What lies beneath [NQ/Keita]

Guest · Thu May 27, 2021 10:54 pm

Guest

Sitting in a bar at dusk, Shichiro had a drink in his hand as he had his head down staring at the counter. He wasn't in the best of moods today knowing what he had to do in a few hours. It'll be tough but he'd have to endure. Sometimes he'd question if doing things like this is worth it or not but then he remembers how good the pay is and it keeps him going even if it was a big risk to his life. At least this time, there was some sort of support with him as he would be bringing his cousin along.

This time around, he'd be the one waiting for Keita to show up so he could take him to meet the priest that would be giving them their assignment today. He already knew what it was in a nutshell which is to clean up their religious mess and experiments they keep underneath the church. Every so often, they need some sort of trusted 'cleaner' that is able to clean up the horrors that lie underneath without saying a word. Bringing the mug to his lips, he'd take a sip of his drink, placing it back on the counter top as he waited for his cousin.

Guest · Thu May 27, 2021 11:02 pm

Guest

Keita was heading out into the open world in Oak city, and there seemed to be a fairly dreadful chill in the air as the winds howled and sheets of rain pelted the ground. Luckily, even though most people would find this weather atrocious, Keita was at least protected somewhat by an assortment of small wisp like entities around him from his Will O Wisp magic, and so he was protected, at least from the rain. He was heading to a bar to meet his cousin, who was authorized to take him on a slightly more dangerous missions tan normal.

Apparently there was something going wrong with a church, and the priest suspected that a dark guild had something to do with it. After a bit of evidence to say that a dark guild was most likely involved, it was a fairly simple task to get one of the Rune Knights there, and now there would be two of them. Keita walked through the door of the bar clutching a windbreaker to him, as the wind was still cold, and although he did not have a drop of water on him from the outside, he was still happy to be in the heated room.

Guest · Thu May 27, 2021 11:10 pm

Guest

Turning his head to see who had entered the establishment, Shichiro had seen it was his cousin that had walked in which made him feel better immediately. Taking another sip of his drink, he flagged down the bartender in order to order one for his cousin, like he had once done before him. Afterwards, he'd beckon his cousin to come and take a seat next to him in order to brief him on what exactly they would be doing today. These sorts of tasks were never easy but the reward was worth it, at least in Shichiro's eyes. He'd prefer to have an easier job however or, more likely, prefer to fight things that have 'life' in them.

"Hey Keita, glad you could make it, take a seat for a bit, we still have some time before we go and meet up with our client. Remember, the stories of how undead like to roam around and escape from their confinement and attack people wandering at night? Luckily, this isn't that sort of request but I'm sure it will be just as bad. Tonight, we'll be meeting with a priest in order to get the briefing. I was wondering if you're still up for the job ahead of us," Shichiro had asked, a bit concerned.

Guest · Fri May 28, 2021 12:33 am

Guest

Keita walked into the bar, pub, or inn, he was not sure exactly about the classification of this particular place, but there was alcohol, so he flagged down the bar keep immediately walking in, greeting his cousin as he did so. The wisps around him would quickly dissipate as he entered, as to not mess with the normal people here. The wisps, while harmless for the most part, were still quite eerie to look at, especially if you were not a mage yourself and did not know the properties behind it, especially since dark magic had a bad reputation. "Heya Shichiro, how are you doing?" Keita would respond to his cousin.

Keita then listened to the explanation of the mission that they were going to be on, and his face sunk a bit. He did not really like the idea of fighting undead, he knew of the implications of fighting them considered he studied a bit on them because of his affinity for Dark magic. "Alright, well this seems dangerous. Guess I won't have that drink then. When do we leave?" Keita was a bit nervous about this, but that was something that came with the first real hint of danger that he had since joining the Rune Knights.

Guest · Fri May 28, 2021 12:58 am

Guest

After giving Keita the rundown of what they had to do, he noticed Keita seemed uncertain with what he had just told him. This wasn't exactly a shock to him as he'd been facing this for quite a long time now and even he still feels uneasy about the whole delving into a catacomb to clear out undead. One wrong move and he might just become one of them. It's the only reason he's come here to calm his nerves with a couple of drinks. Not enough to get him drunk but enough to make him feel brave. After listening to Keita, he responded with, "Well yeah, it always is when dealing with this kind of thing. I'll feel a lot better with a partner though."

"I do recommend a drink or two before we leave though, it relaxes the nerves, at least for me. Just don't have too many so the priest doesn't see you're intoxicated and we'll be fine. After I finish what's left in my mug, we can head out to the church and meet with the contact." Shichiro informed Keita and advised him to do something that would help him relax throughout the night. It was going to be a tall order, he could feel it.

Guest · Fri May 28, 2021 2:28 pm

Guest

Keita was thinking about how he was going to deal with the undead, mostly trying to think of how the place would be laid out, it was a church after all, so he was thinking about how not to get cornered. From his limited knowledge, undead were slow and stupid, only walking around and trying to eat people who were alive. While he was thinking about this though, Shichiro continued on speaking to him, telling him that he should probably take the drink that he actually just sent away, and it might be good to calm his nerves, so Keita nodded at that.

"Alright yeah, a single drink sounds fine. Excuse me bar keep, a lager for me please." Keita said, before fishing some jewels out of his pocket and sitting on the stool next to the bar. He would wait a few moments before a dark beer was placed in front of him in the classic wooden mug. "So, do we know how the church is laid out, or is it pretty standard fare?" Keita would ask, trying to glean a bit more information before hand. He did not think that normal churches had a large enough basement for undead to be pouring out of it, so he wondered if the church was hiding something, but they were simply here to stop the undead, not to do much else.

Guest · Fri May 28, 2021 3:01 pm

Guest

Finishing his drink, Shichiro placed the empty mug down onto the counter top, wiping his mouth with the back of his left hand. He often favored the ale on the sweeter side and wanted to order another but enough was enough. He had a job lined up for him that he would carry out shortly after this. His cousin had ordered a drink for himself and got some jewels out from his pocket to pay for it, meaning he had taken his advice to grab one before they went to the priest for briefing. Pushing his empty mug away, Shichiro decided it was best to answer all of his questions at once.

"Well, while the church has a basement, that's not where we're going exactly. The last partner I had informed me the reason there's so many undead walking around and why the church had so much material is because of where this town is situated. This used to be a massive burial ground from an obscure war that happened a millennium ago. Seems there's a large catacomb under there that is large enough to be it's own city. Well, a city of undead anyway. I call it 'Blight Town' sometimes," Shichiro had said.

Guest · Fri May 28, 2021 3:14 pm

Guest

Keita started to drink his lager than was placed in front of him as Shichiro was finishing his drink off. He noticed that his cousin here did not choose another drink, and this made Keita subconsciously drink his alcohol a bit faster than he normally would. He would always try to get some alcohol that tasted decent and then sip on it for a while, but this time he was simply drinking normally, attempting to down the mug of lager in a decent time so that they could get going. He was then listening to his cousin speak about the church and that they were not going down to the basement per se, as there was a huge catacomb city down there with a large amount of undead.

Well, a large city hopefully gave Keita places to run and dodge being swarmed, but there were other concerns like the amount of undead that were down there. "So, do we know how many undead are down there? Also, do we have to get rid of them all?" Keita asked his concerns in between drinks of his beer, as he was fairly worried still. He did not have the skill, but he was definitely relying on his cousin, as he had some faith in his abilities.

Guest · Fri May 28, 2021 3:32 pm

Guest

Turning himself around on the revolving stool he was currently sitting on, Shichiro leaned his head backwards, placing his elbows behind him onto the counter top of the bar. He'd probably hear some complaining about this from the bartender themselves but Shichiro didn't care at this particular moment. As soon as Keita had asked more questions, Shichiro had been right there to answer them if he could. Unfortunately, Shichiro didn't know how many had to be cleared out since they haven't met up with their contact yet. So he decided to tell him just that.

"No, I'm unsure of how many we have to take out at the moment since we have to go and meet with our contact directly. The church is secretive about this sort of thing and they would prefer to deal with the mages that are working for them directly. They're too cautious to pass messages between third parties. From what I've gathered from previous excursions, mages normally don't exterminate all of them due to the sheer amount of them. As I've stated, it's big enough to be it's own city and more keep popping up. They most of the time only request the more dangerous ones that come to the surface to be dealt with so I assume it'll be the same here."

Guest · Fri May 28, 2021 3:39 pm

Guest

"Ahh I see." Keita would reply to his cousin as soon as he was done explaining the situation. Keita continued to drink his beer while listening to his cousin talk about their mission, as Keita did not have the full story about everything, he just knew he was there to help out the priest with something, and so now he got the full story, which was that essentially the mission was to get rid of a bunch of undead that had come to the surface from a large undead city and catacombs near the church, which seemed easy enough. It depended on where they had to fight the undead, but Keita would find out soon enough at least.

He finally finished off his drink before paying the bar keep and pushing the now empty mug to the man, and then turning back to his cousin. "Alright, I'm ready, shall we go?" Keita would ask, wondering if he was ready. He might have been drinking a bit slowly even though they were a bit constrained as he was unsure how he would do. This would be dangerous and although he had a bunch of training from experienced fighters, it still did not put his heart at ease completely.

Guest · Fri May 28, 2021 3:57 pm

Guest

Looking around the establishment, Shichiro had patiently waited for his cousin to finish his drink before they set off. As soon as he got an indication of him doing so, he would go. His cousin had finished his drink, turned towards him and asked if he was ready to go in which Shichiro nodded, giving him the response of him being ready. With that, Shichiro had gotten off the stool, pulled some jewels out of his own pocket and placed them on the counter for the few rounds of drinks he had. He hoped this wouldn't hit him until after their task was done. All he could hope for was it not being too difficult a task.

Placing his hands into his pockets, Shichiro made his way to the exit of the bar, heading into the direction of Oakland's church. This wasn't too long of a walk as the church was just a few ways down the road. They first come across the church's courtyard before entering the church itself. No matter how many times Shichiro walked through this place, it was always quite eerie. Pushing the double doors in front of him, he'd reveal the interior of the church once again.

Guest · Fri May 28, 2021 4:09 pm

Guest

After putting the drink down and paying for it, it seemed that both of them were ready to go, and so he started walking out of the bar. The weather outside was still a bit garbage as Keita looked out of the front facing window that was next to the door, and so he would just follow Shichiro. Shichiro also paid and then they both walked out of the baar into the weather. It was less wendy, but this just made the rain seem worse, as Keita used his will o wisps to block the rain from his body. He needed less wisps this time as they did not need to cover his entire body as the wind was not traveling sideways now that it had died down a bit.

They made their way to the courtyard of the church after walking down the road a few streets, before looking at an outside courtyard. The décor and the ambience made it seem like the undead were already here in a sense, although they were nowhere to be found. Soon, they would need to find the priest, who was hopefully waiting for them to tell them where they needed to go and potentially be a guide, depending on how lively and dangerous the priest wanted to be. They then walked into the church through the large double doors.

Guest · Fri May 28, 2021 4:23 pm

Guest

As per usual, Shichiro had shivers sent down his spine but he's been here enough times to where it doesn't bother him too much anymore. Looking around the room, the church podium, the two rows of long, wooden church benches and the interior decorations are all the same as the last time they were here. Walking down the aisle, Shichiro scoffed a bit as began to approach the front of the room. He knew the priest was here somewhere but he wasn't given instructions or directions to where he might be able to find him. As Shichiro looked around, seemingly out of nowhere, an old man had seemed to appear in one of the wooden benches.

Shichiro didn't spot him before but he could definitely smell another presence, that didn't belong to his cousin who he assumed had been following him this whole time. The elderly, priest smiled once more as he and Shichiro had been acquainted as client and mercenary a few times now. Giving a small sigh, Shichiro asked rudely, "Alright, what did you religious nutjobs want taken care of so that Oak doesn't suffer for your sins when dusk hits." Though he was paid handsomely, Shichiro wasn't fond of messing with the undead as he's not exactly an exorcist.

Guest · Fri May 28, 2021 4:50 pm

Guest

Keitas walked with his cousin, heading into the church when his cousin opened the large double doors, to find a fairly musty old church with seemingly no one in it. It seemed to have a bit of gaudy decorations that screamed a more 'holier than thou' mentality, which Keita was not fond of, and the entire place seemed creepy, as if something was going to suddenly jump out at him when he was not paying attention. For some reason, it made him uncomfortable and on high alert. This was made even worse when suddenly there was a priest of some sort that popped up in Keita's peripheral vision. It startled him and he was quick to turn towards the man, but it seemed that this was the priest they were looking for for the quest.

Keita was startled for a moment, because he was almost sure that the old man had suddenly appeared, and maybe it was some sort of short range blink magic and he did it to scare people, but he got over the fear fairly quickly before paying attention, as Shichiro suddenly called him a nut job and was asking what they needed to do. "Shichiro, that's a bit.. uh." Keita could not really finish the sentence, as he was questioning his cousin the priest spoke up. "Head down to the lower level and clear the undead. We've closed off the entrance from the catacombs for now." The priest said, fairly monotone.

Guest · Fri May 28, 2021 5:21 pm

Guest

Placing his hands into his pockets as he normally did, Shichiro had looked at the priest, waiting for a response. He had heard his cousin start to say something, which was most likely how he had addressed this priest but he had been cut off abruptly by said priest and had instructed both of them to head down into the catacombs to deal with the various undead that may or may not be rapidly growing in population. It was the same every time he entered this church, he swore to himself. Without saying a word, Shichiro stepped onto the podium and moved aside a carpet they used to hide one of the entrances into the catacombs.

Stooping down, Shichiro began to pull open the trap door that led down a long set of spiral stairs in order to proceed to their destination. It was quite dark with a torch seldom placed along the stairwell. It wasn't a probably the last few times he was down here since at the time he was a werewolf but now, he could see how this would be very annoying without his night vision. With that, Shichiro began to descend down the dark stairwell, grabbing one of the lit torches he could find along the way.

Guest · Fri May 28, 2021 6:01 pm

Guest

It seemed that Shichiro had definitely been here before, as thje priest ignored the chiding by his cousin, and his cousin simply ignored the eerie looking priest before walking over to the side of the floor where the rug was and moving it, revealing a staircase down into the second level of the church. This practiced motion made Keita tilt his head a bit at it, because he was confused. How many times had Shichiro been here exactly, he wondered. Still, he didn't question it much and simply followed him, bowing slightly to the priest. The priest seemed either dead or something because the priest just kept staring forward, which made Keita hasten his steps down the stairs behind Shichiro.

"Man, this place is creepy." Keita would say as he too took a lit torch off of the walls as they were heading down into the catacombs. He noticed his voice echoing off of the stairs and down into the chamber, and so he would quiet his voice for speaking from then on so it would not echo. He wasn't sure how deep the stairs went. "So, are we going to sneak in and ambush them? Can we even ambush undead?" Keita would ask in a hushed tone as they got further down the stairs.

Guest · Fri May 28, 2021 6:31 pm

Guest

Continuously walking down the spiraling stairwell, Shichiro held a torch in his hand that would light his way so he didn't have to struggle too much when wading in the darkness. When they made it to the bottom, the duo was met with another large set of double doors in which it was barricaded by a wooden two by four. Setting the torch aside, Shichiro lifted it off of the door and placed it at the side before picking back up his torch and answering any question his cousin might have about this job before officially entering the catacombs.

"We're going to walk in, make a lot of noise and draw an army of them to us of course! Heh, heh. No I kid, I kid. The lower ranking somebodies can be snuck up on, sure. Basic walkers and even the ones that remembered how to use weapons still seem to have retained some form of their human sense and can't do supernatural things. The more floaty types that are transparent and fly, not so much. They normally have the ability to sense the presence of the living somehow. Probably with some strange, supernatural arcane spell or something."

Guest · Fri May 28, 2021 6:55 pm

Guest

As they were walking down deeper into the catacombs, Shichiro started to explain the different types of the undead, and Keita started to keep them to memory. They went through another set of double doors, this time it was barred from their side, not a good sign for Keita in the least, but it meant that they were getting closer, allowing him a bit of time to steel his mind and get ready for anything. It was going to be a bit of a pain to deal with these things from the sounds of it, as Keita listened intently on the explanations, but it was mostly strange undead that seemed to be more of a spirit type entity that could sense life.

"Well, I'll leave the ethereal spirit like ones to you, as although my wisps can do something against them, they most likely have a natural deterrence to the dark element of magic I use. The walkers, as you called them, are better for me to deal with, as at least I can disable them with attacks, or even hitting them in the head with this torch." Keita would say, the wisps giving off an eerie purple light as they walked deeper into the catacombs

Guest · Fri May 28, 2021 7:08 pm

Guest

"Sure, I'll take the ethereal ones, if there are any but I guess we've wasted enough time as it is, let's get to it then and hopefully we'll be back for a nice meal and a shower. Lingering in this foul place always makes me smell like a graveyard. Well, I guess technically, that's where we are." he said a bit dryly at the end. And with that, Shichiro had pushed open the second set of double doors, revealing a cave-like area with a few undead in it. Nothing too powerful here yet but they were definitely on the verge of growing to the point where the double door wouldn't have been able to handle the pressure.

Well, this job is like a maintenance so Shichiro just walk in and started to cast an unknown fire spell he had been given by his teacher. He wasn't very good at it so he doesn't use it on more serious opponents but for a horde like this, it was enough. He made sure to aim it at the specters floating around as they weren't particularly strong against fire but immune to physical attacks. After all was said and done, the two of them had cleared out the room, went back up the stairwell and received payment for the first part of the job.

[Exit.]

Guest · Fri May 28, 2021 7:45 pm

Guest

"Alright, sounds good." Keita would say once Shichiro was speaking about how they had wasted time and that they should probably get on with the mission at hand, and Keitas would essentially be putting his game face on right now. He was ready to go in there and start killing undead, just like in those old books he read as a child, except this time it was real, and he had a stark advantage over the protagonists in those books, and that was that he had access to magic and specialized training. Not quite specialized in the way of dealing with undead, but specialized in a way of defending himself using nothing but his own body and the tools he had around him.

He took his torch and followed Shichiro into the depths of the catacombs, and saw that a large number of undead were instantly burned down to ashes by his friend, which was the first time he had seen him actually use a powerful magic that he had. It was actually quite good, but it definitely harmed Keita's eyes a bit, before he himself started killing the undead. Most of it was through his fists twisting their necks before his wisps finished them off.

[EXIT]

What lies beneath [NQ/Keita]

Thu May 27, 2021 10:54 pm

Thu May 27, 2021 11:02 pm

Thu May 27, 2021 11:10 pm

Fri May 28, 2021 12:33 am

Fri May 28, 2021 12:58 am

Fri May 28, 2021 2:28 pm

Fri May 28, 2021 3:01 pm

Fri May 28, 2021 3:14 pm

Fri May 28, 2021 3:32 pm

Fri May 28, 2021 3:39 pm

Fri May 28, 2021 3:57 pm

Fri May 28, 2021 4:09 pm

Fri May 28, 2021 4:23 pm

Fri May 28, 2021 4:50 pm

Fri May 28, 2021 5:21 pm

Fri May 28, 2021 6:01 pm

Fri May 28, 2021 6:31 pm

Fri May 28, 2021 6:55 pm

Fri May 28, 2021 7:08 pm

Fri May 28, 2021 7:45 pm

Log in

Latest topics