Samen can't quite reach the group of oathbreakers with the power of the sun, so he moves closer and instead unleashes the inky darkness of his subconscious anxieties.
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Samen calls out to the more distant monks in Oread. "Courage, brothers! Divine aid from mortal hands is here to put these faithless wretches to rest. Form up on the one with the sword, his weapons are effective!" Meanwhile, Samen will move slightly closer and blast the three that attacked Qizz with a sunbeam.
Samen does his best to shake off the summoning sickness and assess the situation. "These are Oread boogeymen. We need ghost touch magic to hurt them and divine fire to keep them down."
Thoughts for another time. Samen compartmentalizes and focuses on the problem at hand. "I am as unfamiliar with this creature as you are Gabriel, but this circumstance is astonishingly similar to when we freed the Sunlord, is it not? Given the hooligans that were hanging about were not friendly toward her, I expect freeing her to be a net positive." Samen considers what is now visible, trying to determine the nature of her bonds and a method of loosening them.
That would be most efficient. Thank you for the offer. Samen can't quite believe his life's biggest regret was just so easily rectified. There would be more, of course. There was always more. But now the weight of the past was lifted. A sudden horrid thought occurs to him. One of Abnaki's last sane suggestions was to kill these two. If his narrative powers were at play here, then this outcome doesn't come without a cost. He looks at Aisling with concern.
Samen feels no joy in the death of Stof, but he does feel great relief in a breath of fresh air. On her knees before them, Samen dares not feel pity for her once again. One of us was always going to be the end of the other.
Samen coughs and gags as he tries to clear his adversary of old out of his lungs.
Samen sees the tangled air currents and knows they follow an order of their own. Better to flow with its circuitous route than insist on a straight line being the shortest path. The trick is to know when to exit the current.
As for the creatures, Samen summons a tangled mass of his own that follow his rules to impede any interference.
Samen glares silently at Tallmind Theta. I don't have time for this. Samen reorganizes his mind to make a wing of his mind palace that contains his childhood, the kindness of Krissa, the brutality of her family, the loss of his own one after the other, Abby wearing her skin, the exhilaration of learning and discovery, constant threat of imminent death, a changing and breaking world, and finally the passive aggressive judgmental ghost of a past long forgotten in front of him. He quickly copies it. Folds it. Folds it again. Folds it again, until it is a dart shaped paper airplane. With more aggression than is strictly necessary, he flings this crystalized collection of his memory directly at Tallmind Theta's tall head. Now stop asking questions.
Samen combats the creeping dread by analyzing its implications. What an intriguing, yet inconsistent mental attack. Clearly the aggressor is using residual concerns, but does not possess adequate knowledge to create believable phantoms. I suppose authenticity and accuracy are not required to induce panic, but if it read my mind or otherwise tracked my circumstances, it would know I at least believe my sister to be around Light, not here. Therefore, our foe is not nearly as powerful as they would like us to believe. This is more encouraging than frightening. Samen stands at the ready to cast Remove Fear if anyone fails their saves.
Samen brings a small quavering light to bear in his palm and considers it against the gaping umbral gloom before them. Weak, small, and insignificant. But light has an advantage over the darkness, because light is, while darkness is not. A single mind is much like this tiny light. Insufficient, but full of hope and life. It can grow, change, and evolve. It can be smothered and extinguished. But a mind is not the only metaphor for light. It is also knowledge and wisdom, making clear the path. It guides steps, drives efficient action, and answers questions. But light is also unity of purpose, a small band of disparate mortals striving against the so-called gods. Each with their own mind, each with their own knowledge, but unified across the spectrum of thought in this one objective, to cast out this darkness. Samen focuses on this small guttering light and pours all he knows of his companions, their histories, their wills, their flaws, and their hopes into in a mental lens in front of it. Very carefully, he aligns the light with the magnification of his friend's live and pushes it through toward the darkness ahead.
Samen winces as the heat intensifies, but through sheer force of mental control, refuses to let his flesh be seared.
Fault them not for being what they are. It is the duty of those of us who have strength to protect those who do not. Just as they can protect us from more physical threats. The mind being a battlefield is a relatively new reality for this world.
Size is a matter of perspective. It is not they who are big, they are normal sized for this place. It is we who are small here.
Samen says nothing and climbs aboard silently.
Samen glowers after Abby. Pursuit would be counter productive and dangerous. He takes a moment to decide whether or not leaving her alone is more dangerous. "That one craves everything she has ever known, including my mind. She'll be back when she gets bored." He directs his attention over toward Gabriel, but it seems as though Benedetto has beaten him to it.
Samen may not hear her words, but he knows well the feeling of voracious emptiness that approaches him. He turns toward it, expecting to see a familiar but distorted face. The formless ill wind is somehow less terrifying than he would've expected. He remains calm, knowing fear and panic are seasoning for her meals.
I assume Samen would've explained about Abby and Stof in detail to Qizz. You only met them briefly before Samen's transformation, but as curious as Qizz is, there's no way it wouldn't have come up. As for 'dying', I think it's more like the D&D concept of outsiders going back to their native plane upon dying. What Abby experienced was similar to what we did to that dragon, forcing it back home and limiting its access to life in the material plane. I'm not sure if it's a "you only die if you die on your home plane" situation, but for good or ill, every encounter with her has resulted in evolution rather than destruction.
Ghost is probably the wrong classification. She is/was an evil smoke elemental that had a Kirby-like hunger. By the time she ended up buried in a tomb, she was something more like a plasma demon and her hunger was only getting worse. Samen tried for a long while to justify not killing her, and she was somewhat useful in combat encounters. However, she was clearly going to betray everyone at some point. When she become entombed, he simply walked away. He considered leaving her in the tomb for some future generation to deal with one of his biggest acts of shame and cowardice.
Samen has no tools for countering invisibility, so he takes a defensive position, waiting for a threat to manifest instead of being simply foreboding. He dreads the feeling this is giving him. But no, it can't be her, right?
Samen will prepare by moving slightly away from the others and casting silence on himself to negate any potential sonic damage.
Samen barks back in agitation, "Of course we're not alone, we're here to end some elementals! If we were alone, we'd be doing it wrong."
Samen will activate his greater angelic aspect, steel himself for the encounter, and fly up to Gabriel to shelter him with is aura. It's stirring up the untouched evils that concerns me. I've played with fire and have left unspeakable horrors in our world. I would really rather not do it again.
Sorry! I missed what was being asked of me and didn't want to interrupt the Kallik scene just to say "okay I'm ready, let's go."
<<Come if you wish. You're as likely to find death as anything profitable, but it wouldn't hurt to have another ally in the fight. What will happen to your drones if you cross a planar boundary?>>
Samen considers the journey ahead of them. Even though he fears it, it must be done.
He's definitely got a lot of trauma filed away in that voluminous brain. That only touches on the mind controly things I remember. If survival and peace is ever to be an option in his life, I foresee years of therapy.
Samen relaxes a bit but still is not sure this won't end in bloodshed. "Very well. There is obviously much I do not know of historical humans, and I would very much like to learn. You however, accused my friend, a fully independent soul, yet fully human, of thievery. This is a serious yet baseless charge, and I will have none of it. There will be no peace between us until you recognize Gabriel's independence and humanity. I apologize for being overly harsh on this point, especially after you've just woken up, but there will be no better time to make things clear. Furthermore, you are not the first hivemind I've encountered." Samen's eyes glass over for a moment as he has visions of his childhood home. Friends and neighbors walk amongst the streets, devoid of will or ambition, enthralled by a proud brass dragon. The beginning of a long journey of destruction and the breaking of his family. He thinks of the antics of Gems, stealing the will of the weak, corrupting the Fey, and dominating any they could tempt. He thinks of the collective manic frenzy of Light, drunk on Moon madness, tearing itself apart. He thinks briefly of Abnaki, and the dream terrors he may yet inflict. "So then, possessor of ancient wisdom, what makes you, me, and Gabriel different from your drones? How is it that we have independent wills and they do not?" Samen pauses for a moment, but can't help himself. "And what's with the bones? Is that really how humans reproduce? It doesn't seem sustainable, nor in line with the character of Sun."
Samen tenses up at the mention of Gabriel. He thinks broadly, so that all around may hear. "As I said, in this day, YOU are the anomaly, and you had best learn that lesson quickly. He is fully autonomous, complete in his humanity, free of domination, and he WILL stay that way. I respect that you are a fish out of River here and it will take time for you to adapt, but I haven't fought off gods and demi-gods from here to the edge of the worlds beyond for the likes of you to question the rightful autonomy of every sapient being." "You will cease this line of inquiry, learn the ways of the present, and be content with things as they are." Aloud, for emphasis, "Do I make myself clear?"
"Please excuse the colloquialism. How is it that you came to be trapped in it? My concern is that your dreams while imprisoned have been the source of the darkspawn that have plagued us for millennia."
Samen frowns deeply at this revelation. This is not at all what he was expecting. He wanted other humans so that he would not be of a limited kind, and perhaps other more qualified individuals could do the work of offering humanity to elenity. Now it seems there's another monster of his own creation he must slay. "Greetings. Things are not the same as they once were. Our world today knows nothing of sentient hiveminds. Ants exist, and bees exist, but in this world in this day, you are the anomaly, not me. I'm curious to learn more of what once was, but I must confess, you strike me more as monstrosity than humanity. You could possibly set my mind at easy by revealing what you were doing in the Darkness for all this time."
Samen makes a symbolic gesture of respect to Volcano. "Come. We have a nest of newly granted drake citizens that are about to become unhomed. We should endeavor to make sure they're not there when it happens."
"Ha! May the gods grant that the temple finally fall!" Samen thinks a moment. "Preferably not with me under it." "The temple, as cursed as it may be, is just a location. Volcano will not go out, but its power is, and will be, lessened whether these bones stay here or not. So long ago, Volcano usurped Sun's role and gained the horrible responsibility of holding back the Dark. This necessitated grasping at these objects of power to maintain a fragile balance. Returning these to their rightful owner will weaken Volcano, but also unburden it, allowing for a more natural existence. Imagine having peace and rest."
Samen smiles peaceably at the hound. "I know you can understand me. Nothing non magical could survive down here in this drab locale this long. What is your charge, most loyal one? I would prefer a peaceful resolution, but I assume you've determined why I'm here based on what I am."
Samen makes note of the fey markings as they delve deeper. "See how the markings get older as we go down? You can really see the significance of time on these passages."
Samen nods in understanding of his hesitance. "Out of respect, or fear? Any place touched by the Fey, even a graveyard, can have unexpected lurking dangers. Should we be concerned?"
"It's like a Fey cemetery. Which coincidentally is exactly what we're looking for. Preferably a human cemetery, but if we go down enough layers, I bet they're at least coterminous if not right on top of each other."
"Getting out shouldn't be a problem, I can teleport us out. If we're going to start at the elder's roots, I'm sure a path will open up for us."
Samen shakes his head. "No, I can't see the bones, but there's a trick I'm aware of that I've been meaning to try in just such a circumstance. Interring a human in a structure of this significance would've been a momentous occasion. Surely a lingering memory of a shadow persists that I could tap into."
Samen shakes his head. "We really need to burn that place down..." "Alright, Qizz, if you can guide us, this'll be much better than a blind search."
"That's a grim suggestion. I'm perfectly happy with my bones where they are, thank you very much! Honestly though, I don't think it would work anyway. I would expect the bones to need to be long detached from whatever soul last clung to them to be useful. Or not, I don't know. Maybe humans are bone burglars at heart."
Samen rushes over to Gabe's side to have a more normal conversation. "A spirit trapped in the Dark. I don't know why this one can't be freed like the others, but it seems a ritual, similar to how I achieved humanity to begin with, is necessary to restore their leader."
Samen thinks a mental image of the hole in the ground, hundreds of miles away, filled with angry elementals and watched over by humble mycos.
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