Hound corrals Rose and soon everyone is together again, yay!
The rest of the knot finds an annoyed Rose talking to an ever loyal Hound. Clearly things didn’t go as she expected with the daemons.
With the group reunited, they inform the couple about checking the thrones.
The group walks to the second floor, where they reach the smaller of the two temples, but by far the grander. Six stately pillars rise to high vaulted ceilings. Images of winged carrion birds circle high above set into the stonework. Stunningly beautiful, intricate murals cover every inch of the walls and floor of this place. At first glance, the murals appear quite lovely showing vast armies of supplicants, each exquisitely rendered in bas relief, walking arms outspread towards some unseen goal.
Only as you progress towards the throne and the eastern wall does the message of the murals becomes clear. The figures become more and more emaciated, worn and diseased. Around the throne can be seen cackling daemons herding them like sheep. Nearer the wall they are no longer supplicants but instead shambling undead marching in great legions. And on the eastern walls is the supplicant’s destination -- a throne carved in the likeness of a great skull and above it reads (in abyssal) “Lead the flock into the arms of blessed Death.”
In the throne there is an easy to miss inscription: -- “Rah.”
Nahia spends a moment staring that the throne silently, before looking at her companions and asking "Alright, who would like to be the first to test it? If the Son is to be believed, then this would teleport someone. Though we don't know to where. Which of you is most likely to survive and escape, should it be a trap?"
Mysty has excellent stealth skills and having her turned invisible would be useful if there are foes at the other end.
While the others talk and try to decide who to send in the teleport/possible trap, Kitara walks away from the party, but not unnoticed.
Rose and Hound notice the woman slipping away. Will they interfere? That’s up to them.
Mysty has excellent stealth skills and having her turned invisible would be useful if there are foes at the other end.
"Feeling up to it?" Rose said to Mysty.
Rose noticed Kit walking away, but didn't say anything about it.
Rose nodded and looked up at Pyre, who was dutifully floating above and behind her.
"Pop up to the other throne. Wait for Mysty there. If anything goes wrong, help her out. Do what she tells you until you get back to me. If she doesn't show up in thirty seconds, come back here."
The broken angel tinkled a somber affirmation and vanished abruptly in a flare of reddish light.
After a moment of preparation, buffs, spells, concentration.
Mysty climbs the throne and steels herself for any danger, and then says "Rah!"
However, nothing happens, only silence answer her command.
"Hmm. Maybe you have to say the word for the throne you're going to. Like it's a destination."
Pyre flashed back into the chamber after a few moments.
|
Wow I have been transported to a place with people who look really familiar. Or it didn't work. Mysty smiles at her little joke. Maybe this word is the name of the destination. That would make sense, otherwise you are stuck to one location to go to. We should try a different throne and see if it comes here.
"Hold that thought." Rose said to Mystyas Pyre came back.
"What was the word written on the other throne?" Rose asked the little Archon.
- Yah – First floor
- Rah – Second floor
- Nen – Third floor
In a explosion of brime flakes and darkish smoke, Mysty disappears.
@Mysty
Once the smoke clears, it leaves no trace at all.
The room you are in has no furnishings. The walls and floor of this chamber are covered in abyssal script. The phrase “Receive the wisdom of Abaddon” is written prominently on the curved northern wall.You are in the muddle of a circle of such script in the center of the floor that is the nonsense word “nen” repeated over and over again.
When Pyre had recounted the words and Mysty abruptly vanished, Rose laughed in surprise and mild exasperation.
"Go to the third floor throne room and make sure she hasn't exploded or something." she told Pyre.
The little Archon vanished and appeared in the throne room near Mysty.
"Are you well, Mistress Mysty?" it asked in a faint chorus of minor tones.
Hound noticed Kitara leave and just looks at Rose.
Rose just gave a small shrug, a slightly sad expression on her face.
Kitara makes her way upstairs, winding up and thinking to herself. *sigh* Sometimes I just don't understand. What has happened to my family to make them into the shells of the people that I once knew?"
As she winds her way up, she sighs a little frustrated before arriving in the chamber. She puzzles for several moments at the door, before an idea comes to her. "Erza..., are you still haunting this chamber? I have something I wish to ask of you."
@Kitara
The already chilling feeling gets stronger as you call for the wraith. The same dark mist you saw on the first day begins to appear again, but this time all around you. As you look, you notice there is no way out, you are surrounded by what appear to be several ghostly creatures.
A chilling whisper reaches your ears. It makes you tremble and makes you remember all those painful memories you tried so hard to bury. In the voice, you can feel an infinite hunger, as if the wraith is barely being able to keep himself from sucking the life out of you.
”What do you wish to ask, mortal woman.”
Kitara shivers a moment, letting the fear and the chill fill her body. How long has it been, since I have felt the chill. Glorious cold, fill me! The Everflame and the Unending Cold entwined as one.
She shakes and looks about the chamber now covered in mist. She starts to giggle a bit, smiling. "I feel your desire, your insatiable hunger. It has been too long since you have fed. I have the means to capture and provide you with meals. You I believe have something I need, to assist in the revival of your master. Come, and let us reason together, for both our sakes."
"And what is it that you need, mortal?" the same voice asks again.
Nahia smiles as Mysty disappears.
Well, this can only end well for me. Either we find the true source of this mystery or Mysty meets an unfortunate end. Though if the latter, I hope that we at least learn something from her loss.
"Should we go see if she has arrived at the other throne?" Nahia asks with a curious and very vaguely concerned voice?
She scans the room, breathing deeply and drawing the fear into herself. That is it my dove, to visit fear on others, you must become fear. Absorb the dread that you feel, and project it out, make others feel the same dread you feel."
She scans the room. "That door, inside is nothing but junk, rubbish. But it holds a powerful magical enchantment. There are things missing, critical items that we need to fortify this place for the ritual to recall your master to this place. I believe that within that chamber are the items that we need. And knowing that you were once high priest, Most likely you will know how to access it, yes?"
Nahia smiles as Mysty disappears.
Well, this can only end well for me. Either we find the true source of this mystery or Mysty meets an unfortunate end. Though if the latter, I hope that we at least learn something from her loss.
"Should we go see if she has arrived at the other throne?" Nahia asks with a curious and very vaguely concerned voice?
@Knot
Brimflakes explosion, blackish smoke. A grinning Mysty appears at the throne again…
@Kitara
”Yes, yes… You are correct…” the whispers continue ” The Eye of Hatred. I hid it there before… my demise… with all the gold, silver…” the whisper trails off and the dark mist gets closer, the cold is palpable and beads of frost starts forming around your armor.
The voice, when it returns, feels and sounds like a long lost lover, whispering into your ear. ”I can tell you how to open the door, all the gold, all the riches… but I am so very hungry… if you only would let me feel your soul…”
Kitara moans very softly at the enticing words of the shade. Oh so easy, to let it touch, to sample. Once again to feel the coolness on your skin... She lets her mind wander a moment before she suddenly snaps back to the reality of the situation.
She glances about the room, and frowns. "Your offer is tempting, though I do not know that you would simply stop at a feel, or a taste. After all, if I must work with these others, the ones that seem a bit slow..., I will need all my strength. Though, I suppose if you wished to dine, I could offer you one of my followers. Let you experience the thrill of the hunt once again, and the rush of tracking down and feeding on prey once again."
Unbidden to her mind, her inner flame starts to well up, wreathing her body in a corona, soft and red, of licking flames. Her fingertips poised on the edge of channeling the unending well of fire within herself, losing her grip on the sensation of cold that she seems to be enjoying for the time being.
The air arounds gets colder and colder and when the voice returns it isn’t a careful wisp of a long lost lover, but a cruel harsh voice. ”I can simply take you, your soul. The moment you stepped here alone, you were mine.” the cruel voice continues ”Give me but one reason that I shouldn’t do it here, right now.”
She draws deeply of the flames within herself. She hovers on the edge of drawing out the flames.
"Erza, come now. You need me. Or are you blind to the fact that the others lack the wisdom to see that you have held part of the key to the success of bringing your master back? Or perhaps the fact that they lack the foresight to defend the Horn to it's fullest effect. This ritual, to summon a powerful a being as Vetra-Kali..., it will attract do gooders like moths to a flame. Do you think those bumbling baffoons have what it takes to properly defend the tower?"
She shivers, the blood rushing, the flames coursing through her as the real possibility of a life or death fight looms on the edge. "Together, you and I can work towards the return of your master. And frankly, Erza, You need me because I can go the places you cannot, and do the things you cannot. And you also need someone competent to perform the ritual. So consider carefully. You could attempt to feast once, or you could show your wisdom and hold back your hunger in order to gain even more than just a meal."
Kitara's fingers seem to be combusting with flames, hovering just on the edge of release as she awaits Erza's answer.
@Kitara
The voice sounds even more cruel as the dark mist retreats inside the walls and floor "If you that wise, you'll figure it out..." a laughter filled with malice sounds in the distance "... else you know my price... just come to me..."
Kitara laughs and starts to cackle, her voice echoing through the chamber. Her arms raise, the sound of air drawing in slowly to her body. "Come shade. You wish to join with me? To taste of me? Let us dance, as lovers, and see which of us walks away. Come, and show me that you are the Erza, thrice damned and the chosen of Vetra-Kali! COME NOW, SHADE, AND I WILL SHOW YOU THE MEANING OF ALL CONSUMING!"
At that moment, there is a near audible sound, like an influx of wind, and an explosion of flame, as Kitara raises her arms up high.
"COME THRICE DAMNED, AND BE PURGED IN CLEANSING FIRE, IF YOU DARE!"
The sound of her cackling calls echo out in the room and down the hallways as the blaze roars high, and Kitara bathes in the flames her hair turning to an ember fire red, her skin bronzing over, her eyes wild and red.
If what you thought before was cold, now you felt yourself in a freezing nightmare. The flames immediately around you loses their ardor and the room gets oppressing. An unnatural aura, a sense of wrongness fills the place.
The flames tries to burn hotter but they die, leaving a hollow and dread feeling of emptiness.
The voice when it sounds it more of a snarl of some monstrous beast.
”Run… Now!”
The joy..., the pure joy of flame, doused by the eternal chill and oppression of frost. Pleasure and pain fused into a single moment. Her heart pounding like a hammer on anvil, her blood pumping faster with each passing moment. The thrill, the exhilaration she felt when lying on a Mitran pyre..., and now once again she feels it. And for the first time in so many years, that spark. Life, the feeling of purest joy, hand in hand with utter terror.
Her heart and soul plead with her to stay, to join with this anguished one. Though the fire deep within her screams within her body. Fly you fool, this battle is not won here!
Conflicted and soaring on the high, Kitara turns and bolts from the chamber. She shifts between giggles of ecstasy and tears of fear as she runs downstairs, not stopping until she reaches the others, and without paying much attention, seems like she is about to barrel straight into Nahia when she enters the room.
A good way to move about the horn as needed. So, we have this mystery solved and the horn being secured, we should focus everything on getting the ritual started.
"I don't think that's a good idea. We're a real long way from defensible. When we start working on tampering with that Seal I fully expect Mitrans to come pouring out of the woodwork in every direction. This is apocalyptic scale magic we're messing with. You wouldn't put something like that up without every failsafe imaginable.
"Our next priority should be fixing this place up like a proper fortress and recruiting a small army to defend it. Starting the ritual should be the absolute last thing on our list"
Rose raised an eyebrow when Kit came barreling into the room nearly knocking over Nahia. "You alright, Sis?"
Well we have it fixed up, so hiring suitably amoral mercenaries from the Baron will help.
Hound does so! Soon scum and villainy fill the barracks.
"It's livable, but not really defensible. We need to get the traps in working order again, build a few of our own, and seal off a few potential points of entry."
"Also, I'd prefer to have zealots rather than mercenaries. They're cheaper. This place has a history with the Sons of the Apocalypse. Chances are there's still some faithful around. We might be able to draw them back to the fold."
Traps would be Mysty's area, we need to get the ritual up soon in anycase before Tiadora shows up to unleash beatings.
Nahia is nodding along with the others as they discuss the thrones, thinking on how such things could best be utilized for their defense. And how they could best be protected from being used against them.
But her thoughts are interrupted when Kitara's entrance. She braces to catch the girl or defend herself from her, a worried look on her face as she asks "What is it!? What's wrong!?"
Kitara's body slams into Nahia's, tears pouring from her eyes as she giggles with a maddening glee. Clearly, something is not right.
"Oh..., OH! Oh Erza..., that foul shade..., he's hiding it..., and he knows!"
She clings to Nahia as she continues her maddening giggling fit.
Nahia wraps her arms around Kitara, her eyes going wide at the mention of the shade. "Ezra!? What did you do? What does he know?" Nahia glances towards the door Kitara ran through but turns back when she notices just how not warm Kitara's skin is.
The witch begins to mutter faintly "Spirits, show me influences from the other side..." but her chant is drowned out by Kitara's unnerving laughter.