RPG NightMare

[Xerxes]

[SIZE="1"][COLOR="Magenta"][FONT="Century Gothic"]We have all heard of Wonderland. A place of dreams and wonder and joy. Filled with the air of hope and endurance. And don't forget about the story of Alice who fell down a rabbit hole and got into all sorts of messes by Lewis Carrol. Yeah, we all know about it. But did you know there was a darker meaning to it than that?Wonderland is real and so is its darker meaning.

Welcome to NightMare. A land filled with nightmares and horror. The creatures here are furocious and cunning. They will do almost anything to get to you. Everywhere you go, there is nothing but the leering eyes that watch your every move. No one is safe and there's nowhere to run.Anyone who enters this world never comes back... Or so they thought...[/COLOR]
[CENTER]~~~[/CENTER]
[COLOR="Purple"]It was just a normal day like any other day of the year. It was spring. A group of people have heard of this mysterious place and everything bad about it and what not. They decided to see if they could open the doorway to the world. On a warm night in May, the group tested it out in the basement of school grounds. Its ceremony to open the doors required a blood offering of everyone who wanted to go. The group spilled the blood and recited the chant that would open the doors. Or so they thought... Nothing happened. With regret and dissatisfication in their hearts, they went home and then to sleep.

Little did they know, that the only way to open the door was to fall asleep after the blood offering. The doorway had opened. All the people who had spilled blood, had their minds transfered through the door. And before you even realized you were going through the door... You were in NightMare. Everywhere you looked, there was nothing but the sense of death falling upon you. What will you do? Are you going to run away and if so, how? Or will you face all your challenges and find the exit that no one has ever found since this world had existed?[/FONT][/COLOR]

[CENTER]~~~[/CENTER]

[FONT="Century Gothic"][COLOR="Navy"]It was a normal day like any other day. Alex and Ally had just rounded up a few students and friends from school. They were waiting in the basement for the others to show so that they could begin the ceremony on their trip to NightMare. Soon, one by one, the others started to show up. They did the ritual and finished the final step into completing the whole things. They thought that they did it all and were about to embark on an amazing journey but nothing happened. Disappointed, everyone left saying their goodbyes and heading on home.
Alex and Ally headed on home to their occult shop that they owned. Alex decided to do a little work before he went to bed and Ally decided to stay up to read a few books on rituals and ceremonies. Soon, the two fell asleep at their tasks. When the hour struck midnight something started to stir...

Ally next woken up to the voice of her brother Alex. He was calling her.
[B]"Hey! Ally, wake up! Wake up! You've got to see this!"[/B] called Alex as Ally opened her eyes.
Infront of her wasn't the shop that she owned nor was there any trace of home. There, lying before her very eyes was a land in which the entire scene was very dark. Looking around, she realized that the only source of light there was was that of the moon. The field in which the two were lying was a very deep green grass. In the distance, there was no trace of life around other than themselves.
Noticing, Ally saw that she was holding a ritual staff and a book on alchemy that she had treasured. Alex noticed that he had a sword like earing attached to his ear. The two got up and looked around to take in this miserable scenery. The next thing they knew, more people started showing up and they weren't just anybody. They were the ones from the ceremony![/COLOR][/SIZE]

* Alright everyone! NightMare has taken its course! For your first post, I would like you to explain how you were involved with the ceremony and then go on how you ended up there and meeting these two characters. For those of you playing Beings, you do not need to post until after I introduce Alice who will tell them something but I'm not going to spoil it. So here it is and I hope that this will last to the bitter and cold dark end.[/FONT]

[Drizzt Do'urden]

[I]"Oh my god is this thing ever going to be over?"[/I] Keith thought as he opened his eyes and gawked at the others performing the "ceremony". The only reason he was at this stupid thing was to get [I]her[/I] to notice him. He'd been following the beauty all week. Trying his hardest to get her to notice him.

It was the only reason he agreed to come to this stupid thing. It turned out Regina never showed....she was the one who told him about the ceremony and that [I]she [/I] would be there. [I]"Damn you Regina, if I had ANY idea what this was about. This stuipd crap isn't worth it"[/I]

After the ceremony was over Keith laughed to himself at all the boo-hoo's and whines over the fact that nothing happened. His crush darted out of the room quickly and Keith followed, finally ready to confess his feelings for her. As he came up behind her Keith's blood turned to ice as it always did when he approached her. [I]I had to bother her, I'll just talk to her at school[/I] He thought as he turned an ran towards home. *ring ring* He was surprised to hear his phone ring. It was Regina.

"Hey how'd it go?" She asked excitedly, Regina always loved those weird rituralistic ceremony things.
"Nothing happened obviously, I'm still here. And as for the otherthing as usual I bailed"
"Oh shit I forgot...well it's a good thing you bailed."
"Well thanks Regina, that makes me feel alot better"
"No what I mean is I forgot to call you earlier, It turns out you-know-who has a boyfriend."
"WHAT?" Keith was more angry with her than ever. Getting his hopes up, and not telling him that. He hung his phone up and shut it off before she could say another word.......

After countless hours of staring up at the ceiling searching for sleep. Keith got up and went to the bathroom. [I]"Mom won't miss a couple of these" [/I] Resisting the urge to down the entire bottle of sleeping pills Keith took two and lay back down and fell asleep. He awoke what seemed like only a second later to a bird shreiking.

Sitting up he looked around in a daze, [I]Huh...now this is a weird dream.[/I] he thought to himself as he got to his feet. Keith felt an itch on his back, when he went to scratch it he realized he had a scabbard on his back. Complete with a longsword. He noticed a bulge on his ankle, and upon further examineation there was a large bowie knife straight from one of those war movies. And on his belt, was the most unusual of all he thought. A Colt-45 revolver was in a holster.

For some reason he felt these items would come in handy REALLY soon. As he looked around the field he sat, though it was hard to see. He could make out two shapes that looked like people a hundred yards or so away.

"Hey!" He shouted as he made his way over to them. When they came into view he realized it was a guy and a girl. He immediateally recognized them as being at the ritual. "This is some dream....you guys mind if I tag along with you?"

[Akieen Cloud]

[COLOR="Navy"][FONT="Comic Sans MS"]Ari bounced happily in her spot.
"Wonderland. I can't believe it...I'll be able to see it for real and see all the characters!"
She accidentally bumped into some one and apologized shyly.
About an hour or so later she was walking out with the others disappointed that nothing had happened. She had gone home and flopped on her bed and stared at the ceiling for a while before sleep over took her it didn't take her long before she found her self dreaming, she looked up as some called out to her.
"Hey! You too?"
She looked up brushing a strand of her straw colored hair out of her face.
"Me too? What is going on? This is a freaky dream isn't it? But you were at the ceremony to open wonder land. What happened?"
The three of them shrugged and looked around with her.
"Well anyway, my name's Ari, you?"
She smiled sweetly at the others, she shook thier hands and smiled at each of them.
"So where are you anyway?"
She looked up at Keith and smiled a little. She was slightly nervous to say the least.[/FONT][/COLOR]

[Ugamon]

[COLOR="DarkRed"][FONT="Garamond"]The smoke from the incense filled the room giving it a heavy heady odor of sandelwood, Sage and a number of other herbs as the monotone voices from the two leading the ritual gave up into the threads of magick that in his mind's eye swirled in dark hues around the room. Each person there was giving off a different "aura" that blended into the ceremony and seemed to mix and blend into the background lending a strange quality to all of this.

As the Ritual came to a close the one known as Samuel Cromwell slowly opened his eyes Dispelling the light show in his mind as he looked through the slight haze at the smoke billowing off the small Alter in the center with a number of half burned and wet wax spilled over the cloth. The Circle of Salt around them was Swept away by one of those who had led the Spell to completation.

A air of Disappointment could be felt as the young man looked around confused slightly. He had felt the undercurrents. It should have worked and there was no flash and/or bang that brought them to another plane of existence or portal to another dimension shimmering before them. Just a empty room with nothing but smoke and tools of the craft to be seen. A heavy sigh as he moved away from the one time circle and gathered his bag of Homework and headed out silently and unnoticed as was custom to his presence as of well forever it seemed.

Ducking out into the cooler late afternoon air he began the short walk back to his Grandmothers small house set back on a old lot in town behind a rather unruly bush and he would let his mind fall to other matters as he moved with a quiet pace down the sidewalk and then up the path to the place he currently called home.

Again as was normal his Grandmother was sleeping in her rocker and the teenager just threw together some food before heading up the stairs and into his room.

His room was a collection of New age groups, Ritual ideas, A small Alter on his dresser held all his old candles and tools for his private practice next to Dresser was a Faint sky blue sheeted twin bed. Off white Curtains covered the only window in the room and in one corner sat a small table with a laptop case on top and a old wood chair next to it that served as his homework desk most of the time. The floor was hardwood but covered by a skimpy rug and as much room as possible was cleared away to give him room for a circle and such. Tossing his Bookbag on the table he sighed and taking the last bite of his sandwich he flopped back on the bed and sighed as he let his eyes drift shut for what he thought would only be a moment.

Only when he opened his eyes again instead of a White ceiling he was Greeted by Dark purpish/blue clouds and the faint glow of moonlight. Startled he pushed himself to his feet and paused upon hearing a thud and a clink of metal on the hard rocky surface of a small Bluff he had been laying on. Looking for the source of the sound he found A Small dagger about two-thirds the size of his Forearm which after a bit of examining the runes and symbols set into the metal he concluded was much like the athame he used at home. Next to it half open was a book that was about four inches thick and about the size of a normal phonebook but set in a strangely Black dull Scaley skin hardcover form. Slipping the Ritual dagger into the leather wrist band under his Leather jacket he ran his fingers over the book's extrior for a moment before he picked it up and flipped to the page it was sort of open to and frowned in confusion at the strange gylph like writing.

Flipping more towards the front of the book he managed to find a page that he could read.[/FONT] [FONT="Palatino Linotype"]" For whomever shalt finds this source of my knowledge I offer them but one hope. For in this land there is a terrible menace greater then any oridinary trouble that might befall you And your only hope is to find the way back to your own world before you too suffer my fate. Your in their world now.. Your in Nightmare.[/FONT] [FONT="Garamond"]It was signed at the bottom in a flowing script in the name of Argeneau Veacelian and the script went from tidy to hardly readable as if it had been scribbled in at a moment of urgentecy or in a terriblemanner to frighten off those who found the book.

As the Teen closed the book and tucked it under a arm he spoted a small leather bag not far off moved to retreive it and slipped the book inside. For now he would just call it the book until he could figure out what it was. Looking around he hadn't seen anyone thusfar but who knows when that might change he figured as he set himself off to look around. [/FONT]
[/COLOR]

[Imp]

OOC: We were supposed to meet Alex and Ally in the field, not go off by ourselves...

Hmm, now to expand on the last two paragraphs of Lupin's bio.
IC:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[color=indigo][size=1]Tap... tap... tap... tap...
Although voices sounded from beyond the locked door to the basement, Lupin took special care to be as quiet as possible--otherwise he might disturb the ritual that was taking place. Yet slowly, carefully, he was able to pick the lock and open the door, hardly making a sound. He peered inside the doorway, waited until everyone either had their eyes closed or were focused on the high priest/priestess, so to speak, of this ceremony, and slipped through the doorway...

After that, he inched along the edge of the room, careful to remain hidden in the darkness so that the ceremony would not be interrupted by someone spotting him. If he was to be spotted, it was best to wait until he was safely inside the ceremonial circle--for his friend Merlin used to say that any magical circle can be weakened by an outside distraction. Inside distractions... well they were a different matter. Anyway, Lupin waited until when a short meditation took place in the ritual, then walked right up to the edge of the circle, tracing a doorway into it. Upon entry, he visualised the door closing behind him... And all was well. Although everyone had to acknowledge his presence in the ritual from that point on, the participants' ability to keep their mind steered the ritual toward success...

Or not. When the incantation in the end that was supposed to open the gate to NightMare didn't work, Lupin backed away from the circle, standing there almost in shock. He began to suspect that he had been the reason why the ceremony didn't work... that he had ruined it after all. Needless to say, he left the basement the first chance he got...

As soon as he left the school, Lupin headed for Merlin's house, so as to inform him of the bad news.
[i]'Tis the downside of living the kind of life I lead,[/i] he thought. [i]Surely I disrupted the magic of the ritual by sneaking into the circle, or perhaps even by tainting the sacred space with my own aura. I wonder if the latter is even possible, but... really, I'm beginning to regret ever trying to enter that basement...[/i]
As Lupin turned a corner, his train of thought vanished at the sight of a familiar-looking man.
[i]Bobby?[/i] Lupin recognised him indeed--this Bobby person was from that same sort of mafia he himself had been in. He had been a sort of boss, one who kept praising him for his sneaking and thieving skills, but also kept nagging him to work out and eat more, and criticising him for not carrying a gun. Overall... he was kind of annoying. But now he was just...

Trouble, that's what Bobby was. Lupin knew it right when Bobby took out a handgun and pointed it at him. What followed was Lupin narrowly dodging two or three gunshots, while moving around Bobby in the hopes of distracting him. During one such dodge, he had to duck right inbetween Bobby's legs--while doing so he grabbed one leg and nearly tripped him. This startled Bobby a bit as he regained is balance, and it caused him to loosen his grip on his gun enough so that Lupin could snatch it right out of his hand. Then he ran away with it.
"Stop thief!" Bobby called after him, half as a joke and half as an angry remark.

From then on it was a chase--although at one point Lupin hid in a narrow space between two buildings and Bobby ran all the way around the block before finding him, only to discover that his gun had been emptied in the process. The chase continued, and for a while it seemed that Lupin was losing Bobby... that is, until he turned into an alley. As he ran through this alley, he began to feel weary all of a sudden. Okay, that was sort of normal--he usually felt that way when he was low on energy. But then it got worse and he began to feel dizzy, and after a short while he couldn't run anymore, and instead fell to his knees. Then it wasn't too long before fell forward and collapsed...

~ ~ ~

When Lupin regained consciousness, he found himself in a field, and the sky had become fairly cloudy all of a sudden, when it had been clear moments before.
[i]What? What happened? If this is a trick by the...[/i]
Then Lupin remembered something Kelsey, his girlfriend, had told him--something she heard from the great-grandmother who supposedly cast a curse upon her.
[i]"When one enters the NightMare at the stroke of midnight, one enters the Gate, a field underneath a cloudy sky, which leads to..."[/i] and that's where both Kelsey and her greatgrandmum stopped.
So... did that mean that Lupin had somehow found his way into NightMare?

As Lupin looked around, he noticed that there were five other people there, all of who had participated in the ceremony intended to enter NightMare. Now, somehow, everyone from there had been transported here. But not everyone had arrived yet--Lupin thought he remembered six other people in that ritual. One of the girls was missing... But, the twins who had led the ritual had arrived, as did the hyper-looking girl in the pink shirt, the preppy-looking boy who didn't seem to be interested in the content of the ritual, and the boy who looked to be the youngest, quietest, and most involved in the ritual (besides the twins) as well. The last boy reminded him a bit of his friend Merlin, as he seemed to have that spiritual air about him.

Lupin also noticed something weird about his left hand... upon closer inspection, somehow a ring appeared on his index finger. The ring looked to be made of amethyst and silver, with a moon design and a seven-pointed star inscribed on it, and several tiny glass spheres infused around the edge. This was clearly not an ordinary ring, judging by how it suddenly appeared on his finger and how it fit his finger perfectly. But it went beyond that... for he sensed a sort of spitirual power emanating from the ring, as if it was ready to restore energy to his body as well as his spirit whenever he felt weak or tired.

Whenever he felt weak or tired... well, he certainly felt a bit weakened, shaky even, probably due to all the running he had just done. Chases like that always took a lot out of him, however calm and un-panicky he tried to remain. Anyway, at that point everybody except Sage was gathered together and talking to one another; Sage was in a different patch of grass by himself and was looking at a book of some sort. Yup, that definitely reminded him of Merlin, who was a bookworm as well.
"So, I take it we ended up in the land of Nightmare after all," Lupin commented, speaking primarily to Sage but so that the others could hear as well.
Then Lupin spoke in a quieter voice, so only Sage could hear. "By the way, might I ask what sort of a book you're looking at?"[/color][/size]

[Ugamon]

[FONT="Garamond"][COLOR="DarkRed"]Apparently he wasn't that Keen of a observer because the Voice that belonged to the one named Lupin had caught him off guard and once his full attention had been pulled from looking around a bit further he began to releize that several voices had been echoing behind a decent sized outcropping of rocks. Turning his attention and eyes towards the source of th voice and debating on answering for a moment as he looked at the Older man who vaguely appeared to be older then any of the other's here. When he did answer his voice was soft and would carry but in a way that was hard to hear beyond a few feet.

[b]Yeah i guess that would be a wise assumption Considering the scenery.[/B]

Hefting the book for a moment he tilted his weight to the side so he was leaning and saw that behind the other was the same group of people from the ritual eariler minus one of the females and plus this male before him. Strangely there was something that urked him with a vague sense of familarity but his concious mind couldn't put a proverbal thumb on it. His Dark eyes seemed to reflect the eyes in a almost purplish manner as he scoped over the other as he attempted to figure out what seemed familar about the other when his eyes fell onto the ring and the strange lavender and dark blue tendrils that seemed to project off the little piece of jewelry. He let it slide for the moment but reserved the thought for a later date to ask to examine it closer as he went to answer the second question posed by the other. This response was even softer then before with a hint of the kid knowing what he was talking about and yet totally unsure.

[B] I think it's a coded Book of shadows considering how it's laid out and writen in a rune alphabet.[/B]

He was quiet for a few more minutes as he looked at the other for a moment before proceeding passed him to the rest of the group content to merely listen in for the moment The twins sort of knew him from school and the fact he had given them some other information that he had on hand a few times. The others he recognized as just people he sort of knew but really hadn't spoken to before. Looking at each of them a almost strange sense of relief fell over him and yet at the same time jealousy over the fact he wasn't here alone. Did they all really expect as much trouble as he did or perhaps they just thought themselves tough or perhaps simple minded. The jury was still out on that as he stood off a foot or two behind Ally and just listened.[/COLOR][/FONT]