Last Stand of the Dorinthians (Chapter 4- The Second Invasion)

[Blarkon Dragonslayer]

DM
[sblock]
"Well, so much for being artful and clever."Nikolos looks at the onrushing gnolls, shakes his head, and folds his arms in front of him. "This won't be fun, I expect."
[/sblock]

 

[Deuce Traveler]

Nikolos' body seems to shrug while underneath his hands the orb becomes filled with white mist and stops its rapid churning.

Nikolos
[sblock]
You fold your arms and the first gnoll moves to cave your skull in with a large club, but he stops short and misses badly, confused by your strange behavior. His countenance freezes and the world around you flickers, then disappears only to be replaced by the floating void and the winged 'elf' whose voice booms in your mind, "You show an amazing capacity for learning, Locusi, and I congratulate you on this. There are some who believe that if we do not learn new tricks ourselves, such as how to perform violence onto others, then our people will cease to exist. I myself believe that if we perform violence onto others, then our fate would be the same for we will lose touch of our celestial heritage and our feet will forever be cursed to touch the ground. Our best hope is to be teachers to the other races, for it is better to be harmed than to do harm to others. Go forth. There is one last test to accomplish." His voice fades, and you feel a familiar tug as your soul reenters your body.
[/sblock]

Consciousness returns to Nikolos' eyes, and the ghost near him looks on with nervous anticipation.

 

[Blarkon Dragonslayer]

Nikolos looks at the ghost, then at his friends. "They can be freed, these Locusi, but I won't make the decision. I would like nothing better then to let these creatures rot here for all eternity, or failing that, to crush the skull of the last of them to powder with my own hands. The winged ones were too good for this world. I hope they found some peace in the next." He shakes his head, and looks again at the ghost, a stillness on his features. "In a way, I hope you remain after we finish this. It would be a pleasure to send you to hell myself. I'm afraid the winged elves were much kinder and more forgiving then I am."

 

[Bloodweaver1]

Caramip Ashhearth

Moving towards the rest of the group, the small Gnome pipes up, "So what do people want to do?" Her gaze shifts towards the Ghost and then falls towards the ground in front of her feet. "The undead are very boring and have no use for any fun games. I agree with Nik, more or less." She says as she looks up towards Nik and then towards the rest of group.

 

[Nephtys]

"You know my opinion, we have enough enemies here without making even more. We're not here to avenge the elves of the past, we're here to save the frolicking little pansies of the present. Either way it's a waste of time, but at least this way we're actually getting closer to doing something worthwhile for our country instead of getting killed by rapier-resistant undead.
But it's not really up to me either, the decision belongs to our King." he looks at Darthis, bowing slightly.

 

[Fenris]

Dartis has watched the dance of the orbs deep in thought. Barok's commenmt rouses him from his musings.

"Dointhia has no King, yet, Barok." replies Dartis with a look at Barok. "But you have the essence of the situation. Regardless of the crimes these people did in the past, we must focus upon the present. The salvation of our people rides upon our decision. We should see justice done to these men, yet most agree that they have served their sentance longer than their captors intended. Nikolos, I know you would rather see them imprisoned here for eternity. I do not know what you have seen in the orbs, but I gather that these men have not learned the error of their ways. I ask you now, if these were Tallione trapped here would your answer be the same? But I wish to here from all of you, most especially Silas and Nikolos answers to my questions. Are these Locusi or their leader the Lord of the Mountain? If we do release them will they pass on to no longer haunt the world? Will they or perhaps just the leader, this ghost see more destruction? These were wicked men, bent upon destruction, I have no desire to see them free. Yet, neither do I desire to see Dorinthia fall to orc or Tallione hand. If setting these, things, free saves Dorinthia, that may be reason enough to do so. If that is we are not then freeing a new plague upon the world that cannot be stopped. The Winged Elves had powers we can only dream of and they imprisoned the Locusi at the cost of their lives. Could we then stop them? That is if the Lord of the Mountain is indeed this ghost or the Locusi at all, and not some greater being deeper in the earth. So then do we risk the world to save our dwindling people? If we risk it and succeed, the orcs will be in disarray and not threaten Saleentra and Dorinthia. If we fail, we will fall before either the orcs or the Tallione, for Saleentra will not support us if the orcs are still strong. Dorinthia is doomed therefore, whether by the plague we release, or the orc or Tallione armies. Our only chance, our only choice seems to be this unlikley, unwanted, unholy power within the mountain. As despicable as releasing these men may be it may be the only way to save Dorinthia. That is unless there is another way. Nikolos, Silas what say you?"

 

[Blarkon Dragonslayer]

Nikolos frowns slightly, and then shrugs. "My impression, from all the evidence we've seen, is that the only reason the Locusi, who really aren't human, by the way, won the ancient war, was the fact that the winged ones would only fend them off, not kill them, despite an undeniable ability to do so. If what we've faced in battle so far is any indication, they certainly aren't an unstoppable force. And if it were Talliones trapped here, after butchering a people so peaceful that they wouldn't kill even in the desperate defense of their own lives, I'd let them rot too. As to the other question, if the evidence we have, from the carvings above, and the information we were given, these Locusi are not the Lord of the Mountain, or affiliated with the Lord of the Mountain. If I had to guess, I'd say this place was built to house the Lord of the Mountain, who was probably called something else entirely then, and the Locusi came later, in the course of their genocidal rampage." He stops, then, and shrugs. "That is only a hypothesis, based on a very cursory examination. I suppose if we are going to unleash one beast of apocalyptic evil, for the greater good, releasing two is just as well."

 

[Bloodweaver1]

Caramip Ashhearth

Her eyes, still filled with grief for the winged creatures, drift across the room as her thoughts churn over this once peacefully chamber and its now blight undead. I wonder what Kingdom these creatures hailed from or what happened to the rest of their kind? Surely not all of them are trapped in this chamber.

OOC: Caramip tries to remember the scene from first Orb and attempts to count how many Locusi attacked the temple vs. the amount that they just put down.

 

[GlassEye]

Silas listens for a bit before speaking. "Like Nikolos, I don't believe these Locusi are the same as the Lord of the Mountain. They deserve to be left imprisoned but even dead may be strong enough to prevent us from finishing our mission if we anger them. If released, we have no guarantee that they will go trouble our enemies instead of us or our allies. It is a gamble. Yet this whole mission has been a gamble since we set out." He shrugs. "I don't see that we have much choice but to release them and deal with whatever happens afterwards."

 

[Deuce Traveler]

Caramip
[sblock]
You estimate that there might be a dozen or so more Locusi along with the ghost leader.
[/sblock]