Part 5>>>The Shadow of Love (an LoF adventure)

[Larry_OHF]

Three weeks ago



"Lasto beth nîn, tolo dan nan galad."
..
“This very evil that is the Hunger is a bane to thy love and I must request it's removal from Ironworks!"
..
"Lasto beth nîn, tolo dan nan galad."
..
IN BEHALF FRIENDSHIPS LOST!
FOR ALL OF IRONWORKS' MEMBERS!
MAY THE LIGHT OF DAY SHINE UPON THIS HOLLOW AND VANQUISH MY ENEMY!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"AAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIHHHhhhhhhhh..............."
..
"Lasto beth nîn, tolo dan nan galad."
..
Go now in peace...and live to serve me again another day...my little one..."


Anarrima snapped out of her dream. She looked about, trying to get a bearing on where she was. That’s right. She was home. It had not been all that long ago that she had come back, but it seemed like it. She thought back to how it all began with the kidnapping by the Drow, the years underground out of sight from the sun and out of reach from her Goddess. The beautiful Ahurani Fairhand.

It had been an adventure such as one that none of her friends or relatives could relate to. She had been rescued down there where the sun shines not. Saved by an adventuring party that had come through in order to reach the location of a powerful evil. Ana had joined this party of heroes and had contributed to saving Ironworks from The Hunger. But the adventure cost the lives of some of her friends. The whole thing had been bittersweet.

So why now was she having these dreams? The feelings inside the dreams were always the same. That the destruction of one darkness gave birth to another, more sinister darkness. There was no light at the end of her dreams…though she clearly remembered differently on the day that they had saved the forums. It had been a bright day indeed. So why were her dreams suggesting otherwise?

She decided that it was a question that she needed to take up with her goddess, and so she began to pray about it, to discern this strange omen.

No sooner had she began the prayer that she received a shocking revelation…one that caused her to tremble uncontrollably, for the horror she saw was too much for her mind to bear.

”Goddess! No! What have I done? I prepared the way! I am responsible for this chaos! Many have and will die because of it! Please Lady Fairhand! Show me what I must do!”

Again she prayed, trying to discern the will of the goddess. In another moment she sat up, resolute and confident in her decision.

”Right then. If that is what it will take, then I am ready to serve Thee again. Show me the way.”


Time Passes

It had been three weeks on the road. She had hooked up with a small band of merchants travelling in this direction, and were continuing on from here. She, however was at her destination. She paid the men with the gold she had promised and waved them farewell. Now she was on her own. Again. She had hoped to never have to get caught up in adventures again, but her Goddess willed it, promising her many blessings for the labor she was about to take upon herself. She tested her gear, tapped the hard dirt with the butt of her staff, and started walking. Hopefully the goddess blessed her with the swiftness she needed to arrive on time.

[Larry_OHF]

Nanashi

She stood there, waiting for the men to attack or run in fear, but they simply stood there, stunned as it were. They were staring at the heart she was holding in her hand, obviously respecting this new enemy.

"Well...if you are not going to make the first move, then I shall gladly make it for you!"

She casually tossed the heart at the wall and proceeded to prance her way over to where the men were. She did not fear them. This would be nothing short of a game.

[dplax]

Plaxica 11/70

He was winning against the mage until the fires reached him. He felt his already parched skin be burnt and he let loose a cry of pain, jumping back through the disintegrating net. He fell backwards towards the floor and then all went dark and the voice appeared in his head again.

"I told you that opposing the mage was foolishness. It is time to get out of here."

With a snap his senses came back and he could see and smell again, yet he noticed that he was in owl form. And control over his movements was not his. The spirit inside him was controlling them and he was on his way towards the door leading to the garden, flying fast.

[dplax]

Andrion Wilgor 19/40

The Fire Shield did what it needed to. Smiling under his invisibility Andrion stood up and watched the ongoing battle and the fleeing owl. Bits of the net were still burning next to him. Silt seemed to be occupied with the drow and the Inquisitor was still stunned. Vincent was just snapping out of his stunned state. The foolish were-owl had only bought the others limited time.

Andrion turned towards Vincent and started casting a spell.

"Vinculi fulmen" - he chanted.

OOC: pm Larry

[Larry_OHF]

Time Passes

Another round has completed.

Marcos is no longer held by the effects of Stun, and can shake off his tingly limbs and defend his life against the attacking Skeleton.

Vincent is free to move as freely as normal at this time. He is the most likely to notice that Andrion can be located because of Fire Shield. The remaining image of the mage winks out during this round and is gone.

Silt is waiting for Kynnen to make a move against him.

Kynnen is prepared to attack Silt.

Plaxica has left all of you.

The skeletal Cheiftan raises his bloody sword and is prepared to strike again at the Inquisitor who is now trying to get up from the floor.

Larry and Morgie are waiting a reaction from the Duchess at the information shared.

The four remaining guards need to defend their lives from Nanashi.

Andrion is free from the netting and is preparing a spell. He is in the motions of casting it at this time.



[ 02-07-2005, 09:06 AM: Message edited by: Larry_OHF ]

[dplax]

Plaxica 11/85

Free. Free was his movement as he soared on the winds above the castle. The castle where death had nearly reached him. He had regained control of his movements, yet deep inside he knew that should he try to go back to help his friends, the spirit inside would not let him. It seemed that his conscience could not be helped. His owl eyes looked at the castle distant below with a certain fear and regret.

Probably those he had travelled with were going to die.

Plaxica felt an emptyness in his heart. He knew not what purpose he had in this life anymore. Andrion and his companion Nanashi had proven to be too great a force.

Larry's mission was most likely going to fail, whatever it was. - the wereowl thought to himself.

And himself? He could only hang his head in shame and say that he had left his friends in their time of greatest need. In the turmoil of thoughts inside his head one suddenly surfaced, shining clear in his mind and he knew that it was the spirit inside him which sent it.

OOC: pm Cyril.

[ 02-07-2005, 09:26 AM: Message edited by: dplax ]

[Elif Godson]

Vincent Pathfinder

Feeling his body becoming his own again he charged at the skeleton holding his bow up to use as an added reinforcement.

pm's to the GM

[dplax]

Plaxica 11/85

His inner spirit seemed happy with the idea he had just had.

"For the first time since we met, you have had a really great idea. The she-wolf has had many stories made about her. It is said that she and the one known as the Windbringer are the only ones capable of mounting more than a token resistance to the one of shadow."

"Who is this Windbringer you speak of?"

"He is that one who speaks the tongue of those that fly, as it is said in some regions of the world. He is a being whom none understand fully and it is said that he uses the wind for his purposes. It is also said that he has friendship with the creatures of the sky. The druidess also seems to be the only one to know the Windbringer, or so I have heard. Meeting this druid could even have us meet the Windbringer himself."

"I see. So let us go and find this druid then."

"Yes let us. But first let me make something clear to you: I do not only exist to save you, when your life is in danger."

With those final thoughts Plaxica felt the spirit withdraw into the corned it had made itself inside his mind. This left Plaxica with the rather disconcerting thought of what else the spirit existed for.

He then broke his circling above the castle and set off towards where he had come from. The Tavern of the One Eyed Wolf, where he hoped he would still be able to find Tao.

[Cyril Darkcloud]

The One-Eyed Wolf Tavern and environs

They do not breathe for the already dead have no need of the regular intake of air. Still, however, they pant as they run and non-living lungs, as if from sheer habit, expand and contract to the intake and expulsion of what for the living would be called breath. Even the panting is monotonous, varying in neither volume nor rhythm, a sound sufficient to dull the hearing of those small creatures that dart swiftly for shelter as the banewolves approach. For any with eyes to see and knowledge sufficient to understand the meaning of such sight the approach of danger, of great and terrible danger, is clear. Birds take sudden flight from the trees and the animals of the wood are not merely on the move, but dash ahead madly in panicked flight. Even the insects whose chirping is so strangely loud in the quiet darkness of night are silent. And so it was that silence settled upon the land near this town, the silence of place from which the living have fled.

Lives, however, tend to proceed apace with the normal course of things unless something suddenly and violently disrupts that course. Life in this town is no different, for the same chores need to be finished as always and the same gossip is shared at the dinner table as on any other night and the same songs are sung in the same tavern where the same few customers drink their usual drinks and listen from the same stories that every band of adventurers seems to tell. There is something quietly awkward in the air this evening, all feel it, but this is simply perhaps just one of those feelings. And could one blame them in their complacency, these people who have been spared the turmoil that has shaken the forums these last years? Even after Chani Ravenwood twice struck the Mage with arrows made by the Windbringer, no violence had ever come to the people of this town or the famed tavern within its borders.

After this night, however, things shall never be the same again. Not for the people of this town. Not for the famed tavern. Not for any of those within it......

[ 02-07-2005, 07:14 PM: Message edited by: Cyril Darkcloud ]

[Larry_OHF]

Brian LeBlanc, pen-paper.net