Stepping out of the Void into the damp dimness of the cave entrance, the crew is hit by the foul miasma of mass habitation: sweat, smoke, cooking smells mixed with feces. The pungent wave of smells is yet a welcome relief after the brief stay in the Void. Silence embraces the crew, aside from boots and feet crunching along the rock as the sounds of tree animals and skylers above fades behind you.
The cave was clearly a natural phenomenon that has been repurposed and improved by the current occupants. The crew can stand abreast without the need to stoop in most places, the ceiling being relatively high above. The floor has been scraped, if not smooth then at least to minimize hazards. The walls are still largely in their natural form, although occasionally there are lashed-on stones hanging from outcrops, serving as shallow bowls for rendered animal fat drippings around wickering flames; these crude lamps give off a sickly yellow light that bounces off the sharp-edged walls, throwing shadows that dance before your eyes.
The slope down is shallow and curves in a random way here and there. After a few hundred yards you locate an opening in the rock face, leading in a rough spiral upwards, which you suspect leads to the other entrance. A crude door of animal hide lays on the ground next to the opening, torn from sinew toggles that once held it closed. The floor here is still scraped, but littered with gravel from new digging below; the color of the stone is grey=blue unlike the green-brown you see all around you. Mixed among the stone are shards of cracked bone and the occasional discarded food-scraps and bits of soiled cloth. Gardner has been around goblins more than most humans of the Skies during his time in the upper climes, and even he finds this amount of debris and decay unusual. Fang picks up a particularly large bone, and carries it along with him for safekeeping. Goblins are not clean creatures, but they like most don’t typically leave refuse in their homes for fear of disease.
The cave takes a steep curve left here, and as you round the corner the rock takes on a peculiar color and widens to a broad hallway that has been carefully smoothed on all sides. A purplish hue lines the hall ahead, which jogs back to the right some thirty yards ahead. Stone pillars stand half-built and clearly the work of goblin’s wooden, stone and bone tools that lay neatly along the walls nearby. These pillars have been cut from the same blue-grey stone you saw gravel of above. Harmony recognizes the countless hours of work these pillars and the smooth hall floor and walls represent with the crude tools available to goblins. They stand some two meters to a side and are rounded rectangles, with some of the more complete ones approaching circular. The pillars have been erected at intervals, and new scratches in the otherwise clear floor suggest they are recent additions. Polishing stones shiny with animal fat have been hard at work cleaning up these blemishes and smoothing the floor to a gleaming mirror-like surface. The most complete of these pillars have been carved with a rough but intricate design of vines that is familiar to Xisco. The vines are casting the pallid purple light somehow, yet the mechanism is unclear and likely arcane.
Blendin drops to his knee to sight down his rifle-scope as he often has rounding each corner, looking for signs of danger in this odd cave. He makes out hooks of precious metal, iron or steel by the dull color, with stone hinges attached to them. A freshly carved race in the floor suggests a door is meant to be mounted here at the end of this hall before the rightward curve, but it does not appear to have been installed yet.
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Harmony stays with Xisco and Gardner, letting Blendin lead. She feels at a disadvantage from not being familiar with the thing they're searching for, and doesn't want to scout ahead. Besides, her headband is partially spent, and Blendin's camouflage never runs out.
ReplyDelete"What do you make of the vines, Xisco?" Gardner whispers. "And can you look around that corner with your magic sight before we take it?"
ReplyDelete"...and old Tooley figured to make some machine that... Now those look familiar..." Xisco pulls out his journal and flips through its blank pages. "No, here it is. Yes, a little later in the story; now, if it's like last time..."
ReplyDeleteXisco does his sleight of hand and his eyes go white.
Blendin feels the pangs of memory looking at the precious metals, but shakes them off. "Looks like we got here before they were ready for us."
ReplyDeleteXisco recounts the events of the ruin in his usual manner, recalling the vined pillars that had glowed in the hallway not unlike this one, and that they appeared to be linked to a pair of massive ornate doors. Tooly believed these doors contained a great treasure, but the crew was unable to open them prior to their escape of the island. When he mentions landfall, Gardner genuflects to the Lady to ward off a similar event here.
ReplyDeleteXisco also points out the differences from his notes and the events here. The orange light in the ruin has been replaced with a purple light here, and while the orange light drew the heat of the room to charge itself, here the room is no warmer or cooler than the surrounding tunnels.
Xisco makes his hand gesture and peers into the realm beyond, and is struck by what he sees nice roll. The purple vines take on a new character here, where he can see that they are powered by bound and tethered spirits and souls, straining against their bondage. He follows the tethers of these spirits as they writhe and join extending down the hallway and around the corner in front of them. As he follows the purple leylines, he traces them back to a vaguely human figure, radiating purple light that is hard to focus on. Whenever he tries to fix the shape in his vision, it twists away and he loses his focus. The figure is seated on a howling black throne of unknown material he has never encountered. The tethers run to its hands and feet, and before he is forced to rip away his vision to save himself from fear, he notes dozens of spiderweb-thin threads of purple extending in all directions. He has seen this type of tether before, on Bridgeways.
As his eyes return their color and he blinks back tears, Xisco recounts what he saw to his companions in his usual indirect manner. The sound of scrabbling stones can be heard beyond the corner by the whole crew, as if rats are moving, and two more rows of pillars begin to glow along the hallway, as if inviting them forward.
"Umm, I think we're expected. And that kind of sounds like skeletons."
ReplyDeleteThe small woman has her now-usual annoyed/baffled look as Xisco describes the figure on the throne, then her eyes go wide and her lips purse. At Blendin's remark, she looks behind her to make sure the party hasn't been surrounded. "If it knows we're here, should we maybe get, uh, reinforcements? Or go in?" She holds her oversized hammer uncomfortably in her left hand while her right fidgets with her flame-shaped brass brooch.
ReplyDelete"I don't think we have time, everyone get ready." Gardner readies his crossbow and draws his ethereal sword. He moves over to Xisco. "Xisco, trade me swords. If you can see the threads maybe you can cut them."
ReplyDeleteHarmony purses her lips and touches her necklace, stepping forward and sideways to peer around the corner from the side away from the corridor, so that if something is waiting just around the corner, she'll still be well back from it. She is too nervous to stand still and fears a horde of undead pouring around the corner, unseen until they're too close. At the same time, she twists the small key on her necklace, making time seem to slow around her while she moves at normal speed.
ReplyDeleteLEEEEEEROOOOOY JEEEENKIIIIINS!!!1!1!!ONE
WS roll 14 after 1 benny. Rolled ANOTHER freaking 1 on the skill die the first time!)
ooc: your notice roll was a 19.
ReplyDeleteAs she rounds the corner, her shoulder edging close to the wall to compress her small frame, she sees that this hall is decorated much like the last: smoothly cut living stone, with pillars lined in vines and, she assumes based on Xisco’s babbling, tethered to ‘souls’. This section of hall is about a tenth the length of the last, just a few meters, before opening through a pointed archway into a large, and troublingly beautiful, room beyond.
The exact dimensions are hard to gauge from her current vantage, particularly width, but the room appears to be an oblong oval, with the long axis aligned to the hallway. She estimates the total length to be at least 100 meters, and probably about half that in width. The ceiling is domed, a single complex curve from the floor to a central pinnacle, with a spiderlike arch over the the middle. The pillars that form ‘legs’ splay outward in the same arc, running down the walls. These arches are much like the pillars here in the hallway, except probably 3m radius semicircles flush against the wall. They glow far more brightly than the hallway, yet are of the same purple. They twine up to the central capstone, at least 40 m above the floor, and trace a bone chandelier the size of skiff, lit with the same light A number of side passages are visible between the pillars, each arched to a point .
The floor of the hall in which she stands is at least 10 m above the floor of the chamber beyond. It appears a large, semicircular stair leads down into the room, although it is hard to see from her current vantage. The floor that she can see is smooth as burnished dwarven steel, almost glassy in appearance at first glance. However, her keen eyes detect a subtle tracery of symbols or words in an unknown language, carved in concentric circles in the floor around the center point.
She has time to have the disturbing realization that this work is all incredibly new, probably only weeks or a few months old. Her knowledge of dwarven working habits would have expected a place this size to take at least a year with skilled craftsmen and proper tools. The rock shows no sign of weathering, seeping, or other natural wear. On the far curve, she sees wooden scaffold piled, as if maintenance has just been completed.
Of course, the thing that draws her eye the most is the small dais in the center of the room: an unimposing three or four meters across at the base, formed from polished bleached bone, mostly skulls or goblins and elves. It climbs upward through a set of shallow steps about 5m, where a figure is seated on a cushion of black stone about the size of an anvil The posture is one she immediately recognizes, she had seen the same posture in the workshop countless times, as she worked on this or that chore for the needy populace of Shadowhaven. The figure is undeniable, unquestionably that of Coyne, from the red hair to the apron and heavy boots. ‘Coyne’ smiles at her, red hair tossing slightly with the gesture, and raises a hand in greeting. The words come slow and distorted in her accelerated state, “Come in! And have your friends join us as well!”
The others, watching the small woman round the corner, hear this unexpected greeting.
Harmony has time, speeded-up as she is, to be shocked, realize there is no legion of skeletons, and turn off her necklace, all in the time another might just gape. Once the device is off, she hoist her hammer to her left shoulder and begins walking toward the figure on the pile of skulls at a measured pace.
ReplyDelete"I don't give them orders," she calls in a clear voice pitched to carry across a large stone room. "And if I did, I wouldn't invite them farther into your trap." She raises and eyebrow as she begins walking down the steps, her gaze flickering over the dais, its occupant, and the parts of the room she can see, including the ceiling and ornate chandelier. Then it steadies on the seated figure.
"The fact that you're wearing THAT form means I trust you less than I would if you were ONLY sitting atop a mound of skulls. I'd ask what this is all about, but I've already seen your work, above and down here both." Her lip curls during this last part, and her tone is suddenly very similar to that she used on Blendin outside. She continues down at a deliberate pace, neither hurrying nor hesitating, and into the ornate room.
"What the hell are you doing?!" Blendin yells after Harmony as she rounds the corner.
ReplyDeleteBlendin looks up at the captain. "What's the plan? Her actions and words don't seem to match up. Is she under a spell, Xisco?"
Xisco draws his steel blade, and flicks the charm attached to the pommel, then shrugs and swaps weapons with the captain. He follows Harmony around the corner.
ReplyDelete-------
Mage Sight, or whatever it's called, should still be up, unless Xisco needed to drop it
Gardner rounds the corner to join Harmony, with Xisco's sword and his crossbow at ready and Fang close by.
ReplyDeleteooc: feel free to post through the day of you have something, but my update will be after I get on the train tonight. took a snooze on the way in.
ReplyDeleteat least this way your GM is well rested.
Blendin stands surprised as the two other crewmen step past him and around the corner. The captain’s stern expression and the wizard’s focused stare seem determined, not ensorcelled. He and Fang share a look, with the dog’s expression clearly attempting to say that he, too, has misgivings about this.
ReplyDeleteThe figure of Coyne on the throne of skulls listens carefully, resting it’s chin on a blunt-fingered hand, and drumming the others on a particularly fearsome skull used as an armrest. Harmony’s careful inspection of her surroundings as she descends the semicircular staircase to the floor below reveals no hidden dangers, just more careful craftsmanship unlike that she had believed possible from goblin labor, or any but the most skilled dwarven families. Her boots ring hollow steps on the smooth floor; from this vantage, the throne looms above her, even at the 50m distance. She also notes a dozen or so side passages along the far off walls, leading from this chamber into the surrounding warren. She can see far enough into these empty and unlit halls to note they are unfinished natural tunnels or shoddy craftsmenship, like the entrance to this cave, but signs of refined work beginning are evident and tools lay in piles nearby.
The voice from atop the sinister throne attempts to sound soothing, yet cannot remove all traces of the condescension of a parent speaking to a child. “Harmony, I chose this form for much the same reason you don’t go about naked aboard the ship: I fear my true from would be too much for the eyes of others. They might just melt out of your head, isn’t that right… Xisco, is it?”
Harmony glances back to see Xisco has rounded the corner and stands at the top of the stairs. He shakes his head as if about to sneeze. Her attention returns to the figure.
“But as for wanting to harm you, may I ask why? Your friends there freed me from interminable bondage that you cannot imagine. Why, when I became aware of your presence due to Master Xisco’s talents, I sent away my servants on this little island so that you could visit me directly. They are… hard to contain. Zealots often are. I mean you no harm as long as you behave, and should hope you would offer me further help in this endeavor.
“As for my work: Captain Gardner, you have sailed these skies as I used to the seas of water. Yes, captain, ships upon great bodies of water. And as you know, the wind can burst and shred and tangle and cut upon the open sea. Sometimes, the best you can do is cut your lines, and lose the sails to save the ship. That is my task here.
You cannot hope to imagine my surprise to reenter this world, and find it thus. Clearly, things have gone poorly in my absence. Your ‘gods’ are powerless to put it to rights, but I am not.”
What Xisco sees:
ReplyDeleteAs he looks at harmony’s back, she has her usual baubles and trinkets, glowing faintly with magical essence. But all of this is but a candle to the roaring fire of arcane energy whirling beyond her in the center of the room.
As the figure speaks his name, his eyes return to the natural world. He blinks and takes in the arched room of smoothed stone, the finely lined text of an ancient language, probably drakin in origin, and of course the throne of bone with its occupant, seated on an anvil-sized slab of black stone. The figure is one he has not seen for many years: that of his own mother, wearing her nightslip that she wore when he was a toddling child. She shootings him a careful smile before continuing her words.
What Gardner sees:
Gardner and Fang step to the edge behind Xisco. His aged eyes take in the scene: the domed room of exquisitedly carved stone, and the figure on the bone throne. He remembers that long mustachio, and that tapestry of scars across his chest beneath an open aether-seal vest: it is clearly the figure of Fedor Naismith, captain of the Firedrake, at least he still was last you heard. But this is him as a much younger man, about the age he was when you first met him in the Melting Pot Inn on Bridgeways, before you took to the Skies. The captain is keenly aware that Fang is hiding like a coward behind his legs.
ooc: triple post. well, double plus this. which still counts. so triple. ka-pow
ReplyDeleteHarmony restrains a sigh when she finds the others did not heed her attempt at warning them, though what the figure says about sending the goblins away seems true on its face...but the thing on the throne may have just sent its minions away at a bad time and is now attempting to stall until they return. The rest of its words certainly seem crazy enough.
ReplyDelete"Children, even goblins, are not sails to be cut loose! And all the humans you killed! You're not more powerful than the gods, you're just--" a realization strikes her, a similarity between this thing and a creature she'd heard tales of from sailors in her years in Shadowhaven. "You're a puppet master! You're a demon!"
Harmony feels like she should do something, but the only thing she can think of is to attack the being, and she can't quite bring herself to attack another living thing unprovoked. After all, it might NOT be a demon...
OOC: I'm well aware that this thing does not fit the description of the SS puppet master, but it's clearly demonic and has control of minions, which is how someone would describe one when telling tales of the Void, so it makes sense to Harmony.
ReplyDelete"A demon, am I? Are you not surrounded by a murderous lizardling who slays unaware soldiers to free the worst villains of this era, a man who would bed his own sister if he knew how to escape justice, and a captain who's anger is driving him across the breadth of this world even now to seek vengeance for one of your order? I have eyes in many places, and have heard of your companions' streak of blood across the skies. They do what they believe is right, to balance the wrongs imposed on them by this world. And heard of your deeds as well, Harmony."
ReplyDeleteThe figure shifts on the smooth stone seat, leaning forward for emphasis.
"What really caused that fire that slew Coyne, hmm? An attack, you say? Who was the assailant? Why couldn't you save the man you served with one of your many toys?"
Harmony stiffens, then responds in a cold voice, "I don't have to justify myself to you. You may have eyes in many places, but they clearly don't see everything. I don't have to defend my shipmates, either." She steps to the side of the doorway of the ornate room, in case anyone behind her starts shooting. She half-hopes they will, to end this dangerous conversation.
ReplyDelete"If you're not so evil and you want to be our friend as you say, perhaps you should explain yourself. So far, your followers have tried to kill me twice. I don't feel especially loved."
OOC: I'm assuming Harmony can tell this already, but what would it take to bring down that big chandelier, should need arise? Like, how many supports does it have, how tough are they, how high up? Could part be brought down, like if it has 2 supports, would breaking one cause it to swing down onto the throne like a giant flyswatter? Just wondering, of course, I'm totally not planning on doing anything...
ReplyDelete"What is the black stone? And are there many or just one that we see over and over? Maybe we could transport them for you, if the price is right."
ReplyDeleteWhile you cannot rule out magical support given its clearly arcane lighting, a single 3 m long 'chain' of vertebrae and sinew appears to be all that holds the chandelier aloft. The chandelier is roughly 6 m in radius, and situated directly above the throne.
ReplyDelete"Evil has little to do with it, woman. Does the 'Lady' have to make amends when she slaughters her supplicants with a storm? Doesn't your 'Artificer' allow his kin to be maimed or worse by molten iron and bursting steam valves? How many hearts has Xisco broken in the service of his 'goddess'?"
The creature raises its hands aloft in a 'V', and the room's glow intensifies as the lettering around the throne brightens. The voice echoes like the thunder of cannonfire from a Councilship, "I take lives for a purpose: I use them to banish the Void, and bring this world back to order. Is that not more justice than your petty 'gods' have ever offered for your service?"
The captain's words hit the creature that inhabits his old sailing buddies' form like a slap to the face. It lowers its arms, and stares at the captain; Fang whimpers. The voice is barely loud enough to carry to Blendin around the corner. "The Kotba are nothing of concern to you captain. Trifles. Left by those long dead throughout the world. They offer me some sense of whimsy for the old days. Surely you can imagine trinkets of earlier times?"
Blendin's had enough of this bull shit. Blendin kneels square with the door frame, takes a moment to aim his rifle at the figure on the chair. The sound of the shot rings in everyone's ears.
ReplyDeleteShooting: 2 (1 benny spent) OMG! *facepalm*
"I assure you, I have no sister. I think."
ReplyDelete-------
"Kotba? Is that what..." BANG
So, going to have to make a spirit check for blendin before he takes the shot. If he fails, I'll have to retcon, I'm afraid, but at least you'd get that benny back.
ReplyDeleteIn the interest of time, I'll roll it. Four, success. I'll rule the shot happens as described. At least Blendin's miss will make sense now. And I'll grant you a benny for feeding me such a nice clean package there. Current benny count I have is Harmony 1, Blendin 2, Xisco 5, Gardner 2.
Blendin, having his fill takes a deep breath and slides around the corner. In his practiced motion, his left hind leg slides forward, knee bending, and his rifled musket, a gift from a dear departed friend, swings down. The room is dark through the lens, but he takes it all in: the throne and chandelier, the arching walls and his friends spread out within. His sights settle on the distant figure, and his cold blood becomes like ice. His mouth forms the word silently, "Saran?" for it can be no other face that he sees through his scope. He tries to shake off the feeling, but the shot comes early in his now ragged breathing, and is wild.
The chamber echoes with the shot and the high keening of the richocet, which splashes off the distant walls in a few places before returning to silence - except for the chuckling from the thrown. The face of Saran, wearing the dress from the Gala the week before he was taken from her, smiles at him warmly.
"Come now Blendin, violence is so unbecoming I should think you would have the most to gain by joining my service. I know where she is, lizardling."
The gaze returns to Xisco, "Now then, I believe you had a question?"
ooc: stupid auto-correct. "thrown".
ReplyDeleteHarmony jumps when the shot echoes and her eyes dart as if trying to find the bullet as it ricochets. When it hits no one, and the maybe-demon doesn't react hostilely, she begins walking along the outer wall of the room, examining the workmanship. As she does, she also tries to look down the other corridors.
ReplyDeleteUnless one of the others shoots or talks, Harmony will reply to the being's previous argument as follows:
"The gods allow followers to die, yes, but they have their long-term good at heart. Your followers will be extinct in a generation at most, with the women and children dead. Less if they keep attacking."
"Could you help us get rid of the Kotba then? Where are the others?"
ReplyDelete"and how many generations remain for the dwarves? three? four? and they have souls. goblins are no more than animals. and the elves I sent them to slay moments ago were committing far worse atrocities."
ReplyDeleteharmony sees down the tunnels and notes branching natural tunnels. some cave rooms and crude doors can be spied. when the captain speaks, the being's shape shifts momentarily distorting into a twisted form of scales much larger that the human shape the crew sees before and afterward. it looks at the captain with hunger in its eyes.
"yes, this is something i can do. bring me at least 6 of these stones, and I can destroy them all." the creature waves its hand at the floor. "these words are the placenames I know for where they were. I can sense them but cannot reach them myself. and the names have changed over the eons."
Harmony's eyes narrow and she pauses in her perusal of the room. In the hissing tongue of the drakin, she says, "We have been impolite. You know our names, but we do not know yours. What is your name, Great One?"
ReplyDeleteOOC: How much larger are we talking? Bigger than the dais and throne, or still small enough to sit on the throne?
"Xisco," Gardner says then nods at the words on the floor. Gardner tries to memorize the place names then moves to Blendin and reaches over to lower and stay his rifle. "We are torn. We have been welcomed by the people of the village on the interior, Jorvan. We worry that your supplicants will harm them." He turns briefly to Blendin then back to the image of Fedor. "We care nothing for the Elves, however. If we go and seek the Kotba will Jorvan and the Glowborn be safe? Is there anything you can do to protect us from the effects of the Kotba? It may take us some time to find them all and return."
ReplyDelete---------------------------------------
Persuasion = 21, spent 2 bennies.
"I am known by names in various tongues, but the drakonic name is best known: Sil'cint. My deeds have doubtless been twisted with time much as the rest of the world has." it speaks in drakin, that both xisco and harmony can understand even though the accent is foreign.
ReplyDeletethe creature you saw for only a moment looked to be scaly and roughly twice the size of a human, perching precariously on the throne. it switches back to the common tongue to respond to the captains compelling plea.
"I would usually lie to you, and guarantee their safety. I cannot do either. the glowborn live intertwined with the elves, and many will fall victim there to circumstance. but the humans have an a resource they can use to deter the horde when it is roaming near jorvan.
"the plant used to make those hard you wear smells sweet to you and I, but is bitter to the goblin. If leaves are soaked in water and smoked over torches and lanterns, the goblins will be deterred, somewhat. I will not direct the horde there, to minimize the issue if you will commit to this task. That is all I can offer."
hard = hats.
ReplyDeleteHarmony thinks that if she were a more ruthless person, she might try to attack the creature on the throne of skulls. She wouldn't trust Sil'cint any farther than she could throw...it, but the others seem disinclined to attack, after Blendin's ineffectual shot, and they also seem to be getting something useful from the exchange. She begins walking back toward the entrance, hoping that whatever the others are talking about with these Kotba will be worth allowing the goblins to continue their rampage. Harmony dislikes what she knows of the elves, but even if the glowborn and humans weren't caught in the fighting, she'd think it better to stop the deaths by stopping Sil'cint. She can't bring herself to start the fight, though.
ReplyDeleteNot going to be able to post much in the next few days; need to prep a presentation for a job interview.
ReplyDeleteHaving reloaded, Blendin lowers the rifle at Gardner's request, understanding his play.
ReplyDeleteBut as he looks upon the figure at the center of the room, the rage continues to build.
His face grows taught before yelling at the demon, "Drop the disguise or you will regret it! How dare you defile my Saran!"
ooc: tis fine, sam. Good luck with interview prep! For now, I'll say that Xisco is busy mumbling to himself, and writing down everything relevant in his journal. If you have any actions you want to take, feel free to drop them ooc style or shoot me a text.
ReplyDelete"Blendin, are you not curious? I know where she is to be found. She is near one of the kotba, in the ruins of the city of Gral'ha'lach." It extends a hand towards some words on the floor nearby, and they grow more brightly. "I have agreed with your captain to strike the elves that took you from her. Can we not find a peace to share?" The creature sighs, and without a blink of his farsight eyes, blendin realizes he is now looking at Moira, perched upon the stone in the center of the bone throne. The appearance remains unchanged for the other viewers.
Xisco appears to be finished marking down the names of places, and is now sketching various details of the room, estimating distances, and making other notes. Harmony has returned to her companions near the stairs they entered by.
Blendin's tension visibly releases as he removes his hand from the handle of his ironwood dagger. "Well, I guess I now know what you know. So what purpose is there to keeping you alive, now?"
ReplyDeleteMoira's characteristic flitting chuckle rings off the walls.
ReplyDelete"I would not be here if it were not for your actions Blendin. I repaid your action with this gift. If the elven teachings of how to thank one for a gift are still so fresh in your young race, then I guess it must come to blood.
"I understand your doubts, but if you trust my words on this, why not on my motives? I will grant you advice that would be wisdom in my epoch but I daresay still is true now. Go find your mother. if she is not where I say, come back and finish what you mean to do. if she is where I say, ask her what you should do to me for bringing you two together after these many years. if you still mean to try and end my life, then you will surely find your chance."
Harmony pauses, back to the wall by the door, facing Sil'cint until she is sure Blendin isn't going to shoot the creature again. When (if) he doesn't, she slips back through the door and asks in a low voice, "Now what? Do we go, or...?" She's not sure what everyone else seems to have gotten from the being, but from what they've said, they now know the locations of people and things they have been searching for. She assumes they are not planning to reward Sil'cint by trying to kill...it.
ReplyDeleteGardner tries to calm the situation, putting his hand on Blendin's shoulder. "Such zeal. I assure you he will apply it fully in our search for the Kotba. We will begin presently. As to the last remaining issue, are you able to provide us any protection from the effects of the Kotba, Sil'cint?"
ReplyDelete----------------
Persuasion 7
Sil'cint seems pacified by the suggestion of the search for the kotba continuing.
ReplyDelete"I cannot protect you from the effects of the Kotba, only destroy them when I have enough; they are an old magic even for me, the materials to ward against their power is lost to time. Breaking them is the only way I know.
"For your safety, I beg you to never touch them. Even the slightest brushing finger can lead to madness in all but the most stalwart. Enclose the stones in something not made of metal or stone. And be forewarned: I suggest you keep them away from death. Exposure to a life freshly taken can have... undesirable... consequences."
Harmony seems suddenly alarmed. "Why is it you need a certain number to destroy them? Couldn't we bring them to you to be destroyed as we gather them, so as not to be carrying several aboard our ship for some time? It's unlikely that we can tote a few of them around on our ship for several weeks and not have someone die nearby. The Void is a dangerous place." She seems suspicious as well as concerned.
ReplyDeleteIf Sil'cint doesn't give an explaination of why it needs six of the things specifically, Harmony will keep pressing for one until she gets a plausible one or is flat-out denied. An evasion or misdirection will only make her more suspicious.
Sil'cint's form(s) tilts it head in exasperation. "Bring them as you please. I feared it unwise to spend the weeks of travel in the Void.
ReplyDelete"Explanations would waste time, while the kotba corrupt. And the explanation exceeds your grasp. You are of the forge, so I choose familiar terms. To quench a blade, you cannot drip water upon it; the temper spoils, and the blade still glows. You require a slave or urn of water.
"Six kotba ends their corruption. More would be easier, less would only destroy the kotba you brought, and leave the other hot.
"I have lived many lifetimes as you measure; death is always near. There will be risk. You asked my aid. You have seen the evil they cause. I grant this gift in thanks for my release, but if you prefer they remain..."
Harmony nods, "So there's more than six, but with six you can destroy them all. I see." In a much lower voice she adds, "Sort of..." She looks back at the others. "So do we leave now, or...?" She adjusts the hammer on her shoulder, either growing tired of carrying it, or bringing attention to it suggestively.
ReplyDeleteUnless anyone has more questions or decides to kill Sil'cint, I say we head out of the caves and back to the village to tell them how to deter the goblins.
I will take this to mean you guys are ready to move on. feel free to post today, but otherwise, I will drop a new a post tonight that moves you forward a bit.
ReplyDeleteooc: workin' on it this morning. this thread is closing.
ReplyDelete