Fantasy ETH: [IC] The Last War of All Things Comprehensible

[RandomBlobMan]

Spoiler: River Heart

Not so long after his visit to the heroes, the Sage sent out letters of invitation. The letter arrived without messenger, however- simply apparating in front of them. They all contained the same information- a place. Eel's Nest, of the River Heart region, resting in Serpent's End.
The letter was written in pitch black ink, in a rather messy handwriting just good enough to distinguish from a drunk man's doodling. While there was no statement requesting to come quickly, the messy handwriting seemed to hurry the heroes over any other business in hand.

Eel's Nest was a cave up in the mountains of River Heart, its mouth resting among the trees and shrubbery growing among the rocks. Local folks tell tales of heroes and daredevils testing their might and luck, never to return. While the mountains are now free of even the prickliest spirits, people still fear to tread too deep, and never near the Eel's Nest. This was where the sage gathered the heroes at.



Unnatural, almost taunting darkness looms at the entrance while the sage awaits.
In a robe hiding him from head to toe, the hood creating shadow over his face, tapping on the ground gently.

 

[Ayama]

-> cover

post

Location: Eel's Nest

With: Some bearded weirdo

Mood: Intrigued

"Go for the glory before you're gone."

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  Mariana de Asal

  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
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  Mariana De Asal

  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  

  
  

  There was nothing like the feeling of flying. The wind on your face, in your hair, stinging your eyes, making them water, half-blinding you as you try to fight a sea monster one-handed...
  
  Okay, let's back up. It had been a regular, ordinary day, just like any other in the Flesh and Bones of the Killers:
  
  Wake up, stretch, grab some breakfast, hug your parents, hug your siblings, go out and see which one of you can bring home the most glory today.
  
  That day, Mariana decided to challenge herself, and picked a cave, where her usual advantages of flight + giant scythe would be negated.
  
  Apparently, there was some big worm terrifying the cave goblins. No, not a Great Wyrm- those hadn't been seen in centuries; but still.
  
  She stepped forward and peered into the blackness, her nightvision revealing little of interest: just an empty cave, rock walls, dripping with cave sweat, dead goblin bodies littering the floor, bones crunching underfoot, covered in slime- clearly the leftovers of a messy digestive process.
  
  She stepped further into the cavern, armed with nothing but her fists, as her bow would have made maneuvering in the tight space awkward and problematic. The deeper she went, the more bones and slime she found, and the more pungent the odor of rotting flesh became.
  
  Eventually, the space widened out into a larger cavern, where the giant worm was curled up on itself like a dragon, fast asleep and snoring loudly.
  
  Huh, I didn't know worms could snore, Mariana thought to herself. Ah well, learn something every day.
  
  The size of the cavern meant that the disadvantage she'd meant to give herself was now gone so, with a battle cry loud enough to wake the dead, she launched herself up towards the ceiling and materialized her greatscythe.
  
  The worm was not happy about being woken from its digestive nap, and, with a great gnashing of hungry jaws, rose up to its full height, trying to snap her up and crunch her into more tasty flesh and bones.
  
  The Abyssal swung her scythe in a great ark, and sliced off the worm's head. Its slimy, writhing body dropped back down to the cavern floor, squirming and wriggling all over the place. Mariana was drenched in acidic fluid, which, while not strong enough to eat through her magically reinforced skin, was nevertheless potent enough to make quick work of her clothes.
  
  Hovering above the cavern ceiling and the worm's dying body, naked except for her scythe and magical belt, she wondered what her family would say if they could see her- a thought driven from her mind the moment some transparent, bearded weirdo appeared in the air hovering in front of her.
  
  Completely oblivious to the awkwardness of the moment, he proceeded to explain that he had found a way to end the War, and she had been selected as one of the heroes who would help bring his plan to fruition. Before she could ask any follow-up questions, the weirdo had vanished into thin air again.
  
  Huh, well this day is certainly turning out to be more interesting than I figured it would be, she thought as she exited the cave, showing about as much concern for her lack of clothing as she had for the Sage's mysterious appearance.
  
  "Killed the worm!", she called as she walked through the door, just in case any of her family were around to hear it. Rummaging around in her closet for a new set of clothes, she wondered if the bearded man's appearance had been some sort of prank by one of them.
  
  If so, it was a damn good one, as now a letter appeared hovering in front of her, written in a messy, anxious scrawl urging her to meet at Eel's Nest.
  
  She considered the bizarre request for a moment while pulling a shirt over her head then, making the decision as suddenly and thoughtlessly as she made most decisions, she turned over the letter and scrawled in big, blocky letters GONE TO SAVE WORLD- BE BACK SOON.
  
  Leaving the note on the kitchen table, she grabbed her bow on the way out the door, and shot up into the sky again.
  
  This brings us back to the sea monster, and fighting it one-handed with wind-impaired vision (which was just a way of making the task more challenging and of passing the time as she flew across the sea to Serpent's End).
  
  When she landed in the designated place, she chuckled dryly at the sight of the yawning maw of another open cavern, this one apparently containing a darkness so impenetrable that even her nightvision could not pierce its veil.
  
  At the cavern's entrance stood the mysterious weirdo, robed from head to toe so as to be extra weird and mysterious and tapping his foot on the ground as though peevishly impatient.
  
  Rolling her eyes at the theatrics, Mariana stepped forward and held out a marble-like hand, large grin plastered on her youthful face.
  
  "So, are you gonna tell us what this mysterious plan is all about, or did you make some shady deal to try to trick us into becoming sacrifices to some dark god you worship in exchange for eldritch power?" she casually asked, using the word 'us' in the assumption that others would soon be joining the party, and expectantly looking around for them to see how she would measure up.

  
  

  
  
  
  

  
  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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• -personality-
• -backstory-
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The Cursed Abyssal

♡design by neon reverie, coded by uxie♡

 

[Soviet Panda]

Adric the Ancient
Flesh and Bones of the Killers​

Who knew how long Adric had been wandering the wind blasted, snow covered wastes of the Flesh and Bones. The quarry he had elected to hunt had proven more elusive than he had anticipated. It was using every small fold in the land to hide in, and was even now stalking him. He could feel it's eyes upon him, all six of them, analyzing him, looking for a soft spot in his metallic shell that it could sing any one of it's razor sharp claws into. He could hear it's spines rattling, a psychological aspect to it's hunting, terrify the prey and drive it into a panic so it would more likely make a mistake. But Adric was a seasoned huntsman, and the noise, like dozens of bones shaking against one another, barely even elicited a twitch of the eye, and even that was more in frustration at not finding the beast.

But there was no point in getting upset, it would come for him, they always did. And so he stood motionless, his red fur cloak billowing about him, heedless of the cold of his native lands. He stood like that for hours, would have stood for days if necessary, but it only took until nightfall for the beast to make it's move. With a deep, guttural roar it leaped at him from behind. In one fluid motion, Adric drew Winter's Thorn, and cleanly sliced the thing in two. The two halves of it's carcass flew to either side of him, carried by their momentum, and blood slicked his armor, hissing softly on the little flesh it wormed it's way onto. After all that, the fight was ended in one fell swoop.

It was as he was gutting and skinning the creature that the old man, older than even he if Adric were to guess, appeared. He did not get close, merely stood at a safe and respectful distance, cloak shrouding his features as he held it close against the biting wind of the monster infested lands. "You, you will do." He said to him, before explaining in no uncertain terms that Adric was to assist the man in ending the endless War. Adric snorted and looked away, working his knife to dislodge a particularly stubborn patch of skin, and opened his mouth to reply. But by the time he looked back up, the man had vanished.

"How peculiar," he decided to say anyways, after all he had been planning on speaking. What difference did it make if he was heard or not? And when he returned to the tribe that had offered a reward for the creature, he found a note in his lodging. It to, explained in no uncertain terms that he would assist the strange old man in helping him end the War. However, this time it told him where to go. Adric had absolutely no intention of going, initially, however, the tribe had no more beasts immediately to hand that they themselves could not handle. This left Adric with nothing to do, except go to this Eel's Nest found near the River Heart in Serpent's End. So, he started walking.

Serpent's End, River Heart, Eel's Nest​

It had taken him days to arrive at the described location, the writing on the letter had started to fade and sun bleach before he saw the unnaturally dark cave. And the two people that were already there. One was immediately recognizable, for he was the Sage that had called upon him. The other, however, he did not know.

"Hale be thou," he shouted in the Old Tongue, even going as far as raising an arm to make sure none of them thought he was sneaking up on them. It was a simple greeting, a hello in the common languages of the lands. It was a more formal greeting, one said between chieftains or kings. One he hoped they would recognize and not try anything with him. Winter's Thorn had not dulled in the slightest during his journey here, and neither had his form.

 

[RandomBlobMan]

Mariana, Abyssal. Should they have gathered at a public place, she would've gotten quite an amount of attention from passerbys. Sights of such "modifications" were rare out of the Flesh and Bones, even treated as a crime against humanity in some regions. Of course, this mysterious sage was not surprised. Just like when they first met, he simply acknowledged her. His posture hardly changed, only turning his head toward her. The ignorance of her peculiarity almost resembled a stubborn child.

"Even the darkest gods would not dare pull a trickery in times like these."
The sage, shrouded in cloth, answered Mariana's question nonchalantly. It was almost as if he scoffed at the Abyssal's assumption from his tone. While the hero reached out her hand for a shake, there was nothing coming in return. The sage instead waved off her offer. Instead, he turned his head around, seemingly looking for a glimpse of others that were to arrive there.
"Trading handshakes is not a leisure we can take at this point of events."
Was all he said. What came from him afterward was silence. Occasional chirps of birds or insects filled the blank instead. There was an easy giveaway of impatience as the sage continued to turn his head left and right, slowly searching for any signs of more company.

Fortunately for the two, someone else arrived at the cave entrance not so long after. Adric, a man lost in time, and now an assistant to the sage's mysterious plan. In their first encounter, Adric showed the sage a display of skill and strength, formidable without a doubt.
"Good, you're here."
The sage finally moved more than his head. His arms rose from rest to spread out wide at the two champions.
"That makes the two of you."
For a short moment, it stayed up before falling back down.

Ayama Soviet Panda