

Rughadjeen had watched the imp as it was impaled to the ground, still keeping his gaze on it as they walked passed and only looked away when it was no longer visible. He never dreamed of the Mire...of anywhere cropping up here in Gaia. Not any place from his own world, not a place he knew well enough to try stay away from.

his hand remained on the algol even as they walked through the tunnel, not quite free, but easy to manoeuvre so it would be should they run into anything else. The Elvaan had to use his other hand to cover over his mouth and nose as they came closer to the water and as the stench grew worse. his stomach churned and threatened to heave any moment but he willed himself to keep it down. Taking deep breaths was out of the question.

The sight of the Jnun didn't exactly help matters but he kept on higher alert in case one should wake. He wouldn't have felt as cautious if they hadn't been a child with them, but since there was he couldn't help but snap his head in the direction of almost every sound.

"You're sure they won't wake if we keep as silent as we can?"

Rughadjeen didn't trust anything out here, even if it was said to be asleep. This was not friendly or altogether familiar land. He shook his head, looking over their small group and frowned.

"Let's just get past this area and to the staging point."

[unsentmonk.livejournal.com]

Auron's collar was high but it did not protect him from that horrid stench that filled the air. What the hell was this place? It was beyond just a mere threat now, it was a persistent and visible danger. He kept close to Eiko, making sure she did not fall behind and followed his footsteps as closely as she could.

"Even silence has its price," he grunted. For in silence they could hear all and grow incessantly paranoid at the slightest of things, overreacting and causing excessive movement. He kept his sword low and his one good eye on high alert. In this place it seemed even the smallest fiend was extremely dangerous.

[chaos-vessel.livejournal.com]

Vincent caught Rishfee's glance, and paused for a moment to examine the still-moving imp himself. The invasion of opponents had been prevented, at least, and if the creature could not attack them, there was little point in continuing to pay attention to it. Still, it was slightly disturbing to see it still moving.

The collar of his cloak served a partial mask to the smell as they moved deeper through the Mire, but it couldn't block it completely. Still, Vincent was determined to ignore the odor, so that he could keep his hand on the bow. It would keep him from once again reaching for his gun in a fight.

"Then we move quickly." he said, in response to both Rughadjeen and Auron.

[immortal-lion.livejournal.com]

Exactly that. Rishfee for one would have felt far more secure paranoid, than torn to little bits and joining what else was down there by the Jnun. He resisted the urge to sigh and collected the little girl into his arms, positioning her just so, making it difficult to for her to see what lurked below. Normally, he would have said something comforting. Something to apologize for not treating her as anything but an adult and normally some means of bribe to make it up to her later. But he was not himself.

Not being himself didn't mean that he treated her as a sack of potatoes, no, nothing like that. He still treated her with the same measure of care and respect in action, just not so with words. And, he was first to step unto the lilies which were the only way across the marsh. He tilted his head back to address the others. "As you can see, the fog is thick. Do not fall behind. If you fall in, you will be left behind. It will be impossible to get you out before the Jnun get you."

...He had to stop himself from looking in the water. As with everything in this horrible place, he wasn't exaggerating at the dangers. But what lay underneath the water, staring up at them was of no danger. They were bodies. Preserved, motionless, and a multitude of them. Some wounded. Some not. Some peaceful. Some contorted beyond all shadow of agony. Some were Imperial soldiers from 200 years ago, entwined with all of the other bodies... and some were the Ephramadian citizens which had attempted to run from the soldiers and genocide. Some were old, some were children. Some were women, clutching bundles of rags that must have once been their children to their chests. But they were all, beyond all shadow of any doubt dead.

They had all fell into the water, and the water had claimed them all. Looking at them was nothing short of upsetting. The waste of life was as sickening as the stench that rose from the pool.

Finally, Rishfee came to the other side and lightly stepped upon the bank. The staging point was within seeing distance now - just a straight walk on..

[rughadjeen.livejournal.com]

Rughadjeen followed on to the lilies. His stomach churning from the pungent smell the met them all and his awareness high from the fog. He could see Rishfee in front of him, could hear, only just though, those behind. The actual lily pad could be seen but only where the fog was disturbed by their feet. Rughadjeen almost faltered, almost stumbled back and if he had, it was a sure thing he would have fallen in to the water.

His gaze had wandered to the water, peering to see as he walked along side it. A mistake. He saw what lay under the surface and he was shocked, upset and yet oddly fixed upon the site. As if it were something forbidden and he had just been allowed to glimpse it. It was horrible, it was disturbing and he had to force himself to look away after a few moments. His stomach churned with more than just the smell and he felt a great sense of loss at seeing Imperials as well as the others.

The general picked up his pace, reaching the other side and refusing to look back. That was one sight above all he had seen before, that would stay with him for life.

[lastsummoner.livejournal.com]

"It smells here," Eiko grumped. She was trying to be quiet, really she was but it was just so gross here! Fortunately she couldn't see what held the lilies up and was content to ride on Rishfee's shoulders. It made this something more of an adventure than a nasty mire crawl. Mostly. She was thinking it was really not fair that someplace so icky would be the somewhere from Rishfee's world that showed up.

Uncertain and crabby as she was, she hugged his head, as much for herself as for him. Holding on for dear life became vital as he explained the dangers of the water and she glanced over her shoulder just to make sure the rest were okay still.