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Message: <blockquote data-quote="drnuncheon" data-source="post: 634825" data-attributes="member: 96">Session Seventeen, Part Three: A World of Endless GreyDi'Fier's hand groped blindly for his sword as the thing reared back its head, teeth stretching wide.  He felt the cold grip on his fingertips and yanked it towards him, his other hand coming up as if to ward off the creature.  Arcane syllables sparked from his lips, and golden light suffused the grey for an instant as globes of force leapt the distance from his hand to the creature.The globes ripped into its flesh, triggering an eruption of blackness that resolved itself into a horde of vermin, tiny copies of the creature, swarming towards their victims on wire-thin legs.Dru dived through the horde, sending them scattering from her ragged boots.  Her blade was in her hand, sinking deep into the creature once, twice.  She could feel the bites of the tiny creatures sinking into her flesh as they crawled up her legs, feel the fires of their venom in her blood.  Reflexively she looked to her wrists...but they remained stubbornly unmarked.  Oh, no...The giant creature finally fixed on its prey, its head arcing downward with the savage finality of an avalanche, its teeth tearing into Di'Fier's shoulder, all but yanking him to his feet as it lifted upwards.  The flesh parted under the assault and he dropped, blood soaking his clothing and staining the grey earth a dull red.Ignoring the fire in his arm, ignoring the spawn of the thing that climbed upon him and bit at him, Di'Fier raised his blade, sending it whistling through the air, slashing deep into the thing's underbelly and causing another explosion of its foul brood.  The blade reared back, then forward like an arrow, flashing white as it struck deep, leaving a frost-rimed hole as the mage staggered backwards.The creature crumpled and sagged, as if it were an inflated bladder losing air.  Wisps of blackness began to rise from it as it dissolved back into the grey.Dru leapt forward, knocking the tiny creatures from Di'Fier and stomping them as they hit the ground.  With his remainign strength, he did the same for her, and soon only smoky bits of black remained in the mists - and then, those too were gone."Was that...what we ate?" Di'Fier asked himself.  "Or was it just...the spirit...""I don't know," said Dru.  "But whatever it was, we're not finished here yet."  She pointed to where the thin thread of black still ran from Di'Fier into the grey mist.<img src="http://www.io.com/~jeffj/b2sep.gif" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> "How long have we been walking?""I can't tell.  I'm not tired yet - are you?""No. Nor hungry.  But..." A pause.  "Haven't we had this conversation before?""Yes.  How's your shoulder?""It hurts.  But I don't seem to be bleeding.  The bites?""Whatever it was, I was able to shrug it off without the Jade Serpent's help.  I wish I knew why it didn't work.""This is the spirit world.  It probably wasn't a real poison at all.""So...a metaphorical poison?""Right.  Hey! Where'd the thread go?""We were just following it...it's attached to you, how can you lose it?  Wait...I see it.""Where?""It goes up.""You're right.""Can we do that?""It is the spirit world..."<img src="http://www.io.com/~jeffj/b2sep.gif" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Above, in the trees, a strange creature awaited them, its orange-brown fur a sharp contrast to the formless shades of light and dark around them.  Long, clever fingers reeled in the 'thread' that was attached to Di'Fier, and when the wizened muzzle pulled back it revealed teeth of gleaming ivory.  But the eyes above it were not those of a beast: they were old, wise, and sad.The thing raised a hand to gesture them closer, showing the flaps of skin that ran from wrists to ankle, intricately painted - or perhaps tattooed - with unknowable designs that danced as the skin moved.  It looked them over carefully, as if judging them."You may tell your shaman," it began, and the voice startled them as much as the language, "that he is not strong enough to break the doom I have laid upon you."  The eyes closed, and it seemed to let out a sigh.  "Why have you done what you did?"Di'Fier licked his lips, glancing to Dru, then stepped forward.  "Sir...we did not know what we were eating.  We were tricked into it by a woman who calls herself the Swamp Hag.  She brought us the meat, and did not tell us what...who...it was from."The ancient creature snarled.  "Too long has she troubled us.  An accounting there must be."  The eyes fixed upon Di'Fier again. "It is the law of Yazir that someone must pay for this crime: life for life, death for death.  When payment has been made, you must return to me, and I will lift the doom.  Now go, for they pull upon the strands of your life and I will not spend the strength to keep you here longer."At his words, the duo felt an insistent pull, a pull that drew them ever more rapidly through the formlessness around them until even the mists were blurred.  The greyness came to meet them like a stone floor at the end of a long fall, and then everything faded to black.</blockquote>

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