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Kalanna Rai
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 Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 1:03 pm Post subject: |
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Okay as soon as the poll goes down the new one will be up.
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| Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 7:46 pm Post subject: |
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What are we deciding on again? I have forgotten since we seem to have gone a bit off topic.
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| Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 9:07 pm Post subject: |
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We're deciding if the Assassin, I will give her a usable name soon, is going to save the beast of fire or walk through the illusionary fire to whatever lies beyond...hopefully freedom.
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| Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2006 9:13 pm Post subject: |
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| Kalanna Rai wrote: | | We're deciding if the Assassin, I will give her a usable name soon, is going to save the beast of fire or walk through the illusionary fire to whatever lies beyond...hopefully freedom. |
*slaps self* I knew that. I just got the is fire beast mixed up with the time we saved the water creature. You know I couldn't help noticing about how our Assassin seems to be collecting different elemental creatures. She has the water serpent, the rose bush runner, and now maybe the fire creature. 
Voted.
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| Posted: Sun Mar 05, 2006 1:30 am Post subject: Chapter Four: Fire and Freedom |
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So she's going to save the fire beast...wise choice.
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Chapter Four: Fire and Freedom
Sighing at her own foolishness she turns toward the real fire that leaps and bends in searing tatters. The wavering vision the serpent gave her could not last long and, indeed, it faded just as she reached as near the flames as the heat would let her.
The fire roared in her ears and sparks would swirl around her to land on exposed skin and sear it painfully. Over all the amazing noise she could hear the sobbing of the beast in the fire's heart. The sound played eerily on the scabbed wounds of her soul and she remembered how many times she herself had thus sobbed in the hands of her cruel master.
Slowly, trusting her luck to continue holding, she let her thoughts wander out to brush against the edges of the beasts. Before it realized she was there much information was imparted. The beast was female, ancient and powerful beyond reasoning, and it was trapped against it's will.
"Sister why do you weep thus?" The flames rushed out to encircle her, no longer to hot to bear unless she moved to close to one of those massive walls.
"I weep in the pain of my soul sister. I who once knew the earth's heart as my bed, the sea's surface as my mirror, the high sky winds as my wandering paths, now am chained here like a common mongeral dog by a wretch who calls himself a 'desicple of the gods'. The gods did not make me that I might be the watchdog of some sinviling, pussiant, brat."
"Ah. Truely I understand your plight."
"You understand nothing. You have not been bound by the worthless one. He of the cut blood."
"Bound no but he has taken from me this night something I prized dear." The beast crept closer to the edge of it's perpetual fire, farther from it's self imposed exhile at the fire's heart.
"What has he taken that is of such great worth. Your wounds are slight, your spirit strong, your mind whole, and your magic still flows without limit. Child of the Ethereal what have you to complain about, what hurt can you not heal."
She sighed. It seemed all anyone wanted to talk of in this drear place was that which they had lost, save the serpent who spoke not at all but was merely content to coil tightly about her arm. "He has taken my eyes in a cruel jesture of victory."
"And has he so defeated you?"
She spat on the ground. It sizzled and bubbled a moment in the heat before becoming naught but a wisp of steam. "He hath only staied my hand for by the rules of the game I play I may not challenge him again."
The beast settled into position near enough that she could hear it's heartbeat over the now noiseless fires. She wisely chose not to seek out the beast by her ears, content to tell the story and receive tale in return. "I was sent to end his madness. Sent by both my elders and those among the simple peoples to slay him this night. His being what he is I chose an honorable death for him, following sacred tradition I bound myself to the ancient rules of the Deathmatch."
She sensed the beast waiting for the tale's conclusion. "Under these rules I could only challenge him once, and I could use no magic to harm him or defend myself. For a time all went as should and soon I was raising my swords above him to send him to the world beyond. And the wretch breaks millenia of tradition and casts a deathspell upon me."
The flame beast hissed and for a moment the fires roared again before settling. "There is that about me, which, when such things are flung upon me dispels them utterly...but at cost. I could not move, not even to cry out in pain, as he took his black dagger and cut out my eyes for his own. The last vision I glimpsed was his own eyes, lit with an unholy zeal, as he smiled down upon me."
"So you too were tricked, yet you live so there is hope you might trick him again. Is there no way to finish what you started?"
"I cannot challenge him to a deathmatch, I cannot challenge him at all. He must challenge me and loath he will be to do that. He would rather I rot in this world as he destroys it, forever sending his lackeys to bay for my blood while I am forced to send them back a head shorter."
The beast was close indeed now, it's scalding breath swept over her. "But what if another challenges him, a mortal. A mortal is not bound by the rules of the deathmatch, it would be a simple duel. In a duel there are seconds, those who take over if the fighter is too wounded to continue but not in a fatal fashion."
She considered the beasts words, indeed it had spoken a loophole she herself had already sized upon. "Yet how is it with you? Something with your power could never be bound utterly to something like him."
"Alas. I might as well be bound forever. There is about my neck a collar, if you could see you would know the wording of the runes etched upon it. I cannot see them so I may not know them and if I know them not I cannot undo them. The spell keeps me bound to him and is renewed with every Burning."
The assasin thought a moment before speaking. "You must dull your flames, dull them as if in exhaustion. When they are thus dulled should I not be able to put hand upon said collar?"
The beast shrieked loud, as if in pain but pain of joy it must have been. "Yes! Such a measure would work. Then you would know the spell but," The fires grew hot again. "Might you not simply bind me to yourself?"
"Some spells cannot be broken by creatures such as we but all can be bent. If I cannot break the spell utterly I promise to free you from all enslavement as best I can."
The beast was silent then all the fires stilled. "In truth there are worse than being bonded to one such as you. I place my trust in you." Slowly the assassin slid her hand along a feathery neck until she hit a collar made of some chilling metal.
She felt intense pain from the roots of her teeth to the tips of her toes as she traced the vile wording of the spell. She wept tears of blood before she was done and the knowledge of the spells undoing were hers. "We shall have to work swift with this sister. Tell me truely, how close to Burning are you."
"I fear it shall come soon, with my fire dimmed thus it already sinks into me."
"Then let it come for as you burn shall I bend this spell of steel in the forge of your rebirth."
"I will be useless and he will know that I am free. He will come for us again."
"Trust me." For a moment nothing happened. Then the beast moved far from where the assassin waited...and burst into a towering collomn of flame. As the pillar stretched higher, she recited the spell, quietly twisting a few words slightly, exerting her will in a subtle pattern. All traces of 'her' linked to the spell, her signature, if you will, were scoured clean by the intense burning of the flames.
Suddenly the towering blaze collapsed and a faint twinge came to her from where it must have burned. Humming softly she picked her way aross the blackened earth to the very center of the slight crater. There lay the new incarnation of the beast, the new phoenix chick, covered in soft amber down.
"Sleep little sister and let me carry you." The chick only sighed quietly as she placed it in her pouch. Quickly, before anyone came, she put two fingers into her mouth and whistled shrilly. Out of the night, on silent wings, came something unexpected.
"Ah," the rosevine said quietly. "I wondered how you'd gotten past him in the first place, he's supposed to keep anyone from getting here."
"The serpent wasn't the first I saved." The massive wind drake landed softly on the ground, the silken strands of his mane trailing over his sylvette neck.
"Quickly mistress. He stirrs and it's best we be away before dawn." With a quick nod she slid her hands over drake until she found the hollow between his shoulders at the base of his neck. Here, where the great wing muscels met, was the only place one could sit easily on a drake. Wrapping the long strands of hair around her wrists like reins she settled in.
"Let's be off my friends. Only death stalks this island and I'm sure my opponant will be very displeased to find all his hard stolen treasures taken from him."
With a massive bunching of muscles the drake launched himself skyward. They knifed the air as he spiraled ever higher, seeking the safety of the upper reaches of the mortal plain. As the sun rose they were far from the shores of the black isle.
The assassin thought again of the loophole. Few were the mortal warriors remaining who might be willing to consider such a quest. Too many had already fallen trying the evil one's hand. Yet there were a few options.
There were some resistance cells in the near by countries. There were fearful kings with armies in distant lands. There might even be something left in the shattered wreck of the Council's Hall. Yet she had the nagging suspicion that the evil one's end would be found near his beginning. "Where to my mistress?"
------------------
Where to folks, you know I don't.
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| Posted: Sun Mar 05, 2006 2:09 am Post subject: |
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Good chapter Kalanna,
I don't think ruffians are going to be much use. They'll want paying and probably a lot of protection to get any where near to a duel.
We need some sort of hero-type that can be taught and trained. The council may know of someone.
Happy Writing. 
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| Posted: Sun Mar 05, 2006 3:07 am Post subject: |
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I knew you'd get the drake in there somewhere, Kal  Good chapter.
I'm with Smee on this one. See if you can find anyone in the council to consult. Either that, or trace the Dark Lord back to his roots and see if you can find a weakness back in the mists of time 
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| Posted: Sun Mar 05, 2006 12:08 pm Post subject: |
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I agree with Shady and Smee. The two seem to have the best suggestions
Any more information we can find about this Dark Lord would prove to be most helpful. And it more likely it would be someone of the Council that would know.
Do we know of there being a place that stories historical records or something alike? That could be something a Council member would know.
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| Posted: Fri Mar 10, 2006 1:09 pm Post subject: |
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Poll up, voting time!
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| Posted: Fri Mar 10, 2006 6:06 pm Post subject: |
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I was thinking, would it make more sense to find more about the Dark Lord's past through the Council ruins? Or is that something totally different?
I will withhold my vote in the meanwhile.
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| Posted: Wed Mar 15, 2006 11:43 am Post subject: |
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Vaild point...she may just end up heading to the Council ruins after all Rave...
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| Posted: Wed Mar 15, 2006 12:01 pm Post subject: |
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Seems well enough, Rai. I will cast my vote in that direction.
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| Posted: Wed Mar 15, 2006 9:34 pm Post subject: Chapter Five: The Ruins of Ascanda |
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We're off to see the ruins the ruins of Ascanda...
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Chapter Five: The Ruins of Ascanda
"To Ascanda my friend. I must speak with the shades of the Council." The drake sensed the grimness of her tone. The Council had stood alone against the Dark Lord until a few weeks ago. Just as she had reached the edge of the Dark Lord's corrupted kingdom she'd felt them fall. The shattering of their unwavering power had unnerved her, most likely was one of the reasons that she'd been a little off going into battle.
"My lady I have no qualms about carrying you to the ends of Pharl and back but..." She patted the drake's neck reassuringly. He was just a young drake after all.
"When the time comes I will cross the Barrier, you just must allow me in." The drake spoke not but by the smooth rythem of his wingbeats she knew he'd been soothed. She hummed softly, her skin telling her that two of the three moons had risen and she couldn't resist asking, moonlight having always been special to her. "Which moons ride high my friends?"
"Alaryeen the Brave lights guids our way, Sydjul the Wise crests our left shoulder." She smiled. The pink moon before them, the green moon to one side...a good omen.
"And Enxeren the Cunning?"
"Yet to rise my lady." She sighed.
"I've had enough of this my lady stuff. I'm not a lady." She barked a harsh laugh, her a lady. "You may call me Xsyle." The rose pricked her scalp.
"But dose Xsyle not mean Fool?"
"In some languages, in others it means Blind and that suits my purpose for now." There was only silence to greet her answer then, all of the sudden, the serpent tightened around her arm. Again vision blurred where there should be no vision at all. She and her companions watched the blue moon rise together.
"Ah my...Xsyle the sight of the blue moon never fails to calm my nerves." She patted the drake's neck again. The tri colored raidiance pooled over the dark land, transforming the bruised, scarred earth with their pastel colors, rose pink, sage green, and sky blue. Stars twinkled their soft, cream light and she sighed before stroking the serpent a little.
"Don't strain yourself little friend. The moonrise was treat enough. Rest now and dream of deepwaters and riptides." Slowly the serpent crawled into her belt pouch where the phoenix-chick rested. Before her vision faded completely Xsyle smiled. Fire and water, strange bedfellows indeed.
-----------------
For a time she contented herself with humming, trusting in the soothing rhythems of her peoples softer music but, too soon, she felt the drake laboring to fly. "We draw nearer the barrier Xsyle. I won't be able to go much further."
"Then brace yourself. I have far too many poisons and far too much blood upon my soul for this to be easy." And it wasn't. As her soul flowed from herself into the young drake he shuddered and jerked in the sky. When she'd poured so much of herself into him that only the thinnest connection held her to her own form.
In that instant she knew everything that had ever happened to Z'Shissre, the young drake. He was too young, the scars of the Dark Lord still too fresh, for him to have the sort of sheilds around himself that she did. Politly she withdrew, walling him off, concentrating on what he saw. The air around them was very alive from the wind drake's point of view.
But everything was alive to her's. The drake gasped as she imposed her former vision over his eyes. "This is the world? This is Pharl as you see it."
"As I saw it yes. Now you know why I must stop the Dark Lord."
"Who ever would have thought that beauty motivated you."
"Anyone who heard me sing." The reply was slightly misty, as if recalling much happier moments. Then it was back to buisness. Ascanda lay behind a sorcerous barrier that had been constructed by the Gods at the dawn of the world, a place set aside where their chosen ones could live and work undesturbed. How the Dark Lord had crossed the barrier was still a mystery but Xsyle had her theory. And it scared anyone who heard it shitless.
The barrier itself was thought of as a myth. It seemed only the native magical creatures of Pharl could see it, certainly no mage had ever been able to. Yet in Xsyle's former sight, it stretched like a curtain of golden silk from one horizion to the next. Behind it lay only open country like that they had passed for hours.
Then Xsyle spoke the words, mentally of course, as there was no way the drake's mouth could ever have spoken them. They flowed and danced outward, like tiny twinkles of violet light, and they touched the barrier. For an instant nothing happened. Then the drake and his companions passed through it as though it was only empty air.
The moment they did the flat landscape vanished to be replaced by a floating mountain in the sky. Waterfalls ran off the edges to fall away into the misty nothingness below. This was Ascanda, the earthly Lair of the Gods.
Slowly Xsyle separated from Z'Shissre and he mourned for the loss of the sparkling vision. With a chuckle Xsyle patted his neck. "At least you can see my friend." There was a guilty lurch to his wings she laughed again. "Just set me down at the foot of the mountain." The drake bobbed his head, at least that's what it felt like he was doing, and she reached up to comb her fingers through her hair.
"You, my friend, will have to go into the pack with the phoenix and the serpent." The rose started as she pulled it's roots out of her scalp.
"No! I can't go in there with the fire!" She stroked it's petals gently.
"If the serpent can lay next to it and neither of them have fear of the other, I think you'll be able to as well." Slowly she lowered the rose into the sack. As the drake landed like a settling snowflake, she slid off his back and placed the sack in the bowl between his wings. "Take care of them for me." Humming her song she mapped her way through the night.
Everywhere was the evidence of the Dark Lord's passage. Yet, as she climbed the now broken steps of the Council Hall the sound image she got contrasted sharply with the image in her memory. "He'll pay someday won't he?" There was a breath of something next to her. She turned blindly, her sonic sight telling her nothing was there, her spirit knowing better.
The Council stood there or they did in spirit anyway. She respectfully inclined her head. An icey touch on her shoulder made her look around. "I know you're there Wyquilnor. I don't need my eyes to recognize you." There was a spectral chuckle from infront of her.
"You're a little beat up from the last time I saw you...what six months ago now? It seems like a lifetime."
"It was, yours." There were a few more chuckles.
"You did your best and that's all we could ask of you Shade. That's all we've ever asked." She shook her head.
"That wasn't my best. I let the little fool trick me into a Deathmatch with him, let him trick me into thinking he was honorable enough to die like one of us...trechery I should have expected it."
"Don't berate yourself so. There were many factors to your defeat. Trechery on a divine scale you might say." She nodded sharply to him once, his statement confirming her theory.
"Is there any further use of me? Now that I've failed the Deathmatch I cannot challenge him again. I had the idea of a mortal..."
"They've told us of your idea and they approve. The answer is found in the place of the Dark Lord's birth, Mascrallas. On the mountain above the city there are burial caves in which a mortal man sits under heavy enscorcelment by the vengful shades there."
"Am I to go save him? Last I heard I was commanded to leave the dead alone lest the wraiths of my past raise up against me." She sensed the shade was about to answer when a massive sense of Presences washed over her.
Our Champion. You and your companions must rest and rest deeply. Even now our nemesis stalks the land, fearing you have survived yet certain of nothing. He lets his desciple think that victory has been achieved, yet remains wary. Thus we command that you rest for a century here, and heal what you can. We shall wake the mortal and send him about our bidding. She touched her face reverently. Her eyes...Then she got back to buisness.
"Lord and Lady I have but one question. Once you give the mortal your support won't your nemesis track him as he must have tracked me?" The choral voice, both male and female washed over her again.
Even more so. You he was constantly frustrated by, your subversiveness and cunning, your stealth and your purity tempered by the poisons that shaped you. The blood on your hands covered your magic. This youth is a true innocent, a hero of shining soul. He will be a magnet for the dark one. Yet we will protect him.
She thought for a moment. "Perhaps we could help him my friends and I. If the dark will track him so strongly he has no hope with his mortal skills learned in a mortal lifetime. Not even you can make him invunerable forever against a dark god. Can I do nothing to help him?"
There was a sense of thinking before they finally answered. You could be his Dream-guide, his spirit companion. Your body would be extrememly open to attack if you were not there to guard it...and yet your friends could do that as could the Council spirits and here, in the Lair, we could redouble our efforts to keep you safe without HIM noticing..."
"I could also send the drake, he's young but will grow rapidly. The rose needs a place to put down roots and grow, not even the bush it was cut from was a full Guardian yet...but then that bush never really wanted to mature fully anyway. The phoenix won't be ready for a century at least...and that leads to my second question. Are you going to grant him immortality?"
No. We will make him seek out the scroll of Vascaron for that. No sense in making him the biggest target possible. We do wish you would rest but...if you insist on helping him then we shall try to protect you as always. The choice is yours... The presences adopted a listening quality and Xsyle thought about her choice.
Slumber and safety...or aid the hero and throw herself into danger yet again...my, my never a dull moment in her life now was there?
--------------------
Okay guys gimme the suggestions.
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| Posted: Wed Mar 15, 2006 11:41 pm Post subject: |
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Very informative chapter
Go help. There's nothing in her that wants sleep or safety. Not her style at all. Anyway, she wants revenge too badly
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| Posted: Thu Mar 16, 2006 10:31 am Post subject: |
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Beautifully written. There were some spelling errors spattered through the chapter. I am sure you will catch them if you read this chapter over again. And like Shady said, very informative
Best go help the Hero. Sitting around does not seem Xsyle's way of life.
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| Posted: Thu Mar 16, 2006 4:28 pm Post subject: |
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Lordy, that's not nice. I am sure Cry could write another exciting chapter whether or not we help the Hero.
Besides, just because Xysle decides to rest in the next chapter does not mean she won't help the Hero, maybe later on. I would say this is hard decision because both ideas are very different. One focuses on the short-term, while the other long-term. How soon Xysle helps the Hero is up to her.
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| Posted: Thu Mar 16, 2006 5:20 pm Post subject: |
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Damn. I keep getting Rai, and Cry mixed up. They write very similiarly.
Sorry, Rai dear. I meant to say you would write a wonderful chapter whatever the decision. 
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| Posted: Thu Mar 16, 2006 10:58 pm Post subject: |
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Well Crymmy and I are both stark raving mad and co-conspiring on gangland so I can't actually get mad at you for the comment Rave...
Also Lordy this story is written from two viewpoints note the title The Hero and the Assassin. So far you've only been hearing from the assassin now it's time for the hero to take over...
Plus no matter what she dose Xsyle's not going to be able to physically leave Ascanda, the Gods didn't give her that option, it's spirit form or nothing...but she can send her friends...when they grow up...
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| Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2006 12:06 am Post subject: |
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Come vote! Yay!
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| Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 1:28 am Post subject: Chapter Six: The Hero |
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Okay so she's with him in spirit...
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Chapter Six: The Hero
The caves were shrouded with cobweb castles, the occupants long dead or having scuttled elsewhere in the massive cavern complex. All around lay the beds of the dead, corpses gone so long they were nothing but brittle brown bone...save at the foot of one grave.
The marker was simple, just a neat etching in the cave wall. 'Mythra Selensdatter.' At the foot of that grave, covered in the dust of ages, sat a young man. He was a knight by his armor, which still glowed dully in the light of luminous mushrooms. He should have known better than bring an enchanted blade into the Wraith Caverns...no matter how saddened he was by the loss of his mother.
He'd sat there so long, wrapped in the spell that held him in a frozen sleep, that his memory was long forgotten save amoung the remnants of his knightly order as some rags to riches story told in song and scroll. His name was Inthas and he would have been a paladin in a few more years. Instead he was a dust collector.
Yet, in these chill halls where only the spirits of the vengeful dead wandered, a ray of light passed through the solid stone. It wiped the dust from Sir Inthas's head and burnished his mail to a bright shine. It wound its way into his scabbard, embuing his already enchanted broadsword with powers greater than almost any sung in legend.
Rise! Rise Inthas, our noble warrior, our Paladin! Rise and rid the world of the Dark One! The command rang in the ears of Inthas, rousing him from his sleep. For a moment he was disorinted, then the memories of years he had missed rushed into his head, playing like some Traveler's Tale on a Fair Day. Inthas wept as horror after horror crossed his eyes.
"Noble Lord. Noble Lady. I accept the burden laied upon me. My only concern is that I am a mere mortal. How am I to stand against an unaging darkness?"
Seek the Scroll of Vascaron. There in lies the answer to your question.
"But noble Lord and Lady! How am I to find such a thing of legend? I know not the faintest clue of where it lies!"
You need only bide a moment Inthas. One who shall help you will be along in a moment. With that the presences in the light ray vanished. For a moment Inthas shuddered, listening to the empty whispers of the wraiths. They had parted for the gods but now they crowded close again, their misty forms becoming ever more visible.
With an oath Inthas sprung to his feet, drawing his sword. For a moment he was enraptured by it's change. The mirror bright steel shimmered in rainbow colors, throwing light like a torch on the cave walls. The wraiths took a step back, clearly visible now, then grew bold and began to advance. Inthas held his sword before him, ready to do battle even if the blade should pass through them harmlessly. He need not have worried.
"Back off! He's with me!" The wraiths swung around, seeking the speaker. One of them, a noble in rotting finery drew his specteral blade.
"You! You who put your steel through my heart! Passed into the realms of the dead at last immortal bitch!" They turned, as one mass, to where a slender woman all in black leaned against the cave wall.
"Do I look dead to you?" The wraiths advanced, hissing like so many angery snakes. Yet as the leader struck with his weapon it passed through her as Inthas's weapon might pass through them.
"What manner of trickery is this? Some new spell bloody one?!" The woman laughed and came closer. Inthas couldn't see her clearly but there seemed to be some kind of cloth wrapped around her eyes...A Seeress then?
"I am halfway between the living and the dead. Vunerable to the weapons of neither." She suddenly lashed out with her hands, which Inthas noted, were covered by the strangest pair of gauntlets he'd ever seen. The wraiths recoiled in fear. "Begone shades! Seek your eternal rest lest I scatter the strips of your soul to the stars!" Like dust stirred by the angery desert wind the wraiths vanished with a wail, cheated both of their treasure lost and their hated enemy.
Slowly the woman picked her way over to where Inthas stood. "Well noble warrior, are we going to stand here while the world rots around us or are you going to show me the way out of here?"
For a moment Inthas lost his composure, it was only natural being caught up in such a momentus thing as he had been. Then he regained his chivalry. "If you would but take my arm I shall guide you." With a sigh the lady put her hand upon his arm and Inthas shuddered. "You're as chill as a wraith. I feel it through my armor."
"I'm not actually here Inthas. My body lies sleeping far away from here yet I have come to guide you in your fight against the Dark one." Inthas was silent a moment as he puzzled out the wording on the tunnel. The lady tugged his arm. "This way Inthas." Slowly but surely it was she that led them out into the light of day where she calmly waited for his eyes to adjust.
"I thank you lady...?"
"My name is Xsyle, just Xsyle. We can drop this whole lady thing right here and now because I'm no more a lady than you are...less infact." Inthas didn't know whether to be amused or insulted. On one hand she seemed humorus, chuckling at her own lack of ladyness. On the other hand she insulted his manhood and his knighthood...He'd let it go just this once.
"Did their august personages send you as well?"
"No. I came on their own, with their blessing of course but I would have come blessing or no...It's damn deicnet of them to give me my weaponry though." She sighed. "What I wouldn't give for my swords...but there's no help for it I'll just make do." Inthas eyed her, getting a good look for the first time.
She was tall, nearly his height, and as slender as a willow. Yet that was about all that was human about her. Her skin was hard, tough like his armor or the hide of a Bonemawler, and as pale as a fish's belly, glowing slightly in the brilliant noon sun. Her fingers were long and dexterous, spindly and strong as steel cord. Her hair as long and silken as spiderweb, bluer than the depths of the sea or the moon shadows of Enexeren.
Her ears seemed to suggest something in the manner of the fox or the direcat, and her face, from what he could see, was very fair. He absently wondered what color her eyes were. "I don't have any." Inthas jumped.
"Lady you read my mind." She chuckled.
"No but I felt your stare and answered the first question I would have had for one such as myself." Inthas coughed into his gauntleted hand. She laughed and it was a beautiful sound. "They weren't lying. You are an innocent. I bet you've never even bedded a tavern wench have you?" Inthas was blushing so hard his face stung.
He coughed again. "It's not right that you should know of such things Xsyle..."
"Get used to me telling you things you don't want to hear, that's the whole reason I'm coming with you. You are the God's Paladin, one of their two Chosen warriors. It's both a blessing and a curse. A blessing to serve, to save our world and all it's glory. And a curse to be haunted and hounded by evil at every turn. You are mortal, for all your gifts in the arts of warfare, I am not."
"I grasped as much lady. You are a member of the Elderfolk."
"You mean elves...no I'm not an elf Inthas, nor a dwarf, sprite, pixy, brownie, drow, kobold, kender, or any of the numerous other Elder races you could name. I am something much older...the last of my kind..." There was such a note of sadness in her voice Inthas dared not pursue the conversation further.
"Ah. Well then...what of this scroll I'm to find. The God's mentioned something about your aiding me in finding it." She nodded.
"Ah yes, the scroll of Vascaron. I remember him. Tricky but talented fellow...went quite mad in the end as I recall. But no doubt that he was a great magical genious. Last I heard the scroll lay in the great Library of Beligaina."
"The Library burned nearly a millenia ago...do you not know of a more recent location?" She tapped a claw, for she was still wearing those curious gauntlets, on the leather of her thigh armor.
"I suppose I'd have to ask Maegia. She'd know if anyone would." Inthas had always prided himself on being brave and courageous, yet the name of Maegia, the last Ebon Drakon, filled him with a quaking. Xsyle turned to him. "Something wrong knight?"
"Is she really as dangerous as legends say?"
"And more but you've a pleasing look about you and if you keep a quick tounge she just might take a liking to you..."
"How do you know what I look like?" She turned her blind face to him.
"Shall I describe you to yourself Inthas? Will that prove that I am not a helpless cripple. No don't answer I'll do it anyway. You're taller than I am by a palm's width. Shoulders are wide enough to pull an ox yolk, arms like a blacksmith. Over all your strong and slender, built tough and lean. Your armor is a curious blend of plate and chain mail, leaving it strong and flexible, and your hair is shoulder length, most likely blond, eyes are most likely blue. Your nose is a little small for your face, your eyes too large, probably people used to tease you about being a gril until you beat the stuffing out of them. You mouth is generous and you havn't shaved in a few days judging from the stubble on your face, like shadows in a cornfield. Did I do a good job....Shut your mouth Inthas it makes you look simple to leave it hanging open like that."
Inthas quickly shut his mouth. "How...no. I don't want to know I just want to do my duty. You lead, I'll follow."
"As I was saying Maegia knows everything that goes on in that part of the world. Or there's the tower of High magick, don't shudder like that Inthas it makes you sound like a Tinker on Market Day. It seems we'll have to start your training early."
"Training? Xsyle I've had the finest training of any knight..."
"Be that as it may I bet I can beat you. One hand bound to my side if you wish...you're growing wiser already Inthas." Inthas had indeed kept his mouth shut, wondering why the Gods had visited this...female...upon him. He'd known female knights, good ones, but Xsyle was nothing like them.
"So, Xsyle, where do we go?"
"Good question Inthas. I was just about to ask you it being your quest and all...." Inthas pondered. Two highly dangerous options, one highly unstable companion....What was a knight to do?
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| Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 9:02 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: | Well Crymmy and I are both stark raving mad and co-conspiring on gangland so I can't actually get mad at you for the comment Rave...
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And I thought the two of you were close to being the same person.
A change in perspective....nice transition. I am curious about this Maegia. Logic tells me that this person, or creature, whatever it may be would be able to tell Xysle and Inthas more about the scroll we seek.
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| Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 10:32 am Post subject: |
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Just one thing, there are multiple Gods correct. Then this line
| Quote: | | You are the God's Paladin |
You'll be wanting the apostrophe after the s, otherwise it just reads funny.
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| Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 2:30 pm Post subject: |
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Well, he could be one god's warrior...but the story has dictated that there are more than one god.
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| Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 2:36 pm Post subject: Re: Chapter Six: The Hero |
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| Kalanna Rai wrote: | | You are the God's Paladin, one of their two Chosen warriors. |
There are generally two Paladins, the twin God's choosing one for each of themselves. At this point in time there is no female candidate for Paladin so that position is empty.
To clerify Xsyle is the Champion of the Gods, their strongest warrior and she was not chosen by them. The Council, finding her the strongest fighter anywhere, called upon her. It was her choice to serve. That is the difference between the Paladins and the Champion. One retains their freewill, the other is just a shiny meat-sheild.
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| Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 2:43 pm Post subject: |
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Are we dealing with one God or many? I understand the part about there being two paladins. That makes sense. Just trying to understand the whole theology here.
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| Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 2:45 pm Post subject: |
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Three. You've got the twin dragons, referred to as the Lord and Lady, and the Dark God...but more on him later...
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| Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 2:53 pm Post subject: |
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I had a feeling we were dealing with dragons as gods...I wouldn't put it past you.
So I guess along with looking for this scroll, we will somehow meet up with our female half of the paladin pair? Or must we find her?
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| Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 2:55 pm Post subject: |
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Probably won't run into her...except in the Epiloug maybe...
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| Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 3:03 pm Post subject: |
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Thats too bad. I had the thought she would be somewhat like Xysle, thus their interaction would have been interesting to watch.
| Quote: | | You are the God's Paladin, one of their two Chosen warriors. |
From this sentence, I thought the two paladins would be working together, but you have refuted that thought. So I am guessing each Paladin is given their own mission, and that that they don't work together? Or am I just thinking about this too deeply? I do have that tendency.
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| Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 3:07 pm Post subject: |
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Generally the two Paladins would be working in concert with anything they couldn't handle being referred to the Champion. I was going to put the lady warrior in but realized that the title only left room for one Hero. Thus she'll be alluded to but you'll never actually meet her, for good reason, until the very end.
Don't worry Rave...maybe she'll do a guest apperance or something before that...
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| Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 3:14 pm Post subject: |
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*nods* I figured that was the way of the world, but then again this is not reality, so anything can happen. Actually, not to be a hypocrite or anything, but adding the female warrior I think will ruin the banter between Xysle and Inthas. And also add two Paladins, and the Champion seems like a recipe for an overdone Dark Lord.
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| Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 3:50 pm Post subject: |
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True but I think he's pretty done anyway...you just don't make Xsyle mad...you guys havn't seen her mad yet...*shudders*
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| Posted: Sun Mar 26, 2006 4:03 pm Post subject: |
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Fear of a character. Wow. Xysle must be really real like.
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