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Ian · Joined: 09 Jun 2008 Posts: 521 Location: South Carolina

Ian slides in behind Oberon and crouches down low on the horse, while kicking it almost cruelly to get more speed out of it.

The stronger Oberon is probably better able to handle the creepers, vines and branches better than Ian can.

Hopefully, he'll shift Shadow and subtract the forest soon.

The urge to draw Hollowshade and hack at the plants is strong, but he follows his grandfather's orders.

Nihilistic Mind · Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 4:33 am Post subject:

The vines break soon after they latch onto arms and legs, tightening around them even as they tear from the trees and bushes. Soon, they wither and die and the forest quickly turns to swamps, nearly toppling both riders over as the mounts are forced into slow moving waters, sandy mounds and bogs.

They are caught in several clouds of nauseating vapors and buzzing mosquito-like insects. Oberon shifts everything again, but the white, cloudy sky remains and they enter a sort of fog. The ground is hard again and they speed up once more, the horses groaning in relief as they tear the last vines from their hooves.

A storm rages high above the clouds but no rain hits them, deluge and end of the world, so far above. Mountains in the distance, bridging earth and sky. In the distance, Ian can hear the torrents of flash floods and then he sees what he had expected for some time now... The Black Road.

Distant. Wide. Waiting for them.

Oberon does not pause or hesitate. In fact, they speed up and Oberon keeps the sky as the element of their destination, everything else shifting suddenly. Red earth, flooded terrain and islets of surviving beasts with eyes rolling madly, claws digging at the earth with lustful hunger as they watch the two travelers pass unhurt by the rusty waters.

They howl, and Oberon shifts again, but something weird happens as the Howls themselves remain and everything else shifts. Darkness. Mists. Massive wolf packs awaiting them, eyes like small fires and mouths of massive black teeths. They give the hunt and howl at the moonless, grey sky. They stand a few hundred yards away from them over the dark hills covered by the Black Road. This land is all twilight and ominous danger and the cold, wet air does not help the chills that course through the riders and mares as they run frantically away. The Howls! Can't get rid of the Howls!

Soon after Oberon shifts several times and yelps and howls continue to be heard, though distant through the crashing of thunder and toppling mountains in the distance. "They can shift through Shadow!" Oberon yells over the carnage in Ian's ears.

These last few Shadows are almost completely overcome by the Black Road, although its denizens are too far away to influence much of their current course. Could the Road itself place things such as the Howlers in their Hellride?

Ian can feel his arm itch a bit, where the vines have left an ichor on his skin, thorns having pierced the skin enough to make it red and irritated, but not deep enough to draw blood.

After several more shifts, things calm down, in the sense that Oberon finds a passage that is misty and quiet and they can no longer see the Black Road, though to anyone paying attention - and they both were - they could sense its presence here too. The Howls continued, though more distant, several miles behind, and reduced in numbers it seems.

They continue on, a red bird, a yellow sky, cloudless. Green mist descending from the Mountains. The Black Road at every corner. Troops traveling it. The Black Road shifts itself closer and soon their paths coincide with it. They pass through several groups of blind and deaf beasts, controlled by mages bearing precious stones. Blue, red, yellow, green. One opalescent one, with a beast looking like a swan and Quetzalcoatl's love child with a terrible maw.

By the time the troops they pass can react, it is too late and they are long gone. Oberon shares a concerned look with Oberon.

Then the Black Road begins to sizzle, no foreign beasts atop it, only black vines moving as if underwater on either side of it. The vines grab at them as they get off the Black Road, but the mares have the sense to jump at the right moment, missing a step without snapping their legs.

Oberon curses at something but continues on. No features have remained except for the heavy grey sky above and the Black Road below... And the same seemingly unreachable mountains in the distance.
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Ian · Joined: 09 Jun 2008 Posts: 521 Location: South Carolina

Ian rides with little fear. Wolves a few hundred yards off wouldn't frighten him unless he were on foot. So he takes care of the horse, pulling vines off as best he can from the noble steed.

When the wolves start moving through Shadow and Oberon announces their ability to do so, Ian feels a chill down his spine. "If they can do that, they can go as far as the Black Road goes. I hope it doesn't go to Amber."

Of course, Eric would have to deal with it. Ian chuckles darkly.

Not a nice place to build a house, Ian thinks sardonically.

"Do we need to rest the horses or should I take over for awhile? That was some hellride."

Ian · Joined: 09 Jun 2008 Posts: 521 Location: South Carolina

Ian rides with little fear. Wolves a few hundred yards off wouldn't frighten him unless he were on foot. So he takes care of the horse, pulling vines off as best he can from the noble steed.

When the wolves start moving through Shadow and Oberon announces their ability to do so, Ian feels a chill down his spine. "If they can do that, they can go as far as the Black Road goes. I hope it doesn't go to Amber."

Of course, Eric would have to deal with it. Ian chuckles darkly.

Not a nice place to build a house, Ian thinks sardonically.

"Do we need to rest the horses or should I take over for awhile? That was some hellride."

Nihilistic Mind · Posted: Thu Sep 03, 2009 7:40 pm Post subject:

"I hope things are better there. It looks like the Black Road is a part of the equation as far as our destination is concerned... Let's use it instead of work against it."

Oberon takes him through a series of Shadows quickly shifting keeping the Road as a consistent element, just a bit off to the side.

Suddenly, they find themselves in the middle of a battle, guns firing, canons, giant machines and hellfire. The horses are finally being affected by the Hellride, Oberon's horse stepping wrong and its ankle snapping. Oberon topples over, catching himself.

Surrounded by enemy beasts, mutated soldiers with gas masks, automatic weapons. So far, Ian and Oberon are being ignored but it's only a matter of time until they become targets. Confusion is everywhere and an orgy of violence is the theater of this Shadow. There is little sense or reason to any of this, no clear faction to tell from another.
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Ian · Joined: 09 Jun 2008 Posts: 521 Location: South Carolina

Ian grabs Oberon and pulls him up onto his horse.

"Let's go, let's go!"

Ian hopes his horse makes it to the next Shadow at least.

Ian rides with Oberon, and begins shifting Shadow as they ride.

Small insects, with emerald green abdomens, flying in small swarms, clouds, backlit by a waning sun, moss on the north side of the trees nearby...

Nihilistic Mind · Posted: Fri Sep 04, 2009 7:40 pm Post subject:

Oberon recovers quickly, swinging wildly as they make their way to the next Shadow. The horse they leave behind is quickly overwhelmed and utterly destroyed in this 'massacre'.

The next Shadow doesn't seem to come to them quickly enough, and when it does the War follows them in the Hellride. Only now there are clear sides in the battle: fat, insect-like soldiers, wielding natural weapons of chitinous material and bearing massive and colorful wings, along with massive clouds of little insects as specified by Ian, are fighting streams of liquid folks, like living-gems, mounting beasts of glass.

It is a miracle neither of them is badly hurt due to the proximity of the ultra-violent Shadows they are traveling through.

"Continue to work with the Black Road, Ian!" Oberon yells over the clashing of troops. "Keep the war, but change it! Keep the Black Road too, and if you can manage, shift my sword to something appropriate for the next several Shadows!"
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Ian · Joined: 09 Jun 2008 Posts: 521 Location: South Carolina

Ian nods grimly, moving alongside the Black Road. Birds, hungry, chasing the insects, swarming behind them as Ian seeks to put obstacles in the path of anything following them personally.

Ian laughs now, and wonders briefly if he is going mad. He keeps the Black Road, he keeps the war, he begins changing the size of the combatants. Smaller, smaller.

Soon they should fear the huge horse.

Ian thinks of a knife he saw which was attached to a pistol. Slowly, he manipulates the Shadows to change Oberon's sword into an automatic rifle with a long bayonet.

Nihilistic Mind · Posted: Mon Sep 07, 2009 4:40 pm Post subject:

After the frantic ride through battlefields, the changes Ian brings about are bringing them a bit further from their destination, but keep them safe.

"I need a horse, Ian. Then we need to keep to the path. It'll slow down when we are closer," Oberon says as they both crush soldiers about a foot tall, a swarm of fat and grotesque devils and beasts, one faction white, one black. The little devils of both factions look equally demonic to Ian and there's no telling if Good and Evil actually has anything to do with any battle fought in Shadow anymore. Based on what battles Ian has just been hellriding through, it seems that mindless violence is the new Shadow worlds' order, regardless of Substance and Shadow.

Perhaps New Orleans has been spared by the Black Road and its horrors...
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Ian · Joined: 09 Jun 2008 Posts: 521 Location: South Carolina

The next Shadow shift takes them to a battleground where the battle is over and jackals and vultures feast on the dead, along with huge clouds of flies. They can't have been dead for more than a day.

The smell is appalling and even Ian almost gags.

On the good side, there are a number of available warhorses. The jackals have more than enough food to eat to not pick on most of the horses.

"Not quite what I had in mind, but it will do."

Nihilistic Mind · Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2009 6:01 am Post subject:

Oberon raises his kerchief over his nose and hurries up with gearing up the horse, not bothering making a proper acquaintance with it. The horse is startled enough to begin running, bones and chitinous shells of lost champions breaking under the hooves of the mighty black warhorse.

Oberon takes the reins over the Shadow shifting again and after ridding them of the foul stench, they are back on their journey. He yells back at Ian over powerful winds that remind Ian of Flora's Windborne, "Almost there! Just a few more!"
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Ian · Joined: 09 Jun 2008 Posts: 521 Location: South Carolina

Despite the grimness of the situation and the dire straits Amber might be in, Ian is having perhaps the best time of his life. This in the sense that he is with the King, doing something to save Amber. If there's a time and place to die, this mission would certainly be a good one.

The high spirits last through riding through pools of slaughtered humanity, and non-humanity.

It lasts through seeing clouds of insects, flocks of vultures and hordes of other carrion-feeders at their grim repast.

It lasts through crunching over the bones of the departed.

When the winds pick up, he thinks of Flora.

Briefly.

There will be time to grieve later. Assuming he survives.

Nihilistic Mind · Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2009 5:30 am Post subject:

Oberon drags them through hell again, keeping things as unstable while maintaining a decent speed. Several times, Ian sees the Black Road shift into a wide rift, almost separating them once or twice. Oberon is really pushing the limits of Hellriding, for several more Shadows are pits of death traps, walking dead and grim things that drift from the psyche of Amber's True King. Ian keeps seeing things. Shadows of himself and other family members sacrificed by some albino devils by the road. A huge demon with thousands of arms twisting impossibly across the horizon. All of the changes appear too fast to affect them and almost seem like ghosts to Ian. Even Oberon looks pale by now.

Then the shifting begins to slow and certain things, such as the blank cloudy sky and humid, stagnant air, remain for several Shadows in a row. Then the forests and the mountains. At last they stray from the Black Road and it shifts away from them, but continually widens, its denizens and travelers mutated, and changed, following after Ian and Oberon.

Far behind them, the sound of wolves howling... On the prowl.
Oberon looks as pale as a ghost when he looks back and when his eyes meet Ian's, his gaze fades and he faints, seated forward in his saddle, while the black warhorse continues riding hard.
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Ian · Joined: 09 Jun 2008 Posts: 521 Location: South Carolina

"Well, shit." Ian remarks, riding forward to ensure Oberon doesn't fall off his mount. He is barely aware of the pressure he has on Oberon as he takes over the Shadow-shifting.

Over the next hill, a small red flower, red from the blood of the predators who are alerted by Ian and Oberon's ride, and will be too slow to react...to them. The other followers won't be so lucky.

A cloud that looks like a set of Mickey Mouse ears, mountains in the distance, always in the distance, snow caps gone, melted, crossing a rickety bridge over a raging river that collapses behind them.
Ian uses the Pattern to put as many obstacles in the path of their pursuers as he can.

Soon, they will have to stop.

Nihilistic Mind · Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2009 7:17 pm Post subject:

Several more Shadows. Oberon is out, and pale. Hard to tell if he's breathing but he definitely looks ill. The warhorse must be used to traveling with a sleeping rider, because Ian has little trouble keeping Oberon saddled at this time.

They find themselves in a mist and the Black Road is nowhere to be seen, though it could be near.

Ian can sense that they have both evaded their pursuers, at least for now, and that they have arrived at their destination. This Shadow feels right.

The thick mist reveals very little. Trees here and there. The impression of a hidden sun. Cold and stagnant humidity mixed with the fresh scent of burnt pines, though very vague as if distant. the ground is rocky and tufts of grass and bushes can be seen from time to time.
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