Wizards' Guild

Name: Astrath
Age: 60+
Height: Varies when in disguise
Gender: Male
Race: Human
Powers: Shield/Defence/Trap Orbs, Teleporting and Sight
Bio: He is one of the last of The Scrolls, a group of magicians who protected subjects against Dark magic until neo-wizards (mages, wizards, and other magical possessed begins) wiped out their kind. They are able to Summon daimons and each is protected by a Guardian. He is hoping to rid the world of the neo-wizards and bring back the old magician way of life. Once a magician dies his Guardian is free, he wishes to help Myth win her freedom but is afraid of death.

**

At the forest edge...

By mid afternoon they were out of the forest, Myth resumed her human-form: a tall girl with golden brown curls in a leaf-green dress. Over a short distance of fields was the town of Shimloch; they could already see the sand coloured buildings and the red tiled roofs.

Carts and donkeys were entering through the guarded walls where the Wizard's Guardians stopped any they did not favour until they were bribed with several gold pieces or precious gems.

"Damn those thieves!" Astrath muttered angrily. "They'll do anything to get their hands on other peoples possessions. Damn them all!"

"Disguise?" Myth asked glumly. "Human? Pet?"

"There's no need to change, you're alright the way you are. Now where's the potion? I know I had it here somewhere." Astrath fumbled into his bundles and cursed to find his selection of herbs crushed.

"I've got it; you didn't think such a rare potion would be in your keeping." Myth conjured a strange-shaped crystal bottle with pinkish-purple liquid swirling inside. She took off the stopper and handed it to her master, the smell was sweet and seductive and her master finished it in a gulp. He let out a sigh of content, and then groaned and twisted as his form altered, his hair grew longer, his skin cleared and he grew straight and tall, until he was the same Astrath he had been over forty years ago.

“Are you done yet?”

"Yes! Yes! I feel so alive!" he replied jumping for joy.

"Stop that at once, you don't want to wear yourself out so soon."

"You're right, but this potion should last a week or so, come along." He was so different from his usual self. As a young man Astrath had been sociable and very tiresome, although Myth preferred his younger self she now remembered how much she had enjoyed his company.

I'm getting far too old for this world, she thought sadly.

"Come on slowcoach, you're not going all Mumsy on me now, are you?" Astrath laughed. She ran up to him and strode beside him making sure he wouldn't try to trip her up as he had done in the old days. "Now, I'm Greg and you're my sister Natasha. We're here in Shimloch to trade at the market. What are we here for?"

"To trade," she replied obediently.

"And you are?"

"Natasha, you're sister."

"Good, good, now don't say anything unless you're spoken to. They'd probably figure out our plan if they hear that accent of yours, these neo-wizards would be cutting our throats tonight if we're not careful. Actually change of plan, from now on you're dumb, I don't want any sound out of you, alright?"

As much as she hated the idea Myth could not agree, her 'accent' had caused arguments and unnecessary deaths before, she didn’t want anything like that to happen ever again. She nodded her head in answer and then frowned.

"We don't have anything to trade."

"Ah-ha. I knew something was wrong." Greg cracked his knuckles and took from his bundle a toy cart pulled by a large horse. He placed it on the ground before him and made a sign, circled the toy twice with his hands and flicked his fingers. The cart grew rapidly; the horse came to life neighing and whinnying and then shook itself. Greg grinned, he checked the contents they would be trading and jumped on board.

"Come on, sit." He patted the seat next to him.

"I'm not a dog, Greg!" Myth climbed aboard, lifting her skirt to prevent herself from falling. The cart was like any other when it reached the city gates, the Guardians (they were not daimons like Myth) were just ordinary humans, they took no interest in the carts contents and laughed when they heard she was 'dumb'.

I'll get them for that!

Some other day, Myth. Right now we have work to do.

(OOC: Just for future references, Dynamo is not a theif.)

Dynamo and the others waited impatiently for Shlear to return. Dynamo rapidly tapped his foot on the ground. He didn't know he was using his thunder magic at the time, so his foot tapped the ground and ninty miles per hours.

"I don't think he's coming back." Selena pointed out.

"Let's just wait a few more minutes." Dynamo replied, still tapping his foot.

Meanwhile, Astrath and Myth's cart rode along past the ground. When they passed by the group, Myth noticed how fast one of those people's foot was going. No normal human could tap his foot that fast, unless he was a mage. She thought.

(Guys, I implore you to write more substantial posts. The way I see it is this: the more you write, the more control you have over the story.

This doesn't mean you shouldn't work with your other writers or blow off existing plot-lines, but if you post conversations one sentence at a time, you guys will be stuck writing it for days.

Can you imagine writing a conversation one sentence a day? Or even two? It is agonizingly slow and other writers will get bored. Keep it going!

So, don't be afraid to make conversations with other characters. In a way, these characters belong, (in part) to you, so don't stall any longer!)

Tirel soon found himself at the end of the passage. Inside was a brilliantly lit room, the result of several torches along the inside.

Before him was an enormous pile of goods, the loot of a thousand robberies. Mountains of gold dominated the room, along with precious gems. Tirel was amazed. 5,000 coins seemed like nothing in comparison to this.

5,000 coins. Well, there was his problem. The thieves were still alive.

Taking them out would be difficult. Magic didn't effect gryphons, but swords were still quite potent. He could deal with them, but not all at once.

He needed help, who knows how many thieves were inside with him. Fortunately, however many there were, they were probably near the gate.

He now began to think quickly. If I were a defender, where would I be?

He would be at the gate, preparing to repel any attacker, more likely he would try to kill the attackers from behind the gate. Arrows would be the perfect weapon, a sword would get caught in the gate. I'd also let them get close enough, then the strongest member would try to move the gate. That would be the first volley of arrows. That way, the strongest man would get cut down. They'd then have no choice but to lay siege, but the messenger would soon return with a second force, which would hopefully be enough to repel the attackers once and for all.

Now, Tirel found himself in the enemies position with one advantage, reinforcements would not be coming for his adversary. It would be a day or so before the wizard figured it out, when he did, he would search his lair for visitors.

But wait, there was a risk involved in sending a messenger out in the first place, their would have to be some way for the messenger to signal his success. That could mean...

An arrow passed over his head. Tirel didn't need to be told twice. Without hesitation, he dived behind one of the mountains.

The Battle for Dreadnaughts Den had begun.

OOC of course not griffinkeeper! griffins are big, and have four legs. I do have a brain you know.
Also i fixed my post, with something else i mean.

I had no idea where the giant was and was perturbed because i had no chance for revenge. He was still no where to be seen.

I paced in my puppy form. I would have to somehow glue myself to the group of travelers that he was sure to come back to. I whimpered in frustration. I admit, i had nothing better to do, but it's the princable of the matter. Soon the obnoxious one solved my problem for me, even if it was in a most disagreeable way.

I was taken by surprise when i was pounced on and heard an exclamation of, "Puppy! Oh your so cute! Who is a pretty doggy then? You are! I am going to keep him, her, it" If i had not been covered in fur you could have seen me blush red from miles away.

The teen who had defended me earlier said, "fine but your taking care of it"

The lady i had gathered was called Isaure stroked me. I supposed as long as they fed me proper food i would keep the puppy guess. Or as long as i had no chance of revenge.

Walking further along the road I saw an extremely large cave covered in a huge gate, the sounds of fighting echoed from within its deep passageways. A stong gust of wind, once again, lifted me off the ground and propelled me towards the rocky area above the cave. Immediatly seeing a "well hidden" escape door, I dropped to the ground, seeing claw marks on the handle from some creature made me even more curious. Slowly lifting the door, I gingerly climbed down the ladder and moved to the shadows, only to have an arrow speeding very close to my head quickly pushing it aside with a small but strong gust it flew by, only to hear a small squak of suprise. Turning around only to see a tail dissapear over a mountain of gold. My eyes twinkled at the sight of it. "wow, t-tthats allot..." I said stunned.

"It went this way, keep firing!" someone yelled and many arrows went further down the passage burying themselves deep in the the gold. "OK! MOVE UP!!!" another person screamed and a score of large of men weilding a large assortment of weapons, but they were easily identified as dreadnaughts by the obvious dreadnaught brand on the back of their bare necks.

"ahhhh... so this is the famed dreadnaught lair, HAH!" i said a little too loudly; silently berating myself, I started to climb back up the ladder.


"Look up there on the ladder, HE'S FOUND THE SECRET ENTRANCE!!!!!!! We can't let him out alive or boss will kill us!!!" the largest yelled to his men as two of them began to climb the ladder and another pulled out a bow and was slowly nocking an arrow in the string. "KILL HIM ALREADY!!"

"Fine fine, why can't we have any fun around here anymore?" the man with the bow said and then muttering some curses under his breath. But just after somthing grabbed my leg.

"You'r gonna' di' t'day pretty boy" one of the rather large gaurds said slobbering as he slowly pulled me down and off the ladder. Falling fast towards the ground a cusion of air stopped my fall and I began to run. "E'S A MAGE!!!" he screamed jumping down cracking the floor. He was definatly not human.

"Allright, I'm tired of waiting." Dynamo said. He conjured up his thunder magic and held his arm up, pointing his index finger to the sky. It sparked slightly as Dynamo's ears twitched.

"What are you doing?" Selena asked.

"Keep quiet. I have to concentrate." Dynamo closed his eyes and concentrated as hard as he could on the static waves of energy he was sending out of his finger in all directions. As he did this, he heard static scrammbling and ringing noises. (What you would hear when you're tuning your radio)

He began to hear voices behind all the static intereferance. He focused on the voices.

KILL HIM ALREADY!! BZZTZZTTBZZT(static intereferance) around here anymore? BZZZZZZZZZTTTZZZT You'r gonna' di' t'day pretty- ZZZZZTTZZZZBZT ES A MAGE!!!

Dynamo opened his eyes. The voices he heared came from the north, just outside the city. He turned to the others.

Selena asked, "What is it?"

"I'm not sure, but it sounded like the Dreadnaughts are having some sort of run in with another mage." Dynamo charged up his magic. "It came from some sort of geographical structure just north of the city. I'm going on ahead." He ran off towards the source of what he heared.

---------------------------

Shlear stood off against the Dreadnaught members. Even though he's a mage, taking on that many people at once could be quite the hasal. The archer team knocked their arrows and aimed at Shlear.

Before the gangsters fired, they suddenly dropped their weapons and screamed. They held their ears as if some loud sound was tearing them apart. This confused Shlear, because he didn't hear anything.

Suddenly, the trap door at the top of the ladder was kicked open, and Dynamo jumped in and made a successful landing on the ground below, landing right next to Shlear.

"What are you doing here?" Shlear asked.

Dynamo smiled. "Thought you might need a little help."

Shlear smiled back and together, they faced off against the Dreadnaughts. They were still screaming and covering their ears.

"What's wrong with them?" Shlear asked.

"I used my magic to change the electrical frequency around their ears. Right now, their hearing an unbearably loud screeching noise." Dynamo waved his hand to stop the magic. "There, now this should prove to be a little more fun."

Tiren opened his mouth and screeched in agony as a incredible noise exploded in his ears. His ears were several hundred times as sensitive as a normal pair of human ears, making the pain that much worse.

Then he saw the leader. He was on a small outcropping, above the battle. In his right hand was a ball of magical energy. It wouldn't be enough to even phase a mage, let alone the magically immune gryphon. The noise hurt him because the enchantment was near his ears, not on his ears. A direct magical hit would hurt, but it wouldn't kill.

Which worried Tiren especially. The mage would know all of this, but he still was doing it. Suddenly Tiren saw what the mage was looking at. Without looking twice, Tiren jumped behind the nearest pile of gold he could, tucking in his head and throwing his wings above it.

The mage knew that it would be virtually impossible to take on the mages with magic. However, mages were weakest against conventional weapons. So, instead of throwing it at the mages or Tiren, he threw it at the largest pile of gold he had. In a single instant, the pile exploded, sending gold coins flying in all directions at an incredible speed. The thieves closest to the pile were ripped to shreds instantly.

Just that suddenly, the battle was over. Tiren opened his eyes, to see that the mage had one final use for the attack. It provided him with a distraction, just long enough so he could teleport himself. The compass now glowed a faint green.

Tiren cursed violently. He had tracked the wizard to this spot after a month, now he had disappeared, probably to start again somewhere else. The dead thieves were immaterial, they had been organized by that mage.

The annoying sound had ceased. Tiren now began searching for survivors. Tiren came across several bodies. They were thieves, but they were so unrecognizable that he'd never get paid for it. The blast had been much more violent than he had expected, coins were imbedded into the walls.

He stopped over one of the bodies. This wasn't a thief. Well, his rescuers hadn't been too wise then. A pity, but he'd make sure the relatives knew of his sacrifice.

Then it moved its arm, slowly. Wounded, perhaps severely, but not dead yet. Quickly, Tiren disarmed him and looked for the wound.

Unknown to Dynamo, the teen, i followed. I had a feeling he would lead me to the giant. And besides, he seemed to be the only one with a proper head on his shoulders. Esour of course called out to me but i ignored her. I switched from a puppy to a tiger kitten as i followed him so i would be quieter. Hopefully everyone would simply mistake me for a weird looking cat. Luckily no one saw me. I followed him until he DID find the giant. In quite a fix too. Immediately he joined the fight.

They were in danger and I could help or hinder. It annoyed me because Dynamo was nice but the giant was mean enough to without a second thought send a child to a poor orphanage where she would probably grow up to be a poor peasant if lucky.

I supposed i could deal with him later. Just as I was about to help a sound rang out that made me feel as if my head would explode, espeasally with my sensitive tiger ears. I yowled in pain and promptly switched form to a type of young fish that can not hear even in that form i felt the vibrations. Good thing too because i could not breath as a fish. Luckily soon they stopped and i switched back to a kitten.

What I saw shocked and appalled me. All the men who were attacking before were dead. I had never seen so many dead bodies before. Sure i had seen some, and had even killed some but never had i seen this many. I felt retched. I hardly noticed when i involuntarily turned back human. I didn't even bother to wipe the tears off my face. I saw a griffin and did not care even though i had wanted to meet a griffin ever since i had heard of them 3 years ago.

Tiren now worked overtime. He used his talons to take out a gold coin and a couple of drops from a green bottle closed the wound.

Dynamo was now fully awake and cussing, much to the surprise of the girl.

Tiren now looked for the other mage. He found him a short distance away.

This one was in much worse shape. He had been hit by at least four coins during the blast. Neither of the other two were healers. Tiren began to work on this one. He had fallen into a coma, the body's response to the blood loss. Tiren now began to work.

Dynamo stared at the grifin, oblivious to what had just happened. "Wow, I never thought I'd live to see the day I'd meet a grifin. What's your name?"

The grifin didn't look away from his task of healing Shlear. "Tiren."

"Nice to meet you, Tiren. My name is Dynamo. Some people refer to me as Gaurdian of the Skies, although I'm not sure why." Dynamo finally noticed the girl from before. "Hey, what are you doing here?"

Forgetting momentarily i was supposed to be incognito I responded, "I followed you here, i was Esour's puppy. I can change into any animal but i remain young in any form. I am here for revenge; that giant tried to take me to an orphanage! As if i was an average street urchin! Do you have any idea how horrible orphanages can be? They would try and make me play nicely with the other children, who can hardly string together two sentences and constantly cry. I think not. Until I can find my thief, grow up, or find something productive to do with my life. I AM not going to an orphanage. Don't worry; I won't get your giant friend until after the griffin heals him even though it would be a waste for the griffin, I am honorable." to an extent, i planed on slitting the giant's throat while he slept.

Then it hit me: i had just given myself away! Hastily I verbally retreated, "jus kid-ing! dath's just a pwetend game i thomwtywmes pway. Wow dahts a big birwdy" i said indicating the griffin "I canw't weellwe turn into a puppy-doggy." I giggled foolishly. Lame, I know but what else could I do.

(OCC: It's spelt Isaure by the way)

Amased, Dynamo said, "Wow. For a six year old, you can sound just like an adult when you play that game." Sometimes Dynamo is too gulible for his own good. But because he is so soft hearted, no one thinks of him any less for it.

Is he for real? she thought to herself.

Dynamo went up to her and kneeled down in front of her. He rubbed her head, slightly mussing up her hair. "So, you don't like orphaniges do you? Then you can come with us if you like."

The girl smiled. "Okay."

(Happy Easter everyone!)

((OOC: Thanx for the spelling correction, Dynamo, and happy Eater to everyone, too ))

Isaure came up behind the little girl, and picked her up.
"Ha! Found you!" Taking in the scene of healing, she said, "Sorry if she bothered you Shlear, I'm gonna get this little faker tied up."

Noting the look of outrage on the girl's face, she continued, "Yes, you! How many four-year-olds do you know that can speak like a forty-year-old? She's hiding something!"

"I'm six" Came the reply through gritted teeth.

I decided that even though Dynamo would believe me even at this point Isaure would never give up. I might as well drop my act. I inwardly sighed. But then she mistook me for four years old-that got me seething again.

"I'm six" I replied through gritted teeth, "and I am not hiding anything anymore since you rudely came along. You must be truly paranoid to suspect a six year old of anything. Did you have problems as a child? No don't answer that I can see you did. Were you the tattle tail everyone rejected? Probably. You have unresolved issues in your life and suicidal low self esteem. That’s why you have to take it out on a child what a mess you made with your life." that was not the first time I gave a talk like that, quite usually it was a last resort that shocked my capture into letting me go. It Certainly seemed to have surprised Dynamo. His mouth opened and shut a few times and his eyes bulged. I bet he did not even understand half of what I said.

Isaure looking angry and showing no signs of letting me go seemed about to say something but I cut her off, "And besides you know you can't take me back to the orphanage now; you know I can shape shift as I just revealed to you. If I wanted I could kill any other kid there, and probably the care takers too. My thief thought me to use weapons as well." Dynamo seemed on the verge of fainting. But I couldn't really wield weapons all that well my thief had promise to teach me when I was seven. "also anyone with a quarter a conscience knows you can't kill a six year old who has done really but shoot her mouth off. I might be lying about EVERYTHING but you can't know that." I smiled satisfied with my little speech.

That satisfaction quickly turned to alarm when I realized what a blunder I made. A griffin was right there and he might have been listening. In school I had learned about griffin's truth sense. I gulped.

OOC sorry for spelling your name wrong

Shimloch bazaar...

“What’s wrong?”

Myth felt faint and fell to her knees, she could feel the ground vibrating and the air around her was hard to breathe in. Magic. She simply said.

The use of strong magic sometimes affected her in this way, she felt Astrath pull her up and onto the cart; the people around them ran out of the way as Astrath wiped the horse and charged off into the inner city.

“Where’s it coming from? It’s a mage; I can feel it in my bones.”

It’s outside the city; I’ll be alright in a moment, as long as they stay at a far distance.

“Damn them all!”

He led the cart towards the slums of undertown Shimloch, they would not be followed there and there was magic there to restore Myth. He looked back to where she was sleeping, her physical form withered and he could already see the grey smoke wrapping around her, if he did not get her help soon she would lose her strength.

“Hang on, I know someone who can help you!” He hoped it would not be too late.

Undertown Shimloch was home to races of all kinds but there was only one Clen who lived in the city working as an undercover magician. He owned a bookstore and when the cart reached its destination Astrath saw no signs of the shop but boarded up windows and door.

Well, it’s been a long time, he may have moved away. He thought.

Only the poor were out in the streets, most were children in rags and their faces were smeared with mud and dirt.

“Hey, kid!” he called to a small boy. “Where’s he at?” he asked pointing to where the bookstore had once stood.

“Gone out, he’ll prob’le be back tonight.”

“Where is he gone?”

The boy shrugged and Astrath threw him a coin. His Guardian needed help and she would not last for very long, without really thinking he conjured a probe Orb to check out the empty building in front of him, the investigation revealed a room below the building where a selection of magical artefacts and books were stored. The Orb shimmered and went out like a candle flame.

He put a hand on Myth’s forehead and ‘ported her to the room he had seen, when no one was looking he transformed the horse and cart back to their original form, he created a portal in the wall and went through it to find himself inside the room. It was quite dark in there but three torches immediately lit up in his presence. It was just the sort of thing any magician did.

He went over to Myth, her eyelashes trembled as if she was dreaming and her mouth moved slightly as she tried to revive her magical strength.

He reached into her soul and spoke to her through his mind, it was one of the things a magician and his Guardian shared; they were soul mates. I’ll prepare the Pentacle.

With the few chalks he found he drew a Pentacle on the floor, he lit five candles at each point of the pentagon and laid Myth inside it before chanting the activation spell. A watery shield bubbled and rose up until it had formed a wavy field around the Pentacle.

It was a very strong Pentacle, Astrath wanted the best strength reviver for his Guardian and he didn’t care if his own body had been reduced of stamina to restore his daimon.

It would take a day or so until she was restored, he had used the Pentacle of a Day just so his daimon would not need to be revived so often, as soon as the Pentacle finished its job Myth would not have to be re-established for six whole months.

While Myth slept he went back out to the city. He wanted to abandon his original plan of bribing a few neo-wizards for lost artefacts but with no daimon to protect him he was quite vulnerable.

He noticed the mage Myth had spotted earlier, the one she called Thunder-Foot. He didn’t see anything particularly special about the man but Myth was much better at observing beings than he was. Maybe I ought to follow this mage, I may find something useful on him. It’s a pity my transforming powers have gone; otherwise I’d have been able to follow unseen.

He passed his hand through his long blond hair and tied a thin thong around it to keep it out of his eyes, he had always loved pretending to be someone he was not, if Myth was allowed to do that all the time, why could he not do it as well.

*

(OOC: I hope no one minds if I add places names like Shimloch. If anyone decideds to include Astrath in their post he will introduce himself as Greg, a trader of antiques and may use hypnosise spells. And Clen is someone from Clendalen ((where all magicians originate from)))