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--- Ruins: The Pitte (http://www.labofabyll.com/forum/threadid.php?threadid=2042)

  Ruins: The Pitte

Hmm... I just want to know how many people would post in this before trying to start.
The plot goes as this:
In the ancient, or possibly not so ancient, past magic re-awakened and made life on the planet much better for all around, and there was a time of happiness all around, for hundreds of years. Happiness as in lack of violence and agression, because there were still many who harbored ill feelings in there hearts, against the oppressing magical upper class. Guns fell out of favor, and the art of producing weaponry faded completely from all but a small number. But then, a lower-classman was born with the gift. Raw magical talent none but the most trained and powerfull of the ruling class could hope to match. A mighty war of magics broke out, and small companies hastened to produce weapons of war, yet lack of practice had made there products simple, and inefficient. By the time they produced anything good the war was over, and the world in ruins.

Our story takes place in a city known only as The Pitte. The city itself spans for miles, and has multiple levels. From the darkest depths of the underworld, where only the foolish tread unwarily, to the surface, where the sky is overcast at best, and raining constantly. Only fools still will tread unwarily. Fools or the supremely confident, such as masters of the mage-craft. Everyone has some magical ability these days, some only able to swirl around a puddle a bit, or make a few sparks, yet none as powerfull as the warlocks of old. Partially because of them, guns have mostly fallen out of use. Missile weapons aren't often effective against one who can stop or alter it's flight, and most guns are merely single shot. So all sorts of melee weapons are in production once more. Swords, hammers, axes, knives, daggers, chains, even some heavy throwing weapons that are harder to block due to there weight.

On the surface, unscaleable stone cliffs surround the city, where fierce predators dwell, and mighty winds know the unsuspecting to there doom. The intense magic radio-activity has created all sorts of mutations among both the people and animals, imbuing some of them with strange powers.


And... I'll give you all more info once I find out if this thing is any good.

Sounds good to me Sokket.

... sounds cool...

Neato.

Do it.

Yes... please do. I'd like to see how it starts out...

I would enjoy joining this Dach ^^

It would be a great turn around from my other adventures on Althanas, which I am growing weary of...




~Sweet Dreams

Ackle... overload. I actually wont be starting this for a while, but I'm glad you all think the idea has merit... I would start it sooner, but I'll be gone till saturday. Whenever it comes, my next post will have more details in it... so... yeah. If I'm lucky I'll actually be able to get on while I'm gone, and in that case I'll start it sooner, etc.

I return. And I'll get strait to the more detail-thingies. There are fifty-some levels to the city, all of which are divided into territories owned by five different and opposing lords.
Lord Terr'arrarti is the most powerfull, yet the most cruel and uncaring. He owns the top 15 levels.
The next is Killian, he refuses the lord title and owns 10 levels. He is actually the most prosperous out of them all, and sometimes seems to genually care about his people, yet his is ruthless on any criminals caught in his realm. He tends to squable over the rights to the five levels between his own realm and Lord Terr'arrarti's just above him. He also tends to be very strict and suspicious of anyone entering from a foreign level. Unless they were born there.
After Killian is Lord Narr. He tends to ignore the issues of actually leading his people, leaving that to his ill-prepared administratory staff. He tends to be a glutton, spending most, if not all, of his attention on food, women, and alchoholic beverages. He is also a fairly gifted mage. He owns 13 levels, 15 if you cound the two levels his minister of war is currently fighting over with the lord just below him.
??? no one really knows who owns the next realm. It consists of only 8 levels, and is fighting for two more just above it. No one even knows what the realm itself is like either, being as no-one goes into or out of it, except for quarentined free-for-all/abandoned sections that the government ignores for some reason. It's those segments that let people travel between the levels.
The bottom-most levels are nigh-anarchy, Lord Theresar lacking the power and influence to control the various freaks and thugs that roam the streets. It is most definately the most dangerous of all the realms to travel within, yet it is also very usefull if you need to do something that is... less than legal.

Other stuff, like food, etc. I'll mostly cover in the first IC post I make... And... yeah. Stuff, etc.

Interesting...very nice. I'd love to see how this goes.

Ooh, this looks like fun, I've already got a great character concept So start it, already!

OOC: Okay, I'm on it. Hopefully I don't screw this whole thing up, I like my idea too. ^-^ If you didn't guess, I'm not doing a joining form. I'll just start now.

Verai debated whether or not to take off his leather jacket as he stepped into the bar, there was a coat rack off to the side just for that sort of thing, but his Straigt was expensive, made from full combat leather it could turn even a heavy knife blade, lined with soft down to help protect from impact. He would have hated to be the one in charge of skinning the pidgeon it was made from... but he was gratefull to whoever it was. The leather was in excellent condition, even before it had been blest. The jacket had cost him over 1000 diivs, even though the price had been sinnfully painfull it had been well worth it. This jacket had saved his life plenty of times, even the most idiotic could see why he hesitated to take it off in a place like this, going against protocol.

In the end he decided to leave it on, though the staff would be unhappy with him, and probably charge him extra. Sadly, he didn't have that option for the greatsword strapped to his back. Most bars around here had a strictly no-weapon policy, and the power to inforce it. He mused that he should really find himself a less conspicuous weapon, like a stave. He was told he was quite good with a stave, better than with his gigantic sword, but swords are more fun, so he always stuck with it. Looking at the other bar patrons he came to the conclusion that he would switch after all... he could at least take a stave inside. Sighing to himself, he lightly set the sword that was as large as he on the weapons rack, momentarily bending it before it adjusted to the mighty weapons weight.

His single-lensed shades fell down his nose for a second as he turned from the rack before he pushed them back up. Hoping that no-one saw his eye, he found a seat and ordered a water, with the lie that he didn't drink alchohol. Even he enjoyed a pidgeon blud now and again. As he waited he debated ordering a steak... this place was said to carry bird from the fine coops of the 17th level... but he decided not to. It was always risky, eating just before a run. So instead he leaned back in his chair, sipped his water, and rested his eyes for a bit...

Axel pushed open the door to the bar and was about to sit down when he noticed the weapons rack. He took the liberty of grabbing the ones he liked when he noticed the large Greatsword. He was carefully inspecting it when one of the staff members walked up.

"Sir... is that yours?"
"What? No."
"Then I'm going to have to ask you not to touch it" It was then that the man noticed all the stolen loot in Axels hands "Excuse m.." WHAM! the man was sent skidding across the floor.

"Ouch... you should have that looked at" Axel then ran out the door and into the streets, laughing the whole time.

Vulcan headed to the bar, his loose robes giving the brief effect of floating to glancing passers-by. Upon entering, he removed the sheath-less rapier from his side with his left hand, and set it against the rack.
He approached the bar, took one of the stools, and ordered "the usual." The bartender nodded and a few seconds later handed him a shot glass, which he also gripped with his left hand, the other remaining hidden. His work for the day was completed early, and he was searching for something to hold his interest for the remainder.

~e~
((Whoops, just imagine that part was before Fizzbot's))

Upon seeing the thief flee, Vulcan grinned, downed the shot, and went dashing out after him, floating effortlessly over the guard trying to get up, and following him outside. The Great-sword was yanked back by an unseen force, and Vulcan's right hand shot out to catch it by the blade, protected by a chain-mail glove. The other weapons in his hands were also pulled the same way, though weaker, creating drag and resistance.

From a far corner in the bar sat a hunched figure,a cloak covering all but his hands which were heavily bandaged to the point the skin underneath could not be seen.One hand with a finger pointed slowly tracing along the words on the pages of a large book ahead of him,his other hand digging a metal covering on his index finger into the table,scrawling symbols.

Axel kept running, though he noticed the weapons were being tugged on and looked around for the cause. Seeing a man holding the greatsword he had just lifted, he realized it must be him that was tugging at his loot.

"... You want them? You can have them!" and with that Axel started throwing all the weapons at the man at a quickend speed. ((Think haste))

Verai woke with a start to a scratching noise at a table somewhere to his right, and behind. Some sort of petty vandal sketching things into the table no-doubt, his own table held layers of so called "artwork'. He'd must have dozed off he realized, much of the people in the bar were completely different from before, then he cursed himself and absentmindly ran a hand through his short hair when he looked at the clock behind the bar. 200. He'd missed his client. Shrugging to himself, he set back into his chair and nursed his drink, it was no biggy. Not like he was impoverished or anything, it just would have been nice to have some extra cash, what with his rent coming up. Casually he glanced around, and oddly enough, his attention was taken mostly by a man with a large sword standing just outside the door, there just seemed to be something wrong with that picture.
Wait a minute... he thought to himself ...that's MY large sword.
Hurriedly he leapt over his table and dashed outwards towards the apparent offender of personal property rights.
"Hey man, what gives? What are you doing with takin' my sword?"

As the man let go of the sword, it sailed, as though tossed, to Verai. "Uh, look, take it, I'll be there in a sec." The armoured hand snapped to his waist, the arm itself looking limp, and he began dodging swords and other weapons that were flying at him. Only then, with hi robes billowing up, did it become completely apparent that he wasn't actually standing, and he weaved back and forth in mid-air, watching each go past. Many of them veered sharply down and stuck into the ground as the passed him, or rather, when he looked at him. Once they stopped, he lowered himself back to a standing position. Then looked down and only then seemed to notice a rapier sticking clear through one leg. He dropped down to that knee, clutching at the wound with his left hand and wincing.
"Ow... l'il help, anyone?"

Verai stood in shock for a second as exactly what had just occured sunk into his mind. Obviously this man wasn't his enemy, yet. He had given him his blade back after all. And obviously it would be a bad think if the other man got away, those weapons looked like some of the one's he'd seen on the weapons rack when he put his sword down. So chances are it was the running guy that snatched his sword, not the wounded one. Unless this was just a falling out between partners, but in that case they wouldn't make it so public. And much as he would like to let the roosting bat lie, that guy tried to steal his sword. He was a theif, and a rather bad one. It was Verai's own duty to ensure that he wouldn't hurt himself with any more botched up robberies. So with the theif's best interest, of course, Verai effortlessly swung the mighty weight of his sword around into it's clasp on his back and chased after the fleeing befouler of the law. Letting a roar rise in his throat he dropped to all fours and gave chase as unto a beast. It actually didn't even enter into his head that someone with a sword clear through his leg might need some medical attention...

Well I cant just run away without getting at least something out of it, Axel thought. So... Axel pulled something from his coat, It seemed to be a small cylinder, with a spearhead on one end. Axel pressed a button on the cylinder and out of both ends a pole shot out. "Voila, instant spear." Axel ran forward and dug the blunt end of the spear into the ground, polevaulting over the man chasing him on all fours. He then ran towards the weapons he had thrown, scooped a few up, and ran into an alleyway. "That was an incredible failure" he muttered to himself.

Vulcan, still immobilized, helplessly watched him go past. A couple of patrons that had also run out to retrieve their weapons, and some of which seemed about to help him, instead ran after Axel.
b******...

"... If that guy hadn't butted in I wouldnt be having this problem..." Axel muttered to himself before spotting more people looking for him. "Oh, man." Axel ran from the alley and threw the weapons he had picked up at them, running through one man with his spear. He flipped this man behind him and removed his spear, he than continued fleeing before having a flying knife spear him in the shoulder, which sent Axel to the ground.

As Vulcan tried to shift his weight using his left hand, he fell over, and his his boots snapped to his waist, just as his right hand had, pressing the sword against his cheek (remember, rapier = no blade)
"...Crap..."
He waved his left hand in the air, "No help for the handicapped then...?"
The blood began to seep through the brown cloth of his robe.

Closing his book from the noise outside the hunched over figure stood up,picking the book up and slipping it inside his robe,with a wheezing cough he limped outside,looking at the injured man before him.

"seems you got the *cough* point"

Axel pulled himself from the ground in time to dispose of the man that just knifed him in the back. He tears a piece of cloth from the dead mans shirt, and walks over to Vulcan.
"Quit whining." Axel says before he removes the rapier from Vulcans leg and bandages it.
"Hmm nice sword" Axel then remembers the knife in his shoulder and his eyes widen.
"OW..." A tear comes to Axels eye.
"That really hurts..." Axel then picks up a few more weapons and walks away whistling.

Vulcan sighed at the man's pun, then noticed the thief returning once more. "Oh, back again I see. You're just lucky I'm a cripple and everyone else whose swords you stole is either dead or too drunk to drunk to move."
"Quit whining." The man knelt over, pulled the legs down off his belt (he also saw now that there were steal nails along the sole, and they were stuck by a weak magnetic force), and removed the sword. The legs lay limp on the ground.
"GAH, ah, so you're taking pity on the poor helpless foe, easy to have mercy when your opponent's face-down on the floor!"
There was a quick bandage job, and Vulcan noticed the other man's wound. "Oh, how horrible for you there! It's such a huge blade, too, must be in there, what, an inch and a half deep, you poor thing! Hey now, that one's mine!" With his free hand, he grabbed at the rapier, "Oh, oh I see... runnin' away, eh...? Come back 'ere and take what's comin' to ya! I'll bite yer legs off!"

Coughing again Wulfen looked down at the cripple,a thin smile on his covered lips.

"That wound is not much to complain about child"

"oh,and what would you know?"

Holding his arm out in front of him Wulfen reached into his robes,pulled out a silver dagger and with one smooth motion cut through his arm at the elbow joint,strangely no blood came from the wound on either half.

"ah....."

"yes,now allow me to give you a"

"don`t,say it or I`ll bite you down to my level"

"fine"

Kneeling down the haggard and bandaged figure of Wulfen picked up the severed arm,attaching it to the stumpe and twisting the bandages to act as a support.

"uh...dosen`t that hurt?"

"not after the 18th time"

Standing up Wulfen offered his other hand to the man,before giving another wheezing cough.

((Um... whuh? He has all his limbs, most of them just don't work so well ^.^ he'll explain when he gets the chance, but... yeah... it's kinda a long-term thing, that the injury affected))

((no no,it was my character that did that to himself,all hes done with your char is offer him a hand to stand up))

((Uh... okay... I'm still kinna confused what happened, though...))

Axel turns his head back to Vulcan, his eyebrow twitching. "You are soooo dead gimpy." Axel marches over to the crippled man and was about to sink the axe he stole into the mans neck but instead watched as the old man next to him cut off his own arm. "Uh... nasty..." Axel continues watching as the man reattaches the limb to the stump. "Um... how is that going to hold your arm on? And how is your arm going to heal?"

((Ah, I see...))
Now completely ignoring Axel, Vulcan reached up with his good hand. "Ah, thanks, I'm a bit dead in the limbs myself. If you could just get me somewhere I can rest for a bit, say, back in the bar where I can order a drink, I should be fine."

"so long as your paying and as for your question boy,I have my methods"

Leading Vulcan into the bar Wulfen took him to a secluded table near the back,taking his book out he reopened it on the page he had left off.His finger tracing across the words.

"so what do you drink?"

"...klaatu....verata.."

"oh-kay"

Verai ducked into a side building shortly after Axel had doubled back, he was getting a call from an employer, apparently.
"Verai. I have another Job for you."
"Yes ma'am?"
It was one of his most highly esteemed clients, she used a series of untracable lines to contact him, merely so he couldn't trace it and found out who she was. He already did know who she was actually, not that he was going to tell her that. His eyes widened, then narrowed, and a smirk appeared on his lips when she finished giving him his assignment.
"You're going to need a quality team, we don't want to botch this. One try is all we have."
"I realize this ma'am, in fact..." he watched a couple people enter a bar after witness something quite uncommon... not many people can re-attach severed limbs... "...I already have found units of some... class."
"Good. Gather them up and meet my representative at the usual place to discuss specifics and payment. I'm counting on you Verai."
"I wont fail you ma'am.
Smiling grimly to himself, Verai walked back to the bar... the rain up here actually seemed to be getting lighter, not that that was possible... but it seemed like it.

Orick sensed the return of the mercenary that had been in the bar earlier. He idly wondered if the thief had been caught but he didn't worry about it. His own weapons were concealed on his body to avoid such a situation. Shaking his head he returned to more pressing business, namely the surveillance of Verai.

"Your time will come Verai." He said with a grin. "Your time will come."

"Hey... thats not good enough.. I want to learn how to do that!" Axel yelled after Wulfen. "Ah.. crap." Axel said after the two men went inside. "Well... It may just work." Axel went into an alley removed his coat and took some clothing off of the dying men, using it to make a disguise. He wound some cloth around his face and put on a pair of sunglasses, completing the disguise. He then walked back into the bar, spotted Wulfen and Vulcan, and walked to their table. "You obviously wouldnt cut off your own arm unless you knew how to reattach it, I want to learn how. Im sure I could find something to give you in return."

Verai was immediately struck by the dimness inside the bar, surely it hadn't been that dark before... and he debated mommentarily taking of his sunglasses, but then he realized that the brightness of his cybernetic eye had just gone down, and he mentally raised it again. Examining his surroundings he made note of the metal grate in the middle of the floor, and noticed a few uncleaned tables. Nothing out of the ordinary. Some of the lights were flickering, and some were not. The three he was looking for were in one of the darker corners with a dim light that was obviously on it's last stroke. As he approached them he had the strangest feeling of being watched, and absentmindedly wondered if there were any rats under the grate for some reason... they were already talking about something but he ignored it. Standing before the table he spoke:
"Hello Gentlemen, I have a proposition for you..."

"I`m flattered but what could you possibly offer me boy,I have learned more than most and very few things interest me...however I still have my curiosity,now"

Looking over at Verai Wulfen finished off his sentance.

"since you have piqued my interest,what is this proposition?"

While speaking Axel clearly saw the once severed hand flex and move naturally.

"Before I say any more I want you all to know that you have been targeted. If any of you divulge anything I'm about to say to the enemies of my employers, you will indeed become very sorry, very quickly." That wasn't true, but it was some insurance. Verai continued.
"I'm putting together a team of five unique individuals, six including me, to perform a... well... I'll be blunt. I'm hiring you to help me kill a man. A very powerfull one. Fortunately my employers are also powerfull, name your price and it's yours, if your not good enough your dead." His ears pricked, he knew someone was watching him now, he just didn't know where they were. His eyes narrowed as he scanned their faces, that would have to wait. " The man I'm hiring you to help me kill is none other that Lord Narr, the butcher."

Rubbing where his limb had reattached Wulfen looked up at Verai,only one eye could seen,the rest of his face was bandaged or hidden in the shade of his hood.

"I see,most interesting...hmm,any price you say?"

"that I did"

"curious...well I have no desire for wealth in the normal sense"

"meaning?"

"I want knowledge,the knowledge contained in a certain book I might add"

"and this book would be?"

"The Necronomicon Ex Morte or as some others know it,the book of the dead,that is my asking price and I shall not settle for anything less"

"I see,however you do not receive your payment until completion of the task at hand"

"I am aware of that,just merely laying my request in the open,I have nothing to hide....my apperance being of a different matter of course"