Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="shilsen" data-source="post: 2821072" data-attributes="member: 198">Written by AviLazar10/10/05After dinner, and a recap of the day I head back to my room to work write in my journal; I then proceed to sleep, listening to Six’s rhythmic hammer taps as he works on my armor.  During the sleep I find myself awake in a dream, like none I have experienced before.  I am naked, but I still have Kizmet in my hands.  In this dream I see Nameless, though he does not seem himself. His appendages are tentacles, his eye’s black as coal; writhing in flames I sense great evil emanating from him.  I suddenly awake, in a cold sweat.  I quickly done some clothes and make my way out of the inn, oblivious to anything and everything.Walking to the Cathedral, I consider my thoughts and what has surpassed in this dream, trying to think of it’s meaning.  I see the two guards at the entrance, sleeping, I want to yell at them for not performing this simple task – as it should be performed – but I do not have time.  Reluctantly they let me in, and I am greeted by the steward of the watch.   The acolyte, while barely recognizing me, refuses to wake up the arc-hierophant.  In frustration, I tell him I will wait – he is surprised considering it is 4AM.  I head to the chapel and begin to pray, not moving, not responding to anyone, and continuing to do this through morning prayer until the acolyte comes and summons me to the arc-hierophants study.  Arc-hierophant Ythana Morr and I speak for a while, in depth, upon the dream and I inform her about everything I know of Nameless.  She tells me that I had a vision from the Silver Flame, and while it’s meaning are not made aware to us, it is a blessing.  She informs me, as I have already determined, to keep quiet about the dream and do nothing until I know more.  I think she fears I might outright slay Nameless.Before I leave the Arc-hierophant speaks with me about exorcism’s and promises to get me some reading material on the subject.  I proceed to acquire some holy water, which I will utilize when Corven enchants my armor.I head back towards the inn, where I meet up Corven.  The rest of the group headed out to run some errands.  I quickly eat brunch and travel with Corven to the Esoteric Order of Aureon.  I give Corven the money I promised him and he joins the guild;  after some red tape Corven becomes a member.  Corven then asks about Nameless and we find out that he is not a member of this guild.  This worries both me and Corven, since his other option would be to have joined the Guild of Starlight and Shadows.  The clerk at the Esoteric’s guild informs us that the Starlight and Shadows guild is not very reputable for allowing members of good moral standing – this worries me even more, and may be linked to my dream somehow.  Corven and myself decide not to say anything until we have hard evidence.Once we are finished, Corven and I head into the laboratories and I am greeted with sights that are strange to me.  While I have seen some wizards laboratories, this one is very elaborate and seems to have unlimited resources.  We begin to work on the armor, and I cast some blessings on the armor while dousing it with Holy Water.  The armor, which was given to me by my grandmother, is very old, passed down to her through family member after family member.  I am surprised it was not enchanted in the past – only a testament to the strength of those who wore it before me.After working with Corven for about four hours I realize I can do nothing else and he seems to be getting agitated with me looming over his shoulder.  I leave to house Deneith where I give a message to the clerk to pass to Lalia.  I hope she will accept my invitation to the investiture of Corven; after all, he is a member of House Deneith.  From there I head back to the inn where I see Six has returned with a new spiked chain.  He also purchased a magical scroll which he would use to repair his spiked chain.  I read the scroll and invoke it’s powers, repairing the damage done by Desro.  Six mentions the place where he purchased his sword, Mithral Blade, and informs me that I could find magical weapons there.  I touch Kizmet and say nothing more, as Six realizes this is not likely to happen – I do not think I could ever put Kizmet down, not for another sword.  After some dinner, I go back to my room and sleep for the night; this time without any unusual dreams.In the morning everyone separates to head off to do their own business.  I start by heading to the Guild of Starlight and Shadows where I end up speaking the secretary there.  The secretary informs me that he hasn’t seen Nameless today, but would pass the message.  He asks for my name and I tell it to him.  After this, I head over to the Esoteric Order and wait for Corven. The clerk at the Esoteric Order recognizes me and allows me to wait for Corven.  When Corven arrives, he tells me about his meeting at the embassy, and I inform him about what I learn of Nameless.  We agree that I should speak to Nameless about it.  We then proceed to work on the armor.  Once I have completed my portion I head down to the dock’s to see if I can find Bodo.  Not seeing him there I grab one of the other boys and ask him for his help.  His eye’s light up at the sound of five gold, but I will be careful that he does not get a Changeling to impersonate Bodo.  I then give a copper piece to the boy who run’s off.I head back to the inn, and we are all there – something that has not been common in the past day or so.  I discuss, with Nameless, the information I have found and as expected he shrugs it off as nothing.  I do inform him that it must be something as he snuck off in the middle of the night, and did not tell us about his membership.  He, again, says that it was not a big deal but I know he knows it is a big deal – otherwise he would not have been so secretive about it.  I tell Nameless that he needs to be careful about the company that he keeps, and that the people in the Starlight and Shadow order may be willing to use him to their advantage.  I think, also, I am not so comfortable considering the vision I had – but Nameless does not know about this.Corven begins speaking with us about the dinner at the Karrnathi embassy.  He speaks about committing some crimes to find out some information about someone called the “Butcher of Eston”, which I recall hearing stories from my father.  I refuse to do so and inform Corven that I will have to tell the “Butcher” of this if he decides to pursue a criminal transaction.  Corven then informs me that the “Butcher” was responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of people, and that he is not a good person.  I tell Corven, that while I will not hinder his investigation, I will not be a part of it either.  We break dinner and head to bed.  The nights are quiet now, and I think Six misses working on my armor – and I think in the future he will miss it more, since it will not be prone to damage…but it could always use a good polishing.The next day, at breakfast, a man, named Deemin, comes – frantically- into room jabbering that he needs my help with regards to his friend, Finch, who is fiend-possessed.  I tell him that I will go and help him out.  Everyone in the group comes along, and as we go there he tells us the story.  After getting there I realize that I do not have my armor, so I done the magical bracers we have, and then cast some spells to protect me from evil.  Nameless readies a Slow spell and as the door slams open he launches the spell into the empty room.  Fearing our target may be invisible I start to detect evil and am assailed by an elf in full plate and a flaming great sword.  This possessed person is screaming in Fiendish, which Nameless later tells us he was ranting about killing us all.  He launches into me with a fierce blow and almost kills me.  Corven comes up from behind me and utilizes his wand to heal me of some minor wounds.  I then invoke the powers of Kizmet and heal myself, curing most of the damage I took.  Nameless and Luna proceed to add their take by casting some damaging spells, while Six deftly utilizes his chains to trip him.  Both templars who were with us try and take down the Finch, and Deemin begs us not to kill him.  Finch then starts to get up, which gives many of us a chance to strike him.  Finch, a bit more injured, gets up and strikes at me again – hitting but not doing as much damage as before.  Corven casts a spell on my weapon to make it’s damage non-lethal.  I smite Finch, and with this enchantment knock him unconscious as opposed to killing him.We tie Finch up, using my manacles, and then place him on the table.  Summoning my powers of exorcism, I utilize Kizmet to channel my powers.  After three tries, and many violent convulses from Finch’s body, the demon is destroyed.  I check for evil and find only a lingering aura that dissipates.  One of the templars, however, does radiate evil and this knowledge takes replaces the satisfaction of the good I have just done.  As we start to talk to Finch and his friends the Arc-hierophant comes into the room and we inform her about what happened.   The Arc-hierophant hired this group to investigate an ancient temple to some evil god.  Apparently this group found some powerful magical items and utilized them.  Finch was probably possessed by a fiend who resided in the equipment.  The group took the items off and gave them to the Arc-hierophant.  Apparently, the laws state a person cannot keep such items without a proper writ.  The items must be studied.I inform the Arc-hierophant that one of her templars was radiating evil, and she seems concerned about this.  She informs me that she will find out what is going on.  We then head back to the inn, to get cleaned up.  On the way there Corven and myself stop by the market and pick up some appropriate clothing.  We get ready, and then head to the Cyran embassy, stopping by the Deneith house to pick up Lalia.  We get to the embassy and I enjoy the investiture, though it seemed a bit short, nothing like the rituals I went through upon being anointed a paladin of the Silver Flame., which served a week of fasting and praying in solitude, culminating with a full day’s ceremony.  After the investiture, there is a dinner which, while modest, was enjoyable.  Lalia and me speak about the things I have done in the recent past, and I have asked her if anything new happened.  We then speak to a person, Helais ir’Lantar – a member of the Aundairan embassy.  He is a bit haughty, and rude, stating that he only came because he was bored, and normally this would not befit his stature.After dinner Lalia invites me to her place for drinks, and it sounded like a fabulous idea.  I then turned to my companions and asked them if they would join us.  A moment later Lalia told me that something came up and she would not be able to have that drink, but would try for another time.  I wonder what could have come up that she did not know about before…  After the ceremony and dinner we head back to the inn, while Corven heads out to do some late errands.We wake up in the morning and head out to the High Walls and we meet up with Cala at a bar frequented by Cyrans.  I get many stares from the members there, who I am sure are not happy about my nationality.  We proceed, and inspect the rooms where some Cyran’s were last seen, after they went missing.  I look around, but realize I am not qualified in this kind of research, so I stay out of Corven and Six’s way.  Corven then show’s me a parchment, with a picture of a stylized flame.  I realize, as well as Corven, this flame has nothing to do with the Silver Flame.  I suddenly realized that not only could I not contribute anything, but I am getting in the way.I head out and go towards Grayflood docks, looking for information about Bodo.</blockquote>

Verification