(ooc: Hey, SecretMaster, I thought your description of our heroes' entrance into the
Seven Heavens was real cool.
And... uhhhh, Morgeruat, I would have thought it was a
shield the gods gave your hero? [img]smile.gif[/img] )
Tsao the dragon-page soared over the glorious landscape on his mighty wings, bearing the adventurers on his back -- except for Rufus, who was testing the powers of his halberd. "Wow, this is
fun!" cried Rufus happily as he flew alongside the dragon with the halberd in his hand. Fenric stared on in amazement. (ooc: The halberd allows its wielder to fly, remember?)
"To think that you can still think of 'fun' at a time like this, Rufus," sighed Magnus.
Presently they approached the peak of a towering, snow-crowned mountain and landed, and the dragon turned to the party and nodded his head. The party climbed off the dragon's back and he morphed into his earlier human form again. From the mountaintop the surrounding panorama of the landscape was breathtaking. And there was what looked like a large crystal altar in the snow, from the top of which two thin, vertical columns of crackling energy reached right up into the skies above, one red and one blue, eventually disappearing from sight.
"This is the
Sacred Mount of Taphthar-tharath?" asked Chun-Li.
"Indeed it is, my mortal friends!" replied Tsao.
"But... where are the
Twin Sunblades?" asked Sir Jorlon.
Tsao pointed at the twin columns of energy. "Why,
these are the
Twin Sunblades, my mortal friends! The red one is the Sunblade
Guthay, and the blue one, the Sunblade
Filistin! Don't you recognise them? But I don't blame you -- you're probably unaware that divine weapons like the
Sunblades actually assume the form of
pure energy when placed in the
Seven Heavens -- it is only when in mortal hands that they assume physical form as weapons that you can recognise as such. Take them, now! Have no fear -- they will not hurt you!"
"Fascinating," said Sir Morgeruat as he reached for the red column of energy and closed his fingers around it with some hesitation. To his surprise it immediately turned into a sword of red light in his hands, throbbing with power, and virtually without weight. Everyone gasped. Sir Jorlon did the same for the blue column of energy -- and it likewise turned in his hands into a sword of blue light. "At last -- now we have the
Sunblades!" said Sir Morgeruat with satisfaction. And in their minds the two paladins somehow
knew the powers of the weapons.
(ooc: Each Sunblade has exactly all the attributes of a Holy Avenger, except that in addition it is indestructible and constantly emits sunlight that causes all undead within a 30-feet radius to suffer 1d6 burn damage every round without fail. The light can be switched on and off, though only by the wielder -- otherwise no hostile magic can extinguish this light. The Sunblades can be combined -- please note, this is a different thing from combining the powers of all the weapons and magic items of the party -- allowing the wielders to fire a sun ray potent enough to burn a large hole right through a 10-feet-thick stone wall. Only trouble is, any attempt at combining the Sunblades always suffers roughly a 20% failure chance, and if at any time combining them is unsuccessful, Sir Morgeruat and Sir Jorlon will have to wait until dawn the next day before they can try combining the Sunblades again.)
"Thanks ever so much, Tsao Chang!" said the paladins. Tsao smiled and passed a hand over a symbol on the altar, and suddenly a large portal appeared in the air nearby.
"This portal will bring you all back," said Tsao. "But before you go --" Tsao reached under his armor and pulled out a strange contraption. "For you, my good friend," he chuckled with a broad grin as he handed it to Rufus.
"What is this?" asked the apprentice.
"I call it a
Super Soaker," said Tsao, who gave a brief demonstration of its use. "I make many of these and give them as toys to the souls of little children who have come here. It shoots a jet of water up to 50 feet. I have filled it with
holy water. You might find it useful! Well, that's it, my good mortal friends --
farewell!"
"
Farewell, Page of the Gods!" said the party as they stepped through the portal. Rufus was a little upset -- how he hated to leave this wondrous world and wonderful people like Tsao...
********************************
The party found themselves back in Khadgar's house. Everything was as it was earlier when they left -- yet they could immediately sense that things had gone bad.
Chun-Li's eyes glowed green as she looked around. "The Dark Knight's minions -- they're around!
Several of them!"
Rufus' halberd pulsated with light. "My halberd --
warning of danger!"
Without further ado Magnus took out his
Orb of Power Shielding and cast
power shield on everyone. Augmented by his
Ring of Greater Magic, the
shield was now far stronger. Khadgar checked his magic sundial for the time, then went to a window and looked outside. It was supposed to be daytime -- eight hours had passed since they left -- yet it was very dark outside. Loud cries could be heard. "The Dark Knight's powers must be so great he can now cover the entire continent with dark clouds, so his minions can do their work even in the day!"
"Quickly, let's go save the city!" cried Ghzarbanan.
But as they turned to the door, there stood a great and beautiful horse with four wings, enshrouded in a golden aura and with a large chariot harnessed to him. The steed neighed longingly at Sir Morgeruat. "
Clonin!" cried Sir Morgeruat happily.
(ooc: Come on, guys,
TIME TO KICK ASS!! 
)
[ 10-17-2002, 05:29 AM: Message edited by: K T Ong ]