This side story will be the next few updates till completed, in the mean time I have been working on some artwork for future posts and am awaiting some information before posting information on ZED. So I present to you... Whispers and Nightmares - Part 1 (the first 5 pages).
Please keep in mind that each paragraph was made by someone in the group so the writing styles are a bit different. To make it slightly easier to distinguish different writers they have been color coded.
Whispers and Nightmares
Part 1
The
night was cool, and Metrica quiet. Nothing but the sound of night birds and the
occasional nocturnal creature rustling through bushes accompanied by siamoth's
snoring away in their dens. The location was that to the far north of Metrica
Province, within the trees along the valley's walls between The Inquest Outer
Complex and the Thaumanova Reactor...
Farellynn
gently trotted along the path, seemed as though there was no rest for the
wicked here. After having irritated the Order she was pretty keen to get back
on their good side. She had barely gotten back from her last mission which,
surprise involved Inquest. She gently tugged at her bland green jacket the
quiet night making her nervous as she approached the area. Where were the
explosions? The poorly hidden Golems? the explosions? Carefully she scanned the
area looking for anything that could be out of place.
If
she had looked upon the wall there was a crevasse, one that would be big enough
for two people hidden near a rather dead bush... The flow of air was evident
the closer she would get to it - perhaps a tunnel...
The
tunnel would make a sharp turn and slope downward but there would be a faint
glow at the bottom of the slope - a green-blue hue just enough to see a steady
footpath... The walls would be dry slightly shimmering from perhaps it's
mineral type reflecting the light making everything almost glow.
Gives
a bit of an exasperated sigh, running one of her hands down the side of the
bone jaw on her mask. She gently rustled her messy white head petals before
slipping into the tunnel, looking back at the open air once more before heading
around the bend and down the tunnel. Not being able to shake the foreboding
feeling due to her previous dealings with Inquest her hands found the hilts of
her daggers again as she very quietly moved further into the tunnel.
As
she continues down the path something strangely makes a squishy squosh sound
under her step. The darkness in the room making it hard to see at first but
steps further in with the casted and strange hues of the light dimly lit. It
looked like that perhaps the ground was alive. Glancing to the walls it had the
same slickness shine to it illuminating from the light. Further into the room
they were patches of it and it seemed to be a straight corridor. Further in it
just goes straight down even further. The room oddly moist in the air.
Farellynn
pulled a face under her mask, that was an awful sound and an awful thought. She
glanced around a bit nervous still especially with her foot falls making so
much noise, however there was no where to go now but further in. She
gives a pause reaching out to touch the wall.
Further
the slope continues downward. Down and down and down. As she touches the wall
it mushes with her fingers and makes a slight indentation which slowly fades
away into the life like wall. Reaching to the bottom the casted hue of the
light was found by its source way up high in the ceiling. The room was
gigantic. Walls could not be seen here for the room was so large and the light
keeping its casted dimly light. Sounds of footsteps are heard to the right.
..Or was it to the left?
The
ashen Sylvari retreats to the doorway again, listening for the footsteps trying
to discern where abouts they were. There was hardly enough light to see and
that above all else made her nervous, for what if they could see her? That
would put her at a real disadvantage. Silently she peered into the darkness
hoping for something, anything to show itself.
A
figure scuttles across the room. Frizzles dark hair and seemingly pale skin.
Samiliar size to an Asura as it padded its way along. Seemingly however the
figure was raggedly walking almost as if laboring. Glowing eyes suddenly
discern upon the Sylvari and slowly walks towards her. A familiar face
approaches with glowing star cyan eyes looking exactly like Abranka. The figure
continuing to travel rather slowly to the Sylvari as if trying to make her out
In
the distance there was a slight laughter, manic, female - as it trailed off
into the echoes of the cavern.
Farellynn
shuffled a bit forward, now very, very concerned. Her hands gripped firmly on
the hilts of her daggers, her stomach reeled at the thoughts that passed
through her mind. She wanted to call out, ask if it was Abranka but she said
nothing, just edging a little further from the doorway.
The
figure stops as it was indeed Asura. The Asura itself though seemed to have
metallic objects all over it. Chest covered and torso. Twenty microscopic tubs
sticking over its back and along the head to the shoulders cross crossing in
every so direction as the eyes glowed. It gives a curdling scream and
instantly leaps right at Farellynn.
Farellynn
jumps back a few steps pulling her daggers out to counter the oncoming attack,
whatever that was it was not Abranka, even if it /had/ been previously. She
pushed one out in front of her as a means of blocking and the other she brought
in low under the other trying to push it into the side of the Asura's torso.
Her foreboding feeling now confirmed.
The
laughing in the distance echoed again through out the cave as the walls seemed
to shift slightly while the disfigured and heavily worked on Asura attacked Farellynn.
The
dagger plunges into the soft flesh of the Asura missing the armor. Its eyes
blank out completely and falls straight to the ground twitching several times
and then curdles and grogs. Blood leaks out as it falls still. The blood
strangely enough begins to sizzle on the ground. The color of the blood is
silver.
With
the death of the Asura the sound of metal grinding, rolling or simply just
moving was disturbingly present as doors on the far side of the area opened up
as musky air was let loose into the cavern - it almost smelt fresh... But
something was off.
The
room Farellynn entered would be dark, minus tubes lit up with non distinct
figures in them, the liquid they were in murky almost gelled. They did not
move, they did not float - merely stayed still almost as if they were frozen
there... The tables nearby had papers covered in asuran scribbles and diagrams
that even by looking at them made no sense whether one read asuran or not...
Farellynn
looks around carefully, not daring to approach the tubes of liquid with the
bodies of...well, she wasn't sure. She moved over to the tables however pouring
over the paper work which of course made no sense to her, she'd never learned
to read or write Asuran, she quickly however started to gather some of them up
hoping to take them back to her employers. She would pick up a few sheets and
then look around, hoping no one was aware of her paper theft.
As she gathered up some of the papers, there was a sharp "crk" sound,
as if something glass was breaking...
The
ashen Sylvari frowns deeply behind her mask as she tucks the papers away
turning around to face the tubes. Today was not her day, She hoped to never
have to deal with another Inquest after she left here. Her hands moved to find
her bow, knocking an arrow in one swift fluid movement as she spun on her heel.
It
was the tubes, they were breaking! One of the shapes jolted violently trying to
escape the tube as it started to leak goo through the cracks, eventually the
sharp jolts would release the creature - it would let out a gargling sound as
it shook the gel off of it's self staring rather angerly at Farellynn and her
bow.
She
didn't hesitate a moment taking aim and letting loose the arrow she had
knocked. Quickly she drew her hand behind her to knock a second arrow, no
waiting around today. She had promised to come home and she had all intents and
purposes of making it home.
The
creature hissed and was knocked back the Arrow lodged into the side of it's
face. It growled at her jumping at her, it was about her size, the bulk of a
small charr, and the general proportions of a basilisk... It too had several
tubes and wiring coming out of it...
She
let loose the second arrow jumping backwards up onto the table dropping the bow
as she reached for her daggers. Whatever they were working on here was pretty
disgusting, and she had more than half a mind to kill whatever was treating
these creatures like this, however orders were orders.
The
other arrow piercing the skull of the creature impaling it's jaw shut as it
withered and squirmed in pain it's tail lashed out breaking other tubes nearby yielding no other creatures, just lifeless mounds of flesh and twisted metal...
It flailed trying to get the arrow out but eventually slowed down to a
twitching mass as there was an electric buzz and then nothing... The creature
laid motionless...
Fare
slowly approached the creature on the ground, dagger clutched in her hands, she
wanted to make sure this thing was really dead. Her breath was a bit ragged,
the surprises getting to be a bit much. Whoever these Inquest were they
deserved death not questioning.
The
creature laid motionless, though the metallic devices on it's back seemed to be
buzzing with electricity, perhaps the arrows weren't the full cause of the
death...
Farellynn
circled the creature once before beginning to try and cut out some of the metal
bits from the amorphous creature. It was dead already so no harm in trying to
find out precisely what it was. Not that she was any kind of scientist or
anything. She leaned over grasping at the flesh of the creature Orrian dagger
in her other hand as she made the first cut.
The
nearby electrical imbedded into it's skin still had current flowing through it
and would zap her, what she could tell was that it ran deep - there seemed to
be small runes along the back as well etched into the skin.
She
pulls back quickly the shock having been quite unpleasant if not painful. She
frowned deeply shaking her head, no other choice but onward and she feared for
the worst, it was only going to become more unpleasant. Gently she idly
fingered the cauterized wound on her side she'd received just days ago from you
guessed it, Inquest. She returned to collect her bow before plowing further on
into the darkness.
Loud
steps can be heard this time back in the other room she had come from. The
rather large and dimly lit room. A large object was standing in the way to the
doorway exit.
She
spin on her heel hand moving to the back of her head, a small 'pop' is heard
and the bone from the mask clatters to the floor, quickly she pulls off the
rest of her mask, Not having her full range of vision was just not working out
so well. She peered at the large object hands again finding her hilts. She
waited for... whatever it was to make the first move.
*The
object steps backwards as a smoky mist vents from the shoulders. As she stepped
closer the dim lit room shows it was in fact a golem. Strangely however, this
golem had a chassy over the chest with flickering lights on it. A single red
eye was evident on just one shoulder while the other was at the torso. It now
started moving forwards towards her as it was much larger then her*
Golems,
Farellynn's single most favorite Asuran contraption, she really loved the
inquest variety especially. Quickly she pulled her bow off her back knocking
the arrow and firing at the red eyes in a single swift movement. Without
waiting to see whether it hit she dropped the bow, shadow stepping towards the golem daggers drawn, she's climb the damn thing if she had too.
Both
of the red eyes crack and shatter as they shut down. As she instantly shadow steps behind the golem. It stumbles slightly from the two hits and then
stops almost doing a look left look right motion as if trying to find
Farellynn.
Farellynn
wished now that she had taken more time to learn about golems and their
construction, the most she could do now would be to attack any of it's joints
to immobilize it. She spun around behind her daggers still in hand as she tried
to plunge her daggers into the golem, praying to every god in the book that
this would work in at least some capacity and the daggers wouldn't just bounce
off.
As
she attacks into the joints of the golem it would electrocute for a moment then
topple to one side. The torso on it detaches as the top half of the unit now
floats with thrusters. It turns swiftly and spins at high speeds. Plasma bolts
begin to unleash from the golem in a spray just shooting them out whatever it
desired to shoot them at.
Why?
Why did she have the unnatural propensity to make golems fire wildly? What
about her made the golems feel like this was necessary? In panicked motion Fare shadow stepped in behind some of the intact tubes knowing that this would not
save her pretty much at all however her options were limited. She needed just a
second to think, not that it was easy with the sound of breaking... well
everything. She popped back into existence in the same spot she was next to the
golem arms raised daggers coming swiftly down trying to hit... something
anything... she needed a pause in the attack.
The
shots hitting a few of the tubes as it then suddenly stops from the dagger
blow. It lands to the ground using an arm to try and turn around as if trying
to look straight to her. The attacks pausing for a moment as it swipes with a
free arm directly at her.
The
free arm plows the Sylvari over with incredible force, and one of her two
daggers slips free from her fingers, she hits the floor a bit away. Struggling
to keep focus, winded as she tries to scramble to her feet, no chance in hell a
/golem/ was going to do this Sylvari in.
The
flames underneath sputter a few times but no good. The damage from the previous
blow seemed to have given out from its flying. It now instead crawls straight
to her using its arms. The heavy chassis armor scraping along the ground to her.
And
what a terrible noise that was. She shadowsteps to the Golem closing both hands
around one dagger in an attempt to drive it into that ugly golem noggin. This
was it, she had no plan B, no 'what if this doesn't work?' This had to work
here and now so she could continue on. By this point she was wondering if the
Order had it in for her... they /must/ know about the exceedingly large number
of golems she'd run into in the last little while.
The
golem suffers the blow to its head as it grows suddenly still. It falls flat to
the ground with electrical sounds going off from it. The back chassis then
opens up as a small device slowly begins to raise into the air on a pedestal.
It glows on as a hologram appears with the words "HA... HA...HA"
written on it. It then starts to count down. "5 .....4.......3"
"Really?
REALLY? Fuck me." The Sylvari breaths out stumbling backwards to try and
flee, hell somewhere anywhere, the endless darkness that spawned these horrors
was even safer than here. There were the explosions, it just wouldn't be a day
with the inquest without golems and explosions. This time she didn't take care
to collect her weapons, her Orrian dagger being the only one she had on her,
the others would be quite close to the golem.
As
she continues on in the endless room the doors slam shut in the room. A wall
grinds upon stone and slab. Somewhere back near where the golem was. The
grinding sounds continue on echoing into the room.
