[Campaign]Testate Summit

[Neko Koneko]

[Campaign]Testate Summit
Requirements: None
Post Length: MIN 1,000 Characters per post
Alignment: Any
Level: Any
Cost: 0 GP

Rewards:
1500 GP + ??? bonus GP for creativity/character development/humour
1500 EXP + ??? bonus EXP for creativity/character development/humour
*Note: you'll only get a reward if you've posted at least 3 times in this campaign*

Outline of Mission: The mountain range in North-Zoshnel has always been home to cold chills and frights, especially its tallest peak, named Testate Summit. As moons pass and the days draw nearer to All Hallow's Eve, stories and rumors of dangerous creatures lurking about the mountain paths are traveling throughout the lands in growing intensity.

Many are doubtful of the dark tales; it is more likely that the mere dead silence of Testate Summit is driving people mad. How insane is it to think that the barrier between the living and the dead could actually be breaking apart? Whatever the reason, people seem to be disappearing there more and more.

Some say it could be zombies, some say it could be some mutant species just beginning to emerge from the depths of the mountain's caves and caverns. But what about the mysterious old couple rumored to be living in an isolated log cabin in middle of the mountain range? Are they dead already, or do they hold valuable information that could unlock the mysteries that surround Testate Summit itself?


Participants:

Neko Koneko ( Nariël/darkred)
random_tangent (Kyrian/Violet)
Phard (Stefen/Purple)
ChristopherArmalite (Leon/mediumaquamarine)
Meim (Palme/Coral)
LePapillonRouge (Ariana/SpringGreen)
Spoonpuppet (Lacha/Slategray)

[Neko Koneko]

"Dead!"

The bottom of the beerglass hit the table.

"All dead!"

The old man sat at a table in the middle of the pub, surrounded by people who were listening to his story.

"And then, they stood up again, ready to eat the flesh of our bones!"

"And then? What happened next?"

"I'll be willing to tell you..." the old man replied to Leon. "...but my throat is kinda dry..."

As someone bought the story teller a new drink, Nariël and Celes were sitting a few tables away from the old man.

"I wonder why so many people listen to his ghost stories."

"Well, it is that time of the year again."

"What time?"

"Hollow... Hullow... eeer... something-een."

"It's the heads of people buying that guy drinks that are hollow."

"Well, if they like his stories, let them."

"And then, the dead feed of the flesh of the living!"

Nariël got up and walked to the story teller's table.

"If the dead came back to life and feed on the flesh of the living, then why are you not undead-poo by now?"

"I barely managed to escape! You don't believe me? Fine, I won't tell a single thing anymore. But beware of Testate Summit, for strange things are going on there!"

"Way to go Nariël, now we won't know what's gonna happen next."

Some other people joined in on Leon's complaint.

"Well, if you're so keen on spooky stories, why not go to Testate's Summit tonight?"

Everybody turned silent. Nariël looked around to see if people would actually want to go there.

"Sounds like fun!"

"Sounds exciting!"

"Could be interesting I suppose."

"Alright, let's do that!"

instantly, people ran off to get their belongings, leaving the old man alone at his table. The man grinned and seemed to be talking to himself for a bit, then picked up his hat from the table and left the inn.

[random_tangent]

Kyrian was pouting when Nariel cut off the ghost story. She had always loved stories, and the man had been quite entrancing with his voice, his tone weaving a web and pulling herself and the other listeners into the story. When she suggested a trip to Testate Summit, Kyrian tried to stop the shiver down her spine. But it was a delicious shiver - a shudder of excitement, something she hadn't felt for a while.

Keeping it cool, she shrugged nonchalently. "Cound be interesting, I suppose." - she didn't think anyone here knew about her guilty love of the spooky, and thought she'd keep that one under wraps. For now. At least until they made it up to the summit.

Hurrying upstairs to her tavern-top room, she packed a quick bag with essentials for overnight, just in case - her medical kit as always topping the bag off. She knew her friends, and though there were some people she didn't know accompanying them, she knew that anytime that Nariel was involved in something, SOMEONE was going to get hurt. Hopefully the world wasn't going to be at risk this time. She was growing tired of helping to save it.

Finally packed, she tucked Yngvi into its sheath at her ankle, slipped Jera into the pouch at her waist, and grabbed a hold of Tyr, choosing to carry the stave for now, instead of strapping it across her backpack. Violetta was off with her grandparents, having great fun with cousins and giving her mummy a well deserved rest, so Kyrian saw no reason why she shouldn't have some fun!

Bouncing back down the stairs, she shifted excitedly, waiting for the others to return so they could go.

[Phard]

Stefen listened to the old man telling his ghost story. While he was a good story-teller, the story was flawed in so many ways, he ddin't know where to begin the condradictions. Desipte this, a number of people hurried upstairs to collect their belongings and explore 'Tastate Summit.'

Sefen was waiting for Bardus to return from the blacksmith. He had heard many stories about the Summit, and everytime they changed. The outcome however, was always the same. Everyone that had ventured into its unknown area was never seen or heard from again.

His curiosity got the better of him, and he bounded up the stairs, three at a time, to write a note to Bardus explaining where he had gone. Hopefully Bardus wouldn't worry too much. With the 'Fluxe' Capacator to his back, he waited patiently for the others to arrive.

[ChristopherArmalite]

Leon sighed, he seemed cheerful enough to have a sort of "Test of Courage" with his friends, similar to what kids are into these days. However, something just didn't feel right...a cold chill was creeping up and down his spine. He had just finished packing up when Judas approached him
"So...zombies huh?" Judas grinned
"...yeah"
"And you're fine with that?"
"W-why wouldn't I be?" Leon started to become nervous.

"Well" Judas raised his voice loudly so the whole group can hear, "Don't those things scare the hell out of yo---"
"NOPE!" Leon replied louder, which caught the attention of the whole group.
"Oh?" Nariël walked up to the brothers with a smirk on her face. "Is that right?"
"NOPE! It's n-n-n-n-not" He vehemently shook his head comically, face red from embarrassment.

A ghastly groan came from behind Leon and an icy cold hand grabbed his neck, he let out an effeminate girlish scream then turned around to see Judas with a goofy grin holding ice water.
"You stupid piece of!" Leon delivered a flurry of punches that sent Judas flying across the pub.
The bartender looked over towards Judas, created an "X" with his arms and declared, "KO!"

"*ahem* Shall we get going? It doesn't look like he's up for our little adventure anymore..." He said suavely as if nothing had happened.

[meim]

Palme whistled while he checked the condition of Arachnid. It has been a while since there was anything interesting happening and the whole thing about living dead made it something worth investigating. Meanwhile, Pino sharpened its carving knife on a sharpening stone producing an annoying grinding sound. It was one of those days that Pino was extremely independent and uncontrollable. It had even made himself the same height as Palme was wearing Palme's clothes. Suddenly, the grinding sound stopped and Pino walked over to Palme raising his knife. Palme turned to face his puppet. " So you are afraid of meeting creatures that might be similar to you?"

" I don't know." Pino replied sanely with his own original sound then fell to the ground and stayed motionless. Palme put all his puppets into his puppet bag and ran downstairs. He had missed the comical scene between the brothers and the others were about to leave.

" Don't leave me here!"Palme yelled after them.

" We are just about to go."

" Ah, the old man isn't around anymore. Whoooooooooo"

[Neko Koneko]

When the group left the inn, to most people it must have looked like the weirdest camping group ever. The diversity of races and classes was big and at first glance, it was hard to imagine these people being friends. Although the group was very diverse, they all seemed to be carrying a weapon of some sorts and they all talked about just one thing: the dreaded mountain called Testate Summit.

”Where am I supposed to go next...”

Lacha was walking around town, looking for the local bathing house. She felt like lazing around in hot springwater. Suddenly, someone walked into her, causing her to fall onto the ground.

”Oh, sorry about that. Are you alright?”

”Yeah, I’m alright... Oh, it’s you Leon.”

Leon helped Lacha up from the ground.

”We’re going to Testate Summit.”

”...to find brain eating zombies!”

”Don’t say that!”

”Don’t say what?”

”The Z-word. Don’t say it.”

”Whatever...” and with that, Nariël walked on, leaving Leon still facing Lacha.

”So you’re going on somesort of camping trip? Sounds fun.”

”I wouldn’t say that. I think it’s more like dangerous...”

”Ha, I laugh in the face of danger, HAHAHA!” came Nariël’s voice from the distance. She was standing opposite the town square waiting for Leon to finish his little meet-and-greet with the Barbecue-dousing girl.

”Anyway... I don’t recommend you coming along because...”

”...lame little brother here won’t be able to protect you. Big brother, however, will protect you with all his might.”

”You mean Big Brother will spy on her when she’s taking a shower.”

”To be accused of indecencies by my own little brother! The shame!”

”Shame on you, yeah.”

”Then tell me Leon, have you ever had...”


Before Judas could finish his sentence, Leon’s fist had made contact with his face, sending him flying across the ground. With a loud crash Judas’ ground flight was interrupted by the presence of the fountain in the centre of the square. An old lady who sat on a bench next to it crossed her arms, signing the K.O.

”Shall we go then?”

”But didn’t you say it’s dangerous?”

”Danger? I can handly any kind of danger.” Leon said suavely as if nothing had happened.

[OCC: Spoons and butterfly get a 200 GP penalty for not posting in time XP Next post has to be up before the end of Sunday again, you may post more than once if you feel like it, you don't have to wait for all the others to have posted \o ]

[Spoonpuppet]

The group made their way through the dimly lit streets towards the towering shadow of the mountain. Nariël strode confidently while others such as Palme shuffled quickly to keep up. The moon was hanging high in the sky, touching the skeletal trees with its eerie glow.

They were approaching the beginning of the mountain path, which snaked into the darkness and the warm glimmer of the village fading away behind them. The group was not as boisterous as a few moments ago - it was obvious that some nerves had crept in, but nobody wanted to admit it.

"Are you sure we have everything?" asked Lacha. She had suddenly realised how underprepared she felt. "Do we have food supplies? How about some source of light? What if we get lost..." She didn't feel scared, just underprepared.

Nariël took a few steps forward and waved an arm. "Come on! I thought you guys all wanted to investigate that old man's story. Or do you want to turn back already?"

Palme marched towards Nariël while shouting "Of course not!" It had a hint of uncertainty.

[LePapillonRouge]

"Why in the world am I here, anyway?!" shouted a voice from out of nowhere, near the beginning of the mountain path. If the group looked, they would have noticed a young girl carrying a violin on her back, arms spread out, yelling at the sky.

Suddenly she put her arms down and sighed. "...I don't think this is worth 10,000 GP. Not at all. She knows I hate scary things! Does she make my life uncomfortable on purpose?" As she said that, she turned away from the path, walked away, not realizing she had accidentally bumped into a bunch of people that she actually knew from a long time ago. "Eh? ...EH?! ...oh, by Rael...how long have you been people been here? And why are you here? Don't you guys know anything about this place? Sure, you're warriors, but even if I were strong as you guys, I don't think I would fight with the living dead, ghosts, or whatever is up the mountain. I hope you weren't stupid enough to do this for money...because that would be a big mistake," she sighed.

"We're not doing it for money," replied Leon, calmly as usual. Ariana blinked, looked a little farther in the groupd, and then laughed a little nervously. "Where did he come from?! But then again, he's always with Nariël, so I should've naturally assumed...oh, come on, I'm not going to do this just because he's here. I'm not that lame, she thought rapidly. A breeze whistled past. Er, so, do you guys mind if I come with you?

[ooc: Feel free to deduct 200 GP from me too. Sorry about that!]

[Phard]

"Of course you can come. I can think of a few people who have come for chauvinist reasons, but you don't seem to have that kind of motive."

Leon grinned goofily. Sefen could almost hear what he was thinking. Sefen knew that the boy was lucky that the women of the group couldn't read his mind.

[Neko Koneko]

[OOC: Phard, you do realise that post is too short to count towards your post total right? MIN 1000 chars per post. Not gonna count every single post in here but I can see yours is too short :P ]

As they walked over the mountain path towards the dark mountain, the sky turned darker and night started to settle in. The amount of trees around them was getting smaller with every thread and after half an hour the landscape was cold and barren, without the sign of life around them.

"Did anyone think of bringing a light or something?"

"I brought a lantern."

"Me too."

Two small lights flared up inside their little glass cases. It was barely enough to look 3 metres ahead of them.

"Nariël, if you'll stay at the front, I'll take the back."

Nariël nodded and continued walking. Now the group was clearly defined by a light at the start and at the end, as the world around them slowly grew darker.

"Do you hear something?"

"No... do you?"

"I thought I could hear something move behind us..."

"Probably your imagination! You're losing it already?" Palme said while putting a handful of sweets in his mouth. They decided to heed it no attention for now.
Finally, after another hour of walking, they arrived at the mountain.

"So... do we have to climb this thing?"

"Nope, let's set up camp here."

"Oh? You're taking charge of it then?"

"Erm.. sure?"

"Good!" Nariël exclaimed as she dropped down against a large boulder and produced a bottle of Dragon's Blood from her bag.

"You're not going to drink now are you?"

"Why not? Leon's gonna do all the work isn't he?"

"Erm..."

"Being in charge doesn't mean he has to do everything does it?"

"Alright, alright... So, great leader, what do we do?"

"Well, for starters..."

"... You're gonna pitch up my tent!"

"I KNEW I heard something behind us!"

"Hear something? You mean someone! And how could you not hear the blood in my veins boiling after being knocked out by my useless little brother..."

The sound of a fist hitting a face broke the silent atmosphere and Judas was sending flying across the open area they were going to use for their camp.

"Get lost you... you.... wait, you brought a tent? Who else brought a tent?"

"I did. Thought it'd come in handy."

"good, then we have one tent for the men and one for the women..."

"The women can share mi..."

A stone hit Judas on the head. Everyone looked at Nariël who was still in a throwing stance.

"What? I haven't gotten one chance at all today since Leon keeps punching him around."

There were some laughs but after that Leon put everyone to work to pitch up the two tents, dig trenches around them and create a fire. Within an hour, a pot was on the fire filled with soup and everyone had taken place on stones around the fire, covered with blankets, capes or whatever they could find to keep them warm.

[OOC: Alright, from now, hell may break loose XD Let the first zombies arrive =P]

[ChristopherArmalite]

Leon sighed. It had gotten to the point where it's absolutely dark.
"All the conditions for this event have been cleared. If that old man was really telling the truth, we should e-expect t-t-to see th-those things soon." He mused loudly, his voice trembling with a hint of fear.

Everyone in the camp had retired for the night while Leon and Nariël were tasked with the night watch and Judas had been unwittingly sent off as bait in the guise of scouting ahead for when the sun comes up again.
"What's the matter, getting cold?" She smirked
"No" He stopped "I mean, yes!" He added desperately
"Shh, do you hear something?"
"Hear what?"
"Listen!"
Leon closed his eyes and focused on the surroundings, trying to pick up any noise. Everything was silent, not even any animals around...he managed to calm himself down when a shrill girlish scream cut through the woods

"What in the hell was that?" He jumped up and looked around, feeling a cold chill going down his spine. The scream was heard again, this time closer. The bushes rustled and sounds of running feet under grass and twigs could be heard getting closer and closer.
"Oh no, it's coming this way, why does it have to come this way" He thought. Getting ready for an attack, he unsheathed his daggers.

"Gah, they're after me! Help!" Judas emerged through the woods. He jumped up in the air, heading straight for Nariël with arms outstretched.
"You wish!" Nariël delievered a roundhouse kick to the airborne Judas. As he laid twitching on the ground, Leon approached him.
"What do you mean by "they"? Who's after you?"
Judas smirked
"Those ZOMB--"
"On second thought, I don't want to know. Wait, they followed you here, didn't they?"
"Nope, they were slow and shambling around...they couldn't possibly have followed me here.." Judas got up and dusted himself off.

Just then, ghastly groans came from the direction Judas came in. It sounded as if it was a group
"Damn..." Leon eyes widened and his skin turned pale.

[Yes, one of his greatest fear...much like my own actually XD]

[meim]

While Leon turned white from hearing the weird sounds from a distance, Palme was sleeping like a corpse. Judas stuck his head into the men' tent, only because Nariël had made a clear point he wasn't going anywhere near the women in the group.

" The ZOMBIES are here."Judas purposely stressed the word so that Leon could hear it.

Stefan woke up immediately with his hair covering his eyes and went out of the tent alert without any sign that he had just woken up. He found Leon staring worriedly at the directions of the groan. Palme was too deep in his sleep to hear any sound. " Wake up!"Judas said a little louder. Palme just lay motionless.

" I can wake any woman but this is beyond me."

Stefan picked up one of the sweets beside Palme and tore the wrapper off. Palme opened his eyes immediately. " It was pretty obvious."

" You can have that."Palme told Stefan before crawling out of the tent. Most of the people in the group already had their weapons ready, it seemed like some of them had not sleep afterall. Palme sucked on a coffee sweet as he pulled out his huge spider puppet from his bag. " Does add to the feel, doesn't it?Palme said to Leon who was far from his usual calm disposition. The fire from the camp was not bright enough for them to see far but they could positively see some black figures heading towards the camp. And the way those figures moved made it clear that they were not human.

Then, the first creature/zombie came into view. It had a repugnant smell and though it had somewhat the shape of a human, it was greenish black and it was holding something that closely resembles an intestine. " I guess it doesn't look as ugly as I imagine. "

[random_tangent]

Following along at the back of the group made Kyrian feel a little like a mother hen, and she couldn't help but let out a soft 'cluck cluck' under her breath with a smile. She was glad, she must admit, when they set up camp for the night. She had considered bringing her own tent, but had decided against, figuring that if they were go come across any monsters, on that offchance, she would rather not be lugging the extra weight. She was glad someone else had brought one however, as she imagined even with her warm gear and sleeping in her swag, it would be a touch cold when the morning came.

As usual of course, she never got to sleep long enough to find out how dewey it would become in the morning, as she was roused by the yells from Judas. Sticking her head out of the women's tent, her hair standing on end, and a very cranky look in her eyes (never wake the mother of a young child when she is finally managing to get a non-child disturbed sleep), she fixed Judas with a glare.

"Shut up! People are trying to sleep!"

All thoughts of sleep however were wiped from her brain as she saw the creature heading towards the group, and she quickly ducked back into the tent, shaking awake the others, and quickly retrieving her weapons. She then stepped out of the tent, shivering a l ittle in her short sleeves as she had not re-donned the jacket which had been acting as an extra blanket.

She whispered softly to Leon who was the closest person.

"Does it want something from us?"

[Phard]

Stefen smiled to himself when he heard what the eccentric looking girl said. He didn't let his amusement show, knowing that looks can be deceiving. The man named Leon shook his head a little, unable to answer.

Nariël tightened the grip on her Shadowblades, but doing so in a way as not to alert the intruder. "What do you want?" she asked, her voice unwavering.

Judas rolled his eyes. "Genius Nariël. I think he wants an extra blanket. I'm sure Leon has a few he can share. Or perhaps our friend here wants to kip with him. What do you say Leon?"

Leon gave a weak smile, his knees visibly quaking. Palme sighed tiredly. "I know Zombies are stupid, but this guy is exceptional." Stefen couldn't help but laugh at this, and everyone turned to him, seemingly not noticing him until now. Being the center of attention momentarily, the zombie used the diversion and began his slow approach toward Leon. Stefen nodded to Leon and said, "You might want to give your friend his blanket. Unless you don't like your brains arranged the way they are." Leon frowned then turned. He let our a high pitched squeal, stumbling backward.

Lacha, as solemn as could be, aimed her staff at the zombie and shot a blast of water. The zombie staggered and fell on the floor, goaning softly.

"Ewwww."

[Neko Koneko]

As the zombie fell to the floor, his arm came off. The zombie hardly seemed to notice it and slowly got up again.

”Ewwww.”

”Okay, that’s gross.”

”Tell me about it.”

Leon stood behind Kyrian, still shivering. The zombie took another step in his direction when Nariël sword ended the creatures approach by chopping its head clean off. The body fell onto the ground and the head rolled onto Leon’s foot, making him scream once more while jumping higher than he had ever jumped before.

”To kill these things, remove the head or destroy the brain.”

”How do you know that?”

Nariël looked at Stefen as if she was looking at an idiot who had just declared himself king.

”Everyone knows that.”

While Judas was prodding the zombie body with a stick to make sure it wouldn’t get up again, more groans came from the distance. The zombies were coming, and they were with many.

”Well, at least we know the old fart was telling the truth...”

”Yes, isn’t that nice to know?”

”I think we don’t have enough blankets ready for all of them. I vote we offer them the girls’ clothes and...”

Judas didn’t get to finish his sentence because before he knew it he was flying through the air in the direction of the moans.

” We’ll be supporting you from here!”

”I don’t want your support!”

”Shut up, I was talking to those zombies behind you!”

Judas turned around and a scream even more girlish than any girl could ever produce penetrated the air. Five zombies had ganged up on him and were about to bit his head open. He scrambled onto his feet and ran back to the group, where everyone had prepared their weapons in order to fight the zombies.

[LePapillonRouge]

"What is all that noise..." muttered a sleepy Ariana, hearing a bunch of moans from the zombies. "...shoot. I think it's the scary things that Lydian told me about..."

Ariana ran out of the tent, noticing that there were a lot of zombies, and that she was the last one to get out of there. "Gees, there's a lot of them. How annoying," she sighed. For some odd reason, she seemed...a lot calmer than the rest of the group. "This isn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Lydian overdramatized it way too much..." she sighed, pulling out her revolver.

"How are flesh eating zombies not scary to you?" asked Judas, incredulous, and hiding behind the rest of the group. He was probably scarred from all the beating he had already gotten.

"I was expecting ghosts...I hate ghosts or ghost stories. This, well, sure, there's a lot of them, but zombies are stupid. There's not depth to them. You can't even feel sorry for them. You just shoot them and that's about it," she replied flatly. As one of them approached, she shot one straight in the forehead. "...unfortunately...there are lot of them, and I can't aim at them all. I'm sorry that I can't be of more help to everyone, but I'll try to aim at the more harmful looking ones. Judas...good luck being useful at all," she muttered sarcastically. It seemed that Ariana had become a bit more callous these days, though her first fearful appearance seemed to contradict this. I wonder if I looked cool enough for Leon...Kiyo's training really helped for this mission! You can only fear fear itself! she thought cheerfully as she blasted another zombie's brain out. Though...I will admit I'm a bit nervous. There still could be ghosts.

[Neko Koneko]

400 GP penalty for everyone except papillionrouge :P

[meim]

(ah @.@. Okay add the ghosts.)

" It won't help if you keep look at Leon while you are shooting at the zombies."

" I wasn't.."

Palme stuffed gummy bears into his mouth while using Arachid. The spider puppet had sliced through a mass of zombies living a trail of mutilated headless bodies. Luckily, the darkness had hid most of the gore and Palme was more concerned about having to clean up the puppet after the zombie hunt had ended.

Lacha was going close combat and attempted to use her staff to knock a zombie's head off. The results were quite disastrous but it still did the work. The zombie's skull had cracked open and some of its brain matter spilled out.

"That has to be one of the worse image of the year."

" These zombies have no combat abilities at all."

Palme nodded chewing mercilessly on the gummy bears.

" Um, Ariana, do you have any idea what are those white bluury figures that are floating near you?"

Meanwhile, Judas was gloating about how he had killed the five zombies that were about to eat him. Leon noticed that Judas's arm was bleeding.

" Did you get bite by those things?"Leon eyes grew wide.

" Dun Dun Dunn"

[Phard]

Judas began to hyperventilate. "But I- but I- don't want to- to die! he whimpered somewhat pathetically. He began to clutch at Leon's arm, hugging it tightly. Ariana strode over purposefully and ripped Judas' shirt of from the sleeve, exposing his arm.

"Whoa," was all Judas could say. A female had never torn his clothes off before. Underneath his shirt, there were no cuts, or any sign of injury.

"It must have just been splatter."

"I guess."

"When you two have finished serenading, why not give us a hand over here?

Another swathe of zombies loomed towards them, and also did, what seemed like ghosts. "First zombies, now ghosts. What else does this mountain have in store for us?"

Sefen shrugged and blasted a nearby ghost with his Fluxe. The silver shimmer vanished, its whispy form blowing away into the sky. "That was pretty cool," he said, suprised at how the ghost reacted. Celes looked sideways at Judas' arm.

[random_tangent]

Kyrian was actually quite content whacking off zombies' heads with Tyr. It was somehow like a macabre form of tee-ball and was giving her arms a good workout. But then, something literally went through her, and she shuddered.

"EWWWW! GHOSTS!" She was fairly sure that they were incorporeal and thus, couldn't do a lot of damage. But it just felt really, really unsettling to have a spirit enter your body. She thought about that for a sec and gave a closer look at her companions. Realising that though a ghost had through her arm.... one had floated completely into Judas. And it hadn't come out again. And he was acting rather oddly, even for Judas - it seemed as though he was dazed and confused, but something behind his eyes, just wasn't Judas. He wasn't perving on the girls for a start.

"Watch out everyone! The ghosts can possess you! There's one in Judas"

Suddenly, she hoped the ghosts couldn't actually hear. Obviously they hadn't come across people for a while - and the ghost in Judas didn't seem quite sure what to do with the fact that it was inside one.

Arianna's almost steel facade, the zombie-killing machine that she had been showing them in the past few minutes, seemed to crumble under Kyrian's proclamation, and she suddenly made a concerted effort to be avoiding the ghosts. Everyone, in fact, was giving wary looks towards the spirits, and towards Judas who was advancing upon them,

He smiled a rather dark grin. The possessing spirit had obviously figured something out!

"Boo!"

[Neko Koneko]

Leon shrieked like a girl and hid behind Nariël, to much annoyance of Ariana. Nariël tilted her head a bit as if observing this "new" Judas and then stepped towards him.

"We... shall... posess... your... bo-"

The Ghost didn't get to finish its sentence. Nariël had swing her sword at Judas, hitting the side of his face with the flat side of the blade, quite literally knocking the ghost right out of the poor bastard. The ghost flickered for a moment and then disappeared in puff of smoke.

"Just gotta slap them out of their hosts I guess. I suggest we let them take posession of Judas, he's easier to hit without feeling bad about it. That, and he's used to getting a beating."

The other ghosts seemed to consider their options, but then decided to choose Nariël as their next target instead of trying any of the others. However, as soon as they tried to enter her body, she had vanished.

"Hey, floaty white thingies. I'm over here!"

The ghosts looked around and saw that Nariël was standing ten metres behind them. Once again, they floated towards her but again, Nariël vanished and appeared on a different spot.

"What the... is she a ghost herself or something?"

"She can move through the shadows - quite literally" Celes explained at a whispering tone, making sure the ghosts couldn't hear her.

Another girlish scream teared through the dark night.

"GettemoffGETTEMOFF!"

Judas was being overrun by zombies, who had been completely been forgotten by everyone because of the ghosts. Leon jumped forwards and diced the zombies up quickly.

"You saved me little brother! Thank you! I..."

Leon had hit Judas on the head.

"I suddenly remembered you still have to explain to those girls in Bieritin that it was you who stole their underwear and not me."

"Ah... so you knew..."

"Keep your guard up guys, there's more coming!"

[ChristopherArmalite]

Leon looked around, zombies on one side and ghosts on the other...the choice was obvious, considering his crippling fear of the flesh eating ghouls.
"Zombies, no go. I can deal with ghosts though." He said confidently as if his girlish screaming beforehand didn't even happen.
"Then again...these things can't be hit as they are now." He mused, then noticed one was barreling straight for him. "I got it! I suggest we let them take posession of Judas...that could work"

As the ghost headed straight for Leon, he picked Judas off of the ground and used him as a human meatshield. The ghost, intending to possess Leon, had mistakenly possessed Judas instead.
"Now then, let's begin" An evil smile emerged from Leon's face while cracking his knuckles.

-----

Judas collapsed on the ground as a smoking, bruised mess and the ghost literally inched its way out of Judas and fizzed out in a tired "poof". Feeling overly confident that his fighting spirit's back, Leon decided to search for more to kill.
"Now then, who's ne--" He stopped as a cold, slightly decomposed arm of a zombie wrapped around his neck. He felt a cold chill go down his spine as the zombie inched her head closer to Leon, who could only let out a whiny "eep"

[Sorry, I have absolutely no time to make a decent post...I only have 2 weeks of the semester left and I still have 1 essay due this week and Finals on the next week. As long as the story moves, I guess this is fine =\]

[LePapillonRouge]

They just had to bring in the ghosts... sighed the half-elven violinist, creeping farther and father away from the ghosts as much as possible, though she admittedly did want an excuse to kick Judas. It was funny how Ariana and Leon were deathly afraid of the opposite things.

But at the same time...I see less of him, and more of his idiot brother! Agh! By Rael, my life is so messed up, she thought regretfully while shooting some more zombies. Can't a girl like someone without having to fight all these monsters? ...wait a second, this is Leon we're talking about.

Though she fought as hard as possible and tried keeping her façade (for Leon's sake, of course), sometimes a ghost would pop near her and she would scream and would randomly shoot at it, even though it just went straight through. Thankfully, usually the shots would shoot somewhere at the zombies or the air, and one lucky (well, not really, since Ariana saw the zombie) shot went under the neck of the zombie attacking Leon.

"YES! I save---" she began, but covered her mouth. Shoot, I almost said that out loud!

"Ah, so staring at Leon actually helps him and you after all!" Palme commented while taking care of some zombies.

"...t-that's not--" she replied. Her bursting anger came through the bullets shooting the zombies with more zeal than earlier...

[Spoonpuppet]

The group became more compact as they found themselves become more and more surrounded by zombies on one side and ghosts on the other.

Lacha was on the zombie side and had to resort to whacking their heads with her staff. The splatters were not at all pleasing, and the sounds that came with it were even worse. She was partly glad that the light from the moon was dim and so she could not easily see the mess.

She heard a sigh of relief after Leon was released from the grip of an undead limb with the help of Ariana. Lacha swung her staff at another zombie, but it managed to dodge she just grazed its shoulder.

Then she felt its unusually firm grip around her forearm. She tried to pull away, but its grip became painfully tighter. It leaned forward towards her, so close she got smell its foul breath and hear its rotting flesh squelch.

"Get... OFF!!"

A burst of water shot out of her staff and swiftly propelled the zombie and four others back into the crowd, creating a clear path which was only quickly filled again by their comrades. Lacha shuddered from the stench.

The brawl continued, when suddenly there was a flicker of light. The moon's pale light was quivering.

[Neko Koneko]

"What's that light over there?"

"What light?"

"I think I saw it too. No idea what it could be though. More people camping out here?"

"If we could get this horde off us, we could go check it out maybe."

"You called?" Nariël said as she unsheathed her second blade and started chopping off zombie heads. As the zombies fell down in large numbers, a path was slowly cleared and everyone made a run for it, leaving the slow moving zombies behind.

After running along the shallow mountain path, they reached a larger, flat area between the rocks. In the middle of the area, there was a small log cabin.

"People actually live here?"

A green flicker of light emerged from behind the windows of the cabin. Then the door opened and a person dressed in black robes came out.

"A necromancer..."

"Necromancer? I thought necromancy was banned ages ago."

"You expect anyone to come up here and check if everyone actually sticks to that rule?"

"Look, someone else is coming out."

Another person came out of the cabin. This person was also wearing black robes, but he had his hood down. In the green glow coming from inside, his face was lit and revealed to be the story telling man from the pub.

"I'm getting the idea that we have two possibilities here. Either that old fart tried to lure us here for some spooky ritual, or he wanted to scare people in the pub into not coming here so they could perform their scary rituals."

"A bit of one, a bit of the other."

Everyone looked around. The person who had come out of the cabin first was now standing behind them. Her hood was down and she turned out to be an old woman.

"See, we need to stay people away from here because we don't want to be found out. On the other hand, we need people to sacrifice to the dark Goddess Infernia. Infernia only deserves the best sacrifices though, so by telling stories about zombies we can lure curious and experienced adventurers to this place, in order to sacrifice them."

"Well, isn't that nice. But Infernia wouldn't accept Darkanian sacrifices, now would she?"

The old woman seemed to think this statement over for a moment.

"I mean, that's like eating your own children!"

"Nariël, what the hell are you doing?" Kyrian hissed at Nariël. Nariël ignored her.

"I suppose so... alright, you can go then."

"Good. Come Celes. We're outta here."

"W...wait! What about us?"

Nariël gave Leon a cold stare.

"Well, you aren't Darkanians are you? You're not born from the darkness are you?"

She grinned evilly and stood next to the old necromancer. Celes joined her.

"See Leon? You can't trust her at all."

[Phard]

Stefen grinned. He knew there was a more sinister side to the deviously good looking woman named Nariël.

"Nariël!" Kyrian hissed. But she was ignored, and Nariël seemed to be talking casually with her sister.

"Well isn't that just great! If you can't beat them, join them. Well I ain't joining no Darkanian cult!"

"What do you mean if you can't beat them. We outnumber them at least three to one. We've left the zombies and ghosts far behind." In the background, the sound of zombies groaning ebbed out of their hearing.

"What do you want with us?" Lacha asked, her voice loud and solid.

The woman flittered her arms into her sleeves, hidding them from view. Everyone tensed, preparing for some kind of attack.

"Isn't it obvious? Such fitting warriors should be sacrificed to appease Infernia. If you do not wish to comply, we have no choice but to force you to submit."

Nariel poked Celes on the shoulder and pointed at Judas. He was cowering behind Leon, looking for the best avenue of escape. "See sis, he calls himself strong? I can feel his knees quaking from here". Celes smiled but didn't say anything.

"We have no particular wish to take part in your ritual. Unless you have the true power of a Necromancer, you will not be able to stop us from leaving this place, or proceeding to the summit. I ask that you back down."

The old woman cackled madly. "Then you will all die!" she screechd. Pulling her hands from her sleeves, she revlead two long daggers, both of them dyed jet black. She struck the ground, and within moments, a storm started. The man spun two revolvers into his hand and cocked them. With the first strike of lightning, the battle began.

[meim]

Palme had planned to try to disarmed the old woman but he suddenly felt extremely sleepy, it did not help that he lost his stash of coffee sweets while running up to the cabin.

" It doesn't seem like something we can discuss rationally about to these people. "

" I really want to fight but I'm feeling kind of sleepy right now..."Palme said to Leon.

" It isn't the right time now. With the betrayal of Nariel and her sister. "Leon replied while dodging a bullet.

" Um, old woman, I'm a Darkanian too. So I'll be over over there to take a nap for a while and don't sacrifice me because it is meaningless. "Palme pointed to a dark corner. The old woman just nodded too busy engaging blows with Kyrian.

" You can't just say that and.."Stefan was going to play some piece on his guitar.

" If I say I am Darkanian than I am, it's not like you can proof I am not. Plus you can still strum you guitar now so why can't I sleep! Just an hour, okay? " Sleepiness had pumped a bit of childishness back into Palme and despite the particular tension, Palme went to a corner, concealed himself a bit and promptly fell asleep.

" How can he sleep at this point? So he is going to sit out on this too?" Ariana said in annoyance.

" You do realised that we have battled many adventurers like you. You won't live very long squabbling like that," the old woman mocked.

[LePapillonRouge]

...w...why'd it have to come to this? Well, I mean, it's to be expected to defend people your race, but...well, that doesn't make sense! If race was a factor in everything, well, why in Rael's name have Leon and Nariël have been able to work together cooperatively for a long time...? Ariana thought rapidly. Though sure she was a bit glad, she couldn't really believe that she'd just turn on them. It didn't help that Palme decided to just sleep out of this either. So who was left? Her, Leon, Judas, Kyrian, Lacha...

She shook her head. I wonder...hm. What is that woman planning anyway...? As the bullets flew from the man, she shot one at him and ducked before the bullet could hit him. "Come on guys. Let's just beat these guys already."

"But Nariël is..."

"...I'm pretty sure you don't want to be sacrificed, Judas. Especially not to Infernia. Though you know, if you'd really want to, I'd be willing to give you a little push over there in front of the necromancer and..."

"No, no, I'm good."

"That's what I thought," she muttered, shooting more bullets toward both the necromancer and the old woman, but never at Nariël or Celes. They hadn't made a move yet, thus she wouldn't fight them. She just hoped some people would go already and fight.

[random_tangent]

Kyrian really wasn't quite sure what was going on here. Sure, Nariel could be an evil bitch, that was to be expected - but she'd never seen the Darkanian be a ... coward... before. And that was truly the only word she could think to describe Nariel - and Celes' - current behaviour. They seemed to be experiencing enough fear that they were backing off from a dangerous situation, and cowering on the sidelines, or at least on the side of the person who was, gee, trying to sacrifice them all.

She honestly couldn't beleive that was the case, though she couldn't fathom the truth of the matter at this point in time. So, she just shot Nariel a hurt look. After all, she thought of all the adventurers on the summit tonight, she had travelled with the sisters for the longest. This being betrayed thing kind of sucked, even though she couldn't bring herself to beleive that there wasn't something that Nariel had up her sleeve.

Knowing full well she wasn't of a great deal of help in a long-distance battle, she resigned herself to playing a support role - ensuring that anyone becoming injured was swiftly healed, but keeping a careful watch on her own energy levels - she would be no help to anyone if she passed out.

[ChristopherArmalite]

The sudden betrayal came as a shock for Leon. With the level of trust and attachment he had on the sisters, this sort of behaviour was at the very least, unexpected. He knew from past experiences with her that Nariël has a bit of a mean streak and while Celes frequently joins her sister, she is still a kind hearted individual. However their actions would never come to the level of betrayal...and even if it did, there had to be an ulterior motive to it.
"An ulterior motive..." He whispered softly to himself. Leon stopped, daggers in hand and stared at the old woman.

"Say...this sacrificial to this...Infernia of yours. Is there a ritual involved?"
"Of course! Only the most sacred of ceremonies, combined with the most worthy of sacrifices must be held to please our Goddess." The old woman replied.
"Good...so you're saying there are certain procedures involved for the ritual to succeed, am I right?"
"That is correct"
"And generally, rituals like these tend to take a long time...or atleast a significant amount, correct?"
"Yes, that is true." The old woman replied.
"One last thing...you wouldn't happen to be lying to me, would you?" He smirked.
The old woman scoffed and looked offended.
"Of course not!" She hissed. "This is an important ritual that must not be defiled even by such things as lying!"

"Perfect, that's all I needed" He said, sheathing his daggers.
Kyrian, who took notice of Leon earlier on, chimed in.
"What do you think you're doing? Have you gone mad?!"
Leon ignored Kyrian's shouts and continued on. He gave Nariël a quick look, who also gave him a cold, yet curious glare.
"I'm interested on how this ritual of yours plays out. You know, from an Aerinthian point of view." He stressed the fact of his Aerinthian heritage.
"An Aerinthian?" The old woman piped up excitedly. "Oh my, you'll most certainly be a fitting sacrifice"
"I figured as much. Oh, and I believe I forgot to mention..." He gave a sly grin. "I, along with my brother are pure-bloods" He shifted his eyes towards Nariël, who still had the same glare.

"Oi, what the hell are you doing? That'll only make them want us more! Which, under these circumstances, me being wanted more is a bad thing!" Judas quipped.
Judas' protests fell on deaf ears...
"That being said, I'm sure your Infernia would be more than happy enough to just receive two pure-bloods...a rarity at this day and age, wouldn't you agree?" He took a deep breath. "How about we make ourselves a deal. My brother and I will stick around, but in return, you let the others go."

The old woman seemed to have paused, gave herself a bit of time to think over it and called for the old man, at which point the attacks ceased momentarily.
Leon sighed, his confident facade covered his true emotions.
"What the hell did I just do?! Then again, if I'm right...Nariël and Celes would do something to prevent this. If I do end up being wrong, then I suppose I'll die..." He smiled at the thought "That's alright with me, I wouldn't want anything to do with traitors anyways. Besides, if I offer up myself in this position, my blood will be on their hands. I'll let that haunt their souls for the remainder of their lives. Hopefully this gambit pays off."

The old woman lowered her weapons and with an excited voice nearing deranged lunacy, called out. "We've made our decision..."
She licked her lips while staring at Leon and Judas. Judas shuddered in disgust .
"So, what'll it be?" He asked, giving the sisters a mischievous smirk, a smirk which Celes almost unnoticeably flinched to.

[Neko Koneko]

"Stop it!"

Everyone looked at Celes.

"Celes, quiet."

"No! I'm not gonna let everyone be sacrificed!"

"Celes, not another word!"

"I'm not taking orders from you!"

"I'm warning you one last time, shut up!"

"No! I'm tired of you bossing me around!"

"SHUT UP!"

Before she finished her sentence, Nariël's struck her blade through Celes' body. Blood fell on the ground as Celes gasped for breath. Nariël withdrew the sword from her sister's body as Celes fell onto the ground.

"Oh my god...."

"Have you gone insane?!"

The old woman ran towards Nariël.

"No... no... NO! What have you done! Don't waste the blood of..."

The woman didn't get the chance to finish what she was saying as Nariël struck both her blades through her body.

"You disgust me."

With that, Nariël cut the body of the old necromancer clean in half. Right then she had to duck behind a large rock because the other necromancer had started shooting at her using a gun.

"What are you guys waiting for, Christmas?" She shouted at the rest of the group, who all seemed to have trouble processing the recent chain of events. Leon was the first to jump in, followed by Palme and Kyrian. Judas was hiding behind another rock, not sure what to do.

"You won't get me! I'll let your friend fight for me!" the old man shouted as he started the chant a curse to resurrect Celes' body. The body moved and slowly, Celes stood up from the ground. Leon and the others stopped dead in their tracks. Nariël however, jumped up and the a sword at Celes. Celes caught it by the handle and with a swift movement she sent the necromancer's head flying through the air, causing it to land right next to Judas' feet who in his turn jumped into the air while producing a perfect girlish scream.

"Honestly, I can't believe you guys didn't notice it was a trap for them." Nariël complained to the others.

"But you killed your sister! Or at least it seemed like you did."

"So? I could dice her up and she'd be able to put herself together. In theory though, I've never tried it."

"And you're not gonna either, that hurt!"

"Well, we did create a good distraction."

"That you did. You owe me candy for making me worry for a second there!"

"Then I suggest we head back to town, they're gonna have a Christmas celebration soon!"

To be continued...