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<blockquote data-quote="Nthal" data-source="post: 7578391" data-attributes="member: 6971069"><p><strong>Passages of Belief - 03/13/2019</strong></p><p></p><p><strong><p style="text-align: center">Passages of Belief</p><p></strong></p><p></p><p><em><p style="text-align: center">Darkness doesn’t scare me; I can see through it. But Sensates play a game with a blindfold called “A Game of You.” A game where you use the senses to understand the universe around you.</p></em></p><p style="text-align: center"><em></p></em></p><p style="text-align: center"><em>The Game is played for many reasons. And the higher the stakes, the more you learn about the universe.</p></em></p><p style="text-align: center"><em></p></em></p><p style="text-align: center"><em>And yourself.</p><p></em></p><p></p><p>Beepu pursed his lips and stepped to the breach in the wall. I couldn’t see in the hole, but I could see his face clearly. His eyes were widening in something between awe and greed. With a quick motion, he waved towards the room. Foggle, who was silently flying circles above us, swooped into the hole, and once again Beepu had that faraway look.</p><p></p><p>I leaned over to Daneath and whispered, “What did you see?”</p><p></p><p>Daneath looked at me and shrugged. “Books.”</p><p></p><p>Of course. If there were hard and fast rules about the multi-verse, one of them must be that the most pious of wizards could barely contain their greed over the idea of forgotten troves of knowledge stored in musty old tomes.</p><p></p><p>“Are we going to have time for this?” I asked.</p><p></p><p>“It’s not like we can hide them from him as we enter the room.”</p><p></p><p>At this point, Beepu’s eyes were growing wider and he began to shake.</p><p></p><p>“How bad is it?”</p><p></p><p>“It’s…a lot.”</p><p></p><p>Beepu’s head suddenly snapped towards the open hole and he leapt in. </p><p></p><p>“Move.” And I gently push Daneath aside and bend down to the opening and step within the chamber beyond. Standing up straight again I sigh.</p><p></p><p>It could be worse. The room was large, and I could quickly count perhaps a dozen bookcases. The dust was thick on the floor, and layers of old cobwebs were draped upon decaying wood shelves. The bookcases were full of ancient tomes, bound with leather. I walked to one of the shelves and reached out to touch the spine of a book, and the leather flaked away, crumbling to powder between my fingers.</p><p></p><p>“No! No! NO!” Beepu was running from case to case frantically.</p><p></p><p>“What is this place?” Iesa asked as he stepped in the room, followed closely by Nedra and Daneath. </p><p>I left the crumbling books and stepped away from the bookcase. Looking at the room itself it appeared unremarkable at first. A door on one end of the rectangular room, but the other end had a table or workspace. I walked over to it, and saw the remains of parchment, now just piles of dust in the very dry air. There were the remains of a candle stub, it’s wax long since melt. But on the table was a green metallic object. Lying next to it was a long chain, that split into three smaller ones. Two attached to the object, while a third lay unattached, with a broken ring laying to one side.</p><p></p><p>“It might be a temple’s archive,” I said. “There’s a censer with a broken chain here. The only place I have ever seen them in were temples.”</p><p></p><p>“She’s right,” Beepu said with disgust. “Few the tomes here are intact. Most have dry rot. The two I found were written in an old form of common. But they talked about tithes and families that had paid. Useless.”</p><p></p><p>“Well, not if you are trying to count the money,” Iesa observed.</p><p></p><p>“It’s hard to help people without jink. Of course, I’m not sure who this temple is dedicated to from things here,” I said while glaring at Iesa. </p><p></p><p>“Too many in Waterdeep don’t help anyone,” he retorted.</p><p></p><p>“Well…this isn’t Waterdeep…wherever that is. But we should keep moving. There has to be an exit somewhere.”</p><p></p><p>“Well, we agree on that at least,” Daneath said and moved to the lone door. Iesa pressed his ear against it. After a moment, he nodded and opened the it to the chamber beyond.</p><p></p><p>Daneath’s shield lit up the room; square and the walls were finished smooth, much like the library. Unlike the library it was littered with the remains of broken, dry rotted wood. All of the debris were covered with thick cobwebs. A hallway led from the center of one wall. and in the center of the room were the low, relatively intact circular walls of a pool, or an oversized well.</p><p></p><p>As we entered the chamber, the air was as dry as the library we had left. As we spread around looking around the room, Iesa stepped towards the well. </p><p></p><p>“The well has gone dry…but it is a long way down.”</p><p></p><p>“Looks like a storeroom,” Daneath observed. “With piles of discarded shelves, and furnishings.”</p><p>I was leading Nestra and I was moving towards the passageway. I only had a brief look into the darkess and could see it making a turn to the left, when I heard a noise behind me of a small rock tumbling against rock. Turning, I saw that Iesa was throwing loose pebbles down the shaft. </p><p></p><p>“Really?” Beepu said. “What if something is down there?” </p><p></p><p>“What are the chances of that Beepu? Anything alive is down here is where the water is…and there is no water down there.”</p><p></p><p>Daneath was poking in the rotten wood, “Well there certainly isn’t anything up here.”</p><p></p><p>“See? You are all over…ACK!” and Iesa jumped back from the wall surrounding the shaft. Skittering out from the depths several forms, the size of large hounds appeared. They were black, with a dull shine on their carapaces. They made no noise, despite the large number of legs, that sprouted from each of them. Their movements were quick and within a moment, four emerged from the shaft. Iesa leapt backwards as one scrambled towards him. The rest split up, with one heading towards Nestra and I, and one each for Daneath and Beepu.</p><p></p><p>I pushed Nestra behind me, and with a quick utterance of ‘zalt’ I cast a bolt of energy towards the spider as it raced towards me, narrowly missing it. The others were doing much of the same; Daneath batted away one with his shield and stabbed it with his short sword, ichor emerging from the thorax. Beepu, cast a bolt of flame at his arachnid foe, and manage to sear off a leg. Iesa stabbed and ran in circles around the well, neither making headway against the other.</p><p></p><p>“So…you HAD to do it. You had to throw stones!” Beepu shouted as he cast another bolt of flame, missing his target.</p><p></p><p>“<em>Zalt!</em> Well you know where the is water…oh wait! It’s a dry sodding well!” and my bolt hit the square on the large onyx colored abdomen.</p><p></p><p>“Mistakes were made!” and Iesa moved next to Daneath, and he switched targets, hitting Daneath’s opponent and laying it low. In turn Daneath turned and swung and cleaved the other spider into two. </p><p></p><p>“I am so glad that you have learned something from this Iesa,” and another bolt streaked from Beepu’s hands and his opponent burst into flames and stopped moving.</p><p></p><p>“<em>Zalt</em>” and I struck the last one between its many eyes, knocking it backwards. “Well, I’m so glad we can put this behind us. But let’s avoid tossing any more rocks down holes from now on.”</p><p></p><p>“I’ve got to get out of here. First Lizards, now bugs.” Nestra was muttering to herself and shaking her head.</p><p></p><p>“No, no. no. Troglodytes and spiders. Very different, details like that are important if you are planning to clean out your cella--” Beepu was starting to lecture. I gave him a look and he quickly closed his mouth.</p><p></p><p>“Anyway, this is exhausting.” I said.</p><p></p><p>“I ag…ag…agree,” and Iesa collapsed onto the floor. Looking at him, I saw that there was growing stain of blood on his hamstrings. I ran over to him and put some pressure one the wound. </p><p></p><p>“Anyone else hurt?”</p><p></p><p>“Well, a couple of scrapes from this one, but I’m a bit battered overall.”</p><p></p><p>I started pulling on the light within me and let if flow from my hands into the wound. I could the skin closing beneath my fingers, and the seepage of blood slow to nothing. I motion Daneath over to me and lay a hand on upon his stomach, pouring more energy into him. I couldn’t feel his wounds, but I felt his body pull on the stream of energy I gave to him. In a manner of moments, the magical energy flow stopped and where I thought I was tired before, I truly was exhausted now.</p><p></p><p>“I’m…I’m…I need to rest a bit. But somewhere without a large hole in the ground.”</p><p></p><p>“The library?” Beepu said with a glimmer of hope in his voice.</p><p></p><p>“The hole in the wall doesn’t exactly make that secure,” Daneath pointed out.</p><p></p><p>“Maybe…down the hall. Send Foggle.”</p><p></p><p>“Right.” And with a wave of his hand, Foggle flew down the darkened hall. He was focused, his brow furrowed when he spoke again. “The hall turns and continues on. There is a pair of doors, one on the end, and the other on the side of the hall, about two thirds of the way down. The one on the end of the hall is open though.”</p><p></p><p>“Can you see beyond it?” Daneath asked. Iesa gave out a slight moan.</p><p></p><p>“There is another passage beyond, more doors. And a lot more webs. As I am looking there are tracks here too. They are scattered, but they do lead back to this room.”</p><p></p><p>“What about that side door?” I asked.</p><p></p><p>Beepu thought a moment. “No…the tracks go by it and I do not see any sign of anything going in or out.”</p><p></p><p>“Well, I take it that spiders can’t open doors,” said Daneath. “Let’s check it out. Come on Iesa…up up up.” </p><p></p><p>“I’m moving…just tired,”</p><p></p><p>Beepu took the lead, and Daneath followed with a weary Iesa leaning on him. I put Nestra in front of me, and I took the rear, watching the hall behind us for more spiders. Soon we reached the door. </p><p></p><p> Iesa pulled himself off of Daneath and pressed his ear to it and listened. After a moment he nodded and moved away. This time, Beepu pushed open the door and Daneath shined his shield within. </p><p>Satisfied, he nodded and waved us in. </p><p></p><p>The room was perhaps a small store room; shelves lined the walls and several barrels lay on their side at the end of the room along with some wooden creates. The remains of moldering sacks lay in one corner with some type of grain spilling out on the floor. But there was room for all of us, and more importantly there wasn’t another exit, hole in the wall or open well shaft in the floor.</p><p>Beepu closed the door, and Daneath and I pulled over one of the crates to block it shut. </p><p></p><p>“Think that will be enough?” I asked.</p><p></p><p>“It should be from ones we saw before,” Daneath said</p><p></p><p>“And if there is a <em>bigger</em> one?”</p><p></p><p>“It better be. I’m real tired. Probably the party earlier.”</p><p></p><p>“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Nestra said. “This doesn’t seem to be the safest place, and can we really delay?”</p><p></p><p>“Well, If I hazard a guess it might be early morning. If Eragon—” Daneath started.</p><p></p><p>“Arakahn” we all correct.</p><p></p><p>“—him. If he hasn’t found us, he’s not going to. But unlike him, we’ve been fighting, and we need to rest. This is as good as it is going to get.”</p><p></p><p>I find a wall and slump down. Nestra looks around confused for a moment and then shrugs and sat down next to me. </p><p></p><p>“This is absolutely surreal. I’ve been imprisoned in my own home, impersonated by someone else, probably hunted by my former staff, and now I am clearing vermin out from beneath my house.”</p><p>I turned to look at her, “And now you are slumming with well-dressed adventurers, who were at one point trying kill you and are now deciding if you can take a nap. Sounds like a full day.”</p><p></p><p>She chuckled a moment, “Yes, yes it has. Thank you.”</p><p></p><p>“You can thank me properly when we get you out of here. Get some rest.”</p><p></p><p>The others had taken positions, and Beepu had set Foggle on the crate by the door. He was trying to read some documents from his spellbook by the light of Daneath’s shield. He looked at me and held out a copper piece and then said, “Myr could you?...</p><p></p><p>“Sure,” and I flexed and put a light on the greenie, and the light on the shield winked out. “It won’t last more than an hour. So, if you really need it wake me up.”</p><p></p><p>“We’ll watch first,” and Daneath nudged Iesa who muttered, “Yeah sure.”</p><p></p><p>“Honestly…let the owl do it. I can’t keep a night light up for you,” I said.</p><p></p><p>“We’ll do what we can. Get some rest Myr.”</p><p></p><p>I nod and closed my eyes. And soon darkness over took my thoughts.</p><p></p><p>Sometime later, I opened my eyes. I could hear the others sleeping quietly. My light had gone out, but my vision saw the grey shapes in the room; the five of us, the crates, the owl and the door. It was unchanged, just colorless. </p><p></p><p>I sighed; I was feeling better but not myself yet. I settled down and closed my eyes when…I heard it.</p><p></p><p>It was a quiet deliberate noise. The slow scraping against stone, but many times over. The sounds of many legs moving softly. I turned my head and I saw that Iesa was awake. His eyes were searching the dark, unable to see. But he could clearly hear the sounds as well. I watched him finger the hilt of the sword that lay next to him.</p><p></p><p>I could see him look toward my direction, and he put a finger to his lips. I nodded, before </p><p>remembering that he couldn’t see me in the darkness. I wasn’t sure how he knew I was awake and listening. My breathing? Did I shift? Watching him, I realized that while he wasn’t blessed with the ability to see in the dark, he knew how to survive in it. It reminded me of the Game. You get blindfolded and some of the most basic challenges involve sound. So much so, that I almost always close my eyes when I really want to hear something.</p><p></p><p>But, no matter how he knew I was awake., we both listened to the scraping on stone, fading away. And I am sure we both felt some relief that the sound wasn’t scraping on the wood of the door. Soon, silence again reigned and we both let out our stifled breaths slowly. </p><p></p><p>I leaned my head back and again closed my eyes. I wanted to see the light again. To taste the sweet fresh air, and not the stale air here deep below. I smiled to myself; how strange. The air I grew up with was never “sweet;” it was smoky, the tang of brimstone on the tongue. To say I missed the air outside here with the scent of rotten fish on by the river, and the tanneries nearby was surprising to me. </p><p></p><p>I wondered; </p><p></p><p>Did I really want to go home? </p><p></p><p>What I did I really want?</p><p></p><p>What did the multiverse want from me?</p><p></p><p>And once again the darkness took me, before I could answer any of those questions. </p><p></p><p></p><p><strong>Session Notes:</strong></p><p><strong></strong>The lord of the rings moment with the well was one of those moments. We all have seen it, and yet he touched it anyway.</p><p> </p><p>Considering none of us had any real gear, we were very, very conservative on moving around. Two swords, and spells and almost no armor.</p><p> </p><p>One item you might have noticed were the healing spells; I took a level in Cleric, but originally hadn’t planned on it. We were supposed to have two other folks in the adventure, but they dropped out before we started (a barbarian and a cleric). This ended up being an interesting twist as the DM had us think about “If you are going to multi-class, what is the good reason.”</p><p></p><p>I’ve always liked Keith Baker’s thoughts on “classes” in the game; they are rule structures and nothing more. You aren’t a fighter, you are someone who knows how to use a sword. So multi-classing is just an extension of that. But you need the rules as a framework.</p><p></p><p>So at this point I really started thinking about what the character “Myrai” really was, and it was here I started working backwards on the details of the past, compared to the broad starting point.</p><p></p><p>1333</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Nthal, post: 7578391, member: 6971069"] [b]Passages of Belief - 03/13/2019[/b] [B][CENTER]Passages of Belief[/CENTER] [/B] [I][CENTER]Darkness doesn’t scare me; I can see through it. But Sensates play a game with a blindfold called “A Game of You.” A game where you use the senses to understand the universe around you. The Game is played for many reasons. And the higher the stakes, the more you learn about the universe. And yourself.[/CENTER] [/I] Beepu pursed his lips and stepped to the breach in the wall. I couldn’t see in the hole, but I could see his face clearly. His eyes were widening in something between awe and greed. With a quick motion, he waved towards the room. Foggle, who was silently flying circles above us, swooped into the hole, and once again Beepu had that faraway look. I leaned over to Daneath and whispered, “What did you see?” Daneath looked at me and shrugged. “Books.” Of course. If there were hard and fast rules about the multi-verse, one of them must be that the most pious of wizards could barely contain their greed over the idea of forgotten troves of knowledge stored in musty old tomes. “Are we going to have time for this?” I asked. “It’s not like we can hide them from him as we enter the room.” At this point, Beepu’s eyes were growing wider and he began to shake. “How bad is it?” “It’s…a lot.” Beepu’s head suddenly snapped towards the open hole and he leapt in. “Move.” And I gently push Daneath aside and bend down to the opening and step within the chamber beyond. Standing up straight again I sigh. It could be worse. The room was large, and I could quickly count perhaps a dozen bookcases. The dust was thick on the floor, and layers of old cobwebs were draped upon decaying wood shelves. The bookcases were full of ancient tomes, bound with leather. I walked to one of the shelves and reached out to touch the spine of a book, and the leather flaked away, crumbling to powder between my fingers. “No! No! NO!” Beepu was running from case to case frantically. “What is this place?” Iesa asked as he stepped in the room, followed closely by Nedra and Daneath. I left the crumbling books and stepped away from the bookcase. Looking at the room itself it appeared unremarkable at first. A door on one end of the rectangular room, but the other end had a table or workspace. I walked over to it, and saw the remains of parchment, now just piles of dust in the very dry air. There were the remains of a candle stub, it’s wax long since melt. But on the table was a green metallic object. Lying next to it was a long chain, that split into three smaller ones. Two attached to the object, while a third lay unattached, with a broken ring laying to one side. “It might be a temple’s archive,” I said. “There’s a censer with a broken chain here. The only place I have ever seen them in were temples.” “She’s right,” Beepu said with disgust. “Few the tomes here are intact. Most have dry rot. The two I found were written in an old form of common. But they talked about tithes and families that had paid. Useless.” “Well, not if you are trying to count the money,” Iesa observed. “It’s hard to help people without jink. Of course, I’m not sure who this temple is dedicated to from things here,” I said while glaring at Iesa. “Too many in Waterdeep don’t help anyone,” he retorted. “Well…this isn’t Waterdeep…wherever that is. But we should keep moving. There has to be an exit somewhere.” “Well, we agree on that at least,” Daneath said and moved to the lone door. Iesa pressed his ear against it. After a moment, he nodded and opened the it to the chamber beyond. Daneath’s shield lit up the room; square and the walls were finished smooth, much like the library. Unlike the library it was littered with the remains of broken, dry rotted wood. All of the debris were covered with thick cobwebs. A hallway led from the center of one wall. and in the center of the room were the low, relatively intact circular walls of a pool, or an oversized well. As we entered the chamber, the air was as dry as the library we had left. As we spread around looking around the room, Iesa stepped towards the well. “The well has gone dry…but it is a long way down.” “Looks like a storeroom,” Daneath observed. “With piles of discarded shelves, and furnishings.” I was leading Nestra and I was moving towards the passageway. I only had a brief look into the darkess and could see it making a turn to the left, when I heard a noise behind me of a small rock tumbling against rock. Turning, I saw that Iesa was throwing loose pebbles down the shaft. “Really?” Beepu said. “What if something is down there?” “What are the chances of that Beepu? Anything alive is down here is where the water is…and there is no water down there.” Daneath was poking in the rotten wood, “Well there certainly isn’t anything up here.” “See? You are all over…ACK!” and Iesa jumped back from the wall surrounding the shaft. Skittering out from the depths several forms, the size of large hounds appeared. They were black, with a dull shine on their carapaces. They made no noise, despite the large number of legs, that sprouted from each of them. Their movements were quick and within a moment, four emerged from the shaft. Iesa leapt backwards as one scrambled towards him. The rest split up, with one heading towards Nestra and I, and one each for Daneath and Beepu. I pushed Nestra behind me, and with a quick utterance of ‘zalt’ I cast a bolt of energy towards the spider as it raced towards me, narrowly missing it. The others were doing much of the same; Daneath batted away one with his shield and stabbed it with his short sword, ichor emerging from the thorax. Beepu, cast a bolt of flame at his arachnid foe, and manage to sear off a leg. Iesa stabbed and ran in circles around the well, neither making headway against the other. “So…you HAD to do it. You had to throw stones!” Beepu shouted as he cast another bolt of flame, missing his target. “[I]Zalt![/I] Well you know where the is water…oh wait! It’s a dry sodding well!” and my bolt hit the square on the large onyx colored abdomen. “Mistakes were made!” and Iesa moved next to Daneath, and he switched targets, hitting Daneath’s opponent and laying it low. In turn Daneath turned and swung and cleaved the other spider into two. “I am so glad that you have learned something from this Iesa,” and another bolt streaked from Beepu’s hands and his opponent burst into flames and stopped moving. “[I]Zalt[/I]” and I struck the last one between its many eyes, knocking it backwards. “Well, I’m so glad we can put this behind us. But let’s avoid tossing any more rocks down holes from now on.” “I’ve got to get out of here. First Lizards, now bugs.” Nestra was muttering to herself and shaking her head. “No, no. no. Troglodytes and spiders. Very different, details like that are important if you are planning to clean out your cella--” Beepu was starting to lecture. I gave him a look and he quickly closed his mouth. “Anyway, this is exhausting.” I said. “I ag…ag…agree,” and Iesa collapsed onto the floor. Looking at him, I saw that there was growing stain of blood on his hamstrings. I ran over to him and put some pressure one the wound. “Anyone else hurt?” “Well, a couple of scrapes from this one, but I’m a bit battered overall.” I started pulling on the light within me and let if flow from my hands into the wound. I could the skin closing beneath my fingers, and the seepage of blood slow to nothing. I motion Daneath over to me and lay a hand on upon his stomach, pouring more energy into him. I couldn’t feel his wounds, but I felt his body pull on the stream of energy I gave to him. In a manner of moments, the magical energy flow stopped and where I thought I was tired before, I truly was exhausted now. “I’m…I’m…I need to rest a bit. But somewhere without a large hole in the ground.” “The library?” Beepu said with a glimmer of hope in his voice. “The hole in the wall doesn’t exactly make that secure,” Daneath pointed out. “Maybe…down the hall. Send Foggle.” “Right.” And with a wave of his hand, Foggle flew down the darkened hall. He was focused, his brow furrowed when he spoke again. “The hall turns and continues on. There is a pair of doors, one on the end, and the other on the side of the hall, about two thirds of the way down. The one on the end of the hall is open though.” “Can you see beyond it?” Daneath asked. Iesa gave out a slight moan. “There is another passage beyond, more doors. And a lot more webs. As I am looking there are tracks here too. They are scattered, but they do lead back to this room.” “What about that side door?” I asked. Beepu thought a moment. “No…the tracks go by it and I do not see any sign of anything going in or out.” “Well, I take it that spiders can’t open doors,” said Daneath. “Let’s check it out. Come on Iesa…up up up.” “I’m moving…just tired,” Beepu took the lead, and Daneath followed with a weary Iesa leaning on him. I put Nestra in front of me, and I took the rear, watching the hall behind us for more spiders. Soon we reached the door. Iesa pulled himself off of Daneath and pressed his ear to it and listened. After a moment he nodded and moved away. This time, Beepu pushed open the door and Daneath shined his shield within. Satisfied, he nodded and waved us in. The room was perhaps a small store room; shelves lined the walls and several barrels lay on their side at the end of the room along with some wooden creates. The remains of moldering sacks lay in one corner with some type of grain spilling out on the floor. But there was room for all of us, and more importantly there wasn’t another exit, hole in the wall or open well shaft in the floor. Beepu closed the door, and Daneath and I pulled over one of the crates to block it shut. “Think that will be enough?” I asked. “It should be from ones we saw before,” Daneath said “And if there is a [I]bigger[/I] one?” “It better be. I’m real tired. Probably the party earlier.” “Are you sure this is a good idea?” Nestra said. “This doesn’t seem to be the safest place, and can we really delay?” “Well, If I hazard a guess it might be early morning. If Eragon—” Daneath started. “Arakahn” we all correct. “—him. If he hasn’t found us, he’s not going to. But unlike him, we’ve been fighting, and we need to rest. This is as good as it is going to get.” I find a wall and slump down. Nestra looks around confused for a moment and then shrugs and sat down next to me. “This is absolutely surreal. I’ve been imprisoned in my own home, impersonated by someone else, probably hunted by my former staff, and now I am clearing vermin out from beneath my house.” I turned to look at her, “And now you are slumming with well-dressed adventurers, who were at one point trying kill you and are now deciding if you can take a nap. Sounds like a full day.” She chuckled a moment, “Yes, yes it has. Thank you.” “You can thank me properly when we get you out of here. Get some rest.” The others had taken positions, and Beepu had set Foggle on the crate by the door. He was trying to read some documents from his spellbook by the light of Daneath’s shield. He looked at me and held out a copper piece and then said, “Myr could you?... “Sure,” and I flexed and put a light on the greenie, and the light on the shield winked out. “It won’t last more than an hour. So, if you really need it wake me up.” “We’ll watch first,” and Daneath nudged Iesa who muttered, “Yeah sure.” “Honestly…let the owl do it. I can’t keep a night light up for you,” I said. “We’ll do what we can. Get some rest Myr.” I nod and closed my eyes. And soon darkness over took my thoughts. Sometime later, I opened my eyes. I could hear the others sleeping quietly. My light had gone out, but my vision saw the grey shapes in the room; the five of us, the crates, the owl and the door. It was unchanged, just colorless. I sighed; I was feeling better but not myself yet. I settled down and closed my eyes when…I heard it. It was a quiet deliberate noise. The slow scraping against stone, but many times over. The sounds of many legs moving softly. I turned my head and I saw that Iesa was awake. His eyes were searching the dark, unable to see. But he could clearly hear the sounds as well. I watched him finger the hilt of the sword that lay next to him. I could see him look toward my direction, and he put a finger to his lips. I nodded, before remembering that he couldn’t see me in the darkness. I wasn’t sure how he knew I was awake and listening. My breathing? Did I shift? Watching him, I realized that while he wasn’t blessed with the ability to see in the dark, he knew how to survive in it. It reminded me of the Game. You get blindfolded and some of the most basic challenges involve sound. So much so, that I almost always close my eyes when I really want to hear something. But, no matter how he knew I was awake., we both listened to the scraping on stone, fading away. And I am sure we both felt some relief that the sound wasn’t scraping on the wood of the door. Soon, silence again reigned and we both let out our stifled breaths slowly. I leaned my head back and again closed my eyes. I wanted to see the light again. To taste the sweet fresh air, and not the stale air here deep below. I smiled to myself; how strange. The air I grew up with was never “sweet;” it was smoky, the tang of brimstone on the tongue. To say I missed the air outside here with the scent of rotten fish on by the river, and the tanneries nearby was surprising to me. I wondered; Did I really want to go home? What I did I really want? What did the multiverse want from me? And once again the darkness took me, before I could answer any of those questions. [B]Session Notes: [/B]The lord of the rings moment with the well was one of those moments. We all have seen it, and yet he touched it anyway. Considering none of us had any real gear, we were very, very conservative on moving around. Two swords, and spells and almost no armor. One item you might have noticed were the healing spells; I took a level in Cleric, but originally hadn’t planned on it. We were supposed to have two other folks in the adventure, but they dropped out before we started (a barbarian and a cleric). This ended up being an interesting twist as the DM had us think about “If you are going to multi-class, what is the good reason.” I’ve always liked Keith Baker’s thoughts on “classes” in the game; they are rule structures and nothing more. You aren’t a fighter, you are someone who knows how to use a sword. So multi-classing is just an extension of that. But you need the rules as a framework. So at this point I really started thinking about what the character “Myrai” really was, and it was here I started working backwards on the details of the past, compared to the broad starting point. 1333 [/QUOTE]
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