Bump in the Night [Event]

Things such as haunted houses typically did not interest Kaz, fake ghosts and badly made horror sets did not instill fear into the dark mage. Of course, few things did. Which is why it was so unusual for the man to be standing outside a haunted house. He did not expect to find fright inside the building, but he had heard that they used some most intriguing magic. Such was apparently the norm here in Rose Garden, and so drew many tourists. It was for this reason alone that he entered the haunted house, his curiosity having been piqued.

The entry foyer was nothing impressive, not that it was intended to be. It had the typical hallmarks of a haunted house, with a few members of the staff in costume directing the people through doors. When it was Kaz’s turn, a man dressed in a vampire costume led the mage to the next door available. Opening the door, he stepped through eager to see if the magic he had been told about lived up to his expectations.

177/2000 words

The member 'Kaz Valent' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

---

'Normal Dice' :

Inside the room he found… exactly what he had been afraid of. Cardboard cutouts of trees, cheaply made decorations, and staff wearing costumes populated the maze-like room. Part of Kaz wanted to just cut his way through the room as punishment for wasting his time. Ultimately he decided that would just become a bother later, people generally frowned upon mass murder. Unless it was dark mages like himself, naturally.

While making his way through the maze, he ran into a young boy crying and huddled in a corner. The obvious assumption was that the boy was lost. Most people might even feel moved to set in and help the boy find his family. Kaz could not care less. The boy was too young to draw his interest. Eventually he might grow into something worth the man’s time, but waiting for food when there were so many ready to eat meals in the world was not his style.

Once he passed by, the boy looked up and, seeing Kaz, stood up to follow him. “Hey mister, can you show me where the exit is?”

“Piss off,” Kaz replied, just a touch rudely. Unfortunately, the boy did not piss off. In fact, he started to follow the dark mage around like a puppy. To say this annoyed Kaz was much like calling the sun “hot.” He fully intended to make whatever costumed staff he ran across next take the boy into custody. Strangely, they had all seemed to have disappeared. It was possible they were just focused and the start and finish of the maze, regardless he seemed forced to put up with the kid until then.

“Hey mister, what’s your name?” the boy prattled. “Hey mister, why are you so tall? Hey mister, why are you wearing that? Hey mister, why does your hair look like a woman's?”

It was around the thirteenth or fourteen inane question that Kaz finally lost his patience. The boy kept getting clingier and clingier, not taking Kaz’s rude behavior as a warning. Once his patience was gone, he stopped in the middle of the maze, looking around for anyone or anything watching, and then transformed his arm into a blade before driving it through the boy’s chest.

Surprisingly, the boy did not bleed. Instead, he let out an inhuman scream before turning into smoke and vanishing. Not even blood was left behind once the boy was gone, leaving no trace of what had just transpired.

“Handy, that,” he commented before turning back to the maze. As if the maze had been waiting for his actions, the next corner he took brought him to a door. Clearly the haunted house would continue from here.

448 words
625/2000 total

The member 'Kaz Valent' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

---

'Normal Dice' :

The next room seemed like it held more promise at first. It opened up into an area that seemed far too large for the building he occupied, and a small mansion sat in the center of it. Upon close inspection, he found more of the same cardboard from the previous room. Rather than being scary, this haunted house seemed to be doing its best to be boring.

When he reached the mansion, he found some kind of cart ride waiting for him. Seeing no other way to continue and get out of the disappointing house, Kaz was forced to sit in the ride and secure the safety features. The ride around the track was exactly as unimpressive as expected, and he prepared to leave the vehicle once it arrived back at the start.

Only for it to keep going.

Now he was unsure if the ride was supposed to do multiple laps (he did not see a point), or if something was broken. It was only on the third loop that he noticed the decorations no longer appeared to be made of cardboard. At first he thought the track was taking him to a new part of the ride, but no when it finished it returned to the same mansion and begun again.

This time ghosts started to sweep by him, while large shadows passed through the bushes in the distance. Perhaps he had written off the spender of this haunted house too early. Yes, it had not been visually impressive at first. But that child had clearly not been human, and now monsters seemed to be following the ride he was in. More than likely everything he saw was the product of an illusion spell, as he could not think of any other way to turn the mundane into the fantastical so smoothly.

Still, this ride was clearly intended for fright rather than danger, so even though the ride continued to grow in splendor he saw no reason to remain. When it again returned to the start of the track, he used magic to strengthen his muscles and tore the safety restraints from his body. Once they were off, the ride came to a sharp stop. It jostled him a bit, though as the ride had been moving so slow it was barely worth mentioning.

Now that the ride was over, he saw that the door to the mansion had opened. It seemed this was the way to the next room, so without hesitation he stepped through.

412 words
1037/2000 total

The member 'Kaz Valent' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

---

'Normal Dice' :

If the large space with the mansion had been somewhat impressive, this next “room” was significantly more so. Despite having entered a building, the dark mage found himself standing in an alpine forest, snow and trees as far as he could see. A full moon hung in the sky above, which told him he had not simply been teleported to another location. The phase did not match the moon from outside the haunted house. This is the level of magic he had been seeking.

As he explored the hills, he started to feel a bit peckish. The feeling he usually got when his reserved of flesh grew low, which was strange as he had plenty left. It being another effect of this room was the only conclusion he could come to. With the way his magic worked, he was intimately aware of his body and its needs. If only there were someone else here with him, he could test how the magic would influence a normal person. Alas, that was impossible.

Before he could finish studying the effects of the magic on his body, he caught a whiff of something delicious, which he knew must be artificially induced as he could tell it smelled foul in truth. The magic spawned hunger was drawn to this smell, and curious as to where it would lead, Kaz let his body follow the urging of the magic. Not far from where he had started, he came across a most bizarre looking creature with antlers on its head. A wendigo, he believed it was called. A mythological creature.

Even knowing it was likely no more than an illusion, Kaz felt compelled to kill the beast and consume its flesh. Drawing upon his magic, his muscles swelled in size as his arms transformed into blades. With a powerful leap forward, he struck at the wendigo, slicing open its side even as the creature swiped in return, sending Kaz flying into a tree. A loud snap filled the air as bones broke during the impact, not that Kaz would let such a minor injury stop him.

Already he was standing again, the wounds on his body healing as he ran again at his foe. This time he dodged the swipe of his foe, ducking underneath and swinging an arm upward. Striking true, he severed the strange creature's arm from its shoulder. Now down an arm, the creature was significantly less of a threat. Not that the dark mage was about to drop his guard. As soon as he had severed one arm, the second attempted to knock him away. Expecting it, Kaz jumped backward, flipping out of the path as he did so.

Once his feet his the ground, he struck again with his bladed arm, this time removing the creatures arm below the elbow. Now it screamed in rage, but it was already too late. Unable to defend itself, it was simplicity itself to jump up and sever the wendigo’s head from tis torso. Even as the head fell toward the ground, it began to disintegrate into nothing, the body following suit. This deprived Kaz of the meal he had hoped for, though he also found the hunger fading as well.

Deciding there was no point in staying in this room, he let his magic fade from his body and stepped through the door that had appeared in place of the wendigo’s corpse.

568 words
1605/2000 total

The member 'Kaz Valent' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

---

'Normal Dice' :

After passing through the door, only darkness greeted Kaz. Even with his enhanced senses it was impossible to tell where he was or what was nearby. Cautiously he took a few steps forward, only for the void of sensory information to persist. If this was meant to frighten him, then the room had failed. Instead it sparked anger. Being made to feel helpless did not sit well with the dark mage. His feelings seemed to matter little to the room though.

Attempting a trick he had learned on a recent job, Kaz transformed the skin of his arm into a clump of bioluminescent cells. Despite the fact that he could feel the cells in his arm doing what they should be, the light could not pierce the darkness. Well, it might not have resolved his problem, but this experiment did at least reveal that the darkness was not simply due to a lack of light. It was either robbing him of sight directly, or absorbing any light in the area.

His contemplation was suddenly interrupted as light appeared before him, temporarily blinding him. Once his eyes adjusted, he saw that before him lay the mangled body of a young woman. Not just any young woman though, but the body of the one that meant more to him than anything else in the world: his dear younger sister.

Upon seeing the corpse, his heart caught in his throat as genuine fear momentarily overwhelmed Kaz. After fully taking stock of her wounds, he recognized them as those left by his bone blades. It was his greatest fear come to life, that of him bringing harm to his sister. Realizing that is what finally broke through and brought him calm, as he knew he had done no such thing. This was the secret of this room, it showed you your greatest fear.

There was no arguing that it was effective, not that Kaz would ever admit so. His pride did not let him admit that there was anything he feared, even if that fear came from his own actions. Instead the anger from before returned, and now knowing that she was fake, he stomped down hard on the head of the fake sister. As it splatted under his foot, the darkness in the room began to fade. Once it was gone, he was alone in a small empty room. Only the door out adorned the walls, and obviously the body had gone with the darkness.

Shaking himself, the dark mage returned to his usual calm self. Satisfied by the magic he had experienced, and ignoring what had happened in this last room, he stepped through this final door and out of the haunted house. Nothing he had learned would help with his research. That was fine, he still had much to think of as he made his way home.

476 words
2081/2000 total