Sigil: T.C.o.D - [Walk-In][Modern Fantasy: Cycle 32][O/A]

[Tres Ecstuffuan]

:An Affluent Gallery Opening in The Ladies Ward:


The scene timelessly formed a painting without any brush or paints. The flowing gowns and the crisp blacks of the rich mans clothing was as beautiful a medium as any. Despite the fact that they were all high society individuals the fact that they were gaians stood out even more. Vampires who were hundreds of years old but were only 18, tall and elegant elves, powerful yet colorful demons, they were all here. Each man or woman was dressed in the finest and most hip clothing wear, all sipping Drow Spider Wine imported from the 9 Swords Pub.

Bart looked the most human amongst most of the people there, but even he did not belong to the most common and regal of races. His hair gleamed silver in the bright lights of the room, as he sat lackadaisically in front of his scuplture which easily pulled eyes towards it and made the artist himself invisible. The thought of being so easily hidden by the beauty of his own creation brought a smile to his face. His eye shifted to another group of individuals staring speechlessly at his creation.

'Time to go to work', he thought as he stood up to greet his patrons.

"Its beautiful isn't it...

Its not simply a creation of the body guided by the mind. Literally, my medium was ripped from the astral plains itself, coiled together by strands woven in my mind...sculpted and bent by my these hands. I had full control over what you now see...Come...move around the sculpture.", Bart moved to guide the group around his creation. It was sculpture in the round. The crystal construct's color changed as they moved around it and yet the overall form remained the same.

The form of the construct was a female fighter, frozen in a downwards flying kick with her body position full of grace and concentration.

"It seeks to capture the sublime moment of combat. Something every gaian is familiar with..."

[The Vansin]

Indeed, the pair's rapport was quite good. Magus Soren, long past his mental prime, if asked, attributed his affection for the young lady to a queer jealousy that manifested itself in living vicariously through her. The way in which she learned magic, that is instinctively, was such a marvelous blessing, the Magus thought, that he found himself wishing he had some of her gift.

Granted, it would do him little good at his age, with his mind being effectively a ball of crumpled rubbish.

"The spell? I call it Soren's Cheery Chess Set. The physical component is a chess set of your choice, and the spell itself combines Enlarge Person and Animate Objects. You see, there is no satisfactory spell to actually enlarge an object. Most either enlarge too little, or far too much. Unfortunately Enlarge Person requires the chess pieces to not only be humanoid in shape, but be alive, however it does enlarge them to almost the exact size I desire. It's very hard to see which piece is which at my age, and even more effort to go darting around the board moving them. This spell not only makes them easier for me to see, but should give them enough awareness to move themselves at their players orders for the game's duration."

Really, Soren had been surprised such a spell didn't already exist. The conclave Magi had long griped about how small the chess sets were in the library, and so had given Soren a healthy grant to remedy the very pressing issue.

Lost in past checkmating glories, the old man almost missed the gaggle of young tieflings that had now come to hawk their wares at him.

Quote:

"The Voodoo Man's Miracle Elixa, it improves yer brain and makes ya cleva!"

Of course, before the old man could answer, but only just after the group began to pelt pitches at his failing ears, the young fiendtouched boys noticed the drow woman. Despite her actually amiable demeanor, Tisa had inherited the brooding and dangerous features of her darker ancestors. All in all, she was a marvelous shopping companion. Any chance of these horned little devil-children sneaking around to pluck his pockets was vanquished the moment they realized that they were probably standing before a veritable master of the craft. Without a lick of training, a drow was by far more stealthy than most any other creature in all the realms.

"Improves my brain, you say?" the old man chimed kindly, "I think I could use just that right about now. What do you charge, young sir?"

[Tres Ecstuffuan]

OOC:

I'll start my reply as soon as she post.

[Tisa Vallasai]

Tisa had been listening with rapt interest to the explanation of Soren's Cheery Chess Set. If nothing else, the concept was marvellously amusing. Soren himself probably didn't even realize the potential beyond convenient chess for the elderly. Tisa found herself idly wondering what she could gain from such a clever combination of transmutation spells.

She was about to tell her wizard colleague how ingenious the entire idea was when a voice broke through her reverie. Not Magus Alva's voice. Someone elses. It was then that she caught a whiff of brimstone and she turned the gaze of her devilish eye towards the source.

"Dorn rahss nindol zhuanth nesst." The dark speech of the Illythiri flowed from her lips like liquid pain and the petite woman stepped forward ahead of the apparently addled Soren.

"What rubbish are you selling little boys?" She hissed. Many years of being treated like she was a creature to be feared had helped Tisa develop a knack for acting quite scary. She made a large show of sniffing the air around them and licking her lips.

"I can smell the demon web pits on you. Lolth would gain such pleasure from such a young sacrifice... but perhaps if you're offering me something of worth, I can leave your souls safe and sound in your mortal coil... for now."

She twirled her staff once more, the large ruby which rested at its tip glinted in the sunlight as it pointed menacingly toward the gaggle of misfits.

[Tres Ecstuffuan]

:The Guildhall Ward:

The young children had not factored in her proximity to a human nor her irreverence of the sun into the reasons why they should not be cowering and for that reason, they each seemed to flinch in unison as the drow-speak was uttered from her mouth managing to sound more vile than the infernal language they uttered between them in order to keep secrets from others.

One child even dropped his crate and nearly began to weep were it not for him not wanting to startle the perceived ebon skinned beast before him who spoke of sacrificing him to what was probably a GIANT a** SPIDER. They each struck out there crates like an offering to a god, one after the other each following the lead of the next. This chain started with the leader, who quickly looked away from the drow as if she were a mad basilisk and her eyes would snap there bodies into a stone prison for all eternity.

He spoke in a low, frightened, quivering tone: "Ok, Ok, Just take it, please don't make your spider eat me." The viscous ichor within the musty bottles rattled around with an almost mercurial consistency. Both magicians, likely of alchemical skill, the transparent but strangely textured liquid may strike there curiosity.

[The Vansin]

[Guildhall Ward]

Indeed it did.

By all means, Magus Soren Alva was not yet too addled in the mind to think of imbibing some potion bought from a child on the streets of the most dangerous city in the worlds. Yet at the same time he was delighted to be offered a free taste of the city's color.

Not that he'd actually...taste it. But still.

The old man reached into his long, flowing robe and produced a small sack of coins. From this pouch he produced silver coins, numbering in the same amount as each young tiefling that offered him a bottle, and then set about collecting each bottle and depositing a silver in each hand that offered him one.

Tisa had asked to handle the talking, far be it from him to interfere.

Instead, he would stash all but one of the bottles into his cloak's pockets and swish the remaining one before his long and crooked nose. The liquid was certainly different from many potions of the sort he'd ever seen, and he was quite the accomplished potioneer.

Vice Host of the Conclave Societee for Master Potioneers, to be precise. Safe to say, if this potion was made by magic, the old man would at least be able to guess at its make and purpose.

[Tisa Vallasai]

Tisa smiled.

"Excellent." She purred. One hand reaching up to run through her ivory tresses. She watched as Soren gathered his merchandise and even paid for it. Honestly, what was the good of having a Drow around if you were just going to hand over the money anyway!?

She gave a tiny shake of her head.

"Tell me then, my dirty little children, where did you get this elixir from. Remember, the more information you give to me, the safer you will be..."

The truth was, Tisa hated Lolth and everything the drow stood for. She'd been raised on the surface. The darkness of the cavernous world beneath her feet held little appeal to her, save for the few exciting spells that only a drow wizard truly knew. But it was amazing how easy it was for her to slip into the role of a cruel matron. It was in her blood, yes, but she still surprised herself with her convincing display. If she had been standing in the Tiefling's shoes, she would likely have been scared for her life too.

The Illythiri were so spectacularly nasty.

[Tres Ecstuffuan]

"The voodooman, Voodooman, Voodooman...", the children all said in a strange disorganized fashion but with a fever that bordered on religious veneration. The children began to step back slowly one after the other, after each kind of caught the drift of the first they all started away down the alley and eventually they each just broke into a run, leaving there fallen merchandise down on the ground. With them left the smell of fish and brimstone. A line of urine left from one of the children, scared out of there wits would direct them to the direction to which they all ran. The direction they fled, was towards an even worse part of the city...

The Hive.

[The Vansin]

[Guildhall Ward]

"The Voodoo man..." The old wizard said, smiling faintly at the running children.

"Must be a new fad." he said, in perfectly predictable old person's fashion, "But, just to be sure, why don't you follow those young boys and see where they run off to. I'm not quite as limber as I used to be, or I'd run after them myself. Instead, I'll go see what these potions are all about and Send you a message when I figure it out."

And with that, the old Wizard walked down the street in the opposite direction, toward the Marketplace, looking for an alchemists store to identify the potions.

[Tisa Vallasai]

[Guildward > Hive]


"Typical." Tisa said with a sigh as Magus Alva decided to stroll off towards the homely mages quarter.

"Just because I am half-drow doesn't mean I like poking my nose into Voodoo and other necromantic arts!" She called after him. But of course he was probably too deaf to hear her.

The sorceress hiked up the hem of her skirts, she didn't want any of it trailing in the results of the boys weak bladder.

"Sometimes I think I should decline your invitations Soren." She mumbled under her breath before hunching down a little and breaking into a run.

"Luun'elak" She said in a voice brimming with arcane power. As soon as the words had left her lips Tisa's form shimmered and her feet carried her along the unsightly path at a remarkable speed.

She barely noticed the buildings becoming decidedly more decrepit as she passed into the district that was known as The Hive.

[Tres Ecstuffuan]

OOC: Check my post in [Scarlet], another quest (a different quest but ultimately, one I plan on connecting to this just had a revelation). A link is on the front page.

DM [PARTY CHANGE: Tisa Vallasai]

:Guildhall Ward > Ward:

As the sun set beneath the horizon it produced a twilight tapestry that added beauty even to the run down huddled expanse of the ghetto's of the Hive. The hues of orange, violet and blue gave the scenes of poverty that Tisa would pass a somber and almost depressing artistic vibe that while standing in stark contrast of The Lady's Ward offered a grim tale of the consequences of an absolute freemarket economy.

The dank rancor of excrement and trash scattered about the streets would serve well to mask the trailing scent of fish and brimstone yet the ever thinning trail of drying piss would keep Tisa on the trail of the children a bit longer, not to mention the pitter patter sound of the children s footsteps that wound ring clearly in the drow's accute audible senses.

She would follow the children strong for a long while, until they happened to split up through various alleyways and streets at a major intersection. The leader tiefling took his trail straight down an alley that seemed to hold only a dead end. Yet the drow would eventually see, (if she remained far back enough to not startle the child into changing his actions) the child crouch down and prepare to unhinge a grate leading down into the cities famous and intrepid sewers.

[Tres Ecstuffuan]

DM [PARTY CHANGE: Soren]

:The Hive > The Marketplace:

Roll a DC 25 knowledge for...

Nah just kidding. The wizard would be overwhelmed from the sheer vast nature of the marketplace. The market itself was as large as most other cities but upon arriving to one of its many entrance ways the Wizard would notice an information booth and a magic carriage system near it. The information booth was crowded with a long line of people whom appeared to have been standing there for quite a while, while the carriage system seemed for the moment to be available with several cabs waiting at the markets entrance way.

Surely there was a grand alchemist store within the market, but how would the wizard find it. He could wait in the line...or maybe there was someway to skip ahead without starting a riot?

[Tisa Vallasai]

[The Hive]

"Perfect." Tisa groaned as she peered from about the corner of a building, that solitary eye trained upon the Tiefling. "Just what I wanted from a shopping expedition. A trip down into the sewers."

She waited patiently until she saw the young boy slip into the grate he had opened and disappear. Then, with silent footfalls she crept forward towards the where he had stood and inspected it.

"Suiaerl toma." She whispered in hushed tones, her fingers weaving an intricate pattern before her face. For a split second her eye glowed brightly, but the light faded. With a little more help from the Arcane Tisa examined this portal to the bowels of Sigil for any traps, magical or mundane.

[Tres Ecstuffuan]

OOC:

I got to get up and go to work again tomorrow, so we will pause here. Great job guys, Its my first time DMing s**t but hopefully I can make it fun.

[Tisa Vallasai]

.:.I am sure it'll be a blast Tres! <3.:.