Part 6>>>The Shadow of Love (an LoF adventure)

[Morgeruat]

Yevaud 42/45

Yevaud had been preparing to loose a most venomous reply, and possibly attack when he heard the cry. Glaring at Marcos he muttered, "This isn't over Human" Then turned ignoring the scraps of armor and the ghostly presence and sprinted towards the entrance and Anarrima. He wondered at the cry as he had overheard similar outcries from her as her dreams and nightmares returned to Ust No'Matta, could it be the Drow had returned begging for death? Cursing himself for a fool for leaving her behind while the drow was on the loose he hoped he would not arrive too late.

[ 10-13-2005, 09:06 PM: Message edited by: Morgeruat ]

[Larry_OHF]

Anarrima 67/67

She heard the elf's footfalls coming down the corridor, knowing that it was him before she even saw him. She saw no reason to stand there and wait on him in a den of death, and so ran to meet him in the hallway that he was coming from.

When they came together, she put up her hands for him to halt and let her explain away her scream.

I did not expect to find so much death down here...I came down here to escape it above-ground. Yevaud! It was horrible! This man was eaten alive by huge leeches and their numerous offspring even as I watched and could do nothing to save him. My prayer was halted and I could do nothing to help him."

She sighed heavily and leaned her weight against the cold stone wall behind her, slumping her shoulders in some kind of self-defeat.

[ 10-13-2005, 05:26 PM: Message edited by: Larry_OHF ]

[dplax]

Plaxica, Ramella, Daniel and the spirit:

"Thank you very much for your hospitality, Jonas and for the way in which you looked after Danny and Ramella. I'm extremely grateful for your generosity." - Plaxica said as the three of them were leaving. The scent of death was strong on the air, and Ramella wanted to leave as soon as possible. They were lucky to be among those who could leave. They had no ties to this place, like Jonas. He had lived his whole life here and everything he had was here, both physical possessions and items of sentimental value.

Jonas and Plaxica shook hands, while Daniel said goodbye to Julia by kissing her on the cheeks. They set out in the direction Ramella and Daniel had come from, not wanting to pass next to the massacre again.

"Daddy?" - Daniel asked Plaxica during one of their roadside stops for a rest. Being called that still surprised Plaxica whenever he heard it. He would have to grow used to being a father. He wished that he had time to get to know his son better, and be the father he should have been in the last four years, but he knew that he could not settle down until he solved the problem the spirit posed.

"Yes, Danny?"

"Can I ride on your back?"

"Of course." - Plaxica replied. He scooped up Danny, and put his feet around his neck. [b]"Hold on tight!"

Sitting on his vantage point, as if it were a throne and he a monarch surveying the lands around him, Daniel was fully enjoying himself. Plaxica was however lost in his thoughts, and the distant expression must have been quite visible on his face, for Ramella noticed.

"Do you have any idea what you want to do now?" - she asked Plaxica.

Snapped out of his thoughts, it took the were-owl a few moments to comprehend the question.

"I have some ideas, yes. It all depends on the spirit what I can achieve of these ideas. For the moment he is strangely quiet, as if he were preparing something."

"I'll try and help you as much as I can."

Plaxica could feel a strange feeling at the back of his mind, as if his subconscious were trying to tell him something, but it couldn't quite resurface. As if floodgates were holding back a massive quantity of water. He just hoped that it wasn't what the spirit was preparing.

"There was one thing I've been wondering about since you told me that you think that the spirit can see all of your thoughts. Isn't it possible that you can also sense his thoughts?"

The idea hadn't even occured to Plaxica. Or had it? He probed inside his mind, something which he feared as encountering the spirit in its own territory could be catastrophic, he thought. And then he had it. The thing which he couldn't quite put his finger on before. Suddenly the floodgates burst open.

He could see it all. The spirit hadn't been working at something, it had been working against something. The thoughts overwhelmed Plaxica. Everything the spirit had thought about since he had infected Plaxica. Every single thought, was suddenly visible to the one who served as carrier for the spirit. The true purpose of the spirit was now revealed.

[Morgeruat]

Morguerat

A moment of darkness, not quite total it was dark enough to make one think they could almost make things out, trick the senses, similar to the shadow realm he and Larry had travelled through the previous day. He nodded at the sudden rush of words from Larry, examining him quickly and with some measure of subtlety to ensure the person had the same mannerisms as before, any slight difference that would indicate a personality backslide, or an illusion. Satisfied that the person before him was indeed Larry, he stepped forward and replied "They should be right behind me."

[ 10-17-2005, 02:35 PM: Message edited by: Morgeruat ]

[Larry_OHF]

Larry Silverfall 23/23

"Well...hmph...well what are they waiting on?"

Larry was really starting to get figety. They were so close, and there was no telling when the Mage might come back or when any guardians of this place would detect the intruders...they had to get moving fast.

Larry looked about, hardly recognizing the place. Things were certaily not the way they were when he had been the Mage. Now that the entity of shadow had extracted itself from him, it was proving to be more evil than Larry had been together with it.

He kept glancing back towards the seam area where the other two adventurers were supposedly standing.

"You know...I can understand why you came inside, but they have no reason to put their lives on the line for me. Maybe they are not coming. maybe we should just go...you know?"

Larry began to wonder in which direction they should actually go. The place was like a mirror maze at the fair. The walls were made of shadowy substance as solid as any wall, but they were nearly indistinguishable from the very passable airy passages between the walls. Therefore, you could easily walk into a wall, thinking it was just more shadow-play along the corridors. It would have been a fun attempt to find the way through if it were not for the fact that this was the Shadow Tower, and this place was not designed to humor, rather to maliciously confuse its victim.

[ 10-17-2005, 04:27 PM: Message edited by: Larry_OHF ]

[Larry_OHF]

History of the Echo


Echo was one of the first comic relief creations that the Mage of Shadow ever gave life to. Back in the day before Cyril Darkcloud came to our lands, The Mage of Shadow had learned how to give life to all types of beings with his new status as a demi-god. Echo was created off-screen however and the first known post that contains it showed the Echo very much alive and as an independent entity. While it served the Master, it could still think on its own.

With the death of the Mage at the hands of Cyril the Windbringer, Echo was assumed to be left alone and free of the Master. That was not entirely true, for the Voice he referred to when he allied with Rhianneth was in fact the voice of the dead, and Echo was echoing that Voice's will. In other words, the Echo still loyally served its Voice. It was able to trick Rhianneth into trusting it, and in her hour of need it betrayed her and allowed Terrakis to enslave her and Brendon Grey which was the plan from the beginning.

After that chapter had ended, not too much had been said of the Echo. Its whereabouts were not entirely known except to the Mage himself. When the Mage found himself outside of the game's limits and in the land beyond Ironworks, Echo had been left behind at the Tower. Thus we continue our story...

Echo

The echo had heard a familiar voice, trailing about the tower. The resonance of the voice was too unbelievable to be true, but...the voice never lies where an echo is concerned. That voice was known to Echo.

Echo had no body, no physical make-up whatsoever, and was bound only by the limits that an echo would have, so no passing through solid walls that could not be penetrated by voice. Yet very fast was the echo in travel by the natural means of travel of sound and breath. In an instant it was upon he which it sought, and marvelled at the truth. Larry Silverfall had come home. Oh, but where was the True Master when such a thing as this occurred!!!! it was such a shame. But what was this? Why, it is Morgie! Yes, Echo knew of Morgeruat very well.

"So...the little master has come home...come home...home."

"And to what do I owe this pleasant surprise...this surprise...surprise?"

[ 10-21-2005, 10:56 AM: Message edited by: Larry_OHF ]

[Larry_OHF]

Larry Silverfall 23/23

Larry froze still and felt the tingling cold of fear course about him. He saw no personage in this room except for Morgie, but recognized the voice that spoke to him...yet he could not give name to it. He whispered to Morgie,

"Who...is that?

[Cyril Darkcloud]

Joseph

As spent as he is it would be foolish to rush after the others. Hell, it’d be foolish anyway, spent or not. Besides the kid needs to learn that not everyone’s gonna come running after him just because he’s liable to have gotten into a situation where something or other’s liable to have him for breakfast. Looks like Senora is busy praying or something – whatever these holy types do to get themselves ready when they gotta wander through some unknown place filled with dark and unknowable things that are generally, and specifically too for that matter, malignant. No sounds of desperate combat and last second monster bashing drift through the open seam. No frantic screams or shrill cries of dying folks either. Not even an explosion.

“Sounds calm so far,” he says quietly to the woman before adding with a wink, “Kinda disappointing really.”

She seems ready to move, but he pauses. “Let’s hold up a minute or so yet. Time is of the essence and all that heroic epic type last minute stuff that adventurers like to say,” once more his speech has slipped into its pattern of unlettered confidence, “but the kid’ll need to get his bearings and he ain’t gonna do that if we just rush to follow him – he’ll just pick a direction and go and that’s what gets folks like you and me and the big guy dead. With his luck, the kid’ll make it – star of the show always does but supporting cast …… that’s us in case you ain’t figured that out yet ….. supporting cast has to be careful not to follow the script too closely if it wants to live.” He smiles, “Besides the kid needs to know he ain’t the center of the world. Hell, who hasn’t lost the love of their life at some point or other? Some guy somewhere else needs to fight dragons just so he can wake his long lost love with a kiss, this guy here needs to find a way to mess with the fabric of shadowy reality and break into some insanely powerful and equally sloppy dark Mage’s house just so he can get a candle and after all this epic stuff I’m willing to bet it’s still gonna come down to something as hokey as waking her up with a kiss.”

“But I tell ya, if anyone gets turned into a frog, I’m outta here.”

With a quick movement of his fingers he conjures a gold colored coin. “Whatta ya say, how about Heads we follow, Tails we think about our other options?” Before she can answer he tosses the coin. He catches it, slaps it onto his forearm and looks. “Heads it is,” he smiles. It’s always Heads, of course, but she don’t need to know that.

He turns and steps through the opening.

ooc: I assume Senora will follow.

[ 10-21-2005, 11:02 AM: Message edited by: Cyril Darkcloud ]

[Morgeruat]

Morguerat

The knight instantly shifted to a combat stance at hearing the noise, though the tower was designed to confuse it primarily worked against vision, the mage had been overly worried about the living. His undead relied upon other senses that were not so easily fooled than sight. He began almost subconsciously to attempt to track a corporeal being, subtle tells such as changing air currents, the sound of breathing, a shoe or boot against the hard stone, anything that would reveal the presence of a hidden being. Crysomer would have been a great aid he thought briefly, being empowered with powers of the mind usually restricted to the hideous mind flayers and the rare humanoid practitioner.

His senses revealed no tells, no betrayal of height, smell, location, or movement, just an echo that mocked, like the rest of this place it was designed to disorient and leave the victim vulnerable. Morguerat returned to a calmer stance and looked at Larry, "There is nothing physical here that I can detect, if it is a man he is stealthier than an elf, and upwind of us. Unless we're attacked I recommend ignoring it for now. If it's a spirit, well I've no magic any longer, and my power over the dead vanished with my calling, which leaves flight as our best defense against an angry spirit."

[Larry_OHF]

Echo

"Angry spirit I am not!...am not...not"

"Morgie ol' pal, I am the Echo of the Mage...the mage...mage..."

"The same Morgie that stands before me today is the very one that aligned with my Master long ago...eventually to become the Reaper...eventually to become the Reaper...become the Reaper"

"Now, a great asset you will be to the Master when you return to his service this time, but the mistakes that led you away will be dealt with...but the mistakes...dealt with..."


Larry Silverfall 23/23

Larry turned and stared at the tall man, terror-stricken.

"You...I remember you being a servant of me when I was the Mage...and then I tortured you...oh gods! I remember! But what happened to you afterward? And how can you be here with me today if you became somebody called the Reaper?"

Larry stepped back a bit, staring at the man that he wondered if he should still trust.

[ 10-21-2005, 12:07 PM: Message edited by: Larry_OHF ]