Quest for the Shifter's Soul ((RP!))

"The Shifter's Soul is an extremely powerful majyyk item," William cut in, "that allows the user to turn into anything they wish at whatever time. Completely priceless, one of a kind. However, the more you use it, the madder you get. And that's mad as in criminally insane. The horrible things one could do with such an item are incomprehensible.

"I personally seek to destroy it so it can cause no more harm to the world, as well as catch a bit of fame on the side. I offer my sword, my majyyk, my strength, and my service as protection on this journey. I can also cook up quite a meal. I don't carry much else. Sword, armor, flint and tinder, bedroll. It's all I've needed."

William stretched his arms as he spoke. If they were going to be moving soon, it could mean more fighting, and he didn't want to pull anything. Else. "In any case, the Soul has been taken by a wild beast, that is Gods know where right now. We're looking to find it. Also, I've never heard of a SkyHound. Sounds like they're a bitch to find." He paused and cursed under his breath.

Taryn checked through the little pack she held behind her, seeing if she needed anything. A few more bandages, a more powerful antibiotic salve, and maybe some splints. Although those were easy to find if there were trees nearby. "I think a trip to town would be a useful idea. With the way this group seems to conduct itself, I'll need some extra healing supplies before we start into any dangerous territory."
William's comment about the Skyhound drew yet another giggle from the spiderling, although she tried to cover her mouth just in case he might be offended by her double-fanged grin. He was one of the ones who had expressed the most alarm upon making her acquaintance, besides the fact that he did not seem to find his own jokes amusing.
Lyida bounced around, bored with all the business talk, and had started singing a song. She didn't know half the words, so she made them up, singing happily off-key, dancing in a circle a little ways off from the group. Angel was silent.

"SkyHounds can be either a great asset or a major pain, depending on the situation. They can make excellent watch dogs for any affluent individuals lucky enough to come across one. Been a while since I've actually seen one, though, & I haven't a clue where or how to find one. Guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

Aengus was happy to get moving again. He took the time to stretch a bit as they headed towards the town Dee had mentioned, & made sure to keep an eye out for trouble. Aside from food & water, he didn't really need anything. Still, he could always try to make a bit of extra coin while they were there. He wasn't exactly short on money, but what he had would only last for so long. Especially now that he was traveling with a group.

William's desire to destroy the Shifter's Soul came as somewhat of a shock to Aengus. True, it had a reputation for being troublesome, but it could fetch a hefty sum if sold to the right buyer. Hell, a payday like that would be enough for Aengus to retire early. Still, best not to make plans for things that might not happen. But that won't keep him from dreaming about it.

"Well that answers my question. And a second one, as well. My duty is to the hive and protecting the hive means protecting the world. The soul must be dealt with then. I'm with you on that objective, William."

"But in regards to the hound... I'll let someone else do the talking. The only official I know who dealt with their negotiations... we'll he always emphasized the tricky nature of bargaining with them. And I'm a little too down to earth to take that on." At this, she glanced at William and attempted to suppress a wry smirk. It only half worked.

Since the others seemed to be making preparations for travel, Trrrb unsheathed her wings and began rotating them, in preparation for no particular speed of travel.

((I'm going to skip ahead from this wee bit of traveling for convenience's sake))

Dee slinked into the water, drifting downriver ahead of the others. As he passed William he gave the human a grin, saying, "Well, I for one admire your blurse." By which he meant blessing mixed with a curse, "There are few people who can simultaniously make others groan with pain and grin with amusement." With that, he slipped over the edge of the water dragon's waterfall without batting an eye, popping up a ways downriver.

One lazy swim and a small hike later, Dee suddenly didn't feel so jovial anymore. Standing on the edge of the forest, he could see the barren sweep of land where the town once stood. There were one or two people, walking around in what looks like an aimless daze from this distance. Clearly they were just as confused and shocked as Dee was right then.

Seeing Dee race ahead, Aengus figured that they must be approaching their destination. He was glad that things were going so smoothly, but couldn't shake the feeling that something felt off. If they were approaching a town, why were things so quiet? The answer, however, became apparent all too soon.

Upon reaching the obviously unnatural clearing, Aengus looked to Dee, intending to ask what was going on. However, the look on the distraught dragon's face & the presence of shocked refugees said it all. There was no town. Not anymore, at least.

Looking around, he tried to piece together what happened. Could it have been a bandit raid? Or perhaps the result of some rampaging beasts? But there were no signs. No corpses, no smoldering rubble, no blood & gore strewn about. Neither men nor beasts could so thoroughly erase an entire village overnight.

William grimaced both at Dee's words and Trrrb's earth pun directed at him. "Yeah, well, live with it long enough, and it starts to be quite the burden. I've gotten in trouble quite a few more times than I'd like because some tough guy thought I was making fun of him. I'm not the one who's gonna be talking to these things." He sighed. "Whatever, let's just get going."

The earth magician walked behind Aengus until they reached the town, or what was left of it. Exhaling sharply in surprise, he looked around, completely amazed at the scope of destruction. "Dear Gods, what happened here?"

((Bunp))
"So. Anybody got a clue what happened here?" Aengus asked after a few minutes, utterly confused. "Because I'm just a tad curious how a whole town could just vanish overnight. I'd almost assume that you guys got the location wrong, but there was definitely something here until just recently."

He began pacing, making sure to watch where he stepped, as he continued. "William, you move Earth. Could a group of people like you have done this? Or maybe some Earth Dragons, Dee? Taryn, Trrrb? Ever seen anything like this? Or you, Angel?"

Coming to the end of his little inquisition, Aengus sat down just outside the clearing. "I've done my share of traveling, but never before have I seen so much disappear so quickly. Not by the hands of men, the weaving of magic, or the unbridled fury of nature itself."

"Well yes and no. I know when certain disaster threatens other hives that the Queen can call for a full hive move, but this isn't anything like that. They usually leave a sign up saying where they went."

Moving toward the clearing, "And it doesn't look like anyone has done any work to move anything. Heavy lifting would leave footprints, wagon tracks... it's just all... gone? Hmmmm."


Trrrb continued forward, raised her arm up and began to wave, attempting to get the attention of the the two wandering the clearing. "Hello there! Um, are you both alright? Any idea what happened here?"

((Guys. Guys. Is you're waiting for someone else to post, realize that everyone else is waiting for someone else to post as well. Please. PLEASE. Post ASAP. AJ, UU, you are the least recent posters. Come on. Please keep this alive.))

"Well... whatever happened was just overnight. We were here.... Must have just missed it."

Dee took a few steps towards where the town was, when his fur bristled. There was a scent, but it was completely unknown to him. His reaction had more to do with instinct than any knowledge. As much as he blaked, he wanted to take a good look around. A shiver ran down his spine, from nose to tailtip, setting his baubles into a flurry of clinking. "I don't like this" He added, unessicarily.

Dee sidled closer to Trrb as the other humans were explaining that they weren't here when... whatever happened. They were a pair of travelling merchants who passed this way regularly.

Suddenly one of them shouted and nearly fell in his haste to get away. "A D-dragon!" He cried in alarm, pointing at Dee. The other grabbed Trrb, intending to snatch her away from the /clearly/ ravenous beast and save her.

Dee just stood where he was, not laughing incase the sight of his teeth frightened them, but just barely holding it in.

((Edit: Alternate, not-really-canon final line: Dee looks around, exclaiming; "Dragon?! Save me!" ))

The merchant had grabbed her forearm, desperate to flee - and hopefully make good graces with the winged lady - but had slightly miscalculated. Trrrb, while appreciative of the merchant's concern, wasn't particularly inclined to move and dug her anterior foot claws into the ground.

This, combined with her being in higher medium class armor and having a more dense composition than the average human, caused the merchant to quickly reach the end of her arm - while maintaining fairly high momentum.

"Quickly mam we have to- WHUP" and down went the merchant.


Trrrb, still grasping the mans hand, hoisted him back onto his feet and set about apologizing.

"Oh dear, I'm sorry sir. I hadn't expected you to run off quite so fast. I trust you are all right. Oh and you really shouldn't worry yourself. Mr. Dee is quite the genttlescaleling."

Turning to Dee, "Does this happen a lot? It must be quite interesting, dealing with new cultural expectations."

"Not in a long while. It's much less funny when they have a sword on them, though." He grinned and slipped past the dazed merchants. The good humor didn't last long as Dee walked through the space where the town had been. The ground wasn't level and smooth, it dipped and curved in sudden hills, like a long slitherind something had been there... But there were also large footprints, and large pits- which dee belatedly realized were where basements had been. It wasn't a thourough dissappearance. There was a corner of brickwork here, a small section of flooring there, but nothing above knee height. And they all just... ended. Dee couldn't think of a single blade that could cut through everything like that, and it didn't.... Well it didn't feel like earth magic. It wasn't his domain, of course, but everything just felt wrong.

"Hm. Well, the more I look around, the more I doubt that this was done by magic. At least elemental magic. Though that doesn't rule out the older, more complex arcane arts. Nor does it rule out the possibility that some sort of beat was the culprit."

"Was there anything particularly noteworthy about this place? Some sort of special item or items that could only be found here? Perhaps a particularly skilled producer of goods, or a well-known vendor? What exactly was it that brought people to this town? Perhaps whatever it was provided motivation for......this. Or caused it..."

One of the merchants snorted in mirth. "Special? The only thing special about this place was all the adventurers who passed through. Could sell a pice of chainmail for twice it was worth, and anything enchanted for three times as much in this town"

"And if you were lucky, you'd get the one or two who came back with some kind of artifact." The other added.

"Right. Or Pelts. There's nothing special about the town except as a waystation. And it's just about the only civilization for miles around"

Taryn sidled (or scuttled) up with a happy Lydia sitting on her abdomen and holding onto her human waist, the spider equivalent of piggy-back. Angel had tried to protest this mode of transportation, but Lydia had whined so loudly that her feet hurt and Taryn had assured him ten times over that she didn't eat people and was only mildly venomous, besides the fact that she was rather fond of the little one, that finally Angel had given up and just walked sullenly beside them, keeping a sharp eye on Taryn and Lydia to make sure his sister was safe with the spider.
Lydia was too young to realize the implications of the village being gone; she figured someone had just decided to move it. People moved from place to place all the time; why not take their house with them? She did however find the incident involving Dee to be quite amusing and giggled loudly from behind Taryn. Of course, this drew attention to the fact that there was now a massive spider-like being standing in the clearing with them, and Taryn had to smile and shake several hands before everyone was calm again.
The new information about the village perplexed Angel. Why would whatever did this want to destroy it, then, if it wasn't that important?
"Maybe that's it," Taryn said suddenly, in her quiet feminine voice. "Since it's the only town around here, maybe it wanted to force everyone into the forest to find more civilization. Destroying an important waystation like this would cause widespread confusion, which might seem pleasing to something driven mad with power..." She meant, of course, the holder of the Soul, but only trailed off, looking around with calm, inquiring eyes at the destruction.

"Eh? Find more civilization?" The merchants were confused by the spider-woman's words. "Unless you meant that whatever it is is trying to drive people away, there isn't anything remotely like civilization near here unless you count those old ruins that popped up recently. Alot of folk went to check it out, so I hear"


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Dee meanwhile turned his attention from the ground to the sky. There were a few distant dots, circling the area from high above.

He squinted, trying to resolve the shapes into a distinct form, but unlike most dragons, his kind was relatively short sighted. "Barely better than a human.." He muttered sulkily.

Time to put something to the test.

"MERCHANT!" He barked, suddenly bounding back to the group. The human flinched away from his charging bulk.

"What?!"

"Do you have fabric?" Dee pressed his head against the nervous man's.

"Wh-what?!" He looked terrified.

"Fabric. Silk, preferrably."

"Uh.. Yes... Some.. HEY!" He protested as Dee started clawing through the merchant's cart, knocking aside boxes and bursting open cartons of spices, armor, jewelery, until he found a long roll of shimmery golden fabric. Grabbing one end in his teeth he charged around the open space like a mad beast, waving the fabric in the air like a streamer and romping like a child.

"Has- has your dragon gone mad?!" The merchant gaped.

"I hope you can pay for all this!" The other exclaimed.

"Well..." began Trrrb. "That is either, the worst Directive Dance I have ever seen - since I don't think mortal beings can go in twenty seven directions at once - or he is trying to attract attention. And I must say he certainly has mine. As for the silk... well I don't think it's going to rip from something like this. It's a tough fiber, if you imported reputably."

William was silent for a while, observing the whole picture, the ruined village, the strange circumstances of its' disappearance, and how it was destroyed. Recent events started clicking in his head as he thought, just standing there and rubbing his chin. He watched Dee take the silk and start running around with it, but paid no mind.

What Taryn said finally brought him to speak. "...I have a theory. Or a possible explanation as to the destruction of this village. Now, I don't know the extent of the powers of the beast in possession of the Soul, but it very well could be the culprit here." William raised himself into the air on a chunk of earth to observe the scene better.

"We were told the beast in possession of the Soul has been seen as an enormous serpent. The impressions in the earth look like a snake's tracks in soft dirt." He looked to one of the merchants. "You say this was a popular adventurer hub? That could have been the reason for its disappearance. A place full of potential enemies of the beast logically would be eliminated to lessen the chance of its destruction. It may be mad, but not stupid."

He lowered himself back to the ground and rejoined the group. "Yes, I'm almost certain of it. The beast with the Shifter's Soul must have done this. Now what is Dee doing?"

Angel watched the scene in annoyed stupefaction. He had never thought much of this dragon that his sister had spent so much time dangerously close to, and these new antics added to his distaste. The dragon was obviously out of his head and therefore unfit to be around delicate children like Lydia.
Lydia, on the other hand, thought this new activity a delightful game and scrambled off of Taryn's back to run toward the prancing dragon and try to grab the other end of the fabric. She tripped and tumbled several times in her play, but never caught the end of the silk.
Taryn, who had observed Dee's long look at the sky before he began, tilted her head upward, shading her eyes to get a better view. Spiders were not known for their vision, but she also could make out the tiny shadows circling overhead. "I think he's trying to signal those...things...up there," she concluded, pointing above them.

If anyone had asked Dee, 'Signal' wouldn't quite be the word he'd use. It would be more along the lines of... tempt... Or lure. Just as humans sought gemstones because they could not fashion such raities for themselves, so did most beastial creatures seek fabric. Gems were for catching a mate, but fabric was luxury. Could you imagine a dragon sitting at a loom? No.

So, shining silken fabric in hand-er.. teeth, Dee was attempting to tempt the high-fliers. The frolicking was as much to catch their attention, as to show 'woo, look how fun and amazing this thing I have is'

And it seemed to work. The specks grew from the size of a flea, to that of a fly, to that of a small bird, a large bird, a horse, bigger still. Three, four.. Five of them. White and gold in varying shades, with a somber gray-black one hanging back a short way. One drifted in close, snapping at Dee's fabric with a canine face, but they were legless, like a long, furred, winged serpent. Though it dwarfed Dee, the dragon just pulled the silk away and ignored them. This was /his/. A prize worth keeping, or trading.

When the large beasts couldn't steal away the golden prize, they settled to the ground, wings stirring up dust and dirt, trees creaking if they chose to perch on them. The smallest of them was easily six feet wide at the shoulders, and the large dark one must have been twice that. On the ground, they walked on the 'knuckles' of their wings, haf crawling, half slithering forwards.

"What is that?" "I want it" "Give it here, Riverborn!" They chattered like birds, crowding the dragon until he had to retreat to the group, and then they were surrounded.

"Well everybody, Meet the SkyHounds."

Aengus whistled in surprise as he surveyed these fuzzy new arrivals. Admittedly, he felt a bit ashamed at having not noticed them sooner. He was usually much more observant than that. But, what with the total disappearance of an entire town, his oversight was understandable. "These guys seem a bit bigger than the ones I remember. Then again, like I said earlier, it has been a while, & I don't think I've ever seen one on the ground before."

Though Aengus was eager to find out what the SkyHounds might know, he trusted Dee to deal with them for the moment, & instead decided to get a bit more information from the merchants before they could scurry away. "So, you mentioned some ruins? What kind of ruins, exactly? Any idea on their possible significance? Location? Any sort of valuable information? I assure you, we can compensate you for said information, should it prove valuable. And for the silk as well, obviously."

True, the information regarding the ruins wasn't necessarily of vital importance. However, it could turn out to be a profitable little side trip, if nothing else. And, best case scenario, it would end up being their next destination, & the information that might be gained from the merchants would prove invaluable in the location & exploration of said ruins. True, the best case scenario is seldom the case, but it's better to have all of your bases covered.

Lydia had finally caught hold of the end of the fabric when Dee slowed in his frolic as the SkyHounds descended. She giggled triumphantly and tried to wave it about as the dragon had done to continue in his game, but he did not want to seem to play anymore. Her back was to the descending creatures so she did not see them until she noticed the look of panic and terror on her brother's face as he followed the approach of the SkyHounds with his eyes. Finally she turned to see what was so scary, squeaked in surprise as one of them tried to snap the fabric out of the air and Dee pulled it out of her hands to get it away. When the dragon retreated, so did she, but a bit more slowly, so awed by the massive creatures. But they did not seem interested in her, so she didn't feel as though she needed to rush away.
As soon as she was close enough that he would not have to take one step closer to the Hounds, Angel grabbed his sister and pulled her into a tight protective embrace. Taryn watched them both with some degree of amusement, then turned her eyes back to the SkyHounds. Such majestic creatures, and yet they had the same greedy weaknesses as all dragons: shiny things, especially shiny things that belonged to someone else. Well, she supposed, every creature had their tendencies.

William watched the SkyHounds descend with a look of some displeasure. He wasn't much a fan of flying high, and by that, "high" meant above his own head. A whopping five feet ten inches. Sure, he would hover a foot or so off the ground on a chunk of earth to speed things along, but he didn't like the idea of not having solid ground to stand on. Not his thing.

"So... These are SkyHounds?" The edges of his mouth drew apart in a further frown.

"SkyHound?" One of the creatures wrinkled it's nose. "That sounds so... No, we'd rather be called AirBorn"

"Yeah, and in ten minutes when you ask them again, they'll change it to something else." Dee sniggered quietly.

"Dragon, are you willing to trade?" Another was nosing the fabric where it trailed on the ground.

"You don't keep much, AirBorn." Dee said, all politeness. "So I will give this to whoever lends their wings and their eyes. Until we find our goal." Almost immediately they all began to press forwards to volunteer, but the big dark one shouldered aside the others.

"Where are you going and what do you seek?" He almost growled.

Dee nodded towards the other members of the party. "Where is what we are trying to figure out right now, but as for what, we're looking for the Shifter's Soul"

"What is that?"

"It's an item that allows one to change form, but at the price of madness. It's told that the current bearer is black with runes, and has eyes as red as fire"

The large beasts flinched away. "The Shadowformed-BlackWater-StormShifter" The smaller ones muttered among themselves, each clearly having their own name for it. "We've seen it- It came upon us like smoke and death. But it does not have mastery over the sky and so we lost it in a thunderstorm."

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Meanwhile the merchants were a little taken aback by the sudden crowding of the large beasts, but, Angus' questioning drew them from focusing too much on that.

"Uh? Oh- Well you can spot them right along the pass outta here. Swear I've taken that route a thousand times, but all of a sudden, one day ,there it is, sitting in the middle of the forest, looking like it's been there for millenia. Trust me, you can't miss it."

"Haven't been to see it up close, but it's ringed around a small mountain- Which just makes it even crazier that we've missed it, I know. It's walled, kinda looks like this" The merchant took a stick and drew two circles, one within the other, with several lines connecting the two. It looked a little like a wagon wheel.

A SkyHound-or Airborn, whichever- Peered at the crude drawing and yelped, jumping back. A flurry of barking erumpted from the group as they talked among themselves, agitated.