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Dark Days in Sion - Act 3: Scene 3
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<blockquote data-quote="97mg" data-source="post: 7330713" data-attributes="member: 6799460"><p><strong>Aletia: Cards on the table</strong></p><p></p><p>The elven girl's life hadn't just been turned upside down. It had been shattered. A life of freedom, companionship and joy had been stained now, by both poison and a rainy eve soaking her with as much guilt, as blood, wind and sleet. As though the tip of a blade, the angle of her future had sharply turned. There were tears to accompany her few moments alone. Once, she had attracted kindness, laughter and optimism. Now she contemplated something else. Was she a bad omen? Was the next stage in her life to be as bait to the ways of death, treachery and ill-doing? Becoming close to people was inviting great risk. She even wondered if in some manner she was cursed, that all who meant something to her were destined to die. The Black Network. The vengeance she had alluded to with Kayote was ringing in her head like a great temple's bell.</p><p> </p><p>Telling Master Burlock of Vallio's demise hadn't been easy, but what of this? How to now describe the fate of Jabbar, a man to whom Kayote had entrusted her?</p><p> </p><p><span style="color: #B22222">~If I had not set out alone, been more careful, not shouted Rasul, just let them take me...~</span></p><p> </p><p>In Aletia's mind she'd failed. The successful delivery of Kayote's invitation was overshadowed now by attempted abduction, battle on the streets, discovery, interdiction and death. The Burlocks would be better without her. Jabbar's companions would be better without her. A life of solitude and perpetual grief beckoned, <span style="color: #a52a2a">"come to me, and misery for eternity is yours..."</span></p><p> </p><p>Something cold ran along her neck, a thin and serpentine form. Crez slid down her arm and then turned, green eyes peering at her, but not in judgement. </p><p> </p><p><span style="color: #0000CD">"Oh Crez, if not for you I would have been taken."</span></p><p> </p><p>Strangely, these last few hours something had changed. A once simple empathic link had gained new complexity. They could truly converse and understand each other. The connection betwixt the two had deepened.</p><p> </p><p><span style="color: #0000CD">"Promisesssss miss."</span></p><p> </p><p>Immediately she knew what was implied by the flicking tongue and subtle reptilian jaw movements. They were together. She was not alone, even if it would be only a snake to share her path, and a moon goddess so distant and untouched.</p><p> </p><p>But there had been other promises. To deliver a note to Kayote of Jabbar's intention to meet this morn. To be back at the trade shop before dawn, to visit a temple. To lay a plan to catch Ozzen and Houlgrim before Kayote's foul game was played out in full.</p><p> </p><p>She owed it to them. Jabbar had died for it. Aletia's actions would be the will of the deceased. She was to do... dead man's work, in order to benefit the living.</p><p> </p><p>Burning pain accompanied her attempt to lean forward and write. The wound was fresh, a horrid tear to her back, but not a mortal injury. She'd deal with that later. More important work was at hand.</p><p> </p><p><span style="color: #8b4513">"For the eyes of Master Burlock alone.</span></p><p> <span style="color: #8b4513"></span></p><p><span style="color: #8b4513">A woman came to you with nothing but ill news. The death of a friend. A woman with grief and loss in-tow; your kindness she relished, your promise of a home and purpose she was humbled by, your knowledge and trust she both admired and was warmed by.</span></p><p> <span style="color: #8b4513"></span></p><p><span style="color: #8b4513">I am eternally grateful to you and your kin.</span></p><p> <span style="color: #8b4513"></span></p><p><span style="color: #8b4513">With broken heart I accept this duty to write words that you shall not wish to read, contemplate, nor remember. However, this is my duty. This is an act I can neither hide from nor conceal.</span></p><p> <span style="color: #8b4513"></span></p><p><span style="color: #8b4513">On this eve as instructed, your invitation was delivered in full. His comrades welcomed me wholeheartedly, though the contest they questioned. A trap, your friend said, dangerous."</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: #0000CD">~Crez, I shall not mention the plan of removing Ozzen and Houlgrim from the cards. Not in writing. Let that be done with Jabbar's comrades in the morning.~</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: #8b4513">"Early this day, please make yourself available to your friend's comrades. They wish to visit and speak with you, and I also wish to be there as there is much to discuss.</span></p><p> <span style="color: #8b4513"></span></p><p><span style="color: #8b4513">With the invitation delivered, the shop I did depart, to find myself followed. Rhats and a most horrible man did their best to bound and bag me. Disguised, they did not see the truth of me, nor did they expect your friend's entourage to rush to my aid. My assailant's end came in the dead of night, with rain to wash their blood down filthy city streets. But that was not to be the end of it. Spotted by the flying ones, wounded as I am by javelins hurled from the sky, we watched as the first moves were made to raise alarm.</span></p><p> <span style="color: #8b4513"></span></p><p><span style="color: #8b4513">In the final moments, your friend touched a great power unknown to me. A sacrifice was made. In exchange for his life the flying one was slain.</span></p><p> <span style="color: #8b4513"></span></p><p><span style="color: #8b4513">We both know loss. Your losses far outweigh mine own, yet I truly, honestly and respectfully, am sorry. Twice now I bring you dark news, though this time I am absent. It is not through fear of your anger or remorse that I choose to deliver these words by quill, no, I have made promises. Promises to you and your friend, to his colleagues, that I intend to fulfill in totality. By dawn I will have ventured out to do as I must. To assist one of their own, ill and desperately in need. Also, to come with them, here, to meet you and forge a path forward.</span></p><p> <span style="color: #8b4513"></span></p><p><span style="color: #8b4513">May our common enemies perish! May the dark stain of death be washed away under mooncast light! May together, we avenge those loved ones now fallen!</span></p><p> <span style="color: #8b4513"></span></p><p><span style="color: #8b4513">AM"</span></p><p> </p><p>Small round crinkles seemed to occupy several areas of the page. She'd signed it as much with her tears as with her name...</p><p> </p><p>---</p><p> </p><p>It was some hours later, with the moon slowly descending from view and threatening dawn, that Aletia returned to Jabbar's shop. This hadn't been an easy decision. Her intuition and survival instinct begged her to flee. Leave this horrid city and its treachery behind, go back to the old ways of wandering the forest lands. Life was simpler that way. But there was no Vallio to share those old ways anymore.</p><p> </p><p>So she'd come here seeking the tools for revenge, as well as to pay her debt and respects.</p><p> </p><p>Burrai's words rattled off the basement walls and Aletia tasted their truth. She appreciated the honesty, the methodical logic, and the calm manner in which they were spoken.</p><p> </p><p>She remained still and absorbed it all, showing her respect to the dead with a quiet prayer.</p><p> </p><p><span style="color: #0000CD">"Just as the dearest moon runs rings through the sky,</span></p><p><span style="color: #0000CD">from none to full to none once more.</span></p><p><span style="color: #0000CD">So too do men die.</span></p><p><span style="color: #0000CD">So too can a death,</span></p><p><span style="color: #0000CD">change the motion of a tide."</span></p><p> </p><p>Billanverthorne spoke then, and even though the words seemed predominantly aimed at Ersun, the young elven lass was quite taken aback by the rebuke. Clearly this one had less control of his emotions. She began to wonder what other words might have been said in her absence.</p><p> </p><p><span style="color: #B22222">~Egos? The irony...~</span></p><p> </p><p>She turned to him and showed only a flat sorrowful face, before moving her gaze back to Burrai.</p><p> </p><p><span style="color: #0000CD">"I am in dept to you for your aid, for charging to assist someone largely unknown on such a horrible night. That says more of you and yours than any words can. It speaks of honor, bravery, and justice. I am truly sorry for your loss and any role I played in the hour of his death."</span></p><p> <span style="color: #0000CD"></span></p><p>Aletia looked to Bill again, somewhat more apologetically and slowly blinked her dry reddened eyes once, before continuing.</p><p> </p><p><span style="color: #0000CD">"My friend, it seems you berate me with one hand, and with the other either demand or assume allegiance. I am sorry for your hurt and anger. However, you speak of agendas? Please, do enlighten me as to yours. I will come to no decisions hastily or half-advised. At least allow me the opportunity to decide my fate with full knowledge, of what this group's true intentions now are. What are your current plans? What method is there in your desire to thwart the Black Network? I know only of the two men we planned to interdict before the contest, and I also offered to assist in the visitation to a temple. Let me remind you that our ties are less than one evening in age. Lay it out then, tell it all, and if what I next say sees our paths align, and I can be of service, then... then you will have my word."</span></p><p> </p><p>She didn't give them all of it, but she did go on to briefly speak of what was once her family, the bloodline and the all-true hatred of the drow.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #0000CD">“I believe that what we have done up until this point IS important.”</span></p><p> </p><p>What they really sought to know though was what she could do. What could a young woman offer a team of what seemed like hardened soldiers of secrecy?</p><p> </p><p><span style="color: #0000CD">"My friends, this city and its ways are not my element. Do not look to me to bravely charge outnumbered into the abyss. Drawn blades on dirty roads, physical strength and thick armor I suit not. But do not look on me with shame, or dare mock me, as a woman, young and weak, useless and fragile, for I may have ways which can make your strikes quieter, precise and with less inherent risk. I am an unknown, an observer, a silent nobody with an art for collecting information. I take no pleasure in war and death, but when it is due I choose anonymity, working from a distance, and returning to the darkness as quietly as I arrived. Disguise, dare I say it, charm, invisibility, the fine shafts of one’s own handmade arrows. The gifts of my true mother, Sehanine in arcane magic. These are the tools I've been fated with to face this life, and they are yours if our fates are to be conjoined. Along with this, I dare say my connection to Kayote can aid you. With Jabbar gone, it is to the Burlocks alone that I am now sworn."</span></p><p></p><p>[sblock=Aletia Stats]</p><p></p><table style='width: 100%'><tr><td><strong><img src="http://www.dawnindustry.com/Temp/AletiaS.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></strong></td><td><strong>ALETIA </strong><em>- Shining in the darkness</em><strong><br /> <br /> Sheet: </strong><a href="http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=725599" target="_blank">http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=725599</a><strong><br /> Level</strong> 6 Sorceress <strong>Init</strong> 3, <strong>HP</strong> Max: 32 Current: 23, <strong>Speed</strong> 30ft<br /> <strong>AC</strong> 14, <strong>Touch</strong> 13, <strong>Flat-footed</strong> 11, <strong>Fort</strong> 4, <strong>Ref</strong> 5, <strong>Will</strong> 5, <strong>Base Attack Bonus</strong> 3 <br /> <strong>Longbow </strong>+6 to hit / D8 damage (+1 point blank +1 with magic arrows)<br /> <strong>Longsword </strong>+3 to hit / D8 damage<br /> <br /> <strong>Familiar</strong> Crez (Tiny silver viper) <strong>Init</strong> 3, <strong>HP</strong> Max: 16 Current: 16, <strong>Speed</strong> 15ft<br /> <strong>AC</strong> 20, <strong>Fort</strong> 2, <strong>Ref</strong> 2, <strong>Will</strong> 4, <strong>Base Attack Bonus</strong> 2 <br /> <strong>Poisonous Bite </strong>+2 to hit / D1 damage (+poison)<br /> <strong>Abilities: </strong>Deliver touch spells, Alertness, Improved evasion, Spare spells, Empathic link, Speak with master</td></tr></table><p>[/sblock]</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="97mg, post: 7330713, member: 6799460"] [b]Aletia: Cards on the table[/b] The elven girl's life hadn't just been turned upside down. It had been shattered. A life of freedom, companionship and joy had been stained now, by both poison and a rainy eve soaking her with as much guilt, as blood, wind and sleet. As though the tip of a blade, the angle of her future had sharply turned. There were tears to accompany her few moments alone. Once, she had attracted kindness, laughter and optimism. Now she contemplated something else. Was she a bad omen? Was the next stage in her life to be as bait to the ways of death, treachery and ill-doing? Becoming close to people was inviting great risk. She even wondered if in some manner she was cursed, that all who meant something to her were destined to die. The Black Network. The vengeance she had alluded to with Kayote was ringing in her head like a great temple's bell. Telling Master Burlock of Vallio's demise hadn't been easy, but what of this? How to now describe the fate of Jabbar, a man to whom Kayote had entrusted her? [COLOR=#B22222]~If I had not set out alone, been more careful, not shouted Rasul, just let them take me...~[/COLOR] In Aletia's mind she'd failed. The successful delivery of Kayote's invitation was overshadowed now by attempted abduction, battle on the streets, discovery, interdiction and death. The Burlocks would be better without her. Jabbar's companions would be better without her. A life of solitude and perpetual grief beckoned, [COLOR=#a52a2a]"come to me, and misery for eternity is yours..."[/COLOR] Something cold ran along her neck, a thin and serpentine form. Crez slid down her arm and then turned, green eyes peering at her, but not in judgement. [COLOR=#0000CD]"Oh Crez, if not for you I would have been taken."[/COLOR] Strangely, these last few hours something had changed. A once simple empathic link had gained new complexity. They could truly converse and understand each other. The connection betwixt the two had deepened. [COLOR=#0000CD]"Promisesssss miss."[/COLOR] Immediately she knew what was implied by the flicking tongue and subtle reptilian jaw movements. They were together. She was not alone, even if it would be only a snake to share her path, and a moon goddess so distant and untouched. But there had been other promises. To deliver a note to Kayote of Jabbar's intention to meet this morn. To be back at the trade shop before dawn, to visit a temple. To lay a plan to catch Ozzen and Houlgrim before Kayote's foul game was played out in full. She owed it to them. Jabbar had died for it. Aletia's actions would be the will of the deceased. She was to do... dead man's work, in order to benefit the living. Burning pain accompanied her attempt to lean forward and write. The wound was fresh, a horrid tear to her back, but not a mortal injury. She'd deal with that later. More important work was at hand. [COLOR=#8b4513]"For the eyes of Master Burlock alone. A woman came to you with nothing but ill news. The death of a friend. A woman with grief and loss in-tow; your kindness she relished, your promise of a home and purpose she was humbled by, your knowledge and trust she both admired and was warmed by. I am eternally grateful to you and your kin. With broken heart I accept this duty to write words that you shall not wish to read, contemplate, nor remember. However, this is my duty. This is an act I can neither hide from nor conceal. On this eve as instructed, your invitation was delivered in full. His comrades welcomed me wholeheartedly, though the contest they questioned. A trap, your friend said, dangerous."[/COLOR] [COLOR=#0000CD]~Crez, I shall not mention the plan of removing Ozzen and Houlgrim from the cards. Not in writing. Let that be done with Jabbar's comrades in the morning.~[/COLOR] [COLOR=#8b4513]"Early this day, please make yourself available to your friend's comrades. They wish to visit and speak with you, and I also wish to be there as there is much to discuss. With the invitation delivered, the shop I did depart, to find myself followed. Rhats and a most horrible man did their best to bound and bag me. Disguised, they did not see the truth of me, nor did they expect your friend's entourage to rush to my aid. My assailant's end came in the dead of night, with rain to wash their blood down filthy city streets. But that was not to be the end of it. Spotted by the flying ones, wounded as I am by javelins hurled from the sky, we watched as the first moves were made to raise alarm. In the final moments, your friend touched a great power unknown to me. A sacrifice was made. In exchange for his life the flying one was slain. We both know loss. Your losses far outweigh mine own, yet I truly, honestly and respectfully, am sorry. Twice now I bring you dark news, though this time I am absent. It is not through fear of your anger or remorse that I choose to deliver these words by quill, no, I have made promises. Promises to you and your friend, to his colleagues, that I intend to fulfill in totality. By dawn I will have ventured out to do as I must. To assist one of their own, ill and desperately in need. Also, to come with them, here, to meet you and forge a path forward. May our common enemies perish! May the dark stain of death be washed away under mooncast light! May together, we avenge those loved ones now fallen! AM"[/COLOR] Small round crinkles seemed to occupy several areas of the page. She'd signed it as much with her tears as with her name... --- It was some hours later, with the moon slowly descending from view and threatening dawn, that Aletia returned to Jabbar's shop. This hadn't been an easy decision. Her intuition and survival instinct begged her to flee. Leave this horrid city and its treachery behind, go back to the old ways of wandering the forest lands. Life was simpler that way. But there was no Vallio to share those old ways anymore. So she'd come here seeking the tools for revenge, as well as to pay her debt and respects. Burrai's words rattled off the basement walls and Aletia tasted their truth. She appreciated the honesty, the methodical logic, and the calm manner in which they were spoken. She remained still and absorbed it all, showing her respect to the dead with a quiet prayer. [COLOR=#0000CD]"Just as the dearest moon runs rings through the sky, from none to full to none once more. So too do men die. So too can a death, change the motion of a tide."[/COLOR] Billanverthorne spoke then, and even though the words seemed predominantly aimed at Ersun, the young elven lass was quite taken aback by the rebuke. Clearly this one had less control of his emotions. She began to wonder what other words might have been said in her absence. [COLOR=#B22222]~Egos? The irony...~[/COLOR] She turned to him and showed only a flat sorrowful face, before moving her gaze back to Burrai. [COLOR=#0000CD]"I am in dept to you for your aid, for charging to assist someone largely unknown on such a horrible night. That says more of you and yours than any words can. It speaks of honor, bravery, and justice. I am truly sorry for your loss and any role I played in the hour of his death." [/COLOR] Aletia looked to Bill again, somewhat more apologetically and slowly blinked her dry reddened eyes once, before continuing. [COLOR=#0000CD]"My friend, it seems you berate me with one hand, and with the other either demand or assume allegiance. I am sorry for your hurt and anger. However, you speak of agendas? Please, do enlighten me as to yours. I will come to no decisions hastily or half-advised. At least allow me the opportunity to decide my fate with full knowledge, of what this group's true intentions now are. What are your current plans? What method is there in your desire to thwart the Black Network? I know only of the two men we planned to interdict before the contest, and I also offered to assist in the visitation to a temple. Let me remind you that our ties are less than one evening in age. Lay it out then, tell it all, and if what I next say sees our paths align, and I can be of service, then... then you will have my word."[/COLOR] She didn't give them all of it, but she did go on to briefly speak of what was once her family, the bloodline and the all-true hatred of the drow. [COLOR=#0000CD]“I believe that what we have done up until this point IS important.”[/COLOR] What they really sought to know though was what she could do. What could a young woman offer a team of what seemed like hardened soldiers of secrecy? [COLOR=#0000CD]"My friends, this city and its ways are not my element. Do not look to me to bravely charge outnumbered into the abyss. Drawn blades on dirty roads, physical strength and thick armor I suit not. But do not look on me with shame, or dare mock me, as a woman, young and weak, useless and fragile, for I may have ways which can make your strikes quieter, precise and with less inherent risk. I am an unknown, an observer, a silent nobody with an art for collecting information. I take no pleasure in war and death, but when it is due I choose anonymity, working from a distance, and returning to the darkness as quietly as I arrived. Disguise, dare I say it, charm, invisibility, the fine shafts of one’s own handmade arrows. The gifts of my true mother, Sehanine in arcane magic. These are the tools I've been fated with to face this life, and they are yours if our fates are to be conjoined. Along with this, I dare say my connection to Kayote can aid you. With Jabbar gone, it is to the Burlocks alone that I am now sworn."[/COLOR] [sblock=Aletia Stats] [TABLE="width: 800, align: left"] [TR] [TD][B][IMG]http://www.dawnindustry.com/Temp/AletiaS.jpg[/IMG][/B][/TD] [TD][B]ALETIA [/B][I]- Shining in the darkness[/I][B] Sheet: [/B][URL]http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=725599[/URL][B] Level[/B] 6 Sorceress [B]Init[/B] 3, [B]HP[/B] Max: 32 Current: 23, [B]Speed[/B] 30ft [B]AC[/B] 14, [B]Touch[/B] 13, [B]Flat-footed[/B] 11, [B]Fort[/B] 4, [B]Ref[/B] 5, [B]Will[/B] 5, [B]Base Attack Bonus[/B] 3 [B]Longbow [/B]+6 to hit / D8 damage (+1 point blank +1 with magic arrows) [B]Longsword [/B]+3 to hit / D8 damage [B]Familiar[/B] Crez (Tiny silver viper) [B]Init[/B] 3, [B]HP[/B] Max: 16 Current: 16, [B]Speed[/B] 15ft [B]AC[/B] 20, [B]Fort[/B] 2, [B]Ref[/B] 2, [B]Will[/B] 4, [B]Base Attack Bonus[/B] 2 [B]Poisonous Bite [/B]+2 to hit / D1 damage (+poison) [B]Abilities: [/B]Deliver touch spells, Alertness, Improved evasion, Spare spells, Empathic link, Speak with master[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] [/sblock] [/QUOTE]
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Dark Days in Sion - Act 3: Scene 3
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