You people keep giving me ... ideas ...
It's mildly distressing when I find myself coming back from a week at the beach and without any net-connection to find this sort of thread. And start to think.
And I figure - I've already got a plot involving dragons tucked away somewhere, but that was for a fantasy setting. But the world is one I can set other things in, since I've got history sketched out ... and there's been a marked lack of good fantasy anime appearing lately - incidentially, I may be weird but Scrapped Princess didn't appeal to me at all. My playlist's choice of song at that moment gave me a much needed shove ... and I found myself sketching out the plots of the two initial episodes (or you could see them as being one single longer pilot episode) and the following story instead of working on Incarna, which I'd intended at the time.
Concept:
Revv - because we don't get enough good fantasy anime these days. Warning. Rated MA (or, whatever).
Intro: We get a nice view of the rising sun over a scenery of rolling hills, first off the bat. Cloud cover is minimal. Camera pans, focuses. Bird of prey of some kind - brown feathers with white tips, amber eyes - circles a few dozen feet above a grassy hill. Zoom in on eye. Zoom in on a moving shape reflected in it. Eye blinks. Motion shot following the bird as it throws itself into a fall, grabs a rabbit, then flies offscreen, with the camera now pointing towards a town, castle included, off in the distance.
Light hearted piano music starts to play.
the words:
appear in the lower right corner. Fade. Are replaced by:
All the while the camera slowly drifts towards the town. Scene change.
A few snippets - show moments of a typical day in the town while handily introducing our focus chara at the same time.
Hero - spiky haired knight guy. Intro-ed as he wakes up (ie: falls out of bed), rubs head, yawns, notices he's slept in (again - typical anime protagonist trait) gets dressed in his knight gear, complete with obligatory Zweihnder. Internal monologue as he does this tells us a few facts. Father was a loyal knight of the realm-blahblah-died when Hero was young-blahblah-and so on. We also get the idea, from a few offhand comments, that there's this big war with someone called the Outsiders going on.
Camera pans over the town, bird's eye view like, during the latter part of the monologue. Complete with slight weaving motion. Comes up to show the castle. Focuses on a Figure standing within the courtyard. You get to hear the sound of rapidly beating wings. Zoom out to show that the view was indeed a birds eye view - as in, the bird from the intro. It drops the rabbit as it flies above the Figure, who snatches the falling prey, then lands on Figure's outstretched arm.
Introducing - Older Guy - experienced soldier type person. Scruffy, hasn't shaved in a few days, squints, etc. Obligatory mentor character to Hero.
Hero and Older meet up in the castle, with Older scolding Hero because Hero is barely on time. They trade banter as they walk inside the castle.
Cut to throne room and scene of Older and Hero kneeling before the Queen (regal and cold looking female character in semi-elaborate black gown-type thingy). Of the two thrones only hers is occupied. Sounds get muted again, aside from internal monologue. It starts telling us the King (flashback shot - rugged looking older guy in shiny armor riding away from the town, followed by a company of mounted knights) left for the war a few years ago (shot - battlefield - broken weapons, banners, barren ground, the occasional severed limb) and it didn't turn out very well (shot - Royal bedchamber - formerly shiny armor breastplate and a broken sword sit in a shrine to one side of the bed). It tells us the Outsiders (shot - marching army of soldiers in smooth, chitinous looking armor. The occasional scurrying Thing passes alongside the ranks.) have been slowly advancing over the past few years, despite the best of the so called Alliance (shots/scenes of elven archers - obligatory cute elf chicks included - atop barricades. mages hurling spells. etc.). The news had arrived that a neighboring country had fallen, and the Town was the next closest settlement the fight would be moving towards, or something to that effect.
We also find out that Older is the only survivor of the company of knights that went with the King, and it was he who brought back the armor and sword.
Usual 'And so we are faced with grave danger, but ...' type speech from the Queen follows. With the but being the recent discovery of something about an ancient artifact(sword) called Freedom that could turn the tide of the war in their favor.
Expository dialog and scenes showing the Things that we've seen in the Enemy Army shot - they're demons of various shapes and sizes. Apparently, the Outsiders (we'll get references that they're not from this world as an explanation later on) can bind demons to do their bidding. The artifact is supposed to be able to destroy/cut such bonds.
The artifact is within the Kingdom somewhere, so Older and Hero are supposed to act as native guides/escorts to the people looking for it. After the audience is over Hero is dismissed. Older stays for a moment. Queen delivers speech about redemption for letting his liege die in battle and not following like a loyal knight should, and that he should make certain the artifact comes back to the Town in their hands. Older leaves.
Cut to outside, with the camera showing the castle entrance from a distance. Hero is waiting for Older. Older comes out. The two start talking. Hero's internal monologue continues, delivering the ('this would be the beginning of my life's greatest adventure').
Camera zooms out to show we were getting a bird's eye view again, literally, since the bird from the Intro is sitting on the ramparts and looking down towards Older and Hero. It blinks, then flies away. Camera pans after it. Fade to black.
Next day. Wagon and two horses come into town. Older and Hero are waiting for it in the castle courtyard. Obligatory party meeting scene, with the riders of the two horses lowering the hoods of their cloaks. One elf-chick, bow and arrows included (token silver hair). One warrior-chick, chainmail bikini not included (more Lodoss style leathers), with sword (token redhead).
Weedy looking Scribe guy, spectacles included, stumbling out of the wagon - he's the translator who found the references to the artifact in the ancient texts - and Priestess (token serene brunette) complete the party.
The rest of the Episode is basically character interaction. Older ribbing Hero about his sneaking peeks at Elf-chick, Priestess ribbing Warrior-chick about sneaking peeks at Hero, Elf-chick being cool&aloof, Scribe-guy filling the role of comic relief.
Episode ends with the Party leaving the Town, with Older letting loose the Intro-bird whose perspective we look at the departing Party from in the final scene.
Fade to black.
Outro: grassy hill, wind blowing, pensive sounding piano tune plays.
Ep02 - white
Intro: piano music again, a bit more tense this time. Flashback shots and explanatory VO tells us what happened last time.
Starts with shots of rain falling in a forest, and a fire flickering. A couple of makeshift tents standing along the edges of a forest trail. Scribe-guy looks haggard and is writing something down, the others outside of Priestess look moderately beat-up. Priestess is doing the glowy-hands-healing-thingy.
We get a series of flashbacks telling us it's a few days after they left the Town. They're so beat up because they ran into an Outsider foraging party (appropriate battle scenes - Hero with his Zweihder in motion, Older swinging an axe, Elf-chick working with bow and arrows, Priestess throwing around exorcisms at the few demons present with the Enemy party, and Scribe-guy turning out to be a decent mage who suffers from a lack of stamina - fries several asses with fire and lightning spells before he falls unconscious).
Scribe checks his notes, tells the Party they're close and that they'll find the artifact soon if they can keep going. This is actually the first time he's said more than his name onscreen.
Hero and Older argue. Older says they should wait for a few days and hide out, in case the Enemy sends more troops to check what happened to that scouting party. Hero says they ought to move as quickly as they can, because it the scouting party was there then that meant the Enemy is closer to the Town than they'd initially believed, and they really ought to get the damn artifact so that they won't be returning to ruins.
Elf-chick sides with Hero, Warrior-chick reluctantly agrees with Older, Priestess is undecided and Scribe-guy sides with Hero because he's enthusiastic to get to his discovery.
Next day they move on.
Scene change. One of the Things - basically a dog-like furless beast the size of a small pony - reports to its superior. Said superior is a sexy-evil-dominatrix-bitch-queen type demon. Leathery black wings included. Leather included. Lots of leather.
Scene ends with a close up of the dominatrix's lips, slowly curling into a smirk.
Cue flash of lighting.
Scene change.
The Party is standing outside a bare rock wall, with Scribe fiddling with his specs as he looks through his notes. Hero is trying to make conversation with Elf-chick, and getting little out of its outside of monosyllabic answers. Older gives them an amused look. Warrior-chick is pacing nervously. Priestess looks vaguely uneasy about something.
Scribe-guy goes 'ahah!' mutters something, and a sigil lights up on the rock wall. Part of it slides to the side.
The Party go in, the Priestess a bit hesitant to enter and ending up brining up the rear with Warrior-chick, who gives her a few words of encouragment.
Shot of the outside of the cave. All is quiet, until there's a rustle in the bushes. Cut back to Party.
They follow the corridor downwards, until it terminates at a big effin' door that's carved with images of winding and twisting chains. Scribe-guy starts rifling through his notes again, with Hero examining the door as well, and Older doubling back for a moment to make sure they'd not been followed.
Priestess looks steadily more and more uncertain, though Warrior-chick's earlier words are obviously helping her keep it together. Warrior-chick gets cautious, though, in addition to her earlier nervous tension, and keeps fiddling with her sword. Elf-chick looks antsy as well, and when Older guy comes back and comments on the she retorts that enclosed spaces make her uncomfortable.
Meanwhile, Scribe-guy is still trying to unlock the door, to no avail. He's soon huffing along after casting nearly every unlocking spell he knows. Hero gets increasingly peeved, finally cursing ('we got this far, damnit! and now a bloody _door_ is going to stop us?!) and punching the gate ... which, amazingly enough, falls over. Cue piku-piku moment, and Scribe looking up from his notes and saying something to the effect of 'or we _could_ try that'.
They enter. Focus on the fallen wing of the door (it's cracked into a few pieces), then zoom out of the cave, trailing along the dark corridor. The observant will have noted that the chains on the other wing of the door appear to have 'broken' as well ... curious, no?
Back to Party. They're in the chamber beyond the door. It's big. Octagonal, with elaborate seal diagrams etched into the floor and walls, which are all fancy marble.
At the opposite end from the door is a dais, from the floor of which an ornamental looking sword is sticking up.
Priestess gives a faint 'meep' and nearly collapses. Warrior-chick holds her up, slinging one of Priestess' arms around her shoulders. Priestess motions for them to go on, saying she's just feeling the journey catching up with her.
Hero takes a step forward, moving towards the sword, while Scribe-guy frowns at his notes and rapidly leafs through them. There's an odd sound from behind them, and Hero, Scribe-guy, Elf-chick, and Older turn when it turns into a gurgle.
Priestess just pulled Warrior-chick's sword and stuck it into the redhead's guts. She's also smiling a really freaky version of the usual Kasumi-like smile she's had going for most of the journey up-till then.
Warrior-chick slides to the ground, one hand grabbing at Priestess', ornamental headband of office-type-thingy ... revealing that Priestess has a moving and functioning reptilian eye set in the middle of her forehead.
Older snaps out of the moment of shock, and swings his axe, which Priestess parries, and Elf-chick kills Priestess with an arrow to the head.
Hero goes 'wha, wha, what?' and Older explains the Outsiders can summon these annoying little parasite critters that are capable of possessing people ...
Hero then goes and pulls a Captain Obvious in saying: 'That means they know where we are!'
Cue clapping sound.
Dominatrix is standing in the entrance to the chamber, smiling like the cat that ate the canary as she thanks them for leading her to the artifact: 'such as it is', she finishes, frowning at the sword.
Elf-chick sends an arrow away, which Dominatrix catches and snaps. Dog-Things leap out from the entrance to the chamber, followed by a few of the Enemy Soldiers wearing chitinous armor and armed with shield and axe.
Dog-Thing leaps past Older, slamming into Scribe-guy who was beginning to chant a spell, and hurling him across the room. He slams into the wall next to the dais, with a few really nasty sounding cracks and wet sounds, and falls to the ground, unconscious and bleeding.
Older guts the Dog-Thing with his axe, and shouts at Hero to get the sword. Elf-chick shoots arrow after arrow. The next few minutes are combat scenes, with Older and Elf-chick trying to keep the Dog-Things and Enemy Soldiers from stopping Hero from getting the Sword. A few make it past and Hero has to fight his way past them.
Older's luck runs out and one of his arms goes flying. It's all over for him after that. Elf-chick lasts a moment longer, and Hero fights his way past the two Dog-Things between him and the artifact. Elf-chick goes down when he puts the second one down, ironically enough.
Hero's Zweihnder goes flying when a Soldier nearly severs one of his arms, but that doesn't stop him, and he reaches the sword ... freeze-frame.
The chamber looks like a slaughterhouse, with bodies of Party-members and Enemy Soldiers and Dog-Things on the ground left and right. More Soldiers and Dog-Things are coming in. Hero is reaching for the artifact. Dominatrix hasn't moved or stopped smirking.
Unfreeze as Hero reaches the sword, pulls it free, and guts a Soldier with it. He takes another swing ... Dominatrix blinks across the chamber, twists his hand around when he swings, snaps the bones, and shoves the artifact through his guts.
'Such as it is,' she sneers at Hero, and gives him a kiss.
Hero's eyes go wide, before she reaches up with her free hand/claw, and snaps his neck. She pushes the corpse of Hero off the sword, licks some blood from the blade,
and sneers at the 'piece of worthless scrap-metal'.
She tosses the sword aside.
Meanwhile, the Dog-Things are ... umm ... _eating_. Blood is soaking pretty much the whole floor.
Perspective shift - a bleary perspective, to be sure. Scribe-guy's regained consciousness just in time to see Hero die, he sees the others bodies, then the sword clangs into the ground next to him.
He's just been unconscious, and doesn't quite get that Hero's already tried that. He grabs it anyway. There's a particularly sharp 'pling' note. The chamber walls and floor, the portions not covered in blood anyway, fade from marble to rough gray stone. The sigils go from ornamental to vaguely sinister looking. The artifact goes from fancy looking sword to a more-than-vaguely-ominous black bladed equivalent.
Dominatrix is getting uneasy because Scribe-guy's eyes are starting to glow, just like the carvings in the blood-splattered floor and walls, and something just threw a Dog-Thing against one wall with enough strength to splatter the beast, and the dead bodies of Party members and Enemy alike are starting to rise and tear the still living a new one be they demon or not, and Scribe-guy's standing when he shouldn't be because she's pretty sure she heard his spine snap and laughing like a bad Dark Schneider copy ...
Fade to Black.
Outro is a Funeral March played on a single piano, while credits run in front of a panel showing the black sword sticking out of the dais.
So, basically, yeah ... Scribe-guy and his buddies made a bigass error in their translation, and the so called Freedom is actually a Revenant Blade - a powerful necromantic focus that feeds on death, destruction, and the souls of the living.
The ritual to unlock it was one of sacrifice, not really demanding any special circumstance outside of being performed within the chamber it had been sealed in.
The sword is sentient. And hungry.
Now Scribe-guy's its new host/wielder.
Incidentally, did you notice that Scribe-guy and Hero have similar voices? Well, guess who the entrance monologues in the first episode really belonged to. Yup.
The rest of the series, after Scribe-guy snaps out of it in the third episode and does the usual angst&mope&feel guilty routine, would be the story of his self imposed atonement.
He knows the sword will grow stronger every time he kills, and he knows it'll grow harder and harder to control as well, but he needs to use it to fight off the Outsiders and their Demon allies because, well, he's the only one who _can_ - everything else has been tried (as far as he knows).
We follow him as he leads the undead hordes to battle against the Outsiders, is shunned by the people he defends, slowly turns less and less inclined to actually stop the sword from having its fill of carnage whenever it can ...
The whole thing is very much fit to be labeled Dark Fantasy, and I'd enjoy seeing a focus chara who actually _is_ guilty of causing the events he feels responsible for (unlike, say, Gatsu in Berserk) work his way through that mess.
Intro for the eps after two should have some sort of hard rock or metal for bgm ... incidentally, yes, this whole idea was basically inspired by Blue Oyster Cult's 'Black Blade'.
The series' end, if you could consider it such, would happen around ep24 or so, when the Outsiders have been routed and return to their own world, Scribe-guy is seen as the new tyrant aiming to conquer the world and faced with the inevitability of having to fight the people he'd tried to protect. Even though he'd conquered the sword's bloodlust (with the help of his loyal entourage of recruited minions ... errr, I meant loyal companions), it's not entirely gone.
So, the ending is basically him and his generals (token Dread Knight Guy - the guy who actually _found_ Freedom and instead of using it against the Outsiders tried to kill Scribe-guy with it around ep15 but ended up joining him - , the Femme Fatale Vampiress - who appointed herself his 'very personal' aide at around ep8 and has been trying to seduce him ever since, with varying degrees of success -, Dominatrix - who he'd bound to himself to get insight into the Outsiders' strategems, and who for some twisted reason ended up playing rival to Vampiress in trying to seduce the poor schmuck around ep10 -, Rival Necromancer Girl - scout who finds the chamber the sword had been in and gets some of the residual power as a result in ep18, tries to snatch the sword from him, and ends up playing barnacle on Dread Knight Guy from ep21 onwards) and the horde of minions, undead and otherwise, following the Outsiders through the dimensional portal.
Ending quote: 'And my adventure ... continues.'
And this morning I was going to continue with writing more for the final chapter of Incarna. I ended up novelizing the beginning of Revv's first episode, which I only noticed after I'd had my morning coffee.
Once again proving that I'm far too easily distracted.
Blue Oyster Cult has me writing about psychotic necromancers, Kansas makes me want to write a follow up for Bound and Determined, and Garbage turns me back towards Incarna. And I got a new Nightwish CD yesterday ... I am understandably hesitant about playing the damn thing.
-Griever
needs to learn how to multitask
When tact is required, use brute force. When force is required, use greater force.
When the greatest force is required, use your head. Surprise is everything. - The Book of Cataclysm
It's mildly distressing when I find myself coming back from a week at the beach and without any net-connection to find this sort of thread. And start to think.
And I figure - I've already got a plot involving dragons tucked away somewhere, but that was for a fantasy setting. But the world is one I can set other things in, since I've got history sketched out ... and there's been a marked lack of good fantasy anime appearing lately - incidentially, I may be weird but Scrapped Princess didn't appeal to me at all. My playlist's choice of song at that moment gave me a much needed shove ... and I found myself sketching out the plots of the two initial episodes (or you could see them as being one single longer pilot episode) and the following story instead of working on Incarna, which I'd intended at the time.
Concept:
Revv - because we don't get enough good fantasy anime these days. Warning. Rated MA (or, whatever).
Intro: We get a nice view of the rising sun over a scenery of rolling hills, first off the bat. Cloud cover is minimal. Camera pans, focuses. Bird of prey of some kind - brown feathers with white tips, amber eyes - circles a few dozen feet above a grassy hill. Zoom in on eye. Zoom in on a moving shape reflected in it. Eye blinks. Motion shot following the bird as it throws itself into a fall, grabs a rabbit, then flies offscreen, with the camera now pointing towards a town, castle included, off in the distance.
Light hearted piano music starts to play.
the words:
appear in the lower right corner. Fade. Are replaced by:
All the while the camera slowly drifts towards the town. Scene change.
A few snippets - show moments of a typical day in the town while handily introducing our focus chara at the same time.
Hero - spiky haired knight guy. Intro-ed as he wakes up (ie: falls out of bed), rubs head, yawns, notices he's slept in (again - typical anime protagonist trait) gets dressed in his knight gear, complete with obligatory Zweihnder. Internal monologue as he does this tells us a few facts. Father was a loyal knight of the realm-blahblah-died when Hero was young-blahblah-and so on. We also get the idea, from a few offhand comments, that there's this big war with someone called the Outsiders going on.
Camera pans over the town, bird's eye view like, during the latter part of the monologue. Complete with slight weaving motion. Comes up to show the castle. Focuses on a Figure standing within the courtyard. You get to hear the sound of rapidly beating wings. Zoom out to show that the view was indeed a birds eye view - as in, the bird from the intro. It drops the rabbit as it flies above the Figure, who snatches the falling prey, then lands on Figure's outstretched arm.
Introducing - Older Guy - experienced soldier type person. Scruffy, hasn't shaved in a few days, squints, etc. Obligatory mentor character to Hero.
Hero and Older meet up in the castle, with Older scolding Hero because Hero is barely on time. They trade banter as they walk inside the castle.
Cut to throne room and scene of Older and Hero kneeling before the Queen (regal and cold looking female character in semi-elaborate black gown-type thingy). Of the two thrones only hers is occupied. Sounds get muted again, aside from internal monologue. It starts telling us the King (flashback shot - rugged looking older guy in shiny armor riding away from the town, followed by a company of mounted knights) left for the war a few years ago (shot - battlefield - broken weapons, banners, barren ground, the occasional severed limb) and it didn't turn out very well (shot - Royal bedchamber - formerly shiny armor breastplate and a broken sword sit in a shrine to one side of the bed). It tells us the Outsiders (shot - marching army of soldiers in smooth, chitinous looking armor. The occasional scurrying Thing passes alongside the ranks.) have been slowly advancing over the past few years, despite the best of the so called Alliance (shots/scenes of elven archers - obligatory cute elf chicks included - atop barricades. mages hurling spells. etc.). The news had arrived that a neighboring country had fallen, and the Town was the next closest settlement the fight would be moving towards, or something to that effect.
We also find out that Older is the only survivor of the company of knights that went with the King, and it was he who brought back the armor and sword.
Usual 'And so we are faced with grave danger, but ...' type speech from the Queen follows. With the but being the recent discovery of something about an ancient artifact(sword) called Freedom that could turn the tide of the war in their favor.
Expository dialog and scenes showing the Things that we've seen in the Enemy Army shot - they're demons of various shapes and sizes. Apparently, the Outsiders (we'll get references that they're not from this world as an explanation later on) can bind demons to do their bidding. The artifact is supposed to be able to destroy/cut such bonds.
The artifact is within the Kingdom somewhere, so Older and Hero are supposed to act as native guides/escorts to the people looking for it. After the audience is over Hero is dismissed. Older stays for a moment. Queen delivers speech about redemption for letting his liege die in battle and not following like a loyal knight should, and that he should make certain the artifact comes back to the Town in their hands. Older leaves.
Cut to outside, with the camera showing the castle entrance from a distance. Hero is waiting for Older. Older comes out. The two start talking. Hero's internal monologue continues, delivering the ('this would be the beginning of my life's greatest adventure').
Camera zooms out to show we were getting a bird's eye view again, literally, since the bird from the Intro is sitting on the ramparts and looking down towards Older and Hero. It blinks, then flies away. Camera pans after it. Fade to black.
Next day. Wagon and two horses come into town. Older and Hero are waiting for it in the castle courtyard. Obligatory party meeting scene, with the riders of the two horses lowering the hoods of their cloaks. One elf-chick, bow and arrows included (token silver hair). One warrior-chick, chainmail bikini not included (more Lodoss style leathers), with sword (token redhead).
Weedy looking Scribe guy, spectacles included, stumbling out of the wagon - he's the translator who found the references to the artifact in the ancient texts - and Priestess (token serene brunette) complete the party.
The rest of the Episode is basically character interaction. Older ribbing Hero about his sneaking peeks at Elf-chick, Priestess ribbing Warrior-chick about sneaking peeks at Hero, Elf-chick being cool&aloof, Scribe-guy filling the role of comic relief.
Episode ends with the Party leaving the Town, with Older letting loose the Intro-bird whose perspective we look at the departing Party from in the final scene.
Fade to black.
Outro: grassy hill, wind blowing, pensive sounding piano tune plays.
Ep02 - white
Intro: piano music again, a bit more tense this time. Flashback shots and explanatory VO tells us what happened last time.
Starts with shots of rain falling in a forest, and a fire flickering. A couple of makeshift tents standing along the edges of a forest trail. Scribe-guy looks haggard and is writing something down, the others outside of Priestess look moderately beat-up. Priestess is doing the glowy-hands-healing-thingy.
We get a series of flashbacks telling us it's a few days after they left the Town. They're so beat up because they ran into an Outsider foraging party (appropriate battle scenes - Hero with his Zweihder in motion, Older swinging an axe, Elf-chick working with bow and arrows, Priestess throwing around exorcisms at the few demons present with the Enemy party, and Scribe-guy turning out to be a decent mage who suffers from a lack of stamina - fries several asses with fire and lightning spells before he falls unconscious).
Scribe checks his notes, tells the Party they're close and that they'll find the artifact soon if they can keep going. This is actually the first time he's said more than his name onscreen.
Hero and Older argue. Older says they should wait for a few days and hide out, in case the Enemy sends more troops to check what happened to that scouting party. Hero says they ought to move as quickly as they can, because it the scouting party was there then that meant the Enemy is closer to the Town than they'd initially believed, and they really ought to get the damn artifact so that they won't be returning to ruins.
Elf-chick sides with Hero, Warrior-chick reluctantly agrees with Older, Priestess is undecided and Scribe-guy sides with Hero because he's enthusiastic to get to his discovery.
Next day they move on.
Scene change. One of the Things - basically a dog-like furless beast the size of a small pony - reports to its superior. Said superior is a sexy-evil-dominatrix-bitch-queen type demon. Leathery black wings included. Leather included. Lots of leather.
Scene ends with a close up of the dominatrix's lips, slowly curling into a smirk.
Cue flash of lighting.
Scene change.
The Party is standing outside a bare rock wall, with Scribe fiddling with his specs as he looks through his notes. Hero is trying to make conversation with Elf-chick, and getting little out of its outside of monosyllabic answers. Older gives them an amused look. Warrior-chick is pacing nervously. Priestess looks vaguely uneasy about something.
Scribe-guy goes 'ahah!' mutters something, and a sigil lights up on the rock wall. Part of it slides to the side.
The Party go in, the Priestess a bit hesitant to enter and ending up brining up the rear with Warrior-chick, who gives her a few words of encouragment.
Shot of the outside of the cave. All is quiet, until there's a rustle in the bushes. Cut back to Party.
They follow the corridor downwards, until it terminates at a big effin' door that's carved with images of winding and twisting chains. Scribe-guy starts rifling through his notes again, with Hero examining the door as well, and Older doubling back for a moment to make sure they'd not been followed.
Priestess looks steadily more and more uncertain, though Warrior-chick's earlier words are obviously helping her keep it together. Warrior-chick gets cautious, though, in addition to her earlier nervous tension, and keeps fiddling with her sword. Elf-chick looks antsy as well, and when Older guy comes back and comments on the she retorts that enclosed spaces make her uncomfortable.
Meanwhile, Scribe-guy is still trying to unlock the door, to no avail. He's soon huffing along after casting nearly every unlocking spell he knows. Hero gets increasingly peeved, finally cursing ('we got this far, damnit! and now a bloody _door_ is going to stop us?!) and punching the gate ... which, amazingly enough, falls over. Cue piku-piku moment, and Scribe looking up from his notes and saying something to the effect of 'or we _could_ try that'.
They enter. Focus on the fallen wing of the door (it's cracked into a few pieces), then zoom out of the cave, trailing along the dark corridor. The observant will have noted that the chains on the other wing of the door appear to have 'broken' as well ... curious, no?
Back to Party. They're in the chamber beyond the door. It's big. Octagonal, with elaborate seal diagrams etched into the floor and walls, which are all fancy marble.
At the opposite end from the door is a dais, from the floor of which an ornamental looking sword is sticking up.
Priestess gives a faint 'meep' and nearly collapses. Warrior-chick holds her up, slinging one of Priestess' arms around her shoulders. Priestess motions for them to go on, saying she's just feeling the journey catching up with her.
Hero takes a step forward, moving towards the sword, while Scribe-guy frowns at his notes and rapidly leafs through them. There's an odd sound from behind them, and Hero, Scribe-guy, Elf-chick, and Older turn when it turns into a gurgle.
Priestess just pulled Warrior-chick's sword and stuck it into the redhead's guts. She's also smiling a really freaky version of the usual Kasumi-like smile she's had going for most of the journey up-till then.
Warrior-chick slides to the ground, one hand grabbing at Priestess', ornamental headband of office-type-thingy ... revealing that Priestess has a moving and functioning reptilian eye set in the middle of her forehead.
Older snaps out of the moment of shock, and swings his axe, which Priestess parries, and Elf-chick kills Priestess with an arrow to the head.
Hero goes 'wha, wha, what?' and Older explains the Outsiders can summon these annoying little parasite critters that are capable of possessing people ...
Hero then goes and pulls a Captain Obvious in saying: 'That means they know where we are!'
Cue clapping sound.
Dominatrix is standing in the entrance to the chamber, smiling like the cat that ate the canary as she thanks them for leading her to the artifact: 'such as it is', she finishes, frowning at the sword.
Elf-chick sends an arrow away, which Dominatrix catches and snaps. Dog-Things leap out from the entrance to the chamber, followed by a few of the Enemy Soldiers wearing chitinous armor and armed with shield and axe.
Dog-Thing leaps past Older, slamming into Scribe-guy who was beginning to chant a spell, and hurling him across the room. He slams into the wall next to the dais, with a few really nasty sounding cracks and wet sounds, and falls to the ground, unconscious and bleeding.
Older guts the Dog-Thing with his axe, and shouts at Hero to get the sword. Elf-chick shoots arrow after arrow. The next few minutes are combat scenes, with Older and Elf-chick trying to keep the Dog-Things and Enemy Soldiers from stopping Hero from getting the Sword. A few make it past and Hero has to fight his way past them.
Older's luck runs out and one of his arms goes flying. It's all over for him after that. Elf-chick lasts a moment longer, and Hero fights his way past the two Dog-Things between him and the artifact. Elf-chick goes down when he puts the second one down, ironically enough.
Hero's Zweihnder goes flying when a Soldier nearly severs one of his arms, but that doesn't stop him, and he reaches the sword ... freeze-frame.
The chamber looks like a slaughterhouse, with bodies of Party-members and Enemy Soldiers and Dog-Things on the ground left and right. More Soldiers and Dog-Things are coming in. Hero is reaching for the artifact. Dominatrix hasn't moved or stopped smirking.
Unfreeze as Hero reaches the sword, pulls it free, and guts a Soldier with it. He takes another swing ... Dominatrix blinks across the chamber, twists his hand around when he swings, snaps the bones, and shoves the artifact through his guts.
'Such as it is,' she sneers at Hero, and gives him a kiss.
Hero's eyes go wide, before she reaches up with her free hand/claw, and snaps his neck. She pushes the corpse of Hero off the sword, licks some blood from the blade,
and sneers at the 'piece of worthless scrap-metal'.
She tosses the sword aside.
Meanwhile, the Dog-Things are ... umm ... _eating_. Blood is soaking pretty much the whole floor.
Perspective shift - a bleary perspective, to be sure. Scribe-guy's regained consciousness just in time to see Hero die, he sees the others bodies, then the sword clangs into the ground next to him.
He's just been unconscious, and doesn't quite get that Hero's already tried that. He grabs it anyway. There's a particularly sharp 'pling' note. The chamber walls and floor, the portions not covered in blood anyway, fade from marble to rough gray stone. The sigils go from ornamental to vaguely sinister looking. The artifact goes from fancy looking sword to a more-than-vaguely-ominous black bladed equivalent.
Dominatrix is getting uneasy because Scribe-guy's eyes are starting to glow, just like the carvings in the blood-splattered floor and walls, and something just threw a Dog-Thing against one wall with enough strength to splatter the beast, and the dead bodies of Party members and Enemy alike are starting to rise and tear the still living a new one be they demon or not, and Scribe-guy's standing when he shouldn't be because she's pretty sure she heard his spine snap and laughing like a bad Dark Schneider copy ...
Fade to Black.
Outro is a Funeral March played on a single piano, while credits run in front of a panel showing the black sword sticking out of the dais.
So, basically, yeah ... Scribe-guy and his buddies made a bigass error in their translation, and the so called Freedom is actually a Revenant Blade - a powerful necromantic focus that feeds on death, destruction, and the souls of the living.
The ritual to unlock it was one of sacrifice, not really demanding any special circumstance outside of being performed within the chamber it had been sealed in.
The sword is sentient. And hungry.
Now Scribe-guy's its new host/wielder.
Incidentally, did you notice that Scribe-guy and Hero have similar voices? Well, guess who the entrance monologues in the first episode really belonged to. Yup.
The rest of the series, after Scribe-guy snaps out of it in the third episode and does the usual angst&mope&feel guilty routine, would be the story of his self imposed atonement.
He knows the sword will grow stronger every time he kills, and he knows it'll grow harder and harder to control as well, but he needs to use it to fight off the Outsiders and their Demon allies because, well, he's the only one who _can_ - everything else has been tried (as far as he knows).
We follow him as he leads the undead hordes to battle against the Outsiders, is shunned by the people he defends, slowly turns less and less inclined to actually stop the sword from having its fill of carnage whenever it can ...
The whole thing is very much fit to be labeled Dark Fantasy, and I'd enjoy seeing a focus chara who actually _is_ guilty of causing the events he feels responsible for (unlike, say, Gatsu in Berserk) work his way through that mess.
Intro for the eps after two should have some sort of hard rock or metal for bgm ... incidentally, yes, this whole idea was basically inspired by Blue Oyster Cult's 'Black Blade'.
The series' end, if you could consider it such, would happen around ep24 or so, when the Outsiders have been routed and return to their own world, Scribe-guy is seen as the new tyrant aiming to conquer the world and faced with the inevitability of having to fight the people he'd tried to protect. Even though he'd conquered the sword's bloodlust (with the help of his loyal entourage of recruited minions ... errr, I meant loyal companions), it's not entirely gone.
So, the ending is basically him and his generals (token Dread Knight Guy - the guy who actually _found_ Freedom and instead of using it against the Outsiders tried to kill Scribe-guy with it around ep15 but ended up joining him - , the Femme Fatale Vampiress - who appointed herself his 'very personal' aide at around ep8 and has been trying to seduce him ever since, with varying degrees of success -, Dominatrix - who he'd bound to himself to get insight into the Outsiders' strategems, and who for some twisted reason ended up playing rival to Vampiress in trying to seduce the poor schmuck around ep10 -, Rival Necromancer Girl - scout who finds the chamber the sword had been in and gets some of the residual power as a result in ep18, tries to snatch the sword from him, and ends up playing barnacle on Dread Knight Guy from ep21 onwards) and the horde of minions, undead and otherwise, following the Outsiders through the dimensional portal.
Ending quote: 'And my adventure ... continues.'
And this morning I was going to continue with writing more for the final chapter of Incarna. I ended up novelizing the beginning of Revv's first episode, which I only noticed after I'd had my morning coffee.
Once again proving that I'm far too easily distracted.
Blue Oyster Cult has me writing about psychotic necromancers, Kansas makes me want to write a follow up for Bound and Determined, and Garbage turns me back towards Incarna. And I got a new Nightwish CD yesterday ... I am understandably hesitant about playing the damn thing.
-Griever
needs to learn how to multitask
When tact is required, use brute force. When force is required, use greater force.
When the greatest force is required, use your head. Surprise is everything. - The Book of Cataclysm