(IR) The 3rd IR, Turn 3 (thread 1)

(sigh)

Very well. I will run the Shade.
However, under Melkor (the God IC, not the Power) most certainly will not be involved in the IR in any way.

Vecna awaits Forrester's reply, his long golden hair blowing in the Lyrnian breeze.

Edena_of_Neith said:

Vecna speaks:

I say to you that you are trespassing.
Oerth is not your world.
Toril is your world.

I say to you and yours: Go home.

In your trespassing, you have brought grave danger unto yourself and all of yours.

Why do you so foolishly trespass where you are not wanted?
Why do you so foolishly trespass where you do not belong?
Why do you intervene in affairs that are none of your business?
Why do you presume to influence events here on Oerth?

I await some good answers to my questions.

Click to expand...

I like your new complexion, Vecna. Elves really do bring out the pink in one's cheeks, don't they?

Grave danger is something my people are used to, Vecna.

My affairs are my own. It suffices to say, though, that I have not intervened in any affairs but where we were asked. And that has been in only two cases: The robots' attack on Bissel, and the siege of Irongate. And the intervention in the latter case was nothing more than a speech.

So, to answer your pointed and obvious first question, we are wanted here.

To address your second question, you "belong" here no more than we do -- for this is not your Time, Vecna. That was a hundred years ago. And your allies, the Shade, "belong" here no more than we do, for they are not of this world. Are you as interested in their reasons for being here?

Your third and fourth questions are really the same, Vecna. I suppose when you are undead you have the time to be verbose.

We have intervened little. We have influenced little. Unlike your allies, who started a war.

What precisely is your problem with us?
-----------------
EDENA: NOTE -- I have to get going in about fifteen minutes, and I'll be gone for about an hour and a half. Not long. And then I'll be back

Vecna speaks, apparently making a great effort in this, for what he says is, and the way he says it, is unusual for him:

Forrester, my child, listen to the words of an elderly man.
There is Wisdom in Age, child.
You know it well, for have not your people on Toril learned, through their pain and sorrow, the meaning of wisdom?

We learn by experience, and in great age those experiences lead to great wisdom.

Oerth is no place for your people, Forrester, Child of the Light.
Oerth is a place for the Darkness, and those who live in the Dark.
Oerth is a place for the warrior, the killer, the assassin, the thief in the night.
Oerth is a place for the ruthless, the remorseless, the heartless.

You bring with you what you call a great army to bring the Light of Toril to Oerth.
You bring your Light to extinguish the darkness of the Shade.
You bring your Light, child, to succor and rescue the people of Oerth from what you perceive as grave danger.

The danger is not to them, Child of Light, Child of Toril.
The danger, is to you.

You must appreciate just how grave that danger is.
You must appreciate that, up until now, that danger has slept.
You must appreciate that, up until now, the great Darkness has overlooked you.
The forces at work on Oerth have made an oversight, and you have been spared.

And if I, Vecna, do not appreciate the power of those forces, then nobody does.
Those forces, are to be feared.

Your safety has passed.
The danger comes for you.
The Darkness has awakened.
The Darkness has awakened, and it sees you and yours, and a great anger has stirred in a heart blacker than the darkest night.
Darkness comes for you and yours.
Darkness unending and eternal.

You may yet save yourself and yours.
Go back to your world, to your paradise of Light and Peace.
Go back to your safety, your laws, your religions, to a world where the parameters of what you know as sanity exist.

If you will not heed my advice ... if you will not heed the advice of an elderly man, then what must I say and do to convince you?
What proof do you require that it would be best for you to return home?
What action must you require of us that you and yours should go home?
What demand lies in your heart, that must be fulfilled, that would see you home in peace?

Well, now.

You certainly have mellowed with age, Vecna.

I sense something horrible, yes. But I know not what it is.

But we could not leave even if we wanted to, Lord Vecna. It will require us at least this month, and perhaps next month as well to build the Gates necessary to transport our troops back to Realmspace, and then Toril.

It seems that we are stuck here, for now.

But you ask . . . what would my price be, for leaving this place? What would I want of you?

If I am to leave, then the Shade must leave as well. If the UC is not to be here, then no one from Toril should be here. Not a soul.

Something tells me that your allies will hardly approve of such a plan, though . . .

There is another option. Tell me what you know of this force that arises. You know much more than you tell us, Vecna. Can the cryptic references and the doom-filled imagery and tell us what approaches us. What is coming, Lord Vecna? What is coming?

It is truly disturbing . . . that I know. And you may talk us into leaving after all.

Lord Forrester

{Leaving in 5 minutes. Be back in an hour or two.}
{Edena -- assuming my troops landed in Turn 0, and it takes four or five months to build the gates necessary for a return voyage, I guess, given that this is Turn 3, we'll need another couple months to build the gates? Was I right about that?}

Vecna speaks quietly, and sometimes awkwardly:

Forrester of Toril, I have the secrets of the Great Magic of the 10th Order.

I can send all of your Children back to Toril in a few hours.
However, I cannot send your Children back, if they are unwilling to go.
Furthermore, your Children must remain on Toril if I send them back. They cannot return here ... and they should not, for this is no place for Children.

You are the Adult, and they are your Children.
You must speak to them of departure, and they must obey you.

The Shade are Children, like most Torilians - and like most Mortals.
They do not yet comprehend the world they have entered, our Oerth.
They are like ones who play in the shallows of the vast Ocean, wading in deeper and deeper, heedless of the sharks that await them.

Allow me to teach them, Forrester of Toril.
Allow me to guide them to maturity.
I am a stern teacher, but my lessons are true lessons, and my wisdom is the wisdom of millennia.

Since they have declared they will conquer our world and convert all to Shade - like a child waves a wooden sword and threatens a man in plate armor carrying a greatsword - they are indeed Children in grave danger.

Allow me to guide them, lead them along a better road.
The road to true maturity and strength.
The road to wisdom and knowledge.
The very road that you and yours walk, and will always walk - unless you throw it all away by choosing to stay here.

Of the Great Darkness you have awakened, I may not speak, save to say that it is not of my making.
I am powerful indeed, but the Great Darkness is stronger than even Vecna, who men fear to whisper the name of.
I cannot control it.
I cannot turn it from it's path.
I cannot turn it's awesomely devastating malevolence away from you.
I cannot turn it's incredible hatred and fury from the innocents that follow you.

I urge you to go home.
Toril is a Children's Paradise. Live in that Paradise, and be content.
Do not meddle in the affairs here.
Allow the Adults, the Mature, the Strong, to maintain order on this world.

We will deal with the Children of the Shade.
We in no way require or need the help of the innocent Children of Toril.
Adults do not ask for aid from Children, nor should they.

(then Vecna whispers)

The Angels know, Forrester.
You saw the sadness in their faces.
They know you should not be here.
They know your place is back in your home, warm and cosy and safe.

Run, Forrester of Toril. Run. Hide. Shut the door, bolt it, draw the drapes, and light every candle in the house.
Do not stay outside in the darkness, for the Evil comes.
The Evil comes, to devour all the Children.

To the rebels in the Grandwood

"I have been more than generous to you, but now my patience is running out. Do you or do you not accept my offer? Do you surrender and go to Delrune, or do you want to die? Those are your options. Pick one."


Edena: Did Forsaken Ones spelljammer attack against the rebels in the Grandwood help at all? Or did they just hit trees?

Edena_of_Neith said:

. . .
Of the Great Darkness you have awakened, I may not speak, save to say that it is not of my making.
I am powerful indeed, but the Great Darkness is stronger than even Vecna, who men fear to whisper the name of.
I cannot control it.
I cannot turn it from it's path.
I cannot turn it's awesomely devastating malevolence away from you.
I cannot turn it's incredible hatred and fury from the innocents that follow you.

I urge you to go home.
Toril is a Children's Paradise. Live in that Paradise, and be content.
Do not meddle in the affairs here.
Allow the Adults, the Mature, the Strong, to maintain order on this world.

Click to expand...

I see.

And if I go, where shall this Great Darkness turn to next? To you? To the Shade? To the people of Keoland, of Furyondy, of Celene, of the Woods?

Do you expect to stand against it, where I could not?

And who are these Adults, these Mature, these Strong in this world? As you say, certainly not the leader of the Shade. And I doubt you think those of the Oerthian Alliance are but more than pups.

So who does that leave? You? Acererak? Am I to leave Oerth in your "capable" hands? Is this what you ask? When the Great Darkness devours the other Children of this planet, will you fight it?

Or will you feed it?

You may go, Lord Vecna. I must consult with my advisors. We must consider all you have said.

---------------------
EDENA -- I teleport back to the Border Guard, and then, to the Angels.


--Okay, boys. When Vecna himself comes to see me, and asks me diplomatically to leave, and warns me of the Darkness coming, I know that I'm in trouble.

I need to know what you know. The lives of millions of my troops, and tens and hundreds of millions of innocents on Oerth, hangs in the balance. I need to know.

What stirs? What comes?

Does it bear a particular animosity towards *me*, or all of Oerth?

If I were to leave Oerth, would it leave Oerth as well, and leave those that remained untouched -- or would it begin to devour THEM?

And you know Vecna far better than I do. I was made to understand he would love nothing more than the utter destruction of Oerth -- and of Toril. Is this little heartfelt speech on his part nothing more than a ploy? It seemed to be more -- but I can be fooled.

Am I endangering Oerth by being there?

Would I endanger it more by leaving?

Do you have any of the answers for which I seek?

I especially desire to know -- no, I MUST know -- whether this Great Darkness seeks me, and me alone, or whether it seeks to devour all of Oerth.

Serpenteye said:

I therefore offer you aid in tracking down and destroying these imposters within your ranks. The spies and diviners of the Dark Union shall work independently of your brotherhood agents, studying the Scarlet brotherhood from the outside searching for anomalities. their findings will be reported directly to the God Emperor and the father of Obedience. One third of the Union elite agents will be put to this task."

Click to expand...

We echo the concern of our brethren to the north. Of course you are quite welcome to conduct your investigations from the outside, as you offer, and full cooperation will be given insofar as it doesn't compromise security.

However, exceedingly thorough measures were taken, and quite a number of operatives destroyed. We are convinced any remaining fringes are operating from outside our borders. Outsiders are not allowed within the Homeland, and I believe the situation is under control to an extent that an exception is not warranted.

---------------------------

Another message is sent, from Acererak.

Forrester.

I have plans for Irongate, and your mewling cattle clutter up the landscape, and their constant lamenting grates on the ears. I am remembering all over just why I ate their families.

Remove them, as you said you would.

The Evacuation of Irongate

Edena -- I send in a few mages to set up teleportation circles to transport the hundred thousand or so remaining inhabitants of Irongate to . . . hm . . . where would they be safest?

Kaboom, can I transport them to one of your flying citadels? My place might be . . . well, a bit bloody sometime soon. Maybe as early as next month.

Just a hunch.

I know that this is a slow process -- hence the reason you can't use such circles to teleport millions of troops quickly -- but we should be able to evacuate that number within a month's time, I believe.

Forrester

Very well, I suppose I can delay my plans for the rest of the month. *he rolls the unholy green motes of light in his eyesockets*

Can't I just promise to not eat an equivalent number of people when I overrun your own armies? Far simpler.