Delemental
First Post
KidCthulhu said:
So, are you saying that the Company is about to meet a grizzly fate?
-
The VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Sagiro's Story Hour Returns (new thread started on 5/18/08)
- Thread starter Sagiro
- Start date
So, are you saying that the Company is about to meet a grizzly fate?
RangerWickett
Legend
Stop with the puns. I can't bear them.
blargney the second
blargney the minute's son
Does the Lord of Roses live in the Pandamonic Wastes or something?
Sagiro
Rodent of Uncertain Parentage
Sagiro’s Story Hour, Part 241
Lord of the Roses
Aravis spends minimal time observing the red Way. He steps back into the blue Way and returns to the Slice of Ava Dormo. After a brief consultation he goes back with Morningstar, to stand guard while she drops a few thought captures.
Once in the library Morningstar first casts detect thoughts, but there are no minds other than Aravis’s and her own. While Aravis stays back, Morningstar slowly walks down the aisle toward the glowing red portal. Her eyes stray to the empty shelves, which are coated with dust and give the room a desolate aura. Between and behind them she sees the blue-diamond walls.
When she is only twenty feet from the Way, she is startled by a woman who steps silently out from behind the last shelf on the left. The woman is dressed like a simple commoner, in a plain peasant skirt and blouse, but Morningstar’s attention is drawn immediately to her eyes – or the lack thereof. There are bulging rubies protruding from the woman’s eye sockets, though they seem to be causing her no discomfort. The formation of the crystals reminds both Aravis and Morningstar of the huge lizard inhabited by the Purple Eye, and the skeleton possessed by the Green.
“Where is Kibilhathur Bimson?” asks the woman, as Aravis hurries up. Her voice is an earnest monotone.
With a start, Morningstar realizes that she’s not detecting any thoughts from the peasant.
“He will be here soon,” says Aravis.
“Bring him,” says the peasant woman. “Please bring Kibilhathur Bimson. My lord wishes it.”
There’s something disturbing about the way she pronounces Kibi’s name. It’s not menacing, or threatening, but somehow she conveys eagerness without raising her voice.
“Will you tell me your lord’s purpose?” asks Morningstar.
“Please bring Kibilhathur Bimson,” says the woman. It’s not entirely certain she heard the question.
“Why do you need him?” asks Aravis.
“I do not need him,” says the woman, her expression flat.
“Why does your lord need him?” asks Morningstar patiently.
“He has not shared that with me. Please bring Kibilhathur Bimson.”
“Yes, I hear you,’ says Morningstar with a sigh. “I understand you.”
“Please bring Kibilhathur Bimson immediately,” repeats the woman.
“We will go and tell him,” promises Morningstar, and before the woman can present her demand a sixth time, she and Aravis walk back down the library aisle and through the blue Way. They share this new development with the others.
“Eyes,” says Kibi, addressing Scree, “If you have any advice, this would be a good time.”
“Nothing,” says Scree. “They’ll talk if they feel like it.”
Kibi tries a more direct approach. He reaches into his familiar and pulls out the two Eyes of Moirel, gripping one in each hand. He feels a shiver run through his body, as if the Eyes are vibrating slightly, but they remain silent.
“I can tell you’re agitated,” says Kibi to the Eyes. “So are we. Any information you have about what we’re up against would be greatly appreciated.”
They still don’t answer, but Grey Wolf mutters, “I really don’t want to hear that the Eyes are ‘agitated.’”
“It probably means they sense they’re close to another Eye,” speculates Aravis.
Without warning Dranko hops through the Way. He sees the same library hallway, and the woman standing in front of the red Way at the far end. Immediately he hops back.
“Just wanted to make sure there weren’t five undead hydras waiting for us this time,” he explains.
The Company spends a few final minutes reviewing the Solfar transcriptions of the Mad Sculptor before casting some preparatory spells and, with the sounds of dream-battles still echoing behind them, hopping en masse through the Way.
The woman is still there, standing patiently.
“I have brought Kibilhathur Bimson to you!” Morningstar calls to her.
Kibi himself feels tingly now, and Scree reports the Eyes are vibrating more quickly. Morningstar puts a hand on the dwarf’s shoulder and can actually feel the slight tremor in his body. Of course, everyone then wants to find out what that feels like.
“Wow!” exclaims Dranko, his hand on Kibi’s head. “He really is tingly!”
Flicker reaches for the beard, which is when Kibi decides he’s had enough.
“Hey! Hands off the beard!” exclaims the dwarf.
“Yeah,” says Aravis. “Didn’t you read the words of the Sculptor? He’s touchy about the beard.”
“Wow,” says Flicker. “Those Black Circle guys really know what they’re talking about!”
Morningstar turns to One Certain Step and asks solemnly, “Step, are you ready?”
“Yes,” answers the paladin. “I don’t yet understand what my role will be, but yes, I am. Thank you.”
Dranko puts an arm on Snokas's shoulder and with mock seriousness asks, “Snokas, are you ready?”
Snokas gives a snorting laugh. “Yep. I never understand anything, but that’s never stopped me before.”
Step smiles.
Ernie casts true seeing but notes nothing different except Kibi himself. The dwarf looks blurry to Ernie, and ambient magic in the air is being drawn into and through his body.
The Company approaches the peasant woman with the ruby eyes.
“What are your Lord’s intentions toward us?” asks Kibi.
“Kibilhathur Bimson,” says the woman. Her eyes glow just a bit more brightly. “Come through.”
“Will we be harmed?” asks Kibi suspiciously.
“No. But your friends must wait here. My Lord wants Kibilhathur Bimson only.”
“I would prefer to have my friends with me,” says Kibi.
“Only Kibilhathur Bimson,” insists the woman.
“And if I refuse?” asks Kibi.
“You must come alone,” says the woman, avoiding the question.
“No way,” says Scree to Kibi. “Nuh uh. No. Forget it.”
“What’s your name?” asks Kibi, buying some time to think.
“My name is no longer important. Kibilhathur Bimson, you must come alone.”
“What’s with the freakish eyes?” asks Dranko.
“You are not relevant,” answers the woman, though her head still points at Kibi. “My Lord wants Kibilhathur Bimson.”
“If you want him, you’ll have to come through me,” Dranko growls.
“We mean no harm to you, but I want to stay with my friends,” says Kibi.
“Very well.” The woman stands to the side, seemingly conceding the point. Of course, the Company suspects treachery, and so decides to send in a scouting force that does not include Kibilhathur Bimson. Dranko, Ernie, Aravis, Flicker and Step go into the red Way.
There’s the typical second or two of blackness, as they feel themselves getting sucked toward their destination. But there’s a new sensation that follows, as if they have been shunted to the side and then turned around. A second after that they find themselves emerging from the same Way as they entered, into the library.
“That was quick,” says Kibi.
“We never got there,” says Dranko. “We went forward, but then got sidetracked, turned around, paddled on the behind, and sent back here.”
“I’m not going to go meet the Lord of the Roses if I can’t bring my friends with me,” says Kibi to the woman.
Scree stirs, and his voice sounds deep and powerful in Kibi’s mind, a sure sign that one of the Eyes of Moirel is addressing him.
“If we go through, we will fix things for the others,” says the Eye of Moirel.
Thinking they understand what this means, a new group goes through the Way, including Kibi. The dwarf goes through with Morningstar, Aravis, Ernie and Step, all of them holding hands so that Kibi doesn’t get “filtered” by the journey between Slices.
They feel the pulling, and all of them but Kibi feel the sideways wrenching experienced by the last group. Despite their best efforts all of their hands are forcefully separated, and there is a moment of panic, but then there is a second lurching course-correction, and all five of them are deposited into a large room that is not the library.
Kibi notes first, with relief, that his friends are by his side. They stand at one end of a long, sumptuously opulent audience chamber. The floors and walls are of a white marble veined with streaks of ruby, and mounted on the walls are a number of decorative swords and shields. On one of the side walls, near the far end of the room, are a pair of huge wooden doors, closed, with polished brass handles. Directly above their heads the ceiling is only ten feet high, but that’s because they’re standing under some kind of overhang; were they to take a few steps forward into the chamber, the vaulted ceiling would rise above them almost a hundred feet, supported by huge marble pillars.
At the far end of the audience chamber are wide steps leading up to a long dais. A humanoid figure stands there, glowing with a white light that makes it impossible to see him or her as anything more than a blurry silhouette. The figure holds a staff, and the white glow extends along its length, becoming a bright red at its tip. Ernie, squinting with true seeing, can tell that the magic of the staff is the same sort that flows through Kibi, only much, much stronger.
Curled around the humanoid’s feet is a huge bronze-colored snake, twenty feet long at least and glinting in the light of the humanoid figure. There is one other person in the room – a second peasant woman sits at a wooden table in a far corner of the chamber. She is hooded and hunched over, her face hidden. Ernie can tell there are spells upon her, but not anything specific about them.
Kibi feels his whole body hum with power.
“How are you feeling, Scree?” he thinks to his familiar.
“Something is happening to the Eyes,” says Scree nervously. “I can’t tell what.”
The glowing figure picks his way around the coils of the copper snake. At the bottom of the stairs it takes a step toward them, then stops, lurching unsteadily. Scree’s body starts to roil. The second half of the Company arrives through the Way, in time to hear Ernie speak.
“Excuse me!” says Ernie. “Are you the Lord of the Roses?”
A voice sounds from the light, a male voice. It is tinny, as if coming from far away.
“Scree!” says the figure. “Come forward, Scree! Bring me the...”
His voice cuts off as if he’s choking, and Scree erupts into redness. For just a second it seems as if all of Scree’s component rocks have either become, or been replaced by, bright rubies. But then they are partially replaced by a similar outbreak of bright green emeralds and deep purple amethysts. Within three seconds he has become a turbulent mass of red, purple and green gemstones.
“I have nothing to do with this,” says Scree to Kibi.
The staff flies from the figure’s hand, as if with a life of its own. It soars high toward the vaulted ceiling and hovers there, pointing down directly at Scree. With the staff removed from the white glow of its wielder, the Company can see that crystalline red flowers adorn its length, and that a bright red gemstone shines from its top.
With the departure of the staff, the glow also fades from the man who had been holding it. The Lord of the Roses’ features are revealed, and the party stands agog. Surely they are being deceived.
It’s Sagiro Emberleaf.
...to be continued...
Lord of the Roses
Aravis spends minimal time observing the red Way. He steps back into the blue Way and returns to the Slice of Ava Dormo. After a brief consultation he goes back with Morningstar, to stand guard while she drops a few thought captures.
Once in the library Morningstar first casts detect thoughts, but there are no minds other than Aravis’s and her own. While Aravis stays back, Morningstar slowly walks down the aisle toward the glowing red portal. Her eyes stray to the empty shelves, which are coated with dust and give the room a desolate aura. Between and behind them she sees the blue-diamond walls.
When she is only twenty feet from the Way, she is startled by a woman who steps silently out from behind the last shelf on the left. The woman is dressed like a simple commoner, in a plain peasant skirt and blouse, but Morningstar’s attention is drawn immediately to her eyes – or the lack thereof. There are bulging rubies protruding from the woman’s eye sockets, though they seem to be causing her no discomfort. The formation of the crystals reminds both Aravis and Morningstar of the huge lizard inhabited by the Purple Eye, and the skeleton possessed by the Green.
“Where is Kibilhathur Bimson?” asks the woman, as Aravis hurries up. Her voice is an earnest monotone.
With a start, Morningstar realizes that she’s not detecting any thoughts from the peasant.
“He will be here soon,” says Aravis.
“Bring him,” says the peasant woman. “Please bring Kibilhathur Bimson. My lord wishes it.”
There’s something disturbing about the way she pronounces Kibi’s name. It’s not menacing, or threatening, but somehow she conveys eagerness without raising her voice.
“Will you tell me your lord’s purpose?” asks Morningstar.
“Please bring Kibilhathur Bimson,” says the woman. It’s not entirely certain she heard the question.
“Why do you need him?” asks Aravis.
“I do not need him,” says the woman, her expression flat.
“Why does your lord need him?” asks Morningstar patiently.
“He has not shared that with me. Please bring Kibilhathur Bimson.”
“Yes, I hear you,’ says Morningstar with a sigh. “I understand you.”
“Please bring Kibilhathur Bimson immediately,” repeats the woman.
“We will go and tell him,” promises Morningstar, and before the woman can present her demand a sixth time, she and Aravis walk back down the library aisle and through the blue Way. They share this new development with the others.
“Eyes,” says Kibi, addressing Scree, “If you have any advice, this would be a good time.”
“Nothing,” says Scree. “They’ll talk if they feel like it.”
Kibi tries a more direct approach. He reaches into his familiar and pulls out the two Eyes of Moirel, gripping one in each hand. He feels a shiver run through his body, as if the Eyes are vibrating slightly, but they remain silent.
“I can tell you’re agitated,” says Kibi to the Eyes. “So are we. Any information you have about what we’re up against would be greatly appreciated.”
They still don’t answer, but Grey Wolf mutters, “I really don’t want to hear that the Eyes are ‘agitated.’”
“It probably means they sense they’re close to another Eye,” speculates Aravis.
Without warning Dranko hops through the Way. He sees the same library hallway, and the woman standing in front of the red Way at the far end. Immediately he hops back.
“Just wanted to make sure there weren’t five undead hydras waiting for us this time,” he explains.
The Company spends a few final minutes reviewing the Solfar transcriptions of the Mad Sculptor before casting some preparatory spells and, with the sounds of dream-battles still echoing behind them, hopping en masse through the Way.
The woman is still there, standing patiently.
“I have brought Kibilhathur Bimson to you!” Morningstar calls to her.
Kibi himself feels tingly now, and Scree reports the Eyes are vibrating more quickly. Morningstar puts a hand on the dwarf’s shoulder and can actually feel the slight tremor in his body. Of course, everyone then wants to find out what that feels like.
“Wow!” exclaims Dranko, his hand on Kibi’s head. “He really is tingly!”
Flicker reaches for the beard, which is when Kibi decides he’s had enough.
“Hey! Hands off the beard!” exclaims the dwarf.
“Yeah,” says Aravis. “Didn’t you read the words of the Sculptor? He’s touchy about the beard.”
“Wow,” says Flicker. “Those Black Circle guys really know what they’re talking about!”
Morningstar turns to One Certain Step and asks solemnly, “Step, are you ready?”
“Yes,” answers the paladin. “I don’t yet understand what my role will be, but yes, I am. Thank you.”
Dranko puts an arm on Snokas's shoulder and with mock seriousness asks, “Snokas, are you ready?”
Snokas gives a snorting laugh. “Yep. I never understand anything, but that’s never stopped me before.”
Step smiles.
Ernie casts true seeing but notes nothing different except Kibi himself. The dwarf looks blurry to Ernie, and ambient magic in the air is being drawn into and through his body.
The Company approaches the peasant woman with the ruby eyes.
“What are your Lord’s intentions toward us?” asks Kibi.
“Kibilhathur Bimson,” says the woman. Her eyes glow just a bit more brightly. “Come through.”
“Will we be harmed?” asks Kibi suspiciously.
“No. But your friends must wait here. My Lord wants Kibilhathur Bimson only.”
“I would prefer to have my friends with me,” says Kibi.
“Only Kibilhathur Bimson,” insists the woman.
“And if I refuse?” asks Kibi.
“You must come alone,” says the woman, avoiding the question.
“No way,” says Scree to Kibi. “Nuh uh. No. Forget it.”
“What’s your name?” asks Kibi, buying some time to think.
“My name is no longer important. Kibilhathur Bimson, you must come alone.”
“What’s with the freakish eyes?” asks Dranko.
“You are not relevant,” answers the woman, though her head still points at Kibi. “My Lord wants Kibilhathur Bimson.”
“If you want him, you’ll have to come through me,” Dranko growls.
“We mean no harm to you, but I want to stay with my friends,” says Kibi.
“Very well.” The woman stands to the side, seemingly conceding the point. Of course, the Company suspects treachery, and so decides to send in a scouting force that does not include Kibilhathur Bimson. Dranko, Ernie, Aravis, Flicker and Step go into the red Way.
There’s the typical second or two of blackness, as they feel themselves getting sucked toward their destination. But there’s a new sensation that follows, as if they have been shunted to the side and then turned around. A second after that they find themselves emerging from the same Way as they entered, into the library.
“That was quick,” says Kibi.
“We never got there,” says Dranko. “We went forward, but then got sidetracked, turned around, paddled on the behind, and sent back here.”
“I’m not going to go meet the Lord of the Roses if I can’t bring my friends with me,” says Kibi to the woman.
Scree stirs, and his voice sounds deep and powerful in Kibi’s mind, a sure sign that one of the Eyes of Moirel is addressing him.
“If we go through, we will fix things for the others,” says the Eye of Moirel.
Thinking they understand what this means, a new group goes through the Way, including Kibi. The dwarf goes through with Morningstar, Aravis, Ernie and Step, all of them holding hands so that Kibi doesn’t get “filtered” by the journey between Slices.
They feel the pulling, and all of them but Kibi feel the sideways wrenching experienced by the last group. Despite their best efforts all of their hands are forcefully separated, and there is a moment of panic, but then there is a second lurching course-correction, and all five of them are deposited into a large room that is not the library.
Kibi notes first, with relief, that his friends are by his side. They stand at one end of a long, sumptuously opulent audience chamber. The floors and walls are of a white marble veined with streaks of ruby, and mounted on the walls are a number of decorative swords and shields. On one of the side walls, near the far end of the room, are a pair of huge wooden doors, closed, with polished brass handles. Directly above their heads the ceiling is only ten feet high, but that’s because they’re standing under some kind of overhang; were they to take a few steps forward into the chamber, the vaulted ceiling would rise above them almost a hundred feet, supported by huge marble pillars.
At the far end of the audience chamber are wide steps leading up to a long dais. A humanoid figure stands there, glowing with a white light that makes it impossible to see him or her as anything more than a blurry silhouette. The figure holds a staff, and the white glow extends along its length, becoming a bright red at its tip. Ernie, squinting with true seeing, can tell that the magic of the staff is the same sort that flows through Kibi, only much, much stronger.
Curled around the humanoid’s feet is a huge bronze-colored snake, twenty feet long at least and glinting in the light of the humanoid figure. There is one other person in the room – a second peasant woman sits at a wooden table in a far corner of the chamber. She is hooded and hunched over, her face hidden. Ernie can tell there are spells upon her, but not anything specific about them.
Kibi feels his whole body hum with power.
“How are you feeling, Scree?” he thinks to his familiar.
“Something is happening to the Eyes,” says Scree nervously. “I can’t tell what.”
The glowing figure picks his way around the coils of the copper snake. At the bottom of the stairs it takes a step toward them, then stops, lurching unsteadily. Scree’s body starts to roil. The second half of the Company arrives through the Way, in time to hear Ernie speak.
“Excuse me!” says Ernie. “Are you the Lord of the Roses?”
A voice sounds from the light, a male voice. It is tinny, as if coming from far away.
“Scree!” says the figure. “Come forward, Scree! Bring me the...”
His voice cuts off as if he’s choking, and Scree erupts into redness. For just a second it seems as if all of Scree’s component rocks have either become, or been replaced by, bright rubies. But then they are partially replaced by a similar outbreak of bright green emeralds and deep purple amethysts. Within three seconds he has become a turbulent mass of red, purple and green gemstones.
“I have nothing to do with this,” says Scree to Kibi.
The staff flies from the figure’s hand, as if with a life of its own. It soars high toward the vaulted ceiling and hovers there, pointing down directly at Scree. With the staff removed from the white glow of its wielder, the Company can see that crystalline red flowers adorn its length, and that a bright red gemstone shines from its top.
With the departure of the staff, the glow also fades from the man who had been holding it. The Lord of the Roses’ features are revealed, and the party stands agog. Surely they are being deceived.
It’s Sagiro Emberleaf.
...to be continued...
the Jester
Legend
Sagiro said:
HAW HAW HAW!!!!
RangerWickett
Legend
This, you see, is when Dorian mysteriously vanishes forever, leaving us to never learn the end of the story.
So wow. How long did you hold off bringing him back? Six years? More? I will, as a fellow DM, of course assume that you'd planned for this to happen all along, and not that Sagiro has only returned because you knew we'd think it was cool. Though that excuse works too. *grin*
So wow. How long did you hold off bringing him back? Six years? More? I will, as a fellow DM, of course assume that you'd planned for this to happen all along, and not that Sagiro has only returned because you knew we'd think it was cool. Though that excuse works too. *grin*
MavrickWeirdo
First Post
Sagiro said:
You recorded this moment right?
The group's reaction when you said those words must have been priceless.
Similar Threads
