The Artisans District ~The RP~

[Anakoni]

*Inside the envelope was a single tarot card: The Fool. A moment later, the card exploded, sending hundreds of threads in every direction, wrapping around whatever they touched and anchoring themselves to the walls and the ground. They slowly began to sap away the magical energies of those the constricted, just fast enough to be a worry.*

"You shouldn't open letters from strangers." *Xio's voice preceeded him as he exited the portal, a Crystal Ball hovering out behind him. It orbited him slowly, the inside of it stirring with fog.*

"Now, i'll ask once more. Give me the sword."  

[ZombieJeff]

The zombie and the other undead were caught in the blast, but the lich king semmed to blur and fade from existence, "Nice to take an ethreal jaunt once in a while, Isn't it?", said the lich king, as his figure semed to partialy re solidify in the same place, the blury form of his dagger apeared, and snaped all the strings that would block his reaperance.

"Thats why I didn't open it." he said confidently. His minions were strugling against the strings, but semmed unafected by the draining powers, indeed, they had no magic to drain. The only one that seemed to react to that power at all was the large form of the dvourer, and it was angry not pained. The strings were siping away at the essence it carried with it. It roared angrily and tore the threads from its boddy.

The lich king gave a fiendish smile, "I'm afraid I'm alredy quite attached to this blade, I have greater plans than you could comprehend and I'm not about to abandone those for some card using, carnival quality, fortune teller." he held up a hand, "Get him boys." the devour let out a unholy roar and rushed the man, the zombies following suit. THe wights stod gaurd, circling the man. The two phantoms launched an offensive against the mans crystal ball, attempting to destroy it from the ethreal plane.

The lich king began a flurry of spells, but pu almost all on delay. "Dancing Shakles!" he comanded thrusting his hand forward. From his sleves sprang bizzare metal chains, which lunged like snakes, atempting to grasp the mans wrists.  

[Anakoni]

*Xio leapt backwards, throwing out "The Knight". The card burst, and a large Claymore and Tower shield appeared, flying around him. The shield just barely managed to deflect the shackles, as the Claymore came down hard, attempting to slice the shackle's at the chain.*

"Impressive. But if i'm carnival quality, then you must be something out of a road-side freakshow." *The crystal ball shot up above the two phantoms, and from it erupted bolts of ethereal lightning, filling the air randomly with jagged beams of incorporeal energy.*  

[ZombieJeff]

"Well thats a good thing," said the lich king, letting the shakles fall limp and disconect from his arms, "I always liked those beter when I was young." the devourer grabed the tower sheild, and flung it to one side, a hungry grin crossing its face. the zombeis took hold of the claymore and broke it with their combined strenght. The phantoms retreated to the material plane, and lunged at the crystal in midair, attempting to graple it.

"Zounds, its been quite some time since I was able to have some fun." the lich king began to form a large ball of dark energy between his hands. "Now wights, FLUX formation." The wights laughed, and their hands begin to shine with a grey energy, the mark of life draiing touch. They lunged in the cirlce formation towards the man, four atempting to jump from above. Meanwhile, the lich ing let the dark energ slip into the ground...  

[Anakoni]

*Xio shook his head slowly, and pulled out two more cards, one in each hand. He flips around the card in his right hand, revealing it to be The High Priestess. The card begins to glow, and a pillar of holy energy cast forth, enveloping the Devourer, and blanketing the area in a bright, holy light.*

"Hmph. I may have to get serious..." *The crystal ball began to spin rapidly, a disk of energy forming around it, making it seem almost like a saw blade made of pure power.*  

[ZombieJeff]

The devourer was engulphed and let out an agonized roar before it fell over lifeless. The essence inside its rib cage had been sent on to the next world by the power of that attack. WIthout that essence to feed off of, the devour could neither move nor think, it was good a statue as far as this fight was concerned.

The zombies had stubled out of the way, and had fallen over due to thir poor balance. THey spent the time to strugle to their feet.

The phantoms once again retreated to the astral plane, and hurried into some near by dumpsters. From them could be heard the murmuring words "confinment" as they vanished from view. One dumpster lurched slightly.

The Lich king delayed the further efects of the flux spell, not wanting to use it to early, instead he cast, "STRENGTH OF THE COLD HEART" upon the group of wights, enhancing their endurance and resiliance. The circle then made impact with Xio, there grasping hands and slashing claws draining him of vital energy. The lich king gave a comand to them, "Leave him with enough to live, just disable him from fighting." The wights noded begrudgingly in compliment to the comand.  

[Anakoni]

*As they tore through Xio, it soon became apparent that it wasn't a man they were attacking, but rather, a marionette. The remaining card was The Sun, and as it turned face up, a blinding light erupted from it, the light hot enough to melt paint from walls.*

*The crystal ball swirled around, and suddenly shot off into the distance, leaving the scene in the blink of an eye.*  

[ZombieJeff]

The wrights were caught in the blast, but the Lich used the flux spell to block the blast of light, protecting himself. He surveyed the his injured forcess... he wasn't about to lose them. "Retiris" he says, and the group of chared rights and the devourer vanish into the ground. The phantoms pulled themselves out of confinment and the zombies aproached.

"Well, lets see what this thing is cpable of, before we can have any oher interuptions." The Lich King catiously grasped the blades handle, griped and began to tug. However his mind filled with images.

"Damn a requirement to unsheath. Alright, phantoms go get the ones with the best motor skills, and send some which can talk to get some suplies. Were playing house..."  

[Sou Jara]

laughter echoed along the streets and signs of jarian began apearing at the edges of the district
eagerly awaiting what was to come  

[ZombieJeff]

"Quiet you." comanded the Lich King, holding a hand at the sign. His hand lit up, and a bolt of lighting lept from it, stricking the sign.

"Its only by my good graces that this is hapening." The first of the malual skilled undead were showing up.  

[Kokuwagata]

Walking along the ground, there's a sinister man in a white suit. He looks up and grins observing the fight. Within a few moments, worms, and other parasites begin to crawl out of his mouth along with copious amounts of smoke.

In a flash of sister blue flames a pair of black crow wings with a wingspan of 10 feet emerge from the smoke, and a fly's head peers out from the top of a humanoid body 10 feet tall. His hands end in gnarled claws at the end of long lanky arms, jet black with writhing blue symbols. In one arm is a Great Knife...long and covered in blood...with a large eye sticking out of one side. He feet were also clawed. The presence of large numbers of vermin seemed to increase his power. They swarmed around his feet, and some were absorbed into him. The muscular frame...seemed to droop and put on fat...his stomach distended slightly...the skin sagged somewhat...there was now an even more potent odor around him. A second pair of sickly wings smaller than the first came out...cockroaches and flies surrounded him in a cloud until he dismissed some which allowed his disgusting and terrifying full visage to be seen...here in the slums, where suffering from filth and pestilence was waxing...he had more powers.

He flew up into the air as the Great Knife seemed to become alive...veins creeped along the sides...

He held up his free hand, and sat in midair, mimicking the pose of "The Devil" in the Rider-Waite Tarot deck, besides the Lich King.  

[ZombieJeff]

The Lich King turned to face the beast. "Ah, and how have you been?" he seemed iunsuprised, and holding his wlking stick by its base, did a fair impersonations of "La Muerte" only with clothes.

In the distance, shambling figures could bee seen bringing all manner of building suplies.

"I must apologize for being out for so long, but as seems to be the case in this damnable city, one thing always leads to another..."  

[Kokuwagata]

"I kept myself occupied, it's not a problem."

He raised his claws up and pointed at Xio.

All manners of vermin, flies, wasps, beetles swarm towards him, covering him in a swarm of clawing, biting, swarm. The swarm seems to grow by the second, all the filth pouring out of every tenement building.

While Xio is struggling with the swarm darting and swelling around him, "Forgive me sir, I attacked you without introducing myself. Where are my manners. I am Legion. For We are One of Many."  

[Anakoni]

*The Marionette remained unresponsive. Rather, it's wooden and metal body simply layed where it was as it was eaten. Suddenly, it's face opened, and a small tube came out, loosing a high-pitched whine. Then, there was silence.*  

[ZombieJeff]

The Lich king supervised the marching undead, smiling. "The fool thinks himself quite the tricky fellow. We should keep an eye out for him latter..." the Lich king holds out a hand to one side and launches a vortex of monstrous fangs at an unocupied and dilapedated building, anihalating it instantly. "... I won't be quite so mercifull. Start rebuilding here, but do make sure to get the residents and their belongigns out before demolishing the buildings."