The stone continues

The party quickly gathered their gear and were ready to set off. But right before they could, Radiant Heart stopped Jorlon and Morgeruat.
"Before you go, I both have a gift for you. I know after you finish using the twin sunblades for the rightful purpose, you will both entrust the artifacts with the Order. It will be kept in the Zyain Chamber, where the holiest of artifacts go, where even the greatest evil would be burned. So, you will be in need of weapons afterward. My weapons can provide you with stronger protection than your old ones. Jorlon, I give you the Decksayel Great Sword, one that is a bit mighter than your Warblade, and is one of a kind. It is not extremely powerful from compared to your old one, but this is lighter, and you won't have to swing so hard with both hands.
As for you Morgeruat, you will be rewarded with the Lions Shield of Courage. It will create an aura of Morale and Courage towards your friends, and your men if you shall command a regiment again. It will also protect you against some magical spells, but perfect protection isn't guarnteed. But be wary of these items. They are not a godly weapon, but they are worthy of yours skills to the Order, so good luck!"

Jorlon &Morgeruat-"Thankyou great ones" They said at the same time.

[K T Ong]

(ooc: Wonder when Morgeruat and Azrael will return to this thread...

And SecretMaster, I'm sorry, but are Sir Morgeruat and Sir Jorlon going to get those two items in future from Radiant Heart, or have they got them from her already?...)

"Three more things before you go, children," said Amon-Ra. "First, my servant Ghzarbanan, should any of the Dark Knight's followers choose to repent, touch them with my Ankh of Light; they shall then be teleported into my pyramid here in the Seven Heavens, where I shall have them locked in my Cosmic Crucible until they are purged of all evil by its flames. I want the evil-doers of the mortal world to know that My Mercy comes before My Anger."

"Your humble servant hears, Great Lord!" answered the halfling.

"Second, children," joined Clangeddin, "two interplanar portals have been opened in the mortal world by the Dark Knight and one of his demon servants; one of the portals leads to the Plane of Dark Energy and in fact serves as a conduit for the Dark Knight's power, while the other leads to no less than the Abyss. Both portals must be destroyed. There are two ways to do so. You may utter a Sacred Word of Power before each of them, or alternatively you may combine the powers of all the weapons and items we have given you and aim the combined power at each portal. Already the negative influences from the Abyss are affecting a part of the gods' creation in the mortal plane -- trees, birds, animals and people are mutating into twisted parodies of what they were -- though with our gift, my servant StoneRock, you should have no problem at all curing them of this malady."

"That your humble servant shall do, O Mighty Clangeddin!" replied StoneRock.

"Last of all, children," said Helm, "remember this. Appearances can deceive. Often things are not what they seem to be. So be careful, and heed the halberd's warnings. You ignore them at your own peril." (ooc: Referring here to what Morgeruat made the Dark Knight do to some of Ghzarbanan's fellow halflings; and one of the halberd's powers is sense danger and warn wielder, remember?)

"We shall, Great One," answered Rufus.

"It is now time to go, children," said Lord Kuan. "Go with our blessings; the mortal world awaits your help!"

The souls of the party's friends and loved ones all gave their farewell. "Good luck, brother Ghzarbanan!" "Best of luck, Magnus and Khadgar!" "We shall await your good news, Sir Brother Jorlon!" "Take care, Sir Brother Morgeruat!"

(ooc: We shall let Sir Morgeruat and Sir Jorlon have the Twin Sunblades, shall we? )

[ 10-16-2002, 09:52 AM: Message edited by: K T Ong ]

[Morgeruat]

Originally posted by K T Ong: (ooc: Wonder when Morgeruat and Azrael will return to this thread... )

OOC: actually I had posted last night, but my connection died right before i hit add reply, and so i lost my post, I'll retype it today

[K T Ong]

ooc: Don't you hate it when such things happen, Morgeruat? Well, be looking forward to your post soon (but please don't post if you're really busy). [img]smile.gif[/img]

IC> Meanwhile, back in Khadgar's town in the mortal world...

"Hurry up, Aiko," said Ryu anxiously, "let's go to the secret chamber in the cellar and lock ourselves in there first!"

Aiko's expression was deeply troubled. "What's the latest situation?"

"Only four of the twelve high-priests appointed by StoneRock to guard our city are left," replied Ryu. "The others are heavily injured and put out of action. Hopefully they will heal quickly enough to resume battle with that demon -- though we can take no chances!"

[ 10-16-2002, 09:50 AM: Message edited by: K T Ong ]

[Morgeruat]

MORTAL PLANE: Kadgars Home City

the defenders were being battered blodied and decimated by the continuous assaults, some of the undead were gaining a tolerance for the sunlight, as well as the magical light provided by the clerics, or maybe there were only fewer priests to cast the light spells to repel the undead, but wherever there was a crack, or place of shadow, the walking dead found it out swiftly, they cared not for the casualties they took, and the bodies piled high, the defenders were forced to throw the bodies of their slain comrades over the walls to prevent them from rising in the service of the dark knight. and now fiends were beginning to arrive, Manes and Larvae at first, the weakest of demonkind, but they still required magical blades to harm, and there were precious few of them about, the clerics were able to make do by blessing the bolts and arrows of the defenders, giving them the ability to banish the demons for a time, but a few larger creatures were milling about the back ranks, a four armed glabrezu whipping it's servants here, a lone Marilith there making plans and organizing charges, the defenders feared (and rightly so) that they were hopelessly outnumbered, and their best bet was to make the Dark Knight pay in blood for each soul he killed in combat this day

Seven Heavens
Sir Morguerat accepted his enchanted shield from Helm, and Sir Jorlon received his from Radiant Heart, both men inspected the items and saw only the perfection they contained, with pure good and positive energy radiating from them, they would indeed make formidible against the Dark Knight, and with the ritual being prepared by Stonerock, Morguerat was likely to regain his lost abilities without having to sacrifice his life, as he had planned, he would possibly have time for a family, he could settle in relative comfort after this was all over, perhaps after he ahd done all he could to restore life and balance to the world, it would be a task that would likely take the rest of his life, as well as the lives of several generations hence.

He snapped out of his reverie as he was climbing onto the back of the great dragon, feeling it's muscles ripple and flex beneath the shield-like scales, the others were already on board and waiting for him, Stonerock helped him climb the rest of the way up, and he settled in waiting the return trip.

two portals now, things were truly dark before, but now, with this... many dark things would be roaming the land, and the Abyss was not a place to be trifled with.

{2nd edit to comply with KT's post}

[ 10-17-2002, 10:11 AM: Message edited by: Morgeruat ]

[Morgeruat]

AzRael Check PM's

K T, to answer your question, yes they both received the items now.

Back in Khadgars Hometown....
Town Guard-"Ready men. One last stand for the town!" The enemy rapidly advanced towards the lines. "Steady Men, Steady!" The army was approaching faster."Now men, NOW!!!" The remaining guards and priests charged with one last desperate stand. Though the humans and dwarves weapons were no match for the Shadow Blades and Demonic Power, they put up a fight.
Strategically planned, they destroyed about 75% of the attackers, but suffered a greater curse which even demons fear. The Death Knight General performed the Alai Prim`ori. The souls of these men would be sent to an inferno dimension, where their souls would be tortured, the released back to the Prime Material Plane, and would roam the underwater ocean for years, bound to the eternal chain. The eternal chain was a powerful force that the a demon Overlord has. It keeps spirits alive, but they are miserable beings. The only way to free this chain is to kill the overlord. And the overlord was one of the demons sent from the Portal that the demon T'zaletect opened.

Back in the Seven Heavens...

Jorlon-"Ah, everything packed. Finally, we should go now."

Just waiting for you K T. I'm no good at making cool entrances to other places.

[K T Ong]

(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 ]

[Morgeruat]

Originally posted by K T Ong: (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] )

... umm... of course, heh heh, you must have misread it, {edits previous post}

Jorlon-" Come on guys. We've gotta save the city. I'll quickly find some troops to recruit and help fight. I'm sure there are survivors." And with those words, he ran off.

Khadgar-"Hmm, I suppose Magnus and I should go and try to conjure some sort of light spell. StoneRock, do you have any holy items that emit powerful light?"

StoneRock-"Yes, we do. The Golden Gong. It requires lots of Arcana Magic and time though, about 20 minutes."

Khadgar-"Well, regardless of time, we have to try. Come on Magnus. StoneRock, Rufus, Morgeruat, Chun Li, Fenric, think of something to do!" Magnus and Khadgar quickly went to prepare the Gong.

As the remaining group was deciding what to do, they hear some men fighting. It was an elf, wielding two elven blades, fighting three shadows. One of the shadows swung his blade, and hit his arm. The elf fell, screaming in pain.

Rufus-"We should go saving, we have time!"