Spooky Story Contest (EU) - Entry thread

Character Name: Wyrdras Rahl
World Name: Phoenix
Prize: Scarf of Wondrous Wit

Midnight Tales

“…and then they vanished into thin air, never to be seen again.”
“Aw, that’s rubbish, mate. My old mum could tell a better story than tha’!”, Sundhimal said, banging his empty cup on the table. Ryssfloh spluttered in indignation, pointing a challenge at him.
“Let’s see you do better then!”, he cried, swigging his ale.
“Yeah, let’s see what you’ve got,” laughed Ahldskyf.
“Alrigh’, then. I will.”
Sundhimal frowned thoughtfully for a few minutes, staring at the table infront of him as he tried to come up with a story he’d heard months ago. Baderon gave a chuckle as he listened to the pair argue, then turned to the adventurer beside him.
“Y’know, Wyrdras, I’m glad ye decided to come over fer a visit while yer here. Don’t get many heroes like yerself here tha’ often.” The tall Au’Ra smiled and nodded quietly to him, then turned back to watch the trio as Sundhimal cried out, “I’ve got it!”.
He lowered his voice so everyone else at the table had to lean in to hear what he was saying. He looked around at each face there before continuing.
“It was a night, just like tonight, as cursed an All Saint’s Wake as you can imagine. Years ago, when imps and fiends still walked among us on this night every year, causing mischief and misfortune for all who crossed them. It was dark, with the sea breeze after carrying in thick fog, so no one looked quite right when seen through it. A friend of mine, a sailor, was walking along the docks to take in the sea breeze, when a ghostly wail cut the night. He froze, looking around, but couldn’t see naught but an ilm in front of him through the mirk.”
“He started to panic, trying to convince ‘imself it was just the boards underneath him, creaking in the cold. But then he heard it again, closer this time. He’s a big guy, you understand, but hearing that cry unmanned him. He ran back the way he came, trusting his feet to know the way back through the fog. After just a few seconds, though, his mad dash stopped. There was a light just ahead of him. But it wasn’t like the soft, orange light from a hearth, no. It was a cold, green light, calling out to him, drawing him in. He heard a voice, telling him to come towards it, whispering in his ear. He closed his eyes, and started humming a hymn to the Twelve to himself. After a few minutes, he dared to look up. Just a few steps away from him, floating in the fog, was a beautiful woman. She glowed softly, and called out to him.”
“What did he do?,” asked Baderon quietly.
“What’d he do? He wet ‘imself and fell over in a faint!,” roared Sundhimal, laughing madly.
The whole table sighed, shaking their heads in disbelief.
“Typical”, muttered Baderon, as Ryssfloh and Ahldskyf lunged at Sundhimal.
The adventurer just smiled.
[IMG]http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/...psnywghheq.png[/IMG]

Ariel had been anticipating this day for weeks.

She was finally in the queue to have her copy of Warrior of Write signed by the heroine herself, Thea Heat. The glorious Costa del Sol beach was the host to the culmination of an eternity of anticipation. Ariel scrunched her toes in the sand as she tried to discharge her excitement into the grains.

The queue was moving slowly, and the sun seemed to be racing her to see who could finish their day first.

One thing that the sun would never have her beat on though was the radiance of her excitement.

As the sun crept lower and lower the world around her became dimmer and dimmer; Ariel crept closer and ever closer to her hero growing brighter and brighter with excitement.

The chill of the night began to consume the warmth of the day, and Ariel met it with a shiver.

As the dark crept from the sea and shifted the soothing sounds of the tide into eerie scratches against the sand, so too did Ariel’s mind switch from adoration to abhorrence.

Thea looked up from the book she had just been handed and greeted the young lady in front of her with a smile. She snuck a quick glimpse behind her and with a sigh of relief saw no one hiding in the shadows behind. This was the final fan to see.

She refocused her attention to the girl in front of her.

“Good evening” she beamed as she rose from her chair and offered her hand.

“Evening Miss Heat, I’m Ariel. I am so very pleased to meet you” the rush of words spilled from the girl’s mouth as she took Thea’s outstretched and shook it like a newly landed fish.

Thea embraced her hand firmly and smiled reassuringly, “Call me Thea. Is there a particular message you would like?”

Ariel steadied herself, and ignored the cue to release Thea’s hand and instead tightened her grip.

“Write: Ariel, you are my world, my number one fan”, Ariel matched Thea’s smile with one filled with malice instead.

Thea paused for a moment, but began writing

Ariel, you are my world

As Thea wrote the creepy sentence, the pen started to slip away from her hands whilst remaining perfectly in place. Her vision began to close in on itself, and the wind around whipped into a frenzy. Her stomach plunged and yanked the rest of her body with her, down towards and into the pages of the book.

She wrestled her neck to turn her head upwards, and saw Ariel’s menacing eyes following her whilst they became larger and the last particle of the outside world was snuffed out as Thea tumbled into the world that she had authored.

Images of her past began to flood around her, as the walls of her world met in a crescendo of crashing pages and sealed her in the beautifully bound story of her exploits in Eorzea.

Character Name: Thea Heat
Data Center: Chaos
World: Zodiark
Desired Prize: Noble Chocobo Barding

The Cult Of Limsa

Whilst running low on supplies our hero teleports to Limsa Lominsia to the marketboard, usually things are normal but this time things were a little out of place. Everyone was dressed in the same clothes?! Is this a cult? suddenly spotted and shocked our hero is frozen in fear, The cult in the same clothing starts walking towards the hero circling him and doing nothing but /point at him.

Our hero tries to get something out of them, [Hello!] [Are you there?] Nothing works. Suddenly it hits our hero he can do something, The only things really.

/logout





Character name: Spoony One
World: Tonberry
Prize: Blue Bird Earrings

Day 276, Emelia Lancea (Dragoon by trade), 'Warrior of Light' reporting for duty roulette. Only a handful of tomestones short of new gear and 1 sticker short of weekly wondrous tails completion... how hard can one run be?

Duty Finder is the tool of choice; she should have known this spelt disaster from the beginning... Neverreap! Never-end? Never-fast? Never-weep? Nevertheless, with strength and lightning-fast skill speed at hand she jumped, phlebotomised and heavy thrusted her way to the final boss. Actually, things were looking pretty good - quite a competent party on hand, strong DPS support, confident heals and a sturdy tank. A fast clear is actually in sight. One last boss, that's it, one last boss.

Readied and raring to go, the party take the final step of faith together, jumping the gorge to the final boss arena... that's when it all went horribly wrong. I know what you're thinking, the party fell apart, right? The healer died to the adds? Emelia elusive jumped off the edge? The tank forgot to tank? You'd be right on 99% of occasions, but NO! The unimaginable happened... one single jump across the gorge and Emelia was left standing pantsless.

Pantsless? I hear you ask. Yes, pantsless. An unfortunate glitch has actually resulted in a final boss encounter with Emelia and a lack of trousers. Much to her party's delight and laughter, Emelia is left to deal damage to the boss with more exposed than her damage per second. A nightmare situation for anyone, coupled with the distraction of emotes from fellow teammates as they laughed and screamed in delight at the half naked Au Ra trying her best to appear as a worthy opponent for Waukkeon. It was, however, all in vain.

Shame or unfortunately timed jumps in AOEs, (likely a mix of both), ended in Emelia's untimely death. Much like the sorrowful end that came to our beloved Haurchefant, Emelia met an end of almost equal tragedy. Lying bare bottomed and shamed at what was leading to the peak of the Warrior of Light's career. A new title she would don...

'LOLDRG'.

Here ends a tale of horror and shame based on the real life events of Emelia Lancea, gone from us 31/10/2016. May the twelve forever guard her departed soul... and her exposed rear end.

http://i.imgur.com/Lr9eao8.jpg

Day 276, Emelia Lancea (Dragoon by trade), 'Warrior of Light' reporting for duty roulette. Only a handful of tomestones short of new gear and 1 sticker short of weekly wondrous tails completion... how hard can one run be?

Duty Finder is the tool of choice; she should have known this spelt disaster from the beginning... Neverreap! Never-end? Never-fast? Never-weep? Nevertheless, with strength and lightning-fast skill speed at hand she jumped, phlebotomised and heavy thrusted her way to the final boss. Actually, things were looking pretty good - quite a competent party on hand, strong DPS support, confident heals and a sturdy tank. A fast clear is actually in sight. One last boss, that's it, one last boss.

Readied and raring to go, the party take the final step of faith together, jumping the gorge to the final boss arena... that's when it all went horribly wrong. I know what you're thinking, the party fell apart, right? The healer died to the adds? Emelia elusive jumped off the edge? The tank forgot to tank? You'd be right on 99% of occasions, but NO! The unimaginable happened... one single jump across the gorge and Emelia was left standing pantsless.

Pantsless? I hear you ask. Yes, pantsless. An unfortunate glitch has actually resulted in a final boss encounter with Emelia and a lack of trousers. Much to her party's delight and laughter, Emelia is left to deal damage to the boss with more exposed than her damage per second. A nightmare situation for anyone, coupled with the distraction of emotes from fellow teammates as they laughed and screamed in delight at the half naked Au Ra trying her best to appear as a worthy opponent for Waukkeon. It was, however, all in vain.

Shame or unfortunately timed jumps in AOEs, (likely a mix of both), ended in Emelia's untimely death. Much like the sorrowful end that came to our beloved Haurchefant, Emelia met an end of almost equal tragedy. Lying bare bottomed and shamed at what was leading to the peak of the Warrior of Light's career. A new title she would don...

'LOLDRG'.

Here ends a tale of horror and shame based on the real life events of Emelia Lancea, gone from us 31/10/2016. May the twelve forever guard her departed soul... and her exposed rear end.

http://i.imgur.com/Lr9eao8.jpg



Emelia Lancea
Ragnarok
Chocobo Noble Barding

She'd been but an ethereal voidsent, trapped in the yellowed pages of the Necrologos, until chance found her wandering the crags of Northern Thanalan, set loose without purpose. The leaves of her prison fluttered away, stained with the blood of an unlucky cultist, and she found herself restless. Wandering. Searching for her fellows.

It was then when she had seen him. The ahriman.

It had been just a moment. A glimpse shared, as the ahriman flew with purpose down the beaten road. Purpose she had lacked since her summoning.

He had seen her. She had caught her own reflection in that large, fathomless eye, framed by the light of orange crystals.

And the voidsent had purpose once more.

They were not the same kind, but it mattered little to the voidsent. She had seen many damned souls, and judged their worth, and the ahriman was worthy.

Yet still... the ahriman was not like the others, enraptured by the corrupted aether, content to laze in its glow. Always going somewhere, too swift for her to reach the road in time. He passed by regularly, whip like tail swirling lazily through the air, leathery wings leaving trails in the ceruleum smoke.

They never exchanged more than a glance, but that regular acknowledgement fed her desire, grew her certainty.

She would try to follow, but his purpose was strong, and her form wraith-like and slow.

So she waited, and waited, hidden in the crevices, form shadowed in the glow of orange crystal. Each time, a little closer to the road. A little riskier, a little bolder, all for the chance that next time, they would have the opportunity to exchange more than a glance. That next time, she would be fast enough to follow. To help, in whatever purpose the ahriman dedicated himself so steadfastly to.

Then one day she saw him first, drifting up the road.

This time, she would reveal herself, make herself known. She rushed into place, mere moments before he could arrive. In a burst of darkness, she formed, corporeal, wings stretched wide in greeting.

Only too late did she register the adventurer upon his back.

In the reflection of her love's eye, there was the only the flash of steel, and the spatter of voidsent blood.

The Warrior of Light wiped a stray speck of crimson from the edge of their armour. Rather unusual behaviour for a voidsent in the ceruleum fields, especially one so weak as to die with a single blow. No matter. They remounted their ahriman, continuing the journey to Bluefog with no further thought to strange voidsent.


Character name: Sinnatious Sone
World: Siren
Prize: Noble Chocobo Barding

Quite tough squeezing it down into less than 500 words but here it is:

The Deep

The darkness was as solid as the mountain above. It felt like the entire weight of the world were pressing against him, burying him forever in pitch-black.

Choco had never been scared of the dark, but then he'd never felt a dark as deep and ancient as this.

One minute he'd been sneaking through the mines with Y'ithya, the young trainee, investigating unusual Aetherial patterns for the Arcanist Guild, the next he was falling, the earth swallowing him up.

Praying to Oschon for guidance, he began feeling his way forwards, trying to establish facts to give him an anchor of logic in a sea of vast nothingness. He noted the lack of support structures the Kobolds built in their tunnels, the slight increase in temperature. He was definitely below the mines, which made the warmth likely to come from -

“Sneaking – skulking, prowling, sneaking!”

Choco spun as the words echoed into emptiness – It was impossible to place where the voice had come from as he peered pointlessly into the looming black. Noises like growling birds burst from nowhere.
Other things were here. And they were laughing.

“What is it?” Asked a voice, higher pitched than the first.
“Ours now” said the first voice. “A gift for the Lord of Crags.”
“A gift, a gift!” the second voice chirruped “To win his love – affection, fervor, love!”

And then a third voice, reminiscent of rocks breaking; a voice for fissures, commanded: “Get it”.

Choco turned and bolted, hands reaching blindly as he stumbled upon rocks, grazed his forehead against a low ceiling; chased by howling screeches and skittering.
Bumping the labyrinthine walls, Choco kept pushing forwards until...

A glimpse of light. A shard of crystal in a recess in the wall. Choco reached, stretching as far as possible, his fingers scrabbling on the stones and string? Grasping, Choco pulled the string and the crystal came with it.

“Trapped – Cornered, captured, trapped!” said a gleeful voice and Choco turned back, holding up the pendant and illuminating the cave around him.

Reflected in the pendant's light were the dull orange eyes of hundreds of Kobolds. They were swarming the walls, the floors, even climbing upside down on the ceiling.

Choco had no chance.

His thoughts turned to his friends and family, to Y'ithya. Was she safe? Would she make it out, would she get help?

As the excited beasts stalked slowly forwards, a brilliant light burst from the pendant, and Choco felt himself being pulled away...

The wind woke him. Sitting up, he took in his surroundings – He was at Camp Overlook. Y'ithya was too.

A fissure opened up and he was gone, she explained. She ran for help when suddenly he appeared out of thin air clutching an Aetheryte Pendulum.

“What happened?” She asked, but Choco shook his head – He would never forget the darkness crawling beneath the earth, but he was in no rush to relive it.

----------

Character Name: Choco Maestro
World: Zodiark
Prize: Noble Chocobo Barding

A mysterious thief and saboteur had been terrorising the merchants of Ul’dah. For weeks now, I’d heard complaints of stolen items, of people being spooked by eerie shadow puppets and even of locals being poked and tickled by an unknown force. Understandably, these encounters had the local people upset, and it wasn’t long before wild rumours of ghosts began to fly around.


However, I speculated something less ethereal was to blame. Thus, I sought out the one and only detective extraordinaire to help me capture the culprit.


“Hildebrand, my good man, will you lend your keen eyes and sharp mind to my cause?” I asked him, careful to groom his ego just enough to persuade.
“Why, of course, Lady! Nashu and I would only be too glad to help solve these mysterious hauntings - in fact I already have the perfect plan to catch this phantom of the night!” He grinned excitedly.
“You do…? Already…?” While I was not one to question the inspector’s methods, I thought it best to at least impart some of my knowledge, “Mayhap I could tell you of what I’ve learned so far? I believe it may be a ninja -”,
“Shh! I hear something” he interrupted.
We went silent and heard a faint scratching. The three of us looked towards the sound, but it stopped. I felt something grab my ankle and spun round in alarm - there was no one there.
“You too?” said Nashu, looking terrified. I nodded.
“The phantom was here!” Hildebrand exclaimed.
“That’s odd. I’d heard it mostly came out at night...mostly” indeed, it was only the afternoon.
“We must be near to it’s lair and it overheard my cunning plan!” said Hildebrand.
“You haven’t even told ME your cunning plan,” I pointed out,
“How else could I make sure it wouldn’t be overheard by ghoulish ears!”
“Brilliant idea, inspector!” Nashu crooned. I rolled my eyes.
“Right, we’re going to need some paint...” Hildebrand explained his plan to lay a trap for the invisible culprit. We knew it enjoyed shadow puppets and stealing, so we laid a table of knick-knacks against a wall and set up a torch not too far away so good shadows could be cast. This, the inspector theorised, would tempt our prey. We ran trip wires around the area, with cans of red paint attached. Thus, the phantom would be covered in paint and we would discover their identity.


Night came and we waited. It wasn’t long before the plan actually worked.


The paint can rolled onto the floor and we peered over the wall to see a severed arm.
“Hey, I know that arm,” I whispered “it’s Raubahn’s!” I had heard tales of creatures and people becoming possessed, but never limbs.
“Caught you red handed!” Hildebrand cried. The arm, perched on its fingers froze and scuttled away.


We never did find it, but the reports stopped coming in. Yet, it irks me to know that somewhere in the lairs of Ul’Dah, Raubahn’s zombie arm lies waiting...

Character Name: Lady Deathstryke
Server: Lich
Prize: Chocobo Noble Barding

Character Name: Solstice Raa
World Name: Cerberus
Prize Choice: Mandragora Choker

http://i.imgur.com/UjXoK0G.jpg


It was the evening of Saints Wake, amidst some shaded overgrown paths in the outer Shroud, all alone riding her trusty chocobo was Solstice Raa from the Conjurer’s guild. It has been some time since Solstice had been in the Shroud, a long time since she had visited civilization.
Riding along unfamiliar paths she could hear faint screams coming from a hundred yalms away, not too far from the screams but yet she could not see through the dense thicket. Curiosity pricked at her and Solstice whipped her chocobo to a racing speed to find the source.
Eventually after traversing through the thicket maze she stumbled on what looked like Hauke Manor, only it was different, it seemed darker. She dismounted her chocobo and left him fastened to a nearby fence. Solstice then scaled the Manor and found a broken window which was a fight to get to but eventually she prevailed and made her entry.
Once inside she heard the screams from several entity’s coming from upstairs, she made her way stealthily and unseen to see a group of adventurers battling an all too familiar Lady Amandine. These adventurers shouldn’t be here though, they were merely new and inexperienced, the under geared Marauder was struggling to push forward to Lady Amandine and the two Archers were missing with every shot, Solstice knew that she had to help so dashed forth and cast a Medica to help revive the unfortunate adversaries of Adandine. The Medica barely touched the group and Solstice carried on casting with little to no effect. Solstice was took back with why her supreme powers were not aiding these poor, poor adventurers. Solstice composed herself and closed her eyes and with all her will thrust her Thyrus to the air and boldly voiced her incantations and a bright beam of light emitted from her and she knew she had done it this time, her powers had prevailed. The Lady summoned forth a mob of elemental bombs and the archers struggled to battle them off, the light from Solstice faded and she realised that she did nothing, her powers are failing her and she has failed, stunned to know why she just stood and watched as Lady Amandine strike down the poor adventurers attacking before her. Solstice noticed the bright light emitting from her chest again, she looked down and was about to touch it when a Conjurer burst through her and healed the Marauder, the spell had little to no effect and the he fell to one knee and with his might tried to counter her attacks.
Solstice was in disbelief, what was happening, she didn’t know. She looked down and noticed a chair, only she was stood in the chair, she held her arms to her chest and looked up and just watched as the voidal lamps charged Lady Amandine, she cast her last spell and the elemental bombs blew apart the poor adventurers.
Solstice stood forever dormant watching that room.

Narangerel Mol, Balmung, Scarf of Wondrous Wit.

The wind tore at her face, carrying thoughts away with the sand. Her mind was empty, reeling and primal. Beside her lay Bokebaatu's corpse. She couldn't bare to look at her lover, his eyes glazed over, his chest in shambles. Scattered around them were the corpses of bandits, and molten slag that had been weapons. They'd killed him first, thinking he was the larger threat. Yet, even untrained mages can be powerful, when they don't care about the cost. She let out an anguished, furious scream as her mind snapped. It was easy to embrace madness. Without her humanity, she was a rabid beast set only on revenge. Fire blossomed out from her entire being. She became the flames. It consumed her clothing and hair. It baked the carcasses. Flesh charred and cracked, fuel for the flame. With her enemies smoldering her mind set on the nearby outpost; the only civilization -it- could sense. It lifted its feet, molten sand clinging like wet mud as it trudged north.

She'd sent a distress call to her company, before Bokebaatu died and her mind collapsed. They mobilized together in front of the house, and rode the aether to the Hidden Springs. The village lay in ruins - a road of burning destruction and molten sand a centimeter deep wound from one gate to the other, strewn with smoldering corpses. The party followed the trail over the eastern dunes, and there they found It: a humanoid core, swathed in flame, surrounded by discarded flesh. It was the dark scaled tail that showed them the truth. This had been a person, once. Half of its lower legs had melted away, yet it continued its pursuit of a group of terrified, screaming Miqo'te children. It raised its arm and flames erupted at the slowest child, trailing behind the rest. The toddler's screams mingled with the creature's shriek, inhuman and terrifying. The group moved at once to defend, drawing its attention. Hearing their approach, it turned with a savage roar and a name - Mist.

The party stared in horror, as realization set in. The creature shambling towards them, trailing burnt flesh and molten sand, was Naran. It reached towards them with another roar, with fire erupting from its hands. The spout was choked off as the creature was tackled. Chaos unfurled. Mages pulled waves of sand onto the tumbling pair in an attempt to smother further flames. Its eyes succumbed to the heat and melted from their sockets. Bladed knuckles struck its spine, then sank into what was left of its body. An aldgoat born of magick and sand crashed into the creature, and it finally - blessedly - crumbled into smoldering pieces.

They woke with a start - safe and whole and bleary with sleep. The muffins Naran offered before they'd dozed off sit heavy in their bellies as their memories filter in. The dream was as real as the basement they sat in. She offered an unread note by way of explanation, unaware of the warning, being illiterate.