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<blockquote data-quote="Jon Potter" data-source="post: 4485914" data-attributes="member: 2323"><p><strong>[PLAIN][Realms #454] Bargaining for Passage[/PLAIN]</strong></p><p></p><p>Shamalin took a breath, steadying herself. Knowing she had mere seconds to persuade the guardian snake to believe them, her mind raced. What more could be said? She thought back to her first days with this party. Morier and their tour of the renovated Manor House with careful regard for her feelings. Huzair and how he had shocked the holy sisterhood by smoking in the temple. Feln. Ixin. Lela. Vade. Finian. Soriah. These last only whisps and fragments - names remembered from Ledare's journal - campfire legends now more than anything else. And yet Shamalin owed them every ounce of courage she could muster in this moment.</p><p></p><p>But the moment was quickly stolen from her.</p><p></p><p>"You have the right to claim what is natural whilst you yourself are not even a natural creature?" the Ahlear mummy rasped, striding confidently to the fore. "With what right do you accuse me, who fought with his life for a cause as noble as any, and was unwillingly a pawn of gods?" Huzair reached out with Flameblade, placing the fiery sword in Ahlear's path. The wizard was more than a little pleased to see the mummy flinch back from the burning weapon.</p><p></p><p>"Dridana's servant was talking to Shamalin, not you," Huzair said, trying to convey with his expression that Ahlear should immediately shut up. Ahlear, of course, did no such thing.</p><p></p><p>"I will not be wrongly insulted. I still fight the righteous fight, in whatever form Akadi allows me to continue on," he told Huzair and then turned his withered face to the empty air where he supposed the serpent to be. "Be silent 'fake snake' and listen to our honorable Shamalin, who bears her heart heavy with all she has seen and done all in the service of this great goal." The guardian's response was a low menacing hiss. This call was answered by the warning rattle of dozens of snakes from the hole in the floor down which Anania had fallen.</p><p></p><p>Noxin recognized the sound as the same as the one he'd heard upon awakening earlier, chained to the stone plinth. He also now recognized the sound of falling water and put the two sounds together; below was the chamber in which he'd been left by the dwarves.</p><p></p><p>He quaffed a potion, and stepped aside, allowing this confrontation to play out without his interference. </p><p></p><p>"Thisss girl knowsss little about the heavinesss which can weigh on a heart, creature," the snake hissed, its anger in no way concealed. "And you, thing of the pit, know even lesss than she. I have had my goddesss - the one who gave me life - sssnatched away. I have lingered here for agesss untold guarding Her remainsss and waiting for the dessstined to relieve me of my burden."</p><p></p><p>"In all that time, yoursss isss the firssst group to warrant more than a ssswift death," the serpent said. "But I am confident that you are not the onesss for whom I wait. You lack the purity of ssspirit and body to complete the tasssksss ahead." Ahlear opened his dusty mouth to refute that and Huzair raised Flameblade, silencing him.</p><p></p><p>"I disagree with my comrade and apologize for his tone," the wizard said. He smiled his best smile and added, "You are wise to protect and even wiser to listen. You are just doing your service to Dridana. I feel your anger and respect your duty. Please let the priestess speak for us." Whether those last words were intended for the serpent or the mummy was unclear.</p><p></p><p>All eyes turned to Shamalin and she felt the weight of this responsibility pressing down on her like a giant's boot. Swallowing thickly, she took a step forward.</p><p></p><p>"If the legions stood before you now who have fought and died in an effort to free Dridana's heart, their numbers would stretch beyond your lair. But we alone are left to represent them," she said. She thrust her sword out by the hilt, her arm trembling slightly under the strain. "Guardians. Portals. Keys. Ask the swords what has transpired."</p><p></p><p>"THE ELFLING SPEAKS THE TRUTH!" Waveblade roared. "SHE MAY BE UNFIT TO WIELD ME IN BATTLE, BUT SHE AND HER COMPANIONS HAVE PASSED THE TESTS SET DOWN OF OLD."</p><p></p><p>"You must yield the gate, Histah" added Flameblade.</p><p></p><p>"IT IS YOUR DUTY!" Stoneblade insisted. "JUST AS IT IS OUR DUTY TO YIELD OUR LIVES TO FREE OUR LADY'S HEART!" Histah, the snake guardian, hissed angrily.</p><p></p><p>"Do not ssspeak to me of duty, ssscion!" the serpent said. "I have remained here, vigilant while you ssslept away the eonsss blisssfully unaware of time'sss unbending presss!"</p><p></p><p>"IT DOES SEEM LIKELY THAT YOU HAD THE WORSE OF IT, GUARDIAN," Waveblade admitted. "BUT THE FACT REMAINS THAT THESE FLESHLINGS HAVE PASSED THE TRIALS." Shamalin nodded eagerly, her eyes wide with wonder at the strange course that the encounter had taken.</p><p></p><p>"Countless tests, riddles and poems have brought us to this moment," she said. She cleared her throat and added, "But if there comes a force of good and if their will is understood... I have to believe that we are that force."</p><p></p><p>"Your wordsss mean little to me, priessstesss," Histah told her. "I know not of thisss poetry."</p><p></p><p>"I can recite more for you. All of them in fact," she told the snake. "But would that convince you that our hearts are true? I think not." </p><p></p><p>"In that you are correct," Histah replied. "For wordsss - even thossse asss honeyed asss your own - are in the end asss meaninglesss asss breath. It isss action that movess my heart."</p><p></p><p>The mummy that was Ahlear made a motion but Shamalin shook her head and continued. "We stand before you in the name of your goddess, Dridana, who once gave her life in battle against the Rot Queen. It is her heart that guides us. If truly you are her servant, then defer to her judgement."</p><p></p><p>Histah's response was a long rumbling hiss that seemed to fill the chamber.</p><p>Noxin's jaw dropped open just a bit. He drank his potion without his eyes leaving the black knight as Shamalin argued her case.</p><p></p><p>He turned, and in the best whisper he could muster, said to Morier, "I can see why you keep that one with you..." The albino nodded, smiling weakly as he held his injured ribs. Huzair sidled up to the eldritch warrior's other side and softly spoke into his ear.</p><p></p><p>"You owe me a bottle of Elverquisst, my friend," Huzair whispered as he playfully whacked Morier's sore ribs. The albino barely stifled his cry of pain, and the glare he shot at Huzair would have set the wizard's hair on fire if he'd had any hair.</p><p></p><p>"Four keysss are required to free Dridana'sss heart," the snake said after a long pause. "And I would hear from Windblade before I make my decisssion."</p><p></p><p>"YOU KNOW WHAT SHE WILL SAY, HISTAH!" Stoneblade thundered.</p><p></p><p>"There is no decision for you to make," Flameblade crackled. "Your duty is clear."</p><p></p><p>"I would hear from Windblade!!!" the snake shrieked. "Thisss dead thing hasss talked of Akadi, and a bit of her esssence resssidesss in Windblade. I would hear from the scion of air!"</p><p></p><p>"We must get Anania, then," Huzair said casting his eyes about, uncertain where the snake was and unwilling to activate the <em>Ring of Blinking</em> in order to find out for certain. "She has Windblade and may still be alive. Is it safe in the pit, oh powerful servant of Dridana? Let us retrieve Windblade and save our beautiful comrade before it is too late!"</p><p></p><p>"It isss already too late, planetouched," Histah told him. "The elf isss dead, but she bringsss the ssscion of air to usss even now." Huzair seemed to deflate as the guardian pronounced Anania's fate.</p><p></p><p>"Ahhh... Here she isss now," the snake said and they heard a scuffling step on the stairs behind them. The sort of sound that the light-footed elf maid had never made in life. But, she was clearly no longer alive.</p><p></p><p>She moved forward - or rather her body did - impelled by the force of dozens - maybe hundreds - of small snakes that had worked their way beneath her armor and clothing. By some insane, coordinated contortion of their bodies they were able to move her up the stairs in a halting, shuffling gait. Her head, lolled hideously on a broken neck. She had lost her bow, but somehow, Windblade remained in the hand, a barely visible wisp of a blade.</p><p></p><p>"Open the gate, Histah," the sword sighed. "They have passed the tests and come before you. You must open the gate."</p><p></p><p>There was a silence then in the room, followed by a strangely modulated hiss from the guardian. The snakes that had animated Anania slithered free of her and the elf's corpse collapsed like a marionette whose strings had been cut. The snakes slithered across the floor and disappeared down the hole in the floor, dropping one by one into darkness.</p><p></p><p>"When the light of Orin'sss Shield ssstrikesss the Ssserpent'sss Eye, I will open the way for you," Histah sighed. "There are ssseveral hoursss until dawn. Ressst now and prepare for what liesss ahead."</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Jon Potter, post: 4485914, member: 2323"] [b][PLAIN][Realms #454] Bargaining for Passage[/PLAIN][/b] Shamalin took a breath, steadying herself. Knowing she had mere seconds to persuade the guardian snake to believe them, her mind raced. What more could be said? She thought back to her first days with this party. Morier and their tour of the renovated Manor House with careful regard for her feelings. Huzair and how he had shocked the holy sisterhood by smoking in the temple. Feln. Ixin. Lela. Vade. Finian. Soriah. These last only whisps and fragments - names remembered from Ledare's journal - campfire legends now more than anything else. And yet Shamalin owed them every ounce of courage she could muster in this moment. But the moment was quickly stolen from her. "You have the right to claim what is natural whilst you yourself are not even a natural creature?" the Ahlear mummy rasped, striding confidently to the fore. "With what right do you accuse me, who fought with his life for a cause as noble as any, and was unwillingly a pawn of gods?" Huzair reached out with Flameblade, placing the fiery sword in Ahlear's path. The wizard was more than a little pleased to see the mummy flinch back from the burning weapon. "Dridana's servant was talking to Shamalin, not you," Huzair said, trying to convey with his expression that Ahlear should immediately shut up. Ahlear, of course, did no such thing. "I will not be wrongly insulted. I still fight the righteous fight, in whatever form Akadi allows me to continue on," he told Huzair and then turned his withered face to the empty air where he supposed the serpent to be. "Be silent 'fake snake' and listen to our honorable Shamalin, who bears her heart heavy with all she has seen and done all in the service of this great goal." The guardian's response was a low menacing hiss. This call was answered by the warning rattle of dozens of snakes from the hole in the floor down which Anania had fallen. Noxin recognized the sound as the same as the one he'd heard upon awakening earlier, chained to the stone plinth. He also now recognized the sound of falling water and put the two sounds together; below was the chamber in which he'd been left by the dwarves. He quaffed a potion, and stepped aside, allowing this confrontation to play out without his interference. "Thisss girl knowsss little about the heavinesss which can weigh on a heart, creature," the snake hissed, its anger in no way concealed. "And you, thing of the pit, know even lesss than she. I have had my goddesss - the one who gave me life - sssnatched away. I have lingered here for agesss untold guarding Her remainsss and waiting for the dessstined to relieve me of my burden." "In all that time, yoursss isss the firssst group to warrant more than a ssswift death," the serpent said. "But I am confident that you are not the onesss for whom I wait. You lack the purity of ssspirit and body to complete the tasssksss ahead." Ahlear opened his dusty mouth to refute that and Huzair raised Flameblade, silencing him. "I disagree with my comrade and apologize for his tone," the wizard said. He smiled his best smile and added, "You are wise to protect and even wiser to listen. You are just doing your service to Dridana. I feel your anger and respect your duty. Please let the priestess speak for us." Whether those last words were intended for the serpent or the mummy was unclear. All eyes turned to Shamalin and she felt the weight of this responsibility pressing down on her like a giant's boot. Swallowing thickly, she took a step forward. "If the legions stood before you now who have fought and died in an effort to free Dridana's heart, their numbers would stretch beyond your lair. But we alone are left to represent them," she said. She thrust her sword out by the hilt, her arm trembling slightly under the strain. "Guardians. Portals. Keys. Ask the swords what has transpired." "THE ELFLING SPEAKS THE TRUTH!" Waveblade roared. "SHE MAY BE UNFIT TO WIELD ME IN BATTLE, BUT SHE AND HER COMPANIONS HAVE PASSED THE TESTS SET DOWN OF OLD." "You must yield the gate, Histah" added Flameblade. "IT IS YOUR DUTY!" Stoneblade insisted. "JUST AS IT IS OUR DUTY TO YIELD OUR LIVES TO FREE OUR LADY'S HEART!" Histah, the snake guardian, hissed angrily. "Do not ssspeak to me of duty, ssscion!" the serpent said. "I have remained here, vigilant while you ssslept away the eonsss blisssfully unaware of time'sss unbending presss!" "IT DOES SEEM LIKELY THAT YOU HAD THE WORSE OF IT, GUARDIAN," Waveblade admitted. "BUT THE FACT REMAINS THAT THESE FLESHLINGS HAVE PASSED THE TRIALS." Shamalin nodded eagerly, her eyes wide with wonder at the strange course that the encounter had taken. "Countless tests, riddles and poems have brought us to this moment," she said. She cleared her throat and added, "But if there comes a force of good and if their will is understood... I have to believe that we are that force." "Your wordsss mean little to me, priessstesss," Histah told her. "I know not of thisss poetry." "I can recite more for you. All of them in fact," she told the snake. "But would that convince you that our hearts are true? I think not." "In that you are correct," Histah replied. "For wordsss - even thossse asss honeyed asss your own - are in the end asss meaninglesss asss breath. It isss action that movess my heart." The mummy that was Ahlear made a motion but Shamalin shook her head and continued. "We stand before you in the name of your goddess, Dridana, who once gave her life in battle against the Rot Queen. It is her heart that guides us. If truly you are her servant, then defer to her judgement." Histah's response was a long rumbling hiss that seemed to fill the chamber. Noxin's jaw dropped open just a bit. He drank his potion without his eyes leaving the black knight as Shamalin argued her case. He turned, and in the best whisper he could muster, said to Morier, "I can see why you keep that one with you..." The albino nodded, smiling weakly as he held his injured ribs. Huzair sidled up to the eldritch warrior's other side and softly spoke into his ear. "You owe me a bottle of Elverquisst, my friend," Huzair whispered as he playfully whacked Morier's sore ribs. The albino barely stifled his cry of pain, and the glare he shot at Huzair would have set the wizard's hair on fire if he'd had any hair. "Four keysss are required to free Dridana'sss heart," the snake said after a long pause. "And I would hear from Windblade before I make my decisssion." "YOU KNOW WHAT SHE WILL SAY, HISTAH!" Stoneblade thundered. "There is no decision for you to make," Flameblade crackled. "Your duty is clear." "I would hear from Windblade!!!" the snake shrieked. "Thisss dead thing hasss talked of Akadi, and a bit of her esssence resssidesss in Windblade. I would hear from the scion of air!" "We must get Anania, then," Huzair said casting his eyes about, uncertain where the snake was and unwilling to activate the [i]Ring of Blinking[/i] in order to find out for certain. "She has Windblade and may still be alive. Is it safe in the pit, oh powerful servant of Dridana? Let us retrieve Windblade and save our beautiful comrade before it is too late!" "It isss already too late, planetouched," Histah told him. "The elf isss dead, but she bringsss the ssscion of air to usss even now." Huzair seemed to deflate as the guardian pronounced Anania's fate. "Ahhh... Here she isss now," the snake said and they heard a scuffling step on the stairs behind them. The sort of sound that the light-footed elf maid had never made in life. But, she was clearly no longer alive. She moved forward - or rather her body did - impelled by the force of dozens - maybe hundreds - of small snakes that had worked their way beneath her armor and clothing. By some insane, coordinated contortion of their bodies they were able to move her up the stairs in a halting, shuffling gait. Her head, lolled hideously on a broken neck. She had lost her bow, but somehow, Windblade remained in the hand, a barely visible wisp of a blade. "Open the gate, Histah," the sword sighed. "They have passed the tests and come before you. You must open the gate." There was a silence then in the room, followed by a strangely modulated hiss from the guardian. The snakes that had animated Anania slithered free of her and the elf's corpse collapsed like a marionette whose strings had been cut. The snakes slithered across the floor and disappeared down the hole in the floor, dropping one by one into darkness. "When the light of Orin'sss Shield ssstrikesss the Ssserpent'sss Eye, I will open the way for you," Histah sighed. "There are ssseveral hoursss until dawn. Ressst now and prepare for what liesss ahead." [/QUOTE]
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