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Post by Tom Troughton on May 20, 2004 21:18:01 GMT
[ModNote: Continued from A Warm Welcome.] *Tom enterd The Market place. He had no Idea if Rob would be here or not but he had to find him.* "Hmm Mabey he's gone to the Bording School. I'll never reach him there." *Tom walked throw the crowd un aware he had been spoted.* |
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Post by ringmasterrob on May 20, 2004 21:43:57 GMT
*'Jack' notices Tom heading through the crowd and decides to tail him, keeping a safe enough distance to not be spotted and with no magical aura not as easy to detect. He hears Tom mentioning the Boarding School and taps Tom on the shoulder* Jack: I am an emissary of the Ringmaster, he asked me to tell you to meet him in the alley *indicating the alley where Magnus the mage had been healed by Skiprazor not long ago* in 5minutes, do not be late and be sure you can promise him privacy. *With that 'Jack' is gone as soon as he arrived* |
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Post by Tom Troughton on May 20, 2004 21:54:02 GMT
"Ah ha. The Games A Foot."
*Tom smiles and ambales round the market square for a few minuets and when he is sure that if anyone was watching him will have long since lost intrest he darts nimbaley away. Uesing his natural tallent for concelment and camoflarge he makes it to the ally un-seen. He waits pachinetly for Rob to apper.*
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Post by ringmasterrob on May 21, 2004 7:12:16 GMT
*The same man who had appeared to him in the marketplace with Rob's message walks down the alley. Tom cannot place his stance at all, as Rob's ageing and lack of power has caused him to hunch fowards slightly.*
Jack: Hello Tom, you won't recognise me at first but look hard enough and you'll see who I am
*Jack slowly pulls off his hood, his mouth is cut his hair is wild and unkempt, many wrinkles have appeared on the face and the different stance makes him unrecognisable as the Ringmaster to the untrained eye. Tom gasps as he realises who this it*
Jack: Yes, bet you didn't think you'd see the day the Ringmaster, mighty archmage, became a powerless, useless commoner did you?
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Post by Tom Troughton on May 21, 2004 21:02:43 GMT
*Tom looked at his freind in shock.*
"ROB WHAT....?"
*Tom Stopped and looked round, He knew that he might have drawn attension to them. Thinking quickley he cast a No seeing or Hearing. This made Rob and Tom apper invisibale and also allowed them to converse with out anyone hearing them.*
"My Freind. What has happend?"
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Post by ringmasterrob on May 23, 2004 16:41:21 GMT
*As Tom casts his spell Rob's head feels dizzy*
Rob: ARGH! Your magic is so powerful compared to what I am now my head has not adjusted to it, what happened with Visage he had a cursed coin. *Rob remembers the coin given to him from Nesty* IT WAS NESTY!!! He gave me a coin and stole it, it has drained me but Visage was hit by lightening before I could stop him, then again the lightening saved me. If it hadn't have distracted Visage I would've been finished I woke up being ill and everything had gone, I tricked a thief and got these clothes and this *indicates the crossbow with bolts* on the way here I got some currency from a hidden place where I keep it.
*Rob shows Tom his arm, wrinkles, cuts and bruises are now visible on it, all three have not been seen on the archmage's body before*
Rob: I am ageing without my powers, my life force is slowly dying but it will speed up the longer i'm without magic. A full month with no power could possibly put me in a coma, 2 months would probably kill me. How can I fight the power I once had as well as Visage's power? When I was last defeated by Scareye my mind was altered but never have my powers been drained like this. I need help Tom, I can no longer use my old sources. If certain contacts knew I was weak they would capitalise and kill me or do worse.
*The archmage's face seems plagued with troubles, the horrific nightmare he had that drove him to drink for the first time in decades has proved an even more shocking reality, now he must rely on his true friends and his instincts. The magic senses and everything he called his own was gone from him. If he was to overwork his aging body his true age would catch up with him sooner. His days had become numbered and with him useless Scareye may already be manouvering in the Netherworlds, his link with them was cut by Visage's theft. Despite Tom watching him the ringmaster buried his hands in his face and yelled with fury*
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Post by Tom Troughton on May 23, 2004 18:33:33 GMT
*Tom survayes the scene with cold emotionless eyes, as he always dose it such situations. But deep down with in him his angery is bubbling and boiling. Then when Rob mentions Nesty the final picec of the puzzal snaps in to place in Tom's mind.*
"Of corse, now it's all clear."
*Rob looks at Tom in confusion.*
"What's all clear?"
"H.O.Nesty. Didn't you ever get the feeling we had met him befor and yet we couldn't not place him?"
"Well I'll tell you why."
"Because Henry Oliver Nesty is none other then EDWARD DEAL."
"And I'll wager you anything he's now in the pay of your Lord Scareye. Scareye or this Visage fellow you mentioned must have got to Deal after he escaped from jail and through some form of trickery made it apper he was hanged."
"Scareye is a powerfull Soucera. He could easily cast a spell to change Deal's apperence. And Deal would be more then willing to help bring about your downfall."
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Visage
New Settler
Who am I?
Posts: 60
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Post by Visage on May 23, 2004 19:14:09 GMT
*Even under the protection of their spell, Tom and the real Rob can hear a sudden commotion from the marketplace*
"Rob"'s voice: Yes, good people, this corruption of the fruit is all due to this evil shapeshifter... Do not be fooled, his tricks are mostly illusions or through skulduggery, but he could be any one of you. He has even attempted to impersonate me, though I fancy slightly innacurately. I will use my power to protect you...
*There is the sound of shuffling feet as people line up and Tom and Rob hear the muttering of spells. Rob thinks he recognises them, and although much of his magical knowledge is confused, one thing is sure, they are not protective magics....*
*The there is a great shout and cry from near the mouth of the alley*
Voice of "Rob": See, the creature has murdered this innocent urchin... Do not look madam, I fear his neck is broken.... We must band together and defeat this evil lurker in our midst!
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Post by ringmasterrob on May 23, 2004 20:28:27 GMT
*Rob sinks his head into his chest*
Rob: There is nothing I can do anymore, I can feel nothing with this ordinary sense. I know too well of Scareye's trickery but i cannot stop it, why would they believe a wounded helpless Ringmaster almost unrecognisable when Visage now, looks, sounds and acts like me. Perhaps he really did become me and i'm just a shadow forced to watch as he fools these people into ignoring the takeover. How could I have been so STUPID!
*Rob slams his fist into a weak wall and cuts up his hand, he begins to bleed but rather than trying to mop it up he stares at it in awe*
Rob: Too long has it been since I saw my own blood, the pain proving i'm still alive. I can't go on with this Tom, what can we do? Even if you could stop Nesty no one has the power to stand up to Visage. Not even you now. He has the power of himself and me and the backing of the greatest overlord who ever lived. What can be done!
*Rob's eyes go from watering to streaming tears and his voice falters with the tears running down and hitting his bloody knuckles and washing blood to the floor, in his weakened state his head becomes dizzy and he collapses forward then to the floor with tears in his eyes. Tom must do something before he bleeds to death.*
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Post by Tom Troughton on May 23, 2004 21:01:51 GMT
*Toms eyes look far away in to the disstance, but the disstance they look into is that of Toms past.*
"No one has the power to stand up to Visage. Not even you now."
*Rob's words echo in his mind.*
"Not even you now."
<Tom's Thinks to himself.>
"No not even me. Not now. Once maby but not now. I am powerless aginst that evil. and my race will not stire a hand to help. I am in no danger I could escape. No I can't even call to them for help."
*Tom notices Rob becomeing weaker.*
"Rob."
*Tom grabs Rob and pulls him to his feet. He casta a healing spell and Robs wound heals.*
"There is only one slim chance. Nesty/Deal. We must find him and see if we can abstract any info from him."
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Post by Brother Strange on May 24, 2004 0:33:34 GMT
*A voice whispers in Tom's ear. It is a dead whisper, like sand blowing across stone. Yet within it there is something Tom recognises, a voice which puts him in mind of a cowled, hooded figure with piercing grey eyes.* "Tom... Help me..." "My body is imprisoned in the Wolf's Howl Inn, Tom...." "I can help you..." *In the spirit world, the spirit of Brother Strange battles with the buffeting winds and currents of emotion which threaten to unravel it and condemn him to oblivion for all time. He had forgotten how hard it was to exist outside his body, how difficult it was to simply exist, yet alone act effectively. He could see and hear Tom clearly, but there was another spirit here which he could not make out. It seemed like a tattered, diminished remnant of a much more powerful soul. Brother Strange dare not analyse it further, since although part of him hoped it was the Ringmaster, a larger part of him prayed that it was not. The spirit looked less like that of a mage, and more like that of a dying man.* |
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Post by Tom Troughton on May 25, 2004 19:56:02 GMT
"Alzanian's beard. This is going to be a long day."
*Tom mutters*
<In spirit communication with Brother Strange.>
"Ok Brother Strange. I will help."
<In pysical world to Rob.>
"Are you strong enough to walk un-assisted my freind?"
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Post by ringmasterrob on May 26, 2004 7:04:57 GMT
*Rob doesn't appear to be concentrating anymore, his head is slumped downwards into his chest and he is deep in thought, the world around him is no longer something that he cares about. In his eyes his life is already over. Tom's voice brings him slightly round*
Rob: I, I suppose, if i'm a burden do not take me. I'm sure that crowd of villagers tricked by Visage would happily lynch me for the 'crimes' they think I have commited. I will be walking very slowly due to my limp.
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Visage
New Settler
Who am I?
Posts: 60
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Post by Visage on May 26, 2004 8:42:48 GMT
*The crowd in the marketplace is definitely a mob now, and Rob and Tom hear it massing dangerously next to the alley in which they are hidden, a couple of vagrants are being held on suspicion of consorting with the shapechanger...* *Then the crowd flows on, through the village, surging forward to the Crazed Heifer. At its head, the fake Ringmaster smiles, and thinks to himself* Thinks: So it begins Ringmaster, let paranoia reign! How fitting that you created the means of your own destruction..... |
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Post by Tom Troughton on May 26, 2004 13:17:15 GMT
*Tom guesses were the Crowd is heading.* "Rob we are going to have to teleport. This will make you feel a little sick, and I appolagise for that. But we must reach the Wolfs Howl Inn befor Visage and that Mob return." *Tom quikley mumbales his spell and He an Rob dissaper in a flash.* (Continued in The Wolfs Howl Inn) |
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