- Job Description:
- Job: Nightmare Incarnate: The Beginning
Rank: C-Rank
Player Requirements: Maximum number of players is ten and the minimum is 2 D ranks. 10 posts per player minimum unless soloing(due to being higher than D rank) then 20 posts. 150 words per post.
Job Requirements: At least 2 D rank mages or the equivalent of. Find out what happened to the rune knights and escape while you are still sane.
Job Location: Spooky Forest
Job Description: One day you receive a large box from the mailman. After inspecting it, you see that it doesn't say anywhere what's inside or why it's been sent to you. All that is written on the box is your name as the recipient and the initials "SM".
Upon opening the box you discover that it's contents are a hardcover book, which upon closer inspection proves to be a person called Samuel Martin's personal diary, and a voice recorder lacrima, both covered in blood stains. Did that man send you this package? Despite the bad feeling you have, you open the book and skim through the entries.
INFORMATION:
"12 February, Day 647.
Today was a fun day. Me and Mary went on a picnic near the forest and spent the whole day talking about meaningless things. It really was a blissful experience and since she didn't have any problems today we were able to forget about reality, even if for just a day."
"19 February, Day 654.
It happened again. Mary collapsed again today and started mumbling about magical gates and how everything is going to be a nightmare. This is happening more and more often and I am getting really concerned now. No doctor knows what's wrong with her..."
"25 February, Day 660.
This is really getting out-of-hand! With each passing day Mary becomes more and more delirious. I don't know what to do any more. I've contacted every doctor and every mage I could find, but no one knows what's wrong with her. There has to be someone that can help..."
"1 March, Day 664.
This is my last hope. I contacted an exorcist who is said to be able to cure cases like Mary's. He's going to come tomorrow night. Maybe the end of this nightmare would finally come."
"2 March, Day 665.
It's a little before midnight now. The priest is going to come any minute and put Mary's troubled mind to peace once again."
"3 March, Day 666.
I... don't believe it. I remember last night... the purification ceremony... then something happened and I was sent flying, and Mary ran away towards the Spooky Forest. When I came to, the priest was lying on the ground with his heart gourged out. What on Earth happened last night? There's no time to waste, I know she's somewhere in the forest so I have to find her. I'll contact a couple friends from the Rune Knights and we'll set off to search for her. Please be okay, my love..."
From that point onward all pages are ripped from the book. After putting the diary down, you activate the recorder lacrima.
"Date- 4 March. Time- 1:43 PM.
This is Lieutenant Jacob Lars, recording an audio log to document the investigation and search. I am assigned due to my expertise in the field of demonology. It seems that a woman has been possessed by an unknown type of entity, presumably a type of demon, and has escaped in the Spooky Forest. We are currently within the said forest ourselves, having a local guide us through. For some reason when we entered it a thick, almost unnatural, fog descended upon us but we were capable of navigating through the dense vegetation regardless. Currently we are standing in a forest clearing about 2 klicks north of the entrance. So far there's no sight of of neither hostiles nor the woman. It's unnaturally quiet. A bad omen."
"Date- 4 March. Time- 2:30 PM.
This is Lieutenant Jacob Lars documenting the investigation and search for the possessed woman in the Spooky Forest. This is log number two. It's been nearly an hour since the previous log and we've spent the time delving further north into the forest. It's crazy here. Everywhere you look there are huge trees and if you look up there is nothing but branches and leaves. The vegetation on the higher levels of the forest is incredibly dense, so there barely is any light down on ground level. It almost feels like we're alone in another world with no way out, and that damn fog isn't helping either. All this is taking it's toll on the minds of the others.
We're nearing another clearing. I guess we'll rest there for a while."
"Date- 4 March. Time- 2:45 PM.
This is Lieutenant Jacob Lars documenting the investigation. This is audiolog number three. Things are not looking good. The others are getting seriously paranoid and I can't really blame them. This place plays with your mind in a very freaky way. A few minutes ago we continued moving deeper into the forest, following our course north. The guys are really getting worried now. They say that every now and then they see someone's silhouette in the distance, just beyond the fog, watching them. Observing their every move. I have yet to confirm the existence of this shadow, but if it is there then it might be the woman we were sent to find. Next time the silhouette makes an appearance we'll go after it."
"Date- 4 March. Time- 666:666 PM.
*The sound of someone's ragged breath mixed with their crazed running could be heard for several minutes. After that the barely audible thud, as if someone being hit against a tree, interrupts the running*
This is Leu*static*nt Jacob *pant* Lars. We *static*eed help! We...we got sep*static*ed and the *static* took us out *pant* one by one. It's b*static*n watching us all along! Tor*static*ring us while studying it's *pant* prey. It's close, *static* the only one left *static* coming f*static* me. *static* *static* *static* the time *static* thre *static* ourty-five. (after that point the static becomes too great and you can't understand anything)
Having listened to the lacrima, it's as if more questions have emerged than been answered. Who sent you these items? How do they know your name? What happened to the Rune Knights? What did they find in that forest?
It seems that you have no choice but to go there and find out yourself.
Enemies:
Weak: Disturbing sounds- Are those footsteps? A demented laughter somewhere in the distance? A person's dying screams? Is that a whisper you can hear, carried in the wind? This place is really freaky...
(Causes paranoia or similar effects, depending on your character. Strong-willed characters or people with a great ability to maintain their calmness can resist this to a great extent, though not completely. Having multiple weak enemy dices means that these sounds "stack", and so their effect becomes greater and perhaps even capable of breaking even the toughest of people. Duration is 3 posts.)
Normal: Poltergeists- Trees falling down, rocks suddenly shooting towards you, having your body strongly pushed away without any explanation. These anomalies can deal some serious damage or scare the living daylights out of you. They might even separate you from your allies. Be on guard. (Single poltergeist per normal monster encounter.)
Strong: The unknown figure- You can feel it, can't you? Just beyond the mist, it's hollow eyes staring right into your soul, sending ice-cold chills down your spine. No matter where you look it's there. Always watching, always moving. And no matter what you do, it's always just beyond the mist.
(Greatly frightens you, triggering your fight or flight mechanism. Whether you choose to attack or run away and hide depends on your character's personality. If this occurs in the early stages of the mission, before you've encountered the other anomalies much it will not have that great an effect. Encountering this in the later stages, however, will trigger your fight or flight mechanism, guaranteed.
Duration is 4 posts, extended depending on number of strong monster encounter dices rolled.)
Boss: Fear impersonated- Your time is up. The chase is over and now you must die. And it is coming to do just that. The unknown figure that had been stalking you until then finally appears before you, for better or worse. It's a humanoid about 2,5 metres tall, clad in black, but that's all you can make out of the figure.
It's attacks are unnaturally fast, it's reach long and it seems that it can attack you with it's tentacles, cutting you with them and letting you bleed. (This is a B-rank monster. Also please note that defeating it means that it does not die. Instead it escapes back into the mist, which gets raised soon after, and leaves behind several torn pages).
Reward: 1,000 jewels. If the boss has appeared and was defeated, the extra reward is part of the ripped pages from the diary received in the beginning of the mission. Those pages grant access to the next Nightmare Incarnate mission.
Within the Kingdom of Fiore, there is a deep, dense forest.
Most who know of it try to avoid the place, believing it to be haunted or simply to wild for humans to roam. However, even in this place, things were even darker and more sinister than before. And unlike before, the evil residing in this place was grounded in far more than just its appearance. Any animals that had not yet fled were now in hiding, hoping to evade whatever had brought such madness to their home. But despite all this, there still two souls willing to venture into this darkness, this ever present and foreboding mist. Two members of the Crystal Swan guild, including a certain gray haired wizard, entered the chaotic forest.
"Try to keep up, princess." Dmitry Kazakov said to his male guildmate, a wizard who was accompanying him on his investigation into this disturbance. At the moment, the druid had a deep scowl on his face, a direct result of not only what he saw, but what he felt. One of the requirements for the magic he used was an extra sense, one that allowed the owner to feel that which did not fall under a physical definition of existence. That is to say, spirits, along with other beings that affect the world at its core. Naturally, this place and more importantly, what's currently lurking in it, felt like a nail being driven into his skull. Whatever it was felt like nothing he'd ever encountered before and he'd come across most, if not every kind of spirit, ghost, or shade in Fiore. That left one likely alternative, one Dmitry hoped he was wrong about. Of course, he was rarely wrong in these particular matters, if nothing else.
Nonetheless, it was not something the wizard could ignore, if only because he could feel it from miles away. And even something as unpleasant as this could act as a good learning experience, if his life was to be an example. Besides, without the awful mess infesting the place, he really liked these woods.
