<font color=steelblue>Shadow Owl

The owl circles about, lazily and as animate as a dead and falling leaf in the winter. It glides down, finding an open doorway from the garden area and enters the building.

The smell of death is heavy, as well as smoke. All around, bodies lay in this room. The owl scans the area over, and identifies each corpse as human, and a half-elf, too. Alot of people had died fast in this room.

Then the Shadow Owl received a command. It flew over to the place where dead flesh was being consumed by hungry flames. It scanned the funeral pyre and found that a charred hand was within reach, and some flesh still remained on the bone. It did not matter. The owl swooped low and grabbed at this bit of what was most likely the mage Andrion. Its master knew that it had to be. Task one was complete. It waited for further instruction.</font>

[ 02-12-2005, 10:56 PM: Message edited by: Larry_OHF ]

<font color=99FFCC>Morguerat

Morguerat turned to look at Larry and raised an eyebrow, he quickly turned back to the duchess, "Your grace, I fear that is our exit cue, stage left. I must apologize for leaving and hope you and yours will be left in peace by the monsters that are out and about."

Without waiting for an answer he took Larry by the arm towards one of the walls, one cloaked in the shadows of a room filled with smoke, and left untended against the elements. He concentrated and spoke the words of a power he never thought he would have to use. The thick shadows of the wall coalesced into solid form, a doorway lighter than pure black, but filled with a chilling weight, and a sense of eerie dread. Once more without waiting he shoved Larry through the door, and then walked in himself, into the darkness of a land cloaked in shadow.</font>

[ 02-12-2005, 10:51 PM: Message edited by: Morgeruat ]

<font color=aqua>Larry 23/23

Larry found himself in a strange land. It was dark all around them, but not dark. Just kinda dark. Shadowy. It made his flesh crawl to feel the icky fog-like substance all over him, and also triggered some bad memories. He remembered being the Mage that wielded the power from this demi-plane. He shivered again, and turned to try and find Morgie. He was right there behind him, but was hard to see.

"Why the hell are we here? This place is not for people like us!! Don't you know of the dangers that live here? Where do you think Shadow Demons live when they are not summoned by a mage? Here! We gotta get out of this place!

Look behind you!!!!!"

A creature that was not there a moment ago suddenly appeared. It seemed to be made of the very fog-like material that drifted about this place like air...but it had purple orbs where eyes might be. Already...more were in the distance...seemingly being born from nothing and just coming alive. They could sense something in their realm.

Larry waited no longer. He panicked and just ran what he thought forward was. He had no idea how to even get out of this place.</font>

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<font color=steelblue>The owl waited, but its master was not responding. Something else had his attention. The master broke communication with his pet.

The Mage jumped up from his throne when he felt it. He could feel Larry. Larry Silverfall was in the demi-plane of shadow...and then there was another. Another familiar life. Morgeruat. He had been a general in the Mage's grand army long ago. He had even been granted certain mod-like powers to do as he wished in training the recruits. One of those powers was the ability to summon a shadow door.

Enraged with this news, the Mage called on his powers to commune with the very fibers of the plane of existance where he drew his powers from. He spoke to the restless hungry creatures that lived there and told them that trespassors wandered there...and to give them a painful death. The Mage then turned his thoughts on the powers that were given to all minions that no longer worked for him. Even the dead ones or ones that were missing-in-action. All these, he envisioned in his mind and in turn grabbed from them the powers he had given them. Only Nanashi was allowed to keep her powers. All others lost all contact with the force that came from the demi-plane of shadow. Incuding Morgie.

He knew that Larry Silverfall himself had powers within him...being an unnatural side-effect of shared memories or something...but the Mage was powerless to strip Larry from those memories. Therefore, any memory he had that could call shadow magic belonged to the man, and had not been granted by the Mage. He could not revoke personal memories.
Still...he had taken from Morgie the power that gave him an exit from his were-tiger and also the key to getting out of the shadow plane. He would not get far. He would die in that darkness...having opened his own coffin and climbed right in. There were just too many servants of the Mage that lived in that realm...and they would either feast on those two now...or Larry would get lucky and accidently figure out how to activate an exit door. Highly unlikely. And if the chances were in favor of the pathetic human, Nanashi would have her way with them as soon as she again picked up their trail in the real world.

The Mage of Shadow did not worry at all from here. He again turned his attention back to the Shadow Owl and began to tell it what to do with that hand. </font>

[ 02-12-2005, 11:48 PM: Message edited by: Larry_OHF ]

<font color=99FFCC>Morguerat

Shadows covered everything, but he could feel almost instantly the sight he'd had that allowed him to part the veil of shadows being rent from him, a piece of his being yes, but a dark side. With that parcel torn free Morguerat felt uplifted, freed from the taint of evil. His memories started bombarding him, even as Larry shouted and ran. Faceless eyes, formless beings, The biggest danger here lay in blind flight, for if you flee blindly you can be herded. And Larry had forgotten that lesson. His fear was not unfounded, but his reaction was a sharp reminder that he had but little experience in real adventuring, why in any normal game he would still be delivering notes to dwarves about spider infestations and needing a dusty old pair of boots, he wouldn't even have worked up to Ogres with girdle fetishes.

Calmly as he could Morguerat chased after Larry, the man was swift, travelling on feet given wings by terror, and called to him, "Flight is fine, but look where you go, envision a pathway, travel downward, away from the tower, but down to the ground, if we escape from here where do we go, where can we find friendly folk who can help us. Your weapon might be more effective against these monsters here, so run but do not run blindly, being herded to a dead end will do us no service." Most men would have been slowed by the weight of the steel encompassing his frame, the minor discomforts slowed him a bit, a codpiece too small, a greave with a strap too short, they all worked together to keep the powerful knight from catching Silverfall, but his speed was enough to at least for now, keep ahead of the fiends of this plane.</font>

[ 02-12-2005, 11:59 PM: Message edited by: Morgeruat ]

<font color=darkgoldenrod>Nanashi

She would wait no longer, and so gathered up her strength and kicked at the door, which sent it breaking off its hinges and slamming into the wall across the room, then falling to the floor in another heavy boom. She entered the broken doorway. She looked about. All she saw was a woman. A very large woman.

In a growl of frustration, she demanded of this person...

"WHERRRE IS HE?"</font>

[ 02-13-2005, 11:53 AM: Message edited by: Larry_OHF ]

<font color=peru>Anarrima Culurian 67/67

Ana and Yevaud finally made it to where she had been led by divinity. In front of them stood the looming bulk of a human castle. Ana could feel that much evil was inside this place, but this is where her goddess bade her come to start her mission. She looked silently at her bladesinger friend, hoping he was up to his first mission away from home. She knew that she herself could have enjoyed another few decades before having to do something like this again.

With no further thought, she decided it was time to go in. The only problem was that the door was barred for some reason. She could figure no way in. She turned to her guard.

"Any ideas?"</font>

[ 02-13-2005, 12:05 PM: Message edited by: Larry_OHF ]

<font color=steelblue>The Shadow Owl

The shadow owl was being directed by its master, the Mage of Shadow. It held in its claw a severed and blackened hand that had once belonged to Andrion, a powerful mage in his own rite. The owl had fished this hand from the burning funeral pyre where the drow had cast it, hoping to gain vengence on this mage who worked for the enemy in the name of his master.

The owl was now up to something peculiar. For there was a purpose behind the mage's intent on saving the hand.

In the tower of Shadow, the Mage saw what was happening through the eyes of the owl. He spoke to the beast, commanding it to eat the charred flesh from that boney hand. It did so without question. After it had finished, the Mage began to cast a spell.

Andrión, serviente de asombro, escúcheme, tú maestro, y ven otra vez para servirme. Tome por ahora este cuerpo y vívate!!</font>

OOC>>>The Mage has commanded his servant Andrion to return from his spiritual dwelling and inhabit the body of this owl that he may live again to serve the cause.

Andrion...PM.

<font color=turquoise>* Trigger activated*
*Start script spawn_passerby*
*Passerby_PC spawned*</font>

<font color=white>In the place of Shadow</font>

<font color=darkseagreen>Again! Another surge along the malleable boundaries of this grey and vague realm with those of more bright and solid lands. Once more as with the previous times it is a surge not unlike a spellcaster’s in power, but with nothing of the spellcaster’s art or control. Simply a ham-fisted tapping of power. Unfortunately disruptions such as this, have made his own traveling that much more perilous. “Damn amateurs,” he mutters quietly as he rights the direction of his movement. ~ Best to leave this area quickly before anything else happens.

As if in ironic answer to his thoughts, another violent disturbance rumbles through this shade-filled region, a disturbance of great power and some marginal art, but mostly a naked act of power. “Damn amateurs with power.” Words came with this disruption, however, words spoken by a voice of cold and abrupt command. <font color=steelblue>“KILL THE TRESPASSERS!"</FONT>

“Just who does that guy think he is?”

Kill the trespasssers?????

Clearly things have gone, as the saying goes, from bad to worse and he has lived through enough cheesy adventure scenarios to recognize the wandering passerby caught up in events beyond his control bit when it threatens to tear his head off. And with the sudden writhing to life of tendrils of shadow, the eventual loss of his head is a disturbing possibility. The tendrils reach outward and seize his form, but he moves on undisturbed. Behind him a cry of pain leaves his lips and there is the sound of snapping ribs. He smiles – now that’s art.

There is a clamor just ahead of him, a thing which is not typical in this place where silence often seems as much the order of things as shadow. A young man whose face muscles are pulled tight in fear is rushing headlong, heedless of direction, danger and just plain good sense. He is pursued by another who seeks to calm him. These must be the trespassers. And behind these two ...... well it’s best not to dwell on that.

Decisions ........

Things have been disrupted too violently for him to risk remaining here much longer and another such disruption might well strand him in this suddenly very dangerous realm. A quick movement of his fingers conjures a coin which he flips, catches and turns over on his wrist. Heads. He smiles. The coin, of course, has heads on each side, but one must go through the formalities at a time like this.

Behind him, his broken form falls lifeless to what passes for ground in this land and the tendrils reach out, straining toward the young man whose panic carries him toward their embrace.

<font color=plum>SLAM!
SLAM!
SLAM!
SLAM!</font>

Heavy iron walls drop suddenly into place forming a crude box around himself and the two trespassers. The young man cannot arrest his movement in time and bangs heavily into the wall and falls backward even as the thudding of tendrils on the other side announces how near his death had been. The large man has drawn his sword. Moving quickly and thankful that he is unseen and unheard, he dashes forward grabbing the young man by the arm. Tendrils have begun to reach inward through the iron and there is a terrible banging on all four walls as the shadow creatures seek entry. Placing a hand lightly on the back of the large man’s cuirass, he nods his head and an opening emerges before them. “No time to explain. Just grab the boy and move,” he whispers, “I can’t carry him by myself.”</font>

<font color=green>Andrion Wilgor alive again

The call, it was irresistible.

<font color=steelblue>Andrión, serviente de asombro, escúcheme, tú maestro, y ven otra vez para servirme. Tome por ahora este cuerpo y vívate!!</font>

Even in the world where sight, smell and hearing all did not give the soul any more information, the call reached the dead mage, and with a shocking abruptness, his soul started feeling a body again. A body which was extremely unfamiliar, and a mind which moved muscles, which Andrion had never moved. And then the realization hit him. He had been called into the body of another. He turned his head and saw a feathered body and two wings, wings of an owl, of extremely dark colour. Turning his head to the front again, he noticed that he was falling. Unfamiliar commands were sent to unfamiliar muscles and the wings moved erratically. Yet basic movements were learnt fast and still aloft in the air Andrion managed to stop the movement of the unfamiliar body and with fast, weak flaps of the wings he stabilised himself.

"Now to learn more complicated movements." - he thought to himself.</font>

[ 02-13-2005, 02:23 PM: Message edited by: dplax ]

<font color=steelblue>Mage to Andrion

"Welcome back, foolish one. Your lack of power caused you to fall once, and I will not tolerate it again.

I see that some of Larry's friends lay here in this room dead. Over there where you see the smoke is your burning corpse. But there is one body that should be here and is not. Silverfall's! Find him. Make sure that either you or Nanashi get the job done. I cannot put my trust in just one minion. This is too important. Do what you can. You cannot cast spells in this form, but you will have powers granted to you when you need them. For now, just worry about not getting killed again. When it is time, you can fly back here and I will prepare you another human body.

Go!"</font>

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<font color=aqua>Larry Silverfall 23/23

Larry ran straight into an iron wall that came from nowhere. He could not slow down, having even barely seen it. He slammed right into it. He was dazed, and his head hurt alot. He did not want to open his eyes. His fear seized him and he just shut down.

Then something grabbed him, and voices were yelling, but Larry heard not what was being said. He just knew that he was being lifted and moved...was he going to be killed by these beasts? Where was he going? Ouch! what a pain in my head...</font>