4e ePoL

[hewligan]

Oh dear, thinks Karothen, my clothes are going to get soaked. There is a moment when he wonders if this is all a bad idea, but he wants to see what Jeillia is so keen to share with them. He watches her swim, watches Eldan dive, and hesitates a moment.

It is going to be cold.

He jumps in, less graciously than Eldan, and lets out an involuntary gasp. His left hand clutches the item Jeillia handed to him, and presses hard against the wrapped statue in his belt to stop it being lost in the water. He moves slowly towards the opposite shore.

 

[Graf]

Jeillia has already pried up the loose flagstone and retreived the golden cloak, the strange lantern and the iron key.

Then she is mounting the steep black stairs winding her way back and forth up toward the castle proper. The ragged bottom of the golden cloak, far too big for her slender frame, drags along behind her covering several steps.

She stops at the main landing half-way up and waits for the others. Holding the unlit lantern, standing still in the shimmering cloth she looks etherial.
[sblock=karothen]
For an instant the lantern isn't a lantern but is glowing so brightly it's hard to see.
The sky isn't black but a purple like that of dawn.
And there is something impossibly large, inky-black and sepentine rising up above her.

Then something happens, you blink perhaps, and everything is as it was. The monstrous shape was nothing more than the last remaining tower of the castle stabbing up into the stars.[/sblock]

 

[hewligan]

Karothen pulls himself up out of the water and onto the shore. He lets himself take a quizzical look at Eldan before he turns to follow Jeillia. The young woman is clearly deeply focused on the 'adventure' that she is dragging him on. He wonders what the fuss is going to be about. There is, he reflects sadly, something lost about her. Perhaps the girl is fragile.

And then she stops, and turns to him, waiting impatiently for the two men to catch up with her. For a second, just a fleeting second, he sees ... no ... nothing. He sees nothing. Just a play of the light on the roiling clouds that stain the inky sky, or a part of the castle that looms behind her. Just a trick of his mind, stressed by the strangeness of this evening.

He shakes his head as if to clear the image. He catches Eldan giving him a concerned look. He didn't see it, thinks Karothen, he just thinks I am hesitating. He thinks I am scared of that castle. Karothen gives a weak smile, and forces himself onwards after the girl.

In truth, he is a little afraid!

OOC: enworld was not reachable over the weekend. Sorry for the delay!

 

[Graf]

[sblock=ooc]No worries. Everybody suffered the outage.
Will wait a day for Eldan to post before pushing on.[/sblock]

 

[Redclaw]

Eldan tries to squeeze some of the water out of his clothing, knowing that he's in for a cold walk through a dark castle again, then follows after his cousin. He takes the stairs two at a time to catch up. Somehow, as has happened in the past, he is distracted by ideas about the castle and this winding path up the cliff. It is clear to him, so much so that he can envision it, that this was designed to defend against unwanted guests. He can't imagine anyone attacking, but he sees signs of the defensive nature of the path.

There, a perfect place for a small group of spearmen to hold back a much larger force. Over there, a level spot, inaccessible from the path way but easily so from the castle, perfect for archers to shot at the path. He can almost picture himself shouting for them to fire.

Shaking his head, he clears the thoughts from his mind. Idle foolishness, he thinks. I need to focus on keeping Jeilla safe, not childish daydreams of impossible things. A little self-conscious, he adjusts his hold on the geech-given war helm and speeds up once again, keeping Jeilla in his field of visioin.

 

[Graf]

The inside of the castle will be cold, Eldan is sure of it.

Try as he might Eldan can't completely push the ghostly sounds and murmerings from his thoughts. Faint shouts seem to echo up from the river valley; he fights an urge to lean against the wall to give his archers a better shot. His relatively slow progress seems to be matched by that of Karothens.

By the time the two young men reach the middle landing Jeillia is waiting with a vaguely annoyed expression on her face.

She wordlessly slips down, squeezing to a crevace. The tell tale creak of a rusty lock tells Eldan that's she's undone the door with the iron key and is entering the castle proper. With a note of familarity Eldan notes that it's a tight squeeze even without mail on.

The short tunnel opens up into a slightly wider space, with the door open you can access the tight stairway up toward the cellar of the castle. Eldan distractedly notes the murderholes, and arrow and spear slits, here just as they were the last time.

At the top of the of the steps Jeillia is waiting, the first passage of the castle proper. Her lantern gives of a pure white light, Eldan notes that it seems dimmer than usual.

When the door at the bottom of the stairs slams shut with a BOOM Eldan remembers why he was sure it was giong to be cold. Because of the ghosts..

It's bitterly cold. Breath is fogging, and you're all shivering.

 

[hewligan]

The corridors were tight. Too tight for comfort. Karothen wasn't claustrophobic, but it still felt restrictive. He tried to imagine why you would want narrow spaced followed by large spaces, but the only thing his mind can settle on is that it would work well if you wanted to kill men. When the corridor opens up again, he feels only the faintest lift in his mood. This building feels like it harbours a burden of great sadness.

He follows Eldan up the stairs to the waiting Jeillia. She looks pretty in the stark tendrils of lantern light. Pretty, but haunted, distant. He is focusing on this, perhaps, when the door behind slams shut. He starts with surprise.

He looks to Eldan for comfort, but finds none there. The young man looks ill at ease. Karothen casts him a confused look, but cannot bring himself to speak. It feels wrong here, somehow.

The cold is jarring. The suddenness of it catches his breath. Perhaps it is still the chill of his wet clothes. No, it is not that. He notices his own breath fog up in front of him. And then the feeling creeps over him.

We are not alone. He whispers to Eldan. I can sense eyes upon us.

 

[Redclaw]

Eldan, completely caught up in the visions he saw last time he was here, loses awareness of Karothen, and even Jeilla. All he knows are the sights and sounds of the living castle once again. He hears the shouts of distress, and the thunder of distant drums. He sees the running pages carrying arrows and missives to the walls. He knows that if he goes back to the entrance he will see an army crawling up the path, until he walks out the doorway at which point they'll dissapear.

Why did I come back here? he asks himself. He struggles to remember what he was thinking that would make him swim across the river again and face this horror, but he can't recall anything more solid than a need to swim after someone.

Startled out of his vision by a sound somehow more real, although less urgent, than those that surround him, he turns to see Karothen next to him. What are you doing here, fixer? he asks. You can't have been here when this battle took place.

 

[hewligan]

Karothen had felt the chill, felt the presence, but had tried to slip them from his mind. He focused on Jeilia, moving towards her, struck by the light she carried, feeling an urge to be near it. He touched Eldan on the elbow as he moved past, guiding him towards the light. it was then that Eldan spoke, as if awakened from some stupor.

Karothen let the question hang for a little, moving beside the girl, guiding Eldan beside them.

Only then did Karothen speak. You can see them, can't you? The question wasn't really directed at either Jeilia or Eldan. I can feel them. There are many. He turns then to Eldan, seeing that the young man is staring at him with an intense gaze, as if awaiting his answer.

Many people died here, didn't they. It must have been so long ago, before the wind and water bled this place to ruin. Why are they trapped here? Why are they so scared?

It was only then that he saw something, a movement, like a coalescing of smoke, that flit before the lantern, before shying away. For the briefest of moments it looked like a man, little older than them, but his face partially hidden behind a metal helmet. His mouth has been set in a grimace, his hands stretched out like wisps of fog stretching out from a river bank.

Then he saw that there were many of them. Incorporeal, shadowy, smokey creatures. Fading into one another, drifting out of the walls, rising from the floor, and then fading away again. Men, all of them men, some with ghastly wounds, or disjointed limbs, but never stationary long enough to get a full view of them.

Karothen had felt the chill, felt the presence, but had tried to slip them from his mind. He focused on Jeilia, moving towards her, struck by the light she carried, feeling an urge to be near it. He touched Eldan on the elbow as he moved past, guiding him towards the light. it was then that Eldan spoke, as if awakened from some stupor.

Karothen let the question hang for a little, moving beside the girl, guiding Eldan beside them.

Only then did Karothen speak. You can see them, can't you? The question wasn't really directed at either Jeilia or Eldan. I can feel them. There are many. He turns then to Eldan, seeing that the young man is staring at him with an intense gaze, as if awaiting his answer.

WHY ARE WE HERE JEILIA! He half-shouts, the fear in him causing his voice to sound urgent and louder than he had expected.

 

[Graf]

Eldan and Karothen have been moving through the dark corridors of the castles extensive cellars.

The ghosts press around them, the air is bitterly cold, your limbs feel heavy and numb.

Jeillia turns when she hears Karothen's voice. So you can open the gateway and free the Messenger. Her voice is strong and determined. Then I will strike down the wyrm.

The light flares, the ghosts are pressed back, you feel warm.

Do not worry Magus, I will live to fulfill my promise.
For some reason these last words make Karothen feel both guilt and anticipation.