[AU] Siege on Ebonring Keep - Part 2

[Rybaer]

Ys-Korros calls to his brother, whose cries for help continue yet seem to lack direction. Ys-Korros moves through the inky blackness until finally his brother comes into view just a few feet ahead, as if out of a dense fog.

Ys-Baddaden is laying on his back, his gear scattered about him. His skin is pale, glistening with feverish sweat, and his eyes lock with Ys-Korros' in terror. Standing on Ys-Baddaden's chest is a tiny creature, vaguely humanoid in shape but no more than a foot tall. Its body is comprised of whispy black smoke and its eyes are pin-pricks of smoldering red fire.

Ys-Korros gets the sense that his brother is paralyzed or injured beyond the ability to defend himself. In a flash, the creature produces a long black-bladed dagger and jabs it into Ys-Baddaden's chest. Ys-Baddaden lets out a gurgling cry as blood fills his lungs.

Even as Ys-Korros tries to act, the diminutive creature leaps off his brother's chest and flies straight into his own...vaporizing on impact.

*****

Ritsar finds himself standing on a grassy slope, under a shade tree and not ten paces from an inviting natural pool. The change of scenery from dark underground passage to blazing sunshine leaves the litorian briefly disoriented. When his eyes adjust, Ritsar finally recognizes the place - fond memories of swimming here in his youth with his best friend...

"It is a good day to die, indeed," Charon says with a mocking sneer from his seat near the water's edge. "Is that what you said that day when you suggested we try to find some rumberries in the forest in spite of Master Vishar's explicit warning that it was too dangerous to go in there?"

 

[Erekose13]

"Noooo!!!!" he screams. Ys-Korros moves as quickly as he can over to his brother, ignoring the creature that dove into his chest. Drawing from his innate abilities he will try his best to save his brother's life by using Life's Touch.

[ooc: heal 4hp by touch.]

 

[Gideon]

Ritsar

"You survived! How the hell did you get here?" Ritsars face goes fromsuspicion and alertness to one of shock and happiness. Running over to Charon Ritsar will give him a big hug.

 

[Rybaer]

Ys-Korros reaches out to his brother and summons forth the warm, green life energy. As the energy begins to come forth, Ys-Korros can feel the presence of the black creature in his body corrupt his very nature as a Champion of Life. Where healing energy should have been conveyed into Ys-Baddaden, a sickly black energy leaps forth.

Ys-Baddaden's wounds deepen and his skin cracks and blackens. His eyes meet his brother's, horrified and betrayed, before they roll lifelessly up into his head.

Ys-Korros, in spite of everything that just transpired, feels an overwhelming sensation of pleasure - almost orgasmic - as his brother's life energy ceases to exist. Horrified as he may be, it felt so good.

*****

Charon turns a cold shoulder to Ritsar at the attempted embrace.

"Don't rejoice too much," he says, "I'm still dead. Dead way before my time, thanks to your cavalier attitude toward danger. There is a difference between courage and recklessness, one that you clearly can't seem to understand. Why do you think the elders wanted you gone? How many others, people who are counting on you, will pay the ultimate price because of your attitude?

"Even now...where are your companions? Especially the little one...the one you left behind. Do you know how much danger he is now in?"

 

[Gideon]

Ritsar

Pulling back from the cold shoulder and the harsh words, Ritsar's happy grin quickly fades to a frown his past casting dark shadows over his eyes.

"The magister is in trouble? Send me back then and I'll do for him what I couldn't for you."

Gribbing his spear tightly a sad determination swarms his soul like wasps. A lesson that he learned from Charon comes to mind.

Honor demands heavy prices, Ritsar. It should never be a goal. It is something that drives us to do what is right.

 

[Erekose13]

Ys-Korros' scream turns much more primal caught between ecstacy, horror, and pain. He drops to his knees craddling his head in the palms of his hands, trying vainly to digest what has happened. Madness tingles the edges of consiousness threatening to envelope all. Wracked with sobs he lifts his head to stare at his brother's withered corpse.

"Without you brother there is nothing to hold me to my path, nothing to live for, nothing to bring life too."

He stands and stares down at his hands, at the mark of the dark, the stain of the most greivous of sins. And begins to laugh...

 

[Liminal Syzygy]

(( See post in OOC thread ))

 

[Rybaer]

Ristar:

Spoiler

"Many choices cannot be undone," Charon says. "As you wish, though..."

The idyllic setting melts away around Ritsar and the litorian finds himself standing on a wind-swept cliff looking down into a narrow canyon several hundred feet deep. The cold sun is setting and it is difficult to see below. At the bottom, in the shadows, Ritsar can just make out Pyior's form...carefully working its way along the canyon.

Ritsar's angle allows him to see what Pyior cannot. Just around the next bend, a pack of coyote-like creatures waits in ambush for the faen. With no way down and no time left, Ritsar yells a warning to Pyior...but his voice cannot carry to the distant bottom of the canyon in the windy conditions. Pyior walks blindly into the trap and the creatures set upon him.

*****
Ys-Korros:

Spoiler

"Be at ease, Ys-Korros," a smooth voice says. Ys-Korros looks up from his maniacal laughture to find that he is now standing in a finely appointed sitting room with walls of polished wood and velvet upholstered furnishings. A giant dressed befitting a minor noble stands before him.

"Your brother is not dead," he says. Ys-Korros looks down and finds that Ys-Baddaden is no longer at his feet...or anywhere else to be seen, either. "Not yet, anyway."

The giant sits upon one of the chairs and crosses his legs. "This place...it can show you many things," he says. He points toward a door. "Though there, you will be shown that which you truly should fear to see. A glimpse of the future, and of the horrific deeds that your deluded brother will perpetrate in your name.

"Or, you might try this door," he says, indicating the only other door leading from the room. "Through here, you may leave in peace. You may leave in blissful ignorance of your worst fears realized."

*****
Pyior:

Spoiler

Pyior watches as Ritsar brazenly charges through the dark portal after the giants. Seemingly without much choice in the matter, and not wanting to be left behind with the apes, Pyior touches the portal...

...and finds himself in a small, metal-clad chamber lit dimly by a single torch set in one wall. Two tunnels exit the room in opposite directions - each just wide enough to fit through. About ten feet down each tunnel is a small door. Filling each tunnel are dozens of small snakes - red and black striped. Blood Vipers, Pyior realizes, one of the most deadly snakes known. ...or they might be Fools Vipers, a clever species that looks nearly identical to the Blood Viper, but whose bite is harmless.

Two other things catch Pyior's immediate attention. First, the walls of the room are quickly collapsing and will likely crush him within a minute. Second, he recognizes the Rune of Sem boldly inscribed on one of the walls...a powerful rune that supresses magic.

Thinking quickly, Pyior realizes that escape through a tunnel may be his only hope. A second look at the snakes confirms his suspicion - one set of snakes has the hallmark red ring around its eyes, while the other has the black. He recalls a lesson with a former master, who explained the easy way to tell them apart...

...but he can't recall which is which. The harder Pyior tries to remember, the less confident he is in his recollections.

 

[Erekose13]

Still shaken and not quite himself (whether he ever will be again is about to be tested), Ys-Korros stands and looks at the other giant. "What is this evil place that would trick me so? Why should I assume that either door will show me the future when this place has already deceived me? My brother would not perpetrate evil in my name, just as I would not kill him." he looks down at his hands and the empty floor still rattled by the event not quite sure if that was a nightmare or this is the dream.

 

[Gideon]

Ritsar

There is a lesson here that this shadow Charon wants me to know. Teaching me even in death. The wrong one of us died that day.

Ritsar stood looking at the slaughter being completely unable to do anything. He just watched with some kind of morbid facination.

Is it my responsibility to make others decisions if they wish to follow me? I can only make decisions for me. Dammit, I don't want responsibility for you. I only need one life to mess up.