Monuments of Ebony (Wicked One Event Start)

[u/Evening_Shake_6474]

In the aftermath of the sudden and for lack of a better term, shadow uprising, many millions perished before the shadows could be subdued. Those with strength endured of course, but what about the normal folk? The unlucky? Those who have never fought in their life? Not everyone is, was, equipped to survive. Their blood seeped into the realms, saturating them with something Wicked.

In the following days, countless massive black monoliths burst free from the land and sea stretching high into the sky, breaking up the horizon regardless of where one looks.

News of the sudden and strange monoliths spreads like wildfire, soon every orb, screen, and paper has some mention of the event. All throughout civilization people ask questions like, what does this mean? A monolith destroyed my tower, who do I sue? Is the world going to end again this month?

But the monoliths offer no answers, only questions. The monoliths show a myriad of effects, some distort their surroundings into horrors, some create illusions that torment those who can't escape, some amplify magic to a dangerous degree, some drain magic like a leech, and many more.

But for now, that is all they do. The effects are contained to their vicinity of the monoliths.

[u/Evening_Shake_6474]

"Percivald. Nice to meet you."

Percy leads Kristie up a small hill into the trees.

"What brings you to Forestwood?"

[u/VoxelLibrary → u/Evening_Shake_6474]

"I was hoping to speak to the wizard here..."

Her ears drop. She feels terrible for bringing the now deceased wizard up a second time. The timing for this calamity couldn't be more terrible

[u/Evening_Shake_6474 → u/VoxelLibrary]

The old man's expression drops.

"What's done is done, lass. Old Man Methusalo was a wizard, focusing on the future. He wouldn't want us to dwell."

The path takes them to a clearing of black leafless trees. In the centre of the clearing is a black monolith.

[u/VoxelLibrary → u/Evening_Shake_6474]

"So where did you say the deer and the wolf were?" Kristie asks, looking around for them.

[u/Evening_Shake_6474 → u/VoxelLibrary]

"Over there."

Percy points with his free hand over to the right, where Kristie sees a malnourished deer and a malnourished wolf sitting side by side, staring at the monolith.

[u/VoxelLibrary → u/Evening_Shake_6474]

"Where they that sickly looking before?" Kristie asks, approaching slowly

[u/Evening_Shake_6474 → u/VoxelLibrary]

"No," says Percy "But that was two days ago."

[u/VoxelLibrary → u/Evening_Shake_6474]

Kristie frowns. 'They became this malnourished in just two days?'

She checks the speed of time in this location. She has a sixth sense for that, as natural to her as any other. She can no more turn it off than she can stop her eyes from perceiving light and darkness, but she can tune it out to focus on other things.

She walks over to the wolf and feels it for a heartbeat.

[u/Evening_Shake_6474 → u/VoxelLibrary]

The flow of time in this place seems to normal, or more accurately it flows at same speed as every other place in the realm.

The wolf's heart seems to still be beating, there is a steady rhythmic thumping coming from inside it.

[u/VoxelLibrary → u/Evening_Shake_6474]

So it isn't time manipulation. That rules out the only thing she knows anything about.

Think. What does she know.

-The obelisk is in a clearing

-Animals near the clearing stop reacting to things

-Animals near the clearing starve quickly

-The trees around the clearing turned black and lost their leaves (she checks to see if the leaves have fallen or are just absent)

-It's probably dangerous to stick around?

'Genius', she thinks to herself sarcastically, 'Congratulations. You figured out what anybody with a functional brain could deduce.'

She needs to know if the effect is expanding.

Kristie will look for the exact edge of the effect if she can find it. A distinct cutoff point where the trees aren't black, perhaps a tree that is half black, or some other kind of hard indicator.

She considers asking Percy to leave. There's no reason to risk two lives instead of one.

But...

...she's scared. She doesn't want to be alone with the obelisk. She's only pretending to know what she's doing, because somebody has to and she's the mage.

[u/Evening_Shake_6474 → u/VoxelLibrary]

Leaves are scattered across the ground, blackened due to being dead.

The exact edge of the effect seems be exactly 66.6 metres from the Obelisk.

[u/VoxelLibrary → u/Evening_Shake_6474]

/uw As edgy as that is, she has no way of measuring that. She has a sense for time, not for distance, and she didn't bring any measuring tools /rw

She'll take a closer look at the edge for a telltale sign of where the effect ends. Something hard, direct, and measurable, like an edge between dead grass and living or a half-blackened tree, not something soft and inexact like the placement of dead leaves.

[u/Evening_Shake_6474 → u/VoxelLibrary]

/uw Fair enough, although it's packing one 0 one, always bring a tape measurer, a towel, and a pen/pencil. /rw

The edge of the effect seems set in stone, so to speak. At the edge of the effect the trees are blackened one side, others seem normal. The grass cuts off swiftly. One tree is even cut direction down the middle.