Difference between revisions of "RP: Time For A Little Eggsposition"

We should climb, but can't Kimika and Al fly now? At the risk of making this more complicated, perhaps they should float over and see what's up as we start climbing.

Oh, speaking of Al, you find out anything hopeful from the Lizardmanlanders?

Ok, so he says that he went to see the "lizard dude" and said that the lizard dude was (tries and fails spectacularly to pronounce the lizarmanlander word Al said in her mind)? What the hell is that? Anyway, he told the guy about the lich and about what happened to LE.

stares at Al for a moment, looking confused

Now he's saying something about some turtles and how the lizard guy is going to try binding them again? And that it'll take a bit. He won't let them out of the swamp, which Al seems bummed about for some weird reason. Back to the topic though, the lizard guy was really surprised that there even was a lich down there and freaked out that it was a druid-lich. Said that druids don't like undead and wouldn't want to become one, so it must have been forced to become a lich somehow, but they don't know how. Al says that he thinks there's a lot about "lizard-dude past" that they've forgotten or lost.

stares at Al, and her look becomes fearful again as she quickly glances at LE and back again at Al for confirmation of what he just said

Um, Al thinks that what happened to LE may have something to do with how that druid was forced to become a lich, which makes it even more important to help LE and prevent that from happening.

(Edit by Mattie: Click on the following link, enter in your own "To" email address and change "Subject". Then click Roll the Dice: Secure Dice Roller (prepared for d20))

We have to get in there. Why are we waiting? Let's use the rope.

(OOC: There's probably some chance Kaylee has heard of the Bog Wraiths, right?)

Germain looks agitated. I don't want to wait anymore than we have to. Can we cross that wall now? Do we have a way to "sneak" across it in broad daylight?

(OOC: This would take 21 PSP, which I'm fairly sure she still has - also, edited this because Kaylee is level 9 now and can take 3 people with her)

I think I could get us all across. Also, did LE just teleport there?

Ack! In that case, I could take you, Al, and Quin on the final trip. What do you guys think?

keep camp chatter rp above this line

The party decides to continue to sneak in without alerting the token forces. The Silverwalkers, Quinalin most especially, rate the level of security in the tower as abysmal.

Once inside, you quickly make your way inside the tower and rush to find Egg. You find him in the library, begoggled and reading a tome the size of a human torso.

(XP Bonus! What is today, and how long has it been since you left the city!)

(I think it's best to say today is 30 Verdant 1401 and we left the city 5 days before that. This is assuming it took us a minimum 1.5 day march to and from the southern reaches of the swamp-- a guess based on our first forced march to the hydra's place from the Lizardman camp. If our Phylactery chat took the entire day then instead we arrive at the tower late-day on the 30th rather than the morning. The quest notes as written imply today is the 29th but I think that's too aggressive.)

(I'll buy it! I assume that was Mattie? Free share to Mattie! All hail the Calendar Master!)

yawn

I don't think I've slept a full night since you guys left. I'm way out of my element here! I mean, not HERE here, as in the tower. I'm actually finding this place quite suits me!

Err, what I mean is HERE as in dealing with the problems of thousands of desperate refugees... ARMED desperate refugees! Dealing with the War Room Council. Err, as much as possible. I try to go to the meetings, but Omnity's Mercy, it's a lot of talking for everything being pre-decided by Naprid and Fenn. I just have more important things to do.. Err, sorry. The riots.

We've done our best to keep order, the Geese any myself, but it's just not what any of us are really good at. A small food riot a couple three days ago, and the Wraiths came in hard and have basically kept the camp on lockdown ever since. Confiscated whatever weapons Astlen and Laecina haven't managed to squirrel away.

Oddly enough, they haven't tried to force me out at the tower, so I pulled the most of the rest of the Geese back here to set up camp.

It's really bad... please say you found something...

looks nervously at Germain, and glances at the other Silverwalkers

In many ways, it's what we've all expected. Except, not really. I mean.. Ok, so.. Possession. Yes. Yes, it's possession. But.. not exactly. Err..

Let me start over, and try to keep it simple. I can probably answer some questions if things are too unclear. Sorry, souls and stuff are not exactly my specialty.

Alright, most of this theorizing comes down to her mage's mark. We've seen evidence that this sigil was also used by this Melkior guy a few hundred years back. For a while, LE and I figured it was a straight up case of this guy cheating the grave or whatever. But, it's not. When I was picking through some of books I picked up from Kathkalan for a song a few months back, I noticed what seemed to be LE's sigil, or close enough. It took me some bit of time to actually *learn* Old Petaran. Anyway, I've read that section so many times by now, I can recite it from memory.

• ahem*

"Through many bodies and many ages, the industructable soul.
You may know the enemy amongst you by the mark of the beast.
For the soul gives lie to the truth of the flesh.

"Ruination swings from the arms of marked men.
From the wombs of the women comes desolation.
The wild possess the cunning and wickedness of men.

"If a babe be so augured with the mark of the beast.
Without hesitation dash its head against the rock.
Lest the quickening wail speak

the Name that seals the doom of your clan.

So... Er, not really hopeful stuff. And, my own translation, so it loses much of the poetry of the original. But, from what I can tell, this little passage far, far predates Melkior. gears turn in Egg's mind

Germain - when you say "From Alexandrian Times," do you mean "really old" or literally "from the time of Alexandria." Not just quibbling definitions, for once - Now that I think about it, the book I'm talking about was written late in the reign of Sayid I. Which, if you're being literal about the Druid Lich, gives us two sources tracing this thing back at least 1,400 years.... Wow, that's kind of fascinating!

looks at LE, blushes with embarrassment

Err, I mean.. Horrible! But, so, good news is that Melkior is probably not possessing LE. More likely, whatever was going on with Melkior - and the Dire Wolf, and the Lizardman Lich - is also going on with LE.

Of course, we know very little about Melkior in Wydmoor - that Edrell guy seems to have run off with most everything Melkior related from the records room.

Also, when we did that food run, LE and I took a little, errrr, detour to the University Library in Ubrekt. I was able to find some stuff there, as well.

Oddly enough, although we know he received his measures there, the library contained no mentions of Melkior in any of the main library archives... INCLUDING in any of the Alumni Almanacks, including the one that I own that does have him listed. A clear case of <gnomish word: To Exile from History>.

I was able to find some oblique references the exiliers missed. It was an unofficial document, but it indicated something of his course of study. It will probably come as a surprise to absolutely nobody that Melkior was a necromancer, but his mastery study was in a subfield called "soul transference."

That led me to a section of the archives where I was able to stumble across citations to a pair of Melkior theses that no longer exist in any library I could find. All the citation listed was the author - Melkior - and the titles of the works: "The Living Phylactery" and "Broken Mirror"

So, err, yeah, sorry. So. I think she's ... not possessed. Perhaps "inhabited" by the soul of some supernatural being.. Or, maybe, *a piece* of another soul. But, not a possession. Possession implies some sort of externality that isn't at work here. A ghost or demon or whatever forces its way into a mortal. Not the case here, I don't think. I think it more likely that whatever, errr, "it" is - Melkior didn't cause it, but likely was no less a victim in his own way.

• looks around uneasily*

How was that? Err.. any question?

It sounds to me like your current interpretation is that their may be some sort of soul, or possibly a supernatural entity, that is carried in this world in mortal bodies. I might say "periodically," but it might be more like "regularly" given evidence that the Dire Wolf may have been a manifestation of this power. Also, this power doesn't distinguish between man or beast, which also seems to be suggested by the passage, "the wild possess the cunning and wickedness of men." How many living things carry this same mark alive today? Tens? Hundreds? More? And what sort of power could be so prevalent and inhabit such a range of hosts? Something very old, I'd wager. Was their evidence of this prior to Alexandria's "destruction" of the Dark Fiend? What do we know of the Night Serpent and it's portfolio?

We can make a lot of hunches and educated guesses, maybe, but some of those questions - how many, how long - might be simply unanswerable at this point in time.

Getting excited

How close minded of me! The libraries of Petara are as extensive as anything on the mainland, even those of Old Hakan or Ubrekt themselves. With fewer gaps, too, I'll wager, since the Petaran Empire thrived while the kingdoms of the old world collapsed in on themselves. But....

Enthusiasm wanes.

I mean, I don't know how a bunch of "apostate" outsiders are going to get access to reservoirs of exclusive knowledge, but it's something to think about. Maybe a little bit of hope in this whole thing, after all. Errrrr, It would take someone versed in Old Petaran, or at the very least Petaran. I could handle it, maybe, but I think I serve the situation best by being here. I mean, I hope that doesn't seem to... cowardly? Convenient? But Wydmoor is sorely lacking in arcane talent right now. I mean, I have the feeling that if the Wraith's had anyone even almost as competent as me that they could trust, I'd be out of this tower on my ear.

Which is kind of terrifying, if you really think about it. Aren't those guys backed up by an entire University worth of wizards? It's just me against all of that?

to Quin I can see all the rest of the spokes. If I let them see me, I can see all of them. It's... a little scary, though.
to Egg Do you think it would help to know where they are now?

What an amazing blessing from the Omnity itself! I would praise Alexandria every day if I had the power to Detect Evil at such great distances! I do not know what has given you such a great power-- why didn't you tell us sooner? Do you realize what this means? You may be the key to ridding the world of some of the foulest evils we've ever seen, and we should put every effort into doing so! (quite excited and forgetting the war for a moment) Use your gift and we can begin the hunt right away!

Are you serious, little man? You think it's a great blessing to have several, way evil, beings' attention... suddenly and squarely focused on you? You are such a fucking fool. And you don't know what has given me this power? How about the super big big bad making a little nest in MY soul? That couldn't have anything to do with it, right? Why didn't I tell you sooner? Why didn't *I*, tell *YOU*, sooner?

And you want to go looking for these things. Tell me, hero, what happens when one of them kills me, and inhales all the evil stuff you've seen go into me? And all the stuff you haven't seen? What happens then? It's amazing you can use the bucket without someone wiping up for you. Praise Omnity, indeed. Let her have your beard and all your lovely crowns when we're all dead and this evil has consumed the world.

(she takes a deep breath)

Egg, where is Edrell's orb?

Egg activates the orb, and the familiar feeling of energy fills the room

I probably deserve most of yer strong words there, LE. My mind and tongue are not those well-hewn dwarven roads that Germain's are. But I've long considered you a dear friend and ally-- just as you have helped us, we're no stranger to helping you through these kind of situations. Y'know, after you inhaled the first puff of evil baddies in the swamp and fell to the ground, we were all concerned. We didn't know if this was normal for you, if you would survive, if carrying you with us would risk our party, or what had just happened. But I took it on faith that you would be okay-- I carried you through the swamp, often holding your head above the waters when even mine was submerged. We have been blessed by your presence ever since, your magic and fierce powers have gone on to save us all many times-- all so we can continue fighting for good and justice, and so we may get to the very spot we stand today.

I think you underestimate yourself and us-- as you have shown just now and before, you have one of the strongest, independent souls of anyone. Maybe you don't believe in the divine hands of fate, but truth be told there is probably no one who could carry this burden as well as you have. We all sense your inner strength (OOC nod at LE's massive Charisma). And for this unfortunate event to happen, but while you are guarded, loved, and surrounded by some of the most monster-stomping protectors of goodliness on this side of the world... It came to you rather than into the hands of the Mantatluses of the world. By my beard, it's either extraordinary luck or the hand of Alexandria. You see it as a curse, and it is, I do not doubt-- but imagine if you didn't have your inner strength and the support of powerful and caring allies behind you. As with most terrible things, the way forward is to find the silver lining and use that hope to fight the battles ahead.

Make no mistake that I am your friend and wish more than ever to protect you from the evil that is trying to gather around you. You may not have asked for this, and may fear your new powers, but that is the way with every oracle of old. And believe me when I say that even if we were not bound to protect your life by our own love for you, we now have every reason to fight to our deaths to protect you.

Take ten precautions when only five are required is the old dwarven saying, and let us be extremely careful, but I hope you can at least agree that this curse is better in your hands than most, and since that evil is surely going to come looking to stop you, we should act first to stop the evil from growing. You may not have faith that I make the best decisions, but it would be a mistake to think my sword wouldn't be a boon to help against any evil that is bent on getting your soul.

keep egg meeting rp above this line