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  1. #11
    Senior Member

    EXP: 113,151, Level: 14
    Level completed: 62%, EXP required for next Level: 5,849
    Level completed: 62%,
    EXP required for next Level: 5,849


    Revenant's Avatar

    GP
    3,553

    Name
    William Arcus
    Race
    Revenant
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    Male
    Location
    Corone

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    “Pride,” Gerard said. He said it in the tone of voice which told the boy that that his father was gifting him something important. A lesson which he would not understand now, but that would become invaluable to him should he remember it when he himself was an adult. William nodded sagely, the requisite response to such things.

    “Pride,” Gerard said again, a harsher emphasis. “It’s a trap, boy. One that ensnares both the lowest cropper and the most skilled craftsman. Bondsmen and kings have fallen to its lure, time and again. Even the Old Masters, wise as they were in the ways of this world and beyond, couldn’t escape the grasping fingers of pride. Prides going to kill you as sure as any blade to the heart or magical fire, if you let it.”

    A bemused wrinkle cut across William’s brow. “But aren’t you proud of your work, papa?”

    Gerard grinned, knowing that his son had led him to where he was going. “That’s the tricky part, isn’t it? Sure, pride’ll build you up. Make you stand that much straighter and your hands work that much cleaner. But pride is like that powder we got for you from the witch just outside Lammsford. The one you had to take when the red fever got into you. You remember that?”

    William grimaced and nodded. He would never be able to forget the sour taste of the yellow powder that his parents had made him choke down, he thought. It was the worst thing that he’d ever had to eat, and one time he’d gotten into the compost heap when he’d been young and had had a sour stomach for three days afterwards. But he’d rather go through that a dozen times than have to take the witch’s yellow powder again.

    Gerard chuckled, reading the expressions on William’s face as cleanly as an order from a client. “Even though you hated it, the medicine helped you out. It killed the red fever. But even though the medicine made you better the witch warned us against giving you too much of it. Said it would cook you just as sure as the red fever would have.”

    “That’s pride. It can make you better in small doses, but if you’re not careful with it it’ll blind you and burn you out. It’ll take all the strength it gave you and then some. But it’s a subtle poison, taking all that from you all while it makes you think you’re invincible.”

    “Just like the Old Masters?” William questioned.

    “Just like the Old Masters,” Gerard confirmed.
    "I have looked upon all that the universe has to hold of horror, and even the skies of spring and the flowers of summer must ever afterward be poison to me." - Call of Cthulhu

    David vs. Goliath: History's first recorded critical hit.

  2. #12
    Senior Member

    EXP: 113,151, Level: 14
    Level completed: 62%, EXP required for next Level: 5,849
    Level completed: 62%,
    EXP required for next Level: 5,849


    Revenant's Avatar

    GP
    3,553

    Name
    William Arcus
    Race
    Revenant
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    Male
    Location
    Corone

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    Fully half of the Old Masters were consumed the instant that the elder evil awoke. It rose like a specter, a terrible wave of nothingness from which even the light of the sun could not escape. It reached for the Old Masters, one by one, with hands that warped the very space of the world around it. The Old Masters had sought the infant that they had birthed from a dying star but had instead found a creature weaned off the life of a thousand thousand souls.

    Hands of darkness reached first for one Old Master and then another. Each time it fell the Old Master vanished, consumed completely by the elder evil’s hunger. Caught unaware, the remaining few could do little but try to protect themselves. Words spilled from the rest of their flock. A hundred words and incantations were shouted in an arcane tongues. Ice and flames coalesced from nothingness at the will of the Old Masters, as did more esoteric things like purple starlight and living dolls made of pure thought.

    As they had when the people of the land first attacked them, the Old Masters directed these manifestations of their power against the elder evil. They fought and strove to keep it at bay, to drive it back to its slumber, drawing power from the places dark and unfamiliar. But all of this was for naught as the elder evil consumed everything the Old Masters attacked it with, growing ever stronger even as it continued to snuff them from existence.

    The thirteen watched with horror as one by one the Old Masters disappeared and knew with certainty that the end of the land, even the end of the world was upon them. But even as they saw this they recognized something familiar within the elder evil, something that they and it shared in common. You see, the land had raised the thirteen, molded and shaped them. It was because of the land that they’d grown strong and able. And as it was with them so it was with the elder evil.

    When the elder evil had fallen, it had come to rest in the land and the land had provided for it. Like the thirteen the land had fed it and nurtured it, allowing it to grow strong. For, you see, the land does not judge. It does not pick and choose favorites among its children. It gives all who live in it opportunity, the good and the bad, and bids them to take what they need and to grow. Everything in the land was one and the same.

    This was the truth that the thirteen had learned from the spirits, and it was in this truth that they found a way to stop the elder evil.
    "I have looked upon all that the universe has to hold of horror, and even the skies of spring and the flowers of summer must ever afterward be poison to me." - Call of Cthulhu

    David vs. Goliath: History's first recorded critical hit.

  3. #13
    Senior Member

    EXP: 113,151, Level: 14
    Level completed: 62%, EXP required for next Level: 5,849
    Level completed: 62%,
    EXP required for next Level: 5,849


    Revenant's Avatar

    GP
    3,553

    Name
    William Arcus
    Race
    Revenant
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    Male
    Location
    Corone

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    The thirteen had toiled together side by side across a harsh, warped landscape. They had spilled sweat, blood, and tears together. They had grown strong and smart together. They were closer to each other than they were to the families that they had left behind. Closer than parents. Closer than sibling. Closer than lovers. They were of one mind, and of one soul, and there was no hesitation among them. They all knew what had to be done to stop the elder evil.

    We say that we call them the thirteen because their names are lost to time. Because they gave up their lives as individuals to join something greater. They gave up their names to be one with the land. But that’s not true, because we know one name, a name that still carries weight to the people of Amra.

    That name is Bardin.

    Alone amongst the thirteen, Bardin faced the elder evil. He approached the thing as the last of the Old Master broke and fled. Bardin called upon his brothers and the spirits of the land to connect themselves to him, and through them he felt the land itself lending him aid. And on the other side of the land he felt the elder evil, nothing more than an endless hunger.

    The elder evil turned on Bardin and reached for him as it had the Old Masters, seeking to consume him. And as it touched Bardin he used the power that he had stolen from the Old Masters, tying himself to the elder evil and it to him, binding them together through their shared link to the land. And as he did so, sacrificing himself to chain the elder evil he spoke these words…
    William spoke the words in rhythm with Gerard, his eyes alight. “I bind you to myself. I bind you to the land. I bind you to my brethren. Nhullus, I name you, and Hunger. And I bind you until the end of days.”
    "I have looked upon all that the universe has to hold of horror, and even the skies of spring and the flowers of summer must ever afterward be poison to me." - Call of Cthulhu

    David vs. Goliath: History's first recorded critical hit.

  4. #14
    Senior Member

    EXP: 113,151, Level: 14
    Level completed: 62%, EXP required for next Level: 5,849
    Level completed: 62%,
    EXP required for next Level: 5,849


    Revenant's Avatar

    GP
    3,553

    Name
    William Arcus
    Race
    Revenant
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    Male
    Location
    Corone

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    Silence fell between Gerard and William, broken only by the pop of the firewood and the sound of Shar cleaning up the next room over. They watched each other for a moment, their faces both locked in a mask of stern silence. Then they both broke out in laughter, deep and rich. When they had composed themselves enough, Gerard continued.

    With the elder evil bound the land returned to normal, no longer twisted by its corrupting evil. The thirteen returned to their people and brought with them the knowledge of spirit magic and that Bardin had sacrificed themselves for him. The shattered land where the elder evil fell became the Stryoss Mountains, and the trail that the thirteen had forged through them became the Gates of Bardin which separates eastern and western Amra. And legend tells that somewhere in the Stryoss Mountains, near the Gates of Bardin lies an immense black stone, the remains of Nhullus, the Hungerer, bound in eternal sleep my the spirit of Bardin himself, who keeps all travelers away from the unholy site so that his sacrifice can never be undone.

    “And what about the Old Masters?” William asked. “The ones who fled?”

    Gerard thought for a moment. “Story tells that only two of the Old Masters escaped, a sorcerer and his bodyguard. They fled the land, never to return. Some say they’re waiting outside, kept at bay by the fear that Nhullus will wake again should they return. Others say they destroyed themselves with their pursuit of a way to control Nhullus, victims of their own pride.”

    “But what if they do come back?” William asked.

    “I don’t really think that’s likely,” Gerard laughed. “I told you that this all happened thousands of years ago, before Amra was even an empire. Wherever the Old Masters went, we needn’t fear them.”

    Gerard yawned and stretched his back with a sigh. “Besides, it’s time for you to go to bed.”

    William frowned and started to voice a complaint but Gerard stopped him with a warning grunt and a stern look. William let out a frustrated sigh of his own and got up, shuffling toward the cubby where his linens were kept. He settled in and watched the shadows of the fire burn low across the outside his sealed little world. In no time at all he was drifting off, and in his pre-slumber dreams he watched the figure of a hero stand against a terrible beast in the shadows.
    "I have looked upon all that the universe has to hold of horror, and even the skies of spring and the flowers of summer must ever afterward be poison to me." - Call of Cthulhu

    David vs. Goliath: History's first recorded critical hit.

  5. #15
    Legend

    EXP: 127,650, Level: 15
    Level completed: 55%, EXP required for next Level: 7,350
    Level completed: 55%,
    EXP required for next Level: 7,350


    Philomel's Avatar

    GP
    14,025

    Name
    Philomel van der Aart (+ Veridian)
    Age
    30 (+10)
    Race
    Faun (+ Fox/Earth Spirit)
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    Female (+ Male)
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    Corone

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    Name of Thread: Tales of Amra
    Type of Judgement: Workshop Submission

    Rewards:

    Revenant receives:
    4186 EXP
    273 GP

    Inclusive of Althanas Festival bonus at 1.5x.
    Cost at 2 AP for Workshop to be deducted.


    “The revenant, he knew, searched for him.”
    ― Michael Punke, The Revenant: A Novel of Revenge
    [couldn't resist]
    Last edited by Philomel; 09-08-2017 at 04:41 AM.

  6. #16
    Legend

    EXP: 127,650, Level: 15
    Level completed: 55%, EXP required for next Level: 7,350
    Level completed: 55%,
    EXP required for next Level: 7,350


    Philomel's Avatar

    GP
    14,025

    Name
    Philomel van der Aart (+ Veridian)
    Age
    30 (+10)
    Race
    Faun (+ Fox/Earth Spirit)
    Gender
    Female (+ Male)
    Location
    Corone

    View Profile
    All rewards have been added.

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