RuneScape Forum Archive | ^+^ Onslaught ^+^

Dec

2005

A Mad Hatter

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“I know where they’re hiding,”the disguised Mori said. “I managed to track them down to this old hideout near the gate to the south. The Black Arm guys, I think they called themselves.”

“But*that’s almost too far away! They could be gone by now!*

*Or not,* Mori said. “Ten men. That’s all I need. If we find nothing, then we find nothing. But what do we have to lose with this Brotherhood case leading us to constant dead ends?”

The two officers looked at each other nervously. “Well…let’s talk to the Chief first and see what we can do.”

~^+^~

Ol’ Roy roused himself from his stupor not too long after the mage left. Something about that girl wasn’t right, and he could smell it.

That was why he stumbled along at a distance, making sure to keep out of sight when the girl stopped at the main road while talking to herself. At first he simply assumed she was mad, but he could recognize the tingle of magic around her anywhere. But, he couldn’t place what sort of magic it was. The aura around her seemed…almost otherworldly in all the wrong ways.

When the coast was clear, he stumbled into the bank as soon as he reached it. It was relatively quiet inside compared to the bustling city streets, and the bankers serving their customers did*’t seem to notice the lowly drunk that wandered in. Which was good, because he wandered up the spiraling staircase to an empty room, and made sure nobody was around when he walked over to the windows nonchalantly.

He spied the girl further down the road, though to normal human eyes there was realistically nothing to see. She was on the ground and surrounded by a small crowd, and the magical aura seemed to fade from her body as she pulled herself to her feet and pushed through the crowd screaming something.

Ol’ Roy sniffled, and turned around to go down the staircase. He made his way out of the bank and into a nearby alleyway filled with both the stench of wealth squandered and filth waiting to be devoured by vermin.

^+^ Antediluvian of the Draculesti Bloodline ^+^

^+^ If the Gods see fit to curse us with the Blood, then we shall raise ourselves above them ^+^

16-Jan-2014 02:01:34

Dec

2005

A Mad Hatter

Forum Moderator Posts: 9,861 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

When it appeared that nobody was paying attention, Ol’ Roy closed his eyes and concentrated real hard. A puff of smoke surrounded him, and once it cleared a pale, snowy haired woman dressed in black dragonleather stood in his place.

She heard the sound of shuffling clothes from behind her. The smell of one too many Wizard’s Mindbombs and Cider assaulted her senses as well, and so she wasn’t surprised when a drunkard shuffled out of his heap of scraps that passed for a ‘home’ among the poor and slurred his words. Whatever he was saying, it was annoying enough to cause the woman to turn around and stare the man in the eyes.

“Ooo…red un’s ‘ey?" the drunk rambled, noticing her eyes. “I ‘ad a few red ‘uns before. But shorties stole ‘em!”

“I’m not here,” she said in a hypnotic voice. “Now go tend to your chicken imps.”

The man’s eyes deadened a bit, and his lips twitched. He turned around and shuffled around randomly, chasing phantoms that were only in his mind. The woman left him to it, and the sounds of “C’mere chicky…impy..chik…what tha hell are ya anyways?” receded as she pulled a dark hood over her head and disappeared into the crowd.

As she walked, the woman’* clothes slowly changed. The dragonleather chaps began to grow soft and melt into a robe skirt, and the chestpiece started to hang loose around her body as sleeves grew out of it to cover her unnaturally pale arms. Arcane symbols faded into existence around the robe, but despite the strange occurrence nobody seemed to pay her any mind.

And neither did anyone seem to notice a guard captain walking out of an alley that a woman had disappeared into mere seconds ago. The woman took notice of the man’s scent, and confirmed her suspicions: it wasn’t the captain she knew, and that girl ‘Ol Roy’ had met was an illusionist of sorts.

^+^ Antediluvian of the Draculesti Bloodline ^+^

^+^ If the Gods see fit to curse us with the Blood, then we shall raise ourselves above them ^+^

16-Jan-2014 02:02:35 - Last edited on 16-Jan-2014 02:02:57 by A Mad Hatter

Dec

2005

A Mad Hatter

Forum Moderator Posts: 9,861 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

The woman shoved that information to the back of her mind, and continued on her way. She passed the guard station, and caught snippets of what she needed to know, but that wasn’t important right now. In fact, she had a completely different goal in mind, and as the museum came into view, she had a feeling that something was bound to mess it up. The smell of magic in the air was thicker as she approached the building and walked up the many steps to the entrance, but she couldn’t figure out if it was friendly, neutral, or something else entirely.

A doorman dressed in red formalwear and a matching hat greeted her at the door. “I’m sorry, miss, but the museum’s closed. Come back tomorrow.”

“I’m looking for Curator Haig Halen. Is he in?” the woman asked.

“He is, but like I said, the museum’s closed. I’m afraid you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to talk with him, if he’s even available,” the doorman said sternly.

The woman shook her head. “I’m actually expected. Tell him the scholar he requested is here.”

“I’m afraid I don’t believe you,” the doorman said. The youth put a hand on her shoulder, and tried turning her around, but to no avail. She was much stronger than she looked, though it did*’t seem to faze him in the slightest. “Now*if you’ll stop resisting…leave.”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” the woman smiled. She bared a pair of small but vicious fangs, and tilted her head at just the right angle so only the doorman could see them. He looked visibly shaken as the possibilities of what the strange robed woman was began to stir in his mind.

“I…I…miss,” the doorman stuttered. “Please, just leave.”

The doors behind him creaked open slightly, and a middle aged man with graying but well-kept hair and a monacle poked his head out. He did*’t seem scared in the slightest, and the woman sheathed her fangs as the doorman began to curl up into a fetal ball and wimper uselessly.

^+^ Antediluvian of the Draculesti Bloodline ^+^

^+^ If the Gods see fit to curse us with the Blood, then we shall raise ourselves above them ^+^

16-Jan-2014 02:03:55

Dec

2005

A Mad Hatter

Forum Moderator Posts: 9,861 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

“Well, well, well,” Haig Haeln said. “It seems you did get my message after all.”

“I did,” the woman said as she slipped through the crack of the door. “Sorry about making your doorguy cry. He wouldn’t let me through and I was trying not to just kill him on the spot.”

The Curator sighed as he looked at the pathetic man outside. “I’m sorry, lad, but it seems I’ve forgotten to tell you to expect Miss Belamorta here,” he said motioning to the woman.

“It’s Caninelle,” she said.

“I…” the doorman pulled himself to his feet and was visibly trying to keep from having a breakdown in public. “Sir…just what the hell…is she?”

“What, you act like you haven’t seen a Vampyre up close before,” Haig said calmly. When the man’s eyes widened with even more fear than he thought possible, he added, *Don’t worry, this is all safe. I requested her to come as quickly as she could because I know I can trust her not to carve anyone up and eat them.”

“But…sir, a Vampyre? Seriously?”

“I’m very serious, and no, I’m not bewitched,” Haig said to the doorman. “Now if you’ll excuse me, there’s a werewolf stopping by here soon as well, so be a good lad and keep an eye out for a rampaging man-beast in the time will you?”

Haig Halen closed the door on the terrified doorman, and turned to Caninelle with a smirk on his face. “I lied,” he admitted. “There’s no werewolves coming, but I told him to expect a guard captain coming sometime today too. I wouldn’t be surprised if the poor sap thought a werewolf walked right up to him in guard uniform after today!”

“That’s…actually pretty funny,” Caninelle giggled. “I never thought you’d have a sense of humor.”

“We all have our moments,” Haig admitted. “Now, about why I asked you to come here…”

~^+^~

^+^ Antediluvian of the Draculesti Bloodline ^+^

^+^ If the Gods see fit to curse us with the Blood, then we shall raise ourselves above them ^+^

16-Jan-2014 02:05:10 - Last edited on 06-Mar-2014 04:15:43 by A Mad Hatter

Dec

2005

A Mad Hatter

Forum Moderator Posts: 9,861 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

The Shroud motioned with a gloved hand for Rovin to sit in a damp and rickety chair across from one of his floating desks in the corner. Despite the apparent age of both pieces of furniture, evidently they were made to last. The chair, while slightly buckling under the guard’s weight, held true, and the desk was cluttered with various scraps of parchment and cloth that were separated into neat, if a bit large, piles that would put ordinary desks through a true test of craftsmanship.

The Shroud pulled up another chair besides Rovin, and smoothed his robes as he sat down. The red-garbed mage lord waved his hand, causing the piles on the desk to float into the air and flutter back to random bookshelves in an orderly fashion.

Another handwave caused a thick, moldy tome to float over and slam down onto the table with a dull thud while it opened of its own accord. Rovin did*’t get a good glimpse of what was on the flurry of pages that followed, but he guessed he wouldn’t have had any idea what he was looking at anyway if he did after seeing what was on the pages the book stopped at.

“You hold up well for a human who’s seen this for the first time,” the Shroud said, pointing at the tome. Inscribed on the weathered pages were indecipherable arcane glyphs and runes that seemed to defy any attempts at identifying which school of magic they belonged to, but to Rovin the stranger things he saw looked…almost unholy, if not outright blasphemy to the natural order.

Caricatures of some kind of slug were scribbled on the pages, but ‘slug’ was where the natural aspect of the thing ended. The creature had a group of four eyes situated above a triangular face with no mouth or nose, but yet tongue-like appendages seemed to be crawling out from under its ‘chin’. Spiny ridges ran down its backside until they forked into two different directions and began to run along the thing’s sides, ending in a mockery of a mermaid’s tail.

^+^ Antediluvian of the Draculesti Bloodline ^+^

^+^ If the Gods see fit to curse us with the Blood, then we shall raise ourselves above them ^+^

16-Jan-2014 02:06:03

Dec

2005

A Mad Hatter

Forum Moderator Posts: 9,861 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

“I have to admit, this is a good drawing,” Rovin said as he tried to figure out if such a thing could ever exist.

*It’s also the most accurate depiction the author of this tome could get without causing a paradox,” the Shroud replied matter of factly.

“Truth be told, I’m not sure what this has to do with me anyway,” Rovin said. “If anything, I should be questioning you about your…associates, let’s call them…and their work in this city.”

“This has a bit to do with what you might be talking about,” the Shroud said. “You ran into the Lunar Vampire we created, yes?” Seeing the lack of surprise on Rovin’s voice, he added, “I’ve been watching my team’s efforts to recapture the specimen before it got out of control in Varrock. I know well of your role in assisting with the attempted capture of the creature.”

“That ‘creature’ was a little girl,” Rovin said angrily. “If I were you, I’d start talking about just what the hell you and your associates were thinking when they used a royal charter to do human experimentation on that sort of scale!”

“All in due time,” the Shroud said calmly. “But tell me first. Have you heard of a city by the name of Ukrosha?”

“Don’t try to change the subject,” Rovin spat.

“This is important, though,” the Shroud said. “You see, Ukrosha was*.what your kind would call a Utopia. A city that spanned many miles, was claimed as home by many races – even some humans – and was a political superpower of its time.”
“Many cities can lay claim to that, but I must insi-“

“It was very much like Varrock,” the Shroud interrupted. “Except bigger. Tragedy struck, however, when a horde of beastmen descended on it from inside and out.”

^+^ Antediluvian of the Draculesti Bloodline ^+^

^+^ If the Gods see fit to curse us with the Blood, then we shall raise ourselves above them ^+^

16-Jan-2014 02:06:41

Dec

2005

A Mad Hatter

Forum Moderator Posts: 9,861 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

“Now LISTEN!” Rovin shouted. “Whatever this Ukrosha was, that doesn’t explain what you were up to! You deliberately took a young woman and turned her into a Vampire, and for what? Money? Fame? Power? Do you even know what kind of fire you’re playing with?”

“Actually, I do,” the Shroud remarked calmly. “You see, the beastmen that sacked Ukrosha had…arrived at a most opportune time for another party. One that I believe your precious guardsmen have spent much time investigating.”

“I’m not following.”

“Oh, really?” the Shroud asked, genuinely surprised at how the guard captain was missing what was right before his eyes. “Tell me, what has been going on in Varrock lately? Murders, mayhap? By a certain…Brotherhood, I believe your papers call them?”

“They’re a recently arrived threat to the city, yes,” Rovin admitted. “But if you’re insinuating that they’re older than that, you must be mistaken.”

“I’m not,* the Shroud replied sternly. “In fact, your first mistake was assuming they were new. They are most definitely not, and you aren’t the first to make that mistake.”

“Then who was?”

The Shroud shrugged. “Whoever they were, they had died before my time,” he admitted. “But I do know that this….Brotherhood…had in fact been active in Ukrosha during the attack of the beastmen that struck the city.”

“And how do you know this, exactly?” Rovin asked, suspicious of the mage and where he was going with his line of conversation.

“My grandfather was a powerful Warlock in service to our Lord during the attack,” the Shroud said. “His hometown was attacked by a damn Jabberwocky for reasons we never understood, and ended up involved with political forces that were trying to overthrow the city at the time. I’ve heard stories about his adventures while growing up, and my own travels have revealed some amount of truth to them.”

“So you admit there are possible lies in them as well? What makes you think he wasn’t lying about the Brotherhood as well?”

^+^ Antediluvian of the Draculesti Bloodline ^+^

^+^ If the Gods see fit to curse us with the Blood, then we shall raise ourselves above them ^+^

16-Jan-2014 02:07:34

Dec

2005

A Mad Hatter

Forum Moderator Posts: 9,861 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

“Because the Brotherhood was my own discovery,” the Shroud said. “In fact, he had never encountered them. But he was in Ukrosha during the beastmen’s attack, though I never understood how. He was supposedly on this world asking Zamorak for aid in an endeavor during that time as well, but knowing the power our Lord possesses, I wouldn’t rule out divine intervention giving him some glimpse at what happened.”

“Or maybe the beastmen attacked at a previous time?” Rovin suggested, hoping to find a hole in the story.

“That’s also a possibility, but there’s two things that stood out from his stories,” the Shroud replied. “First off, his tales describing the attack and his discoveries about a cult in the area after the fact seem to correlate with what I have divined through various means in the past. Which leads into my second point: Before, during, and after the fallout of the attack, the Vampyres of House Drakan have been working on a secret project they termed ‘The Lunar Vampire’. How and why they did this is unknown to me, but they were field tested during the God Wars of your world’s ‘Third Age’, if I recall correctly.”

“Ok, now you’re just making things up,” Rovin said. “Now, I know of the Lunar Vampire project from a reliable source. They did*’t come into being until the end of the Second Age, but were never used in the wars that followed.”

“Then it seems your source was wrong,” the Shroud chuckled. “You see, they were deployed during the wars. In fact, they were set against the very beastmen that I’m led to believe attacked Ukrosha many years before the fighting started.”

^+^ Antediluvian of the Draculesti Bloodline ^+^

^+^ If the Gods see fit to curse us with the Blood, then we shall raise ourselves above them ^+^

16-Jan-2014 02:08:24

Dec

2005

A Mad Hatter

Forum Moderator Posts: 9,861 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

“So what were these beastmen, then?” Rovin asked. “And how do they tie to your Lunar Vampire experiments?”

“Now that’s where things get interesting,” the Shroud said. “You see, the beastmen have many names. Harbringer. Hunter. Slayer. But chief among them is ‘Doomhound’. I believe the word was coined by an ancient seer who attempted to study one, but that’s getting slightly off topic here. What you need to know is the Lunar Vampires were successful when thrown against the creatures, but not without cost.”
“I’m to assume that might be why they’re low in number then,” Rovin said thoughtfully.

“More or less,” the Shroud agreed. “The wars were terrible, but the real threat was the one that went unseen by most.”

The Shroud pointed at the scribbles of the strange monstrosity in the book.
“These things were a big part of it,” the mage said. “The closest word I can find to describe it that makes sense in most tongues is ‘Aboleth’. It means ‘Ancient’ in Infernal tongues, and ‘Elder’ in the Elven and Heavenly languages. Nevertheless, they were worshipped as gods by some rogue groups of various races, but they slowly faded away with the arrival of something else.”

The book turned its ancient pages once more, but this time it went slow enough so Rovin could see what it contained. He saw more scribbles of the so called ‘Aboleths’, and different variations of their kind, but eventually the drawings began to show more humanoid forms dressed in odd finery that seemed to have heads which reminded him of the Karambwan octopi native to Karamja.

Rovin began to feel unsettled by the sight of the unnatural drawings. “Is that…a costume?” he asked nervously, though he did*’t know what was so wrong with feeling uneasy from looking at it.

“No,* the Shroud confirmed. “These things replaced the Aboleths in the hearts and minds of the rogues. These things are also near extinct, thankfully. But yet, their presence is what drives this…Brotherhood.”

^+^ Antediluvian of the Draculesti Bloodline ^+^

^+^ If the Gods see fit to curse us with the Blood, then we shall raise ourselves above them ^+^

16-Jan-2014 02:08:45

Dec

2005

A Mad Hatter

Forum Moderator Posts: 9,861 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

“Do they have a name?” Rovin asked.

The Shroud chuckled deeply. “Many, and none that I can speak of without hurting your ears,” the mage replied. “But the Gorajo nomads have more relatable names that can be translated to ‘Flayer’. And for good reason.”

“And these things were in the God Wars?”

“Indirectly,” the Shroud confirmed. “You see, these things had Kings at one point. Many of which were dead. But yet a few still remain in the realm of the living, trapped in prisons of different makings.” The Shroud touched a page and flipped it over to reveal a picture of a coffin-esque item that seemed to be made from a sort of crystal.

Rovin whistled. “Looks fit for a Vampyre King.”

“And an alien one,” the Shroud agreed.

“But you still haven’t answered my question,” Rovin said. “What’s all this have to do with you breaking the law? And why should I not go and get backup to come here and arrest you on the spot?”

“Go on and arrest me then,” the Shroud replied as he offered up his wrists in surrender. “But before you do, consider this: you have no idea how to get out of here. You’re also outnumbered, and my servants will surely cut you down should they see a threat against me. Hell, you don’t even know where you are!”

Rovin blanched at the Shroud’s points. He realized the mage was right, and for a moment he wondered why he even tried to act like an official of the Varrock Guard at a time when he was at his most vulnerable.

The Shroud lowered his wrists. “No takers then?” He waited for a reply but when none came he continued, “Alright, then. Now that’s out of the way, let’s just cut to the chase, shall we?”

“I hope you have a point to the history lesson at least,” Rovin said sullenly.

^+^ Antediluvian of the Draculesti Bloodline ^+^

^+^ If the Gods see fit to curse us with the Blood, then we shall raise ourselves above them ^+^

16-Jan-2014 02:09:59

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