LOF - Aftermath II - Hidden Hungers

[Lord Starshadow]

ooc: I might've posted again, but I didn't want to have back to back character posts separated only by ooc posts.

Syrathic HP:45/74

Syrathic was amazed by what he saw as they entered the gnome settlement. It was larger than he had anticipated. Still, it was an enclosed area, no matter how big it was, and that always made him uncomfortable. He watched Brendon approach one of the gnomes, looking to trade. "Hmm... good idea," he thought to himself as he reached for the gems he has hidden in his cloak. "Maybe I can finally get some throwing knives."

The Elf fumbled through the folds of his cloak until he found a nice sized diamond. As he brought the gem out, his eyes came up and immediately looked into the eyes of another Elf, a female. He jumped in surprise and he instantly started to blush, which he hoped was concealed by the shadows of his cloak. "Another Elf!" he blurted out unthinkingly, dropping the gem he held in his hand, clearly caught off guard. He wasn't sure if the others heard him or not however, as he was too busy trying not to gape at the Elf. The sight of another surface Elf was certainly disconcerting for Syrathic. He was an outcast after all. "I wasn't expecting to see another surface Elf down here," he hastily explained, trying his best not to blush again. "If I may inquire, why are you down here? And how did you get into this village? I thought only Gnomes could bring you in here. Did you do something to save one of their lives?" He realized he was rambling and stopped abruptly, picking up the diamond. The Elf composed himself, and started again. "Excuse me for being rude. My name is Syrathic." He swept out a bow to her. "May I ask your name?"

[RevRuby]

hanging back from her group and trying to avoid the looks of gnomes ruby attempts to circle the village fromt he outside, to get a feel for it and it's ppl. *oh it's been so long. so many ppl. i've forgotten how to act. perhaps i can ask someone else to do my trading for me. no darling i don;t think they'd understand you! a lion with a few bits of gold in his teeth might look like he's already ransacked one merchant.* for that wyrd comes up on both hind legs and pushes ruby down.

laughing she grabs both sides of his head and pushes him with the intent of him rolling off. he obeys even though they both know since he has grown she cannot over power him. the love and adoration in his eyes was very clear, even to bystanders.

again ruby moves to circle the village.

[AzRaeL StoRmBlaDe]

Dantes 76/76
Dantes moves through the village in quiet thought. His trained eyes picked through the villagers watching him move. They saw but a wandering shadow, but he saw so much more, he could tell their trade and hardships, and he could see the worry in their eyes. Despite all the seeming cheer there was definitely an aura of fear about the village. Dantes headed straight for the largest building in the village, assuming that would be the place where the leader would be. There was something wearing on Dantes. Maybe it was the oppression of the tunnels, or maybe it was the weight of the importance of this mission, maybe it was the curse of the Gods themselves for allowing the hunger to run rampant for so long. Whatever it was it was begining to show. His dreams were haunted by unspeakable nightmares, the likes of which he blocked from his memory when he eventually awoke, sweating, with his bedroll tangled about him as if he had been tossing and turning in a chaotic frenzy. One could tell by the bags growing daily under his eyes and the weariness in his voice. The strain was definitely pulling him taunt. Dantes thought only of what he would say to the leader of the settlement, and of what information and aid he would hopefully be able to gain from them. As the weight of the world rested on him he thought only of the task at hand, pushing the strain to the back of his consciousness. He stopped before the doors of the building and removed his hood. The shadows faded around him.
In perfect gnomish he declared "May the veins always be deep within your mines, and may the strength of your walls hold all enemies at bay." Dantes said in formal greeting "I am Dantes, I would have a word with your leader should he deem me worthy to address him."
With thus said Dantes bowed low and waited for word from the two stonefaced guards out front.

OOC: took a little liberty with this post if I need to edit anything for the sake of contiuity please simply let me know. I also wanted to establish the importance of our task and also build more with the claustrophobia and oppression of the underdark. PS. Dantes might be going a little insane too, so hehehe [img]tongue.gif[/img]

EDIT: spelling

[ 02-10-2003, 01:48 PM: Message edited by: AzRaeL StoRmBlaDe ]

[Larry_OHF]

OOC>>>Great post, Az. I think you posted very true to your character, and laid out alot of good grounding.

Brendon Grey 61/70

"Well, actually I saw you sitting here, hoping you were a Smith of some sort, most obviously with weaponry, but I did not know if you had any other items available in the way of armory or trinkets that are endowed with special magical properties. Maybe a belt or a ring of some mysterious power. If there are any in this underground that posess such items, I would inquire as to their trade value...that I might make an exchange. As to weapons, I would just like to browse, if I may. Oh...and does anyone in town work with animal hides? I have one that needs tending to."

[ 02-10-2003, 08:30 PM: Message edited by: Larry_OHF ]

[Larry_OHF]

Anarrima Culurien 60/60

Anarrima giggled at Syrathic's nervousness and surprise at her appearance. It had been a long time since she had seen one of her own as well, but she was much too excited to be bashful.

"My name is Anarrima Culurien...though that is an ironic name due to where you find me this day. I have not seen the sun for an eternity, and know not what season it is above this horrid rock. I was captured long ago by the drow and taken to their city. The city was destroyed recently by giant creatures of shadowy nature...and that left an opening for me to run, finding my way to this village. I was discovered by the guard who took me in and nursed me back to health. Now, I seek a way back to the surface. When you leave this place, please take me with you! I must again breath the fresh air! My Lady-Goddess...Ahurani Fairhand, is awaiting my return to service. I serve as a cleric for Her."

OOC>>>Syrathic, you might be the only one to realize that this Gold Elf that stands before you has a strong accent of Drow with a bit of gnomish mixed in. Nothing much is left of her original accent that is expected of a female high elf that claims service to a Goddess as a cleric. Do with that information as you will, but she probably does not even realize that she talks strange to you. It has been a very long time for her to even hear another surface elf's voice, and she is too excited to notice minor things like that.

[ 02-10-2003, 01:47 PM: Message edited by: Larry_OHF ]

[Morgeruat]

Originally posted by AzRaeL StoRmBlaDe: PS. Dantes might be going a little insane too, so hehehe [img]tongue.gif[/img] EDIT: spelling

OOC: I thought I was the designated schitzo? lol, great post Az, I'll try and build off of it

Morguerat 87/105

As the group had moved on Morguerat had taken great care that his prisoner would be off balance continually, first stuffing it's ears with scraps of cloth to dull it's sensitive hearing, and then at random spinning it to throw it’s sense of balance and direction off so that it would be more difficult to try and return if it managed to escape.

As they arrived in the Gnome settlement Morguerat looked around, watching the others go about whatever rituals they felt they needed. The knight had a small supply of gold and silver, but hardly enough to pay for the kinds of things he had planned, luckily for one as large, and broad shouldered as him there was little trouble finding work, be it in a smithy, or in the case of gnomes, reaching things from the top shelf. ( [img]smile.gif[/img] )

As he looked around he heard the gnome talking about the smith that Brendon was showing jewels to, and that the others were splitting up, he followed Dantes at a discreet distance with the grimlock in tow, perhaps the priests could question it, or failing that a nice painful death would properly serve the creature that defiled the body of a great silver Wyrm. Morguerat made no sounds as he followed and watched Dantes, and for once the ever present anger was absent from his gaze. (OOC: his visor is up once again)

[Cyril Darkcloud]

For TAOWolf

It twitters, or at least some portion of it does, this strange cacophony of mouths and voices. Sentences are spoken in a simultaneous rush to say things that results in little more than voices speaking past one another. Angry and violent outburst occurs at the same moment as nonsensical utterance and mono-syllabic sound. Laughing is followed by gibbering which in turn gives way to ranting, but never are the mouths silent. Always speaking and yet saying nothing, a confused babble of confusing words and puzzling sounds that moves along the slithering passage marked out by a formless body which is but a collection of mouths that insist on speaking and eyes that seek after prey. Perhaps such a creature is but the chaos-tinged amalgamation of distracting and pointless spam posts or the hellish remains of long-banned flamers but whatever its origin, it is a creature of incessant chatter and constant appetite.

There is a strange sound coming from the other side of the stone wall of this small passage and the creature’s many voices increase the pitch of their speaking. The stone becomes warm and three sharp blows echo from the other side and then the warm stone simply breaks apart and crumbles. Even the twittering jumble of voices pauses a moment at such an unexpected thing. Then several recently formed and curious eyes spy the shape of a woman and the mouths burst once more into a cacophony of speech and sound that seeks her ears and her attention. Many are the voices and they speak many words but there is no meaning to found within what they say. Many are the voices and many are the words and the only thing such speaking produces is confusion, the kind of confusion that shuts down a weak or unprepared mind .......

ooc: The monster is appropriately named the Gibbering Mouther, and it’s 30 hit points of nastiness and bloodlust. You’ll need to successfully resist the confusion its speaking creates before being able to do anything else, and your rather surprising entrance has given you the chance to successfully protect your mind.

[Cyril Darkcloud]

ooc: Brendon - According to the details posted about your possessions, you are presently equipped with a +1 longsword. What do you mean by 'upgrade' -- do you simply want a better sword or would you like the existing sword made better [that will take some time] if that is possible?

[ 02-10-2003, 06:02 PM: Message edited by: Cyril Darkcloud ]

[Lord Starshadow]

Syrathic HP:45/74

Syrathic blushed again when he heard the Elf giggle at him. He hadn't been around a surface Elf female since... he couldn't remember when, in fact. "Anarrima," he repeated as she said her name. "That's a very pretty name." He was trying not to be nervous, but he was still young after all, and it was a losing battle.

He listened closely as she spoke. Once he got over the beautiful music of her voice, he began to notice other things. For one thing, her surface accent was gone. In its place there was a Drowish accent mixed with something else that Syrathic couldn't put his finger on. But the Drow accent was unmistakable to him. Syrathic himself spoke Drow well enough to pass as a Drow, and had actually spent some time among them after an adventure in the Underdark had gone bad. How he managed to do that, he didn't know, but he knew he was lucky. But he was not upset in the least to hear that the Drow had been wiped out. While there were a few that were okay in his book, for the most part, the entire race had annihilation coming and deserved it.

"I'm not the leader of this party, so I can't give you my word that you can join us. But I can point you to those who can." He pointed at Morguerat and Dantes, who were walking away. "One of those two will decide. The huge one is Morguerat, and the other is Dantes. If I were you, I'd try Dantes first. The tall man can be a bit intimidating. But I hope that they allow you to come, Anarrima." He smiled absently, before hastily adding, "Because a cleric's healing powers would be of great use to us, of course."

Syrathic watched the Elf walk away in search of Dantes and Morguerat. He wiped his forehead with a hand in relief, then went over to Kellor. "Could you help me get supplies too? I'm looking for throwing knives and potions in particular. I have a few gems myself, by the way," he said, showing the diamond in his hand. "That's not the only one."

[RevRuby]

as ruby reaches a hidden point in her journey she decides she has no desire to be th one to deal with ppl. her lack of human, or humanoid contact in recent years has left her with a great fear of common ppls. she reaches out with her mind. finding the one she wants she asks permission to enter and speak.

syrathic you feel something in your head. not unpleasant but definately not something you have ever felt before. even if you have had mental contact with other psionicists before, this is different. it is very timid. even before hearing the VOICE in your head, you know who it is. *may i 'speak with you?*

OOC:ruby has just used contact and mindlink to speak with syrathic. neither roll was a power score so all is normal