Dearly Departed

It had been a quiet day for Quinton so far; he had been spending most of the time training, out in the forest nearby the guild as he practiced his marksmanship with his bow. He had just finished off his last arrow, not yet realizing he had emptied his quiver as he reached back, waving his hand a bit trying to find some ammo before finally getting it through his head. Putting his bow over his head, wearing it like a sling, he let out a sigh as he stretched his arms, feeling a little sore from pulling the string so many times. That’s when something happened he wasn’t expecting. A voice broke through the normal chirping of the birds. Judging by the older man’s attire, he looked to be a messenger. “I have an urgent message for Quinton Haywood. Would you know where I can find him?”
After Explaining to the man who he was, the messenger handed him a white envelope with a very distinct seal on it. The man gave him a bow, and took off back towards the nearest town. "This is from Leo... What could be wrong?"

Quinton had originally meet Leonard when he had first arrived in Fiore, quickly becoming friends as Quinton helped around his farm land in exchange for a place to stay for a while. The young man’s jaw dropped as he read the letter, it was a plea for help after some terrible event had happened. He couldn’t make out what had exactly happened, reading about some kind of curse, followed by odd creatures attacking people. Quinton was the only one Leo could turn too, knowing that he never made enough of a living to afford many luxurious in life. His resolve was set, a friend was in need and Quinton was ready to do whatever was needed to get Leo out. He gathered up the supplies he needed, grabbing a few quiver of arrows, his bow and sword, and a small pouch of coins before hiking down the mountain as fast as he could, finding a caravan in the local tavern that was heading towards Leonard’s home town.

It was some time later that the caravan had finally stopped. It was the dead of night when the horses abruptly stopped, waking Quinton up from the light slumber he had slipped into. He looked out of the wagon, expecting to see a town, but instead saw that they were still in the middle of nowhere. ”Hey, why did we stop?” He popped the question to the driver. “The horses seemed spooked, they’re refusing to move any further from here.” Quinton knew instantly that a horse refusing to move was a bad omen. His family had own several before, and he knows they have an innate ability to sense something bad in the air. Something was up, and Quinton was puzzled as what could be happening. ”Think you can get them moving again?” The driver gave Quinton a stern look before shaking his head “If they’re not moving, they’re not moving.” Quinton sighed at the response. He gave the man the money he owed, with a little extra before waving him off and heading further down the road towards whatever was waiting for him.

As Quinton moved further along, the feeling of uneasiness grew even more. Even though the air mildly warm, Quinton couldn’t stop himself from shivering. ”The hell is going on here…” He almost felt like he was being watched. His head spun around, looking all around him, but there wasn’t a soul in sight. ”J-Just breathe…. There’s nothing out here, just being paranoid…” Quinton folded his arms across each other, rubbing his hands against his bar arms as he kept shivering.
Quinton kept marching on, trying his best to not show any weakness as he could see the sun just raising over the horizon. ”Something’s not right…” Quinton froze in his tracks as he looked out over the now exposed land. He could see some smoke in the distance, obviously coming from Leo’s village, but that’s not what caught his attention. What really worried Quinton was the randomly disturbed bodies that scattered the fields around him.

The member 'Quinton Haywood' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

'Monster Dice' :

Quinton’s pace had now turned from a hurried walk into a dead run. Something strange was happening, and now things had become even more urgent than before. He thought that possibly that Leo was just hysterical possible, but seeing the dead bodies in the field made his worst fears of what was happening come true. His mind was racing as he got closer to the village. ’Please, let his be some kind of joke.’ The smoke grew higher and higher as Quinton could see the tails of a few flames, burning up high as one of the larger houses in town burned down. He finally came to a stop in the middle of the village, panting as he looked around him. Once again, there wasn’t a single soul in sight, like the entire town had vanished. ”Hello?! Is anyone here?!” Nothing answered back to his call except for his echo. He had to see if someone was still alive. He ran to the nearest house and banged on the door, with no answer obviously. He took a step back before charging shoulder first, knocking the door off its hinges, and face to face with a horrible sight.

Quinton froze on the spot. The living room's wall was splattered with blood, with varies body parts strung about the room, but that's not what had him frozen on the spot. Two ghostly figures floated several inches off the floor in the middle of the room, staring directly at him with dead eyes. They let out a blood curdling scream as they slowly approached. Their scream's almost made the young man stumble on his own heels on the way out of the house, being quickly followed as the restless spirits fly outside and swirled overhead. Quinton scrambled up onto his feet and quickly stood his ground, taking a defensive stance as his eyes tried to keep the ghouls in sight with a hand ready on the grip of his sword. One of the ghouls broke from its normal pattern and dived at the blue -haired swordsmen, triggering Quinton to spring into action as he whipped his blade out, strafing to just the left and slashing through the ghoul.

As Quinton turned to quickly check to see how the strike would affect the odd creature, he was awestruck. The ghoul appeared to be completely fine, as if his blade had passed right through the creature instead. A chill ran down Quinton’s spine suddenly as he started to panic, causing him to start channeling his magic through his blade as he whirled around wildly, striking at the ghost as it tried to grab a hold of Quinton. The creature let out a shrill screech, reeling back as the magic in the blade struck home. The swordsmen instincts took over Quinton’s actions as he swung back around, knowing that the other ghost would take advantage of his back being turned. The blade nailed the ghost through the head, striking completely through its head as it faded away from the swing. Recovering from his attack, Quinton smoothly repositioned himself to stare down the still recovering ghost.

The mysterious creature gave a hiss as it tried to turn and flee back to the house. Thinking quickly, Quinton dropped his blade and pulled his bow from its sheath, readying an arrow quickly as he passed some magic into the projectile. Just as the ghost reached the wall of the house, the arrow sunk through the creature, unharming him as it stuck into the wall. Quinton simply gave a snap of the finger as the arrow exploded, whipping the ghost and the wall out in one smooth move. As the dust settled, Quinton shuffled over to the rubble, checking to make sure it was all over. The building surprising didn’t seem to be giving way yet, but come a strong storm, it would surely topple. Not that it would matter much. Quinton could see the inside again. Who ever did live there, they were all dead now. Putting his bow away, Quinton calmly recovered his blade, sheathing it as he continued his search through the area.

(forgot to roll, will make sure not include this post in the total post count)

The member 'Quinton Haywood' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

'Monster Dice' :

Quinton scanned through the village, trying to find any signs of life. Countless buildings stood eerily still, with blood staining most of the windows in the town. Quinton was almost beginning to think there wasn’t anything left alive, until his suspicions were confirmed when the familiar howl of more ghosts echoed out. Two more ghosts had appeared, prompting Quinton to pull his sword out again. He could still feel a shiver down his spine when the appeared, but wasn’t nearly as shooken up as last time, knowing their weakness. Physical attacks seemingly do nothing, but magic shreds them to pieces. With a hand slipping into his pocket for a coin, and the other slowly pulling out his sword, Quinton focused down on the two ghosts as he prepared for them. A small gold coin slipped out of Quinton’s pocket, magic already starting to flow into it as his sword was pulled out of its sheath.

The member 'Quinton Haywood' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

'Monster Dice' :

As one of the ghosts flew towards Quinton, the ground under his feet suddenly shifted, crumbling as something began to growl under his feet. Quinton was completely off guard as he jumped back, a foul smell filling the air as a small creature began to dig up out of the ground. The incident had left Quinton wide open as the ghost that had charged at him, hitting him across the chest. With gritted teeth holding back a loud cuss, Quinton stared down the small group and flipped the coin towards them. The three could only look down at the coin in confusion as Quinton smirked, snapping his fingers and blowing the coin up. Quinton followed up quickly on the three, now all dazed as he slashed down the two ghosts in no time, leaving only the undead animal as it recovered from the dazing explosion. The unknown animal, unable to be identified from the rotting flesh that had left mostly a skeleton left, growled again as it jumped at Quinton, meeting a swift fate as its head was lopped off with a swift slash.

The member 'Quinton Haywood' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

'Monster Dice' :

With a sigh of relief, thinking that he was safe for now, Quinton relaxed as he seemed to have finished off creatures. It didn’t take long though as it seemed like the coin had attracted more of them. More howls echoed out as more of the undead closed in on the comotion. Soon, four ghosts were circling around Quinton with what appeared to be a dead dog standing off in the back, looking for an opening. Quinton could feel his heart beating harder as the ghosts circled around him, he knew he was in a bad spot. Sword in hand, Quinton tried to keep as prepared as he could. He pulled a coin out quickly, infusing it with magic and tossing it at the ghosts to try to take out as many as he could, but they quickly scattered away from it. Taking advantage of the break in their formation, Quinton dashed away, trying to put some distance between them as he sheathed his sword and pulled his bow out.

The ghosts were to close for comfort, Rushing Quinton as he fumbled with preparing an arrow to fire. He wouldn’t have much time to aim his shots, spinning around and launching an arrow, missing to the left of his intended target, but Quinton would hardly notice as he spun back around as soon as he let the shot free. He couldn’t stay still for long, not with those things chasing after him. That’s when Quinton had an idea on how to buy himself some time. Grabbing a coin from his pocket, he channeled his magic into it and throw it down into the ground in front of him. He passed just over the coin and got out of its blast radius before stopping in his tracks, giving a snap of his fingers as he blew the coin up, casting up a smokescreen of dirt. Quinton covered his eyes as the dirt sprayed in every direction, then dashed into the dust cloud.

Grabbing an arrow from his quiver, Quinton jumped out from the other side, tricking the 4 ghosts as they kept going through the smoke, thinking he was still trying to run away. He quickly posted up and fired an arrow dead center into the head of the undead dog, causing it to whimper out in pain before it fell silent. He wasted little time as he took off in the opposite direction of the ghosts, knowing they could probably hear what just happened. He covered some distance quickly before posting up and pulling out an arrow, preparing to meet the first ghost through with a magic charged arrow. The first one charged through and was almost instantly struck with an arrow, howling up in pain stopping as it’s fellow ghosts sped by. Quinton quickly prepared three arrows, firing them all at the same time at the three ghosts still charging at him. They were more prepared than the first as two of the ghosts dodged; however, the new front runner had taken an arrow to the head, fading with a scream of pain.

Slipping his bow away, Quinton now liked his odds much more as the three ghosts regrouped, slowly circling around him. It was obvious which ghost he had hit so far, breathing audibly. Slipping his sword back out, Quinton took the initiative as he charged for the weakened ghost, finishing it off quickly with a magically charged swing. With a quick turn, the blade was pointed towards the two ghosts that were left, obviously hesitant from how Quinton had cut their numbers down so quickly. The two scattered as Quinton charged at them, quickly dodging the swing and floating above. The two attacked Quinton from above, diving down and forcing him to roll out of the way. He quickly recovered and parried one of the ghosts that had kept up the charge, his magic flowing into the blade allowing him stop the ghost from striking through the metal. With a smooth counter, Quinton brought his blade clean through its torso.

Quinton didn’t allow the ghost a single second to escape as he quickly finished it off, turning his attention to the last ghost, it had already began to turn tail, flying off into the sky and away from Quinton. With a sigh, he fell onto the ground, exhausted from the fighting. ”Hopefully…. that’s the last of ‘em…” He had caught his breath in no time and was back on his feet. His trek through the town as almost over as he neared where Leo lived. He hoped that somehow Leo had made it through, but after seeing what those things had left behind, things looked grim… Quinton yelled out for his friend as he knocked on the door, but no one answered back. Quinton lowered his shoulder and began to ram into it, giving the door a few goes before bringing it down. The young man was almost instantly greeted by the sight of his old friend, slumped against a wall with a knife buried into his chest. It seemed like Quinton was far too late. His friend had been long dead. Along with the knife in his chest, Leo also appeared to have a bite wound on his neck. The only thing Quinton could come up with is that he had taken his own life to avoid what could happen to him. Quinton gave a sigh as he picked up his old friend, carrying him outside for a proper burial.