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View Full Version : The Osiris Open 2017: Round 2 (Storm Veritas vs Duffy)



Shinsou Vaan Osiris
09-02-2017, 06:41 PM
Skull Woods was one of those places which had no palpable reason to exist.

It was a creaking shack created by nature to serve as a reminder that things could always be much, much worse. The unnatural, choking mist that swirled and sprawled on the forest floor was the first thing that spoke of a strange sort of wrongness. Trails were overhung by archways of ribcages once belonging to giant beasts. Pools of calcium liberally flecked the floor. The sickly white substance seemed to possess liquid properties which only reminded of the maggot-like texture of the eyes of a dead man who had been forgotten in his home for a few months, ready to burst at the slightest touch.

The smoke made no sound however and only parted to swallow up the feet of men as they marched upon the giant dead, festering eyeball of the forest floor.

Even now, the rotting odors of mushy and dead leaves wafts from under the skin of the mist.

Duffy
09-03-2017, 05:43 AM
The Skull Woods was not the likeliest of place to find a ten-year-old running rumbustious and rampant through its boughs and rotten pools. Still, here he was, eyes wide, heart racing, and all the fears of bedtime tales and under the bed monsters chasing him. At dawn, his adult self-had marched across the threshold armed to the teeth and ready to gut another bastard in the pursuit of glory, of being somebody once again. It’s funny how quickly arrogance undid the best of intentions.

“Duffy!”

He turned, nostrils flaring and hands twitching. The red headed woman over the rise was only his second greatest concern. The first was the cavalcade of skeletons that surrounded him. Though the beasts were long dead, reliquaries of nature’s power, his fears told him some still lived amongst the skeletal trees and crumbled cairns. He began to climb up the rise, finding the courage to face at least one of his demons before they inevitably consumed him.

“Duffy come back!”

“Ruby!”

The grubby, mud sodden bard appeared in the spellsinger’s sights and immediately regretted trying to conquer his fear. Two things annoyed Ruby. Getting her dress dirty, and running out of gin. So far from home, and in such a desperately dire pathetic fallacy, she was stricken with anger born of both. Her eyes practically burnt a hole in Duffy’s chest.

“You get down here right now young man or I swear I’ll!” She didn’t need to finish her threat. Duffy knew exactly what she meant and where she’d put it.

He skittered down to her side, comically large swords strapped to his back and tear tracks marring his apparently pretty face. He smirked, then remembered his place. His sheepish frown set the scene.

“You’ve been crying?” She sighed. “Duffy, you need to grow up literally and metaphorically. You screamed at a spider and ran off into the wilds on your own. Anything could have happened!”

Duffy distinctly remembered it being a giant spider, but didn’t feel he was in any position to argue. He had forgotten how long he had been running for, fear had a way with time that undid even the best laid plans. He looked around, still twitching at the shadows and cringing every time a rib cage towered out of the quagmire or a tree wrapped in spider’s webs and rotten fungus promises a swift death.

“But I okay, Ruby. I don’t know whatta do.” He pouted.

Ruby subverted her own expectations and delivered a firm bac hand across her brother’s cheek. The slap echoed through the trees, and pools bubbled and branches bobbed as the unseen watchers of the woods fled for fear they too would cross the wrong path of Ruby Winchester.

“Is that better?” She folded her arms across her chest, forehead beading with sweat and the humid and cloying atmosphere of their misfortunate battleground.

Duffy blinked. His check turned red as capillaries burst and fear drained from him.

“Yeah.” He sniffled, holding back another teary wave.

Storm Veritas
09-06-2017, 07:52 PM
“Stay calm, big fella. No reason to get your balls in a twist over a bunch of creepy ribs. Probably just a scary looking space put together by a bunch of goddamned pussies to chase off the actual terrors. Town must be close, and likely not well guarded.”

Storm Veritas had seen what he always presumed to be damned near everything in his travels, and he worked to assure his mighty steed that there was nothing to fear. In spite of his worldliness, he couldn’t help but tremble a bit at this clever façade; the land strewn with bones from various beasts and baddies, with manufactured hallways of ribs stretching up from the earth and hands reaching up at the man and his horse, bones tethered together with either mud or magic. With a flick of the wrist, he fired a diminutive blast of electrical energy at one of the outstretched limbs; it exploded and tumbled to the earth without any sort of contention. The crackle-snap, the boom and bluster… these bones fared no better than human ones.

We’re still getting the f*ck out of here. I heard Concordia was largely unguarded these days; didn’t expect something so elaborate. What happened to a few heads on stakes?

His mind drifting, he tried to square up why Concordia would build such elaborate defenses. They had the use of the rangers at their disposal for centuries, and while Storm gave them only a cursory speck of respect, he couldn’t help but notice the rest of the local rubes about Corone in general spoke of Them as if they descended from the clouds on Am’aleh’s own chariot.

Could be some religious group, a band of local fools. Could be a pet cemetary, affixed with bones of the big ones to seem more imposing. Could be an old prank that no one bothered to clean up.

Could be damned near anything. Just go.

The clip-clop of heavy hooves yielded to a splish-sploosh type of sound as they entered more slippery terrain. The wretched odor of decomposing leaves implied this place had been long since abandoned, and yet the mighty ribs (which might have belonged to some sort of dragon) remained upright and firm. Attila brayed beneath him, kicking front hooves and chuffing mouthfuls of air forward in frosty clouds of disquiet.

“Easy. Nothing to worry about, Attila. Nothing but smoke and mirrors.”

Smoke and mirrors and some very probable magic hanging over this horrible place. Get out get out get out.

A swift but not angry heel-kick landed in the thick muscle of the ebony horse’s haunches, spurring the stallion forward in a steady march. Storm rode tall in the saddle, grey eyes squinted in a fine line as he tried to reconcile whatever loomed ahead.
It was a tandem, two smaller ones, a male and female yapping back and forth in the middle of this great mess. Too many times he had underestimated the little at the expense of his skin and bones; he would not be caught off guard ahead. Fixing his tailored travel coat taut about his sinewy, muscular frame, he ran long fingers through his hair to look less fatigued, more official. As the great beast strode forward, the hands of the aging wizard gathered energy, a barely visible white aura faintly humming about his knuckles.

“Evening, folks. Hell of a place to get lost! You wouldn’t happen to be from Concordia, would you?”

Despite a gleaming white smile and brilliant blue-gray eyes, the dimpled aristocrat kept a keen eye on the duo. If they worked quickly without his focus, atop a horse could prove a terrible place to be.

Duffy
09-10-2017, 07:47 AM
Ruby turned to her left and eyed up the newcomer. She had been so hellbent on knocking some sense into her brother she had been remiss and now here some upstart was, intruding on their family time. Whilst he didn’t appear to be immediately dangerous, you never could tell these days. She tensed her stomach, half through anticipation of trouble, and half through accidentally breathing in the fungal aroma of their necrotic surroundings.

“Scara Brae, as it happens, though I’ve been through Concordia enough times to know you’re not from there.” She meant it only half-barbed, and rested her hands on her hips to show that she wasn’t entirely comfortable with small talk.

“Wotcha doin’ ere?” Duffy sniffled. He clutched at his swords and turned his feet inwards, remembering that it was supposed to be a defensive stance, but putting across to their ‘guest’ that he looked like he was about to piss himself.

“By which the scamp means, can we help you?” Ruby had to wonder. This was not the place a noble wished to find themselves. She had seen enough aristocrats in her time to know that whatever title and line this man came from, she wouldn’t be impressed. No doubt he’d rattle off a tall tale and try and warrant their aid and as ever she did, names and namesakes aside, she’d tell him where to go not so politely.

Storm Veritas
09-10-2017, 11:04 PM
Ugh, rude people. Rude people are the f*cking WORST. Don’t they know that shit can get you killed?

When the girl implied that Storm was foreign, or lying, or strange in some form, he was upset. When the boy gripped at his sword like it was going to end up anywhere besides halfway up his own ass, the wizard grew angry. When the girl tried to pivot and offer disingenuous help to him, the condescension made his blood positively boil. The energy reverberating about his fists was itching to vaporize these two strangers, positively infuriated with the tandem.

Take a breath. Get Attila the hell out of here. Don’t tip your hand until it is time to blast these two stupid assholes two-thirds to f*cking Salvar.

The smile on the aristocratic face didn’t waver as Storm Veritas slowly, gently descended from his great steed, allowing the energy in his hands to subside within his leather riding gloves. He tapped the muscular neck of the horse and instructed Attila to “take five, eat up”, which was his secret command for “walk, canter, trot, run; quietly get away.” There was no sense in having his ride get wounded with an errant shot; the last one Storm had met went straight for the horse. Travelers were typically monstrous like that.

“I could use help, actually.” He smiled, gently tugging at the riding gloves and folding them into his front vest pocket. The squish-squash of hooves indicated Attila was slowly marching away, keeping the furtive and inauspicious movement about him all the while. “It seems your boy here needs a lesson, and that’s helpful, as I need some prac…”

The F*CK is that!?

In the soft earth between the magician and the two travelers, one of the bony hands that protruded from an otherwise nondescript radius and ulna closed into a fist. Aside from the absurdity of the had-to-be mirage came a very convincing grinding sound, as though bricks or stone were wrested free from mortar. In complete disbelief, Storm stood entirely motionless, glaring at the hand, as if willing it to move again.

“You see that shit!? Someone sneak some drak-bile in my pipe-pouch?"

His glare was answered as the hand reopened, turning at the wrist impossibly as the forearm bones churned through mud as though it were water. The open palm faced down, and moved up as the arm surged up away from the mud before bending at the newly arisen elbow, pressing into the leaf-strewn floor. Fingertips exploded from the mud some two feet away, as the left hand of this abomination began to pull itself free from some magical internment.

Without another word, Storm pulled the Rat from its scabbard behind his hips, the blade humming a cool blue-green as it spun effortlessly into his right hand. His left palm began glowing white with a wild glow. To his right, a second skeletal hand began to move from the ground. Behind him, a third hand erupted not ten feet from where he stood. The rude travelers were also joined by a newly animated hand, and a fourth apparition emerging from the soft, wet earth.

The traveling adventurer was ready to pounce, but first saved his gaze for the kids. Had they been the source of these monstrosities? Was it an elaborate trap to kill and rob the wanderers? It seemed a big-time trap to steal what must be small-time money. Things didn’t add up; Storm asked as much as he accused.

“What the hell are you two up to? Necromancers die just as easy as humans…”

Duffy
09-17-2017, 12:11 PM
Ruby wanted very much to lie through her teeth. She had enough over her long years and another upstart was the last thing she needed now. In a forest of mud and shit and mire she couldn’t think of anything worse than dealing with ‘authority’.

“Oh, we’re just, you know, enjoying the scenery.” Her eyes smouldered as much as her tone.

The wood cracked and shuddered in response, reminding them that they were very much not alone. Somewhere out there in the fetid heath skulked beasts and villains and yet, despite all the horrors nature could unleash on them at any moment the thing that concerned her most was the man before her.

“By which I mean I’m teaching this little scamp a thing or two about bravery.” She turned to Duffy, who baulked beneath her glare. He whimpered, to emphasise her point.

“I learnin’ to be a man again,” he said, fighting through the urge to run away and not have to face up to his innumerable problems.

“Again?” The supposed gentleman raised an eyebrow.

“I ain’t always like dis.” Duffy blinked. The adult behind his eyes tried to make sense of what the man could be doing here, in a place like this. All told, the Tantalum Troupe were always neck deep in the thick of it. This man appeared to be more used to parlours and debutante balls than turning tricks in the backwaters.

“Forgive us.” Ruby sighed. “I can categorically state that we are not necromancers.” She shuddered. “We’re quite alive and unfortunately not able to summon a horde of the undead to get us out of this mess.” She folded her arms across her ample chest. Though still guarded, she relaxed to show that she was growing at ease with their new company.

“Then, I ask again, what are you doing here?”

“Duffy here is supposed to be duelling with another compatriot of the ego but unfortunately he is…having one of those days. The Osiris Open doesn’t usually let children compete, so I’m trying to shock it out of his system.” She thought for a moment. The still silence, thick as the swamp waters that threatened to swallow them up all around, served to solidify the severity of their situation. She smirked.

“Perhaps you might like to indulge a lady for a moment?” She pointed at Duffy. “Show the whelp a thing or two. You noblemen like to wave swords about to prove you’re not all talk and there’s actually something in your codpiece besides dust.”

Duffy looked to his sister, cheeks still tarnished with rivers of salty tears, and then looked at the gentleman opposite. He took a dutiful step back, swords clutched lie a teddy bear in his arms, and then cleared his throat. Ruby seldom asked questions. She more made statements with assertive inflections. He fumbled his hands to the hilts of his blades and jolted them, losing them from their sheaths and taking them into his diminutive confidence. He walked forwards, altogether far too small for the daggers (longswords to him), and not entirely sure if he’d last five seconds.

“Whaddya ya say, mister?” His eyes told the stranger that he was far from ready to do anything other than piss himself. But, Ruby Winchester had a strange way of making men do things that even the strongest willed tyrants would find hard to resist.

Storm Veritas
09-18-2017, 10:56 PM
What part of reanimated skeletal monstrosities don’t you assholes GET!?

Storm was positively flabbergasted by the tandem of young adventurers, simply amazed at their boldness in the face of the horrors crawling up from the earth about them all. The girl seemed to prattle on and on, either oblivious or indifferent to the handful of bone-bundles pulling itself from the mud about them all. To top things off, she attempted to flirt with him, a seductive and alluring game that felt all the more absurd in the evening. Admittedly, he did catch a good eyeful of soft chest flesh in the moonlight.

Shake that sweet ass later, sweetheart. You’ve got to be kidding me with this siren routine right now.

Storm tried to keep an eye on the duo as he stepped back, fully aware that Attila had now gained significant distance from them. The open, dead maw of a skeleton looked as though it tried to groan at the wizard beneath its soulless, empty eye sockets. The beastly thing was crawling towards Storm before it could walk, pulling itself forward as legs were dragged free of the mud.

“Not now, sweetheart. Maybe make yourself useful, or for your own sake, screw. If you stand here and get in my way, you won’t want to be in my way when I’m done with these bony bastards.”

The Rat continued to hum from his hand, but the blade could wait. This was elegant business. Storm raised his hand to the skeleton, considering how the bones seemed brown, yellow and filthy, rather than the gleaming white he had envisioned in childish nightmares. As his fingers buzzed white, the smell of the fresh, clean ozone cut through the dank and fetid air. A wicked blast fired forward, sending bone mass shattering away in a spectacular spray pattern. A series of thump sounds toned about the place.

One down, maybe four to go. Need to be quick, keep an eye on those morons.

The electromancer began to pivot, looking for his next target before he heard an awful sound. The drudging of earth continued from whence he had fired his ferocious blast. There, a ludicrous mass lurched ahead; a half torso, split at the sternum, with a right shoulder and head nowhere to be seen. It slowly moved, somehow bearing down towards him. The absence of a head devoid of eyes seemed to do little to impact whatever sensing mechanisms drove the horrible thing.

“How do you kill these f*cking things!?”

His voice had deepened and carried a rage with it now, nostrils flared and eyes white with hot rage. His left hand was already buzzing again, ready to obliterate the same skeletal monstrosity that dragged at him. Scanning his perimeter, there were now four full skeletons about them, each nearly fully unearthed and moving forwards.

Can I trust these two to help, or is sugartits going to sweet-talk me right up until the knife slips between my shoulder blades? Maybe I cut the chit-chat and just blow them away to get things moving.

He would give them a moment of trust; there was a chance they aren’t here to kill him, but the calcium creations left no doubt.

Duffy
09-20-2017, 07:12 AM
As lightning crackled and fire convalesced, Ruby tried to piece together how she’d been so fucking oblivious. They’d crawled right up on top of them without her noticing. She bit her lip, ever a sign that a woman was deep in thought, and unsheathed the elven blade at her hip. Named Lucrezia after one of her other lives, it began to sing in high elven, relishing it’s release after a long sleep. She turned slowly, careful not to let her guard slip any further. Four remained, hangered and limping on whatever notion of life they clung to. Ruby stopped rotating when her gaze met Duffy, now whimpering on his hands and knees, swords discarded in favour of using his hands to hide from his troubles.

“Oi, you little shit. Get a grip!”

Forgetting herself for a moment, the spell singer strode up to her brother, swatted away his hands and delivered a backhand that could end wars. The bard widened his eyes. For a moment, he remembered who he was. Then, as the swell of pain through reddened cheek brought him back to life, he remembered who she was.

“What the bloody hell did you do that for?” He roared, as much as a ten-year-old could and pushed himself upright. His nostrils flared, snotty little tribelets of emotion. “You only ‘ad to ask!” He balled his fists when he saw she had drawn her weapon, reckoning for a fight.

“Duffy. I’m going to calmly and politely as you to look at your surroundings.” Ruby stepped to one side to break free of his stare and offer the reality of their situation as a bargaining chip.

Duffy looked. The fetid heath, a repeating horror ever present paled insignificantly to two other scenes. One, the would-be gentlemen suddenly alive with the crackle of sorcery and the fury of a man uncertain as to wherever or not death stared him in the face. Two, the undead, lingering and unclean and bearing down on them all indiscriminately.

“Where’d they come from?” He blinked. All his fears fell away.

“A question I’m sure we’ll answer once we’ve gotten ourselves out of this mess.” Ruby span her blade full-circle and strode to the mage’s side. “They’re long dead. Smash them apart, cut off limbs, anything to immobilise them!”

Duffy watched Ruby as she took her first steps into a dance long practiced. His young eyes fought back tears at the sight of his sister’s life hanging in the balance. Another fireball and a spiralling slash severed the limb of the nearest skeleton, but it only set it back. The empty eye sockets stared as bones clicked and it reoriented itself about its new form. It continued towards them silent and determined.

“So sorry about the confusion my dear,” Ruby said apologetically as she ducked under a scrabbling claw and shoulder rushed the skeleton. She gagged, but stayed upright, as the smell of death flooded her nostrils like an unwelcome guest. “A lady’s honour that these are nothing,” she jumped back out of a counter strike, “nothing at all to do with us.”

A staccato rhythm drowned out the man’s no doubt witty response. Ruby turned, catching a glimpse of young Duffy turn into a man still lacking any balls. The tufts of black hair danced in the uprush of magic and blue ribbons danced about his limbs. She rolled her eyes. Promising the world did nothing to drag him out of his sulking, but as soon as a ‘fair maiden’ was in danger he came running.

“I would not remotely be sad if one of those fireballs caught him in the ribs,” she muttered to the mage, winked, and the trio formed a triangle on the high road through the low lands. “Glad you could join us at last!” These words did reach the bard’s ears, who wiped his tears away and plucked from the ether a black handled katana.

“I’m so sorry, dear heart, but I’m here now.” Back turned to the spell singer and the barbed tongue blastomancer, Duffy watched the two skeletons on his side crest the rise onto the road and free themselves proper of the pearl swamp waters. “Between your insurmountable sarcasm and self-loathing, what do you two propose to do about them?”

Storm Veritas
09-21-2017, 11:10 PM
In the bedlam that had erupted about him, the wizard was grateful that at least the two impish little would-be children didn’t attack him directly. He had expected at least one of the little monsters to come at him with some sort of blind-sided attack. Were it going to be one of them, it would have to be the girl, as the boy had proven himself absolutely useless.

Like tits on a bull, boy; I’d slice you open and throw you to these walking bone piles like a porterhouse to the hounds if I didn’t think the girl might be able to get away and yap about it.

For his frustration with the bundling heap of wasted steel, the magician found the girl to be quite competent. Her sword was obviously touched by magic, and it seemed to chant some foreign song when she pulled her blade from the sheath. Looking down at the simply-somewhat magical Rat, the traveler felt a pang of jealousy at the inferiority of his own device.

Fire out ghost rats and glow. Real f*cking useful YOU are.

The deep burning stench of death was all about them now, and at last that boy produced a simplistic sword and came to stand as a trio amongst Storm and the girl, both of whom had continued dueling against a wave of the undead. From here, one quick pivot and twist and either one of these strange kids could drive a sword between his ribs before he could so much as turn to witness his own death. In fairness, they had given him the same level of trust, a decision that would have served to end days for many before them.

“Welcome to the shit, boy. Glad you could join us. Let me give you a hand with your smiling couple over there.”

The skeletons wore no metal, but the finally emboldened lad had plenty of buckles, snaps, and armor components about him. The possibility of throwing the boy with a quick electromagnetic pulse by his metal adornments seemed to Veritas a reasonable strategy, but this one would be a more effective meat shield closer to his hip. For the duo of approaching horrors, Storm would resort to his oldest trick.

“Stand down, try not to stare. Mind your ears.”

A simply outrageous pulse of twisting electric hate flashed from the sorceror’s palm towards the approaching skeleton. The blast was targeted at the spine, and took root there, completely incinerating the stack of little, biscuit shaped bones that the old fool failed to know as “vertebrae”. The long chain of black biscuits crumbled, the horrible smell of burning bone and marrow dramatically trumping the pre-existent smell of human decomposition. In truth, the adventurer felt his eyes water involuntarily as that burning bone attacked his nostrils with anger. When the now disorganized limbs fell to the earth, this particular pile looked as though it had become indifferent to the three intruders.

Shit, overdid it a bit there.

Storm could feel his fingers numb and tingling, the unmistakable buzz of his magic being exhausted. For all of his mystical might, a mix of fear, frustration, and fury had coerced him to expend entirely too much lightning at the first skeleton. He would need a few moments to recover this, and the now-lone skeleton from the tandem came at him, swinging angry hands like a thin rake.

PANG!

The sword was stopped dead in its tracks as the elder statesman failed to destroy the oncoming appendage. With the complete absence of fear on its side, the empty skulled terror continued flailing at him.

PANG! PANGPANGPANG!!

He was able to block most of the attacks, a bony string of fingers scratching mercilessly at his hand on one of the deflections. Blood instantly poured down his right forearm in twisting streams of oil as he struggled to keep up with the fast and indefatigable opponent. With wild and wide eyes, he turned to the boy once more.

“Kill the spine! Any time now![/i]

Duffy
09-24-2017, 03:27 PM
Duffy strode to the skeleton with a deranged expression. He could not be sure if it was due to the thrill of battle or the crackle of static and the ringing in his ears. With the image of Ruby pirouetting between raking claws and thin air in the corner of his eye, the bard raised Nail’s point to neck height and deftly pierced the creature between the fourth and fifth vertebrate.

On the far side of the battle, Ruby gained some ground. Lucrezia sliced elegantly through the skeleton’s wrist, swooped around it’s hit, then thrusted clean through where it’s windpipe would have been. Whereas Duffy’s heavy blade dislodged from the spine and left him stuck and tangled up with his opponent, the spellsinger’s sword cheered triumphant as the skull rolled to one side and thudded to the dirt. When she caught sight of Duffy’s predicament, she burst into song.

“We wanted to remember everything we’d forgotten. We wanted to believe were not fading. In the temple, we were unfolding in the crooked shadow of the morning. In the half-light, we saw a window to the door.” Her hair danced with umbra fire and as she advanced towards her brother, she stomped a heel onto the skull to stop it’s incessant and futile biting at thin air.

“You’re not supposed to tickle it,” the mage quipped.

Duffy snarled, pulled his sword free, and grabbed hold of the skeleton by the ribs. He yanked it back. The song filled him energy and focus, and sent away the last clinging doubts of his other self. At last, there stood a black haired, stoic man with no intention of dying on the road to nowhere. A heavy boot kicked into the skeleton’s hip and pushed it back. It was a short-lived victory as it turned, bloodied fingers splayed, and lunged. As he parried each raking hand he picked up the bridge of the song.

“We were just lonely kids, living in a faded town. We were just lonely kids, just…”

Tooth clashed against the right wrist and severed it. The still twitching hand tried to crawl away, the magic holding it together strong enough to force every bone in its body to maim and kill. Duffy ducked, swelling with pride as Ruby’s spell song came to power. They sang the second verse in harmony, baritone and an angel’s voice forming a swirl of heat and melody around the bard. He tossed Tooth to one side and it snicker-snacked away through a crack in the void between this world and the Tap. He reached into the aether, and produced a black handled katana with an elven curve and too many tales to tell.

“We were living in the moment, and the past became the present, the memory unfurling a truth returning. In my mind I hear you laughing, through the pines I hear you calling, the little bird was saying that I hear you remember everything!”.

The blade began to hum, and then vibrate fiercely. When Duffy cut it full force through the skeleton’s midriff the spine gave little resistance. It shattered open the ribcage and sent the skeleton unfurling in a cloud of fossilised marrow and regret. His brow ran slick with oily sweat and his lungs struggled to take in air between pained breaths.

“Get down!” Ruby roared. Duffy didn’t want to stay upright long enough to ask why.

With a flick of the wrist and a tortuously wicked smile, Ruby let lose the formation of her spell song. Three spheres of energy bounced up, then down, then smashed into the road. They bounced on, leaving craters in their wake as they closed in on the skeleton to the gentlemen’s rear. The concussive force sent the skull shooting off into the woods and bits of its limbs raining down across the road and the pearl waters of the swamp. The woods became a little less populated, save for one remaining creature finally cresting the verge and making headway towards the only smell it remembered from its former life. Blood.

Storm Veritas
09-27-2017, 12:44 PM
Collectively, the trio was surprisingly competent. Quick, varied in style, but lethal, Storm Veritas and the girl were able to hack, slash, and blast their way through the undead guardians despite a striking lack of similarity in style. The children began to sing, which instinctively sent the old wizard tentatively pacing away, focusing the dancing sword he gripped through bone after bone, mercilessly cracking and breaking the piles.

Singing to fight? Shit, now I’ve seen it all.

There was a great give and take with each bony opponent. There was no singular weakness in the stacked pile, but they weren’t particularly powerful either. In his movements, one managed to rake him across the right forearm. The clawless fingers scratched and left a heat behind in the wound, but there was no feel of poison or disease in the scratches, and the blood that flowed was minor.

The last bolt he eventually used to incinerate the persistent evil before him came about the same time that a bounding ball of magical energy was blasted down the path from the children. The rumbling echo answering them did not bode well for anyone.

“Nice job, but what in the blue f*ck is that coming up the bend?”

Tired and uncertain, the electromancer could see clearly over the head of the powerful young strangers as a new form began to lumber forward. The back came first; a large, hulking spine hanging over the road as impossibly wide ribs curved out and underneath the fleshless goliath. With a groan, a large, horrid skull bleated out at the three.

”BRRRWWWWEEEEEAAAAAAAA!!!!”

Mud and what looked like sludge hung from the thick bones marching at them, leg bones as thick as the mage’s thigh and picking up in speed. The head, or skull, or whatever it as, looked as a horned turtle’s shell; rounded to a beaked nose with spikes of bone emitting about the perimeter of the skull, no doubt effectively once protecting some pre-human neck.

Within the darkness of the awful head opened to glowing yellow orbs where eyes should have once peered out. The head bobbed up and down, leg bones effortlessly kicking large piles of earth before the great body as the beast appeared to stare them down.

“Hhh…” the words of the magician vanished from his mouth before he could form them. Perhaps the girl would have some more of these spectacular orbs to fire, or better yet the boy an ability to teleport. Based on the durability of the first wave, the adventurer found it unlikely a simple blast of electricity would save them.

Got it.

An idea came over Storm in a wave of inspiration, and he didn’t hesitate to fire a whopping bolt of electricity at trunk of a large, spread elm. Far less robust than the skeletons, the base of the tree was eviscerated, coring the base dramatically in a crash of splinters and char. With a mighty crack and groan, the heavy tree came crashing down atop the skeletal colossus, sending leaves, dust, and mud spraying through the air and about the ground.

”BRRRWWWWEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!”

The tree shook and snapped as the fiery golden eyes burst through at him. The great monster had not been stopped.

Duffy
09-27-2017, 04:17 PM
“Duffy…” Ruby sheathed her sword amidst shrill protests and from thin air, produced a violin and bow. “You know those stupid and highly dangerous ideas you’re prone to have?” She shook the violin suggestively.

“I don’t have stupid ideas!” the bard protested.

Their companion rolled his eyes. The road shook as the creature flailed free of the fallen, splintering tree trunk. With a final heave-ho the tree spiralled away, crashing into the dirt and providing an opportune spark of inspiration.

“Oh, you mean those stupid ideas.” He eyed up the convenient ramp up to the creature’s shoulders and sighed.

Sizing up their next challenge, Duffy didn’t fancy his chances leaping from the end of the bough to the shoulders. He needed a little help from his friends.

“Those glowing eyes. Do you think you can give them a bolt or two?” Ruby moved between the electromancer and her brother and played a few notes to warm up. “If there’s anything I’ve learned from centuries of monsters emerging from closets it’s the glowing bits are the weak points.”

“It can’t be that easy, can it?” Duffy started to doubt himself, but produced a dagger from the ether all the same.

A wind rolled down the road, carrying with it the creature’s stench and a portent of doom. The creature clod-thumped the ground, roared so loud the trees shook along the tree line and Ruby’s breasts juddered just enough to remind her she was drastically overdressed.

“Get going Duffy, we’ll come up with the nail in the coffin if you just get it in the box.” She rested the bow against the violin and the golden thread running through the carved wood glowed with white balefire. “Try not to die again.”

Duffy had no intention of doing so, but as he strolled towards the giant a niggling doubt gnawed at the back of his mind. If one of those fists connected with his pretty little face there wouldn’t be much left of him to celebrate. As he closed the gap, sweat poured down his brow in a mix of nerves and exertion. The nerves rose as he cut into each of his shoulder blades with the edge of his blade. A vortex of power burst into being in his heart and from each wound a blooded wing sprouted.

“Whilst my brother serves as a distraction, you and I need to come together and sing a song. What do you say, can you electrify an audience without stripping the flesh from their bone?” Ruby began to play, hoping that the pressure would draw out whatever musical strands wound about the mage’s vocal chords. “Let’s give your talents a little push in the right, eye popping life-saving direction!” She let words fail her and began to play a raucous folk song from the autumnal playbook of Scara Brae.

As she played she watched Duffy mount the fallen trunk and charge. The blooded wings beat in time to every step and at the apex of his climb he launched into the air. They gave him just enough lift to make it to the back of the creature and, rather like a moth hitting a lantern, began to really, really piss it off.

Storm Veritas
10-05-2017, 10:29 PM
And so marched the boy, once seemingly the perfect coward, towards the maw of the great beast. Climbing up a tree, reaching the back of the bony monster, Storm spotted the boy’s legs settling atop the spine, feet locking in between ribs. It was perfect; he seemed to get a great grip on the awful thing, and it bucked and roared with an awful sound like metal grinding.

Nearby, the girl asked him to sing a song, as his small electric blasts had little to no effect. The wizard had shot small, delicate bursts, careful not to fry the poor brave bastard on top of the bone mammoth. From some range, with only small focused shots, the thick calcium of the beast’s skull effortlessly absorbed each shot, twitching simply to avoid a devastating bolt to the eye.

Son of a bitch, a song!? That ain’t my kinda magic, sugar…

A quick glance back at the girl, who had began to dance the bow to her violin. It was a sweet, high pitched sound, rhythmic and optimistic with an upbeat tonality. A grin spread across the face of the mage as he started whispering in tune.


“Hey big beast with your bone-flat teats…
“I’m here to bring you news!
“Come for the food, for were still fresh meats
“Just here to pay our dues!”

Disappointed with his pitiful effort, he looked to the girl, who continued fiddling on as little happened in the way of giant, terrible orbs of magic.

You suck at this. Be yourself.

Clapping a little in time with the lovely tune, Storm’s eyes pulled into a squint as his mouth paused momentarily. He needed to move quickly, as the lad atop the back of the monster had little time to wait on terrible rhymes.


“Hey bone bag, bring that orange eye.
“On us and our neat tricks!
“My magic now, it’s time to die…
“So you can suck our dicks!!”

Lyrically gifted he was not, however Storm Veritas was powerful and frustrated. A pulse beneath the metal heels of his shoes sent him flipping in an impossible leap upwards, tumbling out and forward for some forty feet. He knew not if he had generated any magic for the clever girl, but it was time to go off-script.

With white eyes of anger and rage, the electromancer sent a terrible blast of crackling white hate down at the face of the beast, some ten feet in front of its newly emboldened little jockey. The wizard had done his best to avoid the boy, but push had officially come to shove.

Duffy
10-15-2017, 05:21 PM
Ruby’s smile as the prangs of lightning turned into a fully-fledged micro storm was positively devilish. She drew her bow across her violin one final time and, just as their unwitty ally found his wings, the spell singer ascended in a whorl of thermal energy. When she landed, heels digging into the dirt, three spheres of invisible and concussive force shot towards the skeletal giant. When she found her balance, her magic was long out of her control and ploughing troughs into the broken road. She clenched her teeth as they overtook the lightning, time upending as much as her nerve, and closed her eyes.

“Duck.” She bent at the knee and covered her face with her forearms.

She had seen Duffy take one for the team far too many times. Somehow, she knew this would be no different.

“What the!”

The bard’s high-pitched voice disappeared as the three-requiem blasted into the giant’s chest. The first rocked it, the second buckled its knee, and the third cracked into the clavicle and shattered it asunder. Somehow, Duffy managed to emerge unscathed. He clung to the flailing skull, the guttural trembling emerging from its jaw rattled his brains in his skull. For a moment he felt the sweet taste of victory. Then, as the air around him began to heat, he recognised the bitter sweet after taste that came with cheap wine or jumping the gun.

The giant’s yellow eyes flared as the lightning maelstrom tore into its exposed chest and ricocheted about its ribcage. Arcs shore the afternoon sky and sent clouds of sparks high and wide into the autumnal boughs of the forest canopy. Duffy felt his grip loosen, and though he tried to cling on for dear life the rupturing magic that held the giant together knocked into him and sent him upwards. He saw the head shrink and expand, and with one final defiant ‘fuck you!’, threw his katana at the nearest eyeball as he plummeted past and headed face first into a hundred years of rotten putrid swamp.

“You should open your eyes.”

Ruby opened them slowly. When she realised she wasn’t dead, she stood upright and dropped her jaw at the spectacle before them. The giant clawed at its skull, trying to free the blade embedded in the brain cavity. The right eye was extinguished, and the left flared brighter than the sun as the magic binding it to unlife fled its corpse. It trundled back and forth, each step thunderous until it fell to its knees and began to fall apart. She couldn’t be sure which was the final nail in the coffin, but she appreciated the calamity that befall their attacker and tore it apart. The skull rolled off the road like an errant millstone and sunk slowly into the pearl quagmire. Its arms fell apart and rained down like bone hail, leaving a half-erect lower torso as a reminder not to mess with pissheads and charlatans.

“Where’d the kid go?” She wondered.

“Ermm…” The wizard shrugged and pointed to the treeline.

Ruby sighed.

“If that was the puppet, where’s the one pulling its strings?” She turned to her companion and did away with her instruments into a swirl of blue ribbons and worn bum notes. “Don’t worry about him, we’ve developed an uncanny knack of getting out of bigger piles of sh,” she sniggered. “Well, perhaps not piles as big as that.”

The skull wood loomed overhead, as though it tried to snuff out their victory and swallow them whole. All thoughts about the tournament and Duffy’s little recession into his inner child were forgotten. All the red headed matriarch of the Tantalum could focus on now was putting a sword through whatever cursed this place, and getting home in time for her usual gin and tonic by the fireside.

Storm Veritas
10-16-2017, 10:13 PM
“Where’s the one pulling the strings?”

The words hung on him heavily, a depressing anchor about the neck that reminded him that the trio was not out of the woods yet, be it physically or metaphorically. The twins had proven their worth in spades, and done so without so much as an inadvertent blade to the ribs or tester magical explosion that found its way into his proximity.

The dense, horrible air of burning flesh lingered in his lungs, a taste so terrible the Alerarian tobacco could not disguise completely. His pipe popped to life with a wild orange glow, twin plumes of smoke like dragon whiskers snaking from the corners of his mouth in intermittent bursts. He spoke to the girl, who was still alert if a bit fatigued.

“The boy has balls on him, even in spite of that chicken-shit showing he started out with. I suppose I should introduce myself. Storm Veritas – passing through to Concordia, a little business with old friends.”

Removing the pipe, he tapped at the base of the little cherrywood bowl, breaking loose the clustered tar that had formed in there, spitting out the residual taste of death that lingered in all of their mouths. He smiled as the girl shook his hand, noticing for the first time a characteristic cuteness that would have gripped his attention a few decades ago.

“I’ve been around the bend a bit, made a few Crowns and spent more. You two are full of surprises, so I suppose I should ask; have you heard of Shinsou Vaan Osiris?”

Her head popped to the side a few degrees, a chipmunk surveying a strange nut and pondering whether or not to take a bite.

“An old friend of mine, hosting a tournament in the area. I break his balls over the damned thing – the ‘Shinvitational’, I call it for him. Pretty sure it drives him f*cking crazy, which is perfect by me. I was to meet him in town, but I’m getting the drift that you two have the warrior’s blood in you, too.”

There was no firm response; the duo likely knew something that they chose not to speak. He owed the kids enough to avoid pressing the issue. They could be his enemies tomorrow; for today the tandem musicians had earned the benefit of the doubt.

The wizard supplied a sharp, piercing whistle, and he gestured to the charming young bard as he marched forward slowly. It wasn’t more than a few strides before the rolling thunder of hooves began to call out to him from a great distance. What felt like an empty echo became a firm melody of its own, before the solid pops yielded to the squishier hoof-strikes in softer soil. Attila had returned on queue, strong and tall, proud and bold.

“Kee!” The old mage offered a simple call as the great steed broke stride into a slow trot. The big beast ambled aside him, gently pushing the impossibly thick neck into the shoulder of the tall adventurer. Storm Veritas firmly grabbed the reins and pulled gently, the black stallion’s head and neck unflinching as the agile older man hopped with shocking finesse to the back of the horse. He rubbed the dense muscle about Attila’s back, happy to feel the firm footing of flesh that the boy lacked atop that big elephant monstrosity.

“Plenty of room up here for you and the boy to get out of the wood. For me, I’m not waiting to meet the puppeteer and learn his plans. We save that dance for a different song, I think.”

He could not force them to ride, but hoped they would join. There were many more paths than this to travel, and clever company was hard to come by.

Philomel
10-17-2017, 03:58 AM
This thread is now closed for judging.

Philomel
11-04-2017, 11:26 AM
Osiris Open 2017 Round 2:
Storm Veritas Vs Duffy: Skull Woods (http://www.althanas.com/world/showthread.php?233-The-Osiris-Open-2017-Round-2-(Storm-Veritas-vs-Duffy))

Combat:

For this section I looked at the overall combat with the skeletons, as well as the 'combat' between your two parties. Both of you took this part of the contest unusually, going from a concentration to be centred around one on one combat but the story itself ended up being about survival. This was taken into consideration in your story.

Duffy: 20/30

Strategy:
As a judge, now looking at the story after it has been written, it is unknown whether the events in post 6 are deliberate in Ruby and Duffy missing the presence of the skeletons or not. Instead you focus on the fact that Ruby needs too describe that they are not necromancers, and the gearing up for possible one on one combat. Post 8 has Ruby considering: “how she’d been so fucking oblivious” in realising then that the skeletons are properly attacking, and then the group combat begins. Your strategy during this next part is unusual in respect to having an uncertain child Duffy and adding in the 'older sister' figure of Ruby in that time. Using a series of backhands to wake Duffy up to some extent, and adds to the overall feel of the battle, but I felt there could have been more focus, earlier, on what was occurring around.


Resourcefulness:
In terms of using your abilities, and making use of the situation the highlight of resourcefulness, there was a highlight when you have Duffy go to a fallen trunk and charge – summoning wings to fly and launch at dread creature (post 12). Climbing onto the beast at the ended also added to show your character's resourcefulness. Your use of bardic magic, and adding in the songs themselves added to the atmosphere well and gave a good hold onto the idea of blade singing. With two characters involved you brought a great deal of abilities and actions done that though perhaps could have done with using the scenery more were effective.

Execution:
Overall you weave a good amount of hits and blows at the skeletons with both Ruby and Duffy. There are many hits sent, with a great instance with the ball of energy. A couple of things were lacking however – one being the amount of hits taken by Ruby and Duffy were severally low, especially considering the fact they did not notice the oncoming creatures until later, and not even from the larger creature at the end. There also seemed to be a lot of words and few action, bringing down the reality of such a fight lower, which when compared to Storm's writing is unfortunately shown to be lacking. What content there was, was good, however I would have liked to see a more balanced fight.

Storm Veritas: 23/30

Strategy:
Strategy needed to be fast and decisive for the majority of this piece, which you responded to well, using instinctual-based ideas. You do change the central combat of the story from looking at combat with the siblings to then focusing on the skeletons – from “'It seems your boy here needs a lesson, and that’s helpful, as I need some prac…'” to noticing the skeletons. With an accusation of necromancy to them you set up the possibility of one on one combat but then veer away from this two posts after. The strategy of your combat then becomes focused on survival, using skills as the seeming experienced presence giving advice on how to defeat the enemy. This is thematically appropriate and helps forward the plot.


Resourcefulness:
Storm defiantly tries various skills to conquer his foes, from words to the siblings, to finally using his surroundings. A particularly amazing highlight was when you write, in post 10, “whopping bolt of electricity at trunk of a large elm,” and though this does not stop the creature it shows raw intelligence and use of the scenery alongside your base lightening ability. You have him show ability to be able to deal with the situation when it comes, such as dealing only smaller shots when Duffy is on the final beast's back, which is a theme of resourcefulness.

Execution:
There is a short amount of time in which a true bout of combat takes place. In it however, you show your character dominating over the skeletons in a fairly easy manner, using skill and electricity (see Resourcefulness) - though I would have perhaps liked to see more description of the beast later on itself, and where precisely Storm hits. You do not fear to write that your character experiences fear (post 7), finds them hard to kill (post 7), and also has particular difficulty with one limb (post 9). In post 9 also you show the effects of using too much of the electric power. This shows a balanced amount of ability and competency as well as making the fight itself believable.


Character:

Duffy: 19/30

Communication:
There are various strong points for your communication – including, but not limited to the difference between Duffy's speaking from boy to man and Ruby's overall 'big sister' banter. These individualise your characters well. Though I would have liked to see more focus on Duffy as he was technically the one involved in the fight, there was a strong recognition for who was who in terms of how they spoke and what was said. The largest issue with writing in terms of weakness is when they spoke, as some of it occurred in the middle of fighting scenes when realistically there might not be that much time to do so, and with unusual phrasing that did not quite suit thematically for the situation, when directly compared to Storm. (post 8) Overall though, a dynamic approach.

Action:
You show the art of subtle actions in this piece, using them to further your character's development. One such example could be said to be in post 8 where Ruby, “bit her lip,” displaying the emotions of the time. Though I would have liked to see more that showed individual personality traits, there are very good decisions made in when your characters pick up their weapons, use them and how they use them – and why. In some circumstances, also there, there was some confusion. One such is why Duffy strides to the tree first, and then charges, when there is so much violence (post 12). Saying this, no action was wasted in any way, and were written well.

Persona:
What comes through the piece is the personality of Duffy in terms of his reactions and his attitude from boy (post 2 in being scared) to man (having a “deranged” expression in post 10. Although you do not use direct internal thought as Storm does in his writing, there is a smaller subtle use of persona in the manners as described, and also in Ruby to some extent, with use of some adverbs (“apologetically in post 10) that help to lift this. Overall it would have been good to see more of a focus on persona, whereas you do dedicated a lot of time to words and actions, but what content there is is good.


Storm Veritas: 23/30

Communication:
A good key in communication is devising ways of how your character might communicate on an individual level different to others. In post 5 you reflect on this well, with a secret set of words to Attila the horse: “take five, eat up.” Later in the same post you use phrasing that are individual to Storm himself, “drak-bile in my pipe-pouch,” which only seeks to add more to his character. This continues through the piece, speaking when only it is appropriate, or when there might be something to say reserving it to the mind, and you only add flavour to the thread with this. I would say this is an excellent example of communication in this thread.

Action:
In a similar vein to Duffy, you use small actions well, using such things as “nostrils flared” and Storm “scanning” the view in post 7, that show the smaller sides of his character – anger and perceptiveness. Larger actions are mostly devoted to combat itself, and though in some terms I would have liked to see some more habitual actions, such as the placing of the hand onto Attila before sending him away. Various sides of Storm are shown in his actions, and this is an excellent example of how to use such to show character.

Persona:
You have great hold of internal communication, not shying away from language: “Ugh, rude people. Rude people are the f*cking WORST. Don’t they know that shit can get you killed?” post 5. This adds punctuation to the piece in the middle of combat and tense situations and lets the reader know what Storm is feeling during these moments. Other subtle things, such as his voice “deepening” in post 7 also express persona. Though perhaps I would have liked to see more lengthy discussion over what the Osiris Open was, and why they did not fight one another, overall there was a strong hold here in this section.
Prose:

Duffy: 20/30

Mechanics:
Overall you show a good hold of punctuation rules and paragraphing, although there are a couple of spelling mistakes. Post 1 has: “a firm bac hand” instead of “back.” These can be avoided with a small amount of read through. A more developed use of punctuation is something I would suggest from here, such as trying out hyphenation and semi-colons, though what you have is grammatically correct and fits well with the structure of the piece.

Clarity:
Your first post is initially confusing for a reader if they did not know your characters well. The phrasing “his adult self” does not explicitly infer that Duffy can change from a child into a man at will, and so confusion can be said to exist here. Having two characters also caused a couple of issues with readability, although this is minor in the grand scheme of things. There were points in which also the reader can get lost in your combat, primarily post 8. Please see Storm's posts surrounding this for comparison. Saying this, however, the resolution was clear and your shorter paragraphs add a visually easy to read piece.

Technique:
Technique overall was very beautifully done, with description of the setting at the start that helped to focus in at what the scenery was like and some excellent use of metaphor. One prime example is post 10: “unfurling in a cloud of fossilised marrow and regret”,” that expresses not only the physical objects but also the mood. Great word choice also exists that I enjoyed reading, such as “incessant and futile” in post 10, and this is accompanied by the very power of the song lyrics you use. In some ways I felt you missed a trick with the song lyrics – they could have perhaps been used to reflect more of the atmosphere of the scene, by using the more stressed notes to throw the magic and use to your advantage, however their simple presence already adds strength to technique.


Storm Veritas: 22/30

Mechanics:
Mechanics for the most part is complete and central, with no obvious spelling mistakes or grammatical errors. Your use of semi-colons in places (post 9 for example) helped to also show the skill that you have. One small mistake that was found, was the missing technical issue at the end of post 9, where there is a “[/i]” appearing on the physical piece. This is something that can be tidied up with a brief proofread, and this would be the only clear mechanical error.

Clarity:
Clarity for the most part is done well on your side. There are a couple of points of miscommunication that seemed to have happened, however, where you refer to Duffy and Ruby as “the children,” in post 11. This is a couple of posts after Duffy was said to grow into adult form. Aside from this your actual content was clearly described, with blows falling and each sentence and movement easy to follow. Suggestion for the future would be to make sure you are fully understanding your writing partner's piece and not being afraid to ask questions of them.


Technique:
In some ways it looks like you wrote this with a thesaurus open beside you, which adds power to your writing. Such words as, “indefatigable” in post 9 and phrases like “incoming appendage” add a change to something that could have been simpler and thus make your writing stronger. There are fine examples of metaphor, such as post 15 with “a depressing anchor about the neck” that show the effect of words, and hints at imagery. Though there perhaps could have been a longer more extending metaphor used, such as that of death, you write very artfully and beautifully.


Wildcard:

Duffy: 7

Storm Veritas: 6

Duffy gets rewards for writing an amazing character called Duffy who I think I want to adopt.

Storm Veritas gets rewards for showing a good relationship between man and horse, though some might ignore, you write about later, and develop the nature of Attila also as the story evolves, and added something truly special.


Final Comment:

Thanks guys and sorry for this taking so long.

Final Score:

Duffy: 66

Storm Veritas: 75

Storm Veritas wins and goes through to Round 3.

Rewards:

As per with the rules of the Osiris Open, all rewards are based on a score of 65.

Storm Veritas (http://www.althanas.com/world/member.php?8-Storm-Veritas) receives:
1520 EXP
100 GP

Duffy (http://www.althanas.com/world/member.php?96-Duffy) receives:
1400 EXP
100 GP

Duffy forfeits their GP win as per rules of the Osiris Open.

Philomel
11-04-2017, 11:42 AM
All rewards have been added.