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Message: <blockquote data-quote="shilsen" data-source="post: 3999259" data-attributes="member: 198">About an hour later, the Angels see what looks like a ruined village, consisting almost entirely of piles of rubble. Midway between the village and them is another small pile which appears to be the remains of a small house. Sitting atop it with his head in his hands is a humanoid figure. The presence of such a figure in the Mournland would be strange enough, but this one also happens to be mostly transparent. Despite the others’ suggestion that they detour around him, Luna insists that they speak to the ‘cool see-through guy’ and Korm backs her up, having grown tired of trying to avoid things here.He walks up, and when he is about fifty feet away, the figure jumps up and looks around, calling worriedly, “Who is it? Is anyone there?”When he does, he looks right at Korm and doesn’t seem to see the Gatekeeper. Though it is difficult to be certain with his wispy and intangible figure, Korm gets the impression that he is blind. Okay – that’s weird! Then again, this is the perfect place for it. “Greetings,” he says, walking a couple of steps closer. “I am Korm. Who are you?”The man’s head whips around at the sound of his voice and he stares right at Korm. Then he reaches down, picks up a near-transparent cane, and begins to walk towards the Gatekeeper. “The Host be praised! My name is Barnabas! There was an earthquake and I can’t find anyone and I’ve been stuck here for what seems like weeks! I’m so hungry and thirsty. Can you help me, please? I can’t find Rufus. I’m helpless without him and I’ve been searching for him everywhere!” The man’s voice is on the verge of panic.What? By this point, the others have walked over to join Korm, and he whispers, “This is insane, but I think he’s blind. And dead. And doesn’t know it. And is looking for somebody called Rufus.”“Excuse me, Barnabas,” says Gareth as politely and soothingly as he can, “But can you tell us what Rufus looks like and how we can recognize him?”The man seems a little perturbed at the new voice, but he answers, “He’s about this high,” indicating a level around his upper thigh, “And covered in red fur. He’s a really good dog and he comes immediately when you call. Very friendly.”“Perfect!” Six says, softly and disgustedly, “We have a dead, blind man looking for his dog!”Unfortunately, his tone isn’t as soft as could be. Barnabas’ head snaps up and he looks around. “Dead? Who’s dead?”“You’re dead,” says Luna immediately. “Sorry.”“What? Are you threatening me?” Barnabas backs away, waving his mostly non-existent cane desperately. “Don’t hurt me! I’m just a poor blind man!”Nameless gives Luna a dirty look. “Thanks, Luna! I’m sure he needed that.” Then turning to Barnabas, he explains, “I’m sorry for my companion’s insensitivity, but you really are dead. It appears you are a ghost. And you’ve been here for the last four years, since Cyre was destroyed in the ‘earthquake’ you felt.”Barnabas shouts, “Leave me alone, you bastards!” and turns and flees, can waving before him. And just as he reaches the edge of the rubble, runs into something solid, though only he can feel it. The scene is almost comical, as the ghost bounces off something, feels around desperately, opens something, shuts it and then huddles in a spot in plain view. “I think,” Nameless says thoughtfully, “His house still exists for him, maybe only because he believes it’s there. Fascinating!”Gareth, who has now begun to detect evil in the area, says, “He shows up as moderately evil, so he probably is an undead, like a ghost.”“Interesting as all this is,” says Six, “We really need to move on.”“No!” says Luna. “We need to help him and find his dog.”“Seriously, Luna,” says Korm, “What is with you and pets?”“Animals! A real druid would understand!”Nameless sighs and says, “Loath as I am to agree with Luna, it’s just possible that’s what is keeping him here. Some ghosts stay around due to unfinished business.” Gareth says, “Yes, that’s true, but I’ve never heard of anything like this.”“Hello! Mournland!” With that said, Luna walks over to the pile of rubble that once was the blind man’s house. “He’s probably in here somewhere.” The giant bear begins to dig, causing the blind ghost to cry out in alarm. She ignores him for the most part, growling once or twice for him to shut up. The volume of earth Luna can move is amazing, and in a couple of minutes, she says, “Hey! I think I found it!”As the others gather around, Luna unearths the corpse of not just a dog but of Barnabas too. From the looks of the bodies and their positioning, the man was killed instantly by something falling on his head, and the dog was attempting to drag his body out when the building collapsed on it. “Oh, that’s sad!” says Luna mournfully. Then she raises her voice and calls to Barnabas, who is huddled against an invisible wall with both arms wrapped around his head. “Hey, Barnabas! We found Rufus!”The ghost looks up slowly, the sound of hope and tears in his voice. “Rufus? You found …” Then he stops and turns to look in a different direction, immediately causing all of the Angels to turn and look, some drawing weapons. But there is nothing there, or at least not for them. For the ghost it’s a different matter, since he clearly hears something. “Rufus? Rufus! Here, boy – here! Come to me!”The ghost rises to his knees and then is shoved backwards by an invisible force. Which he promptly wraps his arms around and begins kissing, crying and muttering incoherently. As he does so, he begins to fade away.The Angels watch in fascination as his shape quickly disappears. As the last vestige of the ghost disappears, somewhere on the very cusp of their hearing, there is a sound. A single, joyful bark. Then there is silence.It is broken by the sound of a huge bear sniffling slightly. “Aww! That was sad!” Luna rubs the back of a paw against a suspiciously red pair of eyes and then says, “I think we did our good deed for the day. Should we search the village for stuff?”“NO!” The rest of the Angels promptly turn and stride quickly away.Some time after leaving the ruined village behind, the Angels spot a stream rising over a nearby hill and flowing by, a large loop of it crossing their path. The fact that its waters are a blood red would already draw attention, but it also happens to flow a good tend feet or so above the ground. Six and Nameless take one look at it, look at each other and say, “Yeah.” And promptly detour so as to give it a wide berth.Leaving the river of blood behind, the group proceeds onwards without incident, until they come over the top of a rise to look down on a battlefield. This is the largest of the battlefields they have seen by far, a rough oval nearly a mile long littered with the bodies of the fallen. There are corpses of various species and sizes, at least a couple of them giant-sized. Though the sight of a battlefield is hardly unusual here, what does seem strange is the presence of a few hundred people. They move through the carnage, evidently looking for their loved ones, and the sound of their weeping carries to the Angels. Even stranger is the result of one of the mourners succeeding in their search. Whenever one finds a corpse they recognize, there is a cry of sorrow and then they fade away like smoke on the wind. And in their place remains a single black rose growing out of the ground. Scores of the flowers dot the battlefield. “I should stop saying this,” begins Luna, “But this really is…” At which point Six darts past her, heading for the battlefield at full speed. Nameless skims the ground a few feet behind the warforged, flying in the same direction.“…very weird!” “Nameless! Six!” shouts Gareth, “What’s going on?”“Stop talking and stop them!” shouts Korm, quickly summoning a phantom stag. “Fine,” says Luna, gesturing and casting too. Immediately, the rough grass around Six reaches up and writhes around his feet, trying to arrest his motion. He stumbles, tears himself free and keeps running, but the vegetation continues to try to entangle him, substantially retarding his speed. It provides just enough time for a charging bear to throw itself onto the warforged, knocking him to the ground and pinning him down, as he disappears from sight under her bulk. Nameless is only mildly luckier, since Korm’s solution to the problem is to stick out an arm like a small tree limb while his stag rides at full speed past the alienist. The impact knocks the breath out of Nameless and flips him around in mid-air. The alienist lands flat on his face and as he pushes himself back up, Korm returns, grabs him and continues onwards. With the stag’s speed, they are next to Gareth a couple of seconds later. By this point, the paladin has cast a magic circle against evil, and as soon as Nameless enters it, his expression clears. Realizing immediately what happened, he says, “Damn! It was some kind of compulsion. I felt like I had to get there and find someone!” “Great! So is it gone now or do you have to stay in here?” asks Gareth.“Don’t know. Korm, hold onto me.” The Gatekeeper nods, “Don’t worry – I’ll be gentle.” Nameless ignores the quip and steps out of the magic circle cautiously. After a few seconds, he says, “It seems to be gone now.” “Hey!” yells Luna, from where she lies spread-eagled in the middle of the circle of grasping vegetation, shifting slightly back and forth. “If you idiots are done, can someone come over here and fix Six? He’s tickling me!” Then she pauses, and a happy grin crosses her face, as she shifts slightly and lowers her head slightly to address Six, who is now only visible as a bulge under her side. “Yes, that’s the perfect spot! A little harder, please!”Korm grabs Gareth. “Quick! Before she starts getting really happy!”A few minutes later, Korm rides up to the expedition group and informs them that they need to take a large detour to avoid a problematic battlefield near their path. Once they have done so, they find the Angels waiting for them, ready to make camp. Even though night never dims the eternal corpse-light that shines on the Mournland, the two groups have been traveling long enough to need to rest now.Nameless creates a magnificent mansion for the entire group and they enter the extradimensional space one by one, the members of the expedition marveling at the lavish chambers inside. But when the Angels are about to do so, he shakes his head. “You’re not coming in there with the cat, Luna.”“What? What’s wrong with Valthera?!”“I don’t know. And I don’t intend to find out while I’m sleeping. It is not coming in.”The others take Nameless’ part and after some grumbling and threats of grievous bodily harm, Luna desists and says that she’ll stay outside with it. Nameless puts up a rope trick for the cat and her, which the two of them disappear into. The rest of the Angels enter the mansion. As Nameless does so, the others notice wisps of fog appearing and flowing in behind him, but there is no untoward effect that they can see. Nevertheless, just to be on the safe side, they organize watches and arrange for multiple people to stay together during the night.With all preparations taken care of, the Angels and their guests dine on the sumptuous meal that the spell provides and then fall asleep, wondering what the next day holds for them.</blockquote>

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