Chronicles of The Omniverse Archived Korvesa

Jackson stared at this all from the stairs. The distortion was unsettling, but nothing he could not handle. He shook his head at it all and pulled out a wand with a stone at the end. "Wand of Calming." He said mumbling the incantation that went with the Artifact. The stone glowed a light aqua color and everyone in the room felt warm and soft. Aggression in the statues and lower intelligence people would slow to a halt, as long as the spell was kept. The stones magic wavered, but Jackson tightened his grip, causing it to glow brighter. He began his decent to the main floor, with difficulty

"Why would these Statues attack us?" He thought outloud.
 
Trenn stopped to take a breath from banging the floorboards. The most he did was break a couple and there was still more layers before he could get to the bottom. He sat down and saw something in the corner of his eye. he looked at the door and it was emitting a light-blue light. When he walked to the door and opened it he was warmer and calm. He looked at the stair case and saw that it was still moving. he looked at the wall and saw a silhouette moving down the stairs.

"So you can walk down there," said Trenn dumbstruck. Being cautious he slowly followed the shadow downstairs, but he forgot one thing upstairs.

His pick.
 
Too damn slowly, the woman reacted, whipping around to face the shattering glass sound as the gargoyles began bearing down on her.

With one hand, she ripped the covering off of the long thin weapon, revealing a halberd that pulsed with blue energy, a lightning bolt carved along its staff with a circling, jagged design. She slid it downwards, held it out at an angle, and prepared to slash upwards in a diagonal once one of the two beasts were in range.
 
As Eren remained seated and largely unresponsive save for observing, he made himself into a rather vulnerable target to the threat yet to reveal itself. The shadows that had flickered and danced across the floor pooled like ink before clawed hands closed around the throat of Eren's shadow. Where the shadow stalker gripped Eren's shadow, the man would experience the same sensation physically. To observers nearby they would see the shadow of a creature entwined with Eren's shadow, and it distinctively possessed clawed hands, a hunched back lined with dorsal spines, and skeletal wings, but no creature stood present in the room to cast the shadow.

Meanwhile Jackson's intervention with the wand would prove ineffective on the gargoyle. The wand targeted aggression, something of which the gargoyle possessed none of. It appeared to be purely a construct with no capacity for emotion or intelligence. Its behavior was destructive and certainly aggressive, but it was in the same vein as a thunderstorm or a falling tree. There was no conscious decision or willful act of aggression, only side-effects of whatever had animated the stone statue.

The calming effect on those fighting the gargoyle on the other hand would prove effective as intended, and in Crohd's case perhaps lower his defense against the gargoyle that lept into action. Fortunately Sava's shield was near completion and would prove unaffected by the wand, provided she finished casting it in time.

Grimbold too moved to Crohd's aid - out of instinct and more pressing concerns than racism - but he had scarcely drawn his flanged mace before he stumbled and clutched at his throat. His eyes bulged and droplets of blood fell from scrapes and scratches opening up upon his neck. He slammed to one side into a table before falling to the floor writhing as if struggling with some unseen attacker. More claw marks split the skin of his wrist as he fumbled at his belt for the sunrod he knew to be within reach, but it wasn't enough to dissuade him and bloodied fingers closed around it as he pulled it free struck it against the leg of the table. The impact triggered the rod and washed Grimbold in a bright light that he directed to his own shadow which swiftly evaporated to leave only the shadow stalker behind. The creature itself leaped free as the shadow dissipated and it became solidly manifested physically within the room. It was about six foot in height - though appeared shorter as it hunched - and its skin was inky black. Its face was devoid of mouth or eyes, and it appeared little more than a vague mold of face without any distinct features. Enraged at being forced to manifest itself it moved to finish off the guardsman only to be caught in glow of Jackson's wand which left its aggression rapidly declining. Instead of attacking Grimbold it instead turned to dive towards the shadow cast by the nearby counter - and away from the calming influence of Jackson's wand. The artifact it would seem had proven effective upon the shadow stalkers once physically present, if not the gargoyle.

It was a double-edged success though that effected many of the patron's in the bar. Those of weaker wills and lower intelligence became passive targets unable to defend themselves. Among them was Tilda, the proprietor of the tavern who stood dangerous close to Crohd and the gargoyle, blinking calmly and seemingly unbothered by what was going on around here.

"Tilda? Tilda!" Herald the barkeep barked as he tried to shake some sense into her and draw her away from the bar where Crohd was grasping about for something heavy. He wouldn't find much of use behind the bar itself, but both Grimbold's flanged mace upon the floor, and Eren's hammer on a nearby table where close at hand.

Meanwhile Grimbold and Eren weren't the only ones to contend with the shadow stalkers. As Jackson and Trenn chose to step upon the stairs hands of shadow that had been previously concealed in the distortion of the stairs closed around the ankles of their shadows to trip them up and send them tumbling down the stairs with the shadow stalkers attached.

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Outside the tavern the enchanted halberd proved an effective weapon against the gargoyle that descended upon her. The heavy axe head struck against the construct with a stone splitting crack that would send the thing careening back through the air to crash into a nearby wagon of hay.
 
Trenn heard the fight get louder so he tried to go faster. He was imagining what and who could be fight. He blanked out for a second while taking a step. He didn't pay attention and he tripped he fell face first and began to roll down the stairs. He was yelling not in pain but trying to tell the person in front of him to watch out.

"Run," Trenn yelled as the rolling mass he was at the moment.
 
Crohd grabbed Erens hammer. He put his whole upper body into swinging the immense weapon, and as it left the countertop gravity took over and swung it like a pendulum into the Gargoyles face. Crohd then released the hammer - With a strange light, his motivation to fight had left him. In the moment when the Hammer crashed to the ground, it was difficult to explain; but it was almost as though he was merely a outsider watching himself. He had no reason to fight the Gargoyle, even though Crohd knew he had too, he had trouble rationalizing why.

A strange shadowy creature rushed past him. He shuddered, it was obviously a Void Creature, and it most likely wanted to end society as Crohd knew it, but all Crohd at that moment could muster was a slight feeling of amusement that his whole life would, at a point long ago, be to kill that thing behind the counter for the High King. Huh.
 
Eren watched the floor. The shadows had formed into a claw, and was now reaching for him. "Hm? Strange... never seen anything like this before..." He grabbed the bar and pulled himself away from the mitt of this demon, rolling towards his hammer after it had meagerly fallen to the ground. He also took out a torch, currently unlit. He grabbed his hammer just below the head and picked it up, slightly struggling to lift it. He looked to Crohd. "Have any lantern oil? Because I might need some." He watched the floor, making sure the shadow was a small distance away from him before continuing with his plan.
 
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The last few runes flew from her fingers as the spell finished. A flick of her wrist sent the shield out to cover the orc and hammer-wielding human in a wide arc. Casting done, that was when she realized there was also the shadow beast. Someone had mentioned lantern oil which brought a smile to her face. "Light is easy enough. But let's get to cover first!" Her hand reaches out for her 'guard' to tug him behind the bar. "How's your aim? I'll cast light orbs and have you throw them."

Clambering over the bar top was not the most graceful of actions but she made it over with a flair of her skirt. Once in a marginally safe space, she quickly made blue orbs of light, only a few runes needed and minimal concentration. "Throw these as close as you can to that thing. They'll explode and the light will linger for several minutes. Should give us an edge against it?" The orbs are warm to the touch and almost weightless, white at their core with the rune within.
 
"Maybe let's not set the inn on fire," the elven man mused in response to Eren's request, the wand's effects having sapped some of the incredulity that he might otherwise have had at the suggestion. "I like Lady Dawnhand's plan. It involves less burning down of the best and only place to drink in town."

With that, he turned to follow her, vaulting over the counter himself with a single dextrous bound. He offered her a grin. "Lucky for us that my aim is almost as good as my looks, eh?"

Lucky as well that though his inclination to fight might have been diminished, that had little impact on his desire to show off. Taking up the first of the orbs, he tossed it with pinpoint accuracy towards the creature's hiding spot. Should the creature once more be forced from its hiding place, the orb would be swiftly followed by a throwing knife flicked towards its throat.
 
"Tch." Jackson remarked, realizing his spell had no effect on the Gargoyle. He let up his grip on the artifact and instead watched, hoping that something that was noticeable would appear. He lifted his hand with his protection ring and stood ready for an attack, where-ever it may occur.

If the Gargoyles had no aggression, then something or someone must be controlling them, by logical deduction. If this had more to do with the ruins then maybe his expertise would have some use...
 
The gargoyle that had lunged for Crohd slammed into the physical barrier erected by Sava. The abrupt stop left it momentarily vulnerable to Crohd's swing that slammed into its head with the crack of stone. The construct abruptly crumpled to the ground as its stone skull fragmented into bits and pieces under the impact of the hammer before Crohd dropped it.

Meanwhile the light orbs proved exceptionally effective as the shadow creature spilled forth once more. Illuminated and unable to retreat into the shadows it turned on the one it has perceived as responsible for its vulnerability. The elven man.

The knife struck true but rather than blood, tendrils of inky blackness oozed from the wound.

"You will not survive thisssss place," it hissed in pain. "Fools of the Light."

It lunged then for him, determined to take one of them down with it or die trying.

The other shadow stalkers realizing that one of their own was soon to be lost to them retreated back into the shadows from whence they came. They were creatures of ambush and the element of surprise was no longer on their side.
 
"What, the inn?" the man managed to quip in response before the creature lunged. He ducked down as it did, using the cover of the counter to force it to bound over his head and give him time to retaliate before being pounced on. He deftly plucked up another of the orbs of light and flicked it for the creature as it was turning back to face him, then sprung after it with his dagger, thrusting in a quick strike for the thing's torso in what he hoped would be another disoriented opening.
 
Startled as the creature lunged at him, Sava "eep"ed before ducking down. Gathering the mana as quick as she could, frosty runes drawn in the air as she began casting a ray of ice at the void creature. Her hope was to slow it, maybe even freeze it in place if possible, to buy time for his daggers to do their work.
 
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