Macabre Mystery (Darkness Hunter) (356 views)

[Kepiloth]

 

 Ever since the Faeries' Fall, strange creatures have been spotted throughout Neopia. No place more so than in the Haunted Woods. Supposedly a once beautiful place, the dark forest holds some of the most dangerous and disturbing creatures in all of Neopia. When the darkness rises who will fight back? 

(This will feature NPCs as well as a character who I'm working on.)
 
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 Kelton sat at his desk deep in thought. Disturbing rumors had been reaching his ears lately. A pack of monsters had been working their way around Neopia and kidnapping people. He had an idea of what was going on but he needed more information. If he could just pull a few of the captives out, Kelton could use their testimonies to figure out who would benefit from this. He reached into a drawer and pulled out a piece of parchment and a bottle of ink. He dipped his quill in the ink and began to write. 

 Half an hour later there was a knock at the door. Kelton looked up from the finished letter and said, "Come in." The door opened and a White Shoyru holding some folders entered. "Dad, you asked me to find a candidate for the Search and Rescue mission we're planning? I found one." The Fire Pteri arched a brow. "Really? And what makes you so sure they're qualified S'frakos?" S'frakos chuckled at this and pulled a file from one of the folders and place it next to the letter.

 Kelton quickly scanned the file and smiled. He folded the letter and put it in an envelope He pulled out some wax which he heated with a small flame from his fingertip, dripped it onto the letter, an embossed it with his seal, a triquetra with three stars. He handed the envelope to his son and simply said, "Mail this to him quickly."

[Raichi]

Oroshi had been home for three days since his last mission. It was late in the morning and Oroshi had just showered. He walked into the living room wearing briefs, and a towel around his neck when he heard a small thud in the hallway. The familiar sound of mail getting delivered. He went to the hallway to pick up a small pile and walked back to the livingroom, taking a seat on the sofa to leisurely browse through the mail.
“Ugh, a bill” he tossed it aside.
“A love letter? And it isn’t even valentine’s day” he smirked and tossed it aside as well.
“The shenkuuvian times..” he put it beside him, so that he had something to read in case his other mail wasn’t interesting either.
“A discount coupon… advertisement advertisement..” he tossed those aside.
“What’s this?”
he held a closed envelope with a red seal on it addressed to him. Out of curiosity he opened it and was happily surprised to find he was being summoned for a mission. He read the instructions and leisurely got suited up for the job and left the house. The fastest way for him to reach the haunted woods from Shenkuu was to go by public airship, and it was also the most comfortable way.
From there on he followed the directions that he remembered in the letter to the meeting point and waited there for further instructions with a lay back attitude.

[Kepiloth]

(For those who don't know, beignets are a deep fried pastry served with powdered suger on top and I have become quite fond of them.)

 The letter had read as such : To the ninja Oroshi,
 
  It has come to my attention that Neopians have been disappearing lately.  Much of this information came to me by rumors and stories, none of which are pleasant.  Some of these have been completely disturbing.  One rumor said that they had been taken to the Haunted Woods.  I sent a small team of five into the Woods and only two came out, one nearly suffering a mental breakdown.  We had to send him back home for treatment.  However the other survivor revealed that we are dealing with something intelligent.

  Your mission should you choose to accept it, Is to find the location of the Missing and bring them home.  We have dispatched an agent to the Cafe Orleans in Neovia who will fill you in on the details.    He is an excellent magus and flyer. The culprits are efficient and organized.  They appear to have a leader who slaughtered three members of the team single-handedly.  This news comes as a great shock to me, and we hope for a mission with little confrontation.  I for one sincerely hope that you can sneak as many out as possible.


  Good Luck,
                  Duke Kelton N'laaren


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S'frakos entered the cafe and sat at the nearest table. Heplaced his cane by the chair leg and a backpack underthe chair. He had picked Oroshi himself for the mission, but why did his father ask him to accompany the Kougra?  He was a womanizer so perhaps a guy would keep his mind focused on the job.  The Shoyru sighed, ordered some beignets, and waited for the ninja to show up.  As he waited he fiddled with a charm he wore on his left wrist.

 About an hour later, the Purple Kougra entered the cafe.  He looked around and  S'frakos pushed out a chair for him.  "You're Oroshi right?  Sit down, we'll talk about the mission."  He didn't know exactly how well the mission would go.

[Raichi]

Neovia was a mysterious place, but somehow felt a lot more pleasant to Oroshi than the haunted woods itself did. In a way Neovia was more homely and town-like, whilst the haunted woods felt like it was ground hog day but with halloween instead. Everyone seemed to be minding their own business and had a classy way of dressing, so Oroshi did stand out a little in his ninja get-up. He wore black trousers, shoes with the flexibility of sandals, a dark light armor shirt with a kimono-like jacket, and a belt with a pouch attached that contained his weapons. He also had a hat with him to cover up his white hair, but didn't wear it since he wasn't trying to hide from anyone.

When he walked into Cafe Orleans he was addressed by what appeared to be a white Shoyru. There was something about him that he couldn't put his finger on, a gut feeling he had that there was more to this neopian than just an informant. He took a seat in front of the other, his lay back attitude switching to an alert one as he leaned his elbows on the table and locked his fingers together. His eyes were calm and yet sharp, and would make any ordinary neopian feel as if they would pierce through any lies.

"The mission is clear as day. All I need from you is the location of this villain and I'll take care of it."

Arrogance was something Oroshi never had a shortage of. Even though he knew the leader was strong enough to kill three neopians, he valued himself as a one felid army that could take on even stronger foes.

[Kepiloth]

(Thank you.)
 
 
 The  Shoyru shook his head, "It won't be that easy.  What we are dealing with requires at least three people.  Take a look at this."  He said pulling a file out of a backpack stored under his chair.  His cane leaned against the chair leg, he could draw it if needed.  S'frakos reached for three photographs and laid them out on the table. They were gruesome sure, but he had to know what they were up against.

 The first was of a hunched grayish creature crouched over the body of a Xweetok, her throat ripped open.  The second one showed the thing turning towards the camera, its face split in a nightmarish grin, split flesh where the cheeks were.  The third was out of focus but the beast's face filled the image, its jaws covered in fresh blood.  "This was discovered on the mission that was sent out.  As you can see the images were snapped in quick succession.  When they found the camera, there where no bodies.  However this gives an idea of what we are up against.  This thing is a ghoul, a carnivorous creature with an appetite for Neopian flesh, fresh if it can get it.  On average, a ghoul can go through fifty pounds of meat a day."  He said with disgust.   (22.6796 kilograms of meat per day.)  He hated the idea that these things were out there preying on the weak and helpless.

[Raichi]

Oroshi frowned. This guy was correct about this mission being too much for just him alone. "A ghoul.. I've only heard about that once before"

He took the pictures in his hand one by one and had a good look at them. Any normal neopian would've gotten nauseated, but in Oroshi's line of work mingled bodies were not uncommon. He was very focused as he observed them, studying the monster to get an idea of its strengths. The creature's face did disturb him, but he didn't let it show. He put the pictures back on the table again and had a light smirk, a sharp glimmer in his eyes as he looked at the other.

"This is not something I usually deal with, but I won't turn down a chance to kill it."

Though Oroshi wasn't too eager to jump into a fight that might kill him either. "I'm a ninja though, not a monster hunter. Sometimes a monster is the mission, but I'm not an expert when it comes to the supernatural."

The Shoyru seemed confident enough about the matter, which intrigued Oroshi to ask more about the quest. "But I'm sure you requested me instead of some monster hunters for a reason. So this plan of yours.. Please enlighten me."

[Kepiloth]

(Strigoi are a type of Vampire. They are thought to be immortal, but in reality are spirits making them hard to kill. They are often depicted as vampiric corpses. The main way to beat a Strigoi is to destroy the heart. This may be where staking a vampire through the heart came from. Oroshi is close range fighter, S'frakos is medium range mage, and an NPC that will appear later who uses long range.)

 He hoped Oroshi could pull off this plan. It was a long shot but he had been told to use whatever means necessary to rescue those who had been taken. "To be honest it's simple in concept but difficult in execution  The basic idea is that two of us will make a diversion. Meanwhile you sneak people out in small groups so they don't notice people disappearing. I'll admit it's only an outline of a plan, but something is better than nothing." He tried to sound disinterested, bored even, like he'd done this before. S'frakos was apprehensive about the whole endeavor. So much could go wrong.

"When the team tracked the ghoul to it's lair, they found at least a dozen more. There was something else in there, a Strigoi and a sorcerer. As a spell caster, I can deal with the magus. The Strigoi and the ghouls, we may need some help so we'll be working with one of the surviving members of the investigation team. He's not very sociable though."

[Raichi]

"It's a mission, there's no need to be sociable" his intent wasn't to be roostery, but he did come across as arrogant. Oroshi looked troubled and in thought, not sure about monsters at all. And especially if his part in this was to sneak people in and out it meant he'd have to rely on the strength of S'frakos and the other neopian. He didn't like it when he wasn't solely responsible for the success of the mission, and had no information on the strength of the other two. Though his demeanor calmed down again after realizing the Shoyru before him had more intel on how to deal with the monsters.

"Either way, I haven't heard of Strigoi before. Can I kill it with a Kunai? shuriken? lightning perhaps?" He basically summed up his whole offence weapon arsenal, which didn't sound like much, but he knew well how to use those three to his advantage in battle.

"And this third addition to the team, are we waiting for him here or do we meet him elsewhere?" He was visibly not very excited about this mission since it was out of his comfort zone, but he was confident enough to go through with it regardless of the lack of information on his new found team. Besides, at least he knew what he was dealing with, it could've been worse.

[Kepiloth]

(The Backpack is the Inventory. It will serve as a Deus Ex Machina three times. Masamune and Muramasa were creators of weapons, but became most famous for their Katanas. There is a legend that when their swords were suspended point down into a river. Masamune's repelled debris in the river, while the Muramasa's drew it in to be cut. Muramasa's works were known to be blood thirsty. Even to the point you could not sheathe the blade  unless it drew blood. The names of the blades are the ones from the legend. In Neopia they would be Shenkuuvian. Don't ask how expensive a 600 year old katana is.)

"I'm not to familiar with Strigoi myself, but some digging revealed that decapitation and incineration works. The person we are working with is Ciern Selar, a Kacheek sniper who served in the Second Darigan War. We'll be meeting him in the Woods later. " He said knowing that decapitation was an easy solution to almost anything living, and even some undead.

He pulled the backpack out from under his chair. " This backpack can hold thirty items regardless of size. I have something in here that might help." S'frakos opened the backpack and rummaged around before pulling out two katanas placing them on the table. A few of the patrons looked a little concerned. " These were made the the famous sword smiths Masamune and Muramasa. the left hand one is Juuchi Yosamu.(10,000 Cold Nights) The one on the right is Yawarakai-Te.(Tender Hands)  My father said a ninja is only as good as his tools. So we have decided to give you one." He sat back and watched the Kougra eye the ancient blades.