Earning a Mask, Open

[Dei Ex Machinis]

Illya, for a while now, had been filled with a single-minded purpose. That wasn't surprising seeing that she now had almost nothing to fear from the Chess Graveyard. Even as a beginner, it had barely grazed her and now the Frankenstein creatures and the ghosts and demons could barely touch her. She had all the skill and leisure to have a single-minded purpose.

And yet she was still a pawn.

Pride was unhealthy, the little girl knew that. Yet she had been the most powerful homunculus EVER. That her skills were respected so little in this world had been highly damaging to her morale. There were rumors though, that you could prove yourself worthy of the rank of rook if you stole the masks of the dead.

It was an icky job, but sometimes, icky jobs had to be done. Her spade finally broke through to the coffin, but when she opened it, it was, like all the others, devoid of any trace of a mask. The body was still there though, but luckily enough, so past decay that it no longer smelled... earthy.

"Grah." The young aristocrat muttered. She picked another RIP marker and started digging again.

===============================

So that anyone who's looking at this thread knows, Illya will be requesting:

Name: Jack of Blades Mask
Rank: C
Type: Nature/Ghost
Apparel: An ancient mask, it appears to be made of porcelain and yet is clearly not. Ancient runic sigils are spread haphazardly but in such a manner that it actually appears to have some sort of design to it...
Normal form: Attaching itself to the user's face, it refuses to come off unless it is ripped off- an act that will remove the skin of the user.

[Saku]

Saku holding a Bouquet of flowers for the dearly departed, when he suddenly noticed a figure digging up graves off in the distance. "I wonder who that is." he asked himself, as he headed towards her. She seemed to be having a tough time he thought as he approched her. "Hello," he sayed, hoping to not frighten her. "Who are you."

[Dei Ex Machinis]

"Kid," Illya said, continuing to shovel. "This is a private graveyard. Remember the keep-out sign...?" Illya's mind backtracked and while she wasn't certain she had passed the lovely heads-on-pikes that one of the more macabre Chess members had placed outside, she couldn't be sure it wasn't there either. Sometimes, the small details escaped her, she must be getting old.

She hit another coffin, opened, looked inside and coughed. What a stench! Her eye did a quick scan- and, like usual- discovered nothing. The problem with the stupid coffins were that they were made of lead. Her eye couldn't pierce them and she was off playing russian roulette looking for a proper Chess mask.

"Why are you still here?" She asked, noticing that the boy was still there. "We're scary and dangerous people. You don't want to know us."

[Saku]

"Would you like help?' Saku asked, standing perfectly at the same place where he was at. He had no emotion in his voice, yet, his tone wasn't threatening.

[Dei Ex Machinis]

"Child," Illya said, narrowing her eyes and bothering to stop digging. "Unless you're planning to join Chess or are severely, severely, SEVERELY wanting to die you will follow my orders to the letter- and here they are: Get. The. Hell. Out. Of. Our. Graveyard."

Then she went right back to digging. Having smelt prey, a few of the braver zombies were slowly encroaching upon Illya's position- apparently desiring fresh meat, and if not that of the scary-powerful girl that had entered and defeated a score of far more powerful Franky zombies than at least that of the little boy's.

"Go away," she told the zombies irritably. "No- wait," she said to Saku, "I do have a use for you child. Go kill the zombies."

================

Zombies*4:

Stats: Def/Str/Agil

50/50/5

[Saku]

"Ok." He said as he shot a wave of water to all the zombies.

(Can you control the zombies. I don't want to auto win.)

[Dei Ex Machinis]

And the very weak wave of water was absorbed by the zombies, who simply shrugged it off like wet dogs (an act which caused Illya to poke her head out of the hole she was digging, scream irritably, and throw random rock at one of the zombies, badly damaging it, scream again and then go back to work) and continue to march forwards...

"Good lord, not *another* empty one." Illya muttered.

==========

OOC: If you describe it well, feel free to auto-win.

[Saku]

Saku then attacked with a electricity as lightning spewed out from his hands and shocked the zombies, temperaly paralyzing them. Thinking fast, he stared to morph the water that hit the zombies earlyer into needles, then tightened his fist so that the water crushed into the zombies flesh, cutting limbs off of the zombies. Then he fired a blaze of fire at them as they tried to reisemble, burning them to ash with an after smell of burned, rotten flesh. "There you go," he said to the girl. "Is there anything else I can help you with."

[Dei Ex Machinis]

OOC: Maybe not *that* quickly but oh well.

IC:

"Careful, child." Illya said knowledgeably as she started upon yet another plot of land. For some reason, she was reminded of a mainstream book turned into a movie in her own world and it was titled, aptly enough, 'Holes.' "You're using far too much magical energy... in a cursed graveyard, that brings more creepy-crawlies."

She barely managed to finish her sentence before a bat launched itself at her, and she caught it, cleanly snapping its neck. It dissolved into a dark purple cloud.

"And you don't have much magic to spare. The zombies are vulnerable to fire and light- silver's probably also workable though none of you fools ever bother to carry around a real weapon." She continued digging before noting that her companion wasn't actually _doing_ anything.

"Get to work, you didn't think that there were only four of the bloody things, didja?"

=================

OOC: More zombies coming! You can decide how many.

[Saku]

(the first ones were weak.)

Saku saw 2 more off in the distance, he shot 4 fireballs, 2 for each one. They faised their hands and crushed the fire in between their palms. Why doesn't it work. He took a quick look at their surrondings. He then lifted his hand and then shot blast of both cold water and hot fire right after another, the zombies first didn't seem to effect them, but in time, the flesh started to melt. He then he turned his body into a flaming infernal, and charged at the 2 zombies. He then rammed himself into one of the zombies, and it fell to the ground, but he got to close to the other zombie, and the zombie clawed at saku's back. But saku grabbed his hand, only getting a scratch from the blow, and crushed it as the zombie tried to retreat his hand. It gave an loud shreak and attacked with his other hand. Saku grabbed his other hand, aware of his pitiful slash and hit the zombie with his free hand, causing the zombie to shrivle up into a pile of ash, as he transfered the flame from his body to its. With the zombies dead, he knelt on one knee, spiiting out blood. "Is that all I can help you with ma'am." he asked, awaiting orders.

[Dei Ex Machinis]

OOC: The first ones had 50 defence and were equivalent to purely physical level one characters. They weren't particularly weak. xD

IC:

Illya cocked her head. "You'd be an eager one, wouldn't you?" She asked blandly before returning to her diggery. Her shovel hit another coffin lid and she banged it open- this time finding a fresh corpse. She banged it shut again- no magical auras and the stench was unbelievable. "Nope, not really, but the thought's appreciated."

"So, why are you here anyways... kid... bugger it all... kid, what's your name? And would you like to join the Chess?"

[Saku]

"I'm here on my own buisness," he said as he picked up his boquet of flowers that he put down when he fought the zombies. "As for joining, sorry, no. I'm to not side with one or the other intil i find someone and make him pay for what he's done." He went to one of the graves and placed the flowers on a grave and started to utter some words. When he finished, he said. "Sorry to have bothered you." He was about to leave when he asked. "by the way, what are you looking for." He had some of a curiosity in his voice this time.

[Dei Ex Machinis]

"Mmmm, pity. I could have used another sl- henchmen. Yes, henchmen. That was the word I meant to say and exactly what I meant. Nothing more, nothing less." Dirt flew over her head and she started to feel tiredness set in- she had been digging up bodies for the past three or four hours after all, if not exactly grueling work it certainly wasn't simple either. Her arms didn't ache, and she attributed that to the training gate but... her stamina still wasn't what she would have liked.

"What am I looking for? A mask- an object of small import but... its... important enough to spend a few hours searching for it. Its only a rumor, of course..."

[Saku]

Intrest flooded Saku's mind as he asked, "Can you tell me more."

[Dei Ex Machinis]

"About the slaves?" Illya asked. Her brow furrowed- what had she been... no wait, he was probably talking about the mask she was looking for. "Well," she said, "according to rumors, Chess masks are based upon the design of a particularly malevolent ARM- one so evil and ancient that thousands upon thousands of imitations were done and distributed across the land."

She pointed to the holes she had dug. "Apparently, one of the better imitations is lying in this very graveyard. It might even be the original. I'm not pinning any hopes on it, of course, but I'd be very interested in seeing what it could do. And besides, it's about time they promoted me to the position of Rook," she fumed. "I'm hoping that this will impress them enough to let me *do* something in a while instead of getting the rook's sloppy seconds."