Aritma: The City of the Dead

Site Admin Joined: Nov 12, 2009 Posts: 472

The city of Sylvansgate stood alone on the island Aritma, triumphant with magical and scientific splendor. So well versed in the arcane and scientific disciplines, that the city had created spells and potions to keep their citizenry, forever from the clutches of death itself. This instilled in the populace, a sense of supreme accomplishment, cementing in their minds the notion that they had conquered death and were its masters.

It was in this mentality, that they arrived at the decision to rid their city of the temples and effigies dedicated to the Dead God, Chreundos. The citizenry felt forever beyond the dead gods reach, and they mocked him as deity of a weakness they had overcome. Tombs and crypts were no longer considered sacred places for the dead to rest, but as monuments to the forces the people had overcome. Those who practiced undertaking services were shunned and turned out of the city, sneered upon for being relics of a now antiquated era.

It was for years afterward that the city flourished, it’s economic and political gains making it one of the wealthiest and influential cities in all the isles. The city was considered a Utopia by any who saw it, golden and magnificent upon the lonely isle where it stood. The peace and tranquility was not to last however.

After a time, a wave of unexplained deaths swept the city, the dead numbering only a few hundred, but enough to stir fear in the populace. Fear of their vulnerability lead the city to inaction, confusion keeping their response limited and ineffectual as those that had died began to return to motion as creatures of death. The undead slew many in the cold hours of the night, catching their victims unawares and increasing their number as the victims of the ghouls’ onslaught also returned as shambling corpses.

Only days later, the undead had wrought such a death toll that fear for the cities survival lead the populace to wall up entire districts of the city, hoping to hold the undead back. Cries for mercy were unheeded as the walls went up, sacrificing many that still lived to the undead hordes that were beginning to overrun sections of the city. As fresh waves of death swept the city, any found to have succumbed were quickly dumped in quarantined sections, left to return to un-life. The cities callousness to these pleas resulted in a massive increase of the abominations that walked the streets, their numbers swelling.

Rumors of bizarre and half seen beasts lurking amongst the shamble fiends circulated, stirring more fear and eliciting scoffs of dismissal. Genuine terror was seen when violent and highly unusual storms cut all overseas trading, leaving the city stranded and unable to communicate or escape. The panic stirred riots, fear was beginning to clutch at the city, despite the success that kept the undead contained.

The violence in the streets paved way for new rumors to spawn, speaking again of the nameless beasts lurking amongst the horrors that already blighted the city. Fantastic tales and accusations thrown about accused the mages responsible for creating the potions and spells that undid death to be responsible for the ills that beset the city. Lynch mobs begin murdering practitioners of the arcane arts, tossing the strangled dead to join the abominations in the quarantined sectors. The violence quickly grew, growing more and more extreme as the storms continued to isolate the city, and more and more sightings of the unknown creatures that lurked amongst the undead came forth.

New deaths spurred the city to near complete anarchy, riots and looting and mobs nearly destroyed the city, the resources of Sylvansgate stretched to the limit. Citizens huddled in fear, not only of the undead, but of the looters and mobs that became murderous in their paranoia. The briefest of reprieves came when the waves of death suddenly stopped as mysteriously as they had begun. Anxious for any good sign, the people of Sylvansgate clung to this seeming miracle, hopeful that the dark plague was no longer upon them. For weeks the mood steadily improved within the cities walls, despite the undead numbering nearly half the city’s population, and the continuance of the storms. Efforts began to reclaim the sections of quarantined city, in the hopes that the nightmare was finally over.

The peace was not to last however, as the nameless fear that had stalked the streets was finally revealed. The city had been visited by those practitioners of Necromancy most feared: The Lich. Precisely how many of the malevolent masters of the undead had been within the cities walls was unclear, as were how long they had been there. Some believed they were responsible for the deaths to begin with, others that they were the resurrected corpses of the cities murdered sorcerers. Whatever the truth, it revived the cities panic overnight as the revelation of the beasts brought with it more overt aggression from the innumerable hordes of creatures. They began to attack the barricades that had held them back for so long, seeming now most intent to feast on the flesh of those still living within the cursed cities walls. For days the fighting grew more desperate, until the barricades, already weakened by the anarchic whims of the cities terrified masses, gave way to the undead onslaught. The shambling husks of former loved ones showed not the slightest hint of mercy or pity as they devoured those they had most cared for in life. The reeking putrescent slime left over from rotting flesh and decayed corpses brought a bizarre and hideous wonder to the streets as it gained form, moving amongst the cities befouled streets, their touch bringing burning agony to any unfortunate enough to witness it.

Within hours the slaughter was complete, the last terrified and agonized screams of the last living soul of the city cut short by the murderous abominations as the wind calmed and the sky cleared, the storms having finally released their hold on the city. From the sky a great beast, unnatural as it was terrible, descended from the parting storm clouds, its skeletal wings spread wide as it landed itself upon the cities largest and deepest of tombs. Its eyes burning with hatred of all things living as it opened its bony jaws, producing no sound as the island shook violently in the sea. For hours, portions of the city crumbled beneath the beasts bizarre onslaught, towers toppling from their once majestic heights until the isle split beneath the city, drawing it into the eternal darkness beneath.