It had been far too long now since Ixorus had materialized out in the open to speak with the dark bard about their nefarious schemes. The dark spirit that dwelled within Alis always seemed to be convincing, always knew what he was talking about, and always seemed right and correct. Whatever they spoke of, anything Ixorus talked about made a lot of sense to Alis. The dark spirit is of course a great source of wisdom to Alis. For now, all the bard could do is listen to the spirits whisperings.

Perched upon a wooden stool, Alis continues to play his flute. He brings the mouth-piece to his lips and begins to play a soft melodic note. The more he played, the more haunting and terrifying his music sounded. The Broken Strings Tavern was not packed with the folks from Cascadia tonight. Only few people were present, and tonight wasn't going to be their luckiest of all. Alis continued playing. The flute's haunting sound spread about the tavern while simultaneously, Ixorus, out of nowhere whispered to to Alis. "Close your eyes...Eradicate this disease. Cleanse this tavern...Plague their minds...Alis Sprick!" The whisper was cold and haunting, almost deadly.

With the remaining notes Alis played, a negative crackling black energy was cast. The lights in the Broken Strings went dim, then blew out. The tavern was swallowed in a globe of darkness. A magical darkness that night even the slightest of humans could not see through. The few people that were present tonight started talking, asking questions, and beginning to panic. They were baffled. As if one had never seen such a thing. Alis began to hear the fear in their voice, and smiled as he finished playing.

Romanus had taken a long leave of absence from life in Imythess, and had just returned from his escapades. He wondered how his old friend Sava was doing. He remembered she had been one of his only friends while he was still here, and he hadn't so much as said good-bye to her. She probably hated him for that. He gave a great sigh, and continued to walk the streets of Cascadia, looking for something, anything to get him back into the normal, or not so normal, life in Imythess. He came upon The Broken Strings, and looked at it for a moment, not remembering having been there before. He gave a shrug, and decided that there was a first time for everything. So, he opened the door and stepped inside, or so he thought.

Once inside, he couldn't see a thing. It was as if all the light in the world had just been sucked away, and left nothing but darkness. He could hear people panicing, and almost started to laugh. Compared to his adventures out of Imythess, this was nothing. So, he stumbled to a chair, sat down, and decided that he would wait out the darkness and see what happened. He could only assume it was the works of some dark being.

The Broken Strings Tavern was bathed in complete darkness. It was if everyones eyes had been gouged out from their sockets, and everyone had lost their sense to see. Their ability to see was stolen from them and now so much more would be taken from them tonight. The fate of their lives were now in Alis' hands, and soon he would have thrown them all away as if it was the simplest of things he had ever done.

The taverns patrons were now trapped in pure darkness and there was nothing they could do to escape it. Alis could hear it in every heavy breath taken that they were scared and helpless, and that no one would come to their rescue. Alis opened his eyes and took notice that someone decided to join with the rest of the helpless people here in the Broken Strings. He seeemed oblivious as to what was going on and showed no sign of fear by the complete darkness that enveloped the tavern. Perhaps the man thought this to be a joke. He was a fool however, to enter the Broken Strings.

Alis placed the black metalic flute back to his lips and once again played his notes so haunting yet so horrifying it filled the taverns patrons with fear. As the bard kept playing another spell was cast within the darkness. A cold icy breeze swept across the tavern and over people. Torutured howls and screams from beneath the wooden floors screeched upon them as if it were taking their lives from them.
Soon everything would be taken from these people and leave nothing but an empty shell from them.

The dark bard stopped playing but the howling spirits still roared from beneath torturing these citizens of Cascadia. Alis took notice at the man again who still seemed to not know what any of this was. Alis dematerialised into the darkness, and swarmed through the shadows and appeared feet within from behind Romanus.
"There is nothing you can do, they will soon rot down to nothing. You along with them will be left for dead. No one can save you. Youre just as weak as they are." Alis' voice was soft and serious, almost to a complete whisper. It would not be long before everything was taken from these people. Alis disappeared and teleported back to the wooden stool, and watched them to be tortured by the screeching howls of the abyss. Ixorus whispered back once again to the dark bard, as he stood there on the taverns stage. "Wash them away of all their memories...rob them of everything...throw them all away into nothingness."

(OOC: sorry this post sucks, it took me a while to type this out though :/)

(OOC: No worries, I'm sure mine won't be any better, been quite some time since I RPed)

Romanus could hear the screams, and wondered why everyone was so afraid of a little darkness. So what if it was unnatural? Natural didn't even seem like a proper word, anymore. It was as if nothing could be unexpected, or expected, to him. He smiled at the thought that nothing was natural, remembering what he had been like just a few years previously. Skitty and unknowledgable. Now, he wasn't afraid, even when the voice behind him whispered so serious of his impending doom. In fact, he started to laugh. It wasn't really funny, but at the same time he couldn't help himself. People nearby wondered who was laughing, and why, and eased their panic slightly.

He wheezed slightly, trying to talk to the being. "You think that taking away our memories will make us into nothing? Memories are a part of us, but they are the past. They only affect our decisions. If you take away our memories, all you are doing is giving us a chance to start anew with our lives. Clean slate, so to speak. And if you kill us, well, all men die at one point or another. If our time is now, just understand that your time shall come as well. The Gods will have no mercy upon your soul, for what you do here tonight."

(OOC: Just to let you know, anything said by Ixorus is just for readers information. Your character cant hear it, only Alis. Its just whispers in his head.)

The howls from beneath, from the very depths of the abyss, were vociferous and almost quite deadly. The spells that were cast from the dark bards flute started to take their effect to its peak. Alis could see it all happening now, taking place in the very darkness he created. He stood there on the taverns performing stage, dead still, smiling and watching these Cascadians suffer. Alis took notice, their bones chilled with some sort of sickening recipe of fear and despair. Alis took notice, they wanted an escape, a rescuer, some kind of security. A sign of hope. Alis took notice, they were physically weak to fight it back, their minds now feeble and frail. But it was not long before any single one of them blacked out, fainted, or perhaps dropped dead.

Alis glared back into Romanus's eyes through the darkness the Broken Strings now contained. His lips curled slighty to form a weak smile. There was no fear in Romanus's eye, but perhaps he was still oblivious to what this was. Indeed, he was nothing but a fool. "You are a fool. The Gods of Imythess are weak! These lands will soon rot down to nothing. Soon the darkness will rise and consume these lands. Everyone will watch it rise, as if it was wrath itself! The end is nigh, my oblivious friend. Unfortunately enough, you will not live to see these events take place. Tonight you die. You will die along with your foolishness."
His voice now louder than usual, talking over tortured souls that echoed through out the tavern. Alis then took notice that several of the Cascadians took their fall. Some fainted, few died. Perhaps they suffered too much from what came from the abyss.

Alis studied the bodies on the taverns floor. Their bodies cold and pale, their lives taken from them by such negative power. It was a perfect oppertunity though, to show what his absentminded friend such great force he faced. "This is where you fear me, a power so cold and black." The globe of such powerful darkness began to fade along with the tortured spirits from beneath the taverns floors. The room grew icy cold, everything looked dead and old. The tavern was still dark, but not so much as when the dark bard summoned magical darkness no being present could see. Alis once again played his black instrument, only his notes softer.

Once again, a spell was cast. Three dead Cascadians rose from the dead, their bodies now being animated under Alis' control and undead servants. Their bodies were pale, skinny, and deformed. Scraps of flesh seemed to have been torn from their faces, arms, legs, and torso. The undead servants limped their way to Romanus slowly. Their heavy breathing sounded raspy, their hunger for flesh and blood so ravenous, it was only a matter of seconds before Alis' faithful undead servants feasted on Romanus. The now helpless man sat there upon a wooden chair, with nothing to defend himself. Alis pondered the aftermath of tonights unfortunate event.

Fehade had witness all that was happening. He sat in a corner, leaning back in his wooden chair, and his booted feet rested on the table. He red eyes were altered to look black, but still his eyes were cruel looking, and annoyed how they normally do. He watched the boy on the performers stage. Though, he couldn't see in the dark now because of the dark bards spells he seemed to use. Fehade couldn't even see his hand when he held it up in front of his face. He smiled slightly, when he heard everyone else fear.

Whoever this was, he was impressed. He waved his hand in a slight movement, and his eyes returned to their burning red color, and he used the spell Ebon eyes, so he could see through the strange darkness. He mumbled a couple swear words under his breath, wondering why he had come tonight to this blasted tavern.

He let the events unfold here, not at all bothering to interfere, but when he heard a man laugh, as if it was a joke, Fehade couldn't help himself from snickering slightly at the mans foolishness. He was starting to like this dark bard. He also believed the gods were weak. The tiefling wasn't into the whole "darkness consuming the world", not yet anyway. Fehade just wanted revenge on the world, wants those who destroyed him to suffer, then he might go for the whole darkness thing, but not yet.

"This is where you fear me, a power so cold and black."

He shook his head slightly. "What a competition there is nowadays, all trying to become the most feared..." He mumbled to himself. Then, the magical darkness lifted, but it was still dark, somewhat, and it was freezing. Fehade took to his feet at once, dismissing his ebon eyes spell. His right hand rested on his katana Aparul, while his left hand crackled with black magic.

He hated undead. They were annoying, he only liked vampires, but not the zombie undead. The undead reminded him of when Mara sent undead after him to "teach him a lesson".

He then clapped his hands together, but his left hand still had a shimmering mist around it with the dark crackling noises from it, but he still clapped slightly before stopping. "Bravo, nice little show, bard. But must we really bring undead into this new little graveyard?" He spoke in his cold voice. Red eyes flicking to the man with the undeads where limping towards, then back to the bard. He could care less about the man who would be killed by the undead, but one thing that always got him sick, was cannibalism, he always had a weak stomach for it.

((OOC: Not one of my bests of posts, but hopefully in the next few posts they'll be better.))

(OOC: Not exactly how I was expecting things to turn out, however I'm not letting my character die.)

Romanus could feel the cold wash over him, and felt that this perhaps might be his final escape from this life of his. He could hear the undead creeping towards him, but he did nothing about it, not feeling up to the effort. Not even when they started attacking him. However, not soon after, something in his mind snapped, and he went from being complacent and ready for death, to enraged and ready for survival. Hekicked the legs out from one of the Cascadian undead, and used his arms to push the other two away. He then pulled out a sword, previously hidden under his cloak, and cut off the head of one of the undead. "Not tonight, my dark friend. Tonight my life remains mine." He then departed.

(OOC: Not the best of posts, but what do you expect)

The smell of death filled the air, its decaying fragrance fuming from the undead. Alis watched Romanus attempting to defend himself as dead hands began to clutch onto his arms. Perhaps Romanus was now spooked by the work of the dark bard. Perhaps he now knew what he faced. Alis observed entertainingly while Romanus took down two of the animated bodies with all his might. The dark bard now saw the fear in his eyes, he saw how Romanus feared for his life with such haste. Alis chuckled watching Romanus flee in terror. The dark bard did nothing to prevent the mans escape, he was a fool in the first place to walk in the Broken Strings as if the dark bard were nothing.

Alis and his undead took notice that in the taverns corner another entity was present. The dark bard did not seem to reply back to the man just yet. He watched his undead making their way to the next living creature in the tavern. One of them crawling its unstable body on the unkept wooden floor, the other slowly limping its way to Fehade. The zombies starved to clutch onto any living creature and feast on its flesh and blood. Ixorus once again whispered to the dark bard. Perhaps something of importance drew Ixorus' attention. "We shall spare this one...do not lower any of your defenses."

Alis kept the dark spirit's whisper noted. Alis then replied in his usual soft voice with a tone of seriousness."Crying is for the weak. If its the undead you fear, then so be it. Do not surrender yourself." The bard then took a seat and continued speaking once more. "This city will have been painted black, while the night is still young. By sunset, everything will have withered and there is nothing they can do. Such blackness is coming up tonight." Tonight Alis would be a phantom of Cascadia, to haunt everything and everyone. This was only the beginning of Ixorus' and the dark bard's evil scheme.

(OOC: Not the best post :/ I could be getting writers block <_< )