The shock of everything has turned my skin bright scaly green, but it soon fades to its usual tan, leaving a stripe running down my neck, over my shoulders, and down to my wrists.

I take a swig from my waterskin, look around the party, and whip out my lodestone again.

"So guys...are we off?"

I turn and begin walking.

yeah, you do =P

OC: Crap, Lets! Get back here! Their story makes our story look like shit. We have to come up with something good.

ok, i'm breaking.

OC: than take a break till you do think of something, I've exhausted my creativte for this morning so I am

okaaay... fine! ( i still don't know where to go with this, though...)

OC: everyone back in character we have a story to finish!

yaaay!

all right

Plot By: Ampmaster
Charachters By: The Various Characters of the YN Forums

OC: oh, yeah! (and we should ALL get SOME credit....)

OC: *amp does a little happy dance* oh yeah I rock! hell I should turn this into a book and have YN publish the thing!

OC: i am so in awe of this storyline, that i cannot think of anything to post in response....

*Vix, Malus and Kwai all enter the clearing*

Vix: the body is gone
Malus: 2 days early I think
Kwai: why would you know christian teachings?
Malus: I'm a devoted roman catholic thank you very much
Vix: huh? doesn't the church hate your kind?
Malus: well we've sent envoys to the pope over the years and at Vatican 2 in the secret sessions a delegation of 12 men were selected to go on a mission to the vampires, we converted in droves as a matter of fact and are now one of the largest catholic populations in the world, I have a three hundred young men going through seminary to become priests and brothers and a similer number of young ladies becoming nuns
Vix: well that's a...role reversal if I've ever heard one
Malus: yes the irony of the situation is neve far from my mind
Vix: so have you heard of this abbot of the woods before?
Kwai: I have heard of him
Malus: well I haven't so please enlighten us Kwai
Kwai: he is roumored to be a hermit/monk who was the only survivor of his abby when it was destroyed in a war past, so he took to the forest taking it, a natual temple to the splendor of God as his abby
Malus: this will be very...intresting
Vix: laughs that's for sure hell we have to find the Long Lost Ark of the Covenant and a crazed old monk out in the woods somewhere
Kwai: if we hope to accomplish this task we must have sufficent rest, I reccomend we retire
Malus: I agree, goodnight all

*they part and head to their bedrolls*

oc: yes, it is...

IC: i set off to roam the woods to find the abbot, and before i get very far, i find the rest of the group. they all look amazed taht i have left the clearing so soon. i explain that i was visited by an angel and he told me that the only way to "ward off the coming darkness" was to find the lost ark that indiana jones raided, and to do that we had to find the abbot in the woods. because we have no idea where he is, we stay where we are for a while to rest and get over the shock.

as i sit apart from the group, shadow comes up and sits next to me.
"the coming darkness isn't the only reason that you want to find the lost ark of the covenant, is it?"
man, she is waaaay too astute.
I take a deep breath. "no, it isn't. the angel also told me that i could talk to... my father... if we restore the ark."
shadow, obviously not usually the kind of person... or vampyre, i guess... to show affection, gives me a big hug and walks away.

as the party rushes on to save Gaius, they hear hammer blows in the distance and with each blow a cry of pain unlike anything any of them have ever heard and as the near the clearing a voice crys out to the heavens "It is Finished!" and is heard from no more, great tremors shake the earth and as the party reaches the clearing they come upon a ghastly sight and the know that they are to late. Two men, a human and a human form dragon nailed back to back on a single cross both have obvously breathed their last, aya sobbing throws her self at the foot of the once mighty tree and as the rest watch on a dark cloud opens above and dark creatures the likes of which none of them had ever seen before are drawn in, after a time the cloud shuts and dispearses and a great light shines down and a mighty voice rings out "what evil has entered my creation has now left it, what wrongs have been done, are now made right" and then the light vanishes leaving the sad little glade where the cross of two stands overcast and moody the only sounds the breathing of the party members and the sobbing of the young aya desolute at having found her family again only to have lost in once more, everyone is so focused, so caught up that they do not notice the man in white robes enter from behind them, the party without aya turn to leave and give her some privacy still not noticing the man in white robes amongst them, after the party has left the man walks up to young aya touches her on the shoulder and in a calm voice says "child why do you cry for your father?"
Aya: sir..I..just wanted to know him, to know if he could be my family, if he could love me as his daughter
Man in White: child worry not that he did this for you as much as the world, it is only out of love of the purest form that he could accomplish what he did by dying here
Aya: who...who are you?
Man in White: I am Raphael the Healing ArchAngel, I have been sent to you because you are the last of the wrongs caused by the forces of shade that must be righted and while your father cannot return to the earth and speak with you as christ did with the apostles
Aya: why not?
Raphael: because he is not God
Aya*looking chrestfallen*: oh...
Raphael: However if you can find the Arc of the Covenant which remains to this day hidden in the mighty Sahara and enshrine it in a temple as per the teachings of the 12 tribes of Israel you will once again be able to speak to your father as well as ward off the coming darkness
Aya: huh?
Raphael: a great evil is coming and the warriors of men shall once again fight each other in a massive war that may consume the very earth in fighting again, if the Arc returns however the darkness shall be prevented and peace and prosperity shall reign on earth until the coming of satan to the earth and the return of the king
Aya: well how do I find it?
Raphael: seek the abbot of the woods he shall guide you
*he spreads his wings and begins to acsend to heaven*
Aya: well how do I find him?
Raphael: he's around here somewhere
*and as the light and the archangel vanish so vanish the bodies of gaius and claw from the cross, armed with her new information aya runs around the corner to inform the rest of the group of what has occured*

OC: wow this is getting very biblical

i suppose that the term for what i'm feeling right now is shock. I mean, i just learned that i still have living relatives, my mother is dead, obviously rather recently, and my father is about to sacrifice himself to save the world. there's no other word for it.

Kwai leads the group on a path into the woods. i follow blindly, not paying attention to the surroundings. when we stop to rest, i pull out the book that was my mother's journal, hoping to find some vague comfort in the fact that the words are there. i flip through the pages, and images jump out at me, like a flip book. i flip back and look at a page, but there is no picture there. flipping through the entire thing again, i watch the sequence of images with astonishment. i flip through the last bit over and over again, realizing that there is something that i must do.

Vix obviously agitated walks up to the group
Vix: come one we have to hurry
Aya: please Vix who's life in danger?
Vix: Gaius is going to sacrifce himself to seal the shades away for the rest of eternity
Aya*looking pale*: he..he what?
Vix: what's worng with you kid you look like some one just dropped something slimey down your shorts
Malus: Kwai start them on ahead, I need a quick word with Vix
Kwai: alright malus

*after the rest of the group is around the bend*

Malus: the reason that young girl was looking shocked is that you just told her the man she just found out is her father is about to kill himself to save the world
Vix*shocked*: oh shit you mean?
Malus: yes she's gaius's daughter
Vix: how? when? who? he hasn't had a human wife for over 200 hundred years
Malus: she's a half-elf
Vix: how the hell is that possible? the healers said it couldn't be done, that there was no way in heaven or hell that they could have kids
Malus: I don't know either I just know that she's Gaius andMarle's kid hell just look at her she has his eyes for heavens sake!
Vix: yeah and Marle's eye color and hair....
Vix: shit we have to hurry and save that idiot before he leaves his daughter alone in the world again!
*they hurry off to rejoin the rest of the group*

meanwhile deep in the forest an ancient ritual has begun

Gaius: Lord of Lord and King of Kings as you died to save the immortal souls of men let one who once pierced your side died to preserve your creation *he's interrupted as claw lands sudden;y*
Claw: Gaius we msut do this together
Gaius: but I...
Claw: we are one being now and as such bear the sins of the other we can only do this together
Gaius*laughing as a few tears come out of his eyes*: your right old friend, you always right
Gaius: but let me ask your guidance again why is it so hard for me to leave the world that I have spent so much, to much time on?
Claw: we all have trouble leaving the things we love behind and as you have just discovered one that you wish you could have loved all the more it is doubly hard but be firm in your choice, we do this that all that we love shall continue on even though it shall do so with out us
Gaius: your allways right old friend let's do this

*they start the ritual over*

Liz: Can I ask who that was?
Alex, in an off handed voice: Oh, right. That was the Magi Police.
Liz: Of course, No big deal, right?
Alex: Accualy, it is a slightly big deal.
Liz: Meaning?
Alex: Meaning, that now that the police know I'm here, they'll send more of those idiots they call officers.
Liz: So?
Alex: So, I can't be here anymore. And as my apprentice, looks like your along for the ride.
Liz: Great. So where are we off to?
Zeig: Well Poppet, have you ever been to sea before?

Liz has a slightly shocked expression

Verka: Quite a lass. She meets the undead and a deamon, no sweat, but tell her she's going on a ship...

I revert to green again, wondering why every time I have to do this the sun isn't out. So much for the joys of having chloroplasts. I throw on my armour, figuring I'll probably need it.

OC: how was i supposed to know what you were trying to do (and i still don't know....)? (i love the Snoopy reference, by the way... we did "you're a good man, charlie brown" as our school musical a few months ago...)

IC: i wake up insanely tired, memories of the celebration slowly coming back to me as rhizoid shakes me violently awake.
"what's giong on?" i ask groggily
all she says in reply is that someone's life is at stake and that we need to go.
i get up and dress in the gear that i recieved last night, and we head out the door.