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@Elsu @SilverQuark @Espoir @Scatterspark

Andy gives a dramatic sigh of disappointment. "Well, if we must. I do still need to fix this up enough to track magic. Cat's usually the one trying to find people, but I do know he has a lot of Second Age junk in his basement. Shouldn't take more than a jiff."

Indeed, Andy had been fixing the device while she talked to you, and soon enough it was beeping and whirring. With the occasional worrying c-c-c-click and ker-chunk. Andy tosses it carelessly at you, and somehow you catch it without dropping it.

The two of you set out, following where the device beeps. It's a meandering path through the districts, eventually leading to the residential district. The device starts to beep faster, and you look nervously at Andy.

"Oh, Shade," she swears, grabbing the device out of your hand and flinging it hard into the air. She slams you down onto the ground as the device explodes overhead, raining you with scrap bits and bolts.

A door with a blue lantern hanging over it bangs open. "What in the gods name is that racket?!" a gruff guardian yells.

Andy breaks into a smile. "Old Man! We’ve been looking for you!"

You presume he's Enzul. His eyes light up when he sees the tattooed artifact on your arm. "Come in. I'll remove that from you," he says, leading you two inside to a table. "Now, I presume you want that artifact out of you before you end up dead?"

You nod vigorously and explain how you came about it as he examines your arm. Enzul snorts at hearing about your chase through the bazaar. His claw traces its way up your arm, following the longest tendril that had just reached your chest. Another claw touches where the artifact entered. He presses down hard on both places and you feel his magic abruptly crescendo. It feels like his claws are driving down deep enough to hit bone, and then you feel the grating rasp of metal cutting under your skin. It’s agony worse than even the surges and it’s hard to even stay conscious.

When the pain suddenly dies down, you’re sweating and shaking, but the bracer is laying innocuously in the middle of the table.

“These were very popular in the second age,” Enzul says, picking it up. “It’s keyed to the creator's signature but not very well. Anyone that even had a passing similarity could also use it, so the magic users from that time started building in... failsafes, we’ll say. If you didn’t know how to use it, the magic in it would kill you."

You gulp and scoot away from the table, very glad it was out. Andy stifles her laugh.

"If that's all?" Enzul asks, still regarding the artifact.

"Keep the bracer as payment," Andy says. "It's caused more than enough trouble for us."

"Very well, thank you Andraste. Now please get out of my house," he says, ushering you two to leave.

Outside, Andy gives you a critical eye. You ask her what she's thinking.

"How do you feel about jailbreaks? Cat's been languishing long enough."

@Nialatic @Elixiri

You decide to stay along the rim of the water, flying and running along balconies and debris that make a path along the edge. You realize how good of an idea this was when you’re able to avoid a dive-bomb from a huge imperial by ducking close to the wall. She can’t risk flying close to the buildings without also risking injuring herself

The mirror with the skull face is right on your tail, though, using the same path you are. As you make a jump down from a balcony to a debris-island, you barely get your tail out of the way of his teeth. He follows you down, coming down hard on your back and almost knocking the both of you into the water.

You kick him off hard enough to stun him and start snaking your way from one island to the next in short hopping flights. The imperial isn’t attacking, she more wary of the water than of the buildings. Perhaps its crazy of you to be this close.

The mirror is following you step for step. He nearly knocked you into the water with his last lunge. You start going higher. If you stay above him, he can’t jump onto your back again.

The imperials claws scratch a line down your side. You barely dodge her and it throws you off balance hard enough that the mirror nearly catches you. You avoid him with a sharp flap of your wings, and climb onto a ledge above.

Realizing how phenomenally dangerous this is, you turn off and duck between two buildings. You can barely fit through, but at least you’re protected from that imperial. The mirror is breathing down your neck, though. You hear the scrabbling of his claws on stone and it’s hard to tell how close he is without looking back.

You wiggle out from between buildings and just as you are about to dash away you are knocked off your feet. That dratted mirror just pounced on you again! You try to kick him away again, but he has learned from last time. He bites down hard on your shoulder. You hear the imperial roar, distant but quickly getting closer.

You struggle frantically, but he’s not budging at all. Even worse you can feel the prickling of a surge under your skin. You’re starting to lose hope, when a sharp whine shrieks through the air and you’re nearly blinded by the laser that hits the mirror with pinpoint accuracy and knocks him into the far wall.

“We sure had a heck of time tracking you down, newbie.” Andraste and Cotriona are standing a ways off. Andy is holding a new laser rifle against her shoulder, the barrel still sparking. “We better get out of here before Captain Serious Face shows up.” They quickly help you up.

…and immediately all three of you are knocked prone by the shockwave of that imperial landing. ”I’m a Commander.” She looks beyond furious with her teeth bared, eyes wide, and neck arched aggressively.

The static is crawling under your skin and the ache has started in your bones. You’re sprawled halfway on top of Cat and you have no idea what’ll happen if she’s touching you when your tattoo surges.

The commander aggressively stalks forward and cracks Andy hard in the chest with her tail. The darkness is closing in and you blearily stand up. When that tail swings towards you, you latch on and don’t let go as the magic builds inside you.


You open your eyes to a well-ventilated pavilion. Surrounded by a stand of oasis trees. Where are you? “Morning, sunshine. Had a good nap?” Cat’s sprawled lazily nearby in the shade. Seeing your confusion, she starts to snicker. “Not what you expected? You’re not dead and this isn’t a dream, if that’s what you’re worried about. Your magic was going crazy. We had to ice you until we figured out how to keep that thing from blowing you up.”

The tattoo on your arm is black. It aches faintly, but it’s nothing compared to the pain from before. “Andy’ll be back soon. She’s out getting supplies for your ‘Waking Up Party’”.

@unika @Venusian @Strawberrium @RemanLT @Chessboard @Katsuokai @cieldobie @Stormdragon @ThisOneIsBlue

First, just your eyes glow white with power. Then your claws, and soon a light is pouring out of you from underneath every scale on your body.

Your light blends with the glow of the 12-eyed statue, and you feel a curious sense of knowledge; ancient, eldritch, and powerful. It seeps into the core of your being, fills you with the realization that this is your power now.

You merely have to claim it.

You reach up and press your claws to the statue's heart, letting this magic flow freely. You let out a little giggle, then another, and your laughter slowly morphs into a maniacal cackling.

You love the Emporium. All the twists and turns of fate that brought you to this very moment, this very destiny. You love the Emporium.

And soon, it will love you.

Decades later, dragons still talked about the disaster that was the Shifting Emporium. Hundreds died, both those fleeing the scene and those fighting against the twelve-eyes monster that rose up from the depths of the desert.

It was only through the efforts of Commander Mirshann of the Lightning Reclamation Bureau and Enzul, a denizen of the Emporium and scholar of Second Age magic, that the monstrosity was chased away. Both heroes lost their lives in the ensuing fight. The twelve-eyed dragon disappeared into the desert, never to be heard from again.

The government of the Shifting Expanse issued a formal apology for the unpredicted events of their annual holiday. The official representative of the Tempest Spire stated "We mourn with the world, for all our children lost in this tragedy. We must look to the future, to rebuild and repair that which has been destroyed." The other flights of Sornieth have been pressuring for financial recompense for decades, to no avail.

With a running leap and a hard down stroke of your wings you’re airborne. As you gain altitude, you feel the static coming off the lake in the humid air. You pump your wings hard to get high enough above the surface that the static is no longer threatening.

Looking back, you see the mirror trying and failing to keep up with you. He hasn’t taken to the air, instead he is jumping from island to debris-island. He has to take an indirect path and it’s slowing him down immensely.

You face back toward the opposite shore, confident in your success. A roar shatters the sky and you backwing sharply as an imperial flies through where you were going to be. Her backdraft sends you tumbling and you barely right yourself before you fall into the deadly water.

She pivots sharply. Curling back on her path with serpentine grace and coming for you. You had to drop all your speed in order to avoid her, but you are already almost halfway across the lake.

You skim along the water’s surface briefly, as you try to regain your height. She’s holding off from attacking you, wary of getting too close to the electrified water. The reason for her hesitance become clear when a bolt arcs up from the surface and nearly hits you.

You have to strain your wings badly to get out of the way. Unfortunately, flying up has put you back in range of the imperial. She flies at you forcing you to either get hit by her or risk the electricity. Her claws dig sharp lines of pain up your back.

Your heart sinks as you realize just how fast of flyer she is. In one move, she’s back in front of you, looping around, and coming back for another strike. However, you’re very close to shore now. You decide to take a calculated risk. The bolts of electricity may hit you accidentally, but the imperial is trying to hit you intentionally.

When she comes flying straight at you, you fold your wings and drop. She shoots harmlessly over your head. You hear her roar in frustration, but don’t take your eyes off the shoreline. It comes closer and closer.

You feel a sharp crack against your left wing and fall into a tumble, flapping your working, right wing wildly. Claws rake against your side as they try to grab you from the air. You free fall and the hissing sound of static gets louder and louder. You don’t feel yourself hit the water.

[url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=34055220] [img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/350/340553/34055220_350.png[/img] [/url] [i]"I should scream."[/i] The explosion, the chase, the pit trap, being nearly arrested by Talisein...and the sewers, [i]the sewers[/i]!! Karmanh settles for a good, hard shiver instead. It helps that the creepy cursed artifact is now gone -- the world could use fewer creepy accursed artifacts these days. He sniffs his vest; his snout wrinkles. [i]"Oh, that's really going to smell. I should get going."[/i] He came to the Shifting Expanse because he'd been feeling homesick, but now his priorities have shifted. "Home" is in the other direction, in the peaceful and quiet lair of the Disillusionists. Well, [i]relatively[/i] peaceful and quiet. "At least there, I don't have to go down into the sewers," he mutters with a smile. ----- Wow, that was quite a ride! I really enjoyed reading the story, and the characters were a lot of fun as well. Thank you so much for hosting this adventure! <3

[b]Username:[/b] GardenWyrm [b]User ID:[/b] 260509 [b]Dragon Name:[/b] Blitzen [b]Dragon Picture:[/b][center][url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=26252288] [img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/350/262523/26252288_350.png[/img] [/url][/center] After ensuring that they retrieved her coppercoil creeper (she could never leave Bud behind), the three of them quickly made their escape. Blitzen was glad that the magical tattoo that had attached itself to her was gone, although she regretted the fact that that little escapade had ended in Andraste and herself in prison cells, though after everything that had happened it was rather unsurprising. Once far enough away from the prison to be in the clear, Blitzen bid the duo farewell, silently hoping she would never run into either of them again after all that and promising herself never to return to this section of the Shifting Expanse for fear of being recaptured. She was suddenly very glad that her clan lived on the edge of the Shrieking Wilds. Blitzen headed off to find the nearest train station, her familiar perched on her shoulder. Boy, this was going to make quite the story once she got home! A story which she wished never to repeat. [center]The End[/center] [url=http://www1.flightrising.com/forums/forga/2487827/4#post_34384414]<< First entry[/url] - [url=http://www1.flightrising.com/forums/forga/2487827/29#post_34481047]< Last entry[/url]

[center][url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=42480929] [img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/350/424810/42480929_350.png[/img] [/url][/center] Smolder loved the Shifting Emporium. That, she would have known even if she was in her right mind. Her time in this place had changed her life. She'd learned so much of magic and science and miracles. She'd never leave it, if she could, and now, it will love her, too. It will love her too. Maybe it always had loved her, and that was why it guided her here to her destiny. She gingerly placed her claws on the heart of the statue, laughter escaping her maw. No, she didn't have to worry about damaging it; this thing was simply polished rock and stone. It was the power that slept inside it that was important, and that power was hers. It had always been hers. She was glowing so brightly that it blinded her, light seeping from underneath her scales, trickling from her eyes and her mouth and her claws. There was no last word from her, or even a last thought. Her mind was too blank for such things. She simply existed, and then she did not. [center]_____________________________________________________________[/center] Legend says you may still find her, if you wander to the depths of the desert. Though I would have to advise against looking. Few have found her and lived to tell the tale. The scattered few that have encountered her tend to report that the twelve-eyed beast seems to be looking for something as she prowls the skies. Perhaps she is trying to find her beloved Emporium again. In her last week of life, her studies took on a decidedly different tone: The search for miracles. Perhaps even now she holds out hope for a miracle that someone will be able to reverse her change, that when her beloved Emporium returns it will hold a cure with it. Or, at least, the miracle that someone can stop her before she kills again. Some in her clan theorize such, unwilling to believe she's truly gone, in spite of all the blood on her claws. But I wouldn't think so. I know there's nothing left of Smolder left in there. Hope is a cruel little thing, and I'd rather be pleasantly surprised than suffer holding onto it. That's why I'm not holding my breath. There are no cures for people like us. The miracles are gone, now. Maybe they never existed in the first place. I paid the psychic who let me live through my beloved's last day, and I kept moving. I need to keep moving, you see, I bring misfortune to those around me when I dwell in one place for too long. But I'd rather not speak about me; this isn't my story. You know the full truth of what happened forty years ago. The twelve-eyed beast's first victim was herself. Poetic, isn't it? Now, I do hope you've enjoyed this little tale. You'd be lucky if you never met either of us again.

@akitcougar
Thanks for this fun adventure! I had a blast reading :)

@SilverQuark

You're welcome! We had a ton of fun writing it.

[url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=43011106] [img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/avatars/430112/43011106.png?mtime=Wz99LgAATVk.png[/img][/url] "How do you feel about jailbreaks?" Andraste asks, and Dawntreader, flooded with relief and gratitude, smiles. "I dunno," he answers. "I haven't tried one, yet." Freeze-frame. The camera optically-zooms in on Dawntreader's smiling face as a sixteenth-beat rhythm starts in on a hi-hat, and someone hits the wah-wah pedal on a guitar. Strings and a horn section join in as the credits roll and the action continues! Andraste takes Dawntreader to the jail where he is tasked with helping Cat attach a grappling hook with a strong cable to a couple of bars on her cell. Andraste, meanwhile, arranges for fireworks. All is going well until Dawntreader is spotted by a couple of officers, who yell and move to grab him. This is all well and good, though, because Dawntreader's familiar Caspian has finally come to the station to file a missing dragon's report for his master. The officer on duty, matching Caspian's description with that of the Dangerous Wanted Fugitive, smiles slyly and motions Caspian down hallway toward one of the interrogation rooms. BOOM! [right][img]http://flightrising.com/images/cms/familiar/26940.png[/img][/right] Chaos reigns and dragons squawk and run this way and that. Andraste sets off another device that yanks at the grappling hook and tears a twisted hole in the bars of Cat's cell. Dawntreader takes advantage of the confusion and shoves his way free of the officers trying to catch him. He runs this way, Caspian is being frog-marched that way, they both meet in the middle. "Master!" Caspian cries. "Where have you been? Why I--" "Can't talk! Running!" Dawntreader scoops Caspian up and they bolt out of the station in a cloud of smoke and a crowd of confused dragons. "Hey, I know you're mad at me, but I can explain!" Dawntreader says, as they eventually reach a quiet maze of alleys and can slow down. "C'mon, I know this place. They serve this really great mead. Maybe my friends will meet us there, when they get done being, uh, busy. 'Sides, I've got a thing to show you." Dawntreader knows he's in for an earful, anyway, but hopefully showing Caspian that book he'd found will mollify the faun a bit. They head off together toward Electri-City Brewing, and the sunset. [center][b]THE END (for now)[/b][/center]