In this world, Magic is Everything. All people, all races, are granted with the power to perform mystical and magical feats via grimories, mystical tomes granted to each and every child on their 15th birthday. Those blessed by the mana can have their names written down in legend.
Shattered Grimoires is the work of the mind(s) of Ardere & Shattered Grimoire's staff. All characters and content are copyright their creators, and may not be replicated without their creators' permission. Black Clover is owned by Yuki Tabata and published by Viz Shonen Jump. All images belong to their original owners. The theme you are currently viewing was made by Eliza of ElizaCodes exclusively for Shattered Grimoires.
There are reasons why certain mountain passages or caves are sealed away. Perhaps they are haunted or inhibit powerful dark magic properties from decades prior. The Cave of the Cursed Ned was one of those…a place where a horrible blood wizard attempted to transfuse blood into children to turn them into gruesome monstrosities. It never worked, but he managed to trigger the Lycanthropy curse, turning into a maddened wolf-man in the process. He was killed by a hunter many years ago, and the passage into his cursed cave was sealed as it drew bad things into the area… Whatever idiot unsealed it clearly messed up.
[attr="class","shadowsSub"]Details
Maximum Number of Players: 1
[break]Minimum Word Count: 3,000 per person
[break]Location: Hage
[break]Special Condition: Clear the enemies in the cave and seal it, for good this time.
[break] [break]Health Limit: Intermediate [break]Physical Speed: 15 m/s [break]Physical Damage: Intermediate [break]Magic Element and Types: n/a [break]Combat Style: These wolves are much more vicious and know exactly how to attack in order to disarm humans of their weapons! [break]Additional Information: Larger wolves, much more intelligent, the alphas of the pack.
[break][break] Name of NPC: Mature Werewolf x2 per person
[break] [break]Health Limit: Grand [break]Physical Speed: 20 m/s [break]Physical Damage: Intermediate [break]Magic Element and Types: n/a [break]Combat Style: It will heal Intermediate damage every post but will stop regenerating after they’re dead. It attacks with its long nails and sharp teeth. [break]Additional Information:Large semi-sentient humanoid wolves that can walk on their hind legs. Their eyes glow red and they tend to leap towards their enemies from out of the shadows. They take 50% additional damage from fire elements.
Returning from the forest with the child in tow, Griswold paused for a moment as he looked out along the farmlands, spotting the town of Hage not far from where they had emerged. As they made their way back slowly, the child had not exactly been in the mood to talk, though he had been riding on Griswold’s shoulders for most of the way throughout the forest journey. Likely due to the fact that he had been forced to stay up in a tree for such a long time to stay clear from the werewolf that had hunted him, it did not come as a shock that he had not been talking much, and had not felt like walking on his own until they left the forest behind them. It was for that same reason that he himself had not been talking to the boy, believing he would say what was on his mind when he was good and ready, as he would most likely not be trusting people ever again.
The realization that had hit him when he killed his last and also first werewolf ever out in the forest had been a rather grueling one, as it had implied that it was quite possible that there were others out there in the township of Hage. The reason why this bothered him so much was because he himself had been hard at work within the region in an attempt at cleaning things up and making it as livable for the peasants as he possibly could. He was but a single man after all, and changing the lives of thousands of people on his own was not something that was easily taken care of. Over the past couple of years, the people of Hage had helped him a few times when he needed information on people that might have passed through there, though he had also done a lot to help them in return, which brought up a short list of accomplishments.
To start with, he had helped them in rebuilding after the shattering happened, dealing with the fallout of the war and generally just making sure their homes, food storage and school remained upright. During all of this, he had also saved the lives of various civilians that had taken it upon themselves to collect wood for the reparations, but had attempted to do so in a sacred grove, thus angering the dryads that protected it into retaliating. Using their magic to befuddle the minds of the civilians and making them see one another as monsters, they had begun attacking one another with their logging tools. It went without saying that people going at one another with axes was never a good idea. So after he had intervened and spoken to the dryads in the language of the elves, the civilians were free to go as long as they swore to never return.
And when the call came to help them deal with wolves encroaching upon their farmlands, he had also gone right into it, several times over. Dealing with the same pack of wolves exactly five times before he eventually found out what was truly behind them being driven from their territory in the forests, it had all been what led up to him saving a child that had been guided out of the village and into the woods. When he killed the werewolf that had been responsible for it, he would never have imagined that the werewolf had also been a citizen of Hage, let alone one that was willing to lure the child of one of their neighbors into the woods to kill and eat them. Having been raised with the idea that a community mattered, and that people should be looking out for one another, the very thought that these werewolves were not only living in Hage but also picking off people to kill and eat in the woods really struck a nerve.
For him personally, it shattered the whole concept of a community being a group of people that were supposed to be looking after one another. As someone who had grown up in an enclave of elves, he had come to know the people there as a group of people that truly looked after one another, even at the expense of their own wellbeing at times. It was the kind of thing he did not see often, at least not among those that were not truly dedicated magic knights. But the more he thought about how the two community ideas were so incredibly different, there was really one thing it all kept coming down to: These people weren’t elves, they were Human.
As much as he wanted to believe that the people he was constantly trying to protect with his own life were like him, the simple fact that they were not always came back to him in one way or the other. But right now, that was something he was going to have to put out of his head right now. Dropping the kid of with his parents, he made sure to keep the father outside for a little while as his mother took the kid indoors. One way or the other, the man needed to know what had happened to his child out there, though he would not share the fact that the person who had been hunting him in a monstrous form was in fact from this very village. Doing that would forever break whatever faith these people had in one another, and he did not want to be the cause of such a thing, not even if the truth might be what they needed to protect themselves from future harm.
With the boy returned safely to his home and making sure his parents would keep a closer eye on him, he imagined that the tales of werewolves existing out in the forests bordering and leading straight into the fringe would soon be enough incentive for all local parents to keep their kids from venturing too far from the village. The way Griswold saw it, people should not have their freedom limited, though they should not take things overboard either, not with the amount of highwaymen, brigands and bandits that were already making the forsaken region their home as things were. Add the threat of dryads, werewolves, wargs and a plethora of other beings dwelling in and around the fringe, heading too far north was generally just a bad idea for those not equipped or trained to properly deal with the threats they might face. Luckily, his experiences leading up to this point had prepared Griswold for it like no other before him.
Doing a round across town, there was not really anything he could specifically look for in terms of who might or might not be a werewolf, which really made flushing them out here seem like a pointless endeavor. But there was still a bit of hope to be held out, though this was not something he was going to be able to find within the village. Still, that would not stop him from laying out a bit of a trap as he went around the town, most notably the tavern and the butcher. Picking up a slab of meat at the butcher and having dinner at the tavern, he told anybody who asked that he was going to go out into the forest to check out a cavern he believed might be where werewolves were holed up. Assuming that those within the village that were actually werewolves themselves might head on over to the place for the sake of setting out a trap for Griswold, they would only end up playing into his plans.
So once he had finished his dinner and had his piece of bloody meat wrapped up and ready to go, Griswold left the town of Hage and ventured into the northern forest. Still remembering quite well where he had initially ventured when he first found the boy and the cavern from which the werewolf had come, he was somewhat surprised at the lack of wolves. The first time he had gone up this far, there were quite a few of them, infected by whatever blood magic radiated from the cavern. As he was not in the business of fixing curses and had no idea how to, he believed at the time that the most humane thing he could have possibly done was to take the wolves out as quickly and as painlessly as possible. Luckily for him, for the first couple of kilometers, it did not seem like there was going to be a whole lot of resistance at all, hearing the howling of a wolf in the distance from time to time, though not considering it a threat.
In a way, clearing out whatever was inside of this cavern and the monstrosities born from it was for the benefit of the people of Hage, but also for the surrounding nature, primarily the wolves and wargs. Under normal circumstances, these would be the creatures that ruled over much of the forest, keeping populations in check and generally making sure nature remained balanced. While there were always going to be other creatures around such as bears and the beasts wandering in from the northern fringe, this did not really change their part in the natural cycle. They were hunters, sure, but at the end of the day, they were also opportunistic eaters that wouldn’t shy away from carrion either. In that sense, Griswold was doing his best for the sake of the people of Hage, as well as the natural world, two things that both mattered a good deal to him. But no matter how one would twist or bend things, nature would always mean the most to him.
Because if nature went, humanity and everything else would go down along with it.
With the wolves far enough away to not pose a threat to one another as he progressed, Griswold drew closer and closer to the cavern, moving at a pace so slow that even the average grandma would have been able to outpace him to the place. After all, if he put an end to whatever was going in within the cavern without getting all those involved with it, he would still have only fixed part of the issue. And the problem with doing things halfway and not seeing it through to the end was that it allowed those rats that managed to scurry away to try and set things right back up again and return to being trouble. So with that thought in mind, he moved himself through the final stretch of woodland before he would reach the slightly beaten path leading up to the cavern itself. And that was when the first hints of trouble began rearing its head.
Wargs wandering down from the cavern, but not ordinary wargs, but wargs that seemed to be imbued with whatever red haze was to be found within the cavern. It was the same that had affected the pack of wolves he had unfortunately put out of their misery, which seemed like the kind of thing he needed to do again with these poor creatures. Watching the red color in their eyes as it swirled around in there, the animals themselves were clearly not to be blamed for the misfortune that had befallen them, or for what they were about to try to do to Griswold. With the thought in his head that he might be able to cure or lift the curse or whatever it was that held sway over them, he could not risk them getting away and either attacking someone else or taking whatever had befallen them to the other wildlife in the area. So in other words, he had to kill them.
Watching closely as the five wargs approached him, baring their teeth at him to show that they were incredibly hostile towards the man, it seemed like it was not long until the werewolves themselves made their way into the picture. From the looks of it, it seemed like there were only two of them, meaning there were less than he had initially assumed there to be. That said however, this worked out quite well, and it also made quite a bit of sense too. Giving him a bit of insight into the mind of these beings, it seemed that where he initially believed the wolven side to be the stronger influence, that seemed like it might not have been the case after all. Granted, he had no idea whether or not these werewolves were in fact citizens of Hage, them keeping their numbers limited worked wonders towards keeping a low profile in a region filled with superstitious and judgemental people.
With the wargs approaching, Griswold did not reach for his sword yet, in fact preferring to wait for them to get a bit closer before he would make an attempt at wrangling them. Due to the nature of his magic, if the need arose, he would be able to blow up a fair radius in the blink of an eye, though that was clearly not his intention here. No, knowing the average strength of a wolf and of a warg, which was something he had managed to establish due to having fought against them repeatedly over the past months, he knew the kinds of speeds the were able to reach. He also knew the kind of tactics they would go with as a predatory pack animal, which was for some of them to distract him and draw their attention to them while another would flank him and aim to tear out his throat while he was occupied.
While clever against animals and the uninitiated when it came to dealing with other animals, it was not a strategy that was going to work against someone who had spent such a long time in the wilds, and had beaten far stronger and trickier opponents. So when the first Wargs leaped at him, a firm strike from the back of Griswold’s hand against the side of its skull was enough to redirect the oversized wolf and make it crash into the soil. When another made use of the demise of the other to come at him from the side, the magic knight used the same arm with which he had just smacked one around, bringing it down with sufficient force to knock it upside the head with his elbow. Ramming the beast against the ground right next to him, it instantly stopped moving, all while Griswold just stood there, keeping his eyes on the two werewolves that just stood there waiting.
In a way, all of this was a powerplay to show that he was entirely unbothered by these animals coming at him, and that if this was the kind of trap they had planned out for him, that they had failed horribly. Capable of dealing with these lupine threats without having to draw his sword or weave a single spell, it went to show the good it could do to possess a certain physical mastery, mixed with knowledge gained by actually going out and finding things. Knowledge gained from books only got someone so far after all, and the kind of hands-on knowledge one could achieve by truly diving into the subject would always trump that which someone managed to obtain by scanning over a bunch of pages from a dusty tome. But that was just the way he saw the world personally, approaching everything with an open mind and an open heart, and making his own assessment at the end of it.
With two of the wargs knocked into an unconscious state as he could not bare the thought of killing these beasts when there was a chance that he might be able to actually cure them, knocking them out hard was the only way to ensure that they would not escape him and take whatever was ailing them and passing it onto other woodland creatures. From the looks of things, it appeared as though the two werewolves were no longer in agreement, with one showing signs of violence towards the other before barging down and entering the fight along with the remaining wargs. In response, Griswold reached over his shoulder, drawing Disglair from its scabbard and twirling it in his hands once, showing that he was ready for this fight to continue at any given moment. Lowering his body a bit and widening the position of his hands, Griswold made himself look like a somewhat smaller yet larger creature in an attempt at fooling the wargs.
For while they were clever hunters and possessed quite some skill when it came to taking down and killing prey, they were still just animals. And animals were driven by basic instincts, rather than thought, so when such a thing occurred as prey changing shape, it was not something they would instantly understand. It would take them a moment to adjust before they would be able to figure out how best to attack him now, which was all the time Griswold needed. Using what seemed like an unnatural increase in speed, which was really nothing more than the black swordsman utilizing the full totality of his mobility while unaided by any form of physical reinforcement magic, he closed the distance between himself and the nearest warg, kicking it in the side and almost launching it against a tree. Making sure to restrain himself and utilize only the necessary amount of force so as to not kill or maim the animals, he then bolted on.
Met halfway towards the next warg, the furious werewolf tried to intercept him with a swipe of its claws, only to find four of them missing a moment later. Running his blade through its hand, everything but its thumb had been severed, leaving it howling in pain as Griswold struck another warg with the pommel of his blade. Using the blunt butt-cap of the sword to knock its lights out, the elven hybrid hit the breaks to see that the last of the wargs was backing up, likely planning on leaving when it got the chance. Looking up, the other werewolf retreated towards the cave while the angry one was gradually growing back new fingers. At this rate, it seemed like matters would be resolved soon enough, starting with the werewolf.
Howling madly, it was as if the werewolf ordered the warg to attack him from the back while it went running towards Griswold, likely believing that if it would not get a hit in, that he would, or vice versa. While a clever plan, this was not the first time he had been forced into a fight against multiple opponents. So as the two came at him at varying paces, the warg being closer already, Griswold relied upon his Ki to determine that the warg was going to get to him first. So, holding his blade backwards, he began to spin on his feet, building up momentum to perform a strike against the warg that was coming up behind him, hitting it against the snout with his pommel to more or less cause a rather serious concussion. Maintaining what speed he could, he ended the spin by slicing his backward blade across the abdomen of the werewolf, causing it to fall over against the ground.
Using its recently regenerated hand to keep its guts from pouring out, there was no avoiding the fact that this was likely going to be what killed it. Regeneration only got you so far in life after all, and there were some things one would simply not come back from. So while there was a chance that it would in fact regenerate, Griswold did not want to leave it to suffer. Walking over to it, he buried his blade in his skull, killing it on the spot by destroying the brain. In a way, it was sad when things had to come to this, though he did not have the time to mourn the loss of the beastly creature. As he went towards the cave to get the last one of them, he did however notice that the creature did not revert to a humanoid form like the first one he had killed the other day. While that was absolutely something to ponder over, he would have plenty of time for that once he had gotten the last one.
Chasing after the werewolf that remained, Griswold ventured into the cavern, which on first glance seemed to be just like any other kind of old cave. It was clear to see and feel that there was some truly odd mana in the air, though there was more to it than that. To him, it did not just feel like mana, but it was something he could both smell and taste in the air, a thick metallic something that was unmistakably related to blood. Through it all, he could sense that the werewolf was heading deeper into the cave, likely drawing him to whatever it was that had brought about so much pain already. Moving carefully yet swiftly, Griswold knew that none of these creatures in here were going to be catching him off-guard any time soon, as his senses were just too developed and trained for such a thing to occur.
While it sounded like him being full of himself, there was no doubt about it that his senses were beyond that of ordinary people, and were on par with that of some animals, and that was without the use of actual magical enhancements. Reaching the back of the cave before long, he saw a strange stone standing there that pulsed with magic as it was dripping blood. Seemingly not being blood that was poured in somewhere, it seemed to originate from the stone itself, meaning it was some kind of relic or artifact that was to be destroyed. Focused on the stone, the werewolf came lunging at him, expecting him to come at him with his sword, though this did not happen. Striking the cornered animal with a spell that illuminated the entire cave in moments, it was carried along with it into the stone as it got shattered into a thousand pieces.
Releasing a magical pulse throughout the cavern that began to collapse the whole place, his first instinct was to make his way out as quickly as possible. However, he soon noticed that the werewolf he had shot down with his magic had in fact not died, was very much alive and had reverted to a humanoid form. Against his better judgement, he made his way towards the shattered remains of the artifact, picked this person up and began dashing towards the exit. Making it out with quite a bit of time to spare, it wasn’t long before the entire cavern had collapsed, leaving but a small portion of it to perhaps serve as the den for the wargs. Speaking of, as Griswold put this person down, it turned out to be a relatively young man from Hage. Looking down to see how the blood haze had left the wargs, the guy began telling him that he and his brother had been turned into werewolves by the one that was dead on the ground.
Controlling them, the wolves and the wargs through the stone, the stone being destroyed and the other werewolf dead, he claimed that he would stay behind for a while to collect the remains of his brother, as well as bury the remains of the werewolf. Finding this to be acceptable, Griswold too chose to stick around in case the wargs were to wake up from their enforced slumber and decide to turn the guy into a snack. Also feeling somewhat responsible for killing his brother while he could potentially have been cured, the thought of helping to give him a proper burial and bring his brother home somewhat softened his failure.
Name of Spell: Galactic Nucleus: Blazar Elemental Type: Solar Rank & Spell Type: Senior | Attack Creation Range & Speed: 80 meters | 40 m/s Mana Cost: 30 mp | 15 mp sustain Stats Effected: +6 to Power Applicable Perks: “Overpowered” Description: A more powerful version of the solar flare (lunar swirl) spell, Galactic Nucleus: Blazar is a spell that compresses and fires a massive amount of solar mana from the user into a specific direction, following a straight line. Making the body of the user radiate with light before the beam erupts forward, it is initiated in exactly the same manner as Quasar, allowing for a surprise element towards those that are familiar with his spells. Instead of exploding when coming into contact with a solid surface, it will instead attempt to burn its way through by either punching through almost all non-magical structures with ease or by melting it on contact. Scorching the earth and leaving a trail in its wake, the beam can cause minor third degree burns, break bones and make a direct hit quite lethal. Using the “ammo” rules, the caster is capable of preventing allies of being hit by the beam. During the day, the spell takes on an orange hue, taking on a silver blue hue after dark.
Disglair
Rank & Element: Solar Class & Type: Imbued Magic | Sword Magic Specializations: Restraining | Hex&Curse Appearance & Lore: Elvish for "Shine", Disglair is a sword that honors the name it was given by whoever crafted it, a name that had gone lost throughout the centuries. Found and liberated from one of the elven ruins he had to delve into for the sake of others, Disglair radiated with a faint and eerie light even after having been lost and forgotten for untold decades. Now that it is back in the hands of a capable wielder, it can once again do what it was undoubtedly made for: protecting people from man and monster alike. Being what is called a "hand and a half" sword, it can be wielded effectively both as a one-handed or as a two-handed weapon. It's exact measurements are 120 centimeters total, the blade being 89 centimeters long and and 5.2 centimeters wide with a guard width of 24 centimeters, making it a "hand and a half" sword. Abilities:
Name of the Ability Runic Empowerment Type & Uses: Flow Rank & Specialization: Junior | Restraining & Hex&Curse Mana Cost: 8 mp activation | 4 mp upkeep (3 active turns | 2 posts overheat) Range & Speed: 25m | 10 m/s Stats Affected: -junior strength Description: By channeling mana into the hilt, green runes light up along the length of the blade and making the steel itself radiate with a faint green glow, causing the blade to get an annoying extra effect when managing to strike a target. When striking a target and succeeding on winning the clash, green runes will form around the target's arms, reducing their maximum strength by a junior amount until dispelled, depowered or otherwise released. Focused around sapping the strength of an opponent in battle, for the duration of the debuff, these same runes also bind the grimoire of the target, cutting the amount of spells they may cast per round down by 50%.
Name of the Ability Starlight Edge Type & Uses: Burst Rank & Specialization: Senior | Restraining & Hex&Curse Mana Cost: 33 mp burst | 36 mp recharge (4 uses) Range & Speed: 80m | 40 m/s Stats Affected: -10 m/s Description: By channeling mana into the hilt, green runes light up along the length of the blade, releasing a bright light that will blind those around it for a total of one round. More than that, it causes a green aura to appear around the blade that looks like a blade that is then shot into a chosen direction. When striking a target and succeeding on winning the clash, green runes will form around the target's feet, reducing their maximum speed by 10 m/s until dispelled, depowered or otherwise released. Focused around sapping the speed of an opponent in battle, for the duration of the debuff, these same runes also bind the grimoire of the target, cutting the amount of spells they may cast per round down by 50%.
