The entire realm, at least on the surface, is a barren wasteland. It is always raining down fire and rocks. Surprisingly, the rocks do not pile up, as the fire is hot enough to melt it and cause rivers and lakes of magma. The safe place to be is underground, in the massive cave systems, where the people live. The caves go deep underground, make massive caverns that are settles by the people, and even reach past where the people have ever gone, going under virtually the entire realm.

The shadows are like Humans only in shape and basic appearance. They are actually hard to look directly at, and make no sound. When looked straight at, a persons eyes will attempt to look away, as though the shadows are not there at all. They are diverse in their specific looks, but are all darkly colored. They are able to see in much darker spaces then others, both because of their relation to darkness, and their time in the caves.
This message was last edited by the GM at 11:18, Wed 19 Aug 2009.

The surface, barren of life, unable to sustain anything. From the shadows at the mouth of a large cave, out stepped the silent form of a man. He was tall, thin, but strongly built. He would look out of place, but for a touch of darkness, that made some almost reconsider approaching him. His eyes look out at the hostile wasteland with a hint of recognition, familiarity, and strangely, comfort. His hair was short, and it was difficult to tell if it was blond or darker. He looked as tough he should be covered by scars, but held none. His skin was fair, and he wore simple clothing. He craned his neck and looked up at the sky, and smiled in an almost bone-chilling way. "Good to see not much has change here..." He says quietly to himself.
He looks down at his hands, and squeezes them into fists, and looks at his clothing. "My armor, my weapons... even my power. This is... different. It must be fixed."
He turns to look at the cave, and breathes slowly. "I wonder if perhaps they too have changed?"
He walks boldly into the cave, turning where needed to head further underground.

He soon comes across a settlement of silent Shadows. They make no sound, but greet him nonetheless. They are happy for his return. There are talks of a festival.

They have not changed.

Crailek greets them as well, looking around at the people. There sure were a lot less of them. But that was to be expected. He looks around to see if they have any structures built, or if anything major is different.

There don't seem to be any structures - only holes leading downwards. The Realm is a wasteland.

Crailek heads into one of the downwards leading holes, then.

As Crailek reaches downward, the temperatures become less extreme and he spots more and more of his people - the Shadows. They live here, apparently, in their shacks and huts, hiding from the wastes.

Crailek continues heading down if there is a way.

The path goes ever downward, and Crailek passes many Shadow settlements. Finally, he comes across a door. The door is made of steel, it would seem, and it was reinforced; chains and a dozen locks were upon it. It was a majestic thing, four times as high as a Shadow, and on the center of the door were the words:

And here, the spider sleeps.

Crailek gives a low whistle. "Well that's certainly new..."
He heads back up to his people to ask about the door.

The Shadows tell him of a time when he was gone. They mention a desperate creature, cackling, entering the realm and digging the lower tunnel systems. He had the image of a human bred with a spider, and built the doors many years ago. They had heard nothing else from him, but he wasn't violent.

Crailek nods to them in thanks, then heads back to the door.
Once there, he attempts to move into the darkness of the tunnel on the other side of the door.

Crailek finds the move easily enough. Soon, he is just a stain of darkness on the other side of the door, and -

He is trapped.

Somehow, he is trapped.

Glass everywhere. Elaborate curves. Panic. A thousand, hundred, fifteen eyes watching him. Cackling. Flowing glass.. trapped within glass. Perfect circles.

He is trapped.

Crailek sighs, and calls out. "Yeah, hi. Crailek here... Might I inquire as to what the hell is going on?"

He hears his voice, reflected, echoing a thousand times.. still feels as if he is trapped within a glass cage..

There is cackling.

Crailek sighs. "Well, look. If you aren't gonna talk, then just eat me or whatever your plan is. This is just a little annoying."

There is only silence.

Crailek attempts to move through the shadows back where he had come from.

No luck. He seemed to curve, a little bit, feel rounder.. and he was back where he started.

Crailek attempts to move, and to walk forward and wave his arms around, to see what happens then.

He can move, but he still feels curved somehow - somehow circular. He is trapped, he knows.

He sees the image of the mad thing. It laughs at him. The spider laughs. Crailek sees it's shadow flicker against his prison walls.

Crailek attempts to leave the realm, to see what happens.

((cause it went so well last time..)

A curve - he was still trapped.

"You won't be able to escape," said the voice, booming, echoing. "Not with this!"

All Crailek could see of the individual was his shadow dancing on the glass.

Crailek concentrates on the shadow, and attempts to force the creature to stop moving.

There is the silence of a repressed scream.. and the creature has stopped moving. Frozen.

Crailek smiles, and wills it to begin walking towards himself. "That's it... Just a little closer..."

The figure, unable to resist, begins to move slowly closer to the glass prison..

Crailek continues willing him closer until he can see him.

Soon the blurred figure - a man half-dwarf, half-spider - could be seen through the glass, shaking violently..

Crailek makes him stop, and looks at him. "Release me."
His voice had a tinge of a threat in it, that said that if he weren't released, bad things would happen.

A strained - but malicious - cackle was his only response.

Crailek reappears, in the midst of his people. He puts a hand to his head and groans, then stands up after a moment of feeling sorry for himself. He looks around and brushes himself off, and takes a step in a random direction, before stopping and cocking his head. He knew that feeling... Suddenly he grins, and begins heading back to the locked door, this time stopping before it.

And here, the spider sleeps.

The door was locked, four times the size of Crailek, majestic in every sense of the word..

Crailek concentrates not on any specific lock, but the entire door, and begins to pull at it with his mind, gently at first, and then more forcefully, to see if it gives way.

Crailek realises that if he wanted to, he could rip it off it's hinges completely in one fell swoop.

Crailek steps aside so it doesn't hit him, and indeed pulls it off it's hinges, all the while wondering why that orb would kill so suddenly. Surely a slow and painful death would benefit such a place more. That would have to be remedied.

The door is pulled free, and clatters to the floor. Bent hinges are the only reminder that such a thing once stood between Crailek and his enemy.

Inside, there is a twisted figure, with many eyes and many legs.. a great silver beard, and two human hands.. white gloves.. spider-features..

"You!" he cried.

Crailek nods. "Me. I don't suppose I'm supposed to know who you are?"

"I am Kaffor, Spider of Numbers," cried the creature. "I am a Systemarch, one of the rightful rulers of this place, and I will destroy you. Hold still."

His hands shimmered, and a metallic, shivering firearm appeared within. It looked extremely deadly.

Crailek attempts to blind Kaffor, and silently slips through the shadows behind him, and grabs both arms. If successful, he attempts to lift the Systemarch and push him face down into the ground.

He is successful. The Systemarch, flailing, is flung to the ground, bound by Crailek's weight..

"Get of me!" he screamed, "Get off me!"

Crailek smiles and keeps hold of Kaffor. "First, tell me why you think you deserve to rule this place, when I am the one who created it?"

Kaffor struggled violently. "Let me go! Let me go!"

He wasn't good company.

Crailek tightens his hold on the Systemarch and shakes his head. "Answer the question, Or I'll make you answer it, with quite a bit more force."

"I - am - Kaffor of the - second - attainment! Let me - go - or, or meet your doom!" he screeched, still flailing.

Crailek stands up, but holds Kaffor in his place by his shadow. "Okay, now tell me. What makes you think you deserve to live, let alone rule this place?"

"I - let me go - or this place will go - boom! Boom boom boom!" he snarled. Crailek felt a familiar pain assault him, and he involuntrarily loosened his grip and he stumbled under the psychic attack.

"Ahahahahah!" screamed Kaffor, grinning like the madman he was. "Full teeth! Full teeth! Young, but you can't touch me! Hah! Hahah!"

Crailek frowns at Kaffor, straightens up, and sends a blast of psionic energy both at him, and at the top of the cave over him.

Crailek felt his hands ripple, and vibrated violently as the onslaught wracked his physical body. His mind screamed in pain as he saw the invisible current hit Kaffor, exploding the poor Systemarch violently - sending green-black blood and several legs flying - as the second force hit the ceiling above. There was a sudden groan and the entire ceiling collapsed in a rush of black stone, possibly causing a chain of avalanches below.. Crailek was caught, suffocated.. the rolling, jostling, collapsing seemed to take days.. the roar was immense..

And slowed. Started.. stopped.

Crailek coughed violently. He'd broken a few ribs, so it hurt. He could only see out of one eye, and only a half a foot in front of him - the rest was black stone. He couldn't move. His legs, it felt, had been crushed to a pulp. His head still throbbed with immense pain. He didn't know his own power..

There was nothing but the darkness, and the sound of trickling water.

Crailek laughs, despite his condition. "Oh, man. I should just stop doing stuff."
He groans, and then attempts to get his bearings, to see which direction he was facing.

The direction Crailek was facing was: rock.

To his immediate left: rock.

Below him: rock.

To his right: rock.

Above: darkness, followed by rock.

Any particular direction gravity pulls?
That was kinda the point there.

Crailek was too dazed, his head hurt too much, to figure out where the particular gravity pulls were.. but he thought - sensed, perhaps - that it was below him. That he was the right way up, at least.

Crailek waits for the moment, and waits until his head clears a bit.

Crailek started to feel much better, though he was still in a little bit of a bother.

Crailek frowns, then concentrates on creating a bubble of energy, to push the rocks away and give himself a bit of breathing room.

The rocks were obliterated; Crailek was a deeply powerful psychokinetic. The bubble formed, and Crailek heard another avalanche fall upon him - those rocks, too, were turned to a fine sand. Soon, it was silent again, with Crailek inside his bubble of power.

Crailek takes the time to inspect his body and find the full extent of damage done.

Two cuts, not so deep, above his eyes. A bump on his skull. Four ribs broken. A leg fully crushed, one snapped but serviceable. Grazed knuckles.

He was not in a good way.

The bubble flickered - it was hard for Crailek, the inexperienced psionics user, to keep it up.

Crailek attempts to sink into the darkness of the small area, to see how that works.

Crailek hears a deafening crash above him as the bubble falls - thousands of stones follow. Luckily for Crailek, he was already in a more comfortable, secure gap extremely low in the earth, where the shadows had taken him. He was safe here, for a moment..

Crailek waits here, then. He waits for his body to begin reparations, and looks around at his new surroundings.

Several hours pass, and Crailek begins to feel much better. He finds rock. Everywhere, rock..

And then ripples, across space-time, assault him, and he is bleeding and the wounds are filled with sand and glass and he can't help but vomit a little..

Things somehow got worse.

Paradox.

Crailek groans lightly, and lays his head back. "Son of a bitch. That's certainly new. Freakin' sand, won't give me ten seconds of damn peace.."
He concentrates as hard as he can at traveling back through the shadows to his people. That would certainly be a better place to heal then some hole.

An hour passes - the going is tough, and slow - but Crailek eventually crawls his way out of the pit that he'd thrown himself into. He staggers towards one of the Shadows, who stare at him with silent empathy, and collapses once more.

Crailek pushes himself over onto his back forcefully and looks at the Shadow. Surely they had at least some way to help him heal? It would not be too good if he died again so soon. This was said silently, without words to the Shadow. He hoped it would understand.

The Shadow motioned towards it's Lord, and soon many others came, lifting him up gently and placing him upon a white bed. Shadow surgeons fixed his wounds, and Shadow healers created concoctions to help him sleep..

It took Crailek a solid week, but soon he was fully rested and healed.

Crailek pushes himself back up onto his feet, thinks for a moment, then leaves this realm through a portal.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:41, Sat 24 Oct 2009.

(Next time, do me a favour and actually tell me - in the post - where you're going)

A shattered realm - silent cities - a lighthouse - the shells of the past -

He was in Penta.

Crailek wakes up again with a familiar sensation, and groans, before sitting up and muttering under his breath, "I really need to stop doing stuff..." He looks around at his surroundings.

He was within the tunneled place of the Shadows. They worked around him. Crailek was awfully thirsty.

Crailek gets up to his feet, and begins to walk around and look for a source of water.

There was a stream. The water was cool and dark and as Crailek drank he began to feel refreshed.