Eurus
2014-08-25, 07:22 PM
Shadow of the Colossus - Prologue (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJnfkb1hKv4)
Last night was a nightmare. The day had seemed uneventful enough to start with; Omid had spent most of the day studying in the upper levels of the tower, where the apprentices were forbidden to go, as was his usual habit. Gunner had spent most of the day doing the various odd jobs around the tower that nobody else ever bothered with; cleaning, cooking (and making sure everyone stopped their various obsessions long enough to eat, a truly heroic task some days), and securing the various reagents and supplies that Omid and the other apprentices requested each day. It was the sort of scut work you'd expect from the younger apprentices rather than the eldest one, but he seldom complained. How he ever found time to actually study was a mystery.
Day turned to evening, and the storm set in. Even through a foot of solid stone, you could tell that it was a bad one. An hour or two after sunset, Omid came down, looking frazzled, and urged the three of you to retire to your rooms in the first basement level for the night. It was unlike the mage to give orders directly, but when he made a suggestion, he generally expected compliance. That was, in all likelihood, your first clue that something was wrong.
Your second clue was that he locked you in.
After that, the night passed in a surreal blur. The storm got so loud that you could hear the winds even down there, and the occasional shuddering boom of thunder like a punch to the gut. Gunner tried to act calm, even going to bed (perhaps in the hopes of encouraging you to do the same), even though his tension was obvious. A few hours after midnight, the tower shook down to its very foundations as if struck. That got even Gunner up, but the door was blocked and resisted every effort to open it, even after you simply removed the lock and hinges.
There were sounds of what could only have been battle -- another blast, a shrieking wind, a voice raised in anger but too muffled to make out -- and then silence, so complete and stifling that it was almost an assault of its own. The sound of the storm, the battle, even your own breathing seemed to just cut out, and your voices felt dulled and weak. That was also when whatever force held the door shut finally gave out.
The tower was a shambles. Whatever happened must have hit the top story directly; the door on the ground floor was still locked and barred. Blinding light pierced through the cracks in the ceiling, as if the sun itself had descended onto the roof, and thin blue flames danced along solid stone with unnatural tenacity. If you were bold enough to charge up anyway, the scene at the top was a bleak one. Omid was crumpled against a wall in what had been the library, now all but completely destroyed. Half of the wall had fallen away, and two men stood in the gaping hole where a shelf of lovingly-maintained tomes once stood. The simple grey robes they wore were slashed and charred from battle, but the men themselves seemed unharmed as they watched the devastation.
In the piercing light -- one of them seemed to be producing it from one hand -- it was hard to make out details, but their demeanors deemed entirely relaxed. One had a band of grey cloth around his eyes, and the other's lips were stitched together with ghastly black lines. The mute one just watched, and the blind one just laughed, and as soon as you burst in, they casually stepped off the tower and became one with the roaring wind.
The fires faded, eventually, and you were able to keep them from damaging any of the lower floors, but the top two -- Omid's personal lab and library -- were unsalvagable. In the thin light of morning, it looks even bleaker than before. The town seems to be in even worse condition, lacking the tower's fortitude against the storm. Half of the buildings have been blown apart, and people are starting to work on digging each other out of their cellars. Gunner seems to be in shock, alternating between staring blankly at the ruin and wandering aimlessly around the tower. Eventually, he just sits next to Omid's body upstairs.
Last night was a godawful mess. The storm came in hard and fast, too vicious and unseasonal to be natural, but everyone was more focused on battening down the hatches to put much thought into it. When the tower started exploding, well, priorities shifted.
Nobody was fool enough to go and interfere. That's not what the guards were here for, and it's certainly not what the rest of you were here for. The mage would handle the problem, and if he couldn't, what the hell would the rest of you do to it anyway? The focus quickly changed from weathering the storm to getting the hell out of the line of fire, evacuating anyone in the immediate fallout zone through the deadly storm. Over several tense and exhausting hours, anyone who didn't have a cellar to shelter in made it to the village's modest garrison.
You didn't see the fight, but you heard it when the storm fell quiet. Anyone who poked their head out saw the light pouring from the top of the tower, brilliant and somehow awful, and felt the weight of silence like chains settle over them. The light cut off abruptly after a minute, and the silence faded slowly after that, but the storm was already losing strength by then. This morning, the sky is as clear as ever. If it weren't for the carnage, there would be no hint of last night's mayhem.
At the moment, the four of you are still in the garrison. Apart from you, only a few of the residents seem to have overcome their initial paralyzing shock and horror. Auggie Rivers was one of the first to act, directing the efforts to get those trapped in their cellars and houses un-buried, and Mouse silently took off to god only knows where, but everyone else -- about twenty people, at the moment -- seems to be staring at you all expectantly.
Last night was a nightmare. The day had seemed uneventful enough to start with; Omid had spent most of the day studying in the upper levels of the tower, where the apprentices were forbidden to go, as was his usual habit. Gunner had spent most of the day doing the various odd jobs around the tower that nobody else ever bothered with; cleaning, cooking (and making sure everyone stopped their various obsessions long enough to eat, a truly heroic task some days), and securing the various reagents and supplies that Omid and the other apprentices requested each day. It was the sort of scut work you'd expect from the younger apprentices rather than the eldest one, but he seldom complained. How he ever found time to actually study was a mystery.
Day turned to evening, and the storm set in. Even through a foot of solid stone, you could tell that it was a bad one. An hour or two after sunset, Omid came down, looking frazzled, and urged the three of you to retire to your rooms in the first basement level for the night. It was unlike the mage to give orders directly, but when he made a suggestion, he generally expected compliance. That was, in all likelihood, your first clue that something was wrong.
Your second clue was that he locked you in.
After that, the night passed in a surreal blur. The storm got so loud that you could hear the winds even down there, and the occasional shuddering boom of thunder like a punch to the gut. Gunner tried to act calm, even going to bed (perhaps in the hopes of encouraging you to do the same), even though his tension was obvious. A few hours after midnight, the tower shook down to its very foundations as if struck. That got even Gunner up, but the door was blocked and resisted every effort to open it, even after you simply removed the lock and hinges.
There were sounds of what could only have been battle -- another blast, a shrieking wind, a voice raised in anger but too muffled to make out -- and then silence, so complete and stifling that it was almost an assault of its own. The sound of the storm, the battle, even your own breathing seemed to just cut out, and your voices felt dulled and weak. That was also when whatever force held the door shut finally gave out.
The tower was a shambles. Whatever happened must have hit the top story directly; the door on the ground floor was still locked and barred. Blinding light pierced through the cracks in the ceiling, as if the sun itself had descended onto the roof, and thin blue flames danced along solid stone with unnatural tenacity. If you were bold enough to charge up anyway, the scene at the top was a bleak one. Omid was crumpled against a wall in what had been the library, now all but completely destroyed. Half of the wall had fallen away, and two men stood in the gaping hole where a shelf of lovingly-maintained tomes once stood. The simple grey robes they wore were slashed and charred from battle, but the men themselves seemed unharmed as they watched the devastation.
In the piercing light -- one of them seemed to be producing it from one hand -- it was hard to make out details, but their demeanors deemed entirely relaxed. One had a band of grey cloth around his eyes, and the other's lips were stitched together with ghastly black lines. The mute one just watched, and the blind one just laughed, and as soon as you burst in, they casually stepped off the tower and became one with the roaring wind.
The fires faded, eventually, and you were able to keep them from damaging any of the lower floors, but the top two -- Omid's personal lab and library -- were unsalvagable. In the thin light of morning, it looks even bleaker than before. The town seems to be in even worse condition, lacking the tower's fortitude against the storm. Half of the buildings have been blown apart, and people are starting to work on digging each other out of their cellars. Gunner seems to be in shock, alternating between staring blankly at the ruin and wandering aimlessly around the tower. Eventually, he just sits next to Omid's body upstairs.
Last night was a godawful mess. The storm came in hard and fast, too vicious and unseasonal to be natural, but everyone was more focused on battening down the hatches to put much thought into it. When the tower started exploding, well, priorities shifted.
Nobody was fool enough to go and interfere. That's not what the guards were here for, and it's certainly not what the rest of you were here for. The mage would handle the problem, and if he couldn't, what the hell would the rest of you do to it anyway? The focus quickly changed from weathering the storm to getting the hell out of the line of fire, evacuating anyone in the immediate fallout zone through the deadly storm. Over several tense and exhausting hours, anyone who didn't have a cellar to shelter in made it to the village's modest garrison.
You didn't see the fight, but you heard it when the storm fell quiet. Anyone who poked their head out saw the light pouring from the top of the tower, brilliant and somehow awful, and felt the weight of silence like chains settle over them. The light cut off abruptly after a minute, and the silence faded slowly after that, but the storm was already losing strength by then. This morning, the sky is as clear as ever. If it weren't for the carnage, there would be no hint of last night's mayhem.
At the moment, the four of you are still in the garrison. Apart from you, only a few of the residents seem to have overcome their initial paralyzing shock and horror. Auggie Rivers was one of the first to act, directing the efforts to get those trapped in their cellars and houses un-buried, and Mouse silently took off to god only knows where, but everyone else -- about twenty people, at the moment -- seems to be staring at you all expectantly.