The Backways Bar [RP]

As Neshu and the others play, Aurelion makes his way to the counter. He’s filled their glasses nearly to the brim with Sjkaldan beer, a concoction notable for its extremely strong smell and distinct taste. After briefly making sure that nobody noticed, in a flash of sudden movement, Aurelion passes his hand over the mug and drops what seems to be several grains of colorful material into the largest drink-a knowledgeable botanist would recognize it as Duskpollen, a tasteless, near-odorless poison that can kill within seconds when consumed in large quantities.
Fortunately for Neshu, Aurelion doesn’t want to kill them-at least not just yet. The few grains of Duskpollen now in the drink are only capable of dazing and fatiguing the consumer for a couple of hours, causing their thoughts to muddle.
Aurelion hands the glass containing the poison to Neshu and slides the others to Low and Xownfos, respectively. The poison has completely mixed into the drink, and combined with the beer’s smell, is effectively undetectable.

 

Luthan looks around the bar, watching intently as the game of Leivas goes on. His travels have made him a fast learner, and while the cryptic verbal cues confuse him, he at least picks up the objective of emptying the hand, and notices the elf is winning. He sees a swift movement out of the corner of his eye to see Aurelion’s hand suspiciously move away from a mug next to him. It cannot be good.
Though now even more skeptical of the soldier’s intentions, he stands silently as the drinks were passed out to the players. He puts his hand on his belt of otherworldly trinkets, not feeling for anything in particular but trying to think of a quick response to what he is afraid might happen next. His fingers finding an engraved stone, some sort of defensive charm, he whips it out as Neshu reaches for the drink, only for its dark surface to glow brightly with the sigil of the Cult of the Ascendant Sovereign.

 

The flash of movement immediately draws Low's attention. He finds the centurion sliding a mug towards him - the person from who the movement came.
Skjaldan beer. (i'm assuming that's the correct spelling, as sjkaldan doesn't make sense to me; sorry if I'm wrong.)
Strong smell, strong taste... combined with trust issues, Low's mind goes quickly to poison. He could probably identify it if he could see it alone, but he doesn't really need to.
Kill him! Kill him you idiot, he wants you dead!
Eh.

Something... changes. Observant characters would likely notice Low seem to grow dim briefly, as if the lights had flickered, but only for him.
"I haven't had this in a while. I don't remember liking it, but tastes can change with time. I might see if those bot bartenders serve any kind of food after this game; liquid doesn't go well with empty stomachs."
He looks Aurelion dead in the eye with a bit of a cold look.
"No harm in trying things a second time."
Low gradually drinks the entire mug.
"Ugh. Now I remember why I haven't tried it for fifty years."
He pulls a flask of completely black fluid from... somewhere? and takes a drink from it. He flickers dim again.

 

[OOC] Yes, your spelling of Skjaldan is right.
Aurelion sees Low’s eyes light up with realization and nods towards him, motioning for the elf to follow him to the countertop.
“I’d like to apologize for the secrecy. After all, what is more pure than a simple truth?”
He lowers his voice to a whisper.
“I do not intend to kill them. I mean no harm to any of you, even the one that I seek. What I seek is cooperation-the mutual exchange of truths.
I know that you fight Irivex, elf, you have said so yourself. I believe you; you clearly bear great power.
And yet, one wonders, why are you not hailed as a hero? Why does the Thrice-Cursed* still tread upon Skjaldan soil?
The Empire is no ally of the living dead. Twenty times Ixilscor and Hekkatae breached our capital’s walls, their husks a tide of enveloping death. Twenty times they were rebuffed, with both lichs returned to their graves. The Empress would be honored to aid you in your noble crusade.”
He turns. “How would you like to fight the living dead besides a Vylmaran legion? Besides the Praetorian? I trust that you know of their power. Think, friend, of the choice you will make.”

*The Thrice-Cursed is a title given to Irivex, based on a widely known Vylmaran myth. You’ll learn more about this story later.

 

Low begins to glare. Not extremely, but enough to convey just a bit of spite.
"Two hundred years. If only corpses could rot past the skeleton, times might be dimmer.
Irivex has done his best at becoming unassailable. Send an army, and he takes it to replace the damage it deals. Send an assassin, and he just gets back up afterwards. If you have a more specific solution, I might be interested - if not to be done with Irivex, then at least to ruin that traitor, I've already said his name.
Also, I am not your friend. You are not mine. I'm not impressed by the Praetorians, either; they disgust me for reasons that don't want to be explained.
And lastly, I'd personally rather that you made your own points instead of getting a story to do it for you, but I suppose some people just can't help that, can they?"

(somehow I keep making huge textblocks that take a weirdly long time to type, I don't know why, if you're annoyed by it call it now or I'll probably keep doing it)

 

Luthan puts the stone away swiftly, hoping nobody recognized the sign. Unless his memory lied to him about the ale, they should not.
Watching Low and Aurelion's discussion, though not entirely listening, he realizes he overreacted to the hand motion. He still doesn't trust the soldier's secrets, but at least he isn't going to kill anyone. That's good enough for him. He takes another sip of his own drink and tries to remember -- how long ago was it?

Spoiler: Flashback

[yeah there's probably going to be several of these]
Luthan sat on a wooden chair at the top of an inn overlooking the main street of town. He and another planeshifter like him sat watching the scene, as the Priests in their blood-red robes cut through the crowds toward the tavern down the road.
"It was inevitable," his fellow traveler said.
"I suppose, but..." Luthan paused as he saw the priests enter the bar. Silence spread across the once-busy street as people gathered in fear for what would happen. In the deep silence rose a scream as the tavern suddenly caught fire. People scattered as the priests passed unconcerned back along the road, shouting "We value nothing more than loyalty!" By some strange magic the fire never burned beyond the tavern, and the city was back to normal soon.
"Here. Have this," the traveler said, giving Luthan a bottle of ale.
"Quite a unique brew," he commented as he drank.
"Indeed. The world that's from might be one of the last they haven't touched."
"Unless we did something about it."
"You know how I feel about interfering, Luthan."
"They've interfered enough! Look at all of this!"
"It is not our duty to protect an 'original timeline' that doesn't exist. Come on. Let's find somewhere else to stay before this inn is accused of treason too."

 

Thedra has been quiet for quite some time. She, at one point, went over to the bar and ordered something.
She sat down in a corner, turned around (so her back was facing the card-players), removed her mask, and drank her beverage (no, nobody saw her actual face, but now it seems evident that the metal face is a mask, despite her head being made of metal as well).
Upon hearing these words, she launches herself at the table at which this game is being played, with noticeably less speed than beforehand.
"Three things." she says, in a voice quite a bit lower than her normal high-pitched dialect (but not the rasp she occasionally drops to).
"Primarily, an apology. My behaviour may have been a bit . . . erratic. You see, I've been hunting down a certain . . . insurgent - an insurgent against Irivex, of course; there is no point in hiding my allegiance at this point. This insurgent - well, they're sitting right in front of me.
I'm not powerful enough to get past this goddamn fish-man (hell, I doubt Irivex himself would be - I sense some completely unprecedented power within this thing), so I can't actually kill you here - I've been looking for you for months, and now that I've actually found you, I can't DO anything about it!"
As she says the word "do", a burst of dark energy erupts from her, knocking everyone at the table back quite a bit. The piranha takes a step toward her.
"I didn't actually realize that you were the insurgent I was looking for until, well, a couple minutes ago."

"Secondarily, the unassailability of Irivex."
She turns to Neshu [OOC: I couldn't find anything to quote for this so I'm just pinging you @hmtn].
"How well does scrying magic work against this here tavern? If there was someone attempting to spy on a patron, would there be any form of magical barrier stopping them? I'm not entirely sure how this demiplane works yet, and I can't say too much, for fear that he might be listening."

"Finally, a question. I'm simply curious - how did you fine folks find yourselves in this establishment?"

[OOC again: FEED ME THE BACKSTORY (I know a couple people have said this already but I'm too lazy to go through this whole thread)]

 

Low turns around.
"First, killing me is generally harder than people expect it to be. Similarly to tracing me.
Third... not much to say there. I saw a tavern. I entered the tavern. Now I'm in a tavern. The only weird part is that now I'm in a different tavern than the one I entered."

 

[OOC] Although I can't say too much about it right now, this plotline is far more important than it currently seems. Though Aurelion can't address it now, perhaps another member who'll arrive later can.

 

[OOC curse you haha]
[OOC also sorry for my inactivity i was busy over the weekend and sorta forgot to check up on this thread]
You see xownfos, completely oblivious to any potential harm, reach over and grab the glass, and without a second glance, down the entire drink. Almost too oblivious. You can tell she's not a careless person.
"They serve Sjkaldan beer here as well? I've not had many chances to enjoy this style of beer."
As she finishes the sentence, she instantly falls to the floor, cards flayed out in front of her, seemingly inanimate. In those cards you see a majority of spears.
You see one of these spear cards float up to the table as xownfos plays the card. (without trap)
[The next two cards must follow the same suit, chosen by the next player]

[sorry this was meant to quote @Etherweaver]

After xownfos falls, you hear a voice speak from behind you. You turn but nothing is there. It's as if something is speaking into your mind.
"Please, calm yourself. I'd rather keep that self of me alive."

 

[OOC] Oh hell, I really screwed up with this one, didn’t I? Well, since I don't have much choice, it's time to do something controversial.
Although his expression is impassive, Aurelion’s mind is shaken with panic.
How? How did she know?
Aurelion steadies himself and inhales deeply. Trying to remain calm, he makes his way to the center of the room, reaching into the folds of his uniform.
He hadn’t been beaten. Not yet.
In a sudden blur of motion, Aurelion takes out a glass vial and smashes it on the floor, filling the room with a billowing cloud of dense white smoke. Obscured by the vapor, Aurelion reaches into his cloak once again and pulls out one final object from a hidden fold in the fabric,-a metal, cone-shaped object with a glowing crimson sigil carved into its surface. Although Aurelion himself doesn’t recognize the symbol, Luthan, who’s been watching from nearby, does.
Aurelion quickly slams the cone point-first into the floor besides Neshu, causing the planks to ripple as a shockwave of energy blasts from its center. As the bouncer steps forwards, the floor suddenly disappears-turning into open air. Neshu and the chair they sit on tumble into it-and Aurelion, mustering his last ounces of strength, leaps in and follows, vanishing into the rift.
Before anyone can react, the gateway disappears, the planks mending and reforming. Everything seems to return to normal-save for the disappearance of the two bargoers who had, just a minute ago, been sitting there.
Luthan is the first to react-he's seen something similar to the device Aurelion used before, on a world far away. And yet, he's still shocked-the sheer power of the artifact is far beyond anything he has ever seen before. But what scares him the most, however, is the sigil-those two glowing, concentric circles pierced by a crooked line.
For if the Cult of the Ascendant Sovereign could now create gateways between worlds, then nothing left would still stand in its way.

For those asking whether this is legal or not, yes (I think), as Neshu and Aurelion weren't actually hurt in the process of creating the rift.

 

Low watches as the other players are seemingly removed from play. The smoke was bothersome, but he could deal with it.
He looks at the table, then at Xownfos' "corpse".
"Guess I win the game then? Unless you're still playing. I think we can count being dropped out of the tavern a forfeit, though, which would make it my turn."

 

[OOC YES COOL LORE AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA, but im sorta confused what happened. Essentially I was using a spell to displace my position and create like a clone type thing. but that clone can't take any damage otherwise it disappears. and poison probably would have counted as damage. i didn't understand why aurelion would poof but sure]

xownfos appears, surprisingly not unconscious standing behind where Aurelion cast the rift from, but clearly surprised at Aurelion's actions.
"Hmm. I wonder what scared them off. Anyhow, I wasn't expecting something of this magnitude. I was just trying not to get poisoned."

EDIT: added some stuff to ooc and added xownfos' facial expression

 

About what just happened:
1. If any of you are in the UZB discord server, remember what I said about the loophole I found to the violence rule? Yeah, this was it. (@hmtn please don't ban me, I'm only going to do this once I swear)
2. No, this wasn't Aurelion's full plan. This is more like half of it-as most of it was cut short by xownfos two replies back.
3. I would love to do an 2-part epilogue from Aurelion and an important NPC’s perspective to wrap up his arc-but I’m not sure the rules allow me to. There’s still one last large-scale reveal left, however, that I want to do before making a new character and starting the second part of the Vylmar storyline.
4. Also, Aurelion and Neshu are completely fine right now, despite how it seemed.

 

this is a ooc post

wait y'all have crazy character design what
i have like creative use of spells
i had xownfos cast displace person in the beginning because lore wise i was expecting to walk through the enchanted door and get attacked
but then i didn't so...
i used it rp as if i could hear everything around the room, but in reality i left the clone at the table playing games while i ran around the room listening in on everything
that was pretty much the largest thing i planned xD
also IM SORRY FOR MESSING UP STUFF AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAa
i wanted more lore DDD;

hmm i should join uzb
i don't play enough wynncraft though
my valorant addiction added to me being a content creator takes up most of my time

someone convince me to come back to wynncraft
maybe ill stream it idk

 

I enjoy D&D enough to have practice developing characters, but none of my character's spells are from D&D.
I also decided that they utilize similar magic to the Praetorians (not sure if that ruins any plans, Etherweaver, sorry if it does), but they use it in a very different way. I've been waiting to use this magic system for a very long time.

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wynncraft fun, play wynncraft

 

idk just for me its easier to not be super overpowered by limiting myself by d&d rules
and because im lazy xD

but its like
i click mouse patterns at enemies for 30 minutes for a number to increase twice
idk is not super interesting to fight ai for me
i prefer shoot in pvp video game

 

Luthan jumps up as Aurelion uses the artifact. It is far worse than he feared. Not only had this world, like so many others before it, been tainted with the influence of the Cult of the Ascendant Sovereign, but one of its associates had been right next to him -- and had so easily traveled. Once more, he reveals the dark stone and places it where the floorboards had broken. He closes his eyes and tries to follow where the tears between the planes led him. It was time to act before it was too late, starting with the soldier who, no matter what allegiance he claimed, was a puppet of the Cult. The dimensional trails are fading quickly. He casts his spell, and the inscribed stone bursts into a small, lightless rift on the floor. Luthan leaps into it, calling out to Low, "the game isn't over yet!"

[The events that occur between Luthan, Aurelion, and Neshu seem to those still in the bar as mere seconds...]

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[OOC]

I more recently learned D&D and then realized all the references in this thread. I mostly improvised a story as explanation for what Luthan did until I got a proper storyline thought out (credit to Etherweaver for, well, what's going on right now)

 

(ooc: I have decided to play myself.
I don't know what to do now.)

 

>﹏>
<﹏<
i mean hey, if you're active in the community~


NESHU, PAS AVENTURIA HAS GONE TO SUPERHELL

specifically the priest. i imagine that the memories are gonna kick back any moment now, at which point Aurelion and Nehsu are gonna have a confrontation. Just because I built cultist Gandalf (i.e. not intended as a battlemage) does not mean that the character cannot do battle for three days and three nights underneath the mountain. Like cultist Gandalf? I'm losing track of the metaphor.

Bold choice. Good luck.