The Treasure, Unmoderated RP

[+Aiko+]

(THIS RP IS UNMODERATED! YOU MAY DO WHAT YOU WANT WITH IT! Have fun playing with new ideas in a fun setting!)

The rain pelted down as lightning lit the sky. Wind screamed through the trees, causing the vigilant oaks to bend and moan their distress. The storm was fierce and frightening, but so was the resolve of one dedicated messenger.

The air was heavy with the scent of wet leather and animal musk. The horse galloped on through puddles and through swollen streams that angrily lapped at its legs as it passed. Nostrils flared, the rhythmic, harsh sounds of strained breathing did nothing to sooth the animal’s rider.

Things were happening. Things were changing. People needed to be warned of what could befall them.

An arrow rang through the woods, striking the rider down in one fatal blow. The horse ran on, now panicked as it picked up the scent of danger. Riderless, it bounded down the dark forest trail.

The oaks leaned in as the rider exhaled his final breath. His dead eyes were transfixed on the blood soaked box underneath him. Even in death he tried to shelter the precious cargo he had been charged with.

Strangely no one came to steal his treasure. The storm raged on, and the stain of blood slowly merged with the earth itself. Plants overgrew the carcass, hiding it from prying eyes.

The rider had finished his task, even if it was different from the one he thought he understood.

[~Scout~]

Even as it rained heavily, in a nearby town the air was filled with the sounds of the market, merchants hollering their prices for all to hear, peasants busy haggling over the right price for yesterday’s catch, and the grabbing by hands of children for a soggy loaf of bread. The town was alive.

Hidden beneath the relative warmth and dryness of his wool cloak, a man sat on a crate at the side of the orderly chaos. He had been there for nearly an hour, waiting. His quarry had not shown up, however. He stood and paced around the crate for a few seconds before finally giving up and heading to the inn, where it was warm and dry.

He walked in to the inn to feel the heavy weight of raindrops slide off of his back and he crossed the threshold. The warmth hit him in a wave, with all the bodies inside and the fire roaring despite the wet outside. Without so much as a hello to the innkeeper he stormed past and approached a table where a rotund, balding man was sitting. The man had once boasted red hair, but this was becoming flecked with grey hairs. His eyes were bright as sapphires, however, and he was pleasantly chatting away with a couple of other patrons when the cloaked man put his hand on his left shoulder. The well-rounded man looked up and smiled broadly.

“Why, if it isn’t my man of the hour! Why don’t you have a seat? My friends and I were just having a talk which I’m sure you’d love to hear,” he said cheerfully.

The cloaked man did not change his expression, nor did he sit down. Instead, he looked into the other man’s eyes with a deep yellow gaze.

“Charles, I assure you that I will listen some other time. For now, I have business to discuss,” he said.

“Oh, what business do you mean?” Charles said, gesturing to his friends to leave with two fingers.

“You said the messenger would be here, and he isn’t. I am a patient man, but I can’t wait forever.”

“Something must have happened to him on the road. If he hasn’t arrived by now, then I don’t know why it is,” Charles said, his voice turning serious.

The cloaked man sighed heavily. He said, “That message contains valuable information. It would be most bad for your business if the message were to fall into the wrong hands. It will be safe in my hand.”

Charles glanced at the bulge in the cloak where the man’s right arm was. The cloaked man left for the upper levels of the inn, where the rooms were. He opened the door to his room and walked in.

Inside was a fairly plain room, with a ghoulish man in the corner with a rope around his neck. He was chewing on the remnants of a bone with yellow teeth.

“Hey boy,” the cloaked man said, tossing a haunch of pale flesh from his sack. The ghoul caught it and immediately began gnawing on it. The cloaked man knelt down on the floor in front of the ghoul. “You ready to go find a dead man for your friend Nick?”

[~DarkKnightCuron~]

Of course, someone was bound to notice the conversation between Charles and Nick. Said someone was actually a man. With piercing, deep brown eyes and a head of brown hair that would make a horse blush, the young man watched as the two conversed from the safety of his corner, sipping at ale. He was wearing a black cloak, as well as a black shirt and breeches. Heck, the only thing that wasn't black about him was his boots, which were dark brown.

"Well, well...if it isn't Nick..." He whispered to himself, as his eyes followed Nick as he went up the stairs.

"Distressed are we? I wonder what about..." He said, smirking as he filled his pipe with tabacco and lit it with a match. When Nick left his field of vision, the man's eyes went back over to Charles. Something about a message. What message, he wondered.

Oh yes...this would be quite entertaining.

[~Arx Fatalis~]

Ah, how simple innocence can get one is sooo much trouble.

Walking slowly down the puddle-engulfed road, Al'aundro was enjoying his time away from his usual mishaps or running into trouble. The grass was kinda high here, but he didn't mind; it tickled a little bit sometimes though, and occasionally he got angry and cut a lot of it down with a small knife, but he liked it well enough.

As he walked, though, the rain got heavier, and the puddles bigger. He pulled up the hood on his small leather jacket, but it didn't help much. He shivered in the cold as he trudged on, wondering why in the world he wasn't at an inn with some nice lady to say he was cute and give him milk and let him sleep in her bed because he was poor. Al liked ladies like that.

Walking along though, he managed to get right back into trouble.

Stepping through the high grass, he eventually tripped over something. He fell face-first into a puddle, which he didn't like much. He cried for a little bit because he scraped his elbow too and everyone knows those scabs hurt a lot more than it looks. When he looked down at what he had tripped over though...

Al screamed. I mean, why was a dead person out here anyways? For him to trip over?

Or maybe he was just sleeping and letting those maggots and flies and stuff crawl over him? Yeah, maybe he liked bugs?

Nah, he smelled dead.

So, feeling a duty to do so, he went into the woods by the road and found a sturdy enough piece of wood from an old stump and walked back over to the man. Beside him, he began to dig a hole for him to bury the man in. It wasn't decent for a dead person to be just laying beside the road.

And besides, he stank really really really bad.

{{OOC: Man, I never thought RPing a little kid would be fun, but...}}

[~Desmoth~]

Dousho sipped his ale mug quietly.

He had traveled a long way to get here. His master had sent him to retrieve something of importance. An amulet that a thief had stolen. But where could it be...

Dousha was currently watching two men having a conversation. They were talking quietly to each other, as opposed to the rest of the inn, which was talking quite loudly. Dousha didn't know their names, but he knew enough from first sight that something was different about their mood. Maybe they were conducting business, like an honest man.

Maybe they were conducting business, like a thief.

Trying not to call attention to himself, Dousha tried to listen in on the conversation. Not his favorite tactic, but in strange lands, one does what one has to do. The conversation broke up before he could hear anything, and watched as one of the two went upstairs presumably to his room carrying a large sack.

Dousha sighed. He was bound by honor to find this amulet, and perhaps this man with the sack would be a lead. The sack might even have something to do with it. Dousha went up to his room and prepared to confront the sack-wielder.

[~RejjeN~]

OOC: Desmoth, hope this doesent disturb your plans or anything, but if it does just tell me and I will change it.

Heheh, he sure had fooled that old guy. Not only had he managed to get out of the mess but also got something really valuable with him, some amulet that had strange runes on the edges and a black gemstone in the middle. However ever since he had taken the amulet he had felt this... precence. He felt it as if something was watching his every step, and because of this he had been quick to leave the country and head for another, but the feeling never left. Once he had tried to haggle with a fence about the amulet, but that did not end well as the man practically threw him out and told him to get lost for some reason.

"Oh well, there's other people to take if off my hands." The man said with a smirk on his face, he was sure it would be worth a lot, black gemstones was quite rare, though he had to find someone who would actualy be able to tell it was a real gemstone, most people thought he was trying to trick them otherwise. Right now the man known as Blik, no surname, was wearing a worn-out pair of brown leather trousers and a more worn out red shirtlike tunic, over it all he had a coat brown coat that seemed to have been repaired way too many times, and had several colors on those repaired parts, so he was easily noticable. Suited him fine, the more he stuck out the less people would consider him a thief or something, though right now he felt he had to leave this city, he had just performed a double murder and taken everything of value from the people in the house, so he'd get the city guard on his tail soon. Good it was raining so heavily, would be hard to track him once it had settled down.

Once he had come a good distance away from the city though Blik decided to sit down and rest for a bit, the road he was following just went into a forest and because of that it was easy to find shelter right beside the road. While sitting there he took out the amulet and gazed at it for a while, he had never tried it on, not that he was much for jewelry anyways, but that amulet gave him the creeps. What the heck, he thougth, and put the amulet around his neck.

Darkness, everything was dark, he could see nothing, he could feel nothing. His thoughts was foggy as if he was on drugs, of course he could not be on drugs however, no a being without a physical body could not eat or drink. But then, all of a sudden his mind awakened, someone had taken the object in which he had been sealed from its safe spot, although the person had not put it on. From the shadows the being had watched the man, and had early concluded that he was a coward, a greedy bastard and a fool. It was when the foolish man put on the amulet that Zhard was able to surface, not with his half-physical body just yet, but in the mans mind.

"Foolish mortal! You awaken me without knowing what you are doing, you murder and steal without a thought and all you care about is yourself. A coward like you do not deserve to be my master!" The dark being, Zhard spoke in the mind of Blik, and at the same time appearing as a dark figure with deep red eyes. Naturally Blik paniced, trying to take of the amulet, although it was too heavy all of a sudden, and he was pushed flat to the ground lying on his back. "Someone like you are just food for the scavengers" A high pitched scream came from Blik's mouth, then everything went silent, Bliks body stoped moving completely as blood poured out of his eyes, nose, mouth and a wound that had appeared where the amulet had been. Now it was hanging from a low branch, easily visible if one saw the corpse of the now dead thief. Anyone within the forest would easily have heard the scream, and once again the dark being went into a half-slumber, until someone else took the amulet in his or her hands.

OOC: Arx *wink wink*

[~Golden Kitten~]

As the boy went on digging the shallow grave an ominous presence watched from above, its beady little translucent green eyes set inside its rotten sockets. Wearing the crudest of blood soaked clothing with metal protrusions drilled into its body, the obvious ones being six giant metal spikes drilled into its back and two huge metal boots which seemed to be attached to it via drill points above its shins. A white mask covered its face even though its quite dead skin was exposed on its hands, the back of its head and around the eyes which oddly still looked fresh if a bit too open due to the lack of eyelids. This…thing was what nightmares were made of and right now it watched a lone child out in the middle of nowhere with no protection. With diligent movement of its long rotten fingers it tied a vine around a branch and slowly rappelled in behind the boy who was still working on the grave, when its head was inches behind him it spoke in a sinister dark voice.

“Hi…”

Then the illusion was ended as the vine snapped and the creature plummeted to the ground, its back spikes sticking into the dirt and keeping it from flipping over like a turtle. Next the branch from above came falling down to the ground as the creatures weight had apparently already cracked it before his fall to earth.

“GAH!!!” he yelled out. There was no movement as the creature just lay there for several more seconds and all of this had somehow managed to miss the boy in the process. Finally it began to move and after several times of throwing its body to the side it pulled the spikes out of the ground and righted itself on all fours before pushing itself to a standing position. After taking a look around and noticing the vine he held it up and looked at it.

“Where did that come from? How did it even hold me?” Then as if it suddenly hit him he dropped the vine, raised his arms above his head and began to run in circles around the boy screaming at the top of his lungs. Unfortunately the vine caught on one of his shoulder blades (quite literally) and every time he looked back it was still there.

“SNAAAAAKE!!!! SNAAAAAAKE!!! IT’S A SNAKE!!!! SAVE ME!!!”

After several rounds about the area its foot hit the dead body and it plummeted to the ground, or should I say directly on top of the dead body. There it sat staring at the dead man for a long time then it spoke.

“Hi there Tom!” It pushed itself up and sat next to the body for a moment speaking to it, then after another pause “NO WAY!!! I am totally not like that Bucky!”

Then jumping up to its feet once more and doing a little dance where it flailed its arms around in the air it hummed a little tune. Finishing up it spun around and not speaking to anyone in particular.

“I FEEL THE GREAT GOLDEN KITTEN IS ABOUT!!! I SHALL FIND YOU YET!!!” he clenched his fist and spoke in an angry voice “For those bastards in the Emelion Empire killed my family and shall one day regret it…” he spun yet again and spoke in a high pitched voice “TO DISCOVER THE GREAT SWORD OF TOTO AND SAVE THE WORLD!!!”

It continued like this for a while, speaking to the wind when it just stopped mid sentence and raised its face to the air. Three quick, loud breaths were taken and it turned on end, squinting its eyes in the direction of where the grave had been being dug.

“Flayed…smells…cookies…”

[~Desmoth~]

OOC: That works.

[~Arx Fatalis~]

((OOC: So, the amulet is right where the dead guy is? like on a branch? Kay.))

Wow. what a strange person.

He had fallen out of a tree, run screaming around him screaming that the vine on him was a snake, and talked to the dead man that Al'aundro had tripped over.

"...You're weird, mister."

With that, he continued digging. For a while anyways.

What if this person was a bad person? Like, the kind of person that would pull out a dagger and cut him and let him bleed to death and stab him and rape him and then not bury him. That wouldn't be very nice.

So he decided he'd warn him.

"If you're a bad person I'm going to have to shoot you." He smiled innocently as he said this, until his eyes came upon a glittering dark necklace hanging in front of him. It enticed him, forced him to take it. So he did.

As he held it in his tiny little hands, he was tempted, ever so tempted to wear it around his neck. Like a prize! Except you don't find prizes hanging from trees because you have to win them from those carnival games with the creepy bald men that older people call "Carnies" and they look like they want to touch you in places. But it was like a prize. He thought against it though, and just put it in his pocket. It almost seemed like it didn't want to go in, but that was silly, amulets can't do that.

He finished with the hole and shoved the dead man in, and filled it up afterward. Al shoved the board into the top of the grave, and carved on it with his pocket knife:

THIS IS SOME PERSON WHO I NEVER MET.

EDIT: ((OOC: By the way, Golden Kitten, your character reminds me of Happy Noodle Boy from Jhonen Vasquez's Johnny the Homicidal Maniac comics. That makes me happy inside. ^_^))

[~beflexor~]

(OOC: hope y'all don't mind. Since my RP is a little slow I thought I'd drop in here. Also, this totally makes me think of Kristan Britan's Green Rider, and I totally plan to milk that as much as possible XD)

The horse continued down the trail, its nostrils flaring at the smell of the blood left in its coat from the rider. Lightning and thunder caused it to rear back and whinny in fear. It caught movment in the corner of its eye just before something launched out of the trees and onto its back.

"Yip yip yip yehee! Wahoo!"

The horse reared back again and tried to throw the new rider off but they held firm. Crying out victoriously.

Was it the attacker!? The horse bucked in a wild display for a few moments before finally stopping to rest, foaming at the mouth from exhaustion.

"There, there" the new rider cooed, leaning forward and petting its long nose "you have a new owner now."

Afree grinned wolf-like at her newest prize. Nothin' like a horse to get around in this dank forest faster. Not to mention the rider was probably dead from the way it ran. This was a place where people often found themselves ambushed and the like.

She stopped mid-pet and let her finger trace around a small bump on the horse's head. Huh, probably just has rabies or something.

There were sounds not far away, maybe that's where the previous owner was?She brought the horse around. It would be common courtesy to at least inform the relatives of the deceased. While Afree may have been a thief, a liar, a con artist, a jerk, and an extortionist, she was not a...person who raided dead bodies.

Great, not knowing that word was going to bother her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Meanwhile the rider stood before his own dead body, looking at his now pale and ghostly hands. As much as he wanted to go into the light and become a part of the next life, his duty wasn't done yet. And, oh Gods, the arrow was still in his back, paining him terribly.

When the little boy held the amulet in his hands the apparition tried to grab hold of it, only to see his hands go through.

The rider known as William Cart could only cross his arms in thought. When all else failed, he could always follow whomever had the amulet. He didn't have to worry about his horse, it didn't even technically belong to him. The horse had just happened upon himone day and had stuck with him since. Never even bothered with a name, just called it Horse.

Will sat down next to the boy and waited. What else could he do?

[~RejjeN~]

OOC: Um... The amulet is not the thing the messenger had >.> It was another person that died some hundred meters away. But I guess it works too.

The darkness faded away once more, it surprised Zhard, he had just been in slumber for a few hours. It surprised him to find the new owner of the amulet was... A boy? Well, atleast it was not someone like the last one... While Zhard cannot actualy "see" when someone only carries the amulet, it awakens his mind enough for him to utilise a little of his power, and one of those is to "watch" from the shadows or darkness.

In this forest, and at night, it was not hard to find a place to observe the boy from, what surprised him though was the precense of this... Abomination. It was certainly not a living being, and it was definately crazy. Then he saw it, the ghostly figure that seemed to reach for the amulet, but whos hands just faded through it. No normal being would be able to see it, but Zhard could. 'Interesting'

OOC: To give some info on Zhard and the amulet (Atleast the aspect that has to do with Zhard) When someone holds / has the amulet on them his mind awakens, if someone puts on the amulet them and Zhard gets bound togheter until the amulet is removed, however unless the person has a very strong will or are someone Zhard would accept as his master he can end their life with his own will, you saw that in my intro post.

[~Desmoth~]

Dousha prepared to enter the man's room. He was the most likely man to know about the amulet right now, so Dousha had to find out. Being stealthy wasn't something he was used to, and in Dousha's opinion, there were better strategies.

Dousha put away his armor and swords. It was obviously from somewhere far away, so he usually put it away when other people were around. Despite not being stealthy, drawing attention to oneself is usually a bad thing when it's not desired.

He sighed. His code of honor was too strict at times. If he didn't complete his quest, then he would have to commit seppuku. And he didn't want to do that.

Dousha put on some more regional clothes. He went outside, thinking about what would happen if the man was hostile. Finding the door, he knocked on it and waited for an answer.

[~Golden Kitten~]

Flayed had been creeping toward the grave in search of the cookie he knew was there, he had NOT realized the boy was there despite him being what had drawn him there in the first place…or so that’s what it seemed from his response. Jolting backwards and his eyes getting wide it seemed Flayed did not know what to say but he was moving forward again. That was until the boy threatened him, Flayed raised his arms above his head and screamed once more before falling to the ground with his hands over his head and his butt sticking high into the air.

“PAPI!!!! He's going to kill me!”

He burrowed his head farther into the dirt ground for a while before angling his eye up just a bit to see the boy chiseling something into the grave. Hopping to his feet and apparently oblivious to why he had been on the ground in the first place he walked up to the grave in a long stride, swinging his arms and legs wildly. Stopping while putting his hands on his hips he read the epitaph and giggled though he never actually explained why he did…or if he could even actually read it. Then just like before his eyes began to shift around, not staying on any one thing for to long until he spotted the boy again and jumped once more.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING OUT HERE?!!! LITTLE EVIL?!!!”

He held his surprised pose for just a little bit more then started over again.

“This is Flayed! Where is your shiny melon of justice?” he said pointing to the boy’s chest or so it seemed since it was from an awkward angle, he was apparently referring to the amulet. Not allot of good things could be said about Flayed but he had an eye for small details and despite what it might initially look like it seemed he had a longer memory span than he acted like.

However given that he never actually gave the boy time to respond it might have just been chance too. His pointing seemed to glide up above the boy’s head and he let out a long: ‘Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo’

His figure shifted in a circle watching something, then without warning he darted off into the forest out of view but his voice could be heard for quite a ways around and from its ever-changing location it seemed he was more just running erratically around the forest and not in a straight line.

“BUTTTTTTTTTTEEEEEERRRRRRRFFFFFLLLLLYYYYY!!!! COME BACK BUTTERFLY!!! FLY FLY AWAY LIKE A PUPPIE OF PURPLE METALLIC HAPPINESS!!! I SHALL MAKE A HOME FOR YOU!!! A HOME MADE OF SUGAR AND BAGELS!!!”

[~beflexor~]

(OOC: oh! I guess I must have missed that RejjeN, dar har har *is dumb* so...I'mma, like, just...keep this RP alive )

Afree turned the horse slightly in one direction, it seemed to obey her commands like a hot knife through butter.

No wait.

The elf shrugged after a minute of though, phrases were for old people anyway.

There seemed to be a couple of figures just down the road, but when she blinked, one of them was gone. Huh, her eyes must have rabies or something. She slid off the horse and went into stealth mode (X-A-A-down-left-right) and leaped up into one of the trees. Afree silently leapt from branch to branch until she was directly above a young boy...

And the most amazing amulet she had ever seen.

Her green eyes reflected an image of the amulet the moment they saw it. Afree had to have it, had to run the chain between her fingers and feel the cold of the metal.

Afree nocked an arrow in her bow.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Will looked left, then right, this place wasn't safe. As though to confirm his paranoia he saw a woman in the trees aiming an arrow downward.

He bit his lower lip and frantically tried to think of a way to let the boy know.

"Hey!" he yelled "assassin! Above you! Look out!" his words didn't seem able to pass through whatever spectral wall now seperated his existance and the living world.

The kid was about to join Will in the world of the afterlife and he couldn't do anything to warn him.

[~Arx Fatalis~]

((OOC: I'm kinda autoing Zhard in the amulet just a bit, but I don't think it is too bad. If there is a problem, please, let me know.

Al'aundro walked along the road with the amulet in hand, gazing at it's beauty. It was odd, but it felt like he should put the amulet on, still. He had the sensation constantly, like it was meant for him, and that things would somehow change for him upon its equipping.

As he walked slowly down the road, through a particularly wooded area, the amulet began to shake. Violently. He clutched it tighter so it would not fall from his grasp, but it only trembled more. He pulled it close to his chest to stifle the vibrations, but once he did, another being's vision briefly poured into him. It was a shrouded figure, and he could not make out it's details, but that wasn't what was important.

What was important was the elf in the trees that the figure pointed to. With an arrow aimed at him.

The word FLEE violently filled his mind, and he took to time to disagree. He took off into the woods, with the agility only a young elven child has.