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The Magic Lore Challange (Ongoing)
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"You, yes you, Jorn, my boy, you have been chosen, chosen by the gods, and oh, yes you will pay the price for, for..." Endless streams of conversation rushed out of the woman's mouth, as she gazed manically from him to the wolf.
"She's not dangerous," came a voice. "Just mad. now, leave the young boy alone, eh, granny?"
A man emerged into the thicket. His skin was almost as wrinkly as the women's, and he wore a headdress of phoenix feathers. Indeed, one of the curious creatures sat upon his arm.
"Ah! The Kalomerian clan!" exclaimed the wolf, and he chased his own tale happily in the clearing for several moments. "They are friends of the forest, who have to sought to find the plague of the Crimson Arrow and slay it wherever it may be, hiding behind a friend or foe, as a ally or enemy of the forest."
"Indeed," said the man. "You are, I suppose, a traveler?" He pointed a bony finger at Jorn.
"I, er, yes, you could say so," he replied.
"Very good. Then I trust you will say yes to the hospitality I offer you?"
"Of course!" the wolf answered this for him, and bounded after the mage and his gibbering old granny.
Jorn knew he should follow, but then something was holding him back. Something was wrong here...
http://mtgcardsmith.com/view/grovecaster-forcemage
NOTE: Since it's a real set, we should try to build up cycles. My idea is of Forcemage's: creatures of each color that can be cast for an alternative cost, and may all have an ETB affect. Also, since I currently know of very few stories that follow the same characters in the same place all the way throughout, I think we should try and visit another place/character central to this world?
Ridley Gold Digger stood near the edge of the vessel, eyeing the dark waters beneath him. “How long has it been since I last saw the shore…” he thought to himself; “too long”. The continued awareness that solid earth was far behind him sent a constant flow of shivers up his spine. After all, it's been months since he was safe back in his mountain home without a care for the outside world. The Crimson Arrow had changed all that.
Ridley, and his companions, were hired by the Crimson Arrow in order to fetch some dark artifact rumored to be on a secret island off the coast. What this item was however, was only made clear to Ridley’s superior. All Ridley new was that the pay was substantial enough to warrant such an unfavorable quest as to cross this wrenched, vast body of water.
When they had just entered the Bloodwald Woods, one of Ridley's companions, a younger lad, had let out a messenger hawk to carry a message to his loved ones, saying that he was fine. The rest of them had laughed. The hawk would be eaten by any number of griffins in the air, or at least would get lost or be to exhausted to finish the journey off.
But no. The hawk had come back. And this time, it wasn't just one hawk...
The whole group of the creatures landed down on deck, as the astonished sailors investigated them. The leading one had a letter tied round its ankle, and Ridley quickly went up to untie it.
"What does it say?" asked one of the other crew members.
"Who sent it?"
"Who are those...?"
"All right, all right, be quiet!" barked Ridley. "I'll read it out to ye.
" ' Dear Titus,
I am so glad to here you are well. Sadly, the same can not be said for us. While we have gotten off better than the rest, the Crimson arrow has infected our woods. The lower villages were forced to evacuate, and many have been killed, or even worse. I bid you run with God speed, my boy, and never stop running, for the Crimson Arrow is coming for you. It's coming for all of us, and will never stop until it has us all!
Many of us, including some of our and your old friends have been caught, rounded up and been taken away in huge carriages. This confuses us all, and, had it not been for your father, who managed to kill a possessed corpse, burning with the rage of the crimson arrow, we would have been caught too.
Love,
Your mother.'
Card: http://mtgcardsmith.com/view/broodbay-hawk
"Which one of you have failed me?"
Ridley paused. He was terrified, yes, but he had seen this ordeal before, and knew what to expect. The other members of his crew, however, were cowering as they heard the demonic voice of the Crimson Arrow. One member in particular was shaking.
"Answer me, or this entire ship will burn to the ground!"
"Someone speak up!" yelled a crew member.
The shaking man looked up, then whimpered. "...it..."
The phoenixes all turned toward the man, each one representing the flaming eye of the Crimson Arrow. "You...have something that is mine. And YOU...have kept it from me. WHY?"
The man shuddered. "...I...it...who...?"
The phoenixes reared back, then dove forward, straight into the man's soul. Chaos. Fire. Warped flames spread across the boat. Screams were coming from the man, yet it sounded inhuman. The chaos continued, until...
All was silent. And the man was gone. And something laid on the ground in it's place.
Ridley, breathing hard, called to the rest of his team. "A warning. She is always watching. Now, get us back on course! We cannot fail to retrieve this artifact the Crimson Arrow spoke of, or it will be all of us next!"
As the boat sailed in the darkness, a deep, dark laugh echoed across the waters.
http://mtgcardsmith.com/view/crimson-eye
http://mtgcardsmith.com/view/voiceless-laughter
(BTW, easy on the rares, and no more planeswalkers until Crimson Arrow and/or Jorn. Those two need to be saved until the end.)
"This must be where that artifact is" Ridley thought.
"It must be some ancient artifact left here by some past civilization." As he turned around, he heard a sound coming from behind him. He turned around, and saw a zombie climbing out of it's grave, and another, and another, until there we're more than 20 zombies coming towards him. Terrified, he ran back towards the boat, shouting at his crewmates to run.
"Don't worry" One of them said. He closed his eyes, and said some words in a language he couldn't understand. Suddenly, one of the zombies rose from the ground, sprouting wings. It had become an angel. It turned toward the zombie horde, rose it's spear, and struck the leading zombie. There was a bright flash, and all of the zombies, and the angel, we're gone, leaving nothing behind but piles of dust.
and
When Ridley woke up again, his head was stinging, and warm, sticky blood covered his chest. He jumped to his senses, and looked around. Whatever had happened? He had remembered the zombie hordes coming, and then the angel, and then the ship had been exploding, and rocks were falling from the sky, and...
Ahead of him, the ship lay in ruins, shards of wood everywhere. The air about him was a curious mix of peacefulness and eeriness. It felt like he was intruding somewhere, as though people lived here. He stumbled forward, and called out.
"Hello! Hello! Is anyone there?" There was no reply. His calls echoed around him, slicing through the unholy silence like a knife.
Then came a desperate scrabbling, like someone was trying to climb over a mound of rubble, and not doing a very good job of it. A head emerged, over a pile of wood that had come from their boat.
"Captain! Captain!" called the man, and ran down to Ridley. It was Shadrach, John Shadrach, one of his servants, and, at the same time, most trusted crewmen. They embraced, but quickly separated again.
"Where is everybody?" said Shadrach eventually, suddenly coming to his senses. "I met Lascelles up there." He gestured to where a man, another one of Ridley's crew, was coming.
"Bring Lascelles," said Ridley. "We need to get going. We'll see if we can find a ship around here, on even a village."
It was at that moment, however, that they saw someone. Lascelles was the first to spot him: a man, looking forward, blankly. He was wearing a nobleman's cloak, yet it was weather-beaten and battered, and they couldn't see his face. This made it all the more creepy. Lascelles called out.
"You! You! You with the coat," he shouted, hands up to his mouth. "Is this your island?"
The man didn't hear, or else heard and didn't care. The three of them, Riddley, Lascelles and Shadrach, ran forward, to try and get the man's attention, until eventually he was only a ,matter of metres away.
"Who...Who are you?" called Shadrach. No reply. The man had to be able to hear them now.
"Answer us!" shouted Riddley.
Then the man began to turn his head. And the sight they saw then would never leave their eyes. He was a pirate: that much was sure. But his face was rotten, the skin peeling and giving way to the man's eyes. And in those pupils, insanity burned, brighter than anything they had ever seen before.
The pirate whirled around with incredible speed, and seized Ridley by the arm. It cackled.
"I be Scarbron! Ridley Scarbron! All my friends and all my family died here, on this hellish isle as I searched for the artifact you seek! Give me it., or I shall kill you! I'll kill you all!"
DRAMATIC PLOT TWIST FTW.
Cards:
http://mtgcardsmith.com/view/scarbron-undead-scourge-1
and
http://mtgcardsmith.com/view/sabotage-12
"What are you?!" Lascelles choked, gagging on the smell of rotting flesh.
"I am SCARBRON! NOW GIVE ME THA-"
"You're a servant." The zombie was cut off by a firm voice from behind the group. Ridley whirled about to see a tall man bedecked in lavish robes and trinkets.
"I am Necrox," The man snarled, "Lord of this isle and all the undead upon it."
Ridley laughed, a harsh bark. "You think you're the lord of this hellhole? Says who? You and what army?!"
Scarbron laughed in sync with Necrox as the mage lifted one hand, glowing with green energy, and seemed to throw it across the ruins of the ship. Suddenly, an army of undead sailors and pirates seemed to rise up, some of them having recently died, others having died thousands of years before in this same area. But instead of moving to attack, the zombies piled on top of one another, forming a massive mass of decayed flesh. The monster rippled with dark energies. Before it, Scarbron stood.
"Now," Scarbron and the wizard spoke in sync, "Let's be reasonable about this artifact."
"I'll show you reasonable." Ridley muttered. "Come on, Lascelles! Shadrach! Let's kill the mangy gits!"
Cards:
http://mtgcardsmith.com/view/necrox-lord-of-the-isle
and
http://mtgcardsmith.com/view/let-battle-commence
Well, I could have explained it better at the start, but, basically, the angel's smite is meant to destroy the ship, and other mountains or whatever around.
Ridley turned to his sword, but it had vanished. It was just there a second ago... Judging on the expressions of his other men, they found themselves armless as well.
"You see?" Necrox laughed. "THIS is rationalizing."
"NO!" shouted Ridley. "You don't...understand..."
Necrox glared at him. "Sorry, what? Is this bug talking to me?"
"I think so, lord," Scarbron added.
"What? No! This is much more dangerous than you realize! The Crimson Arrow sent us for this artifact!"
Necrox faltered, then regained his composure. "Yeah, OK, whatever. Like you'd be in kahoots with the Red One. That's unrealistic."
Ridley trembled. He felt the thousands of gazes of undead eyes upon him. "Y...you kill us? The Crimson Arrow will get you back!"
Scarbron looked at him. "Kill him, lord?"
Necrox kept gazing at Ridley. "...no. Not yet. After all, we do not have all the information we need."
Scarbron looked at Necrox with surprise. "Well, if you won't kill him, then I will!"
Scarbron leaped at Ridley with his sword outstretched. Ridley braced for pain. Necrox just waved his hand, as if saying goodbye.
Then, Scarbron disintegrated. "Never liked him anyway," Necrox said. "Always was a pushover."
Necrox turned back to Ridley. "Where did your friends go?"
Ridley looked at his sides. Lascelles and Shadrach were gone.
"Well, never mind that. We need to work together. That much is obvious. I don't have the information I need. So..." He held out his hand. "Show me where the artifact is, or I'll take great pleasure in disemboweling you."
CARDS:
http://mtgcardsmith.com/view/uneasy-alliance-5
http://mtgcardsmith.com/view/forced-disintegration
Necrox grinned, as if he had told a funny joke.
"Tell me of the artifact, then we'll talk," Ridley Dind't like this. He already didn't like Zecrox, but now he had his friends. Why did he even want the artifact?
Necrox continued to smile, a grin almost as rotten as one of his ghouls.
A chill ran up Ridley's spine,he almost thought that a zombie was reaching at him, But he looked and saw only the shivering sea.
"Why would I want the artifact it had been used? I only want it to stop the crimson one." He spoke in a voice like a mother trying to comfort her hurt child, but the voice was nothing comforting to Ridley.
"I heard rumors of the artifact on this island, and if you help me, your friends wil return. If not, I can always use some more eternal slaves."
What help could a gold miner offer to this sorcerer? He dind't like this
ridley knew this wasn't right, but what other choice would he have? He could never fight a necromancer. He could run away, but to where?
"Fine, but I expect my part of the bargain."
"Of course, they will stay safe here for me to revive,' He jestered to an alter full of bones. His friends bones.
He stared at the blank paper and concentrated on the artifact. But nothing happened. His mind wondered to his friends bones and his desperation to save them. Still nothing. Then he thought of his crew mates who he was sure he would never see again. Still nothing. Finally he thought of his parents who were under the attacks of the crimson eye. Suddenly lines appeared on the map. Colour filled the paper like snow on a winters night. Then a small spot glowed near the centre of the map.
"That must be it," Ridley exclaimed. Necrox loomed over at the map. The pair faintly saw what appeared as a glowing ring. http://mtgcardsmith.com/view/crimsons-ring.
"Let us make haste," Necrox demanded and the two began their adventure.
As the strode toward the centre of the island, Ridley notice Necrox was carrying a small orb. http://mtgcardsmith.com/view/necroxs-orb. This must be how Necrox summons the dead. Ridley secretly thought how he might steal it from Necrox to save his friends.
THAT'S how long it took for the two adventurers to find their destination. They had walked through many mountains, several swamps, and many, many forests to find this place. In fact, his feet were so sore, he could almost-
"Dude, really? It's only taken like a few hours at most."
OK, fine, Necrox. So much for good storytelling.
At any rate, the two looked upon the great crimson ring. It was shining with a faint red aura, like it was on fire.
Necrox looked at Ridley in the eye. "We've found it, I suppose. Now, I suppose your friends can return."
He raised his arms, and bones began shifting all around the island. Ridley shook as the bones took the form of humanoids, piecing themselves together to form bodies. After a few minutes, skeletons with empty eyes stared at Ridley. He frowned, waiting for his friends' lives to come back. But they were still skeletons.
Ridley turned toward Necrox, puzzled. "I thought you'd bring them back."
Necrox laughed, then grinned evilly toward Ridley. "You thought this would be a cakewalk for you? HAHAHAHAHA! Of course not! I obviously came here for the artifact, nitwit! As for you..." Necrox's smile grew wider. "You're just in time to be destroyed by your own 'friends.'"
LOL, can someone make some cards for me? I'm lazy.
"Hey guys, you in there?" No voice was found. But somehow, they
were multiplying! In a span of 2 minutes, the skeletons grew to a
staggering number of 300. They lumbered toards him.
"No way out of this situation, eh?" Necrox giggled.
Ridley knew in his own self that he was going to die.
But fate took pity on him. The ground rumbled. The sky
screamed in horror. The skeletons paused for a second.
In a few seconds, a flurry of claws and talons shredded them all to
dust.
"Ho-" Necrox tried to say, but was decapitated.
A huge dragon was reddish-bluish scales and a shiny hide spoke to him.
"Do not ask." He said, as the earth rumbled every word he said. "We must
drive the tigers out of here."
http://mtgcardsmith.com/view/avenging-dragon
XD