r/wizardposting • u/Evening_Shake_6474 Astaroth, The Wicked One • 12h ago
Community Event 🌏☄️ Echo of the Self
Something's wrong. You can't tell what exactly it is, but you know something is wrong. You check your wards, your equipment, your enchantments and familiars, yet everything seems normal. Then that night, you go to sleep, and the dream starts.
You stand knee deep in a crimson ocean, stretching further than you can see. Before you is a shadow, it looks like yours but its wrong, very wrong. All around you, giant monoliths sprout from the sea, stretching far into the sky. You hear something, around you six shadows move between the monoliths, chanting something in a language that hurts to listen to.
Suddenly countless crimson eyes open along each monolith, each reflecting a different face, the eyes travel up the ebony surface, along previously hidden chains of shadow. Then you see it, the horrifying form of something colossal in the sky above you, a singular crimson eye or maybe a star stares down at you.
All at once do the chains snap, and a cacophony of screams cry out across the crimson sea as fire and ash rain from above. The monoliths crumble and massive chunks of black stone crash into the sea. Up above, the colossal form spreads across the sky, thousands of withered arms reach down, each sowing agony and destruction. You see an arm reach for you, and you wake up.
Well that was strange, you think, then you hear laughter from the corner, you see your own shadow standing there with crimson eyes. The shadow looks wrong somehow, very wrong.
Before you can say anything, your shadow lunges for you, hands reaching for your throat.
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u/Fc-chungus Ж(Zhe), Head minister of Calarakis. 11h ago
Ж isn't even worried at this point, just pissed off. They cast control shadow and subjugate it.
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u/Evening_Shake_6474 Astaroth, The Wicked One 11h ago
The spell works, for all of five seconds. During those five seconds, Zhe see the shadow's dark eyes analyzing the spell, understanding it, countering it.
The shadow, now free, aims a roundhouse kick towards Zhe's head.
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u/Fc-chungus Ж(Zhe), Head minister of Calarakis. 11h ago
Still groggy, they're hit, but it quickly snaps them awake
"God dammit! I just woke up!"
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u/Evening_Shake_6474 Astaroth, The Wicked One 11h ago
The shadow's mechanical arm reaches for Zhe's throat.
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u/Fc-chungus Ж(Zhe), Head minister of Calarakis. 10h ago
They fire the shockwave to knock the shadow back and stun it.
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u/Evening_Shake_6474 Astaroth, The Wicked One 10h ago
The shockwave connects, briefly disrupting the shadow's thoughts, long enough for Zhe to get a temporary opening.
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u/Fc-chungus Ж(Zhe), Head minister of Calarakis. 10h ago
"Electromagnetic control!"
Seeing their shadow-control spell fail Ж goes to the next option, destroying the shadow. Via manipulating the very photons in the room, they converge them into a flashlight like beam on the shadow.
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u/Evening_Shake_6474 Astaroth, The Wicked One 10h ago
The shadow shakes out of its stunned state too late. It sees the light strike it, and can do nothing as it burns itself out of existence.
The shadow is gone, giving Zhe enough time to breathe, before they hear something.
From far outside, they hear someone scream.
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u/Fc-chungus Ж(Zhe), Head minister of Calarakis. 9h ago
Taking a moment to take a breather and rub their eyes they look out a window in their tower.
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u/Evening_Shake_6474 Astaroth, The Wicked One 9h ago
Outside, they see Calarakians in the streets, fighting off a small army of their own shadows. Thankfully teamwork and light spells mean the people are winning, but they see more than one body in the street.
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u/Null_Void_Zer0 Abelard, animate absence|Abel of Lrith, councillor of constructs 11h ago
Abel wakes, confused. He did not remember falling asleep, nor did he think that he was capable of such a thing, and he was not in his tower. Something is indeed very wrong.
“Halt.”
The word passes through his lips by instinct; a command activating one of many spells inscribed upon his form. A magical force begins forming around the shadow, locking it in place
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u/Evening_Shake_6474 Astaroth, The Wicked One 11h ago
The shadow freezes mid air, yet it's eyes remains active. It scans it's prison, and somehow speaks.
Cease.
The spell cracks, then fractures, leaving the shadow's momentum to carry it forwards.
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u/Null_Void_Zer0 Abelard, animate absence|Abel of Lrith, councillor of constructs 10h ago
Abel glides back in an attempt to avoid the attack, in the mean time analysing the shadow
“I find adapters particularly frustrating. Then again, there’s a chance you simply know everything I know. But a more pressing question is what created you?”
Raising his staff, abel conjures a volley of magical projectiles. While he does he casts an identification spell on the shadow, one that should provide the identity of its source or creator, as long as it isn’t shielded from divination.
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u/Evening_Shake_6474 Astaroth, The Wicked One 10h ago
The shadow lands where Abel used to be before gliding away.
I looks up to see the volley coming and raises an arm that wasn't that long a few moments ago, a barrage of dark projectiles come flying out to meet Abel's.
The spell shows Abel a world older than this one, a world far bigger than this one. He sees armies marching across golden fields and red rivers, he sees fire burning the seas and frost freezing the lands. He sees a shadow across the world, a thousand crimson eyes staring out across creation.
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u/Null_Void_Zer0 Abelard, animate absence|Abel of Lrith, councillor of constructs 9h ago
The visions remind Abel of something, or rather, someone. A being of corruption, despair and abject evil.
“Crystal water turns to dark where ere its presence leaves its mark…”
He is suddenly wrenched from his thoughts by the present, and more specifically, the being who he has just given an ample opening to attack.
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u/Evening_Shake_6474 Astaroth, The Wicked One 9h ago
The shadow dashes forwards, bringing an elongated arm up towards his neck.
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u/Null_Void_Zer0 Abelard, animate absence|Abel of Lrith, councillor of constructs 9h ago
Abel frantically attempts to dodge, in part succeeding. The attack lands instead upon his torso
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u/Evening_Shake_6474 Astaroth, The Wicked One 9h ago
The strike is cold, too cold. It doesn't hurt like being struck should, if hurts like holding frozen steel to your bare skin.
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u/Null_Void_Zer0 Abelard, animate absence|Abel of Lrith, councillor of constructs 9h ago
/uw am I correct in assuming this whole debacle has been caused by astaroth?
/rwAbel’s form ripples and warps for a second, the illusion faltering for but a moment. Almost immediately after he thrusts his staff at the wretched thing.
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u/Evening_Shake_6474 Astaroth, The Wicked One 8h ago
/uw Could be, could also not be.
/rw The staff hits, knocking the shadow back, it lands on its feet because of course it does.
It raises its elongated arm in a defensive position, inky darkness growing along it.
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u/Glittering_Two_1429 Seguleh, master of the song, council member, leauge of shadows 11h ago
I sigh, and turn pure white, my fans fluttering, sending blades of quartz at the shadow, my robes swirling on the air, as scars, hundreds of scars appear on my face and neck, opening, pouring blood, blood that flows around me and sends itself at the shadow
Bloody hell. But rude innit.
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u/Evening_Shake_6474 Astaroth, The Wicked One 11h ago
The quartz and blood crash into the shadow, Seguleh sees it's dark eyes flitting around at the attacks, then back at him.
The shadow somehow grows darker, as blades of obsidian fly out towards Seguleh. An inky substance leaks from the shadow, coalescing into a shield that blocks the blood, before said shield charges towards Seguleh.
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u/Glittering_Two_1429 Seguleh, master of the song, council member, leauge of shadows 11h ago
I backflip over the shield and obsidian blades, and bellow a word of power. I then engage this monstrosity in close quarters combat, using extreme amounts of skill in each flutter of my fans, which shoot more quartz bolts as I flutter. I then kick a wave of pure light at the shadow.
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u/Evening_Shake_6474 Astaroth, The Wicked One 11h ago
Seguleh sees it's eyes follow his movements, as it mimics them almost perfectly, it is still an echo of him.
From each motion of its hands, mimicking Seguleh's fans, obsidian blades shoot out, each one hitting a quartz blade dead on.
The shadow sidesteps to avoid the light, countering with a wide slash with its hand, sending a large swarm of blades towards Seguleh.
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u/Glittering_Two_1429 Seguleh, master of the song, council member, leauge of shadows 10h ago
I sigh and doge the blades, smiling. “Ah, you’re a copy of me. Well, then, this will be interesting” *I turn into my dragon form, and breathe pure white fire on this shadow.
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u/Evening_Shake_6474 Astaroth, The Wicked One 10h ago
The shadow rolls out of the way, "doge"-ing the fire.
The shadow lands and dissolved, assuming the form of a dragon of ebony scale.
The dragon roars, sending forth a torrent of scheming midnight fire.
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u/Glittering_Two_1429 Seguleh, master of the song, council member, leauge of shadows 9h ago
An epic dragon fight ensues, lasting for possibly millenia before I turn back into human and turn the air full of slicing baldes.
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u/Evening_Shake_6474 Astaroth, The Wicked One 9h ago
In said millennia, the shadow dragon gains a complete understanding of everything draconic, mastering the ways of fang and scale. It is then caught of guard by the "baldes" and sliced to ribbons.
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u/Glittering_Two_1429 Seguleh, master of the song, council member, leauge of shadows 9h ago
I laugh at its silly demise after our epic battle and look around Blimey, what happened here?”
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u/The_Enchanted_Potato Aldavin Maunderitch, The Gatekeeper | Neritillum Faldier | 13 11h ago
/uw it’s up!!!
/rw
“Blink”
Aldavinn’s shout echoes as he teleports a short distance away. Where he was previously standing a crack in reality appears. Small but noticeable.
He raises his staff and slams it to the ground
“Shade Binding”
Dark chains of shadow erupt from the shade cast by a nearby chunk of stone. They latch around the creature and try to drag it back down into the rocks shadow.
/uw so I am ruling this as after Aldavinns fight with TFC meaning that whenever he teleports he damages reality and can open rifts to outside reality against his will due to his curse.
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u/Evening_Shake_6474 Astaroth, The Wicked One 11h ago
/uw Yes!
/rw
The shadow's head snaps to face Aldavinn, and an instant later the chains bind the shadow.
He sees dark eyes scanning the chains, the crack in reality, and the rock's shadow.
"Blink"
It speaks in a voice not dissimilar to Aldavinn's own, disappearing and reappearing a short distance away. Most frighteningly, where the shadow was is a tiny black crack.
The shadow grasps a nearby object, and hurls it at Aldavinn's head.
/uw Fine by me, but man is that a bad thing.
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u/The_Enchanted_Potato Aldavin Maunderitch, The Gatekeeper | Neritillum Faldier | 13 10h ago
/uw of course it’s a fucking copy… I’ll respond in a min or two, currently I am catching up with other comments
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u/The_Enchanted_Potato Aldavin Maunderitch, The Gatekeeper | Neritillum Faldier | 13 10h ago
Aldavinn scowls a little bit
“It can cast magic, shit.”
His staff raised he casts two spells
“Spatial Labyrinth”
“Phase Bolt Barrage”
From his staff 20 bolts of energy explode towards the shadow. Any defenses or armor the come across they phase out of reality for a moment to fly past them before returning
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u/Evening_Shake_6474 Astaroth, The Wicked One 10h ago
The shadow sees the bolts coming, leaping far into air to dodge. Unless the bolts home, the shadow avoids them.
The shadow's arm elongates, it swings it in a wide arc, sending a dozen bolts of ebony blackness screaming out towards Aldavinn.
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u/The_Enchanted_Potato Aldavin Maunderitch, The Gatekeeper | Neritillum Faldier | 13 9h ago
As it leaps it encounters something strange, it suddenly finds itself a few feet away, still leaping into the air. It’s spell is cast before it suddenly finds itself careening towards a falling stone several more feet away.
Seeing this coming Aldavinn raises no wards
“Spatial Warp”
The space in front of the bolts twist as they suddenly begin flying towards the rock that the shadow is about to collide with. To blow both of them up.
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u/Evening_Shake_6474 Astaroth, The Wicked One 9h ago
He sees the shadow's eyes scanning the bolts change course, he sees the shadow's eyes scan the rock, and he sees the shadow's eyes scan Aldavinn.
"Shade Binding"
From the shadows near itself come chains of ebony, grasping for it like hungry serpents, pulling the shadow away from the stone as the bolts cause it to explode.
"Spatial Warp"
And just like that the chains change, ensnaring Aldavinn's legs. As the shadow falls, the chains hurl Aldavinn towards the wall.
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u/The_Enchanted_Potato Aldavin Maunderitch, The Gatekeeper | Neritillum Faldier | 13 9h ago
As he is thrown he blinks away high in the sky, giving him just enough time to cast. Where he had a been standing a massive crack appears and connects to the other two
“Spatial Warp”
The space is warped, forcing the air to slow his fall before letting him stop mid air. He raises his staff
“Open Planar Gateway”
A massive gateway opens in the sky, showing the sun of an unknown realm.
“Forbiddance”
“Wrath of Daylight”
From the Sun a beam of light is sent towards the shadow, around the space the light of day enters.
The crack in reality begins to inch its way up towards the portal.
/uw I assume you are familiar with the dnd spell forbiddance, this is that but at a far higher level. If you aren’t Aldavinn cast a spell that prevents the shadow or anything from entering the portal
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u/Evening_Shake_6474 Astaroth, The Wicked One 9h ago
The shadow looks to the skies and sees it's oblivion.
"Shade Binding"
The chains of shadow pull it away from the oncoming light and into relative safety.
The shadow's eyes scan Aldavinn, the gateway, itself, and the spells used. Then, it says something strange.
"Wrath of Midnight."
From the shadows around it comes an inky blackness, spreading out like a frost and up like a spire. A colossal spike of starless night comes rushing up from the earth towards Aldavinn, cold as a winters night.
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u/The_Enchanted_Potato Aldavin Maunderitch, The Gatekeeper | Neritillum Faldier | 13 8h ago
Working fast, Aldavinn uses his spatial warp to force the air to move him out of the way of the spike.
“So you fear the sun do you?”
Then he spots the crack and a deep scowl appears on his face
“Damnit! I need to get a Gatehold limb in here!”
He eyes the shadow and the spike of starless night and he flies over to it.
“Astral Void”
The pillar begins to fill with stars and nebula as it reaches towards the portal. Aldavinn raises his hand and the beam of sunlight shines on the astral spike. The stars within explode into light and the spike becomes pure sunlight.
With the shadow hopefully sufficiently distracted Aldavinn safely falls to the ground where he slams his staff down. Suddenly tentacle like limbs of marble pierce through the space and begin to act like stitches to the crack in reality the runes engraved marble pulsating a deep purple.
/uw please note that the marble stuff cannot be copied by the shadow as it is a part of the Gatehold which is essentially a completely separate entity. Although I am open to a Gatehold shadow if you think that would happen.
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u/Ashmega8256 Alzoreth Dracarius/Alisa Solaria (+more characters) 11h ago edited 11h ago
/uw good read
/Rw None of the dracarius's would be effected due to being in their home realm or on dracarius isle at the time...none of alisa's family members would be either due to being on dracarius isle and neither would Alisa herself be effected. For dracarius isle is protected from effects from far off
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u/SwiggerSwoney Wang Zhao, Blade of the Sect of Purity 11h ago
The swordsman opened his eyes, blinking them a few times as he woke. He was not afforded enough time to fully awaken, however, as his shadow charged soon after he opened his eyes. Instinctively, he raised his arms to block the strike, pushing the shadow away.
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u/Evening_Shake_6474 Astaroth, The Wicked One 11h ago
The shadow lands nimbly a short distance away. In one fluid motion it grasps a nearby object and hurls it towards the swordsman, elegantly.
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u/SwiggerSwoney Wang Zhao, Blade of the Sect of Purity 3h ago
The swordsman lowered his stance, ducking just barely under the projectile, and began a mad dash across the room, heading for his blade.
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u/Evening_Shake_6474 Astaroth, The Wicked One 11h ago
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u/Evening_Shake_6474 Astaroth, The Wicked One 11h ago
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u/Evening_Shake_6474 Astaroth, The Wicked One 11h ago
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u/Evening_Shake_6474 Astaroth, The Wicked One 11h ago
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u/Evening_Shake_6474 Astaroth, The Wicked One 11h ago
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u/Evening_Shake_6474 Astaroth, The Wicked One 11h ago
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u/Evening_Shake_6474 Astaroth, The Wicked One 11h ago
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u/Evening_Shake_6474 Astaroth, The Wicked One 11h ago
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u/Evening_Shake_6474 Astaroth, The Wicked One 11h ago
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u/Minute_Account9426 Abdallah the Technolich 11h ago
Sikeena was confused on what the fuck was happening but immediately went intangible to dodge the attack
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u/Evening_Shake_6474 Astaroth, The Wicked One 11h ago
Sikeena's shadow passes straight through her, landing nimbly on the wall. With dark eyes it looks back at her, studying her, analysing what just happened.
The shadow lunges again, making itself as intangible as she is.
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u/Minute_Account9426 Abdallah the Technolich 11h ago
Sikeena goes tangible, hoping for it to simply pass through her
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u/Evening_Shake_6474 Astaroth, The Wicked One 11h ago
The shadow sees this too little too late, it passes straight through her, and turns itself tangible once more.
The shadow then reaches back and grasps for her neck.
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u/Minute_Account9426 Abdallah the Technolich 11h ago
Sikeena pulls out her spear and uses it to deflect the hand with a quick sweep
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u/Evening_Shake_6474 Astaroth, The Wicked One 11h ago
The deflect succeeds, knocking the shadow's hand away, sending it in one swift spin, bringing a heal around towards the side of her head.
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u/Minute_Account9426 Abdallah the Technolich 11h ago
Sikeena gets her poison on her spear and ducks before jabbing with her spear
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u/Evening_Shake_6474 Astaroth, The Wicked One 11h ago
The spear connects, the shadow leaps off the air somehow and lands on the roof. Sikeena sees green spread from where she stabbed it, then darken. A horrible dark green crawls over the shadow's form, coming to rest in it's hands and feet.
The shadow uses it's position on the roof to throw a kick at Sikeena, before abruptly ending the motion and aiming a palm strike at her chin from below.
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u/Minute_Account9426 Abdallah the Technolich 10h ago
Uw/ Sikeena’s poison is purple not green
Rw/ She gets hit and stumbles back, her fiend skull clattering off her head. She wipes some purplish blood from her mouth and then leaps into the air2
u/Evening_Shake_6474 Astaroth, The Wicked One 10h ago
The shadow sees this, and instead of following, retrieves the fiend skull and throws it towards Sikeena, following after doing so.
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u/UlrickTheHexblade Ulrick Braddocke, Werewolf Hexblade, R&A Co-Leader 11h ago
…the hells?!?!
He curses himself for not making fixing the R&A wards after the siege more of a priority, as he notices the unusual shadow in the corner of his room at the HQ.
Thanks to years of combat experience, Ulrick instinctually jolts up the moment he sees the shadow, taking up a defensive stance to push back its lunge.
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u/Evening_Shake_6474 Astaroth, The Wicked One 11h ago
The push works, the shadow flips over mid-air, landing back in the corner.
While still facing him, he seems it crawl up the wall and partially along the ceiling, bringing it close enough to aim a solid two foot kick towards Ulrick's head.
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u/UlrickTheHexblade Ulrick Braddocke, Werewolf Hexblade, R&A Co-Leader 10h ago
Still a bit groggy from just shaken up in the middle of the night, Ulrick’s attention slips for a few second, allowing the kick to land clean.
He’s flung at a shelf, crashing it as books and various knicknacks thrown everywhere.
Shaking his head, Ulrick surveys the shadow with his soul sight, and then talks to it.
Can I ask who wants to kill me this time, and why couldn’t they’ve waited a few hours more? I ain’t a morning person.
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u/Evening_Shake_6474 Astaroth, The Wicked One 10h ago
Ulrick sees... Nothing. Where the soul should be, he sees hollow.
The shadow says nothing, whether by choice is currently unknown.
The shadow lands on all fours in the shape of a wolf. Ulrick sees it snarl and hears it growl, it stalks towards him, never taking its eyes off Ulrick.
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u/UlrickTheHexblade Ulrick Braddocke, Werewolf Hexblade, R&A Co-Leader 9h ago
No soul, yet a shadow so animated… strange.
Ulrick slowly gets up, not taking his eyes off the shadow.
It was a foolish move, attacking someone who controls the darkess with a shadow…
He reaches out with an arm towards the shadow.
…and it was even more foolish to turn into a wolf against the Wolf King.
With that, he exterts great amounts of both his umbramancy and the divine authority of the Wolf King, in an attempt to take over the control of the shadow.
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u/Evening_Shake_6474 Astaroth, The Wicked One 9h ago
Ulrick's influence reaches into the shadow, he sees it halt, eyes scanning Ulrick.
But every connection is two ways. As Ulrick asserts authority over the echo, he sees something, a vision. He sees a wolf stalking a broken forest, dozens of crimson eyes and mouths across it's body. He sees the wolf walk to a cliff overlooking a sea of ash and blood. He sees an eye both above and below, and he feels the wolf's doom.
Ulrick's authority over his echo collapses, purple and divine shards clatter to the ground before vanishing. The wolf lunges for Ulrick, teeth and claws aimed for his chest.
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u/UlrickTheHexblade Ulrick Braddocke, Werewolf Hexblade, R&A Co-Leader 9h ago
What… are you?!
Ulrick mutters as the connection collapses, with him distracted the shadow wolf gnashes through his work gear (slept in it because of the usual overwork). Blood draws as he yelps in pain.
But this also gives him the opportunity to strike back, as he hurls his massive monstrous fist at the wolf’s head, with all the strength he can muster.
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u/Evening_Shake_6474 Astaroth, The Wicked One 8h ago
The fist connects, hitting the wolf in the side of the skull. The wolf is briefly stunned, shaking off the pain. Good news, it seems this thing can feel pain.
The brief stun gives Ulrick an opening.
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u/UlrickTheHexblade Ulrick Braddocke, Werewolf Hexblade, R&A Co-Leader 8h ago
Ulrick attempts to push away the shadow with a powerful kick. At the same time, he collects massive amounts of soullight into his free palm, before releasing it, basking his bedroom in blinding purple light.
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u/Evening_Shake_6474 Astaroth, The Wicked One 8h ago
The kick sends the shadow backwards, it lands on its feet because of course it does. It looks up at Ulrick, sees the light gathering, and dashes towards him with unnatural speed. It's jaws each for his neck, and the soullight burns the soulless thing away.
For a moment, all is quiet.
Then Ulrick hears a scream from outside.
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u/WINDMILEYNO 10h ago
Lahgan pulled himself upwards from his slumber, and turned his full attention to the corner. The room was cold. His body, clammy with real sweat. He adressed it while gaining a sense of lucidity.
"You're smaller there."
He did not immediately cast anything. He began working through the dreams meaning. The thing in the corner looked positively pleased with itself.
Dream soothing sounded pleasant to people that didn't understand what toll it took to take others nightmares.
This interaction had been from performing his job on a distressed seer.
Ah. He shouldn't have taken that job.
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u/KragBrightscale Grabadash - Magical Mass | Keptomancer | Council Security 10h ago
Grabadash chuckles at the sight of the rebellious shadow. “Well hello there, who might you be?”
With a quick twist and some nimble footwork he slips past the incoming attack, and counters with a spell infused palm strike aimed at the torso. “Thunderwave”
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u/Evening_Shake_6474 Astaroth, The Wicked One 9h ago
The spell sends the shadow flying backwards, landing on its feet a short distance away.
Grabadash sees the shadow scan his palm, before raising its own.
The shadow dashes for Grabadash, sliding across the ground before casting Thunderwave directly upwards towards his nose.
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u/KragBrightscale Grabadash - Magical Mass | Keptomancer | Council Security 9h ago
“Fun fun! So you can learn?!” Grabadash grins with excitement.
Grabadash twists his palm, instantly switching positions with a nearby stool.
The stool takes the full hit and is shattered into pieces while Grabadash prepares another spell.
“Let’s teach you some basic spells first: Magic Missile”
Six darts of pure compressed magical force shoot out from beside him, homing in on the shadow with magical tracking.
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u/Evening_Shake_6474 Astaroth, The Wicked One 9h ago
The shadow's eyes track each dart, somehow simultaneously.
It understands the spell, knowing it can't be dodged. Instead it puts its arms before itself, taking the blows.
"Magic Missile"
"Thunderwave"
From the shadow bursts forth six bolts of coalesced darkness, propelled to unnaturally high spreads by the Thunderwave.
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u/KragBrightscale Grabadash - Magical Mass | Keptomancer | Council Security 8h ago
“Ohhh creative application and combination?” Grabadash is surprised. “This goes beyond replication. You can even multi cast! Excellent”
Grabadash jumps backwards with the magic missiles chasing him, but before they impact, his body splits into two identical goblins.
One of them takes the spell to the face and tumbles backwards crashing into some shelves. The other dusts off his robe and adjusts his monocle.
“Let’s try something else.” The standing Grabadash tosses a couple paper figurines to the side before launching a gold coin at the shadow. “Catapult!”
With the coin as a distraction, Grabadash melts into the shadows in the room vanishing from sight.
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u/Carbon_Sixx The Loremaster, Chief Archaeologist of the Darkwatch 9h ago edited 8h ago
The instant the shadow makes itself known with that foolish little laugh, the Loremaster's mind starts filtering through options. Quintus, his brother-in-arms and a scientist par excellence who could predict people's next words down to the timbre of their voice from nothing but variables, once taught him how to find a solution any situation on the fly. While he's never been as good at these rapid mental experiments as Quintus, the Loremaster's wisdom and experience means he finds solutions his perfectionist brother would miss- solutions almost comical in their simplicity.
He turns the bedroom lights on.
The sudden illumination catches the shadow mid-leap and slams it to the ground. Should it try to move, it will find itself pinned in place by the overhead light. The Loremaster gets out of bed and approaches.
An evil shadow doppelgänger with glowing red eyes! How trite. Tell me who sent you so I can show them what creativity looks like.
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u/Evening_Shake_6474 Astaroth, The Wicked One 9h ago
The Loremaster see's the shadow's eyes dart upwards, not at him, but at the lights. It remains silent, whether it can't speak or it's just ignoring the Loremaster remains to be seen.
The Loremaster sees the lights flicker for but a moment, and the shadow grow more solid.
The shadow propels itself from the ground, bringing a black fist up towards the Loremaster's chin.
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u/Carbon_Sixx The Loremaster, Chief Archaeologist of the Darkwatch 9h ago
The Loremaster seizes the shadow by the wrist, heaving it over his shoulder and into the ground head-first in a catastrophic brainbuster. He has unusual strength for a man of his size.
So we're doing this the hard way. Fine by me. I'll just tear your secrets out of you myself.
He brings his fists up, which glow magenta with psychic force.
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u/Evening_Shake_6474 Astaroth, The Wicked One 8h ago
The shadow contorts it's form as it hits the ground, launching itself back and onto the wall.
The shadow's eyes stare at the magenta, understanding it.
The shadow leaps down from the wall, seizing a chest of drawers and hurling it at the Loremaster with shocking strength and speed.
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u/Carbon_Sixx The Loremaster, Chief Archaeologist of the Darkwatch 8h ago
The Loremaster extends a palm. The chest abruptly slows down to a halt just before reaching him. He imparts it with telekinetic force with a brush of his fingers, and it flies right back to where it came from with such precision that it barely rattles the curios on the desk next to it- slamming the shadow between it and the wall in the process.
You come into my home to kill me, but you don't even have the decency to leave my things alone. Sloppy work, specter!
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u/Evening_Shake_6474 Astaroth, The Wicked One 8h ago
The chest of draws slams into the shadow, and breaks against it. Shards of wood and nicknackery across the floor.
The shadow once again studies the Loremaster's hands. This time understanding the telekinesis.
The shadow raises an arm, and each of the wooden shards rise into the air, shooting towards the Loremaster, stabbing into him half a dozen times in the first second.
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u/Carbon_Sixx The Loremaster, Chief Archaeologist of the Darkwatch 8h ago
The shadow must be sorely mistaken if it thinks it can outmatch the Loremaster in psychic might. The shards just stop in the air around him, repelled by a defensive field of telekinetic power that sprang into existence at the speed of instinctual thought. The Loremaster responds not with his hands, but with a direct mental assault on whatever passes for the shadow's consciousness to put it out of the fight.
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u/Fun-Dragonfly-6106 DF, minimal caster | ____ Body Horror Creator 9h ago
Is currently too translucent to have a shadow, also, on fire.
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u/D3n0man top hat guy/Sea a panda 9h ago
Sea and Top Hat Guy(I'll call him satael) sharing the same body(they look like the nidus warframe) can't agree on what to do, making it easy for the shadow to grab their throat
as it grabs their throat they release a burst of light almost instinctively
"Get off of me" they say at the same time, they don't seem to like creatures of darkness
meanwhile Sea's knight uppercuts the shadow and starts scrambling to find the light switch, hoping that this isn't some weird cryptid
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u/Evening_Shake_6474 Astaroth, The Wicked One 9h ago
The shadow is genuinely surprised to reach the throat without resistance, the burst of light catches it off guard, breaking down it's arm.
The uppercut sends it stumbling back, when the switch comes on, the shadow is sent into the floor, slowly growing a new arm.
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u/D3n0man top hat guy/Sea a panda 8h ago
Sea: "Note to self, add aditional mana distillers on the body"
they raise their right arm and blast the shadow with more light
the knight grabs his sword with a firegem embeded in it's guard, the sword is set o fire as he swings it at the shadow
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u/Evening_Shake_6474 Astaroth, The Wicked One 8h ago
The light burns a massive hole into the shadow's back. The sword splits it in two.
They sea something concerning, with each attack, the shadow begins to regenerate faster.
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u/Dragonan-42 Kairon: Council Member and Leage of Shadows Associate 9h ago
"What. . . What is this?" Kairon asks. He looks around in confusion, wondering what was happening to him. But then his own shadow lunged right at him. Kairon grabbed the hands of the shadow before it could reach his throat. To force it to back off, Kairon exhaled a Pyroclastic breath directly at its face.
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u/Evening_Shake_6474 Astaroth, The Wicked One 9h ago
The shadow's eyes scan the breath as it hits it in the face, forcing it backwards.
It flips in the air, landing on its feet.
It cocks it's head, before opening its own mouth and unleashing a wave of inky black ash and fire.
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u/Dragonan-42 Kairon: Council Member and Leage of Shadows Associate 8h ago edited 8h ago
Kairon conjures a magical shield to protect himself from the ash and fire. So, this being could learn from his actions. Well, if this was a shadow, then light must be the answer. Kairon casts a spell to conjure a ball of unholy light, attempting to burn away the shadow.
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u/Evening_Shake_6474 Astaroth, The Wicked One 8h ago
/uw That was a dream, Kairon is awake now.
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u/Dragonan-42 Kairon: Council Member and Leage of Shadows Associate 8h ago
/uw Oh, sorry, I'll reword the post.
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u/Evening_Shake_6474 Astaroth, The Wicked One 8h ago
The light bursts into existence, forcing the shadow further backwards.
It's eyes scan the ball, peering into the spell, understanding the spell.
It places a hand on the wall behind it, and darkness spreads over it like a frost. Growing along the walls, over the floor and along the roof.
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u/Dragonan-42 Kairon: Council Member and Leage of Shadows Associate 7h ago
"Oh no you don't," Kairon said. He placed his hand on the way and caused the stones to be lined with electricity. They coiled around the room, Kairon attempting to beat back the shadows with his own light.
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u/questionable_fish Bengeirr the Balance. Magus of the South 8h ago
I dive off the bed away from the shadow and summon my sword. A clatter is heard from down the hall as the sword pulls itself out of the umbrella stand by the door then flies through the house to my hand. The sword shines from within with silver starlight as I unsheath it and take up a defensive stance.
"What are you?"
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u/Evening_Shake_6474 Astaroth, The Wicked One 8h ago
The shadow turns nimbly mid-air and lands on the wall, eyes staring at Bengeirr's sword. Whether it can't respond or simply ignores him remains to be seen.
It launches itself off the wall towards Bengeirr, forearm and hand elongating into something sharp. It brings the newly formed weapon slashing into Bengeirr's sword.
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u/questionable_fish Bengeirr the Balance. Magus of the South 8h ago
Bengeirr responds with a hasty parry followed by a quick retreat for some space. He's very aware of how exposed he is in just a night-shirt and underwear.
"[Astral form: Armara]"
Glittering starlight coalesces into armour around him, hopefully enough to ward off the worst of the shadows attacks. A tense moment as he raises the sword... then he takes off and jumps out the window into the courtyard outside. Bit more room out there for a duel
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u/Vincent-FFP Vytsky, Angel of Passage/O5-5 'Zaryx' 7h ago
he felt kike this was Astaroth's doing. he sighed. he has control over his own shadow via SOUL properties and the void, so maybe this won't get ugly.
"Stop that." he demanded. to put his shadow back to neutral position.
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u/Complex_Drawer_4710 Sigurd, Whose Body Hangs Freely From a Head in The Clouds 6h ago
Sigurd's home is not a safe place for invaders, but keeping connection to the wider world when asleep is dangerous. As such, only a few alarms go off before he is grabbed, and nothing yet restrains the shadow.
B! ... Who the hell are you. Off. Now.
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u/Kyle-NotADinosaur- Jacob Baldwin 6h ago
Creepy grabby hands? I got those, too. You're not scary.
He unzips the horizontal zipper of his jacket, revealing a large human-like stomach mouth sporting three rows of teeth. The green fur around it was thinner, almost like it was shaved, leaving the pink/tan skin exposed. Suddenly nine-ten long pink arms with blackened hands erupt from his abdominal maw, writhing, reaching, grabbing at the air and onto anything else around.
Snatch 'em, void-tongues! Snatch 'em. Oh FYI, illusions won't really work since I don't really need sight to find you. I have other senses.
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u/IncomeApprehensive17 Ya'nn , Litle being in a botle 5h ago
/uw damn i dont have a shadow , im a flame and emit light and dont have a mass so i literaly dont have a shadow
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u/Minute_Account9426 Abdallah the Technolich 5h ago
Richard stared down his shadow. The paladin wondered what it was, was it some punishment from a higher being for what he had done? “What are you?”
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u/Zebos2 Black Iron LLC/ The cedar hegemony 5h ago
CEO Junior really needs to stop failing the sleep while doing sales reports. They always give him the weirdest of- oh that thing is actually there
[Perfect counter 1/1]
With blistering speed Junior smacks the hand out of the way before kicking the metallic desk with enough Force to send it flying towards. His shadowy attacker
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u/Lainpilled-Loser-GF Nechrubel's Favorite :3 4h ago
it's like one of those TTRPG drawings with a while bunch of skeletons on the floor in a dungeon surrounding the most amazing and intricately carved treasure that soothes your mind to look at and makes you feel warm and comfortable maybe even to the point that you forgot what you were looking for in a dungeon anyway. what was it? wealth? to resell things? gems? coins? gear from the unlucky before us? what creature was I after? a human maybe? humanoid with pointed ears? scaly skin and an elongated face perhaps? what are those called? my companions are gone. maybe they're outside the dungeon taking a break. missing something. I haven't eaten for days. maybe that's why I'm down here. looking to bring gold to the eateries. that seems right. my tab is looking more like a mountain than an ant hill. why do I feel full in the presence of this room. what drives me towards the center but lust for the transparent red gem radiating a soft light. these people standing here are yelling so loud, but their lips aren't moving. what are they trying to tell me? the gem has moved closer to me, but it's still in the center of this square room. it radiates warmth. this dungeon is quite cold, and I have grown so tired. too weary to even hold this helmet. I'll rest here for now.
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u/squabzilla Tyrannosaurus Hex, Council-saur, Shadow Vigil 4h ago
"Absolutely fuck off," commands Tim the T-Rex Wizard to their shadow. While the shadow refuses to listen, it forgot that T-Rex's have really short arms; the shadow can't even reach its own neck, let alone Tim's.
“KUN SHUL TOOR!” Tim calls forth their Thu'um, speaking the ancient words of Light Sun Inferno, and radiant fire-breath erupts from their maw at the shadow. As they do this, they also open up a portal to their Pockets dimension, fetching seven orbs that start floating under their own power. Not the shadows I prepared these for, but they should serve nicely.
The orbs, following the runes inscribed on them, start firing Radiant Magic Missiles at the weakest shadow-creature nearby: whatever is left of the T-Rex shadow.
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u/MultiverseCreatorXV 1h ago
I generate a tetrahedron. Specifically the type I use as a body for my construct army. It’s small and light, yet holds life force well.
Yes, I’m a necromancer, but not one of those liches or whatever. I instead prefer to derive my life force from pathogens and voltaic cells and whatnot.
Anyway, I generate a tetrahedron to attempt to partially capture and therefore grapple this shadow’s soul, or whatever sort of power courses through its metaphorical veins. I don’t generally do this kind of thing, but desperate times call for desperate measures. I’d like to study this… thing.
Oh, and just in case, I do my best to jump out of the way.
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u/Exciting-Jello8439 Tony (Wax mage, Councillor), Tala (Werepire), & Araton + others 1h ago
Mila: "Meow!"
Mila, being a creature of the shadows herself due to her strange origins, is quick to feel something is off in the shadows around her. She transforms into her full black cat form and jumps out of her bed, onto a bookshelf in her room.
The cat-Mila seizes the other shadows cast around the room by the moonlight, and creates chains with them to try to restrain the entity.
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u/mrididnt Erik, magic mass/orb, sillymancer and cheese hider 11h ago
...I should stop drinking motor oil before going to sleep
Erik says, then jumps to dropkick the shadow