[Nemona]

Mairwen was beginning to think this little expedition has been a bad idea. She blamed her voracious curiosity for all things magical and occult. Curiosity killed the cat...The thought made her smile a bit as she threaded her way carefully up the ruined steps of Lya Pointa Cathedral. Her human form was so much less swift and graceful, but had the advantage of opposable thumbs. The place was ominous and terrifying to her. Terrifying, not because of the darkness and evil that exuded from the place, but because something in her responded to that darkness and evil.


You know who got buried in the catacombs of great big cathedrals? Rich dead people. And you know how they buried rich dead people? With lots of shiny gold and money. It was like a great big playground for the morally flexible and for Leander, it was playtime. Of course this whole conjecture was something he had made up on the spot, but he figured he had a good chance of being right and scoring some shinies, and, if not, no harm, no foul. He sifted through the rubble near the door and found a candlestick. Real gold? He scratched it with his claw. No. Triumvate take these cheap priests.

Mairwen: Lvl:1 Posts:1
Leander: Lvl:1 Posts:1

[Nemona]

She had to come and find the volume. It was a lost spellbook of the magician and philosopher Thaumus the Great and according to all reports of his travels, the tome had last been seen at this cathedral, some two hundred years ago. She hoped he had remembered to put a stasis spell on the thing. It was important that she find it though. Thaumus was well known for his remedies for those with magical ailments and maladies, but much of his work had been lost to time. Mairwen's magic was beginning to malfunction in ways that troubled her immensely and she wanted to fix it herself before any of her family found out. She reached the entrance to the cathedral and peered into the darkness hesitantly. It was a good thing that she had enchanted the large, rough-hewn crystal that hung around her neck on a chain for light.

This was the last time he took a tip from Twitchy the pickpocket, Leander told himself firmly as he searched for valuables among the pews. This place was a bust, unless he could find a basement entrance or something. People always kept the good stuff in the basement. He looked up. For a second there he thought he had heard a noise. Who knew what sort of creepy crawlies were lurking in the dark here? He hopped up onto a pew and scanned the place for movement. From his vantage point he couldn't see the entrance to the Cathedral, one of the sole openings for light in this creepy place, but he didn't think anyone else would be dumb enough to try to enter the place anyhow. Which reminds me, what am I doin' here again?.

Mairwen: Lvl:1 Posts:2
Leander: Lvl:1 Posts:2

[Nemona]

Mairwen lifted the chain from around her neck and held the crystal, about the length of her palm, cupped in both hands. She blew on it gently and it began to glow from within, pulsing into brightness. Now she would be able to see much better. Yes, she did have extraordinarily good night vision, but there was an absolute lack of light in this place that made her think even the best vision wouldn't be of much use. She slipped through the massive doors that were open about four feet and into the ruins of the cathedral. It was massive, maybe the size of a football field, with a ceiling that was so high, Mairwen couldn't see it in the gloom. Piles of rubble littered the corners of the church and every where she turned and held her light up, solemn statues loomed out at her. Creepy couldn't even begin to describe it.

He wasn't crazy, the noise was from a stranger who appeared with some sort of glowing light in her hand. She looked human, but nearly everyone could look human if they really wanted now a days. He crouched behind the pews and observed. She seemed uncomfortable here, but that was probably natural. She was pretty, too, in a sort of dark and solemn way. She wore a long purple dress and her blue hair rippled in the light she had summoned. Definitely not practical for exploring, but she was a dame, and dames were known to be unpractical. Still, something intrigued Leander about her. His feline senses were telling him she was like him. Another Draculi? Probable. After all, he couldn't be the only one attracted to the embrace of utter darkness and the whispers of death that enveloped him like a blanket of evil.

Mairwen: Lvl:1 Posts:3
Leander: Lvl:1 Posts:3

[Nemona]

Mairwen knew she wouldn't just wander into the cathedral and have an ancient text just handed to her. It had to be in one of the vestibules or maybe even the catacombs under the cathedral. She hoped desperately for the former, but with her luck she was probably going to have to descend into the maze of underground rooms in search of the volume. She was so distracted by her thoughts as she walked down the center aisle between the pews that she entirely missed the large chunk of rubble in front of her and, consequently, tripped heavily. She tried to save herself from the fall using magic, but it didn't work. She landed heavily on the stone floor, the only evidence of her magic being that where she touched the ground had turned green. Some witch I am, she thought irritably from her prone position.

Leander liked the look of this girl. She was definitely attractive in a dark and solemn kind of way. He figured he might go say hello. After all, no one could resist his charms, his roughish smile, his amber eyes. He preened for a moment, basking in the glow of his own narcissism. Yes, he decided, he would introduce himself. After all,who was he to deny others the pleasure of meeting and swooning over him? And if she was here she might have the skinny on some goods. It was as he was watching her walk and thinking this to himself that she unceremoniously tripped and fell. This was his in. He morphed quickly into his human form and sauntered over to the girl, offering her his hand. "Can I help you up?

Mairwen: Lvl:1 Posts:4
Leander: Lvl:1 Posts:4

(I retyped this post, as I believe it was deleted shortly after I posted it. Whether this was a glitch or an accident or it was removed because it referenced something that may have been found inappropriate or offensive, I will never know, as I have received no communication either asking me to remove that content or explaining why it was removed for me.

One of life's great mysteries, I guess)

[Nemona]

The young woman was in the slow and painful process of getting up when a stranger stuck their hand in her face. Needless to say, when one believes oneself to be quite alone in a scary and gloomy gothic old building and one is confronted with evidence that one is indeed, not alone, one may or may not jump to certain conclusions about the intentions of the evidenced stranger. So Mairwen, looking back, felt entirely justified in reacting in the way she did. Which was to look up at the stranger for a second in fright before thinking go away and pushing as hard as she could. It worked, although perhaps in a more literal way than she had intended. She saw a man's expression turn from confident smile to gaping fear as he was bodily lifted off the ground and flung about twenty feet back by an invisible force.

He, of course, had no idea there would be such disastrous consequences for such a polite gesture. Well, it was polite for him. More often than not, Leander was accustomed to kicking someone while they were down, (repeatedly and in the stomach,) not helping them up. She saw a flash of green eyes right before he was pushed back. It felt like getting mowed down by a Tuskow and then being trampled by a herd of Gyrophant. He soared through her air for a few seconds, too stunned to really do anything, and landed in the pews with a crash. Pain. Everywhere. "What'd ya do that for?" he moaned.

Mairwen: Lvl:2 Posts:5
Leander: Lvl:2 Posts:5

[Nemona]

She hadn't expected him to look so...normal. No slavering jaws, no sharp fangs or evil burning eyes. He hadn't threatened to disembowel her or consume her soul. No, he had asked her if she needed help to get up. In any other circumstance Mairwen would have had to admit that she may have quite possibly over-reacted. She got up on her own, wincing at all the different parts of her body that felt scraped up and bruised and headed cautiously in the direction of her victim. He moaned his question and she stiffened. "It was your fault,she said, "you...surprised me." She wasn't going to admit that he had terrified her.

Leander got to his feet with a groan. His head hurt, his back hurt, heck pretty much everything hurt, and quite a lot too. He centered a baleful glare on the woman. His fault? His fault that she had done some spooky mojo to hurl him across the room? Leander wasn't used to accepting responsibility for things and he wasn't about to start now. Who did this broad think she was? He stepped forward and winced as every bone and muscle in his body renewed their complaints with fresh vigor. "Look lady, I was just trying to be polite to a dame who obviously got lost on the way home from a playdate. Go run home to mommy and daddy, princess." He gave his most fearsome and feral smile, "this is where the big kids play."

Mairwen: Lvl:2 Posts:6
Leander: Lvl:2 Posts:6

[Nemona]

Being insulted and condescended was something Mairwen seemed to be taking fairly well. She arched a sardonic eyebrow and crossed her arms as he attempted some sort of threat. Having been capable of negating most threats to herself and her siblings using her supernatural powers from a very young age, there were very few people who, upon meeting Mairwen, could actually threaten her with success. This red haired vagabond was not one of them. "Are you done?" She has laconically when his finished his little speech. She took the split second of silence after her inquiry as an affirmative. "Good. Here is some advice. When you have just witnessed someone hurl you through the air without lifting a finger, it is not a good idea to antagonize them. While I appreciate what must translate to concern in your crude language, let me assure you that I am quite capable of taking care of myself. If you really still want to help for some reason quite unfathomable to me, you might start by locating my crystal. I dropped it when I fell." With that she turned her back to him and morphed into her Draculi form, it better peer underneath the pews for her crystal, which had extinguished itself.

The young man was confused. Generally when he did his threatening smile and speech shtick, whomever he was speaking to ran in terror. Or fainted, he had had a couple of fainters. What they did not do was calmly lecture him using words that were only barely within his vocabulary. She must be either stupid, or really tough. After witnessing her display, he decided to assume the second choice. He began to find himself admiring her fearlessness. She mentioned the crystal and he shrugged and began to search. It was to his advantage to do so; she might have information about valuables located in the shrine, and if he found it for her she might feel indebted to him. That could be nothing but good for him. Plus he really wasn't sure what other creepy crawlies were located in the cathedral, and although he reckoned himself pretty scrappy, he'd much rather stick with her, the one with the magic. He began to fan out in the opposite direction as the woman and after kneeling down and peering around, he spotted the crystal. He grabbed it by the chain and stood, clearing his throat. "This what you're looking for? He asked, dangling it in front of him.

Mairwen: Lvl:2 Posts:7
Leander: Lvl:2 Posts:7

[Nemona]

The Draculi was having no luck with her crystal. She needed that thing if she was going to venture any further into this place. She didn't have any other charms for light on her at the moment, and she didn't trust herself to conjure fire with her magic behaving the way it was. If she tried to summon fire, she'd probably end up with singed eyebrows and a very surprised looking toad. The annoying man cleared his throat and she turned to face him. He was dangling her necklace smugly in front of him. She morphed back to human. There was something about this man that she did not like at all. He was in turns obsequious and condescending, a combination that both vexed and confused her. She strode towards him with a hand out. "Yes, that's it. Thank you." She put out her hand, expecting him to give her the necklace back.

She looked like it had almost pained her to thank him. It amused and disoriented Leander, who wasn't used to females acting this way. Generally they swooned or they gave him a look of contempt and were on their way and generally Leander didn't care one way or the other. They were just women after all, if one wasn't interested, there probably ten more that were. But for some reason he couldn't fathom, perhaps it was her insistence on not responding in the way she was supposed to to his charm or his threats that intrigued him. In any case, he was determined to toy with her until she did reacted in a way he could understand and classify. Once he had done that, he was sure he would lose all interest in her immediately. Leander grinned at the woman and her outstretched hand and, instead of handing over the necklace, put it behind his back. "What're you goin ta give me for it, huh, kitty? Gimme your name, and I'll give you your rock," he offered with a roguish smirk.

Mairwen: Lvl:2 Posts:8
Leander: Lvl:2 Posts:8