DEADWILD'S RUIN
(Haunted Castle Ruins)
(Haunted Castle Ruins)
The Deadwild's Ruin is the given reference to a long abandoned castle that is in a ruined state and barely anything but standing stones, all references to it's past have faded away. For centuries the Deadwild's Ruin has been unreachable due to the many hazards that surround it. Those who get close get eventually get sick, fall ill, and sometimes die. The closer they got the more serious it is, and how soon it befalls them. Those who get too close fall to the ground helpless as they slowly die. Most don't get close enough, as before they do they have to contend with a forest of strange colored fauna which contain many plants of orange, dark blue, black, red, and purple hues. Most plantlife fades leaving only the hardier purple colored plants the deeper they get. These woods are riddled with venomous animals and insects with poisonous plants. There are thorny vines everywhere you go, and razor sharp roots that stick out of the ground, often with many sharp points on them as hard as iron and fully capable of spearing through one's heart should they trip. The density of the vegetation is such that there will always be some thorns trying to dig into you from whatever or all sides, with very few ways through that are thin enough to walk through without a bulldozer. It's like a maze in this aspect, with many dead ends. Even some dead ends that you wont discover are dead ends for hours, even days, before returning to where you started and finding another path.
It gets easier in this respect the deeper you get, as you enter areas where more and more plants are unable to grow. Towards the end you'll find almost only the purple-leafed trees that become wider and wider spaced and then.... the Sea of Blades. The final stretch before the Ruins themselves. The Sea of Blades looks like a very gloomy field of grass, however, this is Fleshbite Grass. A grass that grows only in extreme environments. At this point most humans will be barely able to stand, and it gets worse the further they get, meanwhile the grass further denies entry as the viscous blades of grass react to the presence of movement which they can sense almost psychically, their shafts becoming as hard as steel, their edges honed, and their points like needles as they keep a bullseye bead on the source of the movement ready to pierce it. Moments before one steps on Fleshbite grass, it's remarkably strong roots thrust it forward to enhance penetration power. Once it penetrates, the Fleshbite injects it's seed into the body of those unlucky. And since it is a type of grass, there are usually much much more than 1 piercing at a time. The seeds release numbing agents immediately with such power that the penetration will hurt only for a second then completely vanish. The seeds try to find their way through the veins to nest in the heart of the creature after 10 minutes, which is isn't fatal but makes them feel a heavy weight like sensation on their heart. The blades themselves remain embedded in the creature for as long as it can, drawing blood to feed itself.
If the mysterious sickness still hasn't put them flat on their back as well as dead/and/or dying, and they got passed the grass, the Deadwild Ruins are all that remains. The last 15 meters from the old castle are entirely bare, not even the Fleshbite grows this close. At this stage, if the mysterious sickness were ever to effect you, here is where it would instantly cause one to wither and die on the spot. But you're here, so it probably doesn't phase you or you're Hercules in that scene where the fates couldn't cut his string.
But what was all this for? Why on earth did you go through all of that!?
The Ruins of the Deadwild are an expanse of broken towers, marred stone, ash and... a an unknown crystal that grows from the walls, emitting a sickly green illumination. Pools of green water litter the place, and in some areas it trickles from walls. There is one location in the ruins where a neon green waterfall starts from a high wall and falls to a large pool below it that was likely once a small sub-courtyard. But the Ruins aren't empty. After allowing the adventurers to get themselves lost, waiting until they don't have a chance to easily escape back out the way they acme, the spirits of all those who have died within the area of sickness surrounding the ruins creep out from the walls to torment the living. Each spirit is bound the the Ruins and cannot leave, meanwhile an unknown threat drives them feral and semi-substantial allowing them presence and force.
Feral ghosts attack in wailing frenzies, while Poltergeists play tricks of increasingly fatal intention. They play with perception and go as far as to manipulate the castle structure and layout to lead adventurers to hazards or towards clusters of Feral ghosts, which is also usually away from the tallest standing tower of the Ruins.
If the adventurers can make it to the tallest tower, they'll find increasing amounts of random treasures lying about. Some things may seem or are in fact worthless while others are strange and fascinating. Signs of habitation increase the higher they get into the tower, as do the threats as statues come to life with bursts of green light. The size and ferocity of the statues as well as numbers thickening. Then at last there is a final challenge, in a larger room taking up the entire level of the tower there is an empty room lined in led with pools of thick silver liquid everywhere. From a particularly thick pool rises a large hulking knight with a single burning green light in it's chest cavity, the armor around it slotted like a cage. The knight is the equivalent of an S-rank warrior wielding what to it is a short sword, but is more like the size of a full grown man, and a shield. It is slow but can take a lot of punishment, and is immune to magic.
Fighting past the knight, the stairway on the opposite side of the room leads to a lavishly decorated chamber with a great bed in the center upon which rests the sleeping form of a raven haired young woman with her hands resting over a single purple rose over her chest.
You, having seen one too many fairytails, lean in to awaken the sleeping beauty with a kiss;
But she backhands your sorry ass across the room and rises, leveling a cannon that seems to have replaced her hand centered directly for a shot to you're confused little face. Congratulations, you've discovered the Lair of Ruin. Or rather, the Spirit of Ruin. Clementine.
The Deadwild's Ruin is a ruined old castle without much in it except for random treasures and knicknacks stored on the lone standing tower gathered by Clementine. She even has a bed, though she doesn't use it for sleep. The castle, or rather the tower surrounded by a ruined castle, is located on the edge of a cliff overlooking a deadly forest full of natural hazards, with more of said forest on the cliff as well but further out from the castle. A big circular empty space sits between the castle and the forest, where the blades grow. The entire area is flooded with dangerous levels of Radiation amounting to Critical radiation the closer you get to the ruins. The whole area is situated remotely tucked away somewhere within the Spooky Forest.
The Poltergeists don't directly harm anyone, and can't be harmed (as they are never really there, at least in their entirety).
The Feral Ghosts are the equivalent of D-ranked warriors. They're fragile and are effectively destroyed upon a D-rank attack, but deal C-ranked damage on contact.
The Statues increase in potency every three levels, starting at D, then C, B, then A. But they also increase in number.
The silver pools on the last challenge room are deadly mercury, and it will melt through most protection dealing A-ranked damage then having an A-ranked toxic effect, but by this point if you weren't immune to radiation and toxicity you'd probably have already died. It still has a melting effect however.
The last knight is as described. It will be defeated upon an H-rank worth of damage, but regenerates C-ranked equivalent damage per post per player.
Clementine, Clementine is Clementine. G'luck.
