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Post by Lady Astrid Stormstone on May 29, 2023 19:35:15 GMT -5
After several attempts to get in and much determination, Cantio von Lumen is finally a member of the Mage’s Guild. It’s no surprise, of course. Many people had full confidence in his abilities – well, everyone except Cantio himself, but it’s no matter now! He’s in along with Astrid and Blue Raspberry, Kamille and Bellighul, and a handful of friends and acquaintances. It’s a real party in the guild now, and Astrid couldn’t be happier to have a source to create shared adventuring experiences with people she cares about. Shortly after getting into the guild, Astrid and Blue made trouble for an underground black market in Sol City who were auctioning off bodies stolen from the Guild’s catacombs, and with the efforts of other guild members, the bodies have almost all been recovered. However, something more troubling came up during the investigation: other bodies across Charon have been stolen and used in some sort of experiments, and it’s up to the guild to figure out why. It’s really quite a gruesome situation, one probably much too dark for a twelve-year-old and her squeamish father to handle together, but Astrid’s enthusiasm to be on her first real adventure with her dad has blinded her to the possibilities of what they’ll face. Just like when she’s with Blue, she’s fully confident they can deal with whatever they come across trekking through the swamps. Besides, she might be able to show Cantio the orphanage where they met Melodia! The strange thing is the orphanage had a secret underground area that had long since flooded, and living beneath it seemed to be some sort of magical tree that used dead and bloated bodies as its puppets. Astrid hopes that the experiments in the swamp don’t have anything to do with that because honestly, it was pretty gross. To be fair, the swamp itself is pretty gross, but this doesn’t stop Astrid from confidently stomping through the muck. No wonder her clothes are so hard to clean when she comes home. How does the mud not get into her boots? Doesn’t it give her blisters? “Da, I told ya not ta wear nothin’ nice out here,” she says at one point while pulling a stuck foot free of the goop. “Adventurin’s messy business.”Whether or not she does get blisters, Astrid doesn’t seem to mind. What she does mind is the fact that they haven’t found any clues to the whereabouts of these supposed scientists. Wouldn’t they want to work somewhere nicer like in the middle of a town or something? The people in Lilicors said there were a few interesting people who set up shop a few miles out into the swamp, and they stopped sending local militia to check on them because people stopped coming back. This didn’t deter Astrid, of course. She’s a bonafide adventurer here to help! So here they are in the middle of the swamp hoping to find something of note – preferably not a hydra or Slaad. A while ago, Astrid mustered up the magic to summon Melodia to help scout. With how long she’s been gone, it’s a surprise she hasn’t found anything. The half-dwarf pauses on a drier patch of land to avoid sinking into the muck while she focuses on the magic keeping Melodia around. The bond is still strong, so it doesn’t seem like anything has happened to her. Still, that doesn’t stop Astrid from worrying, mostly with a furrowed brow to avoid causing much concern to Cantio. Finally, Melodia comes back into view, floating over the murky waters and through the twisted trees as she approaches. Astrid perks up when she sees her, waving her down. “I was wonderin’ where ya were,” she says playfully. “Didja find anythin’? I tried flyin’ overhead, but the trees are too thick ta see anythin’ well, an’ I didn’t wanna leave da ta sully his boots alone.”“The swamp has quite a lot of water to cover, you know,” Melodia quips in return. A gentle breeze pulls at the vines hanging from the trees, and strands of Melodia’s hair seem to sway in tandem with them as she offers Astrid and Cantio each a smile, glad to see neither of them are too out of sorts despite the journey. There is, of course, a particular fondness in the smile she offers Cantio, a different kind than her smiles for Astrid. When she realizes it, she starts explaining what she found. “I think I spotted something interesting, however.” Motioning in the direction she came from, Melodia continues, “There are some strange creatures in that direction. They seem to be patrolling around some ruins.”Astrid’s seen Melodia and Cantio exchanging what she would describe as a mix of awkward and fond glances plenty of times. She always takes note of them. That makes Kamille and Bellighul, Morrigan and Kvasir, and Del and Cyran all making specific faces thinking about their respective or prospective partner. If there’s one thing Astrid can identify at this point, it’s when someone’s avoiding saying something that should be obvious. But that’s beside the point. Swamp ruins. Right. “What makes ‘em strange?” Astrid asks, pretending she doesn’t notice the exchanged smiles. “I mean… stranger than all the other stuff in the swamp, anyway.” “Well,” Melodia begins, “they seem… assembled, I suppose is the best way to put it. Exactly as the Guild described.” She seems a bit unsure about it all. It’s a hard thing to put into words, the things she saw wandering around. The best term would really be something akin to ‘flesh golem’ in certain cases. “That sounds like the place we gotta go then!” Astrid proclaims, hands on her hips. Then she turns her grin up to Cantio. “What d’ya say we make an entrance, da?” Stealth is absolutely an option, it’s just one that Astrid isn’t all that good at, though with her connection to Cantio through the earring, she could probably manage if that approach suits him. What she’s thinking can be easily described as ‘flashy, loud, and probably explosive.’ “I’m open ta whatever ideas ya have though!” This is a team effort, but Cantio doesn't get out on wild adventures nearly as much as Astrid does, so she wants him to take some of the lead and make some decisions. If they get into too much of a bind, they have a way to escape if they need it. Somewhere in the distance, the waters of the swamp are disturbed by an unseen serpent beneath the surface as it circles the pair from afar. Before leaving Lilicors, Astrid summoned the metal-headed serpent into the waters to stretch his fins and spend some time free of the confines of a water tank that Veliky somehow managed to have installed in the house without the family’s knowledge.
Call Ghost Bringing Pets: Spicy Pawsage - dreadsnout/hell hound (in pet pocket because he doesn’t like water) Ted (Thebes) - tidal serpent (swimming around in the swamp presently at a distance) Quest Name: The Great Work (Mage's Guild) Participants: Two or more (Only guild members get the reward) Location: Marsh Flats Post Requirements: 6 post per person, 200 words per post Reward: +1 Renown Description: The guild has recovered all of the stolen bodies from the academy, but upon further investigation into who stole them, we have uncovered something far more sinister. It appears as if several different types of doctors and scientist have been working on foul and horrible experiments beneath the swamp. Rumors report that they are stealing bodies from graves all across Charon and are stitching them together. We have no idea why this is, but we need to figure it out. Go in, deal with one of these doctors and uncover any clues that might explain why they are fusing bodies together.
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Post by Cantio von Lumen on Jun 25, 2023 20:53:37 GMT -5
After what feels like eons, Cantio von Lumen finally set foot in the Mage’s Guild; of course, his initiation went off without any kind of commotion. He doesn’t think the higher-ups even recognized his name from his (admittedly, multiple) applications, but that’s fine! Because he’s in the Mage’s Guild with both of his children, in addition to several of his friends, and his very good companion, Morrigan Moonweaver. What could be better than that? The bliss of acceptance didn’t last long, unfortunately; it didn’t take long for Cantio to find himself involved in the backend of an investigation into missing bodies from catacombs all across Charon, which is… real weird, and he doesn’t know what to make of the reports that come in about it… but, he’s here with Astrid, and that in and of itself is enough for him to feel at ease. … The swamp though, the swamp is AWFUL in comparison. “ Astrid, these are practically my everyday clothes,” Cantio objects, holding the tail of his coat in a gathered bunch as he pathetically attempts to pull one of his legs out from the muck. “ If I… had adventuring clothes… I would have brought— Oof!” With a sucking sound, the fellblood succeeds in pulling his leg from the muck— at the cost of flopping onto his rear into the murky water, instead. “ Wuh!” Cantio sighs in defeat, accepting his new mud-laden existence with a reluctant flick of his hands; he stands up and helplessly tries to brush chunks of peat moss from his clothes. “ I don’t know how you do this all the time… no wonder your clothes are so hard to wash.” He sighs dramatically, stepping up onto the slightly drier patch of land, drenched from the waist down. His tail twitches back and forth, rustling a dangling piece of moss that he hasn’t seemed to notice yet. When Melodia comes into view, Cantio offers her a sheepish smile and a wave; he seems a little embarrassed given his state; but Melodia’s warm smile paired with Astrid’s enthusiasm and experience make him feel just a little better about the mission they’re setting forth on and his presence in it.
He tilts his head, warm smile growing softer when Melodia starts to describe strange creatures. “Assembled?” He repeats, murmuring the words; he straightens up when Astrid speaks, laughing warmly over her bright grin about making an entrance. “Uh, well… we could! We could make an entrance; is that the best way to go? Do you think the creatures would even appreciate a grand entrance?” He thinks about it; maybe they could…. Scare them, with a big enough entrance and avoid a fight?
If they put up one.
That would actually be ideal, because Cantio still… isn’t sure he’s ready to fight out here, despite the fact that he... did bring weapons, in the possibility that he must. The thought makes him nervous. “Well,” he clears his throat, holding his chin thoughtfully. "I've got music, and we've got magic... how much of an entrance do you think we could make? Maybe if we make a lot of noise, we could spook them off and slip inside?" He continues to ponder, "Or," he adds, "We could wait on Teddy to catch up, and ride in on them lights a-blazing."
He laughs; this is clearly a joke. Probably.
"I don't know, do adventurers make entrances often? What kind of entrances have you and Blue made?"
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Post by Lady Astrid Stormstone on Jul 2, 2023 16:19:37 GMT -5
“It ain’t all the time,” Astrid insists, turning to help pull Cantio out of the muck and make sure he’s on his feet. “It’s just… lotsa times.” Admittedly, there can be days between Astrid’s attempts to get any of the stains out of her clothes before going home when she’s out and about adventuring. Sometimes, she doesn’t have an opportunity to even make the attempt, so she simply just…doesn’t. It does create a lot of work for Cantio being that Astrid isn’t exactly good at cleaning her clothes, but she somehow does an excellent job making sure that her armor is squeaky clean at every given opportunity.
The swamp though? Yeah, it sucks. Maybe this wasn’t the best place to bring her dad on an adventure.
She listens thoughtfully while Cantio proposes his idea of a grand entrance. Right, he is a performer, so of course he would suggest something flashy and performative, which isn’t exactly what Astrid was thinking, but she’s also willing to give anything a try. “Well, Blue an’ I usually do pretty bad tryna sneak in. Even if we do sneak in, it ends up bein’ a big chaotic fight anyway,” she explains.
Melodia looks exasperated because she has seen one too many of these situations unfold. “Perhaps… you could take a page out of Mister Zarius’ book, dears?” she suggests, her brow twisted just so that it’s only slightly pleading. “We did well infiltrating that Clasp hideout together, taking out the guards before things went a bit astray with the Girallons…” Melodia then looks back in the direction she came. “These creatures… I don’t think they’d enjoy a spectacle, necessarily. They don’t seem smart enough for it. More like lumbering… golems I suppose?”
Astrid thinks about that, her finger tapping her chin and consequently getting mud all over it. “Aye, aye… Take out the guards then sneak inside? I s’pose we could try that. Buuuut I like the idea of ridin’ Ted up and snatchin’ ‘em outta their seats!” Somehow the laugh she lets out sounds devious.
“Perhaps Ted could be a distraction..?” Melodia says, noting that Cantio doesn’t seem all that keen on fighting. Not that he ever has been. Why did he let Astrid convince him to go along with this dangerous mission? Why is she more worried about the adult than the child??
“Ah, good plan! Ted can go cause a ruckus, an’ da an’ I’ll tromp right in ta find the folks doin’ all the experiments!”
Melodia seems… Slightly more okay with that plan. After all, a giant sea serpent in the middle of the swamp would draw quite a lot of attention even from the least intelligent of creatures. “I’ll go have a look at the interior, so I can provide you some directions then,” Melodia says. “Afterwards, I’ll keep an eye on Ted for you.”
A shrill whistle releases from Astrid’s teeth and lips. After a few moments, the water nearby starts to shift and rise as Ted, the big sea serpent that Veliky somehow had a massive aquarium installed in their home to house, emerges from the swamp. Without any warning, Astrid scoops Cantio up and plops the fellblood just behind Ted’s armored head and hops on behind him. The serpent lurches forward through the marsh.
“We’ll ride Ted ‘til we’re closer then hop off when he goes ta have a snack!”
Call Ghost [post 2/3]
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Post by Cantio von Lumen on Jul 4, 2023 16:13:12 GMT -5
Cantio’s tail sways while Astrid explains that her and Blue typically end up in a big chaotic fight; and as their father, it’s always concerning to hear; no matter how many times they tell him the same thing when they come home. At the end of the day, he’s not an adventurer; he’s never really been, despite the phase he had traveling with Tatalia… it certainly gave him a taste of the life and the adrenaline which comes with adventuring, but accepting its consequences was much harder. A scratch on his forearm aches a little at the thought of it. Cantio makes a face when Melodia mentions Zarius; and his expression falls slightly, “ Why would you want to take a page out of any of his books?” He sighs dramatically, “ I mean, of all the people… he probably stole them.” This comment comes a little quietly, and pairs with the snap of Cantio’s fan which covers the bottom half of his face. It’s not that he thinks Zarius is a no-good individual with blackmailing tendencies and possibly a penchant for gang crime, but also it’s hard not to think that after his first encounter with the man turned into a blackmailed heist; and then there’s Zarius’ constant desire to bug him whenever he so much runs across him, and… Cantio has mixed feelings on the fellblood. He did help Astrid, and he did… technically… help him by association, but still! When Melodia describes the creatures as golems, Cantio frowns. “ You said they were made of flesh though, right? Golems usually aren’t…” he trails off, furrowing his brows. He closes his fan and taps it against his chin, “ … Are they?” The thought of a flesh golem disturbs him a little; but at the same time, they are here because of… the experiments that the guild mentioned… He doesn’t love it, and even as Cantio listens between Astrid and Melodia’s conversation with a subtle smile at their back and forth, he feels nervous. Astrid can probably feel it through their connection in their earrings, mixed with apprehension and trepidation. Flesh golems and scientists. After Veliky introduced Astrid and Cantio to their house (still an unbelievable gift from the little tyrantress), the bard practically became a recluse for a short while; he spent a lot of his time at home and less time out on the road save a few different trips. It had partially been because it had just… been so long since Cantio had a place to call home; and the other part had been his desire to focus on certain things: things like cooking, and sewing; or his magic, and his music. It was all things that he hadn’t had time to focus on prior, and things that he wanted to be able to do for his spontaneous new daughter and his new… adult ooze child. There’s nothing that quite warms his heart like Astrid’s smile, or Blue’s goofy laugh. It’s a weird and different family dynamic, one that Cantio genuinely loves; but there’s one thing that he can’t quite relate on. Adventuring. It makes him anxious to see Astrid or Blue in states of exhaustion after long trips; to notice the stains in their clothes, or the new dents in their armour. He’s happy to listen fully to their tales and their stories, but he can’t help but wish he wasn’t such a coward as to not be with them when some of those things happen. He’s not particularly strong, and he’s not particularly smart; but he wants to be better and improve for their sake.
Sure, he could have stayed at the Mage’s Guild and talked with snooty wizards all day; in terms of his belief system, he might have preferred to. But when the opportunity arose to join his daughter on this mission, despite the dangers it might hold; how could he say no to joining her on something it seems like she genuinely loves despite its hardships? “ Teddy it is.” Cantio agrees with a nod of finalization; though, he winces when Astrid releases a shrill whistle. He shakes his head, sticking a finger in one ear as if to physically dislodge the noise before looking out towards the nearby water. He watches as the massive serpent rises from the water, but before he can say anything, his feet leave the ground. “ Wh— Astrid! I can walk!” He bumbles, “ Solaria’s sake, I forget how strong you are someti—” As if to contradict all of his complaints, he nearly falls off Ted as the serpent lurches forwards. Cantio bristles, clinging to Ted’s armour with a nervous laugh, “ Uh! Yep, sounds like a plan! Gosh, was he always this fast??”
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Post by Lady Astrid Stormstone on Aug 5, 2023 20:23:41 GMT -5
“Guess golems can be made of anythin’ ya can carve runes into,” Astrid says surprisingly nonchalantly while Cantio murmurs over the fact that Melodia did deliver some alarming information. As she hoists him up onto Ted behind the serpent’s head, she shouts, “Try not ta think about it too much! Makes it harder ta fight monsters if ya do!”
Admittedly, Astrid has an easier time doing the whole adventuring thing when she doesn’t think too hard about who or what she’s fighting. Sometimes bandits try to kill you, so they deserve to be eaten by an ooze-wolf. Just because some monsters can talk doesn’t also mean that they won’t rip out your innards at the first opportunity. Don’t think about it too much. In a fight, Astrid’s learned to let her body do the thinking. When her head gets in the way, that’s when she tends to get hurt.
As Ted weaves his way through the murky water, Astrid drums her fingers against his scales and hums a menacing little hunting song. “Ba dum. Ba dum. Badum badumbadumbadadadadadadadadDAADAADAAAAA!” The serpent bursts forth from the water, letting out a high pitched roar as it descends upon one of the lumbering, misshapen giants near the ruins. Flesh and bones crunch in his sharp teeth, and a poorly assembled limb loses its stitches and flies into the air, landing in Cantio’s lap with a wet THUD.
“Oh, lookit that,” Astrid says, turning around and picking up the oddly proportioned arm with mismatched skin tones and strange tattoos or scars or something of the like carved into its skin. “Aye, it does have Formulae Arcanum on it. Guess Melodia was right about the flesh golems thin’. We should probably put a stop ta whoever’s usin’ it fer that, eh?” As if the mangled arm with dangling stitches were simply a swamp stick, Astrid tosses it away just as Ted lurches forward to strike at another patrolling golem. “GET ‘EM, TED!”
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Post by Cantio von Lumen on Aug 7, 2023 21:42:42 GMT -5
There’s a nervous twitch in Cantio’s fingertips.
Try not ta think about it too much! Makes it harder ta fight monsters if ya do!
Something about that phrase tweaks his chest; it’s a small sensation, and at first, he doesn’t know how to answer it. In fact, he doesn’t have the time to; but before Ted lurches through the murky water, the tiniest blip of a, ‘That can’t be a good way for her to think at this age…’ surfaces in his mind.
And just like that, it’s gone: replaced instead by sheer terror as Ted blasts through the bog almost as fast as Blue and Astrid respond to the phrase of ‘dinner’s ready’.
Cantio gasps, practically ricocheting off of Astrid and ultimately clinging to Ted like a frightened cat after flapping his arms wildly for a moment. He clings, scrabbling at the snake’s scales. “O-okay, Astrid!? Maybe ask Ted to slow it down a little!? It’s a marathon, not a race!” He suggests with a nervous, high-pitched laugh that is actually a little more of a scream.
He finds a hold, wincing as Ted weaves around the bog debris, occasionally bumping Cantio and his mask into the back of the serpent’s head. He’s a little too overwhelmed to process, or even speak. What is that Astrid’s humming behind him? It’s pretty catchy aAAAAAAAH OH GOD IS THAT AN ARM? HOLY SHIT IT’S AN ARM. SWEET MERCIFUL MOTHER OF SOLARIA THAT’S A FUCKING ARM OH GODS ABOVE—
Cantio instantly comes to life, tossing the arm with every ounce of strength off of him with a shocked yelp; only for it to land less than four feet away, right behind Astrid, for he has the upper body strength of a stick-bug. “Astrid!!” He squeaks, the tone of his voice still panicked, “Don’t touch that, you don’t know where it’s been!”
That is an arm!! A person’s arm!! Who knows what horrible warcrimes that particular arm has committed!? What if it has the plague!? Or any number of weird, arm-related diseases!? What if it's cursed!? However, despite Cantio’s yipping and yelping, Astrid examines the arm and tosses it aside as if this is… normal. An arm. A whole arm.
It’s not a big deal?
Cantio is utterly baffled, a confusing sense of something being wrong; or nothing being wrong; washes over him. Is he being dramatic? Or is Astrid just—
—used to this?
Cantio nearly drops like a sack of potatoes lurches forwards to strike at another patrolling golem; he makes a strangled squawking sound as limbs explode from the jaws of the behemoth serpent, and he clings back to Ted's neck. Astrid has seen so much in comparison to himself; she’s gone through so much, and he is so proud of her—
—but sometimes, he really worries for her.
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Post by Lady Astrid Stormstone on Aug 8, 2023 18:04:56 GMT -5
“What do ya mean ‘don’t touch that’?” Astrid asks, waving the arm as she asks. “I know rightly where it came from! That guy over there...and there... and there. He's in pieces, ain't he..? Ah well, ain’t like it’s covered in blood or nothin’. It’s just an arm. Ya got two of ‘em yerself! Just be glad it ain’t one of yers!” Tossing it away, she grips Ted as he lunges forward to attack. The other frankenstein creature doesn’t last long against the might of a sea serpent, and while Ted crunches on bones and stiff flesh, Astrid notices Melodia’s blue glow beckoning to them from a closed door leading into the ruins.
“Ah, there’s Ma– Melodia! C’mon, da!”
With that, she grabs Cantio by the waist and leaps off of Ted, but rather than plummeting into the muck below, Astrid’s feet find their purchase in the very air itself, and she galivants through the air to the stone floor near Melodia (despite any shouts of protect her father may have). When she lands, she sets him down on his feet and dusts him off as if that will do anything at all.
“Ya were right about the, bein' flesh golems,” Astrid says chipperly.
“That was… the best way I could describe them,” Melodia admits.
“Nah, it was actually perfect! They got magic runes all over ‘em! Pretty apt if I do say so meself.”
Melodia exchanges a concerned look with Cantio before clearing her throat and continuing. “Right, so since they’re distracted, now seems to be a good opportunity to go inside. Unfortunately, the door is locked.”
“No problem!” Astrid says. Somehow, despite having ridiculous strength, the last thing anyone might expect Astrid to be able to do is simply punch through a door, but this is what she does. Her muscles must be rippling under her clothes because without much trouble, her fist smashes right through the door, and she reaches around to unlock it and open it. With a flourish, she bows and motions to Cantio. “After ya.”
Call ghost [post 1/3] Step of the Wind Baloth Muscles
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Post by Cantio von Lumen on Aug 26, 2023 19:12:09 GMT -5
“ Astrid!” Cantio proceeds to gasp; he reaches out as if to take the arm from her, but doesn’t go through with it, out of the fact that she is waving around an arm and it is, in fact, an arm. He withdraws, clasping at Ted for support as the serpent slams into the other flesh golem. Cantio winces. “ Well, yes, but— that’s not what I mean!” He objects; he does his best to tune out the sounds of crunching from Ted. His confidence in himself is faltering just a bit. Is this… really what Astrid does all the time? She treated that arm as if it were only a branch; and yet, he can’t help but wonder to whom it belonged, and under what horrific circumstances they might have perished to end up here. He just hopes that they were, in fact, truly dead when this whole thing occurred… “ Huh? Wh—” Cantio flails his arms, stunned, when Astrid suddenly picks him up. “ H-hold on, I can walk— oh, well maybe not like that…” Cantio withdraws, pulling his knees closer to himself when he realizes Astrid isn’t even walking on the ground; he trusts her not to drop him, but that doesn’t mean he’s any less fond of the height at which he’s being held. He turns his eyes away from Ted while the serpent crunches on one of the flesh golems with a slight grimace. When Astrid finally sets him down, he reaches out to straighten the collar of Astrid’s cloak while she dusts him off. He gives her a once over, ensuring that she is okay— and she is— as chipper as ever, even. He’s not sure it makes him feel better, but he smiles weakly as Astrid chatters about the magical properties of the golems outside. He looks towards Melodia, his expression concerned, before he looks back at— “ Astrid, be careful—!” CRACK.Cantio startles, staring at the hole left behind when she pulls her arm from the door. He blinks a few times, looking to Astrid as she bows and motions him through the door; and although he does technically step through the doorframe after her motion— it’s more so that he can gently take Astrid’s extended arm on the other side.
He brushes remnants of the door off her armour.
“Goodness, is your arm okay? Do you really do that often?”
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Post by Lady Astrid Stormstone on Aug 31, 2023 21:35:59 GMT -5
As frantic and panicky as Cantio has been about the whole situation, Astrid starts thinking that maybe a trip into the swamp to investigate stolen bodies wasn’t exactly the best trip to ease him back into adventuring. Well, better to rip the bandage off! If he gets through the toughest stuff first, everything else will be like a cakewalk to him!
He can barely get the warning out of his mouth before she finds her hand punched through a new hole in the door and her arm outreached into the darkness. “What’s that?” she asks as she turns the knob from the inside and lets them in.
While her da brushes her arm and shoulder off of all the splintered wood, she helps. His hands are delicate things after all. “Aye, me arm’s fine,” she says as chipperly as ever. “Probably better than whoever lost their arm ta that weird flesh creature, anyway.” That probably isn’t the best joke to make, but it’s too late – it’s left her mouth. “Ah, I don’t do that all that often, but I figure this is a cruddy place in a swamp, an’ we’re here ta fight some bad guys, so who cares if we break their stuff? Ain’t here ta make friends with folks who turn dead people into monsters.”
The irony of her grandfather’s necromantic escapades goes way over her head.
“Anyhow, let’s go inside! Lead the way, Melodia!”
This is not Melodia’s first rodeo. She exchanges a look with Cantio, one that says that things are fine and that he’s in safe hands with Astrid, then she floats ahead and down into the darkness.
“Ah, it’s dark down here, da,” Astrid says, tromping down the quite slippery stairs. “Hold on ta me shoulder so ya don’t take a tumble.”
Call Ghost [post 2/3] Night Vision
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Post by Cantio von Lumen on Oct 16, 2023 17:42:07 GMT -5
Cantio frowns, still brushing splinters from Astrid’s armour as she mentions the flesh creatures outside. “Well… I mean…” Cantio trails off, but he can’t really come up with any kind of affirmation or denial to that stance. Like, gods above, those flesh golems are fucked up to so many degrees that Cantio can barely process what he has seen.
“I suppose so.” He agrees, pulling his hands back when he’s content with the lack of wood chips and splinters that have showered over Astrid after her brawl with an innocent door… but the phrase ‘fight some bad guys’ sits heavy in his chest. Still, Cantio smiles, because that’s what he’s good at, even when he has too many thoughts. He shares a glance with Melodia before watching the ghost vanish into the darkness below; with a deep breath to calm his nerves, he follows after Astrid.
“I’m sure it’s fine, Astrid.” Cantio remarks, with far too much confidence for a man with chicken legs like his. Still, he reaches for her shoulder as he conjures together a small finch in his opposite hand; it glows softly, twittering silently in his palm. (1. Light) Karma is a cruel mistress for the distracted; and so, before Cantio can steady himself, he nearly takes a tumble down an unforeseen number of stairs when the crevice of his heel scrapes past the edge of a stair. The fellblood is so stunned that whatever sound he tries to make doesn’t successfully make sound as the stairs disappear from beneath him; and luckily, he only thuds ungracefully down a few stairs before making a recovery. (2. Cat’s (Lack of) Grace) Cantio stands stock still, awkwardly poised as he gathers his shaken braincells back together; he is a deer in lantern lights for a moment. Then, he looks back up towards the top of the stairs; the finch did not come with him, instead, fluttering close to Astrid.
“… In hindsight, these were perhaps not the best choice of shoes for this mission.”
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Post by Lady Astrid Stormstone on Oct 17, 2023 23:55:39 GMT -5
“Honestly, this ain’t that bad so far,” Astrid says in some attempt to be reassuring. She does not consider that Cantio would not find this reassuring at all because in all honesty, things are pretty messed up. But so is fighting a god and realizing that the rest of them have been dead for centuries. Best not to dwell. “We’ll make it quick as we can! Then I’ll take ya ta this place gran showed me an’ get yer feet all massaged an’ whatnot!”
With no lack of confidence, Astrid descends the stairs, aided by the light of Cantio’s magical finch. What bothers her is that it’s slippery and he’s not holding on to her–
And there he goes.
Astrid teleports in front of him to brace him and keep him from going any farther, but he manages to recover. That is honestly more than she expected of him, so she’s happy to see he didn’t totally biff it in the dark corridor. Still… Wordlessly, she squats down and looks at his shoes. The heels will most assuredly clack as loudly as she clanks if he’s not careful, but more importantly he will trip over something if he’s not careful (and he would even if he were). So she doesn’t need to agree with him when he says they were a poor choice, he can see it on her expression when she looks up at him.
She told him fashion takes a back seat to practicality when adventuring. All of her own gear is terribly mismatched, but it is effective at protecting her, and until she makes the perfect suit of armor to encapsulate all the special gear she has, it will stay that way. Luckily, Astrid saw this coming. She just needed an “I told ya so” moment, and she certainly got one. Reaching into her bag, Astrid produces an ugly but effective pair of traveling boots in Cantio’s size, something she picked up before dragging him along. They’re even tall enough to keep most of the water out so long as the water doesn’t reach the knees.
“Here, da,” she says simply. “Put ‘em on before we go any far–”
There’s a groan from the far end of the hall, deep in the darkness. Astrid quickly stands and turns around. The light from the finch barely reaches the creature, a misshapen blob of a humanoid in the corridor. Of course there would be patrols inside the facility. If they’re as smart stupid as the creatures outside, this won’t be a problem.
Pulling her goggles over her eyes, watches the creature approach. “Put yer new shoes on, da, I got this,” she says before her impossibly heavy war hammer manifests in her hand with a cold mist emanating from its surface. Lightning crackles along Astrid’s forearms and into the hammer, and she dashes down the hall and strikes the flesh golem in the chest. There’s a snapping of bones then a loud bang as it’s sent flying back into the wall. The bricks falter behind the weight and cracks start to form in the wall.
“Whoops,” Astrid says simply as if she did not just reduce the structural integrity of the whole building. “It’ll be fine if it ain’t load-bearin’.”
There's a creaking of the building around them.
Blink - displacer cloak Night Vision War hammer - pale ice, heavy, spellblade bond (lightning) Bullet dash
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Post by Cantio von Lumen on Nov 9, 2023 14:43:33 GMT -5
When Cantio turns, he expects to see Astrid. To his surprise, he does not; instead, the finch flutters by its lonesome. It quietly descends the stairs to catch up to him, unhurried by its masters’ collapse. He frowns, turning quickly, at the starts of a panic to search for his daughter; and then he finds her immediately behind him. He nearly chokes on his own breath in the gasp that follows, “ Heavens—!” Cantio clasps a hand over his chest, the other on Astrid’s shoulder to stabilize her, but mostly himself. “ You’re so fast. I will never get used to that.” He laughs sheepishly. He’s very proud of Astrid; her ability to use the magic she’s garnered is a beautiful thing; and Cantio is privileged to have been able to watch her step by step between her journeys… it’s just that sometimes he forgets exactly what she can do until she does it. Despite his fluttering heart, Cantio is about to release Astrid’s shoulder and continue down the stairs when she pulls out some of the ugliest clodhoppers that he has ever seen from her bag. “ Wh… what are those?” He asks, the complete lack of enthusiasm flattening his typically melodic voice. “ They look like hippo’s feet.” These boots have about as much style as a saltine cracker. “ Have you been carrying these around this whole time?” Practical, sure; but not pleasing to the eye; and Cantio is… a bit extra. He still reaches out to take them, though, because Astrid is right— and she did tell him to bring actual shoes— but what is the price of fashion if not pain? Or, something like that. He’s pretty sure a designer probably said that at some point after fashionably twisting their ankle in an ancient ruin somewhere. No sooner does the shoe-exchange occur, does Cantio hear a groan from the far end of the hall. He perks up, tail beginning to swish back and forth nervously, as he realizes there’s…. Something... at the end of the hall… he can’t see it very well. Before he can say or do anything, Astrid’s pulling down her goggles. “ Huh? Wait— Astrid!” Cantio tries to step after her, but she’s already gone; a crackle of lightning amongst the dark clouds of a storm. Flustered, Cantio has little choice but to actually follow along as quickly as possible; donning the unflattering clodhoppers, and cramming his less practical shoes into his bag haphazardly, before rushing down the stairs after his daughter. … Huh. These work really well, actually. They can actually grip the horrible, slimy staircase. “ Astrid!” BANG. Cantio wobbles towards the bottom of the stairs after Astrid cracks the weird creature into the wall; he pulls a folded umbrella from his back without stopping; and opens it above his and Astrid’s head as the building begins to groan and creak. (1) He winces as a couple of ‘pings’ and a single loud ‘TONG’ from debris falling above crack against the top of the steel umbrella, and roll to either side of them. And… then it calms. “ Maybe, let’s… try to avoid hitting the walls, yeah? This place is older than religion itself… uglier than it, too.” Cantio shakes pebbles off of his umbrella, before looking at the creature stuck in the wall. “ Are you okay?” He asks Astrid, turning to her worriedly. “ We should go, before that thing… um… stops being part of the possibly load bearing wall.” He folds his umbrella back up, and looks at the ceiling. It seems… okay, for now; and Astrid looks like she’s put the thing in the wall out of commission. Poor horrible, ugly blob creature.
He grimaces slightly at it before looking around the darkness at the bottom of the stairs. "Could you..." he makes a gesture at the finch, still following them; and it begins to brighten, lighting up the downstairs for them. (2)
(1.) Umbrella Combo (2.) Control Light
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Post by Lady Astrid Stormstone on Nov 12, 2023 21:53:15 GMT -5
There’s a certain amount of glee that wells up in Astrid’s chest. She quite likes surpassing people’s expectations, and with Cantio, it’s never anything that comes across negative. In fact, she tones it down quite a lot around him to keep him from worrying (and also to keep from startling him when they’re at home). She can feel the pride resonating through the connection in the earrings and beams up at him, even if it’s hard to make out in the darkness.
Then she feels the dread. The shock. The utter… No, dread is the right word. He hates them. It’s obvious. If she wanted him to like them, she would tell him that she's the one who made them, but she didn't, and she wouldn't lie about something as silly as that. The boots are not pretty, they’re functional, and that is significantly more important in a situation like this.
“Aye, I’ve had ‘em the whole time. I knew ya weren’t gonna pack ‘em, so I did,” she says simply. Urging the boots toward him, she follows up, this time with a furrowed brow and an equally flat tone, “I don’t know what a hippo is, da.”
"Eh? Uh... Well, it's like..." He makes some generous gestures with his hands, trying to somehow summon forth the essence of hippo through doing so; but ultimately, he cannot explain hippo, so he just gestures at the shoes.
Astrid looks at the boots in her hands with a quizzical expression then looks at Cantio for further explanation. "These are boots, da."
"Boots for a hippo," Cantio answers matter-of-factly.
Once again, Astrid looks between Cantio and the boots, and with an equally matter-of-fact tone says, "So yer a hippo then. Put 'em on!" And shoves them into his arms.
Then before he can really react, she disappears down the hall in a burst of electricity, followed by a loud thud and crack. Now that he’s in better shoes, he makes it to her side quickly and protects them both from a rain of debris. “I’m fine,” she says chipperly, resting her hammer across her shoulders. Looking down at his boots then up at him again, there’s a somewhat smarmy grin on her face. “And ya didn’t slip thanks ta yer new boots. Don’t matter if they’re ugly if they’re effective!”
The creature stuck in the wall groans in rebellion or perhaps disagreement.
“Oh shut it, ugly. Sorry yer stuck there, but I can’t have ya layin’ a grimy finger on me da. We’ll do somethin’ about… whatever ya are after we figure out what’s goin’ on around. Hopefully.” Astrid looks down the hall and sees that it ends abruptly with a thick iron door. “Say, ya don’t know where the person behind all a' this mad science is, do ya?”
Another groan from the creature, another helpless swipe.
Astrid quickly steps away, pushing Cantio back and out of further reach. “Aht, don’t ya be a jerk. We’ll figure this out.” Swatting the creature’s bulbous hand away, she steps past with Cantio and goes to the door. Unfortunately, it’s locked. Well, she could have seen that coming. Rather than smashing through it, Astrid releases her grip from Cantio, makes sure they have an appropriate distance, then lightning starts to gather around her person, gaining more and more intensity as the seconds pass until her entire form is electricity.
“Give me just a second, da,” she says, her voice crackling and echoing. Pressing both hands against the door, Astrid focuses all her energy on pushing herself through the metal, letting it conduct her being and absorb her. It takes a lot of focus, but after a few seconds, she steps out of the other side. That felt weird.
Ahead of her is a long hall with a line of doors along either wall and one closed door at the end. Seeing one of the doors cracked open near the far end with light trickling out, she immediately halts the lightning and digs into her bags for a potion. The one she pulls out is a dark, smoky liquid, and she quickly drinks it, all of her movements becoming absolutely silent. (Not that it should matter after she smashed that flesh creature into the wall.)
Carefully, she unlocks and opens the door, one that should have creaked loudly and groaned against the rusted hinges, and presses her fingers to her lips while looking at Cantio seriously. With her other hand, she motions toward the door where the clinking of metal instruments dances down the hall.
Full elemental manifestation - phase through solids Potion of shadows [post 1/2]
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Post by Cantio von Lumen on Nov 22, 2023 22:43:10 GMT -5
Cantio puffs, crossing his arms with an almost childish resistance to Astrid’s smug expression. “ I… well, yes.” He admits with a sigh, dropping his arms and running a hand through his bangs. “ They work very well, I’m just not… used to the weight, or the size, or the feeling.” He shakes one of his feet, listening to the way the heavy boots clunk against the mud beneath his feet. " But, they are good boots..." His feet are still dry, though— as dry as they possibly can be after being completely soaked in his other boots… actually, it’s kind of gross. When the flubber blob behind them makes noise, Cantio bristles and jumps. He frowns, watching the way it helplessly paw at Astrid and he— but when she encourages him to step away from it, he does. “ I feel bad for it, honestly.” He admits to no one in particular; although, he supposes it’s only Astrid that’s here to listen to it. “ Do you think it understands us?” It’s… hard to say. How does one judge sentience? The conflicting feelings are washed away when Astrid begins to move; and Cantio is quick to follow after her. He gives one last look back at the thing wedged into the wall before he turns away from it for good. As they approach a large, heavy door, Cantio’s steps begin to slow. He glances at his daughter, allowing her the space to do what she needs to do, and it is… impressive. Cantio watches, the lightning giving off hues of illumination, brightening the space around them. A weak smile quirks the edges of his lips while he watches her become something electrical— and then, she disappears— and his pride instantly becomes a flicker of panic. Before he can call for Astrid, however, the door starts to open; he stops, breathing a heavy sigh of relief— and then clapping both hands over his mouth when he realizes Astrid is hushing him. He blinks a few times, following her into the next hallway, where… where… Clink…. Clink.... Clink…
What is that? Cantio bristles; he can feel the hair on the back of his neck standing on end as he slowly makes his way into the room. He casts Astrid a concerned glance, before looking back at the door. So, this is probably… the workshop of whoever’s behind it all, right? Behind the creatures outside, the creature in the wall? Or it could be a leaky faucet, but Cantio’s not in the business of gambling when it comes to Astrid’s safety. He swishes his tail worriedly, taking a slow quiet breath to steel himself, and removing his fan from the tie around his belt.
It’s… been a long time since he really properly used this, and even just holding it makes the scratch marks along his forearm ache. He glances at Astrid, ready to follow her lead.
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Post by Lady Astrid Stormstone on Dec 3, 2023 17:14:30 GMT -5
Astrid would much prefer to think that the creature is not humanoid or previously a living person, even if that is exactly the case. The easiest way for her to think about it is that it’s just some blobby monstrosity. In all likelihood, it could be undead, it could be an actual golem made out of flesh – which the various stitches and mismatched skin tones truly suggest. It’s overall a bad problem to have, being this creature.
Leaving it in the wall for now is probably the best thing for it.
After she silently gets the door open at the end of the hall, she’s glad that Cantio quickly gets the memo to stay quiet. Whatever is in that room down the hall, they’re likely the person responsible for this madness. Luckily, she knows that Cantio is much more light footed than her, probably even in the thick boots she forced on him. Astrid motions that she’ll go first, and taking advantage of the silence from her potion, she rushes down the hall full force and peeks in the open door.
Inside, she sees a lone man in a stained lab coat with his hands inside the– Oh gods, his hands are inside the chest cavity of a cadaver on a table. He’s covered in blood up to nearly his shoulders. His head is a mop of short, dirty blond hair, and he has two curled ram’s horns protruding from his temples and curling around short, pointed ears. His eyes are obscured by perfect round glasses shining in the light dangling over the table. Dried blood is stuck to the stubble on his jaw. Unlike other fellbloods Astrid is familiar with, this man’s skin is pallid, and he doesn’t seem to have a tail that she can see.
For a man imitating a doctor, he does not seem to care about being sanitary.
The clinking of tools while this scientist works continues without noticing her as the man is completely engrossed in extracting organs from these notably fresher bodies than what she expected. Glancing around the room, she sees other tables and counters with cadavers in various states – some have been worked on already with signs like stitches and missing limbs. There is a large body off to the side that looks ready to join the patrolling amalgams outside if this mad scientist completes whatever his work is.
Astrid swallows hard, pulling the door open slightly more so she and Cantio can slip inside. Do they strike first and ask questions later? It doesn’t look like anything in the room is alive at the moment. They might be able to nab the man without much issue, but if Astrid feels her stomach churning at the sights and smells, she just knows Cantio will be equally if not more horrified. She turns her gaze to him down the hall, her expression telling of the horrific things she can see while also being a warning.
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