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<blockquote data-quote="Emperor Valerian" data-source="post: 1546011" data-attributes="member: 15043"><p><strong>Thanatos</strong></p><p></p><p>The air swirled around the party once again, as the belching flames and toxic fumes of the Noisesome Vale seemed to pass away in a mere blur.</p><p></p><p>“This anti-cold stuff itches,” Pyrion complained. “Why do we need it, again? Why couldn’t we just bundle up?”</p><p></p><p>“Because,” Tess growled, holding her head from the nausea, “its the realm of the undead, and its VERY cold.” <em>Shutup already, you pint-sized moron...</em></p><p></p><p>The spinning mists of teleportation slowed, then stopped. As the party’s sight began to view the world around them, a frigid blast of air slammed into their very bones... despite their oils to protect against the worst of the cold.</p><p></p><p>Snow surrounded the party, deep as their shins. It surrounded them, flying through the frigid air, swirling around their heads. It quickly fluttered into their eyes, and flew into their nostrils. Surrounding them, as far as the eye could see, was a sight that would have made even the most steadfast shiver with more than cold. </p><p></p><p>Tombstones.</p><p></p><p>Thousands upon thousands of tombstones, with names scrawled in Common, elegantly scripted in Elven, or hammered in with Dwarven. Hundreds of other tongues the party could not recognize decorated some of the stones.</p><p></p><p>“Great... a graveyard... I’m already creeped out,” Siabrey complained, shuddering. “Aeron, any specific tombstone we’re supposed to be at?” </p><p></p><p>“Yup,” the wizard was already looking down at stones, and growling in displeasure over the wind. “None of these match! Though this demon is supposedly only... hmm...” the wizard started tramping off to the left... and the party was left with little choice to follow.</p><p></p><p>“<em>Whose</em> tomb do we plunge the Pelor end into, again?” Siabrey asked uneasily. <em>The last thing I want is that staff to wake something up...or someone...</em></p><p></p><p>“Asuri’s consort, from millenia ago. Her fiery death spurred him to make the original power staff, it was originally a staff of vengeance... till he lost it, and someone changed it around to suit their purposes,” Aeron said absentmindedly, before suddenly stopping.</p><p></p><p>“That one it?”</p><p></p><p>“No,” the wizard looked up, but then bent over again, and pointed. “Looks like this poor person didn’t want to be buried.” The party recoiled at seeing a few broken fingernails imbedded in the stone.</p><p></p><p>“Just hurry up, Aeron. This place creeps me out, and I don’t want to meet any of the locals...”</p><p></p><p>“Um...” Aeron suddenly stopped. “That’s where we need to go.”</p><p></p><p>“Where?”</p><p></p><p>“Um...” Aeron stuttered again... and then the party saw them.</p><p></p><p>Three large shapes, looming in the blizzard. They looked like men, save they were massive, nearly fourteen feet tall. Two carried massive axes, while the third, in the center, was devoid of obvious weapons. As they approached, the party made out two shimmering shapes to their sides... shapes that looked vaguely humanoid. </p><p></p><p>“Greetings, travelers,” a thundering voice boomed from the center creature. As his form finally became visible, the party indeed shuddered. His skin was a silvery-white, his large mane of a beard and mustache fluttered snow white, and his deep blue eyes spoke of the pent up power of a frost giant. His two large companions also revealed themselves to be the same. “You possess an item that we wish to take a look at... and we have done significant work... we’d knew you’d arrive here eventually.” The massive beast gave a toothy smile.</p><p></p><p>Shaun, however, stood in shock... not at the frost giant, but at one of the smaller, shimmering spectres as their side. One specter looked like a miner... save his upper torso appeared crushed in. The other appeared almost an exact copy of Shaun... save several years younger.</p><p></p><p>“You,” its voice hissed, vicious and hard. “You...”</p><p></p><p>The rogue was stunned, and couldn’t move at all. <em>Couldn’t be! He died so young! He wouldn’t end up here!</em> As the specter began to move towards him, Shaun began to stutter.</p><p></p><p>“Shawn! I... um...” the rogue sputtered. Images flooded back into his mind... his father fawning over his twin. His twin sitting at the table, enjoying his parents company while Shaun was banished to the garden. His twin standing aside, watching his father beat him viciously for something he didn’t do.</p><p></p><p><em>He did NOTHING!</em> part of Shaun’s mind hissed viciously. <em>NOTHING to help you! He stood aside, and watched! In that mute brain of his, he was LAUGHING at you, Shaun!</em> the darker side of the rogue chided. <em>His fate was coming to him... and you sank to HIS level by killing him!</em></p><p></p><p><em> Shaun,</em> the rogue heard Elenya’s cool, soothing voice in his head, <em>It’s ok... the deed is done, love. You can only do one thing, if this indeed is your slain brother... you can apologize...</em> The party looked on in confusion, as a tear welled up in the rogue’s eye, and ran partway down his cheek before falling towards the ground below with the <em>plink</em> of ice.</p><p></p><p>“Shawn... I... I... I’m sorry,” the rogue opened his hands. “I had no right... I had no reason... I... I don’t know what else...” he said. He did not expect a smile and hug from the ghost of his brother... and his heart was steeled when he saw the look of hate in the specter’s eyes. His weapons were away, as he walked towards the ghost. He’d thought about this moment often.</p><p></p><p><em>Would I be ready to offer the only true repayment for what I did?</em> he had often wondered. <em>Would I be willing to let him kill me?</em></p><p></p><p>The rogue found his feet walking him forward, towards the snarling remains of a soul, even as his mind wrestled with the question. Part of him wanted to scream that he’d changed, that he was a new man, that he was now a father... another part felt that this was the only way to make things right.</p><p></p><p>“You... vile fiend!” the ghost snarled. A wispy, ethereal finger extended towards the rogue, and the specter snarled again, “As you took my life, what I held most dear, I shall return! And when I do, I shall steal what YOU hold most dear... your precious wife and your three children!”</p><p></p><p>Shaun’s forward movement stopped. <em>Elenya? The children?</em> They were innocents! They had done nothing! Shaun Dice had committed the evil, not those four innocent souls!</p><p></p><p>“They have done nothing!” Shaun snarled back. “Your quarrel is with me, Shawn! Me, and me alone! Should you wish to take my life, brother, I owe you no less! But Elenya has done nothing! Neither have the children! Leave them out of this!”</p><p></p><p>The specter floated hauntingly closer, a cackle coming from its lips. “You were always the dim one Shaun... never realizing the full potential of father’s life, the rewards for tact! Even now, you don’t recognize! I want to cause you the same pain you caused me... you <em>offer</em> me your life... willingly! But I want you to feel pain... terror... horror! So I refuse your offer, and instead I shall steal what you love most from you! Then you will feel my pain!”</p><p></p><p>The party’s weapons were already drawn, as both they and the frost giants watched the exchange uneasily. The rogue himself reached for his rapier, just before Tess’ voice carried over the cold wind:</p><p></p><p>“Shaun, don’t give in! Don’t!”</p><p></p><p>The rogue did not hear, or care to hear. His mind was focused on one thing... the threat to his new family... his innocent wife, his pure unborn children. And like a fatherly lion, he was fully prepared to die defending the cubs that had yet to see the light of day. With a <em>shiin</em> his rapier flashed out of its scabbard. In a similar hissing noise, his voice carried only as far as to let the specter hear it.</p><p></p><p>“This is between you and me.” It would finally be settled, between them. One on one. The frightful war would end. Now. <em>And it will be done with my blade, by myself! No one will have his destruction as theirs to call, save me!</em></p><p></p><p>As the specter backed away, to let the two settle their feud once and for all, a piercing shriek broke through the air. From over Shaun’s shoulder, three powerful pulses of screeching energy slammed into the ghost. Shawn’s form let out a terrified shriek, before exploding into cartwheeling bits of ectoplasm. The rogue spun just in time to see Tess’ mouth closing from her sonic assault. Before he had a chance to scream his fury at her, the rest of the party leapt forward with a roar.</p><p></p><p>Siabrey dashed forward towards the frost giant in the middle who had spoken, her two flaming blades cutting massive gashes into his form. In their wake, his skin seemed melty, even liquid-like after their fiery passage.</p><p></p><p>In the same eyeblink, Vin had placed four arrows into the closest greataxe frost giant, yet the massive beast hardly blinked. Instead, it let out a terrible roar, and hefted its blade above its head.</p><p></p><p>The other specter flashed through the air towards Siabrey, and grabbed the Empress. She shuddered, feeling the indescribable, as it seemed part of her soul, her very lifeforce, was sucked out of her arm by the creature’s grip ( one negative level). Grumki and Hidalas both got absolutely sadistic grins on their faces, and jointly called upon their respective deities. Two massive flamestrikes crashed down upon the frost giants, turning even more of their skin the same melty, semi-liquid transparence.</p><p></p><p>The Frost Giant sorcerer, in the center, backed away from Siabrey’s ferocious blades, and with an unholy word and lifting of his arms, snarled forth a command. The ground around the party seemed to shudder, and rise... its pregant ice giving birth to icy skeletons all around (18 in total).</p><p></p><p>Anias charged to the front, his nightblade finding itself locked in furious duel with one of the mighty beasts’ greataxes. For a while, the angel held his own, until a vicious and strong blow from the giant knocked his blade aside for a second... long enough that the axe carved an vicious, deadly wound through the angel’s chest and side. Anias stumbled away from the fray, bleeding profusely.</p><p></p><p>Grumki’s holy warhammer found the specter that plagued Siabrey, sending it back to the depths of horror from whence it came, and the gnome Pyrion, with many blasts and booms, emptied two pistols into one of the frost giants.</p><p></p><p>Then the skeletons surged forward.</p><p></p><p>They came with bluish blades, icy short swords, which they lunged with at Siabrey, Grumki, Orion, and Shaun. All save the rogue managed to dodge the furious blows. One skeleton managed to stab the rogue in the shoulder, and he felt a feeling of icy cold blasting through his body, even though the blade barely cut him (1d6 cold damage).</p><p></p><p>Before the frost giant sorcerer could call upon more magic, Orion silenced him forever with a series of vicious and well timed kicks and punches. The beast attempted at one point to grab the monk as he launched his assault... Orion merely laughed, and with one arm, blocked the beast’s punch, before delivering a leg sweep that downed the creature. The monk then leapt into the air, and with a furious down-kick to the giant’s neck, snapped its vertebrae and crushed its windpipe.</p><p></p><p>Siabrey’s dancing blades found the giant to her front, cutting down the weakened beast as her blades converted its chest and belly from icy strength to watery goo. Three well placed arrows from Vin slammed into the last frost giant’s head, downing it just as it was about to deliver a devastating blow on the reeling angel Anias.</p><p></p><p>Hidalas then pulled from under his cloak a golden symbol. Resembling a sword embedded into a set of scales, the holy symbol of Tarantor glowed, as Hidalas repeated a mantra to banish the undead and unholy beasts of the deep. The skeletons shuddered, cracked, and under the force of Hidalas’ compulsion, <em>all</em> proceeded to explode into shattered pieces of bone.</p><p></p><p>“Mighty impressive, Hidalas!” Siabrey breathed uneasily as Grumki rushed over and began trying to restore the parts of her broken soul. “Last time I remember you doing anything productive was outside of Mephys!” she joked.</p><p></p><p>“Quiet you.”</p><p></p><p>Shaun, for his part, was still furious. The rogue stormed over to Tess, and in a snarling voice, demanded why she had killed his brother when HE, and he alone, had the right... the honor... indeed the duty, to face the ghost alone.</p><p></p><p>“I was the one that caused the wrong that made him into this!” Shaun shouted. “I was the one! Not you! Not any of you! That’s why I needed to face him, alone!” The rogue shuddered in the cold, and the bard grabbed hold of him even as he tried to struggle to get free.</p><p></p><p>“Shaun,” she whispered, “Shaun shaun shaun...” she cooed to him, trying to calm him, “I did that for you.”</p><p></p><p>“What?!” he snapped, pushing away. “How the hell was doing that helping me!?”</p><p></p><p>“Shaun!” she finally snapped, annoyed, “would you have been able to live with the image etched in your memory, <em>forever</em>, of you killing your own brother, <em>again</em>? Would you?!” </p><p></p><p>Shaun’s ranting suddenly stopped. His eyes still spoke fury, and his hands yet clasped and unclasped the air between their fingers, but he remained still.</p><p></p><p>“Shaun... Elenya told me... all about it,” Tess said quietly. “About what happened so long ago. You’re a different man now, Shaun. Indeed... now you are a man. Then you were nothing more than a punk kid.” She put an arm around him. “And there is no reason for the man to be haunted by the deed he had to finish from his days as a kid. It would’ve torn you apart to relive killing your brother... again and again... every night before you went to sleep!”</p><p></p><p>“And so you took the image into yourself?” Shaun asked uneasily.</p><p></p><p>“I have the images of many dead in my mind,” the bard smiled sadly. “I have much rage... much anger. I have learned to deal with it... better me than you.”</p><p></p><p>“I found it!” Aeron’s whoop echoed over the snow, and the wizard motioned towards Orion. “Bring it over here! Right there! Now!”</p><p></p><p>The monk plunged the staff into the deep, wintry snow, and once again smoke billowed into the frigid air around the party. To Orion’s horror, at his feet, the ground churned, and a long decayed and rotted head, with long golden strands still attached, exploded from the ground. The skeleton made no noise, its mouth merely open in soundless screams, before it collapsed back into the receiving earth.</p><p></p><p>“This world is done,” the monk said quietly, pulling the staff back out. “One more left.”</p><p></p><p>"Yeah," Geoffrey rolled his eyes, "just one more. Then I get my wine reward, right?!"</p><p></p><p></p><p>==================================================</p><p></p><p>(DM’s Note: I might not have mentioned this before, but by this point in the adventure, the players ARE running multiple people for combat purposes. Shaun’s player also ran Geoffrey (who was mostly ineffective, save a griping or comic relief), Siabrey’s also ran Pyrion (much of the same... the guns just never rolled well) and Vin (whose player had gone home already), Orion’s ran Hidalas, and Tess’ ran Grumki. The only characters I ran were Anias and Aeron... and whatever baddies they fought. )</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Emperor Valerian, post: 1546011, member: 15043"] [b]Thanatos[/b] The air swirled around the party once again, as the belching flames and toxic fumes of the Noisesome Vale seemed to pass away in a mere blur. “This anti-cold stuff itches,” Pyrion complained. “Why do we need it, again? Why couldn’t we just bundle up?” “Because,” Tess growled, holding her head from the nausea, “its the realm of the undead, and its VERY cold.” [i]Shutup already, you pint-sized moron...[/i] The spinning mists of teleportation slowed, then stopped. As the party’s sight began to view the world around them, a frigid blast of air slammed into their very bones... despite their oils to protect against the worst of the cold. Snow surrounded the party, deep as their shins. It surrounded them, flying through the frigid air, swirling around their heads. It quickly fluttered into their eyes, and flew into their nostrils. Surrounding them, as far as the eye could see, was a sight that would have made even the most steadfast shiver with more than cold. Tombstones. Thousands upon thousands of tombstones, with names scrawled in Common, elegantly scripted in Elven, or hammered in with Dwarven. Hundreds of other tongues the party could not recognize decorated some of the stones. “Great... a graveyard... I’m already creeped out,” Siabrey complained, shuddering. “Aeron, any specific tombstone we’re supposed to be at?” “Yup,” the wizard was already looking down at stones, and growling in displeasure over the wind. “None of these match! Though this demon is supposedly only... hmm...” the wizard started tramping off to the left... and the party was left with little choice to follow. “[i]Whose[/i] tomb do we plunge the Pelor end into, again?” Siabrey asked uneasily. [i]The last thing I want is that staff to wake something up...or someone...[/i] “Asuri’s consort, from millenia ago. Her fiery death spurred him to make the original power staff, it was originally a staff of vengeance... till he lost it, and someone changed it around to suit their purposes,” Aeron said absentmindedly, before suddenly stopping. “That one it?” “No,” the wizard looked up, but then bent over again, and pointed. “Looks like this poor person didn’t want to be buried.” The party recoiled at seeing a few broken fingernails imbedded in the stone. “Just hurry up, Aeron. This place creeps me out, and I don’t want to meet any of the locals...” “Um...” Aeron suddenly stopped. “That’s where we need to go.” “Where?” “Um...” Aeron stuttered again... and then the party saw them. Three large shapes, looming in the blizzard. They looked like men, save they were massive, nearly fourteen feet tall. Two carried massive axes, while the third, in the center, was devoid of obvious weapons. As they approached, the party made out two shimmering shapes to their sides... shapes that looked vaguely humanoid. “Greetings, travelers,” a thundering voice boomed from the center creature. As his form finally became visible, the party indeed shuddered. His skin was a silvery-white, his large mane of a beard and mustache fluttered snow white, and his deep blue eyes spoke of the pent up power of a frost giant. His two large companions also revealed themselves to be the same. “You possess an item that we wish to take a look at... and we have done significant work... we’d knew you’d arrive here eventually.” The massive beast gave a toothy smile. Shaun, however, stood in shock... not at the frost giant, but at one of the smaller, shimmering spectres as their side. One specter looked like a miner... save his upper torso appeared crushed in. The other appeared almost an exact copy of Shaun... save several years younger. “You,” its voice hissed, vicious and hard. “You...” The rogue was stunned, and couldn’t move at all. [i]Couldn’t be! He died so young! He wouldn’t end up here![/i] As the specter began to move towards him, Shaun began to stutter. “Shawn! I... um...” the rogue sputtered. Images flooded back into his mind... his father fawning over his twin. His twin sitting at the table, enjoying his parents company while Shaun was banished to the garden. His twin standing aside, watching his father beat him viciously for something he didn’t do. [i]He did NOTHING![/i] part of Shaun’s mind hissed viciously. [i]NOTHING to help you! He stood aside, and watched! In that mute brain of his, he was LAUGHING at you, Shaun![/i] the darker side of the rogue chided. [i]His fate was coming to him... and you sank to HIS level by killing him![/i] [i] Shaun,[/i] the rogue heard Elenya’s cool, soothing voice in his head, [i]It’s ok... the deed is done, love. You can only do one thing, if this indeed is your slain brother... you can apologize...[/i] The party looked on in confusion, as a tear welled up in the rogue’s eye, and ran partway down his cheek before falling towards the ground below with the [i]plink[/i] of ice. “Shawn... I... I... I’m sorry,” the rogue opened his hands. “I had no right... I had no reason... I... I don’t know what else...” he said. He did not expect a smile and hug from the ghost of his brother... and his heart was steeled when he saw the look of hate in the specter’s eyes. His weapons were away, as he walked towards the ghost. He’d thought about this moment often. [i]Would I be ready to offer the only true repayment for what I did?[/i] he had often wondered. [i]Would I be willing to let him kill me?[/i] The rogue found his feet walking him forward, towards the snarling remains of a soul, even as his mind wrestled with the question. Part of him wanted to scream that he’d changed, that he was a new man, that he was now a father... another part felt that this was the only way to make things right. “You... vile fiend!” the ghost snarled. A wispy, ethereal finger extended towards the rogue, and the specter snarled again, “As you took my life, what I held most dear, I shall return! And when I do, I shall steal what YOU hold most dear... your precious wife and your three children!” Shaun’s forward movement stopped. [i]Elenya? The children?[/i] They were innocents! They had done nothing! Shaun Dice had committed the evil, not those four innocent souls! “They have done nothing!” Shaun snarled back. “Your quarrel is with me, Shawn! Me, and me alone! Should you wish to take my life, brother, I owe you no less! But Elenya has done nothing! Neither have the children! Leave them out of this!” The specter floated hauntingly closer, a cackle coming from its lips. “You were always the dim one Shaun... never realizing the full potential of father’s life, the rewards for tact! Even now, you don’t recognize! I want to cause you the same pain you caused me... you [i]offer[/i] me your life... willingly! But I want you to feel pain... terror... horror! So I refuse your offer, and instead I shall steal what you love most from you! Then you will feel my pain!” The party’s weapons were already drawn, as both they and the frost giants watched the exchange uneasily. The rogue himself reached for his rapier, just before Tess’ voice carried over the cold wind: “Shaun, don’t give in! Don’t!” The rogue did not hear, or care to hear. His mind was focused on one thing... the threat to his new family... his innocent wife, his pure unborn children. And like a fatherly lion, he was fully prepared to die defending the cubs that had yet to see the light of day. With a [i]shiin[/i] his rapier flashed out of its scabbard. In a similar hissing noise, his voice carried only as far as to let the specter hear it. “This is between you and me.” It would finally be settled, between them. One on one. The frightful war would end. Now. [i]And it will be done with my blade, by myself! No one will have his destruction as theirs to call, save me![/i] As the specter backed away, to let the two settle their feud once and for all, a piercing shriek broke through the air. From over Shaun’s shoulder, three powerful pulses of screeching energy slammed into the ghost. Shawn’s form let out a terrified shriek, before exploding into cartwheeling bits of ectoplasm. The rogue spun just in time to see Tess’ mouth closing from her sonic assault. Before he had a chance to scream his fury at her, the rest of the party leapt forward with a roar. Siabrey dashed forward towards the frost giant in the middle who had spoken, her two flaming blades cutting massive gashes into his form. In their wake, his skin seemed melty, even liquid-like after their fiery passage. In the same eyeblink, Vin had placed four arrows into the closest greataxe frost giant, yet the massive beast hardly blinked. Instead, it let out a terrible roar, and hefted its blade above its head. The other specter flashed through the air towards Siabrey, and grabbed the Empress. She shuddered, feeling the indescribable, as it seemed part of her soul, her very lifeforce, was sucked out of her arm by the creature’s grip ( one negative level). Grumki and Hidalas both got absolutely sadistic grins on their faces, and jointly called upon their respective deities. Two massive flamestrikes crashed down upon the frost giants, turning even more of their skin the same melty, semi-liquid transparence. The Frost Giant sorcerer, in the center, backed away from Siabrey’s ferocious blades, and with an unholy word and lifting of his arms, snarled forth a command. The ground around the party seemed to shudder, and rise... its pregant ice giving birth to icy skeletons all around (18 in total). Anias charged to the front, his nightblade finding itself locked in furious duel with one of the mighty beasts’ greataxes. For a while, the angel held his own, until a vicious and strong blow from the giant knocked his blade aside for a second... long enough that the axe carved an vicious, deadly wound through the angel’s chest and side. Anias stumbled away from the fray, bleeding profusely. Grumki’s holy warhammer found the specter that plagued Siabrey, sending it back to the depths of horror from whence it came, and the gnome Pyrion, with many blasts and booms, emptied two pistols into one of the frost giants. Then the skeletons surged forward. They came with bluish blades, icy short swords, which they lunged with at Siabrey, Grumki, Orion, and Shaun. All save the rogue managed to dodge the furious blows. One skeleton managed to stab the rogue in the shoulder, and he felt a feeling of icy cold blasting through his body, even though the blade barely cut him (1d6 cold damage). Before the frost giant sorcerer could call upon more magic, Orion silenced him forever with a series of vicious and well timed kicks and punches. The beast attempted at one point to grab the monk as he launched his assault... Orion merely laughed, and with one arm, blocked the beast’s punch, before delivering a leg sweep that downed the creature. The monk then leapt into the air, and with a furious down-kick to the giant’s neck, snapped its vertebrae and crushed its windpipe. Siabrey’s dancing blades found the giant to her front, cutting down the weakened beast as her blades converted its chest and belly from icy strength to watery goo. Three well placed arrows from Vin slammed into the last frost giant’s head, downing it just as it was about to deliver a devastating blow on the reeling angel Anias. Hidalas then pulled from under his cloak a golden symbol. Resembling a sword embedded into a set of scales, the holy symbol of Tarantor glowed, as Hidalas repeated a mantra to banish the undead and unholy beasts of the deep. The skeletons shuddered, cracked, and under the force of Hidalas’ compulsion, [i]all[/i] proceeded to explode into shattered pieces of bone. “Mighty impressive, Hidalas!” Siabrey breathed uneasily as Grumki rushed over and began trying to restore the parts of her broken soul. “Last time I remember you doing anything productive was outside of Mephys!” she joked. “Quiet you.” Shaun, for his part, was still furious. The rogue stormed over to Tess, and in a snarling voice, demanded why she had killed his brother when HE, and he alone, had the right... the honor... indeed the duty, to face the ghost alone. “I was the one that caused the wrong that made him into this!” Shaun shouted. “I was the one! Not you! Not any of you! That’s why I needed to face him, alone!” The rogue shuddered in the cold, and the bard grabbed hold of him even as he tried to struggle to get free. “Shaun,” she whispered, “Shaun shaun shaun...” she cooed to him, trying to calm him, “I did that for you.” “What?!” he snapped, pushing away. “How the hell was doing that helping me!?” “Shaun!” she finally snapped, annoyed, “would you have been able to live with the image etched in your memory, [i]forever[/i], of you killing your own brother, [i]again[/i]? Would you?!” Shaun’s ranting suddenly stopped. His eyes still spoke fury, and his hands yet clasped and unclasped the air between their fingers, but he remained still. “Shaun... Elenya told me... all about it,” Tess said quietly. “About what happened so long ago. You’re a different man now, Shaun. Indeed... now you are a man. Then you were nothing more than a punk kid.” She put an arm around him. “And there is no reason for the man to be haunted by the deed he had to finish from his days as a kid. It would’ve torn you apart to relive killing your brother... again and again... every night before you went to sleep!” “And so you took the image into yourself?” Shaun asked uneasily. “I have the images of many dead in my mind,” the bard smiled sadly. “I have much rage... much anger. I have learned to deal with it... better me than you.” “I found it!” Aeron’s whoop echoed over the snow, and the wizard motioned towards Orion. “Bring it over here! Right there! Now!” The monk plunged the staff into the deep, wintry snow, and once again smoke billowed into the frigid air around the party. To Orion’s horror, at his feet, the ground churned, and a long decayed and rotted head, with long golden strands still attached, exploded from the ground. The skeleton made no noise, its mouth merely open in soundless screams, before it collapsed back into the receiving earth. “This world is done,” the monk said quietly, pulling the staff back out. “One more left.” "Yeah," Geoffrey rolled his eyes, "just one more. Then I get my wine reward, right?!" ================================================== (DM’s Note: I might not have mentioned this before, but by this point in the adventure, the players ARE running multiple people for combat purposes. Shaun’s player also ran Geoffrey (who was mostly ineffective, save a griping or comic relief), Siabrey’s also ran Pyrion (much of the same... the guns just never rolled well) and Vin (whose player had gone home already), Orion’s ran Hidalas, and Tess’ ran Grumki. The only characters I ran were Anias and Aeron... and whatever baddies they fought. ) [/QUOTE]
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