CCC #142 - Voting Thread - Lanternverse

The Magic Ring

The trio of brave adventurers slowly entered the dustless room. Their torches made the shadows dance across the polished stone.

“I don’t like this at all,” commented Idewix, the half-elf wizard from Dozahl. “It feels like a trap.”

“You’ve said that about every room in this dungeon,” replied Aikeia as she waved her greatsword in front of her.

“Have I been wrong?” Idewix stated as he cast a Detect Magic spell into the room.

“You two should get married when we get out,” chuckled Paidun Parkleberry as he rolled a glass marble into the room. “You’re like my parents, always bickering, always drawing weapons on each other, madly in love.”

“I’d rather kiss a beholder,” Aikeia remarked as her face screwed up.

“I could conjure one for you?” Idewix suggested as he brushed the detection spell off his hand. “Nothing magical in here.”

“I could conjure one for you,” mocked Aikeia as she stepped into the room.

“STOP!” Paidun grabbed Aikeia’s loincloth and briefly held her back. “Look!”

The glass marble had rolled across the room and come to a stop against nothing.

“I thought you said there was nothing magical in there?” Aikeia asked the wizard who simply shrugged.

“Maybe it’s natural?”

Slowly the trio crossed the room, each watching their step and out for danger. Paidun got his marble and felt the invisible mass. “It feels metallic, like a wall or large cauldron.”

“Dragon?” Aikeia asked.

“It isn’t huffing, you know, moving like its alive,” Paidun said tapping it further,

“Breathing, the word you’re looking for is breathing,” Idewix said sarcastically before waving his hands, sparkles of arcane energy following his movements. What was once invisible became visible.

“It’s a box?”” Aiekeia said looking at it. “Isn’t it?”

Paidun ran his hand along it. “It’s like a ship or container, maybe. I’ve never seen anything like it. But that looks like a door.”

“I got this,” Aikeia sheathed her sword on her back and dug her thick battle hardened fingers into the seam. With some luck, and a lot of strength, the door hissed and was pried open. Pressurised air hissed out. Aikeia drew her sword and slowly stepped inside, followed by Paidun and then Idewix who cast a light spell into the air to iluminate the interior. It looked like something from an artificer’s lab. The walls had blinking lights going in random patterns, green words in a foreign language scrolled down another piece of glass. Cautiously they crept forward down the metal corridor that opened into a larger room made of glass, like an atrium but with banks of bookcase like structures with more lights and dials. A plush chair sat in the middle of the room with a figure slumped in it.

“Check for traps,” Idewix told Paidun as he gased around the room in wonder.

“Something isn’t right,” Aikeia grumbled. “What’s this...thing doing in the middle of a dungeon? What even is it?”

“It’s a....” Idewix tried to explain what it was, as they were often regarded as the smartest one due to his years of arcane study and extended life due to his half elven nature. “I honestly don’t know.”

“Anyone know of a blue skinned race?” Paidun dropped the lifeless hand. “He isn’t a triton, or a merfolk.”

“Recognise the insignia on his chest?” Aikeia asked.

“It looks like a green lantern,” Idewix remarked.

“Oooo this is pretty,” Paidun smiled as he held up the other lifeless hand. Sitting on the ring finger was a green ring that matched the insignia on the body. “He might’ve been royal because look at this sweet jade ring. Don’t mind if I...”

{Green Lantern Altin Ad'Ms deceased. Unknown quadrant. Scanning for acceptable replacement}

Idewiz threw up a Shield spell as the ring gibbered in a strange language, Paidun rolled for cover and Aikeia stepped forward and clobbered the now flying glowing jewellery with her greatsword. There was an almighty clang as the steel reverberated off the ring but no damage was done.

{Aikeia, daughter of Ihuqora & Hunghor, variant humanoid, unacceptable}The ring hovered in front of her face before darting over to Paidun. {Paidun Parkleberry, son of Hemma & Jeshun Parkleberry, halfling, unacceptable}The ring hovered over to Idewix. {Idewix of Elin Glen, son of Korewix of Elin Glen and Amanda of Gygax village, half-elven mix from this unknown quadrant...magical abilities, natural dark vision...acceptable}

A burst of green light bathed the wizard and suddenly he was dressed in a stylised Green Lantern uniform that blended his garb with the Corp uniform, the ring glowing upon his finger making him hover in the air inside a green energy field.

"Idewix!” Aikeia shouted. “Are you okay?”

“I think so? I’ve been chosen...I think,” Idewix admired his new attire. “For what I don’t really know.”

{Idewix of unknown quadrant, you are to report to Oa for further training}The ring spoke in a language all could understand then enveloped him in a green bubble.

“Now wait a minu....” And suddenly he shot up through the roof, barrelling through steel, dirt, and rock until he was gone.

“IDEWIX!”Aikeia screamed after him, but he was a green blur.

“What in Arneson’s Beard just happened?” shouted Paidun, then gripped Aikeia’s side as he saw several brains on legs, almost like dogs bound into the room followed by a gliding octopus headed creature. “INCOMING!!!”

~fin~

The Last Day of Rainbow Royce

Okaara:

Larfleeze looks at the blonde Earth woman before him, and demands, "Who are you?"

"Name's Royce Bivolvo," she says with a smirk. "Some call me Rainbow Royce."

"Tell me why I shouldn't just have Glomulus eat you for coming here."

"Because I'm not here for your lantern," she says.

Larfleeze looks suspicious, and clutches his orange lantern closer to him. "You're not? How could you not be?"

"Because I don't need it," she says. "I already have access to the orange light." To prove it, her glasses glow orange, and a lazy orange beam floats over and kisses Larfleeze on the cheek.

"WHAT?! HOW?!" demands Larfleeze, waving the orange kiss away with two of his arms as if swatting at an annoying bug. "Who are you?"

Tapping the goggles that she was wearing, the woman says, "It's because of these glasses. My grandfather was a genius. He built these for my dad who was colorblind, and dad used them as a crook named The Rainbow Raider. He could form solid light constructs of any color, and even affect people's emotions with them, but he never realized the full power that he was given. Fortunately for me, I inherited grandpa's genius. I made some improvements."

"Power, you say?" Larfleeze snaps. "If it's power, I must have it! It's mine!" Darting forward, he snatches the glasses off of Royce's face. He puts them on immediately, and even finds the switches hidden on the frames, but nothing happens when he presses them.

Royce tsks at the Orange Lantern. "I told you: I made some improvements," she says. Her eyes glow, and she says, "Genius didn't skip my father. He once made an external prism that allowed him to interalize the power of the glasses, but when the prism was destroyed, he lost the power. I found a way to incorporate the glasses and the prism together into what amount to contacts. They can't be snatched like you just did to my glasses. Those things are useless on their own by the way- I modified them just to focus the contacts through; I think they look cool," she says with a smile, as a blue beam lances out and takes the glasses back.

Larfleeze growls at losing the glasses, but snaps, "What do you want, then?"

"Oh," Royce says, her eyes shining blue, "let me show you." Blue beams lance out of her eyes and into the orange central power battery that Larfleeze clutches in a vicelike grip.

The battery glows blue for a few moments; long enough to subdue his avarice as he wonders at the Ophidian entity being drawn out of his battery. It is bound in heavy blue chains that practically mummify all but its head. "What? Him?" Larfleeze balks. "Krona already tried that, and he was defeated. Ophidian escaped, and roamed free in the universe until he came back here, wanting to join with the Orange Light again. He tried to take it from me of course, but I beat him again. Because nobody takes from me," he snarled, his tone signaling the return of his greedy nature as the lantern turns orange again.

"I don't want to take him," says Royce. A blue meat cleaver forms in the air, and she says, "I'm here to kill him." And before Larfleeze can say anything else, the cleaver swings down, beheading Ophidian.

"That entity was mine!" shouts Larfleeze. Then a strange look comes over his face, and he says, "But... I don't care. What have you done?"

"The Orange Light isn't Avarice. That was just Ophidian," says Royce. "Without him to fuel it, the emotional attachment isn't there for the light."

"But... what is the Orange Light for if not Greed?" asks Larfleeze.

"Whatever you want it to be for," says Royce. "Without greed behind it, what do you want, Larfleeze?"

"I..." he starts, then pauses. After a few moments, he answers, "I want to find my family." He is so taken by the swell of other emotions besides greed, he doesn't notice the Orange Lantern slip from his hands. Not until it is settling above Royce's waiting palm. "Wait! What are you doing?"

"What I came to do, Larfleeze. Ophidian has been calling out to me from your hole in Okaara. He wants the Orange Light, but also wants to roam free in the universe. So, we worked out a deal."

"But you killed him," screams Larfleeze.

"No," says Royce, as the orange light begins to drain from the battery into her hand, and flow up her arm. "I merely convinced him that reigning in his avarice, and faking his death, would get him what he wants. What you saw was a construct. I told you that I already had access to the Orange Light." The Orange Light now fully engulfs her torso and other arm, and starts to flow down her legs.

Feeling the bleed of greed energy coming off of the Earth woman, Larfleeze sneers, "And what do you get out this?"

"It's what we get out of this," she says, her eyes becoming more reptilian in shape, and glowing red. "I told Ophidian what I wanted, and he agreed that it was a worthy goal. And that's why we're joining ourselves together."

"And what is that?" demanded Larfleeze.

"My dear Larfleeze," she says almost hissing, and swaying side-to-side slightly. "I want it all. All of the light. We will consume all of the Central Batteries just as we have done to this trinket," she says, allowing the now drained Orange Battery to fall to the ground, grey and and inert.

"Bah," spits Larfleeze. "You've merely given yourself over to Ophidian."

"No," she says, "we've joined with each other. We are no longer Royce Bivolvo or Ophidian. We are now... Rainbophidian. And we will possess all of the light, for it... is... ours."

With that, the new entity rockets up and out of Larfleeze's hole, leaving him in the dark.