Valdor Wednesday September 19th, 2007 11:59:42 PM
Valdor takes great comfort in Cori's closeness and relaxes when they get back. He asks Nick and Ve,"Are there any temples to Domi or Alemi here and can either of you ask your God's questions relating to this boy's fate? I don't want the boy to die, but the soul who has stolen the body has to go. I wonder if the boy's real soul is in there somewhere? And would he have control if the evil soul is somehow removed from his body? We could use a rest anyway and then take care of him, then get back to our own time."
He listens to Cori, happy with her resolution. He never for once considered staying, but understands where her thoughts are. For if they stayed, taht means all the decades up to this point were still in place and the havoc wreaked upon their children, grandchildren...no, it must end this way.
Onrad Thursday September 20th, 2007 1:03:04 AM
As they arrive, he somehow ends up with his arm wrapped up in Valdor's.
"Eww."
Then he looks at Cori and Valdor's "intertwinings."
"When we get back, I'm getting the two of you a room and locking you in for a week!"
Then he follows the others into the temple.
Nick Thursday September 20th, 2007 1:39:53 AM
Nick thinks for a moment after Valdor's question. "Alemi didn't have a big presence here, from what I remember, although I'm sure there is a shrine, or what's left of one, somewhere in the interior. "Valdor, I'll be honest. If I have my thoughts straight about the boy, then our decisions regarding his future will fall solidly on Gargul's territory. "My own faith sees cruelty, when I look upon that boy. Cruelty draped about our shoulders, for leaving him in this feeble state for so long. Both faith and training bade me to heal the boy, and yet..."
He trails off. Yes, heal him, Nick. Unleash the monster. A monster that, despite all misgivings, is still just a boy.
DM Jan Thursday September 20th, 2007 1:55:17 AM
The old lady with the brush looks to have been busy inside the temple. The floor is clean, and there is no sign of the dead priest. The altar exhudes power and gloom, but this time, the rear wall is solid - the way into the Shadowlands is now as it should be - blocked - to all except those who have the power to open up the way.
A small creature sits atop the altar. Gargul's companion, Gimp, appears to have been waiting...
Ve Mundr Thursday September 20th, 2007 10:23:01 AM
Ve stops as Valdor speaks of the boy. "Valdor with all due respect I don't believe you are grasping the true aspect here. The boy is evil, the soul did not steal this body, it is not possession, it is reincarnation. The evil escaped and has been escaping Gargul for hundreds of years. Being reborn just as the righteous have always done. There is no other, he simply is as you and I are. He is of this time, and can not go back with us." Ve then turns and heads towards Gimp.
Valdor Thursday September 20th, 2007 11:27:06 AM
Upon hearing Onrad's statement, Valdor smiles and replies,"Works for me. But let's make it two weeks." He stops and then laughs aloud saying,"Can you imagine going two weeks without having to chase a dragon, time travel, wipe out an undead problem, find lost cities, stop an army, or smething else like that? I will be bored silly if I went two days without Sturdevant calling on us to go somewhere and do something."
He turns more somber at Ve's words and says,"I wouldn't advocate taking him back with us. I just feel we should try to make sure there's not a ten year old boy's soul trapped in this body somewhere before we let him be destroyed. And, I wouldn't consider leaving him in this state forever...that's worse than torture and wouldn't be fair to whoever had to take care of him. We take him to Gargul's temple, put him on the altar and pray to Gargul to take his soul peacefully to his realm. Whatever happens...happens."
Onrad Thursday September 20th, 2007 3:15:29 PM
Onrad moves forward, his hand on his sword in its hilt as he has little good feeling left in him for Gimp.
None in fact.
His flippant manner leaves him and he's all business once again. Intent and alert.
Mordrid Thursday September 20th, 2007 5:39:13 PM
"I don't agree with everyone's usage of the word 'die'. In and of itself, changing forms is not as bad as you think. Why then do we not dress in black and mourn as each Fall approaches?"
His attention is redirected toward Gimp. "I bet this little guy has the answer."
Corialote and Amarth Thursday September 20th, 2007 9:04:45 PM
Cori continues to keep her arm intwined with Valdors and nods her head when he laughs. She is glad to see him happy for awhile at least. She looks to Onrad and gives him a wink. "If you lock to the door, do not come back to try and open it...for it will be locked by more than meer steel." Her eyes twinkle but she would also relish the idea of being along with Valdor. As he goes into the ideas of going crazy with all that free-time she laughs a little more. "Oh, I think that I could find something to keep your mind busy. Besides, I could easily kidnap you if I needed to." She doubts that she would have to try very hard to do that but it would be possible.
As the thoughts and needs to turn to the child and the use of the word death. She once again becomes all business and she does glance to Mordrid as he speaks. "Yes, let us think of it more as a rebirth. This soul needs to go back were it belongs and maybe the soul that once inhabited this body can be reborn. If not into this body, than maybe another to a gentle woman and man." For such a long-lived race it is hard to observe death as a permanent thing. In fact she has felt on many occassions that she has been something else before she was Cori the drow...flying is one of those rare pleasures. Maybe she was once a bird or something else that was able to fly.
Nick Friday September 21st, 2007 11:27:24 AM
Nick approaches the altar and gives Gimp a solemn bow. "With respect, we seek an audience with Gargul," he begins. "We have brought a young boy, someone who exhudes evil, and believe him to be a reincarnation from the Lands of Unrest, who does not belong here, but we need guidance."
DM Jan Friday September 21st, 2007 12:02:03 PM
Gargul's companion shifts to the right hand edge of the altar. "Let me see him," the creature says.
Assuming the boy is placed on the altar, Gimp crouches over the feebleminded boy's prone form. The creature's eyes, like bright stones, then regard the party. "Gargul still roams the Isles of the Dead. There is much to put right there, such as the likes of this boy, if what you say proves correct. "In order to be sure about this one, I will need to look into his soul. You will see things. Things you may not like. Things about you and what could be. Are you ready?"
Is it everyone's imagination, or did the temple abruptly take on a more somber air? Do the walls feel to be closing in, shutting out the Wold and the joys of life it contains? That shiver down the spine, maybe it's just cold in here...
Valdor Saturday September 22nd, 2007 12:20:31 AM
Valdor hears Gimp, and gets that 'feeling'. He says aloud,"If what he says is true, those who fought against that pit monster must hold true to themselves now. This will not be real, my friends and we must remember who we are."
He nods to Gimp to proceed, still remembering diving in front of Gimp to take that sword thrown by Marteaus...
Ve Mundr Saturday September 22nd, 2007 10:30:32 PM
Ve steps forward and places the boy on the altar by Gimp. The cleric then just steps back a few paces, his war hammer slipping from its hanger and into his gauntleted hand.
Posting Report for Monday September 24th, 2007 7:10:53 AM
Game # 1 The Platinum Dragons For the week of Sept 17, 2007
Names-----MTWTF DM Jan H--XXOXX Valdor----XXXOOS Mordrid---OOOXO * Bad Boy! Fr.Nick---XXOXX Dalia-----OOOOO * Bad BoY! VE MONT---OOXXOS * Coralot---OXXXO Onrad-----XXXXO Jus-------XOOOO *
Adm CEil
Nick Monday September 24th, 2007 4:31:55 PM
Nick's eyes flit toward Valdor as he mentions that thing in the pit. Well, they'd stared death and all sorts in the face before.
He takes a breath and tries to remain calm.
DM Jan Monday September 24th, 2007 5:59:20 PM
After a few moments, there is an abrupt drop in temperature. Gimp becomes merely a shadow. Everyone else, with the exception of Cori, Jus and the boy, appear to fade in varying degrees.
Valdor, Nick, Mordrid, Ve and Onrad feel a sensation not unlike a cloak of gauze dropping around their shoulders. This cloak brings strange thoughts -
Nick - candlelight and the smell of wax; a dull pain; voices murmuring in prayer; a glimpse of Plateau City from a window; men, women, dressed in white, moving about the room.
Onrad - his niece's face, looming above, trying to smile, to reassure; a door opening and closing, bringing with it childrens voices, and the breath of autumn.
Ve - a cloudy sky and distant thunder; a gentle rocking, and the sound of a slow, tentative oar cutting through water; someone humming a tune; it hurts to breathe but the air feels moist.
Mordrid - the scent of moss and blood; wet leaves and cold ground beneath the hand and against the face; a bug's eye view of the trail ahead, and a voice, "Mordrid. Mordrid," growing fainter.
Valdor - the sound of steel, ringing on steel; a howling storm of pain, held back by a stubborn wall of anger; darkness and shifting forms; a cavern and the smell of sulpher; the sword, singing, ingniting the will; a dance, abruptly snatched away.
Jus's form stays whole and three dimensional, but it shifts, and now he is seated, crosslegged, his eyes are closed. His own perception is of somewhere else, somewhere cold. Far from here. A massive, still form, covered in black scales is curled around him. Concentration. He breathes, once every five minutes. His heart beats, once every five minutes. Not as slow as the dragon, not yet. Not yet.
Cori also retains substance, but her palor shifts to a sickly grey. Red welts cross her arms and torso. Her eyes burn with a fearsome, cold, rage. There is a wand in her hand. There is no sign of Amarth. Everyone can see an arm reaching out and pulling her toward the altar. It is the boy - the boy grown to a man. His face longer, thinner, he looks tired, ravaged with disease. The ruin of the Wold is written upon his face for all to see. This one is the killer of thousands. "I'm not going alone," he whispers. Cori's hand sweeps down, strikes him with the wand, but there is nothing left. She lets out a cry of rage and frustration. Steel flashes in the firelight as he pulls her close. She drops the wand and goes for his throat with her hands, and squeezes as he stabs her again and again. "I'm not going alone..."
And then it is gone, leaving behind a strong punch-in-the-gut disorientation.
Gimp and the boy are on the altar, as they were before. Cori and Jus are both as they were. "I can't kill him," says the creature, looking solemly at the group. "I cannot physically interfere. But he belongs with us. He should not have been reborn."
Close by, Crow is sobbing quietly, and Wentworth is staring into space, a look of horror on his face. His brother Tommy also looks to be in shock. He has pulled out his fruit paring knife and is advancing toward the altar with vacant eyes.
((OOC EDIT - something I might not have made clear. The vision is of the current past, but in your own time, it would be a vision of the future. Eeek. Hope that makes sense. It's kinda in between then and now.))
(OOC: SCOTT: This is as far as I've read so far. Jan, simply brilliant. You do not fail to amaze me.]
((OOC ~Jan~ Thank you :) ))
Corialote and Amarth Monday September 24th, 2007 7:52:09 PM
Cori swallows hard as she is still trapped within the nightmare. Though it is in her mind she can still feel the knife as it buries itself into her again and again. The feeling of death is heavy on her shoulders as well, but she cannot force herself to move...to run.
Finally, after aganizing minutes have passed she slumps to the floor. Her head is in her hands and she finds herself crying. The weight is still there and she feels that she has been called upon to do something vile.
Ve Mundr Monday September 24th, 2007 10:37:28 PM
Ve closes his eyes as the feeling fades. Not what he expected. One hand moves to wipe away the imagined rain from his face. He hadn't failed and that was solice. He looks down towards his feet and wiggles his toes inside his boots and then raises his gaze to Gimp and then the boy. His right hand clenches harder on his glowing warhammer and he states quite flatly without emotion that sends chills down his own spine to hear the words, "I can."
Nick Monday September 24th, 2007 11:04:23 PM
Nick gasps audibly. What was that? My own death?
Seeing Cori drop, he steps quickly to her side and examines her vital signs. He's hoping it's just a faint. He was darned near passing out himself. Gimp did warn them. "Cori," he says softly, cradling her head, devastated by her tears. Alemi help them all.
Glanncing up he spies Ve near the altar, and he looks then toward Gimp. "We will not be judged?" he asks, his tone perhaps a little more stern than it should be.
At this moment he hasn't noticed Tommy.
Valdor d20=14 Tuesday September 25th, 2007 1:13:40 AM
Valdor groans out loud as he has his vision, but he's completely unaware he's making any sound at all. He finally comes out of it and shakes his head. Never has he trusted magic...except where Cori is concerned. He hears Gimp and then Ve. He says much more quietly than most have ever heard,"Ve, my friend, you are a cleric of Domi. This you should not do. I may face judgement, as Father Nick has wisely voiced, but nothing like you will for killing a boy. I will take no joy from it, but I see now that it must be done. Do you agree?"
Onrad Tuesday September 25th, 2007 4:12:16 PM
Onrad, slow to come out of his vision, thinks about his family. What he would want done if this boy was his...
An untidy task. Needs doing. Not drawn out. Don't think. Do. Suffer later.
Fast as lighting, draws forth his rapier and 5 times stabs into the chest of the boy.
As he does do, he shouts in anguish, as if he can feel the pain. He falls to his knees, unable to breathe. Uncharacteristically, his rapier clanks loudly to the floor.
----- [Jan if you need to hits and all that, let me know. This seems like a roleplaying situation.]
Jus Tuesday September 25th, 2007 5:08:05 PM
Jus watches his vision, trying to stay distant, trying to picture it as a dream. It is too real, however, too much like what could be. As the visions fade, Jus realizes the longing in his heart for his friend.
He looks up and watches everyone else return from their own visions. As Valdor speaks, Jus gives a resigned nod. Several times now, Jus has been tempted to pull out a dagger and off the boy. But Jus kept quiet and let the others deal with this in their own way. It sounds like Valdor has finally decided.
Which makes Onrad's sudden actions all the more shocking....
DM Jan Tuesday September 25th, 2007 11:39:24 PM
What must be done...
It hangs there, heavy in the air. Responsibilty, consequence. The taking of a life.
The folded and refined steel of Onrad's blade slashes through that moment, and enters the boy's black heart five times; back and forth. Those stood close are spattered in blood - warm, bright red and oxygenated. In seconds, it's over. Over and done.
"This is now as it should be," says Gimp, looking down at the still form of the boy. "And you will not be judged. In fact there may well be a boon, although I cannot say for sure."
Tommy the halfling is stood staring at the altar. A thin line of crimson is painted across his face. He has dropped his paring knife. "I want to go home," he says miserably.
Corialote and Amarth Tuesday September 25th, 2007 11:57:10 PM
Cori looks up as Nick's voice fills her head and not that far from her. Her eyes are anguished and she cannot bare to move at this time. She looks to the boy upon the altar and then the sudden movements of Onrad.
With a shiver she realizes that she could not have done it. Things from her past that she has tried to hide from, to run from would have caught up with her. The blackness that she feels in the pit of her stomach and heart, is part of her past as well as the thing in the pit. "I...I could not...it would have killed me." That part of her that she holds so dear would have been lost in the instant she killed the boy.
Now she realizes that all along she has been wrong. She has been running from something that she can never escape. To confront her past, embrace her past and then move on with the life that she leads now...that is the answer. "I must accept my heritage...what I have witnessed and done..." She slowly stands up, though she allows Nick to help her and she leans on him...but not a lot. "I must stop running."
Looking to Valdor she knows that it is true. If they are to have a future, she must settle her past first. Maybe a trip home is in order...one long overdue.
Valdor Wednesday September 26th, 2007 1:06:32 AM
Valdor's sword appears in his hand as Onrad attacks. He almost...almost, parries the blows, not wanting anything bad to happen to his friend. Always has he been willing to take the wrath of a dragon, or even the Gods for his friends and his family, the Dragons, but he really doesn't want to stop Onrad. Even though it sickens him, it is right, he believes.
Seconds later, Gimp echoes his thoughts, and he sheathes his sword. He looks around the room, then to Cori as she seems so lost. He says gently,"Well, you have no reason to run anywhere, my love, for if anything is pursuing you, it must first pass me and I promise it will have to pass my dead body first. And I have accepted your heritage and don't care what has gone before, so you should as well. Of course," he adds with a smile,"you'll have to accept a person who is only part elf and part human. Whatever you must do, we'll do it together."
He looks at Ve and says,"I guess Onrad beat us to it, eh? He's just mad that I got past those spiders first. Let's go home."
Onrad Wednesday September 26th, 2007 12:53:05 PM
"If there is a boon, Gimp, it goes to Valdor. He's our leader. He made the decision. I carried it out.
"If there had been a consequence, I didn't want it sullying the name of our leader. The people back home need him. Need him to be strong forever. I still don't trust you. Never had. Never will. So I acted to prevent harm to others."
Onrad then stands, does a cursory wiping of his shirt, and walks away to be alone, trying to hold it all in for some later time.
Nick Wednesday September 26th, 2007 2:32:15 PM
Nick lets Cori go to Valdor, stands, brushes down his robe and takes stock, looking at the faces of his companions. It never got any easier. And when they thought they could shoulder the load, other, heavier burdens came along and were heaped on top of the ever growing pile. The strain showed on every man and woman here. Weary faces, haunted eyes. It wasn't just the fighting. It was the sheer, horrific scale of it all - thousands of lives held in the balance, heartbreaking decisions. Just the act of standing before the Gods was like standing in the face of a hurricane. He turns his attention to the halflings. Two little mischief-makers from Dirt City. They'd been exceptionally brave, but they had witnessed far too much. Their lives would be vastly different now, if not shattered beyond repair. Alemi bless and strengthen those caught in these terrible winds...
He crouches in front of Tommy. "It's all right, now," he says quietly. "Pick up your knife. It's time to go home."
Ve Mundr Wednesday September 26th, 2007 2:42:09 PM
Ve is angry and it shows. What also is very clear is he is not entirely sure why he is angry. Jaw clenched and eyes fixed upon Onrad but standing in such a way that Gimp is clearly within his peripheal vision. The Warhammer still glowing and still held tighlty. Ve breathes in and out in low slow purposeful breaths as his nostrils flare on each exhale. Valdor's tension breaking comment slides off without affect and the Protector doesn't even seem to acknowledge the man has spoken. It is the klink of Tommy's knife that causes his gaze to shift and his jaw line to slacken slightly.
Ve turns and moves to Crow, his left hand siezes him about the shoulder and half pulls half drags him into his wake as Ve exits the temple
Mordrid Thursday September 27th, 2007 1:09:30 AM
'Who have I failed?" the ranger squeezes as he takes his last breath. Mordrid's heart pounds with a maddening ache. Just don't close your eyes! If only by will alone.
And back again into more madness. Onrad is stabbing the child. In stasis, between seconds, he moans..."NO."
Actions like these were best left for 'lost souls.' Not Onrad. Not one so such. He would never wish the burden on one so much. Should have been left to the lost souls.
And if things couldn't get stanger; Ve just walked out with crow... and he didn't look happy.
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