Ea was trying to remember any information about "Ilutchewar", but it was hard to concentrate when a small-sized armored tiefling Hellkinght was grabbing you
- the name 'Ilutchewar' means nothing to the Pharasmin.
Before the floor formed beneath their feet, this green world adhered to few of the rules that govern the material plane... concepts such as near and far seemed fluid - at one point Titania is holding onto Ea and they are close to each other... the very next, they are still in contact yet Ea is orbiting Titania as distant as a planet from its star. Up feels like down... until it flips around... and then an entirely new dimension is added to it. The feeling, which had never before been experienced as the friends travelled along the spire, is highly disconcerting... and only settles as 'down' aligns itself with the floor...
"Millions you say? A strange thought that a world previously so barren could support such a diversity of life. Hmmmm, I have waited for an untold age... time is such a fluid construct so I could not tell you how long, for the xiomorn to return to this vault. A time will come when we do return and then the races of the surface will become our dominion... tell me..." the voice continues to tinkle, "...of the species that you have described, which would serve best as a slave caste?"
As the conversation takes a sudden turn to the dark, Yasmin is unable to suppress a shudder. She wasn't sure if it was a good thing that the voice still seemed so delighted. Being a plaything to this creature was discomfiting. "Er, um . . . . that's certainly an interesting question, one I don't feel qualified to answer." The actual answer she came up with in her head, regrettably, was halflings, but it seemed rather unfair to say that, not to mention the information would result in helping out a being that was eager to establish its dominion. She really just wanted to get out of this situation without being disintegrated by Ilutchewar.
"I think you'll find, though, that the races would be eager to engage in commerce and trade. That might be more successful in the long run than creating a slave caste." She began to look around at Ea, Rallos, and Titania, wondering what they wanted to do about this situation. And she worried that the others would be feeling more confrontational than she did.
Rallos seemed overwhelmed by the situation. He looks around, trying to collect his thoughts.
It seems as if you caught us off guard. Was that you we felt each time we used the spire to transport ourselves?
In Titania's experience, any race that could think was not going to make a good race for a slave caste, though halflings were about as close as it got.
Still, all of that was in the back of her mind as she clung to Ea and shut her eyes against the unreality of the situation they found themselves in. She couldn't trust her eyes, perhaps she could trust her sense of touch. Maybe if she was quiet and looked uninteresting then it'd ignore her. The last thing she wanted was for whatever it was to get curious about the short, young woman that was more devil than human.
If any of you gods out there care, please, please get us back home safely! I don't wanna be around this thing! I don't want this thing to notice me!
No race is "suited" to become a slave. Fate will tell if you will escape from your age-untold prison. You might be old, maybe ageless. But you aren't immortal, perhaps.The Eternal Gardens will wait for you.
The voice tinkles as Yasmin suggests that the races of the sunlit lands would be beings with which the 'xiomorn' would trade and establish commerce relationships with... even though the voice is somewhat alien, it is quite obvious that Iluchtewar is laughing.
Answering Rallos' question, the voice confirms that it was indeed Iluchtewar who was watching the group as they previously travelled through the spire, "I have watched you... as I have watched as the ancient sends his unliving creations out into your world... this is my domain and your travels intrigue me..." The voice abruptly ends though when Ea provides her Pharasmin observations...
The tinkling of laughter rises and falls as the ground beneath the friend's feet gives way... and, as if wrenched by a far away force, the group are travelling once more - in an instant, they are near the peak of the spire - in the dimness of the stairs between the goblin's lair and Gorloth's crypts. Staggering out, disoriented and slightly faint after their experience, Rallos leads the group out of the Azlanti ruin... and into the driving snow of a blizzard.
...yet, when the group had entered the spire but a day or two previous, winter had given way to the warmth of spring.
Titania, already shaken by the experience, sees the snow blowing in the driving wind. She gives a short, unhinged chuckle before falling face-first into the snowbank before her.
"I'm dead. Either killed in action or wanted for desertion," she bemoans, her voice muffled by the snow.
Ea retorts, deadpan
You arent dead. As a priestess of Pharasma, I would know it. I can testify to the Hellknights, if you want.
But we are sick, from mummy's rot. We need to cure ourselves before we go back to the Fort, as I'm not totally sure we aren't contagious. A few hours more, even an extra day, won't change much now.
Either I suffered a heavy blow to the head....or is this weather a bit off? I swear it was a lot warmer when we left....or perhaps I'm losing my mind....anyone?
Yasmin would normally be thrilled for some cold weather, but showing up in a blizzard when she was expecting warm weather was disconcerting. "A blizzard like this in spring? It doesn't make sense! I mean, I guess it could be a late storm, but . . ." A thought crosses Yasmin's mind which is disconcerting. "Iluchtewar said how he didn't experience time like the rest of us. Is it possible we've somehow shifted in time?"
Yasmin considers whether it was safe to try going home in this blizzard or whether they would need to stay in the shelter.
"Okay, maybe I was being melodramatic, but if we've been gone so long that we missed spring and summer, then we've probably been listed as killed in action. Knowing my luck, they'll be making sure that reality matches the report," Titania says as she gets up to kneel in the snow. She sighs and stands and looks to the others.
"No point in going out in this weather. Just a good way to get yourself killed," she tells them before walking back down the stairs a bit. "Is there a good place to set up camp and a fire? I don't know about all of you, but I'm feeling the cold."
"I could help us endure the cold for a few hours, but it'd still be a tough slog. Maybe we can camp underground in that first level? I know it's important for Ea to get back soon because of the mummy, though she's also a powerful cleric who may be able to help herself."
Yasmin helps out the party with some healing also. "It's questionable devil magic, but it's pretty darn effective. I imagine you've had a taste of this before, Tot." As the sorceress touches the wounded, the smell of sulfur and metallic blood mix in the air.
The snow billows and bursts into the darkness of the spire's single above ground level, a hard chill pushing in and smearing a frost across the glassy surfaces of the ancient Azlanti complex... whatever has happened, one thing is abundantly clear; there is not much chance of safely returning to Fort Inevitable until this storm passes... even were Yasmin able to do something about the biting cold, there is still the disorienting combination of drifting snow and nigh-on zero visibility to contend with...
"This weather is really too terrible to see, I guess we'd better rest in the Spire."
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The young hellknight shudders as Yasmin casts the spell.
"Familiar and pleasant aren't the same thing," she explains.
After seeing how horrible the weather is, Tot begins looking for a safe place to warm up.
Once the immediate needs of shelter and warmth are taken care of, she beings to strip out of her armor and sighs at the ragged state of her clothing.
"Well, this is peachy," she grumbles, "another fight and I might as well be wearing rags."
She covers herself with a blanket and settles down with a huff.
Sometimes rags are the only thing a person has...trust me on that...now, let's get tucked away and warm up. Ea, how are you faring?
Ea helps Rallos to find a shelter, and answers his question with the weakest, faintest smile.
Doomed? I've never been very cheerful, as you might know. But then,
if Fate allows, I'll survive this undead blight, and won't enter Pharasma Garden too soon. If I don't manage to cure myself, I know I can rely on your friendship to destroy whatever remain of my body. I'll let you some instructions.
Rallo's statement and Ea's gloomy outlook leaves Tot feeling hollow.
"I wish I could help," she says quietly as she curls tighter under her blanket, "but all I know how to do is kill and torture people."
I'm not fond of torture. It always seems to me a waste of time, on the road to Pharasma. Plus, it's quite messy, and morally condemnable.I'd rather show, if not mercy, at least restraint, to a fallen foe, and offer him the most painless dead possible.
Heading back in to the spire, the group finally make their way back to the stairs that pierce the centre of the Azlanti building... and heading upwards rather than back into the depths, they set up camp in the ruined tower where, so long ago now, a bugbear had set up camp...
Their sleep is uninterrupted, the storm discouraging anything within the woods from investigating the movement in the spire, and the next day - although the temperature is well below freezing - the blizzard has passed. The circular glen around the central building is swathed with a blanket of white... and out near the edge of the woods, there is a small gathering of tents - sheeted in snow, there is no sign of life from the encampment as the sun rises...
Yasmin peers out into the snow, gazing at the encampment in the distance. "That also wasn't here the last time we arrived at the Emerald Spire," says Yasmin with growing concern. "Do you think it's friendly or hostile?"
Let me find out....I'll sneak in and investigate....but don't be far just in case... Rallos says as he heads towarfs the camp.
"Ea, that's creepy, and this is from a hellknight," Tot says, a little disturbed by how grim the Pharasmin could be.
Ah, but are you even sure that's what you are now, a voice in her head taunts.
"I don't know," Titania admits as she readies her sword. She lets Rallos get about forty feet ahead before following.
Yasmin will keep back but not too far back, as Rallos scouts ahead. "Could be the undead for all we know, be careful."
Ea prays for magical means to get rid of the mummy's disease
Stepping out into the snow, the friends find themselves wading through freshly fallen white of two to three feet in places... as they draw closer to the camp they become increasingly certain that it is abandoned - the snow is sagging the canopies to the point of collapse and there is no sign of footprints around the camp...
...and then Rallos feels it, his foot strikes something hard as he steps forward - tentatively feeling around, he tried to gauge what it is that he has discovered. And, very quickly, as he starts to move snow away finds it to be the frozen corpse of an armoured warrior.
...a Hellknight.
The discovery of how deep the snow is causes some frustration for the tiny Hellknight. At best it was only a few inches shy of her hips, and at worst it was up to her chest.
"Gonna be a bloody miracle if I can help Rallos if he's attacked," she grumbles.
The discovery of the dead Hellknight, though, is enough to push her frustration from her mind. her mind begins to race as she starts to slog her way to where the commander's tent would be.
"I've got a bad feeling guys," she says. "I've got a bad, bad feeling."
I fear we might have stumbled upon something very dire....what could have killed these Hellknights?
"Wait, what?" Yasmin is puzzled about the Hellknight for a moment, but then begins to draw some conclusions. "Wow. Okay, so now I really think more time has passed than we think. Could the Hellknights have set up camp here, only to have been routed by some greater force? Can anyone tell how long they've been dead?"
Yasmin reaches out to the area in search of magics.
I'll have a look, if you don't mind, and try to discern whatever their Fate was. Of course, I'll hold a ceremony right after, to welcome them in Pharasma's realm.
There are no magicks here, the Hellknights - digging in the snow around the camp discovers four bodies although it may not be until the thaw that the true number of dead can be determined...
As to what slew them, each of them shows the signs of having endured a significant physical assault - the signature armour of the Order of the Nail is heavily damaged whilst several lie with their limbs at unnatural angles... and then the moment comes for Titania to determine whether these fallen are former comrades-in-arms; lifting their helmets free, it is maybe some relief that she does not recognise them. All male, the greyness of their skin - rimed with frost - suggests that these soldiers have been dead for at least a week... maybe longer if the snow has slowed the natural processes of decay.
There is nothing else here that tells the group much... the camp is utterly abandoned and has been for a while - and, of whatever attacked the Hellknights, there is no sign.
After helping to move the bodies to where Ea can give them some token of peace and dignity, Tot moves back to the edge of camp and tries not to think about what could have rent hellknight plate and turned men into twisted corpses.
"The sooner we're not in the open, the better," she mutters as she trembles, and not from the cold.
Yasmin goes to each body and finds something identifying for each, whether it's a dog tag or a unique looking item. "I'm taking these so the fallen can be identified. Their loved ones deserve to know what happened to them."
With Titania, she then tries to put the bodies in a more normal-looking state to prepare them for Pharasma's rites. She uses magics to clean them up.
"Order of the Nail. That's your folk, right Tot? Could mean Maralictor Wolfhelm is still around. Tot?" Yasmin realizes Titania isn't around, and looks around to find her at the edge of the camp. "I know dead Hellknights are becoming an unnatural theme in your life, but I think the danger has passed."
"It's not anyone I know. Even if it's passed, I'm worried about whatever could do that to men in plate and mail."
For a long moment, She leaves it at that. But before Yasmin leaves, she begins to speak softly.
"I'm starting to wonder if I'm cut out for being a hellknight," Tot mutters. "Most of the Order doesn't give a damn about me. I'm an armiger that can't even get past the most basic ranks in eight years. They would have healed me enough to keep me on fight after that fight against that devil, but no more. Half the time I was wondering when I'd get knocked out and left for dead. The rest I was wondering why you were helping me. Then there was the tomb. When I lost my mind, there wasn't any scorn, no beatings or insults. You calmed me down."
The Hellknight turns, looking up into Yasmin's eyes with her own blue eyes that held a spark of red in their depths.
"You were nice to me. No one's ever cared about me like that," she tells the sorceress.
Her head turns back to look off into the distance and her breath rises in a cloud in time with her breathing.
"I've been thinking about what I've done and the pain I've caused. Sometimes because others ordered me to, and other times because I was angry or upset or frustrated. Now, here at the edge of nowhere, I find that I actually have a choice. For the first time in my life I can choose my own path! And I'm scared. No, I'm terrified. I can choose to continue as I have been, but I can also choose to do what I want to do. I'm tired of only being able to hurt people, Yasmin. I'm tired of being hated by everyone. I want to change, but I don't know how to be a good person. Those kinds of people aren't in great demand by the Hellknight Orders. I need help, Yasmin. I need someone to teach me how to see people as people rather than meat for the grinder."
Rallos looks at Titania, suddenly feelobg sorry for her.
You have definitely been through more oain and suffering than one should endure in one lifetime. Your....allies, and I use that term very loosely, only care for you as much as it furthers their sick needs. Your existence to them is as a pawn on the gameboard, to be swept away in sacrifice without a thought. Here, you are an equal. As silly as it sounds, we are like fingers on a hand...working together. Here, you are a friend, not mere chattel.
"I guess that means I'm the pinky," Tot jokes, holding up one of hers by way of demonstration, "since I'm so short an' all."
She gives a nervous laugh before quickly lowering her hand and looking away.
Oh gods, now they probably think I'm an idiot, she thinks to herself as her cheeks burn red.
"More like the thumb - short but powerful." Yasmin returns the joke, trying to keep the talk light, even as they were dealing with a heavy subject.
"I think you're not giving yourself enough credit, Tot. I know you saw your fellow Hellknights as people when you had to fight against them. That's why it was hard. You're loyal to them. But the Hellknights, and especially that Maralictor, are not loyal to you. You've sacrificed for years and they've kept you an Armiger. Doesn't seem very fair."
Yasmin holds up her hand. "We're here for you, Tot." Then she clenches her fist. [b]"And together, we sure can fight! Yasmin lets out a giggle as she says this. It was sounding a bit trite, Yasmin was starting to like Rallos's analogy.
"You're right, so why don't I quit? Not much of a watchdog anyway," Tot chuckles herself as she wraps an arm around Yasmin and gives her a hug. "Aren't you cold dressed like that?"
I'd like to think I'm the middle finger... Rallos jests as he claps Titania on the shoulder. Don't worry about those high and mighty buggers...the way I see it is this...don't judge unless you want to be judged also...
I let Pharasma do the judging.
Yasmin returns Tot's hug. "I have a marid's blood running through my veins. Or something like that, I still don't understand exactly how it all happened. But however it works, this winter air feels cool and refreshing, even if it means I stand out a little bit."
"Well, I don't have that, so let's get out of here! I hate being cold," the young woman says as she starts heading back to the fort.
Please, Titania, waits a few minutes. I prayed for curative spells to get rid of the mummy's rot. We should try it now, before getting back to the Fort.
Yasmin settles in while Ea uses her magics. "If we've really gone forward in time to next winter, I think waiting a few minutes won't hurt anybody."
"O-okay, but I feel fine," Tot mutters, though she doesn't put up any more of a fuss than that as she lets Ea cast her blessings.
Ea's magics, summoning the cold healing of Pharasma, are welcome this most frigid of days... as her prayers are answered, the insidious feeling of decay gradually leaves her body...
...and so, leaving behind the ruined camp, the group make their way - slowly, for the snow is no less deep beneath the tree cover than it was in the open of the glen – into the silence of the Echo woods. In many ways, the trek back towards Fort Inevitable is no different to those early journeys of the group – it is somewhat peaceful as Rallos navigates through the trees – but in other ways, things are quite different… of their previous companions, Emerald is presumably back at the Fort, Pertreeko somewhere in the forest with his druidic order – and Grayface is out there in the wider world following his destiny. It is the absence of Murassa, a companion to Ea, Yasmin and Rallos for several months, that is most troubling… what happened to him in the tomb of Yarrix? Does he yet live? The questions are imponderable and, for a few moments along the journey, the absence of their friend is felt.
The group are approximately two hours into their journey when the silence of the woods is interrupted by a cracking of branches somewhere ahead of them…
Yasmin will offer the Wand of Lesser Restoration to Ea so she can recover fully from the ability score damage.
As the cracking sound is heard, Yasmin begins putting up her defenses.
"Careful, could be trouble."
Rallos holds his hand up to stop the others as he readies his blade. He darts behind a tree and waves the rest to take cover.