Solo Specters and Shadows

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Built into the cliffs overlooking the Suvan Sea, Riverfall resides on the edge of grasslands of Cyphrus where the Bluevein River plunges off the plain and cascades down to the inland sea below. Home of the Akalak, Riverfall is a self-supporting city populated by devoted warriors. [Riverfall Codex]

Specters and Shadows

Postby Quzon on January 15th, 2018, 6:03 pm

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Tenth Day of Winter, 517 A.V.

Quzon was starting to get used to the way the city worked. It was true that he was still relatively new, but after having been a man about town. Painting the town red with his inquires about anyone who seemed like they knew anything about the Tainted Shadows. The pale Myrian was still as motivated as ever to start a war with his new enemies. It was true that he'd hit a snag in combating the shadows, but that just meant he needed to find the right weapon for the job.

Quzon left his rented apartment at the Kuahala Estatet while dressed in the usual fashion befitting an Isur; meaning even as a half isur he wore nothing but a loincloth, a belt to hold his hand-ax, a backpack, and the tattoos covering his body. He was a proud warrior who worshiped Izurdin through bodybuilding, so did nothing to hide the result of his hard labors.

He was currently reading through the greeting scroll the city gave visitors upon entering, and found it to be the most useful item he'd been using ever since he decided to stay in Riverfall. "Where are you? I need to know what you know..." He thought as he scanned over the map for the cities Spiritist. Quzon stopped in his tracks once he noticed the High Spirits resided along the waterfront in the opposite direction he was heading.

Once he turned towards to correct location, he began to sprint off towards his destination. Quzon had not done any morning weightlifting or noon time combat exercises in lieu of this expedition. That was why he decided to force his body to suffer the strain of a high intensity run. Quzon kept himself at a half speed to avoid disrupting the people he ran around who were walking through the city. The less dense the people were,the more comfortable he became, and gradually started to increase his speed. His breathing became far more frenetic the faster he zoomed down the street until the burning sensation of fatigued radiated through his thighs.

He pushed through that discomfort and pain, knowing he might need to run for his life someday. The pain dulled whenever he took a deep breath which lead him to breath in deeply through his nose and out through his mouth at a controlled pace. The Myrian only wanted to sprint. He did not want to hold a consistent run and tire himself out. That meant he stopped once he was a few meters away from where he last started, looked around to gauge his surroundings on where to run next, caught his breath, and moved on.

It took him several chime until he found himself out of breath in front of the High Spirits.

"You feeble weaklings."

Quzon cursed silently in Isur, agitated that as his eyes lacked the ability to see the color of the store in front of him. He maintained and fixed his gaze on something whenever stuff like this happened, but the more he tried to focus himself, the more he ended up hating the Tainted Shadows. He turned around to look out towards the beach given he did not often visit the bay level.

The ocean looked like a shifting abyss of rolling obsidian, accented by glowing white in the absence of its ever shimmering blue color. It was both ominous, yet morbidly beautiful... And it was the first thing Quzon had witnessed that made him want to keep his vision if only for the moment. When he turned back around, Quzon did not need to see color to notice randomly cracked glass of the shops windows. Or the way they were coated in a thick layer of dirt and grime. It was an odd train that did not make him pause for long before he moved to enter the building.

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Quzon
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Specters and Shadows

Postby Quzon on January 16th, 2018, 9:54 am

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His gaze flit over the establishments around him and he already began to work out a means of escape in case of a fight or an unexpected run in with a shadow. As hard as he tried, he simply couldn't help it; it was long since second nature to him; the first nature being that he always kept an eye out for a fight. This though, sizing up the relatively cluttered but homey establishments, was what he did before laying his sight on a woman who appeared to be sitting alone in a comfortable chair.

From the way her hair shined with an immaculate white sheen, he instantly knew the woman was a Konti. It was odd that he now found himself standing there waiting for the woman to finish having a conversation, given that they were the only two people in the sitting area. The woman motioned with a hand for him to join her by gesturing towards an empty seat. That gesture made him feel like he was a guest in her home rather than a customer. It made him feel like it would be disrespectful to not take a seat, and so he found himself sitting in the seat across from her.

"That was the last time I'd laughed that hard. Anyway, It was nice seeing you again. You can sing me another song later!" The woman said with a soft chuckle before turning her full attention onto Quzon. "Do you have a favorite song?" It was a question that threw him for a loop because he was not expecting it.

"Song?" He asked in a low curious tone, not sure about how to answer it. "Yes, a song. I've been trading songs with a friend for the past few days and I'm running out of good ones. If you had one, I'd love to hear it."

Quzon nodded his head once he realized why she asked him such an odd question. He took his time to politely guide his broken common into a nice way of saying no. But, nothing in his head sounded right so he just offered her the real reason for his visit today. "I seek, fight Tainted Shadows. It's a fight, I losing. Weapons. Magic. All pass through, like hand through water. For they are shadow." That was when he pulled his Handax out from his belt to show it to her. "I, Quzon Gemshock Pitrius of the Barbed Earth, seek you aid. Can you help me? I never fight ghost, can you make weapon useful against them? I'll then test on Shadow. How much I pay for it?"

She sat there for a moment with a smile on her lips at the way Quzon was pleading towards her. "Quzon Gemshock Pitrius of the Barbed Earth. That is a lot to take in. I'll just call you Gem from now on if that is alright with you? And my name is Nessela. But you can call me, Ness." She then stood up to take the handax from Quzon. "Is... fine." He absently agreed to her calling him by his shortened Isur surname. "Are you trying to help everyone?" She asked him pointedly while appearing to weigh the weapon in her hand.

Quzon had nothing to hide during his self-imposed war on the shadows. That was why he answered back instantly with no thought towards how it sounded in his broken, ram-shackled, common vocabulary. "No. shadows stole the color of my sight. They started battle. I seek end war... the end war will cause Tainted Shadows to steal no one else color. If battle help people, then I keep fight..ing for them.

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Specters and Shadows

Postby Quzon on January 17th, 2018, 6:54 am

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Nessela smiled and gave a small shrug of her shoulders, "For taking up such a task, all we ask for is that you keep fighting for us. And the best I can do Is give you a weapon worthy of the goal." Nessela walked over toward one of the shelves in the stockroom of items she sold. The Konti spent a chime looking over her own wears before picking up a vial that she felt was large enough to coat the ax with.

Quzon watched as she set his hand-ax down onto a coffee table, then uncorked the vial to pour an ethereal looking alabaster gel into her palm. He wasn't sure what it was, but Nessela started to coat the axe-head and handle with her very own Soulmist. But Quzon's attention was quickly drawn to the elephants in the room. All around him were ghost that materialized into existence. All of them calling out towards Nessela to feed them, lustfully wondering if she would share the glowing gel.

"Calm down. This is not for you." She spoke softly like a loving parent telling a child they can't have desert. And almost as soon as they all appeared, the ghosts vanished from sight. Quzon immediately stood up from his seat to glance around in all directions. It was the first time the Myrian had been around that many ghost. It was also a very humbling thought to know that the woman he was talking too could command such specters at a moments notice.

When Nessela letting her soulmist get absorbed by the ax, she held it back out towards the tattooed Myrian. "Here you go. I don't know if that will work against a shadow. But, that should be effective against fending off ghosts and other such undead. And don't worry, its a permanent effect." The smile gracing her expression seemed even brighter in contrast to Quzon's cautious sneer. It was not a sneer directed at Nessela as his eyes were searching for things that were imperceptible to him.

After his moment of skittish caution, he reached out to grasp the handle of his ax to take it back from her. He looked over the weapon to notice that nothing had changed about it. If he hadn't been there watching the woman coat it with soulmist, he'd have never had known. "How much. I owe?" He asked as he started to take off his backpack to retrieve his money. Nessela held up a hand to wave off his question. "No chargeGossamer approved of this.. All I ask is that you come back and tell me if it worked against the tainted shadows."

Quzon did not know how to respond to such kindness. He stood there motionless with his free hand still in the motion of trying to take off his pack when her gesture stopped him. "Thank you?" His voice rose with the unexpected joy of being given a gift. "Thank you. I not singer, but will come tell a song and the story of Shadowfall." The look on his face turned from surprise to joy, followed by boisterous laughter while holding up his newly named weapon. The pale man was not a huger, but felt a newfound kinship with the Konti that caused him to walk up to her, and give her a hug. He lifted her an inch off the ground before she made a small cough.

The cough was what caused him to put her back down. "You alright?" His eyes were filled with a slight hint of worry that he held her too tight. "I'm fine dear, I've just been feeling a little under the weather lately." He gave her a nod of acknowledgement before holding the ax back up towards her. He started to outright ignore how his broken common might have sounded. He was far too happy and curious right now to care about vocabulary. "What was in vial?"

Nessela responded to his question with a sly smirk and a single word. "Soulmist. I'll tell you about it later..." She knew he'd be back. And hoped he'd survive whatever trouble the pale Myrain was about to get into. Quzon backed away from her to strom off towards the door. "My hunt begins!" Those were his last words as he held his ax up in the air.

Quzon didn't notice as Nessela glanced towards her side where a ghost appeared. It told her something that she then shouted out towards Quzon as the door was closing. "If all else fails, pray to Syna..." Quzon paused just beyond the closed doors as he glanced up towards the sky to briefly look to the sun. With the Ax still held up, he shifted it over to shade his eyes from the bright sunbeams. "Hopefully, this will not fail." It was a thought he mused to himself as he left the High Spirits to go home and prepare himself to hunt for the Tainted shadows after sundown when they all start to appear.

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Specters and Shadows

Postby Quzon on January 22nd, 2018, 3:16 pm

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Tenth Day of Winter, 517 A.V.
8th bell, evening.


During the sunless hours outside the Kuahala Estates, Quzon stood in a low crouch while dressed in his hunter's hide armor, looking like a bear that had escaped from the The Monstrous Menagerie just across the road with an empty backpack on its back. He crouched down onto one knee as he held up his hand-ax to the sky. “Myri, boundless in victory. The True Blooded. The Usurper of War. The Blooded Blade of the Merciless. I ask nothing of you as I work towards a fleeting victory or a proud death should my efforts fail me. I pray only for you to know this man seeks to battle the shadows this night." Quzon stood from his crouch to run the blade of the ax along his left thumb to cause it to bleed. It was an act he always did after prying or before combat to wipe his own blood along the side of his bladed weapons edge for it to represent the symbol of blooded weapons, which was a sign that represented Myri.

Quzon couldn't help but stare at a random Akalak who watched him preform his entire ritual from down the road. The pale Myrian then took off into a small jog up the road until he stood at the corner where the Akalak stood just at the start of the path heading towards Wysar's Tower. Quzon had passed it so many times heading toeards Kuahala, yet had never any reason to visit it since he did not regularly worship Wysar. "You seen large dangerous tainted shadows? Know of place where dangerous shadows group like wolves?" He spoke out in a patchwork of common, only able to really use tainted shadow in a sentence because the words had become apart of his daily vocabulary. Asking if the man knew if the shadows lingered around any specific location.

He immediately recognized the Akalak as a member of the Cerulean given the tattoos splayed across his dark obsidian colored face; Quzon having been rendered truly color blind by a shadow, only able to see black and white. "So I go combat them."

The Cerulean who seemed to be on guard duty took a long moment to stared Quzon up and down. The Cerulean seemed to think that the pale myrian could handle a fight or danger, so spoke to him in a deeply rich tone of voice. "The Tainted Shadows are like vermin whos presence can be found everywhere in Riverfall. Just roam the streets and you'll find one eventually. " The much taller Akalak paused to shift a hooded lantern he held over towards an area behind Quzon. It caused Quzon to turn around, ready to use his ax as he looked around for a tainted shadow.

"I thought I saw something move out of the corner of my vision. These shadows are making me paranoid... should you wish to find them this night. The shadows often gather in mass at The Oasis." Quzon reached back to pull out the welcome scroll the city guard gave him that he'd need to return later to find the location. "Where Oasis?" He asked in a curt manner to avoid any complicated question that strained his shortened common vocabulary.

"Its not on the map because its just a giant hole outside the city. You can't miss it. If you're going there then prepare for a climb." The Cerulean said before giving the Myrian a nod then moving on to continue with his guard duty. Quzon knew he now needed to go investigate The Oasis, but for now he just needed to find a shadow to test out his new weapon.

He started to walk slowly down the road leading to The Oathmaster's Tower in the most conspicuous of ways. He walked proudly at a slow stride with loud heavy booted footfalls, trying to be bait for a shadow attack. It took him several chimes before he rounded the corner of the road by the School of Earth & Life Sciences. It was there that he found a group of Akalak all playing 'keep away' from a Tainted shadow that lingered in the air like a specter.

Quzon watched all of them for a moment to see what they were up too. It looked like they were all trying to fend it off by flashing hooded lanterns at it from all directions. "Its night seven of our light exposure tests." One said as another Akalak in dark leathers scribbled down thoughts into a journal. "Still no signs of reaction to light stimuli. We'll continue to monitor them..." The Akalak paused when Quzon approached them.

"Scholars of some type?" He thought as he lingered just behind the collective. They each seemed to allow him among their group once they saw the Compass Rose Medallion that hung from his neck which marked him as a member of the Antiquities Society. Quzon walked passed them until found himself three meters away from a Tainted shadow who started to focus all of its attention on him as its closest target. Quzon did not move any closer to wards it as he wanted it to advance upon him.

The pale Myrian took a readied combat stance as he held the hand-ax up tightly in his grasp. His goal was to swing the axe downward at the shadow once it entered into the first inch of his attack range. And so he waited as the Shadow held up ethereally ebony arms of shadow in attempt to grab him. As soon as its arm was in range, he brought his own ax down to cut at it with the soul-mist imbued weapon to see if it would have any effect on the shadow as if it were a ghost.

Quzon watched as his arm guided the weapon through the shades figure. The soulmist imbued into his weapon had no effect on the shadow at all which the Myrian expected, but still felt disheartened about. He would worry about that later, for now he still needed to get away from the shadow. He dipped down into a low crouch as the tainted shadow reached out to grab at his face. And in a hurried manuve to gain some distance, he leaned his body down so that he'd enter into a tucking roll once his shoulder hit the ground to roll quickly pass the shadow. It was a haphazard tumble that ended with him sitting on his rear-end behind the shadow.

He quickly got up to run past the Akalak trying to heard the shadow so that it would continue to attack them. Quzon no longer needed to talk with any of them, he now needed to prepare to go venture to The Oasis.

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Quzon
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Specters and Shadows

Postby Quzon on June 25th, 2018, 12:06 pm

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Grading


Quzon

  • Land navigation:1
  • Endurance: 1
  • Observation: 4
  • Socialization: 2
  • Rhetoric: 2
  • Investigation: 1
  • Intelligence: 1
  • Weapon(Hand-ax): 1
  • Acrobatics: 1

Lore
  • Land navigation: Riverfall’s city map.
  • Endurance: Proper breathing while running.
  • Location: High Spirits (Riverfall)
  • Quzon: Always have an escape plan.
  • Nessela: Spiritist and Owner of the High Spirits
  • Spiritists: They use Soulmist?
  • Tainted Shadows: If all else fails, pray to Syna.
  • Myri: Blooded weapon prayer ritual.
  • Location: Wysar's Tower. (riverfall)
  • Intellegence: Roumor that Tainted shadows gather at The Oasis.
  • Location: School of Earth & Life Sciences
  • Tainted Shadows: Soulmist does not effect them.
  • Acrobatics: Tuck and roll tumble.

Items.

Quzon’s handax: The entire ax was coated by a master Spiritist and can now permanently interact with ghost and ethereal undead.


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Quzon
Victory & Power
 
Posts: 317
Words: 271667
Joined roleplay: August 20th, 2013, 11:30 pm
Location: Syka
Race: Mixed blood
Character sheet
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