LOF - Aftermath: A restless Hunger

[Morgeruat]

Morguerat
"I certainly hope it will work for you young lady, a name is a very important thing, perhaps whoever it was that repaired the building back there, he may have some sort of ability to divine things of that nature,assuming the sword doesn't decide it doesn't like him, it does that sometimes, decides it doesn't like someone for one reason or another, and then... well it's not usually pretty"

Crysomer

Shortly after hearing the call the sword responded, surprising Ruby with the speed of it's reply **What do you want now, first you do't sharpen me, polish me, adorn my scabbard with gems, or speak praises of my VAST skill in combat, and now you don't even call me by my proper name, sheesh, some people, I'll communicate with you once you start appreciating me, and learn my real name.** The presence then retreats back into the metallic depths of the balde.

[ 10-23-2002, 12:17 PM: Message edited by: Morgeruat ]

[RevRuby]

ruby calmly answers the sword, *i'm sorry i have no gems with which to adorn your scabbard, and i've chosen to sharpen and polish you when we stop for camp, rather than possibly drop you and damage your fine steel. and although i am sure you are amazingly powerful in combat i have not witnessed it and i thought you would prefer honestly given praise over empty sucking up. i do not wish to treat you as being less intelligent than myself, and so i expect you would know if i tried to manipulate you through falsehoods. but if you desire such empty praise i will be happy to oblige*

ruby is feeling more confident in herself with the sword. allowing her temperment to show through with her speech to it. if only she felt that comfortable with people!

[Larry_OHF]

OOC>>>Good comeback, RevRuby!

[Cyril Darkcloud]

Myron Epimetheus

The little man watches with a studious gaze as Brendan undergoes his brief spate of emotional turbulence. There is a vaguely sympathetic note about his voice as he answers the young man’s question with a question of his own, “Yes, yes! By all means you may ask, young man. And what is it that you would have me do for you?”

[RevRuby]

OOC: thanx larry, that means a lot.

[ 10-23-2002, 04:28 PM: Message edited by: RevRuby ]

[Cerek the Barbaric]

Zachary is silent for a few moments after hearing Sir Morguerat's words. Finally, he turns to back to him.

"I wish I knew what to tell, but to be honost, I don't. I don't know Helm or what he requires from his followers. It sounds as if you've done everything that could be expected, but do we ever truly know what the gods want. I am the Chosen of Odin, and while it is a very rare thing, I do find that there are times when even I cannot fathom the full scope of his purpose or desire. This adventure itself is a perfect example. I would much rather fight a living, breathing dragon than some nameless, faceless Hunger...yet Odin has led me here for a reason. Now I meet a paladin who has fallen from grace, but your fall sounds as if it were caused by actions intended to defeat a great evil. I agree with you about the arrogance of paladins....some are simply unbearable (and cavaliers are usually the worst), but I've seen my share of truly noble paladins too...and you certainly seem to fit that mold.

Your god has stripped your powers and refused to give them back, despite what sounds like repeated attempts at appeasement and atonement. Yet you have not turned your back Helm. You have simply accepted your fate and decided to continue serving him in whatever manner he will allow you. That sounds like a far more important "test" than any quest you could possibly undertake. You have remained true to your god, despite many good reasons to reject him. You have seen fault in your previous devotion and now you see with "clearer eyes". Perhaps this is what Helm is seeking in the end...someone who will serve the cause of good based on his OWN values....rather than on blind devotion to a diety."

[Larry_OHF]

Brendon Grey

"Well, sir...you see...I feel rather hindersome to my fellow companions. They are older, more experienced,,,and have gone further in this world than I have. I have not aquired the proper tools to go on such a dangerous journey like they have, and I fear that if I were to die...there may be discussion on whether or not it be worth their gold to have a priest bring me back...or should they waste a scroll on me. I just want to hold my own...if you follow me. I would like very much to only have my chance in this battle...and I am a good archer. My problem is that my arrows are gone too soon, which leaves me to fend for my life with my blades...and although I have the required feats to dual-wield them...I have placed most of my feat abilities in archery and other choices instead of good melee power. Therefore, I ask that you grant my quiver be made a quiver of holding, that it can store an enormous amount of arrows without care of weight or room. That would give me the edge I need to survive, methinks. Oh...and maybe a bit of advice, as well will do my ears good! In turn, you shall ask anything of me, and I will try to my life's end to accomplish whatever task you set forth for me. Have we a bargain?"

[AzRaeL StoRmBlaDe]

Dantes stares quietly straight ahead, as he rides slowly down the trail. Thinking back of his travels through the planes, Dantes desperately tries to recall some clue as to what the source of this hunger is. The only thing he can think of is a book, written in a uptight little plane, that was far into the future technologically, yet lacking desperately in spiritual enlightment. He even scoffed to think, that there was no magic users left in the world. What remembered was a book that he read while he was there. This hunger reminded him of 'the nothing' in that book. It was an all consuming force that had threatened the entirity of the world the characters of the book inhabited. In the end of the book the reader had only to make a wish to stop 'the nothing'. Dantes knew that theere was no one reading this unfolding tale, and he knew that the answer to this riddle, would not be as easy.
Movement in the bushes to the left and in front of him drew his attention. He quickly pulls up the hood of his cloak, masking himself once again in shadows. He starts the motions of a spell, but then hesitats just a moment. A scintilla of time can cost you your life in the heat of battle, but in this situation It was good that Dantes withheld his spell, because out of the bushes stumbles a certain gnome that he had just been having a drink with in a certain tavern not 2 days prior. As the gnome stumbles out of the bushes, he trips over an upturned root and falls flat on his face, right into a pile of horse dropping. The gnome curses loudly, and quickly rises. Dantes fights down the urge to laugh as he adresses the gnome, with mirth in his eyes.
"Your lucky I hesitated Dankorona, else you would have been nothing more than a dehydrated husk. Why are you following me friend? You know the task ahead of us, why qare you not at home trying to rebuild you life?" Dantes asks.
The gnome gets up and cleans himself off. He stares at the shifting ball of shadows that is Dantes a moment before he responds. "My entire life was taken from me by this other worldly force. I may not be able to do much, but I would like to help you stop it as much as I can. I am not much of a fighter, but I am good at sneaking around, and I can lead you through the underground, for it had been my home for so very long. If you take a wrong turn down there there is no telling what you will run into. There are enemies that can be quite dangerous down there, maybe even more so than the hunger, depending on how you look at them" the gnome replies.
Dantes removes his hood, his cloak shifting once again back to its normal dark greyish black hue, and stared at his friend a moment before he replied, his green eyes focused pensively on the gnome. He knew the dwarf was right. There was no way he would be able to navigate them through the nearly endless twisting and turning tunnels that made up the underground. If it wasn't dead ends that set you back 3 days there were tunnels threating collapse, and lairs of horrible monsters. Dark monsters that can see as well in the dark as an elf at high noon on a cloudless day, evil creatures that shun the light, and set ingenious traps to catch those few foolhardy enough to wander around down there. Dantes knew he really would need this gnome's help.
"Dankorona my friend I would be happy if you would serve me as an advisor in this matter, just please be careful, stay in the back of the group and you may just make it out of this adventure alive. Welcome to the group." Dantes states with a smile, he then introduces Dankorona to the others present.

OOC: Dankorona is just going to be like a retainer for Dantes pretty much. He is a 3/3 theif/illusionist. He will not be participationg really in any fights, unless pressed. He is there to act as a guide through our underground adventure, and hopefully I will be able to add a little comic relief with this character as well, since he is rather clumsy.

[ 10-24-2002, 08:45 PM: Message edited by: AzRaeL StoRmBlaDe ]

[Cyril Darkcloud]

Myron Epimetheus

“How marvelously useful!” the little man exclaims. “Of course the manipulation and bending of dimensions upon themselves is no easy thing to do, but of course it is a thing that can be done.” He stops then, muttering to himself in low and rapid tones. He shakes his head in frustration and begins to pace. He is like this for a few moments, completely lost in the movement of his thinking, and then suddenly stops and looks at Brendan. “I require an arrow.”

The puzzled young man hands him a silver-tipped arrow from his quiver.

Rummaging through his satchel, the sage removes what seems to be a moldering burlap sack which he unfolds so that he might measure its length against that of the arrow. “Yes, yes,” he mutters, “this would seem to be of suitable dimensions, provided that these dimensions are suitable for bending and manipulating.” Turning to Brendan he attempts to explain, “You see, my young friend, it is often the case that when one finds suitable dimensions for a thing such as this that the dimensions themselves are not entirely suitable for bending.” Without troubling himself about the confused look on Brendan’s face the little man says, “Your quiver. Empty it and give it to me.”

As soon as the empty quiver is in his hands, Myron looks at the young man and speaks quickly in yet another strange collection of syllables. A shimmering globe of light and energy surrounds Brendan. “O! Do not mind the enchantment.” the sage speaks as if such things were quite natural, “there is always the danger of sudden explosions .... O! Yes, or even worse things .... when one attempts a procedure such as this.”

ooc: Brendan It is difficult to see or hear clearly through the globe. Flashes of color and strange hissing sounds reach your eyes and ears and at one point, it seems as if the dimensions of the room itself had suddenly curved sharply out of their normal arrangement.

Lord Starshadow - Your character would certainly have noticed the sounds and colors of the process as well as a sudden and brief twisting of the entire treehouse as if space itself were suddenly warped for a second or two

With a word, the sage dispels the shimmering globe that surrounds Brendan and hands him his quiver which looks no different. Once the arrows are returned to its confines, however, there remains room for many more. A final time the cold and lifeless fingers of the sage tighten around Brendan’s wrist. “Mark this well, my young friend. Those who seek to defeat the might of so great a Hunger as this had best be the masters of the hidden hungers of their own hearts.” Releasing the young man’s wrist, he says simply, “Now go to these new friends of yours and should you find anything that might interest a curious scholar, remember old Myron.” Aware once more of the chill within his bones, the little man turns to refill his mug with something warm to drink.

[Lord Starshadow]

The elf at the foot of the treehouse ladder was startled by the sounds coming from the treehouse. He looked up and suddenly saw the treehouse and the space around it twist and bend. "What in the name of the gods...?" he muttered to himself. He could feel himself bending towards the treehouse as well, a strange and altogether frightening experience. He shivered as everything went back to normal; reality-bending magic always gave him the creeps.

Before he could stop himself, he was climbing up the ladder of the treehouse. It was perhaps a stupid decision, but the natural Elven curiousity and the additional curiousity of youth combined to make the climb irresistible. He silently climbed the ladder and poked his head through the hole. Nothing seemed amiss; neither the old man nor Brendan seemed to be harmed by what had just transpired. The old man was sitting with a drink and Brendan was still staring at his quiver. "What just happened in here?" the elf blurted out without thinking. The two people inside looked at him. "Uh, sorry... I was just wondering why reality was bent around me while I was standing at the foot of the ladder. It's not everyday where that occurs, you know."