"Mostly, because we can summon our armor with nothing but our will. Then, there's also the fact that Mahb could walk through while wearing the armor, side by side with you, then you could carry it back."
I wouldn't go trusting your 'Id'. Obviously they do not have our best interests at heart.
Magic has it's own internal logic, There is no reason to believe that Neri's idea won't work. The worst that can happen is an apostate is crushed, and the armor has to be re-summoned. Either way, it would move towards the goal of Luna to reduce our burden.
As far as the archetype, It has not spoke since we left the wall. It's an important point to catch Neri. Even a broken clock is right twice a day
Neri looked like he was going to say something... then fell silent with a sigh.
After a moment he spoke up... "Yeah, about that. I didn't think about the things that could go wrong, only the goal. I'm not entirely okay with crushing one of them unless, you know, they specifically request it. In the long run, if we can get them through, it's good to know, because it's obviously a safe place. Otherwise the gods would have went in and broken all the gemstones... and we wouldn't even be here. But... we'd have to see if it was worth it to them. To make sure they were okay with risking it for the sake of others. I do feel it's important, but I'm not going to make them draw straws. If push comes to shove, I could try wearing one of your armors, and test it that way. It wouldn't be foolproof, but..."
He let the thought trail off. "Honestly, Id hasn't steered me wrong yet. He has some odd preferences, like the pain thing, but I kind of have the feeling that he'd rather not risk his vassal dying. I mean, Mahb said she has to serve, and I have to protect... it stands to reason that the bond goes up from there, right?"
I sink we left our...passengers...behind. Zo much ze better.
Sterling furrows his brow. You haven't connected the dots yet have you?
Sterling wasn't sure if he should continue. He hesitates, then finally begins again. Mahb mentions that the gods put up the demon wall. How many prison walls do you know that keep others out, and allow inmates to pass through?
Think about the start of this. In the relief room strewn with the dead, people too stupid or uncooperative to leave before they die of starvation. A clearing with residence that are clearly designed to fully bond with our archetypes.
Helpful hints from our 'Id's on how to do it and then telling us how to leave.
It's not a prison for Demons. Its a incubator... A better analogy would be a chrysalis.
Our helpful Ids tell us how to leave, and the first place we come across: A camp designed solely to kill us. My next question to Mahb, was, How many demon's have been killed by the apostate?
We arrived at a time when thier numbers are low. I believe we are the first to survive the culling.
Sterling pauses again, and seems to have an internal struggle with the last bit.
I read the fevered ranting of a dying man. I could not believe they were true, because if they were true...
He spoke of the gods of this place. How they were unable to create a soul. So one of the gods came up with a plan. Go back to the Eldar world and steal humans. For an Eldar soul is powerful and can be chopped into many pieces to give to thier human worshipers.
I'm not sure I ever believed in a soul before. But the evidence is mounting. Risking our lives is the least of what we do now.
Ve haff goot efidence that ve are ze first to come through. Zat place...or zose places by ze pond...our compounds, as ve sink of zem...vere run, and likely built by zose zat ve carried as passengers. Zey could pass ze vall.
Kong looks hard at Sterling.
Vrom vat ve zaw, ze people in ze cafes vere from different time periods...und it took all of us to get zrough. Vat dots are JOU missink?
Kong shakes his head.
Zey vere at odds vith zese gots. I sink zey maybe made ze vall, to keep vorshippers out.
Mahb specifically said the 'gods of good' walled up the demons. I have no reason to believe she is wrong. what I am saying is...there are no demons. It's an elaborate ruse. The archetypes are at the very least complicit.
Mahb can confirm if we are the first through.
I'm missing many dots. But there is only one that remains a shining beacon. Since there is a way here, there is a way back.
Valled up ze demons zat can pass zrough ze wall? Must be idiot gots. I have reason.
"I'm with Kong. You're willing to say that the gods are false without knowing anything really about them, and you're willing to state with absolute certainty that we're not demons, but everything else about their religion, you're willing to take verbatim? We know that these people -used- to have other gods, gods that are now called demons. I don't think that their gods built the wall. I think -ours- did. Let's assume you're right and their gods did build the wall. How did -we- wind up with the keys to the cells? Think back to how we got out. You mentioned that we 'survived the culling'. We're the first to do so in probably a hundred years. To do that, we had to work together. We had to have someone able to hunt adequately," he motioned to Harry. "Able to fight adequately," He motioned to Kong. "Able to speak adequately," he motioned to Jacob. "Someone who could ignore the emotional and just use the facts," he motioned to Sterling. "Someone to observe and grow to understand our surroundings," He motioned to Luna. "And someone to be impulsively stupid enough to nearly get himself killed, bitten, cursed, exploded in a volcano, to show everyone else that it was safe to do so. I don't at all think that the Three locked the twenty-ish away. I think the twenty-ish bided their time, and set up a machine to allow them to retake their world, once all the pieces were in place. Like the Three having few enough worshippers for us to survive our first encounter, certainly, but also for us to have an actually cohesive skillset for surviving at all."
He paused for a moment, "Consider that our gemstones that rest in our heads are the source of our power. Consider that none of the stones were missing in the walls that we did not take. Consider that we know others have managed to leave the building, but the gemstones return. Consider, one last time, how backwards, and surprisingly deadly the inside of that place was for the uninitiated. It stands to reason that the 'Demons' would have made the inside of the wall suitably deadly so that their servants could retrieve their gems in the event we died inside... and if we survived inside, we should be capable of surviving outside. If we couldn't survive out here, then us dying before we made it here served the purpose of keeping the Demons safe and keeping the outside world unalerted that we even could leave."
"The only skillset that hasn't been absolutely necessary so far, for survival at least, has been Jacob's role. But I think that that's going to become the major key to our survival. Certainly, the five of us could bring a war by ourselves to the Three... but Jacob can bring an army, if he desired. Sometimes survival and evolution breeds backwards, makes things hyperspecialized, right? Like elephants so big that they can't get eaten by predators... but with a lack of food, it will die off. The machine has pruned for people who could survive before, but it can't prune for things that can thrive, and that's the difference between us and what came before us."
Sterling tried to follow Neri's train of thought. It floated between different concepts, but did not seem to find direction. It was like some dates he would have, where the woman would ramble to relieve stess more than to convey information.
He hated that.
It was probably a defense mechanism against the horror revealed.
...OK. Getting back to Luna's concerns. Going back to the wall is the best choice, for two reasons.
As I've said, Magic has it's own iternal logic. Since the armor lets us pass through with our possessions...The branded apostate would fall into that category. Holding hands with them should be enough to carry them through. All should step through the wall at once. Should the worst happen, at least the apostate would not suffer, emotionally or physically.
Second. Whatever Zealots sent, once they cleanse the villiage, will track us down. If an old woman and her brood can track us, then we need an advantage. Stepping inside the wall will give us the ability to erase our tracks, and pop out at any other random point. It's the best way to shake persuers.
I really sink ve need to understand more, and ve von't get zat by goink backward.
"Fine if you think the wall is the way to go, I'm game. "
When Jacob offers them water, the old woman shrugs. "Me got water. But if me need some, me tell ya." She doesn't seem worried about the water being poisoned or anything. "So ye be the noble demon eh? No sure how ye gonna be a useful demon if ye don't claim people. Sound to me like ye be a differ kinna eedeeot dan dem." She snorts in amusement. "Be damn sure Barathiel be happy 'bout that tho, make ya easier to keel."
Since everyone had swapped back into ignore Neri mode, and had seemed to agree, with the exception of Kong, Luna or Jacob... but only one of those ha offered any resistance, Neri returned to the campfire and Mahb, standing with a sigh as he did.
"We're thinking it's best that we take you guys behind the wall. We figure it will be safer for you. The people there will feed you, and only some of it is dangerous, though most of it is freaky. We... Don't know for certain that you'll safely pass through the wall, but we're pretty sure it will work since you're branded. You can use my armor to cross as well, just to be sure. If we went back through the town, do you think -anyone - would be willing to come with us? That you could convince anyone else, at all?"
Eventually, these people were going to figure out that Neri was always earnest... at least with people he thought of as friends.
The old woman eyes Neri. "Through de wall hey? Well, me guess it no be worrs den be torture and et by Celistine." The other two women don't look as sanguine about it, and the children look morose at the turn of conversation. But they all listen to the old woman. "Nah, if Jedia be 'live, he browbeat men into leaving. Ligra be come, if no kill her dog. Tobin come if daughter no die."
Throughout the course of dinner, Sterling asks questions, and she responds in her odd manner of speaking. The idiot demons who are here are the first demons she's ever seen, and her grandfather had never actually met any demons, just worshiped them. The men didn't follow her because she was the Female Elder, and they were too busy hashing out who was the new Male Elder to listen to the female elder. With no consensus with Jedia dead, and the priest dead, it was chaos in the village, and nobody would listen to her. The clocks aren't traded. They're made for the temples. Each exactly the same. Yes, Mahb was the girl in the painting, Jedia had painted it when he was a bairn not much older than her in the picture. He'd been the village artist. She has no idea who made the coins, probably the church. There's a military outpost two days ride to the south along the wall, near the bulge, that she knows of (the direction you are going, she'd assumed you were going to go kill the church military). There's some other villages farther away from the wall, but she doesn't know where they are. There's rumors of a city of Apostate, but she thinks that's hogwash.
At the mention of the old man and girl, Neri went quiet. He sank into a melancholy mood while he ate, unless someone or something caught his attention. It didn't matter that he'd done everything he could... his best simply hadn't been good enough.
Jacob smiles at Mahb's response. "Well, it seems there is a consensus I am the idiot demon then. The title has a certain ring to it." And at least they are more relaxed now. "I don't much care for this going back over the wall idea; I think whoever brought us here had power and foresight enough to take care for that loophole. Yet I don't think it's much worse than wandering about here."
The next morning, at dawn, the old woman is up, remarkably spry for her age. She hustles the other women and children along, moving them to do a cold breakfast of bread and cheese and dried meat before packing up.
As the group makes their way back toward the wall, the old woman answers questions, if put to her. She doesn't know a lot, she never left her village before today, it was forbidden.
The walk to the wall takes about half a day. The woods are, as before, relatively safe, as nothing seems to want to live too close to the wall.
When you arrive, the old woman looks at the shimmering wall. "Be damn, never thought me see dis. Spend whole damn life staring at it."
The daughter who can talk snorts. "Least if it kill ye ye'll die complete."
During the nights, each night, Neri had checked over the magic items they were carrying... watching for changes in their auras, and making certain that he had a good read on them in the first place. He'd put the ring on on that first night, assuming that no one else had opted to tell him he couldn't, but continued being wary of it, just in case.
He started stripping out of the ruby armor. "Who wants to go first?" he said, holding the armor out. "I'm afraid if you're going to wear the breastplate, it probably shouldn't be Mahb. Sterling suggested we might need to be connected to you to make sure the wall knows you're ours. I think it's just the armor that protects us... but no sense in risking it." His mood had improved slowly over the last few days, if no one had approached him about it.
"Though I also want to try something. Might be a really bad idea, though. Does anyone mind if we test the priest's armor to see if it can protect itself? If it can... then the good news is that we can probably use it to get through. The bad news is so could the military Mahb talked about, maybe."
Sterling seemed engrossed in Mahb's answers. The fact that they had not encountered demons before, filled him with a sense of relief. The dying man's rantings were bullsh!t, or at least, wildly inaccurate
It never ceased to amaze him, that most people would be negative towards a plan, but never give a plausable alternative.
Where do you want to eat?
I don't know, where do you want to eat?
How about Italian?
No, I don't want Italian?
So, where do you want to eat?
I don't know, where do you want to eat?
In the morning, Sterling seemed deep in thought. He kept thinking about the Military outpost. He asked Mahb to point it out on the crude map of the area he had.
Stealth, Careful planning and cooperation would be necessary to even attempt to recon it. He looks at Neri, He wasn't sure that was even possible.
At the Wall, He nods to Arna and Trobit. He tells Neri. Test whatever you like
"A couple of things, then." Neri pulled the rope Sterling had told them to collect from his backpack. Just because he didn't like the guy didn't mean he would ignore good ideas.
He looked around for a rock to tie to the rope... likely found one, and then tossed the rock and rope, at least part of it, into the wall.
He explained what he was thinking as he went.
Assuming it shreds the end of the rope, and breaks the rock, he'll reel it back in, and tie another rock to the end, and will his armor back on, before tossing the rock and rope into the wall.
Neri will tie the rope to the dragonhide armor, after taking it off and then do his level best to toss it into the wall, readying himself to summon it if it looks damaged at all. If it doesn't look damaged at all, he'll let go of the rope to see if that causes a change in the level of protection.
The rock and rope disintegrate on the first attempt.
The rock and rope disintegrate on the second attempt.
The armor clanks to the ground inside the wall, and the rope is undamaged as it lands in the trough. When Neri releases the rope, the rope disintegrates inside the wall, although the armor appears unaffected.
Neri tosses the mithral armor into the wall, and there is a detonation that sends shockwaves through the air, along with molten mithral shrapnel.
As the dust clears, the two children are on the ground, bloody and not moving. Arna and Krona are stirring painfully, moving toward the kids.
The old woman coughs hard, but manages to move her old bones to the children faster than her daughters can. She touches first Slota, then Trobit. (She was closer to Slota). Then she touches both her daughters, before finally touching herself.
Mahb is using witch powers.
"Yeah, probably shouldn't be experimenting with deadly wall while we all stand near maybe eh?"
Genius.
Neri appears stunned for a moment... as the molten mithral slams into his body, it's almost more than his old bones can take. So much for testing things out. He can't do much, but he'll be able to help someone with a heal check fairly easily. Assuming Mahb is already working on it, he'll aid her. He started to call out for help, then realized that probably everyone else was doing exactly what he was doing. Then realized that probably they weren't. They were generally less concerned with others than themselves. He felt like cursing at Harry for his comment, but kept it to himself. What could they learn from this? The wall kept the priests out, and didn't keep them in. Also, molten mithral -sucks-. Neri, or someone else, might have been -wearing- that armor when they went back through. It appeared exactly the same as his armor, magically, so there was a difference. 'It's like everything I do kills people, Id...'
"I need some help over here!" was what he eventually went with. He'd tell people what the explosion meant after people weren't dying. Actually, Sterling would probably tell people -while- people were dying. So save time with everything.
Jesus Christ! Every part of Sterling aches. He shakes his head trying to clear the ringing in his ears. He was heavily wounded, and slowly sat up and looked around. It took a while to understand the situation.
For the most part Sterling seemed to take the worst of it. Par for the course in any dealings with Neri. The old woman proved to have a large resevoir of healing talent. Good news for her brood.
Sterling sets to heal himself. ITS LIKE WATCHING A CHATTERING MONKEY WITH A CHEMISTRY SET He says too loudly as his ears are filled with nothing but a high whine
Failed: 16 Damage
HP 26/28
Luna easily manages to dodge the incoming backfire of Neri's experiment, she watched as the others recovered but without spells or any knowledge of healing she couldn't do much.
"Then we'll move everyone back and take turns, we knew this was dangerous from the start."
No more experiments with the wall. We have enough. Put our armor on them. Tie a rope to them. Have them walk through, summon the armor. Rinse and repeat.
It looked like the apostate were all back to full. Sterling offers a infused potion of healing to Harry (1d8+3) to help mitigate the damage he took. He then sets about putting his armor on Arna, Tying a rope and sending her through.
"Their kids just got blasted by a bomb, Sterling. Keep your paws off until they've had a chance to calm down." Neri sighed, shaking his head, and leaning back on his haunches. A lot of open wounds. The armor he was wearing was flecked in bits of mithral that the hide had caught... but then, so was his face. He kept his voice a monotone. At least Luna and Harry were able to recognize that it was their own fault for standing next to it. Was still Neri's fault it happened, but what would have happened if they'd just walked through carrying the armor? Kong would probably be dead... or close to it.
Sterling ignores Neri
"Thanks. " and he will see if any of the woman can wear the heavy chainmail. If so he will send them through.
"I think it'd be a bad idea to take the staff through the wall. It's obviously built to keep the gods and their brood out... not the demons and their brood in. Do any of you have anything on your persons that would link you to the gods?" he kept his tone measured. "We now know that it might be very, very bad to carry it through."
Kong isn't an idiot. He stayed clear. Yeah, like 20 feet...
AOowW! DAMN! No more of ziss!
Kong walks away, thinking that a few miles might be safer.
The experimentation was the logical way to go about things. Yet sometimes science could be dangerous. Jacob was unprepared for an explosion, but his newfound power could rectify the damage done.
He headed over to their wards instinctively. Mahb was already there though - working some power of her own. Though he didn't know exactly what it was, she seemed to have a similar way of mending wounds to what Jacob could work.
"You seem to have some of this ... magic about you as well, Mahb. Were you born with the power?"
The old woman eyes Jacob. "Old Mahb got no powers, demon. Apostates wit powers be muted." Arna winces at the comment, and Krona looks angry. Although not with her mother. "Old Mahb tink ye be see'in tings." Arna hugs Trobit tightly, as the boy looks very sad, despite no longer being injured.
Krona takes the heavy chainmail from Harry, and begins strapping it on with help from her sister. Despite her small frame, she looks like she's made out of solid stone as far as her body goes, she doesn't even grunt as the heavy armor settles on her frame.
Meanwhile, Mahb takes Neri's armor, and with some grunting and cursing under her breath in a language the party doesn't recognize, the old woman struggles into the armor. She'll allow Luna to help her, if that one offers, but if any of the males offer, she'll slap their hands and tell them she's not their camp whore to be fondled.
When it's all done, Arna holds Trobit and Slota, as the three move back about 60 ft and watch with concerned eyes.
The wall is pleasantly uneventful. Two people in armor take the hands of the villagers, and walk them through the trough, Mahb muttering some as she climbs down and up again.
Once the first two are through, the kids and Arna are relatively easy to get through, although someone has to carry each of the kids after strapping them into the chestpieces of the armor as they can't walk in it.
And then everyone is on the other side of the wall.
Mahb looks around with an evil eye. "Be damn if ever thought me be visit hell." She wags a finger at the children. "Nay be far, hell be have dangers worse than Priests." That seems to scare the children into holding tight to their mothers.
Seeing things, indeed...
Jacob senses Mahb is hiding powers, but he also gets a sense that it's mostly out of habit, rather than any feeling she needs to. He is also fairly certain that Arna and Trobit were muted because they had some sort of power.
While he waited for people to use his armor to cross, Neri used prestidigitation to clean himself off again. He was tired, and hurt, and fairly emotional. Everyone else seemed so cold, and hollow, and... shallow. Was that what it was going to take to survive? To get them to understand? He... didn't want to become that. He wanted to be a real person, not just a series of logical choices.
Neri had indeed left the fragments of the staff on the other side of the wall, then moved through. He wore the ring as he moved through; it didn't have any holy symbols on it... so if worst came to worst, when he went through alone, no one but him would get hurt. Assuming he made it through... 'Id, please tell me you're there? Does the name Ptaleon mean anything to you?'
As everyone steps into the area behind the wall, the dull aching blankness in the backs of their head slowly warm back up.
Ptaleon.. Ptal... eon... It feels... so long...
'And that's you? Do you know any of the other's names?'
"Id's back. Or Ptaleon. I think that's what he actually goes by."
Finally, someone that listened for a change, and actually responded.
'Do you know if it's safe behind the wall for others, for certain?'