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Post by Mu-chan on Mar 7, 2007 0:54:33 GMT
Fen looked back at Ai Rin, and took one of her hands in his, before guiding her slowly through the crowd and away from the people. Ai Rin was struggling to move at Fen's pace. << OOC: I knew that when I wrote what I wrote! Don't you see there is something very very wrong going on with her?! She's progressively been getting worse. First she felt quite ill and needed to lie down, then she went to wash herself and regain some of her energy, then her magic starting failing her, then she let her guard down and almost got stabbed from behind, then she managed to escape her attackers and find Fen and tried to pretend to be okay but was still quite weary, then her magic failed her again and she admit to herself something was wrong, she temporarily forgot her problems when she saw Fen's attack but then started feeling quite faint when she calmed down afterwards, and then when she tried moving she's even struggling to move at Fen's slow pace... >> Ai Rin forced her hand away from Fen's and lay down on the grass by the side of the road. She was struggling to do anything at the moment. She wanted to catch her breath whether Fen liked it or not. "..." Something was very wrong with her. She knew that. Her lack of energy, physical and magical. Her inability to maintain her barriers. She knew it couldn't be her lack of sleep. During her travels so far she'd gone for quite some distances with little sleep and hadn't experienced anything of this scale before, and she wasn't old enough to start struggling with such things now, so she believed. If it was just a cold or something like that, then it would probably just be her that is suffering. She wondered if Fen had experienced any problems, even to a lesser extent. She looked down at her bag. "... They didn't ask for their things back... good... since I won't get what I paid the innkeeper back either..." she thought to herself. She took out some food from her bag and some water. She had quite a lot of the stuff tucked in there. "... Hey... while you were... going about that village... did you hear anything about that forest... we were in last night...? They... wouldn't tell me anything when I asked them... and... have you been... experiencing anything strange... with your mana...?" she slowly asked Fen. She pointed some bread at Fen. It was probably her way of offering some to him. Everything started going wrong since that attack in the forest. That's what she had come to realise. She refused to believe it was something in that weak village or someone interfering with her mana causing her status, as she stubbornly believed that wasn't possible... except maybe if Fen... or 'that person' was the cause of her sudden condition, but both were unlikely.
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Post by Maruno on Mar 7, 2007 14:31:01 GMT
Fen took the bread from Ai Rin hesitantly and sat down next to her. He was going to ask whether she was all right, but decided against it.
"Well, not as such," Fen answered. "Although, perhaps if you count it, my unconsciousness spell did wear off a little sooner than I was expecting. Although perhaps I'm still just a little weaker than normal."
To tell the truth, Fen was more concerned about this than he was letting on. He knew just how strong he was at the moment, and his unconsciousness spell had still lasted for shorter than it should have. There was certainly something in the village or nearby that was draining mana from all over the place. It didn't explain why the villagers were unaffected; but maybe if it was a long-term draining effect like a magic seal, the villagers had just developed a natural resistance (by unknowingly increasing their mana production rates to equal the draining rate through the generations).
A draining factor seemed the most likely explanation. Fen used his internal mana most often, while Ai Rin used external mana sources (apparent from the magic circles she used; in general, circles gathered external mana, and chants focussed internal mana). Fen didn't notice the draining factor as much as Ai Rin because he'd spent a long time training to develop and improve his mana production rate and his storage capacity. Ai Rin, who used mainly external mana, wouldn't have a significantly higher mana production rate than ordinary people, so she would obviously be more quickly weakened by the draining.
The question was, what was causing the draining?
"You get some rest," he told Ai Rin. "I'll keep an eye on those people."
Fen munched on the bread in thought, while training his watchful gaze on the rest of the village.
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Post by Mu-chan on Mar 7, 2007 16:15:06 GMT
Quite some time had passed. It was now much later in the day. Ai Rin awoke feeling better than before, but still not perfect. Fen had done what he said and watched over her the whole time.
It was getting colder. Ai Rin really didn't want to lie on the grass by an open road any longer.
She thought to herself about the shrine she examined in the forest, the inscriptions on it, and the darkness that attacked them... or at least, that attacked Fen...
"... Maybe I didn't do it right..." she said to herself and took her notes out of her bag...
"... Maybe I wasn't supposed to do anything... "Is there something still in that forest...?" she thought to herself.
She looked at Fen, almost like she was examining him. If he had said something to her during this time, she had ignored him. She took out a notepad from her bag and started drawing something.
A few minutes passed...
She realised she didn't have enough to work on, gave out a small sigh and put away her notepad.
She stood up, wanting some time alone, and told Fen not to follow her.
Ai Rin came back a few minutes later looking a bit more relaxed. She took some food and water out of her bag. She cleaned her hands with some water, then had something to eat. She only offered him something when she realised he was looking at her.
"... Maybe whatever is going on has something to do with that shrine in the forest... shall we go check it out again?" she asked.
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Post by Maruno on Mar 8, 2007 11:43:47 GMT
"I do think there's something odd going on," Fen said, accepting the food with a nod. "I've noticed for sure now that something nearby is draining mana. I've no idea what, though, or why."
Perhaps it was some terrible magical weapon, gathering huge amounts of mana to power itself. Or it was one large magical seal. Either way, the word to note was "big".
"Some of the villagers came up to me while you were asleep. I convinced them we weren't doing any harm, and they left us alone. From what I can tell, they're going to go back to normal, but keeping an eye out for any suspicious people. They even asked if we would help look for them, but I didn't give them an answer. They still don't really trust us anyway; we haven't left given them the best impression ever."
Fen finished eating, and stood up to stretch. "Forest?" he suggested. "I want to find out what's going on around here."
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Post by Mu-chan on Mar 8, 2007 14:39:42 GMT
"Fine," she agreed. "Not sure what we're going to do when it gets dark though... I guess we'll worry about that later..." she half-heartedly said. She had afterall slept most of the day.
The two of them headed back towards the forest and the shrine Ai Rin saw there.
<< OOC: Do you want them to actually reach the forest or get interrupted along the way or something like that? I'll leave it to you or whoever to decide what happens next. >>
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Post by Maruno on Mar 11, 2007 13:04:15 GMT
The evening crept on.
The forest was a couple of hours' walk from the village. It was getting dark by the time the two travellers reached its edge. With the sun low in the sky, the forest looked quite daunting. There were no evil presences nearby, though, which was slightly reassuring.
"I was asleep for the journey," Fen said. "Do you remember the way?"
<OOC: How much of the forest as Ai Rin explored? If it's not much, then we can have other shrines around the place, each with a unique kind of protective spell (Summon, illusion, Earth, etc.) to give us a series of trails to complete. Only then will the prize be revealed, and only (theoretically) to a person with great mastery of all kinds of magic (the person who broke all the spells and broke the stones' seal - but we have two people instead).>> <<OOC: A couple of shrines will have been destroyed already, I should imagine, by falling trees and such. The spells would be written inside the shrines so they last a long time, so if they're destroyed then the spells disappear. I'd guess there are about 6 or 7 remaining shrines out of about 10.>>
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Post by Mu-chan on Mar 11, 2007 21:37:17 GMT
"It shouldn't be too difficult to find, since it was near the exit..."
After a few minutes searching, they found the shrine once again.
Ai Rin approached it to examine it. The darkness from the night before was no longer present in the forest.
"... So, what do you think?" she said, hoping Fen would know something. Ai Rin had no more information than she did yesterday so could not draw any further conclusions.
<< OOC: Ai Rin hasn't explored the forest so-to-speak. She was just passing through. She entered the forest from a slightly different point to Fen and met up with him a few minutes later. >> << OOC: Should they still be losing strength or not? Going along with your explanation, are they outside of the draining area now they are actually in the forest? >> << OOC: Are we going to get a new player or not? >>
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Post by Maruno on Mar 11, 2007 22:53:21 GMT
"Hmm..." Fen examined the shrine. It was a small and simple shrine, lightly covered with years of grime and moss. There was nothing inside it.
The large stone, about mid-thigh height, sitting in front of the shrine, was roughly carved into a half-oval shape, with the other half stuck in the ground (whether the buried part was actually shaped like that or not was unknown). Strange writing adorned the side facing away from the shrine.
"Well, my mana is still being drained," Fen said, "and I think it's a little stronger around here. If this isn't the cause, then it's something around here, in the forest."
Fen contemplated the shrine and stone. "Do you think there might be more of these lying around?" he asked. "I just get the feeling this isn't all there is to it, you know? It's incomplete."
<< OOC: Right, so we can have several other shrines lying around. The new character was going to give a bit more information, including a map of at least most of the shrines. >> << OOC: Mana is still being drained (the affected area is anywhere within a certain radius of any of the stones, but isn't noticeably stronger in the forest than outside it), but only from Fen (since he hasn't been exhausted yet). Ai Rin has, and the draining effect is ignoring her until she's fully recovered. Could be about now if you want. After all, she went the whole night under the draining influence before it started to affect her. Because of Fen's training, he could withstand it for weeks nonstop. >> << OOC: The new roleplayer is apparently busy for at least the next couple of weeks (and then there's exams, might might slow things down). It's still just us two, for now. >>
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Post by Mu-chan on Mar 12, 2007 13:12:30 GMT
"Incomplete?" Ai Rin thought to herself.
Ai Rin looked more closely at the shrine then started lightly tracing patterns on the ground around the shrine with the blunt end of her weapon, looking for connections to other objects in the forest.
"..." she thought to herself as she examined the shrine some more. She remembered dispelling the darkness and that it was connected to the forest itself. She was still not convinced this shrine was the source of that darkness, but maybe if there was something else nearby that was the source of it... something they hadn't found, yet.
"... You might be right, but it's hard to tell... If there are more of these shrines around, most likely still in this forest, they don't have the same aura as this one... and they are pretty well hidden... But it does seem... like this one is part of something bigger... and that there is something else in this forest... Let's look around some more to see if we can find anything," she told Fen.
<< OOC: I thought Fen would have been severely weakened the night before so he couldn't be drained then because of that (he was recovering), not just because of his super-training... >> << OOC: I trust you have developed some kind of background and motivation for the unknown baddies, as I don't have anything set for them at all i.e. why they attacked the villagers, why they used the village as their secret base or whatever, what they are after and what they are doing to achieve that goal. I'll presume they have at least some magic users with them if they are attempting to break a seal. I take it they can't find or break the seals themselves as they are so well hidden/protected. You don't have to tell me the answers to these if you want to make it a surprise. Just as long as one of us has some idea what may be going on. ^_^ >>
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Post by Maruno on Mar 12, 2007 14:21:07 GMT
Fen nodded. "Yes, I was just thinking that," he said. "It's only a feeling, though. I can't explain it." So he didn't try. "I don't think we can learn anything more here, anyway. I'm not familiar with this kind of thing. And if you can't tell what it is, then we probably should move on."
He looked around at the trees. No way seemed more or less appealing than any other.
"Should've brought a map," Fen muttered. "I don't suppose you picked one up during your rummaging, did you?" he asked Ai Rin.
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Post by Mu-chan on Mar 13, 2007 3:14:48 GMT
Ai Rin chose to ignore his comment but started walking and looking about instead.
"... Is there someone else here?" she thought to herself. It seemed suspicious, but she couldn't be sure.
The two continued walking, looking about for anything else resembling the shrine, but it was possible that the actual shrines, if they existed, had been destroyed and only the stone parts of them had remained, if any at all. But there had to be something else in the forest. Ai Rin became more sure of herself as they searched.
Ai Rin looked up at the trees, the wind gently blowing the leaves making rustling sounds. There were a few animals about if you looked closely enough, even at this time of day.
"Ah..." Ai Rin realised something and rushed forward to a location of the forest they had seen before. It was a small clearing with a large tree in the centre. It was where Fen and Ai Rin first met.
"I didn't notice it before... your aura and that darkness must have been masking it... this tree... everything in the forest... seems to be connected to this tree. If there are other shrines in this forest, we might be able to tell something if we examine the flow of this tree." Ai Rin explained to Fen.
She walked towards the tree.
"If we're lucky. This might even be the source of our problems," she added.
Ai Rin gazed at the tree, analysing not only what she could see, but what she could sense from within. She put her hand out to touch it but then quickly jolted it back.
"T-This tree..." Ai Rin could sense a great power from within. She dared not try touching again with her bare hands. "How could Fen even lean against this without sensing anything?" she thought to herself. It might have been because of her blood that her sensing ability was strong enough to sense such a hidden presence deep within, or below, or simply that Fen was so weakened last time he failed to realise what he had stumbled across. That was what she believed.
"This tree... holds something powerful within... it's definitely being protected by something... eight... ten seals... no, some of them no longer work... I can't tell how many... but I think those seals are draining the mana from this whole area in order to seal whatever is within, or below this tree. That shrine must have been one of the seals. I think we definitely need to find those other seals to look into this some more..." she spoke to Fen with some uncertainty, wanting some kind of response.
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Post by Maruno on Mar 13, 2007 14:53:04 GMT
Fen approached the tree suspiciously, and tapped it with a finger. He felt nothing.
"A-" he began, but changed tactics. "Yes, I'll trust you on that," he said.
Wasn't this the place he'd finally rested yesterday, after all those hours of walking? Perhaps so. Then it seemed he just wasn't sensitive enough to tell what lay hidden within or beneath this tree.
He didn't consider that a problem, though. His sheer power surely made up for that. And besides, if he started poking around hidden objects or people, he'd probably just get into more of a mess than if he stuck to what was obvious.
Eight seals. That was a lot, or the thing being sealed was that strong. This intrigued Fen greatly. He hadn't heard of such a large seal before. Three was generally enough to lock away practically anything.
Fen's instinct kicked in, and Fen had learned a long time ago to always follow his instinct without question. It could make all the difference in a fight. He barely had enough time to dodge before a throwing knife spun through the space his head was just occupying and embedded itself into a nearby tree.
"Koko made da," came a slow voice. A figure stepped slowly out from behind a hedge and stared threateningly at Fen. The voice belonged to a small man, a little shorter than both Ai Rin and Fen, perhaps 25 years old, wearing a simple blue outfit designed with manoeuvrability in mind. He wore a white headband made out of a long strip of white cloth, and short brown hair and sinister eyes. He also wore a belt diagonally across his chest laced with throwing knives.
"And you are?" Fen asked, moving closer to Ai Rin.
"Your finish," the man replied. He didn't sound or look all that threatening, aside from the knives, but the air around him betrayed confidence and skill.
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Post by Mu-chan on Mar 14, 2007 13:51:50 GMT
"What an idiot... but still, why is he so confident?" Ai Rin thought to herself, keeping a look out for trouble.
The small man with the knives looked ready to make his move. It seemed Fen was his target, but they couldn't rule of the possibility he could attack either or both of them.
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Post by Maruno on Mar 16, 2007 22:41:43 GMT
Fen examined the attacker carefully. He was serious, and strong. Knives were obviously the man's signature weapons, and he knew well how to use them. The man knew that appearing unobtrusive was better than appearing brash and overconfident, as people often underestimated the unremarkable.
"Why did you attack us?" Fen demanded.
"You are messing around with that which you need not concern yourself with," the man replied. The way he spoke was very precise, but again was cold not threatening. "You must be silenced."
"Are you guarding this seal, then?" Fen asked. "Can I just ask a..."
"No."
Fen frowned.
The attacker continued. "I am not the guardian of this seal. In fact, I am quite the opposite. My cause requires this artefact."
The thing that was sealed away was some artefact? So it wasn't some kind of great demon or something insubstantial. "What is your cause?"
"My cause is the cause of the Rola group: to gain power and dominance. My name is Jathe."
Fen frowned again. He'd heard of the Rola group. They were a rival group of sorts to the Chougokin that based itself towards the middle of the continent, and while they weren't openly hostile to each other, tensions between them were great. The group wasn't large, the last time Fen had heard of them; there were perhaps only six members. But each member was highly trained in fighting and magic, as much so as a Chougokin Magi.
Fen began to recite a chant in his mind. A fight was inevitable, so it was better to gain the first strike.
"I see you are a Chougokin," Jathe spoke, his voice now tinted with a slight interest. "A great coincidence indeed. I am looking forward to killing you." He took two knives from his belt and held them in a combat stance.
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Post by Mu-chan on Mar 16, 2007 23:21:08 GMT
Normally, Ai Rin would not hesitate to annihilate such an opponent, but this opponent seemed focused on Fen, not her.
Fen was thinking something. Maybe setting up some kind of spell. It wouldn't be that surprising if he was up to something.
"... Fine then... do what you want..." Ai Rin thought to herself, directed at Fen. She closed her eyes and gave a slight smile as she thought that.
Ai Rin stayed back, out of the way, for now at least, unless Fen really needed her assistance or the opponent made the mistake of trying to attack her. She stayed ready to defend herself.
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