(OOC: Adding a bit of fantasy to add an intresting twist on this particulair RPG.)
IC: The Black Dragon Empire, Dameo
A black shadow slipped from shadow to shadow in the late-night darkness. Weaving through the narrow streets and winding lanes of the ancient city, it moved without a sound, heading ever inward, toward Taj Dameos Square at the center of the sleeping metropolis.
The form, vaguely human in shape, traveled quickly, never hesitating to stop and stare at the stunning examples of Daemun/Deamun and Dragonius architecture that had earned the city a reputation as one of the most beautiful locations in the galaxy. Nor did it slow down on the numerous bridges it was forced to cross. Dameo, situated in the middle of the galaxy and surronded by two moons and a cluster of stars, was laced with over 400 spans. The dark blot lanced across the spans with eye-blurring speed, vanishing on one side only to appear on the other an instant later.
Taj Dameos Square, at the center of the city, was the most popular location in Dameo. It was bound on all sides by famous historical monuments. At its eastern end was Taj Dameos Cathedral, over a thousand years old. Nearby was the Tajan's Palace, built a few years before the Cathedral, destroyed by fire four times, and rebuilt after each blaze, more magnificent than before. The shadowy figure glided by them both. At the rear of the palace was the famous Bridge of Sighs. Once the famous arch had led to the public prisons. Now the prisoners were gone, and in their place stood a vast, black skyscraper of glass and steel.
A number of Deamuns had expressed loud and vocal complaints when plans to tear down the famous historical buildings were announced. Opponents objected bitterly to the massive rebuilding project, declaring that the ancient jail was one of the city's most prized landmarks. As u8sual, money spoke louder. The city's official commission had ignored the complaints and approved the design.
Soon after, a number of the most strident criticshad disappeared from Dameo. Reports from the security staff claimed that the citizens had angrily departed the city after being scorned by the city fathers. The more cynical inhabitants of the planet said nothing and made their peace with the new skyscraper.
Forty storied high, the building was surrouned with a brick wall twelve feet high. A single gate and guardpost offered the only entrance into the compound. Whispered tales described huge, red-eyed hounds that roamed the grounds at night. No one was sure what secrets the building contained. Other than a street address, the skyscraper had no name. None was needed. Among the residents of Dameo, the rectangular black giant was known simply as The Dragon's Lair.
The presense halted at the brick perimeter. It knew better than to touch the structure. Embedded throughout the barrier were small heat detectors that would record the slightest variation in temperature-warm or cold. The top of the wall was covered by thousands of inch-high, steel needles. Each was barbed with a curve designed to rip protective garments or skin to shreds. Powerful searchlights swept the inside permeter of the compound every few minutes. Monstrous beasts roamed the grounds, things of nightmares that reconized no friend, only prey. Entrance to the Dragon's Lair was impossible.
Pausing for a second, the shadow crept along the wall to the lone opening. Four guards watched the barren street. Tall men dressed in black uniforms without decoration, their eyes glowed with an unnatural brightness. They were ghouls. They were the elite soldiers of the fortress, their lives dedicated to keeping it safe from intruders.
Two were stationed in a raised, glass-lined booth that offered a commanding view of the empty street. They manned a complex video and computer network tha provided them with a instantaneous visual access to any spot on the company grounds. Their companions, standing at attention at the gate, were armed with BlasTec-44 blaster rifles. Behind them, a pair of six-inch thick steel doors that could be opened only from the control booth provided a final obstacle to anyone who made it past the quartet of sentries.
Timing was everything. The blot waited and watched for the precise moment. It was extremely patient. There were hours till dawn. And it had been planning this operation for a long time.
Even ghouls blinked. Non-Force human (called ghouls) senses could not trace such rapid eye motions with precision. But the blot was a Dameun.
Precisely twenty-two minutes after it arrived at the gate, all four ghouls blinked at the same moment. Their eyes were closed for less then a hundredth of a second. That was all the time the shadow needed to dart past them and flow int the microscopic space between the massive doors. Molecules in width, the blot easily slipped through the crack and into the inner grounds of the compound.
Maintaining exactly the same temperature at its surroundings, the patch of darkness raced across the earth like a reverse moonbeam. The blot had neither smell nor form for the Hellhounds (Daemun wolves) to detect. Creatures of limited intelligence, they only attacked things they could see or smell or hear. They ignored the flowing blackness. Many Daemuns could meld their forms into the earth, becoming part of the ground. The moving shadow was pne of a few that, having done so, could actually shift its location.
Two giant glass doors led into the interior of The Dragon's Lair. On them were engraved an acient family crest, a symbol the shadow knew well. A solitary guard, another ghoul, sat in a booth in the center of the hall, a dozen feet back from the entrance. His gaze, like those outside, never wavered. Getting past him would be more difficult. The hall where he waited was well-lit and painted bright white. A dark patch would be immediately noticable. A new form was needed. And that would take more than a millisecond of time to accomplish.
Gathering its willpower, the shadow projected a single thought at the watchman. Sneeze, it commanded, sneeze. The guard sniffed, scowling. Sneeze, projected the shadow again. The ghoul sniffed a second time, then, raising a hand to his face, sneezed.
Invountarily, the watchman's eyes snapped shut. They were closed for only a second, but that was all the time the black spot needed. Like a whirlwind, it flowed upward out of the earth, into the night air, gathering substance as it moved. Dark shape turned into white mist. Cloud-like, the intruder flowed through a microscopic crack between the top of the door and the steel frame. As with the outer barrier, no seal was tight enough to keep a vapor from penetrating. The mist was in the hall before the guard had removed his hand from his nose.
Once inside the corridor, the cloud immediately rose to the top of the hall, flattening itself against the ceiling. Surveillance cameras and security patrols guarded the floor, not the roof. White on white, it drifted swiftly past the outer checkpoint and into the main atrium of the complex. There were other guardposts throughout the building, but the mist planned to bypass all the rest. It knew exactly how it planned to reach its objective at the top of the skyscraper.
Though it was late at night, The Dragon's Lair never slept. The complex was filled with workers. Dozens of people scurried between offices. None spoke, nor did any music play. The structure was silent as a tomb.
Scurrying along the ceiling, the cloud searched for the door leading to the basement. It knew the easiest way up was by the stairs, A quick hunt disclosed the necessary entrance, neutralizing all the cameras in the stairway. Oozing through a crack, the entity drifted into the dark stairway leading to the Dragon's Lair uppermost level.
Maintaining loose contact with one wall of the passage, the vapor floated toward the roof. Security cameras monitored the stairwell and turbolifts throughout the Dragon's Lair. But there were none in the doorways themselves. It was a dangerous mistake.
The mist flowed to the fortieth floor in the minutes. Cautiously, it mentally probed the hallway beyond the service doors. No one was there. Quickly it slipped into the corridor. This part of the building was extremely well protected. A dozen deadly spells ringed the inner group of apartments. They were triggered by thought, not by physical presence. One wrong move and the invader's efforts would come to a hideous end.
Effortlessly, the misty form disarmed the traps. Instead of intertwining, so that realising one set off another, they overlapped. The interloper's powerful mind surrounded each spell and wsiftly neutralized it. Not an alarm sounded, yet in the span of a quarter-hour, the entire top floor of the main headquarters of the Dameo Race of Force-users was rendered defenseless from outside attack.
No longer concerned about outside interference, the mist flowed beneath the door marked Taja Dark Emerald Jade Raktus, and under that, in slightly smaller print was Radi Selmena Maus.
As expected, the chamber was empty. The mist swirled and gathered substance. In seconds it was gone, leaving standing in its place an attractive young woman with chrome like metallic silver eyes and long, matching chrome like metallic silver hair. Deeply tanned skin and blood-red lips offered a sharp contrast to the white leotard that was her only garment.
Walking to a nearby closet filled with women's clothes, the intruder searched carefully until she found an ankle length black silk sleeveless dress with thigh high splits on each side. Nodding, she slipped out of her leotard and pulled on the dress. It fit perfectly, hugging her slender form as if by design. Reaching into a box on a shelve above the clothes, she extracted a stunning silver necklace and draped it around her neck. It was decroated with the same family crest that marked the front entrance of the Dragon's Lair. The crest being the a silver Black Dragon. A pair of thigh high black leather thick heeled high heeled boots and her trademark ankle length black leather jacket completed her outfit.
Smiling at herself in a full-length mirror, she strolled across the chamber to a second door. Gently, she rapped on the paneling.
IC: The Black Dragon Empire, Dameo
A black shadow slipped from shadow to shadow in the late-night darkness. Weaving through the narrow streets and winding lanes of the ancient city, it moved without a sound, heading ever inward, toward Taj Dameos Square at the center of the sleeping metropolis.
The form, vaguely human in shape, traveled quickly, never hesitating to stop and stare at the stunning examples of Daemun/Deamun and Dragonius architecture that had earned the city a reputation as one of the most beautiful locations in the galaxy. Nor did it slow down on the numerous bridges it was forced to cross. Dameo, situated in the middle of the galaxy and surronded by two moons and a cluster of stars, was laced with over 400 spans. The dark blot lanced across the spans with eye-blurring speed, vanishing on one side only to appear on the other an instant later.
Taj Dameos Square, at the center of the city, was the most popular location in Dameo. It was bound on all sides by famous historical monuments. At its eastern end was Taj Dameos Cathedral, over a thousand years old. Nearby was the Tajan's Palace, built a few years before the Cathedral, destroyed by fire four times, and rebuilt after each blaze, more magnificent than before. The shadowy figure glided by them both. At the rear of the palace was the famous Bridge of Sighs. Once the famous arch had led to the public prisons. Now the prisoners were gone, and in their place stood a vast, black skyscraper of glass and steel.
A number of Deamuns had expressed loud and vocal complaints when plans to tear down the famous historical buildings were announced. Opponents objected bitterly to the massive rebuilding project, declaring that the ancient jail was one of the city's most prized landmarks. As u8sual, money spoke louder. The city's official commission had ignored the complaints and approved the design.
Soon after, a number of the most strident criticshad disappeared from Dameo. Reports from the security staff claimed that the citizens had angrily departed the city after being scorned by the city fathers. The more cynical inhabitants of the planet said nothing and made their peace with the new skyscraper.
Forty storied high, the building was surrouned with a brick wall twelve feet high. A single gate and guardpost offered the only entrance into the compound. Whispered tales described huge, red-eyed hounds that roamed the grounds at night. No one was sure what secrets the building contained. Other than a street address, the skyscraper had no name. None was needed. Among the residents of Dameo, the rectangular black giant was known simply as The Dragon's Lair.
The presense halted at the brick perimeter. It knew better than to touch the structure. Embedded throughout the barrier were small heat detectors that would record the slightest variation in temperature-warm or cold. The top of the wall was covered by thousands of inch-high, steel needles. Each was barbed with a curve designed to rip protective garments or skin to shreds. Powerful searchlights swept the inside permeter of the compound every few minutes. Monstrous beasts roamed the grounds, things of nightmares that reconized no friend, only prey. Entrance to the Dragon's Lair was impossible.
Pausing for a second, the shadow crept along the wall to the lone opening. Four guards watched the barren street. Tall men dressed in black uniforms without decoration, their eyes glowed with an unnatural brightness. They were ghouls. They were the elite soldiers of the fortress, their lives dedicated to keeping it safe from intruders.
Two were stationed in a raised, glass-lined booth that offered a commanding view of the empty street. They manned a complex video and computer network tha provided them with a instantaneous visual access to any spot on the company grounds. Their companions, standing at attention at the gate, were armed with BlasTec-44 blaster rifles. Behind them, a pair of six-inch thick steel doors that could be opened only from the control booth provided a final obstacle to anyone who made it past the quartet of sentries.
Timing was everything. The blot waited and watched for the precise moment. It was extremely patient. There were hours till dawn. And it had been planning this operation for a long time.
Even ghouls blinked. Non-Force human (called ghouls) senses could not trace such rapid eye motions with precision. But the blot was a Dameun.
Precisely twenty-two minutes after it arrived at the gate, all four ghouls blinked at the same moment. Their eyes were closed for less then a hundredth of a second. That was all the time the shadow needed to dart past them and flow int the microscopic space between the massive doors. Molecules in width, the blot easily slipped through the crack and into the inner grounds of the compound.
Maintaining exactly the same temperature at its surroundings, the patch of darkness raced across the earth like a reverse moonbeam. The blot had neither smell nor form for the Hellhounds (Daemun wolves) to detect. Creatures of limited intelligence, they only attacked things they could see or smell or hear. They ignored the flowing blackness. Many Daemuns could meld their forms into the earth, becoming part of the ground. The moving shadow was pne of a few that, having done so, could actually shift its location.
Two giant glass doors led into the interior of The Dragon's Lair. On them were engraved an acient family crest, a symbol the shadow knew well. A solitary guard, another ghoul, sat in a booth in the center of the hall, a dozen feet back from the entrance. His gaze, like those outside, never wavered. Getting past him would be more difficult. The hall where he waited was well-lit and painted bright white. A dark patch would be immediately noticable. A new form was needed. And that would take more than a millisecond of time to accomplish.
Gathering its willpower, the shadow projected a single thought at the watchman. Sneeze, it commanded, sneeze. The guard sniffed, scowling. Sneeze, projected the shadow again. The ghoul sniffed a second time, then, raising a hand to his face, sneezed.
Invountarily, the watchman's eyes snapped shut. They were closed for only a second, but that was all the time the black spot needed. Like a whirlwind, it flowed upward out of the earth, into the night air, gathering substance as it moved. Dark shape turned into white mist. Cloud-like, the intruder flowed through a microscopic crack between the top of the door and the steel frame. As with the outer barrier, no seal was tight enough to keep a vapor from penetrating. The mist was in the hall before the guard had removed his hand from his nose.
Once inside the corridor, the cloud immediately rose to the top of the hall, flattening itself against the ceiling. Surveillance cameras and security patrols guarded the floor, not the roof. White on white, it drifted swiftly past the outer checkpoint and into the main atrium of the complex. There were other guardposts throughout the building, but the mist planned to bypass all the rest. It knew exactly how it planned to reach its objective at the top of the skyscraper.
Though it was late at night, The Dragon's Lair never slept. The complex was filled with workers. Dozens of people scurried between offices. None spoke, nor did any music play. The structure was silent as a tomb.
Scurrying along the ceiling, the cloud searched for the door leading to the basement. It knew the easiest way up was by the stairs, A quick hunt disclosed the necessary entrance, neutralizing all the cameras in the stairway. Oozing through a crack, the entity drifted into the dark stairway leading to the Dragon's Lair uppermost level.
Maintaining loose contact with one wall of the passage, the vapor floated toward the roof. Security cameras monitored the stairwell and turbolifts throughout the Dragon's Lair. But there were none in the doorways themselves. It was a dangerous mistake.
The mist flowed to the fortieth floor in the minutes. Cautiously, it mentally probed the hallway beyond the service doors. No one was there. Quickly it slipped into the corridor. This part of the building was extremely well protected. A dozen deadly spells ringed the inner group of apartments. They were triggered by thought, not by physical presence. One wrong move and the invader's efforts would come to a hideous end.
Effortlessly, the misty form disarmed the traps. Instead of intertwining, so that realising one set off another, they overlapped. The interloper's powerful mind surrounded each spell and wsiftly neutralized it. Not an alarm sounded, yet in the span of a quarter-hour, the entire top floor of the main headquarters of the Dameo Race of Force-users was rendered defenseless from outside attack.
No longer concerned about outside interference, the mist flowed beneath the door marked Taja Dark Emerald Jade Raktus, and under that, in slightly smaller print was Radi Selmena Maus.
As expected, the chamber was empty. The mist swirled and gathered substance. In seconds it was gone, leaving standing in its place an attractive young woman with chrome like metallic silver eyes and long, matching chrome like metallic silver hair. Deeply tanned skin and blood-red lips offered a sharp contrast to the white leotard that was her only garment.
Walking to a nearby closet filled with women's clothes, the intruder searched carefully until she found an ankle length black silk sleeveless dress with thigh high splits on each side. Nodding, she slipped out of her leotard and pulled on the dress. It fit perfectly, hugging her slender form as if by design. Reaching into a box on a shelve above the clothes, she extracted a stunning silver necklace and draped it around her neck. It was decroated with the same family crest that marked the front entrance of the Dragon's Lair. The crest being the a silver Black Dragon. A pair of thigh high black leather thick heeled high heeled boots and her trademark ankle length black leather jacket completed her outfit.
Smiling at herself in a full-length mirror, she strolled across the chamber to a second door. Gently, she rapped on the paneling.