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Story Hour
The Rise of Felskein [Completed]
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<blockquote data-quote="Iron Sky" data-source="post: 4701662" data-attributes="member: 60965"><p>Session 18, Part 2</p><p></p><p>-Note: Took me forever to get it done, but I said Monday, so Monday it is! Well, it was Monday when I started writing it. Technically, it's Tuesday now.-</p><p></p><p>Suniel locked up.</p><p></p><p> High above him, his son's silver guardian was charging down the ramp to kill him, shrugging off the arrows that Harold fired at as if they were sticks thrown by a child. The giant stone orc statue had animated and was taking a swing at the archer. Kezzek was charging towards the ramp and Kormak the statue. </p><p></p><p>Suniel's counter-spell let him see through his son's arcane veil of invisibility, but now he stood with the final word of a spell on his lips. The word froze on his lips and a few seconds seemed to stretch into eternity.</p><p></p><p> His son cast another spell and Suniel almost said the final word again, but at the last second he recognized a gesture or a fragment of his son's chant over the rising din of battle. He stood again as his son jumped to the wall and began running up it.</p><p></p><p> To his companions, his son had probably just disappeared - the giant silver construct now heaving the dwarf off the ramp and the giant stone statue had that just missed Harold and sent tile fragments flying across the room probably seemed more pressing concerns. He was dimly aware of Harold shouting something at him between loosed arrows.</p><p></p><p> Then Danovin turned down to face him, a new chant springing to his son's lips. Suniel recognized the spell immediately from the first fragment of word and gesture. How many had he killed with the same spell?</p><p></p><p> Danovin threw his hands wide for the final gesture, eyes gleaming, a snarl on his lips as he locked eyes with his father.</p><p></p><p> Suniel said a final word and destroyed his son's mind.</p><p></p><p> ***</p><p></p><p> “Violence breeds violence!” Kezzek shouted as he ripped his blade free from the construct's shoulder and sprung away, landing on the ramp and backpedaling up it a ways.</p><p></p><p> “What?” Kormak shouted back up at him, ducking between the giant stone statue's legs as it cratered the floor tiles where he had stood a moment earlier.</p><p></p><p> “The inscription on the statue,” Kezzek yelled. Two more of Harold's arrows stuck shallowly into the construct's silver skin and it turned towards the archer again, looking ready to charge. Kezzek saw the metal of the construct slowly reforming where he'd buried his blade seconds before. “Stop fighting!”</p><p></p><p> “Easy for you to say!” Kormak rolled to his feet, flew through the air, and slammed his knee into one of the statue's massive arms. Dust and tiny fragments of rock rained down. The dwarf landed in a light crouch and then, in a blur of stone he was sent flying. Twenty feet away he collided with one of the mosaics that lined the wall and crumpled in a rain of colored tiles.</p><p></p><p> “Harold stop! It's Orcish. The statue only attacks those who attack!” Kezzek shouted.</p><p></p><p> The archer ignored him and two more arrows shattered against the stone statue's broad side. It turned instantly and only a desperate leap to the side saved Harold from being impaled by a ten-foot long stone quor'rel. Kezzek noticed that Keeper had stopped fighting and was looking up at him. Suniel still stood rooted to the spot he'd been since the fight had started, staring up at the darkness above them.</p><p></p><p> Kormak was on his feet, looking ready to attack again and Harold was drawing another arrow. With a grunt, Kezzek jumped from the ramp, landed running, then stopped and turned as Danovin's construct diverted from charging Harold and rushed at him. </p><p></p><p>“This is going to hurt,” Kezzek mumbled to himself, holding his arms out to his side, grimacing, and closing his eyes with a wince as the construct reached him, one huge arm swinging back.</p><p></p><p> It felt like a horse at full gallop slammed into him. He rolled half-a-dozen times and slid another ten feet on the tile before he came to a stop. The world stopped spinning a second later. His side was a throbbing mass of agony.</p><p></p><p> He got to his feet slowly, growling at the pain, and looked up.</p><p></p><p> Giant silver construct fought animate statue in the center of the twisted mosaic pyramid, like a battle between two colossus for the amusement of some tinkering god. Dust and tiny chips of stone fell from the statue with every blow, but didn't so much as crack the stone while the arcane metal of the construct immediately began to reform after every hammering, crumpling blow the statue landed upon it.</p><p></p><p> For a moment they all stood mesmerized by the strange and terrible battle that raged mindlessly before them. Then Kezzek noticed Suniel already half-way up the ramp that spiraled up into the darkness. The elf walked slowly, tears streaming unnoticed from his face, Keeper following a few steps behind.</p><p></p><p> Harold and Kormak seemed to notice the wizard at the same time and they all ran to catch up. As they did, Suniel knelt slowly and cradled the empty air. Kezzek growled and glanced at Kormak and Harold. </p><p></p><p>Kormak nodded to the elf, rolled his eyes and used his finger to trace the <em>he's crazy</em> spiral beside his head. Harold was busy searching the darkness with an nocked arrow. Danovin was no where to be seen. Now and then the whole pyramid shook with the violence of the conflict now far below. Small fragments of mosaic tile tinkled off the metal of the ramp all around them.</p><p></p><p> Then Suniel made a gesture and Danovin appeared in his cradled arms.</p><p></p><p> Harold cursed and stepped back, aiming at Danovin. Keeper stepped in front of the archer shaking his head, palm outstretched.</p><p></p><p> Kezzek looked closer and saw the mad gleam of the younger Au's eyes was gone, replaced by a dull lifelessness.</p><p></p><p>“He's no threat Harold,” Kezzek said, putting his quor'rel away. Kormak was staring down at Danovin with a strange expression on his face that Kezzek couldn't quite place. <em>Concern?</em> <em>That seems a bit odd coming from Kormak, </em>Kezzek thought.</p><p></p><p> Then Suniel handed up a small silver amulet, never taking his eyes from his son. </p><p></p><p>“Here, you can use it to control his guardian,” Suniel said, his soft voice barely audible over the battle.</p><p></p><p> Kormak took it and held the amulet dramatically high over the near-dizzying fall and the battle below. “Oh machination of silver steel, I command thee to halt. Return thine exalted and shiny presence to, uh, here,” Kormak said, frowning as his jest fell apart.</p><p></p><p> Almost immediately the tower was quiet but for the surprisingly quiet footfalls of the guardian as it walked up the ramp. Kezzek's side throbbed and the air was filled with dust that tasted like lead and stone. Danovin drooled from the corner of his mouth and groaned.</p><p></p><p> “What the heck happened to him?” Kormak said. “I guess he spent a little too much time-”</p><p></p><p> “I destroyed his mind, a mind whose brilliance you could never comprehend” Suniel said, still not looking up. He lightly brushed his son's hair from his face. “Even when he was a child I knew he had a mind that might surpass even mine – in spite of his shorter half-bred lifespan. And now it's gone. I said a word and broke it forever.”</p><p></p><p> “Well, in your defense, he was kinda trying to murder us a little bit,” Kormak said.</p><p></p><p> “Is there no way to interrogate him?” Harold said. “I think he might know who the spies are in the Crystal Towers, not to mention all he might know of the inner workings and deployments of the Ashen Tower's forces. If we could just get him to-”</p><p></p><p> “Look at him!” Kormak said. Danovin's mouth opened and closed randomly, his head lolled from side to side erratically, his eyes staring at nothing. “You'd do better interrogating Dog... Dog! I left Dog on the lift!”</p><p></p><p> Kezzek shook his head and barely caught the guardian amulet as the dwarf threw it aside and ran down the ramp.</p><p></p><p>He grabbed Harold's arm and pulled him away from the elf and his son. “Let's give them some room.”</p><p></p><p> Harold pulled his hand out of Kezzek's grasp and glared at him suspiciously. Kezzek sighed.</p><p></p><p> “There's more light down there, we can see these mosaics better. I for one am curious to see what this place is about. And we can see more what this does,” Kezzek said, dangling the amulet from its chain. <em>And that statue. I thought my quor'rel was unique, maybe here is a link to my past.</em></p><p></p><p> Grudgingly, Harold followed him down the ramp, though not without occasional dark glances up at where Keeper stood over the father cradling his son.</p><p></p><p> ***</p><p></p><p> “There's a story here,” Kezzek said as he walked back down to the base of the ramp where they'd made a rough camp. Suniel was spoon-feeding a quickly-made gruel to his son while Kormak rummaged through his packs and talked to Dog. Harold still stood staring at the mosaic that depicted one of the Crystal Towers destroying what seemed to be a flying island with a beam of light.</p><p></p><p> Keeper was staring impassively at the motionless guardian construct, which in turn stared at nothing. <em>That</em> scene took Kezzek aback for a moment with its oddity. He shook his head and quickly got over it.</p><p></p><p> “Anyway, the mosaics...” he said to no one in particular. “There's a whole history here, maybe the whole history of Felskein. The places where the mosaic tiles are all cracked, burned, and broken into indistinguishable blurs are especially intriguing.”</p><p></p><p> “What's so interesting about broken mosaic tiles? I broke those when I got thrown into them,” Kormak said, tearing off a big piece of jerky with his teeth and pointing to the spot where he'd smashed into a mural during the fight. The dwarf's jaw dropped open, the jerky that dropped from his open mouth snatched out of the air by Dog before it hit the ground. The once-shattered mosaic was restored as if freshly inlaid.</p><p></p><p> “Well, that's definitely interesting, but that's not what I'm talking about,” Kezzek said, walking over to a different mosaic. “It's not what's left, it's what's gone. Look at this one, all these figures... elves? They seem to be worshiping this place where the tiles are. Over here, this has to be a throne of some sort, but whatever's on it is indistinguishable.”</p><p></p><p> “Hm...” Kormak said, following him, seemingly intrigued. “And we know that it's not vandalism from my... demonstration.”</p><p></p><p> Harold stood nearby, to appearances indifferently looking at the again-dormant and re-posed orc statue, but Kezzek knew he was listening. Suniel seemed wholly absorbed by his son's condition.</p><p> “They're all over too, at least on the lower half of the pyramid. They stop appearing at all part-way up.”</p><p></p><p> Kezzek stopped and turned to Kormak and Harold. “Anyway, I've looked over them a couple times and, as I said before, I think this pyramid, these mosaics hold the entire history of Felskein, maybe even the world. It's imperfect and rough, but here goes.”</p><p></p><p> Kezzek took a deep breath, walked to the first mosaic beside the door they had entered, and gestured towards it. Even Harold and, perhaps even more surprisingly, Keeper had joined him to listen. “In the beginning...”</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Iron Sky, post: 4701662, member: 60965"] Session 18, Part 2 -Note: Took me forever to get it done, but I said Monday, so Monday it is! Well, it was Monday when I started writing it. Technically, it's Tuesday now.- Suniel locked up. High above him, his son's silver guardian was charging down the ramp to kill him, shrugging off the arrows that Harold fired at as if they were sticks thrown by a child. The giant stone orc statue had animated and was taking a swing at the archer. Kezzek was charging towards the ramp and Kormak the statue. Suniel's counter-spell let him see through his son's arcane veil of invisibility, but now he stood with the final word of a spell on his lips. The word froze on his lips and a few seconds seemed to stretch into eternity. His son cast another spell and Suniel almost said the final word again, but at the last second he recognized a gesture or a fragment of his son's chant over the rising din of battle. He stood again as his son jumped to the wall and began running up it. To his companions, his son had probably just disappeared - the giant silver construct now heaving the dwarf off the ramp and the giant stone statue had that just missed Harold and sent tile fragments flying across the room probably seemed more pressing concerns. He was dimly aware of Harold shouting something at him between loosed arrows. Then Danovin turned down to face him, a new chant springing to his son's lips. Suniel recognized the spell immediately from the first fragment of word and gesture. How many had he killed with the same spell? Danovin threw his hands wide for the final gesture, eyes gleaming, a snarl on his lips as he locked eyes with his father. Suniel said a final word and destroyed his son's mind. *** “Violence breeds violence!” Kezzek shouted as he ripped his blade free from the construct's shoulder and sprung away, landing on the ramp and backpedaling up it a ways. “What?” Kormak shouted back up at him, ducking between the giant stone statue's legs as it cratered the floor tiles where he had stood a moment earlier. “The inscription on the statue,” Kezzek yelled. Two more of Harold's arrows stuck shallowly into the construct's silver skin and it turned towards the archer again, looking ready to charge. Kezzek saw the metal of the construct slowly reforming where he'd buried his blade seconds before. “Stop fighting!” “Easy for you to say!” Kormak rolled to his feet, flew through the air, and slammed his knee into one of the statue's massive arms. Dust and tiny fragments of rock rained down. The dwarf landed in a light crouch and then, in a blur of stone he was sent flying. Twenty feet away he collided with one of the mosaics that lined the wall and crumpled in a rain of colored tiles. “Harold stop! It's Orcish. The statue only attacks those who attack!” Kezzek shouted. The archer ignored him and two more arrows shattered against the stone statue's broad side. It turned instantly and only a desperate leap to the side saved Harold from being impaled by a ten-foot long stone quor'rel. Kezzek noticed that Keeper had stopped fighting and was looking up at him. Suniel still stood rooted to the spot he'd been since the fight had started, staring up at the darkness above them. Kormak was on his feet, looking ready to attack again and Harold was drawing another arrow. With a grunt, Kezzek jumped from the ramp, landed running, then stopped and turned as Danovin's construct diverted from charging Harold and rushed at him. “This is going to hurt,” Kezzek mumbled to himself, holding his arms out to his side, grimacing, and closing his eyes with a wince as the construct reached him, one huge arm swinging back. It felt like a horse at full gallop slammed into him. He rolled half-a-dozen times and slid another ten feet on the tile before he came to a stop. The world stopped spinning a second later. His side was a throbbing mass of agony. He got to his feet slowly, growling at the pain, and looked up. Giant silver construct fought animate statue in the center of the twisted mosaic pyramid, like a battle between two colossus for the amusement of some tinkering god. Dust and tiny chips of stone fell from the statue with every blow, but didn't so much as crack the stone while the arcane metal of the construct immediately began to reform after every hammering, crumpling blow the statue landed upon it. For a moment they all stood mesmerized by the strange and terrible battle that raged mindlessly before them. Then Kezzek noticed Suniel already half-way up the ramp that spiraled up into the darkness. The elf walked slowly, tears streaming unnoticed from his face, Keeper following a few steps behind. Harold and Kormak seemed to notice the wizard at the same time and they all ran to catch up. As they did, Suniel knelt slowly and cradled the empty air. Kezzek growled and glanced at Kormak and Harold. Kormak nodded to the elf, rolled his eyes and used his finger to trace the [I]he's crazy[/I] spiral beside his head. Harold was busy searching the darkness with an nocked arrow. Danovin was no where to be seen. Now and then the whole pyramid shook with the violence of the conflict now far below. Small fragments of mosaic tile tinkled off the metal of the ramp all around them. Then Suniel made a gesture and Danovin appeared in his cradled arms. Harold cursed and stepped back, aiming at Danovin. Keeper stepped in front of the archer shaking his head, palm outstretched. Kezzek looked closer and saw the mad gleam of the younger Au's eyes was gone, replaced by a dull lifelessness. “He's no threat Harold,” Kezzek said, putting his quor'rel away. Kormak was staring down at Danovin with a strange expression on his face that Kezzek couldn't quite place. [I]Concern?[/I] [I]That seems a bit odd coming from Kormak, [/I]Kezzek thought. Then Suniel handed up a small silver amulet, never taking his eyes from his son. “Here, you can use it to control his guardian,” Suniel said, his soft voice barely audible over the battle. Kormak took it and held the amulet dramatically high over the near-dizzying fall and the battle below. “Oh machination of silver steel, I command thee to halt. Return thine exalted and shiny presence to, uh, here,” Kormak said, frowning as his jest fell apart. Almost immediately the tower was quiet but for the surprisingly quiet footfalls of the guardian as it walked up the ramp. Kezzek's side throbbed and the air was filled with dust that tasted like lead and stone. Danovin drooled from the corner of his mouth and groaned. “What the heck happened to him?” Kormak said. “I guess he spent a little too much time-” “I destroyed his mind, a mind whose brilliance you could never comprehend” Suniel said, still not looking up. He lightly brushed his son's hair from his face. “Even when he was a child I knew he had a mind that might surpass even mine – in spite of his shorter half-bred lifespan. And now it's gone. I said a word and broke it forever.” “Well, in your defense, he was kinda trying to murder us a little bit,” Kormak said. “Is there no way to interrogate him?” Harold said. “I think he might know who the spies are in the Crystal Towers, not to mention all he might know of the inner workings and deployments of the Ashen Tower's forces. If we could just get him to-” “Look at him!” Kormak said. Danovin's mouth opened and closed randomly, his head lolled from side to side erratically, his eyes staring at nothing. “You'd do better interrogating Dog... Dog! I left Dog on the lift!” Kezzek shook his head and barely caught the guardian amulet as the dwarf threw it aside and ran down the ramp. He grabbed Harold's arm and pulled him away from the elf and his son. “Let's give them some room.” Harold pulled his hand out of Kezzek's grasp and glared at him suspiciously. Kezzek sighed. “There's more light down there, we can see these mosaics better. I for one am curious to see what this place is about. And we can see more what this does,” Kezzek said, dangling the amulet from its chain. [I]And that statue. I thought my quor'rel was unique, maybe here is a link to my past.[/I] Grudgingly, Harold followed him down the ramp, though not without occasional dark glances up at where Keeper stood over the father cradling his son. *** “There's a story here,” Kezzek said as he walked back down to the base of the ramp where they'd made a rough camp. Suniel was spoon-feeding a quickly-made gruel to his son while Kormak rummaged through his packs and talked to Dog. Harold still stood staring at the mosaic that depicted one of the Crystal Towers destroying what seemed to be a flying island with a beam of light. Keeper was staring impassively at the motionless guardian construct, which in turn stared at nothing. [I]That[/I] scene took Kezzek aback for a moment with its oddity. He shook his head and quickly got over it. “Anyway, the mosaics...” he said to no one in particular. “There's a whole history here, maybe the whole history of Felskein. The places where the mosaic tiles are all cracked, burned, and broken into indistinguishable blurs are especially intriguing.” “What's so interesting about broken mosaic tiles? I broke those when I got thrown into them,” Kormak said, tearing off a big piece of jerky with his teeth and pointing to the spot where he'd smashed into a mural during the fight. The dwarf's jaw dropped open, the jerky that dropped from his open mouth snatched out of the air by Dog before it hit the ground. The once-shattered mosaic was restored as if freshly inlaid. “Well, that's definitely interesting, but that's not what I'm talking about,” Kezzek said, walking over to a different mosaic. “It's not what's left, it's what's gone. Look at this one, all these figures... elves? They seem to be worshiping this place where the tiles are. Over here, this has to be a throne of some sort, but whatever's on it is indistinguishable.” “Hm...” Kormak said, following him, seemingly intrigued. “And we know that it's not vandalism from my... demonstration.” Harold stood nearby, to appearances indifferently looking at the again-dormant and re-posed orc statue, but Kezzek knew he was listening. Suniel seemed wholly absorbed by his son's condition. “They're all over too, at least on the lower half of the pyramid. They stop appearing at all part-way up.” Kezzek stopped and turned to Kormak and Harold. “Anyway, I've looked over them a couple times and, as I said before, I think this pyramid, these mosaics hold the entire history of Felskein, maybe even the world. It's imperfect and rough, but here goes.” Kezzek took a deep breath, walked to the first mosaic beside the door they had entered, and gestured towards it. Even Harold and, perhaps even more surprisingly, Keeper had joined him to listen. “In the beginning...” [/QUOTE]
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