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Nildi of Keldagrim

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Dreamweaver
Aug Member 2003

Dreamweaver

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***A Plan is Hatched***

Chaos erupted immediately. Everyone in the room leapt up, staring at the broken window. The lead and glass diamond-shaped panes had exploded inwards from a significant force, spreading sharp fragments of debris across the floor. Rushing over to the window, Zavistic risked a quick glance out and saw a grey-cloaked form dropping down the side of the tower to the ground. It then streaked across the grass faster than a man could run and disappeared into some nearby trees.

“Just one shadow,” Zavistic announced, “but we are in danger even up here. Invrigar, are you able to bind protection charms to the two windows into this room? I will teleport Devlin back to the Wizards’ Guild and call for aid. Lavrus, will you… Lavrus?”

The illusionist was hunched over the body of Devlin, rocking back and forth on his heels, clutching the rune knife that had killed him.

“Devlin was like a brother to me,” he whispered, fighting to hold back tears. “We trained and worked together for more than forty years. Please allow me to return him home.”

Zavistic nodded silently, the shock and reality of the situation starting to sink in for him also. Then he reached into his cloak and pulled out a parchment, ink and quill, and began to write:

Esteemed brethren,

Shadow attack, upper floor, necromancer's tower. Devlin killed through window with knife. One Abyssal shadow. Assume at least two more coming. Great danger. Only Invrigar, Lavrus, myself, Dwarf here. Spare as many as possible for emergency exorcism.

Z

Then he handed the parchment to Lavrus who nodded and tucked it into Devlin’s robes before standing up and raising his arms to teleport his body back to Yanille.

~continued~

27-Nov-2006 10:33:20 - Last edited on 27-Nov-2006 10:42:45 by Dreamweaver

Dreamweaver
Aug Member 2003

Dreamweaver

Posts: 3,790 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
Meanwhile, Invrigar had summoned Irwin and explained the break-in. The two of them had locked the door downstairs, had secured and barred the windows physically and were in the process of binding each with defensive magic.

Nildi, apparently forgotten for the time being, busied himself with tidying up the shards of lead and glass throughout the room.

A short while later, having finished with defensive preparations as much as they could, Zavistic called a meeting with everyone in the tower. Even Irwin, pale-faced and nervous, was asked to stay.

“Gentlemen,” the Guild Secretary started, “we must all stay close and watch each others’ backs. We should expect another attack at any time.”

“Can we not teleport out to somewhere safe?” asked Nildi.

“How can you teleport? As we already decided, asking your pendant to travel magically would be highly unpredictable. That is assuming we could get the thing to act upon any spells at all and not just absorb them all.”

“Then let me hide it somewhere,” Nildi replied. “It is causing me more trouble than I ever thought it would.”

Zavistic paused, staring at Nildi in deep thought. “I wonder if that is exactly what it is doing. Invrigar, you were going to analyze the crystal?”

Invrigar nodded, then he approached the Dwarf who held the crystal up for him once more. As the necromancer’s fingers brushed over the surface of the dragonstone, it flickered slightly and Invrigar winced. Then he composed himself again and pressed the palm of his hand against the crystal, slowly stroking across its every facet for several minutes. Finally he let go and sat back down.

“I could not use any detection magic while touching it. It instantly started to drain me. But I was able to mentally tune myself into the crystal after some time.”

Invrigar looked uncomfortable as he took a breath before continuing.

~continued~

27-Nov-2006 10:33:56 - Last edited on 27-Nov-2006 10:50:42 by Dreamweaver

Dreamweaver
Aug Member 2003

Dreamweaver

Posts: 3,790 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
“Nildi, your crystal is full of Abyssal spirit power. This is exactly the same dark force that makes up the shadows that are coming after us. I cannot gauge how much the crystal contains, but it is a great deal. We must find a way to destroy the crystal and channel the contents back to the Abyss. What were your mages doing, playing with Abyssal energies?”

“I seriously doubt they knew,” replied Nildi defensively. “They have their labs deep within Keldagrim. As I understand it, the power normally comes from the living rock. The mountains have background magic levels sufficient for their uses.”

“I believe you, Nildi,” Zavistic chimed in. “The land does contain residual magic power in low levels. But the unique shape of this crystal must have worked as a focus of some kind. So they ended up tapping right into the Abyssal realms without any knowledge of doing so. If that is true, then we literally have an imprisoned, highly concentrated shadow in our midst. This must be what the shadows are after.

"Nildi, do you think it is possible to craft a small break in it, to free the power slowly? Once the Guild members answer my summons, we should be able to exorcise the released shadow energy back to the lower planes.

Nildi stared in new-found horror at his pendant, but heard enough of Zavistic’s request to nod his consent.

At that moment, the spot where Devlin’s body had previously been lying started pulsing with a purple halo. Then a wizard materialized out of the violet haze, which continued to pulse.

“Ahh, good timing. The Guild is here,” Zavistic announced.

The newly arrived wizard stepped quickly from the pulsating air, just as another figure was beginning to form behind him. The same sequence of events continued to repeat itself, each wizard moving rapidly into the increasingly crowded room, until ten new faces, all dressed in blue Guild robes, stood expectantly, looking at Zavistic.

~continued~

27-Nov-2006 10:34:29 - Last edited on 29-Oct-2009 02:56:51 by Dreamweaver

Dreamweaver
Aug Member 2003

Dreamweaver

Posts: 3,790 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
“Greetings!” he finally said, “Thank you for joining us so swiftly. We will be setting up a circle for an Abyssal exorcism shortly. I recognize most of you here, but is there anyone who cannot perform such a task for us?”

No one answered, so Zavistic started moving people around, positioning everyone in a wide ring in the center of the room. Invrigar, Irwin and Zavistic himself also joined the circle, bringing its number to thirteen.

While the mages were shuffling themselves into position, Zavistic invited Nildi to set up a table in the middle of the ring where he would be filing a tiny break in one of the filigree strands of the crystal. He decided that breaking a single strand at the bottom of the crystal would give the smallest aperture of escape for the trapped shadow.

Once Nildi was sitting at the central table, he pulled one of his tiny gem files from a pocket and waited for Zavistic’s command.

“Face in, gentlemen. Link and hold,” commanded Zavistic to the assembled magic-users, who turned to face the center of the ring and held hands with their neighbors.

“Whenever you are ready, Nildi. Just give us a warning when you are almost done.”

The Elder Dwarf swallowed and nodded slowly, intense apprehension boiling up inside him. Gathering his wits and calming his nerves, he brought his fine gem file up to the base of the dragonstone and gently started to scrape.

27-Nov-2006 10:34:55 - Last edited on 27-Nov-2006 11:01:15 by Dreamweaver

Dreamweaver
Aug Member 2003

Dreamweaver

Posts: 3,790 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
***Darkness Unleashed***

The silence in the room was almost absolute. Right at the edge of hearing, a tiny high-pitched "scritch scritch scritch" could be heard as Nildi Crystalweaver continued his painstaking work.

The minutes ticked on, inexorably slowly. The wizards were struggling with a mixture of forced concentration, agitation and nervousness, each knowing that a lapse of attention at the wrong moment could be deadly. Only Invrigar, who had already experienced a firsthand sense of the power within the crystal, remained totally focused.

Nildi stopped for a moment, blew some infinitesimally fine motes of dust from the dragonstone for what seemed like the hundredth time, and then raised his hand. The room was instantly attentive. Nildi could have cut the very air with his gem file.

“I am very close,” he whispered. Nothing more needed to be said.

All eyes followed the tip of his file as he returned it to the crystal. Scritch scritch scritch.

CRACK!

With a thunderclap, the center of the room erupted. A tumultuous, roiling black cloud instantly appeared, fighting to gain shape. Nildi was thrown forcibly backwards from the dense shadow’s sudden explosive entrance, and lay crumpled and still against a wall.

But the wizards were ready. As one, they thrust their arms upwards then slammed their hands down and forwards, incanting at the tops of their voices. They spread their arms wide, fingers meeting those of the mages to either side, and a circle was formed. Blue and green sparks of raw power jumped from one individual to the next. The sparks turned into flares. The flares turned into ribbons, then the ribbons into sheets of pure energy that churned around the circle.

“Now!” yelled Zavistic at the top of his lungs, thrusting his staff before him.

~continued~

29-Nov-2006 07:54:42 - Last edited on 29-Nov-2006 08:03:25 by Dreamweaver

Dreamweaver
Aug Member 2003

Dreamweaver

Posts: 3,790 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
The wizards clapped their hands forwards while screaming their arcane incantation, throwing the blinding power that was engulfing them forwards into the circle, onto the shadow.

But the shadow had gained some form. Its grotesque faceless head reared high above the wizards. It sensed the buildup of power and dodged sideways, no longer at the center of the ring. The sheet of energy caught the shadow, but unevenly, folding in upon itself on one side while stretching thin on the other. It collapsed in on the black shape, constricting, squeezing, trying to force it out of the material plane, but the darkness scarcely diminished. Thrashing blindly against the energy, it pushed at the circle, straining to reach the wizards and disrupt them. They frantically shifted with the shadow, scrambling around the room in an effort to contain it.

“Hold it! Build again!” yelled Invrigar. "Focus!"

The wizards concentrated on touching fingers again, reforming the circle to build another wave of energy to exorcise the shadow. As coordination was regained, sparks started to form once more, building quickly as they had done previously. The power built into a blinding, speeding curtain of impenetrable energy, blinding in its intensity.

“Now!” Zavistic screamed as before, and the wizards cast their net upon the shadow once more. This time it was trapped. The wizards forced their collective wills upon the power and the blackness finally began to visibly shrink. It churned and boiled, but it was completely blanketed by the glowing force, constricting into its very being.

Then the door exploded, shards of wood rocketing across the chamber. One of the nearby mages was hit in the chest with a splintered timber and fell, unconscious. Terrifying words exploded inside each person’s head, disrupting the incantation.

“Wweee Cccome.”

29-Nov-2006 07:55:11 - Last edited on 29-Nov-2006 08:04:21 by Dreamweaver

Dreamweaver
Aug Member 2003

Dreamweaver

Posts: 3,790 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
***The Focus***

Nildi, who had drifted back into a bleary consciousness, turned in horror towards the door. Three sinister forms stood there, wrapped in cloaks of grey. One was brandishing a cruel dark blade, another held two runite knives and the third was raising its incorporeal arms as if to weave a spell.

“Close the circle!” cried Invrigar, as he leapt away across the room towards the doorway. But as he did so, he saw that the runite knives were already in flight. He hurled an air wave, disrupting one of the projectiles, but the other found its mark in the back of his surprised assistant, Irwin, who fell to the floor. At the same time, the shadow with the blade had streaked forwards and cut the two closest defenseless Guild mages to the ground. The third had targeted another mage with its prepared curse, setting fear and madness upon the unfortunate soul.

The remaining seven mages closed in towards each other, desperately trying to maintain the circle and hold the terrible central shadow, yet they were fast fatiguing from the intense battle, and it was no longer diminishing from their efforts.

Invrigar struggled to form one of his most powerful spells, a terrible invocation of unbinding to shred the very spirits of the lesser Abyssal shadows, but they were turning to meet him as one. With his curse formed, he hurled it, tearing through the air towards them. However, the shadows had seen his actions and predicted his spell. They had had time to defend themselves, thus the power of the necromancer’s invocation was nullified. Invrigar rapidly readied his own mental wall as the shadows began their attack.

“Focus!” shouted Zavistic, amid the tumultuous chaos. “Keep focus!”

~continued~

29-Nov-2006 07:55:48

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