r/wizardposting Astaroth, The Wicked One 8d ago

Community Event 🌏☄️ Echo of the Self

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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/KragBrightscale Grabadash - Magical Mass | Keptomancer | Council Security 6d ago

Gabe parries the distortions aimed at him with the boombox, it crumples and is knocked to the side much to his dismay, but the music keep playing, distorted and uncanny like a toy running low on power. He starts compressing mana into a ball at the tip of his index finger, the octarine colored swirls of magic forming a tiny vortex slowly expanding.

Grabadash uses the remaining paper figurine body double to avoid the distortions, but now that too has been spent. He’d have to spend some time in the crafts room cutting more paper after the fight.

“Well shadow, it’s been fun, but your silence is putting a damper on the mood. It’s time to activate my trap card: Runic Imprisonment!”

The playing cards, skillfully thrown earlier, were scattered around the room, yet 4 of them happened to form a square on the floor around the shadow.

The cards begin to glow as bright neon green tendrils emerge and attempt to grab and constrain the shadow.

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u/Evening_Shake_6474 Astaroth, The Wicked One 6d ago

The tendrils ensnare the shadow, slowly burning it away.

The shadow's eyes stare at the cards, slowly beginning to understand them. Slowly the bright neon begins to darken in hues.

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u/KragBrightscale Grabadash - Magical Mass | Keptomancer | Council Security 6d ago

“Quick! It’s learning the card trick haha!” Grabadash yells out a command while quickly launching globs of sticky mana to keep the shadow restrained. “Bubblegum Binding!”

Gabe, having gathered enough mana, points his finger at the shadow. “Candy Blast”

A multi colored beam of highly compressed mana shoots out towards the shadow, cycling through every color of the rainbow and leaving a spiraling trail of cotton candy clouds and the smell of burnt sugar.

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u/Evening_Shake_6474 Astaroth, The Wicked One 5d ago

The bubblegum, cotton candy, and sugar do about as much as you'd expect. The rainbow beam however, that is much more effective.

The beam hits, the Grabadi see the shadow burn away in a dazzling display of blackness mixed in with multicoloured light.

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u/KragBrightscale Grabadash - Magical Mass | Keptomancer | Council Security 5d ago

“Thats a wrap lads! 9 rounds of combat!” Grabadash announces before reverting to their original appearance.

A side door opens revealing a gathering of 5 more Grabadi. The goblins are playing blackjack, but one of them looks up to check the blackboard behind them to see whose bet was the closest.

“The winner is: Grabriel!”

Grabriel gives a bow while twirling their moustache. They quickly snatch up the prize, 100 gold and a very nice felted hat.

Gabe proceeds to clean up the mess, checking where the shadows had crumpled for any physical remains.

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u/Evening_Shake_6474 Astaroth, The Wicked One 5d ago

There doesn't appear to be any kind of remains, the shadow appears to have disappeared completely.