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The Rise of Felskein [Completed]
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<blockquote data-quote="Iron Sky" data-source="post: 4706959" data-attributes="member: 60965"><p>Session 18, Part 3</p><p> </p><p>-Note: hmm, either the next Part or the one after it has one of the tag lines from my Story Hour signature promo. Though, I guess this one (Part 3) has many of them in a broader fashion. As of the beginning of this post: </p><p></p><p>Robots, check, Assassins, check, Hobgoblins, check, the Ashen Tower, check, Land Pirates, check, Gnome Genocide, check, Flying Islands, check, Dying Heroes, check.</p><p></p><p>That leaves Polite Beholders, the Corpse Ramp, Artifacts, Exploding Zombie Dragons, Blood Feuds, Vanished Races, and the Black City left to go!-</p><p></p><p>“These people were primitive, look, you can see some sort of crude tools here,” Kezzek said, pointing to one of the first mural past the front door. “I'm not sure how much time is between each of these mosaics, but I have the feeling these few murals represent a long time they spent this way.”</p><p></p><p> “If I'm not mistaken, this one seems to show them creating a new race. It's hard to tell exactly with their forms all blurred out.”</p><p></p><p> “Yeah, I see what you're looking at there,” Kormak said. “It looks like they're creating... elves? Huh, that's disappointing, I would have thought dwarves were created first.”</p><p></p><p> “Dwarves and orcs are over here,” Harold said from half-a-dozen murals down. “And a little further, here's humans.”</p><p></p><p> “Well, if you look over here past Harold,” Kezzek said, walking past the archer. “This is the interesting one. Or <em>one</em> of the interesting ones anyway.”</p><p></p><p> Harold and Kormak walked over and joined him, staring at the mural for a minute before Kormak said something.</p><p></p><p> “It's blank wall, there's nothing here.”</p><p></p><p> “No, there's tiles here. It's not blank. It must be showing some vast darkness. The tiles wouldn't be laid if there was nothing here. Look, the one before it has one of the burned-out figures holding up a large gem or something. You can see a few tiles of the darkness along the right edge here.”</p><p></p><p> “The orcs in this one look just like the statue back there,” Harold said from where he'd moved ahead to the front of the ramp. “It looks like an army, all armed with quor'rels. The next one shows a few bloody ones coming back. What were they fighting?”</p><p></p><p> They looked around at the surrounding murals for a while. “Whatever was in the darkness I guess,” Kezzek said. He glanced between the orcs in the mural and the statue, then to his own quor'rel. “What does it look like the statue is doing to you?”</p><p></p><p> They turned and examined it. It stood, one hand again holding the quor'rel aloft, the other extending his hand. “As if he's wanting something,” Kezzek said, walking towards the statue.</p><p></p><p> “Wanting to smash you to paste,” Kormak said. “You know what you're doing?”</p><p></p><p> “I think I just might,” Kezzek said. Slowly, he unsheathed his quor'rel, half expecting the statue to awaken and attack. It didn't.</p><p></p><p> He stood before the massive outstretched hand for a minute, then placed his quor'rel in it. Everyone waited expectantly.</p><p></p><p> “Well, not sure what you thought would happen, but I guess it was worth a - HOLY DAMN!” Kormak said, leaping away as the statue closed its fist around Kezzek's quor'rel.</p><p></p><p>It raised it above it's head and stone rapidly accreted around the blades. At the same time, it lowered the stone quor'rel held in its other hand and the stone that covered it started to crack and fall away. By the time it was lowered to Kezzek's height, the stone had all fallen away from the blade.</p><p></p><p> Slowly, almost reverently, Kezzek reached up and took it.</p><p></p><p> It seemed lighter than his old one, yet more substantial somehow. When he took a few experimental swings, it seemed like the air resisted him; he pushed harder against it and the blade suddenly slashed through the air with tremendous power.</p><p></p><p> “So, you knew to do that how?” Kormak said, looking at Kezzek's new weapon appreciatively.</p><p></p><p> “It was a hunch,” Kezzek said.</p><p></p><p> “This one here,” Harold said, seemingly oblivious to everything that had just happened with the statue as he stared at his favorite mosaic. “This must be the Crystal Tower's Defenses that Annandor mentioned. If we could figure out how to activate them, we could destroy the Ashen Tower in a heartbeat.”</p><p></p><p> “See, look here,” Harold said, tracing the glowing beam of light from the massive crystal atop one of the Crystal Towers to what seemed to by a floating island in the midst of exploding.</p><p></p><p> “I see that,” Kezzek said, walking over and putting his new quor'rel in its sheath on his back. “Does it not interest you somewhat that the island is <em>floating</em>?”</p><p></p><p> “Back here, it has more of the gray figures and the other races placing giant gems or crystals or something into the center of these henges,” Kormak said from a few mosaics further down the ramp.</p><p></p><p> “What's a henge?” Harold said.</p><p></p><p> “A ring of stones, usually,” Kezzek said, standing next to the dwarf. “See, notice the jagged black line at the bottom of this one? It's even thicker at Harold's. And here...”</p><p></p><p> He moved to the next mosaic up the ramp from Kormak's. “This one seems to show these floating islands tearing free and leaving sand behind. The Endless Sands?”</p><p></p><p> “Even Felskein,” Harold said. “This one has Felskein flying in the center of them, like the hub of a wheel. It's at least fifty times larger than the next one. And if that yellow is the Endless Sands, look at the black tiles woven through it.”</p><p></p><p> “Even more interesting are these further up,” Kezzek said, walking past Harold. “Those black tiles you noticed are gone in this one and the one after it, it looks like all these floating islands are returning to the Sands.”</p><p></p><p> “So maybe they all landed and together became Felskein?” Kormak said.</p><p> </p><p>Kezzek shook his head and continued up the ramp. “No, because up here, the darkness seems to be returning. Look, you can see it engulfing some of the islands that are in the Sands. The next one shows them fleeing to the sky again.”</p><p></p><p> “Interesting,” Kormak said, examining the mosaics before Kezzek intently. “Wait, what's this thing? Is that what I think it is?”</p><p></p><p> Kezzek leaned down and Harold joined them. Kezzek nodded and motioned them further up the ramp. “Might want to get some light.”</p><p></p><p> “I don't need it,” Kormak said as Harold lit a torch. “Keen dwarven night-sight and all that.”</p><p></p><p> They followed Kezzek a little farther up and stopped at a mural that unmistakably showed a Gem-Eye.</p><p></p><p> After letting it sink in on Kormak and Harold for a moment, he led them to the next panel. “What does this one look like to you?”</p><p></p><p> They looked at it for a while, then Kormak said, “From what you've told me about them, it looks like Iron Sky constructs marching into the Darkness.”</p><p></p><p> “No, not just marching,” Harold said. “Look, these are like the ones we fought, the big floating ones and the little fast ones. It looks like they're firing into the Darkness too. They're fighting it.”</p><p></p><p> “That's what I thought too,” Kezzek said, nodding. “And it looks like they might have succeeded beyond their creator's wildest expectations.”</p><p></p><p> They followed him further up the ramp, until it narrowed enough that they could see a door at the top of the ramp leading outside. Then Kezzek stopped. “Look at this one.”</p><p></p><p> “Looks like Iron Sky is killing the gray figures,” Harold said. “Here they're throwing them off the floating islands and here this big one looks like it's standing on a massive mound of gray forms.”</p><p></p><p> “I'm guessing whoever these slagged gray tiles represent made more than they bargained for when they made Iron Sky,” Kezzek said softly. “They fought off whatever the darkness was, then turned on their masters and destroyed them. This is the last mosaic that has the gray figures in it...”</p><p></p><p> The others took that in for a moment, then Harold began walking past and Kormak followed the archer a second later. “What about the last ones before the door?”</p><p></p><p> “Well, those are really interesting, especially the last one, but we're not quite there yet,” Kezzek said, joining the others. “Harold, you remember when Keeper first activated and he told us about Iron Sky's seven 'Skylands'?”</p><p></p><p> “Vaguely, yes. Why?” Harold said.</p><p></p><p> “This is why.”</p><p></p><p> He pointed at a mural depicting Iron Sky constructs attacking a floating islands. “I think Iron Sky <em>had</em> seven. If this is at all accurate, they have at least nine, and I have no idea how long ago this was.”</p><p></p><p> “Wait, you think all this is real?” Harold said. “For all we know, this is just some story created by some extinct race. Ever heard of propaganda?”</p><p></p><p> “What sort of propaganda would you put a couple miles up the tallest mountain in the world?” Kormak said. “Not much to convince up here.”</p><p></p><p> “Well, I believe this is real and I'll show you why in a minute,” Kezzek said, walking on up the ramp. “Ah, lets see. Yes, this one here. They're small, so it's hard to tell, but what do all these specs flying over the Endless Sands look like to you?”</p><p></p><p> Harold held the torch close to the mosaic and all three examined it closely. “More Gem-Eyes. Hundreds I'd guess,” Harold said.</p><p></p><p> “Looks like they're searching the desert for something,” Kormak added.</p><p></p><p> “Any guess as to what that something might be?” Kezzek said.</p><p></p><p> “They were always looking for those amulets we have stored in Keeper,” Harold said. “Maybe they're hunting for those.”</p><p></p><p> “Maybe,” Kezzek said. “But remember that one we ran into as we were returning from deposing Neergrog?”</p><p></p><p> “The broken one? The one that was all excited about... oh.” Harold stared off into the empty space that dropped a hundred feet to the statue below.</p><p></p><p> “They're searching for Felskein,” Kezzek said. “If you'll remember, at the last mosaic that shows all the islands flying up into the sky, Felskein isn't with them.”</p><p></p><p> “And Keeper told us when Suniel first brought him to life that Felskein was considered the 'Lost Continent' by the Nexus, whoever or whatever that is,” Harold said.</p><p></p><p> “So these things are combing the Endless Sands searching for us?” Kormak said. “You'd think something as large as Felskein would be hard to miss. Heck, we're on a mountain that's supposed to be ten miles high. How do you miss something like that?”</p><p></p><p> “Maybe they call them the Endless Sands for a reason. I don't know really,” Kezzek said. “Based on the interactions we've had with Iron Sky so far, I don't think them finding us would be good news for anyone on Fekskein. It gets stranger though.”</p><p></p><p> Kezzek walked a little farther and stopped in front of one of the last and most perplexing mosaics. “This one is... well, look.”</p><p></p><p> Harold and Kormak looked at it for several minutes. “It looks like someone fighting Iron Sky,” Kormak said. “That one you showed us a ways back had a bunch of people fighting Iron Sky as they attacked the Skylands. What's so special about this one?”</p><p></p><p> “This isn't just someone. Look closer.”</p><p></p><p> “There's an archer here, and this is some sort of mage. That one is hard to make out, that looks like a Greywarden gauntlet and...” Kormak trailed off. </p><p></p><p>Harold met Kezzek's eyes.</p><p> </p><p>“So whoever made this is still here,” Harold whispered, hand drifting towards his quiver. “They have to be if they had this information and had time to create this.”</p><p></p><p> “I doubt it,” Kezzek said, walking towards the door. He stopped at the final mural.</p><p></p><p> They all stared at it in wonder, even Kezzek who had already spend ten minutes looking at it before.</p><p></p><p> The final mosaic showed a twisted silver pyramid jutting from the side of a mountain. A silver sphere stuck to a thin rail going up the mountain like a giant opaque soap bubble formed over a string. </p><p></p><p>Small figures were approaching the lower door to the pyramid along a thin walkway; one figure dressed in robes, one a larger figure with a giant metal gauntlet, one with a bow, and a shorter one following along behind the others, a dog trailing far behind...</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Iron Sky, post: 4706959, member: 60965"] Session 18, Part 3 -Note: hmm, either the next Part or the one after it has one of the tag lines from my Story Hour signature promo. Though, I guess this one (Part 3) has many of them in a broader fashion. As of the beginning of this post: Robots, check, Assassins, check, Hobgoblins, check, the Ashen Tower, check, Land Pirates, check, Gnome Genocide, check, Flying Islands, check, Dying Heroes, check. That leaves Polite Beholders, the Corpse Ramp, Artifacts, Exploding Zombie Dragons, Blood Feuds, Vanished Races, and the Black City left to go!- “These people were primitive, look, you can see some sort of crude tools here,” Kezzek said, pointing to one of the first mural past the front door. “I'm not sure how much time is between each of these mosaics, but I have the feeling these few murals represent a long time they spent this way.” “If I'm not mistaken, this one seems to show them creating a new race. It's hard to tell exactly with their forms all blurred out.” “Yeah, I see what you're looking at there,” Kormak said. “It looks like they're creating... elves? Huh, that's disappointing, I would have thought dwarves were created first.” “Dwarves and orcs are over here,” Harold said from half-a-dozen murals down. “And a little further, here's humans.” “Well, if you look over here past Harold,” Kezzek said, walking past the archer. “This is the interesting one. Or [I]one[/I] of the interesting ones anyway.” Harold and Kormak walked over and joined him, staring at the mural for a minute before Kormak said something. “It's blank wall, there's nothing here.” “No, there's tiles here. It's not blank. It must be showing some vast darkness. The tiles wouldn't be laid if there was nothing here. Look, the one before it has one of the burned-out figures holding up a large gem or something. You can see a few tiles of the darkness along the right edge here.” “The orcs in this one look just like the statue back there,” Harold said from where he'd moved ahead to the front of the ramp. “It looks like an army, all armed with quor'rels. The next one shows a few bloody ones coming back. What were they fighting?” They looked around at the surrounding murals for a while. “Whatever was in the darkness I guess,” Kezzek said. He glanced between the orcs in the mural and the statue, then to his own quor'rel. “What does it look like the statue is doing to you?” They turned and examined it. It stood, one hand again holding the quor'rel aloft, the other extending his hand. “As if he's wanting something,” Kezzek said, walking towards the statue. “Wanting to smash you to paste,” Kormak said. “You know what you're doing?” “I think I just might,” Kezzek said. Slowly, he unsheathed his quor'rel, half expecting the statue to awaken and attack. It didn't. He stood before the massive outstretched hand for a minute, then placed his quor'rel in it. Everyone waited expectantly. “Well, not sure what you thought would happen, but I guess it was worth a - HOLY DAMN!” Kormak said, leaping away as the statue closed its fist around Kezzek's quor'rel. It raised it above it's head and stone rapidly accreted around the blades. At the same time, it lowered the stone quor'rel held in its other hand and the stone that covered it started to crack and fall away. By the time it was lowered to Kezzek's height, the stone had all fallen away from the blade. Slowly, almost reverently, Kezzek reached up and took it. It seemed lighter than his old one, yet more substantial somehow. When he took a few experimental swings, it seemed like the air resisted him; he pushed harder against it and the blade suddenly slashed through the air with tremendous power. “So, you knew to do that how?” Kormak said, looking at Kezzek's new weapon appreciatively. “It was a hunch,” Kezzek said. “This one here,” Harold said, seemingly oblivious to everything that had just happened with the statue as he stared at his favorite mosaic. “This must be the Crystal Tower's Defenses that Annandor mentioned. If we could figure out how to activate them, we could destroy the Ashen Tower in a heartbeat.” “See, look here,” Harold said, tracing the glowing beam of light from the massive crystal atop one of the Crystal Towers to what seemed to by a floating island in the midst of exploding. “I see that,” Kezzek said, walking over and putting his new quor'rel in its sheath on his back. “Does it not interest you somewhat that the island is [I]floating[/I]?” “Back here, it has more of the gray figures and the other races placing giant gems or crystals or something into the center of these henges,” Kormak said from a few mosaics further down the ramp. “What's a henge?” Harold said. “A ring of stones, usually,” Kezzek said, standing next to the dwarf. “See, notice the jagged black line at the bottom of this one? It's even thicker at Harold's. And here...” He moved to the next mosaic up the ramp from Kormak's. “This one seems to show these floating islands tearing free and leaving sand behind. The Endless Sands?” “Even Felskein,” Harold said. “This one has Felskein flying in the center of them, like the hub of a wheel. It's at least fifty times larger than the next one. And if that yellow is the Endless Sands, look at the black tiles woven through it.” “Even more interesting are these further up,” Kezzek said, walking past Harold. “Those black tiles you noticed are gone in this one and the one after it, it looks like all these floating islands are returning to the Sands.” “So maybe they all landed and together became Felskein?” Kormak said. Kezzek shook his head and continued up the ramp. “No, because up here, the darkness seems to be returning. Look, you can see it engulfing some of the islands that are in the Sands. The next one shows them fleeing to the sky again.” “Interesting,” Kormak said, examining the mosaics before Kezzek intently. “Wait, what's this thing? Is that what I think it is?” Kezzek leaned down and Harold joined them. Kezzek nodded and motioned them further up the ramp. “Might want to get some light.” “I don't need it,” Kormak said as Harold lit a torch. “Keen dwarven night-sight and all that.” They followed Kezzek a little farther up and stopped at a mural that unmistakably showed a Gem-Eye. After letting it sink in on Kormak and Harold for a moment, he led them to the next panel. “What does this one look like to you?” They looked at it for a while, then Kormak said, “From what you've told me about them, it looks like Iron Sky constructs marching into the Darkness.” “No, not just marching,” Harold said. “Look, these are like the ones we fought, the big floating ones and the little fast ones. It looks like they're firing into the Darkness too. They're fighting it.” “That's what I thought too,” Kezzek said, nodding. “And it looks like they might have succeeded beyond their creator's wildest expectations.” They followed him further up the ramp, until it narrowed enough that they could see a door at the top of the ramp leading outside. Then Kezzek stopped. “Look at this one.” “Looks like Iron Sky is killing the gray figures,” Harold said. “Here they're throwing them off the floating islands and here this big one looks like it's standing on a massive mound of gray forms.” “I'm guessing whoever these slagged gray tiles represent made more than they bargained for when they made Iron Sky,” Kezzek said softly. “They fought off whatever the darkness was, then turned on their masters and destroyed them. This is the last mosaic that has the gray figures in it...” The others took that in for a moment, then Harold began walking past and Kormak followed the archer a second later. “What about the last ones before the door?” “Well, those are really interesting, especially the last one, but we're not quite there yet,” Kezzek said, joining the others. “Harold, you remember when Keeper first activated and he told us about Iron Sky's seven 'Skylands'?” “Vaguely, yes. Why?” Harold said. “This is why.” He pointed at a mural depicting Iron Sky constructs attacking a floating islands. “I think Iron Sky [I]had[/I] seven. If this is at all accurate, they have at least nine, and I have no idea how long ago this was.” “Wait, you think all this is real?” Harold said. “For all we know, this is just some story created by some extinct race. Ever heard of propaganda?” “What sort of propaganda would you put a couple miles up the tallest mountain in the world?” Kormak said. “Not much to convince up here.” “Well, I believe this is real and I'll show you why in a minute,” Kezzek said, walking on up the ramp. “Ah, lets see. Yes, this one here. They're small, so it's hard to tell, but what do all these specs flying over the Endless Sands look like to you?” Harold held the torch close to the mosaic and all three examined it closely. “More Gem-Eyes. Hundreds I'd guess,” Harold said. “Looks like they're searching the desert for something,” Kormak added. “Any guess as to what that something might be?” Kezzek said. “They were always looking for those amulets we have stored in Keeper,” Harold said. “Maybe they're hunting for those.” “Maybe,” Kezzek said. “But remember that one we ran into as we were returning from deposing Neergrog?” “The broken one? The one that was all excited about... oh.” Harold stared off into the empty space that dropped a hundred feet to the statue below. “They're searching for Felskein,” Kezzek said. “If you'll remember, at the last mosaic that shows all the islands flying up into the sky, Felskein isn't with them.” “And Keeper told us when Suniel first brought him to life that Felskein was considered the 'Lost Continent' by the Nexus, whoever or whatever that is,” Harold said. “So these things are combing the Endless Sands searching for us?” Kormak said. “You'd think something as large as Felskein would be hard to miss. Heck, we're on a mountain that's supposed to be ten miles high. How do you miss something like that?” “Maybe they call them the Endless Sands for a reason. I don't know really,” Kezzek said. “Based on the interactions we've had with Iron Sky so far, I don't think them finding us would be good news for anyone on Fekskein. It gets stranger though.” Kezzek walked a little farther and stopped in front of one of the last and most perplexing mosaics. “This one is... well, look.” Harold and Kormak looked at it for several minutes. “It looks like someone fighting Iron Sky,” Kormak said. “That one you showed us a ways back had a bunch of people fighting Iron Sky as they attacked the Skylands. What's so special about this one?” “This isn't just someone. Look closer.” “There's an archer here, and this is some sort of mage. That one is hard to make out, that looks like a Greywarden gauntlet and...” Kormak trailed off. Harold met Kezzek's eyes. “So whoever made this is still here,” Harold whispered, hand drifting towards his quiver. “They have to be if they had this information and had time to create this.” “I doubt it,” Kezzek said, walking towards the door. He stopped at the final mural. They all stared at it in wonder, even Kezzek who had already spend ten minutes looking at it before. The final mosaic showed a twisted silver pyramid jutting from the side of a mountain. A silver sphere stuck to a thin rail going up the mountain like a giant opaque soap bubble formed over a string. Small figures were approaching the lower door to the pyramid along a thin walkway; one figure dressed in robes, one a larger figure with a giant metal gauntlet, one with a bow, and a shorter one following along behind the others, a dog trailing far behind... [/QUOTE]
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