"DEAL WITH IT" Sapher snaps, as she continues to pray, give cpr, checking for anything! All focus on the dead elf.
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Kiir no longer is glowing, and Mokhasi's anxiety seems to be gone.
He helps the woman out. "You were killed, but the magic somehow transferred your soul to the body of this woman. I am sorry, I do not know how this happened. I was watching, but it was too powerful to identify." Mokhasi looks her over, "how do you feel, otherwise?" he holds her shoulder.
"The NAME!" Drask roars, face twisting in anger. The axe looms threateningly in the air. "Who was it, who beat you at Serpent's Run!?"
As the human woman looks down at the body of Veltariel Mendrasti on the ground, and back to her own hands, and then to the others, her breathing becomes fast and irregular, and she is clearly on the verge of a major panic attack!
Everyone’s words become dulled and muted, as if speaking through a wall. Her eyes roll back in her head, and she falls limply into Mokhasi’s arms!
Sapher is finally paying attention. Standing up she looks over the rim to see the human woman "Explain it to me." she tells Mok firmly and with a ragged edge "Slowly"
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Mokhasi blinks, "I could not identify the magic, precisely, but I watched it happen, and I know about more powerful magic than I can use, theoretically." Mokhasi adds, embarrassed.
"Obviously, this body was a clone of someone else, a powerful human from the Thassalonian empire. In this case, the runelord of Lust, Sorshen." He pauses, "So - the body, or the gems, were initially trapped, with magic to kill whoever took them. I presume that it has been so long, that the permanent magic was somehow broken, and became intermingled with the 'clone' magic."
He entwines his fingers, "causing whoever was killed by the trap to transfer their soul into the clone. Normally, a clone would be the repository of the crafter's soul." He gestures idly, "this is entirely speculation, but it seems most logical."
He looks down at 'Veltariel'. "She will hate this."
Drask clearly checks out of Mok's explanation. Partly because it goes over his head, but it also seems that on this particular instance, he doesn't trust Mok's judgement and/or motives. He comes over, taking the unconscious woman from Mok, carefully lifting her over one shoulder. "We retreat. This place has deadly traps, and we don't have a trap finder. And we can figure this out." Drask goes to a knee, and with an impressive display of strength, picks up Vel's corpse with one hand and slings her over his opposite shoulder.
"Back to the rope. We will tie each one off to haul them up."
Sapher listens watching Mok as she does. Then nods "She's not dead, everything else can be dealt with. Is the rest of this safe to touch?" she looks around. "Drask, will you carry her? I'll carry her Other body, so when we get back we can figure out how to put her right again. Mok and Caroliss, look for anything else we might need. If the runelord was here, the shard might be close. Ez, make sure nothing is going to kill us while we do the rest." in her distress Sapher starts giving orders.
But people are already doing what is needed, and do not need Sapher's orders.
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Mokhasi scoffs, "of course I can not fix this. I am not an archmage." He chuckles, "and not exactly, reincarnation is something druids do." He wiggles his fingers, "this is arcane magic."
He nods at Drask, "we can rest at the top, and when Veltariel is conscious again, we can discuss the next steps. My spells will have worn off, so her foolishness will cost us at least a day." He sighs, "but, at least she is not permanently dead."
Drask unloads Vel's corpse onto Sapher. Then he starts making his way back towards the rope, clearly intent on leaving this place as the first priority.
Sapher gives a quick look around for anything else, using her eyes and her detection spells. Looking for traps as well.
Once everyone is sure it is safe they remove the jewelry from Vel's new body. In total there is a necklace of lapis lazuli worth 325 gp, a pair of emerald-studded earrings worth 1,500 gp as a pair, seven rings worth 500 gp each, and a silver and pink pearl anklet worth 400 gp.
There is little else of interest in this section of the hall. It branches to the east and west and then both turn north. You hear the sound of moving water from the western hall. You do note that the hall is completely lit.
A few moments after everyone manages to make their way up the rope, Veltariel stirs once again and sits up. She looks at everyone gathered around her, some arguing, some looking at her with varying degrees of concern on their faces. All of which just reinforced to the ranger that she was, in fact, not dreaming. The nightmare was real.
She looked down at her hands, which have started to tremble. After a few moments, she rolls over and attempts to vomit, but this body hasn’t eaten any food in who knows how long, so she only manages to dry heave and spit some saliva out.
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Esrisi makes her way over to Veltariel and takes her hand. She looks into her the new human eyes that are struggling this and she says "I can't imagine how difficult this must be for you right now. You don't have to say anything, but I want you to know that I'm going to be here to help you through this. We committed to each other to do our best to and make things work. So. I'm here if you want to talk, or just want me to hold your hand or if you need me to do something else. Just let me know. Okay?"
Veltariel looks up to Esrisi, the strain and torment in her eyes evident. But she seems softer now. Broken.
She slumps down and rests her head in the aasimar’s lap and mumbles ”I’m hungry.”
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Esrisi grins "Well you certainly have asked the right lady about food! Just a moment." she says, standing up to go retrieve her pack. She grabs it and brings it back, sitting down. She opens it and pulls out a few different things "Alright. So. I am going to start with the best. Lemon Cakes for ODellios Bakery. I bought a dozen before I left for the trip and let me tell you what, there is nothing better. You can have half of one if you want, because, the other eleven and a half are all mine."
"Next. I still have a bottle of that elven wine I bought left over, unopened. I brough it uhm, in case we needed to celebrate something. It's not exactly celebration time, yes, I know, but if you wanted alcohol, I can help."
Next she pulls out a pack of muffins "Might be hard, but I have some bread here. Also have some rations in the pack. Whatever you want, they are yours."
Veltariel silently took half of the lemon cake and took a small nibble of it, chewing it slowly.
Inside she was even more of a mess than she felt like on the outside. She could already feel the natural imbalances humanity suffered with seeping into her consciousness, no matter how hard she wanted to fight it. She was trapped in here with all these humors that she knew was going to inevitably break her, no matter how hard she fought them.
There was no escaping it.
Except...
She turned her head towards where her other...her real body laid...dead.
Suddenly she scrambles to her hands and knees and crawls as quickly as she can across the floor to her elven body, reaching for her dagger on her belt...
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Shoving a bite into her own mouth, she does her best not to talk with her mouth full. "It's good, right? I mean. If you really want the other half, we come to an agreement about it. I'm sure if you have something reasonable to trade, I'll ent-" she stops talking when Vel scrambles for the dagger on her other body.
"Veltariel, NO!" she hisses, trying to not draw attention to them. "I will not allow you to do this!"
Esrisi leaps on top of Veltariel, pinning her to the ground, laying on top of her. She moves her face over top of Vel's, her beautiful golden hair falling all around Veltariel's face and shielding their expressions to the others. To the casual observer in the group, it might look like they are trying to get a little freaky in front of everyone.
Veltariel strains to free herself, reaching desperately for the dagger. ”Let me go!” she seethes emotionally.
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Mokhasi is meditating when 'Veltariel' arises. He watches the ensuing scuffle, and then approaches. "Glad to see it was not permanent. You will be glad to know that you inhabit the body that is in fact, not really human. Or not so debased as to be similar to the humans of today. You are now an Azlanti, a specimen of physical and mental perfection. You may have already seen the effects." He raises his fingers, as if to pontificate, then thinks the better of it.
"It must come as a terrible, insulting shock to you. But I would ask, as we do not have time for more of... whatever this is." He gestures towards Veltariel and Esrisi, "are you well enough to continue this day?" Mokhasi asks idly.
After a moment, he adds "because I am attempting to be more honest with my friends - what you did was incredibly reckless and foolish. It is only by merest chance that you are not dead, forever. Or that the spell in the sarcophagus was not directed at all of us. Would you like me to have been killed?" There is a hard, angry edge to his voice.
"The next time you do something even remotely as foolhardy, and frankly stupid, I will ask that you return to Magnimar. You are entitled to say no, but similarly, I am entitled to refuse to continue with you the others, as well. I will not have you, or anyone else endangering the lives of our friends and the pathfinders for your impulsivity." He stares down at her impassively.
Sapher is about to yell at the wizard for being insensitive, but it rolls over "We don't know if it is reversible, but we'll see once we get back Vels"
When Esrisi pins her and fully restrains her, Veltariel’s body falls limp within the aasimar’s arms as Mokhasi berates her in his stoic voice. She missed her friend, her real friend with all his emotions intact.
After a few long moments of trying to settle her crying, she weakly begins trying to stand and mumbles to Esrisi ”Let me up...I’m fine...”
As she stands, she looks to Mokhasi and says ”I’m...I’m so sorry...I just...I wanted to find something that was useful...like you wanted...I wasn’t....I didn’t...”
She lets out a long even breath and says ”This...this is my penance. The punishment I will endure. I...I can proceed,” before she steps over and takes his hands, looking up into his eyes. ”Can you forgive me?”
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Mokhasi opens one eye, "it is not reversible, beyond a miracle or wish. Or perhaps a 'true resurrection.' No person within a thousand miles has the power to do such a thing, and if they could, we could not hope to find such funds for the effort. Do not lie to her, Sapher."
He closes his eye again.
When she approaches, he nods, "it is forgiven, if you can find peace with yourself. You will never be anathema to me, no matter what you do." He smiles at her, "I am so sorry that this happened." He stands and rests his forehead against hers.
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Mokhasi embraces the soul of his friend, hugging her, not caring about what form she takes, "it does not matter so long as your spirit is one of decency towards the weak, and different."
He adds, "see - Kiir is helping me. It is not always a burden. Would you have me hemming and hawing? Or being honest." He smiles. "It is not a burden to be able to control ones self in a difficult time. I was able to piece together what happened with its help. Where would we be without that." He ponders. "Would you like to build a cairn for your old form?"
Veltariel looked at her old body and felt a yearning and pain within her that was indescribable. After a few moments, she nodded silently. But as the others moved to the body she said quickly, ”Wait.”
She then moved over and began retrieving the rest of her things from her old self, setting them aside to be put on later. Once she had all of her combat supplies, she turned to the others and nodded again as she took them to a corner of the chamber to begin donning them.
Sapher turns on Mok "I did not LIE, Mok! And you don't know everything no matter how you like to sound like you do. There are more wonders our world holds than can fit in an-" she shuts her mouth and turns away to Vels "We will do whatever we can, to the ends of the planet and back if you need us to."
Veltariel puts a gentle hand on Sapher’s shoulder. ”It’s okay...I brought this on myself for my hatred and recklessness. This is my punishment. I won’t try and cheat it.”
She finishes putting her gear on, most of it now too tight courtesy of the more delicate elven form. But she made it work as best she could. She then turned to Esrisi and held a hand out, silently asking for her dagger back.
She then looks around the stone cavern and mumbles ”I need some wood...” before she turned and headed for the tunnel out...
Drask remains still and silent for a long time. Then when there's a lull in the conversation, he speaks up with a low, grumbling voice. "Tell me, who was it that beat you at the Serpent's Run?"
Before Veltariel steps out of the chamber and into the passage that leads out, she hears Drask grumble and pauses. She looks over her shoulder, her raven hair shifting away from her face, as she mumbles, ”Skarn. It was Skarn.”
She then continues on out of the chamber.
Drask visibly relaxes. "Well, s*+* Vel. Really did it this time."
Veltariel simply takes the dagger and puts it into it’s sheath on her belt. She then heads back out of the tunnel with the others, all the way back out to the surface. Once there, she begins gathering the necessary wood to build a small funeral pyre.
After it is constructed, she sets to making her...body...presentable. She insists on placing it and arranging it herself. The elven form is laid out on top of the pyre, hands folded across it’s stomach, eyes closed, feet pointed to the east. As the sun begins to set in the west behind them, Veltariel stands at the head of her old self, a torch in her hand, staring quietly down at her former body as tears flow unbidden down her cheeks.
Sapher is uncertain why Vels feels the need to do this suddenly. Is it just Moks words of finality, or the guilt she has inside her that makes her need to be punished. The dwarf doesn't have any answers, but she won't let it go without some words.
Stepping forward, with her hands held together, she prays to her goddess. "Bolka, daughter and guiding light of our father Torag, please see this body finds rest. I know this is usually the job of another, but in this flesh, a dear friend found love, not once, but twice. An act most people never achieve but covet none the less (even with the stunning amount of chaos needed to birth the latest of those loves)" a small smile from the corner of her lips, before continuing "So please see it in your wisdom to shelter it in your heart... thank you."
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While Veltariel readies the pyre, Esrisi speaks with Sapher.
Esrisi bows her head with her hands folded, unable to look at the pyre.
After standing there silently a moment in Mokhasi’s arm, a tearful Veltariel steps up to the pyre and sets the torch just beneath the head. She then steps away and watches in silence as the flames grow and surround the body, eventually engulfing it in full.
In the distance, a Fierani Hawk screeches out, it’s sound seemingly sorrowful given the tone of the moment.
As the embers die down, Veltariel looks at the ashen remains in stoic silence before asking ”May I have a moment alone, please?” without looking away.
Once alone, she stands there silently for about ten minutes before turning to catch up with the others. As she walks, Rejhara Klo lands on a branch a short distance from the ashes. Veltariel pauses and calls out ”Rejhara, come.”
The bird doesn’t move.
”Rejhara. Come,” she calls again, anxiety growing in her voice.
The hawk just tilts its head at her curiously.
Veltariel sinks down to her knees, then slumps over leaning on her hands. ”Please...not you too. I can’t lose you too...”
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Esrisi stands there, watching the ground as the pyre burns. She had thought this situation couldn't get any more complicated, but apparently she was wrong. As the elf burned, she listened to the fire crackling and let a few tears of sadness slip through before turning and walking away before Veltariel asks to be alone.
Eventually, Veltariel returns, her hawk sitting on her shoulder, and she seems a bit more at peace.
”I know I messed up. I’m sorry. Maybe we should camp a night and let you all recover your magics, then discuss our next move at dawn?”
Caroliss has been dazed and confused by this entire affair. She knows that Mokhasi is right, but it's still strange to her that this woman in front of her was actually Veltariel. She tries to pretend like everything is fine, though.
"I don't think you need to be any more sorry, Vel. Maybe we should just do something interesting but not life-threatening. So you can get used to your new body. Having the body of an ancient runelord probably has some advantages when you get used to it."
Veltariel nods. ”I’m...going to check a perimeter, while you all get things prepared for the exploring. Esrisi...would you like to join me? Probably safest if I didn’t go...alone...”