The Crux of the Matter

[Rystil Arden]

ooc: this include those of us who are neither here nor dead?

(OOC: Yes, but you won't actually level until Tenebrynn goes to sleep )

 

[Velmont]

"In that case, I'll have to trust you'll not resist the spell, as I suppose you can easily resist it. In that case, the spell could be mostly useless for me and just usefull for you, but as I am willing to find the most peacefull way to solve that problem. Hogarth, can you please cast it." asks Rinaldo.

Hogarth cast the spell. Rinaldo and Hogarth don't resist the spell.

"Now your answer, I tell you that actually, I have no intention to kill you or your children. I cannot tell you I like you, but I can tell you are gaining my respect. What I would like out of this negotiation, it is your help to bring back Ashnar and Tenebrynn, neutralize this tower, and find a way to have Laynie free from you once all that will be done. "

 

[Rystil Arden]

*Sin shrugs.*

"Detect Magic will also stun her if she casts it because we're so near the Crux, so it wasn't going to work that way anyway. Too bad it's an area spell--single target spells notify the caster if the target resists."

*She listens to Rinaldo's statement.*

"Okay, ask away sweetie--I'm ready to answer any of your questions."

 

[Velmont]

Rinaldo take a moment to think about his question. he then asks him one at a time, waiting for an answer between each.

"Want do you want?"

"In exchange, will you raise Ashnar? And will you do it so he can help us take back Laynie?"

"Once you'll have Laynie, will you try to save Tenebrynn from his faith?"

"Will you try to safely neutralized the powers of this tower?"

"Once the tower is neutralized, if we are all alive and safe, will you let us go?"

"Will you allow Laynie to go with us?"

"If you can't, what would you need to let her go? And how can we help you to do so?"

"What do you plan to do once all that is done?"

"And that's more by curiosity. What are you exactly? Why are you named Sin. Why your children are named after one of teh mortal sin? Why Eve doesn't have the name of a Sin."

 

[Rystil Arden]

"Want do you want?"

"In exchange, will you raise Ashnar? And will you do it so he can help us take back Laynie?"

"Once you'll have Laynie, will you try to save Tenebrynn from his faith?"

"Will you try to safely neutralized the powers of this tower?"

"Once the tower is neutralized, if we are all alive and safe, will you let us go?"

"Will you allow Laynie to go with us?"

"If you can't, what would you need to let her go? And how can we help you to do so?"

"What do you plan to do once all that is done?"

"And that's more by curiosity. What are you exactly? Why are you named Sin. Why your children are named after one of teh mortal sin? Why Eve doesn't have the name of a Sin."

"What do I want? Like you, I want a lot of different things. The germane thing for the current discussion is that I don't want myself or my children to be destroyed, and in pursuit of that goal, I want to stop the Crux peacefully."

"I'll try to bring back your Wizard girl like I did with your Cleric, but I can't make any promises that it will work, once again. As for finding Elpis, you'll need to do that part alone--there's a reason for it that you will see shortly. It will be fast and you won't need Ashnar's help. While you're doing that, I could work on bringing Ashnar back, perhaps. It saves time overall."

"Save Tenebrynn from his faith? I don't understand--do you want me to make him denounce his religion? If you mean the Crux, I know what's going on, but I'm not going to tell you just in case your friends get an idea to forfeit your soul and destroy us all. All I can say is that your pixie friend will be fine once I peacefully deactivate the Crux, and perhaps even sooner than that."

"I already said that I will."

"You will probably have already been long gone here before I neutralise the tower safely. The violent way is fast, but my way is slow and requires a large amount of research. Thus, if you just leave, you will be fine."

"Elpis will be my body until I can recover my own. After that, I will have no need of her, and she may go."

"As I said before, I will need to find a way to recover my body. I don't know how, but I'll research it. But I think you'll agree that researching the way to peacefully end the Crux is more important right now."

"I plan to research a way to recover my body, as I told you, so I don't need to use Elpis's."

"What am I? Others will disagree, but I believe myself to be the true essence of Elayna Valsice, well at least most of the essence. That's why my arcane powers are so much stronger than those of others. I call myself Elayna. Others have called me Sin...perhaps it is because of what I represent. Since I am Elayna Valsice, this tower, these distortions, all of it is my Sin, as I attempted to do the impossible and control time. It was in many ways a sin of Pride, and hence Pride is the strongest manifestations of my Sin. They exist as reminders of my excesses--Eve and I have tried to discipline them to help them improve and recover from their sins. Perhaps some day they will redeem themselves and thus redeem me, but I doubt it. At least they usually don't cause much harm unless they get out of hand. As to Eve, Eve was my first daughter, so I named her Eve after the old legend--she's a bit rough around the edges, but she's a nice girl."

 

[Velmont]

"Giving you Laynie is giving you a young an innocent girl. I can't believe I'll tell you that, but what can I do to get it back to you?" asks Rinaldo.

 

[Rystil Arden]

"I'll give you the full details once we sign another Soul Contract to cover this, since the old one will expire when both of us are satisfied with the agreement over Elpis."

"How do the following terms work for you?:
You bring me back Laynie and give her to me so that I can use her body to get to the Crux and disable it peacefully, or you forfeit your soul. We keep in the same stuff about you forfeiting your soul if someone attacks the Crux and the contract ending if my daughters or I attack you or your friends. Also, I'll try to bring back the mage girl. Deal?"

 

[Velmont]

"This contract will also end two days after the tower have been safely removed or if you don't try to remove it... I don't want that contract to bind me for the eternity. If you ever do something stupid after that, I want to be able to repair my mistake. You understand that freeing such a powerful wizard from his prison, without being sure of what you want to do after your freedom is somehing not easy to accept. After, you said yourself you have already made a sin of Pride, I can only phantom what you coudl do if you would succomb again to it."

 

[Rystil Arden]

"Stupid is relative. I was pretty close to succeeding. Perhaps it is my pride speaking, but though you seem fairly intelligent for a trader sort, I'm probably twice that. I'd call it overconfident rather than stupid, and I won't make the same mistake twice--well, technically what we did with Hogarth was an easier version of what caused this whole mess, so maybe I did make it twice, but you asked me to."

"Anyway, sure. It can end two days after I peacefully neutralise the Crux and also if I never try to remove it."

 

[Velmont]

"Before accepting this deal, I would like a few moment to think all that over, if you don't mind."

If Sin accept, Rinaldo will go down with Hogarth and go back to the library. From tehre, he will asks Hogarth to wait outside teh room and Rinaldo will enter it. He will then let all teh shining spark touch him, one by one, to understand more Elayna Valsice, and hope to find the missing answers to that puzzle.