Alkorri

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Thank you, EvilEagles!

(I plan to make this all one interconnected story from beginning to end, using the themes as Chapter headings. This will be a challenge to myself to create a - hopefully compelling - story. I really, really suck at art. But in cases where entries appear to take less than an hour's effort, I will subject you all to my artwork!)



Chapter 1: Introduction

"Here. Take my hand." 

Roy stretched his hand out to her, but Mycena wouldn't take it. His employer's daughter brushed grass off her skirt and stood by herself, then gave him that same blank look that seemed to ask why he bothered.

Sighing, he recovered his sword. Just his luck. First day on the job, and he had to get saddled with this kid. 'Make sure she doesn't hurt herself in the gardens!' her dad had said. 'She's...special. She'll need time to warm up to you.'

Roy resented children, and apparently the feeling was mutual. It didn't help that he failed to stop her from falling down some grassy slope. Not only that, he ended up tumbling after her like a recruit fresh out of the guild.

Mycena was looking at something over his shoulder. Roy turned, and nearly dropped his scabbard.

What in Sun and Sky was a house doing here? It was huge, at least four storeys high and easily the size of his village. Gargoyles flanked every window and dangled all around the four towers taking up the four corners of the mansion. The tiles on the roof were an unsettling deep red.

The house just stood there without even the kind of sprawling gardens all aristocrats favoured. It had no business being on Seduma property, Roy knew.

He looked back at what he expected to be the slope they'd need to climb back up to the Seduma gardens...

It was gone. Before him, a wasteland stretched into impossible emptiness. The house was the only civilised place for miles around. Above them, thunder rumbled over the peaks of distant mountains. The skies deepened for angrier colours.

It had been morning when he left the house. Now, night was already falling.

(I tried but sadly failed to draw Roy without making him look like an idiot. My closest idea of him is Eric in his late 20s.)

Chapter 2: Complicated

This is crazy. This shouldn't be happening.

Mycena unexpectedly touched him; she’d made a loose fist and extended an index finger to tap on his elbow. Roy looked where she pointed, and almost sighed with relief. He could see people milling around the side of the house.

"Let's find out what's happening," he told her. "Stay near me, okay?"

She looked skeptical.

"You certainly can't stand here alone."

Apparently she accepted that logic, because the girl began moving as if investigating was her idea.

Roy kept a hand on the hilt of his scabbard as they approached. He relaxed a little when he started making out the faces of the strangers. Some were dressed peculiar. One wore the familiar blue robes of a mage. Another cradled something that looked like a giant flintlock to his--no, her chest; her manner told Roy that this one knew war. 

All of them had confused or dazed expressions. Roy stopped short as the outline of a huge figure lumbered into view. He gaped. There was a troll here! Trolls usually were brutal killing machines, but this one stood unmoving with his back to them. Everyone else gave the hulking creature a wide berth, especially the ones dressed in foreign clothing.

Mycena still wouldn't take his hand, so Roy settled for approaching the strangers slowly so they had plenty of time to see him. Seconds later, he heard the child follow.

They noticed him. Some faces clouded with suspicion. 

Roy attempted a smile. "Hey there. Can you...understand me?"

The mage answered first. "I can," he said in a rah-born accent. "Clearly you are from my land. These six others--" The man pointed to the ones in unusual clothing. "--they claim to come from another world, even. I had to cast a spell so we could communicate--"

"I can speak for myself, thank you." The one who barged forward wore an official-looking outfit. "My name is Senator Nyler Stakings, and I am a senior high representative of the United Realms of Rakoria." The senator rattled off a few more titles that flew completely over Roy's head. "I would be greatly appreciative if you could shed light on this situation as to how all twelve of us ended up here," Stakings added.

Roy frowned. "Twelve, you say?"

"Aye," nodded the mage. "You apparently make the fifth and sixth from our world." He sent Mycena a smile, but the child stared through him.

"Any idea what's going on here?" Roy said, in a voice that carried enough to draw everyone's attention, even the troll’s. The great beast turned its head and regarded him with steady black eyes. "Has anyone gone into the house?"
"Negative," said the woman with the massive flintlock, her eyes stern. "It seemed like an unnecessary security risk. Until we know what's going on, I advise that we remain here, in the open, at ground zero."

Ground zero? "Alright," Roy said. "How about we introduce ourselves? It's obvious we're in this together. I think it would help if we knew each other."

A moment of hesitation, then one by one they obliged. The mage volunteered first - Andaris, of the Fifth Circle magocracy. What followed next was a flurry of faces and terms that Roy struggled to recall; he'd never been very good with names. The female warrior was a 'marine', and carried a 'rifle', not a flintlock. From his world, there was an older woman who said she was a healer, and a smiling man about his age who referred to himself as a "jack of all trades." Judging by the amount of knives on his person and the way he moved, Roy had a feeling he knew exactly what 'trade' the man was talking about.

The senator needed no further introduction. With him was a "scientist", a surgeon, a quiet man who said he was an artist, and something called a "hacker". This last one barely looked at him; the man gave a thumbs-up which Roy assumed was a greeting before the former returned to staring at some device in his palm, pressing it and muttering to himself. And of course there was the troll.

"And who is this?" the healer said gently after Roy had introduced himself.

"This is Mycena," Roy replied as his charge avoided their gaze. A moment of awkward silence, and he added, "She's a little shy."

(Three entries for today. I plan to write three at a time so I can insert details that make sense. Warning: Violence and Coloured Text)

Chapter 3: Making History

"Something’s coming," said the artist. The man was staring into the distance behind them, a hand over his eyes as if that would help pierce the deepening gloom.

Roy realised an odd rumble was building, something different from the thunder he’d assumed it was. He moved to stand beside the artist and looked to the horizon.

There was...something out there, some kind of writhing mass moving in a wave. It was a bit hard to see...but it was heading in their direction.

“Trouble?” the healer said.

Roy definitely felt the hairs rise on the back of his neck as he heard the first screeching coming from the horde. What were they? They looked like the size of small dogs, had jaws, but looked part insect as well. There had to be hundreds--no, thousands of them!

“What’s going on?” said the senator.

“Everyone into the house!” Roy snapped, whipping out his sword as he took position. “Move! You too, Mycena.”

“But that can’t be real--” the senator protested.

RA-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT! The sound of the marine’s weapon nearly deafened Roy as projectiles tore into the oncoming swarm. Two of the creatures fell and were swallowed by the mass. This barely stopped them; their shrieks pierced the ears.

Blue light flickered. Roy saw Andaris raise glowing hands before pointing towards the threat. One half of a giant bubble shimmered between them, and the first of the beasts slammed into the wall. At just thirty paces away, Roy could smell the stench of their breath as they clawed to get at the group. Spider-like legs attempted to climb, only for the things to slide down.

The mage warned, “I can only hold this barrier for so long.” He was breathing raggedly; it was costing him to maintain a spell this magnitude against the swarm.

“Fascinating,” said the scientist who came up just beside the marine. “They seem to be some kind of mutation.”

“Why aren’t you in the house yet?!” Roy growled. The only ones who even made it to the door was Mycena, the senator and the hacker. Everyone else was milling around as if this was some amusement in the carnival. “Are you all deaf or insane?”

“The barrier... They’re strong. I can feel them--” No sooner had the mage said this when the spiderdogs somehow punched through. They tore through a part of the barrier that brought them closest to the startled surgeon, and they tackled her to the ground. Her screams echoed as they began ripping into her.

That’s when the barrier fell. The thief caught Andaris as he stumbled. What followed next was chaos, with people running, the marine shooting, and Roy shouting as he hacked through the spiderdogs to reach the fallen woman. But he never was going to reach her in time--

The troll barged right across Roy’s path to grab an armful of the creatures swarming the woman. He tossed them away like yipping puppies, then smacked away the rest of the spiderdogs until he could scoop her up in his arms.

The troll turned and met Roy’s gaze. In that instant, when Roy saw the spark of intelligence there, he knew he had found an ally.

This time when Roy yelled at them to fall back to the house, they listened. He and a few others covered their retreat. He cut off a spiderdog, literally, before it could reach the soldier, and she in turn shot into the faces of two that surprised him from behind and left gouging marks on his side. Every one they killed caused a gush of noxious air from the brown blood splattering across their faces.

And then the defenders too were bolting for the front entrance where the others waited with stretched arms. The moment Roy - the last - rushed through, the door slammed shut. He fully expected the swarm to smash through the windows. To his surprise, none of them did. Instead, the creatures shrieked and slammed against the shuddering front door as the group worked desperately to bar it with furniture and debris from the reception hall.

Sudden silence fell like a judge's hammer, almost as if the swarm never happened. Roy had oozing scratches that said otherwise, and they could hear the surgeon’s laboured breathing.

“Are they.. gone?” the senator said.

Roy was about to check the windows, when a blazing red light appeared right in their midst. This was followed by a matching black light that seemed to leech all warmth from the room. The dusty reception hall was dim before, but now flickering crimson rays danced across the peeling walls.

WELCOME, WELCOME! boomed a voice with a flair that reminded Roy of a carnival master’s. Judging by how the red ‘light’ pulsed, he guessed this was the one speaking. WELCOME TO THE HOUSE.

“Are you the ones who brought us here?” the scientist questioned, his glasses framing the sharp interest in his eyes.

IndEeD wE Did... The black light spoke in a crackling whisper, but every single person heard him. Mycena crept closer to Roy. YoU aRe HeRe tO sEttLe a wAGeR fOr uS.

“Just what are you people?” someone said.

AHHH, THAT IS A DIFFICULT QUESTION. The red light seemed to chuckle. I SUPPOSE YOU COULD CALL US GODS, CELESTIAL BEINGS, WHATEVER YOU LIKE.

“There’s no such things as gods,” the senator said with disdain.

WHAT MATTERS IS WHY YOU’RE HERE. YOU SEE..YOU’LL FIND THAT YOU CAN’T LEAVE. THERE IS ONLY WAY OUT OF THIS HOUSE, AND IT ISN’T THROUGH THE FRONT DOOR.

YoUr tASk iS tO fINd tHAt dOor, said the dark god.

“And if we don’t?” the marine hissed.

THEN YOU DIE HERE.

“What were you all saying about a wager?” the scientist said.

VERY LONG STORY, HAHAHA. LET’S JUST SAY WE WILL BE WATCHING MOST KEENLY TO SEE WHO FINDS THE EXIT FIRST.

Roy scowled. “And what’s in it for us? Why should we play your game? Never mind,” he muttered, realising these ‘gods’ were just going to say something like BECAUSE OTHERWISE YOU WILL DIE.

“Why us?” Roy asked instead. “Why did you pick twelve strangers from two different worlds?”

BeCauSe wE tHouGht iT woULd bE fuNny.
AND BECAUSE EACH OF YOU HAVE SOMETHING WE FIND INTERESTING. The carnival god sounded amused as it added, TO HELP YOU ALONG, MARK THESE CLUES. THAT SHOULD TELL YOU SOMETHING OF YOUR FELLOWS’ TRUE NATURE.

Roy winced as he felt words literally being branded into his psyche. Judging by the gasps, he knew the others were experiencing the same thing as the gods whispered into his mind:

One of you is a monster, and will murder one by one until stopped.

Three of you are traitors.

Five of you are killers.

Three will lose their path.

Only one is innocent, and this soul shall lead the way out.

OFF YOU GO! The carnival god almost seemed like to be rubbing his hands as he and the dark god faded, leaving their voices behind.

HOP, HOP TO IT NOW. MAKE ME PROUD. SUCH HISTORY YOU WILL BE MAKING...


Dramatis Personae

World of Bethrum: The Troll. The Healer. The Mage. The Thief. The Warrior. The Child.

World of Rakoria: The Politician. The Soldier. The Scientist. The Surgeon. The Artist. The Hacker.

* w * ....this is like a supernatural version of mafia! hahahha! Oh no! Roy! Protect Mycena!

@marimo - Haha, thanks for reading! :)

interesting start. Hmmm... which will be the innocent.... I will be very impressed if you made it the senator or the theif. lol.

@Paladin-Cleric of Awesome - We will see :> In fact, anyone, feel free to make guesses of who is who as the story progresses!

Interesting concept and solid writing, kinda engrossing in some way, the plot seems to flow very well without getting lost in too much details. I particularly like "Making History", simply because it's more action focused, also the modern-fantasy setting is a plus (because it's not easy to write something good with it).

It's a bit too early to judge the characters but it's obvious that Roy overshadows everyone so far (since he's the protagonist?).

I admit that I'm curious to know the identity of the monster now...and I'm also curious to read the 4th part "Rivalry", since I particularly love conflict in storylines.

I believe that this story can work pretty well even if you will implement it in an rm game.

Engrossing.  That's the word for it.  I was totally caught up in what was happening.

@Dalph - Thank you! Yes, my hope is to make the 'modern' characters as interesting as the 'fantasy' ones. Glad you're intrigued as to which is the monster, and I hope the upcoming Rivalry chapter will whet your appetite.

@ksjp17 - So glad you were riveted to the story! Now let's see if I can do that for the next 98 chapters ;)