Eternal
You take the logical approach that most things don’t like fire and cast a few quick flame bolts at the horde. This works to a small degree in that it sets a few on fire and causes them to fall to the ground trying to put the flames out, which stops the momentum a bit as the non flaming “villagers” trip over the burning ones.
As you run through the village more of them are coming out their homes ahead of you. Several of the inhabitants attempt to grab you, but you cut them down instead. They’re tougher and stronger than they look and seemingly very resistant to the concept of pain. You sliced into the neck of one and the hideous thing actually began laughing.
The end of the village is in sight and a little further in the distance you can see another structure, which you guess is the temple. Naturally your line of sight is quickly blocked by another horde of the villagers get in your way. With one group ahead and the other group still behind you, you’d actually be in danger of being trapped if you weren’t the quick thinking one.
You quickly climb up the side of one of the houses up to its roof. It isn’t the climb that’s difficult, but rather the fact that the house is in such terrible condition that part of it starts crumbling. You nearly fall through the rotting roof when you get to the top. The villagers howl and moan at you as you stand out of their reach, but they begin to correct that by trying to climb up as well.
You lob a couple of fireballs into the horde, but that soon turns out to be a bit of a mistake as the blast back (along with burning villagers running around on fire) end up setting the house on fire along with others nearby it. The only way you’re getting away from this madness is by rooftop jumping and hoping you don’t fall through them.
You make your escape across the rooftops while a raging inferno starts to slowly envelop other houses and will most likely burn down the whole cursed village. The villagers don’t give up on you that easily, some of them actually make it up to the roofs as well and continue their pursuit, while the non burning ones start trying to pelt you with nearby stones.
You get to the last house roof before you need to jump down and one of the bastards manages to grab you at the same time another hits you in the head with a rock.
“Shit!” you utter as you fall off the roof taking the villager who grabbed your arm with you.
With some quick moving you pull the villager so he lands on the ground first and all your weight lands on top of him. With your elbow in his neck when you both hit the ground you hear a satisfying snap. When you scramble to get up, you see that you’re out of the village, but not out of danger.
You cut down a few more of the villagers that have caught up with you and distance yourself from the damned place by running towards the temple which is looking much closer now. You expect the villagers to chase you all the way there, but they don’t go much past the outskirts of their village, which continues to burn.
Your journey to the temple isn’t far, but it certainly starts to feel like it is. The closer you get to the temple the more you start feel the effects of the island’s toxic environment. Soon each step is an effort and you can hardly concentrate on even walking towards the temple.
“Give in…join ussssss…lay down…diiiiiiiiiiiiie…” you suddenly hear in your head. You hate these psychic spirit attacks.
“NO! The Emperor will give me strength to carry out my mission!” you yell out and redouble your efforts to shake off the mind assault.
Eventually you reach the temple and the signs of battle are very obvious here. You see one of the silver doors blown off the hinges. Several large bones lie strewn about and from the looks of it; these weren’t from any ordinary skeleton. You also notice two ruined black statues on either side of the temple. While they have great large chunks missing from them, you notice that these statues resemble the ones the Emperor has just outside his chambers; they’re just on a smaller scale.
“Son? Is that you outside?” you hear the Emperor ask from within.
“Yes, it’s me. Are you okay?” you answer.
“Yes! Just get in hear quickly, we don’t have much time!”
You enter the temple which actually isn’t all that large inside. In fact it looks more like a shrine rather than a temple since the only thing inside is a small pedestal against the far wall. You see the Emperor who is holding an old looking book and he seems very excited. More excited than you’ve ever seen, even when all the gnomes were reportedly exterminated he wasn’t this excited.
You notice he’s drawn several circles and symbols on the floor.
“Good, good, you’re here! We have to begin immediately! Step into that circle…no I mean that one!” he exclaims.
“Erm, okay. You know I got attacked by a whole village of freaks?”
“I’m sure you did. Probably ghouls. Generations of inbreeding and cannibalism tends to make folks insane and unfriendly to outsiders. Please, now we have to begin, they’ll be here soon!”
You step inside one of the circles and the Emperor steps into another one and obsessively fondles the book he has in his hand.
“Who’ll be here? The ghouls?”
“No! The…nevermind, look I’ll explain everything to you afterwards, but right now I have to concentrate and you will have to as well. Now begin this chant with me.”
The Emperor starts chanting and you try to follow along as best you can. The circles and symbols on the floor begin to glow. As much as you don’t want to interrupt, you’re a little lost on what exactly is going on.
“Father, what is…”
“Silence!” the Emperor screams and then you hear a second voice, but this one is from no spirit.
“Casimir, is that you? I see you’ve finally returned. Always knew you would. Have you come back because you’ve seen the error of your ways or is this just a visit for a mad dash of power? Judging by the mess, I’d say the latter.” You hear the voice shout from outside the temple.
The Emperor suddenly looks very nervous. Worried even. You’ve never seen such an expression from him before.
“Yes! It’s me, Nicodemus! And you’ll not be stopping me this time!” the Emperor shouts and then a red barrier materializes in the temple entryway. You see a robed figure walk up to it, but can’t make out much more than that.
“Casimir, you have to know this cheap trick isn’t going to stop me. If you just let down the barrier we might be able to talk about this. “
“Never! I wasn’t deterred then, and I won’t be deterred now! I have the book and after this rejuvenation ritual, you and the entire council won’t be able to stop me from my destiny!” The Emperor shouts and starts making elaborate hand gestures.
“Don’t you think over six hundred centuries of this nonsense is long enough? You’ve had your fun and now its time to realize you need to act your damn age. Casimir I’m coming in and I assure you if you attack me, you will be destroyed this time.”
The Emperor ignores this threat and continues his spell. He begins to eminate a purple glow and you soon follow.
“Am I supposed to have this purple glow?” you ask.
“Shhh! It’ll all be over soon. Just have to cast one last spell.” The Emperor quickly says before beginning another spell.
About this time the barrier disappears and an ancient looking man in a black robe steps in. He doesn’t look very imposing, but it’s pretty apparent he exudes great power. He completely ignores you and looks directly at the Emperor. Its one of disapproval, but there’s no anger at all behind it.
“Casimir, you have to know this isn’t even necessary. If you desire immortality so much, you could’ve just stayed here to begin with, you could still stay here if you’d just recognize the error of your ways.”
The Emperor looks out the corner of his eye at Nicodemus, but doesn’t stop his spell. Meanwhile Nicodemus now looks over at you and begins studying you. He then closes his eyes and lifts up his own hand while mumbling something.
You have no idea what he’s doing, but at this point you’re starting to feel like you’re genuinely threatened. The circle you’re in will probably protect you, but he broke through the other barrier with ease. Who’s to say he won’t do the same with the circle?
There’s also the matter of risking ruining the elaborate ritual the Emperor is currently casting…which you’re also starting to have separate concerns about.
Semra’s words: “You will learn the truth too late.” begin to ring in your mind.
As you run through the village more of them are coming out their homes ahead of you. Several of the inhabitants attempt to grab you, but you cut them down instead. They’re tougher and stronger than they look and seemingly very resistant to the concept of pain. You sliced into the neck of one and the hideous thing actually began laughing.
The end of the village is in sight and a little further in the distance you can see another structure, which you guess is the temple. Naturally your line of sight is quickly blocked by another horde of the villagers get in your way. With one group ahead and the other group still behind you, you’d actually be in danger of being trapped if you weren’t the quick thinking one.
You quickly climb up the side of one of the houses up to its roof. It isn’t the climb that’s difficult, but rather the fact that the house is in such terrible condition that part of it starts crumbling. You nearly fall through the rotting roof when you get to the top. The villagers howl and moan at you as you stand out of their reach, but they begin to correct that by trying to climb up as well.
You lob a couple of fireballs into the horde, but that soon turns out to be a bit of a mistake as the blast back (along with burning villagers running around on fire) end up setting the house on fire along with others nearby it. The only way you’re getting away from this madness is by rooftop jumping and hoping you don’t fall through them.
You make your escape across the rooftops while a raging inferno starts to slowly envelop other houses and will most likely burn down the whole cursed village. The villagers don’t give up on you that easily, some of them actually make it up to the roofs as well and continue their pursuit, while the non burning ones start trying to pelt you with nearby stones.
You get to the last house roof before you need to jump down and one of the bastards manages to grab you at the same time another hits you in the head with a rock.
“Shit!” you utter as you fall off the roof taking the villager who grabbed your arm with you.
With some quick moving you pull the villager so he lands on the ground first and all your weight lands on top of him. With your elbow in his neck when you both hit the ground you hear a satisfying snap. When you scramble to get up, you see that you’re out of the village, but not out of danger.
You cut down a few more of the villagers that have caught up with you and distance yourself from the damned place by running towards the temple which is looking much closer now. You expect the villagers to chase you all the way there, but they don’t go much past the outskirts of their village, which continues to burn.
Your journey to the temple isn’t far, but it certainly starts to feel like it is. The closer you get to the temple the more you start feel the effects of the island’s toxic environment. Soon each step is an effort and you can hardly concentrate on even walking towards the temple.
“Give in…join ussssss…lay down…diiiiiiiiiiiiie…” you suddenly hear in your head. You hate these psychic spirit attacks.
“NO! The Emperor will give me strength to carry out my mission!” you yell out and redouble your efforts to shake off the mind assault.
Eventually you reach the temple and the signs of battle are very obvious here. You see one of the silver doors blown off the hinges. Several large bones lie strewn about and from the looks of it; these weren’t from any ordinary skeleton. You also notice two ruined black statues on either side of the temple. While they have great large chunks missing from them, you notice that these statues resemble the ones the Emperor has just outside his chambers; they’re just on a smaller scale.
“Son? Is that you outside?” you hear the Emperor ask from within.
“Yes, it’s me. Are you okay?” you answer.
“Yes! Just get in hear quickly, we don’t have much time!”
You enter the temple which actually isn’t all that large inside. In fact it looks more like a shrine rather than a temple since the only thing inside is a small pedestal against the far wall. You see the Emperor who is holding an old looking book and he seems very excited. More excited than you’ve ever seen, even when all the gnomes were reportedly exterminated he wasn’t this excited.
You notice he’s drawn several circles and symbols on the floor.
“Good, good, you’re here! We have to begin immediately! Step into that circle…no I mean that one!” he exclaims.
“Erm, okay. You know I got attacked by a whole village of freaks?”
“I’m sure you did. Probably ghouls. Generations of inbreeding and cannibalism tends to make folks insane and unfriendly to outsiders. Please, now we have to begin, they’ll be here soon!”
You step inside one of the circles and the Emperor steps into another one and obsessively fondles the book he has in his hand.
“Who’ll be here? The ghouls?”
“No! The…nevermind, look I’ll explain everything to you afterwards, but right now I have to concentrate and you will have to as well. Now begin this chant with me.”
The Emperor starts chanting and you try to follow along as best you can. The circles and symbols on the floor begin to glow. As much as you don’t want to interrupt, you’re a little lost on what exactly is going on.
“Father, what is…”
“Silence!” the Emperor screams and then you hear a second voice, but this one is from no spirit.
“Casimir, is that you? I see you’ve finally returned. Always knew you would. Have you come back because you’ve seen the error of your ways or is this just a visit for a mad dash of power? Judging by the mess, I’d say the latter.” You hear the voice shout from outside the temple.
The Emperor suddenly looks very nervous. Worried even. You’ve never seen such an expression from him before.
“Yes! It’s me, Nicodemus! And you’ll not be stopping me this time!” the Emperor shouts and then a red barrier materializes in the temple entryway. You see a robed figure walk up to it, but can’t make out much more than that.
“Casimir, you have to know this cheap trick isn’t going to stop me. If you just let down the barrier we might be able to talk about this. “
“Never! I wasn’t deterred then, and I won’t be deterred now! I have the book and after this rejuvenation ritual, you and the entire council won’t be able to stop me from my destiny!” The Emperor shouts and starts making elaborate hand gestures.
“Don’t you think over six hundred centuries of this nonsense is long enough? You’ve had your fun and now its time to realize you need to act your damn age. Casimir I’m coming in and I assure you if you attack me, you will be destroyed this time.”
The Emperor ignores this threat and continues his spell. He begins to eminate a purple glow and you soon follow.
“Am I supposed to have this purple glow?” you ask.
“Shhh! It’ll all be over soon. Just have to cast one last spell.” The Emperor quickly says before beginning another spell.
About this time the barrier disappears and an ancient looking man in a black robe steps in. He doesn’t look very imposing, but it’s pretty apparent he exudes great power. He completely ignores you and looks directly at the Emperor. Its one of disapproval, but there’s no anger at all behind it.
“Casimir, you have to know this isn’t even necessary. If you desire immortality so much, you could’ve just stayed here to begin with, you could still stay here if you’d just recognize the error of your ways.”
The Emperor looks out the corner of his eye at Nicodemus, but doesn’t stop his spell. Meanwhile Nicodemus now looks over at you and begins studying you. He then closes his eyes and lifts up his own hand while mumbling something.
You have no idea what he’s doing, but at this point you’re starting to feel like you’re genuinely threatened. The circle you’re in will probably protect you, but he broke through the other barrier with ease. Who’s to say he won’t do the same with the circle?
There’s also the matter of risking ruining the elaborate ritual the Emperor is currently casting…which you’re also starting to have separate concerns about.
Semra’s words: “You will learn the truth too late.” begin to ring in your mind.