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[Veneficus Beleren]

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In most instances when a person believes they are going to die, their last thoughts are frantic screams within their own head. In the case of Veneficus, on the other hand, it was simply a frustrated “This is not what I intended”.
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Veneficus, The Blue Mage

[Veneficus Beleren]

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The sky above Veneficus darkened with the blackest of clouds. He knew what was coming, but had to let Pravus make the first move. After all, you can’t counter a spell that hasn’t been cast. Pravus pointed at the clouds, which looked even more menacing now then when they were first conjured, and then set his gaze and pointed finger at Veneficus. Purple lightning jumped from cloud to cloud with fierce speed before arcing towards the Blue Mage, as he had anticipated. Looking up, Veneficus let go of the mana he had been holding within. With an open raised hand, he dissipated the lightning bolt into a blue vapor just above his own head.

“You’ll have to do better than that!” Ven called out from under his hood. “Do you honestly think I am not ready? That I am not waiting for those spells? Where is your creativity? That was always your problem, Prav. All you can do is what everyone else has already done. Never a strategy of your own.”

Pravus sneered back. “I am SO SICK of you and your condescending attitude. The fact that you truly believe that you are a better mage than I am is actually amusing at this point. How do you think I made it here? If I am so slow-witted, if the magic I wield is so one-dimensional and could be ‘wielded by a child’ as you love to say, then how can I have made it HERE? With YOU? On the precipice of such a place as this?”

It was actually a good question, and one that Ven had posed to himself when he came upon Pravus at the foot of the Temple where they now stood. How had he made it this far on his own? When Ven set out to find this place (and the scrolls it held) he had firmly believed that he had left Pravus in his proverbial dust. He had never believed Pravus to be a competent mage. The boy (Ven loved to call Pravus “the boy” even though they were both well into manhood and were separated by only two years) wielded what Ven believed to amount to “self-guided” magic. A mixture of spells that drew from black, green and red mana. Not to say that spells derived from these mana were poor spells, or even weak spells. Quite the contrary. This was a volatile mixture of colors that amounted to an incredible destructive force when wielded together. But it was that very force that made the magic so easy to conjure. Ven likened it to a fire. If one were to put together the necessary components for a strong-burning long-lasting fire, and then to put an ungodly amount of kindling under it and simply throw a match onto it, that fire would explode into being and continue to burn. The skill required to start that fire was next to nothing. That was Pravus’ magic. Start the spell yourself, begin the conjure, and then just let it go where it will. And where it most often went was destruction.

Another lightning bolt hit the ground next to Ven, snapping him out of his thoughts. Pravus had missed, but not by much. The heat and power of the bolt mixed with its proximity left Ven’s entire right side painful and aching. The black clouds continued to swirl overhead, obscuring the tops of the mountains surrounding the men. The view of the lush green valley, at the foot of this most sought-after Temple, would have been beautiful were it not for the fact that it was occupied by two men attempting to crush each other.

Ven stepped back and readied himself. His amusement with this entire process was now gone. Pravus was stronger than Ven had given him credit for, and now that was coming back to bite Ven in the rear. “I am done with these games, Pravus,” Veneficus called across the grass. “I will give you the chance to turn and leave now, without harm done to you. If you stay and continue your aggression, I will have to put you down”.

From under his black robe Pravus called out “To the death. Yours. And I will be happy to bring it to you”.
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Veneficus, The Blue Mage

[Veneficus Beleren]

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Control. That is what blue magic is about. Control. Control the flow of the duel. Have an answer for every spell thrown at you. Every. Spell. And it doesn’t matter whether that answer is an outright counterspell that prevents your opponent’s spell from resolving or a post-resolution answer. Say, for example, exiling a summoned creature to another plane of existence. Control. Answers. Thought. Blue magic requires concentration, thought, decision making. And it is slow. So, so slow. That, however, is its point. The blue mages know that the longer they draw out a duel, the better off they are. They bide their time. They erect walls around themselves – both literal and metaphorical, and wait for the initial salvo from their opponent to wane. Then, they strike. This is a difficult approach to execute in a duel, especially for the young mages. The younger ones want to conjure fire and brimstone, they want the speed of a lightning bolt or a summoned Thunder Elemental – a being of ultimate power that crashes into existence, attacks and then floats away on the smallest of breezes. Power, force, destruction. This appeals to the young mages. As it did to Pravus. But not Veneficus.

Veneficus’ disdain for this type of fast-and-furious conjure style started from the moment his powers began to manifest as a young boy. Blue magic - that was where the challenge was. Many people felt blue magic was weak, but Veneficus believed this was untrue. These people just did not have the patience. Or the intelligence. It took great wisdom to be a successful blue mage. Or so Ven always told himself. He always refered to himself as a “Blue Mage”, even though realistically he dabbled in some white magic as well. In fact, a great amount of his skill and power was related to his ability to manipulate both blue and white magics – but Veneficus never, ever considered himself a white mage. He felt a certain amount of pride in having mastered the complicated spells associated with blue magic.

These were the spells that caused Pravus’ next two attacks to fail.
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Veneficus, The Blue Mage

[Veneficus Beleren]

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“Another lightning bolt is coming” Veneficus thought to himself. He knew that Pravus believed that the second bolt (which had actually hit the ground) had caused significant damage and thus would stick with an “if it’s not broken don’t fix it” approach. He’d keep throwing ‘bolts at Ven until he decided they weren’t getting him anywhere.

Another purple bolt lanced down from the clouds towards Ven and again it disappeared into a cloud of blue vapor just above his head as he channeled his mana and released it. No taunts now, though. No talking at all. This duel had taken on a far more serious tone than Ven had initially thought it would, due in large part to his own arrogance allowing him to overlook how strong Pravus had become.

Pravus, now realizing that Ven was looking specifically to counter his “burn” spells, decided to take a slightly different approach. He whispered worlds low under his breath, and the runes on his robe glowed dimly as a huge floating face materialized between the two men. It was a horrid looking thing; a blackened, charred mixture of a man’s face and some type of rabid animal. The floating monstrosity opened it’s mouth and let out a scream of anguish before charging at Veneficus. Ven had not been expecting this type of attack, but was ready nonetheless. The mana he had channeled would be sufficient to dispatch with the floating “thing” the mages often referred to as Blightning.

As the face dissipated into vapor, screaming all the while, Ven began his own conjure. He drew first from a small pool of white mana within and made a small gesture with his hands, almost as if he was caressing the air in front of him. As he finished, a great white wall materialized between the two men, floating just above the ground. Mists exuded from the wall made it impossible to see it’s true shape and density, and obscured the view of each mage from his opponent. “Hopefully that buys me enough time for this conjure…” Ven thought. His tactic would be to push Pravus to the brink with his own summoned creatures, but not kill him. No, even at this point, he could not kill the man that he called “friend” as a boy. Instead, he would weaken Pravus and then cast him into a Rift that he would open between the different planes of existence. Pushing Pravus through the Rift would achieve everything Ven wanted – to keep his friend alive, but banish him so that he could no longer be a problem.

The strategy was a good one, and as Ven began his slow conjure of his own creature (a Jwar Sphinx, in this particular case) his nerves began to calm. This would work. This was what was best. No death, just a man getting sent to another plane of existence.

As his conjure continued and Ven drew on his blue mana, he glanced towards Pravus. A creature was materializing on the other side of the wall. Ven could not actually see this, of course, but assumed it to be true due to the light and sound coming from the far side of his conjured Wall of Omens. His assumption was confirmed the first time the wall shook from the impact of the attack of the Sprouting Thrinax that Pravus had conjured. Thrinax were a dangerous species, and difficult to dispatch. Simply killing them would not do, as they had evolved a mechanism that allowed their corpse to release small parasites upon their death. These “Saprolings”, as they were called, would go on attacking the intended target. The wall would need to hold or Ven would need to neutralize this creature. “I hope it’s the wall…” Ven thought. “I don’t know if I have time to stop this conjure to deal with the Thrinax and then start back up again. I need this Sphinx.”

Luckily for Ven, the wall did hold, and the Jwar Sphinx did materialize. What he would come to realize later however, was that in the end, none of that mattered, because the Thrinax was a distraction. And Ven had fallen for it hook, line and sinker.
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Veneficus, The Blue Mage

[Veneficus Beleren]

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Vens’ conjure finished and he raised both hands into the air, palms skyward. A large, glowing, blue sphere materialized high above him and the Jwar Sphinx (a large, winged lion-like animal), swooped out of it. This was it; the moment of truth. He would allow the wall to keep the Thrinax at bay and order the Sphinx to go after Pravus directly. Once he was sufficiently weakened, Ven would have to physically throw him into the Rift.

Ah, yes, the Rift. He still needed to make one. He considered his options for a moment and decided it was best to open the Rift on his own side of the wall. If Pravus were to see the Rift too early, he might disenchant it, causing it to collapse. Or perhaps he would flee altogether. In any case, Ven decided that neither of these were acceptable outcomes, and so he decided to open the Rift on the side of the wall closest to himself.

He held the Sphinx back for his own protection (no way to know if the Thrinax was going to make it through the wall) and began his conjure of the Rift. Normally, Ven used these Rifts to Planeswalk. That is, to go from one plane of existence to another in a “targeted” way. You knew where you were now, and you knew where you were going when you stepped into the Rift. Creating Rifts in this way required the conjuring mage to concentrate in order to direct the Rift to open on a certain plane. If you didn’t, the Rift could open anywhere, so long as that place had a sufficient amount of it’s own mana to allow for a Rift to open. In this particular case, Ven found this later possibility to be an attractive idea. He would open the Rift without a specific destination in mind, and cast Pravus into it, making it less likely that he would be able to get back to this plane of existence.

Ven closed his eyes and began to weave his enchantment to open the Rift. This conjure was short, especially because he did not need to spend time on seeking out a specific plane to connect this Rift to, instead he let the Rift decide where to open of it's own accord. The air between himself and the wall began to shimmer, until finally a small singularity appeared. The singularity started perfectly round, but began to grow in size and shape, becoming irregular. Once the conjure finished, and the Rift was fully formed, it had become a jagged purple opening onto another plane of existence. Unfortunately, although the Rift itself was visible, the plane it opened onto was not – one could not simply look into a Rift and “see” the other side. It always made Ven vaguely uncomfortable, even when he knew where it had opened to. Not being able to see where you were going was a bit scary, but what did it matter here? Ven wasn’t the one who was going through, and he didn’t much care where it had opened up to.

With the Rift now complete, Ven turned his attention back to Pravus. The Thrinax was still attacking the wall, trying to make it’s way through to his side. Ven smirked a bit to himself; if the Thrinax did make it through, it would likely run head-long into the Rift, which would take care of the problem altogether. In any case, that was not the issue at hand, was it? No. The issue was to take care of Pravus. Once and for all. And then to ascend the Temple steps and finish what he came here to do.

The Sphinx at his side remained calm, almost stoic. The beast towered over Veneficus, and could easily crush him simply by stepping on him with his massive paw, but that was not going to happen. This incredible beast was under Vens’ control, and would do as he bade. And what Ven wanted now was for Pravus to be nothing but a memory. It was time to act. It was time to attack.

At this point, Ven moved on pure instinct. The time for slow, measured responses to Pravus’ attacks was gone. No thinking, now. Action.

With a wave of his hand Veneficus dismissed the wall, revealing the Thrinax on the other side. The odd creature bellowed upon finally be able to see it’s intended prey and charged. Ven looked at the Sphinx and pointed at the Thrinax. The winged creature took flight, looped over the Rift and zeroed in on it’s target. Pravus, seeing that the Thrinax was about to be crushed, waved his hand in an almost “come here” type of motion, and the Thrinax winked out of existence. It had been Unsummoned. Not killed, not exiled, but the equivalent of being put back in to Pravus’ pocket. Ven looked on quizzically. Why would he have done that…? Now the Sphinx could turn it’s attention directly towards Pravus, there was nothing to stop…

Now he saw it. And with one simple glimpse Veneficus’ mind went from “confident and in control” to “panicked and seemingly incoherent”.

A Broodmate Dragon. That is what Veneficus was looking at. A Broodmate Dragon was slowly flapping it's wings, hovering above Pravus' head. This was a serious problem. Not only could this animal effectively neutralize his Sphinx (at least as long as it took for the Sphinx to kill it), it could also turn the entire tide of a duel. Because Broodmate Dragons were always summoned in pairs. This is the point where Vens’ mind became rambling and incapable of any rational thought aside from: “Where’s the other dragon? Where’s the other dragon? Where’s the other dragon? Where’s the other dragon? Where’s the…”

Ven whirled about and looked behind him just in time to see the second Broodmate Dragon swoop down from over him, where it had clearly been circling for some time. Ven had been so focused on his own conjures he had paid attention to little else. And for that he realized he was now going to pay. There wasn’t enough time to cast a spell that would eliminate the dragon, he would have to settle for simply shielding himself from the bulk of the damage he was sure to take.

Ironically enough, Ven would have been better off standing his ground and allowing himself to take the bulk of the attack head-on. Because what actually ended up happening was, in retrospect, far worse.

As the dragon swooped down, mouth agape with what seemed like a billion sword-sized teeth and talons open and ready to inflict maximum damage on the mage, Vens mind cleared for long enough for him to decide to cast a fog over himself. The fog would not stop the attack, not by any means. But it would render most of the damage as blunt-force trauma as apposed to being slashed open in a dozen different places. The spell was able to resolve, and the dragon came down on Ven at an angle. The force with which the dragon hit him caused the air to be knocked out of him, but little else. The hit was, however, enough to literally lift Ven off the ground, spinning head over heels in the air. As his view alternated between ground and sky, ground and sky, Ven realized that he was able to see the Rift on every rotation, and that it was getting bigger. No, wait… not bigger…. Closer. Oh god, the force of the dragon’s attack had flung him toward the Rift. And now, here he was, about to be tossed into a different plane of existence. A place that, for all he knew, was populated with a race of horrible monsters. Or had no human life whatsoever. Or…. Or the gods only knew what. This was it. He was going to die. And the only thing to go through his stupid, numb brain was:


“This is not what I intended”
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Veneficus, The Blue Mage

[Veneficus Beleren]

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Passing through a Rift was a horrible, horrible experience. Even for those who had done it before, there was no way to prepare for what happened to a human being when they passed through. As soon as he fully entered the Rift, his body began to contort. Incredible pain erupted in his head, followed by a falling sensation. Once this had passed, Ven found he was unable to steady his eye and focus on anything – the world seemed to be spinning violently around him. Not that there was anything to look at, anyway. The space between Rifts (or “Ether” as the mages called it) was devoid of anything recognizable by human eyes. In truth, there were beings that actually lived exclusively in the Ether, horrible creatures that could lay waste to an entire plane if they so chose. Luckily, Ven was able to pass through the Ether without coming into contact with these creatures.

While being in the Rift made one feel weightless, coming out of the Rift was the exact opposite. Ven found himself being slammed to the ground, face down into a grassy patch of earth (thank the gods it was grass and not stone!). He immediately vomited, rolled onto his back and passed out.
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Veneficus, The Blue Mage

[Veneficus Beleren]

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Ven had no idea where he was or how much time had passed when he finally arose from unconsciousness. He sat up and propped himself up with his arms, looking around. He was in a forest of some sort…. or at the very least in a small wooded area. Looking to his right he saw a circle of stones and the middle… was the Rift! It was the Rift! It hadn’t closed yet! He could use… Ven’s enthusiasm faded as his eyes more closely focused on what he was looking at. It wasn’t his Rift. For starters, the glowing anomaly was blue, not purple. It was also very symmetrically oval-shaped. Not only was this not his Rift, this wasn’t anyone’s Rift. It wasn’t a Rift at all. Ven closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths. Now was not the time to panic. He struggled to his feet and steadied himself against a tree. Once the feeling of vertigo had passed, he slowly walked towards the circle of stones with the floating blue oval at it’s core. To his absolute astonishment, a small girl stepped out of the floating circle and looked up at him with curious eyes. Ven had an idea that his own expression was probably much the same as hers.

“Wha….” Ven stammered. The little pig-tailed girl giggled and smiled up at him.

“You okay, mister?” she asked. Ven cleared his throat. “Yes. Fine. Little one, can you tell me… what is… erm… where are we?”

“At the Moongate, silly!” she said. “Skara Brae is that way.” She pointed off to her right.

“Scare Bray?” Ven asked. “What is a Scare Bray?”

The girl laughed again. “Nooooo. Not ‘Scare Bray’. Skara. Brae. It’s a town! My town!” She smiled up at him, a broad, happy smile that only children are capable of making.

“Okay, bye!” she said and ran off in the direction she had pointed.

“Okay,” Ven thought to himself “Okay… there is a town nearby… this oval thing is some type of gateway… Magic. What about my magic?” Ven reached out to the mana around him. It was odd. He could touch it… but it was different somehow. It wasn’t the mana he was used to manipulating on his own plane. He attempted a spell and it failed miserably. “Great…” he thought to himself. “That’s just great. There is mana here, but it’s just different enough from what I am used to that I don’t know how to use it. I need help…”

Rather than walk towards the town, Ven stepped into the moongate. It was the riskier of the two moves, but at this point he was willing to be risky. He was on a different plane of existence, his magic didn’t work and he was absolutely exhausted from his trip through the Rift. “What else can the fates throw at me, anyway?” he thought as he stepped into the blue oval.

What else, indeed.
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Veneficus, The Blue Mage

[Veneficus Beleren]

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OOC:

Veneficus is a human mage, whose name is simply Veneficus IG (the full name was 1 character too long for IG ). He has short brown hair and is most easily identified by the fact that he most often is wearing a blue robe.
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Veneficus, The Blue Mage