seasong's Light Against The Dark II (May 13)
- Thread starter seasong
- Start date
mystraschosen
First Post
Hahahahahaha ,that is funny! How ya doin nail?Long time no speak.Nail said:
Greybar
No Trouble at All
seasong
First Post
I should have given some background, probably 
.
I may or may not get an update out today. Don't wait up
.
.
From the original post:Nail said:
For the rest, I suggest following the link and reading about 2 updates worth. Some eye tyrants did really nasty things to Greppa's mind, and Merideth was partially in on it (although Greppa doesn't know that). If you want to know why Merideth is so uncomfortable and Greppa is so psychotic, that's why.
I may or may not get an update out today. Don't wait up
.
seasong
First Post
Road to Kithios
They slept during the day, and maintained vigil each night. Back to back. Waiting for the eye tyrants.
Greppa, his back sandwhiched between Arkos and Bellos, kept his ears open, his eyes wide. He vaguely remembered the eye tyrants exerting their will over him, shoving his consciousness into sleep, and then the dark nightmares after that. He rubbed his eyes, grinding delicate knuckles into the bridge of his nose. He would not let them put him to sleep again. He would kill them first.
Merideth found herself sweating, for the third time this night. She prayed to any god that would care, that these were not the same eye tyrants she had made deals with for the survival of her friends. If it got out, and here she stole a stealthy glance at her comrades, they would never want to be around her again. That scared her more than the idea of matching wills with an eye tyrant.
Bellos checked his sling. Leather was good, no scratches, nice and tight stretch to it... he leaned back briefly to look at the stars. Except for the warm backs next to his, this was almost like the old days, before. When he'd been alone. Still, he didn't mind hanging around these guys. Allas had reasons, he was sure, and in the meantime, Merideth was reasonably pretty, and Greppa and Arkos both knew their arse from a hole in the ground. He wondered, idly, why the other two were so scared of the eye tyrants. He'd heard tales, but the reality, cut in twain by his blade, had not really lived up to them.
Arkos leaned back and watched. He could sense Bellos' lack of anxiety, and it made him more anxious. Like Greppa, he had vague memories of the eye tyrants. They were the reason he and his lover had broken up - during his nightmares of them, it was Athan he called upon for protection. And Athan... was dead. Arkos prevented a shudder in himself - he was the de facto warrior here, and he could not show weakness to the fragiles. They needed his swift spear. And Bellos needed a butt kicking. At that thought, he finally smiled, if just for a moment.
Merideth called it first, "They're here."
Greppa was up and drawing arcane circles before the eye tyrant fully materialized, and Bellos, cat-like reflexes aside, had to find wonder in the speed with which the tiny arcanist brought light and fury down upon the head of the enemy.
It didn't matter. The eye tyrant was untouched. A psychic projection, rather than flesh that could be killed. "Pleass, no biolenss. Am peassful."
Greppa turned to Merideth, waiting for the esper to speak to the esper; she just looked at him helplessly and shook her head no. Sighing, he glared at it, arms prepped for spellcasting and legs aggressively apart. "What. Do. You. Want."
"Forgib uss. Iss not our way. We sseek peass, not biolenss. Our companionss are dead. We sseek to bury."
Merideth chimed in, "Why are you hurting the earth elemental?"
It looked surprised, its bright blue eyes widening slightly, "We hurt no one. It iss our way."
Greppa shook his head, "You are hurting the earth elemental. It is bound to protect the highway, and you are damaging the highway."
Its blue eyes, the eyelids now sliding half shut, turned back to Greppa, "Ah. We did not undersstand. We did not know purposs. Am ssorry."
Greppa narrowed his eyes... this thing was getting a bit chummy, "Why are you doing it? What are you doing here?" and then, within half a heartbeat, "Merideth, check to see how many are backing him up - we don't want to get caught by surprise."
The grotesque, multi-eyed creature bobbed its head at Greppa, "Ob courss. You musst wonder... we are a peassful group. We sseek knowledge. Undersstanding. It iss our way. Our people are warlike."
It paused for breath, searching through the youthful human's mind for the right words, then hastily withdrew... it had wanted the name of the human's people, so it could compare the warlike aspects, but it sensed frayed emotions and immense patriotism. Such a comparison would be unwise.
It also sensed the bright mind of the human behind the first, and realized, with a start, that she was an esper. A good one.
"Becauss ob war, we can not be our way. We leab, come here, sset to learning of world." Another shuddering breath, and then, "We take sstoness to read hisstory. Only sstoness in highway hab hisstory."
Greppa continued to glare, but inwardly, he felt some doubt. The creature... its eyes were much like his own, and almost looked soulful. Blue in color, they gazed at him with sorrow and fear. But he could not trust them, "What do you mean, 'read history' in the stones?"
"Iss hisstory in sstoness. A... mindwork. Iss dibbicult to essplain."
Greppa shrugged and tilted his chin toward Merideth, "So 'essplain' to her. She can do your kind of stuff."
Pretending surprise, it looked at her, "Our kind? She? Ah... Am sseeing."
And with that, it took the opportunity presented to communicate with her silently. A few moments passed as it explained, in the mind tongue, that they sought only knowledge from the stones.
Merideth, working hard to keep up, finally broke off contact. "It says that they can return the stones. They seek only the knowledge, and if we can mediate with the earth elemental for them, they will begin repairing the damage they unknowingly wrought."
Bellos shook his head, "And if they break the agreement once we're gone?"
There was more to discuss. At this point, the eye tyrant began pleading for secrecy. Its people, he said, were peaceful, and sought no harm to any, but feared for their lives should the foursome tell others where they were.
It was a long conversation.
In the end, Greppa agreed to silence, and the others followed his lead. With the understanding that Greppa would be sending a lantern archon each and every day to this location, to confirm with the earth elemental that all was well, and that, should this eye tyrant ever see the warlike members of his kind in the area, he would alert the lantern archon Greppa sent.
It was a kind of moral compromise, and it did not sit well with any of them to not alert Theralis... but they were convinced of the need for secrecy. Even Agina would react... much like Greppa had, when first faced with the possibility of an eye tyrant.
The foursome returned the items they had looted from the corpses, and eye tyrants began to float in. It was eerie, as they silently carried their fallen into the woods for an unseen burial, and began repairing the highway.
It was then that Greppa's own acute memory picked up on their preciseness. They not only placed rocks in the exact spots they had been taken from, but shifted the pebbles around until it satisfied them. He approached the 'leader', and asked about it.
"Am not undersstanding? You looss memory?"
"Yes. We forget things. Do your people not?"
"We do not looss memory."
"Can you teach me how to do that?"
"Iss not... taught. Iss ssimply sso. We pass memory parent to child. Iss ssimply sso."
And, somewhat in awe, the heroes watched the reconstruction.
After the eye tyrants had left, the heroes stood with the earth elemental once again. Greppa had explained that they would come if he needed it, and how the lantern archons would work. The puffballs of light, it turned out, could easily teleport the distance between here and Theralis, and combined with their communication skills, made near perfect messengers. In return, the ancient creature of the earth brought up treasures, unused for centuries upon centuries, from the depths of its cache point.
They were fine, indeed*.
Once they had bedecked themselves in the magic of a bygone epoch, Merideth strutted around and posed. The thick belt about her waist and silvered steel bracers made her feel more heroic than she'd felt in her entire life, and she did a few poses to celebrate. Greppa, similarly bedecked, was more interested in examining them, but he held off for now. Bellos and Arkos just watched them, and took turns complimenting Merideth. It was a fine day, and time to return home.
* I'm going to come back and edit these in when I have the list in front of me; I gave them some pretty nice stuff, as the earth elemental/DM felt they had really earned the best it could offer.
They slept during the day, and maintained vigil each night. Back to back. Waiting for the eye tyrants.
Greppa, his back sandwhiched between Arkos and Bellos, kept his ears open, his eyes wide. He vaguely remembered the eye tyrants exerting their will over him, shoving his consciousness into sleep, and then the dark nightmares after that. He rubbed his eyes, grinding delicate knuckles into the bridge of his nose. He would not let them put him to sleep again. He would kill them first.
Merideth found herself sweating, for the third time this night. She prayed to any god that would care, that these were not the same eye tyrants she had made deals with for the survival of her friends. If it got out, and here she stole a stealthy glance at her comrades, they would never want to be around her again. That scared her more than the idea of matching wills with an eye tyrant.
Bellos checked his sling. Leather was good, no scratches, nice and tight stretch to it... he leaned back briefly to look at the stars. Except for the warm backs next to his, this was almost like the old days, before. When he'd been alone. Still, he didn't mind hanging around these guys. Allas had reasons, he was sure, and in the meantime, Merideth was reasonably pretty, and Greppa and Arkos both knew their arse from a hole in the ground. He wondered, idly, why the other two were so scared of the eye tyrants. He'd heard tales, but the reality, cut in twain by his blade, had not really lived up to them.
Arkos leaned back and watched. He could sense Bellos' lack of anxiety, and it made him more anxious. Like Greppa, he had vague memories of the eye tyrants. They were the reason he and his lover had broken up - during his nightmares of them, it was Athan he called upon for protection. And Athan... was dead. Arkos prevented a shudder in himself - he was the de facto warrior here, and he could not show weakness to the fragiles. They needed his swift spear. And Bellos needed a butt kicking. At that thought, he finally smiled, if just for a moment.
Merideth called it first, "They're here."
Greppa was up and drawing arcane circles before the eye tyrant fully materialized, and Bellos, cat-like reflexes aside, had to find wonder in the speed with which the tiny arcanist brought light and fury down upon the head of the enemy.
It didn't matter. The eye tyrant was untouched. A psychic projection, rather than flesh that could be killed. "Pleass, no biolenss. Am peassful."
Greppa turned to Merideth, waiting for the esper to speak to the esper; she just looked at him helplessly and shook her head no. Sighing, he glared at it, arms prepped for spellcasting and legs aggressively apart. "What. Do. You. Want."
"Forgib uss. Iss not our way. We sseek peass, not biolenss. Our companionss are dead. We sseek to bury."
Merideth chimed in, "Why are you hurting the earth elemental?"
It looked surprised, its bright blue eyes widening slightly, "We hurt no one. It iss our way."
Greppa shook his head, "You are hurting the earth elemental. It is bound to protect the highway, and you are damaging the highway."
Its blue eyes, the eyelids now sliding half shut, turned back to Greppa, "Ah. We did not undersstand. We did not know purposs. Am ssorry."
Greppa narrowed his eyes... this thing was getting a bit chummy, "Why are you doing it? What are you doing here?" and then, within half a heartbeat, "Merideth, check to see how many are backing him up - we don't want to get caught by surprise."
The grotesque, multi-eyed creature bobbed its head at Greppa, "Ob courss. You musst wonder... we are a peassful group. We sseek knowledge. Undersstanding. It iss our way. Our people are warlike."
It paused for breath, searching through the youthful human's mind for the right words, then hastily withdrew... it had wanted the name of the human's people, so it could compare the warlike aspects, but it sensed frayed emotions and immense patriotism. Such a comparison would be unwise.
It also sensed the bright mind of the human behind the first, and realized, with a start, that she was an esper. A good one.
"Becauss ob war, we can not be our way. We leab, come here, sset to learning of world." Another shuddering breath, and then, "We take sstoness to read hisstory. Only sstoness in highway hab hisstory."
Greppa continued to glare, but inwardly, he felt some doubt. The creature... its eyes were much like his own, and almost looked soulful. Blue in color, they gazed at him with sorrow and fear. But he could not trust them, "What do you mean, 'read history' in the stones?"
"Iss hisstory in sstoness. A... mindwork. Iss dibbicult to essplain."
Greppa shrugged and tilted his chin toward Merideth, "So 'essplain' to her. She can do your kind of stuff."
Pretending surprise, it looked at her, "Our kind? She? Ah... Am sseeing."
And with that, it took the opportunity presented to communicate with her silently. A few moments passed as it explained, in the mind tongue, that they sought only knowledge from the stones.
Merideth, working hard to keep up, finally broke off contact. "It says that they can return the stones. They seek only the knowledge, and if we can mediate with the earth elemental for them, they will begin repairing the damage they unknowingly wrought."
Bellos shook his head, "And if they break the agreement once we're gone?"
There was more to discuss. At this point, the eye tyrant began pleading for secrecy. Its people, he said, were peaceful, and sought no harm to any, but feared for their lives should the foursome tell others where they were.
It was a long conversation.
In the end, Greppa agreed to silence, and the others followed his lead. With the understanding that Greppa would be sending a lantern archon each and every day to this location, to confirm with the earth elemental that all was well, and that, should this eye tyrant ever see the warlike members of his kind in the area, he would alert the lantern archon Greppa sent.
It was a kind of moral compromise, and it did not sit well with any of them to not alert Theralis... but they were convinced of the need for secrecy. Even Agina would react... much like Greppa had, when first faced with the possibility of an eye tyrant.
The foursome returned the items they had looted from the corpses, and eye tyrants began to float in. It was eerie, as they silently carried their fallen into the woods for an unseen burial, and began repairing the highway.
It was then that Greppa's own acute memory picked up on their preciseness. They not only placed rocks in the exact spots they had been taken from, but shifted the pebbles around until it satisfied them. He approached the 'leader', and asked about it.
"Am not undersstanding? You looss memory?"
"Yes. We forget things. Do your people not?"
"We do not looss memory."
"Can you teach me how to do that?"
"Iss not... taught. Iss ssimply sso. We pass memory parent to child. Iss ssimply sso."
And, somewhat in awe, the heroes watched the reconstruction.
After the eye tyrants had left, the heroes stood with the earth elemental once again. Greppa had explained that they would come if he needed it, and how the lantern archons would work. The puffballs of light, it turned out, could easily teleport the distance between here and Theralis, and combined with their communication skills, made near perfect messengers. In return, the ancient creature of the earth brought up treasures, unused for centuries upon centuries, from the depths of its cache point.
They were fine, indeed*.
Once they had bedecked themselves in the magic of a bygone epoch, Merideth strutted around and posed. The thick belt about her waist and silvered steel bracers made her feel more heroic than she'd felt in her entire life, and she did a few poses to celebrate. Greppa, similarly bedecked, was more interested in examining them, but he held off for now. Bellos and Arkos just watched them, and took turns complimenting Merideth. It was a fine day, and time to return home.
* I'm going to come back and edit these in when I have the list in front of me; I gave them some pretty nice stuff, as the earth elemental/DM felt they had really earned the best it could offer.
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