[F06- SP] Look Inside Yourself <<Calming the Soul>>

[Cosi 0]

Log Entry Seven

I face my inner demons. Quite literally in fact...

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The way up to floor six was not actually very long, Cosi was even able to stop at his shop and make some identifications on without too much hassle. Once on floor six Cosi just wandered around. last time he had been here he had been intercepted by his evil twin- Cosi shuddered at the thought of that smile- so he hadn't been able to actually explore the floor much. As he wandered he found himself drawn towards this one area out side the city limits. Cosi resisted the feeling but without really meaning to, or realizing, he found himself at the bottom of a waterfall. The Waterfall of the Sage to be specific. Cosi couldn't place it but he felt relaxed here. At peace. The sound of the cascading waterfall was soothing. The leaves of the surrounding trees rustled in the breeze. Cosi made his way over to a flat stone by the edge of the pool, and sat down. The rock was pleasantly warm, and as he sat there he was sprinkled lightly by the mist from the falls. Cosi lay back on the warm rock- putting his hands behind his head, and getting comfortable- stared up at the blue, cloudless sky, and then closed his eyes. 

Stats, Skills, and Gear

Spoiler

Hp: 180

Energy: 18

Mitigation: 39

Thorns:  18

Damage: 4

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One-handed Straight Sword: Novice

Heavy Armor: Rank 2

Concentration

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Rose Gold (Perfect)(Shield)(Regen 1, Mitigation 1, Thorns 1)

Raiserkinlger (perfect)(1H Straight Sword)(Damage 2, Accuracy 1)

Richter (perfect)(Heavy Armor)(Mitigation 2, Thorns 1)

5,665 Col and (9) Tier 1 materials

(4) Tier One Health Potions of Uncommon Quality (+40HP)

(1) Tier One Rare Protein

Battle Ready items:

(3) Starter Healing Potions (Heals 50 HP)
(1) Tier One Damage Potion. (+1 Damage)
(1) Tier One Over-Health Potion (+50 Temp. HP)

 

Edited August 14, 2018 by Cosi

[Cosi 0]

Cosi opened his eyes and found himself somewhere completely different. It was cold for one thing, unlike the warmth that had put him to sleep. Cosi sat up and looked around himself at his surroundings. He was on the same rock he had laid back on but other than that his environment was completely different. There was no waterfall or copse of trees, just an expanse of green plains, flat, and unending. What color the sky was was impossible to tell because just as the green plains covered the ground as far as the eye could see, roiling grey clouds blocked the sky. Every once in a while there was the low rumble of thunder and chain lightning jumped amidst the clouds. Cosi shivered and brought his arms up around him. He could see his breath on the chill air. How did I get here? I was resting one moment and now I'm in this place. Cosi looked around him one more time, Whatever this place is. 

 

[Cosi 0]

Cosi began walking, not in any direction in particular because there were no landmarks. No Cosi just set off in a random direction hoping to find the way out, or how he was brought here to these endless plains. Cosi walked for what seemed like an eternity before something caught his eye. Something that that broke up the monotony of the grey sky and green plains. That was because it was black. Blacker than a starless night sky in fact. It seemed to suck what little light there was in this place into itself. It was humanoid in shape but its only feature was a pure white smile that covered much more of its face than a normal person's. Cosi stopped dead in his tracks. The thing kept advancing. Cosi quickly brought out and drank the protein he had just recently identified. He'd wanted more damage in case this was an enemy. 

Spoiler

Used Protein

+2 damage

-10 mitigation

 

[Cosi 0]

But when the smiling humanoid reached Cosi, it did not attack him. No it simply kept smiling, beckoned to Cosi, then turned back the way it came, and started walking again. Cosi, stared after the figure, unsure whether to follow or run the other way. Only when the thing stopped and beckoned again, more urgently this time, did Cosi begin to follow the dark figure. Except for the rumbling of thunder, they walked in silence beneath the grey could covered sky. Lightning flashed overhead in growing frequency and the air grew colder still. Cosi realized that they were approaching something. It was a ways away and he couldn't make out any details, but it was unmistakably a building or wall of some sort. Cosi squinted trying to see the object clearer, then looked quizzically at his silent, smiling guide but it offered no explanation what so ever. It only continued its slow but unceasing pace towards that unknown location. 

[Cosi 0]

The two walked for another eternity while around them the air grew colder still, until Cosi's teeth chattered and he had to rub his arms for the warmth friction brought. The clouds grew darker, menacingly so, and thunder sounded louder and louder. Instead of chain lightning, bolts fell from the clouds with frightening speed. A foul wind had picked up which buffeted and pushed Cosi back with every step. His guide seemed unfazed and unaffected. It just walked forward towards the strange wall.

Now that the pair was closer, Cosi could see that whatever they were walking towards was no building, simply an ornate black wall of sorts. No matter what it was. Cosi’s conscience was screaming at him to turn back. To run the other way. Cosi’s very heart, mind, and soul cried in terror, wanting Cosi to flee from whatever that wall really was. Cosi nearly listened. The fear was overwhelming. 

Edited August 15, 2018 by Cosi

[Cosi 0]

But he resisted and pressed on. Cosi’s clothes were now drenched in a cold sweat and his insides lunched with every step he took towards that wall. A couple times he actually had to stop and throw up, heaving up the contents of his stomach. Every time this happened the still smiling guide waited then beckoned to Cosi and kept moving. Whatever that thing was that they were approaching, it was anathema to Cosi. To his body and mind. To his very essence. Cosi didn’t want to know what it was but the black figure beckoned and Cosi followed. 

Lightning seemed to strike every second now and the sound of booming thunder never ceased. The clouds roiled and writhed blacker than night with lightning flashing inside them. The wind picked up bringing a fouls smell of decay and rot with it and it began to rain. It rained a freezing sleet that was blown horizontally into Cosi. 

Edited August 15, 2018 by Cosi

[Cosi 0]

As the two finally came close enough to see detail on the wall, Cosi saw that it was actually a half circle of great, ebony doors. Four to be exact. Each the same yet different in there own way. The one furthest to Cosi's left was adorned with embellishments that looked like vines but upon closer inspection Cosi realized there were snakes that intertwined and wrapped around each other among the vines and leaves. All of the snakes eyes were blood red jewels and the entire thing reminded Cosi of one of those Celtic puzzle knots. Then Cosi noticed something else. Something else that terrified him: each and every snake was severed in half. Snakes represented eternity and the continuation of life, the ouroborus Serpent came to mind, and here they were severed. Cut. Ended. A great skull adorned the center of the double doors. Cosi shuddered and moved away from that door. 

[Cosi 0]

The next door- the one left of center- was adorned with lengths of chain, interlocked and tied together. The chains ran along the edges of the door and amidst the chains were symbols of judgement: scales, gavels, and the like. Among these were other embellishments: a dagger plunged into someone's back, a man forsaking his brother, a vial of poison given to a loved one. Symbols of betrayal. At the center of the black double doors a set scales were emblazoned. But not the balanced scales of justice and law. No, he scales were unbalanced with a pile of money and jewels outweighing a family of four. A mother, father, daughter, and infant son. Cosi felt like he'd sucker punched in the gut. That was his family. His parents and his siblings. Cosi looked around him. The Doors gave a semblance of shelter from the raging incessant storm but it brought no comfort. What if this place- this horrid landscape- is linked to me? 

[Cosi 0]

This question was etched in Cosi's mind as he turned to at the third door- the door to the right of the center- and when he saw it he knew the answer. The door was pitch black like all the others but its edges were gilded with teeth, spikes, thorns, and blades: physical and etched into the obsidian metal. All the edges pointed out or in, in towards the center of the door. There was a depiction of a young man, bound with chains, impaled with spears, and imprisoned. He was kneeling, unable to stand, unable to move, unable to act in his own defense, while surrounding him was an infinite shadow. A cloud of death and a sea of destruction. What was on the door wasn't as explicit but Cosi's mind filled in the blanks because that was his fear. An impossible task where he could do nothing and there was no hope of completion even if he could. These black doors were Cosi's Doors.   

[Cosi 0]

Cosi raced to the last door to see what it held. Black like all the others this door was covered in bones, leg bones to be exact. Everyone of them shattered and broken. Among the bones were eyes: pleading eyes, judging eyes, and despondent eyes. At the center of the door there were two etchings.  Both of a young man. One depicted him happy. Playing with others and standing upright. The other picture- the more prominent one- showed the same man, alone, in a wheelchair. His face was etched with a accusing look. The etchings eyes were looking right at Cosi. Cosi broke down and cried. The door showed Cosi's once best friend. He had been a fellow basketball teammate. They had both gone hiking together but while Cosi had wanted to go an alternate way to the peak- an untried, difficult way covered in scree- his friend had wanted to go the safer but longer way. In the end Cosi's optimism and pleading had convinced him to go the other way. And in the end Cosi's friend had fallen and had been paralyzed from the waist down.

[Cosi 0]

Cosi raced back to the shadow. He grabbed at the smiling thing's shoulders and shook it it. "Why?! What is this place?! Why is it all about me?! Why did you bring me here?! Why?! You sick bastard why?!" The black figure didn't answer. It only kept smiling that unnaturally wide grin. "Damn it! Answer me!" Cosi pulled out his sword and slashed it through the grinning figure. The blade passed straight through without so much as shifting the thing's stance. Cosi dropped to the to the grass, sobbing, letting his sword fall as well landing with a dull thud on the ground. After a couple moments a shadowy hand reached down and lifted Cosi's chin up. The guide pointed to Cosi then gestured with both hands at the four doors. Then he reached back down and jammed a finger into Cosi's chest, right by his heart. I've never been good at charades but I think I understand. 

[Cosi 0]

Cosi went to the center of the half circle and sat down. There was actually a small circular stone seat there seemingly for that exact purpose: rest and contemplation. After a long thoughtful silence, Cosi sighed and rose from his stone seat. His face still wet with tears, Cosi walked to the furthest right door: the one marked with his injured friend. As he approached it he could feel his heart pounding, faster and faster, till he was right at the door. Then all sound stopped. The storm, and the wind, and the rain. All noise vanished except that drumming in his ears. Cosi took a deep breath and pushed open the door. Inside was a inky almost water like wall of blackness. Cosi paused at this, steeled his nerves, and pushed through. 

Cosi felt as if he was accelerating upwards through hot tar. Cosi was just about ready to scream when he found himself on a mountain top. The same mountain top. 

[Cosi 0]

Cosi was on top for the mountain where only a couple feet away his friend would fall and end up paralyzing his lower half. In fact Cosi was rewatching it happen. Cosi- the past version- moved ahead of his friend so he didn't notice when his friend slipped on gravel and fell back. But Cosi- the present version- saw and he heard that scream for help even before it actually sounded. He saw those eyes, full of fear, looking right at him. Wait, looking at the present one. Cosi took a step back. In the vision of his friend's fall, Cosi's friend was looking at him. Then those eyes full of fear, turned to hate, then suddenly filled with black. A hot, rage filled black. Then everything but those eyes and the peak Cosi stood on melting away, into a swirling maelstrom of swirling ink, and raging black. And those eyes. Accusing eyes. Then the eyes joined the shadows and the shadows took shape. 

[Cosi 0]

The shadows condensed and writhed, changing into something else. Then the shadowy lump exploded back into the vortex of ink, but this time Cosi felt a presence in it. And at that moment Cosi knew what this demon was: guilt. Guilt for feeling that he had gotten his friend paralyzed and feeling that he blamed him for it. And when Cosi realized that, grasping hands shot out of the whirlpool of darkness and Cosi saw the demon's name: Schuld, the Accuser. The hands moved towards Cosi threatening to pull him off the small island of rock that he stood on. Cosi pulled out his sword and slashed at the nearest hand, warding it away. He slashed across its palm caused it to shrink back. He Cosi turned and struck another reaching hand, it retreated. He spun again slicing another hand and sent it back to the shadow storm. Then he felt a crushing blow to the back of his head as a fourth crashed into him. 

Spoiler

Combat- Snake Bite

ID# 104649- BD: 8 + 1 acc = 9- hit

6 base * 3 sword art = 18 - 1 min = 17 damage

MD: 10- crit (regen activated)

3 base + 2 maj crit = 5 damage - 29 mit = 1 min

Cosi- Hp: 179/180- ENG: 15/18- MIT: 29- THN: 18

Schuld, the Accuser- Hp: 28/45- MIT: 1- DMG: 3

 

Edited August 15, 2018 by Cosi

[Cosi 0]

Cosi was knocked down and nearly fell off the mountain but managed to hold on. As Cosi hauled himself back up onto safety he saw another wave of hands coming from the shadowy sea ready to pick and pummel him to pieces. Cosi got up and took a stance, ready to face the onslaught. He slashed at the closest hand then turned to the next, always keeping his sword's momentum going. By the end of this wave of clawed hands, Cosi was exhausted, not physically but mentally and emotionally. All through out the attacks Cosi heard hiss friend's scream as he fell, and his voice called to Cosi for help. Then it turned to blaming and accusing. Then pleading and calls of 'why Cosi?' The voice filled his head and made it seem like it would split open, but Cosi kept pushing through. He would finish this fight and conquer this demon. 

Spoiler

Combat- Snake Bite

ID# 104651- BD: 5 + 1 acc = 6- hit

6 base * 3 sword art = 18 - 1 mit = 17 damage

MD: 5- miss

Cosi- Hp: 180/180- ENG: 13/18- MIT: 29- THN: 18

Schuld, the Accuser- Hp: 11/45- MIT: 1- DMG: 3

 

Edited August 15, 2018 by Cosi

[Cosi 0]

Cosi readied himself for the next onslaught of attacking hands. However this time there wasn't as many and the myriad of voices were quieter. Still Cosi couldn't afford to be overconfident. One wrong move and he'd be pushed or pulled off the mountain into that roiling sea of shadows. As the hands reached him Cosi struck back. He slashed and thrust. He pushed back with his shield, and threw cuts. He was a whirlwind of steel keeping all the hands that would tear him down at bay. Then the inky hands retreated and the shadows fled. Cosi found himself facing his friend- Andrew- in his wheel chair, on the day he'd come out of the hospital. Cosi had cried that day saying how sorry he was, how much Andrew must hate him, and how could he ever forgive him. At the end of Cosi's sob fest, Andrew had said- looking straight into Cosi's eyes- 'I forgive you Cosi, I don't blame you for my own back luck' 

Spoiler

Combat- Snake Bite

ID# 104653- BD: 4 + 1 acc +1(using concentration) = 6- hit

6 base * 3 sword art = 18 damage - 1 mit = 17 damage

MD: 3- miss

Cosi- Hp: 180/180- ENG: 11/18- MIT: 29- THN: 18

Schuld, the Accuser- Hp: 0/45- MIT: 1- DMG: 3

 

Edited August 15, 2018 by Cosi

[Cosi 0]

Cosi then found himself outside the still open doorway, kneeling on the grassy ground, but now there was no inky black in the door. It only opened into the open rioling black sky, letting the rain through. Cosi cried. He balled his eyes out. Ever since the accident Cosi had blamed himself and thought that Andrew had blamed him as well. But he didn’t. But he didn’t, the words repeated in his head. Cosi looked up towards his shadowy guide with its inhuman smile still  plastered on its featureless face, except now that smile seemed to have some real happiness in it. The guide regarded Cosi, then pointed up. Cosi started up at the sky and saw that the dark clouds had begun to lighten, the lightning wasn’t as frequent nor the wind so cold, and the rain came a little lighter. Cosi was one step closer to ridding himself of his own demons. 

Edited August 15, 2018 by Cosi

[Cosi 0]

As Cosi sat down on the small circular stone seat to meditate on the next door he would go through, the next demon he would face, his mind turned again to what this place was. The grey clouds covering a flat grassy plains. It was not the most picturesque of scenes. It must be some sort of reflection of my own inner state, Cosi thought too himself as he sat, legs crossed. The clouds that block the light is the resonance of my inner turmoil and this is where it  the storm gathers. At this spot in. Cosi looked around at the doors again. He would face hopelessness next. The guilt about Andrew’s injury was really the easiest. Cosi had known all along that Andrew had forgiven him. He had just held onto the guilt. That crushing feeling of hopelessness would be the next easiest though that didn’t seem easy at all. 

[Cosi 0]

Cosi rose from his meditation spot and approached his next door, the one covered in teeth and spikes, and pushed it open. The dies swung wide on smooth hinges revealing that writhing darkness that seemed to be more liquid that shadow. Taking a deep breath Cosi prepared himself for what he knew was coming and steeled himself for what he didn’t know. Then with all the strength he could muster Cosi walked into the door way. Again he felt that rushing feeling and the sensation that he had just had burning hot oil poured all over his naked skin and when he was just about to cry out in pain he found himself on solid ground. This door had not led to a real memory persay but a nightmare Cosi had had many times. Cosi was chained to the ground with an innumerable amount of llinks and coils of chain. He was trapped and unable to do anything as an inferno raged around him destroying and consuming everything he loved. 

[Cosi 0]

The conflagration raged all around with Cosi at the center. He heard the screams of those he loved, the the sound of breaking glass, and snapping wood as his home and other belongings were burned to ash. He tried to shut all the noise out but he could not. All he could hear was destruction, death, and despair. And he could do nothing about it. No I can do something, Cosi’s face furrowed in determination, I can try and escape these bonds. I can try with all my heart, body, and soul. Cosi strained at the chains that held him. They were made of thick, angular, black, spiked chain links that cut into his wrists and shoulders as he moved. But still Cosi tried to break free. However as much as he struggled the chains would not budge so much as break. No matter how much of his strength he put into his attempts. 

Spoiler

Combat- Snake Bite 

ID# 104656- BD: 1 + 1 acc = 2- miss MD: 4- miss

Cosi- Hp: 180/180- ENG: 16/18- MIT: 29- THN: 18

Unmöglich Chains- Hp: 60/60- MIT: 1 DMG: 4

 

Edited August 15, 2018 by Cosi