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Message: <blockquote data-quote="drnuncheon" data-source="post: 914220" data-attributes="member: 96">Ahoke raises her thick eyebrows. "I think it best that we all at least get out of this mountain. I am not staying a moment longer than is necessary, and I would imagine that Caleb doesn't want to stay either."Back the way we came?" inquires Sen-Jyu, rather hopefully. "We know that that way is clear... at least now. Except for that korhorrag."Ahoke frowns. "Clear, I suppose. Except for whatever made those gigantic spiderwebs, getting down that slick ramp with two children, one of them catatonic, and then the korhorrag and his undead friends."Sen-Jyu shrugs. "Familiar, then. As compared to an unpleasant drop down a mountainside from a large height."Ahoke shrugs. "If that's what you want to do. I'm not going to stand here and argue." She starts moving towards the doorway out."Who's arguing?" Sen-Jyu asks as he lifts up Doric from the floor, heading back the way the three had come.The first obstable to be overcome, then, is the twenty-foot drop - or, rather, rise, from this side."That's just a wall," Caleb objects when he sees where you're heading.Ahoke looks up at the wall. "Oh yes, and I forgot to mention this obstacle," she says tiredly, rubbing her eyes with bloody fists. "It's a fake wall, Caleb, if we can figure out how to get up there."Eyeing the base of it, Sen-Jyu walks under the precipice slowly, from one end to the other. "The thanork did it -- there's a method here, somewhere."Harvester clears his throat quietly, "Just a sec, guys. I'd like to check something out first..." He kneels and produces a couple of small pouches which contain a pair of blue shards and a box of 5 clear shards. He studies them for a time and frowns slightly.Ahoke pauses, looking over at Harvester, and then quickly eyes Caleb to see how he reacts to the shards.Caleb's eyes fix on the shards. "What are you going to do with those?""... but I can't find their method. Maybe the boy would know." He nods to the living one, to clarify for anyone's confusion.Caleb blinks, shrugs. "The goblins just took us up the mountain."Ahoke considers. "How did they go about it?" She turns back to watch Harvester, with some confusion.Harvester lifts the box, "These appear thoroughly unrelated to this lump in the sack, by appearance..." He glances up at Caleb. "Destroy them," he remarks quietly. "You have seen these before?" He packs it all away. "Allow me to examine them, friends...""Well," the boy begins. "They climbed the ropes." Turning back to Harvester, he says, "That's what they put in Tana's head."Harvester moves towards the girl, first, and examines her thoroughly, finally focusing on her head. "How many were you, boy, before we arrived?" He nods as the boy speaks. "We must keep her far from town, then, when we attempt to ring Wyrmcall..." He considers again.Sen-Jyu ahs, "The ropes. Of -course-. So... where are 'the ropes'?" To help answer his own question, he looks about for anything vaguely ropy and perhaps attached to something sturdy over the lip of the precipice above.Caleb's brow furrows. "How many /what/ was I?"Harvester says, "Children. There were more than you three, I thought..." The priest gestures to the iron slab, "Perhaps out there, Sen?""Caleb rolls his eyes. "The ropes aren't /there/," he tells Sen-Jyu. "It'd be pretty silly for the ropes to be there when the goblins used 'em to get up the outside of the mountain."Ahoke says, thoughtfully, "What if Wyrmcall is the only way to save her from the shard's influence? I can't imagine that leaving it in her head is going to do any good."What are you going to do with the Wyrmcall?" Caleb asks.Harvester speaks softly, after pulling his partners to one side. "I would not care to have the bell's resonance shatter the crystal within her skull... it can always be rung once more, after..." He answers Caleb. "Ring it.""What's /that/ s'psed to do?"Sen-Jyu sets the corpse in his arms down, the better to search the wall with his hands. "Probably an illusion, somewhere here."Harvester speaks more quietly again, that his companions alone might hear, "We must be wary that those within Bellhold are not under this thing's influence, as well..." Once more, loudly, "Hopefully shatter the crystal entity we possess."Caleb looks at Ahoke. "Is he simple?" he whispers, pointing towards Sen-Jyu.Ahoke sighs, looking from one man to the other to Caleb. "No..," she says doubtfully. She moves over to stand nearer to Caleb, and watches."Do we still have rope?" asks the spirit-blood, looking at his companions.Ahoke nods, gesturing with her coil. "Yeah," she says. "Do you want it?"Sen-Jyu nods, extending one hand. "Please. And if we have anything to secure it with, all the better."Harvester moves to examine Doric's corpse now, to see if there is a corresponding scab. finally, he checks Caleb. "Remember... we'll also need to climb several other places... once down, some fifty feet, then up to the surface...Doric, too, bears the scab. Caleb swats at your hands as you reach for him. "Hey! Get off! Let go!"Harvester grabs hold of Caleb's head and growls, "Hold yourself still, boy. This'll be over quick enough."Caleb looks up, his eyes strangely burning......you are alone, surrounded by ice, but you do not feel cold as the snow covers you for the last time......you are surrounded by your flock, all of whom smile as they pass to the other side......you are dyying forgotten in an alley, stabbed by an angry drunk......you sit on an iron throne amid a thousand thousand books......you set down the scythe and return to your former life......you take up the sword and die on the point of a spear......you......you......you......you stumble back, letting go of the child.Harvester gasps! his hands releasing Caleb as he stumbles back, "Hold him! He is possessed!"Caleb dashes for the entryway, pausing only to grab the sack containing the stone.Ahoke grunts, seeing the child and the sack running away, and starts running after them. "Stop, kid! You don't know what you're doing, you idiot!" She punctuates her words by slamming into his back, and bearing him down to the floor under her solid dwarven weight. The sack, containing the globe, goes flying out of his hands, landing several feet away from him.Caleb struggles in Ahoke's grasp, screaming and punching, but he is unable to free himself.Ahoke sighs. "Maybe the two of you should go ahead and go. I'll stay here and watch kid. Maybe if he's not with you, Copperdeath will stop being an *SSH*LE and picking on a child."Sen-Jyu stands, jaw a bit slackened, as everyone bursts into motion except him. "... rope?" he asks in a dry whisper.Harvester turns his head briefly to make certain the unconcious girl isn't just playing possum, then moves to scoop up the sack containing the melon-sized crystal. Little concern is given the boy following the flying dwarf's tackle. "sen, tie up the girl, just in case!"Ahoke says into the child's ear, "Are you going to be good, or am I going to have to unleash Wolverine on you?" If he knows what Wolverine is or not, the threat is still clear.Sen-Jyu moves over to the girl, though hasn't yet done anything to immobilize her. Just waiting.Harvester calls out, "Gotta tie him up, Kay... he ain't himself right now, just like those horses that tried to eat you when we came to this 'burg..."Caleb continues to fail in his attempts to free himself.Harvester mutters to himself as he stalks over to Ahoke and Caleb, "Put him _down_ Ahoke... And out..." He swings his fist down, piston-like, for a glancing blow across the boy's chin.Sen-Jyu steps over the girl and approaches the group. "I don't know if that's really necessary," says Sen-Jyu, doing what he can to help restrain the kid without violent motions.Ahoke grunts, shifting her weight so that the kid will be doing all that he can to dislodge her, and says, "The rope would probably hold him good, and wouldn't leave any damage." She gestures at Sen-Jyu with her head. "You want to do the honors, while I hold him down?"Sen-Jyu considers. "I'm not very good with rope, per se. Maybe you could, and I'll hold him down?"Sensing his impending utter helplessness, Caleb tries to lock eyes with Ahoke and focus his mind...but the grapple makes such a feat impossible.Ahoke struggles to keep the boy held down, and mutters to herself. "Hand me the rope", she says.Sen-Jyu, seeing that Ahoke's in no position to just trade places, takes the rope and starts on the boy. "Listen, child. I understand that you're possessed by an entity of malevolence. But struggling will only get you a paddling."Sen-Jyu ties a rather poor knot around the boy's hands and arms. "There. Now don't we feel better?"Ahoke looks dubiously at the knot, but doesn't say anything. "I wonder if he's going to try that mind control thing that the horses did? Stupid-ass dragon," she mutters, looking over at the sack. "Deserved the fate that he got. I think that we should blindfold him too," she adds, after some thought.Caleb glares at Sen-Jyu. "There are a million branchings of fate and I see your death at the end of all of them."Ahoke snorts. "Shut up. We're mortal, you nit. Of course he'll die."Sen-Jyu smiles at the boy, ruffling his hair affectionately. "You're very sweet to say so," says the spirit-blood, "but I'm a little older than I look."Ahoke rips a strip of cloth off of her clothing, and starts to tie it around the boy's eyes. "This is to keep you from trying anything truly foolish," she tells him. "I don't want to kill you, but if you tried to control my mind, I would have to."Harvester says, "Don't look into his eyes, or you will suffer the despair of the dreams... And restrain yourselves from becoming overly friendly - that is _not_ the boy he was..."""He's just got a shard of crystal in his brain -- that would make anyone grumpy," Sen-Jyu says to the Harvester. "So... where were we? Ah yes. Climbing.""Fool." The boy's voice is hollow. "This is all there is now."Harvester moves now, to stand over the girl, and watches her closely. He holds tight to the sack.The girl lies, curled in a ball, unmoving, unresponding.Harvester says, "Restrain her as well, Ahoke..." He secures the sack to his belt as he walks towards the iron slab and peers behind it. "Might be easier going this way...""Sen-Jyu looks between the two, shrugging. "So... please, which way?"Behind the slab there is only shattered rock, and some trash from the goblins. Dust is visible in the haze of the late afternoon sun that slants in from the passage to the cave mouth.Harvester gestures, "This leads outside...""Does... anyone know if there was a way to get the dragon to cooperate and open the way out again?"  That, from Sen-Jyu, with a minor synaptic epiphany.Ahoke laughs.Harvester laughs softly, "The mountain it is, then...Sen-Jyu murmurs, "No, really... does anyone know?"Ahoke hmms. "Well, let's see. We took the item containing its soul, informed it that we were going to destroy it, and have been generally uncooperative with it. I would say that we aren't going to get it to be helpful. So... I guess it's outside and down."Harvester shakes his head, "Not from the rear, unless we ask very nicely... The korhorrag did not even know how to cause it to move in the first place, or so it claimed..."Harvester says, "Kay, I think Sen speaks of the dragon _statue_...""Ahoke mmms. "Well, there's that, too." She moves to the opening leading outside, dragging Caleb behind her. "If you make a single misstep, you'll fall off the mountain," she tells him. "You'll have to trust me, and stay on my good side."Harvester moves aside as Ahoke pushes past, then turns to pick up the girl, if Sen-Jyu doesn't.The passage leads to an enormous stone ledge - a sort of balcony, large enough for a dragon to spread his wings and launch himself into the air. Piled haphazardly by the cave mouth is a tangle of ropes and other items - crudely made pitons, mallets, and the like that the goblins evidently used to make their climb easier.Harvester murmurs to Ahoke, "There is no point in trying to reason with him, Kay... Copperdeath controls him, not the boy known as Caleb..."Ahoke replies, "Well, if Copperdeath enjoys controlling the boy, he won't have him do anything stupid." She eyes the child then. "Maybe we /should/ knock him out," she said. "He'd definitely be compliant then." She turns, looking at the pitons. "Well, these will be helpful," she says. "Better than the sheer rock."Sen-Jyu looks at the body of the boy, sighing a little. "Likely no way to bring you, friend, without having us join you." Picking up the body again, he walks to the iron doorway, sighing a bit.Harvester says, "Copperdeath has shown his disregard already... he will likely use the boy to cause the death of us all..." He nods to Sen-Jyu, "Doric has sped his way to my Lord, Sen.... The husk can be retrieved later...""Ahoke nods. "Right, then." She brings down a dwarven fist on top of the boy's skull, and then catches him as he sags into an unconscious heap. "Let's go."Sen-Jyu leaves the body just inside the doorway and moves to join his companions in their climb downward.Harvester peers over the edge at the mountainside, and examines the climbing gear. "Either of you know much about climbing? How best to do this?" He shrugs, "I can go first, being less burdened..."Sen-Jyu goes back to get the girl, then rejoins his companions.*They are fools. Do not join yourself with them. You cheat yourself and your clan. You have power in you, Ahoke Wolverines-daughter. Let me unlock it for you.*Ahoke considers. "Well, we're going to be carrying two dead weight children with us. Should probably either lower them down, or lash them to our-" she stops, and then puts both hands on her head, one on either side. "Stop it stop it stop it! I don't want to hear it."Sen-Jyu asks, "Do we have enough rope to secure her to me? There's no way that I'll be able to hold her all the way down, and if she wakes and gets it into her head... well, a bit late for that but you can see what I'm getting at."Harvester swings the sack containing the large shard against the stone, "Quiet, you."Ahoke says, "If we cut pieces of rope, that should be enough, I think..."Harvester nods, "Perhaps we can fashion some sort of slings.""That should be fine." Sen-Jyu takes what's left of Ahoke's rope and begins to fashion some sort of sling or the like.*Why do you defend them so? What have they done for you? They could not stand in your way if you so chose.*Ahoke grits her teeth, and carefully, gently lays the child down on the ground.Harvester takes some rope and attempts to help Sen-Jyu create some makeshift slings. "Damn! Rope burn!"Sen-Jyu fashions, all by his lonesome, a fair to middling securing net.*The human is blinded by his false visions. The spirit-blood is blinded by his naievete. Open your eyes, child of stone. Only I can help you reclaim your heritage. Only I know the secrets that will let you survive...and conquer.*Ahoke growls, throwing down her end of the rope in frustration, and leaps to her feet, brandishing her club. "And what promises are you making them? Do not flatter me, you pathetic spikey crystal thing."Sen-Jyu grins at Ahoke. "Oh, it mumbled something to me about becoming Emperor. Silly crystal."*Do not misdirect your anger. I know your frustrations come from their foolishness. Look inside yourself. You see that I speak truth.* Harvester laughs softly, "It has not attempted to talk to me again, Ahoke... Perhaps it believes me unyielding.. or merely has not yet found my weakness..."*I think him useless.*Sen-Jyu says, "... so. Who's first?" asks Sen-Jyu, tugging on the ropes that secures the girl to his chest."Harvester shrugs, "I'll go." He attempts to tie a rope about his waist and carefully climb down, after making certain the other end is secured. "How high are we, anyhoo?"Ahoke snorts, a sound that may well be laughter, quickly covered up. "Alright. Let's get out of here." She moves over with the boy. "We need to get this one tied to me as well," she says. "I guess I can try."Ahoke messes around with the rope a little.Sen-Jyu helps tie Caleb to Ahoke. Or vice versa, depending on size difference.Harvester, as an afterthought, grabs pitons and other bits of climbing equipment.Ahoke watches Sen-Jyu mess around with the rope too. "No, it should be like you did it the first time," she says.Sen-Jyu takes up the ravellings of Harvester's work, eyeing them, eyeing Ahoke. "Um."Ahoke grunts in satisfaction as Harvester helps out. "Okay," she says. "Feels secure."Harvester calls out, "Here's the so-called path I found way back when, folks... Gonna check it out..." He goes.Harvester goes crashing following a misstep, "Ah, shi-!" Rocks clatter as he suddenly is brought up short. "Gods-be-damned goblins and their mountains!" he shouts from out of sight. He slowly climbs his way back to the 'path'.Ahoke frowns. "What happened?"Harvester mutters an oath, "I fell!"Ahoke says, "Are there pitons?"Harvester says, "Only damn thing that saved my happy *ss!"Ahoke hmms. "Too bad it's the only way down. We're going to have to keep trying." She sighs.Sen-Jyu calls over the edge, "Look, if you really wanted to see your Master, you could've saved yourself a lot of trouble and let the slime eat you."Harvester grunts as he gets back to where he should be. "Watch that first step... it's a doozy..." He slowly tries to make his way down again, seeking new pitons and continuing.Ahoke waits, somewhat anxiously, eager to be off this mountain, but not wanting to fall to her death.*Finding the climbing difficult? Perhaps I will sit, nestled among your bleaching bones until somebody comes to see what has become of you...*Harvester mutters to nothing in particular, "I'd give you heartburn, twit."Sen-Jyu follows after the Harvester in short order.Ahoke sees Sen almost go toppling, and reaches out, grabbing the rope at the last second.Harvester finally makes it to a new, fairly level area some two hundred feet down the side of the mountain, "Ahoke and Sen, C'MON DOWN! You're the next contestants on 'Let's Risk Your Life!'" He cannot find any pitons, and so begins to hammer one in at a likely place."... goodness," says Sen-Jyu, getting quite a view of the first half-second of free fall. He didn't want to experience the remainder of the free-fall, so grins thankfully at Ahoke. "Um... let me try that again."Ahoke nods, grimacing.Sen-Jyu tries again.Harvester hears the shout and turns to watch Sen-Jyu's interrupted tumble. "God is waitin for you, Sen, whenever you're ready!" he calls up.Ahoke starts climbing down slowly, shakily. She's used to climbing, but not with a knocked out child tied to her.After a long and arduous climb, full of slips, mis-steps, and near-death experiences, our heros arrive at the bottom of the mountain, more or less intact. They are battered, their fingers bloodied from the rock, burned from the rope - but at last they are on level ground.Ahoke breathes a heavy sigh of relief, and then checks on the condition of her charge. "Awake yet?"Harvester bends down and kisses the ground, then spits.Caleb scowls in sullen silence.Sen-Jyu drops to his knees in prayerful bliss once ground is met. "Remind me to plant something here, later," he murmurs.Ahoke nods. "I'll take that for a yes. So what's the battle plan now? We all going to town, or does one of us stay with the children?"Harvester says, "Alright, we probably should keep the kids some ways out of town when we ring the bell... if Dead-boy dragon's influence is destroyed, Caleb may come back."Sen-Jyu blinks. "What if it lives on through Caleb, though?"Harvester speaks succinctly, "Then we ring the bell again. If it kills the body..." He shrugs.Sen-Jyu hmms. "Yes, but it knows how to -pretend-."Harvester shrugs, "Then bring 'em both. I suspect, however, that the ringing of Wyrmcall will shatter the shard within their brains. It may be the only way. or, the controlling mass within this sack may be destroyed, and free them. I don't know."*Destroy them now, dwarf.  They cannot stand before you.  I controlled the others because they were weak, but you...you are strong.  We could be partners...masters together over the lesser beings.  You saw the worship I was given...that could be yours as well...*Ahoke grimaces. "Do you honestly expect for me to believe that?" She does not seem to be addressing the party. "Yeah, but better they be dead than under that thing's thrall. Come on, I want to get well away from the mountain."Sen-Jyu shrugs. "I'll stay, if you think it will kill them to hear the Wyrmcall." One hand brushes over the catatonic girl's face. "I would rather we had something to show for our promises and heroics."Harvester shrugs, and unslings the scythe from his back. "I'm gonna get dressed first... Mind helping?" He begins to don his armor. "I half expect resistance from some of the townsfolk..."Ahoke helps out. "I don't know if it will kill them or not, Sen. But I do know that it's going to take all of us to do this."Sen-Jyu nods a little. "Very well. Wyrmcall's loud enough to cover this distance anyway, I suppose."Ahoke nods. "True. So they'd be exposed to it one way or the other." After seeing Harvester's armor is on correctly, she starts marching towards the village. "I want ale," she moans. "And a hot-blooded dwarven lover."Harvester remarks, "Witness how it has attempted to sway us three so far.. y'think the townsfolk'll resist easy?" He nods. "We should gag 'em both, at least. Cover their heads."He nods and follows after Ahoke and Sen-Jyu, torch raised high in one hand if the darkness grows.Ahoke gags the already blind-folded Caleb. "Sorry kid," she says gruffly. "But we can't trust you until we destroy Coppertop.""Let's just be done with it. We could sneak in to town, ring the Wyrmcall, and if that's successful, well, great. I doubt anyone's sleeping, anyway." Sen-Jyu starts on the trail back to town.Harvester adds as an afterthought, "The townsfolk and parents ain't gonna be thrilled having their kids trussed up like this... so watch it... We should try to sneak in." He nods with a laugh as Sen-Jyu speaks his own words.Ahoke nods. "Well, it'll be full nightfall before we get to the town, probably. We /might/ be able to pull it off." She looks over the fivesome doubtfully.Harvester makes certain of the bonds and gags on both girl and boy as they walk along.The trek begins. The forms of the children seem to get heavier with every step - they are no babes to be carried easily in arms, and their presence slows you. The night gathers around you as you hike onward.Ahoke stubbornly keeps ahold of her burden, slow as it might make her.Sen-Jyu hums to the little girl as he goes, less a lullaby and more a cheery tune, which gets quieter the closer they get to town.*Reconsider your course of action, priest.  You seek to preserve this world's lore for the next one - I have seen it in your dreams.  Think of the lore a dragon could teach.  I know secrets that would be lost.  Secrets of the earth, secrets of the mind...no, do not speak!  Consider my words, instead.*Harvester instead begins to recite a little prayer to He Who Is To Come, then, speaking softly to himself, "You have passed beyond the veil, wyrmling, but maintain your fearsome grasp upon this world.... Let go your fear... embrace my Master's welcoming arms... prepare for your rebirth in the world to come... imagine your potential, if you were so great a being in this time and place?"Ahead, you see the river, and across it, the town of Bellhold. Lights still burn in the windows - candles and cookfires.Ahoke sighs heavily, looking at Bellhold. "Well, they're still up."Sen-Jyu, unsurprised, says "They're probably out of the habit of sleeping."Ahoke nods. "Either that or they're sharpening their cooking knives, getting ready to cut out our livers."*Fools. Did you think I had stopped merely because you had entered my home? I-*Ahoke looks confused. "Did you guys hear it that time?Sen-Jyu sniffs. "Do you really have a compulsion to call us 'fools' all the time? It just seems a bit uncalled for."Ahoke hmms. "I wonder why it stopped."Harvester speaks softly, "Shall I go ahead, and attempt entry into the tower?" He nods to Ahoke, "I did. And he appears to have interrupted himself. Let us make haste..."Ahoke nods, heading towards the bridge, with some caution. She pauses, checking to see if it is lined by peasants with pitchforks.Harvester says, "Because it's issuing new commands, I should think. Let us go more swiftly..." He begins to walk faster."Sen-Jyu checks to see if he still has the earplugs.It is not, as yet, lined with peasants bearing torches, pitchforks, and Frankenstein-rake-things.Ahoke runs across the bridge."The Harvester, do you still have those earp... er, noseplugs?" Sen-Jyu asks softly.Ahoke runs across the bridge, and continues trotting towards the town, with all of the subtlety in her dwarven body.Harvester frowns for a moment, then reaches into a pocket, "Here y'go." He pauses, "Do we know how to get into the tower?"Ahoke does slow down a little when she sees that her companions are still chatting.Harvester continues his forward movement, not slowing the speedy little dwarf.Ahoke says, jogging, "We bash down the door?"Sen-Jyu chases after, calling ahead, "It's open."Ahoke ohs. "Well, that certainly makes things easier."Sen-Jyu tucks the wax plugs into a pocket.Ahoke grunts, shifting Caleb's weight a little. "Don't make eye contact with anybody."Harvester moves ahead of his slower companions, towards the belltower.You cross the bridge and into town. Heading down the street, you suddenly realize that doors are beginning to open in the buildings around you. From the doorways, voices speak in eerie, pefect unison:"It is already too late."The figures that emerge stare at you with sapphire eyes.</blockquote>

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