[4e] [ePoL] Heroic Souls IC (R6 Heian > Monsters > Eldan&Champy > Quinn > Silvi > )

[Graf]

The fey nods and begins to lead the group through the feywild.

I will stay here. Since my transformation it has grown difficult to leave. he trudges along in front of you for some time. Just when you think the anthropomorphic green fog bank is not going to answer Eldan's question he speaks again.

I will do what I can warrior. But the truth is that she was bound more tightly to the gods than any... Their absence may be a blow to her that she will never recover from.

In this matter I can promise efforts. But not outcomes.

 

[Voda Vosa]

Quinn remembers.

Quinn is suddenly stroke by a tide of memories, falshes of events and people he has never saw, but he found familiar.
The man felt to his knees, staring with frenzied eyes at his hands. He was shaking... more flashes of memories...
He watched his hands, shifting into bold fat black hands, hairy and with harsh skin. He tried to say something, he opened his mouth, but no sound came out from it. He shacked his head, and rose his hands to touch his face. His beard, it was there... Or wasn't it? too much hair... he touched his face, but his skin was not his. It was the hard skin of the dwarf. More shocked than before, he quickly looked at his hands again. They have come back to normal, he sighed in relieve, but it was short lived, after he blinked, he found himself staring at aged, old woman hands. Surprise and shock again.
He rose his hands, touching his face, like a mad man. No beard! the same soft and aged skin of that old hands! Thin ,long ,withe hair in his head, the old woman master head! What was happening?
After the initial confusion, Quinn understood all at once.
His arms felt to touch the grass beneath him .
Open mouthed, the man stared at the sky, eyes closed.
He slowly moved his mouth, and a hard bold phrase, emerged from his lips.
[sblock=Dwarven]"He is still a boy"[/sblock]
And he sighed peacefully, and got up, normally, as if nothing had happened. He looked at the other people around him.
"There is still much I don't remember. I want to know more. For example, what was your place in all that? Where were you?"

 

[Graf]

[sblock=Dwarven]"He is still a boy"[/sblock]

[sblock=Dwarven]You speak a language, which is like dwarven, but sounds different to your ears. It is unfamiliar to you, as alien as the arcane magics you studied/remembered were familiar.[/sblock]

"There is still much I don't remember. I want to know more. For example, what was your place in all that? Where were you?"

The fey pauses for a moment, passing under an immense fallen tree. A large paw is barely visible through the mist resting against the tree

All that? To be honest, I do not know which darva* you speak of.

The green eyes glint with something like amusement. You must forgive me for finding this amusing...
[sblock=Quinn]You briefly recall, in a sort of flashing stream, hundreds upon hundreds of faces asking you questions. It lasts but an instant, hundreds of faces with the same pleading look. You think that a few of the faces may have the same amused look you see in the fey's green eyes; but it is over too quickly to make a conclusive judgment. [/sblock]
...as I recall our positions were usually reversed.

As for my role? It was, to be honest, much smaller than it should have been; I was often easily distracted...
[sblock=Neeloo]You have repeated memories of hauling a smiling man or woman out of bed with various people; and once or twice at least, kicking him or her out of your own bed.[/sblock]
[sblock=Heian]You have one strong and distinct memory of a laughing elvin woman with an oversize shield showing up -after- a battle with a wreath of flowers in her hair.[/sblock]
...and that may very well have been what saved me.

He glances over pointedly at Eldan.
[sblock=Eldan]You have an image of a human woman, with deep green eyes, smiling, laughing and turning down some sort of request.
And you can almost hear the torrent of curses from your dwarven companion about the fair weather nature of elves.[/sblock]

I did ever go left when others headed right, and so found myself at the fringes of what would be the end. And I confess that when everything went wrong I focused mostly on saving myself.

The fey passes under the tree root and passes through a moonlit grove, leaving behind a trail of green mist.

[sblock=Neeloo & Quinn passive Arcana >20]
ooc: kinda assuming Quinn's going to pump int here but...
Neeloo gets a +2 for it being fey related

The shadows around you seem to flicker and lengthen for an instant; a tell tail sign of powerful shadow magic. But the signs are wrong for it to be here in the feywild. It's a reflection of something happening in the material. [/sblock]

Big Green Eyes makes a harrumphing sound. He gathers his strength. You haven't much time. I doubt whatever magics are blocking his scrying will stand when he calls fully upon his power. Not here, at the center of his power.

He gestures toward a massive hollow moss-covered tree trunk. This will take you to mortal realm, it is the closest exit to the border of the town. The Geeche fears discovery more than anything else. He will be loath to act directly outside of the border that effects the town; and he... the fey pauses for a moment, is not the most decisive of individuals even on his best days. You should have space once you escape the border.

It has been more than a hundred years since I walked the mortal realms; nor can I safely go until my transformation is complete. I can tell you little about what awaits you.

The fey begins to dissolve before your eyes, becoming nothing more than green mist Seeing you all again, has been... an unexpected pleasure ... The last sounds truly heartfelt.

Then the fey is gone. Before you the hollow tree trunk forms a dark tunnel.

*=dwarven for boy

 

[Graf]

deleted

 

[Atanatotatos]

[sblock=DM]While walking behind Khazeen, Heian feels a strange feeling, and feels compelled to put his hand in his pocket. There he finds an object he had long forgotten, from his childhood, a small golden, strangely rusty padlock, that he had received long ago in excange for a pebble. But he was pretty sure he had left it in his room, and not seen it in ages... then he hears a voice in his head, from a long, long time before: You are a Shield. A Wall, a Fort. You are chained in your role. You must not stray.

OOC: Graf, tell me what you think about this; if you this doesn't work i'll change that. My ideas are two; this could be a plot device later together with Neeloo's key (something's got to be opened, or something's got to be closed); OR, if that doesn't work, a transfiguration of Heian's holy symbol of hold (padlock=protection). Or both actually...[/sblock]

As the fey departs, Heian has another vision. He sees himslef, again a kinght in arms, dueling with a fey knight; then, he sees himself, on his knees, holding the dead rival's body in his arms, mourning for him. As the fey creature disappears, Heian knows in the depths of his being that he and it -him- have met before. Then he turns, and enters the hollow trunk, his hand on his javelin, his eyes looking at Neeloo at his back.

 

[Voda Vosa]

Quinn looked with certain fear at his own shadow, sensing something bad was about to happen. He sensed the power of his pupil of the other life. He rose his eyes to look at his peers. "Friends, time is not on our side, something really bad is going to happen, and it will happen soon, we must go, now!" He rushes to the trunk, as soon as he finish speaking, holding his book tightly, pressing it with his chest.

 

[Redclaw]

Eldan, fighting back concern for his cousin, is suddenly filled with a strength of purpose he can't remember ever feeling before. These are my people, he thinks to himself. It is my job to make sure they are ready for whatever lies beyond that log.

He adjusts the shield that rests on his back and grips the hilt of his sword. "Come. We may not know what awaits us, but there's only one way to discover it." He claps Quinn on the back as the studious one moves toward the log, then he looks at Neeloo and offers a smile full of a confidence he isn't quite feeling. "After you, milady."

 

[SarahRequiem]

NeeLoo was day dreaming again, dreaming of a giant field of colorful flowers. As she runs through the field, the flowers shine up like little lights, as they fly off into the wind. these flowers... no.. butterflies? they fly around her playfully and she's laughing happily. She drops to her knees and look off into the sky, a sky so beautiful... one that she never seen in the village. She here's a voice... calling her. She turns around and look up to see the silouette of a man, standing in front of the sun. He tends his hand, smilling.

"Heian?" she says as she put her hand into his...

"After you, milady."

"oh.. thank you Eldan..." she says, before looking down at the ground and walking quickly up to Heian. taking his hand.

"where are we going now?"

 

[Graf]

Urged on by Quinn's warnings the group presses on into the hollow tree trunk. It is not a long tunnel, but things seem different on the far side. Colors seem dimmer and everything has a tired and mundane air.

There are six of you Eldan, Quinn, Neeloo & Heian, Silvi and Verulo.

The bramble is tight where the tree trunk ends, and you recognize the spot as where the bramble spills out of the crude city walls and comes very close to the river.
[sblock=Eldan]The very spot, in fact, where you first saw Big Green Eyes.[/sblock]

Eldan's helmet glows with a dim red light, and is so hot that it's almost painful to hold.

Silvi leads you though a tight space in the bramble and out onto the muddy bank of the river. The night sky is so dark you think it's cloudless, but whatever is above you doesn't look like clouds. It seems darker, somehow, and to be flowing back toward the far side of town.
The blackness seems to be swirling toward the SE edge of town, where the Geeche's twisted little tower rests; like the water in a bathtub that's had it's stopper pulled.

All that's left is for you to swim. The water is cold, but flows slowly and the far bank of the river is not far. As you crawl from the far bank of the river you feel the mud clinging to you.

Prepared for the journey you must be. the little statue's voice trails off.

The mud wraps you in armor, forms backpacks that cling to your backs, and hardens into weaponry and equipment under your hands.

[sblock=OOC: Your gear is made of mud] It's slightly clammy to the touch but otherwise functions normally. It will bit strange to drink water from a mud-waterskin, or to sleep wrapped in a mud sleeping bag. (or light a mud torch) but it functions as if it were a normal item made of the most typical material (ex: wood for a staff, steel for a sword, etc).

There is no food btw.[/sblock]

[sblock=Arcana 15+ (Neeloo & Quinn)]This is a powerful magical ritual of creation.[sblock=Arcana 20+ (Quinn)]
You hit the 20 only b/c of +2 from familiarity with the fixer.

This is the sort of ritual The Fixer has developed in the past. Of course you can -conjure- something, he might say, but why not use what you have?

The created objects can be destroyed as normal; otherwise they should last for a month, give or take a day or so.
[/sblock][/sblock]

As you crest the bank of the river Eldan's little helmet pulls free of his muddy grip and floats above and behind him. It sends out a little pulse of red light.

As the pulse shoots out it it reveals a pack of dark low-slung dog-sized creatures rushing toward you from the south. They are only revealed clearly for an instant, when the pulse passes over them, otherwise the appear as dim blurs.

The helmet shoots out another pulse bringing the creatures, with their baleful red eyes, into view for a second. You can make out sharp teeth. They are approaching rapidly.

[sblock=Eldan]Each round, on your turn, as a minor action, you can set the helm to do one of two things.
1. Emit a steady red glow. Continuous(?) Burst 3 that reveals the creatures clearly in the area.
2. Fire a "pulse", for that initiative count and the two following it all creatures in range are revealed.
Once you've set the helm it says that way until you change it again.
[/sblock]

[sblock=The Creatures]When not revealed by the light of Eldan's help the creatures appear to be shadowy smears.

In the red light of the helm the creatures are have dark pelts and look like some unfortunately combination of feline and canine, with large teeth. Their red eyes pulse with a hostile malice that is all to sentient.

In the light of the pulse several of the creatures seem larger and faster than the rest of the pack, but their smeared forms don't appear any different when not revealed by the helm's red illumination.

[sblock=Monster Knowledge Arcana 15]
Keywords: Shadow Magical Beast

Nobody has Arcana 20, so you don't know/can't guess their specific powers.
[/sblock][sblock=Quinn & Neeloo; the creatures relationship with the Geeche]18/19 are close to a 20... These creatures, though they bear the distinct touch of the Geeche's magic are not connected to him the way that the creatures with red eyes and black diamond pupils are.

Without that degree of connection he probably can't, for instance, instantly tell when they're killed.[/sblock]
[/sblock]

 

[Voda Vosa]

Quinn looks frowning at the muddy wears, and then to the talking statue. In that instant he had another flashback, there were his apprentices again, talking to each other, and as always, each one trying to prove superior to his peer. But Quinn just could remember, or think he remembered, something said by the taller one, in reply to a hidden part of the conversation "Of course you can -conjure- something, but why not use what you have?". With that the old memory images dispelled, and Quinn knew what was all that about.
But he hadn't time to tell the others, a pack of shadow creatures were rushing to them, with death in their eyes. Quinn looked at them when the helmet emmited the pulse, with knee eyes, and said. "Those beasts are not under the Geeche control my friends, or that I think, they seem widely different from his invocations. Attack them with no fear!"