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Volo · 04-25-2007, 08:30 AM

Total darkness.

Silence.

A scream.

Silence.

A light.

Darkness.

The light growing back: a torch was lit.

A tall and skinny man was holding the torch, he didn’t look that old, but in the little light it was hard to see his age. There were 23 men and women of different ages and origins around him. Some were sulking and some were just sitting quietly, but all of them were equally confused.

Then, again, a young lass in a yellow dress, Lomiella let out a scream and started crying.

A short and stocky man in ragged clothes, Glirdan consoled the girl by patting her on the back and whispering, ”It’s ok, we’re fine. Calm down, nobody’s hurt…”

An another man, Xyzzy came forth to the tall man holding the torch. ”Where are we? Where did you find that?” he said pointing at the torch.

The skinny lad answered shakingly, ”Umm… It was lying here beside me, I stumbled on it”.

”And how did you manage to light it?” asked a clearly annoyed woman in black, Brinniel.

”I, I…”

An older man, Boromir, shocked by the situation, defended the shaken lad, ”Oh leave the poor guy alone, will ya. Don’t you see, he’s just as badly shokked as we all. No good at accusing him of anything right now. There are many more important things we must ask ourselves.”

Some ragged guy in a flat cap, Sleepy shouted from behind the circle, ”Yeah! Where are we? Who are we? Why are we here? How did we manage to get here? That’s the stuff I’d be glad to have an answer to”.

Long silence followed.

A cough and a tall man hiding in his grey cloak, Rune said calmly, as if to the darkness, ”I guess that was the answer. Nobody knows. Or nobody want’s us others to know. From my part, I was carving badgers at home when everything suddenly disappeared”.

Everybody nodded to that and general agreement was present.

Long silence followed.

”So, are we just going to stand here and wait for a miracle to happen. I feel like there won’t be any miracle for a while…” Aganzir, the hefty bearded woman said heavily. And after a short pause continued, ”Hey, you with the torch. What’s your name? Help me find more of those, we need to explore our situation”.

The torch-guy smiled nervously and answered, ”I’m En… Enohl. I think I saw more of these there beside that building”.

Everybody turned to look it the direction Enohl pointed, it was all dark and nobody could see anything.

”Give me that”, a woman in the tatters of rich clothes, Diamond grabbed Enohl’s torch and walked to the wall. It did turn out to be a building of some sort and torches were stacked neatly beside it. The woman smirked, ”You have good sight, my lad”. Diamond lit a second torch and throw it to a man, who stood close by.

The man caught it and spoke loudly, ”Heh, now friends, come and get your torches. We should explore this place before something explores our flesh, I wonder what beasts live in this darkness. Oh, and my name is Gil-Galad by the way”.

”There aren’t any beasts in this cave we should worry about-” Enohl started to shout, but realized that he made a big mistake.

Everyone was staring at Enohl. A sturdy-framed man, Nogrod walked close to him and stuck a finger in Enohl’s chest, ”Now wait a moment, what did you just say? You seem to know more than the rest of us. Would you be so kind to tell! Who the heck are you?”

Enohl backed away looking frightened. ”I, I…”

”What?” The strong man advanced at him again.

Suddenly Legate a man nearly of Nogrod’s size put a hand on Nogrod’s shoulder. ”Leave him be, if you scare him out of his skin, he won’t be of any help. I feel he’s just as innocent as me or you. Or even more than that”.

Nogrod turned quickly getting ready to punch Legate. Luckily for Legate, a small woman with short hair and subtle features, Roa came between the two tall men and Nogrod put his hand down. He said harshly, ”Now don’t you interfere. Where did that boy go”.

And indeed. Enohl was running away.

-~~-----------------------------------------------------------------------~~-

Enhilion was running away, tears were flying into the air. He had made a mistake and now it would probably cost the life of his whole race. And Enhilion only wanted to calm the Men down. He couldn’t understand why the Men were so evil and got angry so quickly. Sure the Vampires imprisoned them, but why would they want to harm even their own friends. Well, in fact that was the whole plan, to get the Men to fight with each other that the Vampires could be left alone. It seemed all wrong, Enhilion didn’t even want to hurt those Men, they are no warriors, they are weak. They were taken from their lives by force… A bit like Enhilion himself. He began crying and cursing again.

In the circle of Men there was also a lot of cursing. Nogrod had been shouting all the while, but didn’t dare go after the kid in this darkness. ”It’s all your fault! Why did you let him flee?”

Boromir, Legate and Roa tried to calm Nogrod down but without much success. The only thing they achieved was more shouts.

In the total confusion nobody noticed Mac, the man who was hiding in his hood and sitting on the ground outside the circle, vanish. He had snached a torch and was now running to the direction Enohl disappeared. Mac followed the boy’s cries. For a while the sobs ended and Mac was lost in the darkness but soon he heared weeping again. Close by, just in front of Mac. He walked slowly toward the sound, it wasn’t moving away anymore, but it stopped before Mac found his target.

Mac had run too far from the rest to either hear or see them, but there in the little light his torch cast he could see that the city or whatever it seemed to be, was going on and on. Fright gripped his. And just a moment later Mac tripped on something soft…

”I’m sorry, I lost control over myself. I didn’t mean it, it’s ok now”. Nogrod had at last come back to sense.

”I understand, we are all afraid and don’t know what to do. But we should try to unite our strength to survive. Whoever that boy was, he’s gone now”, said Morgan, a straw-haired man who was sitting quietly until this.

”No! He hasn’t gone”.

Everybody turned to see who said this. It was Mac and he was holding Enohl by the neck. Mac threw the scared lad in the middle of the crowd with a melancholic smile.

Enohl fell right on his face, but quickly rolled to face the angry crowd. He was panting hard and his nose was bleeding.

Mac explained, ”I ran after him when you were arguing. Found him quite far lying on the ground. It scared me to death, but now I think this fellow is much more scared than I have ever been”.

”Oh, good that someone has sense in the head. So boy, let us know your secrets”, said Kitanna a woman in a white shirt, black riding boots and a smirk on her face.

Enohl opened his mouth and then closed it and his eyes, he took a long breath and said, ”I and three of my friend are Vampires, we just-”

A commotion started. Nogrod backed away from Enohl, ”You, you cursed beast! What have you done to us!” He then grabbed a torch and ran on Enohl. So, fear of Vampires did exist in the outside world.

Enohl sreamed and shouted for his friends, that seemed to have betrayed their young ally. He glanced at them and understood that he was alone. Enohl gathered his knowledge and began chanting the incantation to change into a bat, it wasn’t easy and he had done it only a few times.

Nogrod was nearly on him when a commanding voice came from all around, ”Stop”.

-~~-----------------------------------------------------------------------~~-

Everybody stopped. A darkness darker than any other darkness appeared beside Enohl, who was now gazing at it with his mouth open. Slowly the darkness took the shape of a cloaked man. The cloaked man raised his gloved hand to point Enohl, ”Your time is over. You have been chosen to die”.

Rikae, the beautiful lady with long black hair and gray eyes, gathered the will to ask, ”Who, or what, are you? What will you do to us?”

The cloaked head turned to face Rikae and a chill pierced her. The same toneless voice, seeming older than the world, darker than the darkness, spoke, ”I am the Oracle. I have been summoned here to help you. Like this traitor told you, there are three Vampires among you. It is my mission to destroy them”.

The scared crowd didn’t know which to fear more: the Vampires or this clearly more powerful being, that did seem to be their ally.

A tall and extremely muscular man, Menel, barked at the figure, ”How can we trust you? You can be one of them and take the life of our own three”.

”How indeed? You can either trust me or trust me not. I leave the choice to you. My only advise to you is to choose the former… if you wish to live”.

Esspiem, the lean man with the neatly trimmed moustache and beard, squeaked as the dark figure seemed to look at him.

Everybody slowly gathered around the darkness and a general atmosphere of thinking followed into a tight line around the Oracle.

At last one person dared to stare back at the Oracle. His piercing and unsettling smile offered little comfort to anybody who looked at him, but Eomer didn’t care much. He turned at Esspiem and whispered so that only Esspiem could hear, ”Coward”. Returning his gaze back at the Oracle he said rather loudly, ”I trust you for now. Long time ago, when the Dark Enemy still looked upon the land, my ancestors were slain by Vampires. They came at night, not noticing the watchman, who had fallen alseep in the stable. When they went to steal the horses, the watchman woke. He had enough time to yell for help, when his throat was slit. Only one man survived from that village. I will trust this ”oracle” if that means revenging the Vampires’s evil deeds!”

Durelin, the thin, girly looking young man laughed mockingly. ”You would trust anything that gave you protection, and maybe a less painful death. Well, have it your way. I don’t really care...
” Oracle! If you come too near, don’t think I won’t find your weak spot!”

”I agree that our only hope of surviving is to trust the Oracle and hope for the truth.” Celuien, a woman in a worn dress and just as used cloak spoke, ”Whoever is the Vampire here, look out. Twenty against three is not a wise fight, so I’d just fly away if I were you...”

The Oracle turned it’s head at Celuien and if there had been a face, it would have now smiled, ”Three have spoken, does the rest agree?. Think about it”.

People were looking at their feet and trying to come up with some thought.

After a short while the Oracle announced with a hint of amusement, ”Just like I thought, only three don’t trust me... No... a fourth one.” Its voice had the slightest hint of suprise, so slight that only the most careful ear could pick it.

Nobody had the courage to ask how the dark figure knew this and so it was decided.

”It is now decided! You shall live in any house you wish, there will be food on the table three times a day. A river is flowing in the far end of the city, you can bring fresh water yourself. Wood can be found for different uses in a stack in middle of the city. Feel free to explore the houses for any other equipment you need”.

”What about the Vampires?” Shasta, the man dressed in all possible shades of blue asked. Other people nodded.

The Oracle would have smiled again if there would have been a mouth to smile with, ”There seems to be a misunderstanding. I won’t kill anybody now. How would I know which of you are Vampires? It is your job to find out. Tell me your vote and every 24 hours I’ll come for the person, who has collected the most votes. You can see the remaining time from the giant clock in the middle square.
”Now, what should I do to this Vampire here…”

The Oracle turned back into darkness and disappeared. Enohl was still lying on the ground.

”He seemed to forget this kid, oh botheration”, said Rikae.

Enohl rose up and said, ”I think I will follow your movement after all”. It was the Oracle’s voice. Then he tripped on the ground. ”It is a matter of practise, in a day I will be using this body better than you are using your own”. Enohl, or the Oracle tried to stand, but without much hope.

To the amusement of the crowd, the first day started!

-~~-----------------------------------------------------------------------~~-

The living:

Gil-Galad (Gil)
The Saucepan Man (Esspiem/SPM)
Rikae
Boromir88 (Boro)
Nogrod
Eomer of the Rohirrim (Eomer)
Thinlómien (Lomiella/Lommy)
Brinniel
Legate of Amon Lanc (Legate)
Aganzir
Meneltarmacil (Menel)
Xyzzy
Roa_Aoife (Roa)
Macalaure (Mac)
Diamond18 (Di)
Shastanis Althreduin (Shasta)
Celuien (Cel)
Kitanna
Sleepy Ranger (Sleepy)
Durelin
Glirdan (Glirdy)
Rune Son of Bjarne (Rune)
The Sixth Wizard (Morgan/Sixth)

The dead:

-

DAY 1

You may now start talking. Staying in-character is not a rule but adviceable.

04-25-2007, 08:30 AM	#7
Volo Silver in My Silent Heart Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: the great beauty Posts: 1,611	Day 1 Total darkness. Silence. A scream. Silence. A light. Darkness. The light growing back: a torch was lit. A tall and skinny man was holding the torch, he didn’t look that old, but in the little light it was hard to see his age. There were 23 men and women of different ages and origins around him. Some were sulking and some were just sitting quietly, but all of them were equally confused. Then, again, a young lass in a yellow dress, Lomiella let out a scream and started crying. A short and stocky man in ragged clothes, Glirdan consoled the girl by patting her on the back and whispering, ”It’s ok, we’re fine. Calm down, nobody’s hurt…” An another man, Xyzzy came forth to the tall man holding the torch. ”Where are we? Where did you find that?” he said pointing at the torch. The skinny lad answered shakingly, ”Umm… It was lying here beside me, I stumbled on it”. ”And how did you manage to light it?” asked a clearly annoyed woman in black, Brinniel. ”I, I…” An older man, Boromir, shocked by the situation, defended the shaken lad, ”Oh leave the poor guy alone, will ya. Don’t you see, he’s just as badly shokked as we all. No good at accusing him of anything right now. There are many more important things we must ask ourselves.” Some ragged guy in a flat cap, Sleepy shouted from behind the circle, ”Yeah! Where are we? Who are we? Why are we here? How did we manage to get here? That’s the stuff I’d be glad to have an answer to”. Long silence followed. A cough and a tall man hiding in his grey cloak, Rune said calmly, as if to the darkness, ”I guess that was the answer. Nobody knows. Or nobody want’s us others to know. From my part, I was carving badgers at home when everything suddenly disappeared”. Everybody nodded to that and general agreement was present. Long silence followed. ”So, are we just going to stand here and wait for a miracle to happen. I feel like there won’t be any miracle for a while…” Aganzir, the hefty bearded woman said heavily. And after a short pause continued, ”Hey, you with the torch. What’s your name? Help me find more of those, we need to explore our situation”. The torch-guy smiled nervously and answered, ”I’m En… Enohl. I think I saw more of these there beside that building”. Everybody turned to look it the direction Enohl pointed, it was all dark and nobody could see anything. ”Give me that”, a woman in the tatters of rich clothes, Diamond grabbed Enohl’s torch and walked to the wall. It did turn out to be a building of some sort and torches were stacked neatly beside it. The woman smirked, ”You have good sight, my lad”. Diamond lit a second torch and throw it to a man, who stood close by. The man caught it and spoke loudly, ”Heh, now friends, come and get your torches. We should explore this place before something explores our flesh, I wonder what beasts live in this darkness. Oh, and my name is Gil-Galad by the way”. ”There aren’t any beasts in this cave we should worry about-” Enohl started to shout, but realized that he made a big mistake. Everyone was staring at Enohl. A sturdy-framed man, Nogrod walked close to him and stuck a finger in Enohl’s chest, ”Now wait a moment, what did you just say? You seem to know more than the rest of us. Would you be so kind to tell! Who the heck are you?” Enohl backed away looking frightened. ”I, I…” ”What?” The strong man advanced at him again. Suddenly Legate a man nearly of Nogrod’s size put a hand on Nogrod’s shoulder. ”Leave him be, if you scare him out of his skin, he won’t be of any help. I feel he’s just as innocent as me or you. Or even more than that”. Nogrod turned quickly getting ready to punch Legate. Luckily for Legate, a small woman with short hair and subtle features, Roa came between the two tall men and Nogrod put his hand down. He said harshly, ”Now don’t you interfere. Where did that boy go”. And indeed. Enohl was running away. -~~-----------------------------------------------------------------------~~- Enhilion was running away, tears were flying into the air. He had made a mistake and now it would probably cost the life of his whole race. And Enhilion only wanted to calm the Men down. He couldn’t understand why the Men were so evil and got angry so quickly. Sure the Vampires imprisoned them, but why would they want to harm even their own friends. Well, in fact that was the whole plan, to get the Men to fight with each other that the Vampires could be left alone. It seemed all wrong, Enhilion didn’t even want to hurt those Men, they are no warriors, they are weak. They were taken from their lives by force… A bit like Enhilion himself. He began crying and cursing again. In the circle of Men there was also a lot of cursing. Nogrod had been shouting all the while, but didn’t dare go after the kid in this darkness. ”It’s all your fault! Why did you let him flee?” Boromir, Legate and Roa tried to calm Nogrod down but without much success. The only thing they achieved was more shouts. In the total confusion nobody noticed Mac, the man who was hiding in his hood and sitting on the ground outside the circle, vanish. He had snached a torch and was now running to the direction Enohl disappeared. Mac followed the boy’s cries. For a while the sobs ended and Mac was lost in the darkness but soon he heared weeping again. Close by, just in front of Mac. He walked slowly toward the sound, it wasn’t moving away anymore, but it stopped before Mac found his target. Mac had run too far from the rest to either hear or see them, but there in the little light his torch cast he could see that the city or whatever it seemed to be, was going on and on. Fright gripped his. And just a moment later Mac tripped on something soft… ”I’m sorry, I lost control over myself. I didn’t mean it, it’s ok now”. Nogrod had at last come back to sense. ”I understand, we are all afraid and don’t know what to do. But we should try to unite our strength to survive. Whoever that boy was, he’s gone now”, said Morgan, a straw-haired man who was sitting quietly until this. ”No! He hasn’t gone”. Everybody turned to see who said this. It was Mac and he was holding Enohl by the neck. Mac threw the scared lad in the middle of the crowd with a melancholic smile. Enohl fell right on his face, but quickly rolled to face the angry crowd. He was panting hard and his nose was bleeding. Mac explained, ”I ran after him when you were arguing. Found him quite far lying on the ground. It scared me to death, but now I think this fellow is much more scared than I have ever been”. ”Oh, good that someone has sense in the head. So boy, let us know your secrets”, said Kitanna a woman in a white shirt, black riding boots and a smirk on her face. Enohl opened his mouth and then closed it and his eyes, he took a long breath and said, ”I and three of my friend are Vampires, we just-” A commotion started. Nogrod backed away from Enohl, ”You, you cursed beast! What have you done to us!” He then grabbed a torch and ran on Enohl. So, fear of Vampires did exist in the outside world. Enohl sreamed and shouted for his friends, that seemed to have betrayed their young ally. He glanced at them and understood that he was alone. Enohl gathered his knowledge and began chanting the incantation to change into a bat, it wasn’t easy and he had done it only a few times. Nogrod was nearly on him when a commanding voice came from all around, ”Stop”. -~~-----------------------------------------------------------------------~~- Everybody stopped. A darkness darker than any other darkness appeared beside Enohl, who was now gazing at it with his mouth open. Slowly the darkness took the shape of a cloaked man. The cloaked man raised his gloved hand to point Enohl, ”Your time is over. You have been chosen to die”. Rikae, the beautiful lady with long black hair and gray eyes, gathered the will to ask, ”Who, or what, are you? What will you do to us?” The cloaked head turned to face Rikae and a chill pierced her. The same toneless voice, seeming older than the world, darker than the darkness, spoke, ”I am the Oracle. I have been summoned here to help you. Like this traitor told you, there are three Vampires among you. It is my mission to destroy them”. The scared crowd didn’t know which to fear more: the Vampires or this clearly more powerful being, that did seem to be their ally. A tall and extremely muscular man, Menel, barked at the figure, ”How can we trust you? You can be one of them and take the life of our own three”. ”How indeed? You can either trust me or trust me not. I leave the choice to you. My only advise to you is to choose the former… if you wish to live”. Esspiem, the lean man with the neatly trimmed moustache and beard, squeaked as the dark figure seemed to look at him. Everybody slowly gathered around the darkness and a general atmosphere of thinking followed into a tight line around the Oracle. At last one person dared to stare back at the Oracle. His piercing and unsettling smile offered little comfort to anybody who looked at him, but Eomer didn’t care much. He turned at Esspiem and whispered so that only Esspiem could hear, ”Coward”. Returning his gaze back at the Oracle he said rather loudly, ”I trust you for now. Long time ago, when the Dark Enemy still looked upon the land, my ancestors were slain by Vampires. They came at night, not noticing the watchman, who had fallen alseep in the stable. When they went to steal the horses, the watchman woke. He had enough time to yell for help, when his throat was slit. Only one man survived from that village. I will trust this ”oracle” if that means revenging the Vampires’s evil deeds!” Durelin, the thin, girly looking young man laughed mockingly. ”You would trust anything that gave you protection, and maybe a less painful death. Well, have it your way. I don’t really care... ” Oracle! If you come too near, don’t think I won’t find your weak spot!” ”I agree that our only hope of surviving is to trust the Oracle and hope for the truth.” Celuien, a woman in a worn dress and just as used cloak spoke, ”Whoever is the Vampire here, look out. Twenty against three is not a wise fight, so I’d just fly away if I were you...” The Oracle turned it’s head at Celuien and if there had been a face, it would have now smiled, ”Three have spoken, does the rest agree?. Think about it”. People were looking at their feet and trying to come up with some thought. After a short while the Oracle announced with a hint of amusement, ”Just like I thought, only three don’t trust me... No... a fourth one.” Its voice had the slightest hint of suprise, so slight that only the most careful ear could pick it. Nobody had the courage to ask how the dark figure knew this and so it was decided. ”It is now decided! You shall live in any house you wish, there will be food on the table three times a day. A river is flowing in the far end of the city, you can bring fresh water yourself. Wood can be found for different uses in a stack in middle of the city. Feel free to explore the houses for any other equipment you need”. ”What about the Vampires?” Shasta, the man dressed in all possible shades of blue asked. Other people nodded. The Oracle would have smiled again if there would have been a mouth to smile with, ”There seems to be a misunderstanding. I won’t kill anybody now. How would I know which of you are Vampires? It is your job to find out. Tell me your vote and every 24 hours I’ll come for the person, who has collected the most votes. You can see the remaining time from the giant clock in the middle square. ”Now, what should I do to this Vampire here…” The Oracle turned back into darkness and disappeared. Enohl was still lying on the ground. ”He seemed to forget this kid, oh botheration”, said Rikae. Enohl rose up and said, ”I think I will follow your movement after all”. It was the Oracle’s voice. Then he tripped on the ground. ”It is a matter of practise, in a day I will be using this body better than you are using your own”. Enohl, or the Oracle tried to stand, but without much hope. To the amusement of the crowd, the first day started! -~~-----------------------------------------------------------------------~~- The living: Gil-Galad (Gil) The Saucepan Man (Esspiem/SPM) Rikae Boromir88 (Boro) Nogrod Eomer of the Rohirrim (Eomer) Thinlómien (Lomiella/Lommy) Brinniel Legate of Amon Lanc (Legate) Aganzir Meneltarmacil (Menel) Xyzzy Roa_Aoife (Roa) Macalaure (Mac) Diamond18 (Di) Shastanis Althreduin (Shasta) Celuien (Cel) Kitanna Sleepy Ranger (Sleepy) Durelin Glirdan (Glirdy) Rune Son of Bjarne (Rune) The Sixth Wizard (Morgan/Sixth) The dead: - DAY 1 You may now start talking. Staying in-character is not a rule but adviceable. __________________ Fenris Wolf The EVEN NEWER Barrow-Downs Photo Page Last edited by Volo; 04-30-2007 at 05:38 AM.